The Art Of Conversation 談吐的藝術(3)

Old French masters Bridgeman

舊時代的法國大師 Bridgeman

The second golden age of conversation, among the French elites in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, is much better documented. Historians associate the rise of conversation at this time with the prestige enjoyed by women in French high society, which was perhaps unique in Europe before or since. Women ran the salons where the culture of the time was created, and their presence civilised the men they invited there. Another factor was the leisure forced on the French aristocracy by an absolute monarchy. Their political ambitions thwarted, the upper classes turned their energies towards entertaining themselves. A man without conversation was liable to find himself devalued, whatever his other qualities: "In England it was enough that Newton was the greatest mathematician of the century," wrote Jean d'Alembert, a French philosopher and mathematician; "in France he would have been expected to be agreeable too."

談吐在17世紀晚期至18世紀早期的法國精英之中的第二個黃金時代，則被更好的記錄下來。歷史學家將這一時期談吐的興起與婦女在法國上層社會所享有的特權關聯起來，這一點相較於之前或自那時起的歐洲，也許都是獨一無二的。婦女奔向那時的文化創造處所——沙龍，而她們的出現讓邀請她們的男人們文明起來。另一個因素是，閒適以一種絕對的專制獨裁（的面貌）強施於法國的貴族階層。他們的政治雄心受到阻礙，上層階層將自身能力轉向了自我娛樂。一個不擅言辭的男人，很容易發現自身（掉價了）的貶值，這是不管他自身的其他優點如何的："英國有了牛頓（Newton）這個國家最偉大的數學家就足夠了。" 法國哲學家和數學家達朗貝爾（Jean d'Alembert）寫到，"而在法國，對他（牛頓）的期待也是讓大家欣然適意的"。

The conversation of the French salons and dinner tables became as stylised as a ballet. The basic skills brought to the table were expected to include politesse (sincere good manners), esprit (wit), galanterie (gallantry), complaisance (obligingness), enjouement (cheerfulness) and flatterie. More specific techniques would be required as the conversation took flight. A comic mood would require displays of raillerie (playful teasing), plaisanterie (joking), bons mots (epigrams), traits and pointes (rhetorical figures involving "subtle, unexpected wit", according to Benedetta Craveri, a historian of the period), and, later, persiflage (mocking under the guise of praising). Even silences had to be finely judged. The Duc de La Rochefoucauld distinguished between an "eloquent" silence, a "mocking" silence and a "respectful" silence. The mastery of such "airs and tones", he said, was "granted to few".

在法國的沙龍的和晚飯桌上的交談就像芭蕾一樣成爲一種流行樣式。期望能帶到餐桌上的基本技能包括：politesse（真誠的好習慣），esprit（機智），galanterie（勇氣），complaisance（讓人親近），enjouement（爽朗）和flatterie（殷勤）。隨着交談的騰空而起，就對更爲具體的技巧提出了要求。在表現raillerie (戲耍性的揶揄), plaisanterie (開玩笑), bons mots (使用警句), traits and pointes (據這一時期的歷史學家Benedetta Craveri，包括"機巧，急智 " 這樣的修飾性的特徵)，以及後來的 persiflage (以稱讚的口吻嘲諷)時，就要求有一種滑稽的心境。de La Rochefoucauld公爵就區分了"雄辯"的沉默、"嘲諷"的沉默和"尊敬"的沉默。他說，諸如在"氣氛和腔調"這上面的精通是"極少爲人所能應允的"。

Conversation was also flourishing across the channel in the early 18th century, but for a different reason. This was the golden age of the British coffee house. Whereas the French salon excluded politics from polite conversation, in the British coffee house politics was a main preoccupation. Foreign visitors remarked both on the free range of speech there and on the mingling of classes and professions. A modern German sociologist, Jürgen Habermas, linked the coffee houses with what he called the "rise of a public space" outside the control of the state, or, as we might say now, civil society.

在18世紀早期，交談在海峽的對岸同樣欣欣向榮，但理由有別。這一時期是英國咖啡屋的黃金時期。法國沙龍把政治排除在文雅的交談之外。而在英國咖啡屋，政治是主要的（保留節目）預留內容。外國訪客不但對那裏的言論自由的範圍，也對其階層和專家的之間融合印象深刻。當代德國社會學家尤爾根•哈貝馬斯（Jürgen Habermas）將咖啡屋與其所指稱的國家控制之外的"公共空間的興起"相關聯，或者，就是我們今天會說的：民間社會。