Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

5 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

---------PAUL SCARRON AND…

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

PAUL SCARRON AND HIS WIFE. Long ago there lived in France a very well built and handsome young man named Scarron. He had studied for the church, and was an abbe hut he Was of a gay disposition. He danced, played the lute, was admired by the fair sex, and wrote well in a lively fashion. His father had an income of 25.000 livres a year, and he was independent ol fortune. In the year 103S the carnival was kept with un- usual splendour. People in all sorts of disguises paraded through the town and played tricks upon each other. There was a grand procession, and music, sup- pers, and balls everywhere. Scarron conceived the idea of out-doing every- body else. He determined to assume the part of a savage Colouring his skin with some dark pig- ment, he stripped himself nearly naked, and with feathers, beads and gewgaws, strutted about until at last a great mob followed him, and taking offence at his want of costume began to pelt him with atones and threaten his life. He fled, but they were fa.st behind him and at last he left the town, and Hying for dear life, dashed through a strip of woods and plunged into a marsh. Heated as he was the chill was terrible and in this spot he was obliged to conceal himself all night. He reached home through the assistance cf some kind strangers, who believed him to be the victim of a practical joke, for he bad hidden his finery in the ditch and dearly indeed did he pay for his wild escapade. From that moment he never walked again. He was just twenty-seven, and all life lay before him, but a sort of rheumatic palsy had seized upon him. Physicians could do nothing for him. It seemed impossible for him to believe it. He tried all the baths and remedies then known, but his disorder increased he suffered continual pain, and by degrees his body was twisted entirely out of shape, so that lie was hunch-backed, and had shortened arms and even fingers but his face was bright and expressive, and he could write on a portfolio placed on his knees. Meanwhile his father, a widower, had given him a veritable step-mother of the fairy tales, who hated him and his two sisters bitterly. She had children of her own, and considered the first wife's offspring in her way. Domestic unhappiness was se the consequence, and the crippled brother offered his sisters a home under a roof of his own. Although helpless he still had a living at Mans, and was tolerably well off. However, even this he was destined to lose, for there dawned upon his life something that was better to him than money. A beautiful young woman, accomplished and elegant, met this poet who, crippled as he was so that he could only be moved about in a chair, was always gay and witt", of whom Balzae said that he had gone farther in insensibility than the Stoics, for they only ignored pain, while he made a joke of it to amuse the world. Incapable of offering her even a caress, lie still gave her his heart and she married him, devoting herself to him for life. She made his home bright and helped him to entertain the wits of the day but lie lost the living by marrying, as one may well imagine. Meanwhile his father had offended the government and was exiled, and his step- mother seized upon the property for her own uc. When his father died, she refused to share her fortune with the crippled Scarron and his sisters and he brought the matter into court and lost it. The papers he drew up for the case were very amusing, although he was actually contesting for bread. They were full of burlesquerie, and placed everything in a ludicrous light. When in great distress, he wrote to the queeu, requesting to be made Sick man to her majesty," and wrote his petition in these words Scarron, by the grace of God, an unworthy sick man of the queen a man without a house, though a moving hospital of disorders walking with other people's legs, and suffering almost with- out sleep but in spite of all, courageous and brave enough, though he plays a losing game." The (lueen gave him a pension, but his love of fun lost it to him very soon, for he ridiculed a person high in office, and was deprived of it in revenge. Having lost his health by a frolic, he lost his case, for if he had chosen to present himself as an object of pity, or to use such arguments as would have awakened sympathy, it seems likely he would have received some portion of the wealth his father left behind him. A joke lost him also the favour of the queen and her pension, which a previous joke had gained. Further, having dedicated his works to various noblemen—who paid for the honour in those days by subscriptions—he, in a facetious fit, dedicated one to his dog, whom he praised in the fulsome terms used by authors of thoce days. Great offence was given to many persons of rank who had patron- ized him. Madame Scarron, whose heart had been won by the liveliness that triumphed over all misfortunes, thoroughly approved of everything he did or uttered. She also kept his friends about him by her pleasant hospitality and he said, as he ap- proached his end, that the only regret he had in dying was to leave her, and leave her poor. For she is the best wife man ever had," he de- clared. She is possessed of infinite merit, and I have every imaginable reason to admire and praise her." She was the only thing he never made a joke of, for even as death approached he jested, and seeing all about him weeping, said My poor children, you will never cry so much for me as I have made you laugh:" and planned to write a "satire against the hiccough," with which he suffered, when it had almost killed him. After all his alilictions, he lived to be fifty years old, and earned the title of Emperor of the Bur- lesque by the works of his pen. After his death Madame Scarron, left penniless, was taken notice of by a person high in favour at the Court of Louis Fourteenth, and made governess to some children in the royal family and, it is said, influenced the immoral king in a way that won the favour of the queen, who made her a close friend, and finally died in her arms. The king had not liked her at first, and had called her a prude, but finally she won his heart. They were married secretly at midnight, at Versailles. The king's confessor per- formed the ceremony, and an archbishop was the witness. When the king died she retired to the con- vent of St. Cyr, and ended her days in deeds of charity. To those who were her intimates she spoke often of her youth. When at the age of sixteen she gave herself to Scarron, and professed her belief that they should meet in Heaven, where, she would often declare, his body will be as boautiful as his gay and tender spirit was on earth.

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---THE MYSTERIOUS CIPHER;1…