Reflections on 1831 "jazz"

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 10/14/01 11:38:46 PM Eastern Daylight Time, gcohen at UMR.EDU
(Gerald Cohen) writes:

>     The quote appears in Jasper Godwin Ridley's _Lord Palmerston_, 1970, p.
> 137:
>      "I am writing in the Conference, Matusevic copying out a note for
>  our signature, old Talley[rand] jazzing and telling stories to Lieven
>  and Esterhazy and Wessenberg."

What language was Talleyrand speaking in?  Talleyrand was a Frenchman who had
once lived in exile in the United States and undoubtedly spoke English.
Judging solely by surnames, Matusevic was a Slav (the spelling is Balkan,
perhaps Croat), Lieven and Wessenberg were Germans or German-speaking
Austrians, and Esterhazy was a Hungarian.  At the time French was the
language of diplomacy, so Matusevic's note was likely to have been in French.


What language was Talleyrand speaking at that moment?  His auditors must have
all been fluent in German, but I don't know if Talleyrand was.  He was
unlikely to be telling jokes in Latin, even to a Hungarian.  Hence French
seems the most likely language.  I can imagine Palmerston, recalling a
meeting where everyone was speaking French, thinking of a particular French
verb as being more expressive of Talleyrand's actions than any English verb
he could think of at the moment, even though Palmerston (who referred to "Old
Talley") appears to have been given to aggressive anglicization.

           - Jim Landau

P.S.  How did a Frenchman get so blatantly English a name as "Talleyrand"?