BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2705, 26 February 1916, Page 9

BOOKS OF THE DAY

MEMOIRS OF THE DUKE DE SAINT-SIMON. In days like the present, when France is our Ally, and when every well-edu- . eated Englishman must have a new and sptecial interest in French history, the appearance of an entirely new translation of Saint-Simon'b famoiiß "Memoirs" is timely and welcome. 'Amongst all the many documents.pour eervir, in which French historical literature is. so pecularily rich, Saint-Si-mon's work stands an easy first ,for not onlv do the "Memoirs" deal with one of. the most eventful periods in the history of reign of the Grand Monarque, Louis the Fourteenth—but they abound in character sketches as in- • timate as those witli which Pepys's Diary is so thickly studded, in studies of political events as historically valuable as those recorded by a Clarendon or a Macaulay, and gossip of court life and society as piquant, and, occasionally, almost as scandalous, ss that penned by Saint-Simon's fellow-country-man, De Gramraont, of the court of our own "Merrv Monarch." In the original the "Memoirs" run to more than twenty volumes. Hitherto, the only good English translation has been that' of Bavle St. John, in _ three volumes. 'To-day, in "The Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon" (Stanley. Paul and Co.), we have an entirely new translation, by, Mr. Francis Ark'-vright, of which four volumes have' already been published, and of which two more are yet to come. To "boil -down" SaintSimon into sis volumes, without any loss of essentials, is a great achievement, and New Zealandors should be proud of the fact that the author of ibis new version of one of the most valuable 'and entertaining of French historical works was for. many years a resident in the Dominion, and a member of the Legislative Council of this country. The late Mr. Arkwright had for years made a special hobby of the. study of French history, and upon his retirement from public life and return to.England a few years ago, settled down t-o produce a work which haa been applauded 'both in England and 'America as a most faithful, scholarly, and interesting version of the "Memoirs," one destined to be of permanent value to all students of French history who lack a knowledge of France.

In the original, as we have said, the '"Memoirs" may repel the reader by their excessive length. Mr. Arkwright admits, also, that while "the" best v parts are extremely vivid and . interesting, there ar,e others which are dull,' and .when Saint-Simon is dull his dullness passes all-belief." Macaulay, in his "Journal for 1852," writes:"Have finished Saint-Simon's 'Memoirs' and am more struck.with the goodness, 'of the good parts than ever. To bo sure the road-from fountain to fountain lies through a- very bod desert. It is the 'special merit, of Mr. Arkwright's translation that its author has been able to ■eliminate the dull and unimportant passages, and selecting those which deal' with really important ivents and persons, _-to weld them together in a consecutive and • harmonious narrative. Saint-Simon himself was a deeply relisrious man, although a determined opponent .of the clerical intriguers of his day, especially the Jesuits, but, n.ever-. theless, thete are occasions-in the.original when he is very coarse. Mr. Ark■wright says: "We must recognise tho fact that these ■ 'Memoirs' are not fit reading for, young girls, and cannot be made so without subjecting' them to a process of expurgation Mich would destroy much of their historical value." But, as he remarks, "the objection.able passages are rare, and after, all, file - worst of them is not so bad as many which may be . found in : the last edition of Pepys's Diary." Without excessive Bowdlcrising the translation has, in a f few cases, toned down the language so as to make it a little more fit tor modern ears, some of the coarse passages being omitted altogether as pointless and superfluous.

