More from That Book About Le Bas!

[montagnarde1793]

So last time, as you may or may not remember (it's been so long now, after all), I said I hadn't yet translated chapter six. I lied; not only have I translated it (sometimes badly, admittedly), I already posted it quite some time ago. It can be found through the tag "That Book About Le Bas." I may post a revised version of the chapter some time in the future, if anyone expresses an interest in reading it.

In the meantime, I give you...

 

 

IV

 

Why Lamartine’s version must be welcomed on certain points of the history of Robespierre and Le Bas. – His processes of investigation. – He is presented to the widow of the Conventionnel Le Bas by Béranger. – The extracts of the “Histoire des Girondins” published in the National. – Errors noted by Mme Le Bas and her son. – Accepted rectifications.

 

            It is useful to go back in order to examine who Robespierre’s hosts were then and what was the milieu in which Le Bas was going to find a beloved wife and sure friends.

            I’ll say first why, on several points, I will adopt Lamartine’s version.

            Lamartine, before writing his Histoire des Girondins, had Béranger introduce him to the widow of the Conventionnel Le Bas, Duplay’s youngest daughter; he himself has described this interview:

            “I found in Mme Le Bas a woman of the Bible after the dispersion of the tribes of Babylon, retired from the commerce of the living on the highest story of a modest apartment, Rue de Tournon, conversing with her memories, surrounded by portrais of her family… The young girl had become a wife, mother, widow; she had aged in years and in face, without any trace of past beauty in her features, but with no sign of old age or senility. A fixed thought, sad but not at all disconcerted, gave her strongly charged features a sort of lapidary petrifaction in a single idea and in a sole sentiment, an abstract idea, a firm but not at all severe sentiment. She welcomed me with security… she accorded me free access in her retreat, and let me flip through her present, inexhaustible and passionate memoir on all the interior and exterior details of the private and public life of Robespierre page by page at my ease.”

            Lamartine sometimes “flipped through” badly.

            The National having published, under the title of “Fragment of the life of Robespierre,” several chapters which were to be reproduced some months later in the Histoire des Girondins (t. IV, p. 123 and following), this exchange of letters between the Conventionnel Le Bas’s son and Lamartine took place:

 

Letter from Philippe Le Bas to Lamartine.[1]

 

                                                                        82, Rue de l’Université.

 

                        Monsieur and illustrious colleague,

 

            I have just read the extract of your book that the National has published and I have communicated it to my mother. We both admired the talent of the author and are recognizant of the justice he renders to a man dear to us; but we deeply regret that you did not judge it appropriate to communicate those pages to us before sending them to be printed. You would have thus avoided some errors, quite involuntary on your part, including one above all which profoundly afflicted us. I want to speak of details concerning my father’s sister.

            My aunt, whose name is not Sophie, but Henriette, still lives, and will doubtless not read what you say of her without sorrow. For she was not of a vain and frivolous character and, quite far from having ever lacked reserve, she would sooner have merited the reproach of being more grave and severe than her age would suggest. The disagreements, incidentally very inconsequential, that sometimes arose between her and Saint-Just are perhaps even due to this disposition; but this last never placed the sincerity of the affection she bore him in any doubt, and Robespierre, who rendered entire justice to my aunt’s qualities, would never have reproached her any inconstancy of heart.

            You will doubtless have confused what my mother told you concerning her with the entirely confidential communications she made you on the character of one of her sisters named Sophie. I am convinced, Monsieur, that you will share our deep regrets, and that you will hasten to repair the wrong to the best of your ability.

            You will consider with me that to await a second edition to reestablish the truth would be, however great must be the success reserved for your book, to delay the reparation too long; and the blow that my aunt, already advanced in age and of an altogether faltering health, would receive would not fail to occasion a misfortune that you would not pardon yourself.

            The other rectifications that I would propose to you are, compared to those, of a much lesser importance. I believe nevertheless that I must point them out to you from this moment, in the interest of the truth.

            My grandfather was not Robespierre’s compatriot; he was from Forez. It was not in Artois, where he never set foot, that he met Maximilien. Their relations had an origin equally honorable for both: they date from the day when martial law was proclaimed on the Champ-de-Mars. That day, the rumor having spread that the most influential members of the democratic party, and notably Robespierre, were going to be arrested, my grandfather offered this last, whose character and talent he admired, asylum in his home. His proposition was accepted, and, from then until his last moment, Robespierre did not cease to be my family’s table guest.

            You could have consulted, on this subject, the article Duplay in the “Encyclopedic Dictionary of the History of France,” of which you were so kind as to permit me to offer you a copy.

            My mother affirms that never were workers assiduous at the Jacobins admitted evenings into my grandfather’s intimate circle; as much of a democrat as he was, he always knew how to maintain the distance separating the head of the family from the servants he employs. He loved the people, but without flattering them; he received, in his interior, only friends and relatives. To the names that you cite you could have added that of David, the painter, who loved Robespierre as much as he was loved by him, and who kept a religious respect for his memory until his death.

            As to my grandfather’s family, I will add that he had a son who, though barely thirteen years old, had outstripped his age, since he followed my father on the missions he had to fulfill with the Army of the North; this son had not two sisters, but four, of whom my mother was the youngest.

