Old Age in the Old Regime: Image and Experience in Eighteenth-Century France 9781501746369

Citation preview

OLD AGE IN THE OLD REGIME

OLD AGE IN THE OLD REGIME Image and Experience in Eighteenth-Century France David G. Troyansky

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright© 1989 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 1989 by Cornell University Press. International Standard Book Number o-8014-2299-X Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 88-43286

Librarians: Library of Congress cataloging information appears on the last page of the book. The paper in this book is acid-free and meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

For Anna and Aaron, in honor of their grandparents and great-grandparents

Everyone treats me as an old man. I laugh about it. Why? Because an old man never feels like an old man. I understand from others what old age implies for those who see it from without, but I do not feel my old age. Thus my old age is not a thing that in itself teaches me something. What teaches me something is the attitude of others toward me. To put it another way, the fact that I am old for others is to be profoundly old. Old age is for me a reality that others feel, they see me and say, "This nice old man," and they are kind because I will die soon, and afterwards they are respectful, etc.: it is other people who are my old age. jEAN-PAUL SARTRE

Contents

Illustrations, Figures, and T abies Acknowledgments Abbreviations

Introduction

Xl Xlll XV I

I

The Aged in the French Population: Numbers and Meanings

2

A New Presence: Images of the Aged in Art

27

3

From Ridicule to Respect: Literary Discourses on Old Age

so

4

From Augustinian Retreat to Ciceronian Retirement: Religious and Secular Views

77

5 6

Reaching Old Age: Scientific and Medical Thought

109 125

7

The Social Context: The Aged in the Rural Family The Aged, the City, and the Hospital

8

A Practical Enlightenment and a Deferential Revolution

r8s

Conclusion

216

Selected Bibliography Index

221

8

155

253

Illustrations, Figures, and Tables

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Four Seasons: Winter

21

The Human Life Course

22

The Marseille Socrates, I 77 3

25

Louis Le Nain, Landscape with Peasants, c. I64o

34

Georges de La Tour, Old Man, c. I6I8-I9

36

Fran