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diff --git a/37905.txt b/37905.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3c5bd7 --- /dev/null +++ b/37905.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7697 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Anglo-French Entente in the Seventeenth +Century, by Charles Bastide + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Anglo-French Entente in the Seventeenth Century + +Author: Charles Bastide + +Release Date: November 2, 2011 [EBook #37905] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ANGLO-FRENCH ENTENTE IN *** + + + + +Produced by Ian Deane, Ethan Kent, Josephine Paolucci and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + +THE ANGLO-FRENCH ENTENTE IN THE XVII CENTURY + +BY CHARLES BASTIDE + +[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO CALAIS] + + + + +THE ANGLO-FRENCH ENTENTE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + +BY CHARLES BASTIDE + + Even as a hawke flieth not hie with one wing, even so a + man reacheth not to excellency with one tongue. + + ASCHAM. + + +LONDON JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD +NEW YORK JOHN LANE COMPANY +TORONTO BELL & COCKBURN MCMXIV + +_Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, _Edinburgh_ + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Of late there have appeared on the literary relations of England and France +some excellent books, foremost of which may be mentioned, besides the now +classical works of M. Jusserand, Dr. A. H. Upham's _French Influence in +English Literature_ and Sir Sidney Lee's _French Renaissance in England_. + +The drift of the main argument set forth in those several volumes may be +pointed out in a few words. Up to the death of Louis XIV., France gave more +than she received; but, in the eighteenth century, England paid back her +debt in full. France, intended by her geographical position to be the +medium through which Mediterranean civilisation spread northwards, +continued by her contributions to the English Renaissance and the influence +of her literary models on the Restoration writers, a work that historians +trace back to Caesar's landing in Britain, Ethelbert's conversion to +Christianity, and the triumph of the Normans at Hastings. But ere long the +native genius of the people asserted itself. Thanks to a series of lucky +revolutions, England reached political maturity before the other Western +nations, and, in her turn, she taught them toleration and self-government. +The French were among the first to copy English broad-mindedness in +philosophy and politics; to admire Locke and Newton; and to practise +parliamentary government. + +To books that lead up to conclusions so general may succeed monographs on +minor points hitherto partly, if not altogether, overlooked. In the +following essays will be found some information on the life that Frenchmen +led in England in the seventeenth century and at the same time answers to a +few not wholly uninteresting queries. For instance: was it easy to journey +from Paris to London, and what men cared to run the risk? Did the French +learn and, when they settled in England, did they endeavour to write, +English correctly? Though the two nations were often at war, many +Englishmen admired France and a few Frenchmen appreciated certain aspects +of English life; how was contemporary opinion affected by these men? Though +England taught France rationalism in the eighteenth century, must it be +conceded that rationalism sprang into existence in England? when English +divines proved overbold and English royalists disrespectful, they might +allege for an excuse that Frenchmen had set the bad example. Hence the +importance of noticing the impression made by the Huguenots on English +thought. + +Since nothing gives a stronger illusion of real life than the grouping of +actual facts, extracts and quotations are abundant. They do not only +concern governors and generals, Cromwell and Charles II., but men of the +people, an Aldersgate wig-maker, a Covent Garden tailor, a private tutor +like Coste, and poor Themiseul, bohemian and Grub Street hack. + +The danger of the method lies in possible confusion, resulting from the +crowding together of details. But the anecdotes, letters, extracts from old +forgotten pamphlets, help to build up a conviction in which the one purpose +of the book should be sought. + +The history of the relations of France and England in the past is the +record of the painful endeavours of two nations to come to an +understanding. Though replete with tragical episodes brought about by the +ambition of kings, and the prejudices and passive acquiescence of subjects, +the narrative yields food for helpful reflections. In spite of mutual +jealousy and hatred, the two nations are irresistibly drawn together, +because, having reached the same degree of civilisation, they have need of +each other; whereas the causes that keep them apart are accidental, being +royal policy, temporary commercial rivalry, some estrangement too often +ending in war through the selfishness of party leaders; yet the chances of +agreement seem to grow more numerous as the years roll by; and the +unavoidable happy conclusion makes the narrative of past disunion less +melancholy. + +The fantastic dream of one generation may come true for the next succeeding +ones. Did Louis XIV. and William III. think that while their armies were +endeavouring to destroy each other in Flanders, and their fleets on the +Channel, some second-rate men of letters, a few divines who wrote +indifferent grammar, a handful of merchants and skilled workmen were paving +the way for peace more surely than diplomatists? The work of those +cosmopolites was quite instinctive: they helped their several nations to +exchange ideas as insects carry anther dust from one flower to another. +Voltaire was probably the first deliberately to use the example of a +foreign nation as an argument in the controversy which he carried on +against tradition and authority, and, in that respect, he proved superior +to his more obscure predecessors. + +It is a pleasure to acknowledge the help I have received while collecting +material. My thanks are due above all to M. Mortreuil of the Bibliotheque +Nationale, to whose unfailing kindness I owe much; and to M. Weiss, the +courteous and learned librarian of the Bibliotheque de la Societe pour +l'histoire du protestantisme francais. Nor shall I omit the authorities of +the Bodleian Library and the British Museum. I desire also to express my +thanks to Mr. W. M. Fullerton, Dr. F. A. Hedgcock, Mr. Frederic Cobb, MM. +Lambin and Cherel. + +I must add that the chapters on the political influence of the Huguenots, +that appeared some years ago in the _Journal of Comparative Literature_, of +New York, have been rewritten. + +To the readers of _Anglais et Francais du dix-septieme Siecle_ an +explanation is owing. If the original title is retained only in the +headlines, it is because, on the eve of publication, a book appeared +bearing almost the same title. They will, it is hoped, hail in the +short-lived Anglo-French _entente_ of Charles II.'s time, the forerunner of +the present "cordial understanding." + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + +INTRODUCTION v + +I. FROM PARIS TO LONDON UNDER THE MERRY MONARCH 1 + +II. DID FRENCHMEN LEARN ENGLISH IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY? 19 + +III. SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH WRITTEN BY FRENCHMEN 39 + +IV. GALLOMANIA IN ENGLAND (1600-1685) 62 + +V. HUGUENOT THOUGHT IN ENGLAND (FIRST PART) 77 + +VI. HUGUENOT THOUGHT IN ENGLAND (SECOND PART) 114 + +VII. SHAKESPEARE AND CHRISTOPHE MONGOYE 142 + +VIII. FRENCH GAZETTES IN LONDON (1650-1700) 149 + +IX. A QUARREL IN SOHO (1682) 167 + +X. THE COURTSHIP OF PIERRE COSTE, AND OTHER LETTERS 176 + +XI. THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE TRANSLATOR OF + ROBINSON CRUSOE, THE CHEVALIER DE THEMISEUL 207 + + INDEX 229 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +ON THE ROAD TO CALAIS (see p. 4) _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + +THE FORTUNE-TELLER, AFTER ARNOULT 36 + +A FRENCH COQUETTE AT HER TOILET-TABLE 66 + +THE DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH AS A LEADER OF FASHION 70 + +"L'ANGLAIS," POPULAR REPRESENTATION OF AN ENGLISHMAN, + _c._ 1670, AFTER BONNART 74 + +A SCHEME OF THE PERSECUTION 100 + +JEAN CLAUDE, THE HUGUENOT DIVINE 120 + +LOUIS XIV. DESTROYS HERETICAL BOOKS 140 + +"NOUVELLES ORDINAIRES DE LONDRES," NUMBER I 156 + +AT VERSAILLES, AFTER BONNART 164 + +THE FRENCH TAILOR, AFTER ARNOULT 168 + +PIERRE BAYLE, REFUGEE AND MAN OF LETTERS 204 + +JEAN-BAPTISTE COLBERT, MARQUIS DE SEIGNELAY, SECRETARY + OF STATE, 1690, AFTER MIGNARD 222 + + + + +ANGLO-FRENCH ENTENTE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FROM PARIS TO LONDON UNDER THE MERRY MONARCH + + +"The French," wrote Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "are the most travelled people. +The English nobility travel, the French nobility do not; the French people +travel, the English people do not." Strange as the fact appears, our +forefathers in the seventeenth century, even as in the eighteenth, wandered +over England as well as Spain or Italy, but they drew up their wills before +setting out. + +The nobility travelled little; only a royal injunction would cause a +gentleman to forsake Versailles; the ambassadors left with reluctance. But +there followed a suite of attaches, secretaries, and valets. One day, +Secretary Hughes de Lionne had a mind to send his son to London. The young +marquis was entrusted to the charge of three grave ambassadors; good +advice therefore he did not lack, and we must believe his journey was not +altogether distasteful as he was seen to weep when the day came for him to +return.[1] + +Next to official envoys stood unofficial agents, gentlemen who preferred +exile to a more rigorous punishment; lastly, mere adventurers. + +Not a few Frenchmen came over to England on business purposes. The Bordeaux +wine merchant, the Rouen printer, the Paris glovemaker, could not always +trust their English agents when some difficult question arose. Cardinal +Mazarin's envoy mentions in his dispatches the "numerous Bordeaux merchants +in London, some of whom are Catholics."[2] At the Restoration there existed +a kind of French Chamber of Commerce, and, as early as 1663, the +ambassadors extol the adroitness of one Dumas, who appears to have played +the part of an unofficial consul-general.[3] + +But there were travellers by taste as well as by necessity. Long before the +word _globe-trotter_ was added to the English language, not a few Frenchmen +spent their lives wandering about the world, to satisfy a natural craving +for adventure. Men of letters had been known to travel before Voltaire or +Regnard. Shall we name Voiture, Boisrobert, Saint-Amant, the author of +_Moses_, an epic ridiculed by Boileau? Saint-Amant celebrated his journey +in an amusing poetical skit in which he complains of the climate, the +splenetic character of the people, the rudeness of the drama. But most of +the travellers preferred to note their impressions in ordinary prose. Some +published guides. Those narratives enable us to find out how a Frenchman +could journey from Paris to London under the Grand Monarch. + +Then, as now, the travellers had the choice between the Calais and Dieppe +routes. According to their social status, they would set out in a private +coach, on horseback, or in the stage coach. The latter was not yet the +diligence, it was a heavy cumbersome vehicle "neither decent nor +comfortable," through the canvas cover of which the rain would pour.[4] It +took five days to go from Paris to Calais. As travelling by night was out +of the question, the traveller would put up at Beaumont-sur-Oise, Poix, +Abbeville, Montreuil. + +As soon as the traveller had passed the gates of the capital, his +adventures began. When the Swiss servant fell off his horse, every one +laughed because he received no more consideration than a "stout +portmanteau."[5] Then the roads were bad: the coach might upset or stick +fast in the mud. Dangers had to be taken into account as well as +inconveniences: in November 1662, Ambassador Cominges quaintly +congratulated himself upon avoiding "two or three shipwrecks on land," +meaning that there were floods between Montreuil and Boulogne.[6] Another +danger arose from the highwaymen who infested the country, and, in time of +war, no one dreamed of leaving the shelter of a fortress such as Abbeville +or Montreuil without getting previous information on the movements of the +enemy in Flanders or Artois.[7] + +A traveller will always complain of the inns; in the seventeenth century +they seem to have been of more than Spartan simplicity: "We were no sooner +got into our chambers," writes a distinguished traveller, "but we thought +we were come there too soon, as the highway seemed the cleaner and more +desirable place.... After supper, we retreated to the place that usually +gives relief to all moderate calamities, but our beds were antidotes to +sleep: I do not complain of the hardness, but the tangible quality of what +was next me, and the savour of all about made me quite forget my +supper."[8] + +The illustration "On the road to Calais," taken from a contemporary print, +gives a good idea of what an inn, the "Tin Pot" at Boulogne or the "Petit +Saint-Jean" at Calais, then looked like. The scene is dreary enough, in +spite of the picturesque bare-legged turnspit by the roaring wood-fire, the +furniture is scanty, there are draughts, and the litter lying about spells +slovenliness and discomfort. + +In such a place, one must be as wary of one's fellow-travellers as of the +rascally innkeepers. "One of the Frenchmen," Locke goes on to say, "who +had disbursed for our troop, was, by the natural quickness of his temper, +carried beyond the mark, and demanded for our shares more than we thought +due, whereupon one of the English desired an account of particulars, not +that the whole was so considerable, but to keep a certain custom we had in +England not to pay money without knowing for what. Monsieur answered +briskly, he would give no account; the other as briskly, that he would have +it: this produced a reckoning of the several disbursements, and an +abatement of one-fourth of the demand, and a great demonstration of good +nature. Monsieur Steward showed afterwards more civility and good nature, +after the little contest, than he had done all the journey before." + +Those were minor difficulties next to what the traveller had to expect who +was bold enough to cross the Channel. In 1609, Beaumont and Fletcher +mention not without horror "Dover's dreadful cliffe and the dangers of the +merciless Channel 'twixt that and Callis."[9] The passengers crossed on +what would appear now a ridiculously small bark, which belonged to the +English Post Office. The boat, pompously named "a packet-boat," attempted +the passage twice a week, but did not always effect it. Even when the sea +was calm the skipper had to wait for the tide before weighing anchor. If +the tide turned in the night, the passengers would set up in an inn +outside the walls of Calais because the gates closed at sunset, and, as +about the same time a huge chain was stretched across the harbour's mouth, +they were compelled to reach by means of a small cock-boat the bark +anchored in the roads. + +At last, the passengers being safely on board, the sails are set. Hardly +has the wind carried the packet-boat beyond Cape Grisnez when the swell +becomes uncomfortably perceptible. Nowadays we cross the Channel on fast +steamers, but progress which has given us speed has not done away with the +chief discomfort. Even as we do, so our forefathers dreaded sea-sickness. + +Locke, good sailor as he was, rather coarsely jests at his +fellow-traveller, the astronomer Roemer: "I believe he will sacrifice to +Neptune from the depths of his heart or stomach."[10] Those who have +experienced the sufferings of a bad passage will sympathise with the +Frenchman Gourville. "I went on board the packet-boat," he writes, "to go +to Dover; at two or three leagues out at sea, we were beset by a dead calm; +as I was very ill, I compelled the sailors to let down a small skiff not +ten feet long; and two of them having got into it with their oars, I had +trouble enough to find room; hardly had we rowed two leagues, when a gale +arose that scared my two sailors. I got to land nevertheless and, no sooner +had I drained a glass of canary, than I felt well again."[11] On coming +back, Fortune did not favour him. The North Sea that he had thus braved, +took her revenge. "I travelled post to Dover where I went on board the +packet-boat. The winds being against us, I felt worse than the first time, +and it took me three weeks to recover." + +The time of crossing varied considerably. "The Strait of Dover," wrote +Coulon, "is only seven leagues wide, so that with a fair wind one can cross +from one kingdom to the other in three hours."[12] But then the wind was +seldom fair. Generally it took twelve or fourteen hours to sail from Calais +to Dover. The passengers always had to take the unexpected into account. +"At 6 in the evening," Evelyn records in his _Diary_, "set saile for +Calais, the wind not favourable. I was very sea sicke. Coming to an anker +about one o'clock; about five in the morning we had a long boate to carry +us to land tho' at a good distance; this we willingly enter'd, because two +vessells were chasing us, but being now almost at the harbour's mouth, +thro' inadvertency there brake in upon us two such heavy seas as had almost +sunk the boate, I being neere the middle up in water. Our steeresman, it +seems, apprehensive of the danger, was preparing to leape into the sea and +trust to swimming, but seeing the vessell emerge, he put her into the pier, +and so, God be thanked, we got to Calais, tho' wett."[13] Thus delays were +frequent enough; for which fogs, contrary winds, and storms were chiefly +responsible. No one appears to have grumbled much at the loss of time: the +age was not one of quick travelling, and worse might befall a passenger +than tossing about the Channel on a cold night. Many a seventeenth-century +packet-boat met with the fate of the _White Ship_, when it did not fall +into the hands of unscrupulous privateers. Under the Protectorate, the +packet-boat was escorted by "a pinnace of eight guns";[14] but the +improvident Government of Charles II. left the merchants to guard their +ships as well as they might. + +Happy the passenger whose title, fortune, family connections or mere +impudence secured him a place on one of the royal yachts! He had nothing to +fear from the insolence or greed of the seamen, and instead of setting foot +on a filthy tar-bespattered deck, he found, according to the Duc de +Verneuil, "rooms which were admirably clean with foot carpets and velvet +beds."[15] + +But the traveller lands on English shores. Hardly has he left the boat when +the Custom-House officers are upon him. The alert and courteous officials +one meets with nowadays at Dover or Newhaven have little in common with +their predecessors of the Restoration. The latter were coarse, ill-clad +wretches bent on extorting from the travellers a pay that a needy +Government held back. Useless to add, that they readily succumbed to the +offer of a bribe. Even the Puritan Custom-House officers had been known +for a consideration to wink at a forged pass. "Money to the searchers," +observed Evelyn, "was as authentiq as the hand and seale of Bradshaw +himselfe."[16] + +When the Frenchman has got rid of these, he is confronted by the +harbour-master, who demands the payment of a licence to pass over seas. Nor +are his troubles at end: he needs must get the governor of the castle to +affix his seal to the pass. If that exalted personage is out with the +hounds, there is nothing to do but to await his return. There is not even +the expedient of visiting the town to while away the time. Dover, in the +seventeenth century, far from resembling the picturesque port we know +closely nestling in a hollow of the white cliffs, held altogether "in one +ill-paved street about a mile long" and lined with "tumbledown houses."[17] + +What about the castle? "Built upon a chalky rock, very lofty and looking +out to sea. It was formerly called the key to England, and, before cannon +came into use, was considered impregnable; but at the present time it is +used solely as a prison. It is placed too high for it to endanger any +vessel, and by land it could not withstand half a day's regular siege."[18] +The harassed traveller must needs bend his steps to an inn, probably the +French inn, kept by one Lefort and his capable wife.[19] + +Travellers never landed at Folkestone: it was then "a small poor-looking +town, inhabited by fishermen."[20] Skippers seldom preferred Rye to Dover, +which greatly puzzled Frenchmen. "Rye is built on a hill at the foot of +which is a pretty good harbour which might accommodate all kinds of ships; +but I cannot imagine why the haven is so neglected. I am sure the French or +the Dutch would make it a very convenient haven, being at the mouth of a +fine river. The port is blocked up by sandbanks, through the carelessness +and idleness of the inhabitants and the selfish disposition of some of +their neighbours, who have reclaimed from the sea a great part of the port +and turned it into enclosed lands. But that is the people's business and +not mine."[21] + +At last the Frenchman, all formalities being disposed of, is free to pursue +his journey. He may choose between a saddle horse or a coach. According to +Chamberlayne, the charge for a horse was threepence a mile, besides +fourpence a stage for the guide. The coach cost less: one shilling for five +miles.[22] In a few hours the traveller would reach Gravesend and there he +would take boat up to London Bridge. + +Coulon gives a slightly different route: Dover to Gravesend via Canterbury, +Sittingbourne, and Rochester; Gravesend to London via Dartford (spelt by +Coulon Datford). By the way, he copies a sixteenth-century guide-book, +Jean Bernard's _Traite de la Guide des Chemins d'Angleterre_ (1579).[23] + +Travelling is both easier and quicker than in France, but there are dangers +to look out for. "Take heed," cautions Jean Bernard, "of a wood called +Shuttershyll (Shooter's Hill) or the Archers' Hill, very perilous for +travellers and passers-by on account of the thieves and robbers, who would +formerly take refuge there." Even under the Merry Monarch, marauders lurked +about every main road. + +One of the guide-book writers, the Lyonnese Payen, has handed down to us a +very curious computation, which it is worth while to transcribe:-- + + +"TABLE OF THE ROADS, OF THE INNS AND THE EXPENSE TO BE INCURRED" + +"FROM PARIS TO ENGLAND" + + "_Dieppe_: 30 leagues. + Lodge at Place Royale and pay per meal, 20 sous. + _Rye_: 30 leagues. + Pay for the Channel crossing, 3 livres. + Lodge at the Ecu de France and pay for meal, 15 sous. + _Gravesend_: 30 leagues. + Pay by post, 9 livres. + Lodge at Saint Christopher's and pay per meal, 20 sous. + _London_: 10 leagues. + Pay by boat on the Thames, 10 sous. + Lodge at the Ville-de-Paris, at the Common Garden, + and pay for meal, 12 sous."[24] + +The _Ville-de-Paris_ was a French inn, and the landlord at the time was +one Bassoneau, as Claude Mauger records in his delightful dialogues.[25] + +M. Payen was a wise man; as he travelled without ostentation, he managed to +get from Paris to London spending about 26 francs or a little over. In +London, he could rent a room for four shillings a week. + +It is interesting to compare the above account with that of Fynes Moryson, +an Englishman writing some thirty-five years previously. Choosing the +longer route at a time when civil wars had made the roads round Paris +impassable, he took boat from Paris to Rouen, was three days going down the +river and paid the boatman "one French crown" or three francs. His meals +had cost him 15 sous in Paris, but he was charged only 12 for them in +Rouen, and the hostler told him that before the religious wars the price of +a meal was as low as 8 sous. Along the road the innkeepers asked 15 sous, +the price of the supper including lodging for the night. Yet, he exclaims, +"all things for diet were cheaper in France than they used to be in +England." From Rouen he rode to Dieppe and there took passage to Dover for +"one crown." Odd expenses he duly recorded: 10 sous for a "licence to pass +over sea" plus 5 sous gratuity to the officer; 10 sous "for my part in the +hire of a boat to draw our ship out of the haven." It took him fourteen +hours to sail to Dover. There he had to disburse sixpence for a seat in +the boat that carried the passengers ashore. The rest of the journey was +easy, though two little mishaps happened to him: in Dover he was taken into +custody on suspicion of being a papist and brought before the Mayor; on his +arrival in his sister's house in London, the servants sought to drive him +from the door, not one of them recognising in the dirty, ill-clad, lean +stranger the gentleman who had set out for his travels ten years +before.[26] + +Political changes have, as well as private misfortunes, obliged a great man +to travel under conditions which to the most humble would appear trying +enough. The details of Charles II.'s flight after the defeat at Worcester +are now known with the utmost accuracy. Extraordinary adventures, including +the episode of the famous Boscobel oak, brought the royal outlaw to the +little port of Shoreham in Sussex, where the captain of a brig bound for +Poole with a cargo of coal consented to take him over to France. On 25th +October 1651, about seven or eight o'clock, the tide came up and they set +sail. No sooner did the boat stand to sea than Charles began playing a +little comedy to avert suspicions. Drawing near the men, he told them he +was a merchant fleeing from his creditors, but with money owing to him in +France. He entreated them to induce the captain to sail for the coast of +Normandy, and made them a gift of twenty shillings. After feigning to +refuse, the captain ended by listening to the men's entreaties. Next +morning the coast of Normandy was sighted, but the wind failing, they had +to cast anchor two miles from Fecamp. Thereupon a sail came in sight and +the captain fancied it might be an Ostend privateer. A boat was instantly +lowered, and the King, together with Wilmot, reached the port with all +possible speed. + +On the 27th, Charles and Wilmot took horses for Rouen. At the inn where +they resolved to stay, they were mistaken for thieves, so disreputable was +their appearance, and, no doubt, trouble would have befallen them had not +some English merchants vouched for their respectability. Refreshed and +supplied with new clothes more befitting their rank, the two wanderers set +out for Paris, the day after, in a coach. + +Forty-eight hours later, they had reached the capital. Having slept at +Fleury, they arrived on the 30th at Magny, where Queen Henrietta, James +Duke of York, the Duc d'Orleans and a number of gentlemen met them. Late at +night Charles, much tired but always good-humoured, entered the Louvre. +"His retinue," wrote the Venetian ambassador, "consisted of one gentleman +and one servant; his costume was more calculated to induce laughter than +respect; his appearance was so changed that the outriders who first came up +with him, thought he must be one of his own servants."[27] + +To-day, in London, one may read every morning letters from France. It was +not so three centuries ago. The mails for France, the "ordinary," as it was +then called, left London twice a week, on Monday and Thursday.[28] An +answer would be forthcoming a fortnight later, if no mishap had taken +place, that is to say, if the carrier had not been drowned on the way,[29] +or if the Secretary of State had not caused the bags to be opened in his +office. "Here," wrote Cominges to Louis XIV., "they know how to open +letters with more dexterity than anywhere in the world; they think it the +right thing to do and that no one can be a great statesman without prying +into private correspondence."[30] The Record Office preserves the +melancholy letters that never reached those to whom they were addressed. + +The present house-to-house delivery of letters was unknown. They had to be +called for at the Post Office in Lombard Street. Contemporary guides never +fail to give a lengthy description of the building, and the grand court +where the City merchants used to walk up and down while the officers sorted +the foreign mails. + +Frenchmen of rank seldom leave London. "The quarter of the Common Garden is +ordinarily that of the travelling Frenchmen, more busy at Court than at the +Exchange.... Most of our young Frenchmen who go to London know only that +region, and have ventured only as far as the Exchange by land or the Tower +by water."[31] + +How does the Frenchman of rank spend his time in London? Moreau de Brazey +has answered the question in the most satisfactory manner: "We rise at +nine, those who assist at the levees of great men have plenty to do till +eleven; about twelve, the people of fashion assemble in the chocolate and +coffee houses; if the weather is fine, we take a walk in Saint James's Park +till two, when we go and dine. The French have set up two or three pretty +good inns for the accommodation of foreigners in Suffolk Street, where we +are tolerably well entertained. At the inn, we sit talking over our glasses +till six o'clock, when it is time to go to the Comedy or the Opera, unless +one is invited to some great lord's house. After the play one generally +goes to the coffee-house, plays at piquet, and enjoys the best conversation +in the world till midnight."[32] + +At that late hour, the kind help of the City constable may be needed: "the +watchmen or _guards_ are so civil and obliging that they lead a foreigner +to his home with a lantern; but if he rebels and is overbearing, they are +content to lead him to the Roundhouse, where he spends the night till the +fumes of the wine may have vanished."[33] + +Though the guide-book has expatiated on the attractions of London life, the +Frenchman soon gets weary. Neither the country nor the people please him. +The English, he thinks, are haughty, fantastic, unfriendly. Moreover, they +are melancholy because their climate engenders spleen. Complaints against +the fogs ever recur in the ambassador's dispatches: "What I wish," wrote +the Duc d'Aumont to the Marquis de Torcy (19th January 1713), "is that the +fog, the air, and the smoke did not irritate my lungs." Courtin speaks in +the same strain: "an ambassador here must be broad-shouldered. M. de +Cominges has an everlasting cold that will follow him to the grave or to +France, and I who am by nature of delicate health, have grown hoarse for +the last four or five days and feel a burning in my stomach, with great +pains in the side."[34] A bad winter, a fit of influenza, were enough to +make the Grand Monarch's envoys loathe a country which they did not care to +understand. + +Never was a king worse informed by his ambassadors than Louis XIV. None of +them dreamed of forsaking the Court to study the middle classes and the +people. Of the institutions of England they knew what contemporary lawyers +and archaeologists had to teach. The love of freedom, the insular pride, +they did not even suspect. Ignorant as they were, they tried by giving +advice to the king, who mocked them, and money to his ministers, to subvert +parliamentary government established at the price of six years of civil war +and six years of dictatorship. "The French nobility do not travel"; when +the gentlemen of France left Versailles they carried away with them their +spirit of caste and narrow-mindedness. Forgetting nothing, they did not +readily learn anything new. + +But France had unofficial representatives beyond the Channel besides the +royal envoys and their retinue of brainless young marquises. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Jusserand, _French Ambassador at the Court of Charles II._, Appendix. + +[2] Guizot, _Repub. d'Angleterre_, i. p. 420. + +[3] Jusserand, _French Ambassador at the Court of Charles II._ + +[4] Babeau, _Voyageurs en France_, p. 78. + +[5] _Lettres de Locke a Thoynard_ (ed. Ollion), p. 35. + +[6] Jusserand, _French Ambassador at the Court of Charles II._ + +[7] Evelyn, _Diary_, 12th November 1643. + +[8] Locke, _Journal in France_, November 1675. + +[9] _Scornful Lady_, Act I. Sc. 2. + +[10] _Lettres de Locke_, p 38. + +[11] _Memoires de Gourville_, p. 539 (1663). + +[12] _Fidele Conducteur pour le voyage d'Angleterre_ (1654). + +[13] _Diary_, 13th July 1650. + +[14] _Diary_, 12th July 1649. + +[15] Jusserand, _French Ambassador at the Court of Charles II._ + +[16] _Diary_, 12th July 1650. + +[17] Moreau de Brazey, _Guide d'Angleterre_, p. 72. + +[18] _Ibid._ p. 73. + +[19] _State Papers_, _Dom._, 1668-1669, p. 155. + +[20] Moreau de Brazey, _Guide d'Angleterre_, p. 75. + +[21] _Ibid._ p. 76. + +[22] _Angliae Notitia_, ii. p. 254 (1684). + +[23] This Bernard or Benard styles himself elsewhere: "Secretary to the +King for English, Welsh, Irish, and Scotch" (es langues angloise, galoise, +irlandoise, et escossoise). + +[24] _Voyages de M. Payen_, 1663. + +[25] _French Grammar_, 1662. + +[26] _Itinerary_, 1617. + +[27] Eva Scott, _Travels of the King_, pp. 279-80. + +[28] Chamberlayne, _op. cit._ ii. p. 254. + +[29] Jusserand, _French Ambass._ p. 206. + +[30] Jusserand, _idem._ p. 193. + +[31] Sorbiere, _Relation d'un voyage en Angleterre_, 1664. + +[32] _Guide_, pp. 156-58. + +[33] _Ibid._ p. 293. + +[34] Jusserand, _op. cit._ + + + + +CHAPTER II + +DID FRENCHMEN LEARN ENGLISH IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY? + + +It is generally supposed that no Frenchman before Voltaire's time ever took +the trouble to learn English. Much evidence has been adduced in support of +this opinion. In one of Florio's Anglo-Italian dialogues, an Italian +traveller called upon to say what he thinks of English, answers that it is +worthless beyond Dover.[35] In 1579, Jean Bernard, "English Secretary" to +Henri III. of France, deplored the fact that English historians wrote in +their mother-tongue, because no one understood them on the Continent.[36] +Not one contributor to the _Journal des Savans_, then the best French +literary paper, could read in 1665 the _Transactions_ of the Royal Society. +"It is a pity," wrote Ancillon in 1698, "that English writers write only in +English, because foreigners are unable to make use of their works."[37] +Misson, a French traveller, said: "The English think their language the +finest in the world, though it is spoken only in their isle."[38] "I know +by experience," wrote Dennis the critic in 1701, "that a man may travel +over most of the western parts of Europe without meeting there foreigners +who have any tolerable knowledge of English."[39] As late as 1718, Le Clerc +regretted that only a very small number of Continental scholars knew +English.[40] Those who had learned to speak it out of necessity, soon +forgot it when they went back to France.[41] + +To Frenchmen, English appeared a barbarous dialect, most difficult to +master. "Few foreigners, above all Frenchmen," said Harrison, "are able to +pronounce English well."[42] A hundred years later, Le Clerc declared it +"as difficult to pronounce English well as it is easy to read an English +book; one must hear Englishmen speak, otherwise one is unable to master the +sound of certain letters and especially of the _th_, which is sometimes a +sound approaching _z_ and sometimes _d_, without being either." + +So, while the English not only watched the progress of French literature +but were carefully informed about the internal difficulties of France, the +French knew the English writers merely by their Latin works; and at a +turning-point in history the French diplomatists, through their ignorance +of the real situation of James II., were caught napping when the Revolution +broke out. + +No doubt all this is true; but it remains, nevertheless, a little +venturesome to assert that up to the eighteenth century Frenchmen neglected +to learn English. The intercourse between the two countries has always been +so constant that, in all ages, English must have been familiar, if not to +large sections of society, at least to certain individuals in France. In +the Middle Ages, the authors of the _Roman de Renart_ had a smattering of +English,[43] and in the sixteenth century Rabelais was able not only to put +a few broken sentences in the mouth of his immortal Panurge, but to risk a +pun at the expense of the Deputy-Governor of Calais.[44] + +In an inquiry the like of which we are now instituting, it is expedient not +to lose sight of leading events. A war will make trade slack and hinder +relations between the two countries; on the contrary, emigration caused by +civil war or religious persecution, an alliance, a royal marriage, may +bring the neighbouring countries into closer touch. Then the inquiry must +concern the different classes: the nobles, the merchants and bankers, the +travellers, men of letters, and artisans. Even under Charles II., it must +have been imperative in certain callings for a Frenchman to understand +English. + +At the Court of France, it would have been thought absurd to learn English. +"Let the gentleman, if he findeth dead languages too hard and the living +ones in too great number, at least understand and speak Italian and +Spanish, because, besides being related to our language, they are more +extensively spoken than any others in Europe, yea, even among the Moors." +The advice thus tendered by Faret[45] was followed to the letter. The +French ambassadors in London were hardly ever able to spell correctly even +a proper name.[46] Jean du Bellay wrote _Guinvich_ for Greenwich, _Hempton +Court_ for Hampton Court, _Nortfoch_ for Norfolk, and called Anne Boleyn +_Mademoiselle de Boulan_. Sully, though sent twice to England, did not +trouble to learn a word of the language. When Cromwell gave audience to +Bordeaux, the "master of the ceremonies" acted as interpreter. Gourville, +of whom Charles II. said that he was the only Frenchman who knew anything +about English affairs, acknowledges in his _Memoires_ that he could not +understand English. M. Jusserand tells us in a delightful book[47] how one +of Louis XIV.'s envoys wrote to his master that some one at Whitehall had +greeted a speech by exclaiming "very well": "the Count de Gramont," he +added, "will explain to your Majesty the strength and energy of this +English phrase." + +Ministers of State were as ignorant as ambassadors. In the Colbert papers, +the English words are mangled beyond recognition. Jermyn becomes _milord +Germain_; the Lord Inchiquin, _le Comte d'Insequin_; the right of scavage, +_l'imposition d'esdavache_; and no one apparently knows to what mysterious +duty on imports the famous minister referred when he complained of the +English _imposition de cajade_. + +The marriage of Henri IV.'s daughter Henrietta with an English king ought +to have incited Frenchmen to learn English. We know that the Queen learned +English and even wrote it.[48] She gathered round her quite a Court of +French priests, artists, and musicians. There were "M. Du Vall, Monsieur +Robert, Monsieur Mari,"[49] and "Monsieur Confess."[50] Even as Queen +Elizabeth, Henrietta had French dancing-masters. Her mother-in-law, Queen +Anne, chose Frenchmen as precentors in the Chapel Royal. Nicolas Lanier, +one of these, became a favourite to Charles I., who employed him in buying +abroad pictures for the Royal Gallery. When a mask was played at Court, +Corseilles, a Frenchman, painted the scenery. It is owing to Queen +Henrietta that French players, for the first time since the remote days of +Henry VII., came over to London in 1629 and 1635 and were granted special +privileges, such as the permission to perform in Lent.[51] They were not +welcome to the people: a riot broke out at Blackfriars on their first +visit, and, for reflecting on the Queen on the occasion of their second +visit, Prynne the Puritan was prosecuted and cruelly punished. + +At the Restoration, Charles II. followed his mother's example. Yet we must +guard against the tendency to exaggerate in the King a gallomania dictated +more by reasons of policy than determined by taste. When he came to Paris +for the first time in 1646 he could not speak a word of French,[52] and +later on, he often hesitated to use a language that seemed unfamiliar.[53] +Yet he had been taught French by an official in the Paris Post-house, who +tampered with the letters coming into his hands, and in his hours of +leisure wrote pamphlets in favour of the fallen House.[54] + +The Frenchmen invited over to England after the Restoration do not appear +to have known English. However, the Count de Gramont was an exception to +the rule. They formed in Whitehall quite a colony: Cardinal D'Aubigny was +the Queen's almoner, and Mademoiselle de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth, +the King's mistress; Louis de Duras, Earl of Feversham, commanded one of +the regiments of guards; Nicolas Lefevre, sometime professor of chemistry +in Paris, was at the head of the Royal laboratory; Blondeau engraved the +English coins; Fabvolliere was the King's engineer, Claude Sourceau, the +King's tailor; Paris players, the famous Bellerose among them, went to +London and acted before the Court; Frenchmen were to be found even in the +Royal kitchens, witness Rene Mezandieu, a serjeant in the Poultry +Office.[55] + +The Pepys papers yield proof of the general use then made of the French +tongue. An Italian named Cesare Morelli writing to Pepys from Brussels in +1686 discards his mother-tongue; probably knows no English, so naturally +uses French. + +If the Frenchmen at the Court of Charles II. did not learn English, the +English summoned to Paris by Louis XIV. helped but little to make their +language known. A curious thing happened: through living long in a foreign +country, the exiled Englishman would forget his mother-tongue. Macaulay +tells how the Irish Catholics that hurried back to England under James II. +appeared to be out of their element. Their uncouthness of expression +stirred their countrymen's laughter.[56] One Andrew Pulton, returning after +eighteen years' absence, asked leave, when called upon to dispute with Dr. +Tenison, to use Latin, "pretending not to any perfection of the English +tongue." + +Colbert had occasion to reciprocate Charles II. in inviting a few +Englishmen to serve Louis XIV., such as one Kemps, "employed in the +laboratory," and the portrait-painter Samuel Cooper. The minister's +attention was often directed towards England, in which his political genius +divined latent possibilities. But the financial transactions of Charles II. +had revolted his habits of honesty, and he distrusted the English, of whom +his master Mazarin had had occasion to complain.[57] So he prepared to have +recourse to Frenchmen. "M. Duhamel," writes his secretary De Baluze, "says +that M. de Saint-Hilaire has written a memoir on the State of the Church in +England and on the diversity of religions there, and has left the paper in +England; but he will send it over as soon as he gets back."[58] + +On the list of payments made to scholars can be read the name of M. de +Beaulieu, "busy translating English manuscripts." Others besides Colbert +needed English translators: "Pere de la Chaise," Henry Savile wrote to +ambassador Jenkins (29th July 1679), "has had the speeches of the five last +Jesuits hanged in England translated into French."[59] + +The rule laid down by Colbert was followed by his successors. By the side +of ambassadors it became the habit to set interpreters or unofficial +agents. Such, for instance, was Abbe Renaudot, "who knew English so well +that he could not only translate Lord Perth's letters, but compose in +English, either letters addressed to the French agents in England, or +drafts of ordinances and proclamations in the name of James II."[60] To +him was due the French translation of the papers of Charles II. and the +Duchess of York, published by command of James II. + +No one about Henrietta of England, Charles II.'s sister, wife to the Duc +d'Orleans, seems to have thought of learning English. The Princess could +discourse with the Duke of Buckingham about the "passion of the Count de +Guiche for Madame de Chalais" without letting her voice drop to a whisper. +No one among the bystanders understood what she was saying.[61] On her +death-bed she summoned the English ambassador Montague and began talking +English; at a certain moment she uttered the word "poison." "As the word," +says Madame de la Fayette, "is common to both languages, M. Feuillet, the +father-confessor, heard it and interrupted the conversation, saying she +should give up her life to God and not dwell on any other +consideration."