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Wordsworth's Poetical Works, Volume 2: 1802

Edited by William Knight

1896

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12145/12145-h/Wordsworth2f.html#section75

To Toussaint L'Ouverture

Composed August, 1802.—Published 1807A

The Poem

text variant footnote line number Toussaint, the most unhappy man of men! Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough Within thy hearing, or thy head be now Pillowed in some deep dungeon's earless den;— O miserable Chieftain! where and when Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow: Though fallen thyself, never to rise again, Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies; There's not a breathing of the common wind That will forget thee; thou hast great allies; Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and man's unconquerable mind.

Note Contents 1802 Main Contents

1

2 B

C

5

10

Variant 1: 1827 Whether the rural milk-maid by her cow Sing in thy hearing, or thou liest now Alone in some deep dungeon's earless den,

1803 Whether the all-cheering sun be free to shed His beams around thee, or thou rest thy head Pillowed in some dark dungeon's noisome den,

1815 Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough Within thy hearing, or Thou liest now Buried in some deep dungeon's earless den;—

1820 return

Variant 2: 1807 ... Yet die not; be thou Life to thyself in death; with chearful brow Live, loving death, nor let one thought in ten Be painful to thee ...

1803 return

Footnote A: But previously printed in The Morning Post of February 2, 1803, under the signature W. L. D.—Ed. return to footnote mark

Footnote B: Compare Massinger, The Bondman, act I. scene iii. l. 8: 'Her man of men, Timoleon.' Ed. return

Footnote C: Compare Rowe's Tamerlane, iii. 2: 'But to subdue the unconquerable mind.' Also Gray's poem The Progress of Poesy, ii. 2, l. 10: 'Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame.' Ed. return

Note: François Dominique Toussaint (who was surnamed L'Ouverture), the child of African slaves, was born at St. Domingo in 1743. He was a Royalist in political sympathy till 1794, when the decree of the French convention, giving liberty to the slaves, brought him over to the side of the Republic. He was made a general of division by Laveux, and succeeded in taking the whole of the north of the island from the English. In 1796 he was made chief of the French army of St. Domingo, and first the British commander, and next the Spanish, surrendered everything to him. He became governor of the island, which prospered under his rule. Napoleon, however, in 1801, issued an edict re-establishing slavery in St. Domingo. Toussaint professed obedience, but showed that he meant to resist the edict. A fleet of fifty-four vessels was sent from France to enforce it. Toussaint was proclaimed an outlaw. He surrendered, and was received with military honours, but was treacherously arrested and sent to Paris in June 1802, where he died, in April 1803, after ten months' hardship in prison. He had been two months in prison when Wordsworth addressed this sonnet to him.—Ed.

