RABUTINRoger de, Comte de Bussy (1618-1693), commonly known as Bussy-Rabutin (and for shortness Bussy), is perhaps the most characteristic figure among the lesser noblesse of France in the 17th century, as La Rochefoucauld is among the greater. Bussy, however, except in point of gallantry and literary power, chiefly illustrated the evil sides of the character. He represented a family of distinction and age in Burgundy (see Sevign¿, Madame de), and his father was L6onor de Rabutin, a soldier of merit and a man of position, holding the lieutenant-generalship of the province of Nivernais. Bussy-Rabutin (it is perhaps advisable to add the family name to distinguish him from the hardly less famous Bussy d’Amboise) was born in 1618. He was the third son, but by the death of his elder brothers became the representative of the family. He entered the army when he was only sixteen and fought through several campaigns, succeeding his father in the office of “mestre de camp.” But he very early distinguished himself in other ways than that of military service, and in 1641 was sent to the Bastille by Richelieu for some months as a punishment for neglect of his duties in running after his ladyloves. In 1643 he married a cousin, Gabrielle de Toulongeon, who seems to have been fond of him, and for a short time he left the army. But in 1644 he again bought a commission and for some years was closely connected with the great CondA His wife died, and he became more famous, or at least more notorious, than ever by an attempt to abduct Madame de Miramion, a rich widow. This affair was with some difficulty made up and Bussy afterwards married Louise de...
Rouville. When the Fronde broke out he, like others, went from party to party, but finally passed to the royal side. He fought with some distinction both in the civil war and on foreign service, and in 1655 he went to serve under Turenne in Flanders. He served there for several campaigns and distinguished himself at the battle of the Dunes and elsewhere; but he did not get on well with his general, and his quarrelsome disposition, his overweening vanity, and his habit of composing libellous chansons by degrees made him the enemy of most persons of position both in the army and at court. In the year 1659 he fell into disgrace for having taken part in an orgy or series of orgies at Roissy near Paris during Holy Week, which caused great scandal, and shortly afterwards he began to compose for the amusement of his mistress, Madame de Montglas, his famous Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules. This book—a series of sketches of the chief ladies of the court, not without wit, but much less remarkable for wit than for ill nature and licence—circulated freely in manuscript and had numerous spurious sequels. One of these stung the king, and Bussy was in 1665 sent to the Bastille, where he remained for more than a year, and from which he was only liberated on condition of retiring to his estates. Here he abode in what was then called exile for seventeen years. He was then restored to a modified degree of royal favour, but never received any great mark of it, and died in 1693.
Although a man of considerable abilities, Bussy had very little in his character that was either amiable or estimable. Despite his extravagant pride of birth and rank, there is much reason for acquiescing in the verdict pronounced on him (by an anonymous contemporary apparently), that he was “a coxcomb, who never, either at court or in camp, lost the taste for bad company and the air of a rustic”; his bravery was undoubted, but he seems to have much overrated his own military ability. He libelled friends and foes alike, and any toleration which might be extended to his innumerable gallantries is lessened by his incorrigible habit of telling tales and his spiteful scandal - mongering against women who had left him or whom he had left. He was, however, possessed of much literary power. The Histoire Amoureuse is in its most striking passages merely adapted from Petronius, and, except in a few portraits, its attractions are chiefly those of the scandalous chronicle. But his Mémoires, published after his death, are extremely lively and characteristic, and his voluminous correspondence yields in variety and interest to few collections of the kind, except Madame de Sévigné’s, who indeed is represented in it to a great extent, and whose letters first appeared in it. The literary and historical student, therefore, owes Bussy some thanks. But it is impossible not to see that he united some of the worst characteristics of an aristocracy on the way to decadence—relaxed morals, a glaring indifference to duty and to all motives but self-interest, insolence in prosperity, servility in adverse circumstances, jealousy of others more favoured than himself.
The best edition of the Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules is that of Boiteau and Livet in the Bibliothèque Elzévirienne (4 vols., Paris, 1856-76), of the Mémoires and Correspondance that of Lalanne (8 vols., Paris, 1857-59). Bussy wrote other things, of which the most important, his Genealogy of the Rabutin Family, remained in M8. till 1867.
[890 words — estimated reading time: 6 minutes]