[*] “Balzac, sa Vie, son Oeuvre,” by Julien Lemer.
[+] “Grandes Figures d’Hier et d’Aujourd’hui,” by Champfleury.
Schemes still coursed each other through his quick-moving brain. He wished to create an association of all the great dramatists of the day, who should enrich the French stage with plays composed in common. He was rather despondent about this, however, as he said that most writers were cowardly and idle, and he as afraid they would therefore refuse to join his society. Scribe was the only one who would work; “Mais quelle litterature que ‘Les Memoires d’un Colonel de Hussards!’“ he exclaimed in horror.[*] Another plan for becoming colossally rich of which he talked seriously, was to gain a monopoly of all the arts, and to act as auctioneer to Europe: to buy the Apollo Belvedere, for instance, let all the nations compete for it against each other, and then to sell to the highest bidder.
[*] “Notes Historiques sur M. de Balzac,” by Champfleury.
He took a gloomy view of the political situation, because, though he had a great admiration for Lamartine, he feared that the poet would not have sufficient strength of mind, to take advantage of the great majority he would doubtless have in the next Assemblee Constituante, and to make himself the chief of a strong government, when he might justify his magnificent role, by presiding at the accomplishment of the great social and administrative reforms, demanded by justice, and material, moral, and intellectual progress. In one of his remarks was a touch of sadness. He told Lemer that, at the present crisis, all authors should sacrifice their writing for a time, and throw themselves with energy into politics. “Et pour cela il faut etre jeune,” he added with a sigh; “et moi, je suis vieux!”
However, on March 18th, 1848, a letter written by him appeared in the Constitutionnel, in which he stated that he would stand as deputy if requested to do so.[*] In consequence, the “Club de la Fraternite Universelle” wrote to inform him that his name had been put on the list of candidates for election, and invited him to explain his political views at a meeting of the Club. In the Constitutionnel of April 19th Balzac answered this request by refusing to go to the meeting, and at the same time announced that he had no intention of canvassing, and wished to owe his election solely to votes not asked for, but given voluntarily. He further commented on the fact that from 1789 to 1848 France had changed its constitution every fifteen years, and asked if it were not time, “for the honour of our country, to find, to found, a form, an empire, a durable government; so that our prosperity, our commerce, our arts, which are the life of our commerce, the credit, the glory, in short, all the fortune of France, shall not be periodically jeopardised?”
[*] “Honore de Balzac,” by Edmond Bire.
Naturally, these uncompromising views did not meet with favour from the “citoyens membres du Club de la Fraternite Universelle,” and Balzac was not elected a member of the Assemblee Nationale.
CHAPTER XV
1848 - 1849
Description of interior of house in the Rue Fortunee — ”La Maratre” — Projected plays — ”Le Faiseur” — Balzac seeks admission for the last time to the Academie Francaise — He returns to Wierzchownia — Failing health — Letters to his family — Family relations are strained.
During his stay in Paris, which lasted from February till the end of September, Balzac was careful not to admit any strangers to the mysterious little house in the Rue Fortunee. Even his trusted friends were only shown the magnificence of his residence with strict injunctions about secrecy, so afraid was he that the news of his supposed riches should reach the ears of his creditors. He was only the humble custodian, he said, of all these treasures. Nothing belonged to him; he was poorer than ever, and was only taking charge of the house for a friend. This was difficult to believe, and his acquaintances, who had always been sceptical about his debts, laughed, and said to his delight, yet annoyance, that he was in reality a millionaire, and that he kept his fortune in old stockings.
Theophile Gautier, after remarking how difficult it was to gain an entrance to this carefully-guarded abode, describes it thus: “He received us, however, one day, and we were able to see a dining-room panelled in old oak, with a table, mantelpiece, buffets, sideboards, and chairs in carved wood, which would have made a Berruguete, a Cornejo Duque, or a Verbruggen envious; a drawing-room hung with gold-coloured damask, with doors, cornices, plinths, and embrasures of ebony; a library ranged in cupboards inlaid with tortoiseshell and copper in the style of Buhl; a bathroom in yellow breccia, with bas-reliefs in stucco; a domed boudoir, the ancient paintings of which had been restored by Edmond Hedouin; and a gallery lighted from the top, which we recognised later in the collection of ‘Cousin Pons.’ On the shelves were all sorts of curiosities — Saxony and Sevres porcelain, sea-green horns with cracked glazing; and on the staircase which was covered with carpet, were great china vases, and a magnificent lantern suspended by a cable of red silk.”[*]
[*] “Portraits Contemporains: Honore de Balzac,” by Theophile Gautier.
