English

Overview

English is the third most frequently used language in Marie Bashkirtseff's diary after French and Russian. Marie studied English formally from January 12, 1872 (age 11), and within two years achieved sufficient fluency to write extended passages, conduct conversations, read English literature, and compose journalistic articles in the language. Of the approximately 3,800 diary entries across 107 carnets, English appears in 587 files -- making it the #14 most-referenced glossary entry in the entire project. Marie's use of English ranges from single loanwords naturalized into her French prose to full paragraphs and even entire extended passages written entirely in English, particularly in the early carnets (001-015) when she was most immersed in the Anglo-dominated social world of Nice.

Victorian Britain: The World Behind the Language

The English language that Marie encountered was inseparable from the civilization at its zenith. The 1870s and 1880s fell squarely within the Victorian era (1837-1901), when Britain was the world's dominant imperial, industrial, and naval power. Understanding the cultural weight English carried for Marie -- and for the European elite more broadly -- requires understanding what Britain represented in this period.

The British Empire at Its Height

Queen Victoria, who had ascended the throne in 1837, was in the second half of her long reign during Marie's lifetime. After a period of seclusion following Prince Albert's death in 1861, she returned to public life in the early 1870s and became an increasingly potent symbol of British imperial power. The Empire was at or near its territorial peak, encompassing roughly a quarter of the world's landmass -- India, large swathes of Africa, Australia, Canada, and territories across the globe. The phrase "the sun never sets on the British Empire" was a commonplace of the era.

This imperial confidence permeated British self-presentation abroad. The English aristocrats and gentry whom Marie observed on the Promenade des Anglais carried themselves with the assurance of a ruling class whose navy controlled the seas and whose currency (the pound sterling) anchored the world economy. Their characteristic manner -- the reserve, the understatement, the deliberately shabby tweeds that Marie both mocked and admired -- was itself a social performance: only the truly powerful could afford to dress carelessly. Marie captured this perfectly when she described English visitors at the Monaco pigeon shooting as "magnifiquement" dressed in "les habits les plus sales et a carreaux" -- magnificently clad in the dirtiest checked clothes.

Victorian Society and the Concept of the Gentleman

The Victorian class system was rigidly stratified but undergoing rapid transformation. The landed aristocracy still held immense social prestige, but the industrial revolution had created a wealthy and ambitious middle class that was reshaping British culture. The concept of the "gentleman" -- originally a designation of birth -- was being redefined to include moral character, education, and deportment. This evolution fascinated Continental observers and was central to how the English presented themselves abroad.

Marie's diary reflects this class consciousness. She distinguishes between "gentilshommes" (true gentlemen) and ordinary English -- noting at a Paris hotel that "tout l'hotel est plein d'Anglais tres bien, ce ne sont pas des miserables comme ceux qui viennent a Nice, mais des gentilshommes." She categorizes the English she encounters by "quality" and observes their social codes with the eye of an anthropologist: their riding culture, their clubs, their sporting etiquette at the races and pigeon shooting.

The English gentleman's code -- reserve, fair play, physical courage, and a studied indifference to discomfort -- was both admired and satirized across Europe. Marie internalized many of these values: "Je suis comme les Anglais" she declared, praising their refusal to converse with strangers in railway carriages, contrasting this with her mother's less discriminating Russian sociability.

English Literature of the Period

Victorian literature was among the richest in English history, and the period produced many of the authors whose works Marie would encounter. The major figures of the era included:

- Charles Dickens (1812-1870): The towering figure of Victorian fiction, whose death in 1870 marked a literary epoch. Marie references "the world Dickens depicted" and planned to alternate reading "Les courtisanes du monde" with Dickens in her later diary entries.
- George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans, 1819-1880): Author of Middlemarch (1871-72) and other novels of psychological depth. Her works were widely read on the Continent.
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892): Poet Laureate for over 40 years, author of "In Memoriam" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade."
- Lord Byron (1788-1824): Though of an earlier generation, Byron remained enormously influential, especially among Russians. Marie's maternal grandfather was described as "byronien," and she purchased Byron's collected works in English in December 1873.
- William Shakespeare: The foundational English literary figure. Marie purchased his works, quoted Hamlet in English, and attended theater adaptations of his plays in Nice.
- Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): Irish-born author whose comedies Marie read with delight in summer 1873.

