MADAME DE STAEL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16738, 20 May 1922, Page 13

MADAME DE STAEL.

POWER IN EUROPEAN POLITICS, THE WOMAN NAPOLEON FEARED, Every woman is more or less on enigma. But Nature now and then seem© to design certain women as epitomes of all the good and evil of which their sex is capable. They have ability enough to achieve fame, and pa-ssion enough to make their face indistinguishable from infamy. The lady known to history as Madame do Stnel is a conspicuous instance. To every intelligent reader the name is familiar, so a few minutes may be well spent in tracing her history, in analyising her character- She is probably the most remarkable woman who figured in the French Revolution. Women who were beautiful and men who were able were carted to the guillotine. Yet, though she waa both able and beautiful, and was always in the thick of the trouble, this woman contrived to keep her body adhered to her head. HER PARENTS. Anne Louise Germaine was born at Paris in 1766. Her father was Jacques Necker, the famous Swiss banker. Her mother was the clever and witty daughter of a parson, and in her early years one of her lovers was Gibbon, the English historian. That, however, came to naught, so. after experimenting with a string of others, she succeeded in marrying Necker. to whom she bore one child, their famous daughter. During Germaine’s girlhood her father weg popular ; his house was frequented by men and women of intellectual distinction. To these Germaine was early introduced. Soon she ivafl self-possessed, voluble and ambitious to shine at repartee. By the time she was fifteen she was engaged in a clandestine love affair with a disreputable general. All her life thereafter ©he had on hand one lover or another. Her father was eager to liave her married suitably and soon. Enormously rich, he expected to find a son-in- i law among the French nobility. They showed no enthusiasm. But William Pitt, who was in France in 1783, asked Necker for his daughter. The latter, however, was disinclined, so the world missed seeing the most brilliant Englishman of that day married ,to the most brilliant French-woman of that day. Finally, and after much bickering about tho dowry, a husband for Germaine Necker was found in Baron de Stael-Holstein, the Swedish ambassador in Paris. WONDERFUL GENIUS. In ‘ Madame de Stael: Her Trials and Triumphs,” just published by Messrs Hut-cliin/son and Co.. Lieuten-ant-Colonel Andrew O. P. Haggard makes a valuable contribution to the subject based- on the most recently acquired data. In bold relief he shows the wonderful genius the woman possessed, and the extraordinary life she lived. Intellectually and emotionally she was richly endowed. Contact with scholarly and original minds had made receptive and flexible her own. She was fascinated by the startling theories which the most notable of her countrymen were then pondering, and which they were before long grimly applying. When only fifteen her writings on abstruse questions were attracting notice. She was only twenty when she became Bareness de Stael. The baron calls for little attention ; certainly Germaine gave him none. He was seventeen years her senior, and an inveterate gambler. His wife suffered from a. superfluity of affection, but she never wasted any on him. She preferred to lavish it on those who had no legal right to it. But ae a married woman she was fired with the ambition to be a social queen. Her manner was abrupt; she was often brutally rude; she dressed carelessly ; she talked inoeesantly. Yet l>y the versatility of her genius and the intensity of her nature she carried everything before her. She was no bore. Her talk had that rare quality of inspiring good talk in others, and Paris society listened gladly to her flowing, impromptu eloquence. i SNUBBED BY QUEEN. 1 wo years after her marriage ehe published a book on Rousseau, which attracted much attention, and established her literary reputation. These were days when the women of Paris exercised great political influence, but of them all the young Swedish ambassadress was the most brilliant and the most ambitions. Marie Antoinette did not like her, and kept her on the door mat. But Germaine de Stael had personality sufficient to dispense with patronage of even a queen. The story of Madame de Stael’s love affairs is probably onlv a slioe of the French morality of that date. Domestic love wa*> considered humour. There was only one kind of love; it is euphemistically named “ romantic.” Nobody cared how anybody lived, least of all wives and husbands. Germaine de Stne] was probably no worse than her neighbours ; but her neighbours must have been pretty bad. Almost from the day of her marriage she had three lovers : two of them were married men ; the third was a bishop, aud his name was Talleyrand. ESCAPED FROM PARIS. When the revolution burst Madame de Stael, as an ambassador's wife, was partly safeguarded. To her honour she used her security to succour her friends, but when the finally sought to quit Paris the mob attacked her and only by the narrowest of margins did she escape with her life. As Talleyrand and a number of others had found sanctuary in England, she joined them, and queened it over them in Surrey. The sedate country people were puzzled by the “on goings” of the i* rcnch colony. In their Puritan eyes it looked a queer menage. But Germaine do Stnel never worried over what other people thought. Returning to her father’s house in Switzerland she met Benjamin Constant. a brilliantly clever scamp who was fated to Ix-come the foremost of her lovers. With him she bodily returned to Paris, w here., in order to establish herself in public favour, ©he wrote some political pamphlets. But tho public now knew her too well as a disturber of the peace, so the convention formally exiled her from the city. She returned to Switzerland, whe.ro Constant continued writing his famous ” History of Religion,” which he had commenced upon the backs of playing cards. During this period Germaine herself wrote a book on “ The Influence of the Passions,” which was everywhere recognised as a triumph of analysis and cypress km, apid \vh|cfi turned the tide of public opinion once more in her favour. Just then a. new interest entered her life. \ young man named Bonaparte had been winning laurels as c military leader, and France was ringing with his praise- Confident that

