SELECTIONS FROM
SAINT-SIMON

EDITED BY
ARTHUR TILLEY, M.A.

FELLOW AND LECTURER OF
KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1920

PREFACE

It is not every lover of French literature who has theleisure or the courage to read the whole of Saint-Simon’sMémoires, the text of which fills eighteen and a halfvolumes of the edition of MM. Chéruel and Ad. Régnierfils. Nor is it all of equal interest. I thought, therefore,that a selection might prove acceptable to the busy orfaint-hearted reader, and perhaps even whet his appetitefor the work itself. In making the selection I havepractically confined myself to the first two-thirds of theMémoires, that is to say, to the reign of Louis XIV, andI have chosen the passages with a view to illustratingthat reign during the period of its declining splendour.In the first four chapters we have the Roi-Soleil and Mmede Maintenon presented to us in their daily life. Therefollows the account of the review at Compiègne, whichgives us some measure of Louis’s boundless extravagance,and the greater part of the famous chapters on thedeath of Monseigneur, surely one of the greatest thingsin literature. Lastly there are thirteen portraits, includingsuch masterpieces as Conti, Cardinal d’Estrées,Fénelon, the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy, and theDuke of Orléans. In my notes I have confined myselfto the modest task of illustrating Saint-Simon fromhimself, and of supplying such other biographical detailsvias seemed necessary. No one can annotate Saint-Simonwithout being indebted to M. de Boislisle’s masterlyedition now in progress, but for my purpose the fulland careful index of MM. Chéruel and Régnier has beenof even greater service. The index to vols. I.-XXVIII. ofM. de Boislisle’s edition appeared after my work waspractically finished.

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