Balzac confided to Madame de Girardin his all absorbing passion 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 noble qualities and countless charms of the adored “Countess,” but never having seen her, she felt that Madame Hanska did not fully reciprocate the passionate 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 patito a man of genius, but that her social position was too high to permit his aspiring to any other title.
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 embarrassment 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. After the death of Madame O’Donnel, in 1841, Madame de Girardin’s friendship lost a part of its charm for Balzac and the rest of it vanished in these troubles. Since the greater part of the last few years of Balzac’s life was spent in the Ukraine, she saw but little of him, but she hoped for his return with his long sought bride to the home he had so lovingly prepared for her in the rue Fortunee.
Whether Balzac was fickle in his nature, or whether he was trying to convince Madame Hanska that she was the only woman for whom he cared, one finds, throughout his letters to her, various comments on Madame de Girardin, some favorable, some otherwise. He admired her beauty very much, and was saddened when, at the height of her splendor, she was stricken with smallpox. He was grateful to her for the service she rendered him in arranging for the first presentation of his play Vautrin, throughout the misfortune attending this production she proved to be a true friend. Although he accepted her hospitality frequently, at times being invited to meet foreigners, among them the German Mlle. De Hahn, enjoying himself immensely, he regretted the time he sacrificed in this manner, and when he quarreled with her husband, he expressed his happiness in severing his relations with them. While a charming hostess at a small dinner party, she became, Balzac felt, a less agreeable one at a large reception, her talents not being sufficient to conceal her bourgeois origin.
Madame de Girardin was in the country near Paris when she heard the sad news of the death of the author of the Comedie humaine. The shock was so great that she fainted, and, on regaining consciousness, wept bitterly over the premature death of her fried. A few years before her own death, in 1855, Madame de Girardin was greatly depressed by painful disappointments. The death of Balzac may be numbered as one of the sad events which discouraged, in the decline of life, the heart and the hope of this noble woman.
Madame Desbordes-Valmore was another literary woman whom Balzac met in the salon of Madame Sophie Gay, where she and Delphine recited poetry. Losing her mother at an early age under especially sad circumstances and finding her family destitute, after long hesitation, she resigned herself to the stage. Though very delicate, by dint of studious nights, close economy and many privations, she prepared herself for this work. At this time she contracted a habit of suffering which passed into her life. She played at the Opera Comique and recited well, but did not sing. At the age of twenty her private griefs compelled her to give up singing, for the sound of her own voice made her weep. So from music she turned to poetry, and her first volume of poems appeared in 1818. She began her theatrical career in Lille, played at the Odeon, Paris, and in Brussels, where she was married in 1817 to M. Valmore, who was playing in the same theater. Though she went to Lyons, to Italy, and to the Antilles, she made her home in Paris, wandering from quarter to quarter.
Of her three children, Hippolyte, Undine (whose real name was Hyacinthe) and Ines, the two daughters passed away before her. Her husband was honor and probity itself, and suffered only as a man can, from compulsory inaction. He asked but for honest employment and the privilege to work. She was so sensitive and felt so unworthy that she did not call for her pension after it was secured for her by her friends, Madame Recamier and M. de Latouche. A letter written by her to Antoine de Latour (October 15, 1836) gives a general idea of her life: “I do not know how I have slipped through so many shocks, — and yet I live. My fragile existence slipped sorrowfully into this world amid the pealing bells of a revolution, into whose whirlpool I was soon to be involved. I was born at the churchyard gate, in the shadow of a church whose saints were soon to be desecrated.”
She was indeed a “tender and impassioned poetess, . . . one who united an exquisite moral sensibility to a thrilling gift of song. . . . Her verses were doubtless the expression of her life; in them she is reflected in hues both warm and bright; they ring with her cries of love and grief. . . . Hers was the most courageous, tender and compassionate of souls.”