            Finally, Monsieur, my grandfather’s patriotism did not date from the day he met Robespierre, and he was in no way fanaticized by him. The proceeding of which I spoke to you above would prove just the opposite. His republican devotion was exempt from all fanaticism. The elevation and generosity of his character alone made him share the enthusiasm that animated souls at the dawn of the Revolution, and an enlightened conviction alone brought him to sacrifice everything, peace and fortune, to the sacred cause he had embraced.

            Such are, Monsieur and illustrious colleague, the principal observations that I had to submit to you in my mother’s name and mine. We are happy to have been able to help you withdraw the truth from the clouds that have obscured it for more than fifty years, and we accept, without hesitation, all the responsibility for the communications that we have made you; but we insist essentially that they be faithfully reproduced, and that the interpreter of our sentiments be as exact as he is eloquent.

            Your book will be read by all; it will make a profound and durable impression. You will not want, I am sure, for any hard feelings to accompany the admiration with which it inspires us.

            I am, with the most distinguished sentiments, Monsieur, your devoted servant and colleague.

 

                                                                                                PHILIPPE LE BAS.

 

Letters from Lamartine to Philippe Le Bas.[2]

 

(Pressed.)

 

                                    Monsieur and dear colleague,

 

            There is no harm done: the proofs of the volume containing involuntary errors by confusion of facts have not yet been corrected. If you are willing, I will bring the piece to you and we will correct it together. Nothing would afflict me more than a pain caused by my fault to a family like that from which I hold such precious documents, and for which I profess a veritable recognition.

            Keep the National where the printed piece is found and annotate my mistakes so that we will be able to finish in a moment.

            Madame your mother and you, Monsieur, you will see, I hope, at the end of the book where it is question of M. your father, that I have written nothing on him that could not be avowed by the tenderness of a widow and a son.

            I will read it to you before the last proofs.

            A thousand thank-yous.

 

                                                                                                            LAMARTINE.

 

            18 mars.[3]

 

            On the back of this letter, the following post-script:

 

            If I have a moment today, I will come see Madame your mother, around two or three.

            Make my excuses to her, for whom I have so real a respect.

 

To M. Le Bas, 30 Rue de Condé.

 

                        Monsieur and dear colleague,

 

            I have at hand the fragment to be corrected on Robespierre; where and when would you like us to meet?

            It is pressing. Do you want me to go see you at the hour of your choosing (around two o’clock, for example)?

 

                                                                                                            LAMARTINE.

                        Mars 20.                                                                                  82, Université.

 

            In the carton containing these last two notes, I find another letter from Lamartine; I give it, because it indicates in what esteem the great writer held the Conventionnel Le Bas’s wife and son. It is not dated, but its context indicates sufficiently that it was written in 1848.

 

To M. Le Bas, Rue de Condé.

 

                        Monsieur,

 

            You understand, and Madame your mother understands by what overload of work I have been deprived of the pleasure of seeing her since the events that must have gladdened her heart.

            Be good enough to explain to her the cause of my absence.

            I hope that you will come to strengthen, enlighten, and moderate in its interest the Republic, in its second Constituent Assembly. I do not need to tell you that if I can serve you by some local influence in this thought, I will be at your disposal.

 

                                                                                                            LAMARTINE.

 

            Philippe Le Bas divided the article from the National into twelve fragments and glued it onto sheets of white paper, in the margins of which he wrote corrections, under the dictation of his mother.

            We possess these placards.

            In the first, Le Bas makes only two changes of minor importance: he advises a purely grammatical inversion that Lamartine does not adopt; the second modification consists in suppressing the words in italics in the following sentence: “His daily salary (of Maximilien Robespierre) as deputy, during the Constituent Assembly and during the Convention, provided for the necessities of three people (his brother, his sister, and himself).” Le Bas explains in pencil: “This is not accurate for the period of the Convention: Augustin received emoluments as a deputy.” But Lamartine had rounded his phrase in a certain manner; he did not listen to the scrupulous interloper.

            The other placards are more tormented; Le Bas crossed out entire paragraphs and substituted a generally more extensive text than that he had suppressed; Lamartine appropriated all these corrections with a few light variations.[4]

            I do not want to draw any deduction too rigorous from this docility in rectifying facts: it will however be recognized that chance served Lamartine well in permitting him to correct the errors that the National had, by his pen, served up as articles of faith. – The History which adopts sincere rectifications without recrimination is a choice History; it marks, at the least, the good character of the historian.

            We will have, moreover, more than one occasion to point out errors in Lamartine.

 

---

[1] Collection Le Bas.

[2] Collection Le Bas.

[3] The year is not indicated; it is obvious that this note dates from 1847.

[4] Pushing to the farthest limits exactitude of details, the corrector substitutes, for example (placard 6), for the somewhat summary description of Robespierre’s bed “this room…contained only a bed of blue and white striped serge,” the following indication: “…A walnut bed covered with blue damask with white flowers which came from a dress of Mme Duplay’s.” Lamartine conformed his text to Le Bas’s version, but he suppressed these last words: the poetry bucked before realist accuracy.

 

Comments

[josiana.livejournal.com]

There are no words: &hearts &hearts &hearts

Thank you so much. ^^

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Aww, thank you for commenting!

[josiana.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. ;_;

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you so much for translating. :D

It's so surreal to think that there was a time once when you could still talk to the relatives and friends of the revolutionaries...*_*

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Sure. ^__^

Isn't it though? But then, there was also a time when one could talk to the Revolutionaries themselves...