1197. Benjamin Robert Haydon to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 38–41.
London
March 31. 1843
Ah My dear Friend, There’s the rub– Why was he crowned? why did he, rising from sub-Lieutenant, to wield a great Nation, why did he disgrace himself by such folly?– This was the wretched weakness of his mind—he did not feel the naked Majesty of Genius.
Think of Napoleon, the first day he went to Chapel, an Emperor, putting his hand to his forehead in a White glove, because it was the Etiquette of Louis XIV!!!– Bourrienne says they all watched to see if he would do it.—& to their infinite amusement he did it––what weakness. [1]
Think of Napoleon jumping for joy, when Duroc dined with the King of Prussia! [2]
Napoleon crowning himself, & Cæsar passing the Rubicon, [3] prove them to be lesser Men than Wellington, who would perish at the Stake rather than do either.
I admit it may be said, that showing Europe the power to crown himself, exhibited the greatness of Genius—but He should have dashed the Crown from him, & remained the Napoleon, who could do these things—& do without them too–
I am by birth a Constitutional Monarchist, but that does not prevent me from glorying in a Man proving the impotency of Station–
Consider the deep injury he did to the cause of Genius by his treachery; consider the glory he might have conferred on it, consider the blow he gave it, which it wont recover for 100 years if then– Consider the great moment he lost—& Why?—because he wanted to play King!! Oh Napoleon, when I look at your Bust, I could knock it in a thousand pieces & stamp it to powder!
Contrast this, with the simple, upright, honorable, Manly moral duty of Wellington’s mind– The greatest Geniuses are those, where the basis is common sense– Can any thing be more beautiful than the Common sense of Shakespeare, & Homer, Raffael, & Titian, Newton & Socrates!–
Was there any common sense in making a staunch Friend like Spain, an exasperated Enemy? [4] Was there any common sense, in proudly trying to do in one Campaign, what from the Physical nature of the Country could only be done in two? Was there any thing like the commonest sense of the commonest Understanding in making an enemy of the Pope, [5] getting into a quarrel where Religious prejudices, were sure to beat him–
After Crowning, Spain, Russia & the Pope, were the three great political cancers of his career: & they were his ruin–
Most Men can manage Adversity, but it requires the greatest Understanding to regulate Success– In this I think he was deficient– Wellington has proved his Understanding adequate to both–
Depend on it Napoleon rose, by His Genius, not being competently opposed at beginning; from the moment he was competently opposed he declined– That is the merit due to him, who had the foresight, to see he could be opposed, who did oppose, & ultimately destroy him with resources, so limited, they are laughable, a Government so ignorant of his merit, that they eternally thwarted him, & officers so little confident in him or themselves, that he had more trouble to regulate their minds to obedience than beat the enemy.
The Duke never suffers his imagination to controul his reason, or touch his heart.
Napoleon was often the Victim of the one & the other[.] The Duke may not be agre[e]able to the fancy, but he reaches the understanding–
In private life, I know Wellington to be a simple & delightful person, [6] I know he has none of the meanesses which Bourrienne & the Duchesse describe of Napoleon[;] [7] he is fond of children, he romps, dances, laughs, plays with them—he tells a story better than Sir Walter Scott, he is charitable & liberal in his charities, he is not revengeful but forgiving, he looks on life as a long struggle of Duty, & he has made it so,—duty to his Country, his Government & his God– For any purpose military, or political, would he have told a falsehood? for every purpose in the one or the other, Would Napoleon have hesitated?– Wherein was Wellington Bloody & cruel, Wherein has he ever been treacherous, & mean? Imagine Napoleon & Wellington before their God, Napoleon might & perhaps will defy him, Wellington will await his decision, and on a principle of moral duty submit to his will.
