Galerie des Modes, 43e Cahier, 4e Figure

 The nervous Beauty, looking at the hour of the rendez-vous that her lover has asked in the letter she holds: her coiffure is à la Marlborough and she is dressed in a morning gown. (1784)

The Marlborough fashions. - The song Marlborough, probably dating to the battle of Malplaquet, became truly popular in France after 1781, the date on which Madame Poitrine [Chest], nurse to the Dauphin, taught it to Marie Antoinette, who made it fashionable.  Everything was soon "à la Marlborough" and Bachaumont made it the subject of the following: "1783, August 14, Madame the duchess of Malborough, grand-daughter of the governor-general of that name, who took him as her husband, learned in the jokes that were made here since last year, when the memory of a man so fatal to France was recalled, wanted to have a collection of all the songs and plays, of all the jokes, of all the jeers and puns that have resulted.

"She has at the same time charged Mlle Bertin to send her a list of all the fashions imagined in the Marlborough style, whether in use by women or by men.

"One knows the news from the travelers that come back from London, and speak of this Englishwoman as very amiable, as very capable of hearing these pleasantries, being perfectly comfortable with the French language which she speaks as well as her own.  They add that she is moreover a women of much spirit."

BACHAUMONT, Secret Memoirs

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