FRENCH GAZETTES IN LONDON (1650-1700)
By a strange coincidence, Milton as well as Shakespeare had the opportunity
of meeting Frenchmen in London. His connection with William Du Gard,
schoolmaster and printer, dates from the time of the Civil War.
Born in 1606 in Worcestershire, William Du Gard came, as his name implies,
of a family of French or Jerseyan extraction.[267] His father, Henry Du
Gard, was a clergyman; his uncle, Richard, a tutor in Cambridge; his
younger brother, Thomas, took orders and became rector of Barford. William
devoted himself to teaching and was appointed in 1644 headmaster of
Merchant Taylors' School.
The minds of the people were then in an extraordinary ferment, as ever
happens when a crisis is at hand. A far-reaching change loomed over
England. No sheet-anchor could long withstand the heaving seas. Both in
Church and State, the old Elizabethan settlement was breaking up. No wonder
that new, unlooked-for thoughts rose in the minds of men and that pamphlets
unceasingly flowed from the printers' presses. Perhaps the prevalent rage
of idealism caught Du Gard in his turn, or maybe he acted out of ambition
or mere vulgar hope of gain. About 1648, schoolmaster as he was, he set up
a private press.
His first venture in this new capacity was that of a royalist. After
helping to print _Eikon Basilike_, he undertook to publish in England
Claude Saumaise's treatise against the regicides, _Defensio Regia pro
Carolo Primo_. But the authorities quickly took alarm and the Council of
State on the same day (1st February 1649-50) deprived Du Gard of his
headmastership, confined him to Newgate, confiscated his press, imprisoned
his corrector Armstrong.[268]
Then the unforeseen happened: a few weeks only had elapsed when Du Gard was
set free, reinstated at Merchant Taylors' School, and, having recovered
press, forms, and type, professed himself a Puritan and assumed the title
of "printer to the Council of State." It is alleged that his freedom was
due to the friendship of Secretary Milton. We think it more simple to
believe that the Council wished to conciliate the only printer at the time
whose literary attainments entitled him to publish abroad the answer to
Saumaise's treatise which Milton was then commissioned to write. That the
Council were anxious to counteract the efforts of the royalist party to
inflame Continental opinion against the Parliament, we repeatedly gather
from the State Papers; nor is it venturesome to assert that, when compared
with the printers of Amsterdam, Cologne, or Rouen, the printers of London
were mostly hacks.[269]
The sudden conversion of Du Gard seems to have had lasting effects. In
1659, the Council still trusted him.[270] In ten years' time, he had made
only one mistake when, in 1652, overlooking Parliamentary zeal for
orthodoxy, he printed the Racovian Catechism. Needless to add that the book
was burnt by the common hangman.
At the Restoration, William Du Gard was finally deprived of his
headmastership and died in 1662, having after all little cause to regret
his adventures as a printer; he enjoyed a large competence, being wealthy
enough to act as surety for his friend Harrington, the author of _Oceana_,
in no less than L5000.[271]
The books issued from Du Gard's press are of less interest than the weekly
paper which he undertook to publish in French, from 1650 to 1657. A few
numbers are preserved in the British Museum, but the nearly complete set of
the _Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_ may be consulted at the Bibliotheque
Nationale. It is in that old long-forgotten paper that are to be read the
earliest mentions of Milton's name in a French publication.[272]
Du Gard advertised the _Defensio pro populo Anglicano_ in the following
terms: "The reply to the scandalous and defamatory book of M. de Saumaise
against this State, which has long been wished for by many worthy people
and generally expected by all, is at last near ready, being now under press
and pushed forward" (Feb. 1650-51). Coming from Saumaise's printer, such
humble professions were well calculated to mollify the Council of State.
A few weeks later, in No. 34, we meet again with Milton's name: "The reply
to the insulting book of M. de Saumaise by Mr. John Milton, one of the
Secretaries to the Council of State, appeared last Monday, to the utmost
content and approval of all" (March 2-9, 1650-51).
