Passion and criminality in France : a legal and literary study

Front matter

Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School

PASSION AND CRIMINALITY

BY

Preface

The study of Crime as determined by Passion is forced upon the attention of Moralist and Magistrate alike by the large number of victims, active and passive, it is responsible for from year to year. Love, which occupies so considerable a place in Life and Literature, claims ever more and more importance in the Annals of Crime and the Statistics of Suicide. While Poets and Novelists extol the beauties and virtues of Love, it is the shame and despair and criminality incident to the same passion that Magistrates have every day occasion to note. What is it but Passion that drives so many men desperate, turns so many into madmen or murderers ? What else is it brings so many unfortunate and guilty beings to the Morgue, the Madhouse, and the Criminal Assize ? In Love's dramas, which may so easily become dramas of the Law Courts, we may say with Racine :

" Partout du désespoir on rencontre l'image, On ne voit que des pleurs et l'on n'entend parler Que de troubles, d'horreurs, de sang prêt à couler."^

(BÉRÉNICE.)

If Poets do well to represent happy love under the lineaments of a young and lovely woman, full of life and joy, not less faithfully may Students of Crime portray unhappy love in the guise of a dread Fate holding the Shears, or a Fury with brandished sword in hand. In ver)^ deed Love makes many self-immolated victims, — by drowning and charcoal fumes, by the rope and the pistol. Love has ruined many a iine intellect and broken many a heart. Moreover, where unhappy lovers do not resort to

^ "Everywhere v/e meet the image of despair; naught is seen but tears, naught spoken of but grief and horror and blood about to flow."

VI PREFACE.

suicide, or go mad, or die of chagrin, it is no uncommon thing to see them kill the object of their affections. Who shall count the cups of poison, the dagger thrusts and revolver shots Love is responsible for? — who reckon up the vitriol thrown under its promptings and the nooses it has tied ?

It is no mere collection of crimes of passion I propose to compile ; my subject is the Psychology of the lover whom passion drives into crime, of the mistress whom desertion drives into despair, of the man whom jealousy or a mistaken sense of honour makes a murderer, or disappointed love a suicide. These studies do but sum up the long series of observations I have made, both on the Bench and in my Chambers as a Juge d'instruction and Procureur de la République, where I have enjoyed so many opportunities of cross-questioning those accused of crimes arising from passion, of studying their character and the motives of their aberrations, of reading the documents left behind by suicides, or composed by murderers in their own defence.

Not a io.^ difficult problems of psychology and moral responsibility are involved in suicide and crime, the results of outbreaks of passion. How many questions must needs arise from the study of those emotions which lead so many thousands of men and women, young men and maidens, to madness, suicide and crime !

How comes it that affection may turn to hate, and lovers become the bitterest foes, — that the transition is so easy from love to loathing, from the transports of the most exalted tenderness to the frenzies of the most savage anger? How is it so fond a feeling may grow so cruel and lead to the commission of so many barbarous murders by poison and strangulation, and the infliction of such appalling wounds ? Whence comes the cruelty of love and the ferocity of jealousy ? Why does the jealous lover strike the very woman he adores ? Why does he pierce with dagger thrusts the very bosom on which he has lain, and disfigure the very features he has just been covering

PREFACE. VU

with kisses ? Why does the woman whom her lover has deserted burn out the eyes that moved her soul to love, and send a bullet through the heart she was so fain but now to feel beating beneath her hand? How is it love may grow so venomous as to put knife and pistol into the hand of lovers and husbands, who after having sworn eternal affection, tear each other's eyes out at the domestic hearth, and in the very conjugal bed ? Why does this passion, capable as it is of producing heroes, so often manufacture only cowards and murderers ?

To end our string of questions, why does love if unrequited make people so unhappy they must needs kill themselves ? How is it that lovers, who might very well live together, prefer to die together ?

Such are the chief psychological problems I propose to study. It appears to me to be an inquiry not devoid of utility to investigate why love, which should serve as the foundation of society and family life, so often becomes a malignant power, destructive alike of the family and of society.

