Women in the Life of Balzac Part 5

Another poor old woman, playing a far more important role in Balzac's work, lived at Issoudun and was called "La Rabouilleuse." For a long time, she had been the servant and mistress of a physician in the town. This wretched creature had an end different to the one Balzac gave his Rabouilleuse, but just as miserable, for having grown old, sick, despoiled and without means, she did not have the patience to wait until death sought her, but ended her miserable existence by throwing herself into a well.

The doctor, it seems, at his death had left her a little home and some money, but his heirs had succeeded in robbing her of it entirely.

--Perhaps this story is the origin of the contest of Dr. Rouget's heirs with his mistress.

This Rabouilleuse had a daughter who inherited her name, there being nothing else to inherit; she was a dish washer at the Hotel de la Cloche, where Balzac often dined while at Issoudun. Can it be that he saw her there and learned from her the story of her mother?

Balzac was acquainted also with Madame Carraud's sister, Madame Philippe Nivet. M. Nivet was an important merchant of Limoges, living in a pretty, historical home there. It was in this home that Balzac visited early in his literary career, going there partly in order to visit these friends, partly to see Limoges, and partly to examine the scene in which he was going to place one of his most beautiful novels, _Le Cure de Village_. While crossing a square under the conduct of the young M. Nivet, Balzac perceived at the corner of the rue de la Vieille-Poste and the rue de la Cite an old house, on the ground-floor of which was the shop of a dealer in old iron. With the clearness of vision peculiar to him, he decided that this would be a suitable setting for the work of fiction he had already outlined in his mind.

It is here that are unfolded the first scenes of _Le Cure de Village_, while on one of the banks of the Vienne is committed the crime which forms the basis of the story.

CHAPTER III

LITERARY FRIENDS

MADAME GAY--MADAME HAMELIN--MADAME DE GIRARDIN--MADAME DESBORDES-VALMORE--MADAME DORVAL

"O matre pulchra filia pulchrior!"

Though Balzac did not go out in "society" a great deal, he was fortunate in a.s.sociating with the best literary women of his time, and in knowing the charming Madame Sophie Gay, whose salon he frequented, and her three daughters. Elisa, the eldest of these, was married to Count O'Donnel. Delphine was married June 1, 1831, to Emile de Girardin, and Isaure, to Theodore Garre, son of Madame Sophie Gail, an intimate friend of Madame Gay. These two women were known as "Sophie la belle" and "Sophie la laide" or "Sophie de la parole" and "Sophie de la musique." Together they composed an _opera-comique_ which had some success. In 1814, Madame Gay wrote _Anatole_, an interesting novel which Napoleon is said to have read the last night he pa.s.sed at Fontainebleau before taking pathetic farewell of his guard. A few years before this, she wrote another novel which met with much success, _Leonine de Monbreuse_, a study of the society and customs of the _Directoire_ and of the Empire.

Madame Gay had made a literary center of her drawing-room in the rue Gaillon where she had grouped around her twice a week not only many of the literary and artistic celebrities of the epoch, but also her acquaintances who had occupied political situations under the Empire.

Madame Gay, who had made her debut under the _Directoire_, had been rather prominent under the Empire, and under the Restoration took delight in condemning the government of the Bourbons. Introduced into this company, though yet unknown to fame, Balzac forcibly impressed all those who met him, and while his physique was far from charming, the intelligence of his eyes reveled his superiority. Familiar and even hilarious, he enjoyed Madame Gay's salon especially, for here he experienced entire liberty, feeling no restraint whatever. At her receptions as in other salons of Paris, his toilet, neglected at times to the point of slovenliness, yet always displayed some distinguishing peculiarity.

Having acquired some reputation, the young novelist started to carry about with him the enormous and now celebrated cane, the first of a series of magnificent eccentricities. A quaint carriage, a groom whom he called Anchise, marvelous dinners, thirty-one waistcoats bought in one month, with the intention of bringing this number to three hundred and sixty-five, were only a few of the number of bizarre things, which astonished for a moment his feminine friends, and which he laughingly called _reclame_. Like many writers of this epoch, Balzac was not polished in the art of conversing. His conversation was but little more than an amusing monologue, bright and at times noisy, but uniquely filled with himself, and that which concerned him personally.

The good, like the evil, was so grossly exaggerated that both lost all appearance of truth. As time went on, his financial embarra.s.sments continually growing and his hopes of relieving them increasing in the same proportion, his future millions and his present debts were the subject of all his discourses.

