way of consolation. In fact the strongest evidence we have about this period of his life,
apart from Cécile, is his correspondence with Isabelle de Charrière where he feels no
need to pretend about anything. Shortly after his arrival he describes his life to her:
I have the prettiest apartment imaginable. I have a room in which to
receive those who come to pay homage to His Highness’s
Gentleman of the Bedchamber [Kammerjunker], I have a small
bedroom decorated in the German style, where it is too dark to see
(but that is fortunate sometimes), I have a very handsome study,
and a harpsichord, a bad one but which I play continually.... I have
a bureau (I am so used to titles that at first I wrote ‘baron’) where I
have made an arrangement that pleases me enormously. In some of
the drawers I have put all the various Parts and Introductions to my
great and magnificent Works. In one of the two others I have put all
of your letters and notes to me, and all those from my friend in
Scotland [John Wilde]. Also stored away there—and I apologize
for this—are three short letters from the beautiful Genevan woman
who lived in Brussels [Madame Johannot]. I hesitated for a long
while but I finally gave in. That woman really loved me, loved me
passionately, and she is the only woman who didn’t make me pay
for her favours by endless suffering. I no longer love her but I shall
always be grateful to her. So where should I put her letters? Surely
not in the other drawer, alongside uncles, cousins and the rest of the
angry mob [l’enragée boutique]. So she had to go into my Heaven,
since I couldn’t send her to Hell, and there was no Purgatory.
(Letter of 2–7 March 1788^5 )Constant describes a typical day in his early months in Brunswick. He
does so in English, a language for which he and Isabelle had a particular
affection:
Except with two or three people with whom I may talk and joke
upon the weather or some such thing, I never talk to anybody.
Visits I make none. I walk a great deal, read the history of
Germany, read Greek, play much upon the harpsichord, ride half
the day, try new horses...do never touch a card, nor a girl, am often
low spirited.
(Letter to Isabelle de Charrière of 25–8 April 1788^6 )The Duke’s Court was better than many, according to contemporary
commentators, being generally friendly and cultivated. There were
frequent concerts and the Duke had his own troupe of actors; there were
The brunswick years 109