England was the one with which Frenchmen of the grand siècle, were least acquainted. They regarded it with suspicion on account of its religion, and with detestation on account of its political history. Attached as they were to Catholic and monarchical tradition, the "English tragedies," to use the expression of Descartes, had filled them with alarm. Mme. de Motteville speaks of Cromwell and his crew as "rebel savages." "Guilty nation," cried Bossuet, "more turbulent within its own borders and in its own havens than the ocean which washes its shores!" How could men who, according to Saumaise, were more savage than their own dogs," and were still regarded by Frenchmen with the inveterate rancour engendered by the wars of the middle ages,1 be thought capable of poetry or art? But little acquainted with the English, the French despised them without scruple. Their contempt was returned with interest. Sir William Temple forbade his daughter to marry a Frenchman, "because he had always had a deep hatred of that nation on account of its proud and impetuous character, so little in harmony with the slavish dependence in which it is kept at home." 2 And if the English accuse the French of servility, they are in turn accused by the French of a savage disposition and senseless pride. "Pride and stupidity are their only manners; their least absurd caprices are full of extravagance," said Saint-Amant of the English, and he spoke de visu, having seen "the malignant Roundheads, to whom the very throne is an object of suspicion,"3 at work in their own country. Two migrations of English royalists, in 1649 and 1688, did not suffice to close this gulf between the two peoples. One would have thought it might have been bridged by the curiosity of travellers. But we have every reason to know that Frenchmen of the grand siècle were but little given to travel. Rare indeed were the writers who, like Malherbe or Descartes, had crossed the northern or eastern frontier. Italy was visited, and Spain; 1 See M. Langlois's study on Les Anglais au moyen âge (Revue historique, 1894). 2 A. Babeau, Les voyageurs en France, p. 99. 8 L'Albion (Œuvres, ed. Livet, vol. ii., p. 439). ་ that French thought was brought in contact, first of all with - England, and afterwards with Germany. As interpreters between the Germanic and Latin sections of Europe, the refugees were most industrious, and from the heart of the Low Countries, of Great Britain, of Brandenburg, and of Switzerland, Protestant criticism strove, for two centuries, to bring Frenchmen into communication with the mind of Europe. Begun by the refugees, and carried on by Prévost and Voltaire, this propaganda on behalf, more particularly, of English literature, had important consequences. Its effects began to make themselves felt about the middle of the eighteenth century, that is to say, at the moment when Jean-Jacques Rousseau was revolutionizing French literature. As a critic of that age expressed it, "it had long been impossible to doubt that the intermixture of races improves every species, both animal and vegetable," and "the experiment which for thirty years had been made upon a neighbouring country, namely, England," had afforded a clear proof that "the crossing of minds, which have also their races," may result in fertility.1 It appears to me that Rousseau derived more benefit from this "crossing" between the French and English minds than has commonly been supposed. In briefly recalling the nature of the propaganda carried on by the refugees, and of that of their French imitators, we shall therefore be studying the very origins of the revolution which he effected. I In order to estimate its importance we must transport ourselves in spirit to the seventeenth century, and recall to mind the contempt professed by the more outspoken writers of that epoch for the literatures of the Northern countries, and especially for the people which Mme. de Staël described as "the most remarkable of the Germanic nations." It was through England that France was brought into contact with non-Latin Europe. Now, of all European countries, 1 Garat, Mémoires sur Suard, vol. i., p. 153. England was the one with which Frenchmen of the grand siècle, were least acquainted. They regarded it with suspicion on account of its religion, and with detestation on account of its political history. Attached as they were to Catholic and monarchical tradition, the "English tragedies," to use the expression of Descartes, had filled them with alarm. Mme. de Motteville speaks of Cromwell and his crew as "rebel savages." "Guilty nation," cried Bossuet, "more turbulent within its own borders and in its own havens than the ocean which washes its shores!" How could men who, according to Saumaise, were more savage than their own dogs," and were still regarded by Frenchmen with the inveterate rancour engendered by the wars of the middle ages,1 be thought capable of poetry or art? 66 But little acquainted with the English, the French despised them without scruple. Their contempt was returned with interest. Sir William Temple forbade his daughter to marry a Frenchman, "because he had always had a deep hatred of that nation on account of its proud and impetuous character, so little in harmony with the slavish dependence in which it is kept at home." 2 And if the English accuse the French of servility, they are in turn accused by the French of a savage disposition and senseless pride. "Pride and stupidity are their only manners; their least absurd caprices are full of extravagance," said Saint-Amant of the English, and he spoke de visu, having seen "the malignant Roundheads, to whom the very throne is an object of suspicion,"3 at work in their own country. Two migrations of English royalists, in 1649 and 1688, did not suffice to close this gulf between the two peoples. One would have thought it might have been bridged by the curiosity of travellers. But we have every reason to know that Frenchmen of the grand siècle were but little given to travel. Rare indeed were the writers who, like Malherbe or Descartes, had crossed the northern or eastern frontier. Italy was visited, and Spain; 1 See M. Langlois's study on Les Anglais au moyen âge (Revue historique, 1894). 