THE OLD REGIME POLICE BLOTTER: Pimps, madams & parents
Jousse devotes a separate section to Maquerellage - in a word, pimping, or
pampering (Traité de la Justice Criminelle, III (810-814)). Even today,
maquereau, or mackeral, is a standard word for a pimp; the feminine form,
maquerelle, ONLY refers to a madame (that is, you cannot go to the fish market
and buy a maquerelle.)
The main punishments have already been discussed at the start of this
series, but Jousse raises some surprising points. A servant who prostituted his or
her mistress, for instance, was punished more severely (the point is made
more than once, suggesting that this was not uncommon). Being a minor (that is,
under twenty-five), was no excuse, but could be a mitigating factor. Several
situations, such as a husband prostituting his wife, theoretically merited the
death penalty, but mitigating circumstances applied (and a capital sentence
seems to have been rarely, if ever, applied.)
Those (like inn-keepers) who favored this traffic were to be punished in the
same way as the panderers themselves.
One term used for madams was moderately euphemistic and could also refer to
midwives (especially those who performed abortions): matrons. Mercier has a
very long passage on such 'matrons': "Common term which has been substituted for one
less decent." In it, he outlines a kind of phylogeny of
both madams and prostitutes, and shows the madams almost as producers,
"packaging" each girl for an assortment of tastes:
The dress seller becomes a
freshly arrived little village woman; the linen worker is a shy girl just in from
the provinces, who has fled the outrageous cruelty of a willful
step-mother. Speech matches dress. Since our pleasures depend largely on the
imagination, the deceived men are no less satisfied.
He notes that unspoken rules applied:
There is a tacit police rule which
forbids all these matrons from receiving any virgin girls; they must be
deflowered before entering into the place frequented; and if a girl was not, the
inspector would be notified at once. One might laugh at this last phrase. One
would be wrong; I write it seriously. They wanted to establish a certain order
in the very heart of disorder, ward off too great abuses, protect innocence
and weakness, and prevent too bold libertinage,... And so no father can
complain; never has his daughter's misbehavior started in the suspect place...
It seems that by the time he wrote, the more public punishment of madams had
ended:
The populace greatly misses the promenade on the ass; a pleasure sometimes
provided to it by a solemn judgement of parlement. It regarded the exemplary
punishment of these matrons who, as a grave jurist naively says, make a trade
of seducing young women from decent families. But the example normally fell
on some unhappy woman who had lent her help to impoverished girls. No
attention was paid to those who, exercising the profession on a large scale, had
served the fantasies of princes, prelates, foreigners, and even of some
philosophers. Here is an idea of this promenade, as I have seen it. At the head
marched a drummer, then came a sergeant armed with a pike; a valet led an ass by
the bridle; on the long-eared animal mounted backwards was a matron, a bawd
or a seductress, the face turned towards the beast's tail; an artistically
arranged straw crown decorated her head. On her back and on her chest hung a
sign in large letters, with these words: public madam. Imagine all the rabble
in tumult and wild with joy, throwing its dirty caps in the air, and blocking
the way with jeers and obscene cries. This indecent spectacle has not been
renewed for several years, serving only to stir lewd ideas, and to free the
crowd to offer dirty and crude words. The sign read, commented and interpreted,
became a scandal to chaste ears and for young innocent girls. Besides what
effect does this promenade have on this vile creature? She does not feel the
shame any more than the ass which carries her. This miserable person dared to
smile at the universal mockery; and judging at a glance the crossroads
opening at her passage, she had the effrontery to say: there, at these windows, on
the second floor, are misses who act like prudes, and who do not dare show
themselves; because they could not look at me without recognizing me. If
several performances of this masquerade have not been given, it is not that lead
actresses have become rare...
Probably the most famous case involving a madam was that of Mme. Gourdon
which began in 1769 and was ajudged in 1776. This case, which involved several
accusers and elements, and which led to at least one colorful account of the
accused's (luxurious) facilities, is too long to include for now. One of the
accusations against her was, in fact, that she corrupted girls who were virgins
when she met them.
