FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[261]Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. v. chap. viii.[262]Athenæum, 26th February 1910.[263]Nor let us omit Professor Morel inBulletin de la Société pour l'étude des langues et littératures modernes, March 1910.[264]W. A. Shaw,Denizations and Naturalizations of Aliens, 1911, p. 11.[265]Letter to theAthenæum, 26th March 1910.[266]What to Expect of Shakespeare, p. 14.

[261]Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. v. chap. viii.

[262]Athenæum, 26th February 1910.

[263]Nor let us omit Professor Morel inBulletin de la Société pour l'étude des langues et littératures modernes, March 1910.

[264]W. A. Shaw,Denizations and Naturalizations of Aliens, 1911, p. 11.

[265]Letter to theAthenæum, 26th March 1910.

[266]What to Expect of Shakespeare, p. 14.

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 printEikon Basiliké, 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 Councilwished 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 friendHarrington, the author ofOceana, in no less than £5000.[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 theNouvelles ordinaires de Londresmay be consulted at the Bibliothèque 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 theDefensio pro populo Anglicanoin 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 ofEikonoklastes, Milton's reply toEikon Basiliké. It is thus advertised in theNouvelles 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, entitledDefensio 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 hispretensions" (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 theClamor sanguinis regii ad cœlum, which had been published at the Hague in 1652. The book was by Peter Du Moulin. More replied by a defence entitledFides 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 theNouvelles ordinaires. The collection preserved in the Bibliothèque 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 (entitledNouvelles extraordinaires de Londres), such as No. 185, printing in fullThe 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 placesoften 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 aconnétable, p. 816; of theSpeakerof the House of Commons asl'orateur, p. 253; and calmly translateSolicitor-Generalby the absolutely meaningless expressionsolliciteur general, p. 305; andwrit of errorby the no less unintelligiblebillet d'erreur, p. 679.[277]Nevertheless, he spells in the most accurate way proper names, whether French or English.

NOUVELLES ORDINAIRES DE LONDRES, NUMBER 1NOUVELLES 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 CharlesII.

Such sufferings and trials were not enough: impossible to read even now without some emotionthe 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 généraux de l'armée navale du Parlement et de la République d'Angleterre au très honorable Guil. Lenthal ecuier, orateur dudit Parlement, écrite à 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 Parliamentof 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 theNouvelles 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 theNouvelles 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. Thequakersare 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 mélancoliques); most pestilent and persevering proselytisers, with an inordinate appetite for martyrdom, they appear at the same time in the most unexpected quarters; drivenfrom 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 theNouvelles 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 inLondon. "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 Condé, bidding against Cardinal Mazarin's envoys to gain the friendship of Cromwell and the help of the English fleet. Many are the allusions in theNouvelles ordinairesto 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 Portugalthan 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 theNouvelles ordinairesbe as rough and harsh as the mannersof 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 inParadise Lost.

Du Gard's undertaking was remembered after the Commonwealth. To theNouvelles ordinairessucceeded, with but a few years' interval, theGazette de Londres, the French edition to Charlesii.'sLondon 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), theGazette de Londreswas issued under the reigns of both Charlesii.and Jamesii.Numbers are extant dating from Williamiii.and Queen Anne.

The few numbers of theGazettethat we were enabled to read, appear of much less interest than theNouvelles ordinaires. Even a newspaper would degenerate in the hands of Charlesii.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 Countde 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 (Jamesii.) 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.

TheGazette de Londresappeared 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 theGazette, which then passed to his widow, and ultimately to the famous bookseller Tonson.

The French edition met with some mishaps. Volume ix. of theJournals of the House of Commonsrecords 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 theLondon Gazetteand the French translation in theGazette de Londres. The terms had been softened down not to cause offence to the French Court.

AT VERSAILLES After BonnartAT VERSAILLESAfter 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 theGazetteinto 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 theGazette de Londres. Next to the editor of theNouvelles 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. ThePostmanwas edited in English, mind! by Fonvive; thePostboyby Boyer, whom Swift derisively called a "French dog."[280]