A letter written to Madame Duchambye (December 7, 1841), shows what part she played in Balzac’s literary career:
“You know, my other self, that even ants are of some use. And so it was I who suggested, not M. de Balzac’s piece, but the notion of writing it and the distribution of the parts, and then the idea of Mme. Dorval, whom I love for her talent, but especially for her misfortunes, and because she is dear to me. I have made such a moan, that I have obtained the sympathy and assistance of — whom do you guess? — poor Thisbe, who spends her life in the service of the litterrateur. She talked and insinuated and insisted, until at last he came up to me and said, ‘So it shall be! My mind is made up! Mme. Dorval shall have a superb part!’ And how he laughed! . . . Keep this a profound secret. Never betray either me or poor Thisbe, particularly our influence on behalf of Mme. Dorval.”
His friendship for her is seen in a letter written to her in 1840:
“Dear Nightingale, — Two letters have arrived, too brief by two whole pages, but perfumed with poetry, breathing the heaven whence they come, so that (a thing which rarely happens with me) I remained in a reverie with the letters in my hand, making a poem all alone to myself, saying, ‘She has then retained a recollection of the heart in which she awoke an echo, she and all her poetry of every kind.’ We are natives of the same country, madame, the country of tears and poverty. We are as much neighbors and fellow-citizens as prose and poetry can be in France; but I draw near to you by the feeling with which I admire you, and which made me stand for an hour and ten minutes before your picture in the Salon. Adieu! My letter will not tell you all my thoughts; but find by intuition all the friendship which I have entrusted to it, and all the treasures which I would send you if I had them at my disposal.”
Soon after Balzac met Madame Hanska, he reserved for her the original of an epistle from Madame Desbordes-Valmore which he regarded as a masterpiece. Balzac’s friendship for the poetess, which began so early in his literary life, was a permanent one. Just before leaving for his prolonged visit in Russia, he wrote her a most complimentary letter in which he expressed his hopes of being of service to M. Valmore at the Comedie Francaise, and bade her good-bye, wishing her and her family much happiness.
Madame Desbordes-Valmore was one of the three women whom Balzac used as a model in portraying some of the traits of his noted character, Cousin Bette. He made Douai, her native place, the setting of La Recherche de l’Absolu, and dedicated to her in 1845 one of his early stories, Jesus-Christ en Flandres:
“To Marceline Desbordes-Valmore,
“To you, daughter of Flanders, who are one of its modern glories, I dedicate this naive tradition of old Flanders.
“DE BALZAC.”
Though Balzac’s first play, and first
attempt in literature, Cromwell, was a complete failure, this did not deter him from longing to become a successful playwright. After having established himself as a novelist, he turned again to this field of literature. Having written several plays, he was acquainted, naturally, with the leading actresses of his day; among these was Madame Dorval, whom he liked. He purposed giving her the main role in Les Ressources de Quinola, but when he assembled the artists to hear his play, he had not finished it, and improvised the fifth act so badly that Madame Dorval left the room, refusing to accept her part.
Again, he wished her to take the leading role in La Maratre (as the play was called after she had objected to the name, Gertrude, Tragedie bourgeoise). To their disappointment, however, the theater director, Hostein, gave the heroine’s part to Madame Lacressoniere; the tragedy was produced in 1848. The following year, while in Russia, Balzac sketched another play in which Madame Dorval was to have the leading role, but she died a few weeks later.
Mademoiselle Georges was asked to take the role of Brancadori in Les Ressources de Quinola, presented for the first time on March 19, 1842, at the Odeon.
Balzac was acquainted with Mademoiselle Mars also, and was careful to preserve her autograph in order to send it to his “Polar Star,” when the actress wrote to him about her role in La grande Mademoiselle.
LA DUCHESSE D’ABRANTES
“She has ended like the Empire.”
Another of Balzac’s literary friends was Madame Laure Junot, the Duchesse d’Abrantes. She was an intimate friend of Madame de Girardin and it was in the salon of the latter’s mother, Madame Sophie Gay, that Balzac met her.