One might expect that procurers would be professionals (in their way) of
various sorts. But anyone who has seen "Born Into Brothels" may not be too
surprised that many of those prostituting others were parents, husbands, brothers
or other relations, and many judicial accounts describe such cases.
- BY SENTENCE OF....
Jousse provides a long list of sentences handed down against pimps and
madams. These have a certain monotony, and yet vary enough to leave one wondering
what prompted the nuances between each sentences.
By Sentence of the Chatelet [tribunal] of Paris of March 13 1669, confirmed
by Judgement [on appeal?], a public madam was condemned to be whipped,
having on her head a straw hat, & taken to the Hospital, to be locked up there for
the rest of her days.
Another judgement of March 3, 1716, handed down against Pierre-Alexandre
Boulier-de-Monrival, & Elisabeth Boucher, his wife, who carried on a public
trade of pandering. This Sentence condemned them to the pillory with a straw hat
& signs, & and to be beated and whipped, and banished for nine years; Renée
Dupré, Thérese *** & Marguerite ***, prostitutes, to be locked up in the
Hospital. [The discretion about the family names of two of the three women is not
explained.]
[....]
Another of August 3, 1731, on appeal of the Lieutenant of Police of Angers,
which condemns two individuals to the pillory for two hours in the market of
Angers, their heads covered with a straw hat, & having each one a sign in
front and behind bearing these words, Public pimp; to then be whipped &
branded, & banished for nine years.
Another Judgement of September 23 1734, handed down on appeal of a Sentence
by a Judge of Montmartre, which condemns Pierre-Guillaume, called Lamotte, to
be put in the pillory, wearing a straw hat, & to be banished for nine years.
Another of January 10, 1749, on appeal of a Sentence handed down by the
Lieutenant of Police of Paris, which condemns Louise Tisserant to be whipped,
having on her head a straw hat with a sign before & behind bearing these words,
public Madam, & then to be branded with a fleur-de-lys, & banished for
three years from the City & Viscounty of Paris: & regarding Marie Multon, given
her debauchery, that she be locked up for three months in the Hospital
General.
(812-813)
Denisart offers three examples including two also mentioned by Jousse
(omitted above):
May 16, 1729, [a Decision] declared Francoise Fournier convinced of public
pandaring, for which she was condemned to be whipped, marched around on an
ass, &x. branded with a hot iron, in the form of a fleur-de-lys, & to an exile
of five years.
Another like on July 7, 1750, against Jeanne Moyon, widow le Sur, & another
of January 7, 1756, by which Therese le Grand was declared convicted of
haveing run a public trade of debauchery & of public prostitution in her house;
for which, the Court has condemned her to be taken through the usual places,
even rue St. Martin..., mounted on an ass, having the face turned towards the
tail, her head covered with a straw hat, & and having signs before & behind,
carrying these words: Public Madam... to be beaten & whipped with sticks...
& branded with a hot iron.... this done... banished for five years, &c.
Denisart (II, 158-159)
- LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
This not only shows how much of a family business prostitution often was,
but includes a rare mention of male prostitution (without specifying the gender
of the clients): "He did not limit himself to prostituting girls". A good
part of this account describes various swindles, which will be recounted under
the appropriate heading.
Tausin Father and Son [entered the Bastille 1701, released 1703]
Crooks
Savery, police officer, to M. D'Argenson
Here is a memoir which you have done me the honor of sending me. I have
looked into the conduct of the people named in it, everybody I asked about them,
assured me that Tausin and his son, these are two of the biggest poisons in
Paris, only living from hustles and swindles.
..Tausin goes every evening to the garden of the Palais Royal, from seven
o'clock until eleven, where he has meetings, and then he approaches people he
knows and whom he thinks suited to the pleasure of the women and boys he
furnishes them. This disgraceful trade which he has conducted for as many years as
he has been in Paris, wandering like a vagabond, hs led him to corrupt young
people of the one and the other sex, and atrracting them by this means to his
house and to other spots, and involves them in the greatest of all crimes.
