Works of Honore De Balzac

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Works of Honore De Balzac Page 1582

by Honoré de Balzac


  MARCHE-A-TERRE. (See Leroi, Pierre.)

  MARCILLAC (Madame de). Thanks to some acquaintances of the old regime, whom she had kept, and to her relationship with the Rastignacs, with whom she lived quietly, she found the means of introducing to Claire de Beauseant, Chevalier de Rastignac, her well-beloved grand-nephew — about 1819. Father Goriot.

  MARCOSINI (Count Andrea), born in 1807 at Milan; although an aristocrat he took temporary refuge in Paris as a liberal; a wealthy and handsome poet; took his period of exile in 1834 in good spirits. He was received on terms of friendship by Mesdames d’Espard and Paul de Manerville. On the rue Froidmanteau he was constantly in pursuit of Marianina Gambara; at the Italian Giardini’s “table-d’hote” he discussed musical topics and spoke of “Robert le Diable.” For five years he kept Paolo Gambara’s wife as his mistress; then he gave her up to marry an Italian dancer. Gambara.

  MARECHAL, under the Restoration an attorney at Ville-aux-Fayes, Bourgogne, Montcornet’s legal adviser, helped by his recommendation to have Sibilet appointed steward of Aigues in 1817. The Peasantry.

  MARESCHAL, supervisor in the college of Vendome in 1811, when Louis Lambert became a student in this educational institution. Louis Lambert.

  MAREST (Frederic), born about 1802, son of a rich lumber-merchant’s widow, cousin of Georges Marest; attorney’s clerk in Paris, November, 1825; lover of Florentine Cabirolle, who was maintained by Cardot; made the acquaintance at Maitre Desroches’ of Oscar Husson, and took him to a fete given by Mademoiselle Cabirolle on rue de Vendome, where his friend foolishly compromised himself. A Start in Life. Frederic Marest, in 1838, having become an examining magistrate in the public prosecutor’s office in Paris, had to examine Auguste de Mergi, who was charged with having committed robbery to the detriment of Doctor Halpersohn. The Seamy Side of History. The following year, while acting as king’s solicitor at Arcis-sur-Aube, Frederic Marest, still unmarried and very corpulent, became acquainted with Martener’s sons, Goulard, Michu and Vinet, and visited the Beauvisage and Mallot families. The Member for Arcis.

  MAREST (Georges), cousin of the preceding, son of the senior member of a large Parisian hardware establishment on rue Saint-Martin. He became, in 1822, the second clerk of a Parisian notary, Maitre A. Crottat. He had then as a comrade in study and in pleasure Amaury Lupin. At this time Marest’s vanity made itself absurdly apparent in Pierrotin’s coach, which did service in the valley of Oise; he hoaxed Husson, amused Bridau and Lora, and vexed the Comte de Serizy. Three years later Georges Marest had become the chief clerk of Leopold Hannequin. He lost by debauchery a fortune amounting to thirty thousand francs a year, and died a plain insurance-broker. The Peasantry. A Start in Life.

  MARGARITIS, of Italian origin, took up his residence in Vouvray in 1831, an old man of deranged mind, most eccentric of speech, and who pretended to be a vine-grower. He was induced by Vernier to hoax the famous traveler, Gaudissart, during a business trip of the latter. Gaudissart the Great.

  MARGARITIS (Madame), wife of the insane Margaritis. She kept him near her for the sake of economy, and made amends to the deceived Gaudissart. Gaudissart the Great.

  MARGUERON, wealthy citizen of Beaumont-sur-Oise, under Louis XVIII., wished his son to be tax-collector of the district in which he himself owned the farm lying next to the property of Serizy at Presles, and which he had leased to Leger. A Start in Life.

  MARIANNE, during the Restoration, servant of Sophie Gamard at Tours. The Vicar of Tours.

  MARIANNE, served with Gaucher in Michu’s house, October, 1803, in the district of Arcis-sur-Aube, at Cinq-Cygne. She served her master with discretion and fidelity. The Gondreville Mystery.

  MARIAST, owned No. 22 rue da la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve, Paris, and let it to Messieurs of d’Espard during nearly the whole period of the Restoration. The Commission in Lunacy.

  MARIE DES ANGES (Mere), born in 1762, Jacques Bricheteau’s aunt, superior of the Ursuline convent at Arcis-sur-Aube, saved from the guillotine by Danton, had the fifth of April of each year observed with a mass in her nephew’s behalf, and, under Louis Philippe, protected the descendant of a celebrated Revolutionist, Charles de Sallenauve; her influence gave him the position of deputy of the district. The Member for Arcis.

  MARIETTE. (See Godeschal, Marie.)