The following year, Du Gard published the French translation of
_Eikonoklastes_, Milton's reply to _Eikon Basilike_. It is thus advertised
in the _Nouvelles ordinaires_: "This week has been issued, in this town,
the French translation of Mr. Milton's book confuting the late King of
England's book" (No. 125, Dec. 1652). The translator was John Dury, a
Scottish minister.[273]
The last mention of Milton's name appears in a letter from Paris: "We have
notice from France that M. Morus, a minister opposed to Mr. Milton (who has
just published another book against him, entitled _Defensio pro se_),
having passed through the chief Reformed Churches in France and preached
everywhere to the applause of the people, has gone from Paris, where some
wished to retain him as minister, and come to Rouen, leaving his friends in
doubt as to his return, but that the favour shown him has as promptly
subsided as it was stirred up, many marking the lack of constancy in his
mind, and the ambition and avarice of his pretensions" (No. 298, Feb.
1656-57). The paragraph refers to Alexander More, minister of Charenton,
whom Milton had most vehemently assailed upon mistaking him for the author
of the _Clamor sanguinis regii ad coelum_, which had been published at
the Hague in 1652. The book was by Peter Du Moulin. More replied by a
defence entitled _Fides publica contra calumnias J. Miltoni_, and Milton
then retorted by the pamphlet referred to above: _J. Miltoni pro se
defensio contra A. Morum_.
The fact that Milton's name appears at so early a date in a French
publication would alone excite curiosity about the _Nouvelles ordinaires_.
The collection preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale comprises four
hundred numbers, extending from 21/11 July 1650 to 31/21 January 1657-58;
out of which only six are missing (Nos. 161-63, 202, 237, 238). The paper
came out every Thursday, in one quarto sheet. "Extraordinary" numbers
(entitled _Nouvelles extraordinaires de Londres_), such as No. 185,
printing in full _The Instrument of Government_; No. 202, the treaty with
the Dutch; No. 288, that with France; are on two quarto sheets. At the
close of No. 2 may be read the following curious notice: "and are to be
sold by Nicholas Bourne, at the South Gate of the Old Exchange, Tyton at
the sign of the Three Daggers by Temple Gate, and Mary Constable at the
sign of the Key in Westminster Hall." That Du Gard's paper circulated
abroad may be inferred from the quaint notice appended to No. 44: "The
reader is warned that the author (who up to now has with the utmost care
gathered every week these happenings for the information of the public,
though what he has gained thereby up to now has not given him much
encouragement to go on, on the contrary hardly defraying the cost of the
printing) has received intelligence that an English printer ... issues
every week in The Hague a pirated edition, reprinting the paper in same
size and type, with the name of the author's own printer, which is an
intolerable falsification ... the author will henceforth take care to
provide M. Jean Veely, bookseller, in The Hague, at the sign of the Dutch
Chronicles, with true copies from London." Since no one has ever dreamed of
issuing a pirated edition of an unsaleable book, we must believe the author
to have somewhat exaggerated his complaints.[274]
After all, the author may have been Du Gard himself. However that may be,
the editor of the paper knew English well; that he had long resided in
England is implied by the many English words and idioms in his style.[275]
Names of places often puzzle him, and he deals with the several
difficulties in a rather awkward manner.[276] None but a Frenchman that had
left his country for some time past or, as was actually the case with Du
Gard, an Englishman of French descent, would venture to think of a village
constable as a _connetable_, p. 816; of the _Speaker_ of the House of
Commons as _l'orateur_, p. 253; and calmly translate _Solicitor-General_ by
the absolutely meaningless expression _solliciteur general_, p. 305; and
_writ of error_ by the no less unintelligible _billet d'erreur_, p.
679.[277] Nevertheless, he spells in the most accurate way proper names,
whether French or English.
[Illustration: NOUVELLES ORDINAIRES DE LONDRES, NUMBER 1.]
The gazette begins by a sort of general statement that it is worth while to
quote in full: "The troubles and different revolutions that have taken
place for the last ten or twelve years in England, Scotland, or Ireland,
have provided us such a number of fine deeds, that, though writers,
especially abroad, have unjustly tried either to stifle them by their
silence or to tarnish their lustre by lessening their price or worth,
nevertheless, enough has been seen, though as through a cloud, to move with
admiration the best disposed minds that have heard about them. Now that the
war with Scotland, that with Ireland, and the present differences with
Portugal, are likely to provide us with new ones, I have deemed it not
unacceptable to foreign nations, to impart in a language that extends and
is understood throughout Europe, all the most signal and remarkable
happenings. To that effect, should this account and the following be
favourably received by the public, I propose to carry it on every week, on
the same day, briefly and with what truthfulness can be obtained in things
of that nature out of the several rumours that the passion of every one
disguises according to his temper."
