Was it really true?

[missweirdness.livejournal.com]

Did Robespierre really have glasses that were tinted green? Or was it some author's imagination? I've read it some books and they mentioned this and some others don't. And i was wondering if it was true or not. It sounds cool. Though it bogs my mind really.

I was just wondering about these weird details; Because i didn't think it was possible back then to do that. XD

Comments

[wolfshadow713.livejournal.com]

If they could produce tinted glass(like for bottles), then they should have been able to make tinted glasses?

I've heard the it mentioned, but I can't remember where. I think one place that I saw it mentioned elaborated to say the green tint was to reduce glare, but most authors who mention it seem to do so to suggest vanity or because it fits with the whole "reptillian" thing.

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

For now, I know this: Alfred de Vigny, in Stello (1832), mentions them and Georges Duval does too in his memoirs. But the latter's memoirs are pretty much novelist crap (he was a dramatic author and he has a LOT of imagination to create himself new memories), thus both sources on Robespierre's glasses are fiction for now... However, Books Google also tells me that Du Sault in his Recueil d'anecdotes biographiques, historiques et politiques (1798) mentions them in an anecdote on Robespierre, but I can't access the text... Also, they are mentionned in the Mémoires d'un prêtre régicide (1829). If I could access Du Sault, I could confirm that they were stated before the romantic era.

I had read elsewhere, I think, that Robespierre wore "tinted" glasses, but they didn't specify. Elsewhere, that someone was playing on the "green" theme -- eyes, complexion even, veins (according to Staël) -- and the glasses were just one of these.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

George Rudé, in his 'Great Lives Observed' book on Robespierre, quotes a reference from J.M. Thompson's 'English Witnesses of the French Revolution' - it's an English boy called John Millinghen who calls at the Duplay's house to appeal to Robespierre over the internment of a relative: "he was reading at the time, and wore a pair of green preservers: he raised his head, and turning up his spectacles on his forehead, received me most graciously"
However, I don't know anything about Millinghen or whether he's reliable or not. The description of him putting the glasses up on his head does tally with the famous pencil/crayon sketch of Robespierre.
I've got (or had, cos I can't find them!) a pair of 19thc green-tinted glasses, which I presume were for people with a light sensitive condition, like migraine.

[lisotchka.livejournal.com]

Tinted glasses existed since the middle of the 18th century.
James Ayscough began experimenting with tinted lenses in spectacles in the mid-18th century. These were not "sunglasses" as such; Ayscough believed blue- or green-tinted glass could correct for specific vision impairments. Protection from the sun's rays was not a concern of his.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

I think that also makes Robespierre - through Abel Gance's 'Napoleon' (or was it Griffith's 'Orphans of the Storm'? It's years since I saw either)the first cinema 'baddie' to wear dark glasses!
(He's almost always the 'baddie' in films...)

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I've seen a lot of references to it in history books, but as far as primary sources I can't add much to what's already here, except Augustin Cabanès' Cabinet secret de l'histoire has this reference (translated by me):

"Miss Williams, in her Memories, claims that he [Robespierre] wore at once green spectacles to rest his gaze and a pince-nez, that he sometimes put in front of his glasses in order to gaze upon his listeners."

Also, according to an issue of the AHRF from 1923, in an article entitled "Le capitaine Linde chez Robespierre," the former is supposed to have seen the latter wearing green glasses.

And Artarit, for once, asks a pertinent question after citing the note on Gérard's sketch of him which reads (my translation, again): "Green eyes, pale coloring, nankeen suit with green stripes, blue and white striped waistcoat, red and white striped cravat." He wonders, "Were the glasses really green? Or were they really confused with his eyes?" after which he cites the Miss Williams mentioned above.

[citoyennemiyuki.livejournal.com]

Good question again! I can say only facts. He had very sensitive eyes (like mine), he wore glasses, it is sure. As Lisotchka mentioned "tinted glasses" (and sunglasses also) already existed in the 18th century. (Actually I know eskimos already wore sunglasses)
I read only two book about Robespierre, I don't remember that, tinted g. was mentioned, or not (my memory XD)I remember normal glasses. However I can imagine (or my subjective opinion)he wore green tinted glasses.
I'm sorry, I can't show reference....

[ephaistion85.livejournal.com]

Almost every books about Maximilien talks about that.
Green glasses were easily produced in XVII, there're also exemplars in museums nowadyas (I'm not sure, but I think I saw one pair in Musée Carnavalet also).
I don't remember if Charlott say something about it in her Mémoires, but if no one did it before, I could easily check on my own copy ;)

[missweirdness.livejournal.com]

why do I wanna believe and keep thinking that the 18th century was still backwards? lmao

i guess that answers my question about them having those type of glasses. ^^

[hanriotfran.livejournal.com]

Actually, tinted glasses were a fashion back then. I've found a link in which you can see all kind of XVIII Century eyeglasses. They are green ones, for sure, but also BLUE ONES! Go and see: you'll like them to die.

http://www.eyeglasseswarehouse.com/18th-century-spectacles.html

HanriotFran