Claude Marcel
Encyclopedia
Claude Victor André Marcel Knight, Leg Hon
(30 November 1793-17 January 1876) was a French applied linguist
who served in Cork
as an official representative of the French government
between 1816 and c. 1864, was additionally an innovative teacher of French and the author of a two-volume study of language education
published in London in 1853 under the title Language as a Means of Mental Culture and International Communication; or, Manual of the Teacher and the Learner of Languages.1
Claude Victor André Marcel was born in 1793 in Paris
, France
where attended Lycée Napoléon (now Lycée Henri-IV), a public secondary school. Here he prepared for his entrance to L'Ecole Polytechnique, a military college then located in Montagne Sainte-Geneviève
in the Quartier Latin in central Paris, but never attended.
In 1813 he joined the 13th Regiment of the Imperial Guard under the echelon Young Guard but he was discharged in January 1814 due to a serious shoulder injury received in Holland. The Imperial Guard was a group of elite soldiers under the direct command of Napoléon I
. It acted as his bodyguard and tactical reserve. The Young Guard consisted of the best of the annual intake of conscripts
, and was never considered to be of quite the same calibre of the senior Guards, although its units were still superior to the normal line regiments.
Two years later, in 1816, he was appointed the honorary post of Chancellor of the French consulate in Cork, Ireland where he served for fifteen years to draw volunteers. Cork, at that time, had considerable trade links with France, Portugal and the West Indies thus, the position was far from being sinecure
.
Early on, probably to help make ends meat, he began to engage in French language teaching, and the Southern Reporter
of 19 October 1819 carried an advertisement stating that he had ‘opened a French Practical School’ in South Mall in the city.
Little more is known about his teaching or business activities at this time, except what can be inferred from his books, the first of which, Practical Method of Teaching the Living Languages, Applied to the French, in which Several Defects of the Old Method are Pointed Out and Remedied, 1820, was published in London
in the year following the opening of his school.
While he continued to work as Chancellor in the French Consulate in Patrick Street as stated in Pigot and Co.’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory
Containing a Classification of the Nobility, Gentry, Clergy, professional Gentlemen, Merchants, and Manufacturers of Dublin and upwards of Two Hundred & Twenty of the Principal Cities, Seaports and Towns of Ireland, Alphabetically Arranged in Provinces, 1824:264, Claude’s own French classes were gaining increasing favour in the local Cork community.
One of his pupils was the young painter, Daniel Maclise
(1806–1870), a Cork native who painted a portrait
of Claude in June 1827, and was exhibited locally in 1828 (according to the Constitution of 27 May 1828) and who subsequently went on to become well-known in England as a portraitist, caricaturist and historical painter. Numerous members of the local establishment also learned French with Claude, including the Catholic and Protestant Bishops of Cork, the Governor-General of the province, and members of the clergy, the magistrature and the medical fraternity.
Between 1828 and 1830 he “married a Cork lady and became a prominent and favourite figure in the Cork social life of his day.”1
In 1830 following the July Revolution
, which saw the overthrow of King Charles X
, the consulate was closed and Claude became a consular agent. Patrice de Mac-Mahon, later 1st Duc de Magenta, of Irish descent, gave a very good testimony “to conduct, he has extensive knowledge and is particularly devoted to the study of foreign languages and, above all, he speaks English and writes extremely well and has even published in that language a few pieces of literature, worthy of good English writers.” His liberal views earned him the same year, after the fall of Charles X and the arrival on the throne of Louis-Philippe, to be appointed by the city of Cork to bring Odilon Barrot
, a French Politician and prefect of the Seine départment, and General Lafayette who was a general in the American Revolutionary War
and a leader of the Garde Nationale during the French Revolution
, and address the people of Cork from the French people.
The closure of the consulate, for Claude, necessitated an even greater reliance on teaching as a source of income. It appears that in the early 1830s he organised a series of French lessons in London and attempted to gain wider support for his own ’Méthode Marcellienne’, privately printing a textbook with an extensive methodological introduction under a semi-pseudonym, ‘Annibal Marcel’. Claude’s use of a pseudonym for this neglected publication, Méthode Marcellienne, ou méthode naturelle théorisée, 1833, London, may be explained by his continuing hopes for advancement within the French diplomatic service, and the perceived incompatibility of this goal with language teaching activities.
In 1835 he hosted in Cork François d'Orléans, prince de Joinville, son of King Louis-Philippe.
In 1839, his intervention in a maritime incident earned him recognition and the friendship of Admiral Baron Ange de Mackau, which was in Claude’s favour several times afterwards. On his way back from Martinique
, an island in the Caribbean Sea
, the frigate Terpsichore commanded by Baron de Mackau, on which was all its family, was attacked by a terrible storm, and remained several days in perdition on the coasts of Ireland. A boat belonging to a company of merchants and shipowners was called up on. They asked 500 guineas to save the ship but Claude reduced the amount to 50 guineas.