Savery then describes a variety of crooked schemes (besides prostitution) in
which Tausin involves these young people, before continuing:
His son, who has himself called Sainte-Maure, and whom he uses to support
his crooked schemes, also leads a scandalous debauched life, only frequenting
bandits, and who, although married, being at his father's house with his wife,
nonetheless supports girls of ill repute in furnished rooms, whom he
provides to young men, as is seen by the people who ask him for money for the rent
of the rooms, and often changing residence, taking here the name of an officer
of the King's guard, of Monsieur's guard, of M. de Gesvres' guard, and other
such qualities which only serve to disguise his name to meet up with
people.."
August 26, 1701, Pontchartrain wrote d'Argenson that the King wanted the men
put in the Bastille. Tuesday, August 30, Savery brouaght "Tausin de
Sainte-Maure of Bordeaux" to the Bastille and he was put in room 5, the "Calotte"
(top) of the Basiniere tower. On Wednesday, September 28, Savery brought the
father, who was put in room 3 of the Corner tower. In 1703, however, both were
released and ordered to return to Bordeaux. Junca (whose journal is a key
Bastille source) had written "they are not worth the expense they cost the King.
Ravaisson (Tome 10, 1693-1702, 370-380)
- MAQ ZE KNIFE
Condras is a familiar type, much like Mack the Knife or Bill Sikes in
"Oliver Twist", for whom prostitution and violence are mere attributes of an
overall life of crime.
DANGEROUS PIMP [August 1702] - The evening of the day before yesterday,
Condras, called Saint-Germain, kicked out of the Dauphin gendarmes for his bad
morals and, at present, head crook, abandoned to all sorts of debauchery and
the declared protector of several prostitutes who support him, attacked with
no cause Jacob, servant of madame the marquise de Longchesne and who takes the
title of his squire. They were separated almost immediately, but, four or
five hours after, the same Condras had the insolence to return to the house of
the lady of Longchesne, to ask for Jacob there, and to write him a letter
calling him out. Finally, Jacob being arrived, he forced him to fight, and the
soldiers of the regiments of the french Guards, who are on watch in the
faubourg de Saint-Honore, being arrived just in time, they rescued the officer of
madame de Longchesne from the difficulty in which he was and seized the person
of Condras. But, after having kept him at the guard house some time, they
let him go.
I doubt that the common justice will make much effort to get a hold of him,
but, if you give me the order, I think that it will not hard for me to have
him arrested, and if M. the lieutenant criminal cannot do better, once he has
him in his prisons, it will be very important for the public safety, and to
restrain scoundrels of this sort, if it pleases the King to send this one forty
or fifty leagues from partis by that immediate authority to which we owe our
tranquility.
d'Argenson (106-108)
- RELENTLESS
I have mentioned before the combination of compassion and indignation which
runs through many of d'Argenson's reports, and this one, which is not only
unusually long, but was accompanied by supporting documents, is an example of
both. Clearly he was determined here to rescue this daughter from a mother
whose relentless efforts to re-corrupt her daughter call to mind Fagan's attempts
to drag Oliver Twist back into a life of crime.
UNNATURAL MOTHER - September 30, 1702 - Her father was a Spanish gentleman
and named Gonzalles; he married her in 1672, to the lord of Meinjat, captain
of cavalry.
They only had one daughter and the lord of Meinjat was killed at the battle
of Fleurus. The daughter got a pension from the King, in the amount of 300
pounds, which is still paid to her, but the lady of Meinjat got married five
years later, to a lawyer names Trudonne, that she made die of sorrow, having
lodged a request despite him to annul their marriage, claiming that this poor
lawyer was impotent.
The proceedings which followed this request are at the registry of the
officiality of Soissons, and it suffices to read them to convict this unworthy
widow of a complete lack of shame.