The gallery, the holy of holies of this temple of Art, where the treasures laboriously collected and long concealed, were at last assembled, is described exactly in “Le Cousin Pons.” It was a large oblong room, lighted from the top, the walls painted in white and gold, but “the white yellowed, the gold reddened by time, gave harmonious tones which did not spoil the effect of the canvases.”[*]
[*] “Le Cousin Pons,” by Honore de Balzac.
There were fourteen statues in this gallery mounted on Buhl pedestals, and all round the walls were richly decorated ebony buffets containing objets d’art, while in the centre stood carved wooden cases, which showed to great advantage some of the greatest rarities in human work — costly jewellery, and curiosities in ivory, bronze, wood, and enamel. Sixty-seven pictures adorned the walls of this magnificent apartment, among them the four masterpieces, the loss of which is the most tragic incident in the melancholy story of poor old Pons. There were a “Chevalier de Malte en Priere,” by Sebastian del Piombo; a “Holy Family,” by Fra Bartolommeo; a “Landscape,” by Hobbema; and a “Portrait of a Woman,” by Albert Durer. Apparently they were in reality mediocre as works of art, but they were a source of the utmost pride and delight to their owner, who said enthusiastically of one of them — the Sebastian del Piombo — that “human art can go no further.” When we know that in the novel Balzac is speaking of his own cherished possessions, we think of his own words, “Ideas project themselves with the same force by which they are conceived,”[*] and can understand the reason of the positive pain we feel, when the poor old Cousin Pons is bereft of his treasures. The great voyant was transported by his powerful imagination into the personality of the old musician, and the heartrending situation he had evoked must have been torture to him; though with the courage and conscientiousness of the true artist he did not hesitate in the task he had set himself, but ever darkened and deepened the shadows of his tragedy towards the close.
[*] “Le Pere Goriot,” by Honore de Balzac.
It is not surprising to hear that this sumptuous house cost 400,000 francs, but it is astonishing, and it gives the inhabitant of steady-going England an idea of the inconvenience of revolutions, that its owner and occupant should in 1848 have been starving in the midst of magnificence, and that it should have been impossible for him to find a purchaser for some small curiosity, if he had wished to sell it to buy bread. Part of the cost of the house had been defrayed by Madame Hanska, but Balzac had evidently overstepped her limits, and had involved himself seriously in debt. One of the alleged reasons given by the lady for the further deferment of her promise to become Madame Honore de Balzac, was the state of embarrassment to which Balzac had reduced himself by his expenditure in decoration; and, in his despair and disgust, the home he had been so happily proud of, and which seemed destined never to be occupied, soon became to him “that rascally plum box.”
At this time, however, he was still tasting the joys of ownership, and was, as usual, hopeful about the futur
e. His dreams of theatrical success seemed at last destined to come true.[*] Hostein, who had rushed to the Rue Fortunee as soon as he heard of the arrival of the great man, to ask for the play promised him in place of “Pierre et Catherine,” found Balzac as usual at his desk, and was presented with a copy-book on which was written in large characters, “Gertrude, tragedie bourgeoise.” The play was read next day in Balzac’s drawing-room to Hostein, Madame Dorval, and Melingue; and Hostein accepted it under the name of “La Maratre,” Madame Dorval expressing much objection to its first title. Eventually, to Madame Dorval’s and Balzac’s disappointment, Madame Lacressoniere, who had much influence with Hostein, was entrusted with the heroine’s part; and the tragedy was produced at the Theatre-Historique on May 25th, 1848. In spite of the disturbed state of the political atmosphere, which was ruinous to the theatres, the play met with considerable success; and the critics began to realise that when once Balzac had mastered the metier of the theatre, he might become a great dramatist. About this time, Cogniard, the director of the Porte-Saint-Martin, received a letter with fifty signatures, asking for a second performance of “Vautrin.” He communicated this request to Balzac, who stipulated that if “Vautrin” were again put on the stage, all caricature of Louis Philippe should be avoided by the actor who played the principal part. He added that when he wrote the play he had never intended any political allusion. However, “Vautrin” was not acted till April, 1850, when, without Balzac’s knowledge, it was produced at the Gaite. Balzac, who heard of this at Dresden, on his journey to Paris from Russia, wrote to complain of the violation of his dramatic rights, and in consequence the play was withdrawn from the boards of the Gaite.