I hope further that this study of crime as determined by passion, indispensable as it is to the student of Morals and Criminality, may also be found interesting by the Critic of Literature, whose delight it is to verify in the great Tragic poets the exact portrayal of the passions of humanity. The object of the Stage being the entertainment of the spectator by an imitation of life and a mimic representation of its passions, the depicting of Love, its aberrations and its crimes, is the main thing aimed at. There are few Tragedies that do not contain murders and suicides from love. In the A ndromaçue for instance there is a murder, that of Pyrrhus, and two suicides, those of Oreste and Hermione. In Bajazet there are three murders, — of Bajazet himself, of Roxane, and of Orcan, and a suicide, that of Atalide. It is a regular butchery. Most of the heroes of the Stage are really Criminal Court heroes. Literature copies Crime, — the crime of passionate outbreaks, just as Crime of the same type copies Literature. To ascertain therefore whether

VIU PREFACE.

the literary portrayal of crime and passion is faithful or no, it is no idle task to compare the love-sick murderers of the boards with those that appear at the bar of the Assize Courts. While determining the Psychology of the " woman scorned," of the jealous lover and murderer, I intend to inquire concurrently how far my judicial observations coincide with the characters of Hermione, Roxane, Phèdre, Médée, Cléopâtre, Oreste, Pyrrhus, Mithridate and other heroes of the great Classical Drama of France.

It has been maintained by some that it is useless to look for psychological truth in Dramatic poetry : " Shall we never learn," writes M. Stapfer, " Philistines that we are, vain professors of Morals and History, to taste poetry in its pure state, in all its complete and unsophisticated absurdity? " This Critic admires the poetry Corneille has put into the rôle of Cléopâtre, while holding at the same time that the character is false, and that no trace of human verity is to be found in the part. I am of a diametrically opposite opinion, and believe the chief beauty of Corneille's and Racine's plays to consist in the psychological verisimilitude of the characters they draw.

In the course of the present study, I shall frequently have occasion to show that Corneille's psychology is no less acute and delicate than Racine's. Corneille is not only a Politician and a Philosopher, he is a Psychologist to boot, and one of the most perspicacious. He is stinted of his due meed of praise by such as are content to admire the vigour of his thought and the splendour of his verse, complaining the while of the coldness of his delineations of Love. Corneille possessed the heroic spirit, but he united with it the tenderest of hearts, and this tenderness he has instilled into his Tragedies. "What greater tenderness," says a good judge. La Bruyère, "can there be than that lavished in the Cid, in Polyeucte and in the Horaces ? " The Critics are wrong, I maintain, and specially so M. Larroumet, in attributing to Racine exclusively the gift of portraying passionate love ; we find it in Corneille too, equally precise and equally faithful, and it may be, con-

PREFACE. IX

joined with an even more penetrating analysis. Racine is not invariably as soft and tender as they make out, and Corneille is more tender and more passionate than he is described. He married for love at a time when Racine contracted a union of mere convenience. The poet of reason and high heroism, he showed himself less reasonable than his rival, and succumbed to new passions at a mature age ; his head was ever ready to be turned by love. I shall show by means of numerous examples borrowed from some of the less well-known pieces of Corneille that every shade and delicacy, every refinement and subtlety, of Passion has been described by him with an admirable truth and precision unsurpassed by Racine himself.

Those cries of love, anger and revenge that Corneille and Racine put in the mouths of their dramatis personœ are not mere " authors' stuff," but veritable exclamations of Mother Nature ; so true are they to life that I have often heard the very same in the mouths of persons accused of crimes of passion. By virtue of the resemblances I shall bring out between the dramas of Literature and those of the Law Courts, the fact will once more be made manifest that the first and highest quality of genius is psychological verisimilitude. After all that Commentators have written on the Drama of Corneille and Racine, I trust this new light thrown on them by the reports of the Criminal Courts will not be without its interest. It will be seen that simple Nature suggests to the desperate or jealous lover, to the forsaken mistress and the wronged husband, though entirely lacking in intellectual culture of any sort, cries of passion bearing an astonishing likeness to those of Hermione, Médée, Roxane and Phèdre, of Oreste and Othello, in the plays. Their exclamations of grief and love bear a simpler, a less elegant form, it is true, but also not unfrequently one impressed with a more striking and tragic note, from the very fact that they are not, as in plays and romances, overlaid with a flood of rhetorical embellishment. I shall quote numerous examples of this, all proving how untrue is the criticism of Schlegel on Racine, when he h

