Femme Fatale
Page 36
According to modern medical texts S. T. Kolev and N. Bates, “Mercury: A Monograph of the National Poisoning Information Services, U.K.,” 1996, available online at http://www.intox.org/databank/documents/chemical/artrxide/ukpid43.htm.
Children are notoriously D. L. Britt and J. M. Hushon, “Biological Effects, Criteria and Standards for Hazardous Pollutants Associated with Energy Technologies” (1976): 6–38; Lars Friberg, Gunnar F. Nordberg, and Velimir B. Vouk, eds., Handbook of the Toxicology of Metals, 2d ed., vols. 1 and 2 (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers, 1986), 41.
“[a child’s] gastrointestinal” Paul Diday, A Treatise on Syphilis in New-Born Children and Infants at the Breast, trans. G. Whitley (London: New Sydenham Society, 1859), 248.
“So long as strength” Ibid., 260.
he began their treatment Ibid. In animal studies, as little as 1–10 mg. ingested mercuric chloride per kg. of body weight has been found to be toxic, according to the U.S. National Toxicology Program, Acute Toxicity Studies for Mercuric Chloride, information available online at http://www.pesticideinfo.org/List_NTPStudies.jsp?Rec_Id=PC32890.
The lock of hair Family of Rudolf MacLeod, telephone conversation with Paul Storm, 7 October 2005, 10 October 2005; Froujke Bos, e-mail to author, 28 September 2005.
left on the S.S. Riebeck Stichting Indische Familie Archief, folder “MacLeod.”
Rudolf blamed Gretha… and she blamed him Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 28; and Zelle , Roman, 87–88.
“She was not beautiful” and “half joking” Ritman, “Ik kende,” 7.
“More than ever” Mata Hari to Adam Zelle, 2 December 1899, quoted in Zelle, Roman, 110–12.
General Reisz…never promote him Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 30.
“It is absolutely essential” and “a scum of the lowest kind” Rudolf MacLeod to Louise Wolsink, n.d., quoted in Heymans, Vraie, 53–55.
“blacken his precious name” Ibid.
“One has nothing” Rudolf MacLeod to Louise Wolsink, n.d., quoted ibid., 54.
probably went to Kemloko In a letter, quoted by Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 29, Rudolf MacLeod refers to the plantation as “Kroewoek, near Ulingie.” Plantations and the main houses on them were often known by different names. In any case, the Balkstras’ Kemloko was also very near Ulingie.
“As a friend of the truth” F. H. Roelfsema, Letter to Editor, Algemeen Handelsblad, 1936, quoted in Sam Waagenaar, “Mata Hari as a Human Being,” ms., Fries Museum, ca. 1927, 12–13.
“Two and a half months” Rudolf MacLeod to unnamed cousin, 31 May 1900, quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 31.
Rudolf earned roughly 700 A. Kruisheer, Atjeh ’96 (Weltevreden: N. V. Boekhandel Visser, 1913), app. 13.
“My dear cousin” Rudolf MacLeod to unnamed cousin, 31 May 1900, quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 29.
“Merciful God” and “After tomorrow” Rudolf MacLeod to Louise Wolsink, 29 July 1900, quoted in Heymans, Vraie, 55–56.
the remarkable Paris Exposition Attendance figures from http://www.photoart.plus.com/expos/paris1.htm, accessed 14 October 2005; incident documented in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 32.
“Hello, darling” and “You can go to hell, bitch” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 32.
he could open and read Waagenaar, “Human Being,” 16.
Chapter 7 Death of a Marriage
“Ah, the Indies is a dirty” Charles S. Heymans, La Vraie Mata Hari: Courtisane et Espionne (The True Mata Hari: Courtesan and Spy) (Paris: Étoile, 1936), 61. Only Mata Hari’s mother was dead, so the statement that her parents were dead was made for effect and was not accurate.
“As far as I can remember” G. H. Priem, De naakte Waarheid omtrent Mata Hari (The naked truth about Mata Hari) (Amsterdam: n.p., 1907), 28–29.
“I have received your letter” Mata Hari to Adam Zelle, 28 June 1901, quoted in Adam Zelle, De Roman van Mata Hari, Mevrouw M. G. MacLeod Zelle: De Levensgeschiedenis Mijner Dochter en Mijne Grieven tegen Haar Vroegeren Echtgenoot (The novel of Mata Hari, Mrs. M. G. MacLeod Zelle: The biography of my daughter and my grievances against her former husband) (Amsterdam: C. L. G. Veldt, 1906), 115.
“Honorable sir!” Adam Zelle to Officer of Justice Batavia, 28 June 1901, quoted ibid., 116–17.
abhorrence of impoverished…Europeans Ann Laura Stoler, Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), 34–38.
“And then I have to suffer” Mata Hari to Adam Zelle, 12 July 1901, quoted in Zelle, Roman, 118–21.
