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Thieme.</title> + + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4 {text-align: center;} + h5,h6 {text-align: left;} + pre {font-size: 0.7em;} + .sc {font-variant: small-caps;} + + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;} + + span.pagenum + {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt; text-indent: 0;} + + td.chap {text-align: right; vertical-align: top;} + td.page {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + + .poem + {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em;} + + p.author {text-align: right; margin-right:10%;} + p.index {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + div.trans-note {border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; + margin: 2em 15%; padding: 1em; text-align: center;} + --> + </style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Women of Modern France, by Hugo P. Thieme + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Women of Modern France + Woman In All Ages And In All Countries + +Author: Hugo P. Thieme + +Release Date: November 26, 2005 [EBook #17159] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF MODERN FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, William Flis and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team Europe at http://dp.rastko.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + <div class="trans-note"> + Transcriber's Note: The Table of Contents was added by the Transcriber. + </div> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>WOMAN</h2> + +<h3>In all ages and in all countries</h3> + + +<h1>WOMEN OF MODERN FRANCE</h1> + +<h4>by</h4> + +<h4>HUGO P. THIEME, Ph.D.</h4> + +<h4>Of the University of Michigan</h4> + + +<h4>THE RITTENHOUSE PRESS<br /> +PHILADELPHIA</h4> + + + +<hr /> + +<center>Copyrighted at Washington and entered at Stationer's Hall, London,</center> + +<center>1907–1908</center> + +<center>and printed by arrangement with George Barrie's Sons.</center> + + +<center>PRINTED IN U.S.A.</center> + +<hr /> + +<h3>Contents</h3> + +<table width="80%" align="center" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td></td><td>PREFACE</td><td class="page"> <a href="#pagevii">vii</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter I. +</td><td>Woman in politics</td><td class="page"><a href="#page1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter II. +</td><td>Woman in Family Life, Education, and Letters</td><td class="page"><a href="#page31">31</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter III. +</td><td>The Seventeenth Century: Woman at Her Best</td><td class="page"><a href="#page69">69</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter IV. +</td><td>Woman in Society and Literature</td><td class="page"><a href="#page97">97</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter V. +</td><td>Mistresses and Wives of Louis XIV</td><td class="page"><a href="#page131">131</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter VI. +</td><td>Mme. de Sévigné, Mme. de La Fayette, Mme. Dacier, Mme. de Caylus</td><td class="page"><a href="#page165">165</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter VII. +</td><td>Woman in Religion</td><td class="page"><a href="#page197">197</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter VIII. +</td><td>Salon Leaders: Mme. de Tencin, Mme. Geoffrin, Mme. du Deffand, Mlle. de Lespinasse, +Mme. du Châtelet</td><td class="page"><a href="#page221">221</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter IX. +</td><td>Salon Leaders—(Continued): +Mme. Necker, Mme. d'Epinay, Mme. de Genlis: Minor Salons +</td><td class="page"><a href="#page249">249</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter X. +</td><td>Social Classes</td><td class="page"><a href="#page277">277</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter XI. +</td><td>Royal Mistresses</td><td class="page"><a href="#page305">305</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter XII. +</td><td>Marie Antoinette and the Revolution</td><td class="page"><a href="#page329">329</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter XIII. +</td><td>Women of the Revolution and the Empire</td><td class="page"><a href="#page355">355</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="chap">Chapter XIV. +</td><td>Women of the Nineteenth Century</td><td class="page"><a href="#page381">381</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagevii" id="pagevii"></a>[pg vii]</span> + +<h3>PREFACE</h3> + + +<p>Among the Latin races, the French race differs essentially +in one characteristic which has been the key to the +success of French women—namely, the social instinct. +The whole French nation has always lived for the present +time, in actuality, deriving from life more of what may be +called social pleasure than any other nation. It has been +a universal characteristic among French people since the +sixteenth century to love to please, to make themselves +agreeable, to bring joy and happiness to others, and to be +loved and admired as well. With this instinctive trait +French women have always been bountifully endowed. +Highly emotional, they love to charm, and this has become +an art with them; balancing this emotional nature is +the mathematical quality. These two combined have made +French women the great leaders in their own country and +among women of all races. They have developed the art +of studying themselves; and the art of coquetry, which +has become a virtue, is a science with them. The singular +power of discrimination, constructive ability, calculation, +subtle intriguing, a clear and concise manner of expression, +a power of conversation unequalled in women of any other +country, clear thinking: all these qualities have been +strikingly illustrated in the various great women of the +different periods of the history of France, and according +to these they may by right be judged; for their moral +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pageviii" id="pageviii"></a>[pg viii]</span> +qualities have not always been in accordance with the standard of other races.</p> + +<p>According as these two fundamental qualities, the emotional +and mathematical, have been developed in individual +women, we meet the different types which have +made themselves prominent in history. The queens of +France, in general, have been submissive and pious, dutiful +and virtuous wives, while the mistresses have been +bold and frivolous, licentious and self-assertive. The +women outside of these spheres either looked on with +indifference or regret at the all-powerfulness of this latter +class, unable to change conditions, or themselves enjoyed +the privilege of the mistress.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered that in the great social circles in +France, especially from the sixteenth to the end of the +eighteenth centuries, marriage was a mere convention, +offences against it being looked upon as matters concerning +manners, not morals; therefore, much of the so-called +gross immorality of French women may be condoned. It +will be seen in this history that French women have acted +banefully on politics, causing mischief, inciting jealousy +and revenge, almost invariably an instrument in the hands +of man, acting as a disturbing element. In art, literature, +religion, and business, however, they have ever been a +directing force, a guide, a critic and judge, an inspiration +and companion to man.</p> + +<p>The wholesome results of French women's activity are +reflected especially in art and literature, and to a lesser +degree in religion and morality, by the tone of elegance, +politeness, <i>finesse</i>, clearness, precision, purity, and a general +high standard which man followed if he was to succeed. +In politics much severe blame and reproach have +been heaped upon her—she is made responsible for breaking +treaties, for activity in all intrigues, participating in and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="pageix" id="pageix"></a>[pg ix]</span> +inciting to civil and foreign wars, encouraging and sanctioning +assassinations and massacres, championing the Machiavelian +policy and practising it at every opportunity.</p> + +<p>It has been the aim of this history of French women to +present the results rather than the actual happenings of +their lives, and these have been gathered from the most +authoritative and scholarly publications on the subject, +to which the writer herewith wishes to give all credit.</p> + +<p class="author sc">Hugo Paul Thieme.</p> + +<p><i>University of Michigan.</i></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page1" id="page1"></a>[pg 1]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter I</h2> + +<h2>Woman in politics</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page3" id="page3"></a>[pg 3]</span> + + +<p>French women of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and +eighteenth centuries, when studied according to the distinctive +phases of their influence, are best divided into +three classes: those queens who, as wives, represented +virtue, education, and family life; the mistresses, who +were instigators of political intrigue, immorality, and vice; +and the authoresses and other educated women, who constituted +themselves the patronesses of art and literature.</p> + +<p>This division is not absolute by any means; for we see +that in the sixteenth century the regent-mother (for example, +Louise of Savoy and Catherine de' Medici), in +extent of influence, fills the same position as does the mistress +in the eighteenth century; though in the former +period appears, in Diana of Poitiers, the first of a long line +of ruling mistresses.</p> + +<p>Queen-consorts, in the sixteenth as in the following +centuries, exercised but little influence; they were, as a +rule, gentle and obedient wives—even Catherine, domineering +as she afterward showed herself to be, betraying +no signs of that trait until she became regent.</p> + +<p>The literary women and women of spirit and wit furthered +all intellectual and social development; but it was +the mistresses—those great women of political schemes +and moral degeneracy—who were vested with the actual +importance, and it must in justice to them be said that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page4" id="page4"></a>[pg 4]</span> +they not infrequently encouraged art, letters, and mental expansion.</p> + +<p>Eight queens of France there were during the sixteenth +century, and three of these may be accepted as types of +purity, piety, and goodness: Claude, first wife of Francis I.; +Elizabeth of France, wife of Charles IX.; and Louise de +Vaudemont, wife of Henry III. These queens, held up to +ridicule and scorn by the depraved followers of their husbands' +mistresses, were reverenced by the people; we find +striking contrasts to them in the two queens-regent, Louise +of Savoy and Catherine de' Medici, who, in the period of +their power, were as unscrupulous and brutal, intriguing +and licentious, jealous and revengeful, as the most wanton +mistresses who ever controlled a king. In this century, +we find two other remarkable types: Marguerite d'Angoulême, +the bright star of her time; and her whose name +comes instantly to mind when we speak of the Lady of +Angoulême—Marguerite de Navarre, representing both the +good and the doubtful, the broadest sense of that untranslatable +term <i>femme d'esprit</i>.</p> + +<p>The first of the royal French women to whom modern +woman owes a great and clearly defined debt was Anne of +Brittany, wife of Louis XII. and the personification of all +that is good and virtuous. To her belongs the honor of +having taken the first step toward the social emancipation +of French women; she was the first to give to woman an +important place at court. This precedent she established +by requesting her state officials and the foreign ambassadors +to bring their wives and daughters when they paid their +respects to her. To the ladies themselves, she sent a +"royal command," bidding them leave their gloomy feudal +abodes and repair to the court of their sovereign.</p> + +<p>Anne may be said to belong to the transition period—that +period in which the condition of slavery and obscurity +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id="page5"></a>[pg 5]</span> +which fettered the women of the Middle Ages gave place +to almost untrammelled liberty. The queen held a separate +court in great state, at Blois and Des Tournelles, and here +elegance, even magnificence, of dress was required of her +ladies. At first, this unprecedented demand caused discontent +among men, who at that time far surpassed women +in elaborateness of costume and had, consequently, been +accustomed to the use of their surplus wealth for their +own purposes. Under Anne's influence, court life underwent +a complete transformation; her receptions, which +were characterized by royal splendor, became the centre of attraction.</p> + +<p>Anne of Brittany, the last queen of France of the Middle +Ages and the first of the modern period, was a model of +virtuous conduct, conjugal fidelity, and charity. Having +complete control over her own immense wealth, she used +it largely for beneficent purposes; to her encouragement +much of the progress of art and literature in France was +due. Hers was an example that many of the later queens +endeavored to follow, but it cannot be said that they ever +exerted a like influence or exhibited an equal power of +initiation and self-assertion.</p> + +<p>The first royal woman to become a power in politics in +the period that we are considering was Louise of Savoy, +mother of Francis I., a type of the voluptuous and licentious +female of the sixteenth century. Her pernicious +activity first manifested itself when, having conceived a +violent passion for Charles of Bourbon, she set her heart +upon marrying him, and commenced intrigues and plots +which were all the more dangerous because of her almost +absolute control over her son, the King.</p> + +<p>At this time there were three distinct sets or social +castes at the court of France: the pious and virtuous band +about the good Queen Claude; the lettered and elegant +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page6" id="page6"></a>[pg 6]</span> +belles in the coterie of Marguerite d'Angoulême, sister of +Francis I.; and the wanton and libertine young maids who +formed a galaxy of youth and beauty about Louise of +Savoy, and were by her used to fascinate her son and +thus distract him from affairs of state.</p> + +<p>Louise used all means to bring before the king beautiful +women through whom she planned to preserve her influence +over him. One of these frail beauties, Françoise +de Foix, completely won the heart of the monarch; her +ascendency over him continued for a long period, in spite +of the machinations of Louise, who, when Francis escaped +her control, sought to bring disrepute and discredit upon the fair mistress.</p> + +<p>The mother, however, remained the powerful factor in +politics. With an abnormal desire to hoard money, an +unbridled temper, and a violent and domineering disposition, +she became the most powerful and dangerous, as +well as the most feared, woman of all France. During +her regency the state coffers were pillaged, and plundering +was carried on on all sides. One of her acts at this +time was to cause the recall of Charles of Bourbon, then +Governor of Milan; this measure was taken as much for +the purpose of obtaining revenge for his scornful rejection +of her offer of marriage as for the hope of eventually bringing him to her side.</p> + +<p>Upon the return of Charles, she immediately began plotting +against him, including in her hatred Françoise de Foix, +the king's mistress, at whom Bourbon frequently cast looks +of pity which the furiously jealous Louise interpreted as +glances of love. As a matter of fact, Bourbon, being strictly +virtuous, was out of reach of temptation by the beauties of +the court, and there were no grounds for jealousy.</p> + +<p>This love of Louise for Charles of Bourbon is said to +have owed most of its ardor to her hope of coming into +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7"></a>[pg 7]</span> +possession of his immense estates. She schemed to have +his title to them disputed, hoping that, by a decree of Parliament, +they might be taken from him; the idea in this +procedure was that Bourbon, deprived of his possessions, +must come to her terms, and she would thus satisfy—at +one and the same time—her passion and her cupidity.</p> + +<p>Under her influence the character of the court changed +entirely; retaining only a semblance of its former decency, +it became utterly corrupt. It possessed external elegance +and <i>distingué</i> manners, but below this veneer lay intrigue, +debauchery, and gross immorality. In order to meet the +vast expenditures of the king and the queen-mother, the +taxes were enormously increased; the people, weighed +down by the unjust assessment and by want, began to +clamor and protest. Undismayed by famine, poverty, and +epidemic, Louise continued her depredations on the public +treasury, encouraging the king in his squanderings; and +both mother and son, in order to procure money, begged, borrowed, plundered.</p> + +<p>Louise was always surrounded by a bevy of young +ladies, selected beauties of the court, whose natural charms +were greatly enhanced by the lavishness of their attire. +Always ready to further the plans of their mistress, they +hesitated not to sacrifice reputation or honor to gratify her +smallest whim. Her power was so generally recognized +that foreign ambassadors, in the absence of the king, called +her "that other king." When war against France broke +out between Spain and England, Louise succeeded in gaining +the office of constable for the Duc d'Alençon; by this +means, she intended to displace Charles of Bourbon (whom +she was still persecuting because he continued cold to her +advances), and to humiliate him in the presence of his +army; the latter design, however, was thwarted, as he did not complain.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8"></a>[pg 8]</span> + +<p>To the caprice of Louise of Savoy were due the disasters +and defeats of the French army during the period of +her power; by frequently displacing someone whose actions +did not coincide with her plans, and elevating some +favorite who had avowed his willingness to serve her, she +kept military affairs in a state of confusion.</p> + +<p>Many wanton acts are attributed to her: she appropriated +forty thousand crowns allowed to Governor Lautrec +of Milan for the payment of his soldiers, and caused the +execution of Samblancay, superintendent of finances, who +had been so unfortunate as to incur her displeasure. It +was Charles of Bourbon, who, with Marshal Lautrec, investigated +the episode of the forty thousand crowns and +exposed the treachery and perfidy of the mother of his king.</p> + +<p>Finding that Bourbon intended to persist in his resistance +to her advances, Louise decided upon drastic measures of +retaliation. With the assistance of her chancellor (and +tool), Duprat, she succeeded in having withheld the salaries +which were due to Bourbon because of the offices held +by him. As he took no notice of these deprivations, she +next proceeded to divest him of his estates by laying claim +to them for herself; she then proposed to Bourbon that, +by accepting her hand in marriage, he might settle the +matter happily. The object of her numerous schemes not +only rejected this offer with contempt, but added insult to +injury by remarking: "I will never marry a woman devoid +of modesty." At this rebuff, Louise was incensed beyond +measure, and when Queen Claude suggested Bourbon's +marriage to her sister, Mme. Renée de France (a union to +which Charles would have consented gladly), the queen-mother +managed to induce Francis I. to refuse his consent.</p> + +<p>After the death of Anne of Beaujeu, mother-in-law of +Charles of Bourbon, her estates were seized by the king +and transferred to Louise while the claim was under +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9"></a>[pg 9]</span> +consideration by Parliament. When the judges, after an +examination of the records of the Bourbon estate, remonstrated +with Chancellor Duprat against the illegal transfer, +he had them put into prison. This rigorous act, which +was by order of Louise, weakened the courage of the +court; when the time arrived for a final decision, the judges +declared themselves incompetent to decide, and in order to +rid themselves of responsibility referred the matter to the +king's council. This great lawsuit, which was continued +for a long time, eventually forced Charles of Bourbon to +flee from France. Having sworn allegiance to Charles V. +of Spain and Henry VIII. of England against Francis I., he +was made lieutenant-general of the imperial armies.</p> + +<p>When Francis, captured at the battle of Pavia, was +taken to Spain, Louise, as regent, displayed unusual diplomatic +skill by leaguing the Pope and the Italian states with +Francis against the Spanish king. When, after nearly a +year's captivity, her son returned, she welcomed him with +a bevy of beauties; among them was a new mistress, designed +to destroy the influence of the woman who had so +often thwarted the plans of Louise—the beautiful Françoise +de Foix whom the king had made Countess of Châteaubriant.</p> + +<p>This new beauty was Anne de Pisseleu, one of the +thirty children of Seigneur d'Heilly, a girl of eighteen, +with an exceptional education. Most cunning was the +trap which Louise had set for the king. Anne was surrounded +by a circle of youthful courtiers, who hung upon +her words, laughed at her caprices, courted her smiles; +and when she rather confounded them with the extent +of the learning which—with a sort of gay triumph—she +was rather fond of showing, they pronounced her "the +most charming of learned ladies and the most learned of the charming."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id="page10"></a>[pg 10]</span> + +<p>The plot worked; Francis was fascinated, falling an +easy prey to the wiles of the wanton Anne. The former +mistress, Françoise de Foix, was discarded, and Louise, +purely out of revenge and spite, demanded the return of +the costly jewels given by the king and appropriated them herself.</p> + +<p>The duty assigned to the new mistress was that of +keeping Francis busy with fêtes and other amusements. +While he was thus kept under the spell of his enchantress, +he lost all thought of his subjects and the welfare of his +country and the affairs of the kingdom fell into the hands +of Louise and her chancellor, Duprat. The girl-mistress, +Anne, was married by Louise to the Duc d'Etampes whose +consent was gained through the promise of the return of +his family possessions which, upon his father's departure +with Charles of Bourbon, had been confiscated.</p> + +<p>The reign of Louise of Savoy was now about over; she +had accomplished everything she had planned. She had +caused Charles of Bourbon, one of the greatest men of the +sixteenth century, to turn against his king; and that king +owed to her—his mother—his defeat at Pavia, his captivity +in Spain, and his moral fall. Spain, Italy, and +France were victims of the infamous plotting and disastrous +intrigues of this one woman whose death, in 1531, +was a blessing to the country which she had dishonored.</p> + +<p>At the time of the marriage of Francis I. to Eleanor of +Portugal (one of the last acts of Louise), Europe was beginning +to look upon France as ahead of all other nations +in the "superlativeness of her politeness." The most +rigid etiquette and the most punctilious politeness were +always observed, fines being imposed for any discourtesy toward women.</p> + +<p>After the death of Louise, the lot of managing the king +and directing his policy fell to the share of his mistress, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11"></a>[pg 11]</span> +the Duchesse d'Etampes, who at once became all-powerful +at court; her influence over him was like that of the drug +which, to the weak person who begins its use, soon becomes +an absolute necessity.</p> + +<p>After the death of the dauphin, all the court flatteries +were directed toward Henry, the eldest son of Francis. +Though his mistress, Diana of Poitiers, ruled him, she exercised +no influence politically; that she was not lacking in +diplomacy, however, was proved by her attitude toward +Henry's wife, Catherine, whom she treated with every +indication of friendship and esteem, in marked contrast to +the disdain exhibited by other ladies of the court. These +two women became friends, working together against the +mistress of the king—the Duchesse d'Etampes—and +causing, by their intrigues, dissensions between father and son.</p> + +<p>The duchess was not a bad woman; her dissuasion of +Francis I. from undertaking war with Solyman II. against +Charles V. is one instance of the use of her influence in +the right direction. By some historians, she is accused of +having played the traitress, in the interest of Emperor +Charles V., during the war of Spain and England against +France. It was she who urged the Treaty of Crépy with +Charles V.; by it, through the marriage of the French +king's second son, the Duke of Orleans, to the niece of +Charles V., the duchess was sure of a safe retreat when +her bitter enemy, Henry's mistress, should reign after the +king's death. Her plans, however, did not materialize, as +the duke died and the treaty was annulled.</p> + +<p>The death of Francis I. occurred in 1547; with his reign +ends the first period of woman's activity—a period influenced +mainly by Louise of Savoy, whose relations to +France were as disastrous as were those of any mistress. +The influence exerted by her may in some respects be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12"></a>[pg 12]</span> +compared with that of Mme. de Pompadour; though, were +the merits and demerits of both carefully tested, the results +would hardly be in favor of Louise. Strong in diplomacy +and intrigue, she was unscrupulous and wanton—morally +corrupt; she did nothing to further the development of +literature and art; if she favored men of genius it was +merely from motives of self-interest.</p> + +<p>With the accession of Henry II. his mistress entered into +possession of full power. The absolute sway of Diana of +Poitiers over this weakest of French kings was due to +her strong mind, great ability, wide experience, fascination +of manner, and to that exceptional beauty which she +preserved to her old age. Immediately upon coming into +power, she dispatched the Duchesse d'Etampes to one of +her estates and at the same time forced her to restore the +jewels which she had received from Francis I., a usual +procedure with a mistress who knew herself to be first in authority.</p> + +<p>After being thus displaced, the duchess spent her time +in doing charitable work, and is said to have afforded protection +to the Protestants. Eventually, hers was the fate +of almost all the mistresses. Compelled to give up many +of her possessions, miserable and forgotten by all, her last +days were most unhappy.</p> + +<p>Early in her career, Henry made Diana Duchesse de +Valentinois. So powerful did she become that Sieur de +Bayard, secretary of state, having referred in jest to her +age (she was twenty years the king's senior), was deprived +of his office, thrown into prison, and left to die. In +her management of Queen Catherine, Diana was most +politic; she never interfered, but constituted herself "the +protectress of the legitimate wife, settling all questions +concerning the newly born," for which she received a +large salary. When, while the king was in Italy, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13"></a>[pg 13]</span> +queen became ill, she owed her recovery to the watchful +care of the mistress. The latter appointed to the vacant +estates and positions members of her house—that of Guise. +In time, this house gained such an ascendency that it +conceived the project of setting aside all the princes of the blood royal.</p> + +<p>Having (through one of her favorites) gained control of +the royal treasury, Diana appropriated everything—lands, +money, jewels. Her influence was so astonishing to the +people that she was accused of wielding a magic power +and bewitching the king who seemed, verily, to be leading +an enchanted existence; he had but one thought, one aim—that +of pleasing and obeying his aged mistress. To +make amends for his adultery, he concluded to extirpate +heretics. Such a combination of luxury and extravagance +with licentiousness and brutality, such wholesale murder, +persecution, and burning at the stake have never been +equalled, except under Nero.</p> + +<p>Michelet reveals the character of Diana in these words: +"Affected by nothing, loving nothing, sympathizing with +nothing; of the passions retaining only those which will +give a little rapidity to the blood; of the pleasures preferring +those that are mild and without violence—the love of +gain and the pursuit of money; hence, there was absence +of soul. Another phase was the cultivation of the body, +the body and its beauty uniquely cared for by virile treatment +and a rigid régime which is the guardian of life—not +weakly adored as by women who kill themselves by excessive +self-love." M. Saint-Amand continues, after quoting +the above: "At all seasons of the year, Diana plunges +into a cold bath on rising. As soon as day breaks, she +mounts a horse, and, followed by swift hounds, rides +through dewy verdure to her royal lover to whom—fascinated +by her mythological pomp—she seems no more a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14"></a>[pg 14]</span> +woman but a goddess. Thus he styles her in verses of burning tenderness:</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"'Hélas, mon Dieu! combien je regrette</p> +<p>Le temps que j'ai perdu en ma jeunesse!</p> +<p>Combien de fois je me suis souhaité</p> +<p>Avoir Diane pour ma seule maîtresse.</p> +<p>Mais je craignais qu'elle, qui est déesse,</p> +<p>Ne se voulût abaisser jusque là.'"</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>[Alas, my God! how much I regret the time lost in my +youth! How often have I longed to have Diana for my only +mistress! But I feared that she who is a goddess would +not stoop so low as that.]</p> + +<p>Catherine remained quietly in the palace, preferring her +position, unpleasant as it was, to the persecution and possible +incarceration in a convent which would result from +any interference on her part between the king and his +mistress. Without power or privileges, she was a mere +figurehead—a good mother looking after her family. However, +she was not idle; without taking part in the intrigues, +she was studying them—planning her future tactics; in +all relations she was diplomatic, her conversation ever +displaying exquisite tact.</p> + +<p>While France groaned under the burdens of seemingly +interminable wars and exorbitant taxes, her king revelled +in excessive luxury; the aim of his favorite mistress +seemed to be to acquire wealth and spend it lavishly for +her own pleasure. Voluptuousness, cruelty, and extravagance +were the keynotes of the time. All means were +used to procure revenues, the king easing any pangs of +conscience by burning a few heretics whose estates were +then quickly confiscated.</p> + +<p>Diana, even at the age of sixty, still held Henry in her +toils; an easy prey for the wiles of the flatterer, he was +kept in ignorance of the hatred and anger heaping up against +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span> +him. In the midst of riotous festivity, Henry II. died, a +victim of the lance of Montgomery; and the twelve years' +reign of debauchery, cruelty, and shameless extravagance came to an end.</p> + +<p>Whatever else may be said of Diana, she proved to be a +liberal patroness of art and letters; this was possible for her, +since, in addition to inherited wealth and the gifts of lands +and jewels from the king, she procured the possessions of +many heretics whose confiscated wealth was assigned to +her as a faithful servant and supporter of the church.</p> + +<p>Her hotel at Anet was one of the most elaborate, tasteful, +and elegant in all France; there the finest specimens +of Italian sculpture, painting, and woodwork were to be +seen. The king, upon making her a duchess, presented +her with the beautiful château of Chenonceaux, which +was so much coveted by Catherine. The latter attempted +to make Diana pay for the château, thus interrupting her +plans for building; upon discovering this, Henry sent his +own artists and workmen to carry out Diana's desires. +Such was the power of his mistress over the weak king +that he respected her wishes far more than he did those +of his queen. This was one of those instances in which +Catherine saw fit to remain silent and plan revenge.</p> + +<p>The death of Diana of Poitiers was that common to all +women of her position. She died in 1566, forgotten by +the world—her world. In her will she made "provision for +religious houses, to be opened to women of evil lives, as if, +in the depth of her conscience, she had recognized the likeness +between their destiny and her own." Like the former +mistresses, she had been required to give up the jewels received +from Henry II.; but as this order was from Francis II. +instead of from his mistress, the gems were returned to +the crown after having passed successively through the +hands of three mistresses.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span> + +<p>Catherine's time had not yet come, for she dared not +interfere when Mary Stuart (a beautiful, inexperienced, +and impetuous girl of seventeen) gained ascendency over +Francis II.—a mere boy. The house of Guise was then +supreme and began its bloody campaign against its enemies; +fortunately, however, its power was short-lived, for +in 1560 the king died after reigning only seventeen months. +At this point, Catherine enters upon the scene of action. +Jealous of Mary Stuart and fearing that the young king, +Charles IX., then but ten years old, might become infatuated +with her and marry her, she promptly returned the fair young woman to Scotland.</p> + +<p>The task before the regent was no light one; her kingdom +was divided against itself, the country was overburdened +with taxes, and discontent reigned universally. All +who surrounded her were full of prejudice and actuated +solely by personal aspirations—she realized that she could trust no one.</p> + +<p>Her first act of a political nature was to rescue the house +of Valois and solidify the royal authority. Some critics +maintain that she began her reign with moderation, gentleness, +impartiality, and reconciliation. This view finds +support in the fact that during the first years she favored +Protestantism; finding, however, that the latter was weakening +royal power and that the country at large was opposed +to it, she became its most bitter enemy. To the +Protestants and their plottings she attributed all the +disastrous effects of the civil war, all thefts, murders, +incests, and adulteries, as well as the profanation of +the sepulchres of the ancestors of the royal family, the +burning of the bones of Louis XI. and of the heart of Francis II.</p> + +<p>The Machiavellian policy was Catherine's guide; bitter +experience had robbed her of all faith in humanity—she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span> +had learned to despise it and the judgment of her contemporaries. +At first she was amiable and polite, seemingly +intent upon pleasing those with whom she talked; in fact, +it is said that she was then more often accused of excessive +mildness and moderation than of the violence and cruelty +which later characterized her. Experience having taught +her how to deal with people, she never lost her self-control.</p> + +<p>Subsequent history shows that any gentle and conciliatory +policy of Catherine was merely a method of furthering +her own interests, and was therefore not the outcome of +any inborn feeling of sympathy or womanly tenderness. +Whether her signing of the Edict of Saint-Germain, admitting +the Protestants to all employments and granting +them the privilege of Calvinistic worship in two cities of +every province, and her refusal, upon the urgent solicitations +of her son-in-law, Philip II., to persecute heretics +were really snares laid for the Huguenots, is a matter +which historians have not decided.</p> + +<p>Inasmuch as the entire history of France plays about +the personality of Catherine de' Medici, no attempt will +be made to give a detailed chronological account of her +career; the results, rather than the events themselves, +will be given. M. Saint-Amand, in his work on <i>French +Women of the Valois Court</i>, presents one of the strongest +pictures drawn of Catherine. We shall follow him in the +greater part of this sketch.</p> + +<p>According to some historians, Catherine was a mere +intriguer, without talent or ability, living but in the moment, +often caught in her own snares; according to others, +by her intelligence, ability, and strength of character she +advanced a cause truly national—that of French unity; +thus, she worked either the ruin or the salvation of France. +Michelet calls her a nonentity, a stage queen with merely +the externals—the attire—of royalty, remaining exactly on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span> +a level with the rulers of the smaller Italian principalities, +contriving everything and fearing everything, with no more +heart than she had sense or temperament. Being a female, +she loved her young; she loved the arts, but cared to cultivate +only their externalities. In this, however, Michelet +goes to an extreme; for no woman ever lived who had so +great a talent for intrigues and politics as she—a very type +of the deceit and cunning which were inherent in her race. +If she were not important, had not wielded so much influence +and decided the fate of so many great men, women, +and even states, she would not be the subject of so much +writing, of such fierce denunciation and strong praise. To +her family, France owes her finest palaces, her masterpieces +of art—painting, bookmaking, printing, binding, sculpture.</p> + +<p>M. Saint-Amand declares that "isolated from her contemporaries, +Catherine de' Medici is a monster; brought +back within the circle of their passions and their theories, +she once more becomes a woman." But Catherine was +the instigator, the embodiment of all that is vice, deceit, +cunning, trickery, wickedness, and bold intrigue; she set +the example, and her ladies followed her in all that she +did; "the heroines bred in her school (and what woman +was not in her school?) imitate, with docility, the examples +she gives them." She was not only the type of her +civilization,—brutal, gross, immoral, elegant, polished, and +<i>mondain</i>,—but she was also its leader.</p> + +<p>Greatness of soul, real moral force, strict virtue, are not +attributes of the sixteenth-century woman—they are isolated +and rare exceptions; these Catherine did not possess. +Nor was she influenced deeply by her environments; the +latter but encouraged and developed those qualities which +were hers inherently,—will, intelligence, inflexible perseverance, +tenacity of purpose, unscrupulousness, cruelty; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> +hence, to say "She is the victim rather than the inspiration +of the corruption of her time" is misleading, to say the +least. If, upon her arrival at court, "she at once pleased +every one by her grace and affability, modest air, and, +above all, by her extreme gentleness," she could not have +changed, say her defenders, into the perfidious, wicked, +and cruel creature she is said to have become as soon +as she stepped into power. "During the reign of Henry II., +she wisely avoided all danger; faithful to her wifely duties, +she gave no cause for scandal, and, realizing that she was +not strong enough to overcome her all-powerful rival, she +bided her time. She was loved and respected by everyone +for her personal qualities and her benevolence." But why +may it not be true that all this was but part of her politics, +the politics in which she had been educated? Wise from +experience, she foresaw the future and what was in store +for her if she remained prudent and made the best of the +surroundings until the time should come when she could +strike suddenly and boldly.</p> + +<p>Brought up from infancy amidst snares, intrigues, the +clash of arms, the furious shouts of popular insurrections, +tempests, and storms, she could not escape the influence +of her early environment. Her talent for studying and +penetrating the designs of her enemies, for facing or avoiding +dangers with such sublime calmness and prudence, was +partly inherited, partly acquired. That spirit she took +with her to France, where her experience was widened +and her opportunities for the study of human nature were increased.</p> + +<p>It is not generally known that her mother was a French +woman—a Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, daughter +of Jean, Count of Boulogne, and Catherine of Bourbon, +daughter of the Count of Vendôme; thus, her gentler nature +was a French product. Her mother and father both +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span> +died when she was but twenty-two days old, and from +that time until her marriage she was cast about from place +to place. But from the very first she showed that talent +of adapting herself to her surroundings, living amidst intrigues +and discords and yet making friends. She has +been called "the precocious heiress of the craftiness of her progenitors."</p> + +<p>In her thirteenth year, after being sought by many +powerful princes, Clement VII. (her greatuncle), in order +to secure himself against the powerful Charles V., married +her to Henry, Duke of Orleans, the second son of Francis +I. Even at that early age she was fully aware of all +the dreariness and danger attached to positions of power, +and knew that the art of governing was not an easy one. +She had studied Machiavelli's famous work, <i>The Prince</i>, +which had been dedicated to her father, and it was from it, +as well as from her ancestors, that she derived her wisdom +and astuteness. Her childhood had prepared her for the +work of the future, and she went at it with caution and +reserve until she was sure of her ground.</p> + +<p>She first proceeded to study the king, Francis I., watching +his actions, extracting his secrets; a fine huntress and +at his side constantly, she pleased him and gained his +favor. Brantôme says she was subtle and diplomatic, +quickly learning the craft of her profession; she sought +friends among all classes and ranks, directing her overtures +specially toward the ladies of the court, whom she +soon won and gathered about her.</p> + +<p>In 1536 the dauphin died, and Catherine's husband became +heir to the throne of France. Though they had been +married three years, no offspring had resulted, which unfortunate +circumstance made her position a most uncertain +one, especially as Diana of Poitiers was then at the height +of her power, controlling Henry absolutely. A furious +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> +rivalry sprang up between the Duchesse d'Etampes, mistress +of Francis I., and Diana and Catherine; the two +mistresses formed two parties, and a war of slanders, calumnies, +and unpleasant epigrams ensued. Queen Eleanor, +the second wife of Francis I., took no active part, thus leaving +all power in the hands of the mistress of her husband. +(It was at this time that the Emperor Charles V. gained the +Duchesse d'Etampes over to his cause.) Poets and artists, +politicians and men of genius took sides, extolling the +beauty of the one they championed. Catherine, although +befriended and treated with apparent respect by Diana, +remained a good friend to both women, thus evincing her +tact. By keeping her own personality in the background, +she won the esteem of both her husband and the king.</p> + +<p>Brantôme leaves a picture of Catherine at this time: +"She was a fine and ample figure; very majestic, yet +agreeable and very gentle when necessary; beautiful and +gracious in appearance, her face fair and her throat white +and full, very white in body likewise.... Moreover, +she dressed superbly, always having some pretty innovation. +In brief, she had beauties fitted to inspire love. She +laughed readily, her disposition was jovial, and she liked +to jest." M. Saint-Amand continues: "The artistic elegance +that surrounded her whole person, the tranquil and +benevolent expression of her countenance, the good taste +of her dress, the exquisite distinction of her manners, all +contributed to her charm. And then she was so humble +in the presence of her husband! She so carefully avoided +whatever might have the semblance of reproach! She +closed her eyes with such complaisance! Henry told +himself that it would be difficult to find another woman +so well-disposed, another wife so faithful to her duties, +another princess so accomplished in point of instruction +and intelligence. The <i>ménage à trois</i> (household of three) +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22"></a>[pg 22]</span> +was continued, therefore, and if the dauphin loved his mistress, +he certainly had a friendship for his wife. And, +on her part, whenever she felt an inclination to complain +of her lot, Catherine bethought herself that if she quitted +her position she would probably find no refuge but the +cloister, and that—taking it all around—the court of France +(in spite of the humiliations and vexations one might experience +there) was an abode more desirable than a convent;" +this, then, is the secret of her submission. In +spite of her beauty, mildness, and distinction of manner, +she could not overcome the prestige of Diana.</p> + +<p>After nine years, Catherine was still without children +and began to fear the fate in store for her; but when she +gave birth to a son in 1543, she felt assured that divorce +no longer threatened her and she resolved that as soon as +she came into power she would be revenged upon her enemies +and Diana of Poitiers. When, in 1547, her husband +succeeded his father as King of France, she did not feel +that the time had yet arrived to interfere in any social or +domestic arrangements or affairs of state; not until ten +years later did she show the first sign of remarkable +statesmanship or ability as a politician.</p> + +<p>After the battle and capture of Saint-Quentin, France +was in a most deplorable state; the enemy was believed +to be beneath the walls of Paris; everybody was fleeing; +the king had gone to Compiègne to muster a new army. +Catherine was alone in Paris "and of her own free will +went to the Parliament in full state, accompanied by the +cardinals, princes, and princesses; and there, in the most +impressive language, she set forth the urgent state of +affairs at the moment.... With so much sentiment +and eloquence that she touched the heart of everybody, +the queen then explained to the Parliament that the king +had need of three hundred thousand livres, twenty-five +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span> +thousand to be paid every two months; and she added +that she would retire from the place of session, so as not +to interfere with the liberty of discussion; accordingly, she +retired to another room. A resolution to comply with the +wishes of her majesty was voted, and the queen, having +resumed her place, received a promise to that effect. A +hundred nobles of the city offered to give at once three thousand +francs apiece. The queen thanked them in the sweetest +form of words, and thus terminated this session of Parliament—with +so much applause for her majesty and such +lively marks of satisfaction at her behavior, that no idea can +be given of them. Throughout the city, nothing was spoken +of but the queen's prudence and the happy manner in which +she proceeded in this enterprise" (Guizot). From this act +dates Catherine's entrance into political consideration.