5 - Aids, Strategies and Facilitators

Summary

The majority of travellers went abroad in the company of only one person, whose role is variously described in the literature as a tutor, a governor or a ‘bear-leader’. His key role was to act as an interpreter in order to minimise the time wasted in everyday communications and maximise language practice with selected audiences. While terms like ciceroni often recur in travel writing, the same cannot be said about interpreters, although we know that many individuals did perform translation duties. While ordinary women were apparently well hidden in Italy, rich and elegant ladies were not at all inhibited about inviting foreign noblemen to their palaces. In France the atmosphere was even more licentious, not only within the upper echelons of society but also among peasants and maidservants at the inns. Reports about using gestures are not found in the memoirs of travellers of high rank as these men were accompanied by tutors or attendants who were able to communicate with the locals. Conveying an urgent message to a foreigner through body language was more typically experienced by lone travellers or small groups where no one had knowledge of the foreign language.