The characters of the four heroines form as strong a contrast as their circumstances, principles, and surroundings.
In Mme. Le Brun, the most gifted of all, we see a beauty, a genius, and a woman unusually charming and attractive, thrown, before she was sixteen, into the society of the magnificent, licentious3 court of Louis XV. Married to a dissipated, bourgeois4 spendthrift, for whom she had never cared; sought after, flattered, and worshipped in all the great courts of Europe; courted by fascinating, unscrupulous men of the highest rank, without the protection of family connections and an assured [viii] position; yet her religious principles, exalted5 character, and passionate6 devotion to her art, carried her unscathed and honoured through a life of extraordinary dangers and temptations.
She emigrated early, and far from being, as in most cases, a time of poverty and hardship, her exile was one long, triumphant7 career of prosperity.
Owing to her brilliant success, to the affection and friendship which surrounded her wherever she went, to her absorbing interest in her art, the delightful8 places and society in which she spent her time, and also to her own sunny, light-hearted nature, her long life, in spite of certain serious domestic drawbacks and sorrows, was a very happy one. Her wonderful capacity for enjoyment9, her appreciation10 of beauty in nature and art, the great interest she took in matters intellectual and political, her pleasure in the society of her numerous friends, and her ardent11 devotion to the religious and royalist principles of her youth, continued undiminished through the peaceful old age which terminated her brilliant career.
With the same religious and political principles, the conditions of life which surrounded the Marquise de Montagu were totally different. A contrast indeed to the simple, artistic12 household, the early grief, poverty, and hard work, the odious13 step-father, the foolish mother, the worthless husband and daughter, the thousand difficulties and disadvantages which beset14 Mme. Le Brun, were the state and luxury, the sheltered life, the watchful15 care, and powerful protection bestowed16 upon the daughter of the house of Noailles; her mother, the saintly, [ix] heroic Duchesse d’Ayen, her husband the gallant17, devoted18 Marquis de Montagu.
She also was thrown very early into society; but she entered it as a member of one of the greatest families in France, surrounded by an immense number of relations of the highest character and position.
Neither a genius nor yet possessed19 of any great artistic or intellectual talent, without worldly ambition, little attracted by the amusements of society, she was a sort of mixture of a grande dame20 and a saint.
The lofty asceticism21 of her theories and practice was perhaps almost too severe for ordinary mortals living in the world, and in some respects better adapted for a monastic than a secular22 life; her emigration, so long delayed, was no time of success and happiness: long years of terror, danger, poverty, fearful trials, and sorrows endured with heroic fortitude23 and angelic patience, passed before she was restored to France and to the ancient castle which was the home and refuge of her later life.
In Mme. Tallien we have a woman exactly opposite to the other two in character, principles, and conduct. Differing from both of them in birth and circumstances—for she was the daughter of a Spanish banker of large fortune—with extraordinary beauty, the hot, passionate blood of the south, a nature, habits, and principles undisciplined by authority and unrestrained by religion, she was early imbued24 with the creed25 of the revolutionists, and carried their theories of atheism26 and licence to the logical consequences.
[x]
Yet the generosity27 and kindness of her heart, and the number of victims she saved, outweighed28, though without effacing29, the disorders30 of her earlier life, [1] during the latter part of which, as the wife of a Catholic, royalist prince, whose love she returned and to whose opinions she was converted, she deeply regretted the errors of Notre Dame de Thermidor.
In Mme. de Genlis we have a fourth and more complex type, a character in which good and evil were so mingled31 that it was often hard to say which predominated. With less beauty than the other three but singularly attractive, with extraordinary gifts and talents, with noble blood and scarcely any fortune, she spent a childhood of comparative poverty at her father’s chateau32, where she was only half educated, and at seventeen married the young Comte de Genlis, who had no money but was related to most of the great families of the kingdom.
From this time began her brilliant career. Essentially33 a woman of the world, delighting in society and amusement, though always praising the pleasures of solitude34 and retirement35, she entered the household of the Duchesse d’Orléans, wife of the infamous36 Philippe-égalité, and while constantly declaiming against ambition managed to get all her relations lucrative37 posts at the Palais Royal, and married one if not both her daughters to rich men of rank with notoriously bad reputations.