  MARIETTE, born in 1798; from 1817 in the service of the Wattevilles of Besancon; was under Louis Philippe, despite her extreme homeliness, and on account of the money she had saved, courted by Jerome, a servant of Albert Savarus. Mademoiselle de Watteville, who was in love with the lawyer, used Mariette and Jerome to her own advantage. Albert Savarus.

  MARIETTE, in 1816, cook in the employ of Mademoiselle Cormon, of Alencon; sometimes received advice from M. du Ronceret; an ordinary kitchen-maid in the same household, when her mistress became Madame du Bousquier. Jealousies of a Country Town.

  MARIETTE, was in the employ of La Fosseuse, towards the end of the Restoration, in the village over which Benassis was mayor. The Country Doctor.

  MARIGNY (Duchesse de), much sought after in the Saint-Germain section; related to the Navarreins and the Grandlieus; a woman of experience and good at giving advice; real head of her house; died in 1819. The Thirteen.

  MARIGNY* (De), son of the preceding, harebrained, but attractive, had an attachment for Madame Keller, a middle-class lady of the Chaussee-d’Antin. The Thirteen.

  * During the last century the Marignys owned, before the Verneuils, Rosembray, an estate where a great hunt brought together, 1829, Cadignan, Chaulieu, Canalis, Mignon, etc.

  MARIN, in 1839, at Cinq-Cygne, in the district of Arcis-sur-Aube, first valet of Georges de Maufrigneuse and protector of Anicette. The Member for Arcis.

  MARION of Arcis, grandson of a steward in the employ of Simeuse; brother-in-law of Madame Marion, born Giguet. He had the confidence of Malin, acquired for him the Gondreville property, and became a lawyer in Aube, then president of an Imperial court. The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.

  MARION, brother of the preceding and brother-in-law of Colonel Giguet, whose sister became his wife. Through Malin’s influence, he became co-receiver-general of Aube, with Sibuelle as his colleague. The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.

  MARION (Madame), wife of the preceding, Colonel Giguet’s sister. She was on intimate terms with Malin de Gondreville. After her husband’s death she returned to her native country, Arcis, where her parlor was frequented by many guests. Under Louis Philippe, Madame Marion exerted her powers in behalf of Simon Giguet, the Colonel’s son. The Member for Arcis.

  MARION. (See Kolb, Madame.)

  MARIOTTE, of Auxerre, a rival of the wealthy Gaubertin in contracting for the forest lands of that portion of Bourgogne in which Aigues, the large estate of Montcornet, was situated. The Peasantry.

  MARIOTTE (Madame), of Auxerre, mother of the preceding, in 1823, had Mademoiselle Courtecuisse in her service. The Peasantry.

  MARIUS, the cognomen, become hereditary, of a native of Toulouse, who established himself as a Parisian hair-dresser and was thus nick-named by the Chevalier de Parny, one of his patrons, in the early part of the nineteenth century. He handed down this name of Marius as a kind of permanent property to his successors. The Unconscious Humorists.

  MARMUS (Madame), wife of a savant, who was an officer in the Legion of Honor and a member of the Institute. They lived together on rue Duguay-Trouin in Paris, and were (in 1840) on intimate terms with Zelie Minard. The Middle Classes.

  MARMUS, husband of the preceding and noted for his absent-mindedness. The Middle Classes.

  MARNEFFE (Jean-Paul-Stanislas), born in 1794, employed in the War Department. In 1833, while a mere clerk living on twelve hundred francs a year, he married Mademoiselle Valerie Fortin. Having become as unprincipled as a convict, under the patronage of Baron Hulot, his wife’s paramour, he left rue du Doyenne to install himself in luxury in the Saint-Germain section, and later became head-clerk, assistant chief, and chief of the bureau, chevalier,
then officer of the Legion of Honor. Jean-Paul-Stanislas Marneffe, decayed physically as well as morally, died in May, 1842. Cousin Betty.

  MARNEFFE* (Madame). (See Crevel, Madame Celestin.)

  * In 1849, at Paris, Clairville produced upon the stage of the Gymnase-Dramatique, the episodes in the life of Madame Marneffe, somewhat modified, under the double title, “Madame Marneffe, or the Prodigal Father” (a vaudeville drama in five acts).

  MARNEFFE (Stanislas), legal son of the preceding couple, suffered from scrofula, much neglected by his parents. Cousin Betty.

  MAROLLES (Abbe de), an old priest, who lived towards the close of the eighteenth century. Having escaped in September, 1792, from the massacre of the Carmelite convent, now a small chapel on rue de Vaugirard, he concealed himself in the upper Saint-Martin district, near the German Highway. He had under his protection, at this time, two nuns, who were in as great danger as he, Sister Marthe and Sister Agathe. On January 22, 1793, and on January 21, 1794, the Abbe de Marolles, in their presence, said masses for the repose of Louis XVI.’s soul, having been asked to do so by the executioner of the “martyr-king,” whose presence at mass the Abbe knew nothing of until January 25, 1794, when he was so informed at the corner of rue des Frondeurs by Citizen Ragou. An Episode under the Terror.

