Women in the Life of Balzac/Chapter IV/Part III
"Madame de Visconti, of whom you speak to me, is one of the most
amiable of women, of an infinite, exquisite kindness; a delicate
and elegant beauty. She helps me much to bear my life. She is
gentle, and full of firmness, immovable and implacable in her
ideas and her repugnances. She is a person to be depended on. She
has not been fortunate, or rather, her fortune and that of the
Count are not in keeping with this splendid name. . . . It is a
friendship which consoles me under many griefs. But,
unfortunately, I see her very seldom."
Madame Emile Guidoboni-Visconti, nee (Frances Sarah) Lowell, was an Englishwoman another etrangere. Balzac shared the same box with her at the Italian opera, and in the summer of 1836, he went to Turin to look after some legal business for the Viscontis. He had not known them long before this, for he writes, in speaking of Le Lys dans la Vallee: "Do they not say that I have painted Madame Visconti? Such are the judgments to which we are exposed. You know that I had the proofs in Vienna, and that portrait was written at Sache and corrected at La Bouleauniere, before I had ever seen Madame Visconti."[1]
Either this new friendship became too ardent for the comfort of Madame Hanska, or she heard false reports concerning it, for she made objections to which Balzac responds:
"Must I renounce the Italian opera, the only pleasure I have in
Paris, because I have no other seat than in a box where there is
also a charming and gracious woman? If calumny, which respects
nothing, demands it, I shall give up music also. I was in a box
among people who were an injury to me, and brought me into
disrepute. I had to go elsewhere, and, in all conscience, I did
not wish Olympe's box. But let us drop the subject."
The friendship continued to grow, however, and in December, 1836, the novelist offered her the manuscript of La vieille Fille. He visited her frequently in her home, and on his return from an extended tour to Corsica and Sardinia in 1838 he spent some time in Milan, looking after some business interests for the Visconti family.
When Balzac was living secluded from his creditors, Madame Visconti showed her friendship for him in a very material way. The bailiff had been seeking him for three weeks, when a vindictive Ariadne, having a strong interest in seeing Balzac conducted to prison, presented herself at the home of the creditor and informed him that the novelist was residing in the Champs-Elysees, at the home of Madame Visconti. Nothing could have been more exact than this information. Two hours later, the home was surrounded, and Balzac, interrupted in the midst of a chapter of one of his novels, saw two bailiffs enter, armed with the traditional club; they showed him a cab waiting at the door. A woman had betrayed him—now a woman saved him. Madame Visconti flung ten thousand francs in the faces of the bailiffs, and showed them the door.[2]
During Balzac's residence aux Jardies he was quite near Madame Visconti, as she was living in a rather insignificant house just opposite the home Balzac had built. He enjoyed her companionship, and when she moved to Versailles he regretted not being able to see her more frequently than once a fortnight, for she was one of the few who gave him their sympathy at that time.
Several months later Balzac was disappointed in her, and referred to her bitterly as L'Anglaise, L'Angleterre, or "the lady who lived at Versailles." He felt that she was ungrateful and inconsiderate, and while he remained on speaking terms with her, he regarded this friendship as one of the misfortunes of his life.
After the death of Madame Visconti (April 28, 1883), a picture of Balzac which had been in her possession was placed in the museum at Tours. This is supposed to be the portrait painted by Gerard-Seguin, exhibited in the Salon in 1842, and presented to her by Balzac at that time.
In answering several of Madame Hanska's questions, Balzac writes: "No, I was not happy in writing Beatrix; you ought to have known it. Yes, Sarah is Madame de Visconti; yes, Mademoiselle des Touches is George Sand; yes, Beatrix is even too much Madame d'Agoult." A few months later he writes: "The friendship of which I spoke to you, and at which you laughed, apropos of the dedication, is not all I thought it. English prejudices are terrible, they take away what is an essential to all artists, the laisser-aller, unconstraint. Never have I done so well as when, in the Lys, I explained the women of that country in a few words."[3]
From the above, one would suppose that Madame Visconti is the "Sarah" whom Balzac addresses in the dedication of Beatrix:
"To Sarah.