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-Le 20 mai 1802, est proclamée la loi relative à la traite des Noirs et au régime des colonies.
+Wordsworth's Poetical Works, Volume 2: 1802
-Au nom du peuple français, Bonaparte Premier Consul proclame le décret suivant, rendu par le Corps législatif le 30 floréal An X conformément à la proposition faite par le gouvernement le 27 dudit mois, communiqué au Tribunat le même jour
-Décret
-Article Ier - Dans les colonies restituées à la France en exécution du traité d'Amiens, du 6 germinal An X, l'esclavage sera maintenu conformément aux lois et règlements antérieurs à 1789.
+Edited by William Knight
-Il - Il en sera de même dans les autres colonies françaises au-delà du cap de Bonne-Espérance.
-- La traite des Noirs et leur importation dans lesdites colonies, auront lieu, conformément aux lois et règlements existants avant ladite époque de 1789.
-IV -Nonobstant toutes lois antérieures, le régime des colonies est soumis, pendant dix ans, aux règlements qui seront faits par le gouvernements .
-Decrès, ministre de la marine et des colonies
-Archives départementales de la Guadeloupe
+http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12145/12145-h/Wordsworth2f.html#section75
-Documents microfilmés
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Page 188
-chief. The following letters, written by him at the beginning of the campaign, may serve to illustrate and confirm these observations, and may conduce to the reader's acquaintance with the character of our hero.
+To Toussaint L'Ouverture
-"LIBERTY.        "EQUALITY.
+Composed August, 1802.—Published 1807A
-"The Governor-General to General Dessalines, Commander-in-chief of the army of the West.
-HEADQUARTERS GONAÏVES, Feb. 8, 1802.
-        "There is no reason for despair, Citizen-General, if you can succeed in removing from the troops that have landed the resources offered to them by Port Republican. Endeavor, by all the means of force and address, to set that place on fire; it is constructed entirely of wood; you have only to send into it some faithful emissaries. Are there none under your orders devoted enough for this service? Ah! my dear General, what a misfortune that there was a traitor in that city, and that your orders and mine were not put into execution.
-        "Watch the moment when the garrison shall be weak in consequence of expeditions into the plains, and then try to surprise and carry that city, falling on it in the rear.
-        "Do not forget, while waiting for the rainy season which will rid us of our foes, that we have no other resource than destruction and flames. Bear in mind that the soil bathed with our sweat must not furnish our enemies with the smallest aliment. Tear up the roads with shot; throw corpses and horses into all the fountains; burn and annihilate everything, in order that those who have come to reduce us to slavery may have before their eyes the image of that hell which they deserve.
+The Poem
-"Salutation and Friendship,
-(Signed) "TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE."
+text	variant	footnote	line number
+Toussaint, the most unhappy man of men!
+Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough
+Within thy hearing, or thy head be now
+Pillowed in some deep dungeon's earless den;—
+O miserable Chieftain! where and when
+Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou
+Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow:
+Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
+Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
+Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
+There's not a breathing of the common wind
+That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
+Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
+And love, and man's unconquerable mind.
-"Toussaint L'Ouverture, Governor of Saint Domingo, to Citizen Domage, Brigadier-General, commanding the district of Jérémie.
-HEADQUARTERS, SAINT MARC, the 9th of Feb., 1802.
+Note
+Contents 1802
+Main Contents
-        "I send to you, my dear General, my aide-de-camp, Chancy.
-Page 189
-He conveys to you the present communication, and will tell you from me what I have charged him to make known to you.
-        "The whites of France and of the Colony, united together, wish to take away our liberty. Many vessels and troops have arrived, which have seized the Cape, Port Republican, and Fort Liberté.
-        "The Cape, after a vigorous resistance, has fallen; but the enemy found only a city and country of ashes; the forts were blown up, and everything has been burnt.
-        "The town of Port Republican was surrendered to them by the traitor Agé, as well as Fort Bizoton, which yielded without striking a blow, through the cowardice and the treachery of Bardet. The General of Division, Dessalines, at this moment maintains a cordon at Croix des Bouquets; and all our other places are on the defensive.
-        "As Jérémie is very strong through its natural advantages, you will maintain yourself in it, and defend it with the courage which I know you possess. Raise the laborers in a mass, and infuse into them this truth, namely, that they must distrust those who have received proclamations from the whites of France, and who secretly circulate them in order to seduce the friends of liberty.
+B
-        "I have ordered Laplume, Brigadier-General, to set on fire the City of Cayes, the other towns, and all the plains, in case he is unable to withstand the enemy's force, and then all the troops of the different garrisons, and all the laborers should go to Jérémie to augment your band. You will take measures with General Laplume, for the due execution of these things. You will employ the women engaged in agriculture in making depôts of provisions in great abundance.
