The salon and English letters

by Chauncey Brewster Tinker

This pronouncement of Johnson’s is of that large general nature which is likely to give offence to specialists. A multitude of exceptions to it will occur at once to any one. The Duchess of Queensbury, for example, patronized Gay; Dean Swift was not uninfluenced by the women who surrounded him; Pope addressed verse-epistles to Martha Blount; later in the century, Young satirized the literary female, and Richardson had his group of adoring ‘Daughters.’ But none of these really changes the significance of Johnson’s summary. When he referred to the censure visited upon literary women he may well have been thinking of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose acquaintance with the authors of her time was wider than that ever possessed by the bluestockings. But though the noble lady had genuine interest in letters and very remarkable powers, she was wholly without that courtly character which is indispensable to the hostess of a salon. She repelled men as much by her insolent cleverness as by her slovenly manners. Finally her long residence abroad withdrew her completely from the literary circle which she knew so well.

It was the work of the middle decades of the eighteenth century to remove the odium in which women’s interest in literature had been held. The world of female readers became almost as large and influential as that of the male, so that by 1778 Johnson could remark, ‘All our ladies read now.’ The Bluestocking Club, which marks the first definite reappearance of the salon in London, shows the desire of woman to extend her function in the literary world so as to include in it the office of patron, as well as that of author and reader. But this new patronage was to be primarily social, and was to express itself first in various social diversions, which preluded the more formal salons, and to which we now proceed.

CHAPTER VI
Conversation Parties and Literary Assemblies

Not the least pleasant of the social gatherings for conversation was the levee, or reception held on rising from bed. The custom was of course adopted by people of fashion in imitation of the popular court function, and it always retained something of the courtly atmosphere, its popularity in fine society being due to the sense of importance which it lent to the host or hostess. Madame de Tencin, for example, thus held court from eight o’clock in the morning, queening it over everybody, ‘from the lowest tools to the highest.’[167] Mascarille, it will be remembered, boasts that he never rises from bed without the company of half a dozen beaux esprits. Yet despite its imitation of the court, there must have been about this kind of reception a certain intimacy and ease that were lacking in the more formal assemblies held later in the day.[168]

The Levee
From an engraving of the fourth painting in Hogarth’s Marriage à la Mode

In England the levee had been known for perhaps a hundred years;[169] but it first becomes of importance to the student of literature about the middle of the century. A good general impression of it may be obtained from the fourth plate of Hogarth’s Marriage à la Mode, published in 1745. The hostess, half dressed, is seated at her toilet-table, under the ministrations of her hair-dresser, and is engaged in conversation with her lover, who is reclining on a sofa near by. In the background is seen the bed, one curtain of which is still drawn. A negro butler is passing chocolate to the guests who are ranged in front of the bed, while an Italian tenor is regaling them with solos to the accompaniment of a flute. This latter point is significant in the satire, for it is evident that the hostess is incapable of conducting a true conversazione, and has therefore had recourse to providing her guests with other entertainment, while she pursues her amorous intrigue.

A later and even more familiar representation of the levee is found at the opening of the School for Scandal, where Lady Sneerwell is ‘discovered’ at her toilet. When this scene is correctly represented on the stage the lady’s guests are shown as drinking chocolate at her levee, and there characteristically displaying their conversational gifts.

That the levee was at its best essentially a literary function is shown by the encouragement it received from Samuel Johnson. The account of his morning receptions is preserved for us by Dr. Maxwell, whose description must be quoted in full: