Daily Life During the French Revolution (32 page)

Leaving Switzerland and making her way to England, she met
Narbonne-Lara near London on January 21, 1793, to dissuade him from returning
to France to testify in defense of Louis XVI. The day they met, the king went
to the guillotine. Germaine returned to Switzerland in May and from there
issued a plea to the revolutionaries to have mercy on Marie-Antoinette, a
useless request that fell on deaf ears. The queen was executed on October 16,
1793.

After the death of her mother, in May 1794, Germaine moved
to the château near Lausanne to form a new salon and enter the arms of Count
Ribblin. Narbonne-Lara arrived later and, finding himself displaced, returned
to a former mistress. In the autumn of 1794, Germaine moved on and again found
a new love—Benjamin Constant, a 27-year-old Swiss writer.

She returned to Paris in May 1795, after the fall of
Robespierre, made peace with her husband, and reestablished her salon at the
Swedish embassy, which was attended once again by notable politicians and
writers. Irritated by her political intervention, a deputy denounced her on the
floor of the Convention and accused her of conducting a monarchist conspiracy
as well as being unfaithful to her husband. She was ordered to leave France and
by January 1, 1796, was back in Switzerland, where she continued her writing.

Germaine was notified by the Directory that she could return
to France but could live no closer to the capital than 20 miles. Along with
Constant, she moved into the abbey at Hérivaux and in the spring was given
permission to visit her husband in Paris. On June 8, 1797, she gave birth to a
daughter, Albertine, of undetermined paternity. Through Barras (a frequenter of
her salon), she then secured the recall of Talleyrand from exile in England and
his appointment, on July 18, 1797, as minister of foreign affairs. In 1798, her
husband gave Germaine a friendly separation in return for a substantial
allowance that permitted him to live comfortably in an apartment in what is
today the Place de la Concorde until his death, in 1802.

Madame de Staël first met Napoleon at a reception given by
Talleyrand on December 6, 1796, on the general’s victorious return from Italy.
She was enthralled by him, but, eventually, appalled by his policies, she left
Paris again. She returned in 1802, and her salon became a center for anti-
Napoleonic agitation. The emperor exiled her from the city in 1803, and she was
not able to return until after his defeat, in 1815. She died on July 14, 1817.

Madame de Staël.

Marie-Antoinette at the
revolutionary tribunal where she was condemned to death.

UNMARRIED MOTHERS

Unmarried women who became pregnant were supposed under the
law to report the matter to the authorities and to present details of the
circumstances to the courts. Failure to do so could lead to a charge of
infanticide if the child was found dead for any reason. The
Comité de Mendicité
believed this humiliating process made women reluctant to register their
pregnancies to protect themselves and their lovers.

The committee also felt that to abolish the legislation and
remove the stigma attached to out-of-wedlock births would encourage women to
keep their babies. Those who required monetary assistance would receive it from
the state. Children who were abandoned would also receive a state subsidy and
be regarded as
enfants de la patrie (children
of the nation— precious
human resources as potential soldiers or mothers).

Most women who pressed paternity suits were of humble
background. They sought monetary support for the child’s upbringing and
education. Sometimes this was awarded when witnesses (such as neighbors) saw
the man in question courting the girl. Sometimes a woman had been promised
marriage if she gave in to a suitor who then left her pregnant, or she might
have been compromised by a married man. In the first instance, the young man
might have gone off to the army, never to be heard of again. In the second, if
she could prove her case, she had a good chance of winning some support. A law
passed on November 2, 1793, outlawed the usual rights of unwed mothers and
their children to pursue paternity suits for their support.

PROSTITUTION

The male nobility had their courtesans and set them up in
luxurious apartments, lavishing costly gifts on women who had little to do
except prepare themselves for their lover’s visits. Many had started out as
common prostitutes whose exceptional qualities had caused one or another
aristocrat to single them out.

Despite being condemned as immoral, prostitution flourished
and catered to all classes. Singers, dancers, actresses, and barmaids were all
considered fair game, available to anyone who had the requisite money to treat
them well. Such women were prohibited by law from seeking redress if they
became pregnant. Those who worked in seedy brothels to make a little money or
to help their families financially were the worst off. If they were lucky, the
owner might offer them some protection from violence.