</p> + +<p>During the reign of Francis II., Catherine de' Medici +exercised no influence at court, the king being completely +under the dominion of his wife and the Duke of Guise, +who was not favorable to the queen-mother's schemes +and policies. Catherine, however, was plotting; caring +little about religion so long as it did not further her plans, +she connected herself with the Huguenots; her scheme +was to bring the Guises to destruction and to form a council +of regency which, while composed of the Huguenot +leaders, was to be under her guidance. As this plan +failed, bringing ruin to many princes, she deserted the +Huguenots and allied herself with the Catholics.</p> + +<p>She is next found attempting the assassination of the +Duke of Condé, but she failed to accomplish that crime +because her son, the king, refused his consent. Soon +after, Francis II. died, it is said from the effect of poison +dropped into his ear while he was sleeping; it is probable +that this crime was committed at the instigation of the +mother, since by his death and the accession of Charles IX. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24"></a>[pg 24]</span> +she became regent (1560). She was then all-powerful +and in a position to exercise her long dormant talents.</p> + +<p>Her first plan was to incapacitate all her children by +plunging them "into such licentious pleasure and voluptuous +dissipation that they were speedily unfitted for mental +activity or exertion." Most unprejudiced historians credit +her with the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew; she is said +to have boasted about it to Catholic governments and excused +it to Protestant powers. For a number of years, she +had been planning the destruction of the Huguenot princes, +and as early as 1565 she and Charles IX. had an interview +with the Duke of Alva (representative of Philip II), to consult +as to the means of delivering France from heretics. +It was decided that "this great blessing could not have +accomplishment save by the deaths of all the leaders of the Huguenots."</p> + +<p>That fearful crime, the bloody Massacre of Saint Bartholomew, +is familiar to everyone. The only excuse +offered for this most heinous of Catherine's many offences +is her intense sentiment of national unity; the actual reason +for it is to be sought in the fact that as long as the +Protestants retained their prestige and influence, Catherine +and her Catholic party could not do as they pleased, could +not gain absolute control over the government. History +holds her more responsible than it does her weak son. +The climax came on the occasion of the wedding of Marguerite +of Valois with the Prince of Navarre, which meant +the union of the branches—the Catholic and the Protestant. +This resulted in the first breach between the king and +Catherine; the latter at that time perpetrated one of her +dastardly deeds by poisoning the mother of the Prince of +Navarre—Jeanne d'Albret, her bitter enemy.</p> + +<p>After the death of Charles IX., Henry III. was the sole +survivor of the four sons of Catherine. Although her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span> +power was limited during his reign, she managed to continue +her murderous plans and accomplished the death of +Henry of Guise and his brother the cardinal, which crime +united the majority of the Catholics of France against the +king and was the cause of his assassination in 1589. This +ended the power of Catherine de' Medici; when she died, +no one rejoiced, no one lamented. Wherever she had +turned her eyes, she had seen nothing but occasions for +uneasiness and sadness; she had retired from court, feeling +her helplessness and disgrace as well as the decline in +power of that son in whom her hopes were centred. She +decided to reënter the scene of action and save Henry. +The stormy scenes of the Barricades and the League and +the murder of the Duke of Guise hastened her death, which occurred in 1589.</p> + +<p>Catherine de' Medici may rightfully be called the initiator +and organizer of social and court etiquette and courtesy—of +conventional and social laws. However great her political +activity, she made herself deeply felt in the social and +moral worlds also. She taught her husband the secret of +being king; she introduced the <i>lever</i> audience; in the afternoon +of every day, she held a reunion of all the ladies of +the court, at which the king was to be found after dinner +and every lord entertained the lady he most loved; two +hours were spent in this pleasure which was continued +after supper if there were no balls; bitter railleries and +anything that passed the restrictions of good company were forbidden.</p> + +<p>Her ladies of honor obeyed her as they would their God. +Marguerite of Valois said of her: "I did not dare to speak +to her, and when she looked at me I trembled for fear of +having done something that displeased her." Ladies who +had been delinquent were stripped and beaten with lashes; +for correction—frequently for mere pastime—she would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span> +have them undressed and slapped vigorously with the back +of the hand. Françoise of Rohan, cousin of Jeanne d'Albret, +wrote the following poem:</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"Plus j'ai de toi souvent esté battue,</p> +<p>Plus mon amour s'efforce et s'évertue</p> +<p>De regretter ceste main qui me bat;</p> +<p>Car ce mal-là m'estait plaisant esbat.</p> +<p>Or, adieu done la main dont la rigueur</p> +<p>Je préferais à tout bien et honneur."</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>[The more often I have been struck by you, the more my +love struggles and strives to regret the hand that beats +me; for that punishment was a pleasant pastime for me. +Now farewell to the hand whose rigor I preferred to every fortune and honor.]</p> + +<p>The following portrait and poetry, taken from M. Saint-Amand, +does the subject full justice: "Catherine de' Medici +represented with a sinister glance, deadly mien, mysterious +and savage aspect—a spectre, not a woman—is not true +to nature. Her self-possession, cool cunning, supreme +elegance, imperturbable tranquillity, calmness, moderation, +noble serenity, and dignified poise, gave her an individuality +such as few women ever possessed. Gentle in crime +and tragedy, polite like an executioner toward his victim—this +Machiavellianism which is equal to every trial, which +nothing alarms or surprises, and which with tranquil dexterity +makes sport of every law of morality and humanity—this +is the real character of Catherine de' Medici." The +following burlesque poetry was composed for her:</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"La reine qui ci-git fut un diable et un ange,</p> +<p>Toute pleine de blâme et pleine de louange,</p> +<p>Elle soutint l'Etat, et l'Etat mit à bas;</p> +<p>Elle fit maints accords et pas moins de débats;</p> +<p>Elle enfanta trois rois et trois guerres civiles,</p> +<p>Fit bâtir des châteaux et ruiner des villes,</p> +<p>Fit bien de bonnes lois et de mauvais édits.</p> +<p>Souhaite-lui, passant, enfer et paradis."</p> + </div> </div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span> + +<p>[The queen lying here was both devil and angel, blamed +and praised; she both put down and upheld the state; she +caused many an agreement and no end of disputes; she +produced three kings and three civil wars; she built castles +and ruined cities, made many good laws and many bad +decrees. Wish her, passer-by, hell and paradise.]</p> + +<p>With the reign of Henry IV.—the first king of the house +of Bourbon, and the first king of the sixteenth century +with a will of his own and the courage to assert it—begins +a period of revelling, debauch, and the most depraved +immorality. Three mistresses in turn controlled him—morally, not politically.</p> + +<p>Henry was master of his own will, and, had he desired +to do so, could have overcome his evil tendencies; instead, +he openly countenanced and even encouraged dissoluteness +and elegant debauchery, as long as he himself was not +deprived of the lady upon whom his capricious fancy happened +to fall. His advances were but seldom repulsed; +but upon making his usual audacious proposals to the +Marquise de Guercheville, he was informed that she was +of too insignificant a house to be the king's wife and of +too good a race to be his mistress; and when the king, in +spite of this rebuff, made her lady of honor to his wife, +Marie de' Medici, she continued to resist him and remained +virtuous. Such types of purity, honor, and moral courage +were very exceptional during this reign.</p> + +<p>The three principal mistresses of this sovereign represent +three phases of influence and three periods of his life. +Corisande d'Andouins, Comtesse de Guiche and Duchesse +de Gramont, fascinated him for eight years, while he was +King of Navarre (1582-1590); to her he was deeply attached, +and recompensed her for her devotion; this is +called his <i>chevaleresque</i> period. The beautiful Gabrielle +d'Estrées, Duchesse de Beaufort, was called his mate after +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28"></a>[pg 28]</span> +victory; "she refined, sharpened, softened, and tamed his +customs; she made him king of the court instead of the +field." It was she who ventured to meddle in his politics, +she whom Marguerite of Valois, his wife, so detested that +she refused to consent to a divorce as long as Gabrielle +(by whom he had several children) remained his mistress. +The latter even went so far as to demand the baptism, as +a child of France, of her son by the king. Sully, in a rage, +declared there were no "children of France," and took the +order to the king, who had it destroyed; he then asked +his minister to go to his mistress and satisfy her, "in so +far as you can." To his efforts she replied: "I am aware +of all, and do not care to hear any more; I am not made +as the king is, whom you persuade that black is white." +Upon receiving this report, the king said: "Here, come +with me; I will let you see that women have not the +possession of me that certain malignant spirits say they +have." Accompanied by Sully, he immediately went to +the Duchesse de Beaufort, and, taking her by the hand, +said: "Now, madame, let us go into your room, and let +nobody else enter except Rosny. I want to speak to you +both and teach you how to be good friends." Then, having +closed the door, holding Gabrielle with one hand and Rosny +with the other, he said: "Good God, madame! What is +the meaning of this? So you would vex me from sheer +wantonness of heart in order to try my patience? By +God, I swear to you that, if you continue these fashions +of going on, you will find yourself very much out in your +expectations! I see quite well that you have been put up +to all this pleasantry in order to make me dismiss a servant +whom I cannot do without, and who has served me loyally +for five-and-twenty years. By God, I will do nothing of +the kind! And I declare to you that if I were reduced to +such a necessity as to choose between losing one or the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span> +other, I could better do without ten mistresses like you +than one servant like him." Shortly after this episode, +Gabrielle died so suddenly that she was supposed to have +been poisoned. Immediately after her death the divorce +was granted, and Henry married Marie de' Medici.</p> + +<p>The third mistress, Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, +Marquise de Verneuil, who led Henry IV. along a path of +the worst debauchery, gained control over him by lewd, +lascivious methods. While negotiations were being carried +on for his divorce from Marguerite, only a few weeks after +the death of Gabrielle, he signed a promise to marry Henriette; +this, however, he failed to keep. She, more than +any other of his mistresses, was the cause of national distress +and of more than one ruinous war. When, after the +marriage of the king to Marie de' Medici, Henriette began +to nag, rail, intrigue, and conspire, she was disgraced by +Henry, who at least had the courage to honor his own +family above that of his mistresses. She is accused of +having had, solely from motives of revenge, a hand in the death of the king.</p> + +<p>Thus, around the queens-regent and the mistresses of +the kings of France in the sixteenth century there is constant +intriguing, murder, assassination, immorality, and +debauchery, jealousy and revenge, marriage and divorce, +honor and disgrace, despotism and final repentance and +misery. The greatest and lowest of these women was +Catherine de' Medici; Diana of Poitiers was famed as the +most marvellously beautiful woman in France, and she was +the most powerful and intelligent mistress until the time of +Mme. de Pompadour. Amid all this bribery and corruption, +elegant and refined immorality, there are some few types +that represent education, family life, purity, and culture.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31"></a>[pg 31]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter II</h2> + +<h2>Woman in Family Life, Education, and Letters</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33"></a>[pg 33]</span> + + +<p>The queens of France exerted little or no influence upon +the cultural or political development of that country. +Frequently of foreign extraction and reared in the strict +religious discipline of Catholicism, they spent their time +in attending masses, aiding the poor and, with the little +money allowed them, erecting hospitals and other institutions +for the weak and needy. Thus, they are, as a rule, +types of gentleness, virtue, piety, and self-sacrifice.</p> + +<p>The little information which history gives concerning +them is confined mainly to their matrimonial alliances. +To them, marriage represented nothing more than a contract—a +union entered into for the purpose of settling +some political negotiation; thus they were often cast upon +strange and unfriendly soil where intrigues and jealousy +immediately affected them.</p> + +<p>Seldom did they venture to interfere with the intrigues +of the mistress; in their uncertain position, any manifestation +of resentment or opposition resulted in humiliation +and disgrace; if wise, they contented themselves with +quietly performing their functions as dutiful wives. Such +women were Claude, daughter of Louis XII., and Eleanor +of Spain—wives of Francis I.; lacking the power to act +politically, both passed uneventful and virtuous lives in comparative obscurity. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34"></a>[pg 34]</span> +The wife of Charles IX.—Elizabeth of Austria, daughter +of Maximilian II.—had absolutely no control over her husband; +however, he condescended to flatter himself with +having, as he said, "in an amiable wife, the wisest and +most virtuous woman not only of France and Europe, but +of the universe." Her nature is well portrayed in the +answer she gave to the remark made to her, after the death +of her husband: "Ah, Madame, what a misfortune that +you have no son! Your lot would be less pitiful and you +would be queen-mother and regent." "Alas, do not suggest +such a disagreeable thing!" she replied. "As if +France had not afflictions enough without my producing +another to complete its ruin! For, if I had a son, there +would be more divisions and troubles, more seditions to +obtain the administration and guardianship during his infancy +and minority; all would try to profit themselves by +despoiling the poor child—as they wanted to do with the +late king, my husband." Returning to Austria, she erected +a convent, treated the nuns as friends and refused to marry +again even to ascend the throne of Spain.</p> + +<p>Louise de Vaudemont, wife of Henry III, was a French +woman by birth and blood. After the death of the Princess +of Condé, whom he passionately loved and desired to +marry, Henry conceived an intense affection for Louise, +daughter of Nicholas of Lorraine, Count of Vaudemont—a +young lady of education and culture—"a character of exquisite +sweetness lends distinction to her beauty and her +piety; her thorough Christian modesty and humility are +reflected in her countenance." Brantôme wrote: "This +princess deserves great praise; in her married life she +comported herself so wisely, chastely, and loyally toward +the king that the nuptial tie which bound her to him always +remained firm and indissoluble,—was never found loosened +or undone,—even though the king liked and sometimes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span> +procured a change, according to the custom of the great +who keep their full liberty." Soon after the marriage, +however, Henry began to make life unpleasant for the +queen, one of his petty acts being to deprive her of the +moral ladies in waiting whom she had brought with her.</p> + +<p>Louise de Vaudemont was a striking contrast to the perverted +woman of the day; the latter, no longer charmed +by the gentler emotions, sought the exaggerated and +the eccentric, extraordinary incidents, dramatic situations, +unexpected crises, finding all amusements insipid unless +they involved fighting and romantic catastrophes. "<i>Billets +doux</i> were written in blood and ferocity reigned even in pleasure."</p> + +<p>In the midst of this turmoil, Louise busied herself with +charity, appearing among the poor and distributing all the +funds which her father gave her for pocket money; the +evils of her surroundings threw her virtues, by contrast, +into so much the brighter light. Though she held herself +aloof from intrigues and rivalries, favoring no one and +encouraging no slander, she was, strange to say, respected, +admired and honored by Protestants and Catholics alike.</p> + +<p>Calumny and all the agitations about her did not disturb +Louise in her prayers. "The waves of the angry ocean +broke at the foot of the altar as the queen knelt; but +Huguenots and Catholics, leaguers and royalists, united +to pay her homage. They were amazed to see such +purity in an atmosphere so corrupt, such gentleness in a +society so violent. Their eyes rested with satisfaction on +a countenance whose holy tranquillity was undisturbed by +pride and hatred. The famous women of the century, +wretched in spite of all their amusements and their feverish +pursuit of pleasure, made salutary reflections as they contemplated +a woman still more highly honored for her +virtues than for her crown." That she was not a mother +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36"></a>[pg 36]</span> +was, with her, an enduring sorrow; even that, however, +did not alter her calmness and benign resignation.</p> + +<p>Louise de Vaudemont was indeed a bright star in a +heaven of darkness—one of the best queens of whom +French history can boast; she is an example of goodness +and gentleness, of purity, charity, and fidelity in a world +of corruption, cruelty, hatred, and debauch—where sympathy +was rare and chastity was ridiculed. Although a +highly educated woman, the faithful performance of her +duties as queen and as a devout Catholic left her little +time for literature and art; she remains the type of piety +and purity—an ideal queen and woman.</p> + +<p>A heroine in the fullest sense of that word was Jeanne +d'Albret, the great champion of Protestantism; she was +the mother of Henry IV. and the wife of the Duke of +Bourbon, Count of Vendôme, a direct descendant of Saint +Louis. This despotic, combative, and war-loving queen +reigned as absolute monarch, and was as autocratic and +severe as Calvin himself, confiscating church property, +destroying pictures and altars—even going so far as to +forbid the presence of her subjects at mass or in religious +processions. "Her natural eloquence, the lightning flashes +from her eyes, her reputation as a Spartan matron and an +intractable Calvinist, all contributed to give her great influence +with her party. The military leaders—Coligny, +La Rochefoucauld, Rohan, La Noue—submitted their plans of campaign to her."</p> + +<p>Though Jeanne was, perhaps, as fanatical, intolerant, +and cruel as her adversaries, she was driven to this by the +hostility shown her by the Catholic party—a party in +which she felt she could place no confidence. Her retreat +was amid rocks and inaccessible peaks, whence she defied +both the pope and Philip II. She brought up her son—the +future Henry IV.—among the children of the people, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37"></a>[pg 37]</span> +exercising toward him the severest discipline, and inuring +him to the cold of the winter and the heat of the summer; +she taught him to be judicious, sincere, and compassionate—qualities +which she possessed to a remarkable degree. +Chaste and pure herself, she considered the court of +France a hotbed of voluptuousness and debauchery, and at +every opportunity strengthened herself against its possible influence.</p> + +<p>The political and religious troubles of Jeanne d'Albret +began when Pope Paul IV. invested Philip II. of Spain +with the sovereignty of Navarre—her territory; she resisted, +and, following the impulses of her own nature, +formally embraced Calvinism, while her weak husband +acceded to the commands of the Church, and, applying to +the pope for the annulment of his marriage, was prepared, +as lieutenant-general of the kingdom, a position he accepted +from the pontiff, to deprive his wife of her possessions. +His death before the realization of his project made +it possible for Jeanne to retain her sovereignty; alone, an +absolute monarch, she declared Calvinism the established +religion of Navarre. After the assassination of Condé she +remained the champion of the Huguenots, defying her +enemies and scorning the court of France.</p> + +<p>So great were her power and influence over the soldiery +that Catherine de' Medici, her bitter enemy, desiring to +bring her into her power, or, at least, to conciliate her, +planned a marriage between Jeanne's son and Marguerite +of Valois—sister of Charles IX. When the suggestion +that the marriage should take place came from the king of +France, Jeanne d'Albret suspected an ambush; with the +determination to supervise personally all arrangements for +the nuptials, she set out for the French court. Venerated +by the Protestants, and hated but admired by the Catholics, +she had become celebrated throughout Europe for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38"></a>[pg 38]</span> +her beauty, intelligence, and strength of mind; thus, her +arrival at Paris created a sensation.</p> + +<p>She was so scandalized at the luxury and bold debauchery +at court that she decided to give up the marriage; she +had detected the intrigues and falsity of both the king and +Catherine, and had a foreboding of evil. She wrote to her son Henry:</p> + +<p>"Your betrothed is beautiful, very circumspect and +graceful, but brought up in the worst company that ever +existed (for I do not see a single one who is not infected +by it) ... I would not for anything have you come +here to live; this is why I desire you to marry and withdraw +yourself and your wife from this corruption which +(bad as I supposed it to be) I find still worse than I +thought. Here, it is not the men who invite the women, +but the women who invite the men. If you were here, +you could not escape contamination without a great grace from God."</p> + +<p>In the meantime, Catherine, undecided whether to strike +immediately or to wait, was redoubling her kindness and +courtesy and her affectionate overtures; her enemies were +in her hands. Although Jeanne suspected that Catherine +was capable of every perfidy, she at times believed that +her suspicions were unjust or exaggerated. The situation +between these two great women was indeed a dramatic +one: both were tactful, powerful, experienced in war and +diplomacy; both were mothers with children for whose +future they sought to provide. Jeanne's hesitancy, however, +was fatal; physically exhausted from suffering and +sorrow, worry and excitement, she suddenly died, in the +midst of her preparations for the marriage. While it is +not absolutely certain that her death was due to poison, +subsequent events lead strongly to the belief that Catherine +was instrumental in causing it—that, probably, being +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span> +but the first act toward the awful catastrophe she was planning.</p> + +<p>"A few hours before her agony, Jeanne dictated the +provisions of her will. She recommended her son to remain +faithful to the religion in which she had reared him, +never to permit himself to be lured by voluptuousness and +corruption, and to banish atheists, flatterers, and libertines.... +She begged him to take his sister, Catherine, +under his protection and to be, after God, her father. +'I forbid my son ever to use severity towards his sister; I +wish, to the contrary, that he treat her with gentleness +and kindness; and that—above all—he have her brought +up in Béarn, and that she shall never leave there until she +is old enough to be married to a prince of her own rank +and religion, whose morals shall be such that the spouses +may live happily together in a good and holy marriage.'" +D'Aubigné wrote of her: "A princess with nothing of a +woman but sex—with a soul full of everything manly, +a mind fit to cope with affairs of moment, and a heart invincible in adversity."</p> + +<p>It was in deep mourning that her son, then King of Navarre, +arrived at Paris; the eight hundred gentlemen who +attended him were all likewise in mourning. "But," says +Marguerite de Valois, "the nuptials took place in a few +days, with triumph and magnificence that none others, of +even my quality, had ever beheld. The King of Navarre +and his troop changed their mourning for very rich and +fine clothes, I being dressed royally, with crown and corsage +of tufted ermine all blazing with crown jewels, and, +the grand blue mantle with a train four ells long borne by +three princesses. The people down below, in their eagerness +to see us as we passed, choked one another." (Thus +quickly was Jeanne d'Albret forgotten.) The ceremonies +were gorgeous, lasting four days; but when Admiral +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40"></a>[pg 40]</span> +Coligny, the Huguenot leader, was struck in the hand by a +musket ball, the festive aspect of affairs suddenly changed. +On the second day after the wounding of Coligny, and +before the excitement caused by that act had subsided, +Catherine accomplished the crowning work of her invidious +nature, the tragedy of Saint Bartholomew.</p> + +<p>Peace and quiet never appeared upon the countenance +of Catherine de' Medici—that woman who so faithfully +represents and pictures the period, the tendencies of which +she shaped and fostered by her own pernicious methods; +and Charles IX., her son, was no better than his mother. +Saint-Amand, in his splendid picture of the period, gives +a truthful picture of Catherine as well: "It is interesting +to observe how curiously the later Valois represented +their epoch. Francis I. had personified the Renaissance; +Charles IX. sums up in himself all the crises of the religious +wars—he is the true type of the morbid and disturbed +society where all is violent; where the blood is scorched +by the double fevers of pleasure and cruelty; where the +human soul, without guide or compass, is tossed amid +storms; where fanaticism is joined to debauchery, superstition +to incredulity, cultured intelligence to depravity of +heart. This wholly unbalanced character—which stretches +evil to its utmost limits while preserving the knowledge of +what is good, which mistrusts everybody and yet has at least +the aspiration toward friendship and love, if not its experience—is +it not the symbol and living image of its time?"</p> + +<p>Marguerite de Valois, sister of Charles IX. and wife of +Henry IV., by her own actions and intrigues exercised +little influence politically; she was, above all else, a woman +of culture and may be taken as an example of the type +which was largely instrumental in developing social life in +France. Famous for her beauty, talents, and profligacy, +it seems that historians are prone to dwell too exclusively +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span> +upon the last quality, overlooking her principal rôle—that of social leader.</p> + +<p>She first came into prominence through her relations +with the Duke of Guise who paid assiduous court to her +for some time; for a while, no topic was more discussed +than that of their marriage. When, however, Charles IX. +heard that the duke had been carrying on a secret correspondence +with his sister, he exclaimed, savagely: "If it +be so, we will kill him!" Thereupon, the duke hurriedly +contracted a marriage with Catherine of Clèves. That +Marguerite, at this early date, had become the mistress of +Henry of Guise is hardly likely and becomes even less +probable when it is considered how closely she was watched +by her mother, Catherine de' Medici.</p> + +<p>Her marriage, previously mentioned, to Henry of Navarre +was a mere political match, there being absolutely +no love, no affection, no sympathy. This union was +looked upon as the surest covenant of peace between +Catholicism and Protestantism and put an end to the disastrous +religious wars that had been carried on uninterruptedly +for years; both the parties to this contract lived +at court, leading an existence of pleasure and immorality. +Remarkably intelligent, Marguerite was a scholar of no +mean ability; she displayed much wit and talent, but +no judgment or discretion; though conveying the impression +of being rather haughty and proud, she lacked both +self respect and true dignity. Her beauty was marvellous, +but "calculated, to ruin and damn men rather than to save them."</p> + +<p>Henry, the husband of Marguerite, was constantly +sneered at and taunted by the Catholics; although Catholic +in name he was Protestant at heart and keenly felt +his false position. During Catherine's short term as +queen-regent, he was held in captivity until the arrival of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id="page42"></a>[pg 42]</span> +Henry III., when he escaped to his own Béarn people; +for this, Marguerite was held responsible and kept under guard.</p> + +<p>Although hating his religion, his wife went to live with +him, tolerating his infidelities while he refused to tolerate +her religion. The unhappiness of this marriage was not +due to Marguerite alone; the first trouble arose when she +discovered his love for his mistress, Gabrielle d'Estrées, +and, thinking herself equally privileged, she began to indulge +in the same excesses. The result of so many annoyances +and debaucheries, so much vexation, was an illness; as +soon as she became convalescent, she returned to her +mother at court where she speedily gained the ill will of +the king by her profligate habits, her quarrels with both +Catholics and Protestants, her intimacy with the Duke of +Guise, her plottings with her younger brother, her cutting +satires on court favorites.</p> + +<p>She was sent back to Henry, upon the way meeting +with the mishap of being insulted by archers and, with +her maids, led away prisoner. Her husband was with difficulty +persuaded to receive her, and, finding him all attentive +to his mistress, Marguerite fled to Agen, where she +made war upon him as a heretic; unable to hold her position +there on account of her licentious manner of living +and the exorbitant taxes imposed upon the inhabitants, she +fled again and continued moving from one place to another, +causing mischief everywhere, "consuming the remainder +of her youth in adventures more worthy of a woman who +had abandoned her husband than of a daughter of France." +At last, she was seized and imprisoned in the fortress of +Usson; here she was supported mainly by Elizabeth of +Austria, widow of Charles IX.</p> + +<p>When her husband became King of France, he refused +to liberate her until she should renounce her rank; to this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span> +condition she refused to accede until after the death of +her rival, the mistress of Henry—Gabrielle d'Estrées, +Duchess de Beaufort. After the annulment of the marriage, +Marguerite said: "If our household has been little +noble and less bourgeois, our divorce was royal." She +was permitted to retain the title of queen, her debts were +paid and other great concessions granted. Her subsequent +relations with Henry IV. were very cordial and fraternal; +she even revealed political plots to him.</p> + +<p>When, after nearly twenty years of captivity, Marguerite +returned to Paris (1605), she gained the favor of +everybody—the king, dauphin, and court ladies. She +was present at the coronation of Marie de' Medici, and, by +being tactful enough to keep apart from all intrigues, quarrels, +and jealousies, she managed to win the good will of +the king's favorites. She became the social leader, the +queen inviting her to all court ceremonies and consulting +her on all disputed questions of etiquette—even going so +far as to intrust her with the reception of the Duke of +Pastrana, who had come to ask the hand of Elizabeth +of France. It is reported that in her last years she led +a worse life than in her earlier days—she had become a +woman of the bad world, resorting to every possible means +to hide her age and to gain any vantage ground. In order +to be well supplied with blond wigs, she kept fair-haired +footmen who were shorn from time to time to furnish the +supply. In the latter part of her life, spent at Paris and +its vicinity, she fell a victim to hypochondria, suffering +the most bitter pangs of remorse and terrible fear at +approaching death. To alleviate this, she founded a convent +where she taught the children music. She died +in 1615, in Paris, "in that blended piety and coquetry +which formed the basis of a character unable to give up gallantries and love."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44"></a>[pg 44]</span> + +<p>One of the very few historians who give due credit to +her social importance and assign her the position she may +rightfully command among French women of the sixteenth +century is M. Du Bled. According to him, she was the leader +of fashion, and in all its components she showed excellent +taste and judgment. Forced to marry the king of Navarre, +she said, after the ceremony: "I received from marriage +all the evil I ever received, and I consider it the greatest +plague of my life. They tell me that marriages are made +in heaven; heaven did not commit such an injustice;" and +this seems to be the secret of her "vicious life."</p> + +<p>As soon as she discovered that the king's favorites +were determined to make life hard and disagreeable for +her, she sought consolation in love and the toilette, in balls +and fêtes, in ballets and hunting, in promenades and gallant +conversations, in tennis and carousals, and in an infinite +variety of ingeniously planned pleasures. The spirit +of chivalry, the habits of exalted devotion, were again in +full sway about her. She worried little about virtue: +"She had the gift of pleasing, was beautiful, and made +full use of the liberality of the gods. Whatever may be +said of her morals, it can truthfully be stated that she +showed art in her love and practised it more in spirit than +with the body." Music was a favorite art with her; she +encouraged and rewarded singing, especially in the convent +which she founded and where she spent almost all of +her later days instructing the children.</p> + +<p>Her court at Usson, where, as a prisoner, she lived for +twenty years, was the most brilliant and least material of +all France; there poets, artists, and scholars were held in +high esteem, and were on familiar footing with Marguerite; +the latter showed no despotism, but, with the most consummate +skill, directed conversations and proposed subjects, +encouraging discussion, and skilfully drawing from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span> +her friends the most brilliant repartees. She received +people of distinction without ceremony.</p> + +<p>She introduced the two elements which were combined +in the eighteenth-century salon: a fine cuisine and freedom +among her friends from the restraint usually imposed by +distinction. She was, also, one of the first to have a +circle—well organized according to modern etiquette—where +the highest aristocracy, men of letters, magistrates, +artists, and men of genius met on equal terms and in +familiar and social intercourse; Montaigne, Brantôme, and +other great writers dedicated their works to her. She also +directed a select few, an academy, to instruct and distract +herself. It is said that every coquette, every bourgeois +woman, and almost every court lady endeavored to imitate +her. When she died, at the age of sixty-two, poets +and preachers sang and chanted her merits, and all the +poor wept over their loss; she was called the queen of +the indigent. Richelieu mentioned her devotion to the +state, her style, her eloquence, the grace of her hospitality, +her infinite charity. "She remains, <i>par excellence</i>, the +one great sympathetic woman of the sixteenth century; +her admirers, during life and after death, were legion. She +shared in the lesser evils of the century, but it cannot be +said that she participated in the brutalities, grossness, or +glaring immoralities of her time; her weaknesses, compared +with the great debauches of the age, seemed like virtues."</p> + +<p>Such is this great woman of the sixteenth century, who +has received almost universal condemnation at the hands +of historians. It is to be taken into consideration that she +was forced to marry a man whom she did not love, and +to live in a country utterly uncongenial to her nature and +opposed to the religion in which she was reared; furthermore, +that her husband first defiled the marital union, thus +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span> +driving her to follow the general tendencies of the time or +to seek solace in religious activity, for which she had too +much energy. After due consideration of the extenuating +circumstances, her faults and vices, such as they were, +may easily be condoned. Because she was the wife of a +powerful Protestant king, she was condemned by Catholics +and by them regarded with suspicion; and, in order to +save herself, she was forced to commit unwise acts and even follies.</p> + +<p>In fine, whatever may be said against Marguerite de +Valois, whom despair drove to acts which are not generally +pardoned, she stands foremost among the social leaders +and cultured women of the sixteenth century, a century +whose prominent women were notorious for their licentiousness +and lack of conscience rather than famous for +their virtue and womanly accomplishments. Undeniably +powerful and brilliant, these unscrupulous women were +never happy; usually proud, they finally suffered the +most cruel humiliations; "voluptuous, they found anguish +underlying pleasure." Their misfortunes are, possibly +more interesting than those successes of which chagrin +anxiety, and heavy hearts were the inseparable associates.</p> + +<p>Religion, which in the sixteenth century was so badly +understood, and practised even worse—obscured and +falsified by fanaticism, disfigured and exaggerated by passion +and hatred—was the secret cause of all downfalls +crimes, horrors, intrigues, and brutality. Yet, it alone +survives, and all the important figures of history return to +it after a period of negligence and forgetfulness. In their +religious aspect, the women of the sixteenth century differ +as a rule, from those of the eighteenth, who, though +equally powerful, witty, refined, sensual, frivolous, and +scoffing, were far less devout; for "'tis religion which restores +the great female sinners of the sixteenth century +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47"></a>[pg 47]</span> +'tis religion which saves a society ploughed up by so many +elements of dissolution and so many causes of moral and +material ruin, rescuing it from barbarism, vandalism, and +from irretrievable decay;" but the women of the eighteenth +century clung, to the end, to the scepticism and material +philosophy which served them as their religion, their God.</p> + +<p>Among the conspicuous women of the sixteenth century +to whom, thus far, we have been able to attribute so little +of the wholesome and pleasing, the womanly or love-inspiring, +there is one striking exception in Marguerite +d'Angoulême, a representative of letters, art, culture, and +morality. With the study of this character we are taken +back to the beginning of the century and carried among +men of letters especially, for she formed the centre of the +literary world. She, her mother, Louise of Savoy, and +her brother, Francis I., were called a "trinity," to the existence +of which Marguerite bore witness in the poem:</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"Such boon is mine—to feel the amity</p> +<p>That God hath putten in our trinity</p> +<p>Wherein to make a third, I, all unfitted</p> +<p>To be that number's shadow, am admitted."</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>Marguerite inherited many of her qualities from her +mother, "a most excellent and a most venerable dame," +though anything but moral and conscientious; she, upon +discovering that her daughter possessed rare intellectual +gifts, provided her with teachers in every branch of the +learning of the age. "At fifteen years of age, the spirit +of God began to manifest itself in her eyes, in her face, +in her walk, in her speech, and in all her actions generally." +Brantôme says: "She had a heart mightily devoted +to God and she loved mightily to compose spiritual songs. +She devoted herself to letters, also, in her young days and +continued them as long as she lived, in the time of her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span> +greatness, loving and conversing with the most learned +folks of her brother's kingdom, who honored her so greatly +that they called her their Mæcenas." Tenderness, particularly +for her brother, seemed to develop in her as a passion.</p> + +<p>Marguerite was a rare exception in a period described +by M. Saint-Amand as one in which women were Christian +in certain aspects of their character and pagan in others, +taking an active part in every event, ruling by wit and +beauty, wisdom and courage; an age of thoughtless gaiety +and morbid fanaticism, and of laughter and tears, still +rough and savage, yet with an undercurrent of subtle +grace and exquisite politeness; an age in which the extremes +of elegance and cruelty were blended, in which the +most glaring scepticism and intense superstitions were +everywhere evident; an age which was religious as well +as debauched and whose women were both good and evil, +innocent and intriguing. Everything was fluctuating; +there was inconstancy even in the things most affected: +pleasure, pomp, display. The natural outcome of this +undefined restlessness was dissatisfaction; and when dissatisfaction +brought in its train the inevitable reaction +against falseness and immorality, Marguerite d'Angoulême +stood at the head of the movement.</p> + +<p>With her begins the cultural and moral development of +France. It was she who encouraged that desire for a new +phase of existence, which arose through contact with Italian +culture. The men of learning—poets, artists, scholars—who +soon gathered about the French court received +immediate recognition from the king's sister, who had +studied all languages, was gay, brilliant, and æsthetic. +While her mother and brother were in harmony with the +age, no better, no worse than their environment, Marguerite +aspired to the most elevated morals and ideals; thus, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span> +she is a type of all that is refined, sensitive, loving, noble, +and generous in humanity, a woman vastly superior to +her time; in fact, the modern woman, with her highest attributes.</p> + +<p>In Marguerite d'Angoulême contemporaries admired prudence, +chastity, moderation, piety, an invincible strength +of soul, and her habit of "hiding her knowledge instead of +displaying it." "In an age wholly depraved, she approached +the ideal woman of modern times; in spite of +her virtue, she was brilliant and honored, the centre of a +coterie that delighted in music, verse, ingenious dialogues +and gossip, story telling, singing, rhyming. Deeply afflicted +by the sad and odious spectacle of the vices, abuses, and +crimes which unroll before her, she suffers through her +imagination, mind and heart." Serious and sympathetic, +she was interested in every movement, feeling with those +who were persecuted on account of their religious opinions.</p> + +<p>Various are the names by which she is known: daughter +of Charles of Orléans, Count of Angoulême, Duchesse +d'Alençon through her first marriage, and Queen of Navarre +through her second, she was called Marguerite d'Angoulême, +Marguerite of Navarre, of Valois, Marguerite de +France, Marguerite des Princesses, the Fourth Grace, and +the Tenth Muse. A most appreciative and just account +of her life is given by M. Saint-Amand, which will be +followed in the main outline of this sketch.</p> + +<p>She was born in 1492, and, as already stated, received a +thorough education under the direction of her mother, +Louise of Savoy. At seventeen she was married to +Charles III., Duke of Alençon; as he did not prove to be +her ideal, she sought consolation in love for her brother, +sharing the almost universal admiration for the young +king, whose tendency to favor everything new and progressive +was stimulated by her. She became his constant +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50"></a>[pg 50]</span> +and best adviser in general affairs as well as in those of +state. The foreign ambassadors sought her after having +accomplished their mission, and were referred to her when +the king was busy; they were enraptured, and carried +back wonderful reports of Marguerite.</p> + +<p>The world of art was opened to the French by a bevy +of such painters and sculptors as Leonardo da Vinci, Rosso, +Primaticcio, Benvenuto Cellini, and Bramante, and they +were encouraged and fêted by Marguerite especially. In +those days a new picture from Italy by Raphael was received +with as much pomp and ceremony as, in olden +times, were accorded the holiest relics from the East.</p> + +<p>Men of letters gathered about the sister of the king, +forming what might be termed a court of sentimental +metaphysics; for the questions discussed were those of +love. This refined gallantry, empty and vapid, formed +the foundation of the seventeenth-century salon, where +the language and fine points of sentiment were considered +and cultivated until sentiment acquired poise, grandeur, +and an air of dignity and reserve.</p> + +<p>The period was one in which, during times of trial and +misfortune, the presence of an underlying religious sentiment +became unmistakable. In such an atmosphere, the +propensity toward mysticism, which Marguerite had manifested +as a child, grew more and more apparent. When +Francis I. was captured at the battle of Pavia, his sister +immediately sought consolation in devotion, the nature of +which is well illustrated in a letter to the captive king:</p> + +<p>"Monseigneur, the further they remove you from us, +the greater becomes my firm hope of your deliverance and +speedy return, for the hour when men's minds are most +troubled is the hour when God achieves His masterstroke ... and +if He now gives you, on one hand, +a share in the pains which He has borne for you, and, on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span> +the other hand, the grace to bear them patiently, I entreat +you, Monseigneur, to believe unfalteringly that it is only +to try how much you love Him and to give you leisure to +think how much He loves you. For He desires to have +your heart entirely, as, for love, He has given you His +own; He has permitted this trial, in order, after having +united you to Him by tribulation, to deliver you for His +own glory—so that, through you, His name may be known +and sanctified, not in your kingdom alone, but in all Christendom +and even to the conversion of the infidels. Oh, +how blessed will be your brief captivity by which God +will deliver so many souls from that infidelity and eternal +damnation! Alas, Monseigneur! I know that you understand +all this far better than I do; but seeing that in other +things I think only of you, as being all that God has left +me in this world,—father, brother, husband,—and not +having the comfort of telling you so, I have not feared to +weary you with a long letter, which to me is short, in +order to console myself for my inability to talk with you."