BOOKS
Knight in she's clothing
SIMON RAVEN
First, the set-up. These Memoirs of the Chevalier d'Eon' are in truth nothing of the kind; they are a biography of the Chevalier written by Frederic Gaillardet and first published in 1836, a quarter of a century after d'Eon's death.
Gaillardet's excuse for labelling his book `Memoirs' was that he included a very large number of papers and letters (official and othenvise) which had been composed or received by d'Eon himself. As for the actual narrative, although Gaillardet originally claimed that 'each stone in the edifice is hewn from solid fact', and although he certainly based the bulk of it on the documents quoted, he was later brought to admit that a good part of it was merely his own surmise. What it comes to, then, is that we have here two strands, separate if closely intertwined: we are given a heavily documented account of the Chevalier's public services (though 'public' is hardly the word, as many of them were performed under the rose); and we are also offered the inventions and conjectures with which Gaillardet filled in the gaps.
What one might call the 'official' parts of the biography are constructed from papers which Gaillardet claimed to have found in the state archives and in the possession of the d'Eon family in Burgundy. Since no less a scholar than Dr Robert Baldick appears to accept the authenticity of these documents as they are here presented, we may be tolerably certain of the facti which emerge from them.
The most important are as -follows. D'Eon was undoubtedly a man (and indeed a brilliant swordsman), hut of feminine ap- pearance and uncertain sexual tastes. He could assume .female dress at need or at
pleasure, but most, if not all, of the shady
diplomatic work which he did for Louis xv in Russia and England was undertaken in male habit. Although this work was by and large well done, he was the victim of schem- ing noblemen and royal ingratitude, and was latterly condemned, for whatever reason (probably Louis xv's fear that he was about to be challenged to a scandalous duel which would have been fatal to the patrician challenger), to wear a woman's clothes for the rest of his life . . . this on pain of being
denied his pension, which was in any case cancelled by the revolutionary regime a few years later. But d'Eon remained obedient to his King : he continued as a woman until he died, in England and in poverty, at the age of eighty-three.
Clearly, such promising material invites embellishment, and this is eagerly provided by Gaillardet in his supplemental fictions. He tells us, for example, that d'Eon, while attending a court ball in lady's dress. aroused the royal randiness and was taken on some pretext to the King's bedchamber; where by chance he met and seduced the Pompadour ... who then went into hiding to await the King's arrival and to watch him fumble her rival and ravisher. His Majesty, it seems, enjoyed the joke against himself. immediately realised what a versatile agent d'Eon would make . . . and that was how it all began.
Good, cheerful stuff, which gets even better when d'Eon, proceeding to Russia dis- guised as 'Mademoiselle Lia de Beaumont. meets the future Queen of England. Sophia- Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Charlotte conceives a girlish crush for Lia which later becomes a passion for the revealed Chevalier . . . who was the real father of our own George iv. Hence the madness of George iii, and Louis xv's insistence that the Cheva- lier should pose as a woman ... to save the face of his royal brother. Ah well, how dearly one would like to believe it. It all reads rather like Frank Har- ris's celebrated scandals: there is the same plausibility of circumstance, instantly ink pugned by the same operatic absurdities of gesture and language. But what Harris had was compelling vigour, as well as great talent for pornographic detail; whereas Gaillardet. as a romancer, is limp and often mealy- mouthed. Still, he gets up some amusing con- frontations, and he has a memorable descrip- tion of the Tsarina Elizabeth sweating with booze and lust.
*Memoirs of the Chevalier d'Eon by Fred- eric Gaillardet translated by Antonia White with introduction and notes by Dr Robert Baldick (Anthony Blond 84s)
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