Young, pretty girls were often lured into brothels by
offers of jobs as servants or by other false pretenses. Coaches arriving in
Paris from the provinces were sometimes met by procurers looking for naive
country girls in search of employment. The girls were soon to discover that the
occupation into which they had been coerced was rather different from what they
had expected.

Although they were considered outside the law, prostitutes
plied their trade in public places and were manipulated by police, who used
them as informants as well as sexual partners. Many also did other jobs, such
as laboring in the linen industry or working as seamstresses, hatmakers, or
laundry workers; prostitution was sometimes a part-time occupation that helped
them to make ends meet. Some parents sacrificed one or more of their daughters
to the trade in order to help feed the rest of the family.

Public morality was not seriously taken into account until
the time of the Terror. The Constituent Assembly addressed the subject only
once, when it decided, on July 22, 1791, that girls could not be arrested
unless they committed offenses that outraged public decency or caused public
disorder, thereby giving prostitution some legal standing. The problem grew,
however, and when the Paris Commune and members from the various sections began
making complaints, the Jacobins acted by passing laws that resulted in
prostitutes being brought in for questioning about whether they were
sympathetic to the republic. Libertinism was now declared suspect—ladies of the
street might be in touch with anti-republicans and therefore might be enemies
of the regime. They could be sheltering people wanted by the police such as
priests, nobles, or other fugitives.

When no such enemies of the state were found, the situation
settled down for a while. Then, suddenly, the attack against the street women
began again. This time, the attorney-general for the Commune, Chaumette,
decided that immorality was the last vestige of the corruption of society by
royalty. He wished to reestablish morality, the fundamental basis of
republicanism, asserting that by cleansing the moral environment, the
government would save the country. A clean sweep of Paris was ordered, and all
women considered to lead a loose life were subject to arrest. Police patrols
circulated day and night to prevent soliciting (or even smiling at) the
opposite sex. Virtuous citizens were recruited to aid the police, and old men
were invited to become ministers of morals. All they had to do was give a sign
and an arrest would be made. For a few months, the streets seemed clear of
streetwalkers, and books and pictures considered obscene disappeared from shop
windows. This crusade was as short-lived as the men responsible for it.

No sooner had Robespierre lost his head, than everything
went back to normal.

The Parisian Sultan.
Prostitution under the Directory.

WOMEN OF THE PALAIS ROYAL

A man who knew his way around the city of Paris had no
difficulty in finding the right girl, at the right price, for his amorous
desires. Someone from the country, new in the city, on the other hand, would
find a confusing collection of women, all with one aim—to get his money. At the
time when the regions of France were preparing to send their delegates to the
Estates-General, an enterprising Parisian publisher anticipated the problems
that might arise and designed a newspaper, destined to go through several
editions, in which he listed the names, average prices, physical
characteristics, and addresses of the ladies of the Palais Royal, as well as
those in other districts of the city.

He informed his readers that for anyone happening to have
25 livres, Madame Dupéron and her four lady friends would see to all their
needs at 33 Palais Royal. However, if the client preferred the medium price
bracket, he could not do better than Victorine, whose considerable favors could
be won for six livres and a bowl of punch. The same price was in force at 132
Palais Royal for the charms of La Paysanne, who was not such a peasant as her
name implied. The author advised the client to beware, however, as this young,
healthy girl liked a good night’s sleep. Georgette, it seems, was good but
disgraced herself after drinking. La Bacchante, her rival, was superb and well
known among connoisseurs for her daring eyes, electric body, and opulent locks.
A fault was that she was scandalously lacking in notions of equality; her
prices went up to six livres for young men and 12 for the more mature. She,
too, had a rival, who styled herself Venus; she lived in the most elegant
apartment and was not unworthy of the appellation.

Referred to as
les femmes du monde
(ladies of the world),
these women formed a group of their own among the courtesans and lived in
luxury, often on the second floor of the galleries in apartments that had views
of or led into a garden. They gave excellent dinners and charmed their guests
with graciousness and their variety of talents.

They took in strangers to introduce them to the pleasures
of gambling. Many naive young men soon became addicted and often lost all their
money. Madame de Saint-Romains, who, with her two attractive nieces, lodged
above the Cafe Caveau, helped country boys empty their purses in card games.
Two wild people from Canada known as the Algonquin and the Algonquiness
exhibited themselves in the “costumes” of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.