Gibbon's Choice of Lausanne, 1783–94

G ibbon's C hoice o f Lausanne, 1783-94 P A T R IC IA C R A D D O C K zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUT In the eighteenth century, Lausanne, in the Pays de Vaud, Switzerland, was small, French-speaking, Protestant, picturesque, and healthful, but neither culturally, historically, nor scenically (before Alps and glaciers came in fashion) a center for tourists. Yet Edward Gibbon, English gentleman as well as historian of the Roman Empire, spent almost a third of his life there. His first stay in Lausanne (1753-58), beginning at the age of 16, was commanded by his father; Gibbon credited it with form­ ing his mind and character. His second (1763-64), intended by him as preparation for his Grand Tour of Italy, may have done as much to determine his subject as the famous inspiration on the ruins of the Capi­ tol.1 His third and longest stay represents a choice of life, in the Hercu­ lean or Johnsonian sense. Gibbon moved to Lausanne in 1783. His stay there was interrupted by a year’s stay in London (1787-88), but that was only a visit; he did not waver from his allegiance to Lausanne. Despite drastic changes in Lausanne in the nineties (persons and ideas that were refugees from the French Revolution, and the death of the friend with whom he shared his home), Lausanne, once chosen, remained Gibbon’s choice. He left his home there, planning to return, only a few months before his death in 1794. The two subdivisions of his life in Lausanne are remarkable not for their difference, however, but for their willed similarity. Gibbon and his 359 3 6 0 / C R A D D O C K zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA circle did not and could not ignore the French Revolution, of course. But they insistently preserved a way of life that valued literary and scientific culture, social gatherings and familial warmth, music, scholarly inquiry, and personal charities, in the face of a shaking world. Gibbon valued freedom, especially intellectual freedom, as one of the highest goods, but not at the cost of chaos. He never had anything favorable to say about mobs or anarchy. But his demand for a humanly created order grew stronger as he grew older: “You know he is Clockwork,” said his young English friend Maria Josepha Holroyd.2 In Lausanne he found a way of life that rational, pleasant people had apparently constructed and could apparently control, a created and ordered society that valued ritual, moderation, and dignity in its pleasures. Yet those who had created and lived this ritualized and rational way of life openly and passionately expressed personal feelings. The loss of a friend, the failure or success of professional goals, the birth or future of a child, demanded not reserve, but the dropping of the mask of social decorum. This pattern, so differ­ ent from that of England, was strongly preferred by Gibbon. In Lau­ sanne, he could mourn openly the death of his friend Georges Deyverdun , and even the loss of another “old and agreable companion,”3 the pleasurable task of writing the ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA D ecline and F all itself (the personification is Gibbon’s). Political historian though he was, he chose to live as though political issues were less significant to individuals than such private mat­ ters of joy and pain. The Lausannois appeared to share this perspective. The immediate cause of Gibbon’s relocation to Lausanne was the fall of Lord North’s government and the passage of Burke’s Reform Bill. During the writing of the first half of the D ecline and F all o f the R om an E m pire, Gibbon had been a Member of Parliament and had therefore been eligible for a seat on the Board of Trade, where he received an income commensurate with the life of a learned and sociable gentleman in London without being forced to take much time or energy away from his historical writing. Now he lost his seat, his patron lost his influence, and the Board itself was abolished. He was therefore forced to seek a less expensive way of life. Lausanne was less expensive than London, but there...