第69章 G(2)
Mlle. Gamard died in 1826 of a chill. Troubert circulated the report that Birotteau had caused her death by the sorrow which he had caused the old maid. [The Vicar of Tours.]
GAMBARA (Paolo), musician, born at Cremona in 1791; son of an instrument-maker, a moderately good performer and a great composer who was driven from his home by the French and ruined by the war. These events consigned Paolo Gambara to a wandering existence from the age of ten. He found little quietude and obtained no congenial situation till about 1813 in Venice. At this time he put on an opera, "Mahomet," at the Fenice theatre, which failed miserably. Nevertheless he obtained the hand of Marianina, whom he loved, and with her wandered through Germany to settle finally in Paris in 1831, in a wretched apartment on rue Froidmanteau. The musician, an accomplished theorist, could not interpret intelligently any of his remarkable ideas and he would play to his wondering auditors jumbled compositions which he thought to be sublime inspirations. However he enthusiastically analyzed "Robert le Diable," having heard Meyerbeer's masterpiece while a guest of Andrea Marcosini. In 1837 he was reduced to mending musical instruments, and occasionally he went with his wife to sing duets in the open air on the Champs-Elysees, to pick up a few sous.
Emilio and Massimilla de Varese were deeply sympathetic of the Gambaras, whom they met in the neighborhood of Faubourg Saint-Honore.
Paolo Gambara had no commonsense except when drunk. He had invented an outlandish instrument which he called the "panharmonicon." [Gambara.]
GAMBARA (Marianina), Venetian, wife of Paolo Gambara. With him she led a life of almost continual poverty, and for a long time maintained them at Paris by her needle. Her clients on rue Froidmanteau were mostly profligate women, who however were kind and generous towards her. From 1831 to 1836 she left her husband, going with a lover, Andrea Marcosini, who abandoned her at the end of five years to marry a dancer; and in January, 1837, she returned to her husband's home emaciated, withered and faded, "a sort of nervous skeleton," to resume a life of still greater squalor. [Gambara.]
GANDOLPHINI (Prince), Neapolitan, former partisan of King Murat. A victim of the last Revolution he was, in 1823, banished and poverty stricken. At this time he was sixty-five years old, though he looked eighty. He lived modestly enough with his young wife at Gersau--
Lucerne--under the English name of Lovelace. He also passed for a certain Lamporani, who was at that time a well-known publisher of Milan. When in the presence of Rodolphe the prince resumed his true self he said: "I know how to make up. I was an actor during the Empire with Bourrienne, Mme. Murat, Mme. d'Abrantes, and any number of others."--Character in a novel "L'Ambitieux par Amour," published by Albert Savarus, in the "Revue de l'Est," in 1834. Under this fictitious name the author related his own history: Rodolphe was himself and the Prince and Princesse Gandolphini were the Duc and Duchesse d'Argaiolo. [Albert Savarus.]
GANDOLPHINI (Princesse), nee Francesca Colonna, a Roman of illustrious origin, fourth child of the Prince and Princess Colonna. While very young she married Prince Gandolphini, one of the richest landed proprietors of Sicily. Under the name of Miss Lovelace, she met Rodolphe in Switzerland and he fell in love with her.--Heroine of a novel entitled "L'Ambitieux par Amour," by Albert Savarus. [Albert Savarus.]
GANIVET, bourgeois of Issoudun, In 1822, in a conversation where Maxence Gilet was discussed, Commandant Potel threatened to make Ganivet "swallow his tongue without sauce" if he continued to slander the lover of Flore Brazier. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
GANIVET (Mademoiselle), a woman of Issoudun "as ugly as the seven capital sins." Nevertheless she succeeded in winning a certain Borniche-Hereau who in 1778 left her an income of a thousand crowns.
[A Bachelor's Establishment.]
GANNERAC, in transfer business at Angouleme. In 1821-22 he was involved in the affair of the notes endorsed by Rubempre in imitation of the signature of his brother-in-law Sechard. [Lost Illusions.]
GARANGEOT, in 1845 conducted the orchestra in a theatre run by Felix Gaudissart, succeeding Sylvain Pons to the baton. Cousin of Heloise Brisetout, who obtained the place for him. [Cousin Pons.]
GARCELAND, mayor of Provins during the Restoration. Son-in-law of Guepin. Indirectly protected Pierrette Lorrain from the Liberals of the village led by Maitre Vinet, who acted for Rogron. [Pierrette.]
GARCENAULT (De), first president of the Court of Besancon in 1834. He got the chapter of the cathedral to secure Albert Savarus as counsel in a lawsuit between the chapter and the city. Savarus won the suit.
[Albert Savarus.]
GARNERY, one of two special detectives in May, 1830, authorized by the attorney-general, De Granville, to seize certain letters written to Lucien de Rubempre by Mme. de Serizy, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse and Mlle. Clotilde de Grandlieu. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
GASNIER, peasant living near Grenoble; born about 1789. Married and the father of several children whom he loved dearly. Inconsolable at the loss of the eldest. Doctor Benassis, mayor of the commune, mentioned this parental affection as a rare instance among tillers of the soil. [The Country Doctor.]
GASSELIN, a Breton born in 1794; servant of the Guenics of Guerande, in 1836, having been in their employ since he was fifteen. A short, stout fellow with black hair, furrowed face; silent and slow. He took care of the garden and stables. In 1832 in the foolish venture of Duchesse de Berry, in which Gasselin took part with the Baron du Guenic and his son Calyste, the faithful servant received a sabre cut on the shoulder, while shielding the young man. This action seemed so natural to the family that Gasselin received small thanks. [Beatrix.]