The American Sharpe Read online

  On the other hand the liveliness or comparative superabundance of animal spirit in the Frenchman induces him in his hours of relaxation when he goes in public to enter into conversation with the first person he meets, that person is also a Frenchman & is actuated by the same besoin de coeur [need of heart] which with the Frenchman as with all reasons possessed of high animal spirits, is like eating and drinking, a want that must be gratified. Raise the spirits of the most phlegmatic by intoxication and his tongue will go. The Frenchman by thus conversing indifferently with people of different professions, habits & characters acquires a kind of superficial knowledge which fits him for general conversation and what is more, he by this habitude of frequenting general society shakes off that shyness which is an insuperable obstacle to being what is called agreeable.

  The Englishman coming less into contact with general society retains the peculiar masks which distinguish the profession or circumcised society in which he lives. If on one hand the Frenchman acquires a more easy agreeable manner from the variety of his society; on the other that very variety and the rapidity with which his acquaintances (for they cannot be called friendships) are formed is an obstacle to their being sincere, durable to their being in fact friendships (I must here per parenthesis remark that all these observations are to be understood in the most general scene, the better sort of society as in all civilised country nearly the same, there is no general remark to which there are not many, very many exceptions, but the general character however many the exceptions is the national character. To ascertain the national character you must not study the higher circles nor the inhabitants of the country, but those of the large towns and cities and most particularly those of Paris whom the French themselves call ‘Les Francois par excellence’ [the quintessential French]).

  Another natural consequence of the above mentioned peculiarities, is that the English are more domestic than the French, which I attribute to their reserve of character. The society of Englishmen is as I have already said more confined than that of Frenchmen, they have an opportunity of knowing each other thoroughly, they in those societies which in England we call domestic, which admit of less variety are composed always, of nearly the same persons with each of whose names are appreciated in the minds of the rest various agreeable recollections in these societies, there is more heart, more affection than in those of the more volatile Frenchman. The one when he wishes a relaxation dresses himself and goes with his family if he has one, to a coffee house, promenade or other public place, passes there an hour or two in lively animated conversation on general subjects with a person he never saw before & probably will never see again. In such intercourse the mind is employed and improves but the affections are dormant. The family return home with regret because they go there from a place of enjoyment and they look forward to no pleasure there, but perhaps that of recalling to mind and conversing of those that are past.

  The Englishman on the other hand instead of going in public to seek his relaxation, goes to the family circle of some relation or friend, or to the fire-side of his own immediate family, the time passes there in an intercourse in which the mental qualities shine less but in which the heart has more part. Thus home to which the Frenchman attaches merely the idea of the place where he eats, drinks and sleeps, the Englishman attaches the idea of the place where he enjoys his dearest pleasures. Doubtless many moral as well as physical causes have contributed to form or model, the French character to what it is and I am rather inclined to think that the peculiar tendency or rather policy of the government of Bonaparte, which by restraining the freedom of the press by purposely discouraging all serious inquiry into the liberal arts and sciences in order to turn the minds of the people & talents of the nation from the contemplation of public liberty and political rights, by encouraging on the stage only such frivolous subjects as form our modern romances; that his government purposely endeavoured and actually succeeded in rendering a light inconstant people still more frivolous than nature intended them to be.

  To this anti-domestic spirit of the French we must assign the reason why their country is so little inhabited, (by any but the agricultural classes, the badauderie [rubber necking] of the nation is such that they must burrow en masse.

  This constant abuse of proprietors from their estates and men of easy fortunes from the country must have a great effect on that part of the nation & must confine the changes and improvements almost entirely to the cities. In England from the frequent intercourse of the inhabitant of the fields with the inhabitant of the city together with the freedom of the press & other causes, there is no novelty of any kind which occurs in the one which is not known to and more or less interests the other. The variations in the character of the nation are in some degree felt throughout the whole the inhabitants of the country of France here entirely among themselves without seeing or scarcely hearing of their gayer countrymen the citizens, and they are nearly the same people now that they were centuries ago the labourer and the farmer, cultivate the fields as their father and grandfather did before them and not having intercourse with any more enlightened than themselves their ideas seldom wander beyond the sphere of their daily occupations.

  There is another circumstance which improves French society (that of the towns & cities I mean, from the observation of which society alone the opinion and national character to be found) and gives it an advantage over English, that is that in France the two sexes mingle together which tends certainly to improve both. In England the morning occupations of the two sexes are entirely different and even in the higher ranks the two sexes rarely speak before dinner & if they do it, it is only in short visits of ceremony. At dinner they mingle together, but soon after dinner they again separate and each retiring from the other have their separated occupations, the conversation of the men when thus left to themselves turns on dry political or other such subjects and even these are heated in a manner less delicate & elegant than that of which their nature is susceptible and with which they would be and are heated in the presence of women. The women left to themselves not having those motives to please, which activate them in their intercourse with the other sex, their conversation is reserved and partake of that littleness to which women are subject from the confined nature of their life. The young persons of both sexes not being brought up in the habitual intercourse with each other are shy, diffident & awkward.

