Robert Darnton
An Early Information Society

[Page 11]

irst, gossip. The papers of the Bastille are full of cases like Mairobert's: people arrested for mauvais propos, or insolent talk about public figures, especially the king. The sample is biased, of course, because the police did not arrest people who spoke favorably of Versailles; and a similar slant may distort the other principal source, spy reports, which sometimes concentrated on irreligion and sedition. Usually, however, the spies recounted casual discussions about all sorts of subjects among ordinary Parisians; and, during the early years of Louis XV's reign, the talk sounded favorable to the monarchy. I have studied reports on 179 conversations in 29 cafés between 1726 and 1729. (For a list, see Figure 5.) The sample is far from complete, because Paris had about 380 cafés at that time; but it indicates the topics and the tone of the talk in cafés located along the most important channels of communication, as one can see from the map in Figure 6. (For extensive excerpts from the spy reports and a detailed mapping of the cafés on segments of the Plan Turgot, see the web version of this lecture.)¹⁶

Most of the reports were written in dialogue. Here is an example:

At the Café de Foy someone said that the king had taken a mistress, that she was named Gontaut, and that she was a beautiful woman, the niece of the duc de Noailles and the comtesse de Toulouse. Others said, "If so, then there could be some big changes." And another replied, "True, a rumor is spreading, but I find it hard to believe, since the cardinal de Fleury is in charge. I don't think the king has any inclination in that direction, because he has always been kept away from women." "Nevertheless," someone else said, "it wouldn't be the greatest evil if he had a mistress." "Well, Messieurs," another added, "it may not be a passing fancy, either, and a first love could raise some danger on the sexual side and could cause more harm than good. It would be far more desirable if he liked hunting better than that kind of thing."¹⁷

As always, the royal sex life provided prime material for gossip, but the reports all indicate that the talk was friendly. In 1729, when the queen was about to give birth, the cafés rang with jubilation: "Truly, everyone is delighted, because they all hope greatly to have a dauphin . . . In the Café Dupuy, someone said, 'Parbleu, Messieurs, if God graces us with a dauphin, you will see Paris and the whole river aflame [with fireworks in celebration].' Everyone is praying for that."¹⁸ On September 4, the queen did indeed produce a dauphin, and the Parisians went wild with joy, not merely to have an heir to the throne but also to have the king in their midst; for Louis celebrated the birth with a grand feast in the Hôtel de Ville following the fireworks. Royal magnificence choreographed to perfection in the heart of the citythat was what Parisians wanted from their king, according to the

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