y.--Of the
attempt to make Swift Cyrano's debtor one need say little: but among
predecessors, if not creditors, Ben Jonson, for his _News from the New
World discovered in the Moon_, may at least be mentioned.

[272] The key-mongers, of course, identify the three with the author,
her own husband, and La Rochefoucauld.

[273] He has ensconced himself in one of the smaller rooms of a garden
pavilion outside of which they are sitting, having left their suite at
some distance.

[274] _Maitresse de sa conduite_, a curious but not difficult text as to
French ideas of marriage.

[275] I have been obliged to insert "trials" to bring out the meaning of
"_exposee au milieu_." "_Exposee_" has a fuller sense than the simple
English verb, and almost equals the legal "exposed for sale."

[276] Mme. de la Fayette was a very accomplished woman, and, possibly
from her familiarity with Queen Henrietta Maria, well acquainted with
English as well as French history. But our proper names, as usual,
vanquish her, and she makes Henry VIII. marry Jane _Seimer_ and
Catherine _Havart_.

[277] This does not apply to the _main_ love story but to the atmosphere
generally. The Vidame de Chartres, for instance, is represented as in
love with (1) Queen Catherine; (2) a Mme. de Themines, with whom he is
not quite satisfied; (3) a Mme. de Martignes, with whom he is; (4) a
lady unnamed, with whom he has _trompe_ them all. This may be true
enough to life; but it is difficult to make it into good matter of
fiction, especially with a crowd of other people doing much the same.

[278] It ought, perhaps, to be added that though manners, etc., altered
not a little between Henri II. and Louis XIV., the alteration was much
less than in most other histories at most other periods. It would be
easy to find two persons in Tallemant whose actual experience covered
the whole time.

[279] You _had_ to call it so when I first saw it; when I last did so it
was "Oiron." No doubt it is something else now.

[280] For that, see Chapter XII.

[281] See below on the version Introduction to the _Quatre Facardins_.

[282] Including miscellaneous imbecility and unsuitableness as well as
moral indecorum.

[283] Written for the _Fortnightly Review_ in 1882, but by a chapter of
accidents not printed till 1890. Reprinted next year in _Essays on
French Novelists_ (London, 1891).

[284] Miss Ruth Clark.

[285] The conclusion of _Vathek_ is of course undoubtedly more
"ad