36 – An Accidental Interpreter: Jean Jacques Rousseau and the Archimandrite

With thanks to Dr Evelyne Ender, Senior Lecturer, Department of Comparative Thought and Literature, Johns Hopkins University, for alerting me to this story.

Athanasius Paulus must have thought his luck had changed when Jean Jacques Rousseau approached him in a café in Boudry, near Neuchâtel, in April 1731. The exotically attired Eastern Christian Orthodox monk was having trouble making himself understood in his langue franque, the Italian-based lingua franca spoken in the Levant. Rousseau knew Italian, figured out what the stranger was saying, and came to the rescue.

This story appears in Book IV of Rousseau’s Confessions, written late in life and published after his death. The book is indeed confessional; Books I-VI tell the story of an impetuous young man who was adrift and dependent on the kindness of strangers; they include tales of wilfulness, stubbornness and deceit.  These stories may have been intended as apologies, narrative drivers, or admissions of guilt; whatever their raison d’être, they add colour to Rousseau’s autobiography.

Non seulement j’appris ainsi l’italien dans sa pureté, mais je pris du goût pour la littérature et quelque discernement des bons livres … qui me servit beaucoup dans la suite quand je me mis ȧ travailler seul. ¹

Parisien de Genève, et catholique en pays protestant, je crus devoir changer mon nom ainsi que ma religion et ma patrie.²

Savoy

Rousseau (1712-1778) was born in Geneva but left home at 16 after missing curfew and being locked out of the city.  He found himself in Confignon, in Savoy, where he met Benoît de Pontverre, a Catholic priest. Rather than suggesting that the young man return to his loved ones, de Pontverre encouraged him to renounce Protestantism and gave him a letter of introduction to Françoise-Louise de Warens, a convert from Calvinism who lived in Annecy. She was an inspiration to him from the day they first met and took an interest in his fate.³ As he had no plans, she arranged for him to attend religious instruction in Turin.

The two years he spent in Turin involved studies at a centre for converts to Catholicism.  After leaving the centre, he found employment as a private secretary and domestic servant.  It was in one of those positions that he met the Abbé de Gouvon, who helped him with his education.  Rousseau was not skilled in Latin, but taking dictation from the Abbé and copying letters for him significantly improved his Italian.⁴ He did not stay for long in Turin as he privileged his friendship with an old acquaintance from Geneva – Pierre Bâcle – over his obligations to his employers.⁵

Bâcle and he returned to Geneva, and he was reunited with Mme de Warens, to their mutual delight, though his future was still undecided.⁶  Mme de Warens held some consultations, and it was decided that her young friend might be suited for the priesthood.  He was sent to a seminary, taking with him a book of Clérambault’s cantatas, but little in the way of religious vocation.

Music

J’y portai un seul livre que j’avais prié Maman [Mme de Warens] de me prêter, et que me fut d’une grande ressource.  On ne devinera pas quelle sorte de livre c’était : un livre de musique … j’avais une telle passion pour cet art que je voulais essayer de m’exercer seul. ⁷

When he gave up on the seminary, Rousseau first stayed with Mme de Warens, then boarded with the Master of Music at the Annecy cathedral, M. Le Maître, and settled into a musical routine that he cherished.⁸.  While he was there, he met another musician, about whom he had mixed feelings. Venture de Villeneuve knocked on Le Maître’s door in February 1730; he was a French musician who had fallen on hard times. Le Maître welcomed him, and he stayed for dinner. Sur tout ce qu’on disait il paraissait au fait; mais à peine un sujet était-il entamé qu’il brouillait l’entretien par quelque polissonnerie qui faisait rire et oublier ce qu’on avait dit ⁹ De Villeneuve’s casual approach to life inspired Rousseau.

