Benjamin Constant

to remedy all the unhappiness caused by a marriage he wished for

and which he arranged.^21

Constant appears to have entered into marriage almost like a

somnambulist. His uncle Samuel wrote to his daughters on 14 October

1788, months before the ceremony took place:

[Benjamin] does not care about the marriage in question. He is not

in love. But the Duke and Duchess wish to see the marriage take

place, so he looks on it as a guarantee that his future, his finances

and his setting up home will be taken care of.^22

One of the more curious traits in Constant’s character, perhaps linked to
early insecurity, was to see marriage, virtually any marriage, as a solution

to his problems, as with Jenny Pourrat or later with Amélie Fabri. This one

offered not only financial security but also a respectable position in

Brunswick society, both with the backing of the Duke and Duchess. Any

realistic assessment of whether it would make either partner happy seems
to have been almost immaterial.

1 The High Street, Edinburgh in about 1780, by

David Allan (1744–96) (National Galleries

of Scotland, Department of Prints and

Drawings)

The brunswick years 115