| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 5 June 1882 |
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LONDON
Cannes, 5 Juin[1] 1882
DEAR FRED,
ON 30TH MAY (pro Monte Carlo) my back last branded; on 31 ST MAY post-operative treatment confined me to the house; on 3rd June I was set free by Kunemann and left the same day. He advised me to stay in Cannes for a couple of days, whatever the circumstances, this be- ing essential if only to allow the wounds inflicted on me to 'dry out'.
Thus I have spent an entire month vegetating in this repaire[2] of aris- tocratic idlers or ADVENTURERS. Nature superb, in other respects a dreary hole; it is 'monumental' because consisting solely of hotels; no plebeian 'masses' here, apart from the garçons d'hôtels, de café, etc., and domestiques,[3] who belong to the Lumpenproletariat. The old rob- ber's lair on its rocky promontory surrounded on 3 sides by the bay, i. e. Monaco, was at least an ancient, crumbling, medieval sort of Italian townlet; on the other hand, Condamine, built for the most part low down by the sea, between the 'town' of Monaco and the maison de jeu[4] (i. e.Monte Carlo), and growing fast. Monaco is, IN THE STRICT SENSE, the 'polity', the 'state', the 'government'; Condamine is common- or-garden 'petty-bourgeois' society; but Monte Carlo is 'THEPLEASURE', AND, THANKS TO THE banque de jeu,[5] THE FINANCIAL BASIS OF THE WHOLE TRINITY. Odd that these Grimaldis should have turned out to be what they have always been; formerly, they lived off piracy and one of them,[6] F.I., wrote to Lorenzo dei Medici saying their territory was very re- stricted and, moreover, barren; hence Nature had pointed the way to buccaneering; it would therefore be magnanimous on Lorenzo's part, since they did not 'venture' to hunt down Florentine vessels, if he were to guarantee them an annual 'gratuity'. CONSEQUENTLY Lorenzo paid them a small annual fee.— After the HOLY ALLIANCE'S victory over Napoleon, Talleyrand, who, for his own diversion, had selected from amongst the émigrés that arch-blackguard, the ex-tyrant of Monaco,[7] to be one of the companions — Talleyrand, then, thought it amusing to 'restore' him, the father of'Florestan', au nom du principe de le légitimité'.[8] The restoration of these 2 men, this COUPLE — him of Hesse-Cassel[9] and him of Monaco — is worthy of a place in a new edi- tion of Plutarch[10] ; at the same time, what a contrast between the Ger- man 'patriarch' and the Genoese (his main preoccupation, financial loot)!
A grievance nursed in private by our Dr Kunemann is that, when already functioning as physician in ordinary to His Most Serene Highness, the present Charles III (blind as a bat), he (Kunemann) became unacceptable as a result of his liberal principles and had to make way for an Englishman (Dr Pickering). THE SURVIVAL OF THE BEST — i. e. as a little duodecimo tyrant's physician in ordinary — to a Britisher, of course, warranted by the nature of the beast! And that is the worst; this same Dr Pickering, before being called by natural se- lection, he had dangerously fallen ill at Monaco, was treated and cured by Dr Kunemann. There are many such piteous dramas of destiny in this world of ours!
Oddly enough, this hot weather has made my bronchial cough worse rather than better. All the greater 'pretext', of course, for catching cold! Kunemann, by the by, (and the fellow's a first-rate doctor, familiar with English, German and French medical litera- ture, a specialist in diseases of the chest and lungs) is not of your opinion regarding my journey back to Paris. I ought not, he says, to make it by easy stages; the weather is now hot and not only during the day, the nights, too, being warm. The most likely place to catch cold now, he avers, is at railway stations and the more often I break the journey, the greater the probability of rechutes';[11] rather, I ought, while in Cannes, to equip myself for the journey with 2 bottles of good old claret. Like Dr Stephann, he bases his view on the grounds that, in the treatment of pleurisy like that of bronchitis, etc., the stomach should be treated as the basis; eat well and amply even if it goes against the grain, and 'accustom' oneself to so doing; 'drink' 'decent stuff and go for drives, etc., to distract oneself, if not allowed to walk, climb, etc., much; think as little as possible, etc.
So, having followed these 'directions', I am well on the way to 'idiocy', and for all that have not rid myself of the bronchial catarrh.
A consoling thought for me is that it was bronchitis that sent old Garibaldi to his 'eternal rest'. Of course, AT A CERTAIN AGE it be- comes completely INDIFFERENT how one may be 'LAUNCHED INTO ETERNITY'.
I have been here since 3 June, and shall be leaving this evening. In Nice and, on this occasion likewise in Cannes, where it is exceptional, a strong (if warm.) wind and eddies of dust. Nature, too, can evince a cer- tain philistine humour (after the manner, already humorously anti- cipated in the Old Testament, of the serpent feeding on dust, cf. the dusty diet of Darwin's worms). Similarly, there is a vein of natural wit that runs all through the Riviera's local press. On 24 May, for in- stance, there was a terrible orage,[12] notably at Menton; lightning struck close auprès de la gare[13] (of Menton) and tore the sole off a passing phi- listine's shoe while leaving the rest of the philistine intact.
With love to all.
OLD Moor
I shall not [let] friends know about my presence in Paris until I've been there a few days. It is still necessary for me to have as little 'in- tercourse with people' as possible. I shall have a good doctor to consult in the person of Dr Dourlen.