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Carlyle's General Method in The French Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2021

Charles Frederick Harrold
Charles Frederick Harrold*
Affiliation:
Michigan State Normal College
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Extract

Thomas Carlyle's French Revolution may be regarded as a prodigious cento of fragments from the memoirs and histories which made up the great bulk of his sources. Those sections which are not devoted to running commentary on the Revolution, on democracy, or on other problems, are Carlylean renditions of various dull or hopelessly biased accounts, selected for color and drama, arranged according to climax or contrast, and presented so as to secure the result desired, a “flame-picture.” “While other historians sought to blend . . . details [from memoirs] into a smooth equable narrative, as rags are fashioned into a sheet of paper, Carlyle took the rags themselves and hung them forth gay or grimy or blood-stained, dancing in air or trailing in mud.” Instead of considering Carlyle as a scientific historian we may more properly regard him as an artist, dealing with reported fact from a confusing number of directions, and handling materials which, however manifestly unreliable they themselves might be, always demanded some degree of accuracy and good faith, and which on the other hand permitted various turns of interpretation, emphasis, perspective, or moral judgment. From a great number of incoherent and carelessly inaccurate narratives, he attempted to winnow that thing which he revered with his whole soul, the significant human fact.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , December 1928 , pp. 1150 - 1169
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1928

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References

page 1150 note 1 There are, roughly, 1700 paragraphs in The French Revolution; of these more than 500 contain no historical material whatever, but express Carlyle's reactions to events and ideas of the Revolution. My analysis of his method in the history has proceeded in the directions suggested by his citations of sources in footnotes; of these there are over 850. It has been assumed that by assembling all the sources mentioned in them, the basis of all Carlyle's statements of fact could be found. Except for some half dozen allusions, which cannot be regarded as a part of his general method, this has been found true. In the absence of citation, the source of a given paragraph has been selected from the whole according to its fitness and adequacy. The history has been examined in the light of all the sources, of which, according to the least calculation, there are 83.

page 1150 note 2 Richard Garnett, Life of Thomas Carlyle, London [1887], p. 82.

page 1151 note 3 All references to The French Revolution, in this paper, will be to the first edition, London, 1837. Since later editions were consulted before the writer had access to the first ed., there may be variations in punctuation and spelling but not in the text, which has been carefully collated with later eds. Unless otherwise noted all sources indicated are in the editions which Carlyle consulted; in general, enough of their titles is given to identify them readily.

page 1152 note 4 Bailly dates his account the 12th of July; Carlyle is relating events of the 13th. Carlyle not only misdates the event but also misquotes Bailly concerning the “wooden shoes,” which are noted only in Baffly's work.

page 1152 note 5 Carlyle used this work in the ed. of Paris, 1792-1803. In this paper all quotations from this source are identical in text with the one I am using. I shall refer to it as Carlyle does, as Deux Amis.

page 1153 note 6 In the sentence beginning: “As little could Controller d'Ormesson do..”

page 1153 note 7 In the paragraphs dealing with Necker's final years.

page 1153 note 8 Calonne's bon mot to the Queen, about achieving the impossible.

page 1153 note 9 In the sentence beginning: “M. de Maurepas has to gyrate.”

page 1153 note 10 Calonne's final years; paragraph beginning: “Such destiny the magic.”

page 1153 note 11 Loménie de Brienne's final years; last paragraph in the chapter.

page 1153 note 12 Throughout the chapter, for details' in the lives of the leaders of “the procession.”

page 1153 note 13 Part I, Book VII, Chapter VII, “At Versailles,” second paragraph; the description of Jourdan and “Père Adam” in the third paragraph; p. 393 of Chapter XI, “From Versailles”; p. 403 of the same chapter (the last day, of Moreau de Saint-Méry). See the appropriate articles in Biog.. Univ.

page 1154 note 14 Pt II, Bk. IV, Ch. I, “Charlotte Corday,” p. 236, concerning the funeral um, naming children after Marat, and David's picture of him. Cf. Biog. U.

page 1154 note 15 Pt II, Bk. IV, Ch. VIII, “The Return,” pp. 255-56, Théroigne's last years; p. 254, Bouillé's last years. See the Biog. U.