Madame Gay was by no means universally beloved. In her sharp and disagreeable voice she said much good of herself and much evil of others. She had a mania for t.i.tles and was ever ready to mention some count, baron or marquis. In her drawing-room, Balzac found a direct contrast to the Royalist salon of the beautiful d.u.c.h.esse de Castries which he frequented. In both salons, he met a society entirely unfamiliar to him, and acquainted himself sufficiently with the conventions of these two spheres to make use of them in his novels.

The _Physiologie du Mariage_, published anonymously in December, 1829, gave rise to a great deal of discussion. According to Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, two women well advanced in years, Madame Sophie Gay and Madame Hamelin, are supposed to have inspired the work, and even to have dictated some of its anecdotes least flattering to their s.e.x.

This Madame Hamelin, born in Guadeloupe about 1776, was the marvel of the _Directoire_, and several times was sent on secret missions by Napoleon. The role she played under the _Directoire_, the _Consulat_ and the Empire is not clear, but she was a confidential friend of Chateaubriand, lived in the noted house called the _Madeleine_, near the forest of Fontainebleau, and wrote about it as did Madame de Sevigne about _Les Rochers_. While living there, she received her Bonapartist friends as well as her Legitimist friends. Having lived in a society where life means enjoyment, she had many anecdotes to relate. She was a fine equestrienne, a most beautiful dancer, apparently naturally graceful, and bore the sobriquet of _la jolie laide_. Her marriage to the banker, M. Hamelin, together with her accomplishments, secured her a place in the society of the _Directoire_. Balzac, in a letter to Madame Hanska, refers to her as _une vieille celebrite_, and states that she wept over the letter of Madame de Mortsauf to Felix in _Le Lys dans la Vallee_. It is interesting to note that he later built his famous house and breathed his last in the rue Fortunee to which Madame Hamelin gave her Christian name, since it was cut through her husband's property, the former Beaujon Park, and that it became in 1851 the rue Balzac.

Delphine Gay, the beautiful and charming daughter of Madame Sophie Gay, was called "the tenth muse" by her friends, who admired the sonorous original verses which she recited as a young girl in her mother's salon. She became, in June, 1831, the wife of Emile de Girardin, the founder of the _Presse_. Possessing in her youth, a _bellezza folgorante_, Madame de Girardin was then in all the splendor of her beauty; her magnificent features, which might have been too p.r.o.nounced for a young girl, were admirably suited to the woman and harmonized beautifully with her tall and statuesque figure. Sometimes, in the poems of her youth, she spoke as an authority on the subject of "the happiness of being beautiful." It was not coquetry with her, it was the sentiment of harmony; her beautiful soul was happy in dwelling in a beautiful body.

She held receptions for her friends after the opera, and Balzac was one of the frequenters of her attractive salon. Of her literary friends she was especially proud. According to Theophile Gautier, this was her coquetry, her luxury. If in some salon, some one--as was not unusual at that time--attacked one of her friends, with what eloquent anger did she defend them! What keen repartees, what incisive sarcasm!

On these occasions, her beauty glowed and became illuminated with a divine radiance; she was magnificent; one might have thought Apollo was preparing to flay Marsyas!

"Madame de Girardin professed for Balzac a lively admiration to which he was sensible, and for which he showed his grat.i.tude by frequent visits; a costly return for him who was, with good right, so avaricious of his time and of his working hours. Never did woman possess to so high a degree as Delphine,--we were allowed to call her by this familiar name among ourselves--the gift of drawing out the wit of her guests. With her, we always found ourselves in poetical raptures, and each left her salon amazed at himself. There was no flint so rough that she could not cause it to emit one spark; and with Balzac, as you may well believe, there was no need of trying to strike fire; he flashed and kindled at once." (Theophile Gautier, _Life Portraits, Balzac_.)

Balzac was interested in the occult sciences--in chiromancy and cartomancy. He had been told of a sibyl even more astonishing than Mademoiselle Lenormand, and he resolved that Madame de Girardin, Mery and Theophile Gautier should drive with him to the abode of the pythoness at Auteuil. The address given them was incorrect, only a family of honest citizens living there, and the old mother became angry at being taken for a sorceress. They had to make an ignominious retreat, but Balzac insisted that this really was the place and muttered maledictions on the old woman. Madame de Girardin pretended that Balzac had invented all this for the sake of a carriage drive to Auteuil, and to procure agreeable traveling companions. But if disappointed on this occasion, Balzac was more successful at another time, when with Madame de Girardin he visited the "magnetizer," M.

Dupotet, rue du Bac.