[*] “Honore de Balzac,” by Edmond Bire.
During his stay in Paris in 1848, Balzac sketched out the plots of many dramas. The director of the Odeon, in despair at the emptiness of his theatre after the political crisis of June, offered Victor Hugo, Dumas, and Balzac[*] a premium of 6,000 francs, and a royalty on all receipts exceeding 4,000 francs, if they would produce a play for his theatre; and in response to this offer Balzac promised “Richard Sauvage,” which he never wrote. The manager of the Theatre Francais, M. Lockroy, also made overtures to the hitherto despised dramatist; and Balzac thought of providing him with a comedy entitled “Les Petits Bourgeois,” but abandoned the idea. “Is it,” he wrote to Hippolyte Rolle, “the day after a battle when the bourgeoisie have so generously shed their blood for menaced civilisation; is it at the time when they are in mourning, that they should be represented on the stage?”[+]
[*] “Honore de Balzac,” by Edmond Bire.
[+] “Correspondance,” vol. ii. p. 332.
At this time, however, Balzac had in his portfolio a play quite ready to be acted — one which had several times changed its title, being called by its author successively “Mercadet,” “Le Speculateur,” and “Le Faiseur.” It was read and accepted by the Comedie Francaise on August 17th, 1848, under the name of “Le Faiseur”; and when Balzac returned to Russia at the end of September, he asked his friend Laurent-Jan to take charge of the comedy during his absence. Evidently he heard that matters were not going very smoothly, as in December he wrote to Laurent-Jan from Wierzchownia to say that if the Comedie Francaise refused “Mercadet” — which had been “recue a l’unanimite” on August 17th — it might be offered to Frederick Lemaitre; and a few days later, hearing that the piece was “recue seulement a corrections,” by the Comedie Francaise, he withdrew it altogether. “Le Faiseur” or “Mercadet” was then offered to the Theatre Historique, and Balzac already saw in imagination his sister and his two nieces attending the first night’s performance, decked out in their most elegant toilettes. As he was in Russia, and his mother did not go to the theatre, they would be the sole representatives of the family; and Hostein must therefore provide them with one of the best boxes in the theatre. If there were hissings and murmurings, as Balzac expected from past experiences, his younger niece Valentine would be indignant; but Sophie would still preserve her dignity, “and you, my dear sister. . . . But what can a box do against a theatre?”
Nevertheless, though Hostein accepted “Le Faiseur,” he announced that his clients preferred melodrama to comedy, and that, in order to fit it for his “theatre de boulevard,” the play would require modifications which would completely change its character. Balzac naturally objected to these proposed alterations, as they sounded infinitely more sweeping than the “corrections” of the Comedie Francaise, and the play was never acted during his life. On August 23rd, 1851, however, as we have already seen, “Mercadet le Faiseur,” with certain modifications made by M. Dennery, and also with omissions — for the play as Balzac originally wrote it was too long for the theatre — was received with tremendous acclamations at the Gymnase; and on October 22nd, 1868, it was acted at the Comedie Francaise, and again in 1879 and in 1890.
Mercadet, first played by Geoffroy, who conceived Balzac’s creation admirably, and at the Comedie Francaise less successfully by Got, is a second Figaro, with a strong likeness to Balzac himself. He is continually on the stage, and keeps the audience uninterruptedly amused by his wit, good-humour, hearty bursts of laughter, and ceaseless expedients for baffling his creditors. The action of the play is simple and natural, and the dialogue scintillates with bon mots, gaiety, and amusing sallies. The play had been conceived and even written in 1839 or 1840, and never did Balzac’s imperishable youth shine out more brilliantly than in its execution. It is curious to notice that his innate sense of power as a dramatist, which never deserted him, even when he seemed to have found his line in quite a different direction, was in the end amply justified.