“Nothing else except the wish”; “But you had”; and “My doll!” Priem, Naakte Waarheid, 47–48. Alfred Dreyfus, whose imprisonment on Devil’s Island is referred to, was a Jewish captain in the French military who was wrongly convicted of spying for Germany against the French. On the basis of flimsy evidence—some of it forged—and widespread anti-Semitic sentiment, Dreyfus was stripped of his rank and given a life sentence to be served in the notorious prison colony known as Devil’s Island, off of French Guiana, in 1895. After enormous controversy and public outcry on both sides, Dreyfus was finally pardoned in 1899 and made a Knight of the Legion of Honor.
“At the end of my tether” Mata Hari to Adam Zelle, 3 August 1901, quoted in Zelle, Roman, 122–26.
“[Rudolf] has a pension” Ibid. Rudolf ’s pension was, in fact, 233 guilders per month.
Rudolf having fits of rage See Claude Quetel, History of Syphilis, trans. Judith Braddock and Brian Pike (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 1990), 160–75. See also Alfred Fournier, Syphilis de cerveau (Syphilis of the Skin) (Paris: G. Masson, 1879).
“dictionary of medical sciences” A. Dechambre, ed., Diction-naire encyclopédique des sciences médicales (Encyclopedic Dictionary of Medical Science) , vol. 14 (Paris: Asselin, 1884).
Rudolf forced Gretha, with a cat-o’-nine-tails” Zelle, Roman, 133–34.
went down on her knees Heymans, Vraie, 61.
“Think, to ruin my reputation” Rudolf MacLeod to Louise Wolsink, n.d., quoted ibid., 60.
“With great sadness I received” Adam Zelle to Mata Hari, September 1901, quoted in Zelle, Roman, 134–35.
“What woman cedes” and “very clearly annex” Mata Hari to Madame A. Goodvriend, 1 March 1902, quoted in Heymans, Vraie, 63–65.
“Naturally [Louise]” and “I am persuaded” Ibid.
the family went to stay briefly Ibid., 66.
MacLeods boarded the S.S. Koningin Wilhelmina Information from Stichting Indisch Familie Archief, folder “MacLeod.”
Her husband accused her Heymans, Vraie, 67.
There Mr. Calisch Zelle, Roman, 144.
He became violent again Ibid.
Rudolf took Nonnie with him Julie Wheelwright, The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage (London: Collins & Brown, 1992), 13.
At the court of Amsterdam Zelle, Roman, 151–54.
“On request of my brother” Ibid., 155, 222.
“through the mud” and “like scum” Ibid., 155.
The alternative version Heymans, Vraie, 68.
“I have no more debt” J. H. Ritman, “Ik kende Mata Hari…” (I knew Mata Hari), Tong-Tong 5 (15 September 1964): 7.
“WARNING” Heymans, Vraie, 69.
on September 2, Gretha and Nonnie moved Zelle, Roman, 166–67.
“I have suffered terribly” and “P.S. I am still” Mata Hari to Adam Zelle, 30 September 1902, quoted in Zelle, Roman, 168–69.
“I am not well” Mata Hari to Adam Zelle, 10 September 1902, quoted ibid., 172–75.
Zelle managed to send Ibid., 175–77.
“I have thought long” Rudolf MacLeod to Adam Zelle, 13 October 1902, quoted ibid., 180, 222.
he cared nothing for the ruling Ibid. , 182–83.
perilously close to becoming Heymans, Vraie, 71.
“The idea that all is arranged” Mata Hari to Rudolf MacLeod, n.d., quoted ibid., 70.
pointing out she had no winter clothes Ibid.
“What a sur
prise” and “with big kisses” Mata Hari to Rudolf MacLeod, 1 November 1902, reprinted ibid., 71.
Chapter 8 The Birth of Mata Hari
“Why Paris?” and “I don’t know” Anonymous, “Mata Hari racontée par l’homme qui à fit la condamner,” (Mata Hari told by the man who condemned her) Paris Match, 22 August 1953.
she looked better with her clothes on Charles S. Heymans, La Vraie Mata Hari: Courtisane et Espionne (The True Mata Hari: Courtesan and Spy) (Paris: Étoile, 1936), 78.
Rudolf threatened to have the police Ibid., 80; and Adam Zelle, De Roman van Mata Hari, Mevrouw M. G. MacLeod Zelle: De Levensgeschiedenis Mijner Dochter en Mijne Grieven tegen Haar Vroegeren Echtgenoot (The novel of Mata Hari, Mrs. M. G. MacLeod Zelle: The biography of my daughter and my grievances against her former husband) (Amsterdam: C. L. G. Veldt, 1906), 188.
he threatened to have her…state institution Adolphe Roberts, “The Fabulous Dancer,” part 1, Dance Magazine, July 1929: 13–17.