X PREFACE.

writes : " The essence of Racine's muse was gallantry ; the major part of his Tragedies were composed merely to depict loveable, and above all, loving women." The essence of Racine's muse was Love, which is ever the same at bottom among small and great alike ; his heroines are not invariably loveable and loving women such as Bérénice or Aricie ; some of them are fierce and passionate beings, a prey to all the pangs of love and jealousy, such as Hermione, Roxane or Phèdre.

But side by side with the Drama of Corneille and Racine, which is a school of Psychology, exists a Literature of sentiment and the senses, which glorifying passion, suicide and crime, its results, is a veritable school of sensuality, ever teaching the pernicious lesson that suicide and crime are justified as flowing from an overmastering emotion. I intend in the following pages to bring home the responsibility resting on this class of Literature by a record of the suicides and crimes, literary, romantic and naturalistic, due to its evil influence.

Contents

Translator's Foreword Preface

Chapter I. Suicide As Determined By Passion

The disease of Love : loss of sleep and appetite Melancholia, wasting maladies ; the Poet Millevoye's lost bride Loss of the power of work .....

Observations of Theocritus, Virgil, Goethe, Alfred de Musset Origin of the pains of disappointed Love : craving after union accord

ing to St Thomas, Bossuet ....

Plato's myth : mankind androgynous .... A fixed idea, 2imoxovi's, possession ....

Exclusiveness of Love, and indifference towards friends and relations Love's illusions : idealization of the beloved object, effects of concen

trating the whole mind on one image Despair of unhappy Love .....

Grief due to the breaking off or postponement of a contemplated

marriage ......

Female suicides . . . .

Number of suicides due to passion ....

Other consequences of disappointed Love : intemperance, dissipation Religious vocations determined by disappointments in Love . Cases of suicide to escape an unwelcome marriage Suicide of mistresses wishing but unable to regain their reputation by

marriage ; suicide of courtesans Male suicides ; Love without respect . Causes of Love's blindness ; Love at first sight Love of women for men unworthy of their affection Love of men for unattractive women .

The age for Love

Suicide of young men ; of grown men .

Premeditated and unpremeditated suicide Repeated attempts at suicide .

Various means employed Fashion as affecting the methods chosen

Preoccupation with toilet displayed by women committing suicide Choice of place

Suicides from Love in the Country and in Pari Sentiments and opinions of Suicides and the writings they leave behind Physiological predispositions ......

I

5 6

7 II

17 19

20 21 23 25

27 28

34 35 36 36 38 39 41 42

44 46

47 49 50 xu

CONTENTS.

Chapter II. Double Suicide As Determined By Passion

The pain of separation .

Craving for reunion in the tomb

Cleopatra, Abelard, Olinde, Romeo

Preparations for double suicide

Psychical condition of lovers .

Double suicide of soldiers and their intended brides

Double suicide provoked by postponement of a contemplated marriage

Double suicide provoked by incomplete possession

Double suicide provoked by the sense of honour

Double suicide provoked by the opposition of relatives to a contem

plated marriage ......

Suicide and suggestions leading to it .

Double suicide of a married vvroman and her lover

Double suicide of a married man and his mistress

Instances of suicide suggested by the woman .

Instances of suicide suggested by the lover

Murder from jealousy under the pretence of a double suicide .

Causes of suggestion, liability to suggestion on the part of persons of

nervous temperament Suggestion of suicide between women Suggestion of suicide in alcoholic households, in households troubled

by jealousy ......

Execution of a double suicide, part played by each of the lovers Cases of the lover's surviving .....

