1792
France

Political events in France just before, during and after Wordsworth's stay

King Louis XVI had attempted to escape France in June of 1791, getting as far as Varennes before being stopped and returned to Paris. He became increasingly beleauguered during Wordsworth's stay, and on 10 August 1792, the Palace of the Tuileries, the royal residence in Paris, was stormed and the Swiss Guard massacred. The king and his family were imprisoned in the Temple. At the beginning of September around 2000 inmates of Paris prisons were massacred, ostensibly in response to external threats from a coalition of foreign powers including Austria and Prussia under the command of the Duke of Brunswick who intended to come to the aid of the king,. On 20 September, to everyone's surprise, the French revolutionary armies repulsed the armies of the Duke at Valmy, and the force retreated to the other side of the Rhine. On 22 September, the National Convention (effectively Parliament) declared the first French Republic and the abolition of the monarchy. On 10 December, the king was put on trial before the Convention. He was finally guillotined on 21 January 1793, shortly after Wordsworth's return to England.

Wordsworth's stay in France: November 1791 to December 1792

Wordsworth lands in Dieppe on 27 November, makes his way to Rouen, then takes the diligence (coach) to Paris, arriving on 30 November 1791.

Through Paris lay my readiest course, and there
Sojourning a few days, I visited,
In haste, each spot of old or recent fame,
The latter chiefly; from the field of Mars
Down to the suburbs of St. Antony (St Antoine),
And from Mont Martyr (Montmartre) southward to the Dome
Of Geneviève (The Panthéon). In both her clamorous Halls,
The National Synod (National Assembly) and the Jacobins,
I saw the Revolutionary Power
Toss like a ship at anchor, rocked by storms;
The Arcades I traversed, in the Palace huge
Of Orleans (The Palais Royal); coasted round and round the line
Of Tavern, Brothel, Gaming-house, and Shop,

He also visits the ruins of the Bastille, but is more impressed by LeBrun's painting of the Magdelene in the Carmelite Convent (now in the Louvre).

Where silent zephyrs sported with the dust
Of the Bastille, I sate in the open sun,
And from the rubbish gathered up a stone,
And pocketed the relic, in the guise
Of an enthusiast; yet, in honest truth,
I looked for something that I could not find,
Affecting more emotion than I felt;
For 'tis most certain, that these various sights,
However potent their first shock, with me
Appeared to recompense the traveller's pains
Less than the painted Magdalene of Le Brun,
A beauty exquisitely wrought, with hair
Dishevelled, gleaming eyes, and rueful cheek
Pale and bedropped with overflowing tears.

He leaves for Orléans on 5 December, but finds that Helen Maria Williams, for whom he has letters of introduction from Charlotte Smith, has already left the town a couple of days previously. He is nevertheless able to find himself a handsome apartment on the first floor of a house on the Rue Royale for £1 a month.

He writes to his brother Richard on 19 December:

My board ... is in the same house with two or three officers of the Cavalry and a young Gentleman of Paris.... Mrs Smith, who was so good as to give me Letters for Paris, also furnished me with one for Miss Williams, an English Lady, who resided here lately, but was gone before I arrived. This circumstance was a considerable disappointment to me... I have as yet no acquaintance but in the house, the young Parisian and the rest of the tables, and one Family which I find very agreeable, and with which I became acquainted by the circumstance of going to look at their Lodgings, which I should have liked extremely to have taken - but I found them too dear for me - I have passed [ ] of my evenings there.

Whilst in Orléans, he meets Annette Vallon, and they become lovers.

On 17 May, when he writes to William Matthews, he has already moved to Blois. He comments that day after day and week after week have stolen insensibly over my head with inconceivable rapidity since leaving Orleans, which implies that he moved at the end of March, or the beginning of April, presumably to follow Annette Vallon, herself a native of Blois. This would fit with her pregnancy coming to term at the beginning of December. As far as Matthews himself is concerned, he advises him not to despair: You still have hope that we may be connected in some method of obtaining an independence. I assure you I wish it as much as yourself. Nothing but resolution is necessary. The field of Letters is very extensive, and it is astonishing if we cannot find some little corner, which with a little tillage will produce us enough for the necessities, nay even the comforts of life.

Whilst in Blois, he meets Michel Beaupuy, who is, according to Wordsworth, the only one of the officers in the town in favour of the revolution. Their acquaintance is short: Beaupuy leaves with his regiment on 27 July, but during the intervening period, he clearly has a profound and lasting impact on Wordsworth's thinking, convincing him fully of the fundamental justice of the revolutionary cause.

He returns to Orléans with Annette, who is now expecting his baby, and begins making plans to return to England to see his two long poems (An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches) through the press, appointing M Dufour, Annette's landlord, to stand in for him at the christening of his child.

On 3 September he writes from Blois to brother Richard again. He tells him that he is pleased to hear that he (Richard) is now established in chambers in London, asks for £20, and informs him that I shall be in town during the course of the month of October and that I may perhaps be obliged to stay a few weeks in town about my publication - you will I hope .... find me a place for a bed.

It appears, however, that he did not proceed directly to London, probably leaving Orléans for Paris at the end of October and probably only quitting Paris at the beginning of December.

He writes later (The Prelude Bk 10 (1805) II. 190-2): Reluctantly to England I returned, / Compelled by nothing else than absolute want / Of funds for my support - A gloss was added to this interpretation of events later, however. The passage was changed to Dragged by a chain of harsh necessity, / So seemed it - now I thankfully acknowledge / Forced by the gracious providence of Heaven. Reasoning back to 1792, therefore, it would seem that Wordsworth later felt that necessity had in fact worked to save him from entering into a real commitment to the Revolution which would probably have involved him in significant difficulties, as the members of the party to which he showed most allegiance and affinity, the Girondins, were shortly to be imprisoned then sent to the guillotine by Robespierre,

On December 22 Dorothy Wordsworth writes to an unknown correspondent: ... William is in London: he writes to me regularly, and is a most affectionate brother. This is the only sentence of the letter which survives. One can only speculate what happened to the rest of it, and how it is dated.

It would seem that almost immediately on his return to England, he contacted Joseph Johnson with a view to publishing his two poems. This fact might suggest that he had met Mary Wollstonecroft in Paris, where she had arrived at the beginning of December. She was at the time working closely with Johnson 'editing, translating, authoring stories for children, and [making] voluminous contributions to the .... Analytical Review.' (MW)