[62] In her death throes, the unfortunate princess seems to +have found relief in talking her mother-tongue, for it is in English that +she instructed her senior waiting-woman to "present the Bishop of Condom +(Bossuet) with an emerald." + +The men of letters were in close touch if not with the Court at least with +the nobles their patrons. In the sixteenth century, many French writers and +poets crossed the Channel. The list includes Ronsard, Du Bartas, Jacques +Grevin, Brantome.[63] The latter uses the word _good cheer_, and it is said +that Ronsard learned English. + +In the following century there came to London, Boisrobert, Voiture, +Saint-Amant, Theophile de Viau. Saint-Evremond lived in England many years +without learning more than a few words, such as those he quotes in his +works: _mince pye_, _plum-porridge_, _brawn_, and _Christmas_. Albeit +Saint-Evremond is credited with a free translation of Buckingham's +"Portrait of Charles II.," Johnson was probably right in saying that +"though he lived a great part of a long life upon an English pension, he +never condescended to understand the language of the nation that maintained +him."[64] But Jean Bulteel, the son of a refugee living in Dover, adapted a +comedy of Corneille to the English stage (1665). + +Scholars were more curious of reading the works of their English confreres. +The English then had the reputation of being born philosophers. "Among +them," wrote Muralt the traveller, "there are men who think with more +strength and have profound thoughts in greater number than the wits of +other nations."[65] The works of Hobbes had caused a great stir on the +Continent. His frequent and prolonged stays in France, his disputes with +Descartes, his relations with Mersenne and Sorbiere, contributed to his +fame. A little later, the names of Locke and Newton were known. As early +as 1668, Samuel Puffendorf inquired of his friend Secretary Williamson +whether there existed an English-French or English-Latin dictionary.[66] +Bayle wished to read the works of those new thinkers. "My misfortune is +great," he wrote, "not to understand English, for there are many books in +that tongue that would be useful to me."[67] Barbeyrac learned English on +purpose to read Locke.[68] Leibniz was proud enough to inform Bishop Burnet +that he knew enough English "to receive his orders in that tongue"; yet, +for him Aberdeen University remained _l'universite d'Abredon_.[69] + +The teachers of French in England were almost men of letters, the number +and variety of books they wrote showing how vigorously they wielded the +pen. We may remember here Bernard Andre of Toulouse, who taught Henry VIII. +French, Nicolas Bourbon, a friend of Rabelais, Nicolas Denisot, French +master to Somerset's daughters. Then came Saint-Lien, whose productions +would fill a library,[70] James Bellot,[71] Pierre Erondel,[72] Charles +Maupas,[73] Paul Cougneau.[74] + +After the Restoration may be noted Claude Mauger,[75] Guy Miege,[76] Paul +Festeau, "maitre de langues a Londres,"[77] d'Abadie,[78] Pierre Berault, +"chapelain de la marine britannique." "If," wrote the latter in his quaint +_Nosegay or Miscellany of Several Divine Truths_ (1685), "any gentleman or +gentlewoman hath a mind to learn French or Latin, the author will wait upon +them; he lives in Compton Street, in Soo-Hoo Fields, four doors of the +Myter." These men spread the taste of French manners and French books. One +of the more obscure among them, Denis, a schoolmaster at Chester, taught +Brereton, the future translator of Racine. + +The most unpardonable ignorance was that of most of the travellers. Under +Etienne Perlin's pen (1558) Cambridge and Oxford are transmuted into +_Cambruche_ and _Auxonne_; Dartford becomes _Datford_ with Coulon (1654); +Payen calls the English coins _crhon_, _toupens_, _farden_ (1666); even +sagacious Misson prefers the phonetic form _coacres_ (quakers) and +_coacresses_ (quakeresses) (1698). Sorbiere travelled about England, +meeting some eminent men of the time, without knowing a word of +English.[79] They have for excuse their extraordinary blindness. Thus +Coulon does not hesitate to deliver his opinions on the English language, +which he calls "a mixture of German and French, though it is thought that +it was formerly the German language in its integrity." As for Le Pays, he +candidly owns that he would have found London quite to his taste if the +inhabitants had all spoken French (1672). + +If the travellers, like the ambassadors, were content to glance +contemptuously at the strange country, the Huguenots, who were compelled by +fate or the royal edicts to live in England, showed more curiosity. On +those foreign colonies of London and the southern ports we now possess +accurate information. + +Let us leave aside Shakespeare's Huguenot friends;[80] we have the evidence +of Bochart, minister at Rouen; the Huguenot settlers in England in the +first half of the seventeenth century would learn English, attend church +services, and receive communion at the hands of the bishops.[81] The +earliest translations of English works came from Huguenot pens. In August +1603, Pierre De l'Estoile, the French Evelyn, records how "Du Carroy and +his son, together with P. Lebret, were released from prison, where they +were confined for printing in Paris the _Confession of the King of England_ +(a pamphlet by James I. setting forth his Anglican faith); whence they +should have been liberated only to be hanged but for the English +ambassador's intercession; so distasteful to the people was that +confession, in which mass was termed an abomination."[82] + +A glance at the _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, the weekly French +gazette published in French during the Commonwealth and the +Protectorate,[83] will convince any one that the editor knew English well: +in those pages there are no traces of "coacres" for "quakers." Proper names +are always spelt correctly, be they ever so numerous. The readers know both +languages, otherwise what use would there be to advertise in the gazette a +recently-published devotional English work?[84] However, they could not be +expected to help their countrymen to read Shakespeare, for they felt the +Puritan's dislike for the stage; witness the satisfaction with which is +recorded the arrest by Cromwell's musketeers of a company of players "at +the Red Bull in St. John's Street."[85] + +If the translation of _Eikon Basilike_ was due to Porree and Cailloue, both +Huguenots, Milton's reply was translated by a pupil of the Huguenot Academy +of Sedan, the Scotsman John Dury. + +After the Restoration, the information is still more abundant. In 1662, +Mauger writes that "he has seen many Frenchmen in London, able to speak +English well."[86] Translations become more plentiful, as the _Term +Catalogues_ testify. Then there are precise facts: for instance, the first +time Evelyn met Allix, the pastor at Charenton, Allix spoke Latin, in order +to be understood by Archbishop Sancroft.[87] Three years later, Allix, now +an English divine, was able to publish a book in English. M. de Luzancy, an +ex-Carmelite, fled to England and abjured the Catholic faith at the Savoy +in 1675. Becoming minister at Harwich, he had occasion to write to Pepys, +and accordingly penned some excellent English. Another refugee, Francois de +la Motte, was sent to Oxford by Secretary Williamson. A few months later, +he was reported as able "to pronounce English better than many strangers +who preach there," and, to show that he had not wasted his time, he wrote +his benefactor a letter in English, preserved in the Record Office.[88] The +quarrel that broke out in 1682 between French artisans living in Soho gave +some humble Huguenot the opportunity of proving his knowledge of +English.[89] When Saint-Evremond wished to read Asgill the deist's works, +he had recourse to his friend Silvestre. Born in Tonneins, in South-Western +France, in 1662, Silvestre had studied medicine at Montpellier, then went +to Holland, and settled in London in 1688; "the King wished to send him to +Flanders, to be an army-surgeon, but he preferred to stay in London, where +he had many friends."[90] + +After the Revolution, the number of Huguenots in England was so +considerable that many of them became English authors: it is enough to +quote the names of Guy Miege, Motteux, and Maittaire. But we now come to +the eve of the eighteenth century when England and France, as in the Middle +Ages, were brought into close touch. "Whereas foreigners," wrote Miege in +1691, "used to slight English as an insular speech, not worth their taking +notice, they are at present great admirers of it."[91] + +The merchants had to know English even as the refugees. While the French +gentlemen at Court had no need to mix with the middle or lower classes, the +merchants often had to see in person their English buyers. During the +sixteenth century, simple grammars and lists of words were available. The +Flanders merchants might learn from Gabriel Meurier, teacher of English in +Antwerp, the author of a text-book printed at Rouen in 1563. Pierre De +l'Estoile mentions in 1609 one Tourval, an "interpreter of foreign +languages," then living in Paris;[92] none other, most probably, than the +Loiseau de Tourval who contributed to Cotgrave's famous Dictionary. In +1622, a Paris printer issued _La Grammaire angloise de George Mason, +marchand de Londres_.[93] Three years later appeared _L'alphabet anglois, +contenant la prononciation des lettres avec les declinaisons et les +conjugaisons_, and _La grammaire angloise, pour facilement et promptement +apprendre la langue angloise_. These publications must have found readers. + +Information on the French merchants in England is scanty. They did not +care to draw attention upon business transactions which a sudden +declaration of war might at any time render illicit. But something is known +about the printers. + +About 1488, Richard Pynson, a native of Normandy and a pupil of the Paris +University, settled in England. He became printer to Henry VII. and +published some French translations. From the few extant specimens we may +conclude that Pynson hardly knew how to write English. But he was the first +of a line of French printers in England, the most famous of whom were +Thomas Berthelet and the Huguenot Thomas Vautrollier. + +As in 1912 an English firm print in England for sale on the Continent our +French authors, so in 1503 Antoine Verard, a Paris printer, published +English books. When Coverdale had finished his translation of the Bible, he +carried the manuscript over to France and entrusted it to Francois +Regnault. This printer seems to have been an enterprising man, having in +London an agency for the sale of the English books that he set up in type +in Paris. The printing of the "Great Bible" was a lengthy task. In spite of +the French king and the English ambassador Bonner, Regnault got into +trouble with the authorities and the clergy. The "lieutenant-criminel" +seized the sheets, but, instead of having them burnt by the hangman, as it +was his duty to do, the greedy official sold them to a mercer who restored +them to Regnault for a consideration. In the meantime presses and type and +even workmen had been hurried to London, where the work was completed +(1539). Nor must the provincial printers be forgotten, thus from 1516 to +1533 almost the whole York book-trade was in the hands of the Frenchman +Jean Gachet.[94] Many books sold by English booksellers came from the +presses of Goupil of Rouen or Regnault of Paris. + +The tradition of French printers in England was continued in the following +century by Du Gard, the printer of certain Milton pamphlets and of the +_Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, and Bureau, "marchand libraire dans le +Middle Exchange, dans le Strand," most obnoxious to the French ambassador +because a determined opponent of the French Court. + +About French artisans and servants the information is, of course, of the +most meagre description. There are merely allusions by the contemporary +playwrights to the French dancing-master, fencer, or sweep, equally unable +to pronounce English correctly, to the great merriment of the +"groundlings."[95] However, a French valet, Jean Abbadie, who served many +noblemen at the close of the seventeenth century, took the trouble to learn +and could even write English.[96] + +Now and then a name emerges from the obscure crowd. That, for instance, of +"John Puncteus, a Frenchman, professing physick, with ten in his company," +licensed "to exercise the quality of playing, for a year, and to sell his +drugs";[97] or of Madame Le Croy (De La Croix), the notorious +fortune-teller, + + "Who draws from lines the calculations, + Instead of squares for demonstrations," + +and + + "Imposes on + The credulous deluded town,"[98] + +and no doubt carried on the dubious trade of her countrywoman "la +devineresse," as recorded by Arnoult the engraver. We may fancy Madame La +Croix slyly handing the billet-doux to the daughter, under the unsuspecting +mother's very eyes. + +Lower still we shall reach the criminal classes: adventurers, gamblers, +robbers, and murderers. If the notorious poisoner, the Marquise de +Brinvilliers, stayed in England but a short time in her chequered career, +Claude Du Val the highwayman became famous in his adopted country as well +for his daring robberies as for his gallantry to ladies: + + "So while the ladies viewed his brighter eyes, + And smoother polished face, + Their gentle hearts, alas! were taken by surprise."[99] + +The _State Trials_ have preserved the name of a French gambler, De La Rue, +who in 1696 acted as informer at the trial for high treason of Charnock and +his accomplices. + +It is difficult to go lower than these infamous men: our inquiry is at +end. We shall conclude that if it is an exaggeration to state that the +French as a rule learned English in the seventeenth century, it is true +that individual instances may be found of Frenchmen learning English, and +even speaking and writing it.[100] Though they did not help to spread +either English manners or literature in France, they contributed in a most +marked manner to make the English familiar with the French language. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[35] Einstein, _Italian Renaissance in England_, p. 103. + +[36] _Guide des Chemins d'Angleterre_, Preface. + +[37] Jusserand, _Shakespeare en France_, p. 97. + +[38] _Memoires et observations faites par un voyageur en Angleterre_, 1698. + +[39] _Adv. and Ref. of Mod. Poetry_, Ep. dedic. + +[40] _Bibliotheque choisie_, xxviii., Preface. + +[41] "Monsr Boyd ... has forgott, I believe, most of his +English."--_Original Letters of Locke_, etc., p. 229. + +[42] _Description of Britain_, bk. i. (1577). + +[43] Jusserand, _Histoire litteraire du peuple anglais_, i. p. 149 n. + +[44] _Pantagruel_, iii. ch. xlvii. + +[45] _L'honnete homme ou l'art de plaire a la cour._ + +[46] D'Estrades should be excepted. He knew English, so he was sent to the +Hague. + +[47] _French Ambassador at the Court of Charles II._ + +[48] See Chap. III. + +[49] Reyher, _Masques_, p. 81 sq. + +[50] _Ibid._ p. 79. + +[51] See _Anglia_, xxxii. + +[52] _Memoires de Mlle de Montpensier_, i. pp. 126, 211. + +[53] Jusserand, _French Ambassador_, p. 203. + +[54] _Proces de Charles I., traduit de l'anglois, par le Sieur de Marsys, +interprete et maistre pour la langue francoise du Roy d'Angleterre._ + +[55] _Angliae Notitia_, p. 154. + +[56] _History of England_, ch. vi. + +[57] Cardinal Mazarin employed many secret agents under the Protectorate; +he spoke of them as "double-dealing minds, whom no one can trust" +(_Correspondence_, 25th April 1656). + +[58] _Lettres, memoires et instructions de Colbert_, vii. p. 372. + +[59] Savile, _Correspondence_, p. 112. + +[60] A. Villien, _L'abbe Renaudot_, p. 56. + +[61] Madame de la Fayette, _Histoire de Madame Henriette d'Angleterre_, p. +182. + +[62] _Ibid._ p. 205. + +[63] See for details Sir Sidney Lee, _French Renaissance_. + +[64] _Life of Waller._ + +[65] _Lettres sur les Francois et les Anglois_, p. 10. + +[66] _State Papers, Dom., 1667-1668_, p. 604. + +[67] _Lettres choisies_, ii. p. 737. + +[68] _Essai sur l'Entendement_ (2nd ed.), _Avis_ by Coste. + +[69] Clarke and Foxcroft, _Life of Burnet_, pp. 361-62. + +[70] _The French Littleton_, 1566; _The French Schoole-Maister_, 1573; _A +Dictionarie_, 1584, etc. + +[71] _The French Grammar_, 1578. + +[72] _The French Garden_, 1605. + +[73] _A French Grammar and Syntax_, 1634. + +[74] _A Sure Guide to the French Tongue_, 1635. + +[75] _French Grammar_, 1662. + +[76] _Dictionary_, 1677. + +[77] _Nouvelle Grammaire Angloise_, 1678. + +[78] _A New French Grammar_, 1675. + +[79] _Relation d'un voyage_, pp. 20, 169 (1664). + +[80] See Chap. VII. + +[81] Bochart, _Lettre a M. Morley_, p. 7. + +[82] _Journal de Henri IV._, i. p. 354. + +[83] See Chap. VIII. + +[84] _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, p. 1550. + +[85] _Ibid._ p. 956. + +[86] _French Grammar_, p. 288. + +[87] _Diary_, 8th July 1686. + +[88] See the letters of De la Motte and De Luzancy, printed in Chap. III. + +[89] See Chap. IX. + +[90] Saint-Evremond, _Works_, x. xxiii. + +[91] _New State of England_, ii. p. 15. + +[92] _Journal de Henri IV._, p. 526. + +[93] Reprinted by Dr. Brotanek, Halle, 1905. + +[94] E. Gordon Duff, _English Provincial Printers_, p. 58. + +[95] Beaumont and Fletcher, _Women Pleased_, Act IV. Sc. 3. + +[96] See Chap. III. + +[97] Gildersleeve, _Government Regulations of the Elizabethan Drama_, p. +70. + +[98] _Poems on State Affairs_, ii. p. 152. + +[99] Butler, _Pindarick Ode to the Happy Memory of the most renowned Du +Val_. + +[100] Chap. III. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH, WRITTEN BY FRENCHMEN[101] + + +MERIC CASAUBON + + The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (1635) + +The chiefest subject of this booke is, the vanity of the world and all +worldly things, as wealth, honour, life, etc., and the end and scope of it, +to teach a man how to submit himselfe wholly to God's providence, and to +live content and thankfull in what estate or calling soever. But the booke, +I doubt not, will sufficiently commend itselfe, to them who shall be able +to read it with any judgement, and to compare it with all others of the +same subject, written either by Christians or Heathens: so that it be +remembered that it was written by a Heathen; that is, one that had no other +knowledge of any God, then such as was grounded upon naturall reasons +meerely; no certaine assurance of the Immortality of the soule; no other +light whereby hee might know what was good or bad, right or wrong, but the +light of nature, and humane reason.... As for the Booke itselfe, to let it +speake for itselfe; In the Author of it two maine things I conceive very +considerable, which because by the knowledge of them, the use and benefit +of the Booke may be much the greater then otherwise it would be, I would +not have any ignorant of. The things are these: first, that he was a very +great man, one that had good experience of what he spake; and secondly, +that he was a very good man, one that lived as he did write, and exactly +(as farre as was possible to a naturall man) performed what he exhorted +others unto. + + (_Marcus Aurelius, His Meditations, translated out of + the Originall Greeke, with Notes._ London. 1635. + Preface.) + + +_On Reason_ (1655) + +I think that man that can enjoy his natural wit and reason with sobriety, +and doth affect such raptures and alienations of mind, hath attained to a +good degree of madnesse, without rapture, which makes him so much to +undervalue the highest gift of God, Grace excepted, sound Reason. It made +Aristotle deny that any divination, either by dreams or otherwise, was from +God, because not ignorant only, but wicked men also were observed to have a +greater share in such, then those that were noted for either learning or +piety. And truly I think it is not without some providence of God that it +should be so; that those whom God hath blessed with wisdome, and a +discerning spirit, might the better content themselves with their share, +and be the more heartily thankfull. And in very deed, sound Reason and a +discerning spirit is a perpetual kind of divination: as also it is +somewhere called in the Scriptures. + + (_A Treatise concerning Enthusiasme_, London, 1655, pp. + 46-47.) + +[Born in Geneva, in 1599, Meric Casaubon was educated in Sedan, followed +his father Isaac to the Court of James I. and settled in England where he +became prebendary of Canterbury.] + + +QUEEN HENRIETTA + +_Queen Henrietta of France to Prince Charles (April 15, 1646)_ + +DEARE CHARLES,--Having reseauved a lettre from the King[102] I have +dispatch this berear, Dudley Wiatt to you, with the copie of the lettre, by +which you may see the King's command to you and to me. I make no doubt that +you will obey it, and suddeyneley; for sertainly your coming hither is the +securitie of the King your father. Therfor make all the hast you can to +showe yourself a dutifull sonne, and a carefull one, to doe all that is in +your power to serve him: otherwise you may ruine the King and yourself. + +Now that the King is gonne from Oxford, whether to the Scotch or to Irland, +the Parliament will, with alle ther power, force you to come to them. Ther +is no time to be lost, therfor loose none, but come speedeley. I have writt +more at large to Milord Culpepper, to show it to your Counsell. Ile say no +more to you, hoping to see you shortley. I would have send you Harry Jermin +but he is goinge to the Court with some commands from the King to the +Queen-Regente. + +Ile adde no more to this but that I am your most affectionat mother, + + HENRIETTE MARIE R. + +For me dearest Sonne.[103] + + +MAUGER + +_Extract from Claudius Mauger's French Grammar_ (1662) + +Courteous English reader, I need not to commend you this work, having +already received such a general approbation in this noble country that in +eight years of time it hath been printed foure times, and so many thousands +at once. Only I thank you kindly if any of my countrymen, jealous of the +credit that you have given it amongst yourselves, will speak against it, he +doth himselfe more harm than to me, to be alone against the common voice +of such a learned and heroical a Nation. Many think I beg of you. First of +all be pleased to excuse me, if my English phrase do not sound well to your +delicate ears. I am a learner of your tongue, and not a master; what I +undertake 'tis to explain my French expressions; secondly, if any Frenchman +(especially one that professeth to be a master of the Language) dispiseth +it unto you, do not believe him, or if any other critical man will find +faults where there are none, desire him to repair to the author, and you +shall have the sport to see him shamefully convinced for some small errours +of printing (although it is very exactly corrected, that cannot be hope if +there be any, none but ignorants will take any advantage of them). I have +added abundance of new short dialogue concerning for the most part the +Triumphs of England, and a new State of France, as it is now governed, +since Cardinal Mazarin's death, with two sheets, viz. the first and the +last of the most necessary things belonging to the Learner, and so I desire +you to make an acceptance of it. Farewell. + +If anybody be pleased to find me out, he may enquire at the _Bell_ in St. +Pauls-Church-Yard, or else in Long-acre, at the signe of the _French-armes_ +at Mr. l'Anneau. + +[Little is known of Claude Mauger, one of the numerous and obscure teachers +of French who took refuge in London in the seventeenth century.] + + +PETER DU MOULIN + +_Peter Du Moulin's Defence of the French Protestants_ (1675) + +My angry Antagonist, to make me angry also, giveth many attacks to the +French Protestants ... he saith that they had _Milton's_ Book against our +precious King and Holy Martyr in great veneration. That they will deny. But +it is no extraordinary thing that wicked Books which say with a witty +malice all that can be said for a bad cause, with a fluent and florid +stile, are esteemed even by them that condemn them. Upon those terms +_Milton's_ wicked Book was entertained by Friends and Foes, that were +Lovers of Human Learning, both in _England_ and _France_. I had for my part +such a jealousie to see that Traytour praised for his Language that I writ +against him _Clamor Regii Sanguinis ad Coelum_. + +That some of the Regicides were taken in the Congregations of the French +Protestants is no disgrace to them. The Churches doors are open to all +commers; false Brethren and Spies enter into it. But how much they detested +their act, they exprest both in their Conversation and in printed Books, as +much as the English Royalists. + +His Lordship supposeth that they had a kindness for _Cromwell_, upon this +ground, that _Cromwell_ had a kindness for them. Had his Lordship had any +ground for that assertion by any act of theirs, he would have been sure to +have told us of it. It is true that _Cromwell_ did them that kindness by +his interest with _Mazarin_ to make them injoy the benefits of the Edicts +made in their favour. He knew that it was the interest of the King of +_England_ (which he would have been) to oblige his Protestant Neighbours, +and to shew himself the Head of the Protestant Cause. + + (_A Reply to a Person of Honour_, London, 1675, pp. + 39-41.) + +[Eldest son to Pierre Du Moulin, pastor at Charenton, Peter Du Moulin +studied at Sedan and Leyden, was tutor to Richard Boyle, took orders, threw +in his lot with the royalists, and became in 1660 prebendary of +Canterbury.] + + +FRANCOIS DE LA MOTTE + +_Letter to Secretary Williamson (July 20, 1676)_ + +Since I live here[104] on the gracious effects of your liberality I think I +am obliged to give you an account of my behaviour and studies, and I do it +in English, though I am not ignorant you know French better than I do. I do +what lies in me to be not altogether useless in the Church of England. I +have got that tongue already well enough to peruse the English books and to +read prayers which I have done in several churches and I have made three +sermons I am ready to preach in a fortnight. Some scholars I have showed +them to, have found but very few faults in my expressions. I hope to do +better in a short time, for I pronounce English well enough to be +understood by the people, and have a great facility to write it, having +perused to that end many of your best English divines, so I hope in three +months to be able to preach every week. I hope your Lordship will make good +my troubling you with this letter, considering I am in a manner obliged to +do so to acknowledge the exceeding charity you have showed me which makes +me offer every day my humble prayers to God for your prosperity. + +[Francois de la Motte, an ex-Carmelite, came over to England, was +befriended by Secretary Williamson, and owing to the latter's patronage +entered the Church. The above letter is printed in _Cal. State Papers, +Dom., 1676-1677_, p. 235. There are still extant a few sermons of this +preacher.] + + +LOUIS DU MOULIN + +_Apology for the Congregational Churches_ (1680) + +I think myself here obliged to add an Apology as to my own Account, for +what I have said as to the Independant Churches. I do imagine I shall be +accused at first for having made the description of the Congregational way, +not according as it is in effect, but in that manner as Xenophon did the +_Cyropaedia_ to be the perfect model of a Prince. They will say that any +other interest than that of the inward knowledge I have of the goodness, +truth, and holiness of the Congregational way, ought to have excited me to +commend it as I have done. That I commend what I do not approve in the +bottome of my heart, since I do not joyn my self to it.... To which, I +answer that though I should joyn my self to their Assemblies, it would be +no argument that I should approve of all the things they did, and all they +believed, as they cannot conclude by my not joyning to their Congregations, +that I have not the Congregational way in greater and higher esteem than +any other. As I am a _Frenchman_, and by the grace of God of the Reformed +Church, I joyn to the Church of my own Nation, to which I am so much the +more strongly invited by the holiness of the Doctrines, and lives of our +excellent Pastors, _Monsieur Mussard_ and _Monsieur Primerose_, and because +they administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the same manner as +_Jesus Christ_ did it with His Disciples; not having anything to give me +offence in their conduct, unless that they are not absolutely undeceived of +the practice of our Pastors in _France_, of excommunicating in the name and +authority of _Jesus Christ_, and of interposing the same sacred Name, and +the same sacred Authority to excommunicate as _St. Paul_ made use of to +deliver the _Incestuous_ person over to Satan.... + + (_Conformity of the Discipline and Government of the + Independants to that of the Primitive Church_, London, + 1680, p. 54.) + +[Second son to Pierre Du Moulin, Louis Du Moulin came to England with his +father, and followed the fortunes of the Independents. He was seventy-four +when he published the above work. He died three years after, at +Westminster, confessing his errors, according to Bishop Burnet, whose zeal +in this case got the better of his discretion.] + + +PIERRE DRELINCOURT + +_Speech to the Duke of Ormond_ (1680) + +I should not presume to take up any part of that time, which your Grace so +happily employs in the Government and Conservation of a whole Nation; nor +to divert the rest of this honourable Board from those important Affairs, +which usually call your Lordships hither; were I not under an Obligation +both of Gratitude and Duty, to be an Interpreter for those poor +Protestants, lately come out of _France_, to take Sanctuary with you: and +to express for them and in their names, as they have earnestly desired me, +a part of that grateful sense, which they have, and will for ever preserve, +of your Lordships' Christian Charity and Generosity towards them: This they +have often, I assure you, acknowledg'd to Heav'n in their Pray'rs, but +cou'd not be satisfied, till they had made their solemn and publick +Acknowledgments to their Noble Benefactors. + + (_A Speech made to His Grace the Duke of Ormond, + Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and to the Lords of the + Privy Council_, Dublin.) + +[Pierre Drelincourt was the sixth son of Charles Drelincourt, the author of +the famous _Consolations_, translated into English 1675, and to a later +edition of which Defoe was to append the story of the ghost of Mrs. Veal. +Pierre studied in Geneva, went over to England, took Orders and became Dean +of Armagh. The Doctor Drelincourt of whom Coste speaks (see Chapter X.) was +Pierre's brother.] + + +DE LUZANCY + +_Letter to Pepys_ (Jan. 18, 1688-89) + +Sir,--I have bin desired by your friends to send you the inclos'd paper, by +which you may easily be made sensible how we are overrun with pride, heat, +and faction; and unjust to ourselves of the greatest honor and advantage +which we could ever attain to, in the choice of so great and so good a man +as you are. Had reason had the least place amongst us, or any love for +ourselves, we had certainly carried it for you. Yet, if we are not by this +late defection altogether become unworthy of you, I dare almost be +confident, that an earlier application of the appearing of yourself or Sir +Anthony Deane, will put the thing out of doubt against the next Parlement. +A conventicle set up here since this unhappy Liberty of Conscience has bin +the cause of all this. In the meantime, my poor endeavours shall not be +wanting, and though my stedfastness to your interests these ten years has +almost ruined me, yet I shall continue as long as I live, + + Your most humble and most obedient Servant, + + DE LUZANCY, _Minister of Harwich_. + +(_Corr. of Samuel Pepys_, p. 740.) + +[De Luzancy, an ex-monk, came over to England and became minister to the +French congregation in Harwich. The above letter refers to an election at +Harwich, when Pepys was not returned.] + + +GUY MIEGE + +_On England and the English_ (1691) + +As the country is temperate and moist, so the English have naturally the +advantages of a clear complexion; not sindged as in hot climates, nor +weather-beaten as in cold regions. The generality, of a comely stature, +graceful countenance, well-featured, gray-eyed, and brown-haired. But for +talness and strength the Western people exceed all the rest. + +The women generally more handsome than in other places, and without +sophistications, sufficiently indowed with natural beauties. In an absolute +woman, say the Italians, are required the parts of a Dutch woman from the +waste downwards, of a French woman from the waste up to the shoulders; and +over them an English face. + +In short there is no country in Europe where youth is generally so +charming, men so proper and well proportioned, and women so beautiful. + +The truth is, this happiness is not only to be attributed to the clemency +of the air. Their easy life under the best of governments, which saves them +from the drudgery and hardships of other nations, has a great hand in it. + +For merchandizing and navigation, no people can compare with them but the +Hollanders. For literature, especially since the Reformation, there is no +nation in the world so generally knowing. And, as experimental philosophy, +so divinity, both scholastick and practical, has been improved here beyond +all other places. Which makes foreign divines, and the best sort of them, +so conversant with the learned works of those famous lights of the Church, +our best English divines. + +In short, the English genius is for close speaking and writing, and always +to the point.... The gawdy part and pomp of Rhetorick, so much affected by +the French, is slighted by the English; who, like men of reason, stick +chiefly to Logick. + + (_State of England_, London, 1691, Part II., pp. 3-12.) + +[Little is known of Guy Miege, a refugee who continued, under William III., +Chamberlayne's _Angliae Notitia_.] + + +PIERRE ALLIX + +_Against the Unitarians_ (1699) + +I cannot but admire that they who within these few years have in this +kingdom embraced Socinus his opinions, should consider no better how +little success they have had elsewhere against the truth, and that upon the +score of their divisions, which will unavoidably follow, till they can +agree in unanimously rejecting the authority of Scripture. Neither doth it +avail them anything to use quibbles and evasions, and weak conjectures, +since they are often unanswerably confuted even by some of their brethren, +who are more dexterous than they in expounding of Scriptures. + +But being resolved by all means to defend their tenents, some chief men +amongst them have undertaken to set aside the authority of Scriptures, +which is so troublesome to them: and the author of a late book, intitled +_Considerations_, maintains that the Gospels have been corrupted by the +Orthodox party, and suspects that of _St. John_ to be the work of +_Cerinthus_. + +It is no very easy task to dispute against men whose principles are so +uncertain, and who in a manner have no regard to the authority of +Scripture. It was much less difficult to undertake Socinus himself, because +he owned however the authority of Scripture, and that it had not been +corrupted. But one knows not how to deal with his disciples, who in their +opinion seem to be so contrary to him, and one another. + + (_The Judgment of the Ancient Jewish Church against the + Unitarians_, London, 1699, Preface.) + +[Pierre Allix, born in Alencon in 1641, died in London in 1717. He was +pastor at Charenton up to 1685, when he fled to England and became Canon of +Salisbury. He contemplated writing a history of the Councils in seven +volumes. A special Act of Parliament (11 & 12 Will. III., c. 3) was +obtained, providing that the paper for the entire work should be imported +duty free.] + + +ABEL BOYER + +_Upon History_ (1702) + +Some writers barely relate the actions of men, without speaking of their +motives, and, like gazeteers, are contented to acquaint us with matter of +fact, without tracing it to its spring and cause; others, on the contrary, +are so full of politicks and finesse, that they find cunning and design in +the most natural and innocent actions. Some, to make their court to the +powerful, debase the dignity of history, by cringing and adulation; whilst +others, to serve a party, or faction, or merely to gratify their +ill-nature, rake up all the scandal of men's lives, give a malicious turn +to every thing, and libel every body, even without respecting the sacred +Majesty of Princes. Another sort moralize upon every petty accident, and +seem to set up for philosophers, instead of historians. And lastly, others +are peremptory in their decisions, and impose on the world their +conjectures for real truths. + +These faults I have endeavoured to avoid. When I relate matters of fact, I +deduce them, as far as my informations permit me, from their true causes, +without making men more politick, or subtle, than nature has made them. I +commend what, in conscience I believe, deserves to be commended, without +any prospect of favour, or private interest; and I censure what I think +deserves to be blam'd, with the liberty that becomes a faithful +unprejudic'd historian, tho' with due regard to persons, whose birth, +dignity and character command the respect, even of those who disapprove +their actions. I am sparing of reflections, unless it be upon those +remarkable events from which they naturally result; and I never biass the +reader's judgment by any conjectural impositions of my own. + +Yet after all these precautions, I am not so vain as to expect to please +all: for how were it possible to gain the general approbation, when people +differ so much in opinion about the _Prince_, whose history I have +attempted to write? + + (_The History of King William the Third_, London, 1702, + Preface.) + +[Born in Castres in 1664, Boyer lived in Switzerland and Holland before +settling in England, where he became a journalist and party-writer. He +edited a French-English and English-French Dictionary which was long a +classic. Swift honoured him once with the appellation of "French dog."] + + +PIERRE MOTTEUX + +_Extract from a Letter to the Spectator_ (1712) + +Sir,--Since so many dealers turn authors, and write quaint advertisements +in praise of their wares, one who from an author turn'd dealer may be +allowed for the advancement of trade to turn author again. I will not +however set up like some of 'em, for selling cheaper than the most able +honest tradesman can; nor do I send this to be better known for choice and +cheapness of China and Japan wares, tea, fans, muslins, pictures, arrack, +and other Indian goods. Placed as I am in Leadenhall-street, near the +India-Company, and the centre of that trade, thanks to my fair customers, +my warehouse is graced as well as the benefit days of my Plays and Operas; +and the foreign goods I sell seem no less acceptable than the foreign books +I translated, _Rabelais_ and _Don Quixote_. This the critics allow me, and +while they like my wares, they may dispraise my writing. But as 'tis not so +well known yet that I frequently cross the seas of late, and speaking Dutch +and French, besides other languages, I have the conveniency of buying and +importing rich brocades, Dutch atlasses, with gold and silver, or without, +and other foreign silks of the newest modes and best fabricks, fine +Flanders lace, linnens, and pictures, at the best hand. This my new way of +trade I have fallen into I cannot better publish than by an application to +you. My wares are fit only for such as your traders; and I would beg of you +to print this address in your paper, that those whose minds you adorn may +take the ornaments for their persons and houses from me....[105] + +_A Song_ + + Lovely charmer, dearest creature, + Kind invader of my heart, + Grac'd with every gift of nature, + Rais'd with every grace of art! + + Oh! cou'd I but make thee love me, + As thy charms my heart have mov'd, + None cou'd e'er be blest above me, + None cou'd e'er be more belov'd. + (_The Island Princess or the Generous Portuguese_, 1734.) + + +_To the Audience_ + + ... So will the curse of scribling on you fall; + Egad, these times make poets of us all. + Then do not damn your brothers of the quill; + To be reveng'd, there's hope you'll write as ill. + For ne'er were seen more scribes, yet less good writing, + And there ne'er were more soldiers, yet less fighting. + Both can do nothing if they want supplies, + Then aid us, and our league its neighbouring foes defies; + Tho' they brib'd lately one of our allies. + Sure you'd not have us, for want of due pittance, + Like nincompoops sneak to them for admittance, + No; propt by you, our fears and dangers cease, + Here firm, tho' wealth decay, and foes increase, + We'll bravely tug for liberty and peace. + + (_The Loves of Mars and Venus_, Epilogue, 1735.) + +[Pierre Antoine Motteux, born at Rouen in 1660, came over to England in +1685, wrote plays and poems, translated Bayle and Montaigne, and +established himself as a trader in Leadenhall street.] + + +JEAN ABBADIE + +_Letter to Desmaizeaux_ + +Sir,--I sometime ago acquainted my Lord of your readyness to serve his +Lordship in making a Catalogue of his books. His Lordship's new Library +being now near finished the Books cannot be removed thither 'till the +Catalogue be made. If your health will permit you, His Lordship would be +glad to see you here. Mr. Beauvais will deliver you this, and at the same +time will desire you to wait upon my Lord Parker, who will inform you how +you may come; either on Monday next or the next week after, in my Lord's +Coach. I should be very glad to see you, being, Sir, your most humble +servant, + + JOHN ABBADIE. + +SHIRBURN, _14th Nov._ [17--.] + +(Brit. Mus. _Add. MSS._ 4281.) + +[Jean Abbadie was a French valet. In another letter to Desmaizeaux, written +in French, and dated Aug. 2, 1718, he tells how a noble Lord whom he had +faithfully served dismissed him because he could not play the French horn +"par la raison que je ne say pas sonner du cor de chasse"!] + + +MAITTAIRE + +_Letter to Dr. Charlett_ (March 27, 1718) + +Reverend Sir,--I received yours, wherein you demonstrated your friendship +by overlooking all the imperfections of my poor work. I wish I could find +in my style that facility and felicity of language, which your great +goodness flatters me with. To write Latin, is what of all the perfections +of a Scholar I admire most; but I know myself so well, as to be sensible +how much I fall short of it. I have herein inclosed something that will +still try your patience and goodness. 'Tis a poor copy of verses, which +(after a long desuetude) I ventured to make in France, upon the occasion of +presenting my last book to the King's Library; and I met with such friends, +who to shew their civility to me, commanded it to be printed at the Royal +Printing-house, and published their candor at the expense of exposing my +faults. 'Tis ridiculous to turn poet in my old age. But you'll excuse +everything in an old friend. What you mention in your letter concerning +other printers, is what I am now pursuing; the work is already begun; the +name is _Annales Typographici_; it will be three volumes in 4to. And I hope +the first will come out by next midsummer.... I am come to the end of my +paper, and by this time to the end of your patience; having just room +enough to subscribe myself, Worthy Sir, Your most humble and most obedient +Servt. + M. MAITTAIRE. + +(Printed by Aubrey, _Letters written by Eminent Persons_, London, 1813, ii. +pp. 37-39.) + + +[Born in France in 1668, came over to England when a boy, studied in +Westminster School, of which he ultimately became a master. He died in +London in 1747.] + + +VOLTAIRE + +_To Lady Hervey_ (1725?) + + Hervey, would you know the passion + You have kindled in my breast? + Trifling is the inclination + That by words can be expressed. + + In my silence see the lover: + True love is best by silence known; + In my eyes you'll discover + All the power of your own. + + +_Letter to Pierre Desmaizeaux_ (1725?) + +I hear Prevost hath a mind to bring you a second time as an evidence +against me. He sais I have told you I had given him five and twenty books +for thirty guineas. I remember very well, Sir, I told you at Rainbow's +Coffee-House that I had given him twenty subscription receipts for the +_Henriade_ and received thirty guineas down; but I never meant to have +parted with thirty copies at three guineas each, for thirty-one pounds, I +have agreed with him upon quite another foot; and I am not such a fool +(tho' a writer) to give away all my property to a bookseller. + +Therefore I desire you to remember that I never told you of my having made +so silly a bargain. I told, I own, I had thirty pounds or some equivalent +down, but I did not say twas all the bargain, this I insist upon and +beseech you to recollect our conversation: for I am sure I never told a +tale so contrary to truth, to reason, and to my interest. I hope you will +not back the injustice of a bookseller who abuses you against a man of +honour who is your most humble servant. VOLTAIRE. + +I beseech you to send me an answer to my lodging without any delay. I shall +be extremely obliged to you. + + (British Museum, _Add. MSS._ 4288, fol. 229. Printed by + J. Churton Collins and by Ballantyne.) + + +_Letter to Joseph Craddock_ (1773) + +FERNEY, _October_ 9, 1773. + +Sr + + Thanks to your muse a foreign copper shines + Turn'd in to gold, and coin'd in sterling lines. + +You have done too much honour to an old sick man of eighty.