The Duchesse d’Abrantes, widow of Marechal Junot, had enjoyed under the Empire all the splendors of official life. Her salon had been one of the most attractive of her epoch. Being in reduced circumstances after the downfall of the Empire and having four children (Josephine, Constance, Napoleon and Alfred) to support, her life was a constant struggle to obtain a fortune and a position for her children. But as she had no financial ability, and had acquired very extravagant habits, the money she was constantly seeking no sooner entered her hands than it vanished. Wishing to renounce none of her former luxuries, she insisted upon keeping her salon as in former days, trying to conceal her poverty by her gaiety; but it was a sorrowful case of la misere doree.
Feeling that luxury was as indispensable to her as bread, and finding her financial embarrassment on the increase, she decided to support herself by means of her pen. She might well have recalled the wise words of Madame de Tencin when she warned Marmontel to beware of depending on the pen, since nothing is more casual. The man who makes shoes is sure of his pay; the man who writes a book or a play is never sure of anything.
Though the Generale Junot belonged to a society far different from Balzac’s they had many things in common which brought him frequently to her salon. Balzac realized the necessity of frequenting the salon, saying that the first requisite of a novelist is to be well-bred; he must move in society as much as possible and converse with the aristocratic monde. The kitchen, the green-room, can be imagined, but not the salon; it is necessary to go there in order to know how to speak and act there.
Though Balzac visited various salons, he presented a different appearance in the drawing-room of Madame d’Abrantes. The glories of the Empire overexcited him to the point of giving to his relations with the Duchesse a vivacity akin to passion. The first evening, he exclaimed: “This woman has seen Napoleon as a child, she has seen him occupied with the ordinary things of life, then she has seen him develop, rise and cover the world with his name! She is for me a saint come to sit beside me, after having lived in heaven with God!” This love of Balzac for Napoleon underwent more than one variation, but at this time he had erected in his home in the rue de Cassini a little altar surmounted by a statue of Napoleon, with this inscription: “What he began with the sword, I shall achieve with the pen.”
When Balzac first met the Duchesse d’Abrantes, she was about forty years of age. It is probably she whom he describes thus, under the name of Madame d’Aiglemont, in La Femme de trente Ans:
“Madame d’Aiglemont’s dress harmonized with the thought that dominated her person. Her hair was gathered up into a tall coronet of broad plaits, without ornament of any kind, for she seemed to have bidden farewell forever to elaborate toilets. Nor were any of the small arts of coquetry which spoil so many women to be detected in her. Only her bodice, modest though it was, did not altogether conceal the dainty grace of her figure. Then, too, the luxury of her long gown consisted in an extremely distinguished cut; and if it is permissible to look for expression in the arrangement of materials, surely the numerous straight folds of her dress invested her with a great dignity. Moreover, there may have been some lingering trace of the indelible feminine foible in the minute care bestowed upon her hand and foot; yet, if she allowed them to be seen with some pleasure, it would have tasked the utmost malice of a rival to discover any affectation in her gestures, so natural did they seem, so much a part of old childish habit, that her careless grace absolves this vestige of vanity. All these little characteristics, the nameless trifles which combine to make up the sum of a woman’s beauty or ugliness, her charm or lack of charm, can not be indicated, especially when the soul is the bond of all the details and imprints on them a delightful unity. Her manner was in perfect accord with her figure and her dress. Only in certain women at a certain age is it given to put language into their attitude. Is it sorrow, is it happiness that gives to the woman of thirty, to the happy or unhappy woman, the secret of this eloquence of carriage? This will always be an enigma which each interprets by the aid of his hopes, desires, or theories. The way in which she leaned both elbows on the arm of her chair, the toying of her inter-clasped fingers, the curve of her throat, the freedom of her languid but lithesome body which reclined in graceful exhaustion, the unconstraint of her limbs, the carelessness of her pose, the utter lassitude of her movements, all revealed a woman without interest in life. . . .”
