Regency Reader Questions: Honorifics and Frankenstein

Thanks for the question, Dot, and for being a Regency Reader!

For Frankenstein specifically, the M stands for Monsieur, likely because he is a professor at a German university and French would have been broadly spoken.  It could also stand for Mister, but that is less likely.

I did notice the use of M, Msr, Mdm, Messrs a lot when researching my book, Masquerade Balls in Regency Britain, and in many of these cases these were British people living in Britain, so I scratched my head about this.

Thank goodness for academics and others who have written extensively about this topic (I have included links below)

The TLDR version is it was popular in the 19th century, and before, to use French honorifics like Monsieur and Madame as a courtesy and to express esteem.  When referring to groups of untitled gentlemen, it was also very common to see the plural of Monsieur, Messieurs or contraction Messrs. again as a courtesy and because there really isn’t a great plural of Misters.

The longer version is honorifics have a complicated history.  Mr is derived from Master, Miss and Ms is derived from mistress.  Mr historically was applied to those above one’s own status if they lacked a higher title.  Eventually, this respect would be extended to all men. But there is more!

In the Regency era, and before, there were essentially two types of non-titled gentlemen. The first was esquire, often denoted with Esq. after their name, and Mr the second.

Esquire originally meant a knight’s shield bearer, but by the Regency usually was meant to imply a distinguished gentleman (GQ | Men’s Fashion, Style & Grooming | Britannica) included bankers, dealers, theater managers, and other tradesmen or business people. The usage was often the result of self-styling.  An editorial from 1848 laid out that Esquire’s should be foreign noblemen, son of peers and lords, eldest sons of baronets and knights, barristers, justices of peaces, mayors, and others so selected by the Crown (In Britain, who is entitled to the suffix of “Esquire” (“Esq.”)? – Nobiliary law – Adelsrecht – Droit nobiliaire).

Similarly, it wasn’t until the 19th century that most women had a prefix before their name.  Mrs and Miss were usually restricted to people of higher social standing, whereas all other women were just referred to by their names. This might include a housekeeper being referred to as Mrs Jenkins, while the maids would be referred to by their first names (Mistress, Miss, Mrs or Ms: untangling the shifting history of titles | University of Cambridge).

Monsieur (M.), Madame (Mme.), and Mademoiselle (Mlle) are essentially the equivalents of Mr, Mrs, Ms, but was a way to signify the speaker’s fluency with French.  People could style themselves this way, too, just like Esquire.  And in my review of a lot of primary sources, what I tend to see is the French honorifics used more for skilled tradespeople and business people in the Regency era.  This seems to be less the case in the 18th century, so my instinct is this was an artifact of the Regency era.  It seems common with performers, like singers, high level performers or showpeople, and instructors particularly if they had formerly had a career as a performer.

One last note:  Sirrah was a derogatory address for a man or boy, usually younger than the speaker, to imply lower social status and disgust (Traditional Forms of Address – Their Histories and Origins | Throughout History).

I wonder if it might be helpful to develop a cheat sheet of honorifics and their history?  Leave a comment if that would be helpful!

Dot, hope that answers your question, thanks again for the opportunity to touch on a topic that has been on my mind.

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Discovering Dickens – A Community Reading Project

Mistress, Miss, Mrs or Ms: untangling the shifting history of titles | University of Cambridge

Traditional Forms of Address – Their Histories and Origins | Throughout History

Beal, J. C., Percy, C., & Davidson, M. C. (2012). A la mode de Paris: linguistic patriotism and francophobia in 18th-century Britain. The languages of nation: Attitudes and norms, 148, 141.

Watts, R. J. (1999). Language and politeness in early eighteenth century Britain. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), 9(1), 5-20.