This action obtained him, nevertheless, some enmity from certain merchants, this is what was asserted some years later, adding that to harm him, his enemies had made use of foreign language teachers though small adverts in English newspapers to make him lose customers.
Some years later, Claude again had to intervene, with success, in favour of the crew of the Dawn, condemned to a long detention for offences to the customs regulations. He obtained their quick release while the consul of France to Dublin had not been able to obtain it from the Viceroy of Ireland.
From 1840, Claude had asked for the title of honorary consul in Cork. Baron de Mackau who intervened on his behalf then wrote “a man of talent who enjoys Corks where I saw a special account.” This request was approved and an order of 29 February 1840 granted him the title of honorary consul with an annual allowance of 1000 francs.
In 1843, he asked to become consul holder. As his private businesses were deemed incompatible with such a function, he thought of abandoning the teaching, although this fact also indicated by Baron de Mackau was “far from undermining the very high esteem in which Monsieur Marcel enjoys Cork in the eyes of the entire population and close to the first authorities in the province.
Claude seemed determined to stop public lectures and even ensured he no longer took care of the institution which he founded when he was given satisfaction. A memo in November 1843 said he was on the point of publishing a book on language teaching.
In 1838, the consul of France to Dublin requested the cross of the Légion d'honneur be awarded to Claude. A new request was filed in 1846, supported by Baron de Mackau.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied that the file would be examined, but that it appeared difficult to appreciate in Paris the services returned by Claude to Cork since he did not maintain any uniform correspondence or with the ministry or with the consul of France to Dublin……………….
The County and City of Cork Almanac,1843:67, under the heading Consuls of Foreign Powers shows him based/living at 47 Grand Parade, Cork, Ireland.
The year 1848 saw the fall of Louis-Philippe and the proclamation of the Republic; Claude was enthusiastic again for the regime coming from the July Revolution. He wrote to Alphonse de Lamartine
, who became Minister of Foreign Affairs on 9 March 1848 “it is with deep joy that I must ask ……….Claude asked on this occasion the authorisation to communicate directly with the Départment. This was an old claim of the consul, anxious not to depend on Dublin. Satisfaction was not granted to him……….
The following year, thanks to his intervention with English authorities, 200 ruined French who emigrated to New Orleans and had been obliged to wait in Cork, could resume their journey.
Claude welcomed the fall of the monarchy in July that he felt……..The Republic had not responded more positively. He became a supporter of Prince-Président Louis-Napoléon.
The reward was not long since a decree of 14 October 1850 he was finally admitted to the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur and in April 1853 his salary was doubled.
By this time, Claude was approaching retirement, and he had not apparently published anything on language teaching since his 1820 and 1833 contributions. 1853, however, saw the publication of his monumental work in two volumes, Language as a Means of Mental Culture and International Communication.
In 1857, Prince-Président Louis-Napoléon
again intervened on his behalf with the Minister. Such a recommendation earned him an extraordinary bonus of 1000 francs.
He appears to have left Cork around 1863 and retired to Bois de Colombes near Paris.
During his retirement, he issued a number of publications on language teaching, which tended, largely, to restate or exemplify ideas already expressed in his 1853 work. His 1867 work, L’étude des langues, ramenée à ses véritables principes, ou L’art de penser dans une langue étrangère, Paris: Borrani, is largely a summary of certain parts of his 1853 work, while his 1875 piece, Méthode rationelle, suivant pas à pas la marche de la nature pour apprendre les langues étrangères avec ou sans maître. Exposé de la méthose. Paris: Boyer, is a small pamphlet in French in which he attempts to provide a simplified version of ideas for a wider audience.
In the 1870s, he also brought out a number of learning materials, including synoptic tables for the learning of English grammar (1872), and reading materials (1873).
When Claude Victor André Marcel Kt. Leg. Hon. died on 17 January 1876 in Paris, France, he appeared to have been working on a Grammaire pratique et comparée of the French and English languages.
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
(30 November 1793-17 January 1876) was a French applied linguist
Applied linguistics
Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems...
who served in Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
as an official representative of the French government
Government of France
The government of the French Republic is a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic"...
between 1816 and c. 1864, was additionally an innovative teacher of French and the author of a two-volume study of language education
Language education
Language education is the teaching and learning of a foreign or second language. Language education is a branch of applied linguistics.- Need for language education :...
published in London in 1853 under the title Language as a Means of Mental Culture and International Communication; or, Manual of the Teacher and the Learner of Languages.1
Claude Victor André Marcel was born in 1793 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
where attended Lycée Napoléon (now Lycée Henri-IV), a public secondary school. Here he prepared for his entrance to L'Ecole Polytechnique, a military college then located in Montagne Sainte-Geneviève
Montagne Sainte-Geneviève
The Montagne Sainte-Geneviève is a hill on the left Bank of the Seine in the 5th arrondissement of Paris.On the top of the Montagne, one can visit the Panthéon or the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, which is often full of students from La Sorbonne and other nearby universities...
in the Quartier Latin in central Paris, but never attended.
