“…But
how you are worried! Wherever Distress falls, you are expected to supply Comfort.
Lady P. writing to you even from Paris for advice! It is the Influence of
Strength over Weakness indeed. Galigai de Concini for ever & ever.-Adeiu.”
Le
Faye’s footnote re Galigai de Concini reads as follows: “RWC gives the
explanation: Eleonore Galigai, a maid of honour to Maria de Medicis, married
Concino Concini, and was burned as a sorceress in 1617. When one of her judges
asked her what charm she had put on her mistress, she replied: ‘Mon sortilege a
ete le pouvoir que les ames fortes doivent avoir sur les esprits faibles.’ [“My
sorcery was the power that strong souls must have over weak spirits.”] Voltaire,
Essai sur les Moeurs, Ch. 175. JA may
have owed her knowledge to Lord Chesterfield (see his letter of 30 April 1752;
or to Edgeworth’s The Absentee, Ch. 3” END QUOTE FROM LE FAYE/CHAPMAN
From
my research today, I believe JA and Anne Sharpe knew all about Galligai de
Concini from several different sources, and not just the Chesterfield and
Edgeworth. Let’s look at each of them now:
First,
here is the passage in Lord Chesterfield’s Letter that Chapman cited, in which
the worldly wise Lord eloquently touts the value of practical life experience
over purely intellectual knowledge, when it comes to human nature. When I read
this passage, I think of Jane Austen herself as a writer, and I think of strong-minded
characters like the Luciferian Charlotte LUC-as and LUC-y FERrars!:
“The
man 'qui a du monde' knows all this from his own experience and observation:
the conceited, cloistered philosopher knows nothing of it from his own theory;
his practice is absurd and improper, and he acts as awkwardly as a man would
dance, who had never seen others dance, nor learned of a dancing-master; but
who had only studied the notes by which dances are now pricked down as well as
tunes. Observe and imitate, then, the address, the arts, and the manners of
those 'qui ont du monde': see by what methods they first make, and afterward
improve impressions in their favor. Those impressions are much oftener owing to
little causes than to intrinsic merit; which is less volatile, and hath not so
sudden an effect. Strong minds have undoubtedly an ascendant over weak ones, as
GALIGAI Marachale d'Ancre very justly observed, when, to the disgrace and
reproach of those times, she was executed for having governed Mary of Medicis
by the arts of witchcraft and magic. But then ascendant is to be gained by degrees,
and by those arts only which experience and the knowledge of the world teaches;
for few are mean enough to be bullied, though most are weak enough to be
bubbled. I have often seen people of superior, governed by people of much
inferior parts, without knowing or even suspecting that they were so governed.”
Next,
we have the passage from Edgeworth’s The
Absentee,which is a lighter, comic version of the archetype, in which the
quick-witted Mrs. Dareville repeatedly “dares” to tweak the vanity of the slow-witted
society snob Lady Clonbrony. Here’s the end of that scene, where Galigai is
referred to:
“Having
with great difficulty got the malicious wit out of the pagoda and into the
Turkish tent, Lady Clonbrony began to breathe more freely; for here she thought
she was upon safe ground: 'Everything, I flatter myself' said she, 'is correct
and appropriate, and quite picturesque.' The company, dispersed in happy
groups, or reposing on seraglio ottomans, drinking lemonade and sherbet
beautiful Fatimas admiring, or being admired—'Everything here quite correct,
appropriate, and picturesque,' repeated Mrs. Dareville.
This
lady's powers as a mimic were extraordinary, and she found them irresistible.
Hitherto she had imitated Lady Clonbrony's air and accent only behind her back;
but, bolder grown, she now ventured, in spite of Lady Langdale's warning
pinches, to mimic her kind hostess before her face, and to her face.
[More
examples of Mrs. Dareville’s mockery of Lady Clonbrony, then…]
'Salisbury!—explain
this to me,' said a lady, drawing Mr. Salisbury aside. 'If you are in the
secret, do explain this to me; for unless I had seen it, I could not have
believed it. Nay, though I have seen it, I do not believe it. How was that
daring spirit laid? By what spell?'
'By
the spell which superior minds always cast on inferior spirits.'
'Very
fine,' said the lady, laughing, 'but as old as the days of Leonora de GALIGAI,
quoted a million times. Now tell me something new and to the purpose, and
better suited to modern days.'
'Well,
then, since you will not allow me to talk of superior minds in the present
days, let me ask you if you have never observed that a wit, once conquered in
company by a wit of a higher order, is thenceforward in complete subjection to
the conqueror, whenever and wherever they meet.'
'You
would not persuade me that yonder gentle-looking could ever be a match for the
veteran Mrs. Dareville? She may have the wit, but has she the courage?'
'Yes;
no one has more courage, more civil courage, where her own dignity, or the
interests of her friends are concerned. I will tell you an instance or two
to-morrow.”
Even
though I believe JA did indeed read both Lord Chesterfield’s letters AND The Absentee, I believe JA was also very
familiar with Mary Hays’s 1807 biographical sketch of Galigai, which itself was
a condensation of a much longer bio published by Bayle a half century earlier:
LEONORA GALLIGAI, a Florentine, the
daughter of a joiner, and the nurse of Mary de Medicis, by whom she was greatly
beloved, accompanied Mary into France on her marriage with Henry IV in 1606.
Leonora, plain in her person, but possessed of wit and talents, wholly governed
the queen her mistress, whom she attended as woman of the bed-chamber. She gave
her hand to Concino Conceni, afterwards marshal d'Ancre, who was also a native
of Florence, and who came into France with the queen. Conceni, through the
influence of his wife, rapidly obtained wealth and employments. The domestic
jars which embittered the life of Henry IV are attributed to the machinations
of this Florentine pair, who found their account in abusing the confidence of
their mistress.
