Cardinal Mazarin

Jules Mazarin (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and statesman who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis XIV from 1642 to his death.

• Ils chantent, ils payeront.
  • Let them sing, they will have to pay.
  • Saying uttered when the populace, incensed by some new form of extortion, vented their anger against the Minister in Mazarinades. — Edouard Fournier, L'Esprit dans l'histoire, 5th ed. (1883), p. 267. — King (1904), no. 1321
  • Cf. Alexandre Dumas, Vingt ans après (1845), ch. 2; Arsène Houssaye, Voyages Humoristiques—Amsterdam—Paris—Venise (1856), translated in Bentley's Miscellany, vol. xli (1857), p. 258; Samuel Adams Drake, Around the Hub: A Boys' Book about Boston (1881), p. 199; variant reported by the Marquis de Gabriac, Souvenirs diplomatiques de Russie et d’Allemagne (Revue des Deux Mondes, 1896), pt. 3, p. 590: Qu’ils chantent, pourvu qu’ils payent.

• Le temps et moi.
  • Time and I.
  • Motto. Cf. "Oft was this saying in our bishop's mouth, before ever it was in Philip the Second's, Time and I will challenge any two in the world." — David Lloyd, State Worthies (1670), pp. 88–9. See Time is on our side. — Latham (1906), p. 145

• Est-il heureux?
  • Is he lucky?
  • Saying. It was his first question when it was proposed that anyone should enter his service. Cf. Mémoires, fragments historiques, &c. (Busoni, 1832), p. 332. — Latham (1906), p. 101

• Il se mettra en chemin un peu tard, mais il ira plus loin qu'un autre.
  • He will begin his career rather late, but he will go further than another.
  • Of Louis XIV. Followed by: II y a en lui de l'étoffe pour faire quatre rois et un honnête homme. (There is in him the making of four kings and an honest man). — Lettres de Guy Patin, vol 2, pp. 192-223, also St. Simon, Mémoires vol. 24, p. 84 (1840 edition). — Latham (1906), p. 112

• Sire, je vous dois tout, mais je crois m'acquitter en quelque manière en vous donnant Colbert.
  • Sire, I owe everything to you, but I think I can in some measure repay you by giving you Colbert.
  • When dying—to Louis XIV. — Latham (1906), p. 176

• Il faut quitter tout cela!
  • I must leave all this!
  • Words used by Cardinal Mazarin shortly before his death, which took place 8–9 March 1661. He added: Et encore cela! Que j'ai eu de peine à acquérir toutes ces choses! puis-je les abandonner sans regret? ... Je ne les verrai plus où je vais! (And that also! What trouble I have had to collect all these things! can I leave them without regret? ... I shall see them no more where I am going!) Afterwards he said to the Comte de Brienne (1635–98), Ah! mon pauvre ami, il faut quitter taut cela! Adieu! chers tableaux que j'ai tant aimés, et qui m'ont tant coûté! (Ah! my poor friend, I must leave all this! Adieu, dear pictures that I have loved so dearly, and which have cost me so much!) — Comte de Brienne, Mémoires (Paris, 1828), 2 vols. — Latham (1906), pp. 107–8

• Ah! sainte Vierge, ayez pitié de moi et recevez mon âme.
  • Ah! holy Virgin, have pity on me and receive my soul.
  • Dying words, 8–9 March 1661. — Latham (1906), p. 83

• Fourbe il a vécu, fourbe il a voulu mourir.
  • Knave he has lived, and knave he has chosen to die.
  • Said, by the courtiers, of Cardinal Mazarin, when dying. — Latham (1906), p. 104

• Ce fantôme de Richelieu, c’était Mazarin.
  • The phantom of Richelieu was Mazarin.
  • Alexandre Dumas, Vingt ans après (1845), translated by William Robson (1856), ch. 1

• Le ministre tout-puissant, qui avait pris à la reine mère sa régence, au roi sa royauté, n’avait pu prendre à la nature un bon estomac.
  • The omnipotent minister who had wrested her regency from the queen mother and his royalty from the King could not wrest a good stomach from nature.
  • Alexandre Dumas, Le Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847–50), translated by J. Walker McSpadden (New York, 1926), ch. 8

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Cardinal Mazarin

• W. Francis H. King, Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (London, 1904), nos. 1321, 2964

• Edward Latham, Famous Sayings and Their Authors, 2nd ed. (London, 1906)

• Samuel Arthur Bent, Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men, 6th ed. (Boston, 1882), pp. 132, 250, 350