MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF CHARLES II. OF SPAIN.*
SECOND NOTICE.
WE referred last week briefly to the curious literary question raised by the publication of these Memoirs of the Marquis of Tillers, as to their exact relation to the works of Madame d'Aulnoy, pub- lished as long ago as the end of the seventeenth century. A com- parison which we have made of the Memoirs with these earlier pub- lications establishes incontrovertibly the fact that either the Memoirs of Villars are a compilation from the "Voyage d'Espagne" and the " Memoires de la Cour d'Espagne" of the Countess d'Aukoy, or that that lady appropriated in the most wholesale manner and without the slightest acknowledgment, the narrative of the Marquis, which we must (in that case) conclude to have been placed at her disposal by the author. We believe it is not too much to say that with the ex- ception of a few sentences, the whole of the Memoirs of the Mar- quis appear in the pages of one or other of the works we have men- tioned. Some sentences and paragraphs are transposed, and their grammatical construction altered—there are slight omissions and amplifications—but the substance is the same. No one who has read the Memoirs of the Marquis can fail for a moment to recognize paragraph after paragraph in the pages of the Countess. The narrative of events given by the Marquis, with the reflections sug- gested by them, are to be found chiefly in Madame d'Aulnoy's Memoirs ; the description of the institutions and offices of State given by him, are, on the other hand, to be found in that lady's "Spanish Jouniey." A parallel extract will satisfy the most sceptical mind:
MIMODitICS DE VELLARB.
" Deux jours apres la mort de Dom Juan, Is premier Loin du Roy frit d'aller trouver la Reine so Mere: is vingt Sep- tembre ii alla coacher It tme maison Royale appelee Aranjnez, a sept lieues de Madrid, et le lendemain ii arrive sur le midy Toledo, oil ii parut bien de is tendresse et bleu der; hrmes entre la mere et le Ills: ils dinerent ensemble et demenrerent quelques henres en par- ticulier. La Reine Mere ayant en is temps de disposer tgutes choses pour son retour it Madrid, le Roy, qui y 6toit reveres, etourna Aranjuez Is tine- sept,. alla is lendemain is reneontrer moitre chemin de Tolede, is prit dans son carrosse, et la mena descendre an Retiro qui eat true maison royale it l'extrimite de Madrid, on Elle demean; attendant qu'on lay eta prepare la maison du Due de Uzeda, destinee pour son habitation, pare° qua le Roy 6tant made, II ne restoit pas asses de loge- ment pour Elle au Palais. fls ar- riverent h trois heures apres rnidy, accompagnes d'une foule extraordirraue de courtasans et de carrosses, et ron vit dans tout le monde le meme empresse- ment a recevoir cette Princesse qu'on leur en avoit vii deux ans auparavant recevoir Dom Juan quand ii vmt la chasser. Le Roy demenra jusqu'an soir avec Ella, et drpuis cc Jour-lit jUsqu'it celny de son depart pour slier au-devant de la Reine, ii vint presque tons lea jonrs chez la Reine so mere, et mangea souvent avec Elle."
31/MOIRES D'AULNOT.