-        "Endeavor as much as you can to send me news of your position. I reckon entirely on you, and leave you absolutely master, to do everything in order to save us from the most frightful yoke.
-"Wishing you health,
-"Salutation and Friendship,
-(Signed) "TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Toussaint Louverture 1795
-A Warning to Rebels
-Source: Victor Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture. Paul Ollendorf, Paris, 1889;
-Translated: for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor.
-The war in Saint-Domingue was really many wars, with rebel blacks, mixed-bloods, whites, and English and Spanish troops uniting in a dizzying number of combinations against the French or each other. In February 1795 Toussaint’s French troops prepared to attack a group of rebels in the area of Artibonite. He issued the following warning.
-In the name of the French people, Toussaint-Louverture, commanding General of the cordon of the West and the army of the French republic, to the French in a state of error camped on the Motet habitation.
-Frenchmen, the tocsin is sounding. Arise, return from the too fatal errors in which you were plunged. The occasion is offered to you for the last time. The irons of the despot of England are not made for you; take up again your dignity as French citizens, take up again your national character. The heroic trumpet must have taught you of the great feats of your fatherland, which has covered itself with glory in the eyes of the universe. I have been sent by Laveaux, Governor General of this colony, to bring you words of peace. If, cured by time and experience, you will return to the humane laws of the Republic, just say the word and nothing will be forgotten in preserving you from the deplorable fate that awaits you if you persist in your horrible rebellion.
+C
-I exhort you to return to the fatherland, in the name of the Governor General. Like all republicans, I am animated by the ardent desire to find only brothers and friends wherever I march the troops confided to my command. Humanity is one of the sacred obligations that will make us surpass all the other peoples. Saving brothers from their straying and lending them a helping hand also enters into our principles.
-Let your property not cause you to hesitate in becoming French again; they will be sheltered from any attack, and I vow that the law will executed against anyone who makes the least attempt on it.
-In keeping with these words from the heart, I call upon you, in the name of the Republic, to rally to me within the hour. Once this time has expired, I shall deploy force against you, and I will be victorious. But I declare to you that in forcing me to this violent measure all prisoners, without any distinction, will then be run through with the sword.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Page 234
-kind. Regret not the president's chair, left vacant in thy beloved mother country, nor let men's ingratitude and perfidy sour thy feelings. From high motives thou wroughtest for a high purpose; and that purpose, though not in thine own way, will be attained. Be greater, by patience in the day of thy weakness, than thou wast in the day of thy power by thy valor; and thy name will pass down to posterity, encircled with undying fame. Listen to that solemn voice in thine own heart which tells thee that Hayti will be free.
-        On the voyage, Toussaint was denied all intercourse with his family. He was confined constantly to his cabin, and the door was guarded by soldiers with fixed bayonets. Uncertain as to his fate, yet apprehensive of a very dark future, he determined to make a solemn appeal to Bonaparte, and prepared the following epistle:--
+Variant 1:
+
+Whether the rural milk-maid by her cow
+Sing in thy hearing, or thou liest now
+Alone in some deep dungeon's earless den,
+Whether the all-cheering sun be free to shed
+His beams around thee, or thou rest thy head
+Pillowed in some dark dungeon's noisome den,
+Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough
+Within thy hearing, or Thou liest now
+Buried in some deep dungeon's earless den;—
+return
+Variant 2:
+
+... Yet die not; be thou
+Life to thyself in death; with chearful brow
+Live, loving death, nor let one thought in ten
+Be painful to thee ...
+return
+Footnote A:   But previously printed in The Morning Post of February 2, 1803, under the signature W. L. D.—Ed.
+return to footnote mark
+Footnote B:  Compare Massinger, The Bondman, act I. scene iii. l. 8:
+'Her man of men, Timoleon.'
+Ed.
+return
+Footnote C:   Compare Rowe's Tamerlane, iii. 2:
+'But to subdue the unconquerable mind.'
+Also Gray's poem The Progress of Poesy, ii. 2, l. 10:
+'Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame.'
+Ed.
+return
+Note:   François Dominique Toussaint (who was surnamed L'Ouverture), the child of African slaves, was born at St. Domingo in 1743. He was a Royalist in political sympathy till 1794, when the decree of the French convention, giving liberty to the slaves, brought him over to the side of the Republic. He was made a general of division by Laveux, and succeeded in taking the whole of the north of the island from the English. In 1796 he was made chief of the French army of St. Domingo, and first the British commander, and next the Spanish, surrendered everything to him. He became governor of the island, which prospered under his rule. Napoleon, however, in 1801, issued an edict re-establishing slavery in St. Domingo. Toussaint professed obedience, but showed that he meant to resist the edict. A fleet of fifty-four vessels was sent from France to enforce it. Toussaint was proclaimed an outlaw. He surrendered, and was received with military honours, but was treacherously arrested and sent to Paris in June 1802, where he died, in April 1803, after ten months' hardship in prison. He had been two months in prison when Wordsworth addressed this sonnet to him.—Ed.