■ Saint-Simon was a peer of France, and no man was ever more passionately attached to and zealous of the rights and privileges of his Order. His ideal of authocracy may have been; a little narrow-minded, but it was not lacking in a real nobility. He loathed the vices of the court, and lashes the cul-, prits most •unmercifully. Of course, the "Memoires" were .not written for ■ publication—not at least in his own day. The Bastille, most assuredly, would ' have been ■" the fate of anyone who wrote of the Grand Monarquo and certain members of the royal family as ' did this farseeing, truly patriotic nobleman, who 60 faithfully chronicled the sayings and doings of his contemporaries. SaintSimon has been described as having "a genius for gossip." He was but mortal, and sometimes' his gossip ,is illnatured and his judgments governed by personal prejudice. On the whole, how-, ever, he was singularly fair, even to those .whom he regarded, and sometimes with justice, as his. bitter personal enemies. It was' his lot to study French monarchy at its highest, most glorious stage, and to live long enough to perceive ana bitterly lament its steady decadence to a point which clearly heralded its later and inevitable ruin. He began life as a Musketeer, at a time when Louis the Fourteenth had already been on the throne for nearly half a century. He resigned his commission nominally on the score of ill-health, ,but really because ho was passed over for' promotion to which he thought he was really entitled. His life then became that of a nobleman at court. Never a favourite with the King, whom at heart he despised, and who disliked him because of his habit of frank and honest criticism of the muddling of the - State's affairs by vicious and corrupt officials and court favourites, he,'nevertheless exercised considerable influence at Versailles.

It is not, however, so much with'his' comments upon the mismanagement of military campaigns, or the middlings of the Stato finances, with questions of diplomacy and la haute politique generally that his readers will be most concerned. It is for the brilliant, the mercilessly satirical and almost photographically faithful pictures of court life with which every _chaptcr of the Memoirs abounds that they will be always read and valued. The nearest approach to them in English is Horace iWalpole's famous "Letters," and, in a slightly different way, the immortal "Diary" of garrulous Mr. Samuel Pepys. Reading theso "Memoirs," one can pass in imagination through the gilded chambers of . Versailles, can witness at onco the splendour and sordidity of court life, become a close spectator of the intrigues, the comedy and drama, anil sometimes even tragedy, of court life, can almost hear the great princes and nobles and ladies of the lime talking. Saint-Simon was a,horn loalist. Ho neglected nothing which might servo to enhance the picturesqueness and accuracy of his record. The most famous men 'and women of his day, and at its 'best tho court of Louis the Fourteenth was the most brilliant assemblage in oil Europe, live again in those fascinating pages.

Saint-Simon has a i r reat reputation ipr the freshness aad vicour of Ins p.en

portraits. He is very severe on Madame de Maintenon, whom, after a long succession of mistresses, Louis married, and by ivhom he -was almost despotically ruled. But others of his female portraits are slyly humorous. It is good to read how an Englishwoman, the Duchess of Shrewsbury, "a mad foreigner," as Saint-Simon somewhat discourteously calls her, did what even the Grand Monarque had been unable to namely, abolish the absurd mode of coiffure in which the court ladies indulged. "It was," he says, "ridiculous in the extreme. The hair was drawn over an edifico composed of wire, and adorned with ribbons and all sorts of appendages, the whole being more than two feet high, so that a woman's face seemed to he in the middle of her body." The King, .we read, had for a good.ten years or more remonstrated in vam against this foolish style of coiffure. But the "mad foreigner," despite her eccentric behaviour, her raucous voice, and her French so bad as to provoito even a polite court to loud laughter, had a great fortune at her back, and the excellence of her cook and tlie splendour of her entertainments—lier husband was the British Ambassador at Paris—made her the fashion. Her dictates bccame the law, and when she persisted in wearing her hair low, the extravagant chignons were abandoned, and the ladies of the oourt went.to the •.opposite extreme.

In the earlier part of the Memoirs there is a. predominant military interest, Marlborough, Prince Eugene, and the Marshal ! de Villars being prominent figures. As the narrative proceeds, the interest becomes more political and social. It is. impossible, in a necessarily brief notice such as the present, to convey an adequate idea of the extraordinary fascination of these wonderful pictures of a by-gone age. Saint-Simon's "Memoirs" have ever ranked high amongst French historical classics. In Mr. Arkwright's scholarly and gracefully-flowing version, they should reachi a new and wido field of readers, who I will find in them a neverfailing store of entertainment. Each volume contains several excellent photogravure portraits, plans of battles, etc. (New Zealand prico, 12s. fid. a volume.)