The Council of State could not but acquiesce in an endeavour to enlighten
public opinion on the Continent. Du Gard kept his promise to say the truth:
his paper is as unimpassioned as could well be a paper published "by
authority."
If the newswriter was anxious to keep his readers well informed, he did not
at the same time conceal his admiration for Cromwell. Maybe he was sincere.
It was difficult not to be impressed by the soldier who had won Dunbar and
Worcester.
Readers in Paris and Brussels did not only peruse the accounts of these
Puritan victories, they learned also all about the flight of the Lord's
anointed, young Charles II.
Such sufferings and trials were not enough: impossible to read even now
without some emotion the bare paragraph in which Du Gard, with official
coldness and hard-heartedness, tells about the death of little Princess
Elizabeth.
"Princess Elizabeth Stuart, daughter to the late King, who you know was
brought together with her brother[278] to the Isle of Wight, having got
overheated while playing at bowls and drenched afterwards by an unexpected
fall of rain, took cold, being moreover of a weak and sickly health, and
fell ill of a bad headache and fever, which increasing, she was obliged to
be abed where she died on December 8th inst., though carefully attended by
Mr. Mayerne, chief physician to her late Father" (September 1650, p. 41).
But the triumphs of the Parliament extend to enemies abroad; Portugal and
Holland are both humbled, Barbadoes and Jamaica forced to surrender. Du
Gard remained true to his promise. All Europe might peruse the famous
letter, "des generaux de l'armee navale du Parlement et de la Republique
d'Angleterre au tres honorable Guil. Lenthal ecuier, orateur dudit
Parlement, ecrite a bord du navire le Triomfe en la baie dite de Stoake,"
and signed: Robert Blake, Richard Deane, George Monck. Sprung from the
ranks of the people, those revolutionists used, when occasion needed, the
language of patricians. "M. Bourdeaux (the French envoy) having delivered a
copy of the letters accrediting him and subscribed: To our very dear and
good friends, the people of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England,
it was directed to be returned, for all addresses should be subscribed: To
the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England" (p. 513).
Such patriotic pride must move the writer of the _Nouvelles ordinaires_. So
in one of his very few outbursts of humour he exclaims: "The King of
Portugal being unable to do us harm, had tried to frighten us, but being
unable to do either, on the contrary showing the most egregious cowardice
and poltroonery as ever was seen, without the slightest regard for his
reputation, has tried to conceal his shame by a lying account, signed by
himself; if the said King thinks he has seen what he has written, it must
be said that his spectacles were set awry" (p. 45).
Religious intelligence takes up a great space in the _Nouvelles
ordinaires_. The readers are not spared a single proclamation about days of
fasting and repentance; lengthy abstracts are duly given of the sermons
preached at the Abbey or St. Margaret's; nor are the wordy resolutions of
the several committees on religious affairs omitted. The _quakers_ are
often spoken about. The first risings of the sect are set forth with the
kind of minuteness that appeals to a modern historian. They are
"evil-disposed and melancholy people" (_gens malfaits et melancoliques_);
most pestilent and persevering proselytisers, with an inordinate appetite
for martyrdom, they appear at the same time in the most unexpected
quarters; driven from Boston, they cause a holy panic in Hamburgh and
Bordeaux (p. 1375). Their leader, or at any rate "the chief pillar of that
frenzied sect," is named George Fox. "Many think the said Fox is a popish
priest, there being several of that garb among the said quakers, and what
makes the opinion plausible is that he is strong for popish and arminian
tenets, such, for instance, as salvation by good works." (p. 981).