Balzac’s parents having moved from Villeparisis to Versailles, he had an excellent opportunity of seeing the Duchess while visiting them, as she was living at that time in the Grand-Rue de Montreuil No. 65, in a pavilion which she called her ermitage. In La Femme de trente Ans, Balzac has described her retreat as a country house between the church and the barrier of Montreuil, on the road which leads to the Avenue de Saint-Cloud. This house, built originally for the short-lived loves of some great lord, was situated so that the owner could enjoy all the pleasures of solitude with the city almost at his gates.
Soon after their meeting, a sympathetic friendship was formed between the two writers; they had the same literary aspirations, the same love for work, the same love of luxury and extravagant tastes, the same struggles with poverty and the same trials and disappointments.
Since Balzac was attracted to beautiful names as well as to beautiful women, that of the Duchesse d’Abrantes appealed to him, independently of the wealth of history it recalled. He was happy to make the acquaintance of one who could give him precise information of the details of the Directoire and of the Empire, an instruction begun by the commere Gay. Thus the Duchesse d’Abrantes was to exercise over him, though in a less degree, the same influence for the comprehension of the Imperial world that Madame de Berry did for the Royalist world, just as the Duchesse de Castries later was to initiate him into the society of the Faubourg Saint-Germain.
Madame d’Abrantes, pleased as she was to meet literary people, welcomed most cordially the young author who came to her seeking stories of the Corsican. Owing to financial difficulties she was leading a rather retired and melancholy life, and the brilliant and colorful language of Balzac, fifteen years her junior, aroused her heart from its torpor, and her friendship for him took a peculiar tinge of sentiment which she allowed to increase. It had been many years since she had been thus moved, and this new feeling, which came to her as she saw the twilight of her days approaching, was for her
a love that meant youth and life itself.
Hence her words pierced the very soul of Balzac and kindled an enthusiasm which made her appear to him greater than she really was; she literally dazzled and subjugated him. Her gaiety and animation in relating incidents of the Imperial court, and her autumnal sunshine, its rays still glowing with warmth as well as brightness, compelled Balzac to perceive for the second time in his life the insatiability of the woman who has passed her first youth — the woman of thirty, or the tender woman of forty. The fact is, however, not that Balzac created la femme sensible de guarante ans, as is stated by Philarete Chasles, so much as that two women of forty, Madame de Berny and Madame d’Abrantes, created him.
This affection savored of vanity in both; she was proud that at her years she could inspire love in a man so much younger than herself, while Balzac, whose affection was more of the head than of the heart, was flattered — it must be confessed — in having made the conquest of a duchess. Concealing her wrinkles and troubles under an adorable smile, no woman was better adapted than she to understand “the man who bathed in a marble tub, had no chairs on which to sit or to seat his friends, and who built at Meudon a very beautiful house without a flight of stairs.”[*]
[*] This house, Les Jardies, was at Ville-d’Avray and not at Meudon.
But the love on Balzac’s side must have been rather fleeting, for many years later, on March 17, 1850, he wrote to his old friend, Madame Carraud, announcing his marriage with Madame Hanska: “Three days ago I married the only woman I have ever loved.” Evidently he had forgotten, among others, the poor Duchess, who had passed away twelve years before.
But how could Balzac remain long her ardent lover, when Madame de Berny, of whom Madame d’Abrantes was jealous, felt that he was leaving her for a duchess? And how could he remain more than a friend to Madame Junot, when the beautiful Duchesse de Castries was for a short time complete mistress of his heart,[*] and was in her turn to be replaced by Madame Hanska? The Duchess could probably understand his inconstancy, for she not only knew of his attachment to Madame de Castries but he wrote her on his return from his first visit to Madame Hanska at Neufchatel, describing the journey and saying that the Val de Travers seemed made for two lovers.
Works of Honore De Balzac Page 1535