Marie's reading also included popular sentimental fiction by Maria Susanna Cummins (The Lamplighter, Mabel Vaughan) -- best-selling American novels that circulated widely among Victorian readers. This mix of canonical and popular English-language reading was typical of a well-educated young woman of the 1870s.

British Customs and Continental Interaction

The British abroad were a distinctive and often eccentric presence. Their social customs -- the handshake, the cult of sport (especially horse racing, fox hunting, and later lawn tennis), the ritual of afternoon tea, their Anglican church attendance -- set them apart from French and Russian social norms.

Marie observes several characteristically British behaviors in her diary:

- Sporting culture: The English brought their passion for horses, racing, and shooting wherever they went. The Duke of Hamilton's racing stable, his yacht, and his presence at the Monaco pigeon shooting were all quintessentially English aristocratic pursuits. Marie notes the arrival of an English riding-master with "huit chevaux anglais" as a thrilling event.
- Dress codes: The English aristocratic style -- deliberately understated, even shabby by Continental standards -- was immediately recognizable. Marie mocks their "chapeaux sales et casses" (dirty and broken hats) and "jackettes en carreaux" (checked jackets) while acknowledging these signaled authentic rather than performed status.
- Social reserve: Marie repeatedly notes the English habit of formality with strangers and informality with friends -- a pattern that differed markedly from the Russian openness she grew up with.
- English reading habits: The presence of English lending libraries, bookshops (like Visconti's in Nice, where Marie purchased Byron and Shakespeare), and newspaper reading rooms throughout the Riviera created an English-language literary infrastructure that Marie actively used.

The interaction between British, French, and Russian social norms in Nice created a distinctive cosmopolitan culture. The English brought racing and sport; the Russians brought music and emotional intensity; the French contributed cuisine, fashion, and savoir-vivre. Marie, moving between all three worlds, absorbed elements of each -- and English was her passport to the most powerful and fashionable of them.

The English Community in Nice

The British Colony on the French Riviera

The English presence in Nice was foundational to the city's identity as a winter resort. From the late 18th century, British aristocrats and gentry migrated south each November, escaping damp English winters for the mild Mediterranean climate. By 1874, the foreign colony in Nice -- predominantly British -- numbered approximately 25,000 in a city of 50,000 permanent residents (per contemporary estimates cited in Josetteking.com, "Nice -- the Glittering Queen of the French Riviera"). The English had established a complete parallel infrastructure: Anglican churches (Holy Trinity Church, founded in the early 19th century), an English cemetery, clubs, reading rooms, lending libraries, English-language newspapers, and their own doctors who reported regularly to the British Medical Journal on the "French health resorts."

The most visible symbol of British influence was the Promenade des Anglais itself. Funded in 1820 by the Reverend Lewis Way and members of the Anglican congregation in Nice, it was originally a modest 2-meter-wide walkway built by local beggars as a public works project during a harsh winter. After Nice's annexation by France in 1860 (from the Kingdom of Sardinia), it was formally rechristened "La Promenade des Anglais" and expanded into the grand boulevard that became the social stage for the entire winter season. By the 1870s, it was the daily theater for fashionable display, with separate paths for pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages.

The Anglo-Franco-Russian Social Dynamic

Nice's winter colony was a cosmopolitan mix in which three national groups dominated: the English (and Scottish), the French, and the Russians. Each group had its own social networks, but they overlapped extensively at the opera, the races, the pigeon shooting at Monaco, and above all on the Promenade. The Bashkirtseff family -- Russian minor nobility living abroad -- moved freely among all three groups.

Marie's diary captures the distinctive social texture of this milieu. She notes the English with a mixture of fascination and gentle mockery: their "magnifiquement" dirty clothes and checked jackets at the pigeon shooting (carnet 001, March 1873), their intentionally shabby-chic tweeds ("chapeaux sales et casses"), their riding culture, their clubs. She observes: "Les hommes anglais sont adorables, mais les femmes!" (carnet 012, November 1873), and in the same entry marvels at the arrival of an English riding-master "avec huit chevaux anglais, des ecuyers anglais et des stable-boys anglais" -- declaring that "meme les commons are mieux que les autres nations." She admires English reserve ("Je suis comme les Anglais" -- carnet 006, June 1873, praising their refusal to speak to strangers in trains), while noting how the English colony's social codes differed from Russian and French norms.

