While Balzac evidently knew personally the women whom he had in mind in the dedications to “Maria” and to “Helene,” — problems which have perplexed students of Balzac, — he found time for correspondence with a lady whom he never saw, and about whom he knew nothing beyond the Christian name “Louise.” The twenty-three letters addressed to her bear no precise dates, but were written in 1836-1837.
Her first letter was sent to Balzac through his bookseller, who saw her seal; but Balzac allayed, without gratifying, his curiosity by assuring him that such letters came to him frequently. The writer was under the impression that Balzac’s name was “Henry” and some of her correspondence was in English.
That he should have taken the time to write to this unknown correspondent shows that her letters must have possessed some intrinsic value for him, yet he refused to learn her identity.
“Chance permitted me to know who you might be, and I refused to learn. I never did anything so chivalrous in my life; no, never! I consider it is grander than to risk one’s life for an interview of ten minutes. Perhaps I may astonish you still more, when I say that I can learn all about you in any moment, any hour, and yet I refuse to learn, because you wish I should not know!”
In reply to a letter from Louise in which she complained that her time was monopolized by visits, he writes:
“Visits! Do they leave behind them any good for you? For the space of twelve years, an angelic woman stole two hours each day from the world, from the claims of family, from all the entanglements and hindrances of Parisian life — two hours to spend them beside me — without any one else’s being aware of the fact; for twelve years! Do you understand all that is contained in these words? I can not wish that this sublime devotedness which has been my salvation should be repeated. I desire that you should retain all your illusions about me without coming one step further; and I do not dare to wish that you should enter upon one of these glorious, secret, and above all, rare and exceptional relationships. Moreover, I have a few friends among women whom I trust — not more than two or three — but they are of an insatiable exigence, and if they were to discover that I corresponded with an inconnue, they would feel hurt.”[*]
[*] Memoir and Letters of Balzac. The woman Balzac refers to here is Madame de Berny, but this is an exaggeration.
He revealed to her his ideas regarding women and friendship; how he longed to possess a tender affection which would be a secret between two alone. He complained of her want of confidence in him, and of his work in his loneliness. She tried to comfort him, and being artistic, sent him a sepia drawing. He sought a second one to hang on the other side of his fireplace, and thus replaced two lithographs he did not like. As a token of his friendship he sent her a manuscript of one of his works, saying:
“All this is suggested while looking at your sepia drawing; and while preparing a gift, precious in the sight of those who love me, and of which I am chary, I refuse it to all who have not deeply touched my heart, or who have not done me a service; it is a thing of no value, except where there is heartfelt friendship.”
During his imprisonment by order of the National Guard, she sent him flowers, for which he was very profuse in expressing his thanks. He appreciated especially the roses which came on his birthday, and wished her as many tender things as there were scents in the blooming buds.
She apparently had some misfortune, and their correspondence terminated abruptly in this, his last letter to her:
“Carina, . . . On my return from a long and difficult journey, undertaken for the refreshment of my over-tired brain, I find this letter from you, very concise, and melancholy enough in its solitude; it is, however, a token of your remembrance. That you may be happy is the wish of my heart, a very pure and disinterested wish, since you have decided that thus it is to be. I once more take up my work, and in that, as in a battle, the struggle occupies one entirely; one suffers, but the heart becomes calm.”
Facino Cane was dedicated to Louise:
“As a mark of affectionate gratitude.”
CHAPTER V. SENTIMENTAL FRIENDSHIPS
MADAME DE BERNY
“I have to stand alone now amidst my troubles; formerly I had beside me in my struggles the most courageous and the sweetest person in the world, a woman whose memory is each day renewed in my heart, and whose divine qualities make all other friendships when compared with hers seem pale. I no longer have help in the difficulties of life; when I am in doubt about any matter, I have now no other guide than this final thought, ‘If she were alive, what would she say?’ Intellects of this order are rare.”