2 A. Babeau, Les voyageurs en France, p. 99. 8 L'Albion (ŒŒuvres, ed. Livet, vol. ii., p. 439). but no one ventured to cross the Channel. When, in 1654, Father Coulon, a Jesuit, published one of the earliest guides for travellers in England-possibly the first to appear in the French language this ancestor of Baedeker and Joanne did not disguise from his readers the difficulty of the undertaking, and had to appeal to the most celebrated instances in order to encourage them. "Once the dwelling-place of saints and angels, England is now the infernal abode of parricides and fiends. For all that, however, she has not changed her nature; she still remains where she was, and just as in the lower regions the justice of the Almighty is associated with pity, so in this hateful island you may observe at the same time the traces of ancient piety, and the commotions and disturbance caused by the brutality of a people excited, spite of their Northern stupidity (sic), to the verge of madness." Scarcely an attractive picture. Accordingly, Coulon feels the necessity of providing his reader with some consolation. "Since in former days Julius Cæsar had the courage and the curiosity to embark from the shore of Calais in order to seek a new world beyond our seas, and to add to his empire provinces which nature has separated from our dominions by another element, our traveller need not fear to cross over to England nor to entrust himself to the winds and to fortune, which formerly brought that ruler of the universe in safety to the port of Dover." He would therefore follow Julius Cæsar to England, but he would make no stay in the island. "I do not recommend any reader to penetrate very far into the country, for nature has subjected it to a very sorry climate, and placed it, as it were, at the extremity of the world, in order to forbid our entry. It would be better to set out once more for France." "2 1 Le fidèle conducteur pour le voyage d'Angleterre, by the sieur Coulon. Paris, Gervais Clouzier, 1654, 12mo. In the sixteenth century had appeared Le guide des chemins d'Angleterre, fort nécessaire à ceux qui y voyagent... [by Jean Bernard, Secretary of the King's Chamber]. Paris, Gervais Malot, 1579, 8vo. 2 About the same time a certain sieur de la Boullaye Legoux published a few notes on England, which he had visited in 1643. He mentions as his friends: "Charles Stuart, first of the name, king of England,” and “Mme. Cromwell, widow of the late Oliver Cromwell, of London." (See Rathery, Des relations sociales et intellectuelles entre la France et l'Angleterre, 4th part.) Most men, in that day, held the same opinion as Coulon, and spared themselves the trouble of "setting out once more for France" by never crossing her frontier. The majority, like Guy Patin, regarded travelling as "a disturbance of body and mind 'to no purpose whatever."1 Such writers as had visited England during the previous century-for instance, Brantôme, Ronsard, Monchrestien, Bodin, Henri Estienne, La Noue, and du Bartashad commonly done so for diplomatic purposes, or in the train of a great personage. The few men of letters who, in the seventeenth century, crossed the English Channel, were travellers almost in spite of themselves, and certainly had little curiosity concerning English literature. Such were Voiture,2 Gabriel Naudé, who went to collect books for Mazarin's library, Puget de la Serre, whose duties as historiographer obliged him to follow Marie de Médicis, Théophile de Viaud, who sought refuge in England for his own safety, Pavillon, d'Assoucy, Jean de Schelandre, Chappuzeau, almost all literary adventurers, upon whom, with the possible exception of Schelandre, English literature seems to have made no impression whatever. Saint-Amant, in some very inferior lines, said of the Englishman, "he has nevertheless the audacity to boast of his own rhymesters; to his mind they are better than either Vergil or Horace. In comparison with a Janson [Ben Jonson], Seneca is but an insipid poet, destitute of either power or melody, and the famous Euripides has neither grace nor workmanship." And of some lines of English poetry he said: "Enough that they are in English; they shall be reduced to ashes." Pavillon expects to find England a wild region, covered with virgin forests, and is amazed to discover “never a 4 1 From the way in which he mangles proper names it would appear doubtful whether Coulon himselt ever crossed the straits. Exeter becomes Exceste, Bristol, Brestel, the Thames, la Tamese, etc 2 Cf. Livet, Précieux et Précieuses, vol. i:, p. 191. * See the account of Marie de Médicis' entry into London, by Puget de la Serre : the event occurred in 1639. (Cf. Edward Smith, Foreign Visitors in England, p. x.) 4 Cf. Albion, caprice héroï-comique, dedicated to Mgr. le Marechal de Bassompierre, composed in 1644, and published by M. Livet in his edition of Saint-Amant, 1855, vol. ii |