A single man of thirty, even in Paris, is '_un
vieux garcon_:' life begins too soon and ends too soon with those
pleasant sinners, the French. And Racine, when he was first routed out
of Port Royal, where he was educated, and presented to the whole
Faubourg St. Germain, beheld his patron, La Rochefoucault, in the
position of a disappointed man. An early adventure of his youth had
humbled, perhaps, the host of the Hotel de Rochefoucault. At the battle
of St. Antoine, where he had distinguished himself, 'a musket-ball had
nearly deprived him of sight. On this occasion he had quoted these
lines, taken from the tragedy of '_Alcyonnee_.' It must, however, be
premised that the famous Duchess de Longueville had urged him to engage
in the wars of the Fronde. To her these lines were addressed:--
'Pour meriter son coeur, pour plaire a ses beaux yeux,
J'ai fait la guerre aux Rois, je l'aurais faite aux dieux.'
But now he had broken off his intimacy with the duchesse, and he
therefore parodied these lines:--
'Pour ce coeur inconstant, qu'enfin je connais mieux,
J'ai fait la guerre aux Rois, j'en ai perdue les yeux.'
Nevertheless, La Rochefoucault was still the gay, charming, witty host
and courtier.
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