Besides enjoying for a long time the "happiness of being beautiful,"

Delphine also enjoyed almost exclusively, in her set, that of being good. In this respect, she was superior to her mother who for the sake of a witticism, never hesitated to offend another. She had but few enemies, and, wishing to have none, tried to win over those who were inimical towards her. For twenty-five years she played the diplomat among all the rivals in talent and in glory who frequented her salon in the rue Laffitte or in the Champs-Elysees. She prevented Victor Hugo from breaking with Lamartine; she remained the friend of Balzac when he quarreled with her autocratic husband. She encouraged Gautier, she consoled George Sand; she had a charming word for every one; and always and everywhere prevailed her merry laughter--even when she longed to weep. But her cheery laugh was not her highest endowment; her greatest gift was in making others laugh.

Balzac had a sincere affection for Delphine Gay and enjoyed her salon.

In his letters to her he often addressed her as _Cara_ and _Ma chere ecoliere_. Her poetry having been converted into prose by her prosaic husband, she submitted her writings to Balzac as to an enlightened master. He asked _Delphine Divine_ to write a preface for his _Etudes de Femmes_, but she declined, saying that an habitue of the opera who could so transform himself so as to paint the admirable Abbe Birotteau, could certainly surpa.s.s her in writing _une preface de femme_. She did, however, write the sonnet on the _Marguerite_ which Lucien de Rubempre displayed as one of the samples of his volume of verses to the publisher Dauriat; also _Le Chardon_. Balzac made use of this poem, however, only in the original edition of his work; it was replaced in the _Comedie humaine_ by another sonnet, written probably by La.s.sailly. Madame de Girardin brings her master before the public by mentioning his name in her _Marguerite, ou deux Amours_, where a personage in the book tells about Balzac's return from Austria and his inability to speak German when paying the coachman.

It was at the home of Madame de Girardin that Lamartine met Balzac for the first time, June, 1839. He asked her to invite Balzac to dinner with him that he might thank him, as he was just recovering from an illness during which he had "simply lived" on the novels of the _Comedie humaine_. The invitation she wrote Balzac runs as follows: "M. de Lamartine is to dine with me Sunday, and wishes absolutely to dine with you. Nothing would give him greater pleasure. Come then and be obliging. He has a sore leg, you have a sore foot, we will take care of both of you, we will give you some cushions and footstools.

Come, come! A thousand affectionate greetings." And Lamartine has left this appreciation of her and her friendship for Balzac:

"Madame Emile de Girardin, daughter of Madame Gay who had reared her to succeed on her two thrones, the one of beauty, the other of wit, had inherited, moreover, that kindness which inspires love with admiration. These three gifts, beauty, wit, kindness, had made her the queen of the century. One could admire her more or less as a poetess, but, if one knew her thoroughly, it was impossible not to love her as a woman. She had some pa.s.sion, but no hatred. Her thunderbolts were only electricity; her imprecations against the enemies of her husband were only anger; that pa.s.sed with the storm. It was always beautiful in her soul, her days of hatred had no morrow. . . . She knew my desire to know Balzac. She loved him, as I was disposed to love him myself. . . .

She felt herself in unison with him, whether through gaiety with his joviality, through seriousness with his sadness, or through imagination with his talent. He regarded her also as a rare creature, near whom he could forget all the discomforts of his miserable existence."

A few years after their meeting, Lamartine inquired Balzac's address of Madame de Girardin, as she was one of the few people who knew where he was hiding on account of his debts. Balzac was appreciative of the many courtesies extended to him by Madame de Girardin and was delighted to have her received by his friends, among whom was the d.u.c.h.esse de Castries.

Madame de Girardin made constant effort to keep the peace between Balzac and her husband, the potentate of the _Presse_. Balzac had known Emile de Girardin since 1829, having been introduced to him by Levava.s.seur, who had just published his _Physiologie du Mariage_.

Later Balzac took his Verdugo to M. de Girardin which appeared in _La Mode_ in which Madame de Girardin and her mother were collaborating; but these two men were too domineering and too violent to have amicable business dealings with each other for any length of time.

Balzac, while being _un bourreau d'argent_, would have thought himself dishonored in subordinating his art to questions of commercialism; M.

de Girardin only esteemed literature in so far as it was a profitable business. They quarreled often, and each time Madame de Girardin defended Balzac.