"La premiere demarche qne fit le Roy apres la mort de Dorn Juan, cc fut d'aller trouver la Reine so Mere. II partit Is meme jour de Madrid ; ii concha en chemin Ic Aranjuez, et Be rendit le lendemain Ic Tolede. La Reine le recfrt avec de grands temoi- gnages de tendresse ; Rs melerent lenrs hrmes en s'embrassant, plusienrs fois; us dinerent ensemble, et s'entretinrent asses long-tems en particulier. Coax qui avaient accompagne Is Roy baise- rent tons la main de la Reine. lila quitta ensuite apres estre convent's da Jour qu'elle reviendroit 4 Madrid. II eat aise de croire.qteelle employs pen de terms pour se preparer Ic nn voyage qui Icy estoit si agr&tble. Le Roy partit de Madrid le 27; il fat encore coacher Ic Aranjnez, et le lendemain II s'avanca au-devant de Is Reine sur Is chemin de Toledo; lorsquil rent joints, ii la pria de mouter senle dans son carrosse, pour rentretenir sans temoins, et ills menv an Been Retiro : c'est une maison Royalle situee Ic rextremite de la vile. Elle y resta quelque terns parce green lny accommodoit la maison du. Dna Dnzeda, qu'elle smolt choisie pour as demeure ; car le Palais n'estoit pas assez spacieux pour loger lea deux Reines. Ii serest difficile de dire le nombre de Personnes de Qnafite, et Is quantite de Peuple, qui accompagne- rent leurs Majestez Ic !elm arrives: mais aussi le changement de fortune estoit grand pour la Reine Mere. La joie paroissoit nniversellement repandiie dans cette mesme vile, oir deux ans auparavant on avoit vu entrer Dom Juan comme le Liberatenr de Is Petrie, et la Reine en sortir comme floe fugitive, chargee de Is halos publique. Le Roy y demenra,jusqu':in sow; 11 no se passe guere de pun Jusqu'It celuy de son depart, pour alter an-devant de is
Rome, no mangeat avec elle, et qu'il n'y passe.t un tres long tems."
We should think that no one who compares the above extracts can hesitate in assigning to the Marquis the priority of authorship ; the lady's flourishes and embellishments are apparent enough. The Memoirs of the Countess were first published in Paris in 1692, with a dedication to the Princesse de Conti, whose husband acted as proxy for the King of Spain at his marriage with the French prin- cess. The Marquis did not die till 1698, so that we can hardly sup- pose that the wholesale appropriation of his MS. could have passed without. his knowledge. Are we to suppose that he lent his mate- rials on the condition of his name being concealed, as his criticisms would affect the character of many living personages of rank at the Court of Spain ? But another question arises. We have mentioned that several passages of the Memoirs of the Marquis appear in the "Voyaged'Espagne," which wasfirst published at Paris in1691, and of which we have discovered an English translation, published in London in the following year. In two cases, at any rate, of these latter ap- propriations, the Countess gives them as resting on the authority of specific Spanish noblemen, and as told her by them in those very words. taus, she gives the description of the Spanish Indies as • Memoires data (Jour d 'Espagne sous re mew de Cheeks il.-1678-1682. Par is Marquis de Villain. Tilibner and Co. communicated to her in conversation at the house of a female rela- tion; by Don Augustin Pacheco. The description only varies from that in the Memoirs of the Marquis in the addition of the names of the several inferior governments.of the Indies, and of a description of the city of Mexico, which affords the lady an opportunity of giving a lively turn to the conclusion of the conversation. "Ah ! I ex- claimed, let us go and live in that country, and abandon this ! Such a description enchants me ; bat, since the journey is a long one, it is necessary, if you please, Madame, said I, laughingly, to Doiia Teresa, that we should have supper before setting off. So I took her hand, and we entered the mile." TlIe. account, again, of the Council of the Inquisition, is given by lies as a coin- munication, in the course of conversation, from Dan Fernando de Toledo. What then are we to say as to the authorship of these passages? The only conjecture which we can hazard, consistently with our hypothesis as to the authorship of the passages in her other work, is, that the lady, at the request of the Marquis, attributed the passages to the above-named nobleman as convenient moms de guerre for their real author. It is not easy to suppose that the Marquis copied in these cases from the Countess, and in the other case she from him; nor is it likely that an unauthorized appropriation would have been permitted by him in two successive works. On the other hand, there is nothing in these descriptions which might not liave been given on the authority of the Marquis himself, without the fear of offending any one, so that our former hypothesis does not seem very relevant here. We have adopted the view—which seems to us the more pro- bable—of the priority in point of authorship of the Memoirs now published bv Mr. Stirling ; but of course there is another view fairly tenable, which would destroy at once the value of the present publi- cation. We trust that Mr. Stirling will be able to throw some further light on the matter, which we must now leave for the present in his hands.
Previous page