In 1813 he joined the 13th Regiment of the Imperial Guard under the echelon Young Guard but he was discharged in January 1814 due to a serious shoulder injury received in Holland. The Imperial Guard was a group of elite soldiers under the direct command of Napoléon I
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
. It acted as his bodyguard and tactical reserve. The Young Guard consisted of the best of the annual intake of conscripts
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
, and was never considered to be of quite the same calibre of the senior Guards, although its units were still superior to the normal line regiments.
Two years later, in 1816, he was appointed the honorary post of Chancellor of the French consulate in Cork, Ireland where he served for fifteen years to draw volunteers. Cork, at that time, had considerable trade links with France, Portugal and the West Indies thus, the position was far from being sinecure
Sinecure
A sinecure means an office that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service...
.
Early on, probably to help make ends meat, he began to engage in French language teaching, and the Southern Reporter
Southern Reporter
The Southern Reporter, the Southern Reporter Second and the Southern Reporter Third are United States regional case law reporters. It is part of the National Reporter System created by John B...
of 19 October 1819 carried an advertisement stating that he had ‘opened a French Practical School’ in South Mall in the city.
Little more is known about his teaching or business activities at this time, except what can be inferred from his books, the first of which, Practical Method of Teaching the Living Languages, Applied to the French, in which Several Defects of the Old Method are Pointed Out and Remedied, 1820, was published in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in the year following the opening of his school.
While he continued to work as Chancellor in the French Consulate in Patrick Street as stated in Pigot and Co.’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory
Pigot's Directory
Pigot's Directory was a major directory starting in 1814.Pigot's Directories covered the period before official Civil Registration began and are a valuable source of information regarding all major professions, nobility, gentry, clergy, trades and occupations including taverns and public houses and...
Containing a Classification of the Nobility, Gentry, Clergy, professional Gentlemen, Merchants, and Manufacturers of Dublin and upwards of Two Hundred & Twenty of the Principal Cities, Seaports and Towns of Ireland, Alphabetically Arranged in Provinces, 1824:264, Claude’s own French classes were gaining increasing favour in the local Cork community.
One of his pupils was the young painter, Daniel Maclise
Daniel Maclise
Daniel Maclise was an Irish history, literary and portrait painter, and illustrator, who worked for most of his life in London, England.-Early life:...
(1806–1870), a Cork native who painted a portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
of Claude in June 1827, and was exhibited locally in 1828 (according to the Constitution of 27 May 1828) and who subsequently went on to become well-known in England as a portraitist, caricaturist and historical painter. Numerous members of the local establishment also learned French with Claude, including the Catholic and Protestant Bishops of Cork, the Governor-General of the province, and members of the clergy, the magistrature and the medical fraternity.
Between 1828 and 1830 he “married a Cork lady and became a prominent and favourite figure in the Cork social life of his day.”1
In 1830 following the July Revolution
July Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...
, which saw the overthrow of King Charles X
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
, the consulate was closed and Claude became a consular agent. Patrice de Mac-Mahon, later 1st Duc de Magenta, of Irish descent, gave a very good testimony “to conduct, he has extensive knowledge and is particularly devoted to the study of foreign languages and, above all, he speaks English and writes extremely well and has even published in that language a few pieces of literature, worthy of good English writers.” His liberal views earned him the same year, after the fall of Charles X and the arrival on the throne of Louis-Philippe, to be appointed by the city of Cork to bring Odilon Barrot
Odilon Barrot
Camille Hyacinthe Odilon Barrot was a French politician.-Early life:Barrot was born at Villefort Lozère. He belonged to a legal family, his father, an advocate of Toulouse, having been a member of the Convention who had voted against the death of Louis XVI. Odilon Barrot's earliest recollections...
, a French Politician and prefect of the Seine départment, and General Lafayette who was a general in the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
and a leader of the Garde Nationale during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, and address the people of Cork from the French people.
The closure of the consulate, for Claude, necessitated an even greater reliance on teaching as a source of income. It appears that in the early 1830s he organised a series of French lessons in London and attempted to gain wider support for his own ’Méthode Marcellienne’, privately printing a textbook with an extensive methodological introduction under a semi-pseudonym, ‘Annibal Marcel’. Claude’s use of a pseudonym for this neglected publication, Méthode Marcellienne, ou méthode naturelle théorisée, 1833, London, may be explained by his continuing hopes for advancement within the French diplomatic service, and the perceived incompatibility of this goal with language teaching activities.