Book IV covers the years 1731-2, years of teaching music in Lausanne, then in Neuchâtel. By this time, Rousseau had reinvented himself as a Parisian called Vaussore (an anagram of his name) de Villeneuve. De Villeneuve was more than a borrowed name: he was a bad influence. Pour comprendre à quel point je m’étais pour ainsi dire venturisé, il ne faut que voir combien tout à la fois j’accumulai d’extravagances.  Me voilà maître à chanter sans savoir déchiffrer un air…¹⁰

That was not all: he also claimed composing skills that he did not have and came to grief when a piece of his was played at a concert at the home of a law professor; the musicians laughed, and the audience frowned.¹¹ That was a very low point; things did improve, but learning music by teaching it, and just scraping a living, had its limitations. Maybe it was time to move on.

The Archimandrite

One day Rousseau was at a tavern in Boudry, outside Neuchâtel, when he saw

un homme à grande barbe avec un habit violet à la grecque, un bonnet fourré, l’équipage et l’air assez noble, et qui souvent avait peine à se faire entendre, ne parlant qu’un jargon presque indéchiffrable, mais plus ressemblant à l’italien qu’à nulle autre langue. J’entendais presque tout ce qu’il disait, et j’étais le seul ; il ne pouvait s’énoncer que par signes avec l’hôte et les gens du pays.¹²

He spoke to the man in Italian. The stranger was so delighted that he came over to give him a bear hug and invited him to share his meal, which was much better than Rousseau’s indifferent plate of food. The two of them ate, drank, and engaged in conversation. Rousseau uses the term “baragouiner” (jabbering) to describe their chat; he could understand most of what the man said, as he was speaking la langue franque, the Italian-based lingua franca used in the Levant, but they were by no means speaking the same language. 

The man in a fur cap said he was Athanasius Paulus, an orthodox monk, or archimandrite, from Jerusalem, who was in Europe raising money for the restoration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He had letters of patent from the Czarina, the Emperor and other sovereigns, and was pleased with his progress so far. mais il avait eu des peines incroyables en Allemagne, n’entendant pas un mot d’allemand, de latin, ni de français, et réduit à son grec, au turc et à la langue franque pour toute ressource, ce qui ne lui en procurait pas beaucoup dans le pays où il s’était enfourné.¹³

When Rousseau’s new friend suggested that he join him as his interpreter and secretary, he agreed immediately. In hindsight, the much older man wryly acknowledged that he had been a little too trusting: there he was, with nothing in writing, agreeing to head for Jerusalem with a stranger.¹⁴

Rousseau the Interpreter

The joint fundraising operation started in Fribourg, where the Senate made a small donation.  They moved on to Berne, and Rousseau found that he was enjoying the change of pace, good food and lively meals. He was also pleased with the way his work went.  J’étais bien plus hardi et mieux parlant que je n’aurais été pour moi-même.¹⁵This from the man who had bemoaned the fact that he was inarticulate and incapable of conversation.¹⁶

Speaking for someone else made public speaking easier: he was in his employer’s shoes. When before the Fribourg Senate, [j]e ne fus pas même intimidé. J’exposai succinctement et nettement la commission de l’archimandrite … Je ne dirai pas que mon discours fit effet, mais il est sûr qu’il fut goûté, et qu’au sortir de l’audience l’archimandrite reçut un présent fort honnête, et de plus, sur l’esprit de son secrétaire, des compliments dont j’eus l’agréable emploi d’être le truchement, mais que je n’osai lui rendre à la lettre.¹⁷ Their appeal was successful.

Rousseau was happy: Il est secrétaire, passe des moments agréables, se délecte d’une cuisine revigorante. La fonction de secrétaire lui convient parfaitement.¹⁸

Rousseau the Second?

The next stop was Solothurn, where they met first with Jean Louis d’Usson, Marquis de Bonnac, the French ambassador to Switzerland. The ambassador saw Paulus without his interpreter, as he spoke Italian and the Levant lingua franca. The archimandrite did not make a good impression on him:  Rousseau was discouraged from leaving with his friend and was invited by de Bonnac to tell his story. The ambassador may have been acting in his official capacity, as he was under the impression that he was dealing with a Frenchman called Vaussore de Villeneuve … He reacted kindly when the young man admitted who he really was. De Bonnac and his wife decreed that he was not to travel with Paulus – or even say goodbye to him – and to stay with them until better arrangements were made for him.

