Samuel de Constant dated 1 November 1788.- ‘Marié à une femme que j’avais épousée par faiblesse’, Cécile, ed. Paul Delbouille,
p. 172. - Lausanne, Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire, Fonds Constant II, 34/4,
unpublished. - Geneva, Bibliothèque publique et universitaire, MS Constant 24/1, unpublished.
- See Elizabeth W.Schermerhorn, Benjamin Constant, his Life and his Contribution to
the Cause of Liberal Government in France 1767–1830, Boston and New York:
Houghton Mifflin, 1924, p. 96. - Rudler, Jeunesse, p. 359.
- Rudler, Jeunesse, p. 296.
- Constant, Œuvres, pp. 338–9.
- Constant, Correspondance I (1774–1792),lettre 64: ‘Je ne vis plus que par mon père
& pour mon père.’ - Melegari (1895), p. 168.
- Serenissimi gnädigste Deklaration für den Legationsrat Heinrich Benjamin von
Constant, Braunschweig, den 27. Dezember 1788, Wolfenbüttel, Niedersächsisches
Staatsarchiv, MS 3 Alt 263. - William [et Clara de Charrière] de Sévery, La Vie de société dans le Pays de Vaud à
la fin du dix-huitième siècle, Lausanne: Bridel; Paris: Fischbacher, 1911–12, 2 vols,
vol. I, p. 156. - Rudler, Jeunesse, p. 355. The date of Constant’s marriage to Minna is confirmed by
a manuscript nineteenth-century family tree of the Von Cramms as being ‘8/5 1789’
(Wolfenbüttel, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, 26 Slg Nr. 97R, ‘Stammtafel der
Familie von Cramm, aufgestellt von Kammerdirektor Frh. v. Löhneysen [um
1880]’). The family had four distinct branches at this period, and Minna did indeed
have very numerous relatives, to whom Constant alludes on occasion. The banns
were published in the Lutheran St. Blasius Cathedral in Brunswick, and the marriage
took place at the Duchess Augusta’s elegant Richmond Palace (Benjamin Constant,
[exhibition catalogue], Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1967, p. 20). - Ma Vie, ed. C.P.Courtney, Cambridge: Dæmon Press, 1991, p. 14.
- Benjamin Constant, Madame de Staël et le Groupe de Coppet,ed. Etienne Hofmann,
Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation; Lausanne: Institut Benjamin Constant, 1982, p.
355. - One of the earliest accusations of ‘défiance’ Constant makes against Isabelle occurs
in his letter of 9–14 March 1788: ‘J’ai souvent remarqué cette défiance triste et
humble, mais songez qu’elle détruit toute jouissance’ (‘I have often noticed that sad
and humble lack of trust in you, but remember it destroys all pleasure’) (Charrière,
Œuvres, III, p. 68). Interestingly from a psychological point of view, Constant goes
on to speak of the way his relationship with his father had been ruined by a similar
lack of openness and trust on Juste’s part. - Rudler, Jeunesse, p. 364, note 3.
- Charrière, Œuvres, III, p. 152.
- Charrière, Œuvres, III, p. 221.
List of abbreviations 288