REPRESENTATIONS of MARIE- ANTOINETTE in 19Th
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L’AUGUSTE AUTRICHIENNE: REPRESENTATIONS OF MARIE- ANTOINETTE IN 19th CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE AND HISTORY --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- by KALYN ROCHELLE BALDRIDGE Dr. Carol Lazzaro-Weis, Dissertation Superviser MAY 2016 APPROVAL PAGE The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled L’AUGUSTE AUTRICHIENNE: REPRESENTATIONS OF MARIE-ANTOINETTE IN 19th CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE AND HISTORY presented by Kalyn Rochelle Baldridge, a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor Carol Lazzaro-Weis Professor Ilyana Karthas Professor Valerie Kaussen Professor Megan Moore Professor Daniel Sipe ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first of all like to acknowledge the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Missouri for having supported me throughout my dissertation writing process, allowing me to spend time in France, and welcoming me back to the campus for my final year of study. Secondly, I would like to thank the members of my committee, Dr. Valerie Kaussen, Dr. Megan Moore and Dr. Daniel Sipe, for taking the time to read my research and offer their welcome suggestions and insight. I would especially like to thank Dr. Ilyana Karthas, from the Department of History, for having spent many hours reading earlier drafts of my chapters and providing me with valuable feedback which spurred me on to new discoveries. I am most grateful to my dissertation superviser, Dr. Carol Lazzaro-Weis. Without her tireless effort the completion of this dissertation would not have been possible. Her academic support and emotional encouragement were by far the greatest keys to my completion of this study. I would also like to thank my family for their unrestrained support. My parents especially encouraged me, and have validated, rather than questioned, my choice to continue my studies. To them, and to the rest of my family – my siblings, my aunts, my grandparents, and my nieces and nephews – thank you all for your love, which gave me a reason to keep going. A huge and heartfelt thanks must also go out to my many friends who saw me through this from start to finish. Thank you for your understanding, your patience and your support. ii. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements……………………………….……………………………………………… ii List of Illustrations…………………………………………………………………………….….iii Abstract……………………….……………………………………………………..……………iv Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..……1 Chapter 1: Marie-Antoinette in Pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary literature (1770-1793) The myths of the goddess and the monster queen ........………….....……………………………17 Chapter 2: Marie-Antoinette in Post-Revolution and Pre-Restoration literature (1797-1814) The myth of the ideal queen ……………………………………………………………………..47 Chapter 3: Marie-Antoinette in Bourbon Restoration literature (1814-1830) The myth of the martyr queen………………………………………………….……………...…79 Ideals of the Bourbon Restoration………………………..…………………………………..81 Marie-Antoinette in Restoration fiction…………………………….………...………………86 Marie Antoinette in the eye-witness accounts of the Restoration………..………………...…99 Marie-Antoinette in historical Restoration works…………………………….……….….…104 Chapter 4: Marie-Antoinette in the historical fiction of Alexandre Dumas (1845-1853) The myth of the trivial queen …………………………………..…………...……………...…..119 Chapter 5: Marie-Antoinette in historical biographies from the 1850s The myth of the real queen………………………………………………………………….…..151 Realism, Naturalism and Historiography in the nineteenth century………………..……….152 Marie-Antoinette’s place in these histories……………………………………….…………157 Chapter 6: Marie-Antoinette Compilations and Controversy (1860-1900) An archival search for truth…………………………………………………………………….192 Conclusion: Marie-Antoinette after the nineteenth century Tracing the myths………………………...……………………………………………….…….226 Works Cited and Consulted……………………………………………………………….……255 Vita………………………………………………………………………………...……………262 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: La Poulle d’Autruche……………………………………………………………….....46 Figure 2: Graph of 19th century French texts containing “Marie-Antoinette” in the title…..