  In France throughout all ranks the sexes mingle more together, their amusements are more identified with each other. At table or in the salon the conversation is general, the men thus by a continual intercourse with the women have a continual motive for endeavouring to please, their emulation excited, they are always attentive to propriety and acquire a portion of that polish and elegance which are the particular attributes of the sex. The women have the same motive as the men to be agreeable and well informed.

  In England general conversation is not expected from a woman especially a young one in the country, she would be blamed as forward if she were to offer a remark or opinion unless somebody addressed her particularly. And there is such a great portion of vanity in all the motives for human actions that few people will be at the trouble of mental application, if they have not the prospect of displaying their savoir [knowledge]. In France a certain degree of information is necessary for a woman because she is expected to take a part in the conversation. By being thus constituted a more important part of the society, they acquire a general information and shake off in a great measure that littleness which I am convinced does not belong to the sex but to their manner of education and life.

  Women are said to feel everything in extreme, cannot this be accounted for by their secluded manner of life? We know that intercourse with the world generally blunts the feelings which I attribute to the selfish state of society in general to the disappointed and coldness which the warm confident heat of youth meets with in what is called the world. As women from their mode of life are less exposed to this as their occupations are more sedentary and thei
r thoughts consequently less liable to distraction, they are more occupied with their feelings, thus with them it is not only the heart but the imagination which is employed. To the same cause I attribute that littleness and those petty resentments and jealousies which we see in some women, and in travelled men whose ideas like their life & occupations are confined within the small sphere perhaps of a country town.

  As the French have great criminal spirits they have very little of what we call feeling or sensibility which are two qualities, perhaps incompatible, they go to the spectacle less to be seduced by the imaginary use of the scene than to criticise in England the feelings of the audience (that part I mean who go to see the play) are intent on the representation, the judgement only wakes to condemn or applaud on curtain, as of gross error or brilliant acting, while the feelings are alone intent on the interest of the drama and after it is over & the emotions excited have subsided, the judgement then and not till then approves or condemns in proportion as the music has more or less powerfully acted on the feelings. If the tragedy does not re-awake the sensibility at all the judgement at once condemns it, because an English audience go to a tragedy to feel. A French audience go to a tragedy to criticise.

  Esprits is the maxim of the French people, a witticism will often gain a bad cause and during the representation instead of abandoning themselves to the fictitious woe of the scene, their minds are employed in thinking what they should say when asked their opinion and even if they should happen involuntarily to feel admiration for a play or an actor who is generally condemned, they would not say it for fear of being thought des gens de mauvais gout, [people of bad taste]. So much for the sensibility of the French, now for their feeling or their intercourse with each other, as they are inconstant, which I have attributed in a great measure to their high animal spirits, of course they can have no deep or lasting feeling in their affections, I do not think they have even keen feelings or what we call warm passions. In all things which regard the point of honour their first impulse is keen & impetuous but this arises from the influence of society & public opinion which proceeds from society; but on their feelings of love or desire they are cold. Setting aside constancy of attachment I will venture to affirm that the passion (I will not talk of the sentiment) of love is seldomer felt in France than either England or Spain, the one a more northern, the other a more southern climate, that in fact they have less passion than either the English or the Spaniards this may be owing in a great measure to a certain laxity of morals & indecent freedom in French manners. Subjects are heated indifferently in French conversation which are the height of indecency elsewhere and we all know that too much familiarity & knowledge on those subjects vents the feelings. There must be a great deal left to the imagination to keep passion warm, were men & women to go naked, there would be even less of it.

  November

  22nd The treaty of peace was signed at Paris on the 20th56. The French are to maintain 150,000 of the allied troops in their country for five years, those that exceed this manner are to go home immediately.

  30th The regiments who do not form a part of the army of occupation have commenced marching today. Some of them come into our village for this night.

  December

  9th Marched today to St Germain [en –Lay], very cold indeed.

  The 95th returned to Paris and James enjoyed the opportunities to visit the theatres again.

  10th Marched to Paris our men are in the barracks in the Rue de Clichy, the officers are billeted chiefly in the Rue Mont Blanc57. The people are very sulky, they attribute chiefly to [the] English the hard terms of the treaty of peace. The weather is exceedingly cold.

  12th We have got a mess room and are very comfortable, I hope we may remain here some time.

  13th Went this evening to the theatre des varieties. The performance is very pleasing.

  20th To the Italian opera Semiramide58 was performed in which Catalani59 sung divinely, the orchestra is very good.

