The Chevalier d'Eon in the News: Two Issues of the Mercure de France

Mercure de France. Ed. Jean-François de la Harpe. No. 39, Saturday, 23 Sept. 1780. Stab-stitched Softcover 16-mo., 46 pp.
 

 

  

The Mercure de France edited by the outspoken critic and commentator La Harpe, was one of the most influential newspapers of the Revolutionary period (not to be confused with the later Symbolist journal, a copy of which also resides in this archive). 

  

 

   

This issue contains the account of a legal dispute involving the Chevalier d'Eon, a respected transsexual diplomat and spy who had first made her name as a man, before transitioning. Though the transition had initially been explained as a habit picked up in disguise as a spy, and has since been attributed to a rather unlikely ruse after being caught in flagrente delicto with Marie Antoinette, the fact remains that the Chevalier lived, identified, and dressed as a female for the last several years of her life. The remarkable thing about this article is that it treats her with a respect that would be unusual even today – her pronouns are respected throughout the article, recognizing her status as "chevalier" (open only to men) while consistently referring to her as "Madamoiselle d'Eon" and yet never even mentioning her non-binary gender.

  

Other interesting items include an article on art restoration, bemoaning the effects of chemical treatments and proposing the use of specially-prepared glass to intervene in light degredation; and a long report on movements of the French Army in America, campaigning with Washington and against the British blockade.

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Mercure de France. Ed. Jean-François de la Harpe. No. 52, Saturday, 23 Dec. 1780. Stab-stitched Softcover 16-mo., 46 pp.

 
This issue of the Mercure de France, from only two months (exactly!) after the other issue in the archive [see above], also deals with the Chevalier d'Eon in an unrelated article that further demonstrates her acceptance among the French ruling class under the Revolution, as during the Monarchy before it: it deals with the naming of a ship after her. 
  

It also contains a large fold-out chart depicting the results of an experiment in gauging the depth of a recently discovered subterranean river by means of sound as stones were dropped down into it.