The Howard family -- identified by Kernberger (2013) as "M. and Mme Howard: Anglo-Russian family living in Nice," with daughters Helene, Lise, and Aggie -- exemplified the mixed national character of Nice society. Mme Howard's patronymic (Julie Stepanovna) confirmed Russian origins despite the English surname. Marie spoke English with Mrs. Howard on a train to Monaco in April 1873 and was "enormement complimentee sur mon anglais" -- a source of evident pride.

English-Language Media in Nice

Marie read English-language newspapers as part of her daily routine. She subscribed to the Morning Post specifically to track news of the Duke of Hamilton's marriage (carnet 013, December 1873). She also read Galignani's Messenger (an English-language newspaper published in Paris but widely circulated on the Riviera) and the Swiss Times (an English-language newspaper for tourists, mentioned in carnet 003). These newspapers provided her not only with social intelligence but also with regular exposure to English prose.

Marie's English Education

Formal Study

Marie began English lessons on January 12, 1872, in Nice, with Mlle Collignon, her French governess who also taught English. This date is precisely recorded in the diary entry of February 12, 1873 (carnet 001): "Je suis satisfaite de mes lecons de langue anglaise (commencees le 12 janvier 1872 a Nice, avec Mlle Collignon)."

Her English teachers included:

- Mlle Collignon (1872-1873): Marie's primary governess, who also served as chaperone and disciplinarian. Despite being French, she taught Marie English. Marie mentions that when confronted about neglecting her duties, Collignon "soutint a maman qu'elle remplissait son devoir... qu'elle parlait anglais" -- though Marie regarded this as a gross exaggeration.
- Miss Elder (from mid-1873): A dedicated English teacher. Marie took two-hour lessons three times per week (six hours weekly). She describes Elder as "assez gentille mais molle" with a handshake that "ne denote pas un caractere franc." Despite this, Marie acknowledged Elder taught "assez bien" and worked with her on English composition, including an article refuting an English travel writer's claims about Russia.
- Hitchcock (Mrs. or Miss, from autumn 1873): An English conversation teacher whom Marie found useful but initially intimidating -- "Il pleut. Je ne puis m'habituer encore a Hitchcock. C'est si ennuyeux d'avoir a beast to home."
- Various unnamed English teachers: Marie mentions an "institutrice anglaise" sought through Mr. Friedlander, and a "jeune Anglaise avec sa mere" who came for conversation lessons.

Marie also taught herself extensively through reading. In a later diary entry (carnet 082, 1879), she reflected: "Si j'avais eu une education raisonnable je serais tres remarquable. J'ai tout appris moi-meme... j'ai lu les grecs et les latins et les classiques francais et anglais et les modernes et tout."

Level of Proficiency

Marie's English was remarkably good for a non-native speaker of her age. Evidence of her progression:

- Early 1873 (age 12-13): Simple code-switches, single words and short phrases embedded in French text.
- March 1873: Extended English sentence -- "that naughty boy Boreel I am very sorry for him and his life manner must be very painful to his mother" (carnet 002). Fluent but with some grammatical irregularities.
- April 1873: Full English passages in conversation with Mrs. Howard; compliments on her English. Reads "Swiss Times" in English.
- May 1873: English passage about Mlle Collignon's romantic disappointment -- "because he was in India to make his fortune, always promising to marry her when he shall be rich enough." Shows command of complex tenses.
- Summer 1873: Extended English passages about the Duke of Hamilton -- "Oh! he must be a jolly fellow, he is not a rigid and frigid English! He is a polisson." Reads Oliver Goldsmith's works ("ses comedies sont tellement spirituelles!").
- Autumn 1873: Reads the Galignani's Messenger, quotes full English newspaper articles, writes extended passages mixing English and French fluidly. Reads "Mabel Vaughan" by Maria Susanna Cummins (author of "The Lamplighter") and "Satanella" during train journeys.
- Late 1873: Writes article in English refuting a travel book about Russia, with Miss Elder's help ("Pauvre Miss Elder est toute etonnee, elle ne peut s'imaginer que je vais faire imprimer un article").
- 1874 onward: Purchases works of Byron and Shakespeare in English (carnet 013). Subscribes to the Morning Post. Code-switching becomes more sophisticated and varied.

