2°J S. YI. 147., Oct. 23. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



339 



Pillory (2°* S. vi. 245.) — There is a pillory at 

 Rye in Sussex. I happened to be there in Nov. 

 1857, and paid a hasty visit to the church, which 

 is one of the largest in the kingdom. At the east 

 end are (so the sexton described them) three 

 chancels. The central one only is now used for 

 the services of the church ; another as a school- 

 room, and in the third are deposited the pillory, 

 the town fire-engine, and other articles. In the 

 floor are numerous gravestones, some of them 

 sadly mutilated. I took the following Note of an 

 inscription on a brass plate before the Communion 

 Table in the centre chancel. The plate has a 

 full-length figure of Thomas Hamon, who is said 

 to rest underneath, and the following lines : — 



" Loe Thomas Hamon here enter'd doth lye 

 Thrice Bvrgesse for the Parliament elected 



Six times by Freeman's Choice made Maiorof Rye 

 And Captaine long time of the band selected 



Whose prvdent courage, Justice, Gravite 



Deserves a monument of raemorie." 



Eye lies within a few minutes' walk of the rail- 

 way station, and well deserves a visit, even at the 

 risk of some inconvenience. Ina. 



Wells, Somerset, 



^tSfenaiiefluS. 



MONTHLY PEUILLETON ON FRENCH BOOKS. 



" Memoires de Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy. 

 Nouvelle edition, suivie de I'Histoire amoureuse des 

 Gaules, avec une Pre'face, des Notes et des Tables, par Lu- 

 dovic Lalanne. Paris, Charpentier." 



" Correspondance de Bussy-Rabutin, publiee par Lu- 

 dovic Lalanne. Vols, k ii. Paris, Charpentier." 



The glory of French letter-writing, during the seven- 

 teenth century, seems to have become identified with 

 Madame de Sevigne: whilst Vincent Yoiture took such 

 pains to indite epistles full of quibbles and childish con- 

 ceits, whilst the pompous nonsense of Balzac was handed 

 round from drawing-room to drawing-room as the model 

 of fine prose, it was reserved for a lady — for Madame de 

 Sevigne, to obtain unconsciously the reputation of a classic 

 by her simplicity and her unaifected naivete. She ob- 

 tained this reputation ; aye, she kept it too. Voituie 

 enjoyed the honour of being quoted by Boileau in the 

 same line as Horace ; the author of Le Socrate Chretien, 

 two hundred years ago, was accounted an authority ; but 

 time has swept away the idols of fashion, together with 

 many other things, whilst Marie de Rabutin-Chantal is 

 still the accomplished writer which she was when her 

 cousin Bussy said to her " ^crivons nous souvent, et badi- 

 nons toujours." It is of that cousin that we would say a 

 word or two in the following article, availing ourselves 

 of this opportunity to bring to light a few interesting 

 particulars concerning the court of Louis XIV. 



The present edition of Bussy-Kabutin's correspondence, 

 published by M. Ludovic Lalanne, is the natural sequel 

 to the Memoirs, for an admirable reprint of which we 

 have to thank the same savant. Some of the letters now 

 L'iven had already been published, for the popularity of 

 Bussy-Uabutin's style may be judged from the fact that 

 his correspondence betweei'i 1G97 and 1738 went through 

 no less than fourteen editions; but faults, omissions, 

 blunders of the grossest description, occurred almost at 



every page in these early compilations ; and M. Lalanne 

 has carefully restored the purity of the original text by 

 a reference to several MSS. existing at the Paris Imperial 

 Library, the library of the Institut, and several private 

 collections. He has also been able to add a very great 

 number of letters hitherto unpublished, and, finally, the 

 notes, which are liberally and judiciously scattered 

 throughout the work, illustrate in the fullest manner the 

 social, literary, and political history of the seventeenth 

 century. 



The first merit which we have to notice in the volumes 

 now under consideration is the agreeable variety resulting 

 from the number of persons whose letters are here brought 

 together. Appreciated from this point of ^-iew, Bussy's 

 correspondence is perhaps a unique monument in French 

 literature. As M, Lalanne remarks : " Que trouve-t-on 

 dans la plupart de nos recueils epistolaires ? les lettres 

 d'un seul individu k un nombre plus ou moins considerable 

 de personnes dont les reponses sont absentes. C'est un 

 dialogue oil il n'y a qu'un interlocuteur." Here it is not 

 so. Besides Bussy-Rabutin, we meet a host of dramatis 

 persona of both sexes, gossiping in an easy agreeable 

 manner, and combining their pleasant chit-chat " pour 

 faire sortir de terre cet ancien monde, si diffe'rent du 

 notre, et le faire passer en revue devant nous." The 

 Abbe de Choisy, Madame de Montmorency, Benserade, the 

 Chevalier de Grammont, contribute their quota to the 

 recueil. Turn over the pige, you cannot help recognising 

 Corbinelli by his erudite epistles bristling with Latin 

 quotations ; a little further on you are struck by a few 

 letters full of dignity, of feeling, of true simplicity, 

 excellently written — masterpieces of their kind, in 

 short ; you want to identify the author, and start back 

 thoroughly astonished when yoti read the name of Ma- 

 dame de Scude'ry. One of the correspondents of " N. & 

 Q." was, not leng since, asking a question about the cele- 

 brated blue-stocking spinster who is responsible for " le 

 Grand Cyrus " and " La Cle'lie." Very well ; but whilst 

 so anxious about Mademoiselle, let the querist bestow a 

 minute's attention or two upon Madame, even though he 

 should judge her merely through the letters contained in 

 Bussy-Rabutin's correspondence ; he -ndll find his trouble 

 amply compensated. The sketch of Rapin (p. 423., first 

 vol.), for instance, is a little gem. 



Madame de Sevigne's clever but somewhat unprin- 

 cipled cousin was exceptionally fortunate in having at 

 his command such an array of epistolographers; he could 

 by their means spend the weary months of prison and of 

 exile a little more cheerfully than if he had been left to 

 his own thoughts. Political intelligence, the chronique 

 scandaleuse of Versailles, notices of new books, tran- 

 scriptions of the latest poetical trifles — everything was 

 scrupulously forwarded to him, and the reader will perceive 

 that the correspondence has in fact all the variety, all 

 the piquancy, of a well-written gazette. Loret's Muze 

 Historique is nothing in comparison. 



Whilst descanting upon the merits of Bussy's corre- 

 spondents, I must not pass over his own. The great forte 

 in his character was an unconquerable propensity for 

 satire ; if any person displeased him, he did not stop to 

 consider the r.ink, the position of the offender, but let fly 

 at him one of those shafts which have such killing etlect, 

 especially in a country where the people are gifted with 

 the keenest sense of the ridiculous. Imagine a man coolly 

 composing a song against Louis XIV. ; and not only com- 

 posing that song, but actually singing it, con brio, within 

 a few yards of his Most Christian ilajesty I 



" Que Dcodatus est heureux 

 De baiser ce bee araoureux 

 Qui d'une oreille h I'autre va, 

 Alleluia!" 