Miss Meinjat has, unfortunately, remained under the guidance of her mother,
who sold her at the age of fourteen. This first commerce lasted six years, and
became so scandalous, that commissioner Beaudelot had both mother and
daughter put in prison.
Pious persons took the daughter in hand and obtained her freedom: but the
mother as the most guilty had trouble obtaining it; finally she offered to
retire to a convent and she left prison, under the guise of a conversion which
was only feigned.
Once the mother was free, she resolved to marry the daughter to a lackey, in
hopes of prostituting her more easily, under cover of their marriage. She
prepared a contract; but the girl was wise enough to resist finalizing it, and
several of her relatives, touched by her bad luck, put her in the convent of
Nogent l'Artaud, where, by unexpected luck, she was sought by a gentleman
unaware of the disorder of her youth. The mother has put all her efforts since
this time towards corrupting her daughter's morals again, and has made the
husband aware of what he would have been happy to have never known.
He has nonetheless borne this unhappiness without giving way to useless
recriminations, and the mother seeing that her daughter no longer wanted to ply
the trade, has tried to dishonor her more and more; she has even written in her
name impertinent letters to officers who had seen her at Paris, in former
times, and having made her the most shameless propositions, she came to Paris
where she does everything to cause a break with her husband, not doubting
that, if she lacked this resource, necessity would reduce her to return to her
first involvements, of which the principle profit went to the mother and
supported her needs.
It seems then that if ever a woman deserved to be shut up in the Hospital,
it is this one, and there is not less charity than justice in having her taken
there as soon as possible.
(109-111)
- BAD NEWS
The catalogue of accusations against this woman is so overwhelming it would
seem questionable did it not come from the rather dour d'Argenson. Even rarer
than the mention of male prostitution here is the mention of a woman paying
men for sex.
M. d'Argenson to Pontchartrain
November 9, 1707
If ever anybody deserved to be locked up in the Hospital on the King's
order, it is certainly the Leclerc, wife of Pingre, of a very decent bourgeois
family from the faubourg Saint-Marcel; impiety, blasphemy, prostitution and
drunkenness are her least criminal occupations. She has sold her son to
sodomites, and her daughter, who is not yet 13 years old, to anyone who asked; she has
mixed quicksilver several times into her husband's drink, she has had him
beaten and robbed by accomplices in her debauchery; she had the insolence to
threaten him herself with murder and poison; ugly, old and infected with the
most shameful maladies, she has corrupted by presents or rather by thefts from
her husband, several young men of whom some are being cured; the principal
among them is called Mazai, son of a grocer; Lafleur, soldier from the guards'
regiment; Reuilly, Ranchin and Bidault, besides tavern waiters, chair porters
and stable valets who gladly give themselves to her for 30 sols or for a
crown. Several other crimes are ascribed to this woman which merit the harshest
punishments; nonetheless her husband cannot decide himself to bring her to
justice. but people of piety have let him know that, without exposing himself to
the vengeance of his wife who is capable of stabbing him if he became her
accuser, the King could well have her shut up in the hospital, and I think
there is no less charity than justice to grant him this grace.
Ravaissaon, Archives de la Bastille (Tome 11, 386)
- FALSE WIFE, REAL INCOME
This is one of at least two cases where d'Argenson hesitated to exile some
one because of an on-going trial.
FALSE MENAGE - May 4, 1708. - Most of the facts contained in the anonymous
memoir concerning the lord Grandbois, which you have done me the honor of
sending me, are exactly true, above all those which concern the lewd conduct,
the prostitution that this man apparently makes of his so-called wife, the
scandal which she has long caused, her removal to forty leagues from Paris, and
the reputation they have, the one and the other, of only living off their
intrigues.
He is from the county of Avignon, he is absolutely without occupation and is
known to have no other resource that what he owes to his scheming. He claims
to have married Dorigny, formerly sent away for her commerce with the late M.
the abbe of Beuvron, but he could bring the necessary certificate to prove
it. They seem to quarrel, almost always, but the least chance of profit
reconciles them.