Premeditation in cases of double suicide

54 55 56 58 61 62 64 64 65

67 71 72

73 74 77 78

Sq.

82- 83 84 85.

Chapter III. Hate An Incident Of Love

Examples of Love and Hate combined

The Homicidal Venus ......

Selfishness of Love ......

Love and Hate of the jealous husband, of the deserted wife . An exception .......

Love suicidal and Love homicidal ....

The Cruelty of desire, Exasperation of wounded self-love

Heroes and Heroines of Racine and Corneille

Part played by self-love in the violence of working men deceived in

Calumny resorted to against the woman who rejects advances Pride and vindictiveness of women ....

Explanations of Hate as incident to Love given by St Thomas, Pascal

and Plato .......

93 94 95 96

99 100

ICI

CONTENTS.

XIU

Love and Hate as exemplified by Hermione, Oreste, Othello, Roxane,

Médée, Pyrrhus ....... 102

Instances of crimes arising out of Love .... 104

Chapter IV. Seduction And Desertion

The grief of abandonment ...... 108

Desertion after promise of marriage . . . . .110

Desertion after pregnancy of the girl seduced . . . .111

Character of the woman who kills herself on desertion . . 112

Criticism of the character of Dido as described by Virgil . . 115

■Character of the woman who kills her deceiver on desertion . . 115

Eury of a woman who has been deserted against her seducer who

marries another woman . . . . .116

Vengeance of women deserted during their pregnancy . . 119

■Corsican girl's revenge , . . . . .120

l^efinements of revenge . . . . . .125

Female furies . . . . . . . .127

Hatred of rivals takes the form of a longing to disfigure them . 130

Premeditation in revenge . . . . . .131

Struggle between Hate and Love . . . . .132

Schlegel refuted . . . . . . .134

Psychological verisimilitude of the Tragedies of Racine and Corneille 135

Hesitations and changes of mind on the part of women preparing to

exact vengeance . . . . . .136

State of mind of avenging women, at the moment of committing murder,

and afterwards . . . . . . • ^37

Chapter V. Jealousy

Characteristics of jealousy .....

Brutality of the jealous husband ....

Cases where the wife forgives the jealous husband ; where she takes

an aversion to him .....

Suicide of women to escape the violence of a jealous husband Causeless jealousy ......

Jealous husbands who doubt the paternity of their children Moral jealousy determining suicide ....

Physical jealousy determining murder, mutilations

Abelard's jealousy ......

Retrospective jealousy ......

Jealous husband and his threats of death, presentiments of the mur

dered wife Jealousy in its paroxysm .....

142 144 144 145 145 146

147 147

149 150

XIV

CONTENTS.

Physiological condition of the criminal from jealousy at the moment of

perpetration of his crime Physiological condition of the woman .

Suicide of the murderer from jealousy : Othello, Orosmane, H^rmione Cases where the idea of suicide precedes that of murder Pretended double suicides ....

Jealousy between friends ; between father and son Feminine jealousy .....

Jealousy between lawful wife and mistress Jealousy of stepmothers ....

Suicide of jealous women ....

Women jealous of the friends, the books, the personal attractions of

her husband ......

Jealousy of women advancing in years

Jealousy without love ......

A daughter's jealousy towards her mother, parricide . Jealousy of fathers having criminal relations with their daughters Climate as conditioning the violence of jealous passion in Provence ;

in Italy ; .

in Spain ; ....

in the East . . . .

Character modified by jealousy

Number of crimes and offences due to jealousy

Cases where such crimes are premeditated ; unpremeditated

Attitude of mind before and after the commission of crimes of jealousy

152 153 154 155 156 156

158 160 160 161

Chapter VI. Adultery On The Part Of The Wife

Increase of adultery in France .....

Causes of adultery on the part of the wife :

§ I. Disproportion of age . . .

§ 2. Forced marriage .....

§ 3. Education disproportionate with the social position and

education of the husband § 4. Romantic sentimentalism . .

§ 5. Platonic love . • . . .

§ 7. Temperament ; Love of an old woman for a young man

Absence of the husband ; Opportunity . § 8. Music ......

