Corinne; or, ItalyStaël, Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine)
History
Corinne; or, Italy
Staël, Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine)
Italy -- History -- 1789-1815 -- Fiction; Nobility -- Scotland -- Fiction; Women poets -- Fiction
The tyranny to which she was subjected at the period of this marriage,
by Napoleon, became annoying and perplexing. She was not only exiled
from France, but warned not to go further than six miles from Coppet.
Mathieu de Montmorency was exiled for visiting her, as was also Madame
Récamier, as has already been narrated. M. Schlegel, who aided her
in the education of her three children, was compelled to leave her.
She was seized with the gloomiest apprehensions, and resolved to
escape from the sphere of Napoleon's power. The prefect of Geneva
was instructed, from Paris, to suggest to Madame de Staël a means of
recovering the sovereign's good graces--the publication of some loyal
stanzas upon the birth of Napoleon's heir. "Tell those that sent you,"
she replied, "that I have no wishes in connection with the King of
Rome, except the desire that his mother get him a healthy wet-nurse."
She now passed her time in studying the map of Europe, in choosing
an asylum, and in devising a route by which to get to it. She at
last departed for England, which she approached through Russia and
Sweden. Once beyond French influence, she was treated with the highest
consideration and the warmest cordiality. Among the distinguished men
admitted to her intimacy, Lord Byron held the first place, and she
often gave him advice both upon his conduct and his verse. It was now
that she published her "Germany," She had the deep satisfaction of
seeing her reputation as a critic and delineator of national manners
elevated by it to the highest point.
She welcomed with delight the overthrow and abdication of Napoleon,
and at once returned to Paris, where she attached herself to the party
advocating a representative government under Louis XVIII. The restored
sovereign caused the royal treasury to pay to her family the two
million francs due M. Necker at his retirement from office--a measure
of justice to which Napoleon would never consent. During the Hundred
Days she retired to Switzerland, totally weaned from all interest in
public life. Her health began to fail, and she still further weakened
it by the use of opium. She devoted herself closely to the composition
of her last work, the "French Revolution," which now ranks as one
of the most philosophical, though perhaps not the most impartial,
histories of that period. Her sleepless nights she spent in prayer; she
became gentle, patient and devout. "I think I know," she said, in her
last moments, "what the passage from life to death is. I am convinced
the goodness of God makes it easy; our thoughts become indistinct,
and the pain is not great." She died with perfect composure, in 1817,
in the fifty-first year of her age. Her husband, who was devotedly
attached to her, survived her but a few months.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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