(Vol. v., p. 57.)
Several of the recent articles of the "N. & Q." having had relation to
the word _groom_, I may be allowed to submit to you a most ludicrous
misconception of the duties attributed by our continental neighbours to
our court-office of "Groom of the Stole," which struck me some years
ago. One of the most laborious, and, from his extensive historical
knowledge, one of the most competent editors of French memoirs, is M. F.
Barrière, whose introductory discourses have been used so frequently by
the writers on French subjects in the _Quarterly Review_, though not
always with frank avowal of the obligation. In 1828 he published _Les
Mémoires du Comte de Brienne_, a distinguished public man during the
minority and early reign of Louis XIV., and there, at p. 372. of the
second volume, referring to Brienne's father's _Mémoires_, tome i. p.
407. (Amsterdam, 1719, 8vo.), produces the following singular
misapprehension of our habits and language. In 1624 the elder of these
noblemen, it seems, was deputed by Louis XIII. to adjust the preparatory
arrangements of our Charles I.'s marriage with Henrietta Maria, the
French monarch's sister, who, it was stipulated, should be attended
equally by French and English ladies. Among the former are named the
Duchess of Chevreuse, the Maréchale de Thémines (wife of the Marshal),
and Madame de Saint-Georges, who had been the princess's governess and
lady of honour,--a title unknown, it is said, at the English court, but
for which the Duke of Buckingham, the representative of Charles,
proposed as an equivalent, that of Groom of the _Stool_ (sic) "qui
revient assez bien à ce qu'on appelerait dans notre langue, le
gentilhomme, ou la dame de _la chaise-percée_. Cette charge est très
considérable; elle fait jouir de très grands privilèges," &c. A natural
expression of surprise follows this portraiture of a high and regular
functionary, whose attributes not even majesty could ennoble or strip of
indignity. The transposition of the name and duties of Groom of the
Stole has caused this most ridiculous blunder--a double one, indeed, for
the office does not belong to female majesty, though it may, as of
course at present, form part of a royal consort's household. The living
editor of De Brienne, who dwells on these "étranges usages de nos
voisins d'outremer," tells us, and it is confirmed by De Brienne
himself, that this nobleman felt proud and honoured at the familiarity
and confidence of Louis XIV., who often conferred with him on state
affairs, enthroned "sur sa chaise-percée." The Duchess of Burgundy,
mother of Louis XV., it is known, never hesitated to administer to
herself a relieving remedy, not to be pronounced by name in English
society, in presence of Louis XIV. and his attendant courtiers; so that
these violations of decorum, falsely imputed to our court, were of
historical truth at Versailles.
J. R. (Cork).
May not _groom_ be the _literal_ English of the French _écuyer_, and
have in the places quoted the same meaning as _esquire_, which is
evidently the Anglicised French?