Their first serious controversy was in 1834. Balzac was no longer writing for _La Mode_; he took the liberty of reproducing elsewhere some of his articles which he had given to this paper; M. de Girardin insisted that they were his property and that his consent should have been asked. Madame de Girardin naturally knew of the quarrel and had a difficult role to play. If she condemned Balzac, she would be lacking in friendship; if she agreed with him, she would be both disrespectful to her husband and unjust. Like the clever woman that she was, she said both were wrong, and when she thought their anger had pa.s.sed, she wrote a charming letter to Balzac urging him to come dine with her, since he owed her this much because he had refused her a short time before. She begged that they might become good friends again and enjoy the beautiful days laughing together. He must come to dinner the next Sunday, Easter Sunday, for she was expecting two guests from Normandy who had most thrilling adventures to relate, and they would be delighted to meet him. Again, her sister, Madame O'Donnel, was ill, but would get up to see him, for she felt that the mere sight of him would cure her.

Anybody but Balzac would have accepted this invitation of Madame de Girardin's, were it only to show his grat.i.tude for what she had done for him; but Balzac was so fiery and so mortified by the letter of M.

de Girardin that, without taking time to reflect, he wrote to Madame Hanska:

"I have said adieu to that mole-hill of Gay, Emile de Girardin and Company. I seized the first opportunity, and it was so favorable that I broke off, point-blank. A disagreeable affair came near following; but my susceptibility as man of the pen was calmed by one of my college friends, ex-captain in the ex-Royal Guard, who advised me. It all ended with a piquant speech replying to a jest."

However, in answering the invitation of Madame de Girardin, Balzac wrote most courteously expressing his regrets at Madame O'Donnel's illness and pleading work as his excuse for not accepting. This did not prevent the ardent peacemaker from making another attempt. Taking advantage of her husband's absence a few weeks later, she invited Balzac to lunch with Madame O'Donnel and herself. But time had not yet done its work, so Balzac declined, saying it would be illogical for him to accept when M. de Girardin was not at home, since he did not go there when he was present. The following excerpts from his letters, declining her various invitations, show that Balzac regarded her as his friend:

"The regret I experience is caused quite as much by the blue eyes and blond hair of a lady who I believe to be my friend--and whom I would gladly have for mine--as by those black eyes which you recall to my remembrance, and which had made an impression on me.

But indeed I can not come. . . . Your _salon_ was almost the only one where I found myself on a footing of friendship. You will hardly perceive my absence; and I remain alone. I thank you with sincere and affectionate feeling, for your kind persistence. I believe you to be actuated by a good motive; and you will always find in me something of devotion towards you in all that personally concerns yourself."

Her attempts to restore the friendship were futile, owing to the obstinacy of the quarrel, but she eventually succeeded by means of her novel, _La Canne de Monsieur de Balzac_. In describing this cane as a sort of club made of turquoises, gold and marvelous chasings, Madame de Girardin incidentally compliments Balzac by making Tancrede observe that Balzac's large, black eyes are more brilliatn than these gems, and wonder how so intellectual a man can carry so ugly a cane.

This famous cane belongs to-day to Madame la Baronne de Fontenay, daughter of Doctor Nacquart. In October, 1850, Madame Honore de Balzac wrote a letter to Doctor Nacquart, Balzac's much loved physician, asking him to accept, as a souvenir of his ill.u.s.trious friend, this cane which had created such a sensation,--the entire mystery of which consisted in a small chain which she had worn as a young girl, and which had been used in making the k.n.o.b. There has been much discussion as to its actual appearance. He describes it to Madame Hanska (March 30, 1835), as bubbling with turquoise on a chased gold k.n.o.b. The description of M. Werdet can not be relied on, for he states that Gosselin brought him the cane in October, 1836, and that Balzac conceived the idea of it while at a banquet in prison, but, as has been shown, the cane was in existence as early as March, 1835, and Madame de Girardin's book appeared in May, 1836. As to the description of the cane given by Paul Lacroix, the Princess Radziwill states that the cane owned by him is the one that Madame Hanska gave Balzac, and which he afterwards discarded for the gaudier one he had ordered for himself. This first cane was left by him to his nephew, Edouard Lacroix. Several years later (1845), Balzac had Froment Meurice make a cane _aux singes_ for the Count George de Mniszech, future son-in-law of Madame Hanska, so the various canes existing in connection with Balzac may help to explain the varying descriptions.

Balzac could not remain indifferent after Madame de Girardin had thus brought his celebrated cane into prominence. He was absent from Paris when the novel appeared, and scarcely had he returned when he wrote her (May 27, 1836), cordially thanking her as an old friend. He also after this made peace with M. de Girardin. But one difficulty was scarcely settled before another began, and the ever faithful Delphine was continually occupied in trying to establish peace. Her numerous letters to Balzac are filled with such expressions as: "Come to-morrow, come to dinner. Come, we can not get along without you!

