Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-12-06
AUTHORS WIVES,
Something About the Helpmaets of
Literary Men.
Should Il Great Man Have Either Wife
or Children2

to the world, to all, not wife and family,
and should tread alone the path of glory,
or of sacrifice, as the case may be. From
this opinion of the greatest French novel
ists bsg leave To dissent, SO far as auth
ors are concerned, great or small, II
there Is man in the world who needs
the love and - mpathy of wife il ia the
author. Yet the annals of literature fur
nish the melancholy fact thas of all men
authors have been the leqst happy in
their domestic lives, and, if the truth
must be told, the wives have generally
been the cause of this state of affairs.
The story of Socrates domestic difficult.
les is TOO familiar 20 be repeated here.
We all know that 1t required much phil
osophic patience TO keep the family of
which Nantippe was the mistress We
know that C,esar's wife was not "aboye sus.
pioiop," and Cioero's home wife was Lot
the happisst. Milton sang OF paradise
Lost" but did not find paradise in his
own family, although he tried persistent.
iy with three successive lives. Shake
speare, from his own bitter experience,
announced as a fact for all time that ga
young man married is man that's mar
ried" Addison made splendid match
with the dowager Countess OF Warwick
and was obliged to escape to Wills cot.
fee house from the gilded misery of Hol
land House, where my lady counters pre-.
sided in awful state, and lectured her
gentle husband for assooiating with such
low fellows MS Pope, Swift, Steele, and
other wits of the golden age of Queen
Anne.
De Qnincey writing of the wives and
children of literary men, nays they Il ia
that, being mans chief blessings, create
also for him the deadliest of his ana ieties
that stuff his pillow with thorns, and sur.
round his daily life with snares; and, he
adds, suppose the case of 9 man who has
helpless dependents OF this class upon
himself, summoned to faos some sudden
failure of his resouroes-thst he should
lose the power of of exerting So delicate
an organ rs the creative intellect, when
dealing with snbjecs so coy as those of
the imagination-wha maddening
Thought is this TO man of family who
has absolutiy nosresourcts exospt what his
pen yield. De Quincey himself suffered
this terrible anxiety; 80 did Burns, upon
whom amongst all the children OF geniu,
abe primeva! curse had fallen heaviest
ind sunk most deeply.
The wife OF literary man should be
either q plain minded woman who should
occupy herself exclusively with house
hold matters and shield her husbands
peace by taking those cares upon her
self or else r woman capable of entering
into his literary life. Few authors wives
have been of the latter kind. A notable
instance, however, is afforded in the wife
Of Alphonse Daudet. She is an invalus
BILE literary assistant to her husband.
She takes his rough, corrected manuscript
aud makes a clear copy, correcting at
the same time any slight errors that may
have escaped her husbands notice.
Daudet then takes the manuscript in
hand again for final revision and careful
polishing. Nine. Daudet afterward re-
writes the whole manuscript and sends il
to the press.
Bulwer in the glow of youth, fell in
owe with pretty face, and made what be
supposed was love match. He soon
found that loves young dream was hide.
Gus reality that mis- hopes Of married
happiness had turned like dead sea fruit,
to asher. The pretty bride became the
domestic fury. AseparAtion soon fol
lowed, but she never ceased 10 be pain
ful feature of his life
Dickens domestic troubles have never
been satisfactorily explained, but he said
1t was case OF incom patibility Of tenn
per. | think 1t WAS a case OF egregioBs
pc gsonsl vanity on the part of Charles
Dickens The amazing success OF his
works raised him far above his original
social position; h. became the friend Of
Lady Blessington, Walter Savage, Ian
dor, Tennysou, Bulwer, and others, whose
refined and cultivated society made him
seek for happiness abroad rather than at
home His genius made him a peer OF
the highest land, but his wife remained
the same plain person who had shared
and solaced his early poverty and OBJ
scurity. He became social lion, whom
princes and mobiles delighted to honor
her duties, as the mother of nine child
rem, kept her at home, and she vas thus
prevented from cultivatiDg the graces
and acquiring the manners which would
have fitted her for the aristooratio society
in which her husband found both his
tas'e and his vanity 2ratided.
Life has been said TO be comedy to
those who think and a tragedy 10 those
who feel; surely when Byron's life was a
profound tragedy, for of all the sons of
mas few have felt more deeply than the
author OF Manfred His noble brow
was often darkeDed by a scowl, his classic
mouth was often disfgursd by sheer,
but his heart was never deau 10 affection.
He never turrod with cold Indifference
from sorrow and suffering, whether that
of 3 nation or that of an individual In
an unfortunate moment he married a
woman whose cold heart never res ponded
to his love, aud whose mathematical mind
could not appreciate his generous enthus-
iasm. In this one year of married life
he endured a lifetime OF misery; and
then, without warning and assigning
no reason for her conduct his wife left
him, and not only refused to return, bat
would not answer his Letters, and declined
to listen to his attempts 10 effect recon
citation. She was morally responsible for
his subsequent Irregularities and early
death. II was a glorious dea.h, and a
worthy termination Of the most dazzling
literary career the world has ever known:
but Lady Byron was not the less guilty
for driving to an early grave one 50 GIT
ed and so unhappy.
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