Old Love Stories Retold — Story, Setting & Ideas

The Mocker's Household

Le Gallienne draws on Camille Selden's Last Days of Heinrich Heine to evoke the physical setting of Heine's final years: a fifth-floor apartment on the Avenue Matignon, with a narrow balcony, a striped awning 'such as appears in front of small cafes,' and a low couch behind a screen. This cramped, modest interior becomes a stage for the central tension. Selden, a 'blue-stocking' whom Heine nicknamed 'la Mouche,' held a poor opinion of Madame Heine, yet Le Gallienne notes that the poet never laughed at his wife—only at the pretensions of her rival. The essay repeatedly returns to the idea that Heine's laughter, which could mock everything in heaven and earth, stopped short of Mathilde.

Domestic Proofs

Le Gallienne offers specific evidence of Heine's attachment: a letter from Hamburg in 1823 giving careful directions for buying hats for his sister and niece, and the poet's serious interest when Mathilde wove a rug for his friend Lewald. These small, domestic details are presented as more telling than grand declarations. The essay also points to Heine's will, where he flattered his 'despicable cousin, Carl Heine' to secure Mathilde's inheritance. Le Gallienne argues that such practical acts—not literary effusions—demonstrate the worth Heine placed on his wife. The closing of Heine's letter—'I think only of thee, and I love thee like the madman that I am'—is offered as a counterweight to any notion that the marriage was merely convenient.

Faith Without Understanding

The essay's central claim is that the marriage worked because both partners loved 'by faith.' Le Gallienne acknowledges that Mathilde could not grasp Heine's significance—'his real significance must have been Chinese to her'—but insists that her simple goodness, her skill in ordering a household, and her willingness to nurse him were forms of wisdom. He contrasts her with the 'little literary prig' Camille Selden, arguing that Heine wisely avoided marrying an 'encyclopedia' or a 'university degree.' The final paragraphs shift to a general reflection: men of genius, Le Gallienne suggests, often prefer women who are 'just women,' because they understand that motherhood and domestic art are more 'wonderful' than intellectual companionship. The essay stops short of claiming that Mathilde was Heine's intellectual equal, but it insists that her role was neither trivial nor contemptible.

Readers should note that this text is a single chapter from a larger collection of love stories about famous figures. Le Gallienne's method is to select a few telling details—a letter, a will, a rival's memoir—and build an argument around them. The essay does not provide a full chronology of Heine's life or a balanced portrait of Mathilde; it is a deliberate, opinionated interpretation. Those interested in the primary sources may wish to consult Heine's letters and Camille Selden's memoir to weigh the evidence for themselves.

That grey afternoon, Heine’s mockery of Mathilde felt less cruel and more lonely—his words building a fortress she never tried to enter, and her love waiting quietly outside. Later, drifting through Other Things Being Equal — Story, Setting & Ideas, I remembered that same lopsided whisper, where devotion and intellect talk past each other, and the room stays warm anyway.