  MARONIS (Abbe de), a priest of great genius, who would have been another Borgia, had he worn the tiara. He was Henri de Marsay’s teacher, and made of him a complete skeptic, in a period when the churches were closed. The Abbe de Maronis died a bishop in 1812. The Thirteen.

  MARRON, under the Restoration, a physician at Marsac, Charente; nephew of the Cure Marron. He married his daughter to Postel, a pharmacist of Augouleme. He was intimate with the family of David Sechard. Lost Illusions. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.

  MARSAY (De), immoral old gentleman. To oblige Lord Dudley he married one of the former’s mistresses and recognized their son as his own. For this favor he received a hundred thousand francs per year for life, money which he soon threw away in evil company. He confided the child to his old sister, Mademoiselle de Marsay, and died, as he had lived, away from his wife. The Thirteen.

  MARSAY (Madame de). (See Vordac, Marquise de.)

  MARSAY (Mademoiselle de), sister-in-law of the preceding, took care of her son, Henri, and treated him so well that she was greatly mourned by him when she died advanced in years. The Thirteen.

  MARSAY (Henri de), born between 1792 and 1796, son of Lord Dudley and the celebrated Marquise de Vordac, who was first united in marriage to the elder De Marsay. This gentleman adopted the boy, thus becoming, according to law, his father. The young Henri was reared by Mademoiselle de Marsay and the Abbe de Maronis. He was on intimate terms, in 1815, with Paul de Manerville, and was already one of the all powerful Thirteen, with Bourignard, Montriveau and Ronquerolles. At that time he found on rue Saint-Lazare a girl from Lesbosen, Paquita Valdes, whom he wished to make his mistress. He met at the same time his own natural sister, Madame de San-Real, of whom he became the rival for Paquita’s love. At first Marsay had been the lover of the Duchesse Charlotte, then of Arabelle Dudley, whose children were his very image. He was also known to be intimate with Delphine de Nucingen up to 1819, then with Diane de Cadignan. In his position as member of the Thirteen Henri was in Montriveau’s party when Antoinette de Langeais was stolen from the Carmelites. He bought Coralie for sixty thousand francs. He passed the whole of his time during the Restoration in the company of young men and women. He was the companion and counselor of Victurnien d’Esgrignon, Savinien de Portenduere and above all of Paul de Manerville, whose course he vainly tried to direct after an ill-appointed marriage, and to whom he announced, as soon as possible, his own union. Marsay aided Lucien de Rubempre and served for him, with Rastignac, as second in a duel with Michel Chrestien. The Chaulieu and Fontaine women feared or admired Henri de Marsay — a man who was slighted by M. de Canalis, the much toasted poet. The Revolution of July, 1830, made Marsay a man of no little importance. He, however, was content to tell over his old love affairs gravely in the home of Felicite des Touches. As prime minister from 1832 to 1833, he was an habitue of the Princesse de Cadignan’s Legitimist salon, where he served as a screen for the last Vendean insurrection. There, indeed, Marsay brought to light the secrets, already old, of Malin’s kidnapping. Marsay died in 1834, a physical wreck, having but a short time before, when Nathan was courting Marie de Vandenesse, taken part in the intrigue, although he was disgusted with the author. The Thirteen. The Unconscious Humorists. Another Study of Woman. The Lily of the Valley. Father Goriot. Jealousies of a Country Town. Ursule Mirouet. A Marriage Settlement. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Letters of Two Brides. The Ball at Sceaux. Modeste Mignon. The Secrets of a Princess. The Gondreville Mystery. A Daughter of Eve.

  MARTAINVILLE (Alphonse-Louis-Dieudonne), publicist and dramatic writer, born at Cadiz, in 1776, of French parents, died August 27, 1830. He was an extreme Royalist and, as such, in 1821 and 1822, threw away his advice and support on Lucien de Rubempre, then a convert to Liberalism. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.

  MARTENER, well-educated old man who lived in Provins under the Restoration. He explained to the archaeologist, Desfondrilles, who consulted him, the reason why Europe, disdaining the waters of Provins, sought Spa, where the waters were less efficacious, according to French medical advice. Pierrette.

  MARTENER, son of the preceding; physician at Provins in 1827, capable man, simple and gentle. He married Madame Guenee’s second daughter. When consulted one day by Mademoiselle Habert, he spoke against the marriage of virgins at forty, and thus filled Sylvie Rogron with despair. He protected and cared for Pierrette Lorrain, the victim of this same old maid. Pierrette.