--I am with the +most sincere esteem and gratitude, Sir, your obedient servant, + +VOLTAIRE. + + (Ballantyne, _Voltaire's Visit to England_, p. 69.) + +[With Voltaire these _Specimens_ must end. To quote Pere Le Courayer, +Letourneur, Suard, or Baron D'Holbach would be unduly to prolong an +argument that should stop on the threshold of the eighteenth century.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[101] For specimens of French written by Englishmen, see _Anglais et +Francais au XVIIe Siecle_, ch. iv. + +[102] Charles I. + +[103] _Cal. Clarendon State Papers_, ii., No. 2214. See also Eva Scott, +_King in Exile_, p. 9. + +[104] In Oxford. + +[105] _Spectator_, No. 288, 30th January 1712. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +GALLOMANIA IN ENGLAND (1600-85) + + +The English have always been divided between a wish to admire and a +tendency to detest us. France is for her neighbour a coquette whimsical +enough to deserve to be beaten and loved at the same time. The initial +misunderstanding between the two nations endures through ages, sometimes +threatening open war, more seldom ready to be cleared up. A few miles of +deep sea cuts Great Britain off from the rest of Europe. As England has +retained no possessions on the Continent, no intermediary race has sprung +up, as is the case with most of the Western Powers on their borderlands. +Thus the French and Germans are linked together by the Flemings, Alsatians, +and Swiss; the Savoyards and Corsicans are a cross between the French and +the Italians; and before reaching Spain, a Frenchman must traverse vast +tracts of land inhabited by Basques and Catalans; but a few hours' sail +from Calais to Dover, from Rotterdam or Antwerp to Harwich will bring a +traveller from the Continent into an entirely new world. To avoid +disagreements, in the past infinite tact and patience were requisite on +both sides of the Channel: our indiscreet friends made us unpopular with +their fellow-countrymen. The story of English gallomania, which is amusing +enough, is thus also instructive, as a few episodes will show.[106] + +In the sixteenth century, Italy, just emerging from her glorious +Renaissance, charmed England; but common interests, political and +economical necessities, a degree of civilisation almost the same, prevented +her from neglecting us altogether. In the following century, the marriage +of Charles I. with a daughter of Henri IV. made French fashions acceptable +for a time in Whitehall. But misfortune overtook the Stuarts. The Great +Rebellion broke out, Charles I. was put to death and his son exiled. During +over twelve years, the future King of England lived in French-speaking +countries; when restored to his throne, he could not help bringing back our +fashions, literature, manners of thinking and doing; of all the Kings of +England, from Plantagenets to Edward VII., Charles II., in spite of some +diplomatic reserve and occasional outbursts of insularity, proved the most +amenable to French influence: perhaps that is why his popularity was so +great; the English would admire France without stint, if France were but +her finest colony. + +If the courtiers imitated French manners to please the monarch, the +citizens did so to copy the courtiers; so that, about 1632 and 1670, all +the frivolous, unreflective idlers that England numbered, were bent on +appearing French. Few examples are more striking of the power of the +curious desire that possesses ordinary mankind to astonish simple souls by +aping the eccentricities of the higher classes. + +The mania was carefully studied by contemporary writers: they describe the +morbid symptoms with so much accuracy and minuteness as to render all +conjectures superfluous. + +The disease was developed chiefly by travelling. Attracted by the mildness +of a foreign climate and dazzled by the luxurious life of the nobles there, +the young Englishman feels estranged from his native land and the rude +simplicity of his home. When he comes back, the contrast between his new +ideas and his old surroundings, the conflict waged in his own heart between +Continental influence and insularity, are fit themes for a tragedy or at +least a tragi-comedy. The character of the frenchified Englishman appears +several times on the stage in Beaumont and Fletcher's _Monsieur Thomas_, in +Marston's _What you Will_, in Davenant's _Fair Favourite_. Others, again, +picture the young fop just back from Paris, clad in strange garments, +praising foreign manners, so affected as to disregard his mother-tongue. + +About 1609 or 1610, Beaumont and Fletcher sketch the man's character. "The +dangers of the merciless Channel 'twixt Dover and Calais, five long hours' +sail, with three poor weeks' victuals. Then to land dumb, unable to inquire +for an English host, to remove from city to city, by most chargeable +post-horse, like one that rode in quest of his mother-tongue. And all these +almost invincible labours performed for your mistress, to be in danger to +forsake her, and to put on new allegiance to some French lady, who is +content to change language with your laughter, and after your whole year +spent in tennis and broken speech, to stand to the hazard of being laughed +at, at your return, and have tales made on you by the chamber-maids."[107] + +As a fervid preacher finds hearers, so the traveller induces some of his +friends to share his mania. The infection spreads in spite of ridicule: + + "Would you believe, when you this monsieur see, + That his whole body should speake French, not he? + That he, untravell'd, should be French so much, + As Frenchmen in his company should seem Dutch?... + Or is it some French statue? No: 't doth move, + And stoope, and cringe...."[108] + +The most frequent symptom of gallomania in early, as in recent times, is to +use French words in everyday conversation. So Sir Thomas More laughed at +the fop who affected to pronounce English as French but whose French +sounded strangely like English.[109] + +In the sixteenth century, as in the Middle Ages, French was as generally +used as Latin. "In England," wrote Peletier, "at least among princes and in +their courts, all their discourses are in French."[110] A few years later, +Burghley advised his son Thomas, then travelling on the Continent, to write +in Latin or in French.[111] In schools, French was taught with great zeal, +and, according to Sylvester, the future translator of Du Bartas, it was +forbidden to speak English, however trivial the matter, under penalty of +wearing the foolscap. + +In spite of these stringent methods of education, backward pupils were not +lacking. They were sent to France, but even this desperate remedy was +sometimes unavailing; witness Beaumont and Fletcher's youth whose mother, +asking him on his return to speak French, was shocked at hearing only a few +broken words of abuse.[112] + +Yet it was imperative to speak French correctly at Queen Henrietta's Court. +Of course the ladies succeeded. In Blount's Preface to Lyly's plays we read +that "the beautie in court which could not parley euphuisme, was as litle +regarded, as shee which now there, speakes not French."[113] + +[Illustration: A COQUETTE AT HER TOILET-TABLE] + +What was the distinctive mark of a good education under Charles I., was +equally so under Charles II. "All the persons of quality in England could +speak French." The Queen, the Duchess of York spoke "marvellously +well."[114] There was no need to know English at Whitehall: few French +gentlemen troubled to learn it, but the English unfortunate enough not to +know French had to conceal the defect. These would repeat the same foreign +words or phrases; "to smatter French" being "meritorious."[115] "Can there +be," exclaims Shadwell, "any conversation well drest without French in the +first place to lard it!"[116] In an amusing scene, Dryden shows a coquette +rehearsing a polite conversation: "Are you not a most precious damsel," she +says to her teacher, "to retard all my visits for want of language, when +you know you are paid so well for furnishing me with new words for my daily +conversation? Let me die, if I have not run the risque already to speak +like one of the vulgar; and if I have one phrase left in all my store that +is not threadbare and _use_, and fit for nothing but to be thrown to +peasants."[117] + +Fops followed the example set by coquettes. Monsieur de Paris and Sir +Fopling Flutter "show their breeding" by "speaking in a silly soft tone of +a voice, and use all the foolish French words that will infallibly make +their conversation charming."[118] + +After an interval of a hundred years, the reproaches of Sir Thomas More +were repeated. If we must credit Shadwell, the youth of England had +forgotten their English through studying foreign languages with too much +application: they return "from Paris with a smattering of that mighty +universal language, without being ever able to write true English."[119] +And, again, "all our sparks are so refined they scarce speak a sentence +without a French word, and though they seldom arrive at good French, yet +they get enough to spoil their English."[120] + +From time immemorial Europe has learned from Paris polished manners and the +inimitable art of good tailoring. In the sixteenth-century drama, the +tailors are invariably French. Harrison deplored the introduction of new +fashions, regretting the time "when an Englishman was known abroad by his +own cloth, and contented himself at home with his fine kersey hosen, and a +mean slop, a doublet of sad tawny or black velvet or other comely silk." +Then he proceeds to inveigh against the "garish colours brought in by the +consent of the French, who think themselves the gayest men when they have +most diversities of jags (ribbons)" and "the short French breeches" that +liken his countrymen "unto dogs in doublets." The dramatists constantly +mention "French hose, hoods, masks, and sticks," thus attesting the vogue +of the Paris fashions. In one of Chapman's plays, two shipwrecked gentlemen +cast ashore at the mouth of the Thames think they have reached the coasts +of France; seeing a couple of natives drawing near, one of them exclaims: +"I knew we were in France: dost thou think our Englishmen are so +frenchified, that a man knows not whether he be in France or in England, +when he sees them?"[121] + +The lover of France was a true epicure as well as a fop. In the houses of +the nobility the cooks were invariably French. "I'll have none," says one +of Massinger's characters, "shall touch what I shall eat but Frenchmen and +Italians; they wear satin, and dish no meat but in silver."[122] We must go +to Overbury for the portrait of a French cook "who doth not feed the belly, +but the palate. The serving-men call him the last relique of popery, that +makes men fast against their conscience.... He can be truly said to be no +man's fellow but his master's: for the rest of his servants are starved by +him.... The Lord calls him his alchymist that can extract gold out of +herbs, roots, mushrooms, or anything.... He dare not for his life come +among the butchers; for sure they would quarter and bake him after the +English fashion, he's such an enemy to beef and mutton."[123] + +Gallomania quickly spread after the Restoration. The Record Office has +preserved the name of the French tailor, Claude Sourceau, who helped the +Englishman, John Allen, to make Charles II.'s coronation robes.[124] As +early as October 20, 1660, Pepys, dining with Lord Sandwich, heard the +latter "talk very high how he would have a French cooke, and a master of +his horse, and his lady and child to wear black patches"; which was quite +natural, since "he was become a perfect courtier"; and on December 6, 1661, +My Lady Wright declared in Pepys' hearing "that none were fit to be +courtiers, but such as had been abroad and knew fashions." Soon the motto +at Court was to + + "Admire whate'er they find abroad, + But nothing here, though e'er so good."[125] + +Hamilton tells in his delightful _Memoires de Gramont_ how every week there +came from France "perfumed gloves, pocket-mirrors, dressing-cases, +apricot-jam and essences." Every month the Paris milliners sent over to +London a jointed doll, habited after the manner of the stars that shone at +the Court of the Grand Monarch.[126] According to M. Renan, the dreamy +Breton blue eyes of Mademoiselle de Keroualle conquered Charles II.; but we +feel inclined to think that the monarch appreciated also her brilliant +success as a leader of fashion. As Butler satirically said, the French gave +the English "laws for pantaloons, port-cannons, periwigs and +feathers."[127] Every one spoke of "bouillis, ragouts, fricasses," bordeaux +and champagne were drunk instead of national beer.[128] + +[Illustration: THE DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH AS A LEADER OF FASHION] + +The City ladies tried to outdo the Court belles. One of them "had always +the fashion a month before any of the Court ladies; never wore anything +made in England; scarce wash'd there; and had all the affected new words +sent her, before they were in print, which made her pass among fops for a +kind of French wit."[129] + +The movement, of course, elicited a violent opposition. Poets and +dramatists were banded together in denouncing the subservience to France of +a portion of English society. At times, these nationalists went perhaps too +far in their praise of old manners and old fashions. Assuredly any +reasonable man will side with Sir Fopling Flutter in preferring the wax +candle, albeit from France, to the time-honoured tallow candle.[130] + +Butler's notebooks, which were published a few years ago, reveal in the man +a singularly conservative state of mind. The French are the same, he +thinks, to the English nation as the Jews or the Greeks were to the Romans +of old. Fashions, cooking, books, all that comes from France is to be +abhorred.[131] + +One day Evelyn, champion as he was of all generous ideas, determined to +bring his countrymen back to their forefathers' simplicity. He accordingly +wrote an "invective" against the fashions of France and proposed to adopt +in their stead the "Persian costume," "a long cassock fitted close to the +body, of black cloth, and pinked with white silk under it, and a coat over +it, and the legs ruffled with black ribbon." Under the title of _Tyrannus +or the Mode_, the pamphlet was dedicated to the King. Apparently Charles +II. was very idle at the time: the idea pleased him and he donned the +"oriental vest." Several members of the House of Commons, probably by way +of protesting against the dissoluteness of the Court, had forestalled him. +While Evelyn was gravely congratulating himself on the good effect of his +pamphlet, the King, in the vein of irrepressible "blague" that was his +characteristic trait, remarked that the "pinking upon white made his +courtiers look like so many magpies." A few days after, upon hearing that +the King of France had caused all his footmen to be put into vests, Charles +II. quietly reverted to the French fashion, "which," as Guy Miege wrote +after the Revolution, "has continued ever since."[132] + +Though beaten in that particular instance, the nationalists were to carry +the day, thanks to the power of tradition and the strong individualism of +the English nation. For a hundred years at least, it had been recognised as +an assured principle that an Englishman ran the risk of depravation if he +ventured abroad.[133] What could the fancy of a few courtiers avail against +universal consent? All the satirical poets--Wyatt, Gascoigne, Bishop Hall, +Butler--had successfully declaimed against foreigners and frenchified +Englishmen. Even Charles II. applauded Howard's comedy, _The English +Monsieur_. Then, as now, for the average Englishman, Paris was +pre-eminently the pleasure-city. It was even worse at times: if gentlemen +fought private duels, it was to copy the French.[134] A man as +well-informed as the Earl of Halifax feared that the famous poisoning cases +in which the Marquise de Brinvilliers and the woman Voisin were concerned, +might find imitators in England, "since we are likely to receive hereafter +that with other fashions."[135] As the Chinese in modern America, so the +Frenchman was looked upon as a suspicious character; not altogether without +cause: the cooks, tailors, and valets, the adventurers of the Gramont type +lurking about the Court, were redolent of vice. Pepys, who had nothing of +the saint about him, could not hide his aversion for Edward Montagu's +French valet, the mysterious Eschar, most probably a spy. The great ladies +had the habit, which seems so strange to us, to be waited upon by valets +instead of maids. When the valet came from France, the pretext for scandal +was eagerly seized upon.[136] + +If anglomania was unknown to France in the seventeenth century, yet +Frenchmen were found who appreciated England. Some lived at Court, during +Louis XIV.'s minority and later, when the King of England was in the pay of +his cousin, the Grand Monarch. No doubt English literature did not profit +by those good dispositions, for the simple reason that none of those +Frenchmen knew English. + +Both Cardinal Mazarin and the Grande Mademoiselle caused horses to be +imported from England, but Colbert found them rather expensive. When he +received instructions to build Versailles, the minister had to be resigned +to extravagance. Henrietta of England stood in high favour with the King, +and all that came from England proved acceptable; overwhelmed with work, +responsible for the national finances, the navy and public prosperity, the +great minister was compelled to discuss trivial details; the same year as +the Treaty of Dover was signed, he corresponded with Ambassador Colbert de +Croissy about the purchase for the canal at Versailles of two "small +yachts." The boats were built in Chatham dockyard, sent to France, and +workmen were dispatched to carve and gild the figure-heads.[137] + +[Illustration: POPULAR REPRESENTATON OF AN ENGLISHMAN + +_After Bonnart_] + +When Locke visited Paris in 1679, he found some admirers of England. He was +told that Prince de Conti, then aged seventeen, proposed to learn +English.[138] No wonder the princes of the blood were anxious to know all +about the allies of France. The King himself had shown as much curiosity as +his exalted station allowed. He had asked his envoys to forward him reports +on the government and institutions of the newly-discovered land, on the +state of arts and sciences there, on the latest Court scandals. In the +Colbert papers may be found reports on the state of the English navy, by +superintendent Arnoul, a learned disquisition on the origin of Parliaments, +and amusing bits of information, such as the following, about Charles II.'s +Queen: "She is extremely clean and takes a bath once every six weeks, +winter and summer. Nobody ever sees her in her bath, not even her maids, +curtains being drawn around." + +When Gilbert Burnet visited Paris in 1685, he was asked on behalf of the +Archbishop if he would write in English a memoir of Louis XIV. From which +significant fact it may be inferred that in official circles the state of +public opinion in England was beginning to be taken into account.[139] + +In all these manifestations of gallomania and incipient anglomania, there +is ample matter for ridicule. We should gladly give up the imitation of +French fashions and French cooking and the passion for English horses and +yachts, just to have once more an instance of the noble spirit of rivalry +that Spenser showed when, after reading Du Bellay's poems, he exclaimed:-- + + "France, fruitful of brave wits." + +Yet efforts were being made during the whole seventeenth century to bring +about an understanding between the two neighbouring nations. Unluckily the +methods pursued were calculated to make France most unpopular with the +larger section of the English public. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[106] See on the subject Sir Sidney Lee, _French Renaissance in England_; +Upham, _French Influence in English Literature_, Charlanne, _L'influence +francaise en Angleterre au XVIIe Siecle_. + +[107] _Scornful Lady_, Act I. Sc. 1. + +[108] Chalmers, _English Poets_, v. p. 506. + +[109] + "Et Gallice linguam sonat Britannicam, + Et Gallice omnem, praeter unam Gallicam, + Nam Gallicam solam sonat Britannice." + + _Thomae Mori Lucubrationes_ (Basil, 1563), p. 209. + +[110] _Dialogues de l'orthografe_, p. 60 (1550). + +[111] _State Papers, Dom._, Eliz. xix. No. 35; see also _The Travels of +Nicander Nucius_ (Camden Soc.), p. 13; Paul Jove, _Descriptio Britanniae_, +Venice, 1548. "Aulae et foro Gallicus sermo familiaris." + +[112] _The Coxcomb_, Act IV. Sc. 1 (1610) + +[113] _Six Court Comedies_, 1632. + +[114] Mauger, _French Grammar_, pp. 189, 217, 234. + +[115] Butler, _On our Ridiculous Imitation of the French_. + +[116] _Bury Fair_, Act II. Sc. 1. + +[117] _Marriage a la Mode_, Act III. Sc. 1. + +[118] Etheredge, _Man of Mode_, Act II. Sc. 1. + +[119] _Virtuoso_, Act I. Sc. 1. + +[120] _True Widow_, Act II. Sc. 1. + +[121] _Eastward Hoe_, Act II. Sc. 1 (1605). + +[122] _City Madam_, Act I. Sc. 1 (1632). + +[123] _Characters_, p. 144 (1614). + +[124] _State Papers, Dom._, 1665-1666, p. 481. + +[125] Butler, _op. cit._ + +[126] _Spectator_, No. 277. + +[127] _Hudibras_, iii. 923. + +[128] "Put about a cup of ale, is this not better than your foolish French +kickshaw claret."--Shadwell, _Epsom-Wells_, Act I. Sc. 1. + +[129] _True Widow_, Act I. Sc. 1. + +[130] "How can you breathe in a room where there's grease frying? Advise My +Lady to burn wax lights."--_Man of Mode_, Act IV. Sc. 1. + +[131] _Characters_, pp. 419, 424, 469. + +[132] See Evelyn, _Diary_, 18th-30th October 1666; Pepys, _Diary_, +15th-17th October, 22nd November 1666; Miege, _New State of England_, ii. +p. 38; _State Papers, Dom._, 1666, p. 191. + +[133] Ascham, _The Schole-master_, 1570, pp. 26 _ssq._; Nash, _The +Unfortunate Traveller_, 1587 (_Works_, ii. p. 300) + +[134] Beaumont and Fletcher, _Little French Lawyer_, Act I. Sc. 1. + +[135] _Savile Correspondence_, p. 143. + +[136] Etheredge, _Man of Mode_, Act IV. Sc. 2. + +[137] _Lettres, Memoires et Instructions de Colbert_, v. p. 322. + +[138] King, _Life and Letters of Locke_, p. 83. + +[139] Clarke and Foxcroft, _Life of Burnet_, p. 210. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HUGUENOT THOUGHT IN ENGLAND + + +FIRST PART + +From a literary point of view the intercourse between England and France in +the period that immediately preceded and followed the Revocation of the +Edict of Nantes (1685) has been exhaustively studied by M. Texte[140] and +M. Jusserand,[141] both coming after M. Sayous.[142] We propose, while +tracing the progress of political speculation among the Huguenots, to +discover to what extent they influenced English thought. The field of +research is extensive: a mass of information on the subject lies scattered +in books, some of which are scarce, and the numerous manuscript sources +have been hitherto imperfectly explored. We cannot hope to do more than +draw a general outline of a profoundly interesting subject. + +From the dawn of the Reformation, different reasons impelled the Huguenots +to look towards England. Besides the natural link formed by community of +thought in a matter that then pervaded life, _i.e._ religious belief, +political necessities led the Huguenots to seek the friendship of England. +Having the same household gods, the Huguenots and the English loved the +same mystical Fatherland, which dangers, ambitions, and interests shared in +common invested with stern reality. As the Huguenots increased, they grew +from a sect to a faction which, seeking alliances abroad, sent envoys to +the foreign Courts. According also to the vicissitudes of their fortunes, +streams of Huguenot refugees would flow from time to time towards the +neighbouring countries likely to welcome them. Thus from the first were the +Huguenots represented in England, not only by their noblemen, but by their +democracy. + +A whole book might be written on the influence of Calvin in England, both +within and without the Church. To a student of comparative literature, if +the word be understood in the larger sense of intercommunication of thought +among nations, the part played by Calvin in the early framing of the +institutions of the English Reformation is a matter not too unimportant to +be overlooked.[143] + +The first mention of Huguenot refugees in England occurs under the reign of +Henry VIII., when in 1535-36 forty-five naturalizations were granted. When, +responding to an appeal from Archbishop Cranmer, Bucer and his disciple +Buchlein repaired to England, in 1549, they met in the Archbishop's Palace +Peter Martyr and "diverse pious Frenchmen."[144] M. de Schickler and M. +Jusserand have rescued from long oblivion Claude de Saint-Lien, who, +quaintly anglicising his name into Holy-Band, began earning his bread by +teaching his mother tongue. + +But it was only after Saint Bartholomew's Day that the Huguenot colonies in +England grew to such numbers as to form congregations. Several illustrious +Huguenots then found a last home in England. Admiral Coligny's brother, +Cardinal Odet de Chatillon, lies buried in Canterbury Cathedral. In 1591 Du +Plessis-Mornay was in London with Montgomery and the Vidame de Chartres, +negotiating an alliance with Elizabeth, and, with characteristic lack of +diplomacy, availing himself of his stay in England to intercede with the +Queen's counsellors in favour of the Puritans.[145] Though befriended by +Archbishop Parker and Sir Robert Cecil, "the gentle and profitable +strangers," as Strype calls the Huguenots,[146] were not generally welcome. +Popular prejudice was so strong against the newcomers that a Bill was +introduced in Parliament in 1593, prohibiting them from selling foreign +goods by retail.[147] The settlers, averaging during the sixteenth century +about 10,000, were chiefly skilled artisans, weavers, printers, binders, or +ministers, physicians, and teachers. By some curious unexplained accident, +Shakespeare lodged from 1598 to 1604 in the house of a Huguenot wig-maker, +Christophe Mongoye by name.[148] + +With James I. the political preoccupations fell into the background; the +King sought the company of the most famous Continental scholars. In 1611 he +invited to his Court Isaac Casaubon, and three years later, at the instance +of his Huguenot physician, Sir Theodore Mayerne, Pierre Du Moulin, the +minister at Charenton. In the train of the scholars came over the men of +letters, among them Jean de Schelandre, the future author of the epic _La +Stuartide_, inscribed to James I. + +In 1642, on the eve of the Civil War, there died in London the notorious +Benjamin de Rohan, Lord of Soubise, who had survived in exile an age that +belonged to the past. With the fall of La Rochelle, the political power of +the Huguenots was struck down, and there remained no further check on the +path of absolute monarchy. Protestant historians are wont to lament the +lukewarm faith that marked the period extending from 1629 to the +Revolution. Indeed, the outward manifestations of Huguenot zeal had then +ceased to be characteristic of the Church militant. The Bearnese or +Languedocian gentleman no longer left his castle for the wars, bearing as +a twofold symbol of his sect and party the Bible in the one hand and the +sword in the other; and the time was yet to come when in the wild Cevennes +mountains, in the "Desert," as they said in their highly-coloured language, +arose the heroic witnesses of the persecuted Church. The accidental causes +that had temporarily given the Huguenots an undue influence in the State +ceasing to operate, they appeared from a formidable party suddenly to +shrink into insignificance. But their intellectual development meanwhile +must not be overlooked. Alone in France, with those that a popular +dogmatism, no doubt justified in some cases, contemptibly nicknamed +libertines, they were prepared by a suitable mental training to act as a +check on the natural bias of the majority regarding its own infallibility. +And over the libertines they had the advantage both of general austereness +of life and of a certain readiness to suffer for their convictions. + +No doubt the discipline exercised by the Calvinistic organisation +discouraged individual eccentricity. The struggle for emancipation over, +the leaders who had upheld against the Church of Rome their right of +judging in spiritual matters concluded that no further encroachments of +individualism on authority were permissible. The Confession of Faith lay +heavy upon the Churches; the Synod of Dort, whose decisions had become laws +for the French Synods, was singularly like a Reformed Council of Trent. +Still, there remained in the early seventeenth century a wide difference +between the mental attitude of a Huguenot and a contemporary Scotch +Presbyterian. A minority in France, the Huguenot leaders could not cut off +their flocks from the outer world; they mixed with the Catholics, who +outnumbered them; they shared in the development of thought in their +country; they were not all scholars and divines: some made bold to be men +of letters, poets, even libertines.[149] In the literary coteries of the +capital, in the incipient French Academy, over which the Protestant Conrart +presided, abbes and pastors were reconciled in common admiration for an +elegant alexandrine or a correct period. + +In his own country, Calvin's system was imperfectly carried out. "The +pastors," wrote Richard Simon, the Catholic Hebrew scholar, "subscribe +their names to the Confession of Faith only by policy, persuaded as they +are that Calvin and the other Reformers did not perceive everything, and +effected but an imperfect Reformation."[150] "It cannot be denied," said Du +Moulin the elder of a very influential contemporary divine, "that a third +of Cameron's works are devoted to a confutation of Calvin, Beza, and our +other famous Reformers."[151] Due allowance being made for the prejudice of +a Roman Catholic or of an alarmed Orthodox, these statements are borne out +by facts. For instance, the Huguenots had none of the Scotch +Presbyterian's superstition for the Calvinistic system of Church +government. "I think," said Samuel Bochart, the author of the _Geographia +Sacra_, "that those who maintain the divine right either of Episcopacy or +of Presbytery are equally in the wrong, and that the heat of the dispute +makes them overstate their position; if we are asked which is the better +and the fitter for the Church of these two forms of government, it is as +though we were asked if it is better for a State to be ruled by monarchs, +the nobility, or the people, which is not a question to be decided on the +spur of the moment, for that there are nations to which Monarchy is more +suitable, to others Aristocracy, and to others Democracy, and that the same +laws and customs are not followed everywhere."[152] When Bishop Henchman, +in 1680, asked the ministers at Charenton their opinion on the respective +merits of Episcopacy and Presbytery, Claude and De l'Angle answered that +the question of Church government was one of expediency.[153] + +The same detachment appeared in a more important matter. The Reformation, +certainly against the wish of its promoters, opened the flood-gates of free +inquiry. From the Church of Rome the Reformers appealed to Scripture, but +underlying that appeal was a right given to reason to decide what +construction should be put upon the divine message. The inconvenience of +the process was not felt at first. In an age of faith, reason is docile and +asks no questions. On the points upon which the Reformers had made no +innovation, reason accepted the traditional teaching; on the others, it had +free play without arousing the suspicions of Synods. But soon the teaching +of the Reformers came to be questioned. Once the horse held the bit in his +mouth, he could not be restrained in his headlong progress. So it came to +pass that in France, as in England and Holland, through the same cause, +latitudinarians followed in natural sequence the Reformers. A Royal Edict +of 1623 forbidding the students to the ministry to leave France, while +severing the tie that bound the Huguenots to Geneva, hurried on the +revolutionary movement. The students flocked to the Academies of Sedan and +Saumur, and soon two schools of divinity flourished opposed to each other, +that of Sedan upholding orthodoxy, while that of Saumur became the nucleus +of French latitudinarianism. Neither Cameron nor his disciple Amyraut, the +two luminaries of the latter school, were Arminians--their philosophy was +an offshoot of Cartesianism; like the English latitudinarians, they drew a +distinction between fundamentals and accidentals, and dreamed the generous +dream--a dream at most--of a Church so comprehensive as to include all the +Christians accepting the Apostles' Creed. + +A little book published anonymously at Saumur in 1670, under the title of +_La Reunion du Christianisme ou la maniere de rejoindre tous les Chrestiens +sous une seule Confession de Foy_, sets forth in a bold ingenuous form the +aspirations of this school. "Some time ago a method of reasoning and of +making sure progress towards truth was proposed in philosophy.[154] To that +effect it is asserted that we must rid ourselves of all preconceived +notions and of all preoccupations of mind. We must receive at first only +the most simple ideas and such propositions as no one can dispute who hath +the slightest use of reason. Might we not imitate the process in religion? +Might we not set aside for a time all the opinions that we upheld with so +much ardour, to examine them afterwards with an open unimpassioned mind, +adhering always to our common principle, which is Holy Scripture?"[155] + +D'Huisseau, the author of the book, answered with a young man's confidence +the most obvious objection. On a few simple dogmas all Christians would be +agreed; there would be no difference between a "Doctor of the Church" and a +poor man, since primitive Christianity is understood of all men. Then, with +Gallic faith in the efficacy of State intervention, he added: "Above all, I +think that those who can strike the hardest blows on that occasion, are the +Princes and those who rule the States and manage the public affairs. They +can add the weight of their authority to that of the reasons alleged in +that undertaking; and their power will be most efficacious in giving value +to the exhortations of others."[156] + +In spite of this appeal to secular aid, the school of Saumur furthered +toleration. By the distinction they drew between fundamentals and +accidentals, they tended to deprive the Churches of some pretexts for +persecuting. No doubt they examined the question from the ecclesiastical +and not the political point of view, but their freedom from the prejudices +of their gown was a signal service to progress. + +Another instance of detachment, all the more noticeable because of its +consequences in England, was Daille's attitude towards the Fathers. +Published in 1632, his _Traite de l'emploi des Saints-Peres pour le +jugement des differends qui sont aujourd'hui en la religion_ was translated +into English in 1651. It is no exaggeration to state that to this book was +due the scant reverence shown in the seventeenth century by Protestant +theology for the authority of the Fathers. The Bible, as the Saumur school +desired, became the rule of faith, until in the early eighteenth century +its authority came to be questioned in its turn. + +The development of theological thought followed therefore in France about +the same lines as in England. When considered from a merely intellectual +point of view, the speculative activity of the Huguenots, in the period +intervening between the fall of La Rochelle and the Revocation, gives the +impression of an orchard in April, in which the trees covered with blossoms +promise abundance of fruit. The impending frost blasted those hopes. What +fruit ripened was not gathered in France. + +The relation between a critical attitude in theology and in politics has +often been noticed. A common charge brought against the early Reformers was +that of sedition. Though the charge was unfounded in most cases, popular +instinct sharpened by enmity was right in the main. Even Protestant writers +admitted the temptation of men who had rebelled against the Church to rebel +against the State. Some profound observations they made on the tendency of +the human mind to extend the scope of a method of reasoning, and to evolve +out of a philosophical theory a programme of political reform long before +the students of political science of our own time made a similar +observation. "All the subtleties," said D'Huisseau, "that are called forth +in religion generally make the minds of the people inquiring, proud, +punctilious, obstinate, and consequently more difficult to curb into reason +and obedience. Every private man pretends to have a right to investigate +those controverted matters, and, bringing his judgment to bear upon them, +defends his opinion with the utmost heat. Afterwards they wish to carry +into the discussion of State affairs the same freedom as they use in +matters of religion. They believe that since they are allowed to exercise +control over the opinions of their leaders in the Church, where the +service of God is concerned, they are free to examine the conduct of those +that are set over them for political government."[157] With still keener +insight did Bayle, twenty years later, perceive the political import of +certain tenets of the Reformation. The emphasis laid upon the divine +command to "search the Scriptures," marked the beginning of a new era for +humanity. Bidden as a most sacred duty to judge for themselves, men could +not be withheld from wandering into the forbidden field of secular +politics. + +As the infallibility of the priest, so the infallibility of the ruler came +to be questioned. But if the principle of free inquiry, or, as Bayle terms +it, "l'examen particulier dans les matieres de foi,"[158] would lead +necessarily to civil liberty, another tenet led to equality. "When there +was a pressing need, any one had a natural vocation for pastoral +functions."[159] Universal priesthood drew no distinction between a caste +of priests and the people, between the princes or magistrates and the +rabble. In cases of necessity, leaders, political as well as religious, +might spring from the ranks, as the prophets of Israel did, holding their +commissions directly from Heaven. + +But the seditious Huguenot negotiating against the King of France with +Englishmen and Hollanders, and marching against the capital at the head of +an army of mercenary Germans, had now disappeared as a type. The mangled +remains of the great admiral, martyred for the cause of political and +religious liberty, lay in the chapel of Chatillon Castle. The Condes had +gone back to Roman Catholicism. With the advent of Henri de Navarre, +sedition became loyalism. Though brought up upon the works of Hotman, +Languet, and Du Plessis-Mornay, the Huguenot found little difficulty in +bowing, with the rest of his countrymen, before the throne of absolutism. + +The Synod of Tonneins condemning as early as 1614 the doctrine of Suarez, +"exhorts the faithful to combat it, in order to maintain, together with the +right of God, that of the sovereign power which He has established."[160] +The Synod of Vitre (1617) addresses Louis XIII. in these words: "We +acknowledge after God no other sovereign but Your Majesty. Our belief is +that between God and the Kings, there is no middle power. To cast doubt +upon that truth is among us a heresy, and to dispute it a capital +crime."[161] + +The Civil War in England made it imperative for the Huguenots to frame a +theory of government. Readily confounded by popular malice with English +Presbyterians and Independents, they were bound to be on the alert. In +1644, complaints from the Maritime Provinces of attempts on the part of +"Englishmen belonging to the sect of Independents" to spread their +doctrines among the people, gave the Synod of Charenton an opportunity of +condemning them as "a sect pernicious to the Church" and "very dangerous +enemies to the State."[162] + +The relations between the Huguenots and the Puritans thus so unexpectedly +revealed are still uncertainly known. As early as 1574, La Rochelle had +been in close touch with the extreme Elizabethan Puritans, Walter Travers +causing one of his works of controversy to be printed there.[163] In 1590 +two of the Martin Marprelate tracts were issued from the presses of La +Rochelle,[164] and Waldegrave, one of the factious printers, took refuge +there. During the Civil War there seem to have been active negotiations +going on between some of the Parliamentary leaders and the Bordeaux +malcontents. These found the doctrines of the Levellers more to their taste +than the more moderate schemes of Cromwell, Ireton, and the "grandees." +They even sketched out for France, or at least Guyenne, a Republican +Constitution. For those who have been taught to explain the French +Revolution by racial theories, nothing is more disconcerting than to learn +how the ancestors of the Revolutionists caught some of their most advanced +ideas from their English co-religionists. They clamoured for a +representative assembly, liberty of conscience, trials by jury, the +abolition of privileges. "The peasant," they wrote, "is as free as a +prince, coming into this world without either wooden shoes or saddle, even +as the king's son without a crown on his head. So every one is by birth +equally free and has the power to choose his own government."[165] If it is +astounding enough to hear almost a century and a half before the fall of +the Bastille the cry of liberty and equality, it is startling to think that +the English had raised it. + +The tragedy enacted at Whitehall on 30th January 1648-49, stirred up in +Europe a horror equal only to that caused nearly a century and a half later +by the execution of Louis XVI. of France. "We gave ourselves up," wrote +Bochart, "to tears and afflictions, and solemnised the obsequies of your +King by universal mourning."[166] One of the most distinguished laymen in +the Rouen congregation, Porree the physician, declared that "all true +Protestants abhorred that execrable parricide."[167] + +The Doctors of the Church delivered their opinion in emphatic terms. In +1650 two works appeared exalting the royal prerogative.[168] Amyraut, the +latitudinarian professor of Saumur, was the author of one of them;[169] +Bochart that of the other.[170] Their argument is mainly Biblical. The +kings being God's vice-regents, are accountable only to Him. To sit in +judgment upon them, to inflict them bodily injury, is heinous sacrilege. +"Kings are absolute and depend only on God; it is never allowed to attempt +their lives on any pretence whatsoever."[171] Yet Amyraut recorded a +remarkable reservation in which the regicides could have found their +justification: "Except there be an express command, proceeding from God +directly, such as those given to Ehud and Jehu, nothing may be attempted +against the kings without committing an offence more hateful to God than +the most execrable parricide."[172] Dr. Gauden's _Eikon Basilike_ had a +great success in France, two translations penned by Huguenots appearing, +that of Denys Cailloue[173] in 1649, that of Porree[174] a year later. +Lastly, all students of English literature remember that Claude de Saumaise +wrote the _Defensio regia pro Carolo Primo_, and Pierre Du Moulin the +_Clamor sanguinis regiae ad coelum contra parricidas Anglicanos_ (1652). +The Huguenots showed zeal not only in condemning the King's execution and +in vindicating his memory from the charges of the Commonwealthsmen, but in +furthering the Restoration of his son, Charles II., by proclaiming his +title to the Crown of England.[175] + +The Restoration coincided with the majority of Louis XIV. The Synod of +Loudun, whose moderator was Daille, then an old man, proclaimed the duty +of passive obedience: "Kings depend immediately on God; there is no +intermediate authority between theirs and that of the Almighty."[176] +"Kings in this world are in the place of God, and are His true living +portrait on earth, and the footstool of their throne exalts them above +mankind, only to bring them nearer Heaven. Such are the fundamental +principles of our creed."