Madame Mantalini

“ Mantalini.
"You know it almost breaks my heart, even to hear you talk of such a thing," replied Madame Mantalini.
"Can I live to be mistrusted?" cried her husband. "Have I cut my heart into a demd extraordinary number of little pieces, and given them all away one after another to the same little engrossing demnition captivater, and can I live to be suspected by her! Demmit, no I can't."
"Ask Mr. Nickleby whether the sum I have mentioned is not a proper one," reasoned Madame Mantalini. ”

“ Mantalini, in tears, "you have been made a witness to this demnition cruelty, on the part of the demdest enslaver and captivater that never was, oh dem! I forgive that woman."
"Forgive!" repeated Madame Mantalini, angrily.
"I do forgive her, Nickleby," said Mr. Mantalini. "You will blame me, the world will blame me, the women will blame me; everybody will laugh, and scoff, and smile, and grin most demnebly. ”

“ The demd old dowager will faint with grief and rage; the other two will say “He is married, he has made away with himself, it is a demd thing, it is all up!” They will hate each other demnebly, and wish you dead and buried. Ha! ha! Demmit.’
Madame Mantalini’s prudence, if she had any, was not proof against these triumphal pictures; after a little jingling of keys, she observed that she would see what her desk contained, and rising for that purpose, opened the folding-door, and walked into the room where Kate was seated.
‘Dear me, child!’ exclaimed Madame Mantalini, recoiling in surprise. ”

“ Mantalini, who did not seem to have caught the words.
"To put him," said Madame Mantalini, looking at Ralph, and prudently abstaining from the slightest glance at her husband, lest his many graces should induce her to falter in her resolution, "to put him upon a fixed allowance; and I say that if he has a hundred and twenty pounds a-year for his clothes and pocket-money, he may consider himself a very fortunate man." ”

“ A married woman has no property."
"Not a solitary single individual dem, my soul," said Mr. Mantalini, raising himself upon his elbow.
"I am quite aware of that," retorted Madame Mantalini, tossing her head; " and I have none. The business, the stock, this house, and everything in it, all belong to Miss Knag."
"That's quite true, Madame Mantalini," said Miss Knag, with whom her late employer had secretly come to an amicable understanding on this point. "Very true, indeed, Madame Mantalini—hem—very true. ”

“ Mantalini to attract the young lady's attention, they went away, leaving that gentleman extended at full length on the sofa, with his heels in the air and a newspaper in his hand.
Madame Mantalini led the way down a flight of stairs, and through a passage, to a large room at the back of the premises, where were a number of young women employed in sewing, cutting out, making up, altering, and various other processes known only to those who are
Madame Mantalini introduces Kate to Miss Knag
cunning in the arts of millinery and dress-making. ”

“ While Kate was wondering within herself what these symptoms of unusual vexation portended, Mr. Mantalini put the tips of his whiskers, and by degrees his head, through the half-opened door, and cried in a soft voice—
"Is my life and soul there?"
"No," replied His wife.
"How can it say so, when it is blooming in the front room like a little rose in a demnition flower-pot?" urged Mantalini. "May its poppet come in and talk?"
"Certainly not," replied Madame; "you know I never allow you here. Go along." ”

“ One of these double knocks at Madame Mantalini's door announced the equipage of some great lady—or rather rich one, for there is occasionally a wide distinction between riches and greatness—who had come with her daughter to approve of some court-dresses which had been a long time preparing, and upon whom Kate was deputed to wait, accompanied by Miss Knag, and officered of course by Madame Mantalini. ”

“ The mere exertion of protracted chuckling reduced him to a fearful ebb of coughing and gasping; it was some minutes before he could find breath to remark that the girl was too pretty for a milliner.
‘I hope you don’t think good looks a disqualification for the business, my lord,’ said Madame Mantalini, simpering.
‘Not by any means,’ replied the old lord, ‘or you would have left it long ago.’
‘You naughty creature,’ said the lively lady, poking the peer with her parasol; ‘I won’t have you talk so. ”

