Madame de Staël and Benjamin Constant - Unpublished Letters

Citation preview

Madame de Stael and Benjamin Constant Unpublished Letters Together with other Mementos from the Papers left by Mme. Charlotte de Constant

ldlted by Mme. de Conllaat'• Great-G,...ddaacbter

Baroness Elisabeth de Nolde

T,....lated from tbe French by

Charlotte Harwood

G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London itbe 1tntckerbocker t)ress 1907

Madame de Stael From a copper print by Marceau

COl'YIIIGHT, •""6 BY

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

A

MARIA-PIA FABBRICOTTI

Ne vous rtcriez pas, chere comtesse, si fe vous tends encore une fois ces feuillets. !ls ne vous empecheront plus de gouter dans votre bien aim� fauteuil la pleine blatitude du "dolee far niente." Sans meme ouvrir ce volume, veuillez lui offrir un petit coin entre vos autres livres, et accepter mes remerciements pour l' aimable aide que vous avez bien voulu me preter. Elisabeth de Nolde. Florence, Villa Curonia, May 1, 1907.

iil

I

HASTEN to name here, while according them my thanks, those persons who have been interested in these letters. Mlle. Dora Melegari, from whose interesting work I have quoted many times 1; Lady Blennerhasset, 2 whose fine Life of Mme. de Stael, and re­ markable study of the circle she lived in, have been a great resource; M. Philippe Godet, Professor of Literature at NeuchAtel; M. Eugene Ritter, Professor at the University of Geneva; M. Antoine Guiller, Member of the Historical Society of Auteuil, and M. G. Rudler, Professor at the College of Caen (Calvados), who have given me useful in­ formation. My cordial thanks are due also to M. le Docteur Hermann Herre, who was particu1 Journal lfltifflll de Benjamin Constaflt. By Dora Melegari. Paris: P. Ollendorff, publisher, 1895.

2 Frau von Stall, ihre Freunde und ihre Bedemung, von Lady Blennerhasset geb. Griifin Leyden Berlin Gebnider Paetel, 1887.

V

vi

Yorewort,

larly efficacious in assisting me with the

classification of another collection of love­ letters addressed to Benjamin Constant, the

publication of which will follow this volume; and to Baron de Marenholtz-Gross-Schwiil­

per, who put his family archives at my disposal.

ILLUSTRATIONS PAOB

Frontispiece From a copper print by Marceau.

MADAME DE STAIL

MADAME CHARLOTTE DE CONSTANT, NEE COMTESSE HARDENBERG .

2

From the pastel in the possession of Baron de Marenholtz,

8

BENJAMIN CONSTANT

From the painting in the possession of Baron de Marenholtz. ANNE

LOUISE

NECKER,

BARONESS

DE

18

STAEL-HOLSTEIN

From a copper print by Pinelli. BENJAMIN CONSTANT

From a contemporary lithograph.

74

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF LETTER WRITTEN BY MADAME. DE STAEL TO BENJAMIN CONSTANT

132

MADAME RECAMIER

190

From a photograph of a painting by Gerard.

vii

Letters of Mme. de Stael to Benjamin Constant I

O

N the 22d July, 1845, there died in Paris the widow of Benjamin Con­ stant-an old lady who had lived a very retired life--an uninteresting woman, whose name, however, has often been mentioned, not without bringing a smile to the lips that spoke it. There are some beings so good that they are never taken seriously; who are so gentle and forgiving that these supreme qualities harm them in the eyes of the world. Char­ lotte de Constant, nle Hardenberg, belonged in this category. The life of this woman who smiled, and caused others to smile, I

2

2aters of �me. �e Stael

so often, had been active enough. The dearly loved wife of three husbands, she had always managed to be treated indul­ gently, and to retain the sympathy of a discarded husband when her fancy had wandered to another. A faithful and affec­ tionate friend, she made life agreeable to herself and her circle, without paying too much attention to the little troubles of this world. She left her first husband, the Baron de Marenholtz, and with him a son-the only child she ever had,-to marry, the Vicomte du Tertre, a French general who had cap­ tured her affections. The deputy and publicist Pag�. who collaborated with Benjamin Constant on the paper La Mi.nerve, and who replaced him for the reports of the Chamber of Deputies on the same gazette, when Constant became a deputy himself, and who was a friend of Mme. Constant, as he had been of her hus· band, wrote to her in 1835: "You are like the swallows who no longer recognise their

Madame Charlotte