  23rd To the Italian opera Il Fanatico perla Musica60 was performed, in which Catalani was still more exquisite & the orchestra shone more than the last time I was there.

  24th To the Theatre Feydeau or Comic opera, the singing is very good. This is a style of acting in which the French excel every other nation. It is a species of composition also in which they write well, but their tragedies though they consider themselves the first dramatic nation in the world appear to me very unnatural. In the first place their choice of subjects do not like our own Shakespeare whom they are pleased to term a barbarian, appearing to me to show a greater knowledge of spirit of dramatic act, viz the exciting of interest. It is more natural to suppose that a modern audience would be interested in subjects drawn from the history of their own country or founded on the popular tales of modern times, such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello & because we can conceive such feelings & such manners but how any modern people & above all how the French can enter into the feelings of Achilles, Agamemnon & Alexander the Great is what I cannot conceive, besides there is a coldness & dignity which characterises all classical stories & writings ill suited to the excitement of either violent passions or tender feelings. I have seen Addison’s certainly very elegant tragedy of Cato61 performed with all Mr Kemble’s62 fine acting and have certainly admired it much, but could not feel it. With such subjects tied down also by the strictest rules and to which all other subjects are also obliged to conform, and a language naturally too light for the dignity of tragedy, French tragedy can never seriously interest, it is not only their tragedy but their manner of performing that I dislike, it is all declamation and the language of the tragic actor like that of the writer is not the language of nature, there [are] none of those sudden bursts of genius, those gestures, glances, that look which express the most inexpressible feelings of the heart, such as you see on the English stage. In French tragedy I never can forget the actor but I have seen Mrs Siddons63, Miss O’Neill64 & Mr Kemble without recollecting for the time that there were such people in existence.

  27th Marched this morning (our brigade only) our regiment is in four villages, our company and another at Marly, head quarters at Louvre.

  29th Went to Paris. Went to the French opera, saw the ballet of Flore et Zephire65. Very grand indeed.

  30th Returned to Marly.

  ? Ugly old house, I am sick of being divided [up].

  Chapter 16

  The Army of Occupation

  In early 1816 the army marched into the north of France, it was none too soon for James.

  January 1816

  26th Marched through Gournay [sur-Aronde] to Cuvilly where headquarters stopped, our company went off the road to Ressons [sur-Matz].

  27th Through Roye to Liancourt [Fosse] where our company stopped with head quarters.

  28th Halt. Fine hard frost.

  29th Through Peronne (La Pucelle as it used to be called), which is strong by its nearby situation only. Our company to Allaines.

  30th Through Fins to (our company) Gonnelieu.

  31st Through Cambrai to our final destination, our company is cantoned at Marquion two leagues from Cambrai & about 5 from Arras. The rest of the regiment are at Inchy [en-Artois], Baralle, Pronville & Cagnicourt. Head quarters of the brigade are at Buissy.

  Moeuvres 15 February 1816

  My dear Laura,

  I have no doubt you will think me unpardonably lazy in not having answered your letter before. A short time after the receipt of it we again commenced moving, and after various short halts arrived in the cantonments on the first of this month which I suppose will be the cantonments of this army for three or perhaps five years. A pretty prospect. Everybody was delighted at the idea of remaining in France, and those regiments who were not destined to form a part of the army of occupation were thought peculiarly unfortunate; a fortnight’s trial however has wrought a wonderful change in the ideas of our citizens of the world, who begin to think now that their own country is the best after all.

  The army is woefully
disappointed, instead of being as they expected in the large towns, where they could have plenty of society, their regimental mess, and where they would have an opportunity of playing the elegant, we are all scattered about in different villages, which are hereabouts very poor, and in bad weather the roads which are nowhere paved are impassable, so that in bad weather one [is] absolutely a prisoner in one’s house. Is this not a brilliant prospect for five years, especially to those who have no resources within themselves, who never read, and who are perfectly dependent on others for their amusement which I am sorry to say is the case with the greater part of the officers of the army. This is very different indeed from the south of France.

  I was very sorry to learn by your letter that my aunt is still confined to her room; but I hope that the fine weather which we may expect shortly will give her an opportunity of taking a little exercise now and then which surely would be of advantage to her. But perhaps the winter lasts longer with you than it does in England. The weather has been very cold here lately and I have had an opportunity of skating, an amusement which you know I used to be very fond of and which I have not had in my power since I have been in the army. The people of this country do it in great perfection, and as there are in Flanders and Holland almost as many canals as high roads, one might in winter make a skating tour through the whole country. They tell us however that we may soon expect spring weather here. I had a letter from my father of later date than that you mention written from Shady Grove after his return from the northward. He had then seen all the particulars of the Battle of Waterloo1. I am in daily expectation of hearing again, if I do not hear shortly I will apply for leave of absence and will of course see you before I go out [to America].