Therefore, I would not hesitate to propose their exile to you, were it not
for the suit they have against M. d'Inteville, son of madame the princess of
Courtenay and of the late president Lebrun, which concerns a not for which the
lord Grandbous and the Dorigny demand payment, and which the lord d'Inteville
insists is forged. And so, as undesirable as they may be, besides, since
forbidden games and the strangest mischief have almost always been their usual
entertainments, I do not dare to propose their removal, until this trial,
where the bad faith of Grandbois and of the Dorigny seems obvious, has been
definitively judged. [To this part, Pontchartrain says, "Order it so. In the
meantime, tell them to watch themselves and have the woman come see me." !]
I must not omit that the lord of Viel de Surosne, formerly Monsieur's
chamberlain, and driven from Paris for the lewdness of his conduct, was part of
this criminal group, because I believe this circumstance will recall to you what
I had the honor to write you two years ago.
[Pontchartrain responds that he did not remember this, and neither did the
king.]
(234-235)
- SISTER-IN-LAW FOR SALE
This is part of a larger series of items in d'Argenson's reports. Dillon is
an Irish name of some note in the France of our era, where there was a
Franco-Irish family of that name with several prominent members. It appears here to
be the subject's husband's name. The name "Magdelonnettes" has a clear
suggestion of Mary Magdelene.
MADEMOISELLE DE BOUSSANS. (continued) - January 6, 1708. I have learned
that the lady Dillon, who was in the Magdelonnettes by order of the King, and
whose mother and father have begged you insistently to restore her to their
guidance, to transfer her to the convent of Baune, left several days ago, by
agency of the lord of Blaignac, who had married her sister, and who is accused,
with apparent cause, of prostituting her to the first comer: it is even said
that lacking his wife (whom he lost a few months ago), he plans to profit from
his sister-in-law, whom he had come back to Paris under pretext of entering
an imaginary convent where a devout person, named madame Poullet, of whom he
was careful to imagine a few letters, was to pay her pension by charity; but,
instead of entering this supposed convent, she is seen everyday riding in a
carriage with the lord of Blaignac, her brother-in-law, who sold her, it is
said, to Cyntio (the lover of his wife), while awaiting some better adventure.
It is added that after she has spent the summer in Paris, she plans to go to
England to find her husband who has renounced the catholic religion to
embrace that of the government, in which she will not have much trouble imitating
him, since the disorder of her morals makes all religions almost equal to
her.
(223)
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From CHEZ JIM Books:
An EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK:
APRES MOI LE DESSERT - VOLUME II
and a history of the CROISSANT:
AUGUST ZANG AND THE FRENCH CROISSANT
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18th CENTURY RECIPE: French fried potatoes
Bonnefons' Les Delices de la Campagne ["Country Delights"], from 1655,
includes this brief but surprising recipe:
Jerusalem artichokes, potatoes
Parboil them, peel them, & make them a German style sauce, as above [butter,
with salt, nutmeg and vinegar], they have a true taste of artichoke heart,
but nonetheless a little softer, cut into slices, fry them with parsley, &
with a [clear] paste [of flour, egg yolks and vinegar salted to taste] as for
the Scorsonnerre [a type of salsify].
(102-103105, 111-112)
Why is this surprising?
Here is the Larousse Gastronomique on the potato:
In France, the potato was still considered suspect in 1771; it was said to
be unfit for human consumption and dangerous... It was Parmentier who
rehabilitated it
(761)
Numerous other sources could be quoted to the same effect: Parmentier, in
the late eighteenth century, got the French to eat potatoes, which until then
had barely been considered food.
