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Louis XIV and De Gency
Phiz
April 1844 (fifteenth) instalment
Steel-engraving
12.2 cm by 10 cm (4 ¾ by 3 ⅞ inches), vignetted.
Charles Lever's Tom Burke of "Ours", Chapter LXIII, "The 'Moisson d'Or'" (April 1844), facing p. 102 in volume 2 of the 1844 edition, and Chapter XIX, 145 of volume 2 in the 1865 edition.
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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“He had not waited long when the folding-doors were thrown wide, and a moment after Louis appeared, accompanied by a single attendant, the Marquis de Verneuil, unhappily one of the very few enemies Arnoud possessed in the world.
“'Ah, De Gency! you here?' said the king, gayly. 'They told me “brelan” had been unfavourable lately, and that we should not see you.'
“'It is true, Sire,' said he, with a sad effort at a smile; 'it is only on your Majesty fortune always smiles.'
“'Pardieu! you must not say so; I lost a rouleau last night. But whom have we here?'
“'My son; so please you, Sire, my only son, who desires, at an earlier age than even his father did, to serve your Majesty.'
“'How like his mother!' said the king, pushing back the fair ringlets from the boy's forehead, and gazing almost fondly on his handsome features, — 'how like her! She was a Courcelles?'
“'She was, Sire,' said Arnoud, as the tears fell on his cheek and coursed slowly along his face. [Chapter LXIII, "The 'Moisson d'Or'," 102 in the 1844 edition, Chapter XIX, 145 in the 1869 edition]
Just returned from the south of France with his titled aunt to woo the wealthy daughter of the Countess Lacostellerie, Dufresne takes Tom to dinner at an exclusive restaurant, the haunt of Parisian Bourbonists who pine for the restoration of Louis XVIII, now in exile. Thus, on the top storey of the Moisson d'Or, overlooking the panorama of Paris spread out before them, and with a repast worthy of Louis Quinze, Duchesne offers a reminiscence or "short anecdote" (145) of the days before the Empire, the Revolution, the Directory, and the Consulate, which for him are "The Good Old Days." The incident Duchesne recalls took place during the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV, and cncerns one of his courtiers at St. Germain, the eighteen-year-old Vicomte Arnoud de Gency. Despite his valour in battle and his estimable personal qualities, his poverty was pressing, and his salary from royal appointments was barely enough to sustain his daily expenditures, let alone maintain his wardrobe. Finally, he decided to appeal directly to the king to implore his financial assistance. Thus, he approached Louis XIV in company with his only child, a boy of eight or nine whose mother had died in childbirth.
As in Duchesne's anecdote, Phiz has depicted De Gency and the boy in eighteenth-century hunting-dress on the morning that a royal hunting-party is setting out from St. Cloud. Father and son are at the door of the antechamber as the aged monarch and his close advisor (the Marquis de Verneuil, no friend to Arnoud), both suitably dressed, prepare to exit the palace. The child is dressed exactly as Lever describes him: "He wore a velvet doublet of green, slashed with gold, and ornamented by a broad belt" (145); and, like his father, he sports a falcon's feather in his cap (although Phiz gives both father and son broad-brimmed hats). However, nothing in the picture prepares us for De Gency's suicide when the Marquis proposes that De Gency's son become a turnspit in the royal kitchen. The villain changes the boy's name to that of the head chef, Jacotot, identifyin him as the grandfather of their present host at the restaurant.
Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.
Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Chapter 11: "'Give Me Back the Freshness of the Morning!'" Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. Pp. 108-127.
Lever, Charles. Tom Burke of "Ours." Dublin: William Curry, Jun., 1844. Illustrated by H. K. Browne. London: Chapman and Hall, 1865. Serialised February 1843 through September 1844. 2 vols.
Lever, Charles. Tom Burke of "Ours." Illustrated by Phiz [Hablột Knight Browne]. Vol. I and II. In two volumes. Project Gutenberg. Last Updated: 24 February 2021.
Steig, Michael. Chapter Four: "Dombey and Son: Iconography of Social and Sexual Satire." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 86-112.
Stevenson, Lionel. Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939.
_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.
Created 18 November 2023