With the exception of the poor Piedmont Waldenses, who had found a
strenuous protector in Cromwell, the foreign Protestants interest but
little the editor of the _Nouvelles ordinaires_: he was probably afraid of
offending those in high places by more than casually alluding to the
Huguenots who had shown themselves vehemently opposed to independency. Thus
it would be difficult to find a more explicit piece of news than the
following: "Letters from Paris say that of late divers outrages have been
committed on the Reformed, under frivolous pretences quite contrary to
their privileges, especially at La Rochelle, Metz, Amiens, Langres....
Local quarrels breaking out daily in divers places on the score of
religion, together with the massacres of Protestants in Piedmont, make it
feared lest there be a universal hidden design of the Papists to endeavour
to exterminate all those that make profession of the Reformed religion in
all places in the world" (p. 1057).
Mention is made of the French Churches in London. "This week, the members
of the French and Walloon Churches in this city have petitioned Parliament
to be maintained in the enjoyment of the privileges granted to them of old;
which petition being duly read, was referred to the Council of State" (p.
668); and further on: "This week, the ministers of the French Church in
this city, and six of the elders of the said Church, together with the
Marquis de Cugnac, came to Whitehall to congratulate His Highness" (p.
729).
The Marquis de Cugnac was then in England on behalf of the rebel Prince de
Conde, bidding against Cardinal Mazarin's envoys to gain the friendship of
Cromwell and the help of the English fleet. Many are the allusions in the
_Nouvelles ordinaires_ to the dark intrigues of the Frondeurs. A most
characteristic one may be quoted here; in May 1653 the "city of Bordeaux
sends four deputies to the Commonwealth, a councillor of Parliament
Franquart, a gentleman La Cassagne, a man of the Reformed religion whose
name is not stated, and a tin-potter named Taussin; with them have come a
herald bearing the arms of England as they were when Guyenne was under
English rule, and a trumpeter of the said city" (p. 597).
Many of Du Gard's readers are merchants; for them he prints the resolutions
of Parliament concerning the Customs and Excise, the Post Office
regulations, the treaties with foreign countries. No sooner is peace
proclaimed with Portugal than Du Gard gives information as to sending
letters to Lisbon, by means of frigates building at Woolwich (pp. 1326,
1328, 1333). Warnings are issued as to pirates in the Mediterranean or the
piratical practices of neutrals: "Letters from Leghorn say that Mr.
Longland, an English merchant, having loaded a French ship with a cargo of
tin, the captain of the said ship perfidiously gave notice to the Dutch,
who forthwith came with two men-of-war and seized it" (p. 562).
Pirates and "sea-rovers" (_escumeurs de mer_) meet with short mercy at the
hands of Du Gard: "We have notice from Leghorn that our ships on the
Mediterranean have captured a French ship commanded by Captain Puille,
nicknamed the Arch-pirate" (p. 194).
Robbers must be as summarily dealt with, especially Irish robbers:
"Lieutenant-General Barry was taken prisoner in Ireland by the Tories and
put to death. The Tories are a kind of brigands, of somewhat the same sort
as the Italian banditti; they live in marshes, woods, and hills, neither
till nor sow the earth, do no work, but live only on thieving and robbery"
(p. 15). Fancy Cardinal Mazarin reading about the Tories!
Such is the curious French paper in which Milton's name was mentioned for
the first time. Nor should we think the old forgotten publication unworthy
to record the rising fame of a future epic poet. Though the style of the
_Nouvelles ordinaires_ be as rough and harsh as the manners of Roundheads
and Ironsides, it served to tell in Paris and Brussels and Amsterdam of
lofty thoughts and splendid deeds. The utterings of a Cromwell still ring
with the haughtiness and energy that remind one of Satan's speeches in
_Paradise Lost_.
Du Gard's undertaking was remembered after the Commonwealth. To the
_Nouvelles ordinaires_ succeeded, with but a few years' interval, the
_Gazette de Londres_, the French edition to Charles II.'s _London Gazette_.
The general editor was one Charles Perrot, an Oxford M.A.; the printer, a
friend of Thurloe, as Du Gard had been, was called Thomas Newcombe; and the
task of writing the French translation was entrusted to one Moranville.
Editor, printer, and translator received their inspirations from Secretary
Williamson, who, the better to see his directions obeyed, placed Mrs.