she could make him contribute to her glory she was eager to meet him. IMPLACABLE ENEMY OF NAPOLEON. At last she did. But the young soldier instantly took her measure. His nature was too like her own, lxe too, was ambitious. He was prepared to be no boudoir cat even to a woman .socelebrated as Germaine de Stael. The Indy was not caoily repulsed. To succeed in her quest she sacrificed every shred of self-reepect. She harried Bonaparte at dinners, bail© and receptions; but all in vain. He refused to be chained to her triumphal car. The result was inevitable, the story of the woman ©corned was repeated. Since Bonaparte would not become her puppet, Germaine do Stael became his implacable enemy. And. apart from all the other convincing proofs of her genius, her supreme title to fame is that she was the only woman who was a match for Napoleon in audacity and ability, the only person whom Napoleon really secretly feared. The two crossed swords continually. Madame’s powerful pen., dipped in vitriol, reused Napoleon’s fury. As he increased in authority he avenged himself socially. Because they thought it would please him, people began to treat her like a leper. She devoted her days to plotting against her tormentor. He, in turn, spied upon her and at last on the plea of preserving the public peace, he was able to order her expulsion from France. He book, li Ten Years of Exile ” describes her restless, erratio life during that period. EUROPE FEARED HER INFLUNCE. Though she was now middle-aged, Germain© de Stael was more passionate in love, more impetuous in public affairs than ever. Had she been content to live peaoeably, Napoleon would have left her unmolested. But she was incapable of peace. Her reputation as a writer and political intriguer was now world-wide. All Foreign Offices of Europe kept a watchful eye on her, ho greatly did they fear her influence. 3>uring these exile years she visited the Courts of Germany, Austria and Russia, and in each she was received like one of tho blood royal. But probably the crowning triumph of her progress was her reception in England. All that was eminent in London flocked around her to do her honour, though her volubility stunned some of the leaders of that taciturn nation. By this time the current of affairs , in France was turning in her favour; Napoleon’s star was on the wane, ajid, naturally she, who had been his most consistent and formidable opponent, became the object of Europe’s adulation. The Bourbons secretly detested her as a noted republican, yet they came fawning to this solitary woman begging her to use her influence in favour of their restoration. She snapped her fingers in their fabes, and when she returned to Paris after her ten years’ absence, her entry roused more public enthusiasm than that of any memberof the Bourbon family. CAME TO RENDER HER HOMAGE. retruoaS th ova. J . Haris late of ly To the salon which she instantly sot up the Emperor of Russia, Wellington, Canning and men of similar standing gladly came to render her homage. The return from Elba created an intense but purely temporary excitement, which lift Germaine de Stael imperturbed. She knew that her old-time antagonist had for ever fallen, and she was once more back in the Paris she so passionately loved. Two years after Waterloo she died, and only death oould give peace to that ever turbulent spirit. But it is a i/urioais reflection that, while modern women are priding themselves on at last gaining access to the political arena, over a hundred years ago one woman was exercising a political influence which the moat powerful statesman to-day cannot (parallel.