….118 iii ABSTRACT Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna, or as she is most well-known, Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793) spent her entire life under the watchful eye of many. Fashioned from birth as an Austrian aristocrat, she was transported to France at age fourteen to meet and marry the future king of France. From the onset of her arrival, French writers made attempts to capture what they observed. However, personal bias, political leanings, and accepted rumor led them to do more than record what they saw. Rather than simply narrate a scene, these early witnesses of Marie- Antoinette became the interpreters of her thoughts, motives and feelings. As these interpretations grew, they became widely accepted as truth and eventually became the agents leading to Marie- Antoinette’s demise, as previous biographers and historians of Marie-Antoinette have amply discussed. In this dissertation I suggest going beyond an analysis of the literature that led to Marie- Antoinette’s death, and examining the numerous times that Marie-Antoinette’s story was reinterpreted during the century after her death. I will examine nineteenth-century texts from several different authors and genres, including: the historical biographies of Christophe de Montjoye, Lafont d’Aussonne, Alcide de Beauchesne, Edmond and Jules Goncourt, and Horace de Viel-Castel; the eye-witness testimonies of Jean-Baptist Cléry, Henriette Campan, and Rosalie Lamorlière; the historical fiction of Elisabeth Guénard Brossin de Méré and Alexandre Dumas; and finally the archival compilations of Emile Campardon and Gaston Lenotre. I will examine each author’s choice of genre, as well as how contemporary trends in literature, historical studies and even ptolitics influenced their interpretation of Marie-Antoinette. iv Introduction Who was Marie-Antoinette? A pampered Austrian princess sent to France by her scheming mother in order to destroy the kingdom of a great enemy? A gentle and generous character who adopted injured peasant boys and naively gave money to those who harmed her? A frivolous and featherbrained nobody who, once in power, only used the position to buy diamond necklaces and towering headdresses? A sexually deviant monster who not only engaged in sexual activity with anyone she pleased – men, women, her own children and animals – but used these unnatural encounters to corrupt the nation of France? Or was she, although a queen, an example for women of all classes because she embodied the most simple and virtuous of Christian characteristics? The truth is that Marie-Antoinette is often considered to be all of the above, and far too often, many of them at once. “Considered to be” is a revealing phrase when it comes to the “cracking” of the curious case of Marie-Antoinette. Indeed, the Marie-Antoinette who was will perhaps never be recognized more than the Marie-Antoinette who “was considered to be”. Therein lies the interest of this study, as it will reveal examples of French texts which aided to construct, establish, maintain and perpetuate the multiple identities of Marie-Antoinette – identities that this study will demonstrate were based on the authors’ attempts to perpetuate his or her own ideologies founded on whatever “truths” were relevant at the time he or she was writing. Before looking at varying written representations, or rather, interpretations of Marie- Antoinette, we can say what we do know about this woman: Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna, born on November 2, 1755 to Holy Roman and Austrian Emperor Francis I and his wife Empress Maria Theresa, was the couple’s fifteenth child. The youngest female member of this austere family known for their “bourgeois” values, Antonia grew up pampered by all, having opportunities for the finest education, and most importantly, being fashioned to continue the 1 political influence of her family under the watchful eye of her mother who was determined to see all of her children marry advantageously. Maria Theresa’s intricate planning paid off, and Antonia was promised to the dauphin of France in 1764, when she was just nine years old. In May 1770, at the border of Austria and France, fourteen year old Antonia surrendered all that was Austrian about her, including her servants, her clothing, her mother tongue, and even her name, and became a French princess as dictated by French tradition and custom. After her marriage to Louis XV’s grandson, Louis-Auguste, the young woman would only remain the dauphine of her new homeland for four years. In 1774, the king passed away making his nineteen year-old grandson and the eighteen year-old Marie-Antoinette the new king and queen of France. Her reign was neither a long one nor a happy one, and just before her thirty-eighth birthday in 1793, Marie-Antoinette was executed by guillotine for crimes against the nation of France, following the execution of her husband by just a few months. Marie-Antoinette