One of the oddest series of love letters ever written

“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of acts of kindness there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.”  ― James Boswell

“We agree, because I have no talent for subordination”. – Isabelle de Charrière/Belle van Zuylen (in respons to Boswell’s letter in which he writes that he is not in love with her)

Boswell in Holland

Read: ‘Boswell in Holland (1763-1764)’. Edited by Frederick A. Pottle (Yale University). First published in 1952 by William Heinemann.

Introducing the principal characters (excerpts from Wikipedia)

James Boswell (1740-1795); a Scottish lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh. He is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson, which the modern Johnsonian critic Harold Bloom has claimed is the greatest biography written in the English language. It was around three months after this first encounter with Johnson that Boswell departed for Europe with the initial goal of continuing his law studies at Utrecht University. He spent a year there and although desperately unhappy the first few months, eventually quite enjoyed his time in Utrecht. He befriended and fell in love with Isabelle de Charrière, also known as Belle van Zuylen, a vivacious young Dutchwoman of unorthodox opinions, his social and intellectual superior. Frequent guest of certain ‘relax centers’ Boswell’s dead was caused by venereal disease.

Isabelle de Charrière (1740–1805), known as Belle van Zuylen in the Netherlands and Isabelle de Charrière elsewhere, was a Dutch writer of the Enlightenment who lived the latter half of her life in Switzerland. She is now best known for her letters and novels, although she also wrote pamphlets, music and plays. She took a keen interest in the society and politics of her age, and her work around the time of the French Revolution is regarded as being of particular interest. Isabelle enjoyed a much broader education than was usual for girls at that time, thanks to the liberal views of her parents who also let her study subjects like mathematics. By all accounts, she was a gifted student. She wrote several novels and pamphlets and (co-)published ‘Confessions’ of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). Boswell always referred to her as Zélide.

This book is based on the records of James Boswell which he wrote during his time in the Dutch university city of Utrecht plus the extended correspondence (partly lost!!!) between him and Belle van Zuylen (née Isabella van Tuyll) that lasted to 1769. It are the records of a soul in torment, groaning, wailing, repining but also of a soul struggling and resisting with every resource in his power. It underlines the fact that Boswell has been subject to periods of depression from his early boyhood. His unhappiness was given in by the frustration not becoming the Great Man of his ambitions within the  shortest period of time. At the time of Boswell’s arrival in Utrecht Belle van Zuylen was 23 years and has just written and printed Le Noble which ‘perplexed’, ‘ruffled’ and ‘entertained’ the ‘Noblesse Societies of Utrecht and The Hague’ for it was an onorthodox satire on the prejudices of the caste. Exasperated of Dutch still-life she always scanned the horizon for ‘any object that might be moving, animated or odd’. In the Autumn of 1763 such an ‘object’ had appeared. Boswell had arrived…. Via introductions he was placed in the circle of Belle’s friends and relations. Their correspondence begins 14 June 1764, four days before Boswell’s actual departure from Utrecht with a letter from Belle van Zuylen addressed to Boswell.

Print of Belle van Zuylen in the Louvre in Paris

“….. you are singularly curious, my friend, to find out what my feelings are about you. I would perhaps be more dignified in you not to say so; but I have no regards for dignity, and I despise the art which you revere so much. I am ready to afford you this pleasure because I desire your happiness and pleasure is a part of happiness. Besides, it is natural to me to say what I feel and what I think….. I find you odd and lovable. I have a higher regard for you than for any one, and I am proud of being your friend. Are you not satisfied? …. And this first letter (of which I just quoted a few passages) sets the tone for a series of love-letters between the two.

 

9 July 1764 (Boswell to Belle van Zuylen) This letter contains a poem:

“Talk not to me of Nature’s charming ease

By which alone a woman ought to please;

Nature shoots forth rank weeds as well as flowers,

And oft the nettle o’er the lilt towers.

The buxom lass whom you may always see

So mighty nat’ral and so mightly free,

A vulgar bosom may with love inspire,

But Art must form the woman I admire;

Art which usurps not beauteous Nature’s place,

But adds to Nature’s dignity and grace.”

 

1 October 1764 (Boswell to Belle van Zuylen)

“…. No Zélide; do not tell me you have never experienced feelings for me more lively and tender than those of friendship. Say it as much as you please, I shall not believe you ….  Believe that this letter comes from an honest Scot who still feels for her what he felt in Utrecht. He begs her to be good enough to write, as soon as she has a moment to spare for him. Write if it wee only to say, ‘I shall never write to you again.’ God bless you….”

 

27 January 1765 (Belle van Zuylen to Boswell)

“… I was blaming myself, none the less, for my silence, when, towards to middle of October I got your second letter. Once more I found myself commanded by you to confess that I had felt a passionate desire for you. I was shocked and saddened to find the puerile vanity of a fatuous fool, coupled with the arrogant rigidity of an old Cato ….. “

 

25 May 1765 (Belle van Zuylen to Boswell)

“…. I have indeed much feeling for you, and now that you exempt me from saying or believing that I am in love with you …..

 

26 February 1768 (Boswell to Belle van Zuylen)

” ….. I had moments of felicity when I almost adored you and wished to throw myself at your feet ……. If you say at once it would be a bad scheme for us to marry, your judgement shall be rule to me …. “