Mathilde Blind (1890 Introduction to the Journal) described Marie's linguistic abilities: "her faculty for acquiring knowledge was so surprising, her intellect so extraordinary, that she became an admirable linguist... with a rapidity that seemed to amount to intuition." Blind also noted that "the literatures of Italy, France, Germany, England, and Russia, are represented by all their chief authors" in Marie's personal library.

Functions of Code-Switching

Marie's switches to English in her primarily French diary serve distinct and identifiable functions:

1. Emotional Intensity and Privacy

English frequently appears at moments of heightened emotion, particularly around the Duke of Hamilton. During the devastating news of his engagement, Marie switches entirely to English to process her feelings: "I am quite exhausted... quite heart-broken... little strength of mind" (carnet 011, October 1873). English provides emotional distance -- a screen between raw feeling and the French self that must maintain composure. Similarly: "Oh! how cruel it is... deceived in all my schemes" and "I alone am for him, and he alone is for me."

When asking her English teacher about the Duke's marriage, she writes the entire exchange in English, as if the English language could contain the pain that French could not: "Where have you read that the Duke of Hamilton is going to be married, we had such a long dictation last time that I had not time to ask you."

2. Social Register and Sophistication

English words signal membership in the cosmopolitan elite. Marie uses English for:

- Fashion and lifestyle: "fashionable," "waterproof," "cold-cream," "keepsake," "break" (carriage type)
- Sport and equestrianism: "jockey," "steeplechase," "riding-master," "groom," "stable-boys," "trot anglais" (English trot), "croquet-lawn," "yacht," "steamer," "turf," "derby"
- Social terminology: "gentleman," "ladyship," "commons," "boarding," "at home"
- Exclamations: "indeed," "shocking," "dreadful," "horrid," "nonsenses," "rubbish," "jolly"

Many of these words were already naturalized in French by the 1870s (jockey, yacht), but Marie deploys them with awareness of their English origin, sometimes in contexts where French equivalents exist.

3. Literary Quotation and Cultural Reference

Marie quotes English literature directly:

- Shakespeare: "That is the question" from Hamlet (carnet 003, March 1873; carnet 024, October 1874) -- applied to her romantic dilemmas with characteristic self-dramatization.
- Biblical quotation in English: "Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him: I will set him up, because he hath known my name" (Psalm 91:14, carnet 004, April 1873).
- English proverbs: "If at first you do not succeed, try, try, try again" (carnet 003, March 1873).

4. Quoting English-Speaking People and Sources

Marie reproduces English speech and text verbatim:

- Newspaper quotations: "The Post says the marriage of the Duke of Hamilton to Lady Mary Montagu eldest daughter of the Duke of Manchester will take place in February" (from Galignani's Messenger, carnet 011).
- Howard family dialogue: "Will you speak English with me a little bit?" (carnet 005).
- English acquaintances: "You know, the Duke of Hamilton is going to marry the daughter of the Duke of Manchester, very soon. Indeed, barbottai-je" (carnet 011).

5. English Titles and Forms of Address

The Duke of Hamilton is consistently given his English title. Marie's most coded reference is "H.G.t.D.o.H." -- "His Grace the Duke of Hamilton" -- which she uses as a kind of secret signature (carnet 024, September 1874). She also writes "His Grace the Duke of Hamilton" in full English as a declaration: "C'etait, His Grace the Duke of Hamilton" (carnet 005).

Other English titles: "Lady Howard," "Lord Howard," "Lady Montagu," "Lady Manchester," "sir Frederic" (nickname for a dog).