[177] + +Significant it is to see the divine of world-wide repute, whose youth was +spent with Du Plessis-Mornay, the co-author, most probably, of the +_Vindiciae contra Tyrannos_,[178] solemnly recalling the duty of subjects to +princes on the threshold of an era of absolutism in Europe, supposed by +every one except some Fifth-Monarchy men to be of long duration. + +Yet the Huguenots, with all their submissiveness, were not thought sincere. +Public opinion had not forgotten the lessons of the sixteenth century. "To +be candid," wrote Richard Simon to Fremont d'Ablancourt, "most of your +ministers were not born for a monarchy such as that of France. They take +liberties permissible only in a Republic, or in a State where the King is +not absolute."[179] + +The factious individualism latent in every Huguenot only awaited +favourable circumstances to come to light. The concessions of a vanquished +party to their victors explain how political thought depended on +theological thought. But among the refugees in England, the +passive-obedience doctrine imbibed in the mother-country did not endure. +Pierre Du Moulin, who, at the invitation of James I., had twice visited +England, in 1615 and in 1623, left two sons, Peter and Lewis, who both +settled in England. The elder, who accepted the living of Saint John's, +Chester, and became at the Restoration chaplain to Charles II. and +Prebendary of Canterbury, is the author of _Clamor sanguinis_, wrongly +attributed by Milton to another French pastor, of Scottish descent, +Alexander Morus. A staunch Royalist, he published in 1640 a _Letter of a +French Protestant to a Scotsman of the Covenant_, and also in 1650 a +_Defense de la Religion reformee et de la monarchie et Eglise Anglicane_, +and after the Restoration _A Vindication of the Protestant Religion in the +Point of Obedience to Sovereigns_ (1663). The younger brother, Lewis, threw +in his lot with the Commonwealthsmen, was appointed Camden Professor of +Ancient History at Oxford (September 1648), and deprived on the accession +of Charles II. He remained, in spite of the idle story of his recanting on +his death-bed in presence of Burnet, a sturdy Independent, publishing the +very year of his death an apology for Independency.[180] A more striking +instance of the discord which rent England during the Civil War could +hardly be found. Party spirit ran high among the refugees, Jean de la +Marche, the pastor of the French congregation in Threadneedle Street, being +violently opposed by his flock for becoming an Independent,[181] while +Herault, the minister of Alencon, having during a stay in London vented his +Royalist opinions, was compelled to seek safety in flight.[182] Another +minister, Jean d'Espagne, sided with the Protector, who granted him +permission to preach in Somerset House, and graciously accepted the +dedication of a book.[183] At an earlier date, three French divines had sat +in the Westminster Assembly.[184] About the same time, some active, +intelligent Huguenot was busy publishing in London for Continental readers +a French newspaper.[185] + +The refugees thus took part in the internal dissensions of their adopted +country. As a rule, to be favourable to the Stuarts they need be dependents +on the Court or the Church; if merchants, they would usually side with the +opposition, thus revealing the revolutionist ever lurking in the Calvinist. +When Shaftesbury, at the time of the agitation on the Exclusion Bill, +thought of making London a Whig stronghold, in view of a possible _coup +d'etat_, his main coadjutors seem to have been the elected sheriffs for +Middlesex, Papillon and Dubois, two refugees. The battle fought and lost, +Papillon fled to Amsterdam; but not before the thought crossed his mind of +returning to the beloved mother-country: "I should not," he wrote from +Holland, "have taken refuge here if I could go to France and worship there +freely."[186] + +Such a letter helps us to realise the loss suffered by France from the +exile of men like Papillon. Their talents were not uncommon; in their own +country, unmolested, they would have led useful, obscure lives, open-minded +enough withal to welcome the inevitable change sooner or later to take +place in European politics. + +In spite of the efforts of the French King[187] and the disfavour shown the +Huguenots by the exiled Anglicans,[188] the intercourse between England and +the Huguenots continued after the Restoration. The French churches in +England formed a natural link which survived the Act of Uniformity. The +Huguenots, as well as Louis XIV., had their ambassadors in London, and, in +some cases, these unofficial envoys were better informed than Colbert de +Croissy or Barillon, for they could speak and write English and showed +little reluctance to become Churchmen. Some obtained high preferment. This +explains how Jurieu, called to England on leaving college by the Du +Moulins, was ordained in the Church.[189] + +In the precincts of the Court gathered some men of letters, refugees and +scholars, Catholics and Protestants, the best known of whom is +Saint-Evremond. Vossius, his "ami de lettres,"[190] was then Canon of +Windsor, and to the latter's uncle Du Jon (Junius), librarian to the Earl +of Arundel, who though born at Heidelberg was of Huguenot descent, England +owes some of the earliest studies in Anglo-Saxon. These literati gathered +round the Duchess of Mazarin, the Cardinal's niece, at her little court at +Windsor, when Vossius, a pedant like most scholars in his age, would +discourse on Chinese civilisation and the population of ancient Rome,[191] +Saint-Evremond read a paper of verses, the Duchess speak of her +interminable lawsuit with the bigoted, doting old Duke, her husband; and +the company would be merry upon her recounting how he directed his +grandchild's nurse to make the infant fast, in literal accordance with the +Church commandments, on Fridays and Saturdays.[192] The librarian to +Archbishop Sancroft, Colomies, may have been admitted to the circle. On his +arrival in England, he had found Vossius a useful friend, and through the +latter's exertions was ordained in the Church of England, became a thorough +Episcopalian, and was, like his patron, strongly suspected of Socinianism. +Their friendship for Dr. Morales, a Jew of Amsterdam and one of this +literary circle, only confirmed the suspicion. But in Madame de Mazarin's +salon theological disputes were infrequent. For France, anti-Protestantism +then was not an "article of exportation." Far from being fanatical, the +temper of these literati savours somewhat of a much later indifferentism. +Perhaps the courtly scepticism of the Restoration proved contagious. For +Saint-Evremond a system of ethics did very well in place of a Confession of +Faith. "The Faith is obscure, the Law clearly expressed. What we are bound +to believe is above our understanding, what we have to do is within every +one's reach."[193] + +Most of his friends were Protestants, and he never felt bitterness against +them: "I never experienced that indiscreet zeal that makes us hate people, +because they do not share our opinions. That false zeal takes its rise in +conceit, and we are secretly inclined to mistake for charity towards our +neighbour what is only an excessive fondness for our private +opinions."[194] + +This paragraph strikes the keynote of the temper that reigned in the French +circle at Windsor. On foreign land, out of the reach of Gallican maxims of +policy and priestly intrigue, the two Frances, Catholic and Huguenot, not +without an admixture of "libertinage," met, a picture of what might have +been, had the dream of Michel de l'Hopital and De Thou, maybe of Henri IV., +been realised. + +The most notable Huguenot in this circle was Louis XIV.'s ex-secretary, +Henri Justel, a "great and knowing virtuoso,"[195] as Evelyn calls him, +whom Charles II. appointed King's librarian in 1681. He seems to have been +a very grave, courteous, and modest scholar. Having no literary +ambition,[196] he went through life exciting no envy, free from envy +himself. His religious convictions were sincere, and he made sacrifices to +ensure them. Martyrdom, Renan said, is not so difficult after all. With +nerves strung to a high pitch, fearful lest the jeering crowd should +discern a sign of weakness, the victim of the Roman emperors stepped forth +into the arena without the slightest tremor. Physical pain, the +apprehension of death, were lost in the light of the glorious crown which +the witness of Christ's word felt already encircling his brow. Some such +feeling may have stirred the humble preacher that the Intendant sentenced +to be hanged, or the obscure peasant whom the dragoons dragged away to the +Toulon galleys. But nothing short of a very rare uprightness of mind, a +sound probity towards self, could drive Justel to forsake all that a man +and a scholar loves--his books, his friends, his ease, his beloved +country. Saint-Evremond failed to understand Justel's higher motives of +conduct. "Allow me," he wrote to him, "not to approve your resolution to +leave France, so long as I shall see you so tenderly and so lovingly +cherish her memory. When I see you sad and mournful, regretting Paris on +the banks of our Thames, you remind me of the poor Israelites, lamenting +Jerusalem on the banks of the river Euphrates. Either live happily in +England, with a full liberty of conscience, or put up with petty severities +against religion in your own country, so as to enjoy all the comforts of +life."[197] + +So the tempter spoke, and, to support his hard lot, Justel had none of the +martyr's incentives. To those of his own faith, his constancy must have +seemed surprising. Far from encouraging him to keep within the fold, the +Consistory of Charenton had grossly insulted him.[198] The great value to a +country of men like that faithful scholar is their love of spiritual +independence. A letter that he wrote to Edward Bernard, professor of +astronomy at Oxford, on February 16, 1670, shows what a price he paid to +keep his fathers' faith. After stating that Claude is preparing an answer +to a book of Arnault, and wishes to adduce against transubstantiation the +evidence of some modern Greeks, he says that all the libraries in France +being closed to the religionists, he must perforce have recourse to the +Bodleian Library and its rich collection of oriental manuscripts.[199] In +this appeal of a scholar I find as much pathos as in any account of +dragonnades. + +[Illustration: A SCHEME OF THE PERSECUTION] + +Yet Saint-Evremond could not understand that the prize was worth the fight. +His sense of equity was undisturbed by the Revocation. The King's method of +dealing with heretics was rough, but justifiable. Instead of resisting +openly, the Protestants should more or less sullenly acquiesce, and count +on their sharpness of wits to evade the ordinances. "Churches are opened or +closed according to the Sovereign's will, but our hearts are a secret +church where we may worship the Almighty."[200] "Be convinced," he wrote to +Justel, "that Princes have as much right over the externals of religion as +their subjects over their innermost conscience."[201] + +In its far-reaching consequences, the Revocation can be compared only to +the French Revolution. Both events excited in England a profound pity for +the victims and a feeling of execration against their tormentors; both led +to a protracted struggle with France; both, after giving France a temporary +glory, plunged her into misery, humiliation, and defeat. The Huguenots fled +to divers countries, some settling in New England, others in South Africa, +the most considerable portion finding a new home in Holland and England. +In Holland they met the English Whigs, driven from their country upon the +Tory reaction following the defeat of the Exclusion Bill. A close +relationship was established between the Huguenots in England and in +Holland, and when the crown of England was given to a Prince of Orange, the +refugees in both countries formed one colony whose thoughts and aims were +the same, and whose sympathy and interests were with the more liberal party +in England. The sentimental impression made by the persecution strikes one +the most: "The French persecution of the Huguenots," wrote Evelyn, "raging +with the utmost barbarity, exceeded even what the very heathens used.... +What the further intention is, time will show, but doubtless portending +some revolution."[202] Several accurate accounts of the persecution, +besides Claude's famous book, appeared in England, written or inspired by +the refugees, and printed in a form suitable for speedy circulation.[203] +The people showed themselves as eager for news from France as, at a later +date, for Bulgarian or Armenian atrocities. "The people in London," +Ambassador Barillon reported, "are eager to believe what the gazettes have +to say on the measures resorted to in order to further the conversions in +France."[204] When James II. ascended the throne, the Whigs made capital +out of the treatment of Protestants by a Catholic Prince. Loyal as he was, +Evelyn could not help blaming the King for the scant charity extended to +the Huguenots and the silence of the _Gazette_ about the persecution. When +at the instance of the French ambassador, Claude's book was burned by the +common hangman, Evelyn ominously exclaimed: "No faith in Princes." The +innate anti-popish feeling of the English was easily roused, and +contributed in 1687 to the unpopularity even among the higher clergy of a +Royal Indulgence. "This (Repeal of the Test)," said a contemporary +pamphlet, "sets Papists upon an equal level with Protestants, and then the +favour of the Prince will set them above them."[205] Allusions to the +persecution are innumerable. "Witness," says the anonymous hack-writer +after setting forth the dangers of tolerating Popery, "the mild and gentle +usage of the French Protestants by a King whose conscience is directed by a +tender-hearted Jesuit." When Ken, suspected of leaning towards Roman +Catholicism, preached on the persecution, Evelyn remarked that "his sermon +was the more acceptable, as it was unexpected."[206] + +But the official Press tried to counteract the bad impression made by the +Revocation; then it was that an extreme member of the Court party roundly +asserted that persecution was the only remedy that Louis XIV. could devise +against losing his crown, and inferred the expediency of persecuting the +equally seditious English dissenters.[207] A few years later, a change +coming over the policy of the Court towards the dissenters, His Majesty's +intentions derived an advantageous construction from his granting relief to +the French Protestants, "a kind of Presbyterians, who, because they would +not become Papists, are fled hither."[208] + +In rousing England against Popery, the Revocation dealt a blow at arbitrary +government. The sequel to the Revocation was the English Revolution. +Weakened by the Tory reaction, the Whig party, on the accession of William +III., found welcome allies in the Huguenot immigrants. It was remarked that +the refugees generally sided with the Whigs. The Low Church party also +found recruits in the numerous Huguenot ministers, the best known of whom +are Allix, Drelincourt, Samuel de l'Angle, who all three took Anglican +orders. William III., and especially Mary, showed them great favour. While +the Prince of Orange was with the Dutch fleet on the way to England, in the +most anxious time of her life, Mary every day attended prayers said by two +refugees, Pineton de Chambrun and Menard.[209] + +The refugees enthusiastically adopted the dogmas of the Whig party, or +rather of William III.; they furthered his system of Church settlement, +declaimed against Popery, hated France as cordially as he. + +During the debates on the Toleration and Comprehension Bills, Dr. Wake, the +future Archbishop of Canterbury, published a letter in which the dissenters +were blamed by French ministers for approving James II.'s Declaration of +Indulgence. "The dissenters," he adds, "ought by no means to have separated +themselves for the form of ecclesiastical government nor for ceremonies +which do not at all constitute the fundamentals of religion. On the other +side, the Bishops should have had a greater condescension to the weakness +of their brethren."[210] Even on a question of internal policy, the opinion +of the persecuted Church bore weight. + +Popery of course was the arch-enemy to the refugees, some of whom refused +to the last to believe that the King persecuted them, ascribing their +misery to the evil counsels of the Jesuits. One of the worst consequences +in England of the Revocation was an intensified hatred to Popery. The +policy pursued by Louis XIV. made James II.'s indulgence impossible and +thwarted all the attempts of William III. to relax the penal laws. When the +Act of 1700 was passed, making confiscation of Catholic estates a rule in +England, as kind a man as Evelyn wrote: "This indeed seemed a hard law, +but the usage of the French King to his Protestant subjects has brought it +on."[211] + +The enmity that the English bore to France is a well-known fact. "The +English have an extraordinary hatred to us," observed Henri IV.[212] "They +hate us," said Courtin, the French envoy, at a time when French literature +and French fashions were in highest favour in England. As Spain in the +sixteenth century, so France in the seventeenth, embodied the power of +darkness in Europe. This feeling was fostered by the refugees. A little +after the Revocation, Louis XIV. received from Barillon a dispatch on the +harm done him in London "by the most violent and insolent French Huguenots, +minister Satur, minister Lortie, minister De l'Angle, above all a dangerous +man named Bibo, who plays the philosopher, Justel, Daude, La Force, Aime, +Lefevre and Rosemond, and a vendor of all the wicked pamphlets printed in +Holland and elsewhere against religion and the French Government. His name +is Bureau, who provides every one with them and is now printing[213] in +French and English a supposed letter from Niort relating a hundred +cruelties against the Protestants. People talk quite freely in the London +coffee-houses of all that is happening in France, and many think and say +loudly that it is the consequence of England having a Catholic King and +that the English are thus unable to help the pretended Reformed their +brethren." In England, as in Holland, the Huguenot pamphleteers organised +an anti-French agitation. No doubt the ambassador was right in a sense in +stating that the charges against France were exaggerated. The English +during all the eighteenth century imagined the French monarch was a Western +grand-signior. The stories of the Bastille, popularised by the refugee +Renneville, gave an incorrect idea of the French administration.[214] This +popular prejudice is ridiculed by Pope in his attack upon Dennis the +critic, whom he describes as "perpetually starting and running to the +window when any one knocks, crying out 'Sdeath! a messenger from the French +King; I shall die in the Bastille.'"[215] With his keen eye for absurdity, +Voltaire noticed the prejudice. "In England, our government is spoken of as +that of the Turks in France. The English fancy half the French nation is +shut up in the Bastille, the other half reduced to beggary, and all the +authors set up in the pillory."[216] + +The Revocation was turned to good use by the Whigs against France, James +II., and later against the Pretender. "You shall trot about," says a +pamphlet almost contemporary with the advent of William III., "in wooden +shoes, _a la mode de France_, Monsieur will make your souls suffer as well +as your bodies. These are the means he will make use of to pervert +Protestants to the idolatrous Popish religion. He will send his infallible +apostolic dragoons amongst you.... If you fall into French hands your +bodies will be condemned to irretrievable slavery, and your souls (as far +as it lies in their power) shall be consigned to the Devil."[217] At the +height of the Tory reaction that marked the closing years of Queen Anne's +reign, the same argument was urged against a Popish successor. The _Flying +Post_ (7th March 1712-3) published one day a list of persecuted Huguenots +"to convince Jacobite Protestants what treatment they are to expect if ever +the Pretender should come to the throne, since he must necessarily act +according to the bloody House of B(ourbon), without whose assistance he can +never be able to keep possession, if he should happen to get it." + +That the Whigs fully endorsed their pamphleteers' opinions seems evident +from what such a judicious man as Locke once wrote to Peter King, the +future Lord Chancellor, advising him as a Member of Parliament to aid +William in his designs of war against France: "The good King of France +desires only that you would take his word, and let him be quiet till he has +got the West Indies into his hands and his grandson well established in +Spain; and then you may be sure that you shall be as safe as he will let +you be, in your religion, property, and trade."[218] + +The influence of the refugees was due less to the weavers of Spitalfields, +to the army of seventy or eighty thousand Huguenots who fled to England +after the Revocation, than to the intelligent sergeants of that army, the +men of letters, journalists, and pamphleteers. They usually met in London +at the Rainbow coffee-house, near the Inner Temple Gate, in Fleet Street. +Unlike the Casaubons and Scaligers of the early Stuart period and the +Justels and Colomies of the Restoration, they were no dependents on either +Court or Church, and, earning a journalist's living or with a calling +exclusive of literary patronage, they forestalled more or less the modern +type of the man of letters. Over their meetings presided Pierre Daude, a +clerk in the Exchequer; round that doyen gathered the traveller Misson, +Rapin Thoyras, then planning his _History of Great Britain_, Newton's +friend, Le Moivre, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, Cornand La Croze, a +contributor to Le Clerc's _Bibliotheque universelle_. + +In those convivial meetings many a project was sketched for the advancement +of learning. When Le Clerc, then a young man, was preaching at the Savoy, +he took part in them. Later on, Pierre Coste came as tutor to the Mashams, +with whom Locke then lived; later still, for the company grew less select +as the years rolled by, Themiseul de Saint-Hyacinthe, a converted dragoon, +to whom France owes at least in part her translation of _Robinson +Crusoe_;[219] and lastly, in 1726, the elder Huguenots who still repaired +to the familiar tavern, beheld, fresh from the Bastille, his conversation +sparkling with wit that must have taught them what a change had come over +France since the death of the old persecuting King, M. de Voltaire. + +In coffee-houses such as this, in Rotterdam and in London, during the +eventful period between the Revocation and the death of William the Third, +all the eighteenth century was thought out. Alone the refugees were able to +establish a fruitful exchange of ideas between England and the Continent. +Men of greater learning would not have done the work so well. These alone +were possessed of the indispensable qualities: the journalist's curiosity, +eager to know, little caring about the relative importance of what he +knows, and the teacher's lucidity, not unmixed with shallowness. Thanks to +them, the literary journals of Holland circulated in England and English +thought found its way into France. The correspondents of those papers +anticipated the modern reporter's methods to the extent that Locke one day +read a private conversation of his printed in full in the _Nouvelles de la +Republique des Lettres_.[220] Coste, of course, had written down the +conversation and thought it worthy of publication. Better than Bayle and Le +Clerc, indefatigable Desmaizeaux corresponds with most European scholars, +advertises their opinions, reviews their books, writes their obituary +notices, and edits their posthumous work, being withal incapable of +uttering a single original idea. + +One defect the refugees shared with the English Puritans, a supreme +contempt of art. When Bossuet's _Histoire des Variations_ appeared, they +thought it long and tedious. "The book," exclaimed Jurieu, "will lie buried +under its bulk and ruins."[221] Their knowledge, like a good reviewer's, is +universal. Bayle, their leader, never wrote a veritable book, but cast his +revolutionary thoughts in the mould of an encyclopaedia. The masterpiece of +refugee speculation is the _Critical Dictionary_. Nor was it the only +dictionary that they produced--witness Chaufepie's _Dictionary_, Ancillon's +_Memoires_, Desmaizeaux's _Lives_, Le Clerc's _Eloges_. Their newspapers +collect material for encyclopaedias and their encyclopaedias compile anas. +Now that was exactly how the eighteenth century writers worked: neither +Voltaire, Montesquieu nor Diderot cared about composing a book, as a +skilful architect builds a house, to stand alone, imposing and complete. +They jotted down ideas, dashed off a chapter or two, then passed on to +another subject. You cannot compare the _Spirit of Laws_ and the _History +of Variations_, for while the latter forms a harmonious whole, whose +splendid proportions inspire every one with admiration, the former is an +indigested mass of research, brilliant wit, and profound criticism. To +usher in the nineteenth century, a readjustment of traditional doctrines +was necessary, and this the eighteenth century effected by leaving in the +background literature and works of imagination and taking up the foreground +with anecdotes, memoirs, and various disquisitions on philosophy, ethics, +divinity, and politics. But the refugees had made the task easy. To these +seemingly innocent compilers must be ascribed the sudden development in +Europe of the spirit of criticism. When they had made the reading public +familiar with doctrines hitherto confined to the schools, they disappeared, +leaving it to others in England and France to give those now popularised +doctrines a literary expression. + +Another trait of the refugees is their cosmopolitism. Some were born in +Geneva, others in France; not unlike a Semitic tribe, they roamed about +Switzerland, Holland, Germany, England. After preaching in London, Le Clerc +settled in Amsterdam. Before living at Oates with the Mashams, Coste had +been a proof reader in Amsterdam, and after an adventurous life in Holland +and Germany, he ultimately died in Paris. A barrister in early life, Rapin +Thoyras fled to England after the Revocation, then to Holland, where he +became a soldier, following first the Prince of Orange in his expedition +against James II., then Marshal Schomberg to Ireland, became tutor to the +Duke of Portland's children, drifted back to the Hague, and ended a +singularly chequered career at Wesel. Through the medium of the refugees +the learned societies could correspond. Such refugees as had remained on +the Continent showed their desire to have information about England. +"England," wrote Bayle, "is the country in the world where metaphysical and +physical reasonings, spiced with erudition, are the most appreciated and +the most in fashion."[222] For Jurieu, England was "the country in the +world the most replete with unquiet-minded men, fond of change and aspiring +to new things."[223] The refugee seeking, Narcissus-like, to see himself in +his adoptive country, credited England with his own characteristics, +turbulency and the thirst for scientific information. + +An important fact is that these men, as their predecessors had done under +the early Stuarts and the Commonwealth, learned English. No stronger +contrast can be imagined than the indifference that courtly Catholic +Saint-Evremond exhibited towards the language of his adoptive country, and +the eagerness with which the French pastors, compelled now to read prayers +and preach in the Church of England, studied English. And yet, it was after +all natural that the Huguenots who took part in all the internal conflicts +of their new Fatherland, should be ready to further their religious and +political ideals by the tongue and the pen as well as the sword. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[140] _Rousseau et le cosmopolitisme litteraire_, 1895. + +[141] _Shakespeare en France sous l'ancien regime_, 1898. + +[142] _Litterature francaise a l'etranger_, 2 vols., Geneva, 1853. + +[143] See Gairdner, _Lollardy and the Reformation_, iii. pp. 118-122; and +for a bibliography of the translations of Calvin's works, Upham, _French +Influence in English Literature_, App. A. + +[144] Schickler, _Eglises du refuge_, i. pp. 5, 13. + +[145] _Ibid._ i. p. 259 n. + +[146] _Life of Parker_, i. p. 276. + +[147] Sidney Lee, _French Renaissance in England_, p. 301. In 1586, +Recorder Fleetwood warned Burghley of an intended apprentices' riot against +Dutch and French settlers. See _N. and Q._, 1st July 1871. + +[148] See Chapter VII. + +[149] Theophile de Viau, for instance. + +[150] _Lettres choisies_, iii. p. 9. + +[151] _Letter to the Synod of Alencon_, 1637. + +[152] _Lettre a M. Morley_, p. 4 (1650). + +[153] Collier, _Church History_, ii. p. 399. "The French Protestants," +wrote Pierre Du Moulin in the same spirit, "keepe their zeale of religion +for higher matters than a Surplice or a Crosse in Baptisme" (_A Letter of a +French Protestant to a Scotsman of the Covenant_, 1640, p. 35). + +[154] Allusion, of course, to Descartes. + +[155] _Reunion du Christianisme_, pp. 117-19. + +[156] _Reunion du Christianisme_, p. 173. + +[157] _Op. cit._ p. 198. + +[158] _Avis aux refugies_, pp. 128, 129. + +[159] _Ibid._ p. 155. + +[160] Aymon, _Actes des Synodes_, 2 vols., La Haye, 1710, ii. pp. 38, 39. + +[161] _Ibid._ ii. p. 106. + +[162] _Actes des Synodes_, ii. p. 636. + +[163] _Ecclesiasticae Disciplinae; et Anglicanae Ecclesiae ... dilucida +Explicatio._ + +[164] Penry's _Appellation_ and Throckmorton's _M[aster Robert] Some laid +open in his Colours_, 1590. Cf. Sir Sidney Lee, _French Renaissance in +England_, p. 303. + +[165] _Memoires de Lenet_, p. 599. and Ch. Normand, _Bourgeoisie +francaise_, pp. 400 _ssq._ See also Chapter VIII. + +[166] _Lettre a M. Morley_, p. 112. + +[167] _Eikon Basilike_, Preface to translation. + +[168] There had already appeared pamphlets by Vincent, minister at La +Rochelle, and Herault, minister at Alencon. Bochart, _op. cit._ p. 113. + +[169] _Discours sur la Souverainete des Rois_, Saumur, 1650. + +[170] _Lettre a M. Morley._ + +[171] Bochart, _op. cit._ p. 23. + +[172] _Discours sur la Souverainete_, p. 117. + +[173] [Greek: Eikon Basilike], _ou Portrait Royal de sa Majeste de la +Grande Bretagne dans ses souffrances et sa solitude_, La Haye, 1649. + +[174] [Greek: Eikon Basilike], _Le Portrait du Roy de la Grande Bretagne +durant sa solitude et ses souffrances_, Orange, 1650. + +[175] _Prediction ou se voit comme le Roy Charles II. doit estre remis aux +royaumes d'Angleterre, Ecosse, et Irlande apres la mort de son pere_, +Rouen, 1650. + +[176] Aymon, _Actes_, ii. p. 723. + +[177] _Ibid._ p. 734. + +[178] Written 1574, published 1579. Under the pseudonym of Stephanus Junius +Brutus, the author argues that the royal title coming from the people, the +king who is idolatrous or defies his subjects' rights must be deposed. + +[179] _Lettres choisies_, i. p. 420. + +[180] _The Conformity of the Discipline and Government of the Independents +to that of the Ancient Primitive Christians_, London, 1680. + +[181] Schickler, _Eglises du refuge_, ii. pp. 110 _ssq._ + +[182] Bochart, _op. cit._ p. 115. + +[183] _Shibboleth ou reformation de quelques passages de la Bible_, dedie +au Protecteur, 1653. + +[184] Schickler, _op. cit._ ii. p. 93. + +[185] See Chapter VIII. + +[186] Schickler, _Eglises du refuge_, ii. p. 318 n. + +[187] The foreign letters addressed to the Synods are commanded to be given +up, with unbroken seals, to the King's commissioner. Aymon, _Actes_, ii. 5, +571, 636, 719, 740, etc. + +[188] Bochart, _op. cit._ p. 2. + +[189] He married the daughter of Cyrus du Moulin, sometime French pastor in +Canterbury, and thus retained family ties in England. So much it is +necessary to know to understand the minute knowledge of English affairs +displayed in his polemical works. + +[190] Saint-Evremond, _Oeuvres_, i. p. 87 (1753). + +[191] _Ibid._ iv. p. 323. + +[192] _Ibid._ iv. p. 146. + +[193] Saint-Evremond, _Oeuvres_, iii. p. 272. + +[194] _Ibid._ iii. p. 265. + +[195] _Diary_, 13th March 1691. + +[196] His only published work is the _Bibliotheque de Droit canonique_, +edited by Guillaume Voet in 1661. See Ancillon, _Mem. hist. et crit._, +Amst. 1709. P. 221. + +[197] Saint-Evremond, _Oeuvres_, iv. p. 309. + +[198] For details on this affair, so singularly suggestive of the arrogance +in the seventeenth century of the most important Consistory in France, see +Ancillon, _op. cit._ 223. + +[199] _Smith MSS._, viii. f. 25-27. + +[200] Saint-Evremond, _Oeuvres_, iii. pp. 266-267. + +[201] _Ibid._ iv. pp. 319-320. + +[202] _Diary_, 1st November 1685. + +[203] Such is _An Abstract of the Present State of the Protestants in +France_, Oxford, 1682. + +[204] Schickler, _op cit._ ii. p. 356. + +[205] _A Letter to a Dissenter in England by his friend at the Hague_, +1688. + +[206] _Diary_, 14th March 1686. + +[207] _Toleration proved Impracticable_, 1685. + +[208] _Some Expostulations with the Clergy of the Church of England_, 1688. + +[209] _Lettres et Memoires de Marie_, pp. 84, 89. + +[210] _A Letter of Several French ministers fled into Germany upon the +Account of the Persecution in France, to such of their Brethren in England +as approved the King's Declaration touching Liberty of Conscience_, 1689. + +[211] _Diary_, April 1700. + +[212] Writing to M. de Beaumont, 21st March 1604. + +[213] He was printing at the same time: _Cruelties at Montauban_, and _The +Present Misery of the French Nation compared with that of the Romans under +Domitian_. + +[214] _Inquisition francoise ou histoire de la Bastille_, Amst. 1715, 2 +vols. + +[215] _Narrative of the Frenzy of Mr. John Dennis._ + +[216] _Letter to Thieriot_, 24th February 1733. + +[217] _Jacobites' Hopes Frustrated_, 1690. + +[218] King, _Life of Locke_, p. 261. + +[219] See Chap. XI. + +[220] _Original Letters_, pp. 68-69. + +[221] _Pastoral Letters_, III. 1. vi. p. 122. + +[222] _Lettres choisies_, ii. p. 706. + +[223] _Pastoral Letters_, IV. 1. xiv. p. 329. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HUGUENOT THOUGHT IN ENGLAND + + +SECOND PART + +The foreign land to which the Huguenot was compelled to fly acted upon him +as a mental stimulus. With such an incitement, the progress of Huguenot +thought after the Revocation becomes profoundly interesting. We shall +examine it from the threefold point of view of theology, political +speculation, and toleration, the last question being intimately connected +with the two former, and all three questions being moreover inseparably +related. + +Most of the men of letters with whom we are now dealing being pastors or +having been trained for the ministry, theology occupied a foremost place in +their thoughts. In France, the Calvinistic discipline, though it had not +suppressed heterodoxy, at least made its expression very guarded. When +Locke was staying at Montpellier, he remarked that there was in the land +room only for Roman Catholicism or Calvinism, no other creed being +tolerated. A Toleration Act in the most narrow sense of the word, the Edict +of Nantes recognised but one dissenting Communion. But in Holland and even +in England, before the Revolution, the refugees could indulge in a certain +freedom of thought. The charge of Socinianism brought against Colomies does +not seem to have indisposed against him his patron, the Archbishop. +Heterodoxy spread so easily among the Huguenots in England that their +orthodox brethren in Holland were alarmed: "We have learned from the good +and excellent letter addressed to us by Messieurs our dearest brethren the +Pastors of the dispersion at the present moment in London, that the evil +has crossed the seas and spreads in England amongst the brethren of our +communion and tongue." + +These words are an extract from the debates of a Synod convened at Utrecht +in 1690 to remedy the spread of heresy among the refugees. Not being backed +by civil authority, its freely-distributed and strongly-worded anathemas +fell flat. The efforts of the orthodox party were spent in petty intrigues +like that which deprived Bayle of his Professorship. They endeavoured to +lay a gravestone upon a living tree and were surprised to find the stone +split. + +This freedom in theology was exerted in two directions: the latitudinarian +tenet that the Bible was the religion of the Protestants, now commonly +repeated,[224] led to much regard being paid to textual criticism, and in +this close study of the divine message all parties were united; the +heterodox in their search after truth, the orthodox in their controversy +with the Catholic doctors. It was the age when Richard Simon, the Catholic +founder, according to M. Renan, of modern exegesis, flourished, and Le +Clerc wrote his first book to dispute his conclusions. A more dangerous +method was that of Bayle. The first to lead the life of an absolute +free-thinker, whose mind is entirely severed from traditional theology, +dispassionate to the verge of inhumanity, a perfect example of the abnormal +development of the reasoning faculty to the detriment of sensitiveness, he +must not be mistaken for a Pyrrhonist albeit he poses for one from time to +time.[225] The contemporary Pyrrhonist would write in the spirit of +Pascal's _Pensees_, and showing up the futility of man's effort to fathom +transcendental mysteries, submit to a higher spiritual reason "the reason +of the heart that reason knoweth not." With the subtlest dialectician's +skill, Bayle merely opposes reason and faith. In every Christian dogma he +delights in showing up the latent logical absurdity; not sneering, however, +as Voltaire was soon to do, not even hinting at the consequences of his +method. The little intellectual exercise over, he passes on to another +subject. In spite of his destructive criticism, once out of the +professorial chair, he leads the life of a good Christian and a righteous +Huguenot. In the outward expression of his faith he never wavered. Unlike +Montaigne, a sceptic of a different stamp, he never gave undue advantage to +his personal comfort. To this day he remains, Sphinx-like, a faint smile +lighting up his countenance, a psychological enigma. + +In 1709 the great _Dictionary_ was translated into English by J. P. +Bernard, La Roche, and others, and again in 1739-41 by Bernard, Birch, +Lockman, and others; already long familiar to English readers, who were not +slow in recognising a very high literary merit in its lucidity of style and +its extraordinary interest, it had thus been greeted almost on its +appearance by a good judge, Saint-Evremond: "Monsieur Bayle clothes in so +agreeable a dress his profound learning, that it never palls."[226] A +direct influence could be traced of Bayle upon Shaftesbury, the author of +the _Characteristics_. + +But the influence of the heterodox Huguenot weighed little when compared +with that of the orthodox. Much led to annul the effect of the _Critical +Dictionary_ on the mass of readers. For one thing, it came a little too +late; then, a bomb exploding in the open does less damage than a bomb +exploding in a closed room. Though looked upon as suspicious by an +Archbishop who had never read them,[227] Bayle's works were allowed to +circulate freely in England. On the other hand, a larger portion of the +English public read treatises of devotion bearing the names of learned and +illustrious sufferers in the cause of religion. Bishop Fleetwood's +translation of Jurieu's _Traite de la devotion_ went through no less than +twenty-six editions, and Drelincourt's _Consolations d'une ame fidele_ was +a success before Defoe appended to it as a vivid commentary the story of +the ghost of Mrs. Veal. In the struggle against deism that marked the first +quarter of the eighteenth century, the widespread influence of such books +told against infidelity. + +Politics were then a part of theology. In the same way as the Revocation +helped to break up the traditional Calvinistic theology, it shattered the +system of politics most in accordance with the French reformer's political +creed. As long as the Huguenots enjoyed the liberties granted them by Henri +IV., their doctors had preached passive obedience. When the wave of +persecution broke, some faltered, while others obstinately upheld the +doctrine that had then become part of their Church divinity. No doubt in +showing the glaring insufficiency of the old creed to meet the facts, the +Revocation had a demoralising effect. To the reflective few the sudden +change of doctrine of many illustrious theologians must have seemed very +distressing. One bulwark of their faith, as they had been often told, +passive obedience, was being swept away. What destruction might not +threaten their faith itself? + +Modern Protestant writers, especially in our democratic age, glory in those +obscure predecessors of 1789 who asserted in the teeth of absolutism, the +rights of the people; yet had the Edict of Nantes never been repealed, and +the Huguenots suffered to live on, the hardy victims of petty vexations, it +is highly probable that the same doctors who in Holland asserted the +sovereignty of the people, would in their French Synods have hurled +excommunication at any "followers of the Independents." + +Jurieu's apology for his new opinion was frank and ingenuous: obedience was +due to Louis XIV. as long as the Protestants were his subjects; compelled +by persecution to renounce his allegiance, they obeyed another Prince who +allowed them to profess other political opinions.[228] A little +demoralisation must pay for every readjustment of conviction due to +progress. + +Up to the eve of the Revocation, the duty of passive obedience was set +forth by the Huguenots. In the absence of solemn declarations issued by +Synods, the last being held in 1660, we may record the individual sayings +of the luminaries of the party. "Any Huguenot," Jurieu had written in 1681, +"is ready to subscribe with his blood to the doctrine that makes for the +safety of kings, viz., that temporally our kings depend on no one but on +God, that even for heresy and schism kings may not be deposed, nor may +their subjects be absolved from their oath of allegiance."[229] Acting as +spokesman for his co-religionists, he added: "Our loyalty is proof against +any temptation, our love for our Prince is unbounded."[230] Another pastor, +Fetizon, opposing the factious doctrines of the Roman Church to the loyalty +of the Huguenots, showed how they supported the King's absolute powers: +"Where is it commonly taught that kings depend only on God and have a +divine power that may be taken away by no ecclesiastical person, no +community of people? Is it not in the Protestant religion? Where is it at +least allowed to believe that royalty is only a human authority that always +remains subject to the people that have granted it, or to the Church that +may take it back? Is it not in the Roman Church?"[231] In his famous +dispute with Bossuet, Claude maintained the divine right of kings.[232] +Writing in the _Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres_ for April 1684, +Bayle censures Maimbourg for charging Protestantism with sedition, and +alleges the Oxford decree of the preceding year condemning Buchanan and +Milton. The subject visibly haunts him; again and again he reverts to it, +suggesting difficulties, arguing on both sides according to his wont, but +clearly inclining to obedience. The persecution shakes his political faith +a little; must the Huguenots in France go to their forbidden assemblies in +"the Desert"? If it be true that it is better to obey God than man, who is +to determine what the will of God is?[233] And again, the accession of +James II. is a good opportunity for Protestantism to show its true spirit; +because the King frankly avows his Catholicism, his Protestant subjects are +in honour bound to obey him. "The Protestants have never had so good an +opportunity of showing that they are not wrong in boasting of their loyalty +to their sovereign, whatever the religion he should follow."[234] The very +year of the Revocation, Elie Merlat, a pastor who after suffering +imprisonment had fled to Lausanne, published a treatise on the absolute +power of sovereigns, written four years before, and which he, in spite of +persecution, felt no disposition to cancel or modify. The subjects owe +their king "civil adoration," and far from dictating to him, may not +question his decisions. "If it is permitted to the subjects in certain +cases to examine their rulers and ask them to render an account of their +actions, the bond of public union is snapped asunder and the door opened to +all kinds of sedition."