Modes of Address

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

I've got a few questions about the use of names and modes of address. Did people, in 18thc France, use their forenames socially (OK, there's Camille Desmoulins - but then he was 'special'- and even then, I've seen documents that hyphenate his name, maybe the typesetter thinking it was part of his surname)?

For example, in modern fiction and films, Robespierre is often called "Max' or 'Maxime' with friends, but I can't remember any bit of contemporary writing/memoir I've seen where he's called anything other than Robespierre, though I dimly remember a possibly facetious "Maximilien' I came across flipping through 'Revolutions de Paris'. So, is there any reference to him being called by or using his forename? (Maybe by his brother or sister? Camille in a letter?) There are also anecdotes that say he preferred 'Monsieur' and 'vous' to 'Citizen' and 'tu', but I don't know how reliable these are (one is from Barras' memoirs so presumably hostile): are there letters etc that back this story up?

Were forenames really only for use by parents to children and wives to husbands, and/or to please relatives at baptism, and/or to differentiate people from their relatives on documents? In Britain, at least, men only used surnames to each other in formal situations until recently: now if a newsreader were to say 'Brown' rather than 'Gordon Brown', it would seem hostile somehow, but in 1980 it would have been the other way around (and I suspect there are narky old retired colonels who think this is a dreadful bit of lefty hippy informality and a sign that society has gone to the dogs!) . Anyway, I was wondering...

Comments

[missweirdness.livejournal.com]

I do remember reading about that also...i don't know if i could of talked if my jaw was broken. I'd prolly be crying too much and hurting. OOOOOHHH..that could explain a lot maybe...why he never did change his clothing style.