In fairness, this is, in the main, true. Despite Bonnefons' blithe mention
above, no major French cookbook so much as mentions potatoes through the entire
18th century. In 1806, we finally find not only potatoes, but, again, fried
potatoes:
Potatoes sauteed in butter
Take off the peel of raw potatoes; pare them to an equal size; cut them in
round slices the size of a small crown [a coin], the thickness of a line and a
half [that is, very thin]; put a good lump of butter in a pot; put it on a
hot flame; add in the potatoes; keep sauteing them until they are light brown;
then drain them in a strainer; sprinkle them with fine salt, and arrange them
on a dish with no other seasoning.
Viard, le Cuisinier Imperial (386-387)
Are these French fries? Well, they were French, and, essentially, fried. But
neither the characteristic long thin shape nor the deep-frying method that
now define that delicacy are described. Still, clearly the idea was well on
its way. Add to that the fact that French cooks had long cut vegetables into
long thin slices - Julienne-style - and probably something that at least looked
like a French fry had been made in France by the start of the century.
This recipe from 1814 adds one major element: oil (which does not seem to
have been used for frying at all in the 18th century, though it had been earlier):
Potatoes Lyonnaise
Take a dozen raw potatoes; wash them, so that no dirt remains; pare them to
equal size, as you would pare a carrot; cut them into liards [small coins].
the thickness of a one-franc piece; flour-them; have oil heated in a pan; put
in your potatoes; be careful they do not stick together; fry them to a nice
color, so that they are crunchy; pour them in a strainer; drain them, salt them
with a little fine salt, and serve.
Beauvilliers, L'Art du Cuisinier (II, 212)
Not all recipes for Lyonnaise potatoes are this close to standard French
fries, but, except for the shape, this brings us in nicely to sliced potatoes
fried golden in hot oil - less than fifty years after potatoes began to be
widely accepted in France.
By 1833, they were an established public snack food, as evidenced by this list of a French fry vendor's expenses in the first issue of the Magasin
Pittoresque, 1833 (19-20):
A furnace 4 francs
A bucket 2 f 50 centimes
A pail 1 f
Two trestles and a board 5 f
A sawhorse 1 f
Two baskets 1 f 50 c
Plate and dishes 1 f 50 c
A frying pan 1 f 50 c
A basket (to carry on the back) 5 f
A shovel and tongs 1 f
A bellows 1 f
Two pots of sandstone 1 f
First provisions [sausages and potatoes] 5 f
None of this touches on a more momentous and more controversial question:
were French fries invented in France? Absent some hard contemporary evidence, I
am not inclined to even try answering a question which seems tailor-made for
attracting the kind of mini-myths which surround the origins of popular
foods. Even the Larousse Gastronomique - hardly shy about repeating myth and
speculation - steers clear of this issue. For anyone who would like a survey of
the various claims, the Wikipedia offers a tour of the question.
This article, by the way, mentions a recipe for fried potatoes from 1755 in
Menon's Les soupers de la cour. I have yet to see this recipe, but if
accurately cited, it would be the earliest mention in the 1700's I know, not only
of fried potatoes, but of potatoes at all, in a French cookbook.
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 FOR READERS OF FRENCH
Magasin Pittoresque: No 50 - 1882
REMINDER: The Magasin Pittoresque was a nineteenth century French magazine. Issues can be found on Gallica. Also, most articles are accompanied by at least one image, and so some may interest even those who do not read French.
And so we reach number 50...
Here is what the journal's creator wrote at the end of this volume:
I founded this review, a half-century ago, at the start of 1833, with the
help of young friends, inspired like me by the desire to be useful.
Among the thousands of pages written on so many diverse subjects by my
collaborators and by me during these fifty years, there is none that I have not
read with care before publishing it, none (my conscience assures me) that the
most scrupulous decency may blame.
Faithful to the promises of our start, I have collected, day by day, in
every place, in Museums, in Libraries, in travel, in my experience and my
convictions, all that seemed to me of a nature to awaken healthy curiosity for
learning and to maintain good sentiments.
I do not think to have done any harm, and the hope of having done some good
encourages me to continue in a second series, as long as it will be possible,
this work which I love and which has been the principal one of my life.
