Victor Hugo - The Man Who Laughs - Cosmopolitan University 2

From a certain point of view, the reign of Anne appears a reflection of
the reign of Louis XIV. Anne, for a moment even with that king in the
race which is called history, bears to him the vague resemblance of a
reflection. Like him, she plays at a great reign; she has her
monuments, her arts, her victories, her captains, her men of letters,
her privy purse to pension celebrities, her gallery of chefs-d'oeuvre,
side by side with those of his Majesty. Her court, too, was a cortège,
with the features of a triumph, an order and a march. It was a miniature
copy of all the great men of Versailles, not giants themselves. In it
there is enough to deceive the eye; add God save the Queen, which might
have been taken from Lulli, and the ensemble becomes an illusion. Not a
personage is missing. Christopher Wren is a very passable Mansard;
Somers is as good as Lamoignon; Anne has a Racine in Dryden, a Boileau
in Pope, a Colbert in Godolphin, a Louvois in Pembroke, and a Turenne in
Marlborough. Heighten the wigs and lower the foreheads. The whole is
solemn and pompous, and the Windsor of the time has a faded resemblance
to Marly. Still the whole was effeminate, and Anne's Père Tellier was
called Sarah Jennings. However, there is an outline of incipient irony,
which fifty years later was to turn to philosophy, in the literature of
the age, and the Protestant Tartuffe is unmasked by Swift just in the
same way as the Catholic Tartuffe is denounced by Molière. Although the
England of the period quarrels and fights France, she imitates her and
draws enlightenment from her; and the light on the façade of England is
French light. It is a pity that Anne's reign lasted but twelve years, or
the English would not hesitate to call it the century of Anne, as we say
the century of Louis XIV. Anne appeared in 1702, as Louis XIV. declined.
It is one of the curiosities of history, that the rise of that pale
planet coincides with the setting of the planet of purple, and that at
the moment in which France had the king Sun, England should have had the
queen Moon.
A detail to be noted. Louis XIV., although they made war with him, was
greatly admired in England. "He is the kind of king they want in
France," said the English. The love of the English for their own liberty
is mingled with a certain acceptance of servitude for others. That
favourable regard of the chains which bind their neighbours sometimes
attains to enthusiasm for the despot next door.
To sum up, Anne rendered her people _hureux_, as the French translator
of Beeverell's book repeats three times, with graceful reiteration at
the sixth and ninth page of his dedication and the third of his preface.
IV.
Queen Anne bore a little grudge to the Duchess Josiana, for two reasons.
Firstly, because she thought the Duchess Josiana handsome. Secondly,
because she thought the Duchess Josiana's betrothed handsome. Two
reasons for jealousy are sufficient for a woman. One is sufficient for a
queen. Let us add that she bore her a grudge for being her sister. Anne
did not like women to be pretty. She considered it against good morals.
As for herself, she was ugly. Not from choice, however. A part of her
religion she derived from that ugliness. Josiana, beautiful and
philosophical, was a cause of vexation to the queen. To an ugly queen, a