PIERQUIN (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Felicie Claes, found, as a young girl, a second mother in her elder sister, Marguerite. The Quest of the Absolute.
PIERQUIN, brother-in-law of the preceding; physician who attended the Claes at Douai. The Quest of the Absolute.
PIERROT, assumed name of Charles-Amedee-Louis-Joseph Rifoel, Chevalier du Vissard. The Seamy Side of History.
PIERROTIN, born in 1781. After having served in the cavalry, he left the service in 1815 to succeed his father as manager of a stage-line between Paris and Isle-Adam — an undertaking which, though only moderately successful, finally flourished. One morning in the autumn of 1822, he received as passengers, at the Lion d’Argent, some people, either famous or of rising fame, the Comte Hugret de Serizy, Leon de Lora and Joseph Bridau, and took them to Presles, a place near Beaumont. Having become “coach-proprietor of Oise,” in 1838 he married his daughter, Georgette, to Oscar Husson, a high officer, who, upon retiring, had been appointed to a collectorship in Beaumont, and who, like the Canalises and the Moreaus, had for a long time been one of Pierrotin’s customers. A Start in Life.
PEITRO, Corsican servant of the Bartolomeo di Piombos, kinsmen of Madame Luigi Porta. The Vendetta.
PIGEAU, during the Restoration, at one time head-carrier and afterwards owner of a small house, which he had built with his own hands and on a very economical basis, at Nanterre (between Paris and Saint-Germain-in-Laye). Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.
PIGEAU (Madame), wife of the preceding; belonged to a family of wine merchants. After her husband’s death, about the end of the Restoration, she inherited a little property, which caused her much unhappiness, in consequence of her avarice and distrust. Madame Pigeau was planning to remove from Nanterre to Saint-Germain with a view to living there on her annuity, when she was murdered with her servant and her dogs, by Theodore Calvi, in the winter of 1828-29. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.
PIGERON, of Auxerre, was murdered, it is said, by his wife; be that as it may, the autopsy, entrusted to Vermut, a druggist of Soulanges, in Bourgogne, proved the use of poison. The Peasantry.
PIGOULT, was head clerk in the office where Malin de Gondreville and Grevin studied pettifogging; was, about 1806, first justice of the peace at Arcis, and then president of the tribunal of the same town, at the time of the lawsuit in connection with the abduction of Malin, when he and Grevin were the prosecuting attorneys. The Gondreville Mystery. In the neighborhood of 1839, Pigoult was still living, having his home in the ward. At that time he made public recognition of Pantaleon, Marquis de Sallenauve, and supposed father of Charles Dorlange, Comte de Sallenauve, thus serving the interests, or rather the ambitions, of deputy. The Member for Arcis.
PIGOULT, son of the preceding, acquired the hat manufactory of Phileas Beauvisage, made a failure of the undertaking, and committed suicide; but appeared to have had a natural, though sudden, death. The Member for Arcis.
PIGOULT (Achille), son of the preceding and grandson of the next preceding, born in 1801. A man of unattractive personality, but of great intelligence, he supplanted Grevin, and, in 1819, was the busiest notary of Arcis. Gondreville’s influence, and his intimacy with Beauvisage and Giguet, were the causes of his taking a prominent part in the political contests of that period; he opposed Simon Giguet’s candidacy, and successfully supported the Comte de Sallenauve. The introduction of the Marquis Pantaleon de Sallenauve to old Pigoult was brought about through Achille Pigoult, and assured a triumph for the sculptor, Sallenauve-Dorlange. The Member for Arcis.
PILLERAULT (Claude-Joseph), a very upright Parisian trader, proprietor of the Cloche d’Or, a hardware establishment on the Quai de la Ferraille; made a modest fortune, and retired from business in 1814. After losing, one after another, his wife, his son, and an adopted child, Pillerault devoted his life to his niece, Constance-Barbe-Josephine, of whom he was guardian and only relative. Pillerault lived on the rue des Bourdonnais, in 1818, occupying a small apartment let to him by Camusot of the Cocon d’Or. During that period, Pillerault was remarkable for the intelligence, energy and courage displayed in connection with the unfortunate Birotteaus, who were falling into bad repute. He found out Claparon, and terrified Molineux, both enemies of the Birotteaus. Politics and the Cafe David, situated between the rue de la Monnaie and the rue Saint-Honore, consumed the leisure hours of Pillerault, who was a stoical and staunch Republican; he was exceedingly considerate of Madame Vaillant, his house-keeper, and treated Manuel, Foy, Perier, Lafayette and Courier as gods. Cesar Birotteau. Pillerault lived to a very advanced age. The Anselme Popinots, his grand-nephew and grand-niece, paid him a visit in 1844. Poulain cured the old man of an illness when he was more than eighty years of age; he then owned an establishment (rue de Normandie, in the Marais), managed by the Cibots, and counting among its occupants the Chapoulot family, Schmucke and Sylvain Pons. Cousin Pons.