[235] A faint echo is perceptible of Hobbes's +teaching. All men are in the origin equal and free, but sin engendering a +state of war, a few men, by God's design, have been instrumental in saving +through their ambition mankind, whom they have reduced to obedience.[236] +Absolute power, though not good in itself, is the supreme remedy devised by +God to save man. The Calvinist's sombre teaching finds here its proper +expression. + +[Illustration: JEAN CLAUDE] + +In contradistinction with the Catholic doctrine, the Huguenot divines do +not admit of an exception to the rule of obedience which they have laid +down, not even that of an insurrection with religion as a motive. We have +already quoted Jurieu's sweeping assertion. Like the early Christians, they +wished to oppose only silent resignation to their tormentors. "The Prince," +said Jurieu, "is the master of externals in religion; if he will not allow +another religion besides his own, if we cannot obey, we may die without +defending ourselves, because true religion must not use weapons to reign +and be established."[237] "We deny," said Merlat, "that rebellion is +justifiable to-day for religion's sake."[238] The same feeling of loyalty +impelled the French congregation of Threadneedle Street, on 26th May 1683, +to reject Lambrion, a minister at Bril, in Holland, because it was reported +that he had said that "persecuting tyrants might be looked upon as wild +beasts, and that any one might fall upon them."[239] + +After the Revocation, a different opinion speedily obtained among the +refugees. No doubt they were influenced in Holland, as Jurieu stated, by +public opinion. The political education of both England and Holland was far +in advance of that of France. Then the question, which before had seemed +merely a theme for academic discourses, became a pressing reality. By most +Huguenots the Revocation was looked upon as a temporary measure due to the +intrigues of some Jesuits at the Court; the King, they repeated, would not +fail to revoke his reactionary decrees when better informed about his +faithful subjects; once more the refugees would be allowed to return to the +homes of their childhood and enjoy their restored estates. As the months +went by without bringing relief, they fell into two parties: on the one +side, the peaceful men of letters and diplomatists by nature advocated +temporising; on the other, the great mass of the people bearing the brunt +of the persecution, the fiery ministers, the army and navy officers who had +forfeited their commissions, relied only on the strength of arms and +entertained wild hopes of a successful insurrection. As the fall of James +II. appeared imminent, the violent party more openly discovered their +sentiments. Among them, the Prince of Orange recruited his soldiers and +pamphleteers, who, like sharpshooters in front of an army, spread +consternation among the upholders of arbitrary power in England a few years +before the Dutch actually landed at Torbay. The advent of William III. and +the war that followed helped only to strengthen the party of resistance, +insomuch that Protestantism has hitherto stood in France for a synonym of +Republicanism. + +On all sides the pamphleteers have received scant consideration: Bayle +attacked them violently,[240] Jurieu declined to acknowledge them as +allies;[241] yet their influence on the issue of the struggle carried on in +England between the house of Stuart and the Whigs was far from +inconsiderable. A press war was waged between the Prince of Orange and his +father-in-law long before the official war broke out. "Several libels," +reports Luttrell in the early spring of 1688, "and pamphlets have been +lately printed and sent about; many are come over from Holland."[242] These +were not the able productions of the London clergy, the Stillingfleets and +Tenisons and Tillotsons, raising the standard of a holy war against the +Catholic divinity that was pouring forth from the King's press. Scurrilous, +libellous, violent leaflets came over from Holland to be eagerly devoured +by the same credulous mob that believed both the Popish and the +Presbyterian plots. Short, pithy, coarse, they may be read to-day, if not +with the interest born of warfare in which one takes part, at least without +wearisomeness. The most popular are issued in English and in French, so as +to sting at one blow James II. and Louis XIV. Such is the letter of Pere de +la Chaise, father-confessor to the French King, to Father Petre, James's +notorious privy councillor (1688). A scheme being set on foot by the +Jesuits to murder all the Protestants in France the same day, the King, to +obtain absolution from his confessor for a horrible crime, grants the +commission to execute the design. The letters duly sealed are about to be +dispatched in the provinces when Louis XIV., whose conscience smites +him,--because, after all, the most blood-thirsty tyrant relents where a +priest remains obdurate,--confides the secret to Prince de Conde. The +latter lays a trap into which the confessor falling, must needs give up the +commission. Five days later, the Jesuits poison the Prince, and the +Huguenots, deprived of their protector, are delivered over to the tender +mercies of the dragoons. "In England," adds La Chaise by manner of +conclusion, "the work cannot be done after that fashion ... so that I +cannot give you better counsel than to take that course in hand wherein we +were so unhappily prevented"--that is, to cut the throats of the +Protestants.[243] Another production, the offspring of a kindred pen, was +the _Love Letters between Polydorus, the Gothic King, and Messalina, late +Queen of Albion_. The struggle over, and James II. beaten, the victor, +instead of lending him murderous projects against his former subjects, +makes him the butt of coarse sarcasm. + +To the same period belong more serious productions, due to the fact that +both parties in England were anxious to appeal to some French authority. In +a _Catalogue of all the Discourses published against Popery during the +Reign of King James II._ (1689), out of two hundred and thirty-one tracts +noticed, there are no less than eleven answers to Bossuet. If Bossuet was +the Catholic champion, the Protestants elected Jurieu to enter the lists +against him. To the devotional works already mentioned may be added the +political writings, especially the _Seasonable Advice to all Protestants in +Europe for uniting and defending themselves against Popish Tyranny_ (1689), +and the _Sighs of France in Slavery breathing after Liberty_ (1689), with +the quaint information, "written in French by the learned Monsieur Juriew." + +The violent party, headed by Jurieu and the moderate by Bayle, found in the +fall of James II. the occasion of fully publishing their several systems of +political theology. "Formerly," said Bayle, "your writers, either in good +or in bad faith, were careful not to approve of the pernicious teaching of +Hubert Languet.... What are they thinking about now to publish so many +books where, without circumlocution or reserve, they vent the same dogmas +and push them still further?"[244] Under the same political necessities, +the same doctrines, after an interval of a century, were reappearing. +Religious leaders are inclined to advise their followers not to attack the +secular powers, but when the inevitable conflict breaks out, a wholly +different sentiment prevails. The early Christians, who had heard Saint +Paul teach them to obey the Roman Emperor, soon found the denunciations of +the seer of Patmos against the tyrant better suited to their feelings. In +spite of Calvin, the Huguenots, when persecution became violent, were +prepared to listen to the _Vindiciae contra Tyrannos_. Circumstances +favoured a revival of the "republican" doctrines of the sixteenth century: +the English Revolution needed apologists on the Continent; the Protestant +hero, William III., although a King, held his title by the will of the +English people; for once Protestantism and a liberal doctrine were +confronted and impugned by Catholicism and absolutism. Apologies were +accordingly written, by which must be understood abler, less scurrilous +works than the productions of the hired pamphleteers, but pamphlets +nevertheless, because the furtherance of a political cause was their +immediate pretext. For years already had Jurieu been engaged upon the task +of answering the numerous controversial works issued in France, in +_Pastoral Letters_, the circulation of which the French police were unable +to stop. Together with the controversial argument, each letter contained +some new information, the account of a dragonnade, the prophecy of a +shepherdess, the testimony delivered by a preacher with the halter round +his neck, or a galley-slave dying under the lash. With the year 1689 new +tidings came every fortnight to the Huguenots who read these letters, +tidings of hope after so much gloom; under the rubric _affaires +d'Angleterre_, their spiritual comforter recounted them the wonderful fall +of the popish tyrant and the triumph of the hero of Protestantism and +liberty. Yet the joy of some was not unmixed with scruples; was not James, +after all, the Lord's anointed, and William the usurper? Was the +deliverance only a snare and a pitfall into which the Saints must be wary +of stumbling? To all which questions Jurieu had a ready answer.[245] + +In principle all men are free and equal, but their sins make authority +needful. They have chosen kings and governors to whom they have yielded +sovereignty their birthright; not without reservations, however. In all +cases a contract, either avowed or tacit, intervenes between rulers and +subjects, the former swearing to govern according to law, and the latter to +obey their governors. If the rulers break their word, the contract becomes +void, and, sovereignty reverting to the people, the king forfeits his +crown. If the king dies, the contract is void also, and the people have to +choose another ruler. Monarchy, and in particular the French Monarchy, is +therefore in its essence elective. + +The origin of kingly right is popular, not divine; but God sanctions the +popular choice, and, as long as the contract stands, it is sinful to +disobey the sovereign. "The kings are the vice-regents of God, His vicars, +His living images," and he goes on to use the comparisons of man who, +though made in the likeness of God, is the son of man; in the same manner +the king instituted by the people is God's representative upon earth. + +Why, then, has James lost his crown? because he attempted to "violate +consciences," usurping a power that no man could give him, since "no man +hath the right to do war unto God." + +With his usual impulsiveness, there is no doubt but Jurieu, had he not been +chaplain to the Prince of Orange, would have become a republican. He is +ever trying to give the kings with the one hand what he withholds with the +other. + +As early as 1682 Shaftesbury won his admiration: "He has perhaps," he said +of him in an admirable character-portrait, "a soul a little too republican +to live in a monarchy, but we do not think him guilty of the cowardice +which is imputed to him."[246] + +The _Soupirs de la France esclave_, published in 1690, attacks the absolute +government of Louis XIV., whom he accuses of being a usurper, sovereignty +belonging to the States-General. Historically such a position is untenable, +but it is a significant fact that a little before the Revolution of 1789 +the same book was reprinted under the title _Voix d'un patriote_. Jurieu +proved a century in advance of his time. + +Behind the chief press a band of lesser officers. Jacques Abbadie, after +preaching up passive obedience in Prussia, wrote at the desire, it appears, +of William III., an apology of the Revolution. "Kings," he began, "are the +lieutenants of God ... to offend them is to show no respect for the glory +of God whose image they are, and for the majesty of the people in which +they are clothed."[247] A subordinate's authority can never extend to a +chief's. Unlike God's power, that of the king is limited. Even a conqueror, +becoming the king of a conquered nation, enters upon a treaty by which he +undertakes to protect their lives and property. The compact gives the king +only the rights possessed by the individual free man, and these are by no +means absolute. The people choose their kings, but God deposes them if they +betray their trust. The desertion and abdication of James was brought about +by God's Providence, and the English people freely accepting William for +king, William's title is even better than that of his predecessor. Several +restrictions are brought to bear upon the exercise of the right of +insurrection, the most important being the denial of that right in cases of +individual injustice. Limited monarchy is proclaimed the best and most +perfect of governments. + +The theories on which the political writers in the seventeenth century +founded limited monarchy rapidly became popular among the refugees,[248] +the dissentients being in small numbers. The most famous of these is Pierre +Bayle, the author of the _Dictionary_. The development of his political +theory is characteristic of his whole enigmatic mental nature. Brought up +by the French Jesuits, as Voltaire was to be a few years later, afterwards +a student of divinity in Geneva, and a Professor in the very orthodox +Academy of Sedan, with Jurieu for colleague and friend, he accepted a chair +of philosophy in a small Dutch college in Rotterdam (the _schola +illustris_). The greater part of his life was thus spent among republicans, +and under republican government; in Holland his best friends were the few +republicans that piously venerated the memory of the unfortunate De Witts, +so much so that the Prince of Orange suspected his loyalty. Yet his faith +in absolutism remained unshaken. With the aversion of the man of letters +for the mob, an incapacity of sharing the general enthusiasm for William, +and a very great and genuine affection for his country, he could not +sympathise with the violent party. Some imperfectly known private +resentment urged him to contradict Jurieu, a leader that had the completest +faith in his own infallibility. Lastly, Bayle's cast of mind lent flavour +to the design of exposing the error ever lurking in accepted truths, +insomuch that for any one who has carefully read Bayle, the authorship of +the _Avis aux refugies_ is not doubtful. The famous answer to the political +doctrine of the _Pastoral Letters_, the last able defence of absolutism, +was penned by Bayle and no other. In the number of the _Nouvelles de la +Republique des Lettres_ for September 1684, some words about the fiction of +the decision of the majority standing for that of the whole contains in +germ an important argument of the _Avis aux refugies_.[249] An English +dissenter is supposed to be the author of the _Philosophical Commentary_, +yet when speaking of sovereignty he leaves it an open question whether its +origin is divine or popular; for, even under his disguise, Bayle did not +care to renounce entirely his personal convictions. + +The _Avis aux refugies_ falls into two divisions: in the former, the +refugees are reproached with writing libellous pamphlets against the French +King; in the latter, the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people, "that +pet chimera," is confronted with some weighty arguments. From the doctrine +must be inferred the right of the people to revolt against their Prince, +the individual being in all cases entitled to criticise the decisions of +the executive. Anarchy must necessarily ensue: "If the people reserved unto +themselves the right of free inquiry and the liberty of obeying or not, +according as they found just or unjust the orders of those that commanded, +it would not be possible to preserve the public peace."[250] The right of +the majority to overrule the minority cannot obtain if the people are +sovereign; should the majority use coercion, they act unjustly; nothing can +be reproached the minority if they call foreign soldiers to their aid. The +oath of allegiance is a farce, since the safety of the people is the +supreme law. No one can deny the force of these arguments. The liberal +doctrines are two-edged swords striking the tyrant down, it is true, but +not without inflicting wounds on the people. France in the nineteenth +century experienced some of the evils resulting from the continual +presence in the minds of the people of their right to remedy sometimes +slight evil by insurrection. It remained, of course, to the Anglo-Saxon +race to contradict the too general statement of Bayle by showing how masses +under favourable circumstances could be taught the exercise of +self-government. + +Next to the general argument are some minor arguments drawn from the +immediate events. Jeremy Collier, the non-juror, would have used them with +great effect had he known them. Are the Irish Jacobites rebels or no? The +refugees under Schomberg treat them as such, and yet the King of England is +at their head. The answer, of course, is that Ireland, being a country +added to England by conquest, is bound to acknowledge the sovereign chosen +by England. If the Emperor in becoming a Calvinist were deposed by the +Electors, would not the Protestants throughout Europe once again preach up +passive obedience? History justifies the charges of this remarkable little +book, to which there only lacks the proposition that large sections of +mankind are constantly reshaping their political doctrines to meet the +pressure of unforeseen events. As the expected advent to the throne of +France of Henri de Navarre made the sovereignty of the people acceptable to +Ultramontanes, so the English Revolution appeared to Huguenots a convincing +argument in favour of the same doctrine. + +Between Bayle and Voltaire, more than one striking analogy can be noticed. +Both in respect to French internal politics held the same opinion. +Persecuted by fanatical Huguenot ministers and Catholic priests, they +dreamed of an impossible alliance between the King and the free-thinking +tolerant men of letters. It is certain that Bayle corresponded with +Pelisson, Secretary of State to Louis XIV. In the _Avis aux refugies_ he +probably stretched to their utmost his concessions to the French Court. +Nothing short of going to Mass was deemed sufficient to allow him to reside +in France, so he brushed aside the temptation. But public opinion in France +treated him well. Boileau, then a kind of sovereign magistrate in the +Republic of Letters, expressed high approval of the _Dictionary_, and the +French courts of law, contrary to the King's edicts, admitted Bayle's will +to be valid. + +For reasons different from Bayle, Basnage kept shy of the liberal +doctrines. Although Jurieu's son-in-law, he was essentially for moderate +courses. Saumaise, Amyraut, Claude, he thought, had gone too far in +extolling divine right,[251] but Bayle was right in the main. Held in high +esteem by the States-General, Basnage exerted himself in different +diplomatic missions to wring some concessions from the French Court. +Wishing his co-religionists to return to France, he thought it expedient to +publish his thoughts on the subject of obedience. Like his father-in-law, +he wrote, but in a less heroic strain, _Pastoral Letters_ to the Huguenots +remaining in France. "Remember," he said, "only the teachings of the +Gospel and the principles that we derive from Holy Scripture, and that we +shall inculcate till the end of our life without change, that loyalty to +the sovereign must be inviolable, not only through fear, but for conscience +sake."[252] He warns them against holding large noisy assemblies in the +"desert," advising family prayers in the stead: "Do not call down upon +yourselves by tumultuous assemblies and indiscreet zeal, fresh misfortunes +which in the present time would appear to be due to justice rather than to +hatred and difference of religion." On no account are they to bear arms: +"You ought to be alive to the honour of your religion ... that never +authorises any one to bear and use arms for his preservation."[253] + +Those diplomatic words do not reflect the general feeling of the refugees; +in England they adopted, as we have seen, current Whig theories; for them +the French and the Tory interest coincided. Later on, they supported the +house of Hanover. In an address presented to the King a little before the +rebellion of 1745 by the merchants of the City of London, out of 542 names, +Rev. D. Agnew identified no less than 99 refugees. The Tories, feeling the +danger accruing to them from this active Whig element, brought against them +several measures. The Act of Settlement passed by a Tory administration had +a clause that, ostensibly directed against the Dutch favourites of the +King, was detrimental to the refugees. In 1705, the Tory majority in the +Commons rejected a Naturalization Bill, for fear the new-made subjects +should return Whig members.[254] + +The problem of toleration interests politics as well as religion. For the +refugees who, driven from France, settled in England or Holland, civil +toleration was in question only in so far as it referred to the French +King's policy. But in the French churches abroad, the question of +ecclesiastical toleration arose from the intolerance displayed by the +Synods to the heterodox preachers. From those various discussions two +dissimilar theories presently took shape, in which once more Bayle and +Jurieu were pitted together. + +Bayle, hearing how his brother had died for his religion in a French +prison, dashed off against the persecutors a virulent pamphlet[255] out of +which there soon grew a theory of toleration. The chief argument of the +Catholic clergy was Christ's words in the parable: "Compel them to come +in." Bayle set to work to show how the literal meaning of the words must be +rejected, because force cannot give faith; it is contrary to Christ's +meekness, it confounds justice and injustice, and is the cause of civil +wars; it makes Christianity hateful in the eyes of the pagans, and is a +temptation to sin, the dragoons losing their souls in carrying out their +master's commands; it makes the persecution of the early Christians +justifiable, and entitles every sect to persecute in the name of truth, +which to their belief they possess. + +After that preliminary passage of arms, comes the capital argument in the +book. Conscience in each individual is the sovereign judge whom he is bound +to obey. Since invincible causes often prevent us from discovering truth, +all that God asks of us is sincerity. If a pagan is guilty before Heaven, +it is not because he is an idolater, but for crimes committed against the +dictates of his conscience. The greatest crime is to disobey one's +conscience, to be insincere. A heretic of good faith is entitled from a +human point of view to the same respect as a sincere believer. Persecution +being contrary to the order of things established by God, is not only +criminal but absurd.[256] + +A reply to the _Commentary_ was dashed off by Jurieu, who always wrote at +white-heat.[257] When there is, as often happens, a conflict between the +revealed law of God and the dictates of the individual conscience, if our +conscience is the sovereign judge, God's word is in vain. Justice, equity +depending on individual caprice, the responsibility of the criminal +logically disappears. A murderer like Ravaillac, who, in stabbing Henri +IV., obeys his conscience, must not in strict justice be put to death. No +happier state there is, according to the _Commentary_, than that of a +cannibal innocent, because his conscience is not enlightened, and free to +follow the lowest instincts of man's nature. Erring conscience to Jurieu's +mind has the power, not the right, to command; the fountain-head of right +is justice and truth, not their counterfeit. + +In a supplement to the _Commentary_, published in 1687, Bayle met Jurieu's +attack. On the question of toleration no distinction can be drawn between +orthodoxy and heresy. Suppose that, in obedience to Christ's command to +give alms, a man relieves a fellow-creature feigning to be poor, he has +none the less obeyed the command; therefore a heretic compelling an +orthodox to renounce his belief obeys Christ's command "compel them to come +in." The Protestant has the same right as the Catholic to persecute, the +Pagan as the Christian, and the whole argument of the upholders of +intolerance rests on worthless distinctions. + +This objection Jurieu had foreseen by expounding a bold uncompromising +theory. The right to persecute is a right granted by God to the Christian +magistrate. No Church of Christ can hold its own in the struggle going on +in this world against darkness and sin without the use of force. Early +Christianity would never have won ascendancy without the help of the +Christian Emperors who destroyed the Pagan temples and forbade the worship +of the false deities. "It is God's will that the Kings of the world should +despoil the Beast and smite down its image." The King of France has no +right to persecute the Huguenots, they being Christians "confessing God and +Jesus Christ according to the three Creeds." Bossuet had already flung into +his adversary's face the fate of Servetus. Servetus, Jurieu readily +answered, was no Christian: professing "damnable errors," he was justly +burned at the stake. + +A complete account of the battle that raged round these two treatises it is +unnecessary to give here.[258] The drift of the argument is sometimes hard +to follow, as civil toleration and ecclesiastical toleration are constantly +confounded. The discussion must have unsettled the convictions of the +refugees. One of the best instances of the difficulties which beset a +sincere believer when examining the question, is a treatise written by a +minister at Utrecht, Elie Saurin,[259] who endeavoured to steer a middle +course between Jurieu and Bayle. The magistrate, he urged, has received a +commission from God to procure eternal happiness to his people and promote +the interests of religion. But the religion thus promoted must be the true +religion and none but legitimate means employed to further it. Some of +these he proceeds to enumerate: the true Church is more or less a State +Church, the magistrate assists the Church in carrying out her decisions, +particularly in depriving heretical ministers. And, further, the magistrate +exterminates atheism and immoral religions. But he has no right to the +individual conscience. The most honest men in the world entertain errors +impossible to eradicate, they may be tolerated. "The magistrate," sums up +Saurin, "must do, to establish and propagate the true doctrine and +extinguish error, all that he can without offering violence to the +conscience, or depriving his subjects of their natural or civil rights." A +hard programme to carry out![260] + +An influence might be traced of these debates on the minds of the +contemporary English political writers. But Bayle's _Commentary_ had a +greater influence on French thought. While its philosophical argument +appealed to Frenchmen, its lack of a political basis robbed it of +popularity in England. That these refugees, with their unmistakable Gallic +love for general ideas irrespective of any practical application, should +end in gaining regard in their own country is not to be wondered at, but it +is surprising that their opinions became popular in France only after +Voltaire's visit to England. A few conversations at the Rainbow +Coffee-House revealed to him what France had given up with the Edict of +Nantes. The originality stamped upon the refugees' works showed that their +political teaching was not entirely due to England or Holland. In truth, +they either stopped short of English liberty or overstepped the bounds that +the prudent Whigs had set to the sovereignty of the people. While Bayle +pretty accurately represented the yet to come French eighteenth-century +gentleman, a cultured free-thinking monarchist, an enemy to the priests and +a conservative Gallican, with a dangerous tendency to allow seductive +reasoning to run away with his judgment, Jurieu strangely anticipated the +fanatical Jacobin. Under Louis XIV. France was a country in which Bayle +would have chosen to live. In 1793, in the Public Safety Committee, Jurieu +might have been considered by Robespierre as a trustworthy patriot. + +[Illustration: LOUIS XIV DESTROYS HERETICAL BOOKS] + +And withal, these refugees are practically unknown in France. Lacking the +needed passport to fame--the graces of style--they are forgotten; and the +melancholy impression one feels in unearthing in the great public libraries +their dust-eaten pamphlets, is that of disturbing the dead. The men that +live in French literature are the contemporary prose-writers, Bossuet, La +Bruyere; but turn to England, compare the influence of those men with that +of Bayle or Jurieu, or even Drelincourt. After 1688 the influence in +England of French official literature sinks to nothing, while that of the +refugee literature is immense. No better justification there is of the +necessity of comparative literature to discover the errors of familiar +assertions, and dispel common optical illusions. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[224] By Lecene and Le Clerc, for instance, in _Conversations sur diverses +matieres de religion_, 1687, p. 216. + +[225] See Renouvier, _Philosophie analytique de l'histoire_, iii. 537. On +Bayle may be read with profit, besides Sayous, _op. cit._ i., studies by +Sainte-Beuve, _Port. Litt._ i.; Faguet, _Etudes du XVIIIe Siecle_; +Brunetiere, _Etudes critiques_, 5e serie; Delvolve, _La Philosophie de +Bayle_, 1906; Lenient's work, _Etude sur Bayle_, 1855, is worthless. + +[226] _Oeuvres_, vi. p. 292. + +[227] "He said there was one Bayle had wrote a naughty book about a comet, +that did a great deal of harm ... he said he had not read it."--Burnet, +_Own Time_, vi. p. 55 n. + +[228] _Pastoral Letters_, III. 1. xv. p. 355. + +[229] _Politique du clerge de France_, p. 133. + +[230] _Ibid._ p. 75. + +[231] _Apologie pour les reformes_, La Haye, 1683, p. 177. + +[232] _Avis aux refugies._ + +[233] _Nouv. Rep. Lettres_, vol. i. p. 141. + +[234] _Ibid._ p. 466. + +[235] _Traite du pouvoir absolu des souverains_, Cologne, 1685, p. 159. + +[236] _Ibid._ p. 25. + +[237] _Derniers efforts de l'Innocence affligee_, 1682, pp. 177, 178. + +[238] P. 249, cf. "Aux rois appartient le gouvernment exterieur de l'Eglise +de Dieu," Bochart, _op. cit._ p. 23. + +[239] Schickler, quoting _Bull. Soc. Prot. Franc._, V. 43. + +[240] _Avis aux refugies_; _Lettres choisies_, ii. p. 376. + +[241] _Droits des deux souverains_. + +[242] _Diary_, i. p. 634. + +[243] _The Jesuit Unmasked_, 1689. + +[244] _Avis aux refugies_, pp. 83, 84. + +[245] _Lettres Pastorales_, III. ll. xv.-xviii. (1st April-16th May 1689). + +[246] _Derniers efforts de l'innocence affligee_, p. 214. + +[247] _Defense de la nation britannique_, La Haye, 1693, p. 107. + +[248] _Bayle, Lettres choisies_, ii. p. 453. + +[249] Vol. ii. pp. 699, 700 (the first fifteen volumes only are by Bayle). + +[250] _Avis aux refugies_, p. 88. + +[251] _Histoire des ouvrages des savans_, April 1690, p. 368. + +[252] _Instruction pastorale_, Rotterdam, 1719, p. 29. + +[253] _Ibid._ pp. 21, 24. + +[254] Burnet, _Own Time_, v. p. 199. + +[255] _Ce que c'est que la France toute catholique sous le regne de Louis +le Grand_, Rotterdam, 1686. + +[256] _Commentaire philosophique sur les paroles de Jesus-Christ, +Contrains-les d'entrer_, 1686. + +[257] _Du droit des deux souverains en matiere de religion, la conscience +et le prince_, 1687. + +[258] See Puaux, _Precurseurs francais de la tolerance_. + +[259] Not to be confounded with Jacques Saurin, the preacher. + +[260] _Reflexions sur les droits de la conscience_, Utrecht, 1697. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SHAKESPEARE AND CHRISTOPHE MONGOYE + + +Viewed in the light of the most recent critical research, what we know of a +certainty about Shakespeare amounts to very little. According to Professor +George Saintsbury,[261] "almost all the commonly received stuff of his +life-story is shreds and patches of tradition, if not positive dream work"; +and he goes on to say that we know nothing either of the poet's father or +wife; that it is impossible to affirm that he ever married; that the +beginning of his career as a dramatist and the dates of the first +production of most of his plays are still shrouded in mystery. Therefore +when a scholar proclaims that he has discovered some new well-authenticated +fact about Shakespeare, he deserves at least a hearing. + +This is how the most significant discovery made since the time of Malone +was hailed by a literary paper of wide circulation and undoubted influence: +"Interesting as is this new notice of Shakespeare, it has attached to it a +number of casual assumptions and a dose of sentiment which makes no appeal +to the serious student. The legal proceedings to which the signature is +appended throw little light, if any, on Shakespeare's literary +personality."[262] Those for whom the _Athenaeum_ is a guide must have come +to the conclusion that they need not worry about what seemed to amount to +little more than an idle story; the new signature excepted, which, after +all, would merely provide an engraving for some yet unwritten book, the +papers might as well have been suffered to slumber on undisturbed in their +pigeon-hole at the Record Office. + +Luckily for the author of the discovery, there is a spell in Shakespeare's +name so potent that it is impossible to mention it, even coupled with Mrs. +E. W. Gallup or Mr. W. S. Booth's conjectures, without attracting some +attention. + +At first the discovery was noticed in the reviews, particularly in the +_Observer_ and the _National Review_,[263] then scholars and critics turned +their attention to it, Sir Sidney Lee mentioning the Mountjoys in a +footnote to his _French Renaissance in England_ and the _Cambridge History +of English Literature_ honouring them with a line in the bibliographical +appendix. To M. Jusserand it was reserved to point out in his lecture +before the British Academy the real significance of Shakespeare's intimacy +with a French family living in London. + +It was in _Harper's Magazine_ that Professor C. W. Wallace of the +University of Nebraska gave the first account of the documents that he had +just unearthed. They consist in a bundle of papers relating to a lawsuit +brought before the Court of Requests. One Christopher Mountjoy, a wig-maker +in the City of London, had given his daughter Mary in marriage to his +apprentice Stephen Bellott. A few months after, upon the wig-maker's wife +dying, her estate was claimed at once by her husband and by her son-in-law, +who, being unable to come to an agreement, brought the cause before the +Court. + +Stephen Bellott, it appears, had taken lodgings with the Mountjoys as early +as 1598. A year after, at the request of his step-father Humphrey Fludd, +the youth became an apprentice, served Christopher Mountjoy six years, +then, having vainly sought to make his fortune in Spain, drifted back to +his master's house, where Mary Mountjoy was awaiting him. An amusing little +comedy now took place. As Stephen remained irresolute, Mary's mother +decided to bring matters to a pitch: duly instructed by her, a mutual +friend, then lodging with the Mountjoys, none other of course than +Shakespeare, met the too shy young man, showed him the advantages of the +match, persuaded him to accept, and in November 1604 the pair were married. + +When the case came before the Court in 1612, a number of witnesses were +called upon to give evidence. The first to be examined was Joan Johnson, a +former servant, who testified to Shakespeare's part in the match; then came +Daniel Nicholas, apparently one of Shakespeare's friends and companions. +The third whose interrogatory was taken down by the clerk was Shakespeare. + +"Wm. Shakespeare of Stratford upon Avon in the Countye of Warwicke +gentleman of the age of forty yeres or thereabouts sworne and +examined--sayeth, + +"To the first interrogatory this deponent sayeth he knowethe the partyes +plaintiff and deffendant and hathe knowne them bothe as he now remembrethe +for the space of tenne yeres or thereabouts. + +"To the second interrogatory this deponent sayethe he did know the +complainant when he was servant with the deffendant and that during the +time of his the complainantes service with the said deffendant he the said +complainant to this deponentes knowledge did well and honestly behave +himselfe, but to this deponentes remembrance he hath not heard the +deffendant confesse that he had gott any great profitt and commoditye by +the service of the said complainant, but this deponent sayeth he verily +thinkethe that the said complainant was a very good and industrious servant +in the said service and more he cannott depose to the said interrogatory." + +And the clerk goes on recording questions and answers in this dull +unemotional style for some time, then the witness having duly signed his +deposition--a most precious signature, that!--withdraws. + +A question naturally arises while we read these depositions, Who were these +artisans thus thrust suddenly into prominence? The issue of the suit has +provided the answer. After a protracted inquiry, the Court, in accordance +with the law of England that left the Ecclesiastical Courts to decide +testamentary causes, referred the parties to the Consistory of the French +Church. Both Mountjoy and Bellott, in spite of their names being Englished, +were Huguenot refugees. There only remains to search the registers of the +French Church. Sure enough, on 14th April 1603, the name of Christophe +Mongoye appears as a witness to a christening, and so it should evidently +be spelt. + +Moreover the name of Christophe Montioy occurs in the lists of aliens +resident in London in the early seventeenth century. And, finally, on 27th +May 1608, Christopher Monioy, "subject of the King of France, born in +Cressy," was naturalized English.[264] The humble wig-maker's life is thus +quite vividly outlined. + +And, again, why should Shakespeare have selected Mongoye's house to lodge +in? The explanation suggested by Mr. Plomer seems acceptable. In 1579, +Richard Field, a native of Stratford-on-Avon, came to London and +apprenticed himself to Thomas Vautrollier, a printer in Blackfriars. This +Vautrollier and his wife were Huguenot refugees like the Mountjoys, "and +we may well believe that the members of the French colony within the walls +of the city at that time were more or less acquainted with each other." In +1586 or 1587, Vautrollier died and Richard Field, then a freeman of the +Stationers' Company, married the widow and became a master printer.[265] +His friendship with Shakespeare is a well-attested fact: both _Venus and +Adonis_ and _Lucrece_ were issued by Field's press, in 1593 and 1594. What +wonder then that Shakespeare should have known the Mountjoys through his +friend's wife. + +How long did Shakespeare lodge with the Mountjoys? In his deposition, dated +11th May 1612, he states, as we have just seen, that he has known them for +the space of ten years or thereabouts, therefore since 1602. + +Thanks to Professor C. W. Wallace, the site of the Mountjoys' house has +been identified. It stood in Aldersgate, at the corner of Silver Street and +Monkwell Street (formerly Mugwell Street). Let us add that lovers of +Shakespeare need not try to summon up visions of the past before the +commonplace building taking the place of what might have been a sacred +pile. A passing reflection, just a rapid recollection of poor Yorick, is +enough. Modern London, grey, noisy, colossal, and vulgar, ill suits the +brightness and the distinction of Elizabethan England. + +Does the discovery throw any light on Shakespeare's character? M. Jusserand +thinks so. "It shows us," he says, "Shakespeare unwittingly thrown by +events into a quarrel; his efforts to minimise his role and to withdraw and +disappear are the most conspicuous trait in the new-found documents."[266] + +In conclusion, the chief fact to be remembered is that Shakespeare lived +with French artisans during the most important period of his literary life. +_Macbeth_, _Othello_, _King Lear_, perhaps _Hamlet_, were most probably +written in the house at the corner of Silver Street. The mystery of the +scene in French in _Henry V._ is now cleared up: the Vautrolliers, the +Mongoyes and their circle taught Shakespeare French. + +And yet there is about Professor C. W. Wallace's discovery something +unsatisfactory that will be readily understood. The voice that reaches us +over the bridge of time seems terribly disappointing: known only by the +illuminating utterances in his works, the poet lived on in our memory +surrounded with a halo of idealism; he was as an eagle soaring on high and +whose wings were never soiled by touching earth. A pity it is that, instead +of a formal deposition before a judge's clerk, chance did not bring to +light a conversation with Ben Jonson. The veil is just lifted, we draw +near, and the god we had figured dwindles into a mere man. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[261] _Cambridge History of English Literature_, vol. v. chap. viii. + +[262] _Athenaeum_, 26th February 1910. + +[263] Nor let us omit Professor Morel in _Bulletin de la Societe pour +l'etude des langues et litteratures modernes_, March 1910. + +[264] W. A. Shaw, _Denizations and Naturalizations of Aliens_, 1911, p. 11. + +[265] Letter to the _Athenaeum_, 26th March 1910. + +[266] _What to Expect of Shakespeare_, p. 14. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +FRENCH GAZETTES IN LONDON (1650-1700) + + +By a strange coincidence, Milton as well as Shakespeare had the opportunity +of meeting Frenchmen in London. His connection with William Du Gard, +schoolmaster and printer, dates from the time of the Civil War. + +Born in 1606 in Worcestershire, William Du Gard came, as his name implies, +of a family of French or Jerseyan extraction.[267] His father, Henry Du +Gard, was a clergyman; his uncle, Richard, a tutor in Cambridge; his +younger brother, Thomas, took orders and became rector of Barford. William +devoted himself to teaching and was appointed in 1644 headmaster of +Merchant Taylors' School. + +The minds of the people were then in an extraordinary ferment, as ever +happens when a crisis is at hand. A far-reaching change loomed over +England. No sheet-anchor could long withstand the heaving seas. Both in +Church and State, the old Elizabethan settlement was breaking up. No wonder +that new, unlooked-for thoughts rose in the minds of men and that pamphlets +unceasingly flowed from the printers' presses. Perhaps the prevalent rage +of idealism caught Du Gard in his turn, or maybe he acted out of ambition +or mere vulgar hope of gain. About 1648, schoolmaster as he was, he set up +a private press. + +His first venture in this new capacity was that of a royalist. After +helping to print _Eikon Basilike_, he undertook to publish in England +Claude Saumaise's treatise against the regicides, _Defensio Regia pro +Carolo Primo_. But the authorities quickly took alarm and the Council of +State on the same day (1st February 1649-50) deprived Du Gard of his +headmastership, confined him to Newgate, confiscated his press, imprisoned +his corrector Armstrong.[268] + +Then the unforeseen happened: a few weeks only had elapsed when Du Gard was +set free, reinstated at Merchant Taylors' School, and, having recovered +press, forms, and type, professed himself a Puritan and assumed the title +of "printer to the Council of State." It is alleged that his freedom was +due to the friendship of Secretary Milton. We think it more simple to +believe that the Council wished to conciliate the only printer at the time +whose literary attainments entitled him to publish abroad the answer to +Saumaise's treatise which Milton was then commissioned to write. That the +Council were anxious to counteract the efforts of the royalist party to +inflame Continental opinion against the Parliament, we repeatedly gather +from the State Papers; nor is it venturesome to assert that, when compared +with the printers of Amsterdam, Cologne, or Rouen, the printers of London +were mostly hacks.[269] + +The sudden conversion of Du Gard seems to have had lasting effects. In +1659, the Council still trusted him.[270] In ten years' time, he had made +only one mistake when, in 1652, overlooking Parliamentary zeal for +orthodoxy, he printed the Racovian Catechism. Needless to add that the book +was burnt by the common hangman. + +At the Restoration, William Du Gard was finally deprived of his +headmastership and died in 1662, having after all little cause to regret +his adventures as a printer; he enjoyed a large competence, being wealthy +enough to act as surety for his friend Harrington, the author of _Oceana_, +in no less than L5000.