The refugees were but continuators of Théophraste Renaudot, the father of the modern press. The very name ofMercurygiven 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 theNouvelles ordinairesset 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. 4o6, 202).[268]Calendars of State Papers, Dom., 1649-1650, p. 500. Three months before he had been called upon to enter into £300 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 £1000, p. 514; 2nd April, he recovers his press, pp. 76, 535; but must enter into £500 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 Basiliké?and theDictionary 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 theNouvelles ordinaires de Londres.[272]To M. Jusserand we owe the appreciation on Milton penned in 1663 by Ambassador Cominges for his royal master, Louisxiv.,Shakespeare en France sous l'ancien régime, p. 107. Two letters of Elie Bouhéreau, a physician of La Rochelle, asking, in 1672, for information on Milton, were published inProceedings 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 theAvis aux réfugiés, 1690. The appreciation of Cominges alone is quoted both by J. Telleen,Milton dans la littérature française, and J. G. Robertson,Milton's Fame on the Continent.[273]The book is entitled Εικονοκλαστηςou Réponse au Livre intituléΕικων Βασιλικηou le Pourtrait de sa Sacrée Majesté durant sa solitude et ses souffrances. Par le Sr. Jean Milton. Traduite de l'Anglois sur la seconde et plus ample édition. 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 lesNouvelles publiquesde Londres le portant, que la République d'Angleterre soit en termes de s'accommoder avec Messieurs les Etats."[275]For instance,eaux fortes(strong waters) foreaux-de-vie, p. 167;moyens efficacieux, p. 633;toleration, p. 691;éjection 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 récorder 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'île dite Holy Island, p. 442, etc.[277]Messengerhe renders bymessager, instead ofhuissier, p. 749. More often, through mere indolence, he suffers the English word to stand:récorder, p. 61;commission d'oyer et terminer, p. 841;ranter, p. 189;quaker, p. 1375. He indifferently writesaldermens, p. 61, andaldermans, p. 717. He apparently does not know the French wordtabac, always preferring the formtobac(tobacco).[278]The Duke of Gloucester.[279]Journal,House of Commons, ix. 534.[280]See Chapter III.

[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. 4o6, 202).

[268]Calendars of State Papers, Dom., 1649-1650, p. 500. Three months before he had been called upon to enter into £300 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 £1000, p. 514; 2nd April, he recovers his press, pp. 76, 535; but must enter into £500 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 Basiliké?and theDictionary 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 theNouvelles ordinaires de Londres.

[272]To M. Jusserand we owe the appreciation on Milton penned in 1663 by Ambassador Cominges for his royal master, Louisxiv.,Shakespeare en France sous l'ancien régime, p. 107. Two letters of Elie Bouhéreau, a physician of La Rochelle, asking, in 1672, for information on Milton, were published inProceedings 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 theAvis aux réfugiés, 1690. The appreciation of Cominges alone is quoted both by J. Telleen,Milton dans la littérature française, and J. G. Robertson,Milton's Fame on the Continent.

[273]The book is entitled Εικονοκλαστηςou Réponse au Livre intituléΕικων Βασιλικηou le Pourtrait de sa Sacrée Majesté durant sa solitude et ses souffrances. Par le Sr. Jean Milton. Traduite de l'Anglois sur la seconde et plus ample édition. 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 lesNouvelles publiquesde Londres le portant, que la République d'Angleterre soit en termes de s'accommoder avec Messieurs les Etats."

[275]For instance,eaux fortes(strong waters) foreaux-de-vie, p. 167;moyens efficacieux, p. 633;toleration, p. 691;éjection 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 récorder 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'île dite Holy Island, p. 442, etc.

[277]Messengerhe renders bymessager, instead ofhuissier, p. 749. More often, through mere indolence, he suffers the English word to stand:récorder, p. 61;commission d'oyer et terminer, p. 841;ranter, p. 189;quaker, p. 1375. He indifferently writesaldermens, p. 61, andaldermans, p. 717. He apparently does not know the French wordtabac, always preferring the formtobac(tobacco).

[278]The Duke of Gloucester.

[279]Journal,House of Commons, ix. 534.

[280]See Chapter III.

It is a comparatively easy task to find out howMonsieur l'ambassadeurof 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 Charlesii.:—

"About five weeks ago, the wife ofMonsieur de la Coste, aFrenchTaylor, dwelling then at the upper end ofBow StreetinCovent Garden, lying upon her death-bed, sent forMr. Dumarest(here the unknown author of the pamphlet is wrong, he should have spelt the nameDu 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 oneReinbeau, 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 devoirliterally translated) in that respect.

THE FRENCH TAILOR After ArnoultTHE FRENCH TAILORAfter 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, widowReinbeaucaused Mr.La Costeto be fetched before a Justice of thePeacefor 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 theJustice, 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 remedythis 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 ofJune, the young maid should go to theGreekChurch (in Hog Lane, now Crown Street, Soho, a kind of chapel-of-ease to theSavoyChurch), and that she should be there examined. Accordingly she went thither to that intent, but the minister being hastened to go to theSavoyChurch, 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 widowReinbeau, a niece of hers, three of her nephews, a vintner and other Papists stopped the maid and minister in the way; andthe 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 wasSunday, 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 aSunday, when the business was only the instruction of one of his subjects, being in fear of theRoman 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.Jehubeing desirous to get near the young maid and speak to the widowReinbeau, 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 themobilewho were crowded about him seized him by the throat; but the populace being undeceived, and having understood thePopishtrick, let go the Protestant, which the Papists perceiving, they ran into a house hard by, swearing they would cause theFrenchProtestant 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 Marestthe minister having discoursed SirJohn Reresbyupon thisbusiness, 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 calledMaistre Jacques(let us hope Sir John Reresby will have him hanged at next MiddlesexAssizes), 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 QueenElizabetha 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 fromLondon, 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 workingpeople: they now suspect Charles II. to be in the pay of Louisxiv., 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.

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