Pantazi Ghica (; also known under the pen names Tapazin, G. Pantazi, and Ghaki;Călinescu, p.390, 515 15 March 1831 – 17 July 1882) was a Wallachian, later Romanian, politician and lawyer, also known as a dramatist, poet, short story writer, and literary critic. A prominent representative of the liberal current, he was the younger brother and lifelong collaborator of Ion Ghica, who served as Prime Minister of the Romanian Kingdom in 1866-1867 and again in 1870-1871. Pantazi Ghica began his political career as a participant in the Wallachian Revolution of 1848, a collaborator of the Romantic historian and activist Nicolae Bălcescu, and a member of the radical grouping headed by C. A. Rosetti. Although twice involved in the administration of Buzău County, Ghica lived much of his life in exile or in Bucharest, and was also a soldier for the Ottoman Empire during the Crimean War. After 1875, he was a prominent member of the National Liberal Party.
Generally seen as a mediocre writer, he was foremost noted for his associations with the literary figures Nicolae Filimon, Vasile Alecsandri, Dimitrie Bolintineanu, Alexandru Odobescu and Alexandru Macedonski, as well as for his extended polemic with the conservative literary society Junimea. Ghica's work and political convictions were criticized and often ridiculed by Junimist intellectuals such as Titu Maiorescu, Mihai Eminescu, and Ion Luca Caragiale. He is most likely one of the unnamed liberal politicians who are negatively portrayed in Eminescu's poem Scrisoarea a III-a.
Pantazi Ghica suffered from kyphosis. Notably, this physical defect is mentioned for satirical effect in Eminescu's poem and in Caragiale's autobiographical work, Din carnetul unui vechi sufleur.
Biography
Early life and revolutionary activities Pantazi was born into the Ghica family, a prestigious group of Phanariote hospodars and boyars in the Danubian Principalities, whose origins were Greek and Albanian.Neagu Djuvara, Între Orient şi Occident. Ţările române la începutul epocii moderne, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995, p.90-91. He was the twelfth of fifteen children born to Ban Dimitrie Ghica and his wife Maria Câmpineanu (a boyaress of the Câmpineanu family).Călinescu, p.381, 386 Ion, Pantazi, Temistocle and Maria Ghica were the only four children to survive into adulthood.Călinescu, p.381
Like his siblings, Pantazi Ghica studied at the Saint Sava College in Wallachia's capital.Călinescu, p.386 It was around that time that he befriended the poet Bolintineanu, who was twelve years his senior and by then already a friend of Ion Ghica.Călinescu, p.229 His mother later took him to France, where he is known to have been enlisted in a boarding house.Călinescu, p.387 Upon his return to Wallachia in 1847, together with his brother, Ghica was involved in the agitation leading up to the 1848 uprising, and became Bălcescu's secretary. Andrei Pippidi, "Acasă la Pantazi Ghica", in Dilema Veche, Nr. 164, March 2007 Before the revolution toppled Prince Gheorghe Bibescu and created a new administration, Bălcescu sent Pantazi Ghica as an agitator, in service to the revolutionary organization Frăţia. Ghica was assigned the task of spreading propaganda in the counties of Buzău and Prahova. A common Russian-Ottoman intervention quelled the rebellion in autumn of the same year, to reestablish the Regulamentul Organic government. Both Ghica brothers, like most other revolutionaries, were arrested and exiled from Wallachia.
Exile
The younger Ghica again settled in Paris, were his mother Maria was still residing. Following her death, he moved to Istanbul, joining his brother Ion (who was soon after offered protection by Sultan Abdülmecid I). Again in Paris by 1849, he became close friends with a group of Wallachian revolutionaries in exile, including D. Berindey, the physician Iatropolu, Alexandru Zissu and George Creţeanu; the five exiles signed a blood brotherhood pact.
Ghica attended high society meetings, and befriended a tenor at the Opéra National de Paris. He later claimed to have maintained close contacts with famous Parisian literary figures such as Alexandre Dumas and Alfred de Musset, and to have introduced them to Romanian culture—this was to be disputed by his Romanian adversaries, who noted that the account provided inaccurate details.Alexandru Odobescu, Scene istorice. Pseudo-cynegetikos, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1984, p.241-242. Reportedly, he also associated with literary critic Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, composers Daniel Auber and Fromental Halévy, and playwright Eugène Scribe. He probably studied for a while at the University of Paris' Law Faculty, but it is unclear whether he ever completed his education. His detractors later claimed that Pantazi Ghica had spent more time in the debtors' prison than among students, while Ion Ghica is known to have objected to his brother's lifestyle and to have asked Bălcescu to supervise him.
Around 1850, he fell in love with Camila de Fernex, who was related to the family of his French host, Aimé Guyet de Fernex. They were married in March 1852, when the Catholic Camila obtained a matrimonial dispensation from Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour, the Archbishop of Paris. Records of the events show that the matter of his marriage was only settled at the end of a long debate: the Romanian Orthodox Ghica had initially consented to have his children baptized Catholic, and then retracted his statement, leaving Archbishop Sibour to consent after obtaining a less compelling verbal agreement from him. The wedding ceremony took place at a Greek Orthodox church in Marseille.
