Penetrating the mask
Simon Scham a
Talleyrand: A Biography J. F. Bernard (Collins 0.95) Perhaps it is not entirely accidental that the smile curling on the lip of David's profile of Talleyrand is so reminiscent of Houdon's Voltaire. Listening to the octogenarian statesman three months before his death deliver (in the guise of a tribute to an old colleague) what was actually his own funeral eulogy Victor Cousin pronounced the performance "like Voltaire only better ". Talleyrand would have appreciated the compliment. Sixty years before in 1778 the impious young Abbe had knelt at the feet of the philosopher to implore his benediction. If, subsequently he had not quite succeeded in ecrasant l'infame he had, through the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, given it one in the eye for presuming to enslave his youth. Like Voltaire he was the master of a mordant wit used unmercifully on the pretentious and the vulgar; like Voltaire he nursed a healthy respect for human frailty (at which he became something of an expert). But most of all he cherished reason. His entire career was a vindication of the intellect in politics.
Many of his censors have seen only the supercilious smirk; the legendary impassivity which prompted Napoleon to remark that if Talleyrand was kicked up the arse when talking to you. his face would give no notice of the discomfort. Biographers, especially recently, have sought to penetrate the mask of the sphinx with more sympathy, either on the monumental scale of Lacour-Gayet or in a vignette Zt hz Duff Cooper. By far the most successful effort to date is the (still untranslated) study by Jean Orieux written with the verve and irony appropriate to its subject. Mr Bernard's book is not in the same class but offers a lucid and readable version which cuts skilfully through the diplomatic maze in which Talleyrand's career was involved. It is at its best when permitting the man, through the-riot always candid Memoires, to speak for himself. But these virtues are marred by an almost complete lack of understanding of the political society which was the making of Talleyrand.
The account of the Revolution in which that pre-Rude Hydra' the mob ' runs amok is, to say the least, primitive. Robespierre is "catapulted to instant fame" in 1791; Marat makes an improbable entrance as " a doctor from England " and in 1799 Barras is " all used up as a man of action ". Mr Bernard's prose is of the transatlantic idiom in which bolts are shot, suggestions hammered home . and wheels set in motion with great regularity. Napoleon — admittedly no stylistic Voltaire — is made to accuse Talleyrand of "stashing away women" in the manner of Rod Steiger rehearsing his lines. This is the sort of book where the publisher seems to be challenging the reader to spot the five best mistakes of the page, all of which are thoughtfully reproduced in the index. As a mere sample William Pitt has the distinction of dying twice, once in 1801 (he took dismissal hard) and once in 1806; General Gouvion becomes Bouvion; the Abbe Montesquiou Montesquieu, Anton Falck "the Baron Flack" and, with a sleight of hand Talleyrand would have greatly enjoyed the un fortunate Prince de Ligne (never a very digIne'd fled figure at the best of times) is transforni into the" Prince de Linge ". Fortunately Talleyrand himself is h_,ig enough to survive this treatment. Alm' everything he said or did was marked by th finesse of a luminous intelligence and nev,,,,e more significantly than at Vienna where Metternich (to whom Mr Bernard awards Eng most grudging recognition) he laid the foun' dations, not only of the readmission of Fran', to the comity of the Powers, but of a peace which was to endure in Europe for half a al?' tury. This, as Orieux observes, was one ofIn5 two masterpieces (the other being the fathel ing of Eugene Delacroix). It was Talleyrano' contribution that the penalties for the di5; asters inflicted on Europe were shoulderedb Bonaparte and not by France, But never 05_, a weaker hand played with more adroitney and confidence. In no other settlement foel'd lowing a pan-European war has the defeat_, power been treated with such wisdom en,1 magnanimity. Beside the peace-makers Vienna those of Versailles and Potsdr appear as the bungling amateurs they we Talleyrand's concern to build a lasting Pet sprang from his conviction, as a child of ni.,` Enlightenment, that war was a crime agaily reason. At Brunn, in 1805, on the eve of NaPe leon's greatest victory, he expressed his 110 ror at the sight and smell of a field of dyinif and wounded, an aroma which the Emper° found altogether more agreeable. After AlLei, terlitz he counselled generosity tower!, Austria whose preservation, like MetterniCP' he believed to be indispensable for the prote,°' lion of Europe against those his clairvoyant" identified as the aggressors of the future; Russia and Prussia. Interminable war, hed knew, would ruin the Empire as it had ruin the old regime and he had nothing but con' tempt for those like Chateaubriand who be lieved that military adventure could save th° Restoration Bourbons from their own folly.
It is paradoxical that Talleyrand has beer reproached for guile and opportunism. Wilt' in 1809, he opposed the aggrandisement °lot Empire Napoleon was still at his apogee. Pr from veiling his misgivings he paraded their openly with Fouche (" vice supported crime" Chateaubriand later commented). le„ be sure, as Hortense, Josephine's daughteu wrote he belonged to that class of people Whe, disappear in the presence of misfortune 1)°,' his reply was that he never conspired again' a regime except with the majority of Frenclii men as his accomplices. A weathervane ° political change he remained throughout, el Mr Bernard says, true to a belief that libel.° constitutional monarchy was in the best in' terests of France. No doubt good timing was reinforced I/Y the needs of self-preservation, The latter in' stinct had been steeled in him by an appalliq childhood (he never once slept under his parents' roof); by the savage contraption he wore on his crippled foot, by his dis; inheritance in favour of a younger brothe‘ and the forced entry into the Church he des' pised. Little wonder that he determined t° enjoy the fruits of power as and when he, could. If he did amass thirty millions of franc; in bribes (by selling all those who had bough,' him, someone remarked)—he spent much 01 it on those douceurs de la vie about whoSe departure with the old century he waxed 5°, wistful. Those delights — the Duchess n' Courland in his bed or Careme in his kitchen were cultivated with the incomparable taste for which he became legendary. But it would be as mistaken to take self-indulgence irony for shallowness as for cynicism. F°, : these was one mistress to whom his devotio'. remained absolute beyond all else and she was France herself.
Simon Schama is a Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Christ's College, Ca"' bridge
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