Old Regime cases of rape as abduction (rapt) range from forcible rape preceded by an abduction to seduction of a legal minor (that is, under 25) to what appear to be fully consensual, even mutually decided, elopements. While French law did acknowledge a difference between kidnapping by seduction and kidnapping by violence, both were considered forms of rape and could in principle by punished by death (though even with forcible rape, this sentence seemed to be applied unevenly.) Complex considerations of family honor and simple fortune-hunting should also be noted here. A century later, the protagonist of De Maupassant's Bel Ami lures a young woman away with him simply to force her father's approval of the marriage (he is careful not to use his leverage for sexual purposes, since he has a larger goal in view). Similar situations may well have occured in our period, with or without the "victim"'s complicity, as well as the inverse situation where a forcible rape was disguised with a subsequent marriage (despite contrary stipulations in French law). I don't know if, in France, any popular myths existed in regard to forcible abduction such as those mentioned by George Lloyd in England: "Law evaded by putting the woman on horseback *before* the man; by which means, the woman runs away with the man!" (Notes and Queries, 2nd S., XI, January 26, 1861)
One important nuance of this charge was that it made women subject to accusations of rape. Generally, this referred to a seduction or statutory rape. However it could include violence:
In Abbeville, in the fifteenth century, a woman who had "worked to seduce a young person" was banished after being ridden through the street in a cart and put in the pillory, where all her hair was burnt off. It is not clear however if she was charged with rape. (Francois-Cesar Louandre, Histoire d'Abbeville (II, 267)) We will see at least one more explicit accusation of this sort in the eighteenth century later in the current series. Jousse outlines complex nuances and exceptions to this charge. Readers of French who are interested in the subject are again referred to his long section on the whole continuum of rape and other 'carnal relations': Traite de la Justice Criminelle (Tome 3, 705-752).
This case shows clearly that, legally at least, marriage could not, as in many cultures, remove the stain of a rape by abduction. Note that the initial sentence here, too, was capital (though Denisart does not give the result of the later review).
The same case is described, with more detail, in Houard's "Dictionnaire du Coutume de Normandie" ("Rapt", IV, 24). He gives the date of the original abduction as January 13, 1724.
This case from Denisart is a prime example of a death sentence being handed down (albeit in absentia) for a consensual "abduction". Yet the consent was clear enough for the woman to be disinherited for granting it.
This is an example of a case that might have been tried as 'rapt'. Note that the parents did not report the crime until it was clear Riguegueri was unlikely to marry their daughter. Otherwise, the whole case might have stayed unknown to the authorities. It seems possible here that Riguegueri did indeed want to marry the girl (and to force her parents' consent) whether or not he was already married.
From CHEZ JIM Books:
An EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK:
APRES MOI LE DESSERT - VOLUME II
and a history of the CROISSANT:
AUGUST ZANG AND THE FRENCH CROISSANT
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18th CENTURY RECIPE: Thomas Jefferson's ice cream
It is appropriate that one of the earliest American recipes for ice cream comes from Thomas Jefferson, who was one of the those who introduced "iced cream" to the United States. (See also http://www.idfa.org/facts/icmonth/page7.cfm.) His recipe clearly comes from a French model and refers to a "sabotiere". This is a slight corruption of "sarbotiere", which can approximately be translated as "ice-cream maker", though the latter term is a little anachronistic (see below). The Encyclopedia shows an image of one in the plates for "Confiserie" (Seconde livraison, Seconde partie - Plate II - figure 8 (PDF page 175)) The note for this set of plates includes this explanation:
Sarbotiere. This is a tin or tinplate container; in which are liqueurs to be served are frozen, or iced fruits are made. The sarbotiere has, as shown, its bucket, & this bucket has a hole with a peg to empty it of water. The distance from the sarbotiere to the inside of the bucket is of four fingers.
Encyclopedie, "Confiserie", note to Plate II - figure 8 (PDF page 171)
It is even possible to order, on-line, a reproduction of Jefferson's own model: "*Historic reproduction* Thomas Jefferson brought recipes for "iced cream" home from France. He made them in this "sarbotiere", or ice cream maker! If you have ever made ice cream the "rolling tin can way", you will understand the principle behind this 18th century version!" The Monticello site, which also offers this recipe, as well as a modern interpretation of it, includes another image of a "sabottiere" and a useful note: "*The sabottiere is the inner cannister shown in the drawing. There was no crank to turn it; when Jefferson wrote "turn the Sabottiere in the ice 10 minutes," he meant for someone to grab the handle and turn the cannister clockwise and then counterclockwise."
To a French speaker, the name of this apparatus suggests a sherbet (sorbet) - maker: sorbetiere. But I have not so far seen a recipe for sherbet (under that name) in our period, when 'sorbet' was primarily known as a Turkish drink. The Encyclopedia's description of the original is not flattering: "SHERBET, (Confection & drink of the Turks.) that which the Turks drink normally is only an infusion of raisins, in which they throw a handful of snow; this drink is not worth the herbal infusion at the Hotel-Dieu [public hospital] of Paris." As late as 1798, a play has a Damascus judge saying: "I will come back to see you, and we will reason on justice together, smoking from the same pipe, and drinking sherbert from the same cup." Le cordonnier de damas, Pigault-Lebrun, 1798. On the other hand, most iced preparations of the period were indeed more like sherbert than ice cream, and so, if the association existed in the minds of 18th century users, it was a fair one.
