Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1953, esp. p. 162. On p. 49 he is described by a
contemporary as ‘distinguished by [his] compass of mind, ...vivacity of thought,
and...strength of memory’.
- On May’s career, see Constant, Correspondance I (1774–1792), Appendice VI,
‘Nathaniel May, précepteur de Benjamin Constant’ and the notes to letter A14.
- Ma Vie, ed. C.P.Courtney, pp. 6–7.
- Letter of Nathaniel May to his sister Jane May of 23 May 1781, Constant,
Correspondance I (1774–1792), Appendice A24.
- The same to the same, before 19 February 1781, op. cit., Appendice A21.
- The same to the same, 23 May 1781, op. cit., Appendice A24.
- See Constant, Œuvres, p. 819, journal entries for 22, 23 and 25 July 1816.
- Ma Vie, ed. C.P.Courtney, pp. 6–7.
- Ibid., p. 7.
- Rudler, Jeunesse, p. 158. The record of matriculation is catalogued in Erlangen
University Library, Matr. Ms. VI, Abt. 2, p. 119 verso: ‘d. VI Febr. MDCCLXXXII
Henricus Benjamin L.B.de Constant Rebecque/Lausanno Helvetia anno aetatis XIV.
The catalogue entry notes: ‘Beigeheftet ist das Wappen der Familie mit dem von
Heinrich IV. verliehenen Spruch “In arduis constans”.’ The punning motto of the
Constant family, meaning ‘steadfast in adversity’, is engraved on Constant’s tomb in
the Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris.
- See C.P.Courtney, ‘An eighteenth-century education: Constant at Erlangen and
Edinburgh (1782–85)’, in Rousseau et le dix-huitième siècle: Essays in Memory of
R.A.Leigh, ed. M.Hobson, J.Leigh and R.Wokler, Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation,
1992, forthcoming.
- William [et Clara de Charrière] de Sévery, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 150–1. The editors of
Constant’s Correspondance I (1774–1792), state that the letter probably dates from
April 1783.
- Rudler, Jeunesse, p. 118.
- An interlinear entry in Ma Vie reads, enigmatically: ‘Mes duels. Olivayra’ (‘My
duels. Olivayra’), op. cit., p. 8.
- Benjamin Constant, Correspondance I (1774–1792), Appendice VII, A25.
- Edouard Laboulaye, article in the Revue nationale et étrangère, V (1867), p. 327:
‘son père lui faisait peur; et cette peur...eut une influence fatale sur le reste de sa
vie’.
- Quoted by Laboulaye, op. cit., p. 346: ‘[La pensée de la mort] était enfin la cause de
cette indifférence que beaucoup de gens considéraient comme un outrage, ou lui
reprochaient comme de l’égoïsme, tandis qu’il était un de ceux à qui il s’intéressait
le moins.’
2 ‘THE CHARMS OF FRIENDSHIP’ (1783–1785)
- Ma Vie, ed. C.P.Courtney, p. 9.
- Matriculation Roll of the University of Edinburgh, vol. II, 1775–1810, Edinburgh,
University Library.
- Rudler, Jeunesse, especially pp. 121–3 and 163–73.
List of abbreviations 272