Andrews, a spy, in the printing-house.
Beginning Feb. 5, 1666 (old style), the _Gazette de Londres_ was issued
under the reigns of both Charles II. and James II. Numbers are extant
dating from William III. and Queen Anne.
The few numbers of the _Gazette_ that we were enabled to read, appear of
much less interest than the _Nouvelles ordinaires_. Even a newspaper would
degenerate in the hands of Charles II. and his ministers. Here are
specimens of the vague colourless political news concerning France and
England: "Two of Mons. Colbert's daughters were bestowed--the elder on M.
de Chevreuse, son to the Duc de Luynes, the younger on the Count de
Saint-Aignan, only son to the Duc of the same name" (No. 13, Dec. 1666).
"Mons. de Louvois is ill with a fever" (No. 2248, May 1688). "His Majesty
(James II.) has begun to touch for the King's evil" (No. 1914, March 1684).
Such news the Secretary of State thought would neither stir rebellion nor
cause diplomatic complications.
The _Gazette de Londres_ appeared twice a week, on Monday and Thursday, was
printed on a half-sheet, and cost one penny.
Here is an advertisement that brings one back to the Great Fire: "All that
wish to provide this city with timber, bricks, stones, glass, tiles and
other material for building houses, are referred to the Committee of the
Common Council in Gresham House, London" (No. 12, Dec. 1666). Another may
be quoted: "An engineer has brought to this city the model in relief of the
splendid Versailles Palace, with gardens and waterworks, the whole being 24
feet long and 18 wide" (No. 2222, Feb. 1687).
To Thomas Newcombe succeeded as printer, in 1688, Edward Jones, who till
his death in 1705 published the _Gazette_, which then passed to his widow,
and ultimately to the famous bookseller Tonson.
The French edition met with some mishaps. Volume ix. of the _Journals of
the House of Commons_ records a dramatic incident. On 6th Nov. 1676 a
member rose in the House to point out the singular discrepancies between
the Royal proclamations against the Papists printed in the _London Gazette_
and the French translation in the _Gazette de Londres_. The terms had been
softened down not to cause offence to the French Court.
[Illustration: AT VERSAILLES
_After Bonnart_]
Immediately the House took fire, and summoned Newcombe and Moranville to
appear on the very next day. "Mr. Newcombe being called in to give an
account of the translation of the _Gazette_ into French, informed the House
that he was only concerned in the setting the press, and that he understood
not the French tongue! And that Mons. Moranville had been employed in that
affair for many years and was only the corrector of it. Mons. Moranville
being called in, acknowledged himself guilty of the mistake, but he
endeavoured to excuse it, alleging it was through inadvertency."[279]
Assemblies have abundance of energy, but seldom persevere in one course of
action: since no more is heard of the case, we may suppose that both
delinquents got off at little cost. Moreover, there is nothing very
heroical in the _Gazette de Londres_. Next to the editor of the _Nouvelles
ordinaires_, Moranville sinks into insignificance. He was most probably a
refugee reduced by poverty to write for a bookseller. What could an exiled
Frenchman do but teach or write French? So Moranville found many to follow
his example. As late as Queen Anne's time, French journalists earned a
scanty livelihood in London. The _Postman_ was edited in English, mind! by
Fonvive; the _Postboy_ by Boyer, whom Swift derisively called a "French
dog."[280]
The refugees were but continuators of Theophraste Renaudot, the father of
the modern press. The very name of _Mercury_ given to the early English
papers, came from France; what wonder then that French journalists should
be found in London? Why some should write in French, the forewords to the
_Nouvelles ordinaires_ set forth in an illuminating phrase: French was in
the seventeenth century "a language that extended and was understood
throughout Europe."
FOOTNOTES:
[267] The few extant letters--written in Latin--of William Du Gard bear the
signature: "Guil. du Gard." Now an Englishman would naturally sign "Dugard"
or "Du Gard" (Bodleian MSS. Rawl. A. 9. 123). He certainly knew French and
received intelligence from the Continent. The very slender clue that
relates his family to Jersey is yielded by the mention of one William Du
Gard, born in Jersey in 1677 (Rawl. MSS. T. 4to. 6, 202).
