Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France (62 page)

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Girondins
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Histoire des clubs
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Paris 1986

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London 1995

WORDS AND PHRASES

À bas…!
Down with…!

à la
in the style of

amazone
a women’s masculine-cut riding habit, or a female soldier

ami/e
friend

ancien règime
the old regime (before the revolution)

baiser
to kiss

bonnet rouge
red Phrygian cap once worn by freed Roman slaves; revolutionary symbol of liberty

beau/belle
handsome/beautiful

bon/bonne
good

bourgeois/e
member of the middle class, generally urban

cahier
notebook

‘Ça Ira’
revolutionary anthem; the chorus translates as ‘It will go our way!’

caisse
box; crate; fund

chemise de la reine
a simple white dress; literally, the queen’s dress

cher/chère
dear

ci-devant
former

citoyen/ne
citizen/citizeness

clubist/e
a frequenter of clubs

cocarde
rosette, cockade

comité
committee

commissaire
police officer, commissioner

Commune
the popularly-elected Parisian government from 1789 until 1795

Conventionnel
member of the National Convention

coup d’épée
sword blow

cour
court

cul noir
rough pottery (literally, black-bottomed)

curè
priest

dauphin
heir to the French throne

décadi
tenth day of the new revolutionary calendar, equivalent to a Sunday

Department
one of the 83 administrative areas into which France was divided in 1790

deputy
member of the National Assembly

droit
right

émigré
someone who fled revolutionary France, usually aristocratic

enragés/enragées
a group of populist extremists prominent in the summer of 1793

épouse
wife

Estates-General
the French representative assembly, composed of three estates, or classes (clergy, nobility and commons); it was called by the king in 1788 (and met in May 1789) for the first time since 1614

étranger/étrangère
foreigner, stranger

étrenne
gift, money

faubourg
suburb; traditionally, a working-class area like Saint-Antoine just outside Paris’s walls

faux
false

fédérés
National Guardsmen from all over the country who gathered in Paris in summer 1792 for the Fête de la Fédération in July, and were instrumental in the storming of the Tuileries in August

femme
woman, wife

femme de chambre
maid

femme publique
prostitute; literally, public woman

fête champêtre
a rural village festival

Feuillants
club of constitutional monarchists, mostly aristocratic liberals, created in July 1791; met in the convent of the Feuillants on the rue Saint-Honoré; most of its members left Paris before or during the September massacres of 1792

fille de joie
prostitute

fournée
literally, batch; large groups of prisoners dispatched to the guillotine during the Terror

garde française
an elite force, founded in 1563, stationed in Paris in 1789 and highly susceptible to the incendiary revolutionary idealism prevalent there; dissolved in September 1789, with most of its men joining the new National Guard

garde nationale
a patriotic, voluntary National Guard formed in July 1789

gendarme
policeman

gens
people

Girondin
deputy from the Gironde region around Bordeaux; the word came to be used for a group of progressive, federalist deputies opposed to Robespierre and to the dominance of Paris in revolutionary politics; also known, after one of their prominent members, as Brissotins

guerre
war

guillotine
machine used to behead convicted criminals swiftly and humanely; it took its name from the doctor and deputy to the National Assembly who recommended its use

haut monde
high society

honnête
honourable, honest

hôtel
large town-house, either a private residence or an establishment renting out rooms and apartments

Hôtel de Ville
town hall

infortuné/e
unlucky; ill-fated

Jacobin
member of the Jacobin Club, especially a follower of Maximilien Robespierre

jeunesse dorée
gilded youth; a name given to the
muscadins
of 1794–5

joie/joyeuse
joy/joyful

joli/e
pretty

journèe
day

lanterne
lamppost;
‘à la lanterne!
’ meant ‘string them up!’

lettres de cachet
royal writs of pardon, imprisonment or exile; literally, stamped or sealed letters; the king needed no authority to issue them, and they became a hated symbol of his arbitrary power

libérateur/libératrice
rescuer

liberty trees
trees planted by groups or individuals as symbols of liberty and decorated with tricolour ribbons and red bonnets; perhaps 60,000 were planted in 1792