</p> + +<p>After his incarceration in the gloomy prison in Spain +where he was taken ill, Francis asked for the safe conduct +of Marguerite; this was gladly granted. Ignorant of her +future duty in Spain, she wrote: "Whatever it may be, +even to the giving of my ashes to the winds to do you a +service, nothing will seem strange, difficult or painful to +me, but will be only consolation, repose, and honor." So +impatient was she to arrive at her brother's side that she +could not travel fast enough.</p> + +<p>Her presence only increased his fever and a serious +crisis soon came on, the king remaining for some time +"without hearing or seeing or speaking." Marguerite, +in this critical time, implored the assistance of God. She +had an altar erected in her chamber, and all the French +of the household, great lords and domestics alike, knelt +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52"></a>[pg 52]</span> +beside the sick man's sister and received the communion +from the hands of the Archbishop of Embrun, who, drawing +near the bed, entreated the king to turn his eyes to +the holy sacrament. Francis came out of his lethargy and +asked to commune likewise, saying: "It is my God who +will heal my soul and body; I entreat you that I may receive +him." Then, the Host having been divided in two, the +king received one half with the greatest devotion, and his +sister the other half. The sick man felt himself sustained by +a supernatural force; a celestial consolation descended into +the soul that had been despairing. Marguerite's prayer +had not been unavailing—Francis I. was saved.</p> + +<p>She then proceeded to visit different cities and royalties, +endeavoring to secure concessions for her brother. From +the people in the streets as well as from the lords in their +houses, she received the most unmistakable proofs of +friendly feeling; in fact, her favor was so great that +Charles V. informed "the Duke of Infantado that, if he +wished to please the emperor, neither he nor his sons +must speak to Madame d'Alençon." The latter, unable +to secure her brother's release, planned a marriage between +him and Eleanor of Portugal, sister of Charles V.; +her successes at court and in the family of the emperor +furthered this scheme. Brantôme says: "She spoke to +the emperor so bravely and so courteously that he was +quite astonished, and she spoke even more to those of his +council with whom she had audience; there she produced +an excellent impression, speaking and arguing with an +easy grace in which she was proficient, and making herself +rather agreeable than hateful or tiresome. Her reasons +were found good and pertinent and she retained the high +esteem of the emperor, his court and council."</p> + +<p>Although she failed in her attempts to free the king, +she succeeded, by arranging the marriage, in completely +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span> +changing the rigorous captivity to which Charles had subjected +him. Finally, by giving his two eldest sons as +hostages, the king obtained his release, and in March, +1526, he again set foot, as sovereign, on French soil. +Thus the king's life was saved and he was permitted to +return to his country, Marguerite's devotion having accomplished +that in which the most skilled diplomatist would have failed.</p> + +<p>All historians agree that Marguerite d'Angoulême was a +devout Catholic, but that she was too broad and liberal, +intelligent and humane, to sanction the unbridled excesses +of fanaticism. The acknowledged leader of moral reform, +she protected and assisted those persecuted on account of +their religious views and sympathized with the first stages +of that movement which revolted against abuses, vice, +scandals, immorality, and intrigue. With her, the question +was not one of dogma, but concerned, instead, the +religion which she considered most conducive to progress +and reform. It grieved her to see her religion defile itself +by cruel and inhuman persecutions and tortures, by intolerance +and injustice. She felt for, but not with, the heretics +in their errors. "She typifies her age in all that is good +and noble, in artistic aspirations, in literary ideals, in pure +politics—in short,—in humanity; in her is not found the +chaotic vagueness which so often breaks out in license and +licentiousness, cruelty, and barbarism."</p> + +<p>During the absence in Spain of Francis I. and Marguerite, +the mother-regent sought to gain the support and +favor of Rome by ordering imprisonments, confiscations, +and punishments of heretics; but upon the return of the +king and his sister, the banished were recalled and tolerance +again ruled. When (in 1526) Berquin was seized and +tried for heresy, he found but one defender. Marguerite +wrote to her brother, still at Madrid:</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span> + +<p>"My desire to obey your commands was sufficiently +strong without having it redoubled by the charity you +have been pleased to show poor Berquin according to your +promise; I feel that He for whom I believe him to have +suffered will approve of the mercy which, for His honor, +you have had upon His servant and your own."</p> + +<p>Marguerite had saved Berquin and had even taken him +into her service. Her letter to the constable, Anne de +Montmorency, shows her esteem of men of genius and especially of Berquin:</p> + +<p>"I thank you for the pleasure you have afforded me +in the matter of poor Berquin whom I esteem as much +as if he were myself; and so you may say you have delivered +me from prison, since I consider in that light the favor done me."</p> + +<p>When on June 1, 1528, a statue of the Virgin was thrown +down and mutilated by unknown hands, a reversion of +feeling arose immediately, and even Marguerite was not +able to save poor Berquin, and he was burned at the +stake. Upon learning of his imminent peril, she wrote to +Francis from Saint-Germain:</p> + +<p>"I, for the last time, very humbly make you a request; +it is that you will be pleased to have pity upon poor Berquin, +whom I know to be suffering for nothing other than +loving the word of God and obeying yours. You will be +pleased, Monseigneur, so to act that it be not said that +separation has made you forget your most humble and +obedient sister and subject, Marguerite."</p> + +<p>Encouraged by their success in that instance, the intolerant +party began furious attacks upon her, one monk +going so far as to say from the pulpit that she should be +put into a sack and thrown into the Seine. Upon her +publication of a religious poem, <i>Miroir de l'âme pécheresse</i>, +in which she failed to mention purgatory or the saints, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span> +she was vigorously attacked by Beda, who had the verses +condemned by the Sorbonne and caused the pupils of the +College of Navarre to perform a morality in which Marguerite +was represented under the character of a woman +quitting her distaff for a French translation of the Gospels +presented to her by a Fury. This was too much even +for Francis, and he ordered the principal and his actors +arrested; it was then that Marguerite showed her gentleness, +mercy, and humanity by throwing herself at her +brother's feet and asking for their pardon.</p> + +<p>After but a short respite the persecution broke out anew, +and with the full sanction of the king, who, upon finding +at his door a placard against the mass, went even so far as +to sign letters patent ordering the suppression of printing +(1535). While away from the soothing influence of his +sister, Francis I. was easily persuaded to sign, for the +Catholic party, any permit of execution or cruelty. The +life of Marguerite herself was constantly in danger, but in +spite of persistent efforts to turn brother against sister, +the king continued to protect and defend the latter; and +though she gradually drew closer to Catholicism, she continued +to protect the Protestants. She founded nunneries +and showed a profound devotion toward the Virgin; although +realizing the dangers and follies of the new doctrine, she +had too much humanity to encourage cruelty.</p> + +<p>The husband whom the king forced upon her was twelve +years her junior, poor, and subsidized by Francis; by him +she had a daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, who became the +champion of Protestantism. Her married life at Pau, +where she had erected beautiful buildings and magnificent +terraces, was not happy; the subjects of love that +formerly had amused her had lost their charm; and the +incurable disease with which her brother was stricken +caused her constant worry and mental suffering. When +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span> +banquets, the chase, and other amusements no longer +attracted Francis, he summoned Marguerite to comfort +and console him; her devotion and goodness never failed. +Unable to recover from the grief caused by his death +in 1547, she expressed her sorrow in the most beautiful poems.</p> + +<p>She gave the remainder of her life to religion and charity, +abandoning her literary ambitions and plans. "The +life after death gave her much trouble and many moments +of perplexity and uneasiness. She survived her brother +only two years, dying in 1549; the helper and protector of +good literature, the defence, consolation, and shelter of the +distressed, she was mourned by all France more than was +any other queen." Sainte-Marthe says: "How many +widows are there, how many orphans, how many afflicted, +how many old persons, whom she pensioned every year, +who now, like sheep whose shepherd is dead, wander +hither and thither, seeking to whom to go, crying in the +ears of the wealthy and deploring their miserable fate!" +Poets, scholars, all learned and professional men, commemorated +their protectress in poems and funeral orations. +France was one large family in deep mourning.</p> + +<p>Marguerite d'Angoulême must first be considered as the +real power behind the supreme authority of her period, +her brother the king; secondly, as a furtherer of the development +and encouragement of good literature, good +taste, high art, and pure morals; thirdly, as a critic of +importance. She is entitled to the first consideration by +the fact that as the confidential adviser of Francis I. she +moulded his opinions and checked his evil tendencies: the +affairs of the kingdom were therefore, to a large extent, in +her hands. She collected and partly organized the chaotic +mass of material thrown upon the sixteenth-century world, +leaving its moulding into a classic French form to the next +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57"></a>[pg 57]</span> +century; and by her spirit of tolerance she endeavored to +further all moral development: thus is she entitled to the +second consideration. Gifted with rare delicacy of taste, +solidity of judgment, and the ability to select, discriminate, +and adapt, she set the standards of style and tone: therefore, +she is entitled to the third consideration.</p> + +<p>The love of Marguerite for her brother, and her unselfish +devotion to his interests, is a precedent unparalleled in +French history until the time of Madame de Sévigné. In +all her letters we find the same tenderness, gentleness, +passion, inexhaustible emotion, sympathy, and compassion +that distinguished her actions.</p> + +<p>In her <i>Contes</i> (the <i>Heptameron</i>) <i>de la Reine de Navarre</i> +we have an accurate representation of society, its manners +and style of conversation; in it we find, also, remnants of +the brutality and grossness of the Middle Ages, as well as +reflections of the higher tendencies and aspirations of the +later time. In having a thorough knowledge of the tricks, +deceits, and follies of the professional lovers of the day, +and of their object in courting women, Marguerite was +able to warn her contemporaries and thus guard them +against immorality and its dangers. In her works she +upheld the purity of ideal love, exposing the questionable +and selfish designs of the clever professional seducers. A +specimen may be cited to show her style of writing and the trend of her thought:</p> + +<p>"Emarsuite has just related the history of a gentleman +and a young girl who, being unable to be united, had both +embraced the religious life. When the story is ended, +Hircan, instead of showing himself affected, cries: 'Then +there are more fools and mad women than there ever +were!' 'Do you call it folly,' says Oisille, 'to love honestly +in youth and then to turn all love to God?' ... 'And +yet I have the opinion,' says Parlemente, 'that no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span> +man will ever love God perfectly who has not perfectly +loved some creature in this world.' 'What do you +by loving perfectly?' asks Saffredant; 'do you call +perfect lovers who are bashful and adore ladies from a +distance, without daring to express their wishes?' 'I call +those perfect lovers,' replies Parlemente, 'who seek some +perfection in what they love—whether goodness, beauty or +kindness—and whose hearts are so lofty and honest that +they would rather die than perform those base deeds +which honor and conscience forbid; for the soul which +was created only to return to its Sovereign Good cannot, +while it is in the body, do otherwise than desire to win +thither; but because the senses, by which it can have +tidings of that which it seeks, are dull and carnal on +account of the sin of our first parents, they can show it +only those visible things which most nearly approach perfection; +and the soul runs after them, believing that in +visible grace and moral virtues it may find the Sovereign +Grace, Beauty and Virtue. But without finding whom it +loves, it passes on like the child who, according to his +littleness, loves apples, pears, dolls and other little things—the +most beautiful that his eye can see—and thinks it +riches to heap little stones together; but, on growing +larger he loves living things, and, therefore, amasses the +goods necessary for human life; but he knows, by the +greatest experiences, that neither perfection nor felicity is +attained by possessions only, and he desires true felicity +and the Maker and Source thereof.'"</p> + +<p>In her writings, much apparent indelicacy and grossness +are encountered; but it must be remembered for whom +she was writing, the condition of morality and the taste +of the public at that time, and that she aimed faithfully to +depict the society that lay before her eyes. It is argued +by some critics that these indecencies could not have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span> +emanated from a pure, chaste woman; that Marguerite +must have experienced the sins she depicted; but such +reasoning is not sound. The expressions used by her +were current in her time; there was greater freedom of +manners, and coarseness and drastic language—examples +of which are found so frequently in the writings of Luther—were very common.</p> + +<p>Marguerite was less remarkable for what she did than +for what she aspired to do. "She invoked, against the +vices and prejudices of her epoch, those principles of +morality and justice, of tolerance and humanity, which +must be the very foundation of all stable society. She +wished to make her brother the protector of the oppressed, +the support of the learned, the crowned apostle of the +Renaissance, the promoter of salutary reforms in the morals +of the clergy; in politics, he was to follow a straight line +and methodically advance the accomplishment of the +legitimate ambitions of France."</p> + +<p>She expressed the most modern ideas on the rights of +woman, particularly on her relative rights in the married state:</p> + +<p>"It is right that man should govern us as our head, but +not that he should abandon us or treat us ill. God has so +well ordered both man and woman, that I think marriage, +if it is not abused, one of the most beautiful and secure +estates that can be in this world, and I am sure that all +who are here, no matter what pretense they make, think +as much or more; and as much as man calls himself wiser +than woman, so much the more grievously will he be punished +if the fault be on his side. Those who are overcome +by pleasure ought not to call themselves women any +longer, but men, whose honor is but augmented by fury +and concupiscence; for a man who revenges himself upon +his enemy and slays him for a contradiction is esteemed a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span> +better companion for so doing; and the same is true if he +love a dozen other women besides his wife; but the honor of +woman has another foundation: it is gentleness, patience, chastity."</p> + +<p>Désiré Nisard says that Marguerite d'Angoulême was +the first to write prose that can be read without the aid of +a vocabulary; in verse, she excels all poets of her time in +sympathy and compassion; her poetry is "a voice which +complains—a heart which suffers and which tells us so." +"It is not so much her own deep sentiment that is reflected, +but her emotion, which is both intellectual and +sympathetic, volitional and spontaneous." Her letters +were epoch-making; nothing before her time nor after her +(until Madame de Sévigné) can equal them in precision, +purity of language, sincerity and frankness of expression, +passion and religious fervor.</p> + +<p>In spite of what may be said to the contrary, her life +was an ideal one, an example of perfect moral beauty and +elevation; noble, generous, refined, pious, and sincere, she +possessed qualities which were indeed rare in her time. +She was attacked for her charity, and is to-day the victim +of narrow sectarian and biased devotees. Her act of +renouncing all gorgeous dress, even the robes of gold +brocade so much worn by every princess, in order to give +all her money to the poor; her protection of the needy and +persecuted; her court of poets and scholars; her visits to +the sick and stricken; even her untiring love for her +brother and her acts of clemency—all have frequently been misinterpreted.</p> + +<p>The greatest poets and men of letters of the sixteenth +century were encouraged financially and morally or protected +by Marguerite d'Angoulême—Rabelais, Marot, Pelletier, +Bonaventure-Desperiers, Mellin de Saint-Gelais, +Lefèvre d'Etaples, Amyot, Calvin, Berquin. Charles de +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61"></a>[pg 61]</span> +Sainte-Marthe says: "In seeing them about this good lady, +you would say it was a hen which carefully calls and +gathers her chicks and shelters them with her wings."</p> + +<p>Many critics believe that her literary work was imitative +rather than original; even if this be true, it in no +measure detracts from her importance, which is based +upon the fact that she was the leading spirit of the time +and typified her environment. Her followers, and they +included all the intellectual spirits, looked up to her as the +one incentive for writing and pleasing. Her disposition +was characterized by restlessness, haste—too great eagerness +to absorb and digest and appropriate all that was unfolded +before her. She imitated the <i>Decameron</i> and drew +up for herself a <i>Heptameron</i>; her poetry showed much skill +and great ease, but little originality. Her extreme facility, +her wonderfully active mind, her power of <i>causerie</i>, and her +ability to discuss and write upon philosophical and religious +abstractions, won the deep admiration and respect of her +followers, who were not only content to be aided financially +by her, but looked to her for guidance and counsel in their +own work, though she never imposed her ideas and taste +upon others. By her tact, she was able practically to +control and guide the entire literary, artistic, and social +development of the sixteenth century. Every form of +intellectual movement of this period is impregnated with +the spirit of Marguerite d'Angoulême.</p> + +<p>With her affable and loving manners, her refined taste +and superior knowledge, she was able to influence her +brother and, through him, the government. Just as her +mother controlled in politics, so did Marguerite in arts and +manners. In her are found the main characteristics to +which later French women owed their influence—a form +of versatility which included exceptional tact and enabled +the possessor to appreciate and sympathize with all forms +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62"></a>[pg 62]</span> +of activity, to deal with all classes, to manage and be managed in turn.</p> + +<p>The writings of Marguerite are quite numerous, consisting +of six moralities or comedies, a farce, epistles, elegies, +philosophical poems, and the <i>Heptameron</i>, her principal +work—a collection of prose tales in which are reflected +the customary conversation, the morals of polite society, +and the ideal love of the time. They are a medley of crude +equivocalities, of the grossness of the <i>fabliaux</i>, of Rabelais, +and of the delicate preciosity of the seventeenth +century. Love is the principal theme discussed—youth, +nobility, wealth, power, beauty, glory, love for love, the +delicate sensation of feeling one's self loved, elegant love, +obsequious love; perfect love is found in those lovers who +seek perfection in what they love, either of goodness, +beauty, or grace—always tending to virtue.</p> + +<p>Thoroughly to appreciate Marguerite d'Angoulême's position +and influence and her contributions to literature, the +conditions existing in her epoch must be carefully considered. +It was in the sixteenth century that the charms of +social life and of conversation as an art were first realized; +all questions of the day were treated gracefully, if not +deeply; woman began to play an important part, to appear +at court, and, by her wit and beauty, to impress man. +From the semi-barbaric spirit of the Middle Ages to the +Italian and Roman culture of the Renaissance was a tremendous +stride; in this cultural development, Marguerite +was of vital importance. In intellectual attainments far +in advance of the age, among its great women she stands +out alone in her spirit of humanity, generosity, tolerance, +broad sympathies, exemplary family life, and exalted devotion to her brother.</p> + +<p>Of the other literary women of the sixteenth century, +mention may be made of two who have left little or no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63"></a>[pg 63]</span> +work of importance, but who are interesting on account of +the peculiar form of their activity.</p> + +<p>Mlle. de Gournay, <i>fille d'alliance</i> of Montaigne, is a +unique character. Having conceived a violent passion for +the philosopher and essayist, she would have no other +consort than her honor and good books. She called the +ladies of the court "court dolls," accusing them of deforming +the French language by affecting words that had +apparently been greased with oil in order to facilitate their +flow. She was one of the first woman suffragists and the +most independent spirit of the age. In 1592, to see +the country of her master, she undertook a long voyage, +at a time when any trip was fraught with the gravest dangers for a woman.</p> + +<p>She is a striking example of the effect of sixteenth-century +sympathy, admiration, and enthusiasm; she was +protected by some of the greatest literary men of the +age—Balzac, Grotius, Heinsius; the French Academy is +said to have met with her on several occasions, and +she is said to have participated in its work of purifying +and fixing the French language. Her adherence +to the Montaigne cult has brought her name down to posterity.</p> + +<p>M. du Bled relates a droll story in connection with her +meeting Richelieu. Mlle. de Gournay was an old maid, +who lived to the ripe age of eighty. Being a pronounced +<i>féministe</i>, she—like her sisters of to-day—cultivated cats. +The story runs as follows:</p> + +<p>"Bois-Robert conducted her to the Cardinal, who paid +her a compliment composed of old words taken from one +of her books; she saw the point immediately. 'You laugh +over the poor old girl, but laugh, great genius, laugh! everybody +must contribute something to your diversion.' The +Cardinal, surprised at her ready wit, asked her pardon, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64"></a>[pg 64]</span> +and said to Bois-Robert: 'We must do something for Mlle. +de Gournay. I give her two hundred écus pension.' 'But +she has servants,' suggested Bois-Robert. 'Who?' 'Mlle. +Jamyn (bastard), illegitimate daughter of Amadis Jamyn, +page of Ronsard.' 'I will give her fifty livres annually.' +'There is still dear little Piaillon, her cat.' 'I give her +twenty livres pension, on condition that Piaillon shall have +tripes.' 'But, Monseigneur, she has had kittens!' The +Cardinal added a pistole for the little kittens."</p> + +<p>A woman of large fortune, she spent it freely in study, +in her household, and especially in alchemy. Her peculiar +ideas about love kept her from falling prey to the wealth-seeking +gallants of the time. She was one of the few +women who made a profession of writing; she compiled +moral dissertations, defences of woman, and treatises on +language, all of which she published at her own expense; +while they are of no real importance, they show a remarkable +frankness and courage.</p> + +<p>Mlle. de Gournay was, possibly, the first woman to demand +the acceptance of woman on an equal status with +man; for she wrote two treatises on woman's condition +and rank, insisting upon a better education for her, though +she herself was well educated. Following the events of +the day with a careful scrutiny and interpreting them in +her writings, she showed a remarkable gift of perspective +and deduction and an intimate knowledge of politics. The +fact that she was severely, even spitefully, attacked in +both poetry and prose but proves that her writings on women were effective.</p> + +<p>Some writers claim that the founding of the French +Academy had its inception at her rooms, where many of +the members met and where, later on, they discussed the +work of the Academy. Her one desire for the language +was to have it advance and develop, preserving every +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65"></a>[pg 65]</span> +word, resorting to old ones, accepting new ones only when +necessary. Thus, among French female educators, Mlle. +de Gournay deserves a prominent place, because of her +high ideals and earnest efforts in the study of the language, +for the courage with which she advanced her convictions +regarding woman, and for the high moral standard +which she set by her own conduct.</p> + +<p>In Louise Labé—<i>La Belle Cordière</i>—we meet a warrior, +as well as a woman of letters. The great movement of +the Renaissance, as it swept northward, invaded Lyons; +there Louise Labé endeavored to do what Ronsard and the +Pléiade were doing at Paris. A great part of her youth +she passed in war, wearing man's apparel and assuming +the name of "Captain Loys"; at an early age, she left +home with a company of soldiers passing through Lyons +on the way to lay siege to Perpignan, where she showed +pluck, bravery, and skill. Upon her return, she married +a merchant ropemaker, whence her sobriquet—<i>La Belle Cordière</i>.</p> + +<p>She soon won a reputation by gathering about her a +circle of men, who complimented her in the most elegant +language and read poetry with her. Science and literature +were discussed and the praises of love sung with passionate, +inflamed eloquence. In this circle of congenial spirits, +"she gave rise to doubts as to her virtue." As her husband +was wealthy, she was able to collect an immense +library and to entertain at her pleasure; she could converse +in almost any language, and all travellers stopped +at Lyons and called to see her at her salon. Her +writings consisted of sonnets, elegies, and dialogues in +prose; her influence, being too local, is not marked. Her +greatest claim to attention is that she encouraged letters +in a city which was beyond the reach of every literary movement. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span> +Such were the women of the sixteenth century; in no +epoch in French history have women played a greater +rôle; art, literature, morals, politics, all were governed by +them. They were active in every phase of life, hunting +with men, taking part in and causing duels, intriguing and +initiating intrigues. "In the midst of battle, while cannon-balls +and musket-shots rained about her, Catherine de' +Medici was as brave and unconcerned as the most valiant +of men. Diana of Poitiers was called the most wondrous +woman, the woman of eternal youth, the beautiful huntress; +it was she whom Jean Goujon sculptured, nude and triumphant, +embracing with marble arms a mysterious stag, enamoured like Leda's swan."</p> + +<p>In general, the women of that century "liked better to +be feared than loved; they inspired mad passions, insensate +devotions, ecstatic admirations. The epoch was +one in which life counted for little, when balls alternated +with massacres; when virtue was befitting only the lowly +born and ugly (Brantôme recommends the beautiful to be +inconstant because they should resemble the sun who +diffuses his light so indiscriminately that everybody in the +world feels it). It was the age of beauty—a beauty that +fascinated and entranced, but the glow of which melted +and killed; but this glow also reacted upon them that +caused it and they became victims of their own passions—through +either jealousy or their own weaknesses. No +age was ever more luxurious, pompous, elegant, brilliant, +and wanton, yet beneath all the glitter there were much +misery and bitter repentance; amongst the violent wickedness +there were noble and pure women such as Elizabeth +of Austria and Louise de Vaudemont."</p> + +<p>The whole century seemed to be afire and to tingle with +that spirit of liberty, imitation, and experimentation, which, +so often abused, led to much disaster. In spite of that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span> +unsettled and excited condition, the sixteenth century +attained greater development, had more avenues of intellectual +activity opened to it, imitated, thought and imagined +more and produced as much as any other century; in +every field, we find the names of its masters. As M. Faguet +says, the sixteenth century was, in France, the century +<i>créateur par excellence</i>; and in this, woman's part was, +above all, political, her social, moral, and literary influence +being less marked.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span> + + + + + +<h2>Chapter III</h2> + +<h2>The Seventeenth Century: Woman at Her Best</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71"></a>[pg 71]</span> + + +<p>In the seventeenth century, the influence exerted by +the women of France, departing from the political aspect +which had characterized it in the preceding century, became +of a social, literary, religious, and moral nature, the +last predominating. Inasmuch as the reins of government +were in the hands of the king and his ministers, political +affairs were but slightly affected by the feminine element. +Woman, realizing the uselessness as well as danger of +plotting against the inviolate person and power of the +king, contented herself with scheming against those ministers +whose attitudes she considered unfavorable to her plans.</p> + +<p>Of all social and literary movements, however, woman +was the acknowledged leader; in that institution of culture +and development, the seventeenth century salon, her undisputed +supremacy placed her in the position of patroness +and protectress of men of letters. In the general religious +movement her rôle was one of secondary importance; and +as mistress, she ceased with the sixteenth century to be +either active politically or disastrous morally and became +merely a temporary recipient of capriciously bestowed +wealth and favors. In order to fully comprehend woman's +position and the exact nature of her influence in this century +and the following one, the position and constitution +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span> +of the nobility before, during and after the ministry of +Richelieu, must be studied.</p> + +<p>The great houses of Carolingian origin were those of +Alençon, Bourgogne, Bourbon, Vendôme, Kings of Navarre, +Counts of Valois, and Artois; the great gentlemen were +the Dukes of Guise, Nemours, Longueville, Chevreuse, +Nevers, Bouillon, Rohan, Montmorency, and, later, Luxembourg, +Mortemart, Créqui, Noailles; names which are +constantly met with in French history. Before the time +of Louis XIV., men of such rank, when dissatisfied or discontented, +might leave court at their will and were requested +to return; but with Louis XIV., departure from +court was considered a disgrace, and offending parties +were permitted, not asked, to return.</p> + +<p>Outside the army, there was open to the princes of the +nobility no occupation in which they might expend their +surplus energy; thus, being free from the burden of taxes, +it was but natural that they should seek amusement in literature, +society, and intrigue. The honor of their respective +houses and the fear of being damned in the next world +were their only sources of deep concern; other than these, +they assumed no responsibilities, desiring absolute freedom from care.</p> + +<p>Legal, judicial, and ecclesiastical offices were open to +them but were little favored except as convenient means +of obtaining revenues and positions otherwise not procurable. +The first requisites toward advancement were +bravery and skill, not learning; the majority of the members +of the nobility much preferred buying a regiment to +being president of a tribunal, and their primary ambition +was to acquire a reputation for magnificence, heroism, and +gallantry. They fought for glory, to show their skill +and courage; the sentiment of patriotism was but weakly +developed, and war was indulged in merely for the sake of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73"></a>[pg 73]</span> +fighting, passing the time, and being occupied. As in the +preceding century, death was but little feared; in fact, the +scorn of it was carried to the extreme. "The French +went to death as though they were to be resuscitated on the morrow."</p> + +<p>That man went to war was not sufficient proof of his +bravery; in addition, he must, upon the smallest pretext, +draw his sword, must fight constantly, and especially with +adversaries better armed and larger in force; the love of +woman was for such men only. Adventure was the fad: +it is said of one seigneur that he took pleasure in going +every night to a certain corner and, from pure malice, +striking with his sword the first person who chanced that +way; this unique pastime he continued until he himself was killed.</p> + +<p>Marriage, until the eighteenth century, was not a union +of affection, but merely an alliance between two families +and in the interest of both; women, to preserve their +identity after marriage, signed their family names. As +maturity was reached at the age of twelve, marriage meant +simply cohabitation. Until the Revolution, free marriages, +or liaisons, were recognized as natural if not legitimate +institutions, and the offspring of such unions, who were +said to be more numerous than legitimate children, +were legitimatized and became heirs simply through recognition +by the father. (At first, princes were unwilling to +accept, as wives, the natural daughters of kings; however, +the Duke of Orleans and the Prince of Conti married the +natural daughters of Louis XIV.) As a rule, titles could +not be transmitted through females; when a woman married +beneath her rank she lost her titles, but they were given to her children.</p> + +<p>In the seventeenth century, woman's influence was +of a nature vastly superior to that exerted by her in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span> +sixteenth century, in that it rendered sacred both her and +her honor; but, in spite of the refining restraint of the +salon, brutality was still the main characteristic of man. To +express beautiful sentiments in the midst of jealousies, rivalries, +adventures, complaints, and despair, was the <i>savoir-vivre</i> +of the Catherine de' Medici type of elegance brought +from Italy in the sixteenth century. This caused the extremes +of external fastidiousness and internal grossness to +be embodied in the same individual; in the eighteenth century, +man was, inwardly as well as outwardly, refined, mild, +kind, a friend of pleasure; and therein lies the fundamental +difference between the <i>honnête homme</i> of Louis XIV. and the +<i>homme du monde</i> of Louis XV. The seventeenth century +type of man is midway between that of the sixteenth and +eighteenth—more polished and less gross than the former, +yet lacking the knowledge and culture of the latter.</p> + +<p>When in the seventeenth century the two all-powerful +forces, brute force and money, of the preceding century +were replaced by those of money and the pen, the decay +of the impoverished and unintellectual nobility became but +a question of time. The day when great gentlemen might +scorn men of letters and learning was rapidly passing; +with the French Academy arose a new spirit, a fresh impulse +was given to intellectual attainments. Although +treated as inferiors, the literary men of the seventeenth +century spoke of the aristocracy in a spirit of raillery, but +slightly veiled with respect; and the nobility while remaining, +in its way, courageous and glorious, lost its prestige, force, and influence.</p> + +<p>In the seventeenth century, money acquired a certain +purchasing value which procured advantages and luxuries +impossible in the preceding period when the brave man +was worth infinitely more than the rich who, scorned +and considered as a rapacious Jew, was isolated and in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span> +constant fear of being robbed or killed. As the number of +government officials increased, individual fortunes grew; +men became enormously wealthy through the various +offices bought by them or given to them by the government. +The financier was a king and many marriages of +princes and dukes with daughters of men of wealth are +recorded. Women of station, however, seldom married +beneath their rank, because they lost their titles by so +doing, and titles were still the only road to social success. +As a rule, titles could not be transmitted through females; +when a woman made a misalliance her titles were given to +her children. Almost all rich men of the period, from the +time of Louis XIII. to the Revolution, became nobles, as +almost every brave man was made a knight up to the +seventeenth century. It was possible for the wealthy to +buy a marquisate or baronetage and give it to their children; +a grand-marshal of France was no longer so powerful as a rich banker.</p> + +<p>The complete change, under Louis XIV., of the customs +of the time, caused numberless petty jealousies, scandals, +and intrigues in the aristocracy, which could no longer +maintain its old form and yet had to be considered by the +government. The question of reform arose—how to restrict +the number of nobles, which increased every year. +Rank was bestowed for service and, sometimes, even for +wealth; the old families, being poor, had no distinctive +prestige except that given by their privileges at court; +their titles no longer distinguished them from the newcomers, +whom they gradually began to disdain, and the +result was a general lowering of the standing, importance, +and influence of nobility. Another party which gained +prominence was that of the bench; the judges, as interpreters +of the king's laws, became powerful, for law was +absolute. A deadly rivalry sprang up between the parties +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span> +of rank with no money or power and of power and money without rank.</p> + +<p>The desire of every man of rank to be independent, to +be a force in himself instead of a part of a unit which +might be useful to the state as a whole, was one of the +principal defects of the French aristocracy; poverty crushed +it, idleness robbed it of its alertness, intriguing and gradual +oppression reduced it to despair. Appointed to offices, its +members failed in the performance of their duties; the +latter fell to the under men who, while the aristocracy +was busy at fêtes, in society, at the table, became experts +in the affairs of the government—shrewd politicians and +financiers. The new nobility, that of the robe, replaced +that of the sword in all interests of the government except +war; gradually, Parliament was made up of men who, +having been elevated to the rank of nobility, retained their +aversion to those who were noble by birth, recognizing +only the king as their superior and refusing precedence to +even the princes of the blood. Louis XIV., however, objecting +to and fearing such a strong class as that of the +robe, employed, wherever possible, people of lower rank. +Thus it happened in the seventeenth century that the still +powerful nobility of higher rank was scorned and kept +down; but in the eighteenth century, when the gentlemen +of the robe had become all-powerful and therefore constituted +a dangerous party, it was they who became the +objects of scorn and persecution, while the aristocrats of +blood, the gentlemen of the court, recovered the royal +favors through their political powerlessness.</p> + +<p>French aristocracy really had no object, no <i>raison d'être</i>, +after its disappearance from all governmental functions; it +became an encumbrance to the state; having no particular +part to play, it did nothing; this is one of the causes of its +dissolution and of the Revolution as well. Thus France +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span> +gradually passed from inequality of classes under the sanction +of custom to equality of classes before the law: this +change in the condition and constitution of the French +nobility accounts for many intrigues and scandals and explains +the social and moral actions of French women, as +well as the difference in the nature of their activities in the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.</p> + +<p>The seventeenth was, <i>par excellence</i>, the century which +can boast of that incomparable society the cult of which was +the highest in all things—art, religion, philosophy, poetry, +politics, war, and beauty. From the convent of the Carmelites +to the Hôtel de Rambouillet, from the Place Royale +to the various châteaux and salons, we must seek only +that which is elevating and spiritual, beautiful and religious. +In the famous society which kept pace with the political +reputation and influence of France is found a coterie of +women who combined remarkable beauty and intelligence +with a high moral standard, and whose names are intimately +connected with the history of France. Where +again can we find such a galaxy of beauties as that formed +by Charlotte de Montmorency, Mme. de Chevreuse, Mme. +de Hautefort, Mme. de Montbazon, Mme. de Guémené, +Mme. de Châtillon, Mme. de Longueville, Marie de Gonzague, +Henriette de la Vallière, Mme. de Montespan, Mme. +de Maintenon, without enumerating such great writers and +leaders of salons as Mme. de Rambouillet, Mlle. de Scudéry, +Mme. de Lambert, Mme. de Sévigné, and Mme. de +la Fayette? The seventeenth century could tolerate no +mediocrity; grandeur was in the very atmosphere; its +political movements were great movements; it produced +in art a Poussin, in letters a Corneille, in science and philosophy a Descartes.</p> + +<p>The various movements of which woman was the head +may be divided into two periods, and each period into two +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78"></a>[pg 78]</span> +parts. The political women may well be grouped about +Marie de' Medici,—whose career will not be given separate +treatment, inasmuch as there was no drop of French blood +in her veins,—and the social and literary women about +Mme. de Rambouillet and her salon. In the latter half of +the seventeenth century and at the beginning of the eighteenth, +politics are represented by Mme. de Montespan—the +mistress—and Mme. de Maintenon—the wife; social +life and literature have their purest representative in Mme. +de Lambert. The two queens of the seventeenth century, +Anne of Austria and Maria Theresa, were without influence; +the religious movement was represented by the +galaxy of women of whom we write in a later chapter.</p> + +<p>After the death of Henry IV., Marie de' Medici succeeded +in having herself made queen-regent for Louis XIII., who +was then but nine years old. A woman of no particular +capacity, who had in no way adapted herself to French +life and customs, she allowed herself to be governed by +an adventurer, an Italian who understood and appreciated +French ideals no more than did Marie; these two—the +queen and Concini, her minister—immediately began to +concoct plans to gain control of the state. The king was +kept in virtual captivity until he reached the age of seventeen, +when, having asserted his rights, Concini was killed, +and Marie's dominant power and influence came to an abrupt end.</p> + +<p>Louis XIII. reigned, with his minister, the Prince de +Luynes, from 1617 to 1624, when he became reconciled to +his mother and appointed her favorite, Richelieu, his minister. +From 1610 to about 1640, Marie de' Medici exercised +more or less influence, always of a nature disastrous to France.</p> + +<p>After the king's death, Anne of Austria, as queen-regent, +with Mazarin, directed the destinies of France. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span> +During the ministry of the two cardinals, Richelieu and +Mazarin, occurred the political intrigues and astute diplomatic +movements of Mme. de Chevreuse and the unwise +and short-sighted aspirations of Mme. de Longueville. +These intimate friends were women of the highest intelligence, +most perfect beauty, and uncapitulating devotion, +and were working for the same cause, though from different motives.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Chevreuse was the daughter of M. de Rohan, +Duke of Montbazon. She had married M. de Luynes, +the minister of Louis XIII., who overthrew the power of +Marie de' Medici, and who, by initiating his wife into his +secrets, gave her the schooling and experience which she +later used to such advantage. De Luynes presented her +at court with instructions to ingratiate herself with the +queen—Anne of Austria—and the king. In this design she +succeeded so well that she was soon made superintendent +of the household of the queen, and became as influential +with Anne as was her husband with the king.</p> + +<p>In 1621 M. de Luynes died; a year later his widow married +Claude of Lorraine, Duke of Chevreuse; but as that +was an unhappy union, she soon began her career as an +intriguer. On the arrival of Lord Kensington, the English +ambassador, she fell in love with him, that escapade being +the first of a long series; the two proceeded to inveigle +Queen Anne into a liaison with the Duke of Buckingham, +which scheme, as history so well records, partly succeeded.</p> + +<p>When Mme. de Chevreuse accompanied to England the +new queen, Henriette-Marie, wife of Charles I., both +Buckingham and Kensington outdid themselves in showing +her attention, Richelieu, fearing her influence and intrigues +at the court of England, hastened the recall of her +husband, but she received through her friends, from the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span> +English monarch himself, an invitation to remain; during +the time, she gave birth to a child.