After the death of Henry, the
Concernis, by their ascendency over the queen, obtained yet greater powers;
and, by their rapacity and insolence, offended the nobles, and disgusted the
nation. The marquisate of Ancre in Picardy was purchased by Conceni; who was
also made governor of Amiens, Peronne, Roie, and Montdidier. He was afterwards
created a marshal of France, and first gentleman of the bedchamber to the young
king. Two hundred gentlemen attended him when he appeared in public, beside the
servants to whom he allowed wages, and whom he was accustomed to call his '
thousandlivre poltroons.' He removed at pleasure the counsellors of the king,
whom he replaced with his own creatures; disposed of the finances, distributed
the offices of state, and by terror crushed all who opposed him.
Leonora, thus arrived at the
pinnacle of fortune, affected the most ridiculous fastidiousness. The princes,
princesses, and first personages of the kingdom, were prohibited from coming to
her apartments, while it was accounted a crime to look at her. The people
terrified her, she declared, and made her dread lest they should bewitch her by
gazing in her face. Wearied at length by the complaints of his courtiers, and
the exactions and caprices of the Italian favourites, Lewis XIII determined to
rid himself of their usurpations; for which purpose he gave a commission to
Vitri, a captain of the guards, who received orders to dispatch Conceni, by
pistols, on the drawbridge of the Louvre. This sentence was accordingly
executed April 24, 1617. The body of the unfortunate favourite suffered, after
his death, the vilest indignities [gory details, followed by…] Leonora heard of
the fate of her husband with little concern, except for her own interest.
Without shedding a tear, or expressing a regret, she appeared solicitous only
for the preservation of her jewels. Having enclosed them in her bed, she caused
herself to be undressed and placed in it; but the officers of the provost, sent
to search her chamber, compelled her to arise, and discovered the treasure. 'You
have killed my husband,' said she, 'does not that satisfy you? Let me be
permitted to leave the kingdom.' When informed of the indignities practised on
the body of Conceni, she appeared somewhat moved, yet she shed no tears. After
a pause, she declared that her husband had been a presumptuous insolent man,
who had deserved his fate. It was three years, she added, since they had
separate apartments; that Conceni was a bad man, and that, to rid herself of
him, she had determined, to retire into Italy, and had prepared every thing for
her journey. This assertion she offered to prove. She behaved with great
confidence, as if she had nothing to apprehend, and even expressed a hope of
being taken again into favour.
She was first carried to the
Bastile, and afterwards committed to the Conciergerie, or prison of the
parliament, by which she was tried. Having been condemned to lose her head, and
have her body consumed to ashes, she pleaded pregnancy; a plea which was
over-ruled by her own confession, that she had lived apart from her husband for
three years. Convicted of high treason against God and the king, she suffered
her sentence with firmness and courage, July 8th, 1617.
She was accused, with her husband,
of having judaized, and practised magic arts; which, with judicial astrology,
were, in those times, seriously professed. On being questioned by counsellor
Courtin, respecting the kind of sorcery which, she had employed to gain an
ascendency over Mary de Medicis, she sensibly replied, 'That she had used no
other magic, than that power which strong minds possess over those that are
weak.'
With
that background, I now express my agreement with Claire Tomalin’s 1999 assessment
of this allusion in Letter 159, which is that JA saw herself as a strong minded
woman condemned by society as a “sorceress”:
“Suddenly, surprisingly, she invokes the 17th century French
‘sorceress’ Eleonore Galigai de Concini, who, according to Voltaire, told her
judges before she was burned that her magic was simply the force that strong
spirits exert over weak ones…Was it Eliza who read Voltaire and told her about
Eleonore? Whoever it was, “Galigai de Concini for ever & ever’ wrote Jane,
her own spirit strong enough for a sorceress.” And in a 2013 book chapter
entitled “Getting to Know Miss Jane Austen: Images of an Author”, Rana Tekcan,
a Turkish scholar, strongly endorsed Tomalin’s reading: “Tomalin…connects the strong spirit of the
sorceress not with Anne Sharpe but with JA herself about to face death. Tomalin
entitles the chapter “The Sorceress’ and surrounds the quotation with details
of her illness and her last attempt at composition.”
But the
still bigger picture I see, is that JA writes this to Anne Sharp as a code
already so familiar between the two of them from past interactions, that it
needs no explanation, beyond stating the mantra. I believe JA is indeed speaking
about herself and Anne, as two persecuted co-conspirators in the heresy that
two women without formal education could be wiser and (by deception) more powerful
even than those invested with real power in their world, mostly men.
And…there
is also in Galigai the idea of a smart woman who gains power not through her
physical attractiveness, but through her sharp mind. We are reminded of Lady
Susan, Lucy Ferrars, Mary Bennet, Charlotte Lucas, Mrs. Smith and (yes) Harriet
Smith—who use their wits to gain what they seek. And also such women are viewed
as dangerous by the patriarchy, and so are demonized as witches and often
violently disposed of—that persecution is as much part of why JA mentions
Galigai to Anne Sharp as the powerfully sharp female mind.
And
that’s when I connected the dots I show in my Subject Line—of course JA wrote
Letter 159 only 6 weeks or so before she wrote her final poem, Winchester
Races, which I have written about many times as JA’s swan song of defiant,
indomitable spirit. She will not be silenced, she may even have been quietly
put to death (Ashford’s novel is not a
ridiculous flight of fancy, it is grounded in Letter 159, Winchester Races, and
the references to poison in Sanditon and Emma). But JA’s strong spirit, and her
writings, will survive!
No
wonder Anne Sharp kept this one letter so sacred, and passed it on (as Le Faye
describes its provenance) so that it would eventually (in 1926) emerge into the
light of day for the world to see.
Cheers,
ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode
on Twitter
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