The Poor Relations: Cousin Betty & Cousin Pons. Оноре де Бальзак

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       Honoré de Balzac

      The Poor Relations: Cousin Betty & Cousin Pons

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      Table of Contents

       Cousin Betty

       Cousin Pons

      COUSIN BETTY

       Table of Contents

      To Don Michele Angelo Cajetani, Prince of Teano.

       It is neither to the Roman Prince, nor to the representative of

       the illustrious house of Cajetani, which has given more than one

       Pope to the Christian Church, that I dedicate this short portion

       of a long history; it is to the learned commentator of Dante.

       It was you who led me to understand the marvelous framework of

       ideas on which the great Italian poet built his poem, the only

       work which the moderns can place by that of Homer. Till I heard

       you, the Divine Comedy was to me a vast enigma to which none had

       found the clue—the commentators least of all. Thus, to understand

       Dante is to be as great as he; but every form of greatness is

       familiar to you.

       A French savant could make a reputation, earn a professor’s chair,

       and a dozen decorations, by publishing in a dogmatic volume the

       improvised lecture by which you lent enchantment to one of those

       evenings which are rest after seeing Rome. You do not know,

       perhaps, that most of our professors live on Germany, on England,

       on the East, or on the North, as an insect lives on a tree; and,

       like the insect, become an integral part of it, borrowing their

       merit from that of what they feed on. Now, Italy hitherto has not

       yet been worked out in public lectures. No one will ever give me

       credit for my literary honesty. Merely by plundering you I might

       have been as learned as three Schlegels in one, whereas I mean to

       remain a humble Doctor of the Faculty of Social Medicine, a

       veterinary surgeon for incurable maladies. Were it only to lay a

       token of gratitude at the feet of my cicerone, I would fain add

       your illustrious name to those of Porcia, of San-Severino, of

       Pareto, of di Negro, and of Belgiojoso, who will represent in this

       “Human Comedy” the close and constant alliance between Italy and

       France, to which Bandello did honor in the same way in the

       sixteenth century—Bandello, the bishop and author of some strange

       tales indeed, who left us the splendid collection of romances

       whence Shakespeare derived many of his plots and even complete

       characters, word for word.

       The two sketches I dedicate to you are the two eternal aspects of

       one and the same fact. Homo duplex, said the great Buffon: why not

       add Res duplex? Everything has two sides, even virtue. Hence

       Moliere always shows us both sides of every human problem; and

       Diderot, imitating him, once wrote, “This is not a mere tale”—in

       what is perhaps Diderot’s masterpiece, where he shows us the

       beautiful picture of Mademoiselle de Lachaux sacrificed by

       Gardanne, side by side with that of a perfect lover dying for his

       mistress.

       In the same way, these two romances form a pair, like twins of

       opposite sexes. This is a literary vagary to which a writer may

       for once give way, especially as part of a work in which I am

       endeavoring to depict every form that can serve as a garb to mind.

       Most human quarrels arise from the fact that both wise men and

       dunces exist who are so constituted as to be incapable of seeing

       more than one side of any fact or idea, while each asserts that

       the side he sees is the only true and right one. Thus it is

       written in the Holy Book, “God will deliver the world over to

       divisions.” I must confess that this passage of Scripture alone

       should persuade the Papal See to give you the control of the two

       Chambers to carry out the text which found its commentary in 1814,

       in the decree of Louis XVIII.

       May your wit and the poetry that is in you extend a protecting

       hand over these two histories of “The Poor Relations”

       Of your affectionate humble servant,

       DE BALZAC.

       PARIS, August-September, 1846.

      One day, about the middle of July 1838, one of the carriages, then lately introduced to Paris cabstands, and known as Milords, was driving down the Rue de l’Universite, conveying a stout man of middle height in the uniform of a captain of the National Guard.

      Among the Paris crowd, who are supposed to be so clever, there are some men who fancy themselves infinitely more attractive in uniform than in their ordinary clothes, and who attribute to women so depraved a taste that they believe they will be favorably impressed by the aspect of a busby and of military accoutrements.

      The countenance of this Captain of the Second Company beamed with a self-satisfaction that added splendor to his ruddy and somewhat chubby face. The halo of glory that a fortune made in business gives to a retired tradesman sat on his brow, and stamped him as one of the elect of Paris—at least a retired deputy-mayor of his quarter of the town. And you may be sure that the ribbon of the Legion of Honor was not missing from his breast, gallantly padded a la Prussienne. Proudly seated in one corner of the milord, this splendid person let his gaze wander over the passers-by, who, in Paris, often thus meet an ingratiating smile meant for sweet eyes that are absent.

      The vehicle stopped in the part of the street between the Rue de Bellechasse and the Rue de Bourgogne, at the door of a large, newly-build house, standing on part of the court-yard of an ancient mansion that had a garden. The old house remained in its original state, beyond the courtyard curtailed by half its extent.

      Only from the way in which the officer accepted the assistance of