June 1 814: Hobhouse Relates Some Napoleonic Gossip

On June 1 1814, John Cam Hobhouse writes in his diary some gossip about Napoleon from an officer who had supposedly accompanied Napoleon from Fontainebleau to Elba.

Wednesday June 1st 1814: Wrote Hungarian journal.

Kinnaird told me yesterday that Whitbread wrote the Princess’s late letter to the Queen relative to her going to the drawing-rooms of this month, and Brougham that to the Prince of Wales.

I called on Byron, and dressing without dining, went to the Duke of Bedford’s box at Covent Garden, where were Lord and Lady J. Petersham,

Lord William Russell, and Frank Stanhope. Petersham is a man of most polished manners, and kind. Frank Stanhope I don’t like – a mauvais naturel, though very good-humour[ed]. We saw Mrs Jordan act Lady Teazle, for the last night of her engagement – she is to my mind too vulgar, although Sheridan told Lord Petersham that Mrs Jordan came more up to his notion of Lady Teazle than Miss Farren, who was not vulgar and sprightly enough according to her country education.

May 31 1814: Byron to Moore

On May 31 1814, Lord Byron writes to Thomas Moore.

As I shall probably not see you here to-day, I write to request that, if not inconvenient to yourself, you will stay in town till Sunday ; if not to gratify me, yet to please a great many others, who will be very sorry to lose you. As for myself, I can only repeat that I wish you would either remain a long time with us, or not come at all; for these snatches of society make the subsequent separations bitterer than ever.

May 30 1814: Coleridge on Acting

On May 30 1814, Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes to Charles Mathews and provides some advice on acting.

2, Queen’s Square, Bristol, May 30, 1814.

Dear Sir, Unusual as this liberty may be, yet as it is a friendly one, you will pardon it, especially from one who has had already some connection with the stage, and may have more. But I was so highly gratified with my feast of this night, that I feel a sort of restless impulse to tell you what I felt and thought.

May 30 1814: Treaty of Paris

On May 30 1814, the Treaty of Paris is signed officially ending the war between France and the Allied coalition made up of the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Portugal and Sweden. Spain will sign later.  There are separate treaties executed with the various countries. The main text of the treaty reads:

May 29 1814: Joséphine Dies

On May 29 1814, at about noon, Joséphine, the first wife of the Emperor Napoleon, and herself the first Empress of the French, dies. She dies in the Chateau Malmaison with her children, Hortense and Eugene. She receives the last rites at eleven in the morning. Her son was with her when she died. Some accounts write that she died in his embrace. Her daughter, overcome, had earlier fainted and been carried from her room. Josephine’s last words are variously recorded, and probably involve a degree of alteration, and embellishment. One version of her last words has her saying:

At least,” said Josephine, with dying accent, ” at least I shall carry with me some regrets. I have aimed at the good of the French people ; I have done all in my power to promote it, and I may say with truth to all who attend me in my last moments, that never, no, never, did the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte cause a tear to flow.”

Another version, describes her as saying:

The latter did not seem to be suffering, but often awoke and murmured to herself in a low voice, repeating at intervals the words : ” Bonaparte ! . . . Elba ! . . . Marie-Louise !

Plovers Eggs

The excellence of white soup and plovers eggs for a light supper.

— Lord Byron's dietary tips, May 28 1814. http://t.co/ZmiJbE8PHV

— pastnow (@pastnow_) May 29, 2014

May 28 1814: Wrathful Epistle from Lady Caroline Lamb

On May 28 1814, Lord Byron writes to Lady Melbourne after receiving a letter from Lady Caroline Lamb.

Lady Me. – I have just received a wrathful epistle from C. demanding letters – pictures – and all kinds of gifts which I never requested & am ready to resign as soon as they can be gathered together – at the same time  it might be as well {for her} to restore my letters – as every body has read them by this time – and they can no longer be of use to herself and her five hundred sympathizing friends. – She also complains of some barbarous usage – of which I know nothing except that I was told of an inroad which occurred when I was fortunately out – and am not at all disposed to regret the circumstance of my absence either for her sake or my own. – I am also menaced in her letter with immediate marriage – of which I am equally unconscious – at least I have not proposed to anybody – and if anyone has to me – I have quite forgotten it – if she alludes to Ly. A. F. she has made a sad mistake – for not a syllable of love ever passed between us – but a good deal of heraldry & mutual hatred of Music – the merits of Mr. Kean – and the excellence of white soup and plovers eggs for a light supper – besides – Lady R. who is good authority – says that I do not care about Ly. A – nor Lady A. about me – and that if such an impossibility did occur – she could not possibly approve of it – nor anyone else – in all which I quite acquiesce with ye. said Lady R. <from> {with} whom however I never had a moment’s conversation on the subject – but hear this from a friend – who is in very bad humour with her – & not much better with me – why – I can’t divine – being as innocent & ill used as C. herself in her <b> very best story. –

May 27 1814: Nothingness, Impotence, and Worthlessness

On May 27 1814, Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes to Joseph Cottle. His letter is grandly despondent, and despair filled.

My dear Cottle, — Gladness be with you, for your convalescence, and equally so, at the hope which has sustained and tranquillised you through your imminent peril. Far otherwise is, and hath been, my state ; yet I too am grateful; yet I cannot rejoice. I feel, with an intensity unfathomable by words, my utter nothingness, impotence, and worthlessness, in and for myself. I have learned what a sin is, against an infinite imperishable being, such as is the soul of man!

George Grosz – The Eclipse of the Sun (1926)

May 27 1814: Napoleon’s Restless Perseverence

With respect to May 27, 1814, Colonel Campbell writes in his memoirs at some length about Napoleon’s restlessness. “I have never seen a man in any situation of life,” he writes “with so much personal activity and restless perseverance. He appears to take so much pleasure in perpetual movement, and in seeing those who accompany him sink under fatigue … [yesterday] he rode on horseback for three hours, as he told me afterwards, ‘pour se defatiguer!'” Campbell also notes ominously: “His thoughts seem to dwell perpetually upon the operations of war”.