</p> + +<p>Her next famous undertaking, which involved the lives +of various persons of high rank, was the scheme to persuade +Monsieur the Dauphin to refuse to marry Mlle. de +Montpensier; Queen Anne was opposed to this union, and +Mme. de Chevreuse gained to their cause a number of influential +friends who were all madly in love with her. The +ever vigilant Richelieu having discovered the plot, Monsieur +confessed. In this conspiracy, M. de Chalais lost his head, +other plotters lost their positions, and some were exiled. +Mme. de Chevreuse was forced to retire to Lorraine; there +she set in movement a vast plan against Richelieu and +France, allying England and various princes, but, by the +arrest of Montaigu, the plot was discovered, the alliance +broken up, and peace restored.</p> + +<p>In 1626, by request of England, Mme. de Chevreuse returned +to France. For a time she was quiet and seemed +to favor Richelieu, but she soon captivated one of his ministers, +the Marquis of Châteauneuf. Richelieu discovered +the latter's weakness, and, having captured his correspondence, +sent him to prison, where he remained for ten +years. The fair intriguer was exiled to Dampierre, the +cardinal fearing to send her out of France on account of +her influence with the Duke of Lorraine. She managed to +steal into Paris at night and see the queen; when discovered, +she was sent to Touraine where she began the +dangerous task of carrying on the correspondence between +the Dukes of Savoy and Lorraine and England, and between +Spain and Queen Anne. Even when this correspondence +was intercepted and the queen confessed all, +Richelieu was afraid to banish Mme. de Chevreuse; though +he believed her to be at the bottom of all the current intrigues, +he knew that out of France she would stir up the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81"></a>[pg 81]</span> +rulers of England and Spain as well as the Duke of Lorraine +and others hostile to the cardinal.</p> + +<p>Violence being out of the question, because of her influence +in England and of the prominence of her family, he +decided to win her over by kindness; he even sent her +money, but she was too shrewd to permit Richelieu to +outwit her, always paying him back in his own coin. +However, that kind of play was too dangerous for her and +she escaped to Spain. As soon as her departure became +known, Richelieu set to work every means in his power +to bring her back, sending her an urgent invitation to return +and promising to pardon her past. When his messages +reached her, she was already in Madrid, where she +was royally received as the friend of the king's sister, +Anne; there, by means of her beauty and wonderful intelligence, +she conquered every cavalier. When the war +broke out between France and Spain, she left for England +where she was welcomed like a visiting queen.</p> + +<p>Richelieu, anxious for the support of the Duke of Lorraine +in his war against Spain and Austria, needed the +coöperation of Mme. de Chevreuse, and with that end in +view sent ambassadors to London to arrange for her return; +but an agreement was not an easy matter between two +such astute politicians, and negotiations went on unsuccessfully +for over a year. Her subtleness, apparent +docility and invincible precautions were pitted against the +artifices and dissimulation of the cardinal; both employed +all the astute manœuvres of diplomacy and exhausted the +resources of consummate skill in gaining the point desired +by each. The cardinal failed to convince her of her safety.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Chevreuse soon formed about her a circle of +émigrés—Marie de' Medici, Duc La Vallette, Soubèse, +La Vieuville, and many others. This coterie was in open +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82"></a>[pg 82]</span> +correspondence with Spain, Austria, and the Duke of +Lorraine. From every side, Richelieu felt the intriguing +hand and influence of Mme. de Chevreuse, and decided to +put forth another effort to get her to return, this time +sending her husband; but not sure of the latter's sincerity +and in fear of him, the duchess concluded to leave England +for Flanders, and, escorted by a squad of dukes and lords, +departed like a queen.</p> + +<p>At Brussels, she entered into open relations with Spain, +drawing over the Duke of Lorraine. She was accused of +being in the plot of Cinq-Mars and the Duke of Bouillon +with Spain; when Richelieu exposed this to Queen Anne, +the latter for the first time became her enemy. Just at +this time of his triumph, Richelieu died, his death being +followed soon after by that of Louis XIII., who left a +special order for the exile forever of Mme. de Chevreuse, +whom he called <i>Le Diable</i>. The queen-regent, however, +recalled her, and set at liberty her friend, Châteauneuf, +who had been imprisoned for ten years.</p> + +<p>When Mme. de Chevreuse returned to Paris after an +absence of ten years, her beauty was still unimpaired, she +possessed an experience such as no man of the day could +boast, was personally acquainted with nearly every great +statesman and aware of the weak points in every court of +Europe. While she could now count on the support of the +majority of the princes, plots were being formed about +the queen-regent, the object of which was to persuade the +latter to give up the friends who had served her faithfully +for so many years. La Rochefoucauld was sent to +meet Mme. de Chevreuse and to inform her of the change +of attitude of the queen-regent; as her devoted friend, he +advised her to abandon, for the present, all hopes of governing +the queen and to devote herself entirely to regaining +her favor and to preparing for the possible fall of Mazarin.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span> + +<p>After securing the release of her friend Châteauneuf, +Mme. de Chevreuse set to work to restore him to his +former office of Guard of the Seals, but did not succeed. +She then turned her attention to undermining the power +of Mazarin, agitating all émigrés returning to France and +starting the most outspoken denunciation of the policy of +the cardinal, his injustice and tyranny against the nobility. +The cries of disapproval became so general that Mazarin +was kept busy warding off the blows aimed at him by his +enemy; the latter succeeded in placing Châteauneuf as +<i>Chancelier des ordres du roi</i> and in having his estates restored +to him, while Alexandre de Campion she placed in +the household of the queen. Mazarin, living in constant +dread of her, managed to thwart two of her cherished +schemes—the restoration to the Duke of Vendôme of the +government of Brittany and the placing of Châteauneuf +in the ministry—upon the success of which depended her own influence and power.</p> + +<p>Finding that ruse, flattery, insinuation, and ordinary +court intrigues were of no avail, she turned to other +methods. The Importants, a party made up of adventurers +and a large number of the nobility, were making themselves +felt more and more; they were opposed to Richelieu +and Mazarin, and Mme. de Chevreuse became their chief +and instigator. Failing to succeed with the cardinal's own +methods, she decided to assassinate him, but the plot was +discovered, the Duke of Beaufort was arrested and all the +princes of the party of the Importants were ordered to +leave Paris. Mme. de Chevreuse was compelled to depart +from court and retire to Dampierre, and then to Touraine, +where she did everything in her power to assist +the friends who had compromised themselves for her. +During her first exile she had had the consolation of the +friendship of the queen; but now she was banished by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84"></a>[pg 84]</span> +the very friend whom she had served so well and who +had up to this time been able and willing to afford her +comfort and protection. Through Lord Goring, Count +Craft, and the Commander de Jars, she opened up correspondence +and negotiations with England, but was again +surprised by the vigilant Mazarin and sent to Angoulême; +determining to escape, after many hardships, she successfully +reached Liège; from there, as head of all foreign intrigues +against France, she continued to thwart Mazarin's foreign policy.</p> + +<p>As soon as the first signs of the Fronde broke out, +Mme. de Chevreuse became active and succeeded in attracting +to her the young Marquis de Laigues with whom, +later on, she contracted a <i>mariage de conscience</i>. As ambassador +of the Fronde, she prevailed upon Spain to promise +troops and subsidies to her party. After the peace of +1649, she went to Paris where she found almost all her +friends ready to follow her and to pay her homage. It +was she who conceived the idea of an aristocratic league +which, under the auspices of the two great princes of the +blood, the Duke of Orléans and the Prince of Condé, +would unite the best part of the nobility.</p> + +<p>Her plan was to marry her daughter to the Prince de +Conti and the young Duc d'Enghien to one of the daughters +of the Duke of Orléans. The contracts were signed +and all was in readiness when Mazarin was exiled, and +the following Frondists came into power: the Duke of +Orléans at court, Condé and Turenne at the head of the +army, Châteauneuf in the Cabinet, Molé in Parliament, +while Mme. de Chevreuse and Mme. de Longueville +managed to keep harmony among all. Queen Anne +in a short time annulled the marriage contracts; and +on the return of Mazarin, Mme. de Chevreuse took up +her work with him, the cardinal being wise enough to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id="page85"></a>[pg 85]</span> +appreciate the fact that she was a greater force with than against him.</p> + +<p>Strange as it may seem, Mme. de Chevreuse in time +became the great acting and controlling force of royalty, +winning over the Duke of Lorraine and becoming a staunch +friend to both the regent and the cardinal; after the death +of the latter, she became all-powerful, and it may be said +that she made Colbert what he was. In the fulness of her +power, she gradually retired, having seen, in turn, the +passing away or the fall of Richelieu, Mazarin, Louis XIII., +Anne of Austria, the Queen of England, Châteauneuf, the +Duke of Lorraine, her daughter, and the Marquis de Laigues. +She ceased plotting, renounced politics and intrigues, and +retired to the country, where she died in 1679.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Chevreuse was undoubtedly one of the most +important political characters of the seventeenth century, +just as she was also one of its greatest beauties—possibly +the most seductive and charming woman of her epoch. A +consummate diplomat and an untiring worker, she was at +the head of more intrigues and plots, had more thrilling +adventures, controlled and ruined more men, than any +other woman of her century, if not of all French history. +Thinking little of religion, she was yet in the very midst +of the Catholic party; unswerving in her friendships, she +scorned danger, opinion, fortune, for those whom she loved +or whose cause she espoused; an implacable foe, she was +the most dreaded enemy of both Richelieu and Mazarin.</p> + +<p>With a remarkable ability for grasping the details of an +antagonist's position she combined all the other qualities +of an astute politician; thus, upon the desired consummation +of her plots she brought to bear a sagacity, finesse, +and energy that baffled all her adversaries. With her, +politics became a passion and a necessity; even while in +exile, her zeal was unflagging and she intrigued over all +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86"></a>[pg 86]</span> +Europe. Scorning peril as well as all petty restraints, and +characterized by courage, loyalty, and devotion, she was +without an equal among the members of her sex.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Hautefort, while less powerful than Mme. de +Chevreuse and of quite a different type, is associated with +her in the history of the time. Pure, beautiful, and virtuous, +she everywhere inspired love and respect; without +political aspirations and seeking neither power nor favors, +she refused to deliver her soul or betray her friends for +Richelieu or Mazarin; she was their enemy, but not their rival.</p> + +<p>Because of her desire to serve the queen, of whom she +was an intimate friend, and to further her interests, she was +connected with the first intrigues of Mme. de Chevreuse, +but as an innocent and disinterested party. Louis XIII. +conceived an ardent attachment for her, and Richelieu endeavored +to win her over to his policies, but she remained +faithful to her queen and refused to sacrifice her honor to the king.</p> + +<p>The cardinal did not rest until he had prevailed upon the +king to exile her, ostensibly for only fifteen days; and as her +unselfishness and generosity had made an impression upon +the whole court, her departure was much regretted, though +no demonstration was made. When, after the king's death, +Mme. de Hautefort returned to Paris, she soon reëstablished +herself in the affection, admiration, and respect of her associates.</p> + +<p>As Mazarin gained ascendency over Queen Anne, that +regent changed her policy and abandoned her former +friends. Mme. de Hautefort was opposed to the queen on +account of her liaison with her minister and her lack of +fidelity to those who, in time of trouble, had served her so +well. As <i>dame d'atours</i>, she was forced either to close her +eyes to all scenes between the cardinal and Anne or to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87"></a>[pg 87]</span> +combat the regent and resign. She was not to be tempted +by the honors and favors with which the two sought to +purchase her criminal connivance or her silence; preferring +poverty and exile to a guilty conscience, she soon retired +to the convent of the Daughters of Sainte-Marie, where +she was followed by her admirers, who were willing to +place themselves and their fortunes at her disposal. At +the age of thirty she accepted the hand of the Duke of +Schomberg, and, away from the court and its intrigues, lived in peace.</p> + +<p>Indifferent to the powerful, but kind and compassionate +to the poor and oppressed, Mme. de Hautefort is a type of +those great women of the seventeenth century who stood +for honor, courage, generosity, sympathy, and virtue; +fervently, even austerely, religious, she was yet far removed +from anything resembling bigotry. Among the +ladies of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, she was one of the most +popular; her vivacity, modesty, and reserve, combined +with a tall figure, imposing bearing, and large, expressive +blue eyes, won the hearts of many cavaliers, among whom +the most prominent were the Dukes of Lorraine and La Rochefoucauld.</p> + +<p>A close second to Mme. de Chevreuse in influence and +power, was Mme. de Longueville, a woman of exquisite +and aristocratic beauty, of brilliant mind, and an adept in +the art of conversation. Tender and kind, but ambitious, +she, like many others of her time and sex, had two distinct +periods—one of conquest and one of penitence and pious devotion.</p> + +<p>Born in a prison at Vincennes during the captivity of her +father, the great Henry of Bourbon, Prince of Condé, she +in time developed remarkable personal charms. Her early +days were spent at the convent of the Carmelites and at +the Hôtel de Rambouillet, her mind—in these opposite +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88"></a>[pg 88]</span> +worlds of religion and society—being divided between +pious meditations and romantic dreams. At the time of +the execution at Toulouse of her uncle, M. de Montmorency, +she seriously considered entering the Carmelite convent.</p> + +<p>Upon making her social début, she immediately became +one of the leaders about whom all the gallants gathered. +She formed a fast friendship with Mme. de Sablé, Mme. de +Rambouillet, Mme. de Bouteville, and Mlle. du Vigean. +Her beauty, which was quite phenomenal, soon became +the subject of poetry. Voltaire wrote:</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"De perles, d'astres et de fleurs,</p> +<p>Bourbon, le ciel fit tes couleurs,</p> +<p>Et mit dedans tout ce mélange</p> +<p class="i2">L'esprit d'un ange!</p> +<p>L'on jugerait par la blancheur</p> +<p>De Bourbon, et par sa fraicheur,</p> +<p>Qu'elle a prit naissance des lis."</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>[The heaven made thy colors, Bourbon, of pearls, of +stars, of flowers, and to all this mixture added the spirit +of an angel. One would judge by the whiteness and +freshness of Bourbon that she was born of the lilies.]</p> + +<p>In 1642, at the age of twenty-three, she was married, +against her will, to M. de Longueville who was, after the +princes of the blood, the greatest seigneur of France; he +was old and indifferent, and enamored of another woman, +while she was young and full of hopes, ambitions, and +love. His conduct, being anything but correct, immediately +set the young wife, with her instincts of refinement +and principles and habits of the <i>précieuses</i>, against her +husband. The advent of a rival in the person of Mme. de +Montbazon, one of the most noted beauties of the day, +made the state of affairs even more unpleasant, the humiliation +being so much keener because it was on account of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89"></a>[pg 89]</span> +her charms that Montbazon was preferred to the wife. +The latter's fate was a cruel one; she could not respect +her husband, and, for her, respect was the only road to +love. She continued to live at the Hôtel de Longueville +and to attend all court functions, where, through her +beauty, she early became the object of much attention +from the young lords, among whom Coligny seemed to impress +her more than any other.</p> + +<p>About this time occurred the deaths of Richelieu and +Louis XIII., and the Importants, flocking to Paris to regain +their rights and to share in the spoils of the new regency, +began to make themselves felt. The leaders expected great +favors from Anne of Austria who had been forced into +obedience by the cardinal, but she was a great disappointment +to them. A born lady of leisure, she was only too +glad to be relieved of the arduous duties of government, +and this her minister, Mazarin, quickly proceeded to do; +his first object was to crush the influence of the Importants, +who were very powerful in the salons, society, and politics.</p> + +<p>The house of Condé declared in favor of Mazarin, but +at first this did not affect Mme. de Longueville, whose +kindness of heart and indifference to politics and intrigues +were generally known. Probably, she never would have +taken a part in the Fronde had it not been for the rival +who had been seeking, by every possible means, to injure +her reputation—a design which Mme. de Montbazon well-nigh +accomplished by declaring that two letters which, at +a reception, had fallen from the pocket of Coligny had +been written by Mme. de Longueville. In reality, they +had been written by Mme. de Fouquerolles to the Marquis +of Maulevrier. Mme. la Princesse, mother of Mme. de +Longueville demanded full reparation, threatening that +unless it was at once granted the house of Condé would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90"></a>[pg 90]</span> +withdraw from court, and Mazarin managed to induce the +queen to compel Mme. de Montbazon to apologize publicly. +It may be of interest to give, in full, the apology, to show +the nature of court etiquette, hypocrisy, and intrigue of +that day. Mme. de Montbazon called at the hôtel of the +princess and spoke the following words, which were +written on a paper attached to her fan: "Madame, I come +here to attest that I am innocent of the spitefulness of +which they accuse me, there being no person of honor +capable of uttering such a calumny; and if I had committed +such a crime, I would have submitted to the punishments +that the queen would have imposed upon me, would never +have shown myself before the world again, and would +have asked your pardon. I beg you to believe that I shall +never be lacking in the respect that I owe you because of +the opinion which I have of the merit and virtue of +Mme. de Longueville." To which the princess replied: +"I very willingly receive the assurance you give me of +having had no part in the spitefulness that was published, +deferring all to the order the queen has given me."</p> + +<p>After this episode, the princess refused to be in the +same place with Mme. de Montbazon. On one occasion, +Mme. de Chevreuse had invited the queen to a collation +at a place where the queen enjoyed walking; she requested +the princess to join her, giving her word of honor +that Mme. de Montbazon would not be there; she was +present, however, and the princess was about to leave +when the queen ordered Mme. de Montbazon to feign illness +and retire; this she refused to do and remained, whereupon +the queen and the princess left, and shortly afterward +Mme. de Montbazon received orders to leave Paris.</p> + +<p>This excited the Importants to fever heat and a plot was +formed, with Mme. de Chevreuse as the leader, to assassinate +the cardinal. Shortly after this, Coligny, as champion +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91"></a>[pg 91]</span> +of the cause of Mme. de Longueville, challenged the Duc +de Guise to a duel. The whole court was made up of two +parties: the Importants with Mme. de Montbazon and +Mme. de Chevreuse; and Condé and Mme. de Longueville +with their friends; the result was the death of Coligny. +Mme. de Longueville was a true <i>précieuse</i> and hardly loved +Coligny, but allowed him and any other to serve and adore +her in a respectable way—a principle followed by the +better women of the age, such as Mme. de Rambouillet and Mme. de Sablé.</p> + +<p>Some time after these occurrences, Mme. de Longueville +was stricken with smallpox which, fortunately, did not +impair her beauty; it was said, on the contrary, that in +taking away its first flower it left all the brilliancy which, +joined to her culture and charming languor, made her one +of the most attractive persons in France. La Rochefoucauld +has left the following picture of her: "This princess +had all the advantages of <i>esprit</i> and beauty to as great a +degree as if nature had taken pleasure in completing, in her +person, a perfect work; but these qualities shone less brilliantly +on account of one characteristic which led her to +imbibe so thoroughly the sentiments of those who adored +her that she no longer recognized her own."</p> + +<p>After her twenty-fifth year, Mme. de Longueville became +more and more imbued with the general spirit of the +seventeenth century: coquetry and <i>bel esprit</i> became her +chief occupation. The glory of her brother, the Duc +d'Enghien, who was rapidly becoming a power, and the +probability of the house of Condé becoming dangerous, +made Mazarin realize that Mme. de Longueville was to be +reckoned with, inasmuch as she had full control over +D'Enghien and was constantly instilling new ideas into +his mind and requesting from him the distribution of all +sorts of favors. Mazarin, in 1646, succeeded in causing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id="page92"></a>[pg 92]</span> +her withdrawal to Münster for one year; there she ruled +as queen of the Congress. On the death of her father, +the Prince of Condé, and at the request of her mother to +come home for her lying-in, the husband of Mme. de +Longueville consented to her return to Paris.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, everything was being done by the +Importants to win over the house of Condé and cause a +breach between it and Mazarin. The court at this time +was in full glory; to amuse the queen-regent, Mazarin +was lavishing money on artists from Italy, and the nobility +outdid itself in its attempts to rival royalty in elegance +and luxury. Upon her return, everyone paid homage to +Mme. de Longueville; it was at this period that La Rochefoucauld, +who was anxious about his position at court, as +he was accused of being in league with the Importants and +was therefore refused the favors he desired, met Mme. de +Longueville who was in the height of her glory and in full +control of the most prominent house of the time—that of +the Duc d'Enghien and the Prince de Conti, her brothers.</p> + +<p>In order to conquer for himself what the cardinal would +not grant him, La Rochefoucauld put forth every effort to +win Mme. de Longueville; captivated by his fine appearance, +his chivalry and, above all, by his powerful intellect, +she gave herself up entirely, willing to share his destiny, +to sacrifice all her interests, even those of her family, and +the deepest sentiment of her life—the tenderness for her brother.</p> + +<p>France at this time, 1648, was in a position to gain for +herself a peace with the world at her own terms, and her +future seemed to be without a cloud. It was the Fronde +that checked her growth and glory, and the cause of this +was the estrangement of the house of Condé through the +action of Mme. de Longueville in passing with her husband +over to the party of the Importants, she being the first of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93"></a>[pg 93]</span> +her family to forsake the government. Under the leadership +of La Rochefoucauld, she cast her lot with the opposing +party, allowing herself to be identified with the interests +of those who had endeavored to tarnish her early reputation. +Becoming a leader with Mme. de Chevreuse and +Mme. de Montbazon (her rival), she easily won over her +young brother, the Prince de Conti. After the imprisonment +of her husband and her two brothers, she began her +real career as a woman of tactics, politics, and generalship.</p> + +<p>With the connivance of Mme. de Chevreuse and the +Princess Palatine, a general plan had been formed to +create a new government by the union of the aristocracy. +The marriage, already spoken of, between the Duke of +Enghien and one of the daughters of the Duke of Orléans +and that arranged between the Prince of Conti and the +daughter of Mme. de Chevreuse were to have united the +Fronde with the house of Condé. The alliances, however, +were declared off, and Mme. de Chevreuse went over to +the cardinal and the queen; Condé's fall and Mazarin's +success followed, being the result, mainly, of the determination +of Mme. de Chevreuse to avenge herself upon +Condé for having consented to the breaking of the marriage contracts.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Longueville did all in her power to continue the +conflict that Condé had undertaken, but, exhausted by +continual excitement and ill success, she was compelled to +retire. After this, her life, spent in Normandy, at the +Carmelites' convent and at Port Royal, became a long penance, +which increased in austerity until she died in 1679. +Thus, her career was at first one of unblemished brilliancy, +then a period of elegant and intellectual debauch, and finally one of expiation.</p> + +<p>"Her politics," says Sainte-Beuve, "considered in the +<i>ensemble</i>, are nothing more than a desire to please, to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page94" id="page94"></a>[pg 94]</span> +shine—a capricious love. Her character lacked consistency +and self-will, her mind was keen, ready, subtle, ingenious, but not reasonable."</p> + +<p>In her convent life, her crowning virtue was humility. +Her enemies did not cease to attack her, but she received +all their affronts with the noblest resignation. The following +testimonies are taken from a Jansenist manuscript of 1685:</p> + +<p>"She never said anything to her own advantage. She +made use of as many occasions as she could find for +humiliating herself without any affectation. What she +said, she said so well that it could not be better said. She +listened much, never interrupted, and never showed any +eagerness to speak. She spoke sensibly, modestly, charitably, +and without passion. To court her was to speak +with equity and without passion of everyone and to esteem +the good in all. Her whole exterior, her voice, her face, +her gestures, were a perfect music; and her mind and +body served her so well in expressing what she wished to +make heard, that she appeared the most perfect actress in the world."</p> + +<p>Her love for La Rochefoucauld was the secret of her +failure in life. When she experienced the disappointments +of her married life and discovered that her dream of being +loved by her husband could not be realized, she looked to +other sources for diversion. She was not an intriguing +woman like Mme. de Chevreuse, but one of ambitions +which were incited by her love for and interest in the +objects of her affection. Although she carried on flirtations +with Coligny and the Duke of Nemours, she really loved +no one but La Rochefoucauld, to whom she sacrificed her +reputation and tranquillity, her duties and interests. For +him she took up the cause of the Fronde; for him she was +a mere slave, her entire existence being given up to his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95"></a>[pg 95]</span> +love, his whims, his service; when he failed her, she was +lost, exhausted, and retired to a convent at the age of +thirty-five and in the full bloom of her beauty. Her +professed lover simply used her as a means to an end, +seeking only his own interests in the Fronde, while she +sought his; and this is the explanation of her seeming +inconsistency of conduct. In her religious life she was +happy and contented; surrounded by her friends, she lived +peacefully for over twenty years.</p> + +<p>Thus, Marie de' Medici, a foreigner, Mme. de Chevreuse, +and Mme. de Longueville represent the political women of +the first half of the seventeenth century; Anne of Austria, +who was of foreign extraction, was a mere tool in the +hands of Mazarin, and exerted little influence in general.</p> + +<p>One of the principal differences between the conspicuous +political women of the sixteenth and those of the +seventeenth centuries lies in the possession by the latter +of less personal force than that wielded by the former, +who allowed nothing to thwart their plans. The women +of both periods were beautiful, but those of the earlier one +were of a magnetic and sensual type, "inspiring insensate +passions and exciting a feverish unrest," thus ruling man +through his lower instincts. The lack of refinement, sympathy, +and charity reflected in their actions is in glaring +contrast to the dignity, repose, reserve, and womanly +modesty and grace displayed by their less masterful successors +of the seventeenth century.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter IV</h2> + +<h2>Woman in Society and Literature</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span> + + +<p>At the beginning of the seventeenth century, after the +death of Henry IV., there were three classes in France,—the +nobility, clergy, and third estate,—each with a distinct +field of action: the nobility dominated customs, morality, +and the government; the clergy supervised instruction and +education; the third estate furnished the funds, that is, its +work made possible the operations of the other classes.</p> + +<p>At court, various dialects and diverse pronunciations +were in use by the representatives of the different provinces; +the written language, though understood generally, +was not used. Warriors were largely in evidence among +the members of the nobility and court; entirely indifferent +to decency of expression, purity of morals, and refinement +of manners, and even boasting of their scorn of all restrictions, +they took their boisterous rudeness into the drawing +room where their influence was unlimited. The king, +being of the same class, knew no better, or, if he did, +had not the moral courage to compel a change; thus, +the institution of a reformatory movement fell to the lot of woman.</p> + +<p>Then, however, woman was but little better than man; +to gain his esteem, she would first have to make radical +changes in her own behavior and become self-respecting. +The customs of the time placed many disadvantages in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span> +the way of her social and moral reform. As a rule, the +young girl was confined to a convent until she reached +marriageable age; when that came and with it an undesired +husband, she was ready for almost any prank that +would relieve the monotony of her uncongenial marital +relations. The convents themselves were so corrupt or +so easily corruptible, that, very frequently, young girls +did not leave them with unstained purity. To certain of +these institutions, women and men of standing often bought +the privilege of access at any time, to drink, dine, sleep, or +attend sacred exercises with other persons; thus, libertinage +was not uncommon within the walls of those so-called religious establishments.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Rambouillet felt most keenly the degradation +of woman and resolved to act against it by combating +everything that could offend taste or delicacy. As in the +beginning of every great age, all things tended to greatness. +A period of discipline and coördination set in, and +elegance, grace, and refinement became the most pronounced +characteristics of the time; rough, crude, robust, +vigorous, and energetic characteristics, combined with +coarseness and brutality, were eliminated during the seventeenth +century. The women who caused this general +purification of morals and language were given the name +of <i>précieuses</i> and the movement that of <i>préciosité</i>.</p> + +<p>The extent to which the <i>précieuses</i> went in inventing +locutions by which they were to be recognized as elegant, +is generally exaggerated; Livet says that out of six hundred +women hardly thirty could be accused of such fatuity. +The wiser and more conservative women did adopt a large +number of expressions which were necessary for refinement +of language and these classicisms were exaggerated +by some of the provincial classes who received their expressions +from books and the theatre; such authors as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101"></a>[pg 101]</span> +Corneille, etc., were studied and their poetic licenses introduced +into spoken language. These follies, pictured by +Molière, naturally afforded much amusement in cultured +circles where every event of the day was discussed, from +the vital affairs of the government to the æsthetic interests +of art and literature.</p> + +<p>The tremendous vogue of the seventeenth century salons +or drawing rooms naturally gave a stimulus to literature; +but, as they were so numerous and as each one claimed its +large coterie of literary men, they proved to be disastrous +to some while helpful to others. Two distinct classes of +writers arose: the one, serious, elevated, thoughtful, classical, +and independent of the salon, is well represented by +Molière, Pascal, Boileau; the other, light, affected, gallant, +superficial, was composed of the innumerable unimportant writers of the day.</p> + +<p>The salon movement must not be confounded with two +other social movements or forces—those of court and society; +while at the former all was formality, the latter was +still gross and brutish. The Marquis de Caze, at a supper +seized a leg of mutton and struck his neighbor in the face +with it, sprinkling her with gravy, whereupon she laughed +heartily; the Count of Brégis, slapped by the lady with +whom he was dancing, tore off her headdress before the +whole company; Louis XIII., noticing in the crowd admitted +to see him dine a lady dressed too <i>décolleté</i>, +filled his mouth with wine and squirted the liquid into +the bosom of the unfortunate girl; the Prince of Condé, +indulging in customary brutishness, ate dung and had the +ladies follow his example; these are fair illustrations of +social <i>elegances</i>.</p> + +<p>As will be seen, nothing of this nature occurred in the +salon of Mme. de Rambouillet, whose object was to charm +her leisure hours, distract and amuse the husband whom +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102"></a>[pg 102]</span> +she adored, and be agreeable to her friends. Her amusements +were most original—concerts, mythological representations, +suppers, fireworks, comedies, readings, always +something new, often in the form of a surprise or a joke. +Of the latter, the best known is the one played on the +Count of Guise whose fondness for mushrooms had become +proverbial; on one occasion when he had consumed +an immense number of them at table, his valet, who had +been bribed, took in all his doublets; on trying to put them +on again, he found them too narrow by fully four inches. +"What in the world is the matter—am I all swollen—could +it be due to having eaten too many mushrooms?" "That +is quite possible," said Chaudebonne; "yesterday you ate +enough of them to split." All the accomplices joined in +ridiculing him, and he began to squirm and show a somewhat +livid color. Mass was rung, and he was compelled +to attend in his chamber robe. Laughing, he said: "That +would be a fine end—to die at the age of twenty-one from +having eaten too many mushrooms." In the meantime, +Chaudebonne advised the use of an antidote which he +wrote and handed to the count, who read: "Take a good +pair of scissors and cut your doublet." Only then did the +victim comprehend the joke.</p> + +<p>One day, Voiture, having met a bear trainer, took him +with his animals to the room of the Marquise de Rambouillet; +she, turning at the noise, saw four large paws +resting upon her screen. She readily forgave the author +of the surprise. Du Bled relates many more of these innocent jokes.</p> + +<p>Among the congenial people of the salons, the relations +were always of the most cordial, friendly, free, and +intimate nature; they were like the members of a large +family. By them, love was not considered a weakness +but a mark of the elevation of the soul, and every man +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103"></a>[pg 103]</span> +had to be sensitive to beauty. When the Duchesse +d'Aiguillon presented to society her nephew, who later became +the Duke of Richelieu, she advised and encouraged +him to complete his education and make of himself an +<i>honnête homme</i> by association with the elder Mlle. du +Vigean and other women; the object of this procedure was +to polish his manners, elevate his instincts, and develop +ease in deportment toward the ladies. There was no hint +of the vulgar or licentious pleasures which became the +characteristics of love in the eighteenth century.</p> + +<p>The woman who inaugurated the movement toward +purity of morals, decency of language, polish of manners, +and courtesy to woman, was Mme. de Rambouillet. Cathérine +de Vivonne, Marquise de Rambouillet, whose mother +was a great Roman lady and whose father had been ambassador +to Rome, inherited that pride of race and independence +of spirit for which she was so well known. +In 1600, she was married, at the age of twelve, to the +Marquis de Rambouillet who was her senior by eleven +years, but who treated her with deference and respect +rare at that time. Husband and wife were perfectly congenial, +and their happy and peaceful life was a great +contrast to that led by the majority of the married couples +of the day. Absolutely irreproachable in conduct, she set +a worthy example for all women who knew her.</p> + +<p>Her high ideals, independence of character, family duties, +and the general debauchery, which was incompatible with +her rigid chastity and "precocious wisdom," caused her to +withdraw from the court in 1608; two years later, she decided +to open her salon to such aristocratic and cultured +persons as appreciated womanly grace, wit, and taste. +Her familiarity with Italian and Spanish history and art +placed her at the head of intellectual as well as moral +movements. She surrounded herself with the distinguished +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" id="page104"></a>[pg 104]</span> +men and women of the day, and her salon, which in every +detail was decorated and arranged for pleasure, immediately +became, through the exquisite charm with which +she presided, the one goal of the cultured; her blue room +was the sanctuary of polite society and she was its high priestess.</p> + +<p>The highest ambition of the <i>habitué</i> of the salon was to +sing, dance, and converse artistically and with refinement. +A reaction against the general social state immediately set +in, even the brusque warriors acquiring a refinement of +speech and manners; and as conversation developed and +became a power, the great lords began to respect men of +letters and to cultivate their society. Anyone who possessed +good manners, vivacity, and wit was admitted to +the salon, where a new and more elevating sociability was the aspiration.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Rambouillet was very particular in the choice +of friends, and they were always sincere and devoted, +knowing her to be undesirous of political favors and incapable +of stooping to intrigue. Even Richelieu could not, +as compensation to him for a favor to her husband, induce +her to act as spy on some of the frequenters of her salon.</p> + +<p>While not a woman of remarkable beauty, she was the +personification of reason and virtue; her unassuming frankness, +exquisite tact, and exceptional reserve discouraged +all advances on the part of those gallants who frequented +every mansion and were always prepared to lay siege to +the heart of any fair woman. Her wide culture, versatility, +modesty, goodness, fidelity, and disinterestedness caused +her to be universally sought. Mlle. de Scudéry, in her +novel <i>Cyrus</i>, leaves a fine portrait of her:</p> + +<p>"The spirit and soul of this marvellous person surpass +by far her beauty: the first has no limits in its extent and +the other has no equal in its generosity, goodness, justice, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span> +and purity. The intellect of Cléomire (Mme. de Rambouillet) +is not like that of those whose minds have no +brilliancy except that which nature has given them, for +she has cultivated it carefully, and I think I can say that +there are no <i>belles connaissances</i> that she has not acquired. +She knows various languages, and is ignorant of hardly +anything that is worth knowing; but she knows it all +without making a display of knowing it; and one would +say, in hearing her talk, 'she is so modest that she speaks +admirably of things, through simple common sense only'; +on the contrary, she is versed in all things; the most advanced +sciences are not beyond her, and she is perfectly +acquainted with the most difficult arts. Never has any +person possessed such a delicate knowledge as hers of fine +works of prose and poetry; she judges them, however, +with wonderful moderation, never abandoning <i>la bienséance</i> +(the seemliness) of her sex, though she is far above it. +In the whole court, there is not a person with any spirit +and virtue that does not go to her house. Nothing is +considered beautiful if it does not have her approval; no +stranger ever comes who does not desire to see Cléomire +and do her homage, and there are no excellent artisans +who do not wish to have the glory of her approbation of +their works. All people who write in Phénicie have sung +her praises; and she possesses the esteem of everyone to +such a marvellous degree that there is no one who has +ever seen her who has not said thousands of favorable +things about her—who has not been charmed likewise by +her beauty, <i>esprit</i>, sweetness, and generosity."</p> + +<p>Mlle. de Scudéry describes the salon of Mme. de Rambouillet in the following:</p> + +<p>"Cléomire (Mme. de Rambouillet) had built, according +to her own design, a place which is one of the finest in the +world; she has found the art of constructing a palace of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span> +vast extent in a situation of mediocre grandeur. Order, +harmony, and elegance are in all the apartments, and in +the furniture also; everything is magnificent, even unique; +the lamps are different from those of other palaces, her +cabinets are full of objects which show the judgment of +her who chose them. In her palace, the air is always +scented; many baskets full of magnificent flowers make a +continual spring in her room, and the place which she +frequents ordinarily is so agreeable and so imaginative +as to make one feel as if she were in some enchanted place."</p> + +<p>The very names of the frequenters of the salon of Mme. +de Rambouillet testify to the prominence of her position in +the world of culture: Mlle. de Scudéry, Mlle. du Vigean; +Mmes. de Longueville, de la Vergne, de La Fayette, de +Sablé, de Hautefort, de Sévigné, de la Suze, Marie de Gonzague, +Duchesse d'Aiguillon, Mmes. des Houlières, Cornuel, +Aubry, and their respective husbands; the great +literary men: Rotrou, Scarron, Saint-Evremond, Malherbe, +Racan, Chapelain, Voiture, Conrart, Benserade, Pellisson, +Segrais, Vaugelas, Ménage, Tallemant des Réaux, Balzac, +Mairet, Corneille, Bossuet, etc. In the entire period of +the French salon, no other such brilliant gathering of men +and women of social standing, princely blood, genuine intelligence, +and literary ability ever assembled from motives +other than those of politics or intrigue; here was a gathering +purely social and for purposes of mutual refinement. +The nobility went through a process of polishing, and the +men of letters sharpened their intelligence and modified +their manners and customs.</p> + +<p>Julie, Duchess of Montausier, and Angélique, daughters +of Mme. de Rambouillet, were popular, but the former lost +much of her charm after she sacrificed her independence of +thought and action by becoming governess of the children +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span> +of the queen. Julie was the centre of attraction for all +perfumed rhymesters, all sighers in prose and verse, who +thronged about her. The stern and unbending Duke +of Montausier was so under her influence that in 1641 he +arranged and laid before her shrine the famous <i>guirlande</i> +which was illustrated by Robert and to which nineteen +authors contributed. After her marriage to the duke, the +Hôtel de Rambouillet may be said to have ceased to exist, +as madame, who was seventy years of age, had for a +number of years kept herself in the background, and Julie +had become the acknowledged leader.</p> + +<p>With the outbreak of the Fronde, friends were separated +by their individual interests and the reunions at the salon +were interrupted from about 1650 to 1652. After the death +of her husband, Mme. de Rambouillet retired, to reside +with her daughter, Mme. de Montausier; after that, she +seldom appeared in public. She hardly lived to see the +spirit of the salon changed to the real <i>préciosité</i>—the direction +and aim she gave to it being gradually abandoned.</p> + +<p>In her salon, for nearly fifty years, no pedantry, no +loose manners, no questionable characters, no social or +political intrigues, no discourtesies of any kind, were recorded; +hers was a reign of dignity and grace, of purity +of language, manners, and morals. She died in 1665, at +the advanced age of seventy-seven, esteemed and mourned +by the entire social and intellectual world of France. Her +influence was incalculable; it was the first time in the +history of France that refined taste, intellectuality, and +virtue had won importance, influence, and power.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered that in the first period of the +salon there were no blue-stockings, no pedants: these +were later developments. It was, primarily, a gathering +which found pleasure in parties, excursions, concerts, balls, +fireworks, dramatic performances, living tableaux; the last +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span> +form of amusement very strongly influenced the development +of the art, for in the galleries there appeared a surprisingly +large number of portraits of the women of the +day in character—sometimes as a nymph, sometimes as a goddess.</p> + +<p>The salon, in its first phase, showed and developed tolerance +in religion as well as in art and literature. It also +encouraged progress and displayed acute discrimination, +keeping pace with the time in all that was new and meritorious. +It developed individual liberty, public interest, +criticism, good taste, and the elegant, clear, and precise +conversational language in which France has excelled up to the present day.