PILLERAULT (Constance-Barbe-Josephine). (See Birotteau, Madame Cesar.)
PIMENTEL (Marquis and Marquise de), enjoyed extended influence during the Restoration, not only with the society element of Paris, but especially in the department of Charente, where they spent their summers. They were reputed to be the wealthiest land-owners around Angouleme, were on intimate terms with their peers, the Rastignacs, together with whom they composed the shining lights of the Bargeton circle. Lost Illusions.
PINAUD (Jacques), a “poor linen-merchant,” the name under which M. d’Orgemont, a wealthy broker of Fougeres, tried to conceal his identity from the Chouans, in 1799, to avoid being a victim of their robbery. The Chouans.
PINGRET, uncle of Monsieur and Madame des Vauneaulx; a miser, who lived in an isolated house in the Faubourg Saint-Etienne, near Limoges; robbed and murdered, with his servant Jeanne Malassis, one night in March, 1829, by Jean-Francois Tascheron. The Country Parson.
PINSON, long a famous Parisian restaurant-keeper of the rue de l’Ancienne-Comedie, at whose establishment Theodose de la Peyrade, reduced, in the time of Louis Philippe, to the uttermost depths of poverty, dined, at the expense of Cerizet and Dutocq, at a cost of forty-seven francs; there also these three men concluded a compact to further their mutual interests. The Middle Classes.
PIOMBO (Baron Bartolomeo di), born in 1738, a fellow-countryman and friend of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose mother he had protected during the Corsican troubles. After a terrible vendetta, carried out in Corsica against all the Portas except one, he had to leave his country, and went in great poverty to Paris with his family. Through the intercession of Lucien Bonaparte, he saw the First Consul (October, 1800) and obtained property, titles and employment. Piombo was not without gratitude; the friend of Daru, Drouot, and Carnot, he gave evidence of devotion to his benefactor until the latter’s death. The return of the Bourbons did not deprive him entirely of the resources that he had acquired. For his Corsican property Bartolomeo received of Madame Letitia Bonaparte a sum which allowed him to purchase and occupy the Portenduere mansion. The marriage of his adored daughter, Ginevra, who, against her father’s will, became the wife of the last of the Portas, was a source of vexation and grief to Piombo, that nothing could diminish. The Vendetta.
PIOMBO (Baronne Elisa di), born in 1745, wife of the preceding and mother of Madame Porta, was unable to obtain from Bartolomeo the pardon of Ginevra, whom he would not see after her marriage. The Vendetta.
PIOMBO (Ginevra di). (See Porta, Madame Luigi.)
PIOMBO (Gregorio di), brother of the preceding, and son of Bartolomeo and Elisa di Piombo; died in his infancy, a victim of the Portas, in the vendetta against the Piombos. The Vendetta.
PIQUETARD (Agathe). (See Hulot d’Ervy, Baronne Hector.)
PIQUOIZEAU, porter of Frederic de Nucingen, when Rodolphe Castanier was cashier at the baron’s bank. Melmoth Reconciled.
PLAISIR, an “illustrious hair-dresser” of Paris; in September, 1816, on the rue Taitbout, he waited on Caroline Crochard de Bellefeuille, at that time mistress of the Comte de Granville. A Second Home.
PLANCHETTE, an eminent professor of mechanics, consulted by Raphael de Valentin on the subject of the wonderful piece of shagreen that the young man had in his possession; he took him to Spieghalter, the mechanician, and to Baron Japhet, the chemist, who tried in vain to stretch this skin. The failure of science in this effort was a cause of amazement to Planchette and Japhet. “They were like Christians come from the tomb without finding a God in heaven.” Planchette was a tall, thin man, and a sort of poet always in deep contemplation. The Magic Skin.
PLANTIN, a Parisian publicist, was, in 1834, editor of a review, and aspired to the position of master of requests in the Council of State, when Blondet recommended him to Raoul Nathan, who was starting a great newspaper. A Daughter of Eve.