[271] + +The books issued from Du Gard's press are of less interest than the weekly +paper which he undertook to publish in French, from 1650 to 1657. A few +numbers are preserved in the British Museum, but the nearly complete set of +the _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_ may be consulted at the Bibliotheque +Nationale. It is in that old long-forgotten paper that are to be read the +earliest mentions of Milton's name in a French publication.[272] + +Du Gard advertised the _Defensio pro populo Anglicano_ in the following +terms: "The reply to the scandalous and defamatory book of M. de Saumaise +against this State, which has long been wished for by many worthy people +and generally expected by all, is at last near ready, being now under press +and pushed forward" (Feb. 1650-51). Coming from Saumaise's printer, such +humble professions were well calculated to mollify the Council of State. + +A few weeks later, in No. 34, we meet again with Milton's name: "The reply +to the insulting book of M. de Saumaise by Mr. John Milton, one of the +Secretaries to the Council of State, appeared last Monday, to the utmost +content and approval of all" (March 2-9, 1650-51). + +The following year, Du Gard published the French translation of +_Eikonoklastes_, Milton's reply to _Eikon Basilike_. It is thus advertised +in the _Nouvelles ordinaires_: "This week has been issued, in this town, +the French translation of Mr. Milton's book confuting the late King of +England's book" (No. 125, Dec. 1652). The translator was John Dury, a +Scottish minister.[273] + +The last mention of Milton's name appears in a letter from Paris: "We have +notice from France that M. Morus, a minister opposed to Mr. Milton (who has +just published another book against him, entitled _Defensio pro se_), +having passed through the chief Reformed Churches in France and preached +everywhere to the applause of the people, has gone from Paris, where some +wished to retain him as minister, and come to Rouen, leaving his friends in +doubt as to his return, but that the favour shown him has as promptly +subsided as it was stirred up, many marking the lack of constancy in his +mind, and the ambition and avarice of his pretensions" (No. 298, Feb. +1656-57). The paragraph refers to Alexander More, minister of Charenton, +whom Milton had most vehemently assailed upon mistaking him for the author +of the _Clamor sanguinis regii ad coelum_, which had been published at +the Hague in 1652. The book was by Peter Du Moulin. More replied by a +defence entitled _Fides publica contra calumnias J. Miltoni_, and Milton +then retorted by the pamphlet referred to above: _J. Miltoni pro se +defensio contra A. Morum_. + +The fact that Milton's name appears at so early a date in a French +publication would alone excite curiosity about the _Nouvelles ordinaires_. +The collection preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale comprises four +hundred numbers, extending from 21/11 July 1650 to 31/21 January 1657-58; +out of which only six are missing (Nos. 161-63, 202, 237, 238). The paper +came out every Thursday, in one quarto sheet. "Extraordinary" numbers +(entitled _Nouvelles extraordinaires de Londres_), such as No. 185, +printing in full _The Instrument of Government_; No. 202, the treaty with +the Dutch; No. 288, that with France; are on two quarto sheets. At the +close of No. 2 may be read the following curious notice: "and are to be +sold by Nicholas Bourne, at the South Gate of the Old Exchange, Tyton at +the sign of the Three Daggers by Temple Gate, and Mary Constable at the +sign of the Key in Westminster Hall." That Du Gard's paper circulated +abroad may be inferred from the quaint notice appended to No. 44: "The +reader is warned that the author (who up to now has with the utmost care +gathered every week these happenings for the information of the public, +though what he has gained thereby up to now has not given him much +encouragement to go on, on the contrary hardly defraying the cost of the +printing) has received intelligence that an English printer ... issues +every week in The Hague a pirated edition, reprinting the paper in same +size and type, with the name of the author's own printer, which is an +intolerable falsification ... the author will henceforth take care to +provide M. Jean Veely, bookseller, in The Hague, at the sign of the Dutch +Chronicles, with true copies from London." Since no one has ever dreamed of +issuing a pirated edition of an unsaleable book, we must believe the author +to have somewhat exaggerated his complaints.[274] + +After all, the author may have been Du Gard himself. However that may be, +the editor of the paper knew English well; that he had long resided in +England is implied by the many English words and idioms in his style.[275] +Names of places often puzzle him, and he deals with the several +difficulties in a rather awkward manner.[276] None but a Frenchman that had +left his country for some time past or, as was actually the case with Du +Gard, an Englishman of French descent, would venture to think of a village +constable as a _connetable_, p. 816; of the _Speaker_ of the House of +Commons as _l'orateur_, p. 253; and calmly translate _Solicitor-General_ by +the absolutely meaningless expression _solliciteur general_, p. 305; and +_writ of error_ by the no less unintelligible _billet d'erreur_, p. +679.[277] Nevertheless, he spells in the most accurate way proper names, +whether French or English. + +[Illustration: NOUVELLES ORDINAIRES DE LONDRES, NUMBER 1.] + +The gazette begins by a sort of general statement that it is worth while to +quote in full: "The troubles and different revolutions that have taken +place for the last ten or twelve years in England, Scotland, or Ireland, +have provided us such a number of fine deeds, that, though writers, +especially abroad, have unjustly tried either to stifle them by their +silence or to tarnish their lustre by lessening their price or worth, +nevertheless, enough has been seen, though as through a cloud, to move with +admiration the best disposed minds that have heard about them. Now that the +war with Scotland, that with Ireland, and the present differences with +Portugal, are likely to provide us with new ones, I have deemed it not +unacceptable to foreign nations, to impart in a language that extends and +is understood throughout Europe, all the most signal and remarkable +happenings. To that effect, should this account and the following be +favourably received by the public, I propose to carry it on every week, on +the same day, briefly and with what truthfulness can be obtained in things +of that nature out of the several rumours that the passion of every one +disguises according to his temper." + +The Council of State could not but acquiesce in an endeavour to enlighten +public opinion on the Continent. Du Gard kept his promise to say the truth: +his paper is as unimpassioned as could well be a paper published "by +authority." + +If the newswriter was anxious to keep his readers well informed, he did not +at the same time conceal his admiration for Cromwell. Maybe he was sincere. +It was difficult not to be impressed by the soldier who had won Dunbar and +Worcester. + +Readers in Paris and Brussels did not only peruse the accounts of these +Puritan victories, they learned also all about the flight of the Lord's +anointed, young Charles II. + +Such sufferings and trials were not enough: impossible to read even now +without some emotion the bare paragraph in which Du Gard, with official +coldness and hard-heartedness, tells about the death of little Princess +Elizabeth. + +"Princess Elizabeth Stuart, daughter to the late King, who you know was +brought together with her brother[278] to the Isle of Wight, having got +overheated while playing at bowls and drenched afterwards by an unexpected +fall of rain, took cold, being moreover of a weak and sickly health, and +fell ill of a bad headache and fever, which increasing, she was obliged to +be abed where she died on December 8th inst., though carefully attended by +Mr. Mayerne, chief physician to her late Father" (September 1650, p. 41). + +But the triumphs of the Parliament extend to enemies abroad; Portugal and +Holland are both humbled, Barbadoes and Jamaica forced to surrender. Du +Gard remained true to his promise. All Europe might peruse the famous +letter, "des generaux de l'armee navale du Parlement et de la Republique +d'Angleterre au tres honorable Guil. Lenthal ecuier, orateur dudit +Parlement, ecrite a bord du navire le Triomfe en la baie dite de Stoake," +and signed: Robert Blake, Richard Deane, George Monck. Sprung from the +ranks of the people, those revolutionists used, when occasion needed, the +language of patricians. "M. Bourdeaux (the French envoy) having delivered a +copy of the letters accrediting him and subscribed: To our very dear and +good friends, the people of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, +it was directed to be returned, for all addresses should be subscribed: To +the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England" (p. 513). + +Such patriotic pride must move the writer of the _Nouvelles ordinaires_. So +in one of his very few outbursts of humour he exclaims: "The King of +Portugal being unable to do us harm, had tried to frighten us, but being +unable to do either, on the contrary showing the most egregious cowardice +and poltroonery as ever was seen, without the slightest regard for his +reputation, has tried to conceal his shame by a lying account, signed by +himself; if the said King thinks he has seen what he has written, it must +be said that his spectacles were set awry" (p. 45). + +Religious intelligence takes up a great space in the _Nouvelles +ordinaires_. The readers are not spared a single proclamation about days of +fasting and repentance; lengthy abstracts are duly given of the sermons +preached at the Abbey or St. Margaret's; nor are the wordy resolutions of +the several committees on religious affairs omitted. The _quakers_ are +often spoken about. The first risings of the sect are set forth with the +kind of minuteness that appeals to a modern historian. They are +"evil-disposed and melancholy people" (_gens malfaits et melancoliques_); +most pestilent and persevering proselytisers, with an inordinate appetite +for martyrdom, they appear at the same time in the most unexpected +quarters; driven from Boston, they cause a holy panic in Hamburgh and +Bordeaux (p. 1375). Their leader, or at any rate "the chief pillar of that +frenzied sect," is named George Fox. "Many think the said Fox is a popish +priest, there being several of that garb among the said quakers, and what +makes the opinion plausible is that he is strong for popish and arminian +tenets, such, for instance, as salvation by good works." (p. 981). + +With the exception of the poor Piedmont Waldenses, who had found a +strenuous protector in Cromwell, the foreign Protestants interest but +little the editor of the _Nouvelles ordinaires_: he was probably afraid of +offending those in high places by more than casually alluding to the +Huguenots who had shown themselves vehemently opposed to independency. Thus +it would be difficult to find a more explicit piece of news than the +following: "Letters from Paris say that of late divers outrages have been +committed on the Reformed, under frivolous pretences quite contrary to +their privileges, especially at La Rochelle, Metz, Amiens, Langres.... +Local quarrels breaking out daily in divers places on the score of +religion, together with the massacres of Protestants in Piedmont, make it +feared lest there be a universal hidden design of the Papists to endeavour +to exterminate all those that make profession of the Reformed religion in +all places in the world" (p. 1057). + +Mention is made of the French Churches in London. "This week, the members +of the French and Walloon Churches in this city have petitioned Parliament +to be maintained in the enjoyment of the privileges granted to them of old; +which petition being duly read, was referred to the Council of State" (p. +668); and further on: "This week, the ministers of the French Church in +this city, and six of the elders of the said Church, together with the +Marquis de Cugnac, came to Whitehall to congratulate His Highness" (p. +729). + +The Marquis de Cugnac was then in England on behalf of the rebel Prince de +Conde, bidding against Cardinal Mazarin's envoys to gain the friendship of +Cromwell and the help of the English fleet. Many are the allusions in the +_Nouvelles ordinaires_ to the dark intrigues of the Frondeurs. A most +characteristic one may be quoted here; in May 1653 the "city of Bordeaux +sends four deputies to the Commonwealth, a councillor of Parliament +Franquart, a gentleman La Cassagne, a man of the Reformed religion whose +name is not stated, and a tin-potter named Taussin; with them have come a +herald bearing the arms of England as they were when Guyenne was under +English rule, and a trumpeter of the said city" (p. 597). + +Many of Du Gard's readers are merchants; for them he prints the resolutions +of Parliament concerning the Customs and Excise, the Post Office +regulations, the treaties with foreign countries. No sooner is peace +proclaimed with Portugal than Du Gard gives information as to sending +letters to Lisbon, by means of frigates building at Woolwich (pp. 1326, +1328, 1333). Warnings are issued as to pirates in the Mediterranean or the +piratical practices of neutrals: "Letters from Leghorn say that Mr. +Longland, an English merchant, having loaded a French ship with a cargo of +tin, the captain of the said ship perfidiously gave notice to the Dutch, +who forthwith came with two men-of-war and seized it" (p. 562). + +Pirates and "sea-rovers" (_escumeurs de mer_) meet with short mercy at the +hands of Du Gard: "We have notice from Leghorn that our ships on the +Mediterranean have captured a French ship commanded by Captain Puille, +nicknamed the Arch-pirate" (p. 194). + +Robbers must be as summarily dealt with, especially Irish robbers: +"Lieutenant-General Barry was taken prisoner in Ireland by the Tories and +put to death. The Tories are a kind of brigands, of somewhat the same sort +as the Italian banditti; they live in marshes, woods, and hills, neither +till nor sow the earth, do no work, but live only on thieving and robbery" +(p. 15). Fancy Cardinal Mazarin reading about the Tories! + +Such is the curious French paper in which Milton's name was mentioned for +the first time. Nor should we think the old forgotten publication unworthy +to record the rising fame of a future epic poet. Though the style of the +_Nouvelles ordinaires_ be as rough and harsh as the manners of Roundheads +and Ironsides, it served to tell in Paris and Brussels and Amsterdam of +lofty thoughts and splendid deeds. The utterings of a Cromwell still ring +with the haughtiness and energy that remind one of Satan's speeches in +_Paradise Lost_. + +Du Gard's undertaking was remembered after the Commonwealth. To the +_Nouvelles ordinaires_ succeeded, with but a few years' interval, the +_Gazette de Londres_, the French edition to Charles II.'s _London Gazette_. +The general editor was one Charles Perrot, an Oxford M.A.; the printer, a +friend of Thurloe, as Du Gard had been, was called Thomas Newcombe; and the +task of writing the French translation was entrusted to one Moranville. +Editor, printer, and translator received their inspirations from Secretary +Williamson, who, the better to see his directions obeyed, placed Mrs. +Andrews, a spy, in the printing-house. + +Beginning Feb. 5, 1666 (old style), the _Gazette de Londres_ was issued +under the reigns of both Charles II. and James II. Numbers are extant +dating from William III. and Queen Anne. + +The few numbers of the _Gazette_ that we were enabled to read, appear of +much less interest than the _Nouvelles ordinaires_. Even a newspaper would +degenerate in the hands of Charles II. and his ministers. Here are +specimens of the vague colourless political news concerning France and +England: "Two of Mons. Colbert's daughters were bestowed--the elder on M. +de Chevreuse, son to the Duc de Luynes, the younger on the Count de +Saint-Aignan, only son to the Duc of the same name" (No. 13, Dec. 1666). +"Mons. de Louvois is ill with a fever" (No. 2248, May 1688). "His Majesty +(James II.) has begun to touch for the King's evil" (No. 1914, March 1684). +Such news the Secretary of State thought would neither stir rebellion nor +cause diplomatic complications. + +The _Gazette de Londres_ appeared twice a week, on Monday and Thursday, was +printed on a half-sheet, and cost one penny. + +Here is an advertisement that brings one back to the Great Fire: "All that +wish to provide this city with timber, bricks, stones, glass, tiles and +other material for building houses, are referred to the Committee of the +Common Council in Gresham House, London" (No. 12, Dec. 1666). Another may +be quoted: "An engineer has brought to this city the model in relief of the +splendid Versailles Palace, with gardens and waterworks, the whole being 24 +feet long and 18 wide" (No. 2222, Feb. 1687). + +To Thomas Newcombe succeeded as printer, in 1688, Edward Jones, who till +his death in 1705 published the _Gazette_, which then passed to his widow, +and ultimately to the famous bookseller Tonson. + +The French edition met with some mishaps. Volume ix. of the _Journals of +the House of Commons_ records a dramatic incident. On 6th Nov. 1676 a +member rose in the House to point out the singular discrepancies between +the Royal proclamations against the Papists printed in the _London Gazette_ +and the French translation in the _Gazette de Londres_. The terms had been +softened down not to cause offence to the French Court. + +[Illustration: AT VERSAILLES + + _After Bonnart_] + +Immediately the House took fire, and summoned Newcombe and Moranville to +appear on the very next day. "Mr. Newcombe being called in to give an +account of the translation of the _Gazette_ into French, informed the House +that he was only concerned in the setting the press, and that he understood +not the French tongue! And that Mons. Moranville had been employed in that +affair for many years and was only the corrector of it. Mons. Moranville +being called in, acknowledged himself guilty of the mistake, but he +endeavoured to excuse it, alleging it was through inadvertency."[279] + +Assemblies have abundance of energy, but seldom persevere in one course of +action: since no more is heard of the case, we may suppose that both +delinquents got off at little cost. Moreover, there is nothing very +heroical in the _Gazette de Londres_. Next to the editor of the _Nouvelles +ordinaires_, Moranville sinks into insignificance. He was most probably a +refugee reduced by poverty to write for a bookseller. What could an exiled +Frenchman do but teach or write French? So Moranville found many to follow +his example. As late as Queen Anne's time, French journalists earned a +scanty livelihood in London. The _Postman_ was edited in English, mind! by +Fonvive; the _Postboy_ by Boyer, whom Swift derisively called a "French +dog."[280] + +The refugees were but continuators of Theophraste Renaudot, the father of +the modern press. The very name of _Mercury_ given to the early English +papers, came from France; what wonder then that French journalists should +be found in London? Why some should write in French, the forewords to the +_Nouvelles ordinaires_ set forth in an illuminating phrase: French was in +the seventeenth century "a language that extended and was understood +throughout Europe." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[267] The few extant letters--written in Latin--of William Du Gard bear the +signature: "Guil. du Gard." Now an Englishman would naturally sign "Dugard" +or "Du Gard" (Bodleian MSS. Rawl. A. 9. 123). He certainly knew French and +received intelligence from the Continent. The very slender clue that +relates his family to Jersey is yielded by the mention of one William Du +Gard, born in Jersey in 1677 (Rawl. MSS. T. 4to. 6, 202). + +[268] _Calendars of State Papers, Dom._, 1649-1650, p. 500. Three months +before he had been called upon to enter into L300 recognizances. _Ibid._ p. +523. + +[269] The following information is yielded by the State Papers: Du Gard +signs an agreement on 7th March 1649-50, _Dom._ 1650, p. 27; the next day +he gives sureties in L1000, p. 514; 2nd April, he recovers his press, pp. +76, 535; but must enter into L500 recognizances, p. 515; 11th September, he +becomes once more headmaster of Merchant Taylors' School, p. 235. The +Council, among other orders concerning the diffusion of Parliamentary +publications abroad, directs the Customs to "permit Mons. Rosin to +transport Customs free the impression of a book in French relating some +proceedings of Parliament against the late king, for dispersion in foreign +parts" (_Dom._ 1650, p. 527). + +[270] _Dom._ 1660, p. 223. + +[271] Further information on Du Gard may be found in Masson, _Life of +Milton_, Ch. Wordsworth, _Who Wrote Eikon Basilike?_ and the _Dictionary of +National Biography_. No one, however, seems to have taken the trouble to +read Du Gard's letters in the Bodleian Library and to connect him with the +_Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_. + +[272] To M. Jusserand we owe the appreciation on Milton penned in 1663 by +Ambassador Cominges for his royal master, Louis XIV., _Shakespeare en +France sous l'ancien regime_, p. 107. Two letters of Elie Bouhereau, a +physician of La Rochelle, asking, in 1672, for information on Milton, were +published in _Proceedings of the Huguenot Society_, vol. ix. pp. 241-42. I +pointed out a few years ago (_Revue critique_, 21st November 1904) Bayle's +severe strictures on Milton in the _Avis aux refugies_, 1690. The +appreciation of Cominges alone is quoted both by J. Telleen, _Milton dans +la litterature francaise_, and J. G. Robertson, _Milton's Fame on the +Continent_. + +[273] The book is entitled [Greek: Eikonoklastes] _ou Reponse au Livre +intitule_ [Greek: Eikon Basilike] _ou le Pourtrait de sa Sacree Majeste +durant sa solitude et ses souffrances_. Par le Sr. Jean Milton. Traduite de +l'Anglois sur la seconde et plus ample edition. A Londres. Par Guill. Du +Gard, imprimeur du Conseil d'Etat. 1652. + +[274] Manuscript notes in the margin have recorded the names of two Paris +subscribers: MM. de la Mare and Paul du Jardin. Cardinal Mazarin seems to +have been a reader of the paper, for he writes to the Count d'Estrades, +23rd April 1652: "S'il est vrai, comme les _Nouvelles publiques_ de Londres +le portant, que la Republique d'Angleterre soit en termes de s'accommoder +avec Messieurs les Etats." + +[275] For instance, _eaux fortes_ (strong waters) for _eaux-de-vie_, p. +167; _moyens efficacieux_, p. 633; _toleration_, p. 691; _ejection des +ministres scandaleux_, p. 770; _retaliation_, p. 96; _lever et presser_ (to +press) _des soldats_, p. 169; _sergent en loy_ (sergeant at law), p. 213; +_le recorder seroit demis_ (dismissed) _de sa charge_, p. 221, etc. + +[276] _Au parc dit Hide park_, p. 64; _la place dite Tower Hill_, p. 152; +_la rue dite le Strand_, p. 156; _la paroisse dite Martin-des-Champs_, St. +Martin-in-the-Fields, p. 182; _la prison dite la Fleet_, p. 370; _l'ile +dite Holy Island_, p. 442, etc. + +[277] _Messenger_ he renders by _messager_, instead of _huissier_, p. 749. +More often, through mere indolence, he suffers the English word to stand: +_recorder_, p. 61; _commission d'oyer et terminer_, p. 841; _ranter_, p. +189; _quaker_, p. 1375. He indifferently writes _aldermens_, p. 61, and +_aldermans_, p. 717. He apparently does not know the French word _tabac_, +always preferring the form _tobac_ (tobacco). + +[278] The Duke of Gloucester. + +[279] _Journal_, _House of Commons_, ix. 534. + +[280] See Chapter III. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A QUARREL IN SOHO (1682) + + +It is a comparatively easy task to find out how _Monsieur l'ambassadeur_ of +France or a distinguished foreign author lived in London. In both cases +their dispatches, memoirs, and letters, and sometimes their friends' +letters, are extant. But how about the merchants who had seldom time to +gossip about their private affairs; and the crowd of artisans, working-men, +and servants who did not, nay could not, write? Fortunately others wrote +for them, when actuated by some strong motive. Take, for instance, the +following story preserved in an old pamphlet[281] and which, reprinted, +needs no lengthy commentary to give insight into the life of the poorer +Frenchmen whose lot it was to work and quarrel in and about Soho and Covent +Garden under Charles II.:-- + +"About five weeks ago, the wife of _Monsieur de la Coste_, a _French_ +Taylor, dwelling then at the upper end of _Bow Street_ in _Covent Garden_, +lying upon her death-bed, sent for _Mr. Dumarest_ (here the unknown author +of the pamphlet is wrong, he should have spelt the name _Du Marescq_, as +any one may see who cares to consult Baron de Schickler's learned work on +the French churches in London) that he might comfort and pray with her +before she departed; which the aforesaid minister having accordingly done, +and acquitted himself of the function of his ministry (this phrase sounds +strangely un-English; maybe the writer who knows so much about the French +colony in London is a Frenchman himself), the sick person caused the +company to be desired to withdraw, for that she had something particular to +say to her husband and the minister. The company being withdrawn, she +desired her husband to take care of a daughter she had by a former +marriage, who lived in the house of the widow of one _Reinbeau_, because +that she was a Papist, and that she feared that after her death she would +seduce her daughter. (The construction of the sentence is confusing at +first, and very ungrammatical. By using the verb 'to seduce' with the +meaning of 'to convert to Romanism,' the author betrays a French Protestant +descent.) The husband promised to do what his wife desired; the dying +person, not content with the promise of her husband, made the same request +to the minister, who assured her that he would acquit himself of his duty +(_s'acquitter de son devoir_ literally translated) in that respect. + +[Illustration: THE FRENCH TAILOR + +After Arnoult] + +"The sick party died the day after, and the father-in-law sent immediately +for the young maid, clothed her very handsomely, and told her the last will +of her mother; the young maid made answer that she was born a Protestant, +brought up as such, and that she would be very glad to be instructed in her +religion, that she might resist and prevent falling into error. Her +father-in-law finding her in that resolution, told her that it was +requisite she should live in his house, to which she consented with a +willing heart. + +"Some days after, widow _Reinbeau_ caused Mr. _La Coste_ to be fetched +before a Justice of the _Peace_ for detaining from her her apprentice ('an +apprentice is a sort of slave,' wrote the French traveller Misson,[282] 'he +can't marry, nor have any dealings on his own account; all he earns is his +master's.' Apprentices were bound by deed for a term of years, sometimes +sums of money were given with them, as a premium for their instruction. If +they ran away, they might be compelled to serve out their time of absence +within seven years after the expiration of their contract). He appeared +there accordingly and said that his wife's daughter was not an apprentice, +and that though she were so, he was not willing that she should be seduced, +that he knew there was such a design, but the _Justice_, without having +regard to this, redelivered the young maid into her pretended mistress's +hands. + +"The father-in-law complained hereof to his friends, and while they were +contriving to remedy this business (imagine the excitement), the young +maid went to Mr. Jehu (this is surely a misprint), a goldsmith dwelling in +the house of the deceased (and no doubt an important member of the +Protestant community), and weeping bitterly, desired him to use the means +of having her instructed in her religion, and of getting her out of the +hands of the Papists. He promised to use his endeavours for that purpose, +and that he might perform his word, he went to Mr. _Dumarest_, a minister, +and told him the business; who assured him of contributing all that lay in +his power to his efforts; and they two together agreed that on Sunday, the +Second of _June_, the young maid should go to the _Greek_ Church (in Hog +Lane, now Crown Street, Soho, a kind of chapel-of-ease to the _Savoy_ +Church), and that she should be there examined. Accordingly she went +thither to that intent, but the minister being hastened to go to the +_Savoy_ Church, bid the young maid follow him, that he would discourse her +on the way, and that he would after that present her to the Consistory +(otherwise: the elders); which the young maid agreeing to, followed the +minister (we can trace their way on an old map through the dingy ill-paved +lanes lined with squalid houses and almost hear the minister 'discourse' in +loud French, thus attracting notice), but they were no sooner in Newport +Street, than that widow _Reinbeau_, a niece of hers, three of her nephews, +a vintner and other Papists stopped the maid and minister in the way; and +the widow with an insolent tone asked the minister why he talked to that +maid? The minister asked her by what authority she asked him that question? +To which she said that this maid was her apprentice: The minister told her +that he was assured of the contrary, but that though she were so, he had a +right to instruct her, and that it was only with that intent that he spoke +to her and that she followed him, that it was _Sunday_, and that after she +had been catechized, she should return unto her house (the widow's house, +of course), until it was known if she was under any obligation to her or +not, which after he had said, he bid the young maid continue her way with +him. (We can see Du Marescq standing in wig and gown, vainly trying to +pacify the irate widow, and the small crowd of her gesticulating relations +and friends gathering round.) + +"The widow seeing that the young maid followed, seized her with violence, +swore that she should not go with the minister; at the same time three of +her bullies surrounded the minister, and after he had told them that he was +amazed they should commit such violence on the King's highway on a +_Sunday_, when the business was only the instruction of one of his +subjects, being in fear of the _Roman dagger_, he went to a Justice of +Peace called Sir John Reresby, to inform him of the whole matter. (In this +little tragi-comedy, Sir John Reresby, made Justice of the Peace for +Middlesex and Westminster in Nov. 1684, plays the part of the upright +judge; a time-saver he appears to have been, but then he was a strong +anti-papist; at that moment he had just been superintending proceedings +against Thynne's murderers and probably cared very little for the noisy +Frenchmen.) + +"The minister was no sooner gone than that Mr. _Jehu_ being desirous to get +near the young maid and speak to the widow _Reinbeau_, this woman without +hearing him, fell upon him, tore his peruke and shoulder-knot off, and she +and her myrmidons began to cry out: _a French Papist_ (a scurvy trick!). + +"This piece of malice had like to have cost the Protestant his life, for at +the same time some of the _mobile_ who were crowded about him seized him by +the throat; but the populace being undeceived, and having understood the +_Popish_ trick, let go the Protestant, which the Papists perceiving, they +ran into a house hard by, swearing they would cause the _French_ Protestant +to be stabbed (just after the scare caused by the Popish Plot, there was +not a loyal Protestant, either English or French, who did not believe every +Papist had a knife up his sleeve and was scheming a new Bartholomew's Day). + +"After they were got into that house, they immediately contrived how to +secure their prey: for that purpose they sent for a chair and had her +conveyed away (after the manner of the Catholics in France, as every one in +England knew at the time). + +"During that interval Mr. _Du Marest_ the minister having discoursed Sir +_John Reresby_ upon this business, this worthy Justice of the Peace sent +for a constable (_deus ex machina!_), and gave him a warrant. The constable +performed his commission, brought the widow and her niece, but the other +Papists prevented his seizing them by making their escape in the crowd. + +"The Justice of the Peace examined them concerning the maid, they confessed +that she was not an apprentice, but a maid they set to work, and to whom +they gave twenty shillings a year; upon this, and the declaration which the +young maid made, he discharged her ('apprentices to trades,' said +Blackstone almost a hundred years later, 'may be discharged on reasonable +cause, either at the request of themselves or masters, at the quarter +sessions, or by one justice, with appeal to the sessions'), and recommended +the care of her to the minister, and then proceeded to examine to the +bottom ('au fond' is the French legal term which would naturally occur to +the writer of this pamphlet) the violent action which the women had +committed, and upon their confession, and the depositions of several +witnesses, he bound them to the sessions (here should the story end, but +the writer thinks it needs a moral, and so he proceeds). + +"This conduct of the Papists would something startle me, if I did not daily +hear of such-like violences. But when I am assured that a certain Papist +called _Maistre Jacques_ (let us hope Sir John Reresby will have him hanged +at next Middlesex Assizes), upon a dispute of religion, did so wound a +Protestant that he is since dead of it; when people of honour assure me, +that they hear Papists call the illustrious Queen _Elizabeth_ a whore, and +beat those who oppose them upon this subject; when I hear that the Papists +threatened some years since, that they would set the streets a-flowing with +blood (the Popish Plot again!); when that I see people that are perverted +every day, and who are taken from us by force; when I see that the Papists +contemn the King's Proclamations, that, instead of withdrawing according to +his pleasure to some distance from _London_, they crowd to that degree this +City and its suburbs, that one would say they designed to make a garrison +of it; I do not wonder at this last insolence, and I apprehend much greater +if care be not taken." + +Such a pamphlet could be the production only of a Frenchman, most probably +of mean condition, certainly no scholar. The interest lies less in the +narrative itself, than in the frame of mind which it reveals among the +humbler Frenchmen then living in London. While the Protestant refugees are +in fear for their safety, their Catholic fellow-countrymen exhibit a +singular arrogance in so small a minority. No doubt the effects of the +French King's policy were being felt even in England, some knowledge of the +secret articles of the Treaty of Dover filtering down, through the medium +of priests and monks, to the ranks of the working people: they now suspect +Charles II. to be in the pay of Louis XIV., and hope that the King of +England will soon proclaim his Catholic faith and call in the aid of the +French dragoons to convert the reluctant heretics. In a similar manner are +the private arrangements between Sultans and European Powers divined and +commented on at the present time by the native population in Persia or +Barbary. The slightest quarrel, the most commonplace street brawl are +pretexts for rival factions to come out in battle array. Among men of the +same race and blood, feelings of hatred and instances of perfidiousness are +manifest. As is always the case in time of civil war, the aid of the +foreigner, be he an hereditary enemy, is loudly called for and order is +finally restored by constable, judge, and gaoler. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[281] _The Relation of an Assault made by French Papists upon a Minister of +the French Church, in Newport Street, near St. Martin's Lane_, 11th June +1682. + +[282] _Memoires et observations faites en Angleterre_, La Haye, 1698. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE COURTSHIP OF PIERRE COSTE AND OTHER LETTERS + + +Pierre Coste would be quite forgotten to-day if, by a singular piece of +good luck, he had not translated Locke's _Essay_ into French. Born at Uzes, +in Southern France, in 1668, Coste fled to Holland at the Revocation of the +Edict of Nantes. Though accepted as a minister by the Synod of Amsterdam, +he appears never to have fulfilled pastoral duties. He knew Latin, Greek, +and Hebrew; he had studied divinity; so to earn a living, he became a proof +reader. In spite of his precarious condition, he seems to have had friends +in high places, Charles Drelincourt, for instance, professor of medicine at +Leyden University, and physician in ordinary to William of Orange and Mary, +and Jean Le Clerc, the author of the _Bibliotheque universelle_. + +On the latter's advice, Coste learned enough English to translate Locke's +_Thoughts concerning Education_. The favourable reception of the work +induced him to undertake a translation of the _Essay on Human +Understanding_: Locke heard of this and, in order to supervise the work, +he invited Coste to come over to England. Locke was then living with Sir +Francis Masham, at Oates, in England. Coste quite naturally became the +tutor to the young Mashams, none being more qualified to apply the +principles of the _Thoughts concerning Education_ than the translator. + +Coste lived on at Oates till Locke's death in 1704. He subsequently became +tutor to the son of the Earl of Shaftesbury, the author of the +_Characteristics_. We can trace him to Paris, following the chequered +career of a man of letters; thence he went to Montpellier and Rome, +wandered about Germany and Holland, returned to England, and finally found +his way back to Paris, where he died in 1747. + +Like all the "Dutch journalists," with the exception of Bayle and Le Clerc, +he was merely a compiler and translator. Besides Locke, he translated +Newton, Shaftesbury, Lady Masham. He published editions of Montaigne and La +Fontaine; he wrote a life of Conde. Original work he never sought to +achieve. "I have no ambition," he writes, "if I had, I should be unable to +satisfy it." He is no more than a good-tempered, careless Southerner. With +nothing of the Camisard about him, he invincibly recalls one of those +sunny, self-possessed sons of Provence. Surely it was an accident of birth +that made him a native of the Cevennes, he should have come into the world +a little lower down in the valley of the Rhone. Of course he is often +insolvent, but when the duns clamour, a generous patron never fails to +interfere. The great people he meets do not impress him; on the contrary he +laughs at their foibles most indulgently. The background in which these +eminent men live lends piquancy to Coste's letters; but the difficulty of +understanding the allusions is somewhat irritating. The impression is that +of a black void faintly illuminated by intermittent flashes of light. There +is, however, some slight compensation in the recreating work of filling up +the gaps with surmises. + +Coste's correspondence we do not intend to publish in full. A selection +must be made. All that concerns the relations between "Dutch journalists" +and English writers interests the history of comparative literature. The +information about Locke and the spread of his philosophy in France, must be +carefully treasured up. But there are also familiar letters which throw the +most vivid light on the life of some French refugees in Amsterdam. Thanks +to them we shall know something about the man as well as about his works. + + +I + +COSTE AND THE ENGLISH WRITERS + +One of the letters printed below tells how Coste came to know Locke. +"Speaking of that doctor (Drelincourt), I must say I have had the occasion +to write to a famous English physician named Locke, of whom you have so +often heard me speak. Yesterday I received a book with which he had been +kind enough to present me. I shall thank him at the earliest opportunity." +It appears that the success attending the operation performed by Locke on +the first Earl of Shaftesbury in 1668 was not to be eclipsed by the +publication of the _Essay_. Contemporaries spoke in the same breath of +Locke and Sydenham as great physicians. + +Into Coste's life at Oates we can get only a few glimpses, just some +recollections jotted down long after Locke's death. Thus, on 8th January +1740, Coste wrote to La Motte, the "Dutch journalist," to complain about +the "cape" with which the engraver had adorned Locke's portrait, heading an +edition of the _Traite de l'Education_. Locke, he said, had never been a +physician. "He could not bear being called a doctor. King William gave him +the title and Mr. Locke begged an English lord to tell the King that the +title was not his." + +The anecdote clears up the mystery contained in a letter of Bayle. In the +first edition of the famous _Dictionary_ (1698) Bayle had mentioned +"Doctor" Locke. For Bayle as for every one in Holland who remembered the +first Earl of Shaftesbury, Locke was a celebrated physician. Locke +corrected the mistake, probably through the medium of Coste; but Bayle +failed to understand. "I am very sorry," he answered, "that he has taken +so ill the granting of a title which will do him no harm in any reader's +mind."[283] Bayle was not aware that Locke had been denied in 1666 his +doctorship by the hostile Oxford authorities. Locke's behaviour is a +characteristic instance of hard-dying resentment. + +In February 1705, there had appeared in the _Nouvelles de la Republique des +Lettres_, an "eloge" or kind of obituary notice on Locke.[284] After a +short account of the philosopher's life, followed some details on his +character, among which it may be read that he was impatient of +contradiction and easily roused to anger. "In general, it must be owned, he +was naturally somewhat choleric. But his anger never lasted long. If he +retained any resentment, it was against himself for having given way to so +ridiculous a passion; which, as he used to say, may do a great deal of +harm, but never yet did the least good. He would often blame himself for +this weakness." The following passage in one of Coste's letters may serve +to illustrate that general statement: "I remember that conversing one day +with Mr. Locke, the discourse happening to light upon innate ideas, I +ventured this objection: what must we think of birds such as the goldfinch +that, hatched in the parents' nest, will fly away at last into the open in +quest of food without either parent taking the least care, and that, a +year later, know very well where and how to find and select the material +necessary for building a nest, which proves to be made and fitted up with +as much or more art than the one in which they were hatched? Whence have +come the ideas of those materials and the art of building a nest with them? +To which Mr. Locke bluntly replied: 'I did not write my book to explain the +actions of dumb creatures!' The answer is very good and the title of the +book 'Philosophical Essay Concerning Human Understanding' shows it to be +relevant." By the way, in alluding to the strange workings of heredity, +Coste had come unawares upon the strongest argument in favour of innate +ideas. + +After Locke's death, a quarrel broke out among his friends. Anthony +Collins, the free-thinker, loth to admit of a single objection to his +master's theory such as he conceived it to be, thought that both Le Clerc +and Coste were pursuing a deliberate plan of disparagement and resolved to +denounce them publicly. In 1720, one of his dependents, the refugee +Desmaizeaux, published a volume of Locke's posthumous works, prefaced with +an attack on Coste. Le Clerc, whose explanation had been accepted, was +spared.[285] "M. Coste," wrote Desmaizeaux, "in several writings, and in +his common conversation throughout France, Holland, and England, has +aspersed and blackened the memory of Mr. Locke, in those very respects +wherein he was his panegyrist before."[286] No trace remains of the +written strictures. A hitherto unpublished letter explains and justifies +Collins' resentment. Reviewing a pamphlet of one Carroll against Locke, the +Catholic _Journal de Trevoux_ happened to say: "Such is the idea +entertained in England about Mr. Locke whom a _Letter written to Abbe Dauxi +by Mr. De La Coste_ charges us with slandering. The printed letter has been +circulated in Paris.... We are pleased to see English writers judge their +countrymen in the same way as ourselves. Perhaps the exaggerated praise +that M. Le Clerc heaps upon his friend Mr. Locke, is a more decisive proof +that we have found out the latter's impiety."[287] On receiving the review, +Coste indignantly denied having written the _Letter to Abbe Dauxi_. The +attitude of the Trevoux reviewers he failed to understand. "Their synopsis +of the _Essay_ appeared to me very good, as far as I remember, and Mr. +Locke, to whom I read it, was pretty well satisfied."