</p> + +<p>When about to build the Hôtel Pisani, Mme. de Rambouillet, +having no love for architects, planned its construction +without their assistance. She revolutionized +the architecture of the time by introducing large and high +doors and windows and putting the stairway to one side in +order to secure a large suite of rooms. She was also the +first to decorate a room in other colors than red or tan. +The construction of her hôtel completely changed domestic +architecture; and it may be noted that when the Luxembourg +was to be built, the designers were instructed to +examine, for ideas, the Hôtel de Rambouillet.</p> + +<p>Legouvé gives as the object and mission of Mme. de +Rambouillet: "to combat the sensualism of Rabelais, +Villon, and Marot, to reform society through love by reforming +love through chastity; to place women at the +head of civilization, by beginning a crusade against vice in +the disguise of sentiment. The word 'fame' must, in the +seventeenth century, apply to both man and woman, meaning +honor for the one and purity for the other. Her ideal +falls with the accession of Louis XIV.; the dazzling luxury +of royalty hardly conceals, under its exterior elegance, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109"></a>[pg 109]</span> +the profound and deep-seated grossness of Versailles and Marly."</p> + +<p>To Mme. de Rambouillet, then, belongs the distinction +of having been the first to bring together men of letters +and great lords on a footing of social equality and for +mutual benefit. Her salon and friends continued in the +seventeenth century what Marguerite d'Angoulême had +begun in the first part of the sixteenth—an intellectual, +social, and moral reform.</p> + +<p>Many salons which were all more or less patterned after +that of Rambouillet sprang into existence. Among these +the Academy of the Vicomtesse d'Auchy, with Malherbe +as president and tyrant, was of little influence as far as +women were concerned. The members were all of second-rate +importance, and Malherbe tolerated only the discussion +of his verses, while Mme. d'Auchy was better known +for her splendid neck than for any intellectuality. Every +salon had a master of ceremonies, who performed the rite +of presentation; these men were frequently abbés, and +some of them, such as Du Buisson and Testu, became famous.</p> + +<p>Among the most noted of these salons was that of the +celebrated beauty, Ninon de Lenclos, she who called +the <i>précieuses</i> the "Jansenists of love," an expression +which became very popular. Her salon was situated on +the Rue des Tournelles. Ninon de Lenclos was a woman +of the most brilliant mind and exquisite taste, and it was +at her hôtel that Molière first read his <i>Tartuffe</i> before +Condé, La Fontaine, Boileau, Lulli, Racine, and Chapelle, +and it was there that he received the principal ideas for his drama.</p> + +<p>Ninon became famous for making staunch friends of her +former lovers, in which connection some interesting tales +are told. She was the mother of two children; upon the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110"></a>[pg 110]</span> +arrival of the first, a heated discussion arose between +Count d'Estrées and Abbé d'Effiat, both claiming the +honor of paternity. When the mother was consulted, she +made no attempt to conceal her amusement; finally, the +rivals threw dice for "father or not father."</p> + +<p>The other child, whose father was the Marquis de Gersay, +was the victim of an unnatural passion for his mother +with whom, when a young man, he fell desperately in +love, being ignorant of their relation. While pleading his +cause, he learned from her lips the secret, and, in despair, +blew out his brains, a tragedy which apparently had no +effect upon the mother. At one time, at the request of +the clergy Ninon was sent, for impiety, to the convent +of the Benedictines at Lagny.</p> + +<p>Among her friends she counted the greatest men and +women of the day and her salon was the foyer of <i>savoir-vivre</i>, +of letters and art. At the age of sixty she met the +Great Condé, who dismounted to greet her, something +that he very seldom did, as he was not in the habit of +paying compliments to women. The saying: <i>Elle eut +l'estime de Lenclos</i> [she had the esteem of Lenclos] became +a popular manner of expressing the fact that a certain +woman was especially esteemed. Even to the last (she +died at the age of eighty-five), Ninon preserved her grace, +beauty, and intelligence. Colombey calls her <i>La mère +spirituelle de Voltaire</i> [the spiritual mother of Voltaire].</p> + +<p>The generality of women had their lovers; even the +famous Mlle. de Scudéry, in spite of her homeliness—she +was a dark, large-boned, and lean sort of old maid—had +admirers galore; among the latter was Pellisson who was +said to be so ugly "that he really abused the privilege—which +man enjoys—of being homely."</p> + +<p>The hôtel of the famous poet Scarron—Hôtel de l'Impécuniosité—received +almost all the frequenters of Ninon's +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>[pg 111]</span> +salon. At the former place there were no restrictions as +to the manner of enjoyment; after elevating and edifying +conversation at the salon of Ninon, the members would +repair to that of Scarron for a feast of <i>broutilles rabelaisiennes</i> +[Rabelaisian tidbits].</p> + +<p>The salon of Mme. de Montbazon had its frequenters +who, however, were attracted mainly by her beauty; she +was, to use the words of one of her friends, "One of +those beauties that delight the eye and provoke a vigorous +appetite." Her salon was one of suitors rather than of +intellectuality or harmless sociability.</p> + +<p>The most famous of the men's salons was the Temple, +constructed in 1667 by Jacques de Souvré and conducted +from 1681 to 1720 by Phillipe de Vendôme and his intendant, +Abbé de Chaulieu. These reunions, especially under +the latter, were veritable midnight <i>convivia</i>; he himself +boasted of never having gone to bed one night in thirty +years without having been carried there dead drunk, a +custom to which he remained "faithful unto death." His +boon companion was La Duchesse de Bouillon. Most of +his frequenters were jolly good persons, utterly destitute +of the sense of sufficiency in matters of carousing; the +better people declined his invitations.</p> + +<p>After that of Mme. de Rambouillet, there were, in the +seventeenth century, but two great salons that exerted a +lasting influence and that were not saturated with the decadent +<i>préciosité</i>. Of these the salon of Mlle. de Scudéry +has been called the salon of the <i>bourgeoisie</i>, because the +majority of its frequenters belonged to the third estate, +which was rapidly acquiring power and influence.</p> + +<p>Mlle. de Scudéry, who was born in 1608 and lived +through the whole century, saw society develop, and +therefore knew it better than did any of her contemporaries. +Having lost her parents early in life, her uncle +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>[pg 112]</span> +reared her and she received advantages such as fell to +the lot of few women of her condition; she was given an +excellent education in literature, art, and the languages.</p> + +<p>Until the marriage of her brother, she was his constant +and devoted companion, exiling herself to Marseilles when +he was appointed governor of Notre Dame de La Garde, +and returning to Paris with him in 1647. She first collaborated +with him in a literary production of about eighty +volumes. In their works, the brother furnished the rough +draft, the dramatic episodes, adventures, and the Romanesque +part, while she added the literary finish through +charming character sketches, conversation, sentimental +analyses, and letters. With a strong inclination toward +society, and constantly fulfilling its obligations, she would +from day to day write up her conversations of the evening before.</p> + +<p>An interesting anecdote is told in connection with the +travels and coöperation of Mlle. de Scudéry and her +brother; once, on the way to Paris, while stopping over +night at Lyons, they were discussing the fate of one of +their heroes, one proposing death and the other rescue, +one poison and the other a more cruel death; a gentleman +from Auvergne happened to overhear them and immediately +notified the people of the inn, thinking it was a question +of assassinating the king; the brother and sister were +thrown into prison and only with great difficulty were they +able to explain matters the next morning. From this incident +Scribe drew the material for his drama, <i>L'Auberge ou +les Brigands sans le Savoir</i>.</p> + +<p>At the Hôtel de Rambouillet where Mlle. de Scudéry +was received early, she won everyone by her modesty, +simplicity, <i>esprit</i>, and lovable disposition, and, in spite of +her homeliness and poor figure, she attracted many platonic +lovers. She was one of the few brilliant and famous +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113"></a>[pg 113]</span> +women of the seventeenth century whose popularity was +due solely to admirable qualities of mind and soul. With +her, friendship became a cult, and it was in time of trouble +that her friends received the strongest proof of her affection. +She preferred to incur disgrace and the disfavor of +Mazarin rather than forsake Condé and Madame de Longueville; +to them she dedicated the ten volumes, successively, +of her novel, <i>Cyrus</i>; the last volume was published after +Mme. de Longueville's retirement and partial disgrace.</p> + +<p>After the brilliant society of the Hôtel de Rambouillet +had been broken up by the marriage of Julie and the operations +of the Fronde, and after her brother's marriage in +1654, Mlle. de Scudéry became independent and established +the custom of receiving her friends on Saturday; these +receptions became famous under the name of <i>Samedi</i>, and +besides the regular rather bourgeois gathering, the most +brilliant talent and highest nobility flocked to them, regardless +of rank or station, wealth or influence. Pellisson, the +great master, the prince, the Apollo of her Saturdays, was +a man of wonderfully inventive genius, and possessed in a +higher degree than any of his contemporaries the art of inventing +surprises for the society that lived on novelty. +When, on account of his devotion to Fouquet, he was imprisoned +in the Bastille, Mlle. de Scudéry managed to persuade +Colbert to brighten his confinement by permitting +him to see friends and relatives. Part of every day she +spent in his prison, conversing and reading; and this is +but one instance of her fidelity and friendship.</p> + +<p>Mlle. de Scudéry, considering all men as aspirants for authority +who, when husbands, degenerate into tyrants, preferred +to retain her independence. Her ideas on love were +very peculiar and were innovations at the time: she wished +to be loved, but her love must be friendship—a pure, platonic +love, in which her lover must be her all, her confidant, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114"></a>[pg 114]</span> +the participator in her sorrows and her conversation; and +his happiness must be in her alone; he must, without feeling +passion, love her for herself, and she must have the +same feeling toward him. These sentiments are expressed +in her novels, from which the following extracts are taken:</p> + +<p>"When friendship becomes love in the heart of a lover +or when this love is mingled with friendship without +destroying it, there is nothing so sweet as this kind of +love; for as violent as it is, it is always held somewhat +more in check than is ordinary love; it is more durable, +more tender, more respectful, and even more ardent, +although it is not subject to so many tumultuous caprices +as is that love which arises without friendship. It can be +said that love and friendship flow together like two streams, +the more celebrated of which obscures the name of the +other." ... "They agreed on even the conditions +of their love; for Phaon solemnly promised Sapho (Mlle. +de Scudéry)—who desired it thus—not to ask of her anything +more than the possession of her heart, and she, also, +promised him to receive only him in hers. They told each +other all their thoughts, they understood them even without +confessing them. Peace, however, was not so completely +established that their affection could not become +languishing or cool; for, although they loved each other as +much as one can love, they at times complained of not +being loved enough, and they had sufficient little difficulties +to always leave something new to wish for; but they +never had any troubles that were serious enough to essentially +disturb their repose."</p> + +<p>Mlle. de Scudéry was mistress of the art of conversation, +speaking without affectation and equally well on all +affairs, serious, light, or gallant; she objected, however, to +being called a <i>savante</i>, and she was far from resembling +the false <i>précieuses</i> to whom she was likened by her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115"></a>[pg 115]</span> +enemies. The occupations of her salon were somewhat +different from those of the salon of Mme. de Rambouillet. +M. du Bled describes them as follows:</p> + +<p>"What they did in the salon of Mlle. de Scudéry you +can guess readily: they amused themselves as at Mme. +de Rambouillet's, they joked quite cheerfully, smiled +and laughed, wrote farces in prose and poetry. There +were readings, <i>loteries d'esprit</i>, sonnet-enigmas, <i>bouts-rimés</i> +(rhymes given to be formed into verse), <i>vers-échos</i>, fine +literary joustings, discussions between the casuists. This +salon had its talkers and speakers, those who tyrannized +over the audience and those who charmed it, those who +shot off fireworks and those who prepared them, those +who had made a symphony of conversation and those who +made of it a monologue and had no flashes of silence. +They did not follow fashion there—they rather made it; in +art and literature as in toilets, smallness follows the fashion, +pretension exaggerates it, taste makes a compact with it."</p> + +<p>A specimen of the <i>énigme-sonnets</i> may be of interest, to +show in what intellectual playfulness and trivialities these wits indulged:</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"Souvent, quoique léger, je lasse qui me porte.</p> +<p>Un mot de ma façon vaut un ample discours.</p> +<p>J'ai sous Louis le Grand commencé d'avoir cours,</p> +<p>Mince, long, plat, étroit, d'une étoffe peu forte.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Les doigts les moins savants me taillent de la sorte;</p> +<p>Sous mille noms divers je parais tous les jours;</p> +<p>Aux valets étourdis je suis d'un grand secours.</p> +<p>Le Louvre ne voit point ma figure à sa porte.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Une grossière main vient la plupart du temps</p> +<p>Me prendre de la main des plus honnêtes gens.</p> +<p>Civil, officieux, je suis né pour la ville.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Dans le plus rude hiver j'ai le dos toujours nu:</p> +<p>Et, quoique fort commode, à peine m'a-t-on vu,</p> +<p>Qu'ausitôt négligé, je deviens inutile."</p> + </div> </div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116"></a>[pg 116]</span> + +<p>[Often, although light, I weary the person who carries +me. A word in my manner is worth a whole discourse. +I began under Louis the Great to be in vogue,—slight, +long, flat, narrow, of a very slight material.</p> + +<p>The most unskilled fingers cut me in their way; under a +thousand different forms I appear every day; I am a great +aid to the astonished valets. The Louvre does not see my face at its door.</p> + +<p>A coarse hand most of the time receives me from the +hand of the nicest people. Civil, officious, I am born for the city.</p> + +<p>In the coldest weather, my back is always bare; and, +although quite convenient, scarcely have they seen me, +when I am neglected and useless.—Visiting card.]</p> + +<p>A more interesting one and one that caused no little amusement is the following:</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"Je suis niais et fin, honnête et malhonnête,</p> +<p>Moins sincère à la cour qu'en un simple taudis.</p> +<p>Je fais d'un air plaisant trembler les plus hardis,</p> +<p>Le fort me laisse aller, le sage m'arrête.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"A personne sans moi l'on ne fait jamais fête:</p> +<p>J'embellis quelquefois, quelquefois, j'enlaidis.</p> +<p>Je dédaigne tantôt, tantôt j'applaudis;</p> +<p>Pour m'avoir en partage, il faut n'être pas bête.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Plus mon trône est petit, plus il a de beauté.</p> +<p>Je l'agrandis pourtant d'un et d'autre côté,</p> +<p>Faisant voir bien souvent des défauts dont on jase.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Je quitte mon éclat quand je suis sans témoins,</p> +<p>Et je me puis vanter enfin d'être la chose</p> +<p>Qui contente le plus et qui coûte le moins."</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>[I am both stupid and bright, honest and dishonest; less +sincere at court than in a simple hovel; with a pleasant +air, I make the boldest tremble, the strong let me pass, the wise stop me.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117"></a>[pg 117]</span> + +<p>There is no joy to anyone without me; I embellish at +times, at times I distort; I disdain and I applaud; to share +me, one must not be stupid.</p> + +<p>The smaller my throne, the greater my beauty; I enlarge +it, however, on both sides, often showing defects which are made sport of.</p> + +<p>I leave my brilliancy when I am without witness, and I +can boast of being the thing which contents the most and +costs the least.—A smile.]</p> + +<p>Critics often reproach Mlle. de Scudéry for having portrayed +herself—as Sapho—in a flattering light in her novel +<i>Cyrus</i>; but it must be remembered that at that time this +was a common custom, women of the highest quality +indulging in such pastimes, there even being a prominent +salon where verbal portraiture was the sole occupation. +No one has written more or better on the condition of +woman, for she, above all, had the experience upon which +to base her writings. The idea of woman's education and +aim, which was generally entertained by the intelligent +and modest women of the seventeenth century, is well +expressed by Mlle. de Scudéry in the following:</p> + +<p>"The difficulty of knowing something with seemliness +does not come to a woman so much from what she knows +as from what others do not know; and it is, without doubt, +singularity that makes it difficult to be as others are not, +without being exposed to blame. Seriously, is not the +ordinary idea of the education of women a peculiar one? +They are not to be coquettes nor gallants, and yet they +are carefully taught all that is peculiar to gallantry without +being permitted to know anything that can strengthen +their virtue or occupy their minds. Don't imagine, however, +that I do not wish woman to be elegant, to dance or +to sing; but I should like to see as much care devoted to +her mind as to her body, and between being ignorant and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118"></a>[pg 118]</span> +<i>savante</i> I should like to see a road taken which would prevent +annoyance from an impertinent sufficiency or from a +tiresome stupidity. I should like very much to be able to +say of anyone of my sex that she knows a hundred things +of which she does not boast, that she has a well-balanced +mind, that she speaks well, writes correctly, and knows +the world; but I do not wish it to be said of her that she +is a <i>femme savante</i>. The best women of the world when +they are together in a large number rarely say anything +that is worth anything and are more ennuyé than if they +were alone; on the contrary, there is something that I +cannot express, which makes it possible for men to enliven +and divert a company of ladies more than the most amiable +woman on earth could do."</p> + +<p>Mlle. de Scudéry considered marriage a long slavery +and preferred virtuous celibacy enlivened by platonic gallantry. +When youth and adorers had passed away, she +found consolation in interchanges of wit, congenial conversation, +and the cultivation of the mind by study. Making +of love a doctrine, a manual of morals or <i>savoir-vivre</i>, has +had a refining effect upon civilization; but the process +has rendered the emotion itself too subtle, select, narrow, +enervating, and exhausting; it has resulted in the production +of splendid books with heroes and heroines of the +higher type, and has purified the atmosphere of social life; +this phase of its influence, however, is felt by only a set +of the élite, and its adherents are scattered through every +age and every country. Mlle. de Scudéry was a perfect +representative of that type, but healthy and normal rather +than morbidly æsthetic.</p> + +<p>An opposition party soon arose, formed by those, especially, +who entertained different ideas of the sphere and +duties of woman. Just as the type of the salon of Mme. de +Rambouillet degenerated among the aristocracy into those +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span> +of the Hôtel de Condé, Mme. de Sablé, and Mlle. de Luxembourg, +so the type of the salon of Mlle. de Scudéry gave +rise to a number of literary salons among the <i>bourgeoisie</i>. +The aim of the latter institutions was to imitate her example +in endeavoring to spread the taste for courtesy, elegant +manners and the higher forms of learning; all these aspirations, +however, drifted into mere affectation, while the +requisites of welcome at the original salon were simplicity, +freedom from affectation, delicacy, amiability, and dignity.</p> + +<p>As a writer, Mlle. de Scudéry occupies no mean position +in the history of French literature of the seventeenth +century. Her descriptions and anecdotes possess a wonderful +charm and display unusual power of analysis; in +them, Victor Cousin recognizes a truly virile spirit. In the +history of the French novel, she forms a transition period, +her productions having both a psychological interest and +a historical value of a very high degree. Through her +finesse and marvellous feminine penetration, her truthful, +delicate and fine portraitures, which were widely imitated +later, she has exerted an extensive influence.</p> + +<p>With Mlle. de Scudéry "we have substance, real character +painting, true psychological penetration, and realism +in observation," while previously the novel, under such +men as Gomberville and La Calprenède, was imaginative +and full of fancy. Her talent, then, in that field, lay in +the analysis and development of sentiments, in delineation +of character, in the creation and reproduction of refined +and ingenious conversations, and in her reflections on subjects +pertaining to morality and literature—in all of which +she displayed justness and entire liberty and independence +of thought. Her poetry, delicate compliment or innocent +gallantries, was a mere bagatelle of the salon.</p> + +<p>Charming as well as accomplished, Mlle. de Scudéry +was as intelligent, witty, and intellectual a woman as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120"></a>[pg 120]</span> +could be found in the seventeenth century; and in the +history of that period she retains an undisputed position +as one of its great leaders of thought and progress. Her +salon, inasmuch as the salon of Mme. de Lambert was not +opened until 1710, and therefore the discussion of it belongs +properly to the beginning of the eighteenth century, +really closes the literary progress of the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p>The influence of the seventeenth century salon was of +a threefold nature—literary, moral, and social. According +to the salon conception, artistic, literary, or musical pleasure +being derived from form and mode of expression, it +possessed a special and unique interest in proportion to +the efforts made and the difficulties surmounted in attaining +that form and expression: thus, woman introduced a new standard of excellence.</p> + +<p><i>Préciosité</i> treated language not as a work of art, but as a +medium for the display of individual linguistic dexterity; +giving no thing its proper name, it delighted in paraphrase, +allusion, word play, unexpected comparisons and abundance +of metaphors, and revelled in the elusive, delicate, +subtle, and complex. Hence conversation turned constantly +to love and gallantry; thus woman developed to +a wonderful degree, unattainable to but few, the art +of conversation, politeness and courtesy of manners, and +social relations, at the same time purifying language and enriching it.</p> + +<p>French women of the seventeenth century are condemned +for having treated serious things too lightly; and +it is said that "in confining the French mind to the observation +of society and its attractions, she has restricted and +retarded a more realistic and larger activity." In answer +to this it may be asserted that the French mind was not +prepared for a broader field until it had passed through the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121"></a>[pg 121]</span> +process of expurgating, refining, drilling, and disciplining. +If <i>préciosité</i> influenced politics, it was by developing diplomacy, +for, from the time that this spirit began to spread, +French diplomacy became world-renowned.</p> + +<p>The social influence of the movement may be better +appreciated by considering the condition of woman in +earlier periods. Having practically no position except that +of housewife or mother, she was merely a source of pleasure +for man, for whom she had little or no respect. The +<i>précieuses</i>, on the contrary, exacted respect, honor, and a +place beside man, as rights that belonged to them.</p> + +<p>As the outcome of their desire to think, feel, and act +with greater delicacy, women introduced propriety in expression, +finesse in analysis, keenness of <i>esprit</i>, psychological +subtleness: qualities that surely tended to higher +standards of morality, purer social relations, finer and more +subtle diplomacy, more elegance and precision in literature. +Therefore, <i>préciosité</i> in France had a wholesome influence, +which was possible because woman had won for herself +her rightful position, and her aspirations were toward social +and moral elevation.</p> + +<p>In general, the women of France have always been conscious +of their duty, their importance, and their limitations, +appreciating their power and cultivating the characteristics +that attract man and retain his respect and attention: +sociability, morality, <i>esprit</i>, artistic appreciation, sensitiveness, +tact. These qualities became manifest to a remarkable +degree in French women of the seventeenth century, +and created in every writer, great or unimportant, the +desire to win their favor. Thus, Corneille strove to write +dramas with which he might establish the reign of decency +on a stage the liberties of which had previously made the +theatre inaccessible to woman; hence, his characters of +humanity (Cid) and politeness (Menteur).</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122"></a>[pg 122]</span> + +<p>The purpose of the French Academy itself was not different +from that of the <i>précieuses</i>. Richelieu, realizing that +every great talent accepted the discipline of these women, +sought to use this power for his own ends by interesting +the world of letters in the accomplishment of his plans for +a general political unity. Thus, when the first period of +<i>préciosité</i> had reached its highest point and was beginning +to decline, and other smaller and envious social groups +were forming about Paris and causing a conflict of ideas, +Richelieu conceived the scheme of joining all in a union, +with strong ideals and with a language as dignified as the +Latin and the Greek. The result was the formation of +the French Academy. From this time begins the decline +of the authority of woman; for while she still exerted a +powerful influence, it was no longer absolute. After the +decline of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, feminine influence +became more general, expending itself in petty rivalries, +gossip, intrigues, and partaking of the nature of that court +life which was filled by the young king with parties, feasts, +collations, walks, carousals, boating, concerts, ballets, and +masquerades—a mode of living that gave rise to a new +standard of politeness, which was freer and looser than +that of <i>préciosité</i>.</p> + +<p>As the power of the young king became stronger, his +favor became the goal of all men of letters. Although +woman still to some extent controlled the destinies of those +who were struggling for recognition and reputation, her +influence was of a secondary nature, that of the king being +supreme. Woman seemed to be overcoming the influence +of woman—Mme. de Montespan replaced Mlle. de La Vallière, +and she was in turn replaced by Mme. de Maintenon.</p> + +<p>The degeneration of the king was accompanied by that +of literature, society, and morals. The characteristic +inclination of the day was eagerly to seek and grasp that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123"></a>[pg 123]</span> +which was new, and the noble, forceful, and dignified style +of language of the previous period was replaced by one of +much lighter description; many female writers directed +their efforts entirely toward amusing, pleasing, and gaining applause.</p> + +<p>In the beginning of the eighteenth century, with Mme. +de Lambert as its leader, there was a renascence of the +<i>préciosité</i> of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, women protesting +against the prevalent grossness and indecency of manners. +The salon of Mme. de Lambert was the great antechamber +to the Academy, election to which was generally gained +through her. A new aristocracy was forming, a new +society arose; from about 1720 to 1750, libertinism and +atheism, licentiousness and intrigue, crept into the salons.</p> + +<p>The new aristocracy was of doubtful and impure source, +cynical in manner, unbridled in habits, over-fastidious in +taste, and politically powerful. In this society woman +began to be felt as a political force. M. Brunetière said: +"Mme. de Lambert made Academicians; the Marquise de +Prie made a queen of France; Mme. de Tencin made cardinals +and ambassadors." Montesquieu wrote: "There +is not a person who has any employment at the court in +Paris or in the provinces, who has not the influence (and +sometimes the injustices which she can cause) of a woman +through whom all favors pass;" and M. Brunetière added: +"This woman is not his wife." The popular spirit in +literature was one of subtleness, irony, superficial observations +on manners and customs. From the beginning of +the eighteenth century up to the eve of the Revolution, +woman's influence continued to increase, but that influence +was mainly in the direction of politics. Thus, in +every period in French history, a group of women effectively +moulds French thought and language, and directs +intellectual activity in general.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124"></a>[pg 124]</span> + +<p>After the death of Louis XIV., society passed under the +rule of the regent, the Duke of Orléans—the personification +of gallantry and affability, of depravity which was a +mania, and of licentiousness which was a disease. From +this atmosphere the salon of Mme. de Lambert became a +refuge to those who still cherished the ideals of the good +old times of Mme. de Rambouillet; it was distinguished by +its refined sentiment and polished manners, which were +like those of the seventeenth century at its best.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Lambert believed that the demands of the time +were just the opposite of those of the seventeenth century: +"What a multitude of tastes nowadays—the table, play, +theatre! When money and luxury are supreme, true +honor loses its power. Persons seek only those houses +where shameful luxury reigns." In her own salon, none +might enter who were not of the small number of the elect.</p> + +<p>Very little is known of the life of Mme. de Lambert. +She was born in 1647, and, in spite of the unfavorable +surroundings of her youth and of a dissolute, extravagant, +and unrefined mother, the observance of decorum and +honor became the actuating principle of her life. Until +her marriage (in 1666) to Henri de Lambert, Marquis de +Bris en Auxerrois, she was in the midst of the grossest +licentiousness and freedom of manners; when married, +she entered a family the very opposite of her own.</p> + +<p>She was a woman who believed in the power of ambitious +energy. To her son she once said: "Nothing is +less becoming to a young man than a certain modesty that +makes him believe that he is not capable of great things. +This modesty is a languor of the soul, which prevents it +from soaring and rapidly carrying itself to glory."</p> + +<p>At first she lived in the Hôtel de Lambert (in the +Ile Saint-Louis), renowned for its splendidly sculptured +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125"></a>[pg 125]</span> +decorations, painted ceilings, panels, and staircases. Her +famous Salon des Muses and Cabinet d'Amours were filled +with the finest works of art and the most exquisite paintings. +There the élite of all classes were entertained until +the death of her husband (1686), when the hôtel was +closed; it was not reopened until 1710.</p> + +<p>Though left with immense wealth, her affairs were in a +very complicated state. While actively employed in untangling +her difficulties, she at the same time superintended +the education of her son and daughter. After long and trying +lawsuits, she managed to put her fortune in order and +established herself at Paris, where the Duc de Nevers +ceded to her, for life, a large portion of the magnificently +furnished Palais Mazarin, now the National Library. On +the completion of her work in remodelling this palace and +furnishing it with the most costly and beautiful panel +paintings by Watteau and other artists, she inaugurated +her Tuesday and Wednesday dinner parties.</p> + +<p>One remarkable characteristic of her company was the +age of her intimate associates—the Marquis de Saint-Aulaire, +Fontenelle, Mme. Dacier, and her husband, Louis +de Sacy, all of whom, as well as Mme. de Lambert herself, +had passed threescore and more; but they still kept alive +the cherished memories of the brilliant society of their +youth. Mme. de Lambert did not personally know Mme. +de Rambouillet, but she visited the latter's daughter, Julie +d'Angennes, from whom she learned the customs and +etiquette in vogue at the Hôtel de Rambouillet.</p> + +<p>The Wednesday dinners of Mme. de Lambert were to +her intimate friends, while every Tuesday afternoon she +received a general circle which indulged in general conversation +and read and discussed books which were +about to be published; gambling, which seemed to be the +principal means of entertaining in those days, had no place +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126"></a>[pg 126]</span> +there. Fontenelle says: "It was, with very few exceptions, +the only house which had been preserved from the +epidemic of gambling—the only house where persons congregated +simply for the sake of talking sensibly and with +<i>esprit</i>. Those who had their reasons for considering it bad +taste that conversation was still carried on in any place, +cast mean reflections, whenever they could, against the +house of Mme. de Lambert." In the evening, she received +only a few select friends with whom she talked seriously. +Her salon soon became the envy of those who were not +admitted (and they were numerous), and was the object +of many calumnies and attacks.</p> + +<p>During this time she found leisure to write two treatises +of practical morality, <i>Avis d'une mère à son fils</i>, and <i>Avis +d'une mère à sa fille</i>, which appeared without her permission. +The manuscripts, lent to friends, fell into the hands of +a publisher; and although the authoress endeavored to prevent +the distribution of the works by buying up the entire +editions, they were published outside of France. The two +works written to her children form an important contribution +to the educational literature of the time; in them the +religion of the eighteenth century is first defined.</p> + +<p>"Above all these duties—civil and human (says the +mother to her son)—is the duty you owe to the Supreme +Being. Religion is a commerce established between God +and man through the grace of God to man and through the +duty of man to God. Elevated souls have for their God +sentiments and a cult apart, which do not resemble at all +those of the people; everything issues from the heart and goes to God."</p> + +<p>In these works, she attacked also the fad of free-thinking +in vogue among the young men of the time. She was one +of the few women of that age who could not separate +themselves from reason and thought, even in religion; the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127"></a>[pg 127]</span> +latter was a matter for the reason and the intellect to +decide, and was thus an elevated product of the mind +rather than an instinct coming from the heart, or a positive +revelation as it was in the seventeenth century. In +this view, Madame de Lambert indicated the beginning of +the later eighteenth-century spirit.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Lambert taught her children to be satisfied +with nothing but the highest attainable object. She advised +her son to choose his friends from among men above +him, in order to accustom himself to respectful and polite +demeanor; "with his equals he might cultivate negligence +and his mind might become dull." She desired her children +to think differently from the people—"Those who think +lowly and commonly, and the court is filled with such." To +their servants they were to be good and kind, for humanity +and Christianity make all equal. She was the first to use +those words, "humanity" and "equality," which later became +the bywords of everyone, and the first to teach that +conscience is the best guide. "Conscience is defined as +that interior sentiment of a delicate honor which assures you +that you have nothing with which to reproach yourself."</p> + +<p>Possibly the most important and lasting effect of Mme. +de Lambert's influence resulted from the expression of her +ideas on the education of young women who "are destined +to please, and are given lessons only in methods of +delighting and pleasing." She was convinced that in order +to resist temptation and be normal, women must be educated, +must learn to think. Her counsels to her daughter +are remarkable for an unusual insight into the temperament +of her sex and for an extreme fear that makes her call to +her aid all precautions and resources. She thus advises her daughter:</p> + +<p>"Try to find resources within yourself—this is a revenue +of certain pleasures. Do not believe that your only +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128"></a>[pg 128]</span> +virtue is modesty; there are many women who know no +other virtue, and who imagine that it relieves them of all +duties toward society; they believe they are right in lacking +all others and think themselves privileged to be proud +and slanderous with impunity. You must have a gentle +modesty; a good woman may have the advantages of a +man's friendship without abandoning honesty and faithfulness +to her duties. Nothing is so difficult as to please +without the use of what seems like coquettishness. It is +more often by their defects than by their good qualities +that women please men; men seek to profit by the weaknesses +of good and kind women, for whose virtues they +care nothing, and they prefer to be amused by persons +not very estimable than to be forced merely to admire virtuous persons."</p> + +<p>This is a most faithful description of the society of her +time, and it was because her treatises struck home that +they were severely criticised; but, nothing daunted, she +carried out her plans in her own way, resorting neither to +intrigue nor artifice. Many of her sayings became household +maxims, such as—"It is not always faults that undo +us; it is the manner of conducting ourselves after having committed them."</p> + +<p>Her reflections on women might be called the great plea, +at the end of the seventeenth century, for woman's right +to use her reason. After the severe and cruel satire of +Molière, attacking women for their innocent amusements, +they gave themselves up entirely to pleasure. "Mme. de +Lambert now wrote to avenge her sex and demand for it +the honest and strong use of the mind; and this was done +in the midst of the wild orgies of the Regency."</p> + +<p>Mme. de Lambert was not a rare beauty, but she possessed +recompensing charms. M. Colombey asserts that +she became convinced of two things, about which she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129"></a>[pg 129]</span> +became highly enthusiastic: first, that woman was more +reasonable than man; secondly, that M. Fontenelle, who +presided over or filled the functions of president of her +salon, was always in the right. He was indeed in harmony +with the tone of the salon, being considered the most +polished, brilliant, and distinguished member of the intellectual +society of Paris, as well as one of the most talented +drawing room philosophers. He made the salon of Mme. +de Lambert the most sought for and celebrated, the most +intellectual and moral of the period.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Lambert has, possibly, exercised more influence +upon men—and especially upon the Forty Immortals +of her time—than did any woman before or after her. +The Marquis d'Argenson states that "a person was seldom +received at the Academy unless first presented at her +salon. It is certain that she made at least half of our actual Academicians."</p> + +<p>Her salon was called a <i>bureau d'esprit</i>, which was due +to the fact that it was about the only social gathering +point where culture and morality were the primary requisites. +As she advanced in years, she became even more +influential. After her death in 1733, her salon ceased to +exist, but others, patterned after hers, soon sprang up; +to those, her friends attached themselves—Fontenelle frequented +several, Hénault became the leader of that of Mme. du Deffand.</p> + +<p>The finest résumé that can be given of Mme. de Lambert, +is found in the letters of the Marquis d'Argenson: +"Her works contain a complete course in the most perfect +morals for the use of the world and the present time. +Some affectation of the <i>préciosité</i> is found; but, what beautiful +thoughts, what delicate sentiments! How well she +speaks of the duties of women, of friendship, of old age, of +the difference between actual character and reputation!"</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" id="page130"></a>[pg 130]</span> + +<p>The salon of Mme. de Lambert forms a period of transition +from the seventeenth century type in which elegance, +politeness, courtesy, and morality were the first requisites, +to the eighteenth century salon in which <i>esprit</i> and wit +were the essentials demanded. It retained the dignity, +discipline, refinement, and sentiments of morality of the +Hôtel de Rambouillet; it showed, also, the first signs of +pure intellectuality. The salons to follow, will exhibit +decidedly different characteristics.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131"></a>[pg 131]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter V</h2> + +<h2>Mistresses and Wives of Louis XIV</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133"></a>[pg 133]</span> + + +<p>The story of the wives and mistresses of Louis XIV., +embraces that which is most dramatic morally (or immorally +dramatic) in the history of French women. The record +of the eighteenth century heroines is essentially a tragic +one, while that of those of the previous century is essentially +dramatic in its sadness, remorse, and repentance.</p> + +<p>The mistress, as a rule, was unhappy; there were few +months during the period of her glory, in which she was +entirely free from anxiety or in which her conscience +was at rest. Mme. de Montespan "was for so many +years the sick nurse of a soul worn out with pride, passion, +and glory." Mme. de Maintenon wrote to one of +her friends: "Why cannot I give you my experience? +Why cannot I make you comprehend the ennui which +devours the great, and the troubles that fill their days? +Do you not see that I am dying of sadness, in a fortune +the vastness of which could not be easily imagined? I +have been young and pretty; I have enjoyed pleasures; +I have spent years in intellectual intercourse; I have +attained favor; and I protest to you, my dear child, that +all such conditions leave a frightful void." She said, also, +to her brother, Count d'Aubigné: "I can hold out no longer; +I would like to be dead." It was she too, who, after her +successes, made her confession thus: "One atones heavily +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134"></a>[pg 134]</span> +for the pleasures and intoxications of youth. I find, in +looking back at my life, that since the age of twenty-two—which +was the beginning of my fortune—I have not +had a moment free from sufferings which have constantly increased."</p> + +<p>M. Saint-Amand gives a description of the women of +Louis XV. which well applies to those of his predecessor: +"These pretended mistresses, who, in reality, are only +slaves, seem to present themselves, one after the other, +like humble penitents who come to make their apologies +to history, and, like the primitive Christians, to reveal +publicly the miseries, vexations, and remorses of their +souls. They tell us to what their doleful successes +amounted: even while their triumphal chariot made its +way through a crowd of flatterers, their consciences hissed +cruel accusations into their ears; like actresses before a +whimsical and variable public, they were always afraid +that the applause might change into an uproar, and it was +with terror underlying their apparent coolness that they +continued to play their sorry part.... If among +these mistresses of the king there were a single one who +had enjoyed her shameful triumphs in peace, who had +called herself happy in the midst of her dearly bought +luxury and splendor, one might have concluded that, from +a merely human point of view, it is possible to find happiness +in vice. But, no—there is not even one!" Massillon, +the great preacher of truth and morality, said: "The worm +of conscience is not dead; it is only benumbed. The +alienated reason presently returns, bringing with it bitter +troubles, gloomy thoughts, and cruel anxieties"—a true +picture of every mistress.</p> + +<p>The remarkable power and influence of these women, +the love and adoration accorded them, ceased with their +death; the memory of them did not survive overnight. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id="page135"></a>[pg 135]</span> +When, during a terrible storm, the remains of the glorious +Mme. de Pompadour were being taken to Paris, the king, +seeing the funeral cortége from his window, remarked: +"The Marquise will not have fine weather for her journey."</p> + +<p>Each one of these powerful mistresses represents a +complete epoch of society, morals, and customs. Mme. +de Montespan—that woman whose very look meant fortune +or disfavor—with all her wit and wealth, her magnificence +and pomp and superb beauty—she, in all her +splendor, is a type of the triumphant France, haughty, +dictatorial, scornful and proud, licentious and decayed at +the core. Voluptuousness and haughtiness were replaced +by religiosity and repentance in Mme. de Maintenon, with +her temperate character, consistency, and propriety.