Balzac loved to seek the sympathy and confidence of people whose minds were at leisure, and who could interest themselves in his affairs. With his artistic temperament, he longed for the refinement, society and delicate attentions which he found in the friendships of various women. “The feeling of abandonment and of solitude in which I am stings me. There is nothing selfish in me; but I need to tell my thoughts, my efforts, my feelings to a being who is not myself; otherwise I have no strength. I should wish for no crown if there were no feet at which to lay that which men may put upon my head.”
One of the first of these friendships was that formed with Madame de Berny, nee (Laure-Louise-Antoinette) Hinner. She was the daughter of a German musician, a harpist at the court of Louis XVI, and of Louise-Marguerite-Emelie Quelpec de Laborde, a lady in waiting at the court of Marie Antoinette. M. Hinner died in 1784, after which Madame Hinner was married to Francois-Augustin Reinier de Jarjayes, adjutant-general of the army. M. Jarjayes was one of the best known persons belonging to the Royalist party during the Revolution, a champion of the Queen, whom he made many attempts to save. He was one of her most faithful friends, was intrusted with family keepsakes, and was made lieutenant-general under Louis XVIII. Madame Jarjayes was much loved by the Queen; she was also implicated in the plots. Before dying, Marie Antoinette sent her a lock of her hair and a pair of earrings. Laure Hinner was married April 8, 1793, to M. Gabriel de Berny, almost nine years her senior, who was of the oldest nobility. Madame de Berny, her husband, her mother and her stepfather were imprisoned for nine months, and were not released until after the fall of Robespierre.
The married life of Madame de Berny was unhappy; she was intelligent and sentimental; he, capricious and morose. She seems to have realized the type of the femme incomprise; she too was an etrangere, and bore some traits of her German origin. Coming into Balzac’s life at about the age of forty, this femme de quarante ans became for him the amie and the companion who was to teach him life. Still beautiful, having been reared in intimate court circles, having been the confidante of plotters and the guardian of secrets, possessed of rare trinkets and souvenirs — what an open book was this memoire vivante, and with what passion did the young interrogator absorb the pages! Here he found unknown anecdotes, ignored designs, and here the sources of his great plots, Les Chouans, Madame de la Chanterie, and Un Episode sous la Terreur.
All this is what she could teach him, aided perhaps by his mother, who lived until 1837. Here is the secret of Balzac’s royalism; here is where he first learned of the great ladies that appear in his work, largely portrayed to him by the amie who watched over his youth and guided his maturity.
Having consulted the Almanach des 25,000 adresses, Madame Ruxton thinks that Balzac met Madame de Berny when the two families lived near each other in Paris; M. de Berny and family spent the summers in Villeparisis, and resided during the winters at 3, rue Portefoin, Paris. It is possible that he met her at the soirees, which he frequented with his sisters, and where his awkwardness provoked smiles from the ladies. While it is generally supposed that they met at Villeparisis, MM. Hanotaux et Vicaire also believed that they must have known each other before this, if Balzac is referring to his own life in Oeuvres diverses: Une Passion au College.
Madame de Berny is first mentioned in Balzac’s correspondence in 1822 when, in writing his sister Laure the general news, he informs her that Madame de Be
rny has become a grandmother, and that after forty years of reflection, realizing that money is everything, she had invested in grain. But he must have met her some time before this, for his family was living in Villeparisis as early as 1819.
M. de Berny bought in 1815 the home of M. Michaud de Montzaigle in Villeparisis, and remained possessor of it until 1825. M. Parquin, the present owner of this home, is a Balzacien who has collected all the traditions remaining in Villeparisis concerning the two families. According to Villeparisis tradition, Madame de Berny was a woman of great intelligence who wrote much, and her notes and stories were not only utilized by Balzac, but she was his collaborator, especially in writing the Physiologie du Mariage and the first part of the Femme de trente Ans.
When Balzac went to Villeparisis to reside, he became tutor to his brother Henri, and it was arranged that he should also give lessons to one of the sons of M. and Madame de Berny. Thus Balzac probably saw her daily and was struck by her patience and kindness toward her husband. She was apparently a gentle and sympathetic woman who understood Balzac as did no one else, and who ignored her own troubles and sufferings for fear of grieving him in the midst of his struggles.