  MARTENER (Madame), wife of the preceding, second daughter of Madame Guenee, and sister of Madame Auffray. Having taken pity on Pierrette Lorrain in her sickness, she gave to her, in 1828, the pleasures of music, playing the compositions of Weber, Beethoven or Herold. Pierrette.

  MARTENER, son of the preceding couple, protege of Vinet the elder, honest and thick-headed. He was, in 1839, examining magistrate at Arcis-sur-Aube and caucused, during the election season in the spring of this same year, with the officers, Michu, Goulard, O. Vinet and Marest. The Member for Arcis.

  MARTHA was for a long time the faithful chambermaid of Josephine Claes; she died in old age between 1828 and 1830. The Quest for the Absolute.

  MARTHE (Sister), a Gray sister of Auvergne; from 1809 to 1816 instructed Veronique Sauviat — Madame Graslin — in reading, writing, sacred history, the Old and the New Testaments, the Catechism, the elements of arithmetic. The Country Parson.

  MARTHE (Sister), born Beauseant, in 1730, a nun in the Abbey of Chelles, fled with Sister Agathe (nee Langeais) and the Abbe de Marolles to a poor lodging in the upper Saint-Martin district. On January 22, 1793, she went to a pastry-cook near Saint Laurent to get the wafers necessary for a mass for the repose of Louis XVI.’s soul. At this ceremony she was present, as was also the man who had executed the King. The following year, January 21, 1794, this same ceremony was repeated exactly. She passed these two years of the Terror under Mucius Scoevola’s protection. An Episode under the Terror.

  MARTHE (Sister), in the convent of the Carmelites at Blois, knew two young women, Mesdames de l’Estorade and Gaston. Letters of Two Brides.

  MARTIN, a woman of a Dauphine village, of which Doctor Benassis was mayor, kept the hospital children for three francs and a bar of soap each month. She was, possibly, the first person in the country seen by Genestas-Bluteau, and also the first to impart knowledge to him. The Country Doctor.

  MARTINEAU, name of two brothers employed by M. de Mortsauf in connection with his farms in Touraine. The elder was at first a farm-hand, then a steward; the younger, a warden. The Lily of the Valley.

  MARTINEAU, son of one of the two Martineau brothers. The Lily of the Valley.

  MARTY (Jean-Baptiste), actor of melodrama, employe or manager of the Gai
te, before and after the Paris fire of 1836; born in 1779, celebrated during the Restoration; in 1819 and 1820 he played in “Mont-Sauvage,” a play warmly applauded by Madame Vauquer. This woman was accompanied to the theatre on the Boulevard du Crime, by her rue Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve lodger, Jacques Collin, called also Vautrin, on the evening before his arrest. Father Goriot. Marty died, at an advanced age, in 1868, a chevalier in the Legion of Honor, after having been for many years mayor of Charenton.

  MARVILLE (De). (See Camusot.)

  MARY, an Englishwoman in the family of Louis de l’Estorade during the Restoration and under Louis Philippe. Letters of Two Brides. The Member for Arcis.

  MASSIN-LEVRAULT, junior, son of a poor locksmith of Montargis, grand-nephew of Doctor Denis Minoret, as a result of his marriage with a Levrault-Minoret; father of three girls, Pamela, Aline, and Madame Goupil. He bought the office of clerk to the justice of peace in Nemours, January, 1815, and lived at first with his family in the good graces of Doctor Minoret, through whom his sister became postmistress at Nemours. Massin-Levrault, junior, was one of the indirect persecutors of Ursule de Portenduere. He became a minicipal councilor after July, 1830, began to lend money to the laboring people at exorbitant rates of interest, and finally developed into a confirmed usurer. Ursule Mirouet.

  MASSIN-LEVRAULT (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Levrault-Minoret in 1793, grand-niece of Doctor Denis Minoret on the maternal side; her father was a victim of the campaign in France. She strove in every way possible to win the affections of her wealthy uncle, and was one of Ursule de Portenduere’s persecutors. Ursule Mirouet.

  MASSOL, native of Carcassonne, licentiate in law and editor of the “Gazette des Tribunaux” in May, 1830. Without knowing their relationship he brought together Jacqueline and Jacques Collin, a boarder at the Concierge, and, acting under Granville’s orders, in his journal attributed Lucien de Rubembre’s suicidal death to the rupture of a tumor. A Republican, through the lack of the particle de before his name, and very ambitious, he was, in 1834, the associate of Raoul Nathan in the publication of a large journal, and sought to make a tool of the poet-founder of this paper. In company with Stidmann, Steinbock and Claude Vignon, Massol was a witness of the second marriage of Valerie Marneffe. In 1845, having become a councilor of state and president of a section, he supported Jenny Cadine. He was then charged with the administrative lawsuit of S.-P. Gozonal. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. The Magic Skin. A Daughter of Eve. Cousin Betty. The Unconscious Humorists.

 

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