Abstract

This essay considers the complicated prehistory of the concept of public opinion in early modern France through an analysis of Madame de Sévigné’s letters on two judicial proceedings of her lifetime: Nicolas Fouquet’s trial for corruption and the Marquise de Brinvilliers’s prosecution during the Affaire des poisons. Although most cultural historians agree that public opinion emerges as a political force only after the fall of absolute monarchy, Sévigné’s correspondence used the figure of a judging public to criticize the law courts’ rulings, questioning their authority by exploiting the ostensibly private discursive space of correspondence to articulate the judgement of an imagined ‘public’ in opposition to the official truth. By rhetorically valorizing rumour, gossip, and the consensus of tout le monde, Sévigné exposed the flaws of judicial procedures whereby verdicts were achieved through the control and manipulation of information. The legitimate final arbiter on these proceedings, Sévigné asserted, was located not in the law court but in the court of public opinion. In this way, her letters provide new insights into the politics of information control during the Ancien Régime.

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