Avon Modern Short Story Monthly #36 — page 25: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

- i. —_, 4 “- J Medes 6"): 7 - y : ‘ ‘ s 7 ° 7 ™ a Tl * Dag AS Ai ph ame, wt sy n= 2 7 Pets. 0 > ee ’ rk ee al j » Qe Cee Ye P petal t a3 } a ss ge é Bix SR ages Ween a os rs i ohare o" SP US eae SPT a>, W low a 3 * my ~ 77 ae vo > Tein cea ee See a er ee Oo ee ee se aoe ee a Ce jet sg] a: ees ESS re oes o We in fe is lic cra Knee si yh me sy LOUIS XIV AND MADAME DE MONTESPAN ks = x 4. =e /& YOU SCRAPE the rubbish-heap of servile, coeval faery a sap ees who have been truly great; many wii have achiewsdas 4 | greatness because they were wisely content to serve as masks for the great intellects of their time; and, for the rest, some bad kings, some ie foolish kings, and some ridiculous kings. But in all that royal gallate 7 of history you will hardly find a more truly absurd figure than that — of the resplendent Roi Soleil, the Grand Monarque, the Fourteenth . Louis of France. pie 4 ¥ I am not aware that he has ever been laughed at; certainly never 3 to the extent which he deserves. The flatterers of his day, inevitable — 4 products of his reign, did their work so thoroughly that even in secret = Ee they do not appear to have dared to utter—possibly they did not even dare to think—the truth about him. Their work survives, and when | you have assessed the monstrous flattery at its true worth, swept it” aS | aside and come down to the real facts of his life, you make the dis- — covery that the proudest title their sycophancy could bestow and oe own fatuity accept—Le Roi Soleil, the Sun-King—makes him ve indeed he is: a king of opéra bouffe. There is about him at times — something almost reminiscent of the Court buffoons of a century — before, who puffed themselves out with mock pride, and aped a sort e of sovereignty to excite laughter; with this difference, however, that a in his own case it was not intended to be amusing. Sag oe A heartless voluptuary of mediocre intelligence, he contrived to. Bo wrap himself in what Saigt-Simon has called a “terrible majesty.” He — 4 was obsessed by the idea of the dignity, almost the divinity—of king- se 34 I cannot believe that he conceived himself human. He seats 25 we een “lee eS ; - 7 ~ a Y <4 * M8 - * Re coe ebooks.c es ' Y ~ oe. Ay) ne ee