[288] To show that his +feelings toward his patron were unchanged, Coste reprinted his "eloge" in +the second edition of his translation of the _Essay_ (1729), adding these +words: "If my voice is useless to the glory of Locke, it will serve at +least to witness that having seen and admired his fine qualities, it was a +pleasure for me to perpetuate their memory." + +In Coste's papers information abounds on the corrections he made to the +several editions of his translation of Locke. It would be an invidious task +to transcribe the long lists of errata that he sends to faithful La Motte, +who seems to supervise the work of the press, but it may prove interesting +to know the names of great people on the Continent who are to receive +presentation copies of the _Essay_. They are "the nuntio in Brussels, the +Duchesse du Maine, M. Remond in Paris, Abbe Salier, sub-librarian to the +King."[289] In 1737, he mentions the success of the _Thoughts concerning +Education_, reprinted in Rouen, upon the fourth Dutch edition. But the +_Reasonableness of Christianity_ fell dead from the press, the Paris +booksellers not having a single copy in 1739. + +On the spread of Locke's ideas on the Continent, Coste's letters bear out +the evidence to be gathered elsewhere, notably from the Desmaizeaux papers +in the British Museum. While the _Thoughts concerning Education_ and the +_Essay_ were eagerly read, no one seemed to care about the social compact +theory, toleration, or latitudinarian theology. As early as August 1700, +Bernard writes to Desmaizeaux from the Hague that "Mr. Locke's book in +French sells marvellously well." In 1707, according to Mrs. Burnet, the +Bishop of Salisbury's wife, the _Essay_ was extensively read in +Brussels.[290] In 1721, Veissiere informed Desmaizeaux that he had +presented the chancellor in Paris with "a miscellaneous collection of +pieces of _Look_, in English," and received profuse thanks. The same year, +another correspondent from Paris congratulated Desmaizeaux upon the +publication of "_M. Look's_" posthumous works, and begged for information +on the meaning of the words _gravitation_ and _attraction_, "the English +language," he added, "not being quite unknown to me." This, of course, was +before Voltaire had "discovered" either Locke or Newton and summed up for +the benefit of his countrymen their respective contributions to the +advancement of anti-clericalism and free thought. + +But it must be borne in mind that Peter Coste was not entirely engrossed in +translations of Locke. One day, he gave La Motte his appreciation on +Richard Cumberland's _De legibus naturae disquisitio philosophica_ "written +in so rude a style one does not know whether it be Latin or English.... +Those defects," he added, "have disappeared from Barbeyrac's translation." +But an "English gentleman, a friend of Mr. Locke, with whom he studied in +the same college at Oxford," has undertaken to publish an abridged edition +"ampler than the original one and still less readable." + +At another time, Coste was interested in a less serious book, Richardson's +_Pamela_. The famous novel had just appeared unsigned. With Southern +rashness, Coste met the difficulty of authorship with a wild guess. "I +heard about _Pamela_ in Paris, but I never read even a word of the book." +However, he knows who wrote it, "'Tis M. Bernard, the son of our friend +(the editor of the _Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres_) and minister +to a French Church in London. I know it as a fact. The success of the work +caused no doubt the author to let out the secret, which he had kept at +first by publishing his work in English."[291] The eagerness with which +these cosmopolitan writers seize upon any successful book, is both amusing +and instructive. + +To one of his correspondents Coste wrote about the same time: "I am, have +been, and will remain all my life, to all appearances, in continual +torment." It was a weary old man who talked on in that way. Fortune had +ceased to smile. Now let us turn to another scene: Peter Coste, in all the +confident strength of early manhood, is writing a series of letters of love +which the author of _Pamela_ would have surely appreciated. + + +II + +LETTERS OF COSTE TO MADEMOISELLE BRUN[292] + +In 1694, one Brun, a native most probably of Languedoc, in partnership with +a fellow-countryman of the name of Rouviere, established himself as a +trader in Amsterdam. The two merchants took a house in the most busy part +of the city, the Heer-Gracht. They were both married. Madame Rouviere being +still young, speedily became a confidante for the daughters of her +husband's partner. Three of these lived in Amsterdam, the fourth had +married a refugee, her father's business agent in London. To make this home +circle complete, another name must be mentioned, Mademoiselle Durand, +destined to marry a gentleman, M. de Bruguiere, and according to the +etiquette of old France to be henceforth styled "Madame." + +It appears that Coste, the press-corrector, would be a frequent visitor at +the house in the Heer-Gracht. There he met his friend, the journalist De La +Motte. An intimacy naturally grew up between Coste and one of the +daughters. Whenever they had to part for a time, he used to write either to +her or to her sisters and friends. She answered occasionally. Only one of +her letters is extant. + + +I + +MADEMOISELLE,--(He has been ill, has delayed answering. Compliments: the +letter received has delighted him.) We must love you well to rejoice in +hearing how well you are diverting yourselves at the Hague, while here we +drag on our miserable lives without the least pleasure. You seem slow to +believe us so unhappy, for you speak of our garden and the study therein as +of an earthly paradise. But you are greatly mistaken if you imagine the +place, which appeared so charming when you were there, is still so, when +you are there no longer. It's quite another thing. Your absence has +disturbed everything. Our garden yields no more fruit. Even the weeds no +sooner spring but they wither.... Such desolation is not limited to our +garden, all Amsterdam feels it. Which reminds me of a conversation that +took place over a fortnight ago in a house where I happened to be in good +company.... A Fleming who had come from the Hague two days before, told us +how charming a place it was.... I know the reason well, said I to myself: + + "Which proceeds neither from the magnificent throne + Of his British Majesty, + Nor from the Ambassadors that are gathered together here + To appease the upstirred hearts + Of all the princes in Europe. + One speedily sees, unless one be a mole, + That two Iris's have caused the vast change + And therefore + If in our business city + Such charms are not to be found + As in the large Dutch burgh, + It is because those Iris's are not there." + +... Ah! had I been able, I should have simply laughed from Leyden to Harlem +and leapt for joy from Harlem to Amsterdam. But that would not have been +more possible than for Mlle Durand to come into the world before Mlle +Rouviere.[293] When I take thought, I reflect that at bottom you do me the +favour to send me your love as well as to Mlle Prades and M. de La +Motte....--COSTE.[294] + + +II + +[The letter is addressed to "Monsieur Convenent, conseiller d'Orange, pour +rendre a Mademoiselle Durand, a la Haye." Written about the same time as +the preceding.] + +MESDEMOISELLES,--We thought we had to thank you only for the honour you did +us to inform us on Saturday that you would welcome us with pleasure in your +company to Leyden.... (usual old-fashioned complimentary phrases). + +You no doubt wish to know what became of us after the fatal moment of our +parting from you. We went on board feeling very sad, and now talking, now +holding our tongues, lying down, leaning, yawning, dozing and sleeping, we +reached Harlem. Those that did not sleep, heard the nightingale and the +cuckoo sing.[295] I was of the number as well as Mlle Isabeau who, hearing +the cuckoo sing, softly breathed quite a pretty song. She would have sung, +but the glory to gain was too little with a cuckoo for a rival. As to the +nightingale, she dare not try her strength against his, for fear of +failure. There is risk everywhere, yet I believe that, had she had the +courage to enter the lists, she would have come out victorious. As to M. +Rouviere, he woke up only when compelled to leave the boat, and cross the +town of Harlem. Do you know what he did to sleep so soundly? He made me +promise to read him some of Madame Des Houlieres'[296] poetry, paying me +for my trouble, of course. He handed me an apple, on condition I should +read until he fell asleep, and I won the apple very soon. I had not read +six lines before I laid down the book to eat my apple, and there was no +further need to take up the book. + +Having crossed Harlem, we went on board once more and met in the boat a +great talker, just back from England, a brother to M. Vasserot; he left us +only the liberty to listen and to ask a question now and then, to compel +him to change his subject. The talk was all about England.... + +Though I long to see you, I prefer being deprived of your presence to +enjoying it, if your stay at the Hague may help Mlle Durand to recover +health, which with all my heart I wish she will do.... I shall be as +careful to tell you all that happens here as Mlle Durand must be to note +all she feels in order to instruct M. Drelincourt. Talking of that doctor, +I have had occasion to write to a famous English physician, named Locke, of +whom you have heard me so often speak. Yesterday I received a book with +which he was kind enough to present me. I shall thank him at the earliest +opportunity. If Mlle Durand thinks it proper, I shall send him an account +of her sickness, begging him to point out what remedies he thinks fit.... +COSTE. + + +III + +[From England, where Coste is staying, he writes a series of letters, by +way of pastime, no doubt, when not engaged in the austerer task of +translating the _Essay_, under Locke's immediate supervision.] + +_To Mademoiselle Suson and to Mesdemoiselles Isabeau and Jeannette to beg +them to prevail upon Mademoiselle Suson to take up a pen._ + +MADEMOISELLE,--You love me little, in spite of your fine protests; or you +know little what true friendship is. 'Tis not punctilious, as you feign to +think. You are not witty enough, you say, to answer my letter. 'Tis untrue, +an't please you; but even if it was so, must we be witty to write to a +friend? Let us only consult our hearts, and utter what they feel. As to +terms, a friend never stops to criticise them. Heavens! whoever amused +himself with reading a letter from a friend with a dictionary and a grammar +in his hand, to find out some obsolete word or sorry turn of phrase? +Friendship is not irksome, and it is one of the finest privileges a friend +has when writing to a friend, to say all he chooses to say in the way he +chooses without fearing anything. He ventures everything and runs no risk. +That freedom is the best part of friendship; without it I should not care a +button (je ne donnerois pas un clou) for that sweet union so boasted of, so +rare, so seldom known. + +If this is not enough to induce you to write, I shall have recourse to +three or four intercessors that have more power perhaps over your mind than +I. + +I begin with Mlle Isabeau. The worst soldiers are always placed in front of +the army, because, if they run away, all hopes are not lost. I act in the +same way. I do not trust Mlle Isabeau very much. According to her temper, +she will fight for or against me. Maybe she will be neither for nor +against, and should I find her in that fatal frame of mind, it would be +idle for me to say: "Now, Mlle Isabeau, a line or two, please. Take pity on +a poor lonely man who has scarcely lived since your going away. You can +make him spend some sweet moments in writing to him, send him only four +lines, or at least beseech Mlle Suson to write." _She does not answer._ "Is +it possible, Mlle Isabeau, for you to have forgotten me so? Are the +promises"--_She speaks to the wall._ If I become more pressing, I may +elicit a crushing reply. So I turn to Mlle Rouviere who will speak up for +me, I am sure, and in such moving terms that Mlle Suson must surrender. +"Who are you talking about?" she will say. "About that Englishman who would +like perhaps to be with us here. What does he want? A letter from Mlle +Suson. Well, you must write to him to-day, without fail. Give me the +letter, I shall get it posted. Now, there's a merchant just stepping into +the warehouse, I must go and see what he wants, I shall be back in a +moment, excuse me, won't you, business above all." Oh, the fatal motto, the +cursed merchant! the troublesome fellow but for whom I had carried my suit. +Mlle Suson said nothing. She was half convinced by Mlle Rouviere's natural +eloquence, together with that good grace inseparable from whatever she says +and which it is impossible to withstand. + +But let us not lose heart! I have still my reserves to bring up. What Mlle +Rouviere has only tried, Mlle Durand will accomplish without so much ado. +"The poor fellow," she will say, "he is right. Let us write to him without +haggling." And immediately, taking a large sheet of paper, she will write +this or something like: + +_You are right to blame my sister's carelessness. Since we think of you +sometimes, it is just to tell you so. That will please you, you say; I am +very glad of it, and--well--you may depend upon it._ + +No doubt Mlle Suson will follow that example and go on with the letter. I +therefore thank Mlle Durand for the four lines and all the others that +Mlle Suson will add, since it is through her intercession that I get them. + +If you still resist, Mademoiselle, I shall send Mlle Jeannette forward as a +sharpshooter that, if he dared, would fight furiously for me. But she will +attempt something and say: "Why, certainly, sister, you should write to +him!" She would say more but she is afraid you will reply: "Jeannette, mind +your own business." If you venture as far as that, I shall tell you that +you take an unfair advantage of your birthright and that she is right in +advising you to keep your promise. + +But we must not come to that pass. I am sure that Mlle Rouviere, Mlle +Durand, and Mlle Isabeau (I write the name down with trembling) will have +determined you to fulfil your promise, and that you will listen with +pleasure to what Mlle Jeannette says to strengthen you in your resolve. + +I had written this when I received Mr. De La Motte's last letter in which +he informs me that you have begun a letter to me. So I have no doubt you +wish to write to me. You have begun. 'Tis half the work. Take up the pen +again and get the work over.... If you have not the leisure to write a long +letter, write a short one. I shall always receive it with profit. + +I beg of you to assure Monsieur your father and Mademoiselle your mother of +my humblest regards. I have seen their granddaughter, your niece, a very +pretty child. Whenever I go to London I shall not fail to see her, as well +as Mlle Gigon, whom I ask you to greet from me when you write to her. I am, +etc.--COSTE. + + +IV + +[To congratulate Mlle Durand on her marriage.] + +TO MADAME DE BRUGUIERE + +MADAME,--I shall not want many words to persuade you that I heard the news +of your marriage with much joy (usual florid compliments). You have above +all a kind inclination for your husband. Yes! that last is not wanting, I +have it from good authority, and it was absolutely necessary. 'Tis that +gives relish to marriage, which, without it, would, according to those +skilled in the matter, be only a dull, insipid union.... I present my +compliments to Monsieur and Mademoiselle Rouviere and wish them a happy New +Year. I take part in the joy of Monsieur and Mademoiselle Brun and in that +they will soon have of being once more grandparents. + +_N.B._ Pardon me, please, Madame, the liberty I take to inclose a letter to +Mademoiselle Suson. + + +TO MADEMOISELLE SUSON + +MADEMOISELLE,--Though a marriage has deprived me of the so-long-wished-for +pleasure of receiving one of your letters, I am quite ready to write to +you before receiving an answer to this letter and to those that I have +already written to you to congratulate you on an adventure similar to your +sister's.... I received, Mademoiselle, a very courteous letter from your +good London friend, and I answered it two days later. There's a hint for +you! But I wish to have the merit of perfect resignation, to suffer without +complaining. Mlle Gigon mentions Messieurs Malbois and Mace as persons in +good health. I do not know whether I shall be able to see them this winter. + +M. De La Motte sends me word that you have received my last letter and +finds I have pretty truly sketched your characters. + +I do not withdraw what I said about Mlle Rouviere's natural eloquence. No +one can take it from her, without taking her life too, but I know not +whether she has the goodwill I credited her with in my letter. Had Mlle +Rouviere spoken in my favour, she would have moved you, and the bride would +not have failed to make you take up your pen, had she deigned to set you an +example. But I do not see that you were either stirred by Mlle Rouviere's +persuasive speech or enticed by Mme de Bruguiere's example.... I thought +Mlle R. would speak for me, that Mme de B. would take up a pen to encourage +you to write.... As to Mademoiselle Isabeau, she cannot deny it, I have +drawn her portrait after nature.... The heat of passion at seeing my letter +did not last long. Like a heap of straw that blazes up, it cooled down +almost as soon as it burst out.... + +As to Mademoiselle Jeannette, I am sure she did what she could for me. I am +much obliged to her for her zeal. Please excuse the blots in my letter. I +have not the leisure to copy it out.... Adieu, Mademoiselle, love me always +as I love you or almost.--P. COSTE. + + +V + +[Coste writes twice to complain of her silence.] + +TO MADEMOISELLE SUSON DE BRUN, AT AMSTERDAM + +MADEMOISELLE,--I see that in friendship as in love (the two passions are +much akin), who loses pays. For the last six months you have been promising +to answer my last letter, and, now I am beginning to despair of seeing the +wished-for answer, you tell me, "Could you not, Monsieur, write to me +sometimes without exacting an answer...." You know too well the price of +your letters not to lavish them upon me. You will not have them match my +own in number.... I was charmed with your letter, I cannot keep silence +about it, I read it over many times and shall read it again.... + +Your artless compliment upon the New Year, went home. It quite moved me. I +am very glad to see that my tastes quite agree with your own. That makes +me believe I am reasonable. I have no ambition, and if I had, I should be +incapable of satisfying it. I am very little encumbered with money and in +no condition to amass much, however that may be necessary to the regard of +the world. When I dwell on all that, I sometimes fancy it would be as well +for me to leave this world quickly, as to linger on in an everlasting +circle of toilsome vain occupations, but coming soon after to think that I +have a few good friends in this world, I say to myself, that it is worth +while living to enjoy so sweet a pleasure.--COSTE. + + +VI + +TO MADEMOISELLE SUSON BRUN + +MADEMOISELLE,--For your intention of writing to me, I owe you at least one +letter. See how much obliged I should be to you if you deigned to carry out +your intention. I do not care to reproach a friend. But I congratulate +myself in mildly rebuking you, if I thereby oblige you to write. Lay your +hand on your conscience. Have I not a right to complain a little? I have +been writing for over a year and you have not once thought of answering me. +I know that friendship does not stand upon ceremony, but can it put up with +such carelessness? No, Mademoiselle. You know too well the delicacy of that +charming passion, which is the keenest pleasure of high-born souls, not to +agree with me....--COSTE. + + +VII + +[Two significant letters follow, one of which is the young girl's answer.] + +MADEMOISELLE,--Having opened a few days ago one of the finest books written +in this age, I read these charming words: "To be with those we love is +enough. To dream, talk, keep silence, think of them, think of more +indifferent things, but to be _near them_, is all one." + +I could not see those words, Mademoiselle, without thinking of you, and I +could not help adding: "What a torment it is to be far from her whom one +loves." After thinking of that, I could not help writing. + +I do not know whether you will take this for sterling truth; I mean to say, +whether you will believe what I say. I am persuaded that you will not be in +the least tempted to doubt my sincerity; but I do not know whether you will +make much account of it. Here you are accused, you Dutch people, of loving +only bills of exchange. As for me, I know a man who would value more highly +than gold, however bright it may be, a compliment from you that would be as +sincere as the one I have just paid you. I am, etc.--COSTE. + + OATES, _6th February 1699_, O.S. + + Pay the bearer 99,000,000,000 and a few millions, + within six days, on sight. + + Mademoiselle Suson Brun, the Her-Gracht, Amsterdam. + + +VIII + +THE ANSWER TO THE ABOVE + +MONSIEUR,--I am in receipt of yours of the 6th inst., and seeing you have +drawn on me a bill of 99,000,000,000, I shall not fail to meet it when due; +if there is anything in this city that I can do for you, I am yours to +command. That is, Monsieur, the extent of the business gibberish I have +acquired in five years' time. If you ask me only to acknowledge the receipt +of your letter, you are now satisfied; but I should not be if I did not +speak a language less barbarous and more intelligible than that one to +persons like you and me. So I shall tell you, Monsieur, that of all the +letters that I have received from you, none pleased me more than the last. +You ever love me, you say, and if you read some sweet thing, you remember +me; I own I did not dare expect that from you; not but that I know you to +be a sincere and true friend, but I was afraid of the distance, the fine +ladies you would find in England and the persons of merit[297] you see +every day; but above all I was afraid of human nature, unfit, it is said, +for constancy; I beg your pardon, Monsieur, if I have confounded you with +so many people from whom you deserve to be distinguished, as much on this +score as on others already known to me ere I was convinced of the last. + +If the esteem I have for you was not of the highest, it would no doubt +increase on discovering in you so rare a virtue, for I terribly love kind +friends, and though of a sex to whose lot levity falls, nothing would pain +me more than to cease loving one I had loved: what pleasure therefore it is +for me who have loved, love, and will love you all my life, to have a +friend such as I should wish to have! Ever love me, dear Monsieur, and +believe that the brightness of gold, though I am in Holland, will never +cause me such pleasure as the mere thought of having a friend tried by +time. But I know not of what I am thinking. You ask only for a compliment +and I am returning professions of love and lengthily too; no matter, +compliments are only compliments, that is to say speeches generally devoid +of meaning and that are far from expressing the true feelings of the heart, +consequently they would be unfit to express the sincerity of the friendship +I entertain for you; for + + Of loyal friends if the fashion is lost, + _I_ still love as women loved of old. + +I write down those lines with a trembling hand, not knowing very well how +that sort of thing must be put, but the lines express so fully my meaning +that I thought you might overstep the rules, if the rhythm is not right; +however that may be, you must be persuaded that such are the feelings of +your kind friend. + +(From Amsterdam, _3rd March 1699_.) + + +IX + +[A gap in the correspondence. Two years later Coste writes the following +letters.] + + +TO MADEMOISELLE SUSON + +... Last century, you were infatuated with wit, you say, and you thought +yourself bound to write in a sublime style. Don't tell me that, +Mademoiselle. I know you too well to believe that of you. I know that last +century your mind had depth and strength and you were strong-minded; you +wrote well, knowing what tone to assume and never departing from it. If +that be a fault, you are not rid of it at the beginning of this century.... + +As for me, I fancy that a charming shepherdess who, after talking to her +shepherd about rain and fair weather, suddenly said without regard to +connection in subjects: "Oh, dear Tirtis, how I love thee!" would persuade +him far better than a more witty shepherdess who, coming more skilfully to +the point, said: "See the lamb yonder, how pretty it is, how charmingly it +frisks about the grass, it is my pet, I love it much, but, dear Tirtis, +less than thee!" That is more witty but not so moving, if I am to believe +those skilled in the matter.... + + "Yes, in my heart your portrait is engraved + So deeply that, had I no eyes, + Yet I should never lose the idea + Of the charming features that Heaven bestowed on thee." + + +X + +TO MADEMOISELLE SUSON BRUN + +[The last letter has caused him much disquiet. Suson has fallen ill of +"languor and melancholy".] + +A peace-loving creature has brought you back to health; and you think +yourself thereby protected against all the malicious reflections of our +friend. Asses' milk may cool the blood, enliven the complexion and restore +the healthful look that you had lost, + + "But its effect reaches not unto the heart." + +If the sickness should be in that part, you must needs be wary; you might +still remain ill a long time, in spite of your asses. There are remedies +against love, but none are infallible. Such is a great master's decision. +See whether it would be becoming for an ass to gainsay it.... Proud as you +should be and delicate to the utmost, I do not think you in great danger +in the country where you are. So I deem you quite cured. You may proclaim +your victory, and, since you wish it, I shall proclaim it with you.... As +for me, if I was to discover that you had allowed yourself to be touched by +the merit of a gentleman who would feel some true tenderness for you, I +should not esteem you the less, provided that love did not deprive me of +your friendship. And, between you and me, I have some doubts on that +score....--COSTE. + + +XI + +[There were grounds to the feelings of jealousy shown in the last letter. +No explicit record is left of what happened. But ten years later Coste, now +married to Marie de Laussac, the eldest daughter of M. de Laussac, an army +chaplain in England, writes to his once dear Suson, since become the wife +of one La Coste, a refugee living in Amsterdam.] + + +TO MADEMOISELLE LA COSTE, IN AMSTERDAM + +MADEMOISELLE,--Then it is true that you complain of my not writing. Never +was a complaint more agreeable. I should have accounted it a great favour +at such a moment for you to think of me sometimes and to ask Mr. De La +Motte news of me when you meet him. That is all I had hoped from you till +Mlle. Isabeau's condition changes. But I did not yet know the extent of +your generosity. I hear that, in spite of your ordinary and extraordinary +business, you find time to read my letters and answer them. I own frankly +that I should doubt it, had not Mr. De La Motte taken the trouble to assure +me it was so; and though I dare not suspect him of wishing to make sport of +me in so serious a matter, nothing can reassure me but the sight of one of +your letters. + +Then another motive of fear just comes to my mind: in spite of your good +intentions, you might not keep your promise, under pretence that my letters +need no answer.... + +Much love and many thanks to all your family. I mean thereby the three +houses, nay, the fourth also soon to be founded. I should like to see +little Marion again before setting out for Germany. I kiss her with all my +heart and am, with a most particular esteem, Mademoiselle, your humble and +obedient servant.--COSTE. 20th June 1712. From Utrecht. + + * * * * * + +These quaint letters call for little comment: is it not better to let the +curtain drop on their mysteries and leave the story its charmingly +indistinct outline? One or two remarks must suffice. + +[Illustration: PIERRE BAYLE + +After Chereau] + +Pierre Coste seems very anxious to clothe his thoughts in appropriate +literary dress, and his anxiety is shared by Suson. At times the tone +strikes one as so conventional that Coste might be suspected of insincerity +if one did not bear in mind that even the language of true love must follow +the fashion. At any rate Suson is sincere, and nothing is more touching +than her very awkwardness when she tries her hand at the "sublime style." +It is hardly possible to improve upon this very obvious statement without +venturing upon unsafe ground. These old-fashioned lovers' emotions are +tantalisingly unintelligible. Mark that they write to each other quite +openly without even hinting at marriage. No doubt a wealthy merchant's +daughter could not wed a penniless tutor, but then the Bruns, Durands, and +Rouvieres are respectable members of the French congregation in Amsterdam +over whom watches a Consistory as strict on questions of morality as a +Scottish Kirk. So we must fall back upon the hypothesis of a platonic +friendship paralleled in England by no less eminent contemporaries than +Locke[298] and Bishop Burnet.[299] Perhaps these letters of Coste shed some +light on Swift's _Journal to Stella_. + +Yet another observation may be added: though the tragic element is absent, +there is pathos, if it be pathetic for exiles to sigh after their native +land. Pierre Bayle called Paris the earthly paradise of the scholars, +Barbeyrac said that Amsterdam was fit only for merchants to live in. Coste +could not brook the Dutch, and Suson laughed at them in unison, +instinctively regretting Languedoc and Provence. Such was the way in which +the refugees, though devoid of poetic sentiment, "hanged their harps upon +the willows by the rivers of Babylon." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[283] _Lettres choisies_, ii. p. 770. + +[284] Reprinted in Locke's _Works_, x. pp. 161 ff. + +[285] See our _Influence politique de Locke_, p. 346. + +[286] Locke, _Works_, x. p. 162. The most amusing detail in this literary +quarrel is that fifteen years before Desmaizeaux had actually offered +Bernard, the editor of the _Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres_, a +paper vehemently criticizing Locke. But La Motte interfered, and the offer +was declined. However, La Motte kept Desmaizeaux' letter and threatened to +publish it. _Add. MSS._, 4281, fol. 144, and 4286, fol. 242. + +[287] _Memoires pour l'histoire des Sciences et des Beaux-Arts_ (1707), ii. +pp. 934-945. + +[288] Letter dated 30th October 1708. + +[289] Letter dated 7th January 1735. + +[290] Clarke and Foxcroft, _Life of Burnet_, p. 429. + +[291] Letter of 29th July 1743. + +[292] The MSS. letters are preserved in the library of the _Societe pour +l'histoire du Protestantisme Francais_. + +[293] Married women, unless of noble birth, were styled before 1789 +_Mademoiselle_. + +[294] Written September 1697. In this, as in the following letters, the +passages left out are merely of a complimentary nature. + +[295] The touch of nature is wholly unexpected at this date. + +[296] She was a contemporary writer of insipid pastorals. + +[297] _i.e._ Locke and Mrs. Masham. + +[298] Mrs. Blomer, then Rebecca Collier the quakeress. + +[299] Mrs. Wharton. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE TRANSLATOR OF ROBINSON CRUSOE, THE CHEVALIER +DE THEMISEUL + + +If, in December 1715, a Frenchman had been asked what important events had +happened in the year, he would certainly have replied the death of Louis +the Great and the publication of the _Chef d'oeuvre d'un inconnu_. In a +few weeks that amusing lampoon on the scholars and commentators of the time +had run through four editions. People who knew whispered the name of the +man who sought to hide under the pseudonym of Doctor Matanasius; he was a +cavalry officer, of mysterious birth, the Chevalier de Themiseul. Hitherto +the life of the author had been an extraordinary web of adventures +diversified by scandals, _lettres de cachet_, imprisonment and exile. After +wandering through Holland, Sweden, and Germany, the young officer had come +back, adorned with a halo of bravery, learning, daring speculation, and +bitter humour. He flaunted notions that the Regency was about to +popularise: deism, the cult of experimental science, contempt of authority, +a lack of reverence for the classics. A man of culture, moreover, he knew +just enough of Latin and Greek to impose upon an average reader. By an +extraordinary stroke of good luck, his success, which was rapid, lasted +long enough for Abbe Sabatier de Castres to exclaim fifty years later, +under the impression of the witty fireworks of the _Chef d'oeuvre_: +"Irony reigns therein from beginning to end; pleasantry is handled with as +much spirit as judgment, and produces effects which eloquence aiming +straight at the point would have been unable to produce." + +To say the truth, we know hardly more about the Chevalier de Themiseul than +the men who lived under Louis XIV. He apparently never contradicted the +idle story that gave him Bossuet for father and Mademoiselle de Mauleon for +mother. As fond of blague as a Paris _gamin_, he must have enjoyed the idea +of mystifying his friends while throwing dirt on a respected prelate's +character. Abbe Sabatier de Castres, wishing to unravel the mystery, went +to Orleans, searched the registers of the Parish of Saint-Victor and found +therein recorded, on 27th September 1684, the christening of the Chevalier, +son to Hyacinthe de Saint-Gelais, master bootmaker, and Anne Mathe, his +wife. Others have read the record in a different manner; _Cordonnier_, they +say, is not the father's trade, but his name, the Chevalier is not even +entitled to a _de_, his name is plebeian Hyacinthe Cordonnier; Paul +Cordonnier, assert the brothers Haag in their _Dictionary_, born on 24th +September, the son not of a master-bootmaker, but of an officer in the +army. + +Now this is what one finds to-day in the register, if one takes the trouble +to read it: + +"To-day, Tuesday, September 26th, 1684, Hyacinthe, born on Sunday last, +24th said month, son of Jean Jacques Cordonnier, lord of Belleair, and +demoiselle Anne Mathe, his wife, was christened by me Pierre Fraisy; and +had for godfather Anthoine de Rouet, son to the late Antoine de Rouet and +demoiselle Anthoinette Cordonnier and for godmother Marie Cordonnier, +spinster." + +And Saint-Hyacinthe's father signed "De Belair." The title thus added to +his father's name must have given rise to the Chevalier's dreams of a noble +birth. + +The mystery of the birth extends to the life. In 1701, the Chevalier's +mother resided at Troyes in Champagne, giving her son, thanks to the +bishop's patronage, a gentleman's education that qualified him for an +officer's commission in the _regiment-royal_. Among the noblemen living on +their estates in Chalons and Reims he numbered acquaintances, and they +treated him with due respect. Letters are extant which prove that he was on +terms of friendship with the Pouillys and the Burignys, no mean men in +their province. There is nothing to object to his conduct as a soldier. He +fought bravely in Germany, and, if taken prisoner at Blenheim, it was +together with Marshal de Tallart and many others whose courage no one +dared to question. + +His captivity in Holland acted somewhat in the same manner as exile in +England did later on upon Voltaire. The ideas upon which his youth had been +nursed were shattered to pieces. Eventually he got free and came back to +Troyes. In 1709, he turned up in Stockholm, with the intention of fighting +the Moscovites under the Swedish flag, but it was too late: Charles XII. +had just suffered a crushing reverse at Pultava. + +Back the Chevalier went to Holland, learning meantime English, Spanish, and +Italian, reading Bayle, Le Clerc, and Locke, and many other books forbidden +in France. At the Utrecht congress he caused a scandal by courting the +Duchess of Ossuna, wife to the Spanish plenipotentiary. The jealous husband +promptly obtained an order of expulsion, and poor Themiseul needs must take +refuge once more at his mother's in Troyes. + +A new scandal soon drove him thence. Being entrusted by an austere abbess +with the task of teaching her young niece Italian, he fell in love with his +fair pupil while they read Dante together, trying maybe to live up to the +story of Francesca da Rimini. To avoid the _lettre de cachet_, he fled to +Holland, and for prudence' sake, exchanged his name of Chevalier de +Themiseul for the less warlike one of Saint-Hyacinthe. + +Under that name his literary career began. Together with the mathematician +S'Gravesande, De Sallengre, and Prosper Marchand the bookseller, he wrote +for the Hague _Journal litteraire_ (1713). Two years later, the sudden +success of the _Chef d'oeuvre d'un inconnu_ acted upon his brain like a +potent liquor, and caused all his subsequent misfortunes. + +To one who reads the pamphlet to-day, the wit seems rather thin. It is +difficult to realise the enjoyment that our great-grandfathers could take +in laughing in that exaggerated fashion at a German commentator. An +indecent French song beginning _L'autre jour Colin malade_ is supposed to +have been discovered by Doctor Matanasius, a scholar of European renown. He +proclaims it a masterpiece, the work of an unknown poet of genius, and, +with the help of a few hundred notes and comments, strives to gain his +point. Now Doctor Matanasius is no more the laughing-stock of the literary +world. His name is Renan, Gaston Paris, or Skeat. The _Chef d'oeuvre_ +gives us the impression of a man loading a blunderbuss to shoot at a +shadow. The productions of Swift and Voltaire, in the same vein, are +infinitely better. Poor Matanasius, with his elaborate reminiscences of +barrack-room raillery, seems sadly out of date; being of the earth, earthy, +his song and his commentary have both crumbled to dust. + +Yet he sought to build up a career of glory and wealth on the flimsy +foundation. Fighting in the cause of modern learning with the headlong +rashness of a dragoon charging up to the enemy's guns, he wrote the +_Lettres to Madame Dacier_, he undertook to rival the Dutch literary papers +with his _Memoires litteraires_; but the public who had appreciated the +_Chef d'oeuvre_, were slow in subscribing to the new paper. Unlucky +Matanasius was doomed to write only one masterpiece, for all his subsequent +productions fell dead from the press. + +Once more in France, with brain teeming with schemes and but little money +in his pocket, the man, who was now nearing forty, fell back upon his last +resource, a new love-affair. The victim this time was Suzanne, Colonel de +Marconnay's daughter, with whom he eloped to England (1722). + +The duly-married couple remained in England twelve years. What their life +and that of their children must have been, a few scattered letters help us +to understand. The father-in-law declining to help the wanderers, +Saint-Hyacinthe, who decidedly had renounced the Catholic faith, turned to +the Huguenot community. The poorer among them eked out a scant livelihood +by teaching French, writing for Dutch booksellers, translating English +books; the most needy received relief--money and clothing. The brilliant +dragoon, who had been feasted in Paris, did not blush to hold out his hand +and accept the mite doled out by the trustees of the "Fund for the poor +Protestants." + +There was still in the man an inexhaustible fund of illusion. He could rail +and boast and dream. He seems never to have given up the hope of attaining +to reputation and competence. In the blackest year of his life, he began +translating _Robinson Crusoe_ (1720), but, wearying of the task, left the +Dutchman Justus van Effen to finish it. A letter of his to M. de Burigny, +dated 6th September 1727, is sweetly optimistic. "Cross the Channel," he +says, to his friend, "but, for Heaven's sake, come alone; don't bring your +man along with you. I can manage to accommodate you with rooms in my house, +and receive you at my table. What you will eat," he adds, with a flourish +of liberality, "with what I am obliged to have for my own family, will not +cost me more than two sous a day."[300] + +In London, most probably at the Rainbow Coffee-House, then the resort of +the refugees, Saint-Hyacinthe one day came upon Voltaire. The two men had +met once before in Paris, when Voltaire's _Oedipe_ was being acted. It is +said that, during a performance, the Chevalier de Themiseul, pointing out +to the full house, exclaimed: "That is the completest praise of your +tragedy." To which Voltaire replied with a bow: "Your opinion, Monsieur, +flatters me more than that of all that audience." But times had changed. +Needy Saint-Hyacinthe was no longer the successful author that a younger +man is naturally anxious not to wound. "M. de Voltaire," Saint-Hyacinthe +repeated later, "led a very irregular life in England; he made many +enemies by proceedings not in accordance with the principles of strict +morality." "Saint-Hyacinthe," Voltaire retorted, "lived in London +principally on my alms and his lampoons. He cheated me and dared to insult +me." + +It must be acknowledged that Saint-Hyacinthe struck the first blow. In +1728, having a mind to correct the mistakes that he had noticed in the +_Henriade_, he did the work in the most thoroughly impertinent manner. +Thus, to the following line: + + "Aux remparts de Paris les deux rois s'avancerent," + +he added the comment: "It is not good grammar to say _s'avancer_, but +_s'avancer vers_; so the author should write: + + "Vers les murs de Paris les deux rois s'avancerent." + +And further on, in a note on the expression "alles dans Albion," "it is +surprising that a poet who has written tragedies, and an epic, without +mentioning those miscellaneous pieces where an agreeable politeness must +prevail, should not know the use of the prepositions _dans_ and _en_." Then +there was captiousness in some of the remarks; thus Voltaire had written + + "Et fait aimer son joug a l'Anglois indompte, + Qui ne peut ni servir, ni vivre en liberte." + +"M. de Voltaire," slyly added his enemy, "should not have tried in a vague +and sorry antithesis to give an idea of the English character that is both +insulting and erroneous." + +A more striking example of perfidiousness was effectually to stir +Voltaire's resentment a little later. To one of the numerous editions of +the _Chef d'oeuvre_, Saint-Hyacinthe added a postscript entitled _The +Deification of Doctor Aristarchus Masso_, in which he related the +well-known anecdote of Voltaire being set upon by an officer: "'Fight,' +exclaims the officer, 'or take care of your shoulders.' The poet not being +bold enough to fight, the officer handsomely cudgelled him, in the hope +that the sore insult might lend him courage; but the poet's caution rose as +the blows showered down upon him," etc. Though not mentioned by name, +Voltaire was pretty clearly pointed out. Soon after, malicious Abbe +Desfontaines inserted the anecdote in his libellous _Voltairomanie_ (1739), +and all Paris began to make merry over the poet's cowardice. In spite of +the provocation, Voltaire acted with characteristic forbearance, begging +mutual friends to adjust the difficulty, and saying that he should feel +quite satisfied if Saint-Hyacinthe would retract and solemnly declare that +he had taken no part in the abbe's libel. But Saint-Hyacinthe's +stubbornness drove Voltaire to retaliate, and so he threw all his venom in +the following paragraph:-- + +"Teach the public, for example, he wrote in his _Advice to a Journalist_ +(1741), that the _Chef d'oeuvre d'un inconnu_ or _Matanasius_ is by the +late M. de Sallengre and an illustrious mathematician of a consummate +talent who adds wit to scholarship, lastly by all those who contributed in +The Hague to the _Journal Litteraire_, and that M. de Saint-Hyacinthe +provided the song with many remarks. But if to that skit be added an +infamous pamphlet worthy of the dirtiest rogue, and written no doubt by one +of those sorry Frenchmen who wander about foreign lands to the disgrace of +literature and their own country, give due emphasis to the horror and +ridicule of that monstrous alliance." + +To that crushing blow Saint-Hyacinthe replied without delay. "Though your +_Temple du gout_," he wrote, "has convinced me that your taste is often +depraved, I cannot believe you can go the length of confounding what is the +work of one with what is the work of many.... I am not so fortunate as to +do honour either to my country or to literature; but I may say that if it +suffices to love them to do them honour, no one surely would do so more +than I.... I have never been vile enough to praise foreign countries at the +expense of my own, and heap eulogies upon their great men, while +undervaluing those that do honour to France." + +Bitter as the reply was, it did not appease Saint-Hyacinthe's anger. +Hearing that Voltaire had just been elected a member of the French Academy, +"The Academy," he wrote to a friend, "will be honoured to receive among the +forty a man devoid of either morals or principles, and who does not know +his own tongue unless he has begun learning it these few years past" (17th +February 1743). His _Recherches philosophiques_ he had inscribed to the +King of Prussia and, the latter taking no notice of the work, "Voltaire," +he complained, "has indisposed the king against me" (10th October +1745).