The brothers Ghica returned to Bucharest separately during the late 1850s. Their arrival coincided with the outbreak of the Crimean War: Pantazi Ghica joined the Ottoman Army, serving as a Yüzbaşı in the Cossack Corps (part of the Imperial Guard). Decorated and promoted, he was again present in Bucharest as Russia was defeated and the Treaty of Paris allowed Wallachia to decide a new administration. Ion Ghica, who was promoted Bey of Samos Island in 1854, unsuccessfully applied for the office of Wallachian Prince during 1858, and later rose to ministerial offices.Călinescu, p.383
Prosecutor, lawyer and journalist
In 1856-1858, he was a prosecutor in Dâmbovița County, before starting a private practice as a lawyer on Bucharest's Podul Mogoșoaiei. Pantazi Ghica subsequently became one of the main liberal activists, and rallied with its most radical wing, that headed by Rosetti.Vianu, Vol.II, p.85, 347 This came at a time when Wallachia's united with Moldavia under the rule of Alexandru Ioan Cuza (proclaimed in 1859, and effected in 1862). Following Cuza's election in both countries, Ghica joined the civil service: he first replaced his friend George Crețeanu as inspector in the Ministry of Justice (April–September 1859) and department head in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (before 1860). He returned to his practice, and, in 1861, was a legal representative for people arrested during the anti-unionist riots in Craiova.Călinescu, p.391 In 1862, he was appointed attorney for the Ministry of Education.
In 1859, Pantazi Ghica joined Dimitrie Bolintineanu in editing the journal Dâmbovița, but, just a year later, his articles were the subject of a scandal, and he was arrested for allegedly breaking the ethics of journalism.Călinescu, p.341, 387, 388 He shared a cell with his colleague, N. T. Orășanu, a noted adversary of Carol's rule.Călinescu, p.341 He was also an associate of the writer Alexandru Odobescu, and, after 1861, collaborated on his monthly literary magazine Revista Română.Vianu, Vol.I, p.99-100 It was here that he published a critical review of Ciocoii vechi și noi, a novel by his friend Nicolae Filimon, which upset the latter (as a consequence, relations between the two soured). "Introductory note to Nicolae Filimon, Ciocoii vechi și noi, at the Bucharest Municipal Library; retrieved August 19, 2007 For a while during those years, Ghica edited two satirical magazine, Păcală (named in honor of the eponymous folk hero) and Scrânciobul.Adamescu, "Epoca lui Alecsandri. b"
In 1863, he went on a trip to Moldavia, where he notably visited his relative Cleopatra Ghica (married into the Russian Trubetskoy family). He was again involved in a trial for calumny, but he was able to prove that the incriminated article was not his. Ghica also took interest in the activities of Iacob Negruzzi, a Moldavian-born writer who arrived in Bucharest around 1865—it was Ghica who introduced Negruzzi to the Rosetti circle.Vianu, Vol.II, p.85 By the 1870s, he was also contributing articles to Rosetti's journal Românul.Ornea, p.293 During the same period, he began publishing his literary pieces in Revista Contimporană.Cazimir, p.150
In 1866, Domnitor Cuza was replaced with Carol of Hohenzollern. Apparently, Pantazi Ghica had played a secondary part in the conspiracy that toppled Cuza, as a local commander of the Citizens' Guard.Călinescu, p.387 Ghica was subsequently assigned the office of Buzău County prefect by the first of his brother's cabinets. The appointment was welcomed by Vasile Alecsandri, who was keeping a detailed correspondence with both brothers. However, his time in office was cut short, allegedly because he came to be disliked by Carol. He returned to the capital, where he purchased a villa on Cometei Street (the present-day Căderea Bastiliei Street), nearby Piața Romană. For a second time in eight years, he was exposed to public scrutiny for having failed to honor his debts: in 1868, his possessions in Buzău were sequestrated. Late in the year, he was Alecsandri's representative during a legal conflict with the peasants residing on his domain (after winning the trial, Alecsandri reciprocated by introducing Ghica to his friend, Minister of the Interior Mihail Kogălniceanu).Călinescu, p.388
Final years His new Bucharest residence became a meeting spot for literary figures. Ghica notably associated with the much younger Symbolist poet Alexandru Macedonski, who was also his neighbor.Adamescu, "Epoca lui Alecsandri. b"; Vianu, Vol.II, p.347 In 1875, Pantazi Ghica was witness to a scandal involving the Romanian Army and Ioan Emanoil Florescu, the Minister of War. That year, the officer Ioan Crainic, who considered himself insulted by Florescu, handed in his resignation from the military and challenged the Minister to a duel (asking Ghica to serve as both his courier and witness); the problems were eventually avoided after Florescu ordered his subordinates to arrest Crainic. At the time, Macedonski engaged in liberal politics, and, in 1876, co-founded the short-lived newspaper Stindardul, alongside Ghica, Bonifaciu Florescu, and George Fălcoianu.Vianu, Vol.II, p.347 The publication was inspired by the renowned journalist Nicolae Moret Blaremberg. Later, Ghica also published essays in Macedonski's newly founded and more prestigious magazine, Literatorul.Adamescu, "Epoca lui Alecsandri. b"; Ornea, p.301-302
He was for long a member of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, representing the "Red" liberal tendency and, late in life, the National Liberals. In June 1876, shortly after the first concentrated National Liberal cabinet came to power, he and Nicolae Fleva spearheaded the effort to prosecute the former "White" Conservative ministers. In opening the case, Ghica stated: "It wasn't just us who condemned those ministers, but public opinion in general, the entire country, cast a blame on them, and we are the expression of that blame".Bulei, p.26 The effort pitted Pantazi Ghica against his main literary rival, outgoing Education Minister Titu Maiorescu, who was called in for questioning.Bulei, p.29 The attempt to stage a trial was ultimately defeated by moderates in Ghica's own party, who ignored his vocal protests.Bulei, p.30