Editing Bastille (section)

====Prison regime====
[[File:Bastille Courtyard 1785.jpg|thumb|A sketch of the main courtyard in 1785{{refn|This picture, by [[Jean-Honoré Fragonard]], shows a number of elegantly dressed women; it is uncertain on what occasion the drawing was made, or what they were doing in Bastille at the time.<ref>Dutray-Lecoin (2010c), p. 148.</ref>|group=upper-alpha}}]]

Contrary to its later image, conditions for prisoners in the Bastille by the mid-18th century were in fact relatively benign, particularly by the standards of other prisons of the time.<ref>Schama, pp. 331–2; Lüsebrink and Reichardt, pp. 29–32.</ref> The typical prisoner was held in one of the octagonal rooms in the mid-levels of the towers.<ref>Schama, pp. 331–2.</ref> The ''calottes'', the rooms just under the roof that formed the upper storey of the Bastille, were considered the least pleasant quarters, being more exposed to the elements and usually either too hot or too cold.<ref name=SchamaP331>Schama, p. 331.</ref> The ''cachots'', the underground dungeons, had not been used for many years except for holding recaptured escapees.<ref name=SchamaP331/> Prisoners' rooms each had a stove or a fireplace, basic furniture, curtains and in most cases a window.  A typical criticism of the rooms was that they were shabby and basic rather than uncomfortable.<ref>Schama, p. 332; Linguet, p .69; Coeuret, p. 54-5.</ref>{{refn|Prisoners described the standard issue furniture as including "a bed of green serge with curtains of the same; a straw mat and a mattress; a table or two, two pitchers, a candleholder and a tin goblet; two or three chairs, a fork, a spoon and everything need to light a fire; by special favour, weak little tongs and two large stones for an [[andiron]]." Linguet complained of only initially having "two mattresses half eaten by the worms, a matted elbow chair... a tottering table, a water pitcher, two pots of Dutch ware and two flagstones to support the fire".<ref>Linguet, p. 69; Coeuret, p. 54-5, citing Charpentier (1789).</ref>|group=upper-alpha}} Like the ''calottes'', the main courtyard, used for exercise, was often criticised by prisoners as being unpleasant at the height of summer or winter, although the garden in the bastion and the castle walls were also used for recreation.<ref>Bournon, p. 30.</ref>

The governor received money from the Crown to support the prisoners, with the amount varying on rank: the governor received 19 livres a day for each political prisoner – with [[Councillor of State (France)|conseiller]]-grade nobles receiving 15 livres – and, at the other end of the scale, three livres a day for each commoner.<ref name=SchamaP332>Schama, p. 332.</ref> Even for the commoners, this sum was around twice the daily wage of a labourer and provided for an adequate diet, while the upper classes ate very well: even critics of the Bastille recounted many excellent meals, often taken with the governor himself.<ref>Schama, p. 333; Andress, p.xiii; Chevallier, p. 151.</ref>{{refn|Linguet noted that "there are tables less lacking; I confess it; mine was among them." Morellet reported that each day he received "a bottle of decent wine, an excellent one-pound loaf of bread; for dinner, a soup, some beef, an entrée and a desert; in the evening, some roast and a salad." The abbé Marmontel recorded dinners including "an excellent soup, a succulent slice of beef, a boiled leg of capon, dripping with fat and falling off the bone; a small plate of fried artichokes in a marinade, one of spinach, a very nice ''cresonne'' pear, fresh grapes, a bottle of old Burgundy wine, and the best Mocha coffee. At the other end of the scale, lesser prisoners might get only "a pound of bread and a bottle of bad wine a day; for dinner...broth and two meat dishes; for supper...a slice of roast, some stew, and some salad".<ref>Chevallier, pp. 151–2, citing Morellet, p. 97, Marmontel, pp. 133–5 and Coueret, p. 20.</ref>|group=upper-alpha}} Prisoners who were being punished for misbehaviour, however, could have their diet restricted as a punishment.<ref>Funck-Brentano, p. 107; Chevallier, p. 152.</ref> The medical treatment provided by the Bastille for prisoners was excellent by the standards of the 18th century; the prison also contained a number of inmates suffering from [[mental illness]]es and took, by the standards of the day, a very progressive attitude to their care.<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 31; Sérieux and Libert (1914), cited Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 31.</ref>

[[File:Bastille Interior 1785.jpg|thumb|left|The council chamber, sketched in 1785]]

Although potentially dangerous objects and money were confiscated and stored when a prisoner first entered the Bastille, most wealthy prisoners continued to bring in additional luxuries, including pet dogs or cats to control the local vermin.<ref>Schama, pp. 332, 335.</ref> The [[Marquis de Sade]], for example, arrived with an elaborate wardrobe, paintings, tapestries, a selection of perfume, and a collection of 133 books.<ref name=SchamaP332/> Card games and billiards were played among the prisoners, and alcohol and tobacco were permitted.<ref>Schama, p. 333.</ref> Servants could sometimes accompany their masters into the Bastille, as in the cases of the 1746 detention of the family of [[James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton|Lord Morton]] and their entire household as British spies: the family's domestic life continued on inside the prison relatively normally.<ref>Farge, p. 153.</ref> The prisoners' library had grown during the 18th century, mainly through ad hoc purchases and various confiscations by the Crown, until by 1787 it included 389 volumes.<ref>Lefévre, p. 157.</ref>

The length of time that a typical prisoner was kept at the Bastille continued to decline, and by Louis XVI's reign the average length of detention was only two months.<ref name=LusebrinkP51/> Prisoners would still be expected to sign a document on their release, promising not to talk about the Bastille or their time within it, but by the 1780s this agreement was frequently broken.<ref name=DutrayP136/> Prisoners leaving the Bastille could be granted pensions on their release by the Crown, either as a form of compensation or as a way of ensuring future good behaviour – [[Voltaire]] was granted 1,200 livres a year, for example, while [[Jean Henri Latude|Latude]] received an annual pension of 400 livres.<ref>Funck-Brentano, p. 99.</ref>{{refn|Comparing 18th century sums of money with modern equivalents is notoriously difficult; for comparison, Latude's pension was around one and a third times that of a labourer's annual wage, while Voltaire's was very considerably more.<ref name="Andress, p. xiii">Andress, p. xiii.</ref>|group=upper-alpha}}