</p> + +<p>The Regency was a period of scandal and wantonness, +personified in the Duchess of Berry. The licentious and +extravagant, yet brilliant and exquisite, frivolous but +charming, intriguing and diplomatic, was represented by +the talented and politically influential Mme. de Pompadour. +Complete degeneracy, vice with all manner of disguise +thrown off, adultery of the lowest order, were personified +in the common Mme. du Barry, who might be classed with +Louise of Savoy of the sixteenth century, while Mme. de +Pompadour might be compared with Diana of Poitiers.</p> + +<p>In this period the queens of France were of little importance, +being too timid and modest to assert their rights—a +disposition which was due sometimes to their restricted +youth, spent in Catholic countries, sometimes to a naturally +unassuming and sensitive nature. To this rule Maria +Theresa, the wife of Louis XIV., was no exception. She +inherited her sweetness of disposition and her Christian +character from her mother, Isabella of France, the daughter +of Henry IV. and Marie de' Medici. She was pure and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136"></a>[pg 136]</span> +candid; a type of irreproachable piety and goodness, of +conjugal tenderness and maternal love; and recompensed +outraged morality for all the false pride, selfish ambition, +depravity, and scandals of court. She is conspicuous as a +model wife, one that loved her husband, her family, and her children.</p> + +<p>Around Maria Theresa may be grouped the noble and +virtuous women of the court of Louis XIV., for she was +to that age what Claude of France was under Francis I., +Elizabeth of Austria under Charles V., Louise de Vaudemont +under Henry III. However, in extolling these women, +it must be remembered that they had not, as queens, the +opportunity to participate in debauchery, licentiousness, +and intrigue, as had the mistresses of their husbands; they +had no power, were not consulted on state or social affairs, +and had granted to them only those favors to the conferring +of which the mistresses did not object.</p> + +<p>Maria Theresa was a perfect example of the self-sacrificing +mother and devoted wife. Her feelings toward the +king are best expressed by the Princesse Palatine: "She +had such an affection for the king that she tried to read in +his eyes whatever would give him pleasure; providing he +looked kindly at her, she was happy all day." Mme. de +Caylus wrote: "That poor princess had such a dread of +the king and such great natural timidity that she dared +neither to speak to him nor to run the risk of a tête-à-tête +with him. One day, I heard Mme. de Maintenon say that +the king having sent for the queen, the latter requested +her to go with her so that she might not appear alone in +his presence: but that she (Mme. de Maintenon) conducted +her only to the door of the room and there took the liberty +of pushing her so as to make her enter, and that she observed +such a great trembling in her whole person that her +very hands shook with fright."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137"></a>[pg 137]</span> + +<p>From about 1680, especially after the death of Mlle. de +Fontanges, his last mistress, Louis XIV. began to look +with disfavor upon the women of doubtful morality and to +advance those who were noted for their conjugal fidelity. +He became more attentive to the queen—a change of attitude +which was due partly to the influence of Mme. de +Maintenon and partly to the fact that he was satiated with +the excesses of his debauches, by which his physical system +had been almost wrecked. He would not have dared +to legitimatize his bastard children, had he not been so +thoroughly idolized by his greatest heroes and most powerful +ministers. As an illustration, it may be remarked +that the Great Condé proposed the marriage of his son to +the king's daughter by Mlle. de La Vallière.</p> + +<p>The queen became so religious that she derived more +enjoyment from praying at the convents or visiting hospitals +than from remaining at her magnificent apartments. +She waited upon the sick with her own hands and carried +food to them; she never meddled in political affairs or took +much interest in social functions.</p> + +<p>Timidity, an instinctive shrinking from the slanders, +calumnies, and intrigues of the court, appeared to be the +most pronounced characteristic of queens who seemed to +believe themselves too inferior to their husbands to dare +to offer any political counsel. While none of them were +superior intellectually, they possessed dignity, good sense, +and tact, "a reverential feeling for the sanctity of religion +and the majesty of the throne," an admirable resignation, +a painful docility and submission—qualities which might +have been turned to the advantage of their owners and +the state, had the former been more self-assertive.</p> + +<p>The infidelities of their husbands caused the queen-consorts +constant torture; they were forced to behold the +kings' favorites becoming part of their own households +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138"></a>[pg 138]</span> +and were compelled to endure the presence, as ladies in +waiting, of those who, as their rivals, caused them to +suffer all possible torments of jealousy and outraged conjugal love.</p> + +<p>First among the mistresses of Louis XIV. was Mlle. de +La Vallière, whom Sainte-Beuve mentions as the personification +of the ideal of a lover, combining disinterestedness, +fidelity, unique and delicate tenderness with a touching +and sincere kindness. When, at the age of seventeen, +she was presented at court, the king immediately selected +her as one of his victims. Her beauty was so striking, of +such an exquisitely tender type, that no woman actually +rivalled her as queen of beauty. Distinguished by blond +hair, dark blue eyes, a most sympathetic voice, and a +complexion of rare whiteness mingled with red, she was +guileless, animated, gentle, modest, graceful, unaffected, +and ingenuous; although slightly lame, she was, by everyone, +considered charming.</p> + +<p>Mlle. de La Vallière was the mother of several children +of whom Louis XIV. was the father. On realizing that +she had rivals in the favor of the sovereign, she fled several +times from the Tuileries to the convent; on her +second return, the king, about to go to battle, recognized +his daughter by her, whom he made a duchess. Remorse +overcame the mistress so deeply that she, for the third +and final time, left court. Especially on the rise to power +of Mme. de Montespan was she painfully humiliated, suffering +the most intense pangs of conscience. The evening +before her final departure to the convent, she dined with +Mme. de Montespan, to drink "the cup to the dregs and +to enjoy the rejection of the world even to the last remains of its bitterness."</p> + +<p>Guizot describes this period most vividly: "When +Mme. de Montespan began to supplant her in the king's +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139"></a>[pg 139]</span> +favor, the grief of Mlle. de La Vallière was so great that +she thought she would die of it. Then she turned to God, +penitent and in despair; twice she sought refuge in a convent +at Chaillot. On leaving, she sent word to the king: +'After having lost the honor of your good graces I would +have left the court sooner, if I could have prevailed upon +myself never to see you again; but that weakness was so +strong in me that hardly now am I capable of sacrificing +it to God. After having given you all my youth, the remainder +of my life is not too much for the care of my +salvation.'" The king still clung to her. "He sent +M. Colbert to beg her earnestly to come to Versailles +that he might speak with her. M. Colbert escorted her +thither and the king conversed for an hour with her and +wept bitterly. Mme. de Montespan was there to meet +her, with open arms and tears in her eyes." "It is all +incomprehensible," adds Mme. de Sévigné; "some say +that she will remain at Versailles and at court, others that +she will return to Chaillot; we shall see."</p> + +<p>Mlle. de La Vallière remained three years at court, "half +penitent," she said, humbly, detained by the king's express +wish, in consequence of the tempers and jealousies +of Mme. de Montespan who felt herself judged and condemned +by her rival's repentance. Attempts were made +to turn Mlle. de La Vallière from her inclination for the +Carmelites': "Madame," said Mme. Scarron to her, one +day, "here are you one blaze of gold; have you really +considered that, before long, at the Carmelites' you will +have to wear serge?" She, however, was not to be dissuaded +from her determination and was already practising, +in secret, the austerities of the convent. "God has laid +in this heart the foundation of great things," said Bossuet, +who supported her in her conflict; "the world puts great +hindrances in her way, and God great mercies; I have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140"></a>[pg 140]</span> +hopes that God will prevail; the uprightness of her heart +will carry everything before it."</p> + +<p>"When I am in trouble at the Carmelites'," said Mlle. +de La Vallière, as for the last time she quitted the court, +"I shall think of what those people have made me suffer." +"The world itself makes us sick of the world," +said Bossuet in the sermon which he preached on the day +she took the veil; "its attractions have enough of illusion, +its favors enough of inconstancy, its rebuffs enough +of bitterness. There is enough of bitterness, enough of +injustice and perfidy in the dealings of men, enough of inconsistency +and capriciousness in their intractable and +contradictory humors—there is enough of it all, to disgust us."</p> + +<p>When, in 1675, she took the final vows, she cut off her +beautiful hair and devoted herself to the church and to +charity, receiving the veil from the queen, whose forgiveness +she sought before entering the convent. The king +showed himself to be such a jealous lover, that when +Mlle. de La Vallière entirely abandoned him for God, +he forgot her absolutely, never going to the convent to see her.</p> + +<p>She was by far the most interesting and pathetic of the +three mistresses of Louis XIV.; her heart was superior to +that of either of her successors, though her mind was +inferior; she belonged to a different atmosphere—such +kindness, charity, penitence, resignation, and absolute +abandonment to God were rare among the conspicuous +French women. Sainte-Beuve says: "She loved for love, +without haughtiness, coquetry, arrogance, ambitious designs, +self-interest, or vanity; she suffered and sacrificed +everything, humiliated herself to expiate her wrong-doing, +and finally surrendered herself to God, seeking in +prayer the treasures of energy and tenderness; through +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141"></a>[pg 141]</span> +her heart, her mental powers attained their complete development."</p> + +<p>The fate of Mlle. de La Vallière was the same as that +of nearly all royal mistresses; abandoned and absolutely +forgotten by her lover, she sought refuge and consolation +in religion and God's mercy. "She was dead to me the +day she entered the Carmelites'," said the king, thirty-five +years later, when the modest and fervent nun at last +expired, in 1710, without having ever relaxed the severities of her penance.</p> + +<p>Of an entirely different type from Mlle. de La Vallière +was that haughtiest and most supercilious of all French +mistresses, Mme. de Montespan. The picture drawn by +M. Saint-Amand does her full justice: "A haughty and +opulent beauty, a forest of hair, flashing blue eyes, a complexion +of splendid carnation and dazzling whiteness, one +of those alluring and radiant countenances which shed +brightness around them wherever they appear, an incisive, +caustic wit, an unquenchable thirst for riches and pleasure, +luxury and power, the manners of a goddess audaciously +usurping the place of Juno on Olympus, passion without +love, pride without true dignity, splendor without harmony—that +was Mme. de Montespan." And these qualities +were the secret of her success as well as of her fall.</p> + +<p>From this description it can easily be divined of what +nature was her influence and how she gained and held her +power over the king. She won Louis XIV. entirely by +her sensual charms, provoked him by her imperious exactions, +her ungovernable fits of temper, and her daring sarcasm; +always extravagant and unreasonable, she talked +constantly of balls and fêtes, the glories of court and its +scandals. Most exacting, yet never satisfied, she had no +regard for the interests or honor of the weak king, to +whose lower nature only she appealed.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142"></a>[pg 142]</span> + +<p>Mme. de Montespan was of noble birth, being the youngest +daughter of Rochechouart, first Duke of Mortemart. +She was born in 1641, at the grand old château of Tonnay-Charente, +and was educated at the convent of Sainte-Marie. +Brought up religiously, she at first evinced a much +greater tendency toward religion than toward worldly ambition +and vanity. Mme. de Caylus, in her <i>Souvenirs</i>, +wrote that "far from being born depraved, the future +favorite had a nature inherently disinclined to gallantry and +tending to virtue. She was flattered at being mistress, not +solely for her own pleasure, but on account of the passion +of the king; she believed that she could always make him +desire what she had resolved never to grant him. She +was in despair at her first pregnancy, consoled herself for +the second one, and in all the others carried impudence as far as it could go."</p> + +<p>She was known first as Mlle. Tonnay-Charente, and +was maid of honor to the Duchess of Orléans. When, at +the age of twenty-two, she married the Marquis de Montespan +and became lady in waiting to the queen, her +beauty, wit, and brilliant conversational powers at once +made her the centre of attraction; for several years, however, +the king scarcely noticed her. Upon secretly becoming +his mistress in 1668 and openly being declared as +such two years later, her husband attempted to interfere, +and was unceremoniously banished to his estates; in 1676 +he was legally separated from her. She persuaded the +king to legitimatize their children, who were confided to +Mme. Scarron,—afterward Mme. de Maintenon,—who later +influenced the king to abandon his mistress.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Montespan's power, lasting fourteen years, was +almost unlimited, and was the epoch of courtiers intoxicated +with passion and consumed by vice, infatuated with +the king and his mistress, whose title as <i>maîtresse-en-titre</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143"></a>[pg 143]</span> +was considered an official one, conferring the same privileges +and demanding the same ceremonies and etiquette +as did a high court position. The only opposition incurred +was from the clergy, who eventually, by uniting their +forces with the influence of Mme. de Maintenon, brought +about the disgrace of the mistress.</p> + +<p>When, in 1675, she desired to perform her Easter duties +publicly at Versailles, the priest refused to grant absolution +until she should discontinue her wanton, adulterous +life. She appealed to the king, and he referred the decision +of the matter to Bossuet, who decided that it was an +imperative duty to deny absolution to public sinners of +notorious lives who refused to abandon them. This was +immediately before her legal separation from her husband.</p> + +<p>Influenced by the preaching of men like Bourdaloue and +Bossuet, the king resolved to abandon his powerful mistress; +in 1686 she was finally separated from Louis XIV., +but did not leave Versailles until 1691, when, becoming +reconciled to her fate, she decided to retire to a convent. +Bossuet became her spiritual adviser, and described her +habits in the following letter to the king:</p> + +<p>"I find Mme. de Montespan sufficiently tranquil. She +occupies herself greatly in good works. I see her much +affected by the verities I propose to her, which are the +same I uttered to your majesty. To her—as to you—I +have offered the words by which God commands us to +yield our whole hearts to him; they have caused her to +shed many tears. May God establish these verities in the +depths of the hearts of both of you, in order that so many +tears, so much suffering, so many efforts as you have +made to subdue yourselves, may not be in vain."</p> + +<p>The king did not wholly abandon his mistress; from a +material point of view, she was more powerful than ever, +for Louis XIV. gave orders to his minister, Colbert, to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144"></a>[pg 144]</span> +do for Mme. de Montespan whatever she wished, and her +wishes caused a heavy drain upon the treasury. The +king continued to pay court to other favorites, such as +the Princesse de Soubèse and Mlle. de Fontanges; the +latter was his third mistress, but her career was of short +duration, as one of the last acts of Mme. de Montespan +was, it is said, the poisoning of Mlle. de Fontanges; this, +however, is not generally accepted as true, although the +Princesse Palatine wrote the following which throws suspicion +upon the former favorite: "Mme. de Montespan +was a fiend incarnate, but the Fontanges was good and +simple. The latter is dead—because, they say, the former +put poison in her milk. I do not know whether or not +this is true, but what I do know well is that two of the +Fontanges's people died, saying publicly that they had +been poisoned." With the increasing influence of Mme. de +Maintenon, the king completely forgot his former mistress.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Montespan was possibly the most arrogant and +despotic of all French mistresses and she was, also, the +most humiliated. She had inspired no confidence, friendship, +love, or respect in Louis XIV., who eventually looked +with shame and remorse upon his relations with her. It +took her sixteen years to overcome her terrible passion +and to give up the court forever. Not until 1691 did she +become reconciled to departure from Versailles; thenceforth, +penitence conquered immoral desires. M. Saint-Amand +says she not only "arrived at remorse, but at +macerations, fasts, and haircloths. She limited herself +to the coarsest underlinen and wore a belt and garters +studded with iron points. She came at last to give all she +had to the poor;" she also founded a hospital in which she nursed the sick.</p> + +<p>While at the convent, she tried, in vain, to effect a +reconciliation with her husband; not until every avenue +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page145" id="page145"></a>[pg 145]</span> +to a social life was cut off from her, did she entirely surrender +herself to charity and the service of God. In her +latest years, she was so tormented by the horrors of death +that she employed several women whose only occupation +was to watch with her at night. She died in 1707, forgotten +by the king and all her former associates; Louis XIV. +formally prohibited her children, the Duke of Maine, the +Comte de Toulouse, the Comte de Vexin, and Mlles. de +Nantes, de Blois, and de Tours, from wearing mourning for her.</p> + +<p>A striking contrast to Mme. de Montespan in character, +disposition, morality, and birth was Mme. de Maintenon, +one of the greatest and most important women in French +history. What is known of her is so enveloped in calumny +and falsehood and made so uncertain by dispute, that to +disentangle the actual facts is almost an impossibility, +despite the glowing tribute paid to her in the immense +work published recently by the Comte d'Haussonville and M. Gabriel Hanotaux.</p> + +<p>It would seem that the more the history of Mme. de +Maintenon is studied, the more one is led away from a +first impression—which usually proves to be an erroneous +one. Thus, M. Lavallée, in his first work, <i>Histoire des +Français</i>, wrote that she "was of the most complete aridity +of heart, narrow in the scope of her affections, and +meanly intriguing. She suggested fatal enterprises and inappropriate +appointments; she forced mediocre and servile +persons upon the king; she had, in fine, the major share +in the errors and disasters of the reign of Louis XIV." A +few years later he wrote, in his <i>Histoire de la maison royale +de Saint-Cyr</i>: "Mme. de Maintenon gave Louis XIV. none +but salutary and disinterested counsels which were useful +to the state and instrumental in making less heavy the burdens of the people."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page146" id="page146"></a>[pg 146]</span> + +<p>Opinion in general, especially French opinion, has been +very bitter toward her. History has even reproached her +with having been a usurper, a tyrant, and a selfish master. +The great preacher, Fénelon, wrote to her:</p> + +<p>"They say you take too little part in affairs. Your +mind is more capable than you think. You are, perhaps, +a little too distrustful of yourself, or, rather, you are too +much afraid to enter into discussions contrary to the inclination +you have for a tranquil and meditative life."</p> + +<p>Is this picture, left by Emile Chasles and accepted by +M. Saint-Amand, truthful? "This intelligent woman, far +from being too much heeded, was not enough so. There +was in her a veritable love for the public welfare, a true +sorrow in the midst of our misfortunes. To-day, it is +necessary to retrench much from the grandeur of her +worldly power and add a great deal to that of her soul." +M. Saint-Amand believes her sincere when she wrote to Mme. des Ursins:</p> + +<p>"In whatever way matters turn, I conjure you, madame, +to regard me as a person incapable of directing affairs, who +heard them talked too late to be skilful in them, and who +hates them more than she ignores them.... My +interference in them is not desired and I do not desire to +interfere. They are not concealed from me, but I know +nothing consecutively and am often badly informed."</p> + +<p>The opinions of her contemporaries are not always flattering, +but such are possibly due to envy and jealousy or to +some purely personal prejudice. Thus, when the Duchess +of Orléans, the Princesse Palatine, calls her "that nasty +old thing, that wicked devil, that shrivelled-up, filthy old +Maintenon, that concubine of the king," and casts upon her +other gross aspersions that are unfit to be repeated, one +must remember that the calumniator was a German, the +daughter of the Elector Palatine Charles-Louis, a woman +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page147" id="page147"></a>[pg 147]</span> +honest in her morals, but shameless in her speech, who +loved the beauties of nature more than those of the palaces; +more shocked at hypocrites than at religion or irreligion, +she took Mme. de Maintenon to be a type of the +impostors whom she detested. It was her son who became +regent, and it was her son who married one of the +illegitimate daughters of Louis XIV.—an alliance of which +his mother had a horror.</p> + +<p>The memoirs of Saint-Simon are interesting, but the +odious picture he has drawn of Mme. de Maintenon is +hardly in accord with later appreciations. M. Saint-Amand +sums up the two classes of critics thus:</p> + +<p>"The revolutionary school which likes to drag the +memory of the great king through the mire, naturally +detests the eminent woman who was that king's companion, +his friend and consoler. Writers of this school +would like to make of her a type not only odious and fatal, +but ungraceful and unsympathetic, without radiance, +charm or any sort of fascination. She is too frequently +called to mind under the aspect of a worn old woman, +stiff and severe, with tearless eyes and a face without a +smile. We forget that in her youth she was one of the +prettiest women of her time, that her beauty was wonderfully +preserved, and that in her old age she retained that +superiority of style and language, that distinction of +manner and exquisite tact, that gentle firmness of character, +that charm and elevation of mind, which, at every +period of her life, gained her so much praise and so many friends."</p> + +<p>Mme. de Maintenon was born in prison. Her maiden +name was Françoise d'Aubigné. She was the granddaughter +of Agrippa d'Aubigné, the historian. Her father +had planned to settle in the Carolinas, and his correspondence +with the English government, to that effect, was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page148" id="page148"></a>[pg 148]</span> +treated as treason; he was thrown into prison, where his +wife voluntarily shared his fate and where the future +Mme. de Maintenon was born. After the death of her +father, she was confided to her aunt, Mme. de Villette, a +Calvinist, who trained her in the principles of Protestantism. +Because of the refusal of her daughter to attend +mass, her mother put her in charge of the Countess of +Neuillant who, with great difficulty, converted Françoise back to Catholicism.</p> + +<p>At the home of the Countess of Neuillant, she often met +Scarron, the comic poet—a paralytic and cripple—who +offered her money with which to pay for admission to a +convent, a proposition which she refused; subsequently, +however, the countess sent her to the Ursulines to be +educated. When, after two years, she lost her mother +and was thus left without home, fortune, or future prospects, +she consented, at the age of seventeen, to marry +the poet. Thus, born in a prison, without even a dowry, +harshly reared by a mother who was under few obligations +to life, more harshly treated in the convent, introduced +as a poor relation into the society of her aunt and +to the friends of her godmother, the Countess of Neuillant, +she early learned to distrust life and suspect man, and to +restrain her ambitions.</p> + +<p>Exceedingly beautiful, graceful, and witty, she soon +won her way to the brilliant and fashionable society of the +crippled wit, buffoon, and poet, who was coarse, profane, +ungodly, and physically an unsightly wreck. In this +society, which the burlesque poet amused by his inexhaustible +wit and fancy, and his frank, Gallic gayety, she +showed an infinite amount of tact and soon made his salon +the most prominent social centre of Paris. There, Scarron, +never tolerated a stupid person, no matter of what blood or rank.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page149" id="page149"></a>[pg 149]</span> + +<p>When asked what settlement he proposed to make upon +his wife, he replied: "Immortality." At another time, he +remarked: "I shall not make her commit any follies, but I +shall teach her a great many." On his deathbed he said: +"My only regret is that I cannot leave anything to my +wife with whom I have every imaginable reason to be +content." In this free-and-easy salon, a young noble said, +soon after the marriage of Scarron: "If it were a question +of taking liberties with the queen or Mme. Scarron, I +would not deliberate; I would sooner take them with the queen."</p> + +<p>The reputation made by the young Mme. Scarron gained +her many influential friends, especially among court +people. At the death of her husband, in 1660, to avoid +trouble with his family, she renounced the marriage dowry +of twenty-four thousand livres. Her friends procured her +a pension of two thousand livres from the queen. Thus +freed from care, she lived according to her inclination, which +tended toward pleasing and doing good; taking good cheer +and her services voluntarily and unaffectedly to all families, +she gradually made herself a necessity among them—thus +she laid the foundation of her future greatness. She +was received by the best families, grew in favor everywhere, +and even won over all her enemies. Modest, complaisant, +promptly and readily rendering a favor, prudent, +practical and virtuous, her one desire was to make friends, +not so much for the purpose of using them, but because +she realized that a person in humble circumstances cannot have too many friends.</p> + +<p>Her portrait as a widow is admirably drawn by M. Saint-Amand: +"Mme. Scarron seeks esteem, not love. To +please while remaining virtuous, to endure, if need be, +privations and even poverty, but to win the reputation +of a strong character, to deserve the sympathy and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page150" id="page150"></a>[pg 150]</span> +approbation of honest persons—such is the direction of +all her efforts. Well dressed, though very simply; discreet +and modest, intelligent and <i>distingué</i>, with that patrician +elegance which luxury cannot create, but which is +inborn and comes by nature only; pious, with a sincere +and gentle piety; less occupied with herself than with +others; talking well and—what is much rarer—knowing +how to listen; taking an interest in the joys and sorrows +of her friends, and skilful in amusing and consoling them—she +is justly regarded as one of the most amiable as +well as one of the superior women in Paris. Economical +and simple in her tastes, she makes her accounts balance +perfectly, thanks to an annual pension of two thousand +livres granted her by Queen Anne of Austria."</p> + +<p>When Mme. Scarron was about to leave Paris because +of lack of funds and the loss of her pension, after the +death of Queen Anne, her friend Mme. de Montespan, +the king's mistress, interfered in her behalf and had the +pension renewed, thus inadvertently paving the way for +her own downfall. Three years later Mme. Scarron was +established in an isolated house near Paris, where she received +the natural children of Louis XIV. and Mme. de +Montespan, as they arrived, in quick succession, in 1669, +1670, 1672, 1673, and 1674. There, acting as governess, +she hid them from the world. This is the only blemish +upon the fair record of her life. It is maintained by her +detractors that a virtuous woman would not have undertaken +the education of the doubly adulterous children of +Louis XIV. (thus, in a way, encouraging adultery), and +that she would have given up her charge upon the first proposals of love.</p> + +<p>However deep this stain may be considered, one must +remember that the standard of honor at the court of +Louis XIV. did not encourage delicacy in matters of love, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page151" id="page151"></a>[pg 151]</span> +and Mme. Scarron knew only the standard of society; her +morality was no more extraordinary than was her intelligence, +and it was to her credit that she preserved intact +her honor and her virtue. At first the king looked with +much dissatisfaction upon her appointment, not admiring +the extreme gravity and reserve of the young widow; +however, the unusual order of her talents and wisdom +soon attracted his attention, and her entrance at court was +speedily followed by quarrels between the mistress and +Louis XIV. In 1674 the king, wishing to acknowledge his +recognition of her merits, purchased the estate of Maintenon +for her and made her Marquise de Maintenon.</p> + +<p>Her primary object became the gaining of the favor of +Mme. de Montespan; for this purpose she taught herself +humility, while toward the king she directed the forces of +her dignity, reserve, and intellectual attainments. Being +the very opposite of the mistress who won and retained +him by sensuous charms (in which the king was fast +losing pleasure and satisfaction), she soon effected a +change by entertaining her master with the solid attainments +of her mind—religion, art, literature.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Maintenon was always amiable and sympathetic, +kind and thoughtful, never irritating, crossing, or +censuring the king; wonderfully judicious, modest, self-possessed, +and calm, she was irreproachable in conduct +and morals, tolerating no improper advances. Although +the characteristics and general deportment of Mme. de +Montespan were entirely different from those of Mme. +de Maintenon, the latter entertained true friendship for her +benefactress, displaying astonishing tact, shrewdness, and self-control.</p> + +<p>If Mme. de Maintenon were not, at first, loved by the +king, it was because she appeared to him too ideal, sublime, +spirituelle, too severely sensible. Then came the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page152" id="page152"></a>[pg 152]</span> +turning point; at forty years of age she was "a beautiful +and stately woman with brilliant dark eyes, clear complexion, +beautiful white teeth, and graceful manners;" +sedate, self-possessed, and astonished at nothing, she had +learned the art of waiting, and studied the king—showing +him those qualities he desired to see.</p> + +<p>Her aim became to take the king from his mistress and +lead him back to the queen. After gaining his confidence +by her sincerity and trustworthiness, and making herself +indispensable to him, she succeeded in bringing about the +desired separation, through the medium of the dauphiness, +whom she won over to her cause. Thus, without perfidy, +hypocrisy, intrigue, or manœuvring, by simply being +herself, she replaced the haughty and beautiful Mme. de Montespan.</p> + +<p>When, after the queen's death, and after having lived +about the king for fifteen years, "she had succeeded in +making the devotee take precedence of the lover, when +piety had overcome passion, when religion had effected its +change, then Louis the Great offered his hand in marriage +to her who had only veneration, gratitude, and devotion +for him, but no passion or love." Reasons of state demanded +the secrecy of the marriage; for had he raised her +to the throne, political complications would have arisen +and disturbed his subsequent career; Mme. de Maintenon +fully appreciated the intricacies of the situation, and was +therefore content to remain what she was.</p> + +<p>She came to the king when he was beginning to feel the +effects of his former mode of life; he needed fidelity and +friendship, and he saw these in her. His feelings for her +are well described in the following extract by M. Saint-Amand:</p> + +<p>"To sum up: the king's sentiment for her was of the +most complex nature. There was in it a mingling of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" id="page153"></a>[pg 153]</span> +religion and of physical love, a calculation of reason and +an impulse of the heart, an aspiration after the mild joys +of family life and a romantic inclination—a sort of compact +between French good sense, subjugated by the wit, tact, +and wisdom of an eminent woman, and Spanish imagination +allured by the fancy of having extricated this elect +woman from poverty in order to make her almost a queen. +Finally, it must be noted that Louis XIV., always religiously +inclined, was convinced that Mme. de Maintenon +had been sent to him by Heaven for his salvation, and that +the pious counsels of this saintly woman, who knew how +to render devotion so agreeable and attractive, seemed to +him to be so many inspirations from on High."</p> + +<p>It must not be inferred, however, that the feeling for +Mme. de Maintenon was purely ideal. "He was unwilling +to remarry," says the Abbé de Choisy, "because of +tenderness for his people. He had, already, three grandsons, +and wisely judged that the princes of a second marriage +might, in course of time, cause civil wars. On the +other hand, he could not dispense with a wife and Mme. de +Maintenon pleased him greatly. Her gentle and scintillating +wit promised him an agreeable intercourse which would +refresh him after the cares of royalty. Her person was still +engaging and her age prevented her from having children."</p> + +<p>As his wife, Mme. de Maintenon took more interest in +the king and his family than she did in the affairs of the +kingdom. To be the wife of the hearth and home, to +educate the princes, to rear the young Duchess of Bourgogne, +granddaughter of Louis XIV., to calm and ease the +old age of the king and to distract and amuse him, became +her sole objects in life. Her power, thus directed, became +almost unbounded; she was the dispenser of favors +and the real ruler, sitting in the cabinet of the king; and her +counsels were so wise that they soon became invaluable.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page154" id="page154"></a>[pg 154]</span> + +<p>At court, she opposed all foolish extravagance, such as +the endless fêtes and amusements of all kinds which had +become so popular under Mme. de Montespan—a procedure +which caused her the greatest difficulties and provoked +revolts and quarrels in the royal family. By her prudence, +tact, wisdom, and the loyalty of her friendship, +she won and retained the respect and favor—if not the +love—of everyone. Her reputation was never tarnished +by scandal. "When one reflects that Louis XIV. was only +forty-seven years old and in the prime of life and Mme. +de Montespan in the full blaze of her marvellous beauty, +that this woman of humble birth, in her youth a Protestant, +poor, a governess, the widow of a low, comic poet, should +win so proud a man as Louis XIV., seems incredible."</p> + +<p>When one considers that throughout life her one aspiration +was an irreproachable conduct, that her manner of +action was always defensive, never offensive, that her +chief aim was to restore the king to the queen (who died +in her arms) and not to replace his mistress, one cannot +withhold admiration and esteem from this truly great +woman who accomplished all those honorable designs.</p> + +<p>The obstacles to be conquered before reaching her goal +were indeed numerous, but she managed them all. There +were so many persons hostile to her,—mistresses and intriguers, +bishops and priests, courtesans and valets, princes +and members of the royal family,—to overcome whom she +had to be on her guard, make use of every opportunity, +show a rare knowledge of society and court, a profound +skill and address, resolution and will; and she was equal to all occasions.</p> + +<p>Her greatest defect was the narrowness of her religious +views. Entirely in the hands of her spiritual advisers, +obeying them faithfully and blindly, she was not inclined +to theological investigation, but was sincerely devout. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page155" id="page155"></a>[pg 155]</span> +More interested in the various persons than in doctrines, +she showed a passion for making bishops, abbots, and +priests, as well as for negotiating compromises, reconciling +<i>amours propres</i> and doing away with all religious hatred. +Lacking, above all else, clearness of conception, promptness +and firmness of decision, she was finally persuaded +to encourage the bigotry of Louis XIV. and his intolerance +toward those who differed from him. Hence, in 1685, +she permitted that fearfully destructive persecution of the +Protestants, which caused over three hundred thousand +of France's most solid people to leave the country; and +by her fanaticism and false zeal, she caused the king to be +a party to that awful catastrophe.</p> + +<p>"This one act of hers counterbalances nearly all her +virtues, and we remember her more as the murderess of +thousands of innocents than as the calm and virtuous governess. +But we must remember the nature of her advisers +and the eternal policy of the Catholic Church, which are +ever identical with absolutism. To uphold the institutions +and opinions already established, was the one sentiment of +the age; innovation, progress, were destructive—Mme. de +Maintenon became the watchful guardian of royalty and +the Church." Such is the verdict of English opinion. +M. Saint-Amand judges the affair differently:</p> + +<p>"A woman as pious and reasonable as she was, animated +always by the noblest intentions, loving her country +and always showing sympathy for the poor people—not +merely in words but in deeds as well—detesting war and +loving justice and peace, always moderate and irreproachable +in her conduct—such a woman cannot be the mischievous, +crafty, malicious, and vindictive bigot imagined +by many writers; she did not encourage such an act, nor +would her nature permit to do so.... The prayer +she uttered every morning, best portrays the woman and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page156" id="page156"></a>[pg 156]</span> +her rôle: 'Lord, grant me to gladden the king, to console +him, to sadden him when it must be for Thy glory. Cause +me to hide from him nothing which he ought to know +through me, and which no one else would have courage to +tell him.' ... To Madame de Glapion she said: 'I +would like to die before the king; I would go to God; I would +cast myself at the foot of His throne; I would offer Him +the desires of a soul that He would have purified; I would +pray Him to grant the king greater enlightenment, more +love for his people, more knowledge of the state of the +provinces, more aversion for the perfidy of the countries, +more horror of the ways in which his authority is abused: +and God would hear my prayers.'"</p> + +<p>This pious woman was weary of life before her marriage, +and but changed the nature of her misery upon +reaching the highest goal open to a woman. Marly, Versailles, +Fontainebleau were only different names for the +same servitude. When she had attained her desire, she +thought her repose assured; instead, her ennui, her disgust +of life and the world, only increased; realizing this, +she began to direct her thoughts entirely toward God and +her aspirations toward things not of this earth—hence the +almost complete absence of her influence in politics.</p> + +<p>She was never happy, and that her life was a disappointment +to her may be gathered from the following words from +her pen: "Flee from men as from your mortal enemies; +never be alone with them. Take no pleasure in hearing that +you are pretty, amiable, that you have a fine voice. The +world is a malicious deceiver which never means what it +says; and the majority of men who say such things to young +girls, do it hoping to find some means of ruining them."</p> + +<p>Her most intense desire seemed to be to please, and be +esteemed—to receive the <i>honneur du monde</i>, which appeared +to be her sole motive for living. When in power, she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" id="page157"></a>[pg 157]</span> +did not use her influence as the intriguing women of the +epoch would have done, because she did not possess +their qualities—taste, breadth of vision, and selfish ambitions. +Her objects in life were the reform of a wicked +court, the extirpation of heresy, the elevation of men of +genius, and the improvement of the society and religion +of France. After the death of the king (in 1715), she retired +to Saint-Cyr, and spent the remainder of her life in +acts of charity and devotional exercises.</p> + +<p>After the king's death she dismissed all her servants +and disposed of her carriages as well, "unable to reconcile +herself to feeding horses while so many young girls were +in need," as she said. For almost four years she peacefully +and happily lived in a very modest apartment. She +seldom went out and then only to the village to visit the +sick and the poor. On June 10, 1717, when she was +eighty-one years old, Peter the Great went to Saint-Cyr +for the purpose of seeing and talking to the greatest +woman of France. He found her confined to her bed; the +chamber being but dimly lighted, he thrust aside the curtain +in order to examine the features of the woman who +had ruled the destinies of France for so many years. The +Czar talked to her for some time, and when he asked +Madame de Maintenon from what she was suffering, she +replied: "From great old age." She died on August 15, +1719, and was buried in the choir of the church of Saint-Cyr, +where a modest slab of marble indicated the spot +where her body reposed until, in 1794, when the church +was being transformed into hospital wards, "the workmen +opened the vault, and took out the body and dragged it +into the court with dreadful yells and threw it, stripped +and mutilated, into a hole in the cemetery."</p> + +<p>The greatest work of Mme. de Maintenon was the +founding of the Seminary of Saint-Cyr, which the king +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page158" id="page158"></a>[pg 158]</span> +granted to her about the time of their marriage and of his +illness; it was probably intended as the penance of a sick +man who wished to make reparation for the wrongs inflicted +upon some of the young girls of the nobility, and as +a wedding gift to Mme. de Maintenon. There, aided by +nuns, she cared for and educated two hundred and fifty +pupils, dowerless daughters of impoverished nobles. It +was "the veritable offspring of her who was never a +daughter, a wife, nor a mother." There she was happy +and content; there she recalled her own youth when +she was poor and forsaken; there she found respite from +the turmoils and agitations of Versailles; there she was +supreme; there she governed absolutely and was truly loved.</p> + +<p>For thirty years she was queen at Saint-Cyr, visiting it +every other day and teaching the young girls for whom +it was a protection against the world. Since childhood, +she had been so accustomed to serve herself, to wait upon +others and to care for the smallest details of the management +of the household, that she introduced this spirit into +society and at Saint-Cyr, where she managed every detail, +from the linen to the provisions; this showed a reasonable +and well-balanced mind, but not any high order of intelligence.</p> + +<p>Of the young girls in her charge, she desired to make +model women, characterized by simplicity and piety; they +were to be free from morbid curiosity of mind, were to +practise absolute self-denial and to devote their lives to a +practical labor. Her advice was: "Be reasonable or you +will be unhappy; if you are haughty, you will be reminded +of your misery, but if you are humble, people will recall +your birth.... Commence by making yourself loved, +without which you will never succeed. Is it not true that, +had you not loved me or had you had an aversion for me, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page159" id="page159"></a>[pg 159]</span> +you would not have accepted, with such good grace, the +counsels that I have given you? This is absolutely certain—the +most beautiful things when taught by persons +who displease us, do not impress but rather harden us."</p> + +<p>A counsel that strikes home forcibly to-day, one which +strongly attacks the modern fad of neglecting home for +church, is expressed well in one of her letters: "Your +piety will not be right if, when married, you abandon your +husband, your children and your servants, to go to the +churches at times when you are not obliged to go there. +When a young girl says that a woman would do better +properly to raise her children and instruct her servants, +than to spend her morning in church, one can accommodate +one's self to such religion, which she will cause to be loved and respected."</p> + +<p>At the hour of leisure, she gave the girls those familiar +talks which were anticipated by them with so much pleasure, +and extracts from which are still cherished by the +young women of France. She believed that the aim of +instruction for young girls should be to educate them to be +Christian women with well-balanced and logical minds. +With her varied experience of the ups and downs of life, +she gradually came to the conclusion that, after all, there +is nothing in the world so good as sound common sense, +but one that is not enamored of itself, which obeys established +laws and knows its own limits. Her sex is intended +to obey, thus her reason was a Christian reason.</p> + +<p>"You can be truly reasonable only in proportion as you +are subservient to God.... Never tell children fantastic +stories, nor permit them to believe them; give them +things for what they are worth. Never tell them stories +of which, when they grow to independent reasoning, you +must disillusion them. You must talk to a girl of seven +as seriously and with as much reason as to a young lady +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page160" id="page160"></a>[pg 160]</span> +of twenty. You must take part in the pleasures of children, +but never accommodate them with a childish language +or with foolish or puerile ways. You can never be +too reasonable or too sane. Religion, reason, and truth are always good."