“Behold me, then” Mata Hari to unknown, January 1904, quoted ibid., 16.
Ernst Molier had set up his circus Information from http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/collections/object.php?object_id=443&back=%2Fguided_tours%2Fcircus_tour%2Fcircus_acts%2Ftrickriding.php%3F, accessed 9 November 2005.
“I never could dance well” Sam Waagenaar, Mata Hari (New York: Appleton-Century, 1965), 36.
“Vague rumors reached me” Francis Keyzer, “The Parisians of Paris,” The King, 4 February 1905.
“Lady MacLeod is Venus” Ibid.
The Malay phrase mata hari See, e.g., P. H. R. Beuming, Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh (Sketches of the battle of Great-Atjeh) . (Amsterdam: Concordia, 1915), 48.
a letter in 1897…the name Mata Hari Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 38.
Loge Mata Hari Information from http://home.hccnet.cl/wer.davies/fslogemh.html, accessed 5 April 2004.
“In the beginning”; “I act as thousands”; and “The artistic cachet” G. H. Priem, De naakte Warheid omtrent Mata Hari (The naked truth about Mata Hari) (Amsterdam: n.p., 1907), 53–55.
“My dance is a sacred poem” Pierre Bouchardon, Souvenirs (Memoirs) (Paris: Albin Michel, 1954), 310.
“so feline, extremely feminine” Le Gaulois (The Gallic) , 17 March 1905.
“Lady MacLeod, that is to say Mata Hari” Parisian Life, 1905, quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 42 .
“She is tall and slender” Edward LePage, Éclair (Flash), 15 March 1905, quoted in Sam Waagenaar, “Mata Hari as a Human Being,” ms., Fries Museum, ca. 1927, 20.
“Mata Hari does not perform” Henri Ferrare, La Presse (The Press), 1905, quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 47.
Chapter 9 The Toast of Europe
“She did not actually dance” Colette, Figaro, December 1923, quoted by Sam Waagenaar, Mata Hari (New York: Appleton-Century, 1965), 44.
notorious lesbian garden parties George Wickes, The Amazon of Letters: The Life and Loves of Natalie Barney (London: W. H. Allen, 1977), 92; and Diana Souhami, Paris, Sappho and Art: The Lives and Loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005).
Lady Godiva naked Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 49.
“Who can Mata Hari be?” “Een Hollandsche danseres” (A Dutch dancer), Nieuws van den Dag (News of the Day), 17 April 1905.
“Mata Hari’s real name” Henri De Weindel, “Une danseuse Hindoue à Paris” (A Hindu dancer in Paris), Femme d’Aujourd’hui (Today’s Woman), no. 22, April 1905.
“Mata Hari! Strange”; “a tall and slender”; and “Suddenly she is no longer” Nieuw Rotterdamsche Dagblad (New Rotterdam Daily), quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 55–56.
His intended was Elisabetha Martina Christina van der Mast Ibid., 64.
he produced a photograph Ibid., 63–64; Charles S. Heymans, La Vraie Mata Hari: Courtisane et Espionne (The True Mata Hari: Courtesan and Spy) (Paris: Étoile, 1936), 97.
The divorce was granted Adam Zelle, De Roman van Mata Hari, Mevrouw M. G. MacLeod Zelle: De Levensgeschiedenis Mijner Dochter en Mijne Grieven tegen Haar Vroegeren Echtgenoot (The novel of Mata Hari, Mrs. M. G. MacLeod Zelle: The biography of my daughter and my grievances against her former husband) (Amsterdam: C. L. G. Veldt, 1906), 201.
The grounds for the divorce were Heymans, Vraie, 98–100.
“Mata Hari personifies” Le Journal (The Journal), 1905, quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 61.
“One would need special words” La Presse (The Press), 1905, quoted ibid.
“You ask me, Dad” Mata Hari to Adam Zelle, 8 October 1905, quoted in Zelle, Roman, 196–98.
sued by a Paris jeweler Léon Schirmann, Mata-Hari: Autopsie d’une machination (Mata-Hari: Autopsy of a fix) (Paris: Éditions Italiques, 2001), 21; and Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 61–62.
“discreetly voluptuous” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 65.
a romantic relationship with Jules Cambon Ibid.; and Schirmann, Autopsie, 22.
ambassador to the United States Russell Warren Howe, Mata Hari: The True Story (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1986), 46.
“true ambassadress of France” Ibid.
“How happy I have been” Jules Massenet to Mata Hari, 1906, quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 67.
“I remained three years” SHAT, pièce 363, 15 February 1917.
“ladies who style themselves ‘Eastern dancers’” and “Born in Java” Anonymous, “Coquelin and Charity,” The Era, 3 October 1908.
“Isadora Duncan is dead!” Neues Wiener Journal (New Vienna Journal), 1908, quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 73.
