Francomania indeed was carried to extremes:
And as some pupils have been known
In time to put their tutors down,
So ours are often found t'ave got
More tricks than ever they were taught.[996]
We are told of an "English captain that threw up his commission because his company would not exercise after the French Discipline."[997] Dryden even accuses the French of influencing the course of English politics:[998]
The Holy League
Begot our Cov'nant; Guisards got Whig,
Whate'er our hot-brain'd sheriffs did advance,
Was like our fashions, first produced in France,
And when worn out, well scourg'd and bannish'd there.
Sent over, like their godly Beggars, here.
A French patent was said to authorize any crime.[999] "Now what a Devil 'tis should make us so dote on these French," says Flecknoe,[1000] and another writer adds:[1001]
Our native speech we must forget e'er long
To learn the French that much more modish Tongue.
Their language smoother is, hath pretty Aires,
But ours is Gothick if compar'd with theirs.
The French by arts of smooth insinuation
Are now become the Darlings of the Nation.
FRENCH SPOKEN AT COURT The example was set at Court, where French was commonly in use, and where to be able to speak it well was a necessity and proof of good breeding. "Mark then, I makes 'em both speak French to show their breeding," says the author Boyes of his two kings in Buckingham's Rehearsal.[1002] Sir John Reresby first attracted notice at Court by his fluent French. "It was this summer," he writes in 1661, "that the Duke of York first took any particular notice of me. I happened to be in discourse with the French Ambassador and some other gentlemen of his nation, in the presence at Whitehall, and the Duke joined us, he being a great lover of the French tongue and kind to those who spoke it. The next night he talked with me a long while as he was at supper with the king."[1003] And Reresby, with a keen eye for his own advancement, took advantage of this to secure the patronage of the Duke. He also tells us that the King, Duke, and French ambassador were very often merry and intimate together at Louise de Kerouaille's (now Duchess of Portsmouth) lodgings,[1004] where French alone would be used, for it was an unknown thing for a French ambassador to speak English. There was not a courtier[1005] who did not speak French with ease, Clarendon alone excepted.
The ladies of the Court were equally well versed in the language. When De Grammont, who had made the acquaintance of most of the courtiers in France, came to make that of the ladies, he needed no interpreter, for all knew French—"assez pour s'expliquer et toutes entendaient le françois assez bien pour ce qu'on avait à leur dire."[1006] Amongst them was Miss Hamilton, Anthony's sister, who became De Grammont's wife,[1007] and was much admired at the Court of Louis XIV. The accomplishments of Miss Stuart may be quoted as typical of the rest: "elle avoit de la grâce, dansoit bien, parloit françois mieux que sa langue naturelle: elle étoit polie, possédoit cet air de parure après lequel on court et qu'on n'attrappe guères à moins de l'avoir pris en France dès sa jeunesse."[1008] The least gifted lady of the Court was Miss Blake, who "n'entendoit presque point le françois." When the Countess of Berkshire recommended one of her near relatives as one of the queen's dressers, the fact that she had been twelve years in France, and could speak French exceedingly well, was mentioned as her chief qualification.[1009] The Portuguese queen[1010] was indeed out of place in her Frenchified Court. She could not speak French, and Spanish was her means of intercourse with Charles II. and the Duke of York, who both spoke this language fairly well, and were able to act as interpreters between their French mother and the young queen. Catherine's Portuguese attire was the subject of much amusement, and her efforts to induce the ladies of the Court to adopt it were of no avail. James II., when he was an exile in France for the second time, told the nuns of Chaillot that she had endeavoured to prevail on King Charles to use his influence with them: "but the ladies dressed in the French fashions and would not hear of any other, constantly sending artificers and dressmakers to Paris to import the newest modes, as they do to this very day."[1011] The country ladies caught the fashion as it was going out in London.[1012]
In many cases the passion for all things French became a mania with the ladies, as is frequently pictured in the drama of the time.[1013] A Frenchified lady would have a French maid, "born and bred in France, who could speak English but brokenly," with whom she would talk a mixture of broken French and English; while many a one like Melantha of Dryden's Marriage à-la-mode,[1014] doted on any new French word: "as fast as any bullion comes out of France, she coins it into English, and runs mad in new French words."[1015] THE FRENCHIFIED LADYShe importunes those returned from the tour in France, or who have correspondence with Parisians, to know the latest words used in Paris. Her maid supplies her daily with a store of French words:
Melantha. ... You sot you, come produce your Morning's work.... O, my Venus! 14 or 15 words to serve me a whole day! Let me die, at this rate I cannot last till night! Come read your words....