"In clear weather, on the Mediterranean shores, where formerly
extended the magnificent empire of your name, the sea sometimes
allows us to perceive beneath the mist of waters a sea-flower, one
of Nature's masterpieces; the lacework of its tissues, tinged with
purple, russet, rose, violet, or gold, the crispness of its living
filigrees, the velvet texture, all vanish as soon as curiosity
draws it forth and spreads it on the strand. Thus would the glare
of publicity offend your tender modesty; so, in dedicating this
work to you, I must reserve a name which would, indeed, be its
pride. But, under the shelter of its half-concealment, your superb
hands may bless it, your noble brow may bend and dream over it,
your eyes, full of motherly love, may smile upon it, since you are
here at once present and veiled. Like this pearl of the
ocean-garden, you will dwell on the fine, white, level sand where your
beautiful life expands, hidden by a wave that is transparent only
to certain friendly and reticent eyes. I would gladly have laid at
your feet a work in harmony with your perfections; but as that was
impossible, I knew, for my consolation, that I was gratifying one
of your instincts by offering you something to protect.
"DE BALZAC."
In sending the corrected proofs of Beatrix to "Madame de V——," Balzac writes:
"My dear friend,—Here are the proofs of Beatrix: a book for
which you have made me feel an affection, such as I have not felt
for any other book. It has been the ring which has united our
friendship. I never give these things except to those I love, for
they bear witness to my long labors, and to that patience of which
I spoke to you. My nights have been passed over these terrible
pages, and amongst all to whom I have presented them, I know no
heart more pure and noble than yours, in spite of those little
attacks of want of faith in me, which no doubt arises from your
great wish to find a poor author more perfect than he can
be. . . ."
In contradiction to the preceding, M. Leon Seche thinks that Beatrix was dedicated to Madame Helene-Marie-Felicite Valette, and that she is the "Madame de V——" to whom the letter is addressed. Helene de Valette (she probably had no right to the "nobiliary" de although she signed her name thus) was the daughter of Pierre Valette, Lieutenant de Vaisseau, who after the death of Madame Valette, in 1818, became a priest at Vannes in order to be near their daughter Helene, who was in the convent of the Ursulines. At the age of eighteen he married her to a notary of Vannes, thirty years her senior, a widower with a bad reputation, whose name was Jean-Marie-Angele Gougeon. Scarcely had she married when she had an intrigue with a physician; her husband died soon after this, and she resumed her maiden name. She adopted the daughter of a paludier,[*][5] Le Gallo, whose wife had saved her from drowning, and named her "Marie" in memory of de Balzac's favorite name for herself.
In stating that the letter to "Madame de V——" is addressed to Madame Valette, M. Seche publishes a letter almost identical with the one that is found in both the Memoir and Letters of Balzac and the Correspondence, 1819-1850, one of the chief differences being that in this letter Balzac addresses her as "My dear Marie" instead of "My dear friend." In telling "Madame de V——" that he is sending her the proofs of Beatrix, Balzac refers to the suppression of his play Vautrin, and says that the director des beaux-arts has come a second time to offer him an indemnity which ne faisait pas votre somme. This might lead one to think that he had had some financial dealings with her.
In the dedication of Beatrix, dated Aux Jardies, December, 1838, Balzac speaks of Sarah's being a pearl of the Mediterranean. In the Island of Malta is a town called Cite-Vallette—suggestive of the name Felicite Valette. Felicite is also the name of the heroine, Felicite des Touches, although Marie is the name of Madame Valette that Balzac liked best.
In 1836, after reading some of Balzac's novels, Madame de Valette wrote to Balzac. Attracted by her, he went to Guerande where he took his meals at a little hotel kept by the demoiselles Bouniol, mentioned in Beatrix. Under her guidance he roamed over the country and then wrote Beatrix. She pretended to him to have been born at Guerande and to have been reared as a paludiere by her godmother, Madame de Lamoignon-Lavalette, whence the reference in the dedication to the former "empire of your name." Her real godmother was Marie-Felicite Burgaud. Balzac did not know that she had been married to the notary Gougeon, and thought that her mother was still living.
When Madame de Valette went to Paris to reside, she was noted for her beauty and eccentric manners; she rode horseback to visit Balzac aux Jardies. She met a young writer, Edmond Cador, who revealed to Balzac all that she had kept from him. This deception provoked Balzac and gave rise to an exchange of rather sharp letters, and a long silence followed. After Balzac's death she gave Madame Honore de Balzac trouble concerning Beatrix and her correspondence with Balzac, which she claimed. She died January 14, 1873, at the home of the Baron Larrey whom she had appointed as her residuary legatee. She is buried in the Pere-Lachaise cemetery, and on her tomb is written Veuve Gougeon.