PLISSOUD, like Brunet, court-crier at Soulanges (Bourgogne), and afterwards Brunet’s unfortunate competitor. He belonged, during the Restoration, to the “second” society of his village, witnessed his exclusion from the “first” by reason of the misconduct of his wife, who was born Euphemie Wattebled. Being a gambler and a drinker, Plissoud did not save any money; for, though he was appointed to many offices, they were all lacking in lucrativeness; he was insurance agent, as well as agent for a society that insured against the chances for conscription. Being an enemy of Soudry’s party, Maitre Plissoud might readily have served, especially for pecuniary considerations, the interests of Montcornet, proprietor at Aigues. The Peasantry.
PLISSOUD (Madame Euphemie), wife of the preceding and daughter of Wattebled; ruled the “second” society of Soulanges, as Madame Soudry did the first, and though married to Plissoud, lived with Lupin as if she were his wife. The Peasantry.
POIDEVIN, was, in the month of November, 1806, second clerk of Maitre Bordin, a Paris attorney. A Start in Life.
POINCET, an old and unfortunate public scribe, and interpreter at the Palais de Justice of Paris; about 1815, he went with Christemio to see Henri de Marsay, in order to translate the words of the messenger of Paquita Valdes. The Thirteen.
POIREL (Abbe), a priest of Tours; advanced to the canonry at the time that Monsieur Troubert and Mademoiselle Gamard persecuted Abbe Francois Birotteau. The Vicar of Tours.
POIRET, the elder, born at Troyes. He was the son of a clerk and of a woman whose wicked ways were notorious and who died in a hospital. Going to Paris with a younger brother, they became clerks in the Department of Finance under Robert Lindet; there he met Antoine, the office boy; he left the department, in 1816, with a retiring pension, and was replaced by Saillard. The Government Clerks. Afflicted with cretinism he remained a bachelor because of the horror inspired by the memory of his mother’s immoral life; he was a confirmed idemiste, repeating, with slight variation, the words of those with whom he was conversing. Poiret established himself on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, at Madame Vauquer’s private boarding-house; he occupied the second story at the widow’s house, became intimate with Christine-Michelle Michonneau and married her, when Horace Bianchon demanded the exclusion of this young woman from the house for denouncing Jacques Collin (1819). Father Goriot. Poiret often afterwards met M. Clapart, an old comrade whom he had found again on the rue de la Cerisaie; had apartments on the rue des Poules and lost his health. A Start in Life. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. He died during the reign of Louis Philippe. The Middle Classes.
POIRET (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Christine-Michelle Michonneau, in 1779, doubtless had a stormy youth. Pretending to have been persecuted by the heirs of a rich old man for whom she had cared, Christine-Michelle Michonneau went, during the Restoration, to board with Madame Vauquer, the third floor of the house on rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve; made Poiret her squire; made a deal with Bibi-Lupin — Gondureau — to betray Jacques Collin, one of Madame Vauquer’s guests. Having thus sated her cupidity and her bitter feelings, Mademoiselle Michonneau was forced to leave the house on rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, at the formal demand of Bianchon, another of the guests. Father Goriot. Accompanied by Poiret, whom she afterwards married, she moved to the rue des Poules and rented furnished rooms. Being summoned before the examining magistrate Camusot (May, 1830), she recognized Jacques Collin in the pseudo Abbe Carlos Herrera. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. Ten years later, Madame Poiret, now a widow, was living on a corner of the rue des Postes, and numbered Cerizet among her lodgers. The Middle Classes.
POIRET, the younger, brother of Poiret the elder, and brother-in-law of the preceding, born in 1771; had the same start, the same instincts, and the same weakness of intellect as the elder; ran the same career, overwhelmed with work under Lindet; remained at the Treasury as copying clerk ten years longer than Poiret the elder, was also book-keeper for two merchants, one of whom was Camusot of the Cocon d’Or; he lived on the rue du Martroi; dined regularly at the Veau qui Tette, on the Place du Chatelet; bought his hats of Tournan, on rue Saint-Martin; and, a victim of J.-J. Bixiou’s practical jokes, he wound up by being business clerk in the office of Xavier Rabourdin. Being retired on January 1, 1825, Poiret the younger counted on living at Madame Vauquer’s boarding-house. The Government Clerks.