Perpetually proclaiming her religious principles [xi] and loyalty38 to the throne, she was suspected of being concerned in the disgraceful libels and attacks upon the Queen, was on terms of friendship with some of the worst of the revolutionists, rejoiced in the earliest outbreaks of the beginning of the Revolution, and while she educated the Orléans children with a pompous39 parade of virtue40 and strictness, was generally and probably rightly looked upon as the mistress of their father.
She was a strange character, full of artificial sentiment, affectation, and self-deception, and, unlike the first three heroines of this book, the mystery and doubts which hung over her have never been cleared up.
Against the saintly Marquise de Montagu no breath of scandal could ever be spoken. Such calumnies41 as were spread against Mme. Le Brun, the work of the revolutionists, who hated her only for her religion and loyalty, never believed by those whose opinion would be worthy42 of consideration, soon vanished and were forgotten.
The liaisons43 of Mme. Tallien had nothing doubtful about them.
But the stories against Mme. de Genlis have never been cleared up. Much that was said about her was undoubtedly44 false, but there remain serious accusations45 which can neither be proved nor disproved; and that a long, intimate friendship between a prince of the character of Philippe-égalité and a young, attractive woman who was governess to his children should have been no more than a platonic46 one, passes the bounds of credibility.
[xii]
The history of Mme. de Genlis in the emigration differs from the other two, for having contrived47 to make herself obnoxious48 both to royalists and republicans her position was far worse than theirs.
But the deep affection she and her pupils displayed for each other, the devotion and kindness she showed them during their misfortunes, the courage and cheerfulness with which she bore the hardships and dangers of her lot, and the remorse49 and self-reproach which, in spite of the excellent opinion she usually entertained of herself, do occasionally appear in her memoirs50, prove that many good qualities existed amongst so much that was faulty.
As to her writings, then so much in vogue51, they were mostly works intended either to explain, assist, or illustrate52 the system of education which was the hobby of her life and which, if one may judge by “Adèle et Théodore,” one of the most important of her tales, can only be called preposterous53.
That the false sentiment, the absurd rules of life, the irksome, unnecessary restrictions54, the cramping55 and stifling56 of all the natural affections and feelings of youth here inculcated should have been regarded with approval, even by the sourest and most solemn of puritans, seems difficult to believe; but that in the society of Paris at that time they should have been popular and admired is only another example of the inconsistency of human nature. She had a passion for children, but kindness to animals does not seem to have been one of the virtues57 she taught her pupils. We may hope that the fearful little [xiii] prigs described as the result of her system never did or could exist.
I have endeavoured to be accurate in all the dates and incidents, and have derived58 my information from many sources, including the “Mémoires de Louis XVIII., recueillis par2 le Duc de D——,” Mémoires de la Comtesse d’Adhémar, de Mme. Campan, MM. de Besenval, de Ségur, &c., also the works of the Duchesse d’Abrantès, Comtesse de Bassanville, Mme. de Créquy, Mme. de Genlis, Mme. Le Brun, MM. Arsène Houssaye, de Lamartine, Turquan, Dauban, Bouquet59, and various others, besides two stories never yet published, one of which was given me by a member of the family to which it happened; the other was told me in the presence of the old man who was the hero of it.
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1
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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licentious
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| adj.放纵的，淫乱的 | |
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bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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dame
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| n.女士 | |
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asceticism
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| n.禁欲主义 | |
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secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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fortitude
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| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
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imbued
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| v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等） | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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atheism
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| n.无神论，不信神 | |
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generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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outweighed
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| v.在重量上超过( outweigh的过去式和过去分词 )；在重要性或价值方面超过 | |
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effacing
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| 谦逊的 | |
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disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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31
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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chateau
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| n.城堡，别墅 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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lucrative
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| adj.赚钱的，可获利的 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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pompous
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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calumnies
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| n.诬蔑，诽谤，中伤（的话）( calumny的名词复数 ) | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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liaisons
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| n.联络( liaison的名词复数 )；联络人；（尤指一方或双方已婚的）私通；组织单位间的交流与合作 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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accusations
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| n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名 | |
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platonic
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| adj.精神的；柏拉图（哲学）的 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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obnoxious
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| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
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49
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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50
memoirs
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| n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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51
Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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52
illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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53
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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54
restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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55
cramping
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| 图像压缩 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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57
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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58
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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bouquet
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| n.花束，酒香 | |
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