In her letters to Balzac, given by Spoelberch de Lovenjoul to the French Academy, she addressed him as "My dear beloved treasure," and signed her name Babouino. There exists a letter from her to him in which she tells him that she is going to Vannes to visit for a fortnight, after which she will go to Bearn to make the acquaintance of her husband's people, and asks him to address her under the name of Helene-Marie.[6]
After the death of Madame de Valette, the Baron Larrey, in memory of her relations with Balzac, presented to the city of Tours the corrected proofs of Beatrix, and a portrait of Balzac which he had received from her.
Among Balzac's numerous Russian friends was Mademoiselle Sophie Kozlowska. "Sophie is the daughter of Prince Kozlowski, whose marriage was not recognized; you must have heard of that very witty diplomat, who is with Prince Paskevitch in Warsaw."[7]
This friendship seems to have been rather close for a while, Balzac addressing her as Sofka, Sof, Sophie and carissima Sofi. Just before the presentation of his play Quinola he wrote her, asking for the names and addresses of her various Russian friends who wished seats, as many enemies were giving false names. He wanted to place the beautiful ladies in front, and wished to know in what party she would be, and the definite number of tickets and location desired for each friend.
In this same jovial vein he writes her: "Mina wrote me that you were ill, and that dealt me a blow as if one had told Napoleon his aide-de-camp was dead." His attitude towards her changed some months after writing this; she became the means of alienating his friend Gavault from him, or at least he so suspected, and thought that she was influenced by Madame Visconti. This coldness soon turned to enmity, and she completely won from him his former friend, Gavault, who had become very much enamored with her. The novelist expressed the same bitterness of feeling for her as he did for Madame Visconti, but as the years went by, either his aversion to these two women softened, or he thought it good policy to retain their good will, for he wished their names placed on his invitation list.
Balzac's feeling of friendship for her must have been sincere at one time, for he dedicated La Bourse:
"To Sofka.
"Have you not observed, mademoiselle, that the painters and
sculptors of the Middle Ages, when they placed two figures in
adoration, one on each side of a fair Saint, never fail to give
them a family likeness? On seeing your name among those who are
dear to me, and under whose auspices I place my works, remember
that touching harmony, and you will see in this not so much an act
of homage as an expression of the brotherly affection of your
devoted servant,
"DE BALZAC."
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ La Bouleauniere was the home of Madame de Berny, at Nemours. Balzac visited Madame Hanska at Vienna in the spring of 1835.
- ↑ Eugene de Mirecourt, Les Contemporains, does not give the date of this incident. Keim et Lumet, H. de Balzac, state that it occurred in 1837, but E. E. Saltus, Balzac, states that it was in connection with the indebtedness to William Duckett, editor of the Dictionnaire de la Conversation, in 1846. F. Lawton, Balzac, states that it was in connection with his indebtedness to Duckett on account of the Chronicle, and that Balzac was sued in 1837. If the letter to Mme. de V., Memoir and Letters of Balzac, was addressed to Madame Visconti, he was owing her in 1840. M. F. Sandars, Honore de Balzac, states that about 1846-1848, Balzac borrowed 10,000 or 15,000 francs from the Viscontis, giving them as guarantee shares in the Chemin de Fer du Nord.
- ↑ This is probably the basis for Mr. Monahan's statement that Balzac pictured Madame Visconti as Lady Dudley in Le Lys dans la Vallee.
- ↑ S. de Lovenjoul, Histoire des Oeuvres de Balzac, states that the "Sarah" to whom Balzac dedicated Beatrix is no other than an Englishwoman, Frances Sarah Lowell, who became the Comtesse Emile Guidoboni-Visconti. She was born at Hilks, September 29, 1804, and died at Versailles April 28, 1883.
- ↑ Paludier. One who works in the salt marshes.
- ↑ Leon Seche, Les Inspiratrices de Balzac, Helene de Valette, Les Annales Romantiques, supposes that this is another falsehood, since he could find no record of where any member of the Gougeon family had ever lived in Bearn. Much of his information has been secured from Dr. Closmadeuc, who lived at Vannes and who attended Madame de Valette in her late years; also, from her adopted daughter, Mlle. Le Gallo.
- ↑ Lettres a l'Etrangere. By explaining to Madame Hanska who Sophie is, one would not suppose that Balzac met her at Madame Hanska's home, as M. E. Pilon states in his article.