Edouard Charton
Ladies and gentleman, a big hand, if you will, for Monsieur Charton... I am
not alone, I know, in my gratitude for his sustained efforts.
The Magasin Pittoresque continued to number 78 (1908), and, over time, so
will we (probably). But anyone who's followed this rather haphazard series from
the first knows it started 'In Media Res' (I was actually trying to find
references to croissant when I started), and so, beginning next week, I will
correct that curious start by returning to... the FIRST Magasin Pittoresque.
That's right - No 1.
This shouldn't matter to too many readers. But anyone who's been following
the Little History of Trades might be a tad frustrated; there are still many
trades to go. I will point out to anyone so disappointed that the series -
though it's not clear in translation - is in alphabetical order, and so if YOUR
favorite trade has not yet appeared, you can look ahead in the series, or even
search on Gallica for the trade in question.
Four famous writers (at the time at least), four friends, four members of
the Academy - Dolphins, fish and a candlewick -
"Top of the evening - and my sedan chair - to you" - An inventor made his
machine talk, but destroyed it out of rage at not being paid - Luxurious dolls
reappeared at the end of the Middle Ages - Jute bags hanging on the walls,
each one a legal case - An image of Peace on an instrument of war - At the end
of the first Empire, fashion became too complicated to follow - "Everything is
useful in hemp" & - The "boots", used for interrogation in France,
were used for execution in Scotland - Before carriages and sedan chairs, the
horse's rump looked pretty comfortable - The richer drapers got, the more
demands they made - a 'catechism' for Muslims who had forgotten Arabic - He
invented a match, but someone else got rich... - For shame, we charge extra -
Bouchardon has a party, in his student's quarters - Why put a number on a house
when you can sculpt a PICTURE? - An old question: what percentage of your
income goes to rent? - Two mechanical ducks, pecking at corn -
a writer was once a simple tradesman - Bowls were once in big demand - But
not so much as spurs - grocers once sold more candles than food - Imagine
being a master pin-maker? - A Moreau owned by a Goncourt - You can trace some
British history on the country's china - The Germans, not the Romans, gave us
the duel - Among royal playthings, a Republican government -
Quietism landed Mme Guyon in the Bastille - The Swedes brought us five cents
- Tell time with the Passions of Christ - "M. Pasteur has shown, as agents of
each fermentation, so many small organisms, or microbes, to use Sebillot's
well-chosen term" - How about a periodical on the latest royal etiquette? - A
self-portrait by... Thackeray? - Bentham, Champollion and Goethe died in the
same year - Arts and Metiers is more than a metro stop - Like the sun, "He
sees and is seen to act on his own" - Casting statues took second place to
casting cannon - Blacksmiths were once 'fevres' (like 'orfevres' - goldsmiths) -
A cook's arms: roses and pots - "Anglomania ruled at this time" (Year 8) -
Cabs waited at the sign of St.-Fiacre - Florian took a page, or at least a
phrase, from Moliere - Perfume your gloves? - Haroun-El_Rashid gave Charlemagne
a clock - Imagine Rembrandt as a simple... imager - "We know that it is not
by good taste that many of the celebrated English painter [Hogarth]'s shine."
- Longfellow: "It is with a feeling of pure joy that I go back to that short
period of my life which was spent beneath the peaceful shadows of Auteuil"
[from the French] - Unlike Joan of Arc, she defended her people against...
other French - Did an Italian silversmith discover engraving? - Bookstores
officially began in the 13th century (will they end in the 21st?) - "Hey, this
lemonade is RED!!! And made out of grapes..." - "You will know the mason by the
base of the wall" - Jews could be doctors, Protestants not - Saint-Louis loved
minstrels, unlike many other people - "To me, Auvergne, the enemy is here!"
