MIRAH (Josepha), born in 1814. Natural daughter of a wealthy Jewish banker, abandoned in Germany, although she bore as a sign of her identity an anagram of her Jewish name, Hiram. When fifteen years old and a working girl in Paris, she was found out and misled by Celestine Crevel, whom she left eventually for Hector Hulot, a more liberal man.
The munificence of the commissary of stores exalted her socially, and gave her the opportunity of training her voice. Her vocal attainments established her as a prima donna, first at the Italiens, then on rue le Peletier. After Hector Hulot became a bankrupt, she abandoned him and his house on rue Chauchat, near the Royal Academy, where, at different times, had lived Tullia, Comtesse du Bruel and Heloise Brisetout. The Duc d'Herouville became Mademoiselle Mirah's lover.
This affair led to an elegant reception on rue de la Ville-l'Eveque to which all Paris received invitation. Josepha had at all times many followers. One of the Kellers and the Marquis d'Esgrignon made fools of themselves over her. Eugene de Rastignac, at that time minister, invited her to his home, and insisted upon her singing the celebrated cavatina from "La Muette." Irregular in her habits, whimisical, covetous, intelligent, and at times good-natured, Josepha Mirah gave some proof of generosity when she helped the unfortunate Hector Hulot, for whom she went so far as to get Olympe Grenouville. She finally told Madame Adeline Hulot of the baron's hiding-place on the Passage du Soleil in the Petite-Pologne section. [Cousin Betty.]
MIRAULT, name of one branch of the Bargeton family, merchants in Bordeaux during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. [Lost Illusions.]
MIRBEL (Madame de), well-known miniature-painter from 1796 to 1849; made successively the portrait of Louise de Chaulieu, given by this young woman to the Baron de Macumer, her future husband; of Lucien de Rubempre for Esther Gobseck; of Charles X. for the Princess of Cadignan, who hung it on the wall of her little salon on rue Miromesnil, after the Revolution of 1830. This last picture bore the inscription, "Given by the King." [Letters of Two Brides. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. The Secrets of a Princess.]
MIROUET (Ursule). (See Portenduere, Vicomtesse Savinien de.)
MIROUET (Valentin), celebrated harpsichordist and instrument-maker; one of the best known French organists; father-in-law of Doctor Minoret; died in 1785. His business was bought by Erard. [Ursule Mirouet.]
MIROUET (Joseph), natural son of the preceding and brother-in-law of Doctor Denis Minoret. He was a good musician and of a Bohemian disposition. He was a regiment musician during the wars in the latter part of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries.
He passed through Germany, and while there married Dinah Grollman, by whom he had a daughter, Ursule, later the Vicomtesse de Portenduere, who had been left a penniless orphan in her early youth. [Ursule Mirouet.]
MITANT (La), a very poor woman of Conches in Bourgogne, who was condemned for having let her cow graze on the Montcornet estate. In 1823 the animal was seized by the deputy, Brunet, and his assistants, Vermichel and Fourchon. [The Peasantry.]
MITOUFLET, old grenadier of the Imperial Guard, husband of a wealthy vineyard proprietress, kept the tavern Soleil d'Or at Vouvray in Touraine. After 1830 Felix Gaudissart lived there and Mitouflet served as his second in a harmless duel brought on by a practical joke played on the illustrious traveling salesman, dupe of the insane Margaritis.
[Gaudissart the Great.]
MITOUFLET, usher to the minister of war under Louis Philippe, in the time of Cottin de Wissembourg, Hulot d'Ervy and Marneffe. [Cousin Betty.]
MITRAL, a bachelor, whose eyes and face were snuff-colored, a bailiff in Paris during the Restoration, also at the same time a money-lender.
He numbered among his patrons Molineux and Birotteau. He was invited to the celebrated ball given in December, 1818, by the perfumer. Being a maternal uncle of Isidore Baudoyer, connected in a friendly way with Bidault--Gigonnet--and Esther-Jean van Gobseck, Mitral, by their good-will, obtained his nephew's appointment to the Treasury, December, 1824. He spent his time then in Isle-Adam, the Marais and the Saint-
Marceau section, places of residence of his numerous family. In possession of a fortune, which undoubtedly would go later to the Isidore Baudoyers, Mitral retired to the Seine-et-Oise division.
[Cesar Birotteau. The Government Clerks.]
MIZERAI, in 1836 a restaurant-keeper on rue Michel-le-Comte, Paris.
Zephirin Marcas took his dinners with him at the rate of nine sous.
[Z. Marcas.]
MODINIER, steward to Monsieur de Watteville; "governor" of Rouxey, the patrimonial estate of the Wattevilles. [Albert Savarus.]
MOINOT, in 1815 mail-carrier for the Chaussee-d'Antin; married and the father of four children; lived in the fifth story at 11, rue des Trois-Freres, now known as rue Taitbout. He innocently exposed the address of Paquita Valdes to Laurent, a servant of Marsay, who artfully tried to obtain it for him. "My name," said the mail-carrier to the servant, "is written just like /Moineau/ (sparrow)--M-o-i-n-o-t." "Certainly," replied Laurent. [The Thirteen.]
MOISE, Jew, who was formerly a leader of the /rouleurs/ in the South.
His wife, La Gonore, was a widow in 1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
MOISE, a Troyes musician, whom Madame Beauvisage thought of employing in 1839 as the instructor of her daughter, Cecile, at Arcis-sur-Aube.
[The Member for Arcis.]
MOLINEUX (Jean-Baptiste), Parisian landlord, miserly and selfish.