</p> + +<p>To appreciate the importance of Mme. de Maintenon's +position and the revolutionary effect which her attitude +produced upon the customs of the time, one must remember +with what she had to contend. Hers was a period of +passion and adventure—a period which was followed by +sorrow and disaster. The novels of Mlle. de Scudéry, +which were at the height of their popularity, had over-refined +the sentiments; the <i>chevaleresque</i> heroes and picturesque +heroines turned the heads of young girls, who +dreamed of an ideal and perfect love; their one longing +was for the romantic—for the enchantments and delights +of life. In this stilted and amorous atmosphere, Mme. de +Maintenon preserved her poise and fought vigorously +against the fads of the day. The young girls under her +care were taught to love just as they were taught to do +other things—with reason. Also, she guarded against the +weaknesses of nature and the flesh. "Than Mme. de +Maintenon, no one ever better knew the evils of the world +without having fallen prey to them," says Sainte-Beuve; +"and no one ever satisfied and disgusted the world more, +while charming it at the same time."</p> + +<p>Mme. de Maintenon's ideal methods of education were +not immediately effective; there were many periods of +hardship, apprehension, and doubt. Thus, when Racine's +<i>Esther</i> (written at the request of Mme. de Maintenon, to +be presented by the pupils at Saint-Cyr) was performed, +there sprang up a taste for poetry, writing, and literature +of all kinds. The acting turned the girls' thoughts into +other channels and threatened to counteract the teachings +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" id="page161"></a>[pg 161]</span> +of simplicity and reason; no one ever showed more genuine +good sense, wholesomeness of mind, and breadth of +view, than were displayed by Mme. de Maintenon in +dealing with these disheartening drawbacks.</p> + +<p>In endeavoring to impress upon those young minds the +correct use of language and the proper style of writing, +she wrote for them models of letters which showed simplicity, +precision, truth, facility, and wonderful clearness; +and these were imitated by them in their replies to her.</p> + +<p>She wished, above all, to make them realize that her +experience with that social and court life, for which they +longed, was one of disappointment: that was a world apart, +in which amusing and being amused was the one occupation. +She had passed wearily through that period of life, +and sought repose, truth, tranquillity, and religious resignation; +to make those young spirits feel the fallacy of +such a mode of existence was her earnest desire, and her +efforts in that direction were characterized by a zeal, +energy, and persistence which were productive of wonderful +results. That was one phase of her greatness and influence.</p> + +<p>But Mme. de Maintenon was somewhat too severe, too +narrow, too strict,—one might say, too ascetic,—in her +teaching. There was too little of that which, in this world, +cheers, invigorates, and enlivens. Her instruction was all +reason, without relieving features; it lacked what Sainte-Beuve +calls the <i>don des larmes</i> (gift of tears). Hers was +a noble, just, courageous, and delicate judgment; but it +was without the softening qualities of the truly feminine, +which calls for tears and affection, tenderness and sympathy.</p> + +<p>She remains in educational affairs the greatest woman +of the seventeenth century, if not of all her countrywomen. +M. Faguet says: "This widow of Scarron, who was nearly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" id="page162"></a>[pg 162]</span> +Queen of France, was born minister of public instruction." +She powerfully upheld the cause of morality, was a +liberal patroness of education and learning, and all aspiring +geniuses were encouraged and financially aided by her. +It was she who impressed upon Louis XIV. the truth of +the existence of a God to whom he was accountable for his +acts—a teaching which contributed no little to the general +purification of morals at court.</p> + +<p>The writings of Mme. de Maintenon occupy a very high +place in the history of French literature; in fact, her letters +have often been compared with those of Mme. de Sévigné, +although, unlike the latter, she never wrote merely +to please, but to instruct, to convert, and to console. In +her works there was no pretension to literary style; they +were sermons on morals, characterized by discretion and +simplicity, dignity and persuasiveness, seriousness and +earnestness; Napoleon placed her letters above those of +Mme. de Sévigné. M. Saint-Amand says of her writings: +"More reflection than vivacity, more wisdom than passion, +more gravity than charm, more authority than grace, +more solidity than brilliancy—such are the characteristics +of a correspondence which might justify the expression, the style is the woman."</p> + +<p>He gives, also, the following discriminating comparison +between the two writers: "Enjoyment, Gallic animation, +good-tempered gayety, fall to the lot of Mme. de Sévigné; +what marks Mme. de Maintenon is experience, reason, +profundity. The one laughs from ear to ear—the other +barely smiles. The one has pleasant illusions about everything, +admiration which borders on <i>naïveté</i>, ecstasies when +in the presence of the royal sun: the other never permits +herself to be fascinated by either the king or the court, +by men, women, or things. She has seen human grandeur +too close at hand not to understand its nothingness, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page163" id="page163"></a>[pg 163]</span> +and her conclusions bear the imprint of a profound sadness. +At times Mme. de Sévigné, also, has attacks of +melancholy, but the cloud passes quickly and she is again +in the sunshine. Gayety—frank, communicative, radiant +gayety—is the basis of the character of this woman +who is more witty, seductive, and amusing than is any +other. Mme. de Sévigné shines by imagination—Mme. +de Maintenon by judgment. The one permits herself to +be dazzled, intoxicated—the other always preserves her +indifference. The one exaggerates the splendors of the +court—the other sees them as they are. The one is more +of a woman—the other more of a saint."</p> + +<p>Mme. de Maintenon may be called "a woman of fate," +She was never daughter, mother, or wife; as a child, she +was not loved by her mother, and her father was worthless; +married to two men, both aged beyond their years, she +was, indeed, but an instrument of fate. Truthful, candid, +and discreet she was entirely free from all morbid tendencies, +and was modest and chaste from inclination as well +as from principle. Though outwardly cold, proud, and reserved, +yet in her deportment toward those who were +fortunate enough to possess her esteem, she was kind—even +loving. While not intelligent to a remarkable degree, +she was prudent, circumspect, and shrewd, never losing +her self-control. When once interested, and convinced as +to the proper course, she displayed marvellous strength of +will, sagacity, and personal force. Beautiful and witty, she +easily adapted herself to any position in which she might +be placed; though intolerant and narrow in her religious +views, she was otherwise gentle, charitable, and unselfish. +Therefore, it is evident that she possessed, to a greater +degree than did any other woman of her time, unusual as +well as desirable qualities—qualities that made her powerful and incomparable.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" id="page165"></a>[pg 165]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter VI</h2> + +<h2>Mme. de Sévigné, Mme. de La Fayette, Mme. Dacier, Mme. de Caylus</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" id="page167"></a>[pg 167]</span> + + +<p>The seventeenth century was, in French history, the +greatest century from the standpoint of literary perfection, +the sixteenth century the richest in naissant ideas, +and the eighteenth the greatest in the way of developing and +formulating those ideas; and each century produced great +women who were in perfect harmony with and expressed +the ideals of each period of civilization.</p> + +<p>It is not within the limits of reason to expect women +to rival, in literature, the great writers such as Corneille, +Racine, Molière, Bossuet, La Fontaine, Descartes, Pascal—most +of whom were but little influenced by femininity; +there were those, however, among the sex, who were +conspicuous for elevation of thought, dignity in manner +and bearing, and brilliancy in conversation—attributes +which they have left to posterity in numberless exquisite +and charming letters, in interesting and invaluable +memoirs, or in consummate psychological and social portraitures +incorporated into the form of novels. Among +female writers of letters, Mme. de Sévigné wears the +laurel wreath; Mme. de La Fayette, with Mlle. de Scudéry, +is the representative of the novel; Mme. Dacier +was the great advocate of the more liberal education of +women; and the <i>Souvenirs</i> of Mme. de Caylus made that authoress immortal.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" id="page168"></a>[pg 168]</span> + +<p>The association of La Rochefoucauld, the Cardinal de +Retz, the Chevalier de Meré, Mme. de La Fayette, and +Mme. de Sévigné, was responsible for almost everything +elevating and of interest produced in the seventeenth century. +Of that highly intellectual circle, Mme. de Sévigné +was the leading spirit by force of her extraordinary faculty +for making friends, her wonderful talent as a writer, her +originality and her charming disposition. She gave the +tone to letters; M. Faguet says that her epistles were all +masterpieces of amiable badinage, lively narration, maternal +passion, true eloquence. More than that, they are important +sources of historical knowledge, inasmuch as they +contain much information concerning the politics of the +day, and furnish an excellent guide to the etiquette, +fashions, tastes, and literature of the writer's period.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Sévigné was the most important figure of the +time, being to that third prodigiously intellectual epoch of +France what Marguerite de Navarre was to the sixteenth +century, and the Hôtel de Rambouillet to the beginning +of the seventeenth century. She represented the style, +<i>esprit</i>, elegance, and <i>goût</i> of this greatest of French cultural +periods. Her life may be considered as having had +two distinct phases—one connected with an unhappy marriage +and the other the period of a restless widowhood.</p> + +<p>Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marchioness of Sévigné, was +born at Paris, in 1626; at the age of eighteen months she +lost her father; at seven years of age, her mother; at +eight, her grandmother; at ten, her grandfather on her +mother's side; she was thus left with her paternal grandmother, +Mme. de Chantal, who had her carefully educated +under the best masters, such as Ménage and Chapelain +(court favorites), from whom she early imbibed a genuine +taste for solid reading; from these instructors she learned +Spanish, Italian, and Latin.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page169" id="page169"></a>[pg 169]</span> + +<p>In 1644, she was married to the Marquis Henri de +Sévigné, who was killed six years later in a duel, but who +had, in the meantime, succeeded in making a considerable +gap in her immense fortune, in spite of the precautions of +her uncle, the Abbé of Coulanges. Henceforward, her +interests in life were centred in the education of her two +children; to them she wrote letters which have brought +her name down to posterity as, possibly, the greatest +epistolary writer that the history of literature has ever recorded.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Sévigné was but nineteen years old when, +after the marriage of Julie d'Angennes, the frequenters of +the Hôtel de Rambouillet began to disperse, and she was in +much demand by the successors of Mme. de Rambouillet. +While the women of the reign of Louis XIII.—Mmes. de +Hautefort, de Sablé, de Longueville, de Chevreuse, etc.—were +exceedingly talented talkers, they were poor writers: +but in Mme. de Sévigné, Mme. de La Fayette, and Mlle. de +Scudéry both arts were developed to the highest degree.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Sévigné was on the best terms with every +great writer of her time—Pascal, Racine, La Fontaine, +Bossuet, Bourdaloue, La Rochefoucauld. She was a +woman of such broad affections that numerous friends and +admirers were a necessary part of her existence. Of all the +eminent women of the seventeenth century, she had the +greatest number of lovers—suitors who frequently became +her tormentors. Ménage, her teacher, who threatened to +leave her never to see her again, was brought back to her +by kind words, such as: "Farewell, friend—of all my +friends the best." The Abbé Marigny, that "delicate +epicurean, that improviser of fine triolets, ballads, vaudevilles, +that enemy of all sadness and sticklers for morality," +charmed her, at times, with sentimental ballads, such as the following:</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page170" id="page170"></a>[pg 170]</span> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"Si l'amour est un doux servage,</p> +<p>Si l'on ne peut trop estimer</p> +<p>Les plaisirs ou l'amour engage,</p> +<p>Qu'on est sot de ne pas aimer!</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Mais si l'on se sent enflammer</p> +<p>D'un feu dont l'ardeur est extrême,</p> +<p>Et qu'on n'ose pas l'exprimer,</p> +<p>Qu'on est sot alors que l'on aime!</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Si dans la fleur de son bel âge,</p> +<p>Une qui pourrait tout charmer,</p> +<p>Vous donne son cœur en partage,</p> +<p>Qu'on est sot de ne point aimer!</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Mais s'il faut toujours s'alarmer,</p> +<p>Craindre, rougir, devenir blême,</p> +<p>Aussitôt qu'on s'entend nommer,</p> +<p>Qu'on est sot alors que l'on aime!</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Pour complaire au plus beau visage</p> +<p>Qu'amour puisse jamais former,</p> +<p>S'il ne faut rien qu'un doux langage,</p> +<p>Qu'on est sot de ne pas aimer!</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"Mais quand on se voit consumer.</p> +<p>Si la belle est toujours de même,</p> +<p>Sans que rien la puisse animer,</p> +<p>Qu'on est sot alors que l'on aime!</p> + </div> </div> + +<center>"L'ENVOI.</center> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"En amour si rien n'est amer,</p> +<p>Qu'on est sot de ne pas aimer!</p> +<p>Si tout l'est au degré suprême,</p> +<p>Qu'on est sot alors que l'on aime!</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>[If love is a sweet bondage,</p> +<p>If we cannot esteem too much</p> +<p>The pleasures in which love engages,</p> +<p>How foolish one is not to love!</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>But if we feel ourselves inflamed</p> +<p>With a passion whose ardor is extreme,</p> +<p>And which we dare not express,</p> +<p>How foolish we are, then, to love!</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" id="page171"></a>[pg 171]</span> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>If in the flower of her youth</p> +<p>There is one who could charm all.</p> +<p>And offers you her heart to share,</p> +<p>How very foolish not to love!</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>But if we must always be full of alarm—</p> +<p>Fear, blush and become pallid,</p> +<p>As soon as our name is spoken,</p> +<p>How foolish to love!</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>If to please the most beautiful countenance</p> +<p>That love can ever form,</p> +<p>Only a mellow language is necessary,</p> +<p>How foolish not to love!</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>But if we see ourselves wasting away,</p> +<p>If the belle is always the same</p> +<p>And cannot be animated,</p> +<p>How very foolish to love!</p> + </div> </div> + +<center>ENVOY.</center> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>If in love, nothing is bitter,</p> +<p>How dreadfully foolish not to love!</p> +<p>If everything is so to the highest degree,</p> +<p>How awfully foolish to love!]</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>Tréville went so far as to say that the figure of Mme. +de Sévigné was beautiful enough to set the world afire. +M. du Bled divides her lovers into three classes: the first +was composed of her literary friends; the second, of those +enamored, impassioned suitors, loving her from good +motives or from the opposite, who strove to compensate +her for the unfaithfulness of her husband while alive and +for the ennui of her widowhood; the third class was composed +of her Parisian friends, of whom she had hosts, +court habitués who were leaders of society.</p> + +<p>Representatives of the second class were the Prince de +Conti, the great Turenne, various counts and marquises, +and Bussy-Rabutin, who was a type of the sensual lover +and the more dangerous on account of the privileges he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page172" id="page172"></a>[pg 172]</span> +enjoyed because of his close relationship to Mme. de Sévigné. +His portrait of her is interesting: "I must tell you, +madame, that I do not think there is a person in the world +so generally esteemed as you are. You are the delight of +humankind; antiquity would have erected altars to you, +and you would certainly have been a goddess of something. +In our century, when we are not so lavish with incense, +and especially for living merit, we are contented to say +that there is not a woman of your age more virtuous and +more amiable than are you. I know princes of the blood, +foreign princes, great lords with princely manners, great +captains, gentlemen, ministers of state, who would be off +and away for you, if you would permit them. Can you ask any more?"</p> + +<p>Such eulogies came not only from men like the perfidious +and cruel cousin, but from her friends everywhere. The +finest of these is the one by her friend Mme. de La Fayette, +contained in one of the epistolary portraits so much +in vogue at that time, and which were turned out, <i>par excellence</i>, +in the salon of Mlle. de Luxembourg: "Know, +madame,—if by chance you do not already know it,—that +your mind adorns and embellishes your person so well +that there is not another one on earth so charming as you +when you are animated in a conversation in which all +constraint is banished. Your soul is great, noble, ready +to dispense with treasures, and incapable of lowering itself +to the care of amassing them. You are sensible to glory +and ambition, and to pleasures you are less so; yet you +appear to be born for the latter, and they made for you; +your person augments pleasures, and pleasures increase +your beauty when they surround you. Joy is the veritable +state of your soul, and chagrin is more unlike to you +than to anyone. You are the most civil and obliging person +that ever lived, and by a free and calm air—which is in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page173" id="page173"></a>[pg 173]</span> +all your actions—the simplest compliments of seemliness +appear, in your mouth, as protestations of friendship."</p> + +<p>The originality which gained Mme. de Sévigné so many +friends lay principally in her force, wealth of resource, +intensity, sincerity, and frankness. M. Scherer said she +possessed "surprises for us, infinite energy, inexhaustible +variety—everything that eternally revives interest."</p> + +<p>The interest of the modern world in this remarkable +woman is centred mainly in her letters. Guizot says: +"Mme. de Sévigné is a friend whom we read over and +over again, whose emotions we share, to whom we go for +an hour's distraction and delightful chat; we have no +desire to chat with Mme. de Grignan (her daughter)—we +gladly leave her to her mother's exclusive affection, feeling +infinitely obliged to her for having existed, inasmuch +as her mother wrote letters to her. Mme. de Sévigné's +letters to her daughter are superior to all her other epistles, +charming as they all are; when she writes to M. Pomponne, +to M. de Coulanges, to M. de Bussy, the style is +less familiar, the heart less open, the soul less stirred; she +writes to her daughter as she would speak to her—it is +not a letter, it is an animated and charming conversation, +touching upon everything, embellishing everything with an inimitable grace."</p> + +<p>She had married her daughter to the Comte de Grignan, +a man of forty, twice married, and with children, homely, +but wealthy and aristocratic; writing to her cousin, Bussy-Rabutin, +concerning this marriage, she said: "All these +women (the count's former wives) died expressly to make +room for your cousin." By marrying her daughter to such +a man she encouraged all the questionable proprieties of +the time. Mme. de Sévigné's affection for that daughter +amounted almost to idolatry; it was to her that most of +the mother's letters were written, telling her of her health, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page174" id="page174"></a>[pg 174]</span> +what was being done at Vichy, and about her business +and for that child the authoress gave up her life at Paris +in order to economize and thereby to help Mme. de Grignan +in her extravagance, her son-in-law being an expert in spending money.</p> + +<p>The intensity of her nature is well reflected in her letter +upon the separation from her daughter: "In vain I seek +my darling daughter; I can no longer find her, and every +step she takes removes her farther from me. I went to +St. Mary's, still weeping and dying of grief; it seemed as +if my heart and my soul were being wrenched from me +and, in truth, what a cruel separation! I asked leave to +be alone; I was taken into Mme. du Housset's room, and +they made me up a fire. Agnes sat looking at me, without +speaking—that was our bargain. I stayed there till five +o'clock, without ceasing to sob; all my thoughts were mortal +wounds to me. I wrote to M. de Grignan (you can +imagine in what key). Then I went to Mme. de La Fayette's, +and she redoubled my griefs by the interest she +took in them; she was alone, ill, and distressed at the death +of one of the nuns; she was just as I should have desired, +I returned hither at eight; but oh, when I came in! can +you conceive what I felt as I mounted these stairs? That +room into which I always used to go, alas! I found the +doors of it open, but I saw everything upturned, disarranged, +and your little daughter, who reminded me of +mine.... The wakenings of the night were dreadful. +I think of you continuously—it is what devotees call +habitual thought, such as one should have of God, if one +did one's duty. Nothing gives me diversion; I see that +carriage which is forever going on and will never come +near me. I am forever on the highways; it seems as if I +were sometimes afraid that the carriage will upset with +me; the rains there for the last three days, drove me to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page175" id="page175"></a>[pg 175]</span> +despair. The Rhone causes me strange alarm. I have a +map before my eyes—I know all the places where you +sleep. This evening you are at Nevers; on Sunday you +will be at Lyons where you will receive this letter. I +have received only two of yours—perhaps the third will +come; that is the only comfort I desire; as for others, I seek none."</p> + +<p>The letters of Mme. de Sévigné contain a great number +of sayings applicable to habits and conduct, and these +have had their part in shaping the customs and in depicting +the time. To be modest and moderate, friendly, and +conciliatory, to be content with one's lot and to bow to +circumstances, to be sincere, to cultivate good sense and +good grace—these counsels have been and still are, according +to French opinion, the basis of French character: +and Mme. de Sévigné's own popularity and success attest their wisdom.</p> + +<p>She had not the gift of seeing things vividly and reproducing +them in living form; her talent was a rarer one—it +induced the reader to form a mental picture of the scene +described, so vivid as to be under the illusion of being +present in reality; and this is done with so much grace, +charm, happy ease and naturalness, that to read her letters +means to love the writer. What mother or friend would +not fall a willing victim to the charm of a woman who +could write the following letter?</p> + +<p>"You ask me, my dear child, whether I continue to be +really fond of life; I confess to you that I find poignant +sorrows in it, but I am even more disgusted with death; +I feel so wretched at having to end all thereby, that, if I +could turn back again, I would ask for nothing better, +I find myself under an obligation which perplexes me; I +embark upon life without my consent, and so must I go +out of it; that overwhelms me. And how shall I go? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page176" id="page176"></a>[pg 176]</span> +Which way? By what door? When will it be? In what +condition? Shall I suffer a thousand, thousand pains which +will make me die desperate? Shall I have brain fever? +Shall I die of an accident? How shall I be with God? +What shall I have to show Him? Shall fear, shall necessity +bring me back to Him? Shall I have sentiment except +that of dread? What can I hope? Am I worthy of +heaven? Am I worthy of hell? Nothing is such madness +as to leave one's salvation in uncertainty, but nothing is +so natural. The stupid life I lead is the easiest thing in the +world to understand; I bury myself in these thoughts and +I find death so terrible that I hate life more because it leads +me thereto, than because of the thorns with which it is +planted. You will say that I want to live forever, then; +not at all; but, if my opinion had been asked, I would have +preferred to die in my nurse's arms; that would have removed +me from the vexations of spirit and would have +given me heaven full surely and easily."</p> + +<p>Mme. de Sévigné never bored her readers with her own +reflections. She differed from her contemporaries, who +seemed to be dead to nature's beauty, in her striking descriptions +of nature. A close observer, she knew how to +describe a landscape; animating and enlivening it, and +making it talk, she inspired the reader with love of it.</p> + +<p>"I am going to be alone and I am very glad. Provided +they do not take away from me the charming country, the +shore of the Allier, the woods, streams, and meadows, +the sheep and goats, the peasant girls who dance the +<i>bourrée</i> in the fields, I consent to say adieu; the country +alone will cure me.... I have come here to end the +beautiful days and to say adieu to the foliage—it is still +on the trees, it has only changed color; instead of being +green, it is golden, and of so many golden tints that it +makes a brocade of rich and magnificent gold, which we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>[pg 177]</span> +are likely to find more beautiful than the green, if only it +were not for the changing part."</p> + +<p>If the style of her letters did not make her the greatest +prose writer of her time, it certainly entitled her to rank +as one of the most original. The prose of the seventeenth +century lacked "easy suppleness in lively movement, and +imagination in the expression"—two qualities which Mme. +de Sévigné possessed in a high degree. The slow and +grave development, the just and harmonious equilibrium, +the amplitude, are in her supplanted by a quick, alert, +and free <i>saillie</i>; the detail and marvellous exactness are +enriched by color, abundance of imagery, and metaphors. +M. Faguet says she is to prose what La Fontaine is to poetry.</p> + +<p>The literary style of Mme. de Sévigné is not learned, +studied, nor labored. In an epoch in which the language +was already formed, she did what Montaigne did a century +before, when, we may almost assert, he had to create +the French language. Her most striking expressions are +her own—newly coined, not taken from the vocabulary in +usage. Her style cannot be duplicated, and for this +reason she has few imitators. Her letters show that they +were improvised—her pen doing, alone, the work over +which she seemed to have no control when communicating +with her daughter; to the latter she said: "I write prose +with a facility that will kill you."</p> + +<p>Mme. de Sévigné was possibly not a beautiful woman, +but she was a charming one; broad in the scope of her +affections, she found the making of friends no difficult +task. M. Vallery-Radot leaves the following picture of her: +"A blonde, with exuberant health, a transparent complexion, +blue eyes, so frank, so limpid, a nose somewhat +square, a mouth ready to smile, shoulders that seem to +lend splendor to her pearl necklace. Her gayety and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" id="page178"></a>[pg 178]</span> +goodness are so in evidence that there is about her a kind +of atmosphere of good humor."</p> + +<p>M. du Bled most admirably sums up her character and +writings in the following: "She is the person who most +resembles her writings—that is, those that are found; for +alas! many (the most confidential, the most interesting, I +think) are lost forever: in them she is reflected as she reflects +French society in them. Endowed—morally and +physically—with a robust health, she is expansive, loyal, +confiding, impressionable, loving gayety in full abundance +as much as she does the smile of the refined, as eager for +the prattle of the court as for solid reading, smitten with +nobiliary pride, a captive of the prejudices, superstitions +and tastes of her caste (or of even her coterie), with her +pen hardly tender for her neighbor—her daughter and intimates +excepted. A manager and a woman of imagination, +a Frondist at the bottom of her soul, and somewhat +of a Jansenist—not enough, however, not to cry out that +Louis XIV. will obscure the glory of his predecessors because +he had just danced with her—faithful to her friends +(Retz, Fouquet, Pomponne) in disgrace and detesting +their persecutors, seeking the favor of court for her children. +In the salons, she is celebrated for her <i>esprit</i>—and +this at an age when one seldom thinks about reputation, +when one is like the princess who replied to a question on +the state of her soul, 'At twenty one has no soul;' and she +possesses the qualities that are so essential to style—natural <i>éclat</i>, +originality of expression, grace, color, amplitude +without pomposity and abundance without prolixity; +moreover, she invents nothing, but, knowing how to observe +and to express in perfection everything she had seen +and felt, she is a witness and painter of her century: also, +she loves nature—a sentiment very rare in the seventeenth century."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page179" id="page179"></a>[pg 179]</span> + +<p>Mme. de Sévigné was endowed with the best qualities +of the French race—good will and friendliness, which influence +one to judge others favorably and to desire their +esteem; of a very impressionable nature, she was gifted +with a natural eloquence which enabled her to express her +various emotions in a light or gay vein which often bordered +on irony. Affectionate and appreciative and tender and +kind to everyone in general, toward those whom she loved +she was generous to a fault and unswerving in her fidelity.</p> + +<p>Her last years were spent in the midst of her family. +She died in 1696, of small-pox, thanking God that she was +the first to go, after having trembled for the life of her +daughter, whom she had nursed back to health after a long +and dangerous illness. Her son-in-law, M. de Grignan, +wrote to her uncle, M. de Coulanges:</p> + +<p>"What calls far more for our admiration than for our +regret, is the spectacle of a brave woman facing death—of +which she had no doubt from the first days of her illness—with astounding +firmness and submission. This person, so +tender and so weak towards all whom she loved, showed +nothing but courage and piety when she believed that her +hour had come; and, impressed by the use she managed to +make of that good store in the last moments of her life, we +could not but remark of what utility and of what importance +it is to have the mind stocked with the good matter +and holy reading for which Mme. de Sévigné had a liking—not +to say a wonderful hunger."</p> + +<p>In order to give an idea of the place that Mme. de +Sévigné holds in the opinion of the average Frenchman, +we quote the final words of M. Vallery-Radot:</p> + +<p>"To take a place among the greatest writers, without +ever having written a book or even having thought of +writing one—this is what seems impossible, and yet this is +what happened to Mme. de Sévigné. Her contemporaries +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" id="page180"></a>[pg 180]</span> +knew her as a woman distinguished for her <i>esprit</i>, frank, +playful and sprightly humor, irreproachable conduct, +loyalty to her friends, and as an idolizer of her daughter; +no one suspected that she would partake of the glory of +our classical authors—and she, less than any one. She +had immortalized herself, without wishing or knowing it, +by an intimate correspondence which is, to-day, universally +regarded as one of the most precious treasures and +one of the most original monuments to French literature. +To deceive the <i>ennui</i> of absence, she wrote to her daughter +all that she had in her heart and that came to her mind—what +she did, wished to do, saw and learned, news of +court, city, Brittany, army, everything—sadly or gayly, +according to the subject, always with the most keen, +ardent, delicate, and touching sentiments of tenderness +and sympathy. She amuses, instructs, interests, moves +to tears or laughter. All that passes within or before her, +passes within and before us. If she depicts an object, we +see it; if she relates an event, we are present at its +occurrence; if she makes a character talk, we hear his +words, see his gestures, and distinguish his accent. All is +true, real, living: this is more than talent—it is enchantment. +Generations pass away in turn; a single one, or, +rather, a group escapes the general oblivion—the group of +friends of Mme. de Sévigné."</p> + +<p>A woman with characteristics the very opposite of those +of Mme. de Sévigné, but who in some respects resembled +her, was Mme. de La Fayette. Of her life, very little +is to be said, except in regard to her lasting friendship +and attachment for La Rochefoucauld. She was born in +1634, and, with Mme. de Sévigné, was probably the best +educated among the great women of the seventeenth century. +She was faithful to her husband, the Count of La +Fayette, who, in 1665, took her to Paris, where she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" id="page181"></a>[pg 181]</span> +formed her lifelong attachment for the great La Rochefoucauld, +and where she won immediate recognition for her +exquisite politeness and as a woman with a large fund of common sense.</p> + +<p>After her marriage, she seemed to have but one interest—La +Rochefoucauld, just as that of Mme. de Maintenon +was Louis XIV. and that of Mme. de Sévigné—her +daughter. These three prominent women illustrate remarkably +well that predominant trait of French women—faithfulness +to a chosen cause; each one of the three was +vitally concerned in an enduring, a legitimate, and sincere +attachment, which state of affairs gives a certain distinction +to the society of the time of Louis XIV.</p> + +<p>Mme. de La Fayette, like Mme. de Sévigné, possessed +an exceptional talent for making and retaining friends. +She kept aloof from intrigues, in fact, knew nothing about +them, and consequently never schemed to use her favor at +court for purposes of self-interest. Two qualities belonged +to her more than to any of her contemporaries—an instinct +which was superior to her reason, and a love of truth in all things.</p> + +<p>Compared with those of Mme. de Rambouillet, it is said +that her attainments were of a more solid nature; and +while Mlle. de Scudéry had greater brilliancy, Mme. de +La Fayette had better judgment. These qualities combined +with an exquisite delicacy, fine sentiment, calmness, +and depth of reason, the very basis of her nature, are +reflected in her works. Sainte-Beuve says that "her +reason and experience cool her passion and temper the +ideal with the results of observation." She was one of +the very few women playing any rôle in French history +who were endowed with all things necessary to happiness—fortune, +reputation, talent, intimate and ideal friendship. +Extremely sensitive to surroundings, she readily received +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>[pg 182]</span> +impressions—a gift which was the source of a somewhat doubtful happiness.</p> + +<p>In her later days, notwithstanding terrible suffering, she +became more devout and exhibited an admirable resignation. +A letter to Ménage will show the mental and physical +state reached by her in her last days: "Although you +forbid me to write to you, I wish, nevertheless, to tell +you how truly affected I am by your friendship. I appreciate +it as much as when I used to see it; it is dear to me +for its own worth, it is dear to me because it is at present +the only one I have. Time and old age have taken all my +friends away from me.... I must tell you the state +I am in. I am, first of all, a mortal divinity, and to an +excess inconceivable; I have obstructions in my entrails—sad, inexpressible +feelings; I have no spirit, no force—I +cannot read or apply myself. The slightest things affect +me—a fly appears an elephant to me; that is my ordinary +state.... I cannot believe that I can live long in +this condition, and my life is too disagreeable to permit me +to fear the end. I surrender myself to the will of God; +He is the All-Powerful, and, from all sides, we must go to +Him at last. They assure me that you are thinking seriously +of your salvation, and I am very happy over it."</p> + +<p>There probably never existed a more ideal friendship +between two French women, one more lasting, sincere, +perfect in every way, than that of Mme. de Sévigné and +Mme. de La Fayette. The major part of the information we +possess regarding events in the life of Mme. de La Fayette +is obtained from their letters. Said Mme. de Sévigné: +"Never did we have the smallest cloud upon our friendship. +Long habit had not made her merit stale to me—the flavor +of it was always fresh and new. I paid her many attentions, +from the mere promptings of my affection, not because of +the propriety by which, in friendships, we are bound. I was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>[pg 183]</span> +assured, too, that I was her dearest consolation—which, for +forty years past, had been the case."</p> + +<p>Shortly before her death, she wrote to Mme. de Sévigné: +"Here is what I have done since I wrote you last. I have +had two attacks of fever; for six months I had not been +purged; I am purged once, I am purged twice; the day +after the second time, I sit down at the table; oh, dear! I +feel a pain in my heart—I do not want any soup. Have +a little meat, then? No, I do not wish any. Well, you +will have some fruit? I think I will. Very well, then, +have some. I don't know—I think I will have some by +and by. Let me have some soup and some chicken this +evening.... Here is the evening, and there are the +soup and the chicken; I don't desire them. I am nauseated, +I will go to bed—I prefer sleeping to eating. I go to +bed, I turn round, I turn back, I have no pain, but I have +no sleep either. I call—I take a book—I close it. Day +comes—I get up—I go to the window. It strikes four, five, +six—I go to bed again, I doze until seven, I get up at eight, +I sit down to table at twelve—to no purpose, as yesterday.... I +lay myself down in my bed, in the evening, +to no purpose, as the night before. Are you ill? +Nay, I am in this state for three days and three nights. +At present, I am getting some sleep again, but I still eat +mechanically, horsewise—rubbing my mouth with vinegar. +Otherwise, I am very well, and I haven't so much as a pain in my head."</p> + +<p>Her depressing melancholy kept her indoors a great +deal; in fact, after 1683, after the death of the queen, who +was one of her best friends, she was seldom seen at court. +Mme. de Sévigné gives good reason for this in her letter:</p> + +<p>"She had a mortal melancholy. Again, what absurdity! +is she not the most fortunate woman in the world? +That is what people said; it needed that she should die to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" id="page184"></a>[pg 184]</span> +prove that she had good reason for not going out and for +being melancholy. Her reins and her heart were all gone—was +not that enough to cause those fits of despondency +of which she complained? And so, during her life she +showed reason, and after death she showed reason, and +never was she without that divine reason which was her principal gift."</p> + +<p>Her liaison with La Rochefoucauld is the one delicate +and tender point in her life, a relation that afforded her +much happiness and finally completed the ruin of her +health. M. d'Haussonville said: "It is true that he took +possession of her soul and intellect, little by little, so that +the two beings, in the eyes of their contemporaries, were +but one; for after his death (1680) she lived but an incomplete +and mutilated existence."</p> + +<p>Some critics have ventured to pronounce this liaison one +of material love solely, others are convinced of its morality +and pure friendship. In favor of the latter view, M. +d'Haussonville suggests the fact that Mme. de La Fayette +was over thirty years of age when she became interested +in La Rochefoucauld, and that at that age women rarely +ally themselves with men from emotions of physical love +merely. At that age it is reason that mutually attracts +two beings; and this feeling was probably the predominant +one in that case, because her entire career was one of the +most extreme reserve, conservatism, good sense, and propriety. +However, other proofs are brought forward to +show that there was between the two a sort of moral +marriage, so many examples of which are found in the +seventeenth century between people of prominence, both +of whom happened to have unhappy conjugal experiences.</p> + +<p>French society, one must remember, was different from +any in the world; it seems to have been a large family +gathering, the members of which were as intimate, took +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page185" id="page185"></a>[pg 185]</span> +as much interest in each other's affairs, showed as much +sympathy for one another and participated in each other's +sorrows and pleasures, as though they were children of the same parents.</p> + +<p>In his early days, La Rochefoucauld found it convenient, +for selfish purposes, to simulate an ardent passion for +Mme. de Longueville, of which mention has been made in +the chapter relating to Mme. de Longueville. In his later +period, he had settled down to a normal mode of life and +sought the friendship of a more reasonable and less passionate +woman. He himself said:</p> + +<p>"When women have well-informed minds, I like their +conversation better than that of men; you find, with them, +a certain gentleness which is not met with among us; and +it seems to me, besides, that they express themselves with +greater clearness and that they give a more pleasant turn +to the things they say."</p> + +<p>Mme. de La Fayette exercised a great influence upon +La Rochefoucauld—an influence that was wholesome in +every way. It was through her influential friends at court +that he was helped into possession of his property, and it +was she who maintained it for him. As to his literary +work (his <i>Maxims</i>), her influence over him was supposed +to have somewhat modified his ideas on women and to +have softened his tone in general. She wrote: "He gave +me wit, but I reformed his heart." M. d'Haussonville has +proved, without doubt, that her restraint modified many +of his maxims that were tinged with the spirit of the +commonplace and trivial. While Mme. de Sablé—essentially +a moralist and a deeply religious woman—was more +of a companion to him, and though his maxims were, for +the greater part, composed in her salon, Mme. de La Fayette, +by her tenderness and judgment, tempered the tone +of them before they reached the public.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page186" id="page186"></a>[pg 186]</span> + +<p>Mme. de La Fayette will always be known, however, +as the great novelist of the seventeenth century. Two +novels, two stories, two historical works, and her memoirs, +make up her literary budget. M. d'Haussonville claims +that her memoirs of the court of France are not reliable, +because she was so often absent from court; also, in them +she shows a tendency to avenge herself, in a way, upon +Mme. de Maintenon, whose friend she was until the trouble +between this lady and Mme. de Montespan occurred. The +latter was the intimate friend of Mme. de La Fayette. As +for her literary work proper, her desire to write was possibly +encouraged, if not created, by her indulgence in the +general fad of writing portraitures, in which she was especially +successful in portraying Mme. de Sévigné. Her +literary effort was, besides, a revolt of her own taste and +sense against the pompous and inflated language of the +novels of the day and against the great length of the development +of the events and adventures in them. Thus, +Mme. de La Fayette inaugurated a new style of novel; to +show her influence, it will be well to consider the state of +the Romanesque novel at the period of her writing.</p> + +<p>In the beginning of the century, D'Urfé's novels were +in vogue; these works were characterized by interminable +developments, relieved by an infinite number of historical +episodes. All characters, shepherds as well as noblemen, +expressed the same sentiments and in the same language. +There was no pretension to truth in the portraying of +manners and customs.—A reaction was natural and took +the form of either a kind of parody or gross realism. +These novels, of which <i>Francion</i> and <i>Berger Extravagant</i> +were the best known, depicted shepherds of the Merovingian +times, heroes of Persia and Rome, or procurers, +scamps, and scoundrels; but no descriptions of the manners +of decent people (<i>honnêtes gens</i>) were to be found.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" id="page187"></a>[pg 187]</span> + +<p>The novels of Mlle. de Scudéry, while interesting as +portraitures, are not thoroughly reliable in their representation +of the sentiments and environment of the times; on +the other hand, those of Mme. de La Fayette are impersonal—no +one of the characters is recognizable; yet their +atmosphere is that of the court of Louis XIV., and the +language, never so correct as to be unnatural, is that used +at the time. Her novels reflect perfectly the society of +the court and the manner of life there. "Thus," says +M. d'Haussonville, "she was the first to produce a novel +of observation and sentiment, the first to paint elegant +manners as they really were."</p> + +<p>Her first production was <i>La Princesse de Montpensier</i> +(1662); in 1670, appeared <i>Zayde</i>, it was ostensibly the +work of Segrais, her teacher and a writer much in vogue +at the time; in 1678, <i>La Princesse de Clèves</i>, her masterpiece, +stirred up one of the first real quarrels of literary +criticism. For a long time after the appearance of that +book, society was divided into two classes—the pros and +the cons. It was the most popular work of the period.</p> + +<p>M. d'Haussonville says it is the first French novel which +is an illustration of woman's ability to analyze the most +subtile of human emotions. Mme. de La Fayette was, +also, the first to elevate, in literature, the character of the +husband who, until then, was a nonentity or a booby; she +makes of him a hero—sympathetic, noble, and dignified.