page 1154 note 16 See art on Charlotte Corday in Biog. Univ.

page 1154 note 17 The article on Danton in the Biog. Univ. was used more copiously than can be indicated in the scope of this study. See the Biog. U.

page 1154 note 18 These three notes presumably refer to the following: Duc de Levis, Souvenirs et Portraits, Paris, 1780-89; Biographical Anecdotes of the Founders of the French Republic, London, 1798; Horace Walpole, Walpoliana, London, 1819 (bound with Walpole's Reminiscences). (These are the only editions in which I have been able to gain access to these three works.)

page 1155 note 19 Pt. I, Bk. V, Ch. IV, “To Arms,” beginning with the last sentence of the fifth paragraph and ending with the ninth. (In the first edition of The French Revolution, Part I, II III were there separate volumes; thus my reference to volumes are also to Parts.)

page 1155 note 20 Ibid. (The “Bust-procession” was precipitated by an inflaming speech of Camille Desmoulins; a mob then began a “demonstration” in favor of Necker who had just been dismissed.)

page 1156 note 21 n the same general passage (in the edition of 1792-1803, however), the “Deux Amis” note that the anger of the crowds, as they came as usual on Sunday evenings from the guinguettes or suburban tea-bouses and taverns, was due less to the dismissal of Necker than to the appearance of arms and soldiers at a time always given to pleasure and gaiety.

page 1157 note 22 On minor details Carlyle is occasionally (but not often) indifferent to conflicting source-accounts. Joseph Weber (Mémoires concernant Marie Antoinette, Paris, 1822, i, 367-68) declares that two men were felled by Lambesc, and that of the two, not the schoolmaster but the Garde-française was struck down by the “flat of the sword”; the schoolmaster was unable to escape Lambesc's bone and was accidentally injured. On the other hand, J.-J. Dusaulx (Prise it la Bastille, Paris, 1821, p. 274) relates that “dans cette conjoncture, un soldat des gardes-françaises avait été tué d'un coup de pistolet, par un dragon,” and that a man “nommé Chauvet, maître de pension, agé de 64 ans, avait été blessé par le prince..” Weber attempts, in his royalist bias, to screen the prince, adding, “et l'on s'écria aussitôt que celui-ci l'avait été blessé d'un coup de sabre.”

Carlyle und Weber's Mémoires (which were really written by Lally-Tollendal) in the edition of London, 1804-09. He seems to have had little faith in Weber's veracity; yet while he often shows his reliance upon Dusaulx, he fails, in this particular narrative, to mention the pistol shot Presumably where writers differed on the details of an episode, he felt at liberty to conjecture the most probable facts.

page 1158 note 23 We may note the following features of Carlyle's style as shown in the parallel : capitalization in ll. 2, 12, 24, 51, 56, 67, 95; triads in ll. 1-4, 17-19, 31-32, 86-88; an epithet in 1. 78; omitted connectives in ll. 95-104; hyphenation in 11. 2, 33, 90-92; alliteration in ll. 29, 30, 40; a coined hyphenated expression in l. 99 (“storm-voice”); italics in ll. 60 (“explode”); apostrophe in ll. 69-72; exclamation in 11. 1-5, 40-42; hyperbole in ll. 100-104; contributed speech without quotation marks in ll. 34-37 (in which the mob is conceived at commanding all gaiety to be stopped); comment in ll. 20-23; a general survey of the situation in ll. 89-104; interrogation in ll. 51-52, 69-76.—Noteworthy also are the metaphors in ll. 60 (“explode”), 99 (“storm-voice”), and ll. 102-104 (“the streets are a living foam-sea, chafed by all the winds).”

page 1159 note 24 Carlyle himself wrote: “. I have again been resolute about the writin of a book, and even working in the direction of one. Subject, ‘The French Revolution.‘ Whole boxes of books about me. Gloomy, huge, of almost boundless meaning, but obscure, dubious—all too deep for me; will and must do my best. Alas! gleams too, of a work of art hover past me; as if this should be a work of art. Poor me!” Carlyle's Journal, July 26, 1834. (Quoted from Froude's biography of Carlyle, . Y. 1882, Vol II, Ch. 18, p. 259.)