6. Extended English Prose

Some diary passages are written entirely in English for paragraphs at a time, particularly:

- The May 1873 passage about Mlle Collignon's romantic history and the Duke's yacht (carnet 005)
- The society gossip passage about "the misses White" and "les comtesses du troisieme etage aux visites canines" (carnet 005)
- Passages of emotional crisis during the Duke's engagement news (carnet 011, October 1873)
- The English article against a travel book about Russia (composed with Miss Elder, carnet 009)

These extended English passages are most concentrated in carnets 005-015 (roughly May-December 1873), the period when Marie was most intensively studying the language and most immersed in the English-speaking social world of Nice.

English Literary Influences

Books Marie Read in English

Documented English-language reading includes:

- Oliver Goldsmith (works, including comedies): Read in summer 1873 -- "les oeuvres de Oliver Goldsmith, je l'aime beaucoup, ses comedies sont tellement spirituelles!" Goldsmith (1728-1774) was an Irish-born English author known for "She Stoops to Conquer" and "The Vicar of Wakefield."
- Maria Susanna Cummins: "Mabel Vaughan" (1857), by the author of "The Lamplighter" (1854) -- popular sentimental American novels read during train journeys in 1873.
- "Satanella" by Neville (or similar): Mentioned as a book the Rice family had that Marie wanted to read (1873).
- Lord Byron (works purchased December 1873): Marie bought Byron's collected works in English from Visconti's bookshop in Nice alongside Shakespeare. Byron held special resonance for the Bashkirtseff family -- Marie's maternal grandfather was described as "byronien" (Byronic), and Byron's enormous influence on Russian literature (particularly Pushkin and Lermontov) meant he was culturally familiar.
- William Shakespeare (works purchased December 1873): Bought alongside Byron. Marie had already been quoting Hamlet ("That is the question") from March 1873. She later attended Nice theater productions of Shakespeare adaptations.
- English travel writing about Russia: Marie read and critically engaged with an English travel account she found inaccurate and slanderous, composing a formal rebuttal article in English.
- English newspapers: Morning Post (subscribed from late 1873), Galignani's Messenger (daily reading), Swiss Times.

Per Mathilde Blind (1890), Marie's personal library contained "the literatures of Italy, France, Germany, England, and Russia... represented by all their chief authors" -- indicating continued English reading throughout her life.

Common English Words and Phrases in Marie's Diary

Based on systematic search across all 107 carnets, the most frequently occurring English words and phrases include:

Single Words (Loanwords and Code-Switches)

- "fashionable," "waterproof," "cold-cream," "keepsake"
- "jockey," "yacht," "steamer," "steeplechase," "derby," "turf"
- "heart-broken," "bewilderment," "exhausted," "miserable," "wild"
- "shocking," "dreadful," "horrid," "nonsenses," "rubbish"
- "indeed," "namely," "comfortable," "charming," "jolly," "splendid"
- "flirtation," "naughty," "sorry," "selfish"
- "gentleman," "ladyship," "nurse," "boarding"
- "skating," "fishing," "riding," "croquet"
- "foggy," "delighted," "successful," "treachery"
- "abettors," "hoarse," "spleen"
- "break" (carriage), "setter" (dog breed)

Phrases

- "That is the question" (Shakespeare)
- "heart-broken" / "quite heart-broken"
- "on his way to fall in love with me"
- "His Grace the Duke of Hamilton" / "H.G.t.D.o.H."
- "too early, too early" (Bete's catchphrase)
- "I do not know indeed"
- "of course," "by all means," "in a hurry"
- "can't help it," "I pay no attention"
- "quite comfortable," "quite exhausted"
- "at home," "subject dropped," "not nice"

Marie's Idiosyncratic Spellings

- "jackettes" for "jackets" (phonetic spelling, carnet 003)
- "barbottai-je" (mixing French verb morphology with English dialogue)
- "nonsenses" (plural form not standard in English)

English as Social Marker

Marie's relationship with English was not merely linguistic but deeply social. English signaled:

1. Aristocratic cosmopolitanism: Multilingual education was the norm for Russian nobility abroad. English, along with French and German, was a marker of elite upbringing. Marie's plan of self-education at age 13 included English, Italian, German, Latin, and Greek.

2. Association with British aristocracy: Marie's infatuation with the Duke of Hamilton made English the language of romantic longing. His title, his yacht (identified by its "drapeau anglais"), his world were English. Learning English was, in part, preparation for a fantasized future as a duchess.