His vivacity and hopefulness never forsook him for long. Even in his terrible state of health in 1849, and in spite of his disappointment at the non-appearance of “Le Faiseur,” he was in buoyant spirits, and informed his sister in one of his letters, that he was sending a comedy, “Le Roi des Mendiants,” to Laurent-Jan, as soon as he could manage to transport it to St. Petersburg. There, the French Ambassador would be entrusted with the charge of despatching it to Paris, as manuscripts were not allowed to travel by post.[*] About three weeks later,[+] he wrote to ask his mother to tell Madame Dorval that he was preparing another play, with a great role in it designed specially for her. However, owing to Balzac’s failing health the drama never took form, and Madame Dorval died on April 20th, 1849, about three weeks after his letter was despatched.
[*] “Correspondance,” vol. ii. p. 393.
[+] “Correspondance,” vol. ii, p. 397.
At the time of his stay in the Rue Fortunee in 1848, he was, however, satisfied about “Mercadet,” which had, as we have seen, been accepted by the Comedie Francaise; and the production of which would help, he doubtless hoped, to relieve him from his monetary difficulties. Ready money was an ever-pressing necessity. Emile de Girardin, in his political activity during the Revolution of 1848, had not forgotten his personal resentments, and soon after Balzac’s arrival in Paris he requested him to pay at once the 721 francs 85 centimes which he still owed La Presse.[*] This Balzac could not possibly do, and most probably he forgot all about the matter. Not so his antagonist, who on October 7th, 1848, after Balzac had returned to Russia, demanded immediate payment; and four days afterwards applied to the Tribunal of the Seine for an order that the debt should be paid from the future receipts of “Le Faiseur,” which was at that time in rehearsal at the Theatre Francais. This demand was granted, but as after all the play was withdrawn, Emile de Girardin did not receive his money. However, he was paid in the end, as he wrote Balzac a receipt dated December 30th, 1848, for 757 francs 75 centimes, a sum which included legal expenses as well as the original debt.
[*] “La Genese d’un Roman de Balzac,” by the Vicomte de Spoelberch de
Lovenjoul.
There were to be two elections to the Academie Francaise in January, 1849, as M. Chateaubriand’s and M. Vatout’s armchairs were both vacant; and Balzac determined again to try hi
s fortune. He wrote the required letter before his departure to Russia, and this was read at a meeting of the illustrious Forty on October 5th, 1848.[*] Apparently, Balzac’s absence from France, which prevented him from paying the prescribed visits, militated against his chances of success, as his ardent supporter, M. Vacquerie, wrote in L’Evenement of January 9th, 1849: “Balzac is now in Russia. How can he be expected to pay visits? He will not become a member of the Academie because he has not been in Paris? And when posterity says, ‘He wrote “Splendeurs et Miseres des Courtisanes,” “Le Pere Goriot,” “Les Parents Pauvres,” and “Les Treize,”‘ the Academie will answer: ‘Yes, but he went on a journey.’“
[*] “Honore de Balzac,” by Edmond Bire.
At the first election, which took place on January 11, 1849, the Duc de Noailles was at the head of the list, with twenty-five papers in his favour, and Balzac received two; at the second, on January 18th, when M. de Saint-Priest was the successful candidate, two members of the Academy again voted for Balzac at the first round of the ballot, but at the third and deciding round his name was not included at all. Balzac wrote to Laurent-Jan to ask for the names of his supporters, as he wished to thank them; and about the same time, in a letter to his brother-in-law, M. Surville, he let it be understood that he would never again present himself as a candidate for admission to the Academie Francaise, as he intended to put that body in the wrong.
This is anticipation; we must return to the end of September, 1848, when Balzac, after having arranged the necessary business matters, hurried back to Madame Hanska. For the better guardianship of his treasures, he left his mother with two servants installed in the Rue Fortunee, and he expected to return to Paris by the beginning of 1849. His family did not hear from him for more than a month after his arrival, when his mother received a letter full, as usual, of directions and commissions, but giving no news of his own doings. He was evidently ill at the time he wrote, and a few days afterwards was seized with acute bronchitis, and was obliged to put off his projected return to Paris.
Works of Honore De Balzac Page 1487