“ The object of this novel, like that of La Dame aux Camélias, by Dumas fils, is to show how true hearted, how self-sacrificing, how attractive, a fille de joie may be.
Mantalini (man-ta-lē ́nē) .—Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens. The husband of madame; he is a man doll, noted for his white teeth, his oaths, and his gorgeous morning gown. This “exquisite” lives on his wife’s earnings, and thinks he confers a favor on her by spending. Madame Mantalini is represented as a fashionable dressmaker near Cavendish Square, London.
Marble Faun, The.—A romance by Hawthorne, published in 1860. ”

“ Mantalini, with his egg-spoon in his mouth.
"It's very easy to talk," said Mrs. Mantalini.
"Not so easy when one is eating a demnition egg" replied Mr. Mantalini; "for the yolk runs down the waistcoat, and yolk of egg does not match any waistcoat but a yellow waistcoat, demmit."
"You were flirting with her during the whole night," said Madame Mantalini, apparently desirous to lead the conversation back to the point from which it had strayed. ”

“ Mantalini.
‘You’re never to be trusted,’ screamed the woman; ‘you were out all day yesterday, and gallivanting somewhere I know. You know you were! Isn’t it enough that I paid two pound fourteen for you, and took you out of prison and let you live here like a gentleman, but must you go on like this: breaking my heart besides?’
‘I will never break its heart, I will be a good boy, and never do so any more; I will never be naughty again; I beg its little pardon,’ said Mr Mantalini, dropping the handle of the mangle, and folding his palms together; ‘it is all up with its handsome friend! ”

“ Mantalini soothingly, ‘and when she says it is time to go, it is time, and go she shall; and when she walks along the streets with her own tulip, the women shall say, with envy, she has got a demd fine husband; and the men shall say with rapture, he has got a demd fine wife; and they shall both be right and neither wrong, upon my life and soul—oh demmit!’
With which remarks, and many more, no less intellectual and to the purpose, Mr. Mantalini kissed the fingers of his gloves to Ralph Nickleby, and drawing his lady’s arm through his, led her mincingly away. ”

“ Mantalini waited, with much decorum, to hear the amount of the proposed stipend, but when it reached his ears, he cast his hat and cane upon the floor, and drawing out his pocket-handkerchief, gave vent to his feelings in a dismal moan.
‘Demnition!’ cried Mr. Mantalini, suddenly skipping out of his chair, and as suddenly skipping into it again, to the great discomposure of his lady’s nerves. ‘But no. It is a demd horrid dream. It is not reality. ”

“ Mantalini did the same, taking occasion to show that he could live with uncommon satisfaction upon bread and water and go clad in rags, but that he could not support existence with the additional burden of being mistrusted by the object of his most devoted and disinterested affection. ”

“ His lips stiffened and refused at first, then:
"Yes," they motioned. And she saw the word they formed.
"I knew it," she breathed; "I only wanted to hear you say it again.... I don't know why I'm crying;—do you?... What a perfect ninny a girl can be when she tries to.... All over your 'collar, too.... And now you're what Mr. Mantalini would call 'demned moist and unpleasant!' ... I—I don't want to—s-sob—this way! I do-don't wish to ... M-make me stop, Louis!... I'd like a handkerchief—anything—give me Gladys and I'll staunch my tears on her!" ”

“ It seems an irony of fate that gave as second wife to Monsieur, that prince so weak and so effeminate, a woman who in tastes was far more like a man, and who always regretted she was not born a boy. Madame gayly relates how, in her youth, feeling her vocation as a cavalier very strongly, she was always expecting some miracle of Nature in her favour. With this idea she devoted herself as much as she could to all manly exercises and perilous leaping. She cared much more for swords and guns than for dolls. ”

“ There was something wonderfully rare in the idea of a woman’s proposing a long walk on such a day, and Manton relished the hardiness and originality of the thing.
“Well!” said he to himself, “I like her spunk, anyhow! She has shown herself in every way to be in earnest in what she [Pg 109] undertakes. Phew! I shall enjoy it! a woman in long petticoats, wading a mile or two through a cold slush such as this! After this, what is it that Madame won’t do? I’ll lead her something of a round, at any rate, before she gets back.”
These thoughts passed through his mind as he ran up-stairs for his cap. ”

