[Hardy-l] Hardy's "la politesse du coeur"

[Nathalie Ba]

Thank you Eric for your answer. You must be right as 

--- En date de : Jeu 10.7.08, Eric Christen <ericjchristen at bluewin.ch> a écrit :

De: Eric Christen <ericjchristen at bluewin.ch>
Objet: Re: [Hardy-l] Hardy's "la politesse du coeur"
À: tallyba at yahoo.fr, hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu
Date: Jeudi 10 Juillet 2008, 14h43



Dear members,   In one of his short stories, "Fellow-Townsmen" (Wessex Tales), Hardy's narrator speaks of la politesse du coeur  (the expression is in French and it is italicized). I looked for the original writer responsible for the expression. It is "Jean Jacques Barthelemy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Jacques_Barthelemy>  (1716-95), a highly esteemed classical scholar and Jesuit, who published The Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece" in 1788 (I quote from wikipedia). Hardy must have read Barthelemy's book although I can find no reference to it in his literary notes, autobiography or even letters.  Can anyone be of some help?  Thank you a lot in advance!  Nathalie.  

   “la politesse du coeur” is a fairly common – and quite charming – expression in French. Whether Barthélémy actually coined it or just used it is unknown. It is used to contrast pleasant attitudes to formal manners. As Barthélémy is quite forgotten – and must have been a hundred years ago – my guess is that Hardy learnt it from his French teacher while in London. 
    Eric
_______________________________________________
Hardy-l mailing list
Hardy-l at coyote.csusm.edu
http://coyote.csusm.edu/mailman/listinfo/hardy-l


      _____________________________________________________________________________ 
Envoyez avec Yahoo! Mail. Une boite mail plus intelligente http://mail.yahoo.fr
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://coyote.csusm.edu/pipermail/hardy-l/attachments/20080710/296d836c/attachment.html