Liégois/e
person from Liège

Lyonnais/e
person from Lyon

mairie
town council or town hall

maisons de santé
temporary revolutionary holding-houses or prisons

manège
hall; a former indoor riding arena attached to the Tuileries palace, in which the National Assembly, the National Convention and the Council of Five Hundred successively sat; destroyed in 1802

marais
area of central Paris, literally meaning swamp; the name derives from the boggy land it was built on

marchand/e
shopkeeper or stall-holder

mariée
bride

‘Marseillaise’
the marching song of the Rhine army, composed in 1792 by Rouget de Lisle, which was declared the French national anthem in 1795

mère
mother

merveilleuses
literally, the wonderful ones; the women of Directory high society

mondain/e
socialite

Montagnard
the name given to the most extreme left-wing deputies to the National Assembly, generally Jacobin supporters of Robespierre, because of the high seats they took on the left-hand side of the
manège

mouchard
spy or informer

muscadin
dandy

Notre Dame
Our Lady, generally referring to the Virgin Mary

nourrice
wet-nurse

observateur
spy

oeil de vigilance
literally, a vigilant eye

pain
bread

patriote
patriot, but carrying with it the implicit meaning of a supporter of the revolution

patrie
the homeland

pauvre
poor

peuple
people

pierrot
a short woman’s shift

pique
pike; a simple weapon used by common people and thus a symbol of their independence and patriotism

poissard/e
literally, rogue; also refers to the rough slang spoken by the market people of Paris

propriété nationale
national property; the slogan daubed on to émigrés’ abandoned houses that had been confiscated by the revolutionary government

protecteur/protectrice
protector

putain
slut

quartier
area of Paris

régicide
a deputy who voted for Louis XVI’s execution

reine
queen

représentants en mission
envoys appointed by the National Convention to maintain order in the French provinces

rivière
necklace; literally, river

roi
king

salon
drawing-room; or, more often here, the regular parties held in a drawing-room

salonnière
the hostess at a salon

sans
without

sans-culottes
lower-class Parisian radicals who, instead of aristocratic breeches or culottes, wore trousers, often striped red and white

Septembrist
someone implicated in the September massacres of 1792

sections
from May 1790, the 48 wards of Paris, each with its own popularly elected government

tendresse
tenderness

toilette
outfit; the process of getting dressed

tous/toute
all

tribune
visitors’ gallery at the
manège
or convention hall; or the speakers’ rostrum

tricoteuse
literally, knitter; women making socks for their husbands and sons fighting in the revolutionary army were the most regular (and savagely vociferous) observers of the guillotine

tutoyer
(noun,
tutoiement
) to address someone using the informal second-person-singular
tu
rather than the politer second-person-plural
vous

tyran
tyrant

vainqueur
victor; applied as an honorary epithet to those men who sacked the Bastille on 14 July 1789

valet de chambre
gentleman’s gentleman

vaillant/e
brave

veuve
widow

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has been wonderful to write, firstly because the subject matter was so enthralling, secondly because it involved frequent visits to Paris where I tortured librarians at countless
bibliothèques
with my appalling French, and finally because everyone who helped me with it was so delightful and so enthusiastic. Many, many thanks to: the staff of the British and London Libraries in London and the Archives Nationales and the Richelieu, Mitterand and Arsenal Libraries in Paris; Elisabeth, princesse de Chimay, for taking the time to dicuss Thérésia with me; Sybille de Rosée, for putting me in touch with the princesse and having me to stay for such a lovely evening; Anne Colette, for being so patient with my French over countless breakfasts; everyone at the Milk Studios for making me feel so welcome; Sophie Richard; Andrew Stock; my sisters, Corina and Sophie, who made my stay in Paris so much fun; the wonderful Tif Loehnis, Eric Simonoff, Rebecca Folland, Christelle Chamouton, Mollie Stirling and everyone at Janklow & Nesbit; and the fantastic team at Harper Collins, including Arabella Pike, Terry Karten, Annabel Wright, Vera Brice, Alice Massey, Helen Ellis, Caroline Hotblack, Leslie Robinson and John Bond, as well as Sue Phillpott for her immaculate copy editing (the mistakes which remain are all my own) and Douglas Matthews for the index. Thank you for putting so much into this project and giving me such warm encouragement. I’m really looking forward to working on the next one with you. Finally I’d like to thank my husband, Justin, who nobly commuted to Paris while I was staying there and to whom this book is dedicated. We’ll always have Louis…