Vous and Tu

[wolfshadow713.livejournal.com]

I was reading through some transcripts of the trials of the Revolutionary Tribunal and it seems that the formal "vous" is used here even after "tu" became the standard form of address. Thoughts?

Comments

[hanriotfran.livejournal.com]

I've read documents from that time, and it seems that both, "tu" and "vous" were in use. As when something becomes a fashion, someone uses it and others wouldn't do it. The use of the "tu" was common back then, but it was never officialized. There were people who only spoke using the "tu" and others, like Robespierre, rather liked the "vous", except for people he knew too well.

Barras wrote that when Fréron and him visited Robespierre chez Duplay, they spoke to him treatening him of "tu" but that he seemed highly offended, so they passed quickly to the ancient "vous". However, our old weird Maxime wouldn't seem more pleased ...I think that the matter was he didn't like Barras and Fréron at all. ;D

HanriotFran.

[wolfshadow713.livejournal.com]

I was curious because it I remember reading that the CPS adopted tu as the standard form of address for its correspondences, etc and the tribunal was, of course, heavily influenced by the CPS. So I can't help but wondering if there's an element of reserving familiar for your fellow-patriots...

I've also read about Robespierre's unfriendly reaction to being addressed in the familiar and, seeing as he objected to other revolutionary customs he saw as too ostentatious or something (the liberty cap, Herbert's version of the cult of the Supreme Being, etc), he might have felt similarly about the use of the familiar.