</p> + +<p>In no fictitious tale before hers was love depicted with +such rare delicacy and pathos. In her novel, <i>La Princesse +de Clèves</i>, "a novel of a married woman, we feel the +woman who has loved and who knows what she is saying, +for she, also, has struggled and suffered." The writer +confesses her weakness and leaves us witness of her +virtue. All the soul struggles and interior combats represented +in her work the authoress herself has experienced. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page188" id="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span> +As an example of this we cite the description of the sentiments +of Mme. de Clèves when she realizes that her feeling +toward one of the members of the court may develop +into an emotion unworthy of her as a wife. She falls upon her knees and says:</p> + +<p>"I am here to make to you a confession such as has +never been made to man; but the innocence of my conduct +and my intentions give me the necessary courage. It is +true that I have reasons for desiring to withdraw from +court, and that I wish to avoid the perils which persons of +my age experience. I have never shown a sign of weakness, +and I would not fear of ever showing any, if you +permitted me to withdraw from court, or if I still had, in +my efforts to do right, the support of Mme. de Chartres. +However dangerous may be the action I take, I take it +with pleasure, that I may be worthy of your actions, I +ask a thousand pardons; if I have sentiments displeasing +to you, I shall at least never displease you by my actions. +Remember, to do what I am doing, one must have for a +husband more friendship and esteem than was ever before +had. Have pity on me and lead me away—-and love me still, if you can."</p> + +<p><i>La Princesse de Clèves</i> is a novel of human virtue purely, +and teaches that true virtue can find its reward in itself +and in the austere enjoyment of duty accomplished. "It +is a work that will endure, and be a comfort as well as a +guide to those who aspire to a high morality which necessitates +a difficult sacrifice."</p> + +<p>M. d'Haussonville regards the novels of Mmes. de Charrière, +de Souza, de Duras, de Boigne, as mere imitations +or as having been inspired by that masterpiece of Mme. de +La Fayette. He says: "In fact, novels in general, that +depict the struggle between passion and duty, with the victory +on the side of virtue, emanate more or less from it."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page189" id="page189"></a>[pg 189]</span> + +<p>Taine wrote: "She described the events in the careers +of society women, introducing no special terms of language +into her descriptions. She painted for the sake of painting +and did not think of attempting to surpass her predecessors. +She reflects a society whose scrupulous care was to +avoid even the slightest appearance of anything that might +displease or shock. She shows the exquisite tact of a +woman—and a woman of high rank."</p> + +<p>Mme. de La Fayette is one of the very rare French +writers that have succeeded in analyzing love, passion, +and moral duty, without becoming monotonous, vulgar, +brutal, or excessively realistic. Her creations contain the +most minute analyses of heart and soul emotions, but +these never become purely physiologic and nauseating, as +in most novels. This achievement on her part has been +too little imitated, but it, alone, will preserve the name of +Mme. de La Fayette.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Motteville is deserving of mention among the +important literary women of the seventeenth century. +She is regarded as one of the best women writers in +French literature, and her memoirs are considered authority +on the history of the Fronde and of Anne of Austria. +The poetry of Mme. des Houlières was for a long time +much in vogue; to-day, however, it is not read. The +memoirs of Mlle. de Montpensier are more occupied with +herself than with events of the time or the numerous +princes who tarried about her as longing lovers. Guizot +says: "She was so impassioned and haughty, with her +head so full of her own greatness, that she did not marry +in her youth, thinking no one worthy of her except the +king and the emperor, and they had no fancy for her." +The following portrait of her was sketched by herself:</p> + +<p>"I am tall, neither fat nor thin, of a very fine and easy +figure. I have a good mien, arms and hands not beautiful, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page190" id="page190"></a>[pg 190]</span> +but a beautiful skin—and throat, too. I have a straight +leg and a well-shaped foot; my hair is light and of a beautiful +auburn; my face is long, its contour is handsome, +nose large and aquiline; mouth neither large nor small, +but chiselled and with a very pleasing expression; lips +vermilion, not fine, but not frightful, either; my eyes are +blue, neither large nor small, but sparkling, soft, and proud +like my mien. I talk a great deal, without saying silly +things or using bad words. I am a very vicious enemy, +being very choleric and passionate, and that, added to my +birth, may well make my enemies tremble; but I have, +also, a noble and kindly soul. I am incapable of any +base and black deed; and so I am more disposed to +mercy than to justice. I am melancholic, and fond of +reading good and solid books; trifles bore me—except +verses, and them I like, of whatever sort they may be; +and undoubtedly I am as good a judge of such things as if I were a scholar."</p> + +<p>Possibly the greatest female scholar that France ever +produced was Mme. Dacier, a truly learned woman and +one of whom French women are proud; during her last +years she enjoyed the reputation of being one of the foremost +scholars of all Europe. It was Mme. de Lambert who wrote of her:</p> + +<p>"I esteem Mme. Dacier infinitely. Our sex owes her +much; she has protested against the common error which +condemns us to ignorance. Men, as much from disdain as +from a fancied superiority, have denied us all learning; +Mme. Dacier is an example proving that we are capable +of learning. She has associated erudition and good manners; +for, at present, modesty has been displaced; shame +is no longer for vices, and women blush over their learning +only. She has freed the mind, held captive under this +prejudice, and she alone supports us in our rights."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page191" id="page191"></a>[pg 191]</span> + +<p>Tanneguy-Lefèvre, the father of Mme. Dacier, was a +savant and a type of the scholars of the sixteenth century. +He brought up his sons to be like him—instructing them +in Greek, Latin, and antiquities. The young daughter, +present at all the lessons given to her brothers, acquired, +unaided, a solid education; her father, amazed at her marvellous +faculty for comprehending and remembering, soon +devoted most of his energy to her. He was, at that time, +professor at the College of Saumur; and he was conspicuous +not only for the liberty he exhibited in his pedagogical +duties, but for his general catholicity.</p> + +<p>After the death of her father, the young daughter went +to Paris where her family friends, Chapelain and Huet, +encouraged her in her studies, the latter, who was assistant +preceptor to the dauphin, even going so far as to request her +to assist him in preparing the Greek text for the use of +the dauphin. She soon eclipsed all scholars of the time by +her illuminating studies of Greek authors and of the quality +of the new editions which she prepared of their works, but +she was continually pestered on account of her erudition +and her religion, the Protestant faith, to which she clung +while realizing that it had been the cause of the failure of +her father's advancement.</p> + +<p>From that time appeared her famous series of translations +of Terence and Plautus, which were the delight of +the women of the period and which gave her the reputation +of being the most intellectual woman of the seventeenth +century. In 1635, when nearly thirty years of +age, she married M. Dacier, the favorite pupil of her +father, librarian to the king and translator of Plutarch—a +man of no means, but one who thoroughly appreciated +the worth of Mlle. Lefèvre. This union was spoken +of by her contemporaries as "the marriage of Greek and Latin."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page192" id="page192"></a>[pg 192]</span> + +<p>Two years after their marriage, after long and serious +deliberation, both abjured Protestantism, adopted the Catholic +religion, and succeeded in converting the whole town of +Castres—an act which gained them royal favor, and +Louis XIV. granted them a pension of two thousand livres. +Sainte-Beuve states that their conversion was perfectly +sincere and conscientious. In all their subsequent works +were seen traces of Mme. Dacier's powerful intellect, +which was much superior to that of her husband. Boileau +said: "In their production of <i>esprit</i>, it is Mme. Dacier who +is the father."</p> + +<p>Besides her translations of the plays of Plautus, all of +Terence, the <i>Clouds</i> and <i>Plutus</i> of Aristophanes, she published her +translation of the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i> +(1711-1716), which gave her a prominent place in the history of French +literature, especially as it appeared at the time of the +"quarrels of the ancients and moderns," which concerned +the comparative merits of ancient and modern literature.</p> + +<p>Mme. Dacier thoroughly appreciated the grandeur of +Homer and knew the almost insurmountable difficulties +of a translation; therefore, when in 1714 the <i>Iliad</i> appeared +in verse (in twelve songs by La Motte-Houdart), +preceded by a discourse on Homer, in which the author +announced that his aim was to purify and embellish Homer +by ridding him "of his barbarian crudeness, his uncivil +familiarities, and his great length," the ire of Mme. Dacier +was aroused, and in defence of her god she wrote her +famous <i>Des Causes de la Corruption du Goût</i> (Causes of +the Corruption of Taste), a long defence of Homer, to +which La Motte replied in his <i>Réflexions de la Critique</i> +This rekindled the whole controversy, and sides were immediately formed.</p> + +<p>Mme. Dacier was not politic; although she sustained +her ideas well and displayed much erudition and depth of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page193" id="page193"></a>[pg 193]</span> +reason, she is said to have injured her cause by the violence +of her polemic. Her immoderate tone and bitter +assaults upon the elegant and discerning favorite only +detracted from his opponent's favor and grace. Voltaire +said: "You could say that the work of M. de La Motte was +that of a woman of <i>esprit</i>, while that of Mme. Dacier was of +a <i>homme savant</i>. He translated the <i>Iliad</i> very poorly, but attacked +very well." Mme. Dacier's translation remained +a standard for two centuries. She and her adversary became +reconciled at a dinner given by M. de Valincour for +the friends of both parties; upon that festive occasion, +"they drank to the health of Homer, and all was well."</p> + +<p>Mme. Dacier died in 1720. "She was a <i>savante</i> only in +her study or when with savants; otherwise, she was unaffected +and agreeable in conversation, from the character +of which one would never have suspected her of knowing +more than the average woman." She was an incessant +worker and had little time for social life; in the evening, +after having worked all morning, she received visits from +the literary men of France; and, to her credit may it be +added, amid all her literary work, she never neglected her +domestic and maternal duties.</p> + +<p>A woman of an entirely different type from that of +Mme. Dacier, one who fitly closes the long series of great +and brilliant women of the age of Louis XIV., who only +partly resembles them and yet does not quite take on the +faded and decadent coloring of the next age, was Mme. de +Caylus, the niece of Mme. de Maintenon. It was she +who, partly through compulsion, partly of her own free +will, undertook the rearing of the young and beautiful +Marthe-Marguerite de Villette. Mme. de Maintenon was +then at the height of her power, and naturally her beautiful, +clever, and witty niece was soon overwhelmed by +proposals of marriage from the greatest nobles of France. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page194" id="page194"></a>[pg 194]</span> +To one of these, M. de Boufflers, Mme. de Maintenon replied: +"My niece is not a sufficiently good match for you. +However, I am not insensible to the honor you pay me; +I shall not give her to you, but in the future I shall consider you my nephew."</p> + +<p>She then married the innocent young girl to the Marquis +de Caylus, a debauched, worthless reprobate—a union +whose only merit lay in the fact that her niece could thus +remain near her at court. At the latter place, her beauty, +gayety, and caustic wit, her adaptable and somewhat superficial +character and her freedom of manners and speech, did +not fail to attract many admirers. Her frankness in expressing +her opinions was the source of her disgrace; Louis XIV. +took her at her word when she exclaimed, in speaking of +the court: "This place is so dull that it is like being in +exile to live here," and forbade her to appear again in the +place she found so tiresome. Those rash words cost her +an exile of thirteen years, and only through good behavior, +submission, and piety was she permitted to return.</p> + +<p>She appeared at a supper given by the king, and, by the +brilliancy of her beauty and <i>esprit</i>, she attracted everyone +present and soon regained her former favor and friends. +From that time she was the constant companion of Mme. +de Maintenon, until the king's death, when she returned +to Paris; at that place her salon became an intellectual +centre, and there the traditions of the seventeenth century were perpetuated.</p> + +<p>Sainte-Beuve said that Mme. de Caylus perfectly exemplified +what was called urbanity—"politeness in speech +and accent as well as in <i>esprit</i>." In her youth she was +famous for her extraordinary acting in the performance, +at Saint-Cyr, of Racine's <i>Esther</i>. Mme. de Sévigné wrote: +"It is Mme. de Caylus who makes Esther." Her brief and +witty <i>Souvenirs</i> (Memoirs), showing marvellous finesse in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page195" id="page195"></a>[pg 195]</span> +the art of portraiture, made her name immortal. M. Saint-Amand +describes her work thus:</p> + +<p>"Her friends, enchanted by her lively wit, had long +entreated her to write—not for the public, but for them—the +anecdotes which she related so well. Finally, she +acquiesced, and committed to paper certain incidents, certain +portraits. What a treasure are these <i>Souvenirs</i>—so +fluently written, so unpretentious, with neither dates nor +chronological order, but upon which, for more than a century, +all historians have drawn! How much is contained +in this little book which teaches more in a few lines than +interminable works do in many volumes! How feminine +it is, and how French! One readily understands Voltaire's +liking for these charming <i>Souvenirs</i>. Who, than Mme. de +Caylus, ever better applied the famous precept: 'Go +lightly, mortals; don't bear too hard.'"</p> + +<p>She belonged to that class of spontaneous writers who +produce artistic works without knowing it, just as M. Jourdain +wrote prose, and who do not even suspect that they +possess that chief attribute of literary style—naturalness. +What pure, what ready wit! What good humor, what unconstraint, +what delightful ease! What a series of charming +portraits, each more lifelike, more animated, still better +than all the others! "These little miniatures—due to the +brush of a woman of the world—are better worth studying +than is many a picture or fresco."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page197" id="page197"></a>[pg 197]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter VII</h2> + +<h2>Woman in Religion</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page199" id="page199"></a>[pg 199]</span> + + +<p>The entire religious agitation of the seventeenth century +was due to women. Port-Royal was the centre from +which issued all contention—the centre where all subjects +were discussed, where the most important books were +written or inspired, where the genius of that great century +centred; and it was to Port-Royal that the greatest women +of France went, either to find repose for their souls or to +visit the noble members of their sex who had consecrated +their lives to God—Mère Angélique, Jacqueline Pascal. +Never in the history of the world had a religious sect or +party gathered within its fold such an array of great minds, +such a number of fearless and determined heroines and +<i>esprits d'élite</i>. A short account of this famous convent +must precede any story of its members.</p> + +<p>The original convent, Port-Royal des Champs, near +Versailles, was founded as early as 1204, by Mathieu of +Montmorency and his wife, for the Cistercian nuns who +had the privileges of electing their abbess and of receiving +into their community ladies who, tired of the social +world, wished to retire to a religious asylum, without, +however, being bound by any religious vows. Later on, +the sisters were permitted to receive, also, young ladies of the nobility.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page200" id="page200"></a>[pg 200]</span> + +<p>These privileges were used to such advantage that the +institution acquired great wealth; and through its boarders, +some of whom belonged to the most important families +of France, it became influential to an almost incalculable +degree. For four centuries this convent had been developing +liberal tendencies and gradually falling away from +its primitive austerity, when, in 1605, Sister Angélique +Arnauld became abbess and undertook a thorough reform. +So great was her success in this direction that, after having +effected similar changes at the Convent of Maubuisson +and then returned to Port-Royal des Champs, the latter +became so crowded that new and more commodious quarters had to be obtained.</p> + +<p>The immense and beautiful Hôtel de Cluny, at Paris, +was procured, and a portion of the community moved +thither, establishing an institution which became the best +known and most popular of those French convents which +were patronized by women of distinction. The old abbey +buildings near Versailles were later occupied by a community +of learned and pious men who were, for the most part, +pupils of the celebrated Abbé of Saint-Cyran, who, with +Jansenius, was living at Paris at the time that Mère Angélique +was perfecting her reforms; she, attracted by the +ascetic life led by the abbé, fell under his influence, and +the whole Arnauld family, numbering about thirty, followed her example.</p> + +<p>Soon "the nuns at Paris, with their numerous and +powerful connections, and the recluses at Port-Royal des +Champs, together with their pupils and the noble or +wealthy families to which the latter belonged, were imbued +with the new doctrines of which they became apostles." +The primary aim was to live up to a common ideal +of Christian perfection, and to react against the general +corruption by establishing thoroughly moral schools and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page201" id="page201"></a>[pg 201]</span> +publishing works denouncing, in strong terms, the glaring +errors of the time, the source of which was considered, by +both the Abbé of Saint-Cyran and Jansenius, to lie in the +Jesuit Colleges and their theology. Thus was evolved a +system of education in every way antagonistic to that of the Jesuits.</p> + +<p>At this time the convent at Paris became so crowded +that Mère Angélique withdrew to the abbey near Versailles, +the occupants of which retired to a neighboring +farm, Les Granges; there was opened a seminary for females, +which soon attracted the daughters of the nobility. +An astounding literary and agricultural activity resulted, +both at the abode of the recluses and at the seminary: by +the recluses were written the famous Greek and Latin +grammars, and by the nuns, the famous <i>Memoirs of the +History of Port-Royal</i> and the <i>Image of the Perfect and +Imperfect Sister</i>; a model farm was cultivated, and here the +peasants were taught improved methods of tillage. During +the time of the civil wars the convent became a resort +where charity and hospitality were extended to the poor peasants.</p> + +<p>"The mode of life at Port-Royal was distinguished for +austerity. The inmates rose at three o'clock in the morning, +and, after the common prayer, kissed the ground as a +sign of their self-humiliation before God. Then, kneeling, +they read a chapter from the Gospels and one from the +Epistles, concluding with another prayer. Two hours in +the morning and a like number in the afternoon were devoted +to manual labor in the gardens adjoining the convent; +they observed, with great strictness, the season of +Lent." Their theories and practices, and especially their +sympathy with Jansenius, whose work <i>Mars Gallicus</i> attacked +the French government and people, aroused the +suspicions of Richelieu. When in 1640 the Port-Royalists +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page202" id="page202"></a>[pg 202]</span> +openly and enthusiastically received the famous work, +<i>Augustinus</i>, of Jansenius, the government became the declared +opponent of the convent. Saint-Cyran had been +imprisoned in 1638, and not until after the death of Richelieu, +in 1642, was he liberated. After the appearance, in +1643, of Arnauld's <i>De la Fréquente Communion</i>, in which +he attacked the Jesuits for admitting the people to the +Lord's Supper without due preparation, two parties formed—the +Jesuits, supported by the Sorbonne and the government, +and the Port-Royalists, supported by Parliament +and illustrious persons, such as Mme. de Longueville.</p> + +<p>In 1644, the nuns were dispersed by order of Louis XIV., +against whose despotic caprices two Jansenist bishops had +fought in support of the rights of the pope. The Paris +convent remained closed until 1669, when it and the one +at Chevreuse, near Versailles were made independent of +each other, a proceeding which resulted in the two institutions +becoming opponents. In 1708 the Convent of Port-Royal +des Champs was suppressed, and, a year later, the +beautiful and once prosperous community was destroyed, +the buildings being levelled to the ground. In 1780 the +Paris convent was abolished; five years later the structure +was converted into a hospital, and in 1814 it became the +lying-in asylum of <i>La Maternité</i>.</p> + +<p>In those two convents, which were practically one, was +fomented and developed the entire religious movement of +the seventeenth century, to which period belong the general +study and development of theology, metaphysics, and +morality. Such great, good, and brilliant women as the +Countess of Maure, Mlle. de Vandy, Anne de Rohan, +Mme. de Brégy, Mme. de Hautefort, Mme. de Longueville, +Mme. de Sévigné, Mme. de La Fayette, and Mme. +de Sablé were inmates of Port-Royal, or its friends and constant visitors.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page203" id="page203"></a>[pg 203]</span> + +<p>Port-Royal may have been the cause of the civil war +waged by the Frondists against the government. It did +bring on the struggle between the Jesuits, who were all-powerful +in the Church, and the Jansenists. The latter +denied the doctrine of free will, and taught the absolutism +of religion, the "terrible God," the powerlessness of kings +and princes before God—a doctrine which brought down +upon them the wrath of Louis XIV., for whom their notion +of virtue was too severe, their use of the Gospel too excessive, +and their Christianity impossible.</p> + +<p>In its purest form, Port-Royalism was a return to the +sanctity of the primitive church—an attempt at the use, in +French, of the whole body of Scriptures and the writings +of the Church Fathers; it aimed to maintain a vigorous +religious reaction in the shape of a reform, and that reform +was vigorously opposed by the Catholic Church.</p> + +<p>One family that is associated with Port-Royal gave to +its cause no less than six sisters; the latter all belonged +to the Convent of Port-Royal and were attached to the +Jansenist party; of them, the Archbishop of Paris said that +they were "as pure as angels, but as proud as devils." +They were related to the one great Arnauld family, +of which Antoine and his three sons—Robert, Henri, and +the younger Antoine, called "the great Antoine"—were +illustrious champions of Port-Royal.</p> + +<p>Marie Jacqueline Angélique, the oldest among the three +abbesses, was born in 1591, and, at the early age of fourteen, +was made abbess of Port-Royal des Champs; it was +she who, after having instituted successful reforms at Port-Royal, +was sent to reform the system of the Abbey of +Maubuisson, thus initiating the important movement which +later involved almost all France. She became convinced +that she had not been lawfully elected abbess and resigned, +securing, however, a provision which made the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page204" id="page204"></a>[pg 204]</span> +election of abbesses a triennial event. To her belongs +the honor of having made Port-Royal anew. She was a +woman capable of every sacrifice,—a wonderful type in +which were blended candor, pride, and submission,—and +she exhibited indomitable strength of will and earnest zeal for her cause.</p> + +<p>Her sister, Agnes, but three years younger than Marie, +also entered the convent, and, at the age of fifteen, was +made mistress of the novices; during the absence of her +sister, at Maubuisson, she was at the head of the convent; +from that time, she governed Port-Royal alternately with +her sister, for twenty-seven years. Her work, <i>The Secret +Chapter of the Sacrament</i>, was suppressed at Rome, but +without bringing formal censure upon her.</p> + +<p>The last of those great abbesses was Mère Angélique, +who lived through the most troublous and critical times of +Port-Royal (1624 to 1684). At the age of twenty she +became a nun, having been reared in the convent by her +aunt, Marie, who was the most perfect disciple of Saint-Cyran. +Mère Angélique was especially conspicuous for +her obstinacy, and when the nuns were forced to accept +the formulary of Pope Alexander VI., she, alone, was excepted, +because of that well known characteristic. Upon +the reopening of Port-Royal (in 1689), her powerful protectress, +Mme. de Longueville, died and the persecutions +were renewed; Mère Angélique endeavored to avert the +storm, but all in vain; amidst her efforts, she collapsed. +She was also a writer, her <i>Memoirs of the History of Port +Royal</i> being the most valuable history of that institution.</p> + +<p>Thus, about those three women is formed the religious +movement which involved both the development of religious +liberty, free will, and morality, and of the philosophical +literature of the century—a century which boasts such +writers and theologians as Nicole, Pascal, Racine, etc.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page205" id="page205"></a>[pg 205]</span> + +<p>The mission of Port-Royal seems to have been preparation +of souls for the struggles of life, teaching how to +resist oppression or to bear it with courage, and how, for +a righteous cause, to brave everything, not only the persecutions +of power—violence, prison, exile,—but the ruses +of hypocrisy and the calumny of opposing opinion. The +Port-Royalist nun combated and taught how to combat; +she lacked humility, but possessed an abundance of courage +which often bordered upon passion.</p> + +<p>One of the most pathetic and striking illustrations of +the fervent devotion which was a characteristic product +of Port-Royal, is supplied by Jacqueline Pascal, sister of +the great Blaise Pascal. Young, <i>spirituelle</i>, very much +sought after and the idol of brilliant companions, at the +age of twenty-six she abandoned the world to devote herself +to God. At thirty-six years of age she died of sorrow +and remorse for having signed an equivocal formulary +of Pope Alexander VI., "through pure deference to the +authority of her superiors." The papal decision concerning +Jansenius's book, already mentioned, was drawn up +in a formula "turned with some skill, and in such a way +that subscription did not bind the conscience; however, the +nuns of Port-Royal refused to sign." Jacqueline Pascal wrote:</p> + +<p>"That which hinders us, what hinders all the ecclesiastics +who recognize the truth from replying when the +formulary is presented to them to subscribe is: I know +the respect I owe the bishops, but my conscience does not +permit me to subscribe that a thing is in a book in which +I have not seen it—and after that, wait for what will +happen. What have we to fear? Banishment and dispersion +for the nuns, seizure of temporalities, imprisonment, +and death if you will; but is not that our glory and +should it not be our joy? Let us either renounce the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page206" id="page206"></a>[pg 206]</span> +Gospel or faithfully follow the maxims of that Gospel and +deem ourselves happy to suffer somewhat for righteousness' +sake. I know that it is not for daughters to defend +the truth, though, unfortunately, one might say that since +the bishops have the courage of daughters, the daughters +must have the courage of bishops; but, if it is not for us +to defend the truth, it is for us to die for the truth and to +suffer everything rather than abandon it."</p> + +<p>She subscribed, "divided between her instinctive repugnance +and her desire to show herself an humble daughter +of the Catholic Church." She said: "It is all we can +concede; for the rest, come what may,—poverty, dispersion, +imprisonment, death,—all those seem to me nothing +in comparison with the anguish in which I should pass the +remainder of my life, if I had been wretch enough to make +a covenant with death on the occasion of so excellent an +opportunity for proving to God the sincerity of the vows +of fidelity which our lips have pronounced." According +to Mme. Périer, the health of the writer of the above +epistle was so undermined by the shock which all that +commotion had caused her, that she became dangerously +ill, dying soon after. Thus was sacrificed the first victim of the formulary.</p> + +<p>Cousin says that few women of the seventeenth century +were as brilliantly endowed as Jacqueline Pascal; possessing +the finesse, energy, and sobriety of her brother, she +was capable of the most serious work, and yet knew perfectly +how to lead in a social circle. Also, she was most +happily gifted with a talent for poetry, in relation to which +her reputation was everywhere recognized; at the convent, +she consulted her superiors as to the advisability of +continuing her verse making; and upon being told that +such occupation was not a means of winning the grace of +Jesus Christ, she abandoned it.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page207" id="page207"></a>[pg 207]</span> + +<p>Cousin maintained that the avowed principle of the +Port-Royalists was the withdrawal from all worldly pleasure +and attachment. "'Marriage is a homicide; absolute +renunciation is the true régime of a Christian.' Jacqueline +Pascal is an exaggeration of Port-Royal, and Port-Royal is +an exaggeration of the religious spirit of the seventeenth +century. Man is too little considered; all movement of +the physical world comes from God; all our acts and +thoughts, except those of crime and error, come from and +belong to Him. Nothing is our own; there is no free will; +will and reason have no power. The theory of grace is +the source of all truth, virtue, and merit—and for this +doctrine Jacqueline Pascal gives up her life."</p> + +<p>Among the great spirits of Port-Royal, the women especially +were strong in their convictions and high in their +ideals. They naturally followed the ideas of man and +naturally fell into religious errors; but their firmness, constancy, +and heroism were striking indeed. Their aspiration +was the imitation of Christ, and they approached +their model as near as ever was done by man. In an age +of courtesans, when convictions were subservient to the +pleasure of power, they set a worthy example of strength +of mind, firmness of will, purity, and womanliness. M. du Bled says:</p> + +<p>"Port-Royal was the enterprise of the middle-class aristocracy +of France; you can see here an anticipated attempt +of a sort of superior third estate to govern for itself in the +Church and to establish a religion not Roman, not aristocratic +and of the court, not devout in the manner of the +simple people, but freer from vain images and ceremonies, +and freer, also, as to the temporal in the face of worldly +authority—a sober, austere, independent religion which +would have truly founded a Gallican reform. The illusion +was in thinking that they could continue to exist in Rome—that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page208" id="page208"></a>[pg 208]</span> +Richelieu and Louis XIV. would tolerate the boldness of this attempt."</p> + +<p>A celebrated woman of the seventeenth century, one +who really belongs to the circle of Mme. de Longueville +and Mme. de La Fayette, but who early in life, like Mme. +de Longueville, devoted herself to religion and retired to +live at Port-Royal, and is therefore more intimately associated +with the religious movement, was Mme. de Sablé, a +type of the social-religious woman.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Sablé is a heroine of Cousin, whom we closely +follow in this account of her career. According to that +writer, she is a type of the purely social woman, a woman +who did less for herself than for others, in aiding whom +she took delight, a woman who was the inspiration of +many writers and many works.</p> + +<p>Mlle. de Souvré married the wealthy Marquis of Sablé, +of the house of Montmorency, of whom little is known. +He soon abandoned her; and she, most unhappy over +unworthy rivals, fell very ill, retired from society for +a time, and then reappeared; her career as a society +woman then began. At an early age, by force of her +decided taste for the high form of Spanish gallantry, +then so much in vogue, and her inclination to all things +intellectual, she became one of the leaders of the Hôtel de +Rambouillet. She, Mmes. de Sévigné, de Longueville, +and de La Fayette formed that circle of women who idealized friendship.</p> + +<p>Within a few years she lost her father, husband, two of +her brothers, and her second son; and after putting her +financial affairs into order, she and her friend, the Countess +of Maure, took up their quarters at the famous Place +Royale; there they decided to devote their lives to letters, +and there assembled their friends, men and women, regardless +of rank or party, personal merit being the only +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page209" id="page209"></a>[pg 209]</span> +means of access. Mmes. de Sablé and de Rambouillet +were called the arbiters of elegance and good taste.</p> + +<p>To her friends, Mme. de Sablé was always accommodating +and showed no partiality; well informed, she was +constantly approached for counsel and favors; discreet and +trustworthy, the most important secrets were intrusted to +her—a confidence which she never betrayed. During the +Fronde she remained faithful to the queen and Mazarin, +but did not become estranged from her friends, so many +of whom were Frondists, and who chose her as their +counsellor, arbitrator, and pacifier.</p> + +<p>About 1655 she began to realize her unsettled position +in the world and to long for a place where she might, +modestly and becomingly, spend her declining years. She +was then fifty-five years of age. The ideas of Jansenism +had so impressed the great people of the day, that she decided +to retire to Port-Royal, to end her days with sympathizers +of the spiritual life around her and her former +friends whenever she desired them. There she gathered +about her the most exclusive and aristocratic people of the +day: La Rochefoucauld, the Prince and Princess of Conti, +Condé, Monsieur,—brother of Louis XIV.,—Mme. de La +Fayette, Mme. de Hautefort, and others.</p> + +<p>At her apartments, not only were religious and literary +affairs discussed, but the most delicate and delicious dishes +were prepared and elixirs and remedies for disease compounded. +Famous people were led to seek her, through +her reputation and influence, and through friendship, for +she seldom left her house. Mme. de Sablé possessed all +the qualities that attract and hold, nothing extraordinary +or rare, but abundant politeness and elegance.</p> + +<p>It was not long before she began to withdraw from even +her friends, still continuing, however, her fine cuisine, the +remarkable care of her health, and her medical experiments. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page210" id="page210"></a>[pg 210]</span> +Her dinners became celebrated, and invitations to them were +much in demand; about them there were no signs of opulence, +but her gatherings were distinguished for refinement +and taste. Her friends were constantly asking her +for her recipes, of the preparation of which no one but herself knew the secret.</p> + +<p>At the salon of Mme. de Sablé originated many famous +literary works, such as the <i>Conférences sur le Calvinisme</i>, +works on Cartesian philosophy, the <i>Logique de Port-Royal</i>, +<i>Questions sur l'Amour</i>, <i>Les Maximes</i>, etc. She will be +remembered as the initiator of many maxims, in the composition +of which she excelled. A number of her sayings +concerning friendship have been preserved. Two treatises, +in the form of maxims, on the education of children and on +friendship, respectively, are supposed to have come from +her pen; from them La Rochefoucauld conceived the ideas +he utilized in his famous <i>Maxims</i>.</p> + +<p>La Rochefoucauld's maxims were composed according +to the chance of conversation, which gave rise to various +subjects and led to his serious reflection upon them. +Cousin even goes so far as to say that the <i>Pensées</i> of +Pascal would never have been published in that form had +not the <i>Maxims</i> enjoyed such favor. Pascal often visited +Port-Royal and naturally followed the general reflective +tendency of its society. His <i>Discours sur les Passions de +l'Amour</i> possibly originated at the salon of Mme. de Sablé, +because the subject of which that work treated was one +much discussed there. La Rochefoucauld was in the habit +of sending his maxims to Mme. de Sablé with the message: +"As you do nothing for nothing, I ask of you a carrot soup or mutton stew."</p> + +<p>When La Rochefoucauld entered the society of Mme. +de Sablé, he had seen much of life, was familiar with +most of the adventures and intrigues of the Fronde and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page211" id="page211"></a>[pg 211]</span> +the society of the time; he himself had acted his part in +all, and at the age of fifty was ready to put his experience +into a permanent form of reflection. His <i>Maxims</i> created +a stir, through the clearness and elegance of their character, +their fine analyses of man as he was in the seventeenth +century, and through their truthfulness and general +applicability to men of every country. From all the illustrious +women of the day, either he or Mme. de Sablé +received letters of criticism or suggestion—eulogies and +condemnations of which he took notice in his next edition. +This shows the intense interest felt in the appearance of +any new literary production.</p> + +<p>Cousin says that the whole literature of maxims and +reflections issued directly from the salon of a kind and good +woman who had retired to a convent with no other desire +than to live over her life, to recall her past and what she +had seen and felt therein; and upon her society, that +woman impressed her own tastes, elegance, and seriousness. +Her great act of benevolence was her protection of +Port-Royal. When, after the death in 1661 of Mother +Angélique Arnauld, that institution became the object of +persecution and its tenants were either imprisoned or compelled +to seek refuge in the various families of Paris, Mme. +de Sablé remained faithful to its principles; she lived with +her friends, Mme. de Longueville and Mme. de Montausier, +until 1669, when, with the coöperation of Mme. de Longueville, +who exerted all her influence for Port-Royal, she +finally succeeded in bringing about its reopening. At least, +Cousin ascribes this result to Mme. de Sablé, but he may +have somewhat exaggerated her influence in this respect. +From her retreat at Port-Royal, she kept up a constant +correspondence with her friends all over France; she lived +there until 1678, with but one intimate friend, Mme. de Longueville.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page212" id="page212"></a>[pg 212]</span> + +<p>Mme. de Sablé had remarkable gifts; her mission in +politics, religion, and literature seems to have been to +excite to action, to stimulate and to bring out to its fullest +value, the talents and genius of others. In her modest +salon, she inspired the great and illustrious work which +will keep her memory alive as long as the <i>Maxims</i> and +<i>Pensées</i> are read. Her name will be connected with that +of Mme. de Longueville, because of their ideal friendship, +and with that of Port-Royal because of her ardent and +self-sacrificing support of it in the time of its direst persecution, +when any exhibition of sympathy was dangerous +in the extreme; and finally, her name will always be connected +with that small circle of French society of the seventeenth +century, which was noble, moral, and elevating to an unusual degree.</p> + +<p>Somewhat later in the century a different movement +was started by a woman, which involved many of the +highest in rank at court. This took the form of a kind of +mystical enthusiasm, running into a theory of pure love, +and was instigated by Mme. Guyon, a widow, still young, +and gifted with a lofty and subtile mind. After losing her +husband, whom she had converted to her religious views, +she went, in 1680, to Paris to educate her children. Becoming +interested in religion, she went to Geneva, where +she became very intimate with a priest who was her spiritual +director, and whom she soon wholly subjected to her +influence. On account of their views on sanctification, +they were ordered to leave.</p> + +<p>After travelling over Europe for a number of years, and +writing several works, including <i>Spiritual Torrents</i> and +<i>Short and Easy Method of Making Orison with the Heart</i>, +the widow returned to Paris, with the intention of living +in retirement; but so many persons of all ranks sought her +out, that she organized, for ladies of rank, meetings for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page213" id="page213"></a>[pg 213]</span> +purposes of prayer and religious conversation. The Duchess +of Beauvilliers, the Duchess of Béthune, the Countess +of Guiche, the Countess of Chevreuse, and many others, +with their husbands, became her devoted adherents.</p> + +<p>According to Mme. Guyon, prayer should lose the character +of supplication, and become simply the silence of a +soul absorbed in God. "Why are not simple folks so +taught? Shepherds, keeping their flocks, would have the +spirit of the old anchorites; and laborers, whilst driving +the plow, would talk happily with God. In a little while, +vice would be banished and the kingdom of God would be +realized on earth." Thus, her doctrine was directly opposite +to the theories of the Jansenists.</p> + +<p>At that time, 1687 to 1688, all religious movements, +however quiet, were condemned at Rome; and the teachings +of Mme. Guyon were found to differ very little from +those of the Spanish priest Molinas. The first arrest, that +of her friend Lacombe, was soon followed by that of Mme. +Guyon herself, by royal order; she was released through +the intercession of Mme. de Maintenon, who was fascinated +by her to the extent of permitting her to teach her doctrines +at Saint-Cyr, Upon the appearance of her <i>Method of +Prayer</i>, an examination was instituted by Bossuet and +Fénelon, who marked out a few passages as erroneous—a +procedure to which she submitted. However, Bossuet +himself wrote a treatise against her <i>Method of Prayer</i>, in +which he cast reflections upon her character and conduct; +to that work Fénelon refused to subscribe, which antagonistic +proceeding brought on the great quarrel between +those two absolute ecclesiasts. In fact, Fénelon became +imbued with the doctrines of Mme. Guyon.</p> + +<p>She was imprisoned at various times; and when a letter +was received from Lacombe, who had been imprisoned at +Vincennes for a long time, exhorting her to repent of their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page214" id="page214"></a>[pg 214]</span> +criminal intimacy, Mme. Guyon's cause was hopeless. +She was sent to the Bastille, her son was dismissed from +the army, and many of her friends were banished. In +1702 she was released from prison and banished to Diziers; +she passed the remainder of her life in complete retirement at Blois.</p> + +<p>Fénelon had written a treatise, <i>Maxims of the Saints</i>, +which was said to favor Mme. Guyon's doctrines, and +which was sent to Rome for examination. He defined her +doctrine of divine love in the following maxim, which was condemned at Rome:</p> + +<p>"There is an habitual state of love of God, which is +pure charity without any taint of the motive of self-interest. +Neither fear of punishment nor desire of reward +has, any longer, part in this love; God is loved, not for the +merit, but for the happiness to be found in loving Him."</p> + +<p>Such a doctrine made repentance unnecessary, destroyed +all effort to withstand evil, and did not acknowledge the +need of a Redeemer. This the great Bossuet foresaw; +consequently, he, as the supreme religious potentate of +his inferior in rank, Fénelon, demanded the condemnation +by the latter of the works of Mme. Guyon. The refusal +cost Fénelon exile for life. To Mme. de Maintenon he +wrote a letter which shows the sincerity of his devotion to +a friend in disgrace, even though his own reputation was thereby endangered:</p> + +<p>"So it is to secure my own reputation that I am wanted +to subscribe that a lady—my friend—would plainly deserve +to be burned, with all her writings, for an execrable +form of spirituality which is the only bond of our friendship. +I tell you, madame, I would burn my friend with +my own hands, and I would burn myself joyfully, rather +than let the Church be imperilled; but here is a poor, +captive woman, overwhelmed with sorrows; there is none +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page215" id="page215"></a>[pg 215]</span> +to defend her, none to excuse her; all are afraid to do so. +I maintain that this stroke of the pen, given from a cowardly +policy and against my conscience, would render me +forever infamous and unworthy of my ministry and my position."</p> + +<p>Thus, in the seventeenth century, religious agitations +and religious reform were the work preëminently of +women; but that reform and those agitations were productive +of good results to a far greater degree than was +any similar movement in any other century, with the +possible exception of the nineteenth. The seventeenth +century was, as mentioned before, a century of stability, +one that toned down and crushed all violations and abuses +of the standard established by authority. Woman, in her +constant striving for the complete emancipation and gradual +purification of her sex, rebelled against the power of +established authority; she did not consciously or intentionally +violate law and order, but in her intense desire to act +for good as she saw it, and in her noble efforts to ameliorate +all undesirable conditions, she created commotion and +confusion. The seventeenth-century woman is conspicuous +as a champion of religion, moral purity, and social +reform; therefore, her influence was mainly social, religious, +moral, and literary, while that of the woman of +the sixteenth century was mainly