“ Strange human or half-human kennels, one trusts never really put to use, and built as a mere brutal jest by a Duke of Mantua smarting under the sway of some saturnine little monster, like the ones who stand at the knee of Mantegna's frescoed Gonzagas.
After seeing the Castello and the Corte Nuova one naturally thinks it one's duty to go and see the little Palazzo del Te, just outside the town. Inconceivable frescoes, colossal, sprawling gods and goddesses, all chalk and brick dust, enough to make Rafael, who was responsible for them through his abominable pupils, turn for ever in his coffin. ”

“ Mantalini, and a mischievous, wooden-legged kobold like Silas Wegg, take stronger hold upon us than the Harry Maylies and Rose Flemings, the John Harmons and Bella Wilfers, for whose ultimate matrimonial felicity the business of the plot is conducted. Even the more notable heroes often pale a little by comparison with their attendants. ”

“ She is easy during the day, which she spends playing cards, but when evening comes the tempers and the follies begin; she torments her husband, her children, and her servants till they do not know how to bear it. She is no beauty, but she has a great deal of intelligence; she is very well educated and can talk on all sorts of subjects, and that attracts to her learned men ”

“ Mantalini," seating himself unbidden, and arranging his hair and whiskers. "You look quite juvenile and jolly, demmit!"
"We are alone," returned Ralph, tartly. "What do you want with me?"
"Good!" cried Mr. Mantahni, displaying his teeth. "What did I want! Yes. Ha ha! Very good. What did I want. Ha ha! Oh dem!"
"What do you want, man?" demanded Ralph, sternly.
"Demnition discount," returned Mr. Mantalini, with a grin, and shaking his head waggishly.
"Money is scarce," said Ralph.
"Demd scarce, or I shouldn't want it," interrupted Mr. Mantalini. ”

“ Mme. de Maintenon is at Saint-Cyr, in the institution which she founded herself. She was never the king’s mistress, but something much higher. She was governess to Mme. de Montespan’s children, and from that she got a footing in salons, but she went much farther. The devil in hell cannot be worse than she has been; her ambition has flung all France into wretchedness. ”

“ Manto sat on the rampart, still and silent as its stones. Anon she rose, and roved about as if distraught, reciting verses from Virgil.
Night had fallen. Benedetto lay wakeful in his cell. A female figure stood before him bearing a lamp. It was Manto.
“Benedetto,” she said, “I am a wretch, faithless to my country and to my master. I did but even now open his sacred volume at hazard, and on what did my eye first fall?
Trojaque nunc stares, Priamique arx alta maneres. But I can no other. I am a woman. May Mantua never entrust her fortunes to the like of me again! ”

“ Gabinetto dei Veneti.—The small picture by Mantegna is the greatest treasure of the collection. It is the most appealing of all his Madonna pictures. Never has the subject of mother and child been so sympathetically expressed, even among Italian masters, unless we except Luca della Robbia. The sleeping baby is touchingly true to nature, its round little form under the tightly wound drapery is perfectly given, and there is a depth of feeling in the mother’s thoughtful, almost sad expression as she clasps Him to her, as if the very intensity of her love gave her a sense of foreboding. ”

“ Neither, unfortunately, is it possible to call up with any semblance of reality the personality of the bride, for although she certainly often posed for her father, husband, and brothers, her portrait cannot be identified in any of their compositions. That she was beautiful and charming is generally taken for granted, that she shared the æsthetic faculty with which the other members of her family were so richly endowed is more than probable, and that she was a good wife to Mantegna is incidentally proved by the fact that his money difficulties did not begin till after her death ”

“ What reply was made by the Florentine duke to his suggestion is not known; but it soon became evident that the new ruler of Mantua knew as well if not better than his father and grandfather had done before him, how to value his court painter, and one of the first acts of his reign was to ask Mantegna to paint a picture for him to present to the Duchess Eleonora of Mantua, mother of his affianced bride, Isabella d’Este, who was then only ten years old, but was later to become one of the artist’s most liberal patrons and faithful admirers. ”