“slender and tall” Fremdenblatt, 1908, quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 69.
“His family having given him” SHAT, pièce 363, 15 February 1917.
The Novel of Mata Hari Zelle, Roman.
“The Naked Truth About Mata Hari” G. H. Priem, De naakte Waarheid omtrent Mata Hari (The naked truth about Mata Hari) (Amsterdam: n.p., 1907).
“A charming woman” Ibid., 22–24.
“She spoke so calmly” Ibid., 29–30.
“‘Look,’ she began” Ibid., 32.
“Now I understand fully” Ibid., 56.
“This beautiful ‘novel’” Ibid., 44.
“Certainly, this life” Ibid., 44–45.
“I will absolutely not claim” Ibid., 68.
“My only intention” Ibid., 72.
Chapter 10 Living Like a Butterfly in the Sun
“Star of the Dance” Julie Wheelwright, The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage (London: Collins & Brown, 1992), 28; and Sam Waagenaar, Mata Hari (New York: Appleton-Century, 1965), 81.
“Saturday–Just today” René Puaux, “De Paris à Khartum” (From Paris to Khartoum), Le Temps (The Times), 21 March 1907, quoted in Adolphe Roberts, “The Fabulous Dancer,” part 1, Dance Magazine, July 1929: 20.
She campaigned vigorously Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 76–77.
“a beautiful woman”; “very nice”; and “There was never” Ibid., 85–88.
“she did not have a chance” Ibid.
Antoine fired her and she sued Ibid., 82–84.
In 1911, she and Rousseau moved SHAT, pièce 363, 15 February 1917; pièce 151, 9 May 1917.
“Those who see her pass” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 98.
“a skirt-chaser” and “When at long last” Ibid., 89.
the accusation that Rousseau Emile Massard, Les Espionnes à Paris: La Vérité sur Mata Hari (The Spice of Paris: The Truth about Mata Hari) (Paris: Albin Michel, 1922), 26–27.
“My lover squandered” SHAT, pièce 363, 15 February 1917.
“The part of Venus”; “an adorable creature”; and “very cultured” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 94.
“I wonder whether you know” Mata Hari to Gabriel Astruc, 8 February 1912, quoted in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 97.
she wanted to live like a butterfly G. H. Priem, De naakte Waarheid omtrent Mata Hari (The naked truth about Mata Hari) (Amsterdam: n.p., 1907), 36–37.
Leon Bakst…found her figure…too matronly Waagenaar , Mata Hari, 98–
99.
Rudolf had separated Charles S. Heymans, La Vraie Mata Hari: Courtisane et Espionne (The True Mata Hari: Courtesan and Spy) (Paris: Étoile, 1936), 257.
dismissed Anna with a curt word Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 91–92.
if he could help her obtain…Berlin Opera Russell Warren Howe, Mata Hari: The True Story (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1986), 56.
Photographs of one such event Anonymous, “Lady MacLeod Dances in the Light of the Moon to Her Friends,” The Tatler 639 (24 September 1913): 376–77.
“At a time that I cannot pin down” SHAT, pièce 151, 9 May 1917.
“was an unforgettably radiant” Paul Olivier to Mata Hari, ca. 15 December 1913, Mata Hari scrapbooks, Fries Museum.
maisons de rendez-vous Léon Bizard, Souvenirs d’un médecin de Saint-Lazare (Memoirs of a doctor in Saint-Lazare) (Paris: Albin Michel, 1923), 45.
“talking animatedly” and “several hundred thousand [marks]” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 109; also SHAT, pièce 363, 15 February 1917.
a very respectable salary of 48,000 marks SHAT, pièce 363, 15 February 1917.
“You will be there before then” Ibid.
“We heard the noise” Ibid.
On August 6, with hardly any money Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 116–18.
In handwritten ink, the passport See photograph of the passport in Waagenaar, Mata Hari, between pp. 50 and 51.
A remarkable anecdote The account that follows is taken from an interview with Maurice van Staen published in a Dutch newspaper on 20 March 1965, “Mevrouw Mata Hari” (Lady Mata Hari), 5. The copy I have does not include the name of the paper. The interviewer’s name is given only as Willem.
“Because I had only one chemise” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 119.
she entertained a Dutch banker SHAT, pièce 363, 15 February 1917.
Baron Edouard van der Capellan Ibid.
She rented a house Ibid.
she moved in on August 11, 1915 and hounded…by her creditors Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 126–28.
“she was visited by Karl Kroemer” SHAT, pièce 404, 21 May 1917.
the H of H21 indicated Léon Schirmann, Mata-Hari: Autopsie d’une machination (Mata Hari: Autopsy of a Fix) (Paris: Éditions Italiques, 2001), 33–34, citing Gempp report, Archives Militaires Allemande, vol. 8, Fribourg, 50