Come, Paris is an awful bore. We need you to laugh. Come dine with us, come! Come!!! Now come have dinner with us to-morrow or day after to-morrow, to-day, or even yesterday, every day!! A thousand greetings from Emile." Thus with her hospitality and merry disposition, she bridged many a break between her husband and Balzac.

Finally, not knowing what to do, she decided not to let Balzac mention the latest quarrel. When he referred to it, she replied: "Oh, no, I beg you, speak to Theophile Gautier. If is not for nothing that I have given him charge of the _feuilleton_ of the _Presse_. That no longer concerns me, make arrangements with him." Then she counseled her husband to have Theophile Gautier direct this part of the _Presse_ in order not to contend with Balzac, but the novelist was so unreasonable that M. de Girardin had to intervene. "My beautiful Queen," once wrote Theophile to Delphine, "if this continues, rather than be caught between the anvil Emile and the hammer Balzac, I shall return my ap.r.o.n to you. I prefer planting cabbage or raking the walls of your garden."

To this, Madame de Girardin replied: "I have a gardener with whom I am very well satisfied, thank you; continue to maintain order _du palais_."

The relations between M. de Girardin and the novelist became so strained that Balzac visited Madame de Girardin only when he knew he would not encounter her husband. M. de Girardin retired early in the evening; his wife received her literary friends after the theater or opera. At this hour, Balzac was sure not to meet her husband, whose non-appearance permitted the intimate friends to discuss literature at their ease.

Although Madame de Girardin was married to a publicist, she did not like journalists, so she conceived the fancy of writing a satirical comedy, _L'Ecole des Journalistes_, in which she painted the journalists in rather unflattering colors. The work was received by the committee of the Theatre-Francais, but the censors stopped the performance. Balzac was angry at this interdiction, for he too disliked journalists, but Madame de Girardin took the censorship philosophically. In her salon she read _L'Ecole des Journalistes_ to her literary friends; there Balzac figured prominently, dressed for this occasion in his blue suit with engraved gold b.u.t.tons, making his coa.r.s.e Rabelaisian laughter heard throughout the evening.

Balzac's fame increased with the years, but he still regarded the friendship of Madame de Girardin among those he most prized, and in 1842 he dedicated to her _Albert Savarus_. When she moved into the little Greek temple in the Champs-Elysees, she was nearer Balzac, who was living at that time in the rue Ba.s.se at Pa.s.sy, so their relations became more intimate. Yet when, after his return from St. Petersburg where he had visited Madame Hanska in 1843, the _Presse_ published the scandalous story about his connection with the Italian forger, he vowed he would never see again the scorpions Gay and Girardin.

Madame de Girardin regretted Balzac's not being a member of the Academy. In 1845, a chair being vacant, she tried to secure it for him. Although her salon was not an "academic" one, she had several friends who were members of the Academy and she exerted her influence with them in his behalf; when, after all her solicitude, he failed to gain a place among the "forty immortals," she had bitter words for their poor judgment, Balzac at that time being at the zenith of his reputation. Some time before this, too, she promised to write a _feuilleton_ on the great conversationalists of the day, maintaining that Balzac was one of the most brilliant; and she was thoughtful in inserting in her _feuilleton_ a few gracious words about his recent illness and recovery.

Balzac confided to Madame de Girardin his all absorbing pa.s.sion for Madame Hanska. She knew of the secret visit of the "Countess" to Paris and of his four days' visit with her in Wiesbaden. She knew all the n.o.ble qualities and countless charms of the adored "Countess," but never having seen her, she felt that Madame Hanska did not fully reciprocate the pa.s.sionate love of her _moujik_. Becoming ironical, she called Balzac a _Vetturino per amore_, and told him she had heard that Madame Hanska was, to be sure, exceedingly flattered by his homage and made him follow wherever she went--but only through vanity and pride,--that she was indeed very happy in having for _pat.i.to_ a man of genius, but that her social position was too high to permit his aspiring to any other t.i.tle.

When the _Avant-Propos_ of the _Comedie humaine_ was reprinted in the _Presse_, October 25, 1846, it was preceded by a very flattering introduction written by Madame de Girardin. She continued to entertain the novelist, sending him many amusing invitations. In spite of the "Potentate of the _Presse_," her friendship with Balzac lasted until 1847, when she had to give him up.

The ever faithful Delphine knew of Balzac's financial embarra.s.sment and persuaded her husband to postpone pressing him for the debts which he had partially paid before setting out for the Ukraine. The Revolution of February seriously affected Balzac's financial matters.