In 1835 he hosted in Cork François d'Orléans, prince de Joinville, son of King Louis-Philippe.
In 1839, his intervention in a maritime incident earned him recognition and the friendship of Admiral Baron Ange de Mackau, which was in Claude’s favour several times afterwards. On his way back from Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
, an island in the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....
, the frigate Terpsichore commanded by Baron de Mackau, on which was all its family, was attacked by a terrible storm, and remained several days in perdition on the coasts of Ireland. A boat belonging to a company of merchants and shipowners was called up on. They asked 500 guineas to save the ship but Claude reduced the amount to 50 guineas.
This action obtained him, nevertheless, some enmity from certain merchants, this is what was asserted some years later, adding that to harm him, his enemies had made use of foreign language teachers though small adverts in English newspapers to make him lose customers.
Some years later, Claude again had to intervene, with success, in favour of the crew of the Dawn, condemned to a long detention for offences to the customs regulations. He obtained their quick release while the consul of France to Dublin had not been able to obtain it from the Viceroy of Ireland.
From 1840, Claude had asked for the title of honorary consul in Cork. Baron de Mackau who intervened on his behalf then wrote “a man of talent who enjoys Corks where I saw a special account.” This request was approved and an order of 29 February 1840 granted him the title of honorary consul with an annual allowance of 1000 francs.
In 1843, he asked to become consul holder. As his private businesses were deemed incompatible with such a function, he thought of abandoning the teaching, although this fact also indicated by Baron de Mackau was “far from undermining the very high esteem in which Monsieur Marcel enjoys Cork in the eyes of the entire population and close to the first authorities in the province.
Claude seemed determined to stop public lectures and even ensured he no longer took care of the institution which he founded when he was given satisfaction. A memo in November 1843 said he was on the point of publishing a book on language teaching.
In 1838, the consul of France to Dublin requested the cross of the Légion d'honneur be awarded to Claude. A new request was filed in 1846, supported by Baron de Mackau.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied that the file would be examined, but that it appeared difficult to appreciate in Paris the services returned by Claude to Cork since he did not maintain any uniform correspondence or with the ministry or with the consul of France to Dublin……………….
The County and City of Cork Almanac,1843:67, under the heading Consuls of Foreign Powers shows him based/living at 47 Grand Parade, Cork, Ireland.
The year 1848 saw the fall of Louis-Philippe and the proclamation of the Republic; Claude was enthusiastic again for the regime coming from the July Revolution. He wrote to Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic.-Career:...
, who became Minister of Foreign Affairs on 9 March 1848 “it is with deep joy that I must ask ……….Claude asked on this occasion the authorisation to communicate directly with the Départment. This was an old claim of the consul, anxious not to depend on Dublin. Satisfaction was not granted to him……….
The following year, thanks to his intervention with English authorities, 200 ruined French who emigrated to New Orleans and had been obliged to wait in Cork, could resume their journey.
Claude welcomed the fall of the monarchy in July that he felt……..The Republic had not responded more positively. He became a supporter of Prince-Président Louis-Napoléon.
The reward was not long since a decree of 14 October 1850 he was finally admitted to the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur and in April 1853 his salary was doubled.
By this time, Claude was approaching retirement, and he had not apparently published anything on language teaching since his 1820 and 1833 contributions. 1853, however, saw the publication of his monumental work in two volumes, Language as a Means of Mental Culture and International Communication.
In 1857, Prince-Président Louis-Napoléon
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...
again intervened on his behalf with the Minister. Such a recommendation earned him an extraordinary bonus of 1000 francs.
He appears to have left Cork around 1863 and retired to Bois de Colombes near Paris.
During his retirement, he issued a number of publications on language teaching, which tended, largely, to restate or exemplify ideas already expressed in his 1853 work. His 1867 work, L’étude des langues, ramenée à ses véritables principes, ou L’art de penser dans une langue étrangère, Paris: Borrani, is largely a summary of certain parts of his 1853 work, while his 1875 piece, Méthode rationelle, suivant pas à pas la marche de la nature pour apprendre les langues étrangères avec ou sans maître. Exposé de la méthose. Paris: Boyer, is a small pamphlet in French in which he attempts to provide a simplified version of ideas for a wider audience.
In the 1870s, he also brought out a number of learning materials, including synoptic tables for the learning of English grammar (1872), and reading materials (1873).
When Claude Victor André Marcel Kt. Leg. Hon. died on 17 January 1876 in Paris, France, he appeared to have been working on a Grammaire pratique et comparée of the French and English languages.