POLISSARD, appraiser of the wood of the Ronquerolles estate in 1821; at this time, probably on the recommendation of Gaubertin, he employed as agent for the wood-merchant, Vaudoyer, a peasant of Ronquerolles, who had shortly before been discharged from the post of forest-keeper of Blangy (Bourgogne). The Peasantry.
POLLET, book-publisher in Paris, in 1821; a rival of Doguereau; published “Leonide ou La Vieille de Suresnes,” a romance by Victor Ducange; had business relations with Porchon and Vidal; was at their establishment, when Lucien de Rubempre presented to them his “Archer de Charles IX.” A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.
POMBRETON (Marquis de), a genuine anomaly; lieutenant of the black musketeers under the old regime, friend of the Chevalier de Valois, who prided himself on having lent him for assistance in leaving the country, twelve hundred pistoles. Pombreton returned this loan afterwards, almost beyond a question of doubt, but the fact of the case always remained unknown, for M. de Valois, an unusually successful gamester, was interested in spreading a report of the return of this loan, to shadow the resources that he derived from the gaming table; and so five years later, about 1821, Etienne Lousteau declared that the Pombreton succession and the Maubreuil* affair were among the most profitable “stereotypes” of journalism. Finally, Le Courrier de l’Orne of M. du Bousquier published, about 1830, these lines: “A certificate for an income of a thousand francs a year will be awarded to the person who can show the existence of a M. de Pombreton before, during, or after the emigration.” Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Jealousies of a Country Town.
* Maubreuil died at the end of the Second Empire.
POMPONNE (La). (See Toupinet, Madame.)
PONS (Sylvain)*, born about 1785; son of the old age of Monsieur and Madame Pons, who, before 1789, founded the famous Parisian house for the embroidery of uniforms that was bought, in 1815, by M. Rivet, first cousin of the first Madame Camusot of the Cocon d’Or, sole heir of the famous Pons brothers, embroiderers to the Court; under the Empire, he won the Prix de Rome for musical composition, returned to Paris about 1810, and was for many years famous for his romances and melodies which were full of delicacy and good taste. From his stay in Italy, Pons brought back the tastes of the bibliomaniac and a love for works of art. His passion for collecting consumed almost his entire patrimony. Pons became Sauvageot’s rival. Monistrol and Elie Magus felt a hidden but envious appreciation of the artistic treasures ingeniously and economically collected by the musician. Being ignorant of the rare value of his museum, he went from house to house, giving private lessons in harmony. This lack of knowledge proved his ruin afterwards, for he became all the more fond of paintings, stones and furniture, as lyric glory was denied him, and his ugliness, coupled with his supposed poverty, kept him from getting married. The pleasures of a gourmand replaced those of the lover; he likewise found some consolation for his isolation in his frie
ndship with Schmucke. Pons suffered from his taste for high living; he grew old, like a parasitic plant, outside the circle of his family, only tolerated by his distant cousins, the Camusot de Marvilles, and their connections, Cardot, Berthier and Popinot. In 1834, at the awarding of the prize to the young ladies of a boarding-school, he met the pianist Schmucke, a teacher as well as himself, and in the strong intimacy that grew up between them, he found some compensation for the blighted hopes of his existence. Sylvain Pons was director of the orchestra at the theatre of which Felix Gaudissart was manager during the monarchy of July. He had Schmucke admitted there, with whom he passed several happy years, in a house, on the rue de Normandie, belonging to C.-J. Pillerault. The bitterness of Madeleine Vivet and Amelie Camusot de Marville, and the covetousness of Madame Cibot, the door-keeper, and Fraisier, Magus, Poulain and Remonencq were perhaps the indirect causes of the case of hepatitis of which Pons died (in April, 1845), appointing Schmucke his residuary legatee before Maitre Leopold Hannequin, who had been hastily summoned by Heloise Brisetout. Pons was on the point of being employed to compose a piece of ballet music, entitled “Les Mohicans.” This work most likely fell to his successor, Garangeot. Cousin Pons.
* M. Alphonse de Launay has derived from the life of Sylvain Pons a drama that was presented at the Cluny theatre, Paris, about 1873.
POPINOT, alderman of Sancerre in the eighteenth century; father of Jean-Jules Popinot and Madame Ragon (born Popinot). He was the officer whose portrait, painted by Latour, adorned the walls of Madame Ragon’s parlor, during the Restoration, at her home in the Quartier Saint-Sulpice, Paris. Cesar Birotteau.
Works of Honore De Balzac Page 1589