the first physician of the king, and prescribed
it, on all occasions, for his royal master. In the
history of medicine these individuals hold no
place; not one of them, indeed, was ever Dean
of the Faculty; but as Molière thought proper
to put them on the stage, and thus invest them
with a literary interest, it may easily be believed
that their peculiarities had already furnished the
court with amusement at their expense, and
made it familiar with scenes analogous to those
which were exhibited in the comedy. Take
the following instance, not exceeded in absurdity
by the dispute between Tomès and Desfonandrès,
on the nature of Lucinde's malady and the mode
of cure; it refers to the last illness of Cardinal
Mazarin, and is thus related by Guy Patin:
"Yesterday, at two o'clock" (this was in 1661,
and Moliere's comedy appeared in 1665), "in
the wood of Vincennes, four of his doctors,
namely, Guénaut, Valot, Brayer, and Béda des
Fougerais, had an altercation, unable to come
to any agreement as to the disease of which the
patient was dying. Brayer said that the spleen
was affected; Guénaut declared it to be the
liver; Valot vowed it was the lungs, with water
on the chest; and Des Fougerais insisted on its
being an abscess in the intestines. Are not
these clever fellows? But to such quacks are
confided the lives of princes!"

In the parallel case Tomès says that he and his
learned brethren have been consulting respecting
Lucinde's illness (they had been doing no such
thing, their discourse being of miscellaneous
matters), and that he (Tomès) is of opinion that
it proceeds from too great heat of blood, for
which she ought to be bled, while Desfonandrès,
ascribing it to a decay of the humours, suggests
an emetic, each contending that the other's
remedy would kill the patient, whereupon a quarrel
arises, and the other two, expressing different
opinions, Sganarelle's confusion of mind remains
as great as ever, but his daughter, luckily, is
reserved for a better fate than Mazarin.

In 1665, Des Fougerais was an old man of
seventy. His real name, that which appears on
the register of the Faculty, was Elie Béda, to
which he added, of his own authority, that of
Des Fougerais, from a small property that
belonged to him. This was a custom very prevalent
in France in the seventeenth century, and
we are adopting something very like it in
England now. Des Fougerais had a large practice,
numbering among his patients the principal
nobles and chief magistrates of the time. He
was very gay, mixed a good deal in society,
boasted of numerous conquests, and strove by
affectation of manner to conceal a very awkward
limp: on which account he was easily recognised
by the audience at the Palais Royal, when
Béjart, who was a cripple, played the part of
Desfonaudrès. He was born a Protestant, but
became a convert to Catholicism in 1648, with
rather more éclat than seems consistent with
sincerity. Guy Patin, who dipped his pen in
gall when he wrote of those he hated, has left
this portrait of Des Fougerais: "I think," he
says,  " that if this man believed there was a
greater quack in the world than himself, he
would try to poison him. He carries all sorts
of powders in his pockets, white, red, and yellow,
with which he pretends to cure every disease,
thrusting himself everywhere. He professes to
know more than every one else, that others can
only bleed and purge, and that he alone possesses
the secrets of medicine. A venerable and
detestable quack he is, if ever there was one. But
he says he is a good man, for he only changed
his religion to make his fortune and get his
children on in the world." That Des Fougerais
was a quack is undoubted, his practice having
drawn down upon him the censure of the Faculty
on more than one occasion. Of Esprit (who
figures as Bahis) not very much is known
beyond the fact of his having been one of the
physicians of Richelieu, and consequently of
Mazarin and all his family, and at the period of
Louis the Fourteenth's severe illness, in 1658,
when he was attached to the person of the Duke
of Anjou, he advised that the king should take
an emetic. Guy Patin spares him no more than
he spares Des Fougerais. Guénaut was
certainly one of the most celebrated doctors of the
day, and both the court and the city swore by
him. He was originally first physician to the
Prince of Condé, afterwards of the queen, and
in the course of his long practice was often
called in to the king and the princes of the
blood: in fact, no person of quality could
decently be ill without having recourse to his
skill. He was so completely identified with the
antimonial remedy, that the current rhyme was
made to ask how many people Guénaut and
antimony killed in the course of a single spring.
For this Guénaut cared little, as he made his
fortune by the drug, and to amass money was
his delight. Guy Patin says that, in personal
appearance, he closely resembled a monkey, but
he strove to hide the meanness of his aspect
beneath fine clothes and that solemnity of speech
which Molière has ridiculed in making him let
fall his words after this fashion: "Mon-si-eur,
dans ces ma-ti-è-res-là, il faut pro-cé-der a-vec-
que cir-con-spec-ti-on, et ne ri-en fai-re, com-me
on dit, a la vo-lée, d'au-tant que les fau-tes qu'on
y peut fai-re sont, se-lon no-tre maî-tre Hip-po-
cra-te, d'une dan-ge-reu-se con-sé-quen-ce." A
style of speech which Sganarelle compares with
the pace of the tortoise. It was perfectly clear
to the Parisians who Macroton was intended for,
and it argued no little boldness in Molière to
show up one so influential as Guénaut. Valot,
the fourth, was not the least of this illustrious
quatuor, for the situation which he held of first
physician to the king, was by no means an
unimportant one.

He was classed at court among the great officers
of the royal household, and only received
orders from the king himself, before whom he
took the oath of office, and enjoyed the same
honours and privileges as the great chamberlain.
His position conferred upon him the title of
count, which he transmitted to his children,
with all the prerogatives of nobility; and his
shield of arms was surmounted by a coronet.