The ambassador’s secretary showed Rousseau to his room, making a prescient suggestion.

En me conduisant dans la chambre qui m’était destinée, il me dit : Cette chambre a été occupée sous le comte du Luc par un homme célèbre du même nom que vous : il ne tient qu’à vous de le remplacer de toutes manières, et de faire dire un jour, Rousseau premier, Rousseau second.¹⁹

As things turned out, Ambassador and Mme de Bonnac were right to send the archimandrite on his way, as he was not who he claimed to be. Three years later, he was arrested in Holland when his letters of patent from European royalty and church officials were revealed to be forgeries. He was found guilty of collecting money under false pretences and hanged. We would probably know nothing about him if he had not decided to offer a young man a meal and a job when he needed an interpreter.²⁰

It was to be a while before Rousseau made his name as a writer. When he left Solothurn, he headed for Paris with a clutch of letters of introduction and a travel allowance.²¹ There were to be more years of uncertainty and improvisation.

1. Rousseau,J.J. 1959, 1973, Les Confessions, Gallimard, p. 140. I not only learned pure Italian; I also acquired a taste for literature and an eye for good books … which served me well when I started to work by myself. (My translation – as are all of those to follow.)
2. Ibid. p.198. As a Parisian from Geneva and a Catholic in a Protestant land, I thought I should change my name as well as my religion and my homeland.
3. Ibid. p. 87
4. Ibid. p. 140
5. Ibid. p.142
6. Ibid. p. 148
7. Ibid. p. 163. I took just one book with me, one that I had begged Mummy (Mme de Warens) to lend me. One would never guess what type of book it was: a book of music … I loved the art of music so much that I wanted to practise it on my own.
8. Ibid. p.169
9. Ibid. p. 171. He seemed well-informed about everything under discussion,but as soon as a subject was raised, he confused things with some salacious remark that made people laugh and lose the thread.
10. Ibid. p. 198. To understand to what extent I was venturised, as it were, one just has to see the sheer folly of my ways. Here I was, a singing teacher who could not read a tune.
11. Ibid. p. 200
12. Ibid. p. 205. a man with a full beard in a violet Grecian habit with a fur-lined cap and a rather noble air, who often seemed to have trouble making himself understood: all he spoke was an almost incomprehensible lingo that sounded more like Italian than anything else. I understood almost everything he said, and I was the only one who could; he was reduced to sign language with the locals.
13. Ibid. but things had been unbelievably difficult in Germany as he had no German, Latin or French, so was reduced to using his Greek, Turkish or the langue franque, which was not of much use to him in the country where he had landed himself.
14. Ibid. p. 206
15. Ibid. p. 207. I was much braver and articulate than I would have been had I been speaking for myself
16. Ibid. pp.161 and 208
17. Ibid. p. 207. I was not at all intimidated. I conveyed the archimandrite’s message clearly and succinctly … I would not say that my speech was effective but it was appreciated, and after the meeting, the archimandrite was given a decent contribution, and what’s more, compliments on his secretary’s wit, which it was my agreeable duty to interpret, though I did not dare to do so in full detail.
18. https://www.academieromande.ch/TEXTES-RH-ROUSSEAU/prod_JJRousseau_Boudry. He is a secretary, has good times, enjoys restorative meals. Being a secretary suits him perfectly.
19. Rousseau, op. cit. p. 209. While showing me to my room, he said: Under the Comte du Luc, this room was used by a famous man who has the same name as you: it is up to you to follow his example to the letter so that one day people refer to Rousseau the first and Rousseau the second.
20. Collier, 2017, Aramco World, pp. 20-25, p. 23[/efn_note
21. Ibid. p. 210
22. Ibid. p. 22