VIGNON (Claude), a French critic, born in 1799, brought a remarkable power of analysis to the study of all questions of art, literature, philosophy, or political problems. A clear, deep, and unerring judge of men, a strong psychologist, he was famous in Paris as early as 1821, and was present, at the apartments of Florine, then acting at the Panorama-Dramatique, at the supper following the presentation of the "Alcade dans l'Embarras," and had a brilliant conversation on the subject of the press with Emile Blondet, in the presence of a German diplomatist. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] In 1834, Claude Vignon was entrusted with the haute critique of the newspaper founded by Raoul Nathan. [A Daughter of Eve.] For quite a period Vignon had Felicite des Touches (Camille Maupin) as his mistress. In 1836, he brought her back from Italy, accompanied by Lora, when he heard the story of the domestic difficulties of the Bauvans from Maurice de l'Hostal, French consul at Genoa. [Honorine.] Again, in 1836, at Les Touches, Vignon, on the point of giving up Camille Maupin, delivered to his former mistress a veritable dissertation, of surprising insight, on the subject of the heart, with reference to Calyste du Guenic, Gennaro Conti, and Beatrix de Rochefide. Such intimate knowledge of the human heart had gradually saddened and wearied him; he sought relief for his ennui in debauchery; he paid attention to La Schontz, really a courtesan of superior stamp, and moulded her.
[Beatrix.] Afterwards, he became ambitious, and was secretary to Cottin de Wissembourg, minister of war; this position brought him into contact with Valerie Marneffe, whom he secretly loved; he, Stidmann, Steinbock, and Massol, were witnesses of her marriage to Crevel, this being the second time she had been led to the altar. He was counted among the habitues of Valerie's salon, when "Jean-Jacques Bixiou was going . . . to cozen Lisbeth Fischer." [Cousin Betty.] He rallied to the support of Louis Philippe, and as editor of the Journal des Debats, and master of requests in the Council of State, he gave his attention to the lawsuit pending between S.-P. Gazonal and the prefect of the Pyrenees-Orientales; a position as librarian, a chair at the Sorbonne, and the decoration bore further testimony to the favor that he enjoyed. [The Unconscious Humorists.] Vignon's reputation remained undiminished, and, even in our own time, Madame Noemi Rouvier, sculptor and novelist, signs the critic's name to her works.
VIGOR, manager of the post-station at Ville-aux-Fayes, during the Restoration; officer in the National Guard of that sub-prefecture of Bourgogne; brother-in-law of Leclercq, the banker, whose sister he had married. [The Peasantry.]
VIGOR, son of the preceding, and, like the rest of his family, interested in protecting Francois Gaubertin from Montcornet; he was deputy judge of the court of Ville-aux-Fayes in 1823. [The Peasantry.]
VILLEMOT, head-clerk of Tabareau, the bailiff, was entrusted, in April, 1845, with the work of superintending the details of the interment of Sylvain Pons, and also to look after the interests of Schmucke, who had been appointed residuary legatee by the deceased.
Villemot was entirely under the influence of Fraisier, business agent of the Camusot de Marvilles. [Cousin Pons.]
VILLENOIX (Salomon de), son of a wealthy Jew named Salomon, who in his old age had married a Catholic. Brought up in his mother's religion; he raised the Villenoix estate to a barony. [Louis Lambert.]
VILLENOIX (Pauline Salomon de), born about 1800; natural daughter of the preceding. During the Restoration, she was made to feel her origin. Her character and her superiority made her an object of envy in her provincial circle. Her meeting with Louis Lambert at Blois was the turning point in her life. Community of age, country, disappointments, and pride of spirit brought them in touch--a reciprocated passion was the result. Mademoiselle Salomon de Villenoix was going to marry Lambert, when the scholar's terrible mental malady asserted itself. She was frequently able to avert the sick man's paroxysms; she nursed him, advised him, and guided him, notably at Croisic, where at her suggestion Lambert related in letter-form the tragic misfortunes of the Cambremers, which he had just learned. On her return to Villenoix, Pauline took her fiance with her where she noted down and understood his last thoughts, sublime in their incoherence; he died in her arms, and from that time forth she considered herself the widow of Louis Lambert, whom she had buried in one of the islands of the lake park at Villenoix. [Louis Lambert. A Seaside Tragedy.] Two years later, being sensibly aged, and living in almost total retirement from the world at the town of Tours, but full of sympathy for weak mortals, Pauline de Villenoix protected the Abbe Francois Birotteau, the victim of Troubert's hatred. [The Vicar of Tours.]
VILQUIN, the richest ship-owner of Havre, during the Restoration, purchased the estates of the bankrupt Charles Mignon, with the exception of a chalet given by Mignon to Dumay; this dwelling, being in close proximity to the millionaire's superb villa, and being occupied by the families of Mignon and Dumay, was the despair of Vilquin, Dumay obstinately refusing to sell it. [Modeste Mignon.]
VILQUIN (Madame), wife of the preceding, had G.-C. d'Estourny as lover, previous to his amour with Bettina-Caroline Mignon; by her husband she had three children, two of whom were girls. The eldest of these, being richly endowed, was eventually Madame Francisque Althor.
[Modeste Mignon.]
VIMEUX, in 1824, an unassuming justice of the peace in a department of the North, rebuked his son Adolphe for the kind of life he was leading in Paris. [The Government Clerks.]
