Matifat

Matifat is a prosperous druggist on the Rue des Lombards whose attachment to the actress Florine brings private desire into the public economy of Parisian theater and journalism. First presented as a wealthy admirer spending far beyond his expectations, he becomes a prospective investor in a newspaper venture, then the target of a coordinated attempt to manipulate his investment and exploit his fear of scandal. His eventual decision to leave Florine while retaining his share makes him more than a simple dupe: his susceptibility to influence has limits, and his commercial instincts can reassert themselves when the stakes become clear.

Identity and Introduction

Matifat is introduced in Florine’s dressing room, a space only ten feet square but furnished with a psyche, divan, chairs, carpet, fireplace, and cupboards. There he seems incongruously planted among the theatrical surroundings, which the narration compares to a household god set in a corner. A rich druggist, he had supposed that keeping a young actress from the boulevards would cost little. Instead, Florine had cost him one hundred thousand francs in eleven months. The sum establishes the scale of his wealth and the mismatch between his commercial expectation and the expense of the relationship.

His material circumstances are also measured against those of Camusot: Matifat is not as wealthy as his friend, though he remains rich enough to furnish Florine’s apartment and contemplate a substantial investment. He is attentive to the cost of luxury. When the room is described in detail, with green cloth, gilt-headed nails, fine lamps, flowers, a yellow silk salon, fashionable furniture, a Thomire chandelier, and a patterned carpet, Matifat seems reluctant to touch anything. He regards the furnishings like valuables imprudently taken from a jewel case and appears to keep their bills mentally before him. The apartment is at once a display of expenditure and a reminder that he continues to think like a merchant.

Florine and the Theater World

Matifat’s relationship with Florine places him in a position that is both intimate and financial. He is present in her dressing room while she is being costumed as a Spanish woman for a play in which she performs a countess. His attachment is visible as jealousy: when he sees Lucien de Rubempré, the young poet’s beauty unsettles him. Florine greets Lucien admiringly, and the contrast between her open attention and Matifat’s anxious watchfulness makes his possessiveness legible without requiring him to voice it.

At the theater, Matifat and Camusot each throw a crown to the actresses after the audience calls out for Coralie and Florine. Coralie picks up her crown and hands it to Lucien, turning a public tribute into a personal gesture. Matifat’s role in this scene is part of the larger pattern: money and gifts connect businessmen to actresses, while applause, access, and personal favor circulate alongside cash. The theater’s glamour does not conceal its commercial structure; it gives that structure a public stage.

Matifat’s relationship with Florine also becomes a resource for journalists. Lousteau proposes that she ask the druggist for thirty thousand francs for a share in a venture that Finot has just acquired at that price. Lucien objects to the plan, seeing Matifat as a man being exploited while he believes he is about to enjoy a pleasant evening. Lousteau answers by treating Matifat not as a partner in an equal negotiation but as a source of money whose attachment can be converted into capital. Florine, he argues, can persuade him by appealing to the pleasure he expects from her company.

Investment and the Press

The proposed investment is presented as commercially rational as well as personally manipulative. Lousteau predicts that Matifat and Camusot will share ownership of a review, whose association with their names will bring favorable notices for Florine and Coralie. Matifat could, in this calculation, gain more than a financial return: press attention might improve Florine’s reputation and help her secure a better theatrical engagement, while the publicity could reduce the regular expense of gifts and dinners for journalists. The investment is therefore described as a way to purchase influence, visibility, and economies in the maintenance of an actress’s career.

Matifat appears not to understand the transaction in these terms at first. While the journalists plan how to secure his money, he is depicted watching Florine with his mouth open, admiring her and unaware that they intend to draw thirty thousand francs from him. Later, however, the deal is completed: Finot becomes editor and editor-in-chief of Dauriat’s weekly, holding a sixth of it without personal cost, while Lousteau takes the chief editorial position and earns a monthly salary. Florine boasts of the leverage women can exercise through men’s desire, contrasting that influence with the appeal to vanity used by diplomats. Matifat’s money has helped establish an enterprise from which the journalists expect both income and access.

His own contribution is marked by a business joke that Lousteau attributes to him when the transaction is concluded: the affair, Matifat says, remains within his line of trade. The quip shows that he can present the investment as an extension of commerce, not merely as an indulgence undertaken for Florine. Yet the review’s value depends on more than its ownership structure. The novel’s account of press power explains that a single article could revive a book that had become a dead stock item or halt the sales of another, affecting tens of thousands of francs. In such a market, Matifat’s purchase links his capital to the power of favorable coverage and public reputation.

Counterplot and Decision

Matifat later becomes the object of a press maneuver designed to make him sell his share. Lousteau explains that he arranged attacks on Florine in six newspapers, prompting her to complain to Matifat. Matifat then asked Braulard to discover the reason for the attacks. Finot redirected the explanation: he told the druggist that Lucien was trying to ruin Florine for Coralie’s sake. Giroudeau offered a way to settle matters, proposing that Matifat sell his sixth of the Revue de Finot for ten thousand francs. The plan appealed to Matifat because it promised to recover part of the thirty thousand francs he feared he had risked, especially as Florine had told him the review was failing and might require another call for funds.

The scheme was interrupted when the director of the Panorama-Dramatique needed to negotiate accommodation bills and warned Matifat about Finot’s maneuver. Matifat responded as a shrewd merchant: he left Florine, kept his sixth, and saw through the journalists’ approach. The reversal exposes the limits of the pressmen’s power. They had tried to use the newspapers both to create a threat and to offer the sale of his share as a rescue; once Matifat received information from another source, he refused the proposed exit. Finot and Lousteau were left lamenting that they had attacked a man who did not care enough about his mistress to be controlled through her.

Lousteau then considers another means of pressure. Matifat has written Florine letters whose spelling, style, and ideas could be ridiculed, and he fears that his wife might learn of the relationship. The journalists imagine publishing an anonymous, comic account based on the letters and making Matifat fear exposure at home. This is described as a plan, not as an accomplished publication or blackmail payment. Its importance lies in showing how readily the press can turn private correspondence into a weapon, and how Matifat’s attachment, commercial interests, and fear of domestic scandal offer different points of leverage. By the end of the episode, he has already escaped one attempted manipulation by retaining his investment; the threatened use of his letters remains a further danger rather than a settled outcome.