page 1159 note 25 Pt. I, Bk. V, Ch. IV, “To Arms!” fifth paragraph, to the last sentence.

page 1161 note 26 From Deux Amis, Paris, 1792-1803, i, 274. Carlyle does not cite this source at this point; on p. 245, however, there is the following citation: “Vieux Cordelier, par Camille Desmoulins, No. 5 (reprinted in Collection des Mémoires, par Baudouin Frères, Paris, 1825), p. 81.”

page 1161 note 27 Carlyle, iii, 392 (in “Go Down To”); Mémoires sur les Prisons, Paris, 1823, i, 264-65.

page 1161 note 28 Carlyle, iii, 342 (in “Flame Picture”); G.-H.-R. Montgaillard, Histoire de France, Paris, 1827, iv, 290.

page 1162 note 29 Carlyle, ii, 285 (in “The Book of the Law”); C.-F.-D. Dumouriez, Mémoires, Paris, 1822, ii, 370-71.

page 1162 note 30 Carlyle, ii, 82 (in “As in the Age of Gold”); Hist. Parl., vi, 389-90.

page 1162 note 31 Carlyle, i, 287-88 (in “The Lanterne”); Deux Amis, ii, 123; Hist. Parl., ii, 146-47.

page 1162 note 32 Carlyle, i, 264 (in “Storm and Victory”); Dusaulx, Prise de la Bastille, Paris, 1821, 291: La fière contenance des Parisiens, leur intelligence et leur activité, produisirent de prompts effets..

page 1162 note 33 Carlyle, i, 385 (in “Lafayette”); Ferrières, Mémoires, Paris, 1822, i, 321-22. Ferrières states that it was Lafayette's fatigue after his march to Versailles, and not Mirabeau's request (which Mounier had refused), that decided the President.

page 1162 note 34 Carlyle, ii, 378 (in “Some Consolation to Mankind”); Madame de Staël, Considerations on the French Revolution, London, 1818, ii, 52. Carlyle used this work in the French; I have consulted both eds.; the pagination is the same. Al-though he cites the work in other pages of his history he omits any mention of it here. He must have read the whole of it, however.

page 1162 note 35 Carlyle, i, 184, (in “Grown Electric”); A.-H Viconte de Dampmartin, Evénemens qui se sont passéssousmes yeux pendant la Révolution française, Berlin, 1799, i, 25-26. Carlyle, it will be noted, cites Dampmartin in a footnote.

page 1162 note 36 Carlyle, ii, 219 (in “Count Fersen”); Le Duc de Choiseul, Relation du Départ de Louis XVI, Paris, 1822, 38-39. Carlyle cites Choiseul here; only mis-reading can account for the discrepancy. Oscar Browning notes Carlyle's error; see his Flight to Varennes and Other Historical Essays, London, 1892, p. 56.

page 1163 note 37 See above, note 22.

page 1163 note 38 Carlyle, i, 355 (in “The Menads”); Deux Amis, iii, 293 (according to the Deux Amis, a woman cut Lefèvre down); Dusaulx, p. 281 (Dusaulx states that a garde-national cut the abbé down).

page 1163 note 39 Carlyle, iii, 153 (in “Place de la Révolution”); Montgaillard, iii, 414; A.-E. de Bertrand de Moleville, Mémoires, Paris, 1816, ii, 348. Carlyle cites, among others, L.-S. Mercier, Nouveau Paris, Paris, 1795, iii, 3-8. But neither here (Carlyle, iii, 153) nor elsewhere does he indicate the edition of Mercier. I have verified the passage, however, in the edition of Paris, 1795, which he presumably used. That Carlyle regarded Mercier as unreliable we know from his mention of the latter as “the exaggerative man” (The French Revolution, iii, 318).

page 1164 note 40 Carlyle, i, 178 (in “The Election”); Mémoires de Mirabeau, écrits par Lui-même, par son Père, son Onde, et son Fils Adoptif, Paris, 1834-35,, 307-08. Carlyle usually refers to this work as Fils Adoptif.

page 1164 note 41 To be more exact, I have found only seven instances of this feature.

page 1164 note 42 Carlyle, i, 92 (in “Dishonoured Bills”); Besenval, iii, 255.

page 1164 note 43 Carlyle, i, 72-73 (in “Windbags”); J.-C.-D. Lacretelle, Histoire it France pendant le 18 ième Siècle, Paris, 1819, vi, 86-89. Carlyle's citation from Lacretelle at this point is erroneous, as will be noted; be cites, “Lacretelle: 18me Siecle, iii, 258.”

page 1164 note 44 Carlyle, iii, 18-19; Histoire Parlementaire, xix, 300.