3. Social aspiration: Marie explicitly prayed to God for help learning English, listing "la langue anglaise" among answered prayers alongside a croquet set and riding lessons (carnet 004, May 1873). She described the arrival of an English riding-master with eight English horses and English grooms as pure enchantment.

4. Cultural superiority and stereotype: Marie admired English men while mocking English women's fashion. She adored the English for their sporting culture, reserve, and gentlemanly bearing, while noting their checked jackets, shabby hats, and phlegmatic manner. At the 1873 Vienna Exposition, she observed: "presque pas d'Anglais. Je m'ennuie sans Anglais, ils donnent la vie." She was also delighted when a Viennese shopkeeper mistook her for an Englishwoman.

Usage Notes

- When Marie writes in English within a paragraph, tag it with #English
- If the paragraph also contains French (usual case), also tag with #French
- If a paragraph is entirely in English, only tag with #English (no #French)
- Extended English passages (multiple sentences) should receive a CODE-SWITCH ENGLISH annotation in LAN comments
- Single naturalized loanwords (jockey, yacht) that were already standard in 1870s French should receive ENGLISH LOANWORD annotations
- Marie's English spelling and grammar reflect a highly competent non-native speaker, but occasional irregularities ("jackettes," "nonsenses") should be preserved as characteristic

Translator Notes

When Marie uses English, she is making a deliberate linguistic choice. Consider:

- For Czech/Ukrainian translation: Preserve the English code-switch in the target language. The reader should see the same linguistic layering Marie created. Add translator notes explaining the significance where needed.
- For English translation: This presents a unique challenge. Marie's code-switches to English lose their foreignness. Translators should consider italicizing or otherwise marking passages that were originally in English (rather than French), with a note explaining the linguistic register shift. Kernberger (2013) handles this by noting "[in English in the original]."
- Emotional register: English carries specific emotional weight for Marie -- it is simultaneously the language of romantic aspiration (the Duke), intellectual ambition (literature, journalism), social sophistication (cosmopolitan elite), and emotional privacy (processing pain in a language slightly removed from the self).
- Evolution over time: Marie's English usage changes. In early carnets (1873), it is frequent, exuberant, sometimes clumsy. As she moves to Paris and focuses on art (1877 onward), English appears less frequently, replaced by Italian (from Roman period) and increasing French sophistication.

Related Languages

- [[FRENCH]] - primary language of the diary
- [[ITALIAN]] - another language she uses, especially from 1876 Rome period
- [[RUSSIAN]] - her native family language, though she had "imperfect knowledge" (per Blind 1890)
- [[GERMAN]] - studied, used occasionally
- [[LATIN]] - studied as part of self-directed classical education

%% 2026-05-24T12:00:00 RSR: Comprehensive expansion of ENGLISH glossary entry from Basic to Comprehensive status. Previous version had only bare-minimum content (a few common words, generic code-switching categories, no historical depth). This revision adds: (1) Cultural gateway section on Victorian Britain -- the British Empire at its height, Queen Victoria's era, the Victorian class system and gentleman concept, Victorian literature of the period, British social customs and their interaction with Continental norms; (2) Historical context on the British colony in Nice -- the Promenade des Anglais, the winter season, Anglo-Franco-Russian social dynamics, English-language media infrastructure; (3) Detailed reconstruction of Marie's English education from diary evidence -- four named teachers (Collignon, Elder, Hitchcock, unnamed), precise start date (Jan 12 1872), progression of fluency tracked across carnets with specific quotations; (4) Six categorized functions of code-switching with specific diary examples and carnet citations; (5) Documented English literary reading (Goldsmith, Cummins, Byron, Shakespeare, English newspapers); (6) Comprehensive word/phrase list compiled from systematic grep across all 107 carnets (587 files contain English references); (7) English as social marker analysis; (8) Wikipedia links for key cultural concepts. Sources: Mathilde Blind, Introduction to The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff (London: Cassell, 1890); Katherine Kernberger, "I Am the Most Interesting Book of All" (Fonthill Press, 2013); diary entries across carnets 001-100; Wikipedia articles on Victorian era, British Empire, Promenade des Anglais, Victorian literature; historical sources on British colony in Nice. %%