§ 9. Pride of beauty, love of dress

§ 10. Bad advice ; Pleasure in corrupting others, wives ruined by

their mothers ; Fortune-tellers ; Adultery and piety § II. Intemperance . . . . .

§ 12. Faults on the husband's side ; Perils of the marriage night

183 187

195 201 202

CONTENTS.

XV

Hypocrisy of unfaithful wives .....

Their artful ruses ; husbands' credulity; threats of suicide ; divorce Wickedness and cruelty of unfaithful wives ...

Desertion of children ; maternal and filial love extinguished by adultery .......

Hatred of unfaithful wives towards the husband

Husbands spoken ill of to their children ; driven to suicide or murder ; parricides provoked by unfaithful wives ; abortion motives for the husband's murder Poisoning resorted to against the husband ...

Examples in Greece and at Rome ; in the Seventeenth Century in the present day .....

Modes employed in the execution of the crime ; complicity of the

lover ; the wife initiating the crime Jealousy on the lover's part, initiative taken by him ; double poisoning ......

A crime at Les Baux ; suicide of the husband ; Jacques in George Sand .......

Madness of the deceived husband ; flight of the unfaithful wife Expiation .......

Suicide of the unfaithful wife, prostitution Regrets on the part of the divorced wife . Death of Mme. Bovary .....

223 230

241 247 249 250

251 252

CHAPTER VII. ADULTERY ON THE PART OF THE WIFE {continued)

THE FORGIVING HUSBAND — THE AVENGING HUSBAND.

Discovery of adulterous relations ; credulity of husbands

The Forgiving Husband ......

Motives of forgiveness ; relapse of the unfaithful wife into fresh acts of adultery ; remorse on the wife's part ; confession The Avenging Husband ......

Conjugal honour ; examples from History of Marital vengeance ; misconception widely disseminated by books with regard to a husband's right to kill his wife ; divorce and Marital vengeance ; conclusion .......

256 259

Chapter VIII. Adultery On The Part Of The Husband

Inequality of the Law as between the Sexes . Consequences of adultery on the part of the husband Brutality of the profligate husband Crime of President d'Entrecasteaux Sensuality and cruelty ....

270 271

273 274

XV.l CONTENTS.

Adultery of the husband with a servant, a governess . Means employed in cases of murder between husband and wife Hypocrisy of the husband .....

Suicide of the forsaken wife .....

Suicide of the unfaithful husband .....

Revenge taken by the lawful wife

PAGE

276 277 278 279 279

Forgiveness extended to the husband, fierce anger against the mistress 280 Feminine rivalry . . . . . . .281

Quarrels, violence, suicide and murder incidental to "free unions"

Lovers more vindictive than husbands . . . 285

Blackmailing after the rupture of relations . . . 286

Chapter IX. Causes Of The Frequency Of Suicides And Crimes Arising Out Of Passion

Frequency of Crimes due to amorous passion .... 288 Increase in modern times of hate and the desire of vengeance . 289

Principal causes :

§ I. Excessive mildness on the part of Jziries . . . 290

Specially marked in the case of Parisian Juries ; Literary sophistries relating to crimes of passion, and their evil effects ; Undue influence exercised by the Counsel for the Defence ; Motives of this excessive mildness ; Perils of impunity ; Vitriol throwing contagious ; Habits of revenge; Corsican vendetta ; Severity of Swiss Juries . 291 § 2. Precocity of the y oiitig for suicide and crimes arising out of

amorous passion . . . . . • 3°^

Nervous susceptibility of young people ; Precocious alcoholism ; Theatre - going at too early an age ; Pornographic literature ; Corruption of young people by popular Libraries ; Social dangers of improper reading ; Ill-advised education, maternal indulgence . 304 § 3. Development of nevrosity . . . • • Z^O Causes of this development ; Predisposition of neuropathic persons towards suicide and crime arising out of amorous passion . . . . . ■ .312 § 4. Inadequate protection of women . . . . 313 Irresponsibility of the Seducer . . . • 3'3