[301] + + * * * * * + +The latter part of his life Saint-Hyacinthe spent at Geneken, near Breda. +Thence he had launched his indignant reply to the _Advice to a Journalist_. +His literary activity was still great. The two letters, now published for +the first time, show him trying to induce Dutch booksellers to publish the +manuscripts of which he possesses "two chests full." As usual, he is in +dire straits, persecuted by duns and lawyers, yet none the less full of +hopes. The schemes he thinks about are excellent till he is cheated by some +"great rogue." One pictures to oneself an eighteenth-century Mr. Micawber, +buoyant and impecunious. Nor are there missing in the background the wife +and family, whose protest is brought home to us in a startling manner by +the "seduction" of the eldest daughter. Here Saint-Hyacinthe refers to Mlle +de Marconnay, for so she was called, who, under the patronage of the +Duchesse d'Antin, retired to Troyes.[302] The fates of the two other +children are unknown. + + + + +I + +TO M. DE LA MOTTE, IN AMSTERDAM + + SLUYS, _27th June 1742_. + +MONSIEUR,--It was with the utmost joy that I heard from M. Mortier that you +were in good health and thought kindly about me. I should have had the +honour to tell you sooner how pleased I was at the news had I not suddenly +fallen very ill just as I was intending to do so. The attack of illness in +which I battled long with death, had seized me for the second time since +last September and it was thought I should not recover, as I suffered in +the meantime from ague, and this has weakened me so that, though out of +danger for the last two months, I can hardly walk from my room to the door +of my house and am unable to attend continuously to anything however +trifling. My state is the cruellest possible. Not only have I been ill ten +months, but my wife and two children are ailing. I left Paris two years ago +and came here to settle some money-affairs, which should have turned out +well I thought, as I was allowing the income to accumulate in order to pay +off a few debts. Those entrusted with the administration of the estate have +contrived to settle matters to their own advantage and are appropriating +all. Besides, the co-heir has brought an action against me and his attorney +here--the greatest rascal I have ever known--will raise quibbles on the +plainest things in the world, evidently to fish in troubled waters, and +have the pleasure of making me detest this country, wherein he has but too +well succeeded. The judges have at last submitted the matter to arbitration +and, though still unable to stand, I had myself carried here to end it. I +shall see how all will turn out in a few days, after which, if my strength +comes back, I shall try to spare a week or ten days to journey to Holland, +especially with a view to meeting you, Monsieur, and two other persons. I +shall tell you all that has befallen me since I left England. I shall tell +how my eldest daughter was perverted, how the old duchess Dantin and two +other ladies coming one day when her mother was dining out, carried her off +to the convent of the New Catholics where the perversion still goes on. +That is why I wrote to her mother to leave Paris promptly with her two +other children, and am debarred from returning there. You shall see in the +tale of my adventures a series of unfortunate occurrences at which one +would wonder if one might wonder at what the malice of men can do. + +I have spent much money here, and I can hardly receive any until after +September. I have by me two chests full of MSS. by the best men; a kind +favour you could do me, Monsieur, would be to find me some bookseller +willing to print them. I shall tell you in confidence that I have found M. +Mortier so honest a man that I should very much like him to take them, and +this is what I had purposed to do: to give them to him to clear an account +standing between him and M. de Bavi and for which it is just he should be +requited. I had even thought of proposing that after agreeing on the price +of an MS. he should pay me half in money and keep the other half in +deduction from what is owing to him until entire receipt of the sum, which +is not considerable. + +But besides his being busy printing many good books, my present situation +is too pressing to allow me to make the proposal, so I have told him +nothing about it. I shall always have occasion to provide him whenever he +chooses. Thus, Monsieur, you may, if you think fit, offer any bookseller +you like without mentioning my name the select MSS., the list of which I am +taking the liberty of sending you. + +I do not know whether a small volume that I printed in Paris under the +title of _Divers Writings on Love and Friendship_, on _Voluptuousness and +Politeness_, the _Theory of Pleasant Feelings_ and some _Miscellaneous +Thoughts_ of the late Marquis de Charost,[303] has reached you. The book +appeared, and Marechal de Noailles and Duc de Villars complaining that they +thought they had found their characters portrayed in the _Miscellaneous +Thoughts_, the Cardinal[304] tried to stop the sale. Nevertheless, two +editions came out within four months. The book, in fact, has been found +charming--I may well praise it since there are but two pieces of mine, all +the rest being by the best authors. I am told that the book has not been +reprinted in Holland. You might ask some bookseller to do so. I shall send +a revised copy, and the author of the _Theory of Feelings_ having rewritten +the work, I shall write to get what I know is now a very considerable +piece. The bookseller will pay only for what he prints, and I shall send +him wherewith to make up a second and even a third volume of Miscellanies +no less interesting; for instance: + +The pamphlet by M. de la Rivierre on his marriage with Mme la Marquise de +Coligny, daughter of Bussi Rabutin, which is admirably written. + +The Letters of that Marquise to M. de la Rivierre. + +Other Letters of M. de la Rivierre to Mme la Marquise de Lambert and +others, both in verse and prose, which are quite unknown or at least known +only to a few. + +Essays by M. de la Rivierre on love. + +A Letter of Heloise to Abelard by the same. + +Sundry short Treatises and Letters by the late Mme la Marquise de Lambert. + +Also: + +The complete Translations and Poems of Marquis de la Fare. + +The Complete Works of M. de Charlerat. + +Poems by M. le Marquis de Saint-Aulaire. He it was who gave them to me, +but, if he is still living, I may not print them, as I am allowed to do so +only after his death. + +The Revolutions of the Roman Republic, by M. Subtil. + +A Life of Julius Caesar, by the same. The work is unfinished, but the +fragment is valuable on the score of composition and style. I am alone to +possess it, excepting the family who hold the original. + +Several very curious Pieces suppressed in Paris and intended for the +Remarks to the Memoires of Amelot de la Houssaye. But they have perhaps +found their way into Holland and been printed there, together with the said +Memoires, which I must find out. + +Critical Researches on the vanity of Nations regarding their origins. + +The Story of the Loves of Euryalus and Lucrece, translated from AEneas +Sylvius, and compared with the story of Comtesse de Tende, together with a +letter regarding the Latin letters of the Countess de Degenfeldt and Louis +Charles Elector Palatine. + +A supposed Letter from Heloise to Abelard by the late M. Raymond Descours, +the translator of the former that caused so much stir. + +And many other slighter pieces. If the title does not seem right, the +bookseller may choose another, but as all those pieces are by well-known +authors who wrote admirably, the politeness and variety of the work +guarantee the sale. + +[Illustration: JEAN BAPTISTE COLBERT After Mignard] + +Should a bookseller want something more serious, I have a precious +collection of letters, proclamations, memoires, edicts, lists of troops, +etc., illustrating the reigns of Francis I., Henri II., Henri III., Charles +IX., the whole copied from the original letters of those princes, Queen +Catherine, constables, Secretaries of State, generals of armies. Among the +papers are also to be found documents instructing the ambassadors and the +letters wherein they render account of their negotiations, what France then +did at the Court of Rome, and what she did in England regarding the trial +of the Queen of Scotland under Queen Elizabeth. There is also such a fine +series of letters from Duc de Guise that they might be entitled Memoires. +Two members of the Academy of Belles-lettres in Paris have urged me to +print all this with two quarto volumes that they are publishing on the +history of France, but as there are some pieces that they allege may +prevent them from obtaining the privilege, and must therefore be +suppressed, I have declined the proposal. + +I have besides a manuscript entitled _An Abridgment of Civil, Criminal, and +Ecclesiastical Law and of the Principles of Government_,[305] written in +1710 by a minister for M. the Dauphin Duc de Bourgogne. The treatise is +extremely lucid, instructive, and it is the original work, the sole +possessor of which I am. + +I have other manuscripts. But it is enough to begin with. I shall send +them to you with all my heart, and you will be master, Monsieur, to dispose +of them. The long experience I have made of your kindness, gives me the +assurance that I cannot trust anything to better hands. + +If you honour me with an answer, I beg of you to give me news of M. des +Maizeaux, whom I love and honour, and from whom, however, I have not heard +for the last ten years. Content to love one another, we do not trouble to +tell each other so, and I do not like to make him pay postage. I shall +receive your commands at M. Neungheer, at Sluys in Flanders. I am, +Monsieur, and shall ever be respectfully and gratefully your most humble +and obedient servant, + + SAINT-HYACINTHE. + + +II + +TO M. DE LA MOTTE IN AMSTERDAM + +I cannot have an opportunity to write to Amsterdam, Monsieur, without +availing myself of it to remind you of a man that neither time nor distance +will cause to forget the gratitude he owes you nor impair the friendship he +has vowed to you. Tell me the state of your health and of your eyes, about +which you used to complain, and add news of M. des Maizeaux and M. Le +Courayer if you have any. I dwell in a wilderness where I have intercourse +only with men that died many centuries ago, and, to tell you the truth, it +would suit me very well if those I can do without did not study to ruin +rather than serve me. That disadvantage will drive me from my refuge, and +maybe I shall remove to some place nearer you. + +You must have received my _Philosophical Researches_[306] as soon as they +began to be issued. It is not a book I sent you to read. It is too badly +printed and too full of mistakes. It is only a tribute that I wished to pay +to friendship and esteem. I should like to have the opportunity, Monsieur, +to give you further proofs of this. Hardly affected by the things of this +life, I should feel that keenly. I am and shall always be, Monsieur, with +inviolable devotedness your most humble and obedient servant, + + SAINT-HYACINTHE.[307] + + +Two years after writing the above letter, Saint-Hyacinthe died. We can +guess what the end was. While the duns were crowding at the door, the dying +man dreamed that his latest scheme would infallibly make him wealthy. A few +friends stood firm, however, and honoured the memory of the dashing officer +to whom fortune and Paris had once smiled. Thirty years after his death, a +person of rank, one night in a drawing-room, began speaking ill of him. +"Sir," exclaimed M. de Burigny, who was standing by, "please spare my +feelings; you are hurting me to the quick. M. de Saint-Hyacinthe is one of +the men I loved the most dearly." + +His biographers have questioned whether he ever abandoned the Catholic +faith. The former of the two letters published above settles the doubt. But +a few extracts from a very scarce posthumous publication show that the +English Deists had made a lasting impression upon him: + +"Diverse opinions, uncertainty of knowledge; diverse religions, uncertainty +of the true one." + +"The true religion is entirely contained in the duties prescribed by the +law of Nature, which are within reach of every one." + +"Because Jesus Christ called Himself the Son of God, we infer that He is +God as His Father, and, if it be so, all men are gods, since in the strict +meaning of the word we are all children of God, drawing our life from Him +and being created after His likeness." + +"Pure Deism is the only religion that truly exists."[308] + +Strip him of the glamour of adventures and extravagant opinions, he is +after all a mere journalist. Take away the _Chef d'oeuvre_, whose success +was due to an accident, and Saint-Hyacinthe falls to the level of a Coste +or a Desmaizeaux. Yet he deserved better than he got. In his lust for +vulgar notoriety, he twice lost sight of fame. With his journalist's +insight, he had foreseen the wonderful fortune of _Robinson Crusoe_, and he +allowed a far inferior man to complete the translation. As early as 1715, +in his _Memoires litteraires_, he had guessed that the time had come for +men of letters to make England known in France, and Voltaire his enemy +reaped all the benefit of the idea. He might well have asked in later years +why he had not signed the _Lettres philosophiques_. And so in the portrait +gallery of Frenchmen who made English literature familiar to their +countrymen in the eighteenth century, Saint-Hyacinthe is only a miniature, +while Voltaire shines forth in all the glory of a full-length picture. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[300] _Lettre de M. de Saint-Hyacinthe._ Imprimee par la Societe des +Bibliophiles. Paris, 1826. + +[301] The story of the quarrel between Voltaire and Saint-Hyacinthe is set +forth in two contemporary books: _Tableau philosophique de l'esprit de M. +de Voltaire_, 1771 and _Lettre de M. de Burigny a M. l'abbe Mercier sur les +demeles de M. de Voltaire avec M. de Saint-Hyacinthe_, 1780. + +[302] See Haag, _France Protestante_, art. "Cordonnier." + +[303] _Recueil de divers ecrits sur l'amour et l'amitie, la politesse, la +volupte, les sentimens agreables, l'esprit et le coeur._ Paris, 1736. + +[304] Cardinal Fleury. + +[305] _Abrege des matieres civiles, criminelles, ecclesiastiques, et des +principes du gouvernement._ + +[306] _Recherches philosophiques sur la necessite de s'assurer soi-meme de +la verite; sur la certitude de nos connaissances; et sur la nature des +etres._ Par un membre de la Societe royale de Londres. Londres, 1743 + +[307] The two above letters are preserved in the Library of the "Societe de +l'histoire du protestantisme francais" in Paris. + +[308] _Pensees secrettes et observations critiques attribuees a feu M. de +Saint-Hyacinthe_, Londres, 1749. + + + + +INDEX + + +Abadie, d', teacher of French, 30. + +Abbadie, Jacques, theologian, 129-130. + +Abbadie, Jean, French valet, 36; + letter to Desmaizeaux, 57-58. + +Ablancourt, Fremont d', 93. + +Agnew, Rev. D., 135. + +Aguesseau, Chancellor D', presented with one of Locke's works, 184. + +Aime, a refugee, denounced by Barillon, 106. + +Allen, John, tailor, 69. + +Allix, minister, 32; + extract from book in English quoted, 51-53. + +Ambassadors, French, in England. + See Aumont, Barillon, Bordeaux, Colbert de Croissy, Cominges, Courtin, +Estrades. + +Amyraut, latitudinarian theologian, 91. + +Ancillon quoted, 19; + his _Memoires_, 99 _n._, 111. + +Andre, B., teacher of French, 29. + +Andrews, Mrs., spy, 163. + +Angle, S. De l', minister, his opinion on Episcopacy, 83; + denounced by Barillon, 106. + +_Anglia_, 23. + +_Angliae Notitia_ quoted, 10, 15, 25. + +Anne, Queen, 108, 165. + +Armstrong, Du Gard's proof reader, 150. + +Arnoult, engraver, 37. + +Ascham, 72. + +Asgill, Saint-Evremond reads, 32. + +_Athenaeum, The_, quoted, 143, 147. + +Aubigny, Cardinal D', Queen's almoner, 24. + +Aubrey quoted, 59. + +Aumont, Duc d', ambassador, quoted, 17. + +Aymon, _Actes des Synodes_, quoted, 89, 90, 96. + + +Babeau, _Voyageurs en France_, quoted, 3 _n._ + +Ballantyne, 60. + +Baluze, letter to Colbert, 26. + +Barbeyrac, 184; + learns English in order to read Locke, 29. + +Barillon, ambassador, quoted, 106. + +Bartas, Du, visits England, 28; + translated by Sylvester, 66. + +Basnage, minister, his advice to the Huguenots, 134. + +Bassoneau, proprietor of the _Ville-de-Paris_ inn, 12. + +Bayle regrets he knows no English, 29; + quoted, 88; + opinion of English writers, 113; + definition of his scepticism, 116; + political opinions, 120, 126, 130-136; + on toleration, 136-137; + authorship of _Avis aux refugies_ discussed, 131; + the _Critical Dictionary_ mentions Locke, 179; + eulogised by Saint-Evremond, 117; + translated into English, 117. + +Beaulieu, de, 26. + +Beaumont and Fletcher quoted, 5, 36, 62, 64, 66, 73. + +Bellay, Du, quoted, 22, 75. + +Bellerose, the actor, 25. + +Bellot, Jacques, teacher of French, 29. + +Bellott, Stephen, apprentice, 144. + +Berault, P., teacher of French, 30. + +Bernard, Edward, professor of astronomy, Justel's letter to, 100. + +Bernard, Jacques, minister, letter to Desmaizeaux, 183. + +Bernard, J. P. the younger, 117; + supposed authorship of _Pamela_, 185. + +Bernard, Jean, English secretary to Henri III., 11, 19. + +Berthelet, printer to Henry VIII., 35. + +_Bible, The Great_, printed in Paris, 35. + +Birch, 117. + +Blake, 158. + +Blondeau, engraver, 24. + +Blount, 66. + +Bochart, scholar and divine, 31, 83, 91, 95. + +Boisrobert visits England, 28. + +Bordeaux Frondeurs in England, 161. + +Bordeaux, President, ambassador, 158-159. + +Bossuet, Henrietta of England and, 27; + dispute with Claude, 120; + _Histoire des Variations_ judged by Jurieu, 111; + answered in England, 126; + contrasted with _Esprit des Lois_, 111. + +Bouhereau, Elie, on Milton, 152 _n._ + +Bourbon, N., teacher of French, 29. + +Boyer, Abel, refugee and author, quoted, 53-54, 166. + +Brantome visits England, 28. + +Brereton, 30. + +Brun, French refugees of that name settled in Amsterdam, 185. + +_Bulletin de la Societe du Protestantisme Francais_, 122 _n._ + +Bulteel translates Racine, 28. + +Bureau, printer, 36, 106. + +Burghley, 66, 79 _n._ + +Burigny, de, friend of Saint-Hyacinthe, 213, 217, 225. + +Burnet, Bishop, visits Paris, 75; + at Louis du Moulin's death-bed, 48, 94; + Mrs. Wharton and, 205; + quoted, 117. + +Burnet, Mrs., letter of, 183. + +Butler ridicules the imitation of the French, 67, 70, 71; + writes an ode to the memory of Du Val the highwayman, 37. + + +Cailloue translates _Eikon Basilike_, 32, 92. + +Calvin, influence in England, 78. + +_Cambridge History of English Literature_, 142. + +Cameron, latitudinarian divine, 82. + +Casaubon, Isaac, 80. + +Casaubon, Meric, prebendary of Canterbury, quoted, 39-41. + +Chaise, Pere de la, pamphlet concerning, 125; + gets English pamphlets translated, 26. + +Chalmers, 65. + +Chamberlayne quoted, 10, 15; + continued by Miege, 51. + +Chambrun, Pineton de, 104. + +Channel-crossings, experiences of, 6; + dangers, 8; + vessels, 5; + charges, 11. + +Chapman's _Eastward Hoe_ quoted, 69. + +Charlanne, 63. + +Charles I. summons French artists to his Court, 23; + stir caused in France by his execution, 91-92. + +Charles II., flight to France, 13; + letter to, 41; + knows little French, 24; + his gallomania discussed, 63; + adopts the "Persian vest," 71-72; + his Queen, 24, 67, 75; + his Court, 69-70; + his coronation robes, 69. + +Charlett, Dr., letter to, 58-59. + +Charost, Marquis de, 220. + +Chatillon, Odet de, 79. + +Chaufepie, 111. + +Cherel, viii. + +Clarke and Foxcroft quoted, 75, 184. + +Claude, minister, on Episcopacy, 83; + the divine right of kings, 121; + disputes with Bossuet, 120; his + book on the persecution, 102; + how received in England, 103. + +Clerc, Le, on the English language, 20; + visits London, 109; + his life, 112; + befriends Coste, 176. + See Lecene. + +Coaches, 10. + +Cobb, Frederic, viii. + +Colbert, ignorance of English, 23; + inquiry about English institutions, etc., 26; + distrusts the English, 26; + his daughters' marriage mentioned in the _Gazette de Londres_, 163; + buys horses in England, 74; + causes a yacht to be built there, 74. + +Colbert de Croissy, ambassador, 74. + +Collier, 83. + +Collins, Anthony, 181. + +Collins, J. Churton, 60. + +Colomies, 97. + +Cominges, ambassador, 3, 17, 152 _n._ + +Conde, Prince de, intrigues in England, 161; + pamphlet concerning, 125; + Coste writes his life, 177. + +Condom, Bishop of. See Bossuet. + +Conti, Prince de, learns English, 74. + +Cooks, French, in England, 25, 69. + +Cooper, Samuel, portrait-painter, in France, 25. + +Corseilles at the Court of Charles I., 23. + +Cost of journey from Paris to London, 11. + +Coste, his life, 109, 176-178; + his letters about English writers, 178-185; + to Mlle Brun, 185-206. + +Cotgrave, 34. + +Cougneau, teacher of French, 29. + +Coulon, traveller, quoted, 7, 30. + +Courayer, Le, 61, 224. + +Courtin, ambassador, 106. + +Coverdale, 35. + +Cranmer, Archbishop, 79. + +Croix, De La, fortune-teller, 37. + +Cromwell anxious about the safety of Channel packet-boats, 8; + victories recorded in the _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, 157; + book inscribed to, 95. + +Croze, Cornand La, 109. + +Cugnac, Marquis de, 161. + +Culpepper, 42. + +Cumberland, Richard, mentioned by Coste, 184. + +Customs, English, 8. + + +Dacier, Mme, ridiculed by Saint-Hyacinthe, 212. + +Daille, divine, influence in England of his work on the Fathers, 86; + accepts the divine right of kings, 93. + +Daude, refugee, mentioned in Barillon's dispatches, 106; + presides over meetings of refugees, 109. + +Davenant, 64. + +Defoe, 49, 118. + +Denisot, teacher of French, 29. + +Dennis quoted, 20; + ridiculed by Pope, 107. + +Desfontaines, Abbe, 215. + +Deshoulieres, Mme, soporiferous influence of, 189. + +Desmaizeaux, estimate of his work, 110; + attacks Le Clerc and Coste, 182; + letters to, 57-58, 183; + mentioned, 224. + +Dover described by Moreau de Brazey, 9. + +Drelincourt, Charles, minister, 118. + +Drelincourt, Charles, the younger, physician in Leyden, 176, 189. + +Drelincourt, Pierre, dean of Armagh, quoted, 48-49. + +Dryden, comedy quoted, 67. + +Dubois, refugee, sheriff of Middlesex, letter of, 96. + +Du Gard, schoolmaster and printer, his life, 149-152; + prints Milton's pamphlets, 152-153; + the _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, 36, 154-163. + +Dumoulin, Pierre, visits England, 80, 94; + quoted, 82. + +Dumoulin, Pierre (or Peter), the younger, sides with the royalists, 94; + extract from one of his works quoted, 44-45; + blames the Covenanters, 83 _n._ + +Dumoulin, Louis, Camden professor of history, 94; + writes an apology for the Independents, 94; + remains true to his Huguenot faith, 94; + quoted, 46-48; + Burnet at his death-bed, 48, 94. + +Duras, Louis de, 24. + +Dury, John, 32, 153. + + +Edict of Nantes, estimate of, 114. + +Effen, Justus van, translates _Robinson Crusoe_, 213. + +_Eikon Basilike_, 153; + translated, 32, 92; + Milton's reply to, 153. + +Einstein, L., 19. + +Elizabeth, Princess, death recorded, 158. + +Elizabeth, Queen, 90. + +England, as seen by foreigners, 16-17; + gallomania in, 62-73; + opinion of Jurieu and Bayle on, 113. + +English Custom-House officers, 8; + horses in France, 74; + insularity, 71; + opinion of Henri IV. and Courtin, 106; + travellers abroad. + See Burnet, Locke, Moryson. + +English idioms in _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, 155-156. + +English language not spoken in Europe, 19; + at the French Court, 22-27; + change after the Revolution, 34; + difficult to pronounce, 20; + the refugees learn it, 113. + +Erondel, teacher of French, 29. + +Eschar, valet to Charles Montague, 73. + +Espagne, Jean d', minister, inscribes a book to the Protector, 95. + +Estoile, Pierre De l', 31, 34. + +Estrades, D', ambassador, 22. + +Etheredge quoted, 67, 71, 73. + +Evelyn, his _Diary_ quoted, 4, 7, 8, 32, 72, 99, 102, 103. + + +Fabvolliere, engineer, 24. + +Fare, Marquis de la, 221. + +Faret, 22. + +Fayette, Mme de la, quoted, 27. + +Festeau, teacher of French, 30. + +Fetizon, divine, on the divine right of kings, 120. + +Field, Richard, printer, 146-147. + +Fonvive, French journalist in London, 165. + +Force, La, 106. + +Fortune-tellers, French, in England, 37. + +Fox, George, mentioned in the _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, 160. + +Francis I. furthers the printing of _The Great Bible_, 35. + +French, ambassadors. + See Ambassadors; + cooks, 25, 69; + fortune-tellers, 37; + highwayman, 37; + journalists, 163-166; + merchants, 79, 135; + milliners, 70; + players, 23; + printers, 35; + quacks, 36; + tailors, 25, 68-69; + teachers. + See Teachers; travellers. + See Travellers. + +French churches in London, 161. + +French fashions in England, 68, 70-72. + +French language predominant in Europe, 166; + extensively used in England, 66. + +French literature, classical, slight influence of, in England, 141. + +French wines, 70. + +Frenchmen in England. See French, etc. + +Fullerton, W. M., viii. + + +Gachet, Jean, 36. + +Gairdner, James, 78. + +Gallomania described, 63-70; + ridiculed, 70-73; + its decline, 73. + +Gascoigne, 73. + +Gauden, 92. + +_Gazette de Londres_, 163-166. + +Gildersleeve, V. C., 37. + +Goupil, Rouen, printer, 36. + +Gourville, his _Memoires_ quoted, 6, 22. + +Gramont, 24, 70. + +Grevin in England, 28. + +Guide-books, 3, 7, 9, 10, 16, 30, 31. + +Guizot quoted, 2. + + +Haag, 209, 217. + +Halifax, Earl of, letter to Henry Savile quoted, 73. + +Hall, Bishop, 73. + +Hamilton, his _Memoires de Gramont_ quoted, 70. + +Harrington, 152. + +Harrison, _Description of Britain_ quoted, 20, 68. + +Hedgcock, F. A., viii. + +Henchman, Bishop, 83. + +Henri IV., opinion on the English, 106. + +Henrietta of England, her influence at the French Court, 26; + her death, 27. + +Henrietta of France, furthers the French influence, 23, 66; + letter to Prince Charles quoted, 41; + meets Charles II. in France, 14. + +Henry VII., 23. + +Herault, minister at Alencon, 91 _n._, 95. + +Highwayman, French, in England 37. + +Hobbes in France, 28. + +Holyband. See Saint-Lien. + +Horses, English, in France, 74. + +Houssaye, Amelot de la, 222. + +Howard, 73. + +Huguenots, relations with England under Henry VIII., 78; + Elizabeth, 79-80, 90; + the early Stuarts, 80-98; + the Commonwealth, 89-92; + the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and, 101-104; + William of Orange and, 105; + political ideas of, 119-134; + opinion on Episcopacy, 83; + on toleration, 136-139; + become Whigs, 104; + take anglican orders, 104; + bankers and merchants in London, 79, 135; + divine quoted in England, 105. + +Huisseau, D', quoted, 85-86, 87-88. + + +Independents censured by a French Synod, 90. + +Inn, interior described, 4; + French inn at Dover, 9; + in London, 12. + + +James I., 31, 80. + +James II., 27, 123, 129. + +Jermyn, 23. + +Johnson, Dr., on Saint-Evremond, 38. + +Jon, Du (Junius), 97. + +Jones, Edward, 164. + +Journalists, "Dutch," 110; + French, in London, 163-166. + +Journey from Paris to London, 3-13. + +Jurieu, his life, 97; + opinion on England, 113; + on the Revocation, 129; + on Bossuet, 111; + on toleration, 137-139; + discusses the divine right of kings, 119, 122, 127-129; + his _Pastoral Letters_, 127; + devotional work translated into English, 118; + political works translated, 126. + +Jusserand, _French Ambassador at the Court of Charles II._, +quoted, 2, 4, 8, 15, 22, 24; + _Shakespeare en France sous l'ancien regime_ quoted, 19, 77, 152 _n._; + _What to expect of Shakespeare_ quoted, 148; + _Histoire litteraire du peuple anglais_ quoted, 21. + +Justel retires to England, 99; + letter to Edward Bernard, 100; + discusses conformity with Saint-Evremond, 100-101; + his character, 99. + + +Kemps, Englishman, employed by Colbert, 25. + +Ken, Bishop, and the Revocation, 103. + +Keroualle, Mlle de, at the Court of Charles II., 24; + a leader of fashion, 70; + what M. Renan thought about her, 70. + +King, his _Life of Locke_ quoted, 108. + + +Lambert, Mme de, 221. + +Lambin, viii. + +Lanier, N., 23. + +Latitudinarians in England and France. See Amyraut, Huisseau, Rationalism, +Saumur. + +Lecene, 115. + +Lee, Sir Sidney, quoted, 28, 63, 79, 90, 143. + +Lefevre, chemist, 24. + +Lefort, inn-keeper, 9. + +Leibnitz understands English, 29. + +Lenet, his _Memoires_ quoted, 91. + +Lenthal, Speaker, 158. + +Libertines in France, 81; + relations with the Huguenots, 82. + +Lionne, Hughes de, Secretary of State, 1. + +Literature, slight influence in England of French classical, as compared with +devotional and theological literature, 141. + +Locke travels in France, 3, 4, 5, 29, 74; + admiration of Barbeyrac for, 29; + conversation of his reported in a Dutch paper, 110; + his works translated by Coste, 176-177; + sale of the _Essay_ in France, 183-184; + anecdotes on, 181-182; + _Original Letters_ quoted, 20; + mentioned by Coste, 190. + +Lorthie, minister, denounced by Barillon, 106. + +Louis XIV. badly informed by his ambassador, 17; + justified in revoking the Edict of Nantes, according to an + English pamphlet-writer, 103-104; + inquires about England, 75. + +Luttrell, _Diary_ quoted, 124. + +Luzancy, De, 32, 49-50. + +Lyly, 66. + + +Macaulay, 25. + +Maine, Duchesse du, receives presentation copy of Locke's _Essay_, 183. + +Maittaire, 34; + letter to Dr. Charlett, 58-59. + +Marchand, Prosper, bookseller, 211. + +Marconnay, Colonel de, 212. + +Marconnay, Mlle de, 207. + +Marescq, Du, minister, 168. + +Marston, 64. + +Marsys, de, 24. + +Mary II., 104. + +Masham, Lady, 177. + +_Mason, La grammaire de_, 34. + +Massinger, 69. + +Masson, 152 _n._ + +Mauger, teacher of French, his Grammar quoted, 12, 30, 32, 42-43, 67. + +Maupas, teacher of French, 29. + +Mayerne, Theodore de, physician to James I. and Charles I., 80, 158. + +Mazarin, Cardinal, 2, 26, 74, 155 _n._ + +Mazarin, Mme de, in England, 97; + her salon at Windsor, 98-99. + +Menard, chaplain to Mary II., 109. + +Merlat, Elie, on the divine right of kings, 121-122. + +Mersenne, Jesuit, corresponds with Hobbes, 28. + +Meurier, Gabriel, teacher of languages, 34. + +Mezandieu, Rene, in the Poultry Office, 25. + +Miege, Guy, teacher of French, 30, 72; + extract from _New State of England_, 50-51. + +Milliners, French, in England, 70. + +Milton, pamphlet translated by John Dury, 32, 153; + mentioned in _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, 152-154; + opinion of Bouhereau on, 152 _n._; + attacked by Bayle, 152 _n._; + Du Gard prints his pamphlets, 152-153. + +Misson, traveller in England, 19, 30, 109, 169. + +Moivre, Le, 109. + +Montague, Charles, has a French valet, 73. + +Montesquieu, 111. + +Morales, the Jew, 98. + +Moranville writes the _Gazette de Londres_, 163; + in trouble, 165. + +More, Sir Thomas, ridicules the imitation of the French, 65. + +Moreau de Brazey, author of guide-book, describes Dover, 9; + Rye, 10; + the life of a Frenchman in London, 16. + +Morel, Professor L., 143 _n._ + +Morelli, Cesare, writes to Pepys, 25. + +Mornay, Du Plessis, in London, 79; + author of _Vindiciae contra Tyrannos_, 93. + +Mortreuil, viii. + +Morus, Alexander, minister, attacked by Milton, 154; + mentioned in _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, 153. + +Moryson, Fynes, traveller, 13. + +Motte, Francois de la, letter to Secretary Williamson, 45-46. + +Motte, La, "Dutch" journalist, letters to, 178-185. + +Mutteux, Pierre, refugee, letter to _Spectator_, 55-56; + song and prologue quoted, 56. + +Muralt, traveller, 28. + + +Nash, 72 _n._ + +Newcombe, prints _Gazette de Londres_, 163; + in trouble, 165. + +Newspapers, "Dutch," 110. + +Newspapers, French, in London, 149-166. + +Newton, 29, 184. + +Normand, Charles, 91. + +_Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, 154-163. + + +Ollion, his edition of Locke's _Letters to Thoynard_, 3, 4, 5. + +Orange, Prince of. See William III. + +Overbury, 69. + + +Packet-boat, Dover, in the seventeenth century, 5. + +Pamphlet-writers, Huguenot, 123; + their influence, 124; + attacked, 124. + +Papillon, refugee, sheriff of Middlesex, 96. + +Passive obedience, ideas of Huguenots on, 93, 119. + +Payen, traveller, 11, 30. + +Pays, Le, traveller, 31. + +Peletier quoted, 66. + +Penry, 90. + +Pepys' _Diary_ quoted, 69, 72; + _Correspondence_ quoted, 50. + +Perlin, author of guide-book, 30. + +Perrot, editor of the _Gazette de Londres_, 163. + +Persecuting, Divine right of, 138-139. + +Persecutions of Huguenots and Waldenses recorded, 160. + +Petre, Father, attacked, 125. + +Plomer, letter to _The Athenaeum_, 147. + +Pope quoted, 107. + +Porree, 32, 91, 92. + +Portsmouth, Duchess of. See Keroualle, Mlle de. + +Post-Office in the seventeenth century, 15. + +Printers, French, in England, 35. + +Prynne, 24. + +Puaux, 139. + +Puffendorff inquires about an English Dictionary, 29. + +Pulton, Andrew, Jesuit, forgets his English, 24. + +Puncteus, a French quack, 36. + +Puritans, relations with the Huguenots, 90. + +Pynson, French printer in England, 35. + + +Quack, French, in England, 36. + +Quakers mentioned by Misson, 30; + in the _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, 159. + + +Rabelais writes English, 21; + puns in English, 21. + +Rainbow coffee-house, 31, 109, 213. + +Rationalism in France, 81-88, 115; + in England, 117; + how far encouraged by the refugees, 110, 117. + +Refugees, 78-80; 96-100; 104-107; + learn English, 113; + take part in English civil dissensions, 95; + proofs of unpopularity, 79; + why forgotten in France, 141. + +Regnault, Francois, Paris printer, 35. + +Renaudot, Abbe, secret agent, 26. + +Renneville, refugee, writes about the Bastille, 107. + +Reresby, Sir John, and the Frenchmen in Soho, 171. + +Revocation of Edict of Nantes, 101; + stir caused in England, 102-104; + far-reaching consequences, 105, 108. + +_Revue Critique_, 152 _n._ + +Reyher, 23. + +Richardson, 185. + +Robertson, F. G., 152 _n._ + +Roche, La, 117. + +Rohan, Benjamin de, Huguenot leader, 80. + +Roemer, astronomer, 6. + +_Roman de Renart_, 21. + +Ronsard visits England, 28. + +Rosemond, 106. + +Rosin, Frenchman in the employ of the Commonwealth, 151 _n_. + +Rousseau, J.-J., quoted, 1, 18. + +Rue, De La, gambler, 37. + + +Sabatier de Castres, Abbe, extols Saint-Hyacinthe, 208. + +Sallengre, 211, 215. + +Saint-Amant visits England, 28. + +Saint-Aulaire, Marquis de, 221. + +Saint-Evermond at Windsor, 98-99; + urges Justell to conform, 100-101; + learns no English, 28; + quoted, 33, 117. + +Saint-Hilaire writes on England, 26. + +Saint-Hyacinthe, birth, 208-209; + adventurous life, 209-227; + in England, 109; + quarrel with Voltaire, 218-217; + letters to La Motte, 218-225; + his _Chef d'oeuvre d'un inconnu_, 211; + becomes a Protestant, 212; + and a Deist, 226; + a posthumous work quoted, 226. + +Saint-Lien, teacher of French, 29. + +Saintsbury, Professor George, quoted, 142. + +Sancroft, Archbishop, interview with Allix, 32; + chooses Colomies as librarian, 97. + +Sandwich, Lord, 69. + +Satur, minister, in London, 106. + +Saumaise, scholar, attacks the regicides, 92, 150; + answered by Milton, 152. + +Saumur, latitudinarian school of, 84-85. + +Saurin, divine, on toleration, 139. + +_Savile Correspondence_ quoted, 26, 73. + +Sayous, 77. + +Schelandre in England, writes an epic, 80. + +Schickler, _Les eglises du refuge_ quoted, 79, 95, 96, 102. + +Scott, Eva, quoted, 14, 42. + +Sea-sickness, Gourville on, 6; + Locke records unfortunate experiences of a fellow-traveller, 6. + +Sedan, orthodox Academy of, 84. + +S'Gravesande, 210. + +Shadwell, his comedies quoted, 67, 68, 70, 71. + +Shaftesbury, the first Earl, 95, 129, 179. + +Shaftesbury, the third Earl, 177. + +Shakespeare gives evidence before Court of Requests, 145; + lodges in London with the Mountjoys, 146; + his poems printed by Richard Field, 147. + +Silvestre helps Saint-Evremond to read Asgill, 32. + +Simon, Richard, Hebrew scholar, 82, 93. + +Sorbiere in England, 16; + relations with Hobbes, 28. + +Sourceau, Claude, tailor to the king, 25; + helps to make the coronation robes, 69. + +Spenser quoted, 75. + +_Spirit of Laws_, Montesquieu's, contrasted with Bossuet's _History of +Variations_, 111. + +Suard, 61. + +Subtil, 222. + +Sully, minister to Henri IV., knows no English, 22. + +Swift, 54, 166, 205. + +Sylvester translates Du Bartas, 66; + tells how he learned French, 66. + +_Synodes, Actes des_. See Aymon. + + +Tailors, French, in England, 25, 68, 69. + +Teachers of French. See Abadie, Andre, Bellot, Berault, Bourbon, Boyer, +Cougneau, Denisot, Erondel, Festeau, Mauger, Maupas, Miege, Saint Lien. + +Telleen, F., 152 _n._ + +Texte, 77. + +Thoyras, Rapin, 109. + +Throckmorton, 90. + +Toleration retarded in England by the persecution of the Huguenots, 105; + how practised in France, _c._ 1680, 114; + opinion of Huguenots on, 136-139. + +Tonson, 164. + +Torcy, 17. + +Tories mentioned in _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_, 162. + +Tourval, L'Oiseau de, teacher of foreign languages, contributes to Colgrave's +_Dictionary_, 34. + +Travellers, English, in France. See Burnet, Locke, Moryson (Fynes). + +Travellers, French, in England. See Coulon, Muralt, Misson, Moreau de Brazey, +Payen, Pays Le, Perlin. + + +Upham, A. H., 63, 78. + + +Val, Du, highwayman, 37. + +Valets, French, 73. See also Abbadie, Jean. + +Vautrollier, printer, 35, 146. + +Verard, Antoine, printer, 35. + +Verneuil, Duc de, ambassador, 8. + +Versailles, model of palace exhibited in London, 164. + +Veissiere, 184. + +Viau, Theophile de, 28, 82. + +Villien, 27. + +Voiture, 28. + +Voltaire drags the example of England into his controversies, vii; + at the Rainbow Coffee-house, 31, 213; + quarrels with Saint-Hyacinthe, 213-217; + the latter anticipates him in the use he makes of English models, 227; + letters and verses in English quoted, 59-60; + opinion on the English, 107. + +Vossius at Windsor, 67. + + +Wake, Archbishop, 105. + +Waldegrave, 90. + +Wallace, Professor C. W., discovers documents on Shakespeare, 144. + +Weiss, N., viii. + +Wharton, Mrs., 205. + +Whigs and refugees, 104, 108. + +William III., 105, 123, 127, 131. + +Williamson, Secretary, 29, 163; + letter to, 45-46. + +Wilmot, accompanies Charles II. in his flight, 13. + +Wines, French, 70. + +Wordsworth, Ch., 152 _n._ + +Wyatt, 73. + + +Yachts, Royal, described, 8. + +York, Duchess of (daughter to Lord Clarendon), speaks French, 67. + +York, Duke of, 14. + + * * * * * + +ENGLISH TRAVELLERS OF THE RENAISSANCE + +By CLARE HOWARD. With 12 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. Price 7s. 6d. net. + + _A good sub-title to this book would be "The Grand Tour + in the 16th and 17th centuries." We have a series of + most interesting extracts from, and comments on, the + innumerable little volumes of directions for foreign + travellers issued during the 16th and 17th centuries for + the guidance of English youths about to venture on the + Continent. Miss Howard shows the various purposes which + travellers had in their minds in setting out on their + journeys in successive generations, how at one time it + was mainly in the pursuit of learning, at another the + acquirement of the more courtly arts, at another a kind + of glorified athleticism, and latest of all a sort of + dilettantism. Thus "English Travellers of the + Renaissance" is without doubt a pleasing novelty among + books._ + + +THE BEAUTIFUL LADY CRAVEN + +The Original Memoirs of Elizabeth Baroness Craven, afterwards Margravine of +Anspach and Bayreuth and Princess Berkeley of the Holy Roman Empire +(1750-1828). Edited, with Notes and a Bibliographical and Historical +Introduction containing much unpublished matter, by A. M. BROADLEY and +LEWIS MELVILLE. With over 50 Illustrations. In 2 vols. Demy 8vo. 25s. net. + + _Elizabeth Berkeley, who was born towards the end of the + reign of George II. and lived almost until the end of + the reign of George IV., was one of the most beautiful, + as well as the cleverest, wittiest, and most versatile + woman of the age in which she flourished. She came of an + ancient family claiming Royal descent, and, while still + a girl, was given in marriage to the sixth Lord Craven. + She bore him an heir and several other children. Between + 1770 and 1780 she was not only a persona grata at Court, + but the friend of Garrick, Johnson, Fox, and all the + great political, literary, and social personages of the + period. Between 1780 and 1790 came that period of + wandering through Europe which enabled her to record + personal experiences of Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, + Frederick the Great, the Empress Catherine, the King and + Queen of Naples, and other Royal and illustrious + personages._ + + _In 1791 she married the Margrave of Anspach and + Bayreuth. Returning to London she became at + Brandenburgh House and Benham Park, Newbury, the centre + of a great social circle. A little later the Emperor + Francis II. made her a Princess in her own right of the + Holy Roman Empire. For a whole decade the theatricals + and concerts at Brandenburgh House were the talk of the + town. In the year 1806 her husband died. Some fifteen + years later the "Beautiful Lady Craven" settled in + Naples, where she built a delightful palace. There she + died in 1828. Some four years before her death she + published (at the suggestion of Louis XVIII.) her + memoirs. Mr. Broadley and Mr. Melville have discovered + many new facts, a large number of unpublished letters + and MSS. (many of them in Mr. Broadley's collection), + which have enabled them to elaborate an historical + introduction of extraordinary and fascinating + interest._ + + _The illustrations have been taken from existing + portraits in private and public collections and the + contemporary engravings in Mr. Broadley's possession._ + + _The authors have received valuable aid from Lady Helen + Forbes--herself a great granddaughter of the Margravine + of Anspach--and many experts in 18th century history. + The book as it now stands forms one of the most + lifelike and absorbingly interesting records of high + life in Europe between 1770 and 1820, which has + appeared during the present century._ + + +MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF ENGLAND IN 1675 + +By MARIE CATHERINE BARONNE D'AULNOY. Translated from the original French by +Mrs. WILLIAM HENRY ARTHUR. Edited, Revised, and with Annotations (including +an account of Lucy Walter) by GEORGE DAVID GILBERT. With Illustrations. +Demy 8vo. 16s. net. + +DAILY TELEGRAPH.--"_The Editor of this work has unearthed a genuine +literary treasure. That it should have lain so long hidden, in its entirety +at least, from English eyes is amazing. The narrative is as graceful as it +is vivid._" + +VANITY FAIR.--"_A splendid piece of work, and one that will take high rank +among the best chronicles of the Seventeenth Century._" + +WORLD.--"_One of the sprightliest and most entertaining works of the period +that it is possible to read._" + + +THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH PATRIOTISM + +By ESME C. WINGFIELD STRATFORD, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. In 2 +vols., with a Frontispiece to each volume (1300 pages). Demy 8vo. 25s. net. + +DAILY CHRONICLE.--"_A book which is designed to be a landmark in historical +literature._" + +TIMES.--"_Mr. Wingfield-Stratford's book is of great and abiding +interest._" + +OUTLOOK.--"_A great achievement, nothing less indeed than the rescue of +history from the hands of the pedant and the archaeologist and its +restoration to its true position as a living, emotional art._" + +DAILY TELEGRAPH.--"_A work which for fulness at once of range and detail is +little short of astounding._" + +JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Anglo-French Entente in the +Seventeenth Century, by Charles Bastide + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ANGLO-FRENCH ENTENTE IN *** + +***** This file should be named 37905.txt or 37905.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/9/0/37905/ + +Produced by Ian Deane, Ethan Kent, Josephine Paolucci and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. 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