DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0125
52
VIGEE-LEBRUN
him before that time—he was a member of the set of which the
actual sovereign was that Duchesse de Polignac who, as the closest
personal friend of Marie Antoinette, was, with numerous helpers, the
cause of many of the Queen’s most foolish acts and of much of her
unpopularity.
Madame Lebrun assures us that her dear Comte de Vaudreuil pos-
sessed “ every quality and grace which can render a man attractive. He
was tall, well made, and bore himself with remarkable nobility and elegance.
His expression was agreeable and refined, his countenance as mobile as his
ideas, and his kindly smile prejudiced one in his favour at first sight. He
was very intelligent and witty, but you were tempted to think that he
never opened his mouth except to make your remarks appear more ex-
cellent, so amiable and graceful was his way of listening to what you said.
Whether the conversation were serious or not, he would adapt himself to
every turn and nuance, for he was as well-informed as he was lively ; he
was an admirable raconteur. Some of his verses were praised by the most
exacting critics, but they were only read by his friends. He was all the
less desirous of their being more widely circulated, in that he had in some
of them employed both the spirit and the manner of epigram. It was
indeed necessary, when he indulged in epigrams, that some bad action
had revolted his pure and noble soul, and one can say that, if he showed
small pity for what was evil, he was enthusiastic for everything that was
good. . . . The only contradiction noticeable in that character so whole-
some and so straightforward, is that M. de Vaudreuil very often com-
plained that he had to live at Court, when all his friends knew that he would
not have been happy anywhere else. After reflecting over this odd idea
of his, I satisfied myself as to the explanation. He was, from his charming
disposition, a child of nature, which he loved, and from which he got much
too little enjoyment ; his rank kept him away too often from a world
towards which the soundness of his understanding and his taste for the
arts attracted him incessantly. On another side he was undoubtedly
pleased to occupy so distinguished a position at Court, and one which he
owed to his personal merit, his frank and loyal character. Besides, he
adored his prince, Monseigneur the Comte d’Artois, whom he never flattered
and whom he never left in his time of trouble. It is rarely that such a
friendship is established between two men of whom one is so near a throne ;
for this friendship was mutual. ...” At the end of her long eulogy of
her idol among nobles, she quotes some lines in which, amid much other
VIGEE-LEBRUN
him before that time—he was a member of the set of which the
actual sovereign was that Duchesse de Polignac who, as the closest
personal friend of Marie Antoinette, was, with numerous helpers, the
cause of many of the Queen’s most foolish acts and of much of her
unpopularity.
Madame Lebrun assures us that her dear Comte de Vaudreuil pos-
sessed “ every quality and grace which can render a man attractive. He
was tall, well made, and bore himself with remarkable nobility and elegance.
His expression was agreeable and refined, his countenance as mobile as his
ideas, and his kindly smile prejudiced one in his favour at first sight. He
was very intelligent and witty, but you were tempted to think that he
never opened his mouth except to make your remarks appear more ex-
cellent, so amiable and graceful was his way of listening to what you said.
Whether the conversation were serious or not, he would adapt himself to
every turn and nuance, for he was as well-informed as he was lively ; he
was an admirable raconteur. Some of his verses were praised by the most
exacting critics, but they were only read by his friends. He was all the
less desirous of their being more widely circulated, in that he had in some
of them employed both the spirit and the manner of epigram. It was
indeed necessary, when he indulged in epigrams, that some bad action
had revolted his pure and noble soul, and one can say that, if he showed
small pity for what was evil, he was enthusiastic for everything that was
good. . . . The only contradiction noticeable in that character so whole-
some and so straightforward, is that M. de Vaudreuil very often com-
plained that he had to live at Court, when all his friends knew that he would
not have been happy anywhere else. After reflecting over this odd idea
of his, I satisfied myself as to the explanation. He was, from his charming
disposition, a child of nature, which he loved, and from which he got much
too little enjoyment ; his rank kept him away too often from a world
towards which the soundness of his understanding and his taste for the
arts attracted him incessantly. On another side he was undoubtedly
pleased to occupy so distinguished a position at Court, and one which he
owed to his personal merit, his frank and loyal character. Besides, he
adored his prince, Monseigneur the Comte d’Artois, whom he never flattered
and whom he never left in his time of trouble. It is rarely that such a
friendship is established between two men of whom one is so near a throne ;
for this friendship was mutual. ...” At the end of her long eulogy of
her idol among nobles, she quotes some lines in which, amid much other