It was owing to the strong recommendation of M. de Berny, councilor at the Court at Paris, that Balzac obtained in the spring of 1826 his royal authorization to establish himself as a printer. During the year 1825-1826, Madame de Berny loaned Balzac 9250 francs; after his failure, she entered in name into the type-foundry association of Laurent et Balzac. She advanced to Balzac a total of 45,000 francs, and established her son, Alexandre de Berny, in the house where her protege had been unsuccessful.
Though Balzac states that he paid her in full, he can not be relied upon when he is dealing with figures, and MM. Hanotaux et Vicaire question this statement in relating the incident told by M. Arthur Rhone, an old friend of the de Berny family. M. de Berny told M. Rhone that the famous bust of Flore cost him 1500 francs. One day while visiting Balzac, his host told him to take whatever he liked as a reimbursement, since he could not pay him. M. de Berny took some trifle, and after Balzac’s death, M. Charles Tuleu, knowing his fondness for the bust of Flore, brought it to him as a souvenir of their common friend. This might explain also why M. de Berny possessed a superb clock and other things coming from Balzac’s collection.
It was while Balzac was living in a little apartment in the rue des Marais that his Dilecta began her daily visits, which continued so long, and which made such an impression on him.
Madame de Berny was of great help to Balzac in the social world and was perhaps instrumental in developing the friendship between him and the Duchesse de Castries. It was the Duc de Fitz-James who asked Balzac (1832) to write a sort of program for the Royalist party, and later (1834), wished him to become a candidate for deputy. This Duc de Fitz-James was the nephew of the godmother of Madame de Berny. It was to please him and the Duchesse de Castries that Balzac published a beautiful page about the Duchesse d’Angouleme.
Although Madame de Berny was of great help to Balzac in the financial and social worlds, of greater value was her literary influence over him. With good judgment and excellent taste she writes him: “Act, my dear, as though the whole multitude sees you from all sides at the height where you will be placed, but do not cry to it to admire you, for, on all sides, the strongest magnifying glasses will instantly be turned on you, and how does the most delightful object appear when seen through the microscope?”
She had had great experience in life, had suffered much and had seen many cruel things, but she brought Balzac consolation for all his pains and a confidence and serenity of which his appreciation is beautifully expressed:
“I should be most unjust if I did not say that from 1823 to 1833 an angel sustained me through that horrible struggle. Madame de Berny, though married, was like a God to me. She was a mother, friend, family, counselor; she made the writer, she consoled the young man, she created his taste, she wept like a sister, she laughed, she came daily, like a beneficent sleep, to still his sorrows. She did more; though under the control of a husband, she found means to lend me as much as forty-five thousand francs, of which I returned the last six thousand in 1836, with interest at five per cent., be it understood. But she never spoke to me of my debt, except now and then; without her, I should, assuredly, be dead. She often divined that I had eaten nothing for days; she provided for all with angelic goodness; she encouraged that pride which preserves a man from baseness, — for which to-day my enemies reproach me, calling it a silly satisfaction in myself — the pride that Boulanger has, perhaps, pushed to excess in my portrait.”
Balzac’s conception of women was formed largely from his association with Madame de Berny in his early manhood, and a reflection of these ideas is seen throughout his works. It was probably to give Madame de Berny pleasure that he painted the mature beauties which won for him so many feminine admirers.