That’s the touch-stone after all of what is truly Great. As to his dying on a rock, [8] I say to you, unto all not alive at the Time—you can never estimate the feeling of the World existing in his Time. I admit his Romantic “Je viens comme Themistocle” [9] &c &c was too high a touch for the Court of George IVth– I admit he might have been allowed to live here, but consider the morbid nature of democracy, generally the result of Fog & indigestion, consider the delight Men have to annoy, the Authorities they must obey,—consider the tool the Whigs & Radicals would have made of him, and then say if Security of his Person ought not to have been the first thought–
His word, he never regarded– His honor he sneered at– He had lost perception of Truth, he lied so regularly to conceal it, he believed at last, what he knew to be untrue– To conclude, more injury would have accrued to Liberty & thought by the success of Napoleon, than good, & it was a useful lesson to Nations, when a Great Genius who rose on the Shoulders of Liberty, died on a rock for Betraying her– Lay this to your heart & farewell– [10]
B. R. Haydon
I am delighted you like dear Mary’s face– [11] It was perfect—a Vision– Eve would have been jealous & Venus got in a rage– I painted her as Venus coming to Anchises [12] from Homer’s hymn which Lady de Tabley made Lord de Tabley will to her, & she has it now. My dear Mother was a grand head–
Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 54–58.
Manuscript: University of Vermont.
1. Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne (1769–1834) was at military school with Napoleon and later became his private secretary and confidant. His Mémoires, published in ten volumes in 1829, provide the best insight into the mind of Napoleon the soldier, just as those of Napoleon’s valet, Louis Constant Wairy (1778–1845), show us Napoleon the man. Although Bourrienne does mention (VI, 157) Napoleon’s resuscitating some of the customs of the ancient kings of France, we were unable to find a reference to this particular incident.
2. An exaggeration; Bourrienne merely says that Napoleon was “extrêmement satisfait” on hearing of the dinner (III, 201).
3. The Rubicon separated Gaul, Cæsar’s allocated province, from Italy. By crossing it with his army in 49 B.C., he was perceived as an invader and this precipitated civil war. Napoleon, at his coronation, took the crown from the Pope’s hands and crowned himself (Bourrienne, Mémoires, VI, 197).
4. Napoleon insulted and humiliated Spain in 1808, when he forced the abdication of King Carlos IV and installed Joseph Bonaparte in his place.
5. As a quid pro quo for agreeing to perform Napoleon’s coronation, Pius VII requested the return to his jurisdiction of Avignon and certain areas of Italy formerly part of the papal state. As he neglected to secure agreement to this request before Napoleon was crowned, it was peremptorily rejected, and a certain coolness followed.
6. Haydon had been a guest at Walmer Castle (11–15 October 1839) while Wellington sat for him. The resulting portrait, originally bought by the Duke of Sutherland, is now at Apsley House. Haydon recorded in his diary that “His Grace welcomed me heartily” and described Wellington as “the greatest Man on Earth, & the noblest.” (See Pope, IV, 584–592 for details of the stay at Walmer.)
7. The Duchess d’Abrantès, in Memoirs of Napoleon, His Court and Family (1836), spoke of “his extreme and rigid economy in all his private concerns” (I, 538). This was echoed in Constant Wairy’s journal entry of 8 September 1804, to which he appended a note saying that Napoleon “incessantly preached economy.”
8. i.e., St. Helena.
9. After deciding on 13 July 1815 to surrender to the British, Napoleon the next day dispatched a letter to the Prince Regent, the text of which was printed in The Morning Chronicle of 27 July. It contained the phrase “je viens, comme Thémistocle, m’asseoir au foyer du peuple Britannique” (“I come, like Themistocles, to sit at the hearthstone of the British people”). Themistocles, after being banished from Athens, threw himself on the mercy of Artaxerxes, the Persian king, whose father Themistocles had defeated in battle, and was received with kindness. The response to Napoleon’s plea was, of course, banishment to St. Helena.
10. Cf. Macbeth, I, 5, 13–14.
11. In letter 1166, Haydon had offered to show EBB miniatures of his wife and mother.
12. See letters 1161 and 1162.
___________________
