XIMEUSE, fief situated in Lorraine; original spelling of the name Simeuse, which came to to be written with an S on account of its pronunciation. [The Gondreville Mystery.]
YSEMBOURG (Prince d'), marshal of France, the Conde of the Republic. Madame Nourrisson, his confidential servant, looked upon him as a "simpleton," because he gave two thousand francs to one of the most renowned countesses of the Imperial Court, who came to him one day, with streaming eyes, begging him to give her the assistance upon which her children's life depended. She soon spent the money for a robe, which she needed to wear so as to be dressed stylishly at an embassy ball. This story was told by Madame Nourrisson, in 1845, to Leon de Lora, Bixiou, and Gazonal. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
ZAMBINELLA, a eunuch, who sang at the Theatre Argentina, Rome, the leading soprano parts; he was very beautiful. Sarassine, a French sculptor, believing him to be a woman, became enamored of him, and used him as a model for an excellent statue of Adonis, which may still be seen at the Musee d'Albani, and which Dorlange-Sallenauve copied nearly a century later. When he was over eighty years old and very wealthy, Zambinella lived, under the Restoration, with his niece, who was wife of the mysterious Lanty. While residing with the Lantys Zambinella died in Rome, 1830. The early life of Zambinella was unknown to the Parisian world. A mesmerist believed the old man, who was a sort of traveling mummy, to be the famous Balsamo, also known as Cagliostro, while the Bailli de Ferette took him to be the Comte de Saint-Germain. [Sarrasine. The Member for Arcis.]
ZARNOWICKI (Roman[*]), Polish general who, as a refugee in Paris, lived on the ground floor of the little two-story house on rue de Marbeuf, of which Doctor Halpersohn occupied the other floor in 1836. [The Seamy Side of History.]
The /Repertory of the Comedie Humaine/, as the reader can see for himself, should include only those episodes introducing characters inter-related and continually recurring. Consequently, the stories entitled /The Exiles/, /About Catherine de Medici/, /Maitre Cornelius/, /The Unknown Masterpiece/, /The Elixir of Life/, /Christ in Flanders/, which antedate the eighteenth century, and /Seraphita/, which deals with the supernatural, are omitted, together with the /Analytical Studies/. But /The Hated Son/ furnishes some indispensable information concerning a few biographies. The /Dramas/ are outside the action of the /Comedie/, so contribute no names.
According to Theophile Gautier, /The Comedie Humaine/ embraces two thousand characters. His reckoning is nearly exact; but as a result of cross-references, surnames, assumed names and the like, that number is far exceeded in this work, which, nevertheless, omits many characters outside the action, as: Chevet, Decamps, Delacroix, Finot Sr., the child of Calyste and Sabine du Guenic, Noemi Magus, Meyerbeer, Herbaut, Houbigant, Tanrade, Mousqueton, Arnal, Barrot, Bonald, Berryer, Gautier, Gozlan, Hugo, Hyacinthe, Lafont, Lamartine, Lassailly, F. Lemaitre, Charles X., Louis Philippe, Odry, Talma, Thiers, Villele, Rossini, Rousseau, Mlle. Dejazet, Mlle. Georges, etc.
End of Repertory of the Comedie Humaine Pt 2
THOSE who have done me the honour of reading my previous writings will probably receive no strong impression of novelty from the present volume; for the principles are those to which I have been working up during the greater part of my life, and most of the practical suggestions have been anticipated by others or by myself. There is novelty, however, in the fact of bringing them together, and exhibiting them in their connection; and also, I believe, in much that is brought forward in their support. Several of the opinions at all events, if not new, are for the present as little likely to meet with general acceptance as if they were. It seems to me, however, from various indications, and from none more than the recent debates on Reform of Parliament, that both Conservatives and Liberals (if I may continue to call them what they still call themselves) have lost confidence in the political creeds which they nominally profess, while neither side appears to have made any progress in providing itself with a better. Yet such a better doctrine must be possible; not a mere compromise, by splitting the difference between the two, but something wider than either, which, in virtue of its superior comprehensiveness, might be adopted by either Liberal or Conservative without renouncing anything which he really feels to be valuable in his own creed. When so many feel obscurely the want of such a doctrine, and so few even flatter themselves that they have attained it, any one may without presumption offer what his own thoughts, and the best that he knows of those of others, are able to contribute towards its formation. Chapter 1 To what extent Forms of Government are a Matter of Choice.