I have found seven instances of minor violation of chronology, each classifiable under the two general types outlined above; namely, those due to careless misdating, and those due to an apparently deliberate combination of two separate minor events or facts in order to complete a scene or portrait.

page 1164 note 45 By way of an attempt at indicating something of the degree of embroidering in The French Revolution, I may state that embellishments ranging in extent from a single word to three or four sentences In the first hundred pages of the edition of London, 1857, number more than twenty; and that C. R. L. Fletcher (ed. French Revolution, London, 1902) notes more than thirty-six of more major magnitude throughout the history, in his footnotes. Perhaps the most effective way of dealing with this problem would be through additional footnotes in a definitive edition of Carlyle's history.

page 1165 note 46 In “Count Fersen,” fifth paragraph from the end of the chapter.

page 1165 note 47 Carlyle, i, 254 (in “Give Us Arms”).

page 1165 note 48 Carlyle, i, 390 (in “The Grand Entries”).

page 1165 note 49 Carlyle, i, 398 (in “From Versailles”).

page 1166 note 50 Carlyle,, 229 (in “Attitude”). From Deux Amis, vii, 71, we may quote “. point d'attroupement, point de clameurs, point de motions turbulentes ni de mouvement précipités. Nul n'auroit cru voir une nation sans chef, un royaume déserté par son roi.” This short passage is the nearest equivalent I have been able to find for Carlyle's sentence.

page 1166 note 51 Carlyle, ii, 248 (in “The Night of Spurs”). “Alte la” is likewise puxzling.

page 1166 note 52 Carlyle, i, 367.

page 1166 note 53 Carlyle, iii, 81. Carlyle cites the Hist. Part, xx, 63-71.

page 1166 note 54 Madame Roland (Mémoires, in her uvres, Paris, An VIII [1800], ii, 69-70), depicts Robespierre, during the flight to Varennes, as fearing a new Massacre of Saint-Bartholomew. Pétion and Brissot speak indirectly of a Republic: “Pétion et Brissot ditoit qu'il. fallait préparer les esprits à la République. Robespierre, ricanant à son ordinaire et te mangeant les onglet, demandoit ce que c'étoit qu'une République!” This passage Carlyle transforms to: “They. would fain have comforted the seagreen man; spake of. a Journal to be called The Republicain.” “A Republic?” said the seagreen, with one of his dry husky unsportful laughs, “What it that?”—It will be noted that Carlyle cites Madame Roland at this point.

page 1167 note 55 I should state clearly that in the narrow limits of this paper I have not exhausted all the examples of embroidery and fabrication to be found in such a lengthy work as The French Revolution. Nor do I pretend to infallibility concerning the absence in any of the sources of the originals of some of Carlyle's sentences. I have presented the general conclusions from a careful examination of all of Carlyle's cited material.

page 1168 note 56 '. Aulard (Carlyle Historien de la Rèvolution Française, in La Rèvolution Française, LXII, 193-205), supports Carlyle's method by pointing out that Carlyle used the only available materials of the time: the mémoires of the Empire, the Moniteur, Toulongeon's history, the Histoire Parlementaire, and other works of like nature.

Aulard's high rank among authorities on the French Revolution perhaps needs no comment here. Cf. his The French Revolution, a Political History, translated by Bernard Miall, London, 1910.

page 1168 note 57 Of the 850 citations in The French Revolution 32 are wrong.

page 1168 note 58 H. Taine, L'Idéalisme Anglais, Étude sur Carlyle, Paris, 1864, pp. 164-168.

page 1168 note 59 In a letter presented in Aulard's essay, Carlyle Historien, etc., p. 194. All references to Aulard here are to this essay.

page 1169 note 60 G. M. Trevelynn, “Carlyle as an Historian.” The Living Age, Vol. 223, p. 369.