Here is Jefferson's recipe, transcribed from the Library of Congress's version:
2 bottles of good cream 6 yolks of eggs 1/2 lb sugar
mix the yolks and sugar.
put the cream on a fire in a casserole, first putting in a stick of vanilla.
when near boiling tke it off and pour it quickly into the mixture of egs and sugar.
stir it well.
put it on the fire again stirring it thoroughly with a spoon to prevent it sticking to the casserole.
when near boiling take it off and strain it through a towel.
put it in the Sabotiere. then set it on ice an hour before it is to be served.
put into the ice a handful of salt and put ice all around the Sarbotiere - i.e. a layer of ice a layer of salt for three layers.
put salt on the cover lid of the Sabotiere & cover the whole with ice.
leave it still half a quarter of an hour. then turn the Sarbotiere in the ice 10 minutes.
open it to loosen with a spatula the ice from the inner sides of the Sabotiere.
shut it & replace it in the ice.
open it from time to time to detach the ice from the sides.
when well taken (prise) stir it well the Spatula.
put it in moulds, jostling well down on the knee.
then put the mould into the same bucket of ice.
Leave it there to the moment of serving it.
Immerse the moulds in warm water, turning it well till it will come out & turn it into a plate.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tri034.html
A visitor to Jefferson's White House noted a list of items served, including: "Ice cream very good . . .; a dish somewhat like pudding . . . covered with cream sauce -- very fine."
The idea of "ice cream" does not yet appear to have been established in France itself. The modern French word for ice cream - glace - is the same as the word for ice, and in the eighteenth century such preparations were closer to true ices or modern sherbets, and were often called "snows" - neiges (about which more next week). A "snow" could have cream in it, but the idea of iced cream did not yet correspond to a separate category of frozen dessert, and so the following recipe is but one of several "snows", many of which are made without cream:
Ordinary Cream Snow. Take a dozen fresh eggs, and separate the whites from the yolks; strain your yolks through a strainer into a frying pan; blend them with 2 pints [4 English pints] of sweet cream: put in a little lemon peel: cook your cream over a low fire, turning it continually with a spatula until you see that it starts to rise; take it off the fire; add powdered sugar to taste: when it is dissolved, strain your cream in a terrine through a sieve: let it cool & put it in a sarbotiere [ice-cream maker]: to finish it, see "put to ice", "make an ice take" & "work an ice". All snows require the same work: the cream risks turning in the summer...
PUT to ice, is to put liqueur in a sarbotiere, put the sarbotiere in a bucket, & surround it with crushed and salted ice. When your sarbotieres are full of the liqueur you would like to harden, put them in buckets expressly made the same height and width as your sarbotieres, so that there is play around your sarbotieres the width of a hand; you will then fill this space with ice crushed and mixed with salt, up to the cover; then you will begin to work it....
SQUEEZE with ice, Pantry term, to well wrap, & cover with salted and crushed ice all sorts of ice molds, in which one will have put snows, to ice them to the point that one can take the figure out...
WORK, said of snows. It is when one moves the sarbotiere around, & detaches and well mixes the snow in the sarbotiere, to keep ice cubes from forming.
Le Cannameliste, 1768 (154, 141, 219, 234)
Before the sarbotiere, it seems that bottles were put in tinplate boxes and covered with ice. For some idea of how this process evolved, here is an earlier recipe from L'Ecole parfaite des officiers de bouche (1737):
Of how to ice all kinds of delicious Waters.
Take the Bottle where the Waters are, put three or four in a bucket, & more if desired so long as the bucket is big enough putting them a finger's distance from each other, then take ice, crush it up well, and salt it. Once it is crushed, promptly put some in the bucket, & bit by bit tin-plate boxes in which will be your Waters, until it is full, and the boxes are are covered. For one bucket six boxes are needed (these sort of containers are sold at the tin smith's). If one wants them to ice promptly put two litrons [.83 liters each] of salt or thereabouts: that noted, let your Waters rest a half-hour or three-quarter hour time, watching from time to time that the water does not cover the boxes as the ice melts, & that it does not seep into the Liqueurs; & to avoid this mishap, one must make a hole at the bottom of the bucket where you will put in a pit; it is through this that you will remove water from time to time. After this, stack the ice on top of your boxes, stir the Liqueur with a spoon, in order to make it freeze into snow: & if it freezes into large pieces, stir it with a spoon in order to dissolve it, because otherwise your iced Waters also will only have an insipid taste. When you have then stirred all your boxes and your Liqueurs, & you have been careful that no salted ice seeped in, cover them again with their covers: then with ice and crushed salt as above, the more salt you stuff into the ice, the more the Liqueuers will ice, do not take them out of the bucket until you are ready to serve them.
(201-202)
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FOR READERS OF FRENCH