It is doubtless Madame de Berny whom Balzac had in mind when in Madame Firmiani he describes the heroine:
“Have you ever met, for your happiness, some woman whose harmonious tones give to her speech the charm that is no less conspicuous in her manners, who knows how to talk and to be silent, who cares for you with delicate feeling, whose words are happily chosen and her language pure? Her banter caresses you, her criticism does not sting; she neither preaches or disputes, but is interested in leading a discussion, and stops at the right moment. Her manner is friendly and gay, her politeness is unforced, her earnestness is not servile; she reduces respect to a mere gentle shade; she never tires you, and leaves you satisfied with her and yourself. You will see her gracious presence stamped on the things she collects about her. In her home everything charms the eye, and you breathe, as it seems, your native air. This woman is quite natural. You never feel an effort, she flaunts nothing, her feelings are expressed with simplicity because they are genuine. Though candid, she never wounds the most sensitive pride; she accepts men as God made them, pitying the victims, forgiving defects and absurdities, sympathizing with every age, and vexed with nothing because she has the tact of foreseeing everything. At once tender and gay, she first constrains and then consoles you. You love her so truly that if this angel does wrong, you are ready to justify her. Such was Madame Firmiani.”
It was to Madame de Berny’s son, Alexandre, that Balzac dedicated Madame Firmiani, and he no doubt recognized the portrait.
Balzac often portrayed his own life and his association with women in his works. In commenting on La Peau de Chagrin, he writes:
“Pauline is a real personage for me, only more lovely than I could describe her. If I have made her a dream it is because I did not wish my secret to be discovered.”
And again, in writing of Louis Lambert:
“You know when you work in tapestry, each stitch is a thought.
Well, each line in this new work has been for me an abyss. It
contains things that are secrets between it and me.”
In portraying the yearnings and sufferings of Louis Lambert (Louis
Lambert), of Felix de Vandenesse (Le Lys dans la Vallee) and of
Raphael (La Peau de Chagrin), Balzac is picturing his own life.
Pauline de Villenoix (Louis Lambert) and Pauline Gaudin (Le Peau de
Chagrin) are possibly drawn from the same woman and have many
characteristics of Madame de Berny. Madame de Mortsauf (Le Lys dans
la Vallee) is Pauline, though not so outspoken. Then, is it not La
Dilecta whom the novelist had in mind when Louis Lambert writes:
“When I lay my head on your knees, I could wish to attract to you the eyes of the whole world, just as I long to concentrate in my love every idea, every power within me”;
and near the end of life, could not Madame de Berny say as did Pauline in the closing lines of Louis Lambert:
“His heart was mine; his genius is with God”?
The year 1832 was a critical one in the private life of Balzac. Madame de Bern
y, more than twenty years his senior, felt that they should sever their close connection and remain as friends only. Balzac’s family had long been opposed to this intimate relationship and had repeatedly tried to find a rich wife for him. Madame de Castries, who had begun an anonymous correspondence with him, revealed her identity early in that year, and the first letter from l’Etrangere, who was soon to over-shadow all his other loves, arrived February 28, 1832. During the same period Mademoiselle de Trumilly rejected his hand. With so many distractions, Balzac probably did not suffer from this separation as did his Dilecta. But he never forgot her, and constantly compared other women with her, much to her detriment. He regarded her, indeed, as a woman of great superiority.
In June (1832), Balzac left Paris to spend several weeks with his friends, M. and Mme. de Margonne, and there at their chateau de Sache, he wrote Louis Lambert as a sort of farewell of soul to soul to the woman he had so loved, and whose equal in devotion he never found. In memory of his ten years’ intimacy with her, he dedicated this work to her: Et nunc et semper dilectae dicatum 1822-1832. It is to her also, that he gave the beautiful Deveria portrait, resplendent with youth and strength.[*]
[*] MM. Hanotaux et Vicaire think that it is Madame de Berny who was weighing on Balzac’s soul when he relates, in Le Cure de Village, the tragic story of the young workman who dies from love without opening his lips.
M. Brunetiere has suggested that the woman whose traits best recall Madame de Berny is Marguerite Claes, the victim in La Recherche de l’Absolu, while the nature of Balzac’s affection for this great friend of his youth has not been better expressed than in Balthasar Claes, she always ready to sacrifice all for him, and he, as Balthasar, always ready, in the interest of his “grand work,” to rob her and make her desperate while loving her. However, Balzac states, in speaking of Madame de Berny:
Works of Honore De Balzac Page 1541