(and cutting my throat) - Before the 18th century, buttons were mainly
decoration - Joan "never went to the fields to watch sheep or other beasts" -
"Don't rent me the room - sell me your house" - Carpenters and cabinet-makers
once lived by the rue de Clery and the rue de la Lune - Already in the 13th
century, women could work as mercers - Nothing like the smell of goose, roasting
on a stand - Or how about a little lark tart? - Do you really need a
fur-lined dress? - A master chef helped preserve the river - Once making a saddle
was like making a weapon - Locksmiths weren't allowed to make dies for
counterfeit coins (which means they must have done it)
16 - 18th century candleholder
21 - Hogarth/Yeames image of two people chatting from their sedan chairs
43 - talking machines
44 - A 17th c. consultation
52 - history of fashion - end of series
76 - riding pillion (on the rump)
81 - Little dictionary of trades: drapers
99 - the invention of phosphorous matches
112 - French art students' masquerades in Rome
113 - an old sign in Dieppe
138 - Little dictionary of trades: writer
140 - Little dictionary of trades: bowlmaker; spurrier
141 - Little dictionary of trades: grocer
143 - Little dictionary of trades: pin-maker
156 - English pottery and porcelain
158 - history of the duel
161 - the hotel of Menus-Plaisirs; the Assemblee Nationale of 1789
164 - allegorical engraving by Sebastien Leclerc
175 - the discovery of nickel
185 - clock with music and characters
197 - a drink for the king (and accompanying etiquette)
225 - Arts and Metiers, founded 1797
232 - Colbert's monogram
233 - Little dictionary of trades: foundries
234 - Little dictionary of trades: blacksmiths
237 - Little dictionary of trades: clothesellers
238 - Little dictionary of trades: cheesesellers
248 - A lady of year 8
264 - fiacres (hired coaches)
267 - Little dictionary of trades: glovers-perfumers
268 - Little dictionary of trades: clockmakers
270 - Little dictionary of trades: imagers
305 - Little dictionary of trades: goldsmiths, jewelers, etc
307 - Little dictionary of trades: booksellers
309 - Little dictionary of trades: lemonade-vendors (drinks sellers)
310 - Little dictionary of trades: masons, plasterers
311 - Little dictionary of trades: doctors
312 - Little dictionary of trades: minstrels
318 - the use of buttons
324 - Alencon lace
337 - Little dictionary of trades: carpenters
339 - Little dictionary of trades: mercers
341 - Little dictionary of trades: "goosers"-roasters
342 - Little dictionary of trades: pastry chefs
343 - Little dictionary of trades: furriers; fish-sellers
370 - Little dictionary of trades: saddlers
371 - Little dictionary of trades: locksmiths; tailors
373 - Little dictionary of trades: weavers; glaziers
395 - white slaves in Sicily
Individuals
9 - a group of friends (Andrieux, Thomas, Durcis and Collin d'Harleville)
76 - Scottish heretic Maccail
104 - Dr. Shebbeare in the pillory
121 - Vaucanson, artful mechanic
153 - Moreau le Jeune's sleeping little girl
214 - 1832: the year Goethe died
267 - Florian's comment at Sceaux
274 - A word of Lichtenberg on Hogarth
318 - Sergeant Dubois, unknown herov
331 - Anecdotes about Turner
380 - General Marceau
OT, but of interest
43 - early dolls
48 - An Italian powder holder 16th c
61 - hemp
96 - the Sonna Breviary (for Muslims)
113 - rents in Paris
118 - African Muslim proverbs ("He who is not an ornithologist puts every
bird on the grill.")
194 - Pasteur
212 - Thackerayana (sketches from Thackeray)
248 - the arms of Taillevent
281 - Longfellow's stay in Auteuil
289 - Margot Delaye, defender of Montelimar (1570)
326 - Joan of Arc was not a shepherdess
391 - Charles Darwin/p>
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End quote
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"How I love to feel small, in surrounding myself with the idea of all these
great men, & in savoring the pleasure of admiring them!"
Mercier, Tableau de Paris, Chapter 363
(Lest anyone be misled by a convenional phrase, his list of said great 'men'
includes Catherine the Great and Elizabeth I.)
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