[268] _Calendars of State Papers, Dom._, 1649-1650, p. 500. Three months
before he had been called upon to enter into L300 recognizances. _Ibid._ p.
523.
[269] The following information is yielded by the State Papers: Du Gard
signs an agreement on 7th March 1649-50, _Dom._ 1650, p. 27; the next day
he gives sureties in L1000, p. 514; 2nd April, he recovers his press, pp.
76, 535; but must enter into L500 recognizances, p. 515; 11th September, he
becomes once more headmaster of Merchant Taylors' School, p. 235. The
Council, among other orders concerning the diffusion of Parliamentary
publications abroad, directs the Customs to "permit Mons. Rosin to
transport Customs free the impression of a book in French relating some
proceedings of Parliament against the late king, for dispersion in foreign
parts" (_Dom._ 1650, p. 527).
[270] _Dom._ 1660, p. 223.
[271] Further information on Du Gard may be found in Masson, _Life of
Milton_, Ch. Wordsworth, _Who Wrote Eikon Basilike?_ and the _Dictionary of
National Biography_. No one, however, seems to have taken the trouble to
read Du Gard's letters in the Bodleian Library and to connect him with the
_Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres_.
[272] To M. Jusserand we owe the appreciation on Milton penned in 1663 by
Ambassador Cominges for his royal master, Louis XIV., _Shakespeare en
France sous l'ancien regime_, p. 107. Two letters of Elie Bouhereau, a
physician of La Rochelle, asking, in 1672, for information on Milton, were
published in _Proceedings of the Huguenot Society_, vol. ix. pp. 241-42. I
pointed out a few years ago (_Revue critique_, 21st November 1904) Bayle's
severe strictures on Milton in the _Avis aux refugies_, 1690. The
appreciation of Cominges alone is quoted both by J. Telleen, _Milton dans
la litterature francaise_, and J. G. Robertson, _Milton's Fame on the
Continent_.
[273] The book is entitled [Greek: Eikonoklastes] _ou Reponse au Livre
intitule_ [Greek: Eikon Basilike] _ou le Pourtrait de sa Sacree Majeste
durant sa solitude et ses souffrances_. Par le Sr. Jean Milton. Traduite de
l'Anglois sur la seconde et plus ample edition. A Londres. Par Guill. Du
Gard, imprimeur du Conseil d'Etat. 1652.
[274] Manuscript notes in the margin have recorded the names of two Paris
subscribers: MM. de la Mare and Paul du Jardin. Cardinal Mazarin seems to
have been a reader of the paper, for he writes to the Count d'Estrades,
23rd April 1652: "S'il est vrai, comme les _Nouvelles publiques_ de Londres
le portant, que la Republique d'Angleterre soit en termes de s'accommoder
avec Messieurs les Etats."
[275] For instance, _eaux fortes_ (strong waters) for _eaux-de-vie_, p.
167; _moyens efficacieux_, p. 633; _toleration_, p. 691; _ejection des
ministres scandaleux_, p. 770; _retaliation_, p. 96; _lever et presser_ (to
press) _des soldats_, p. 169; _sergent en loy_ (sergeant at law), p. 213;
_le recorder seroit demis_ (dismissed) _de sa charge_, p. 221, etc.
[276] _Au parc dit Hide park_, p. 64; _la place dite Tower Hill_, p. 152;
_la rue dite le Strand_, p. 156; _la paroisse dite Martin-des-Champs_, St.
Martin-in-the-Fields, p. 182; _la prison dite la Fleet_, p. 370; _l'ile
dite Holy Island_, p. 442, etc.
[277] _Messenger_ he renders by _messager_, instead of _huissier_, p. 749.
More often, through mere indolence, he suffers the English word to stand:
_recorder_, p. 61; _commission d'oyer et terminer_, p. 841; _ranter_, p.
189; _quaker_, p. 1375. He indifferently writes _aldermens_, p. 61, and
_aldermans_, p. 717. He apparently does not know the French word _tabac_,
always preferring the form _tobac_ (tobacco).
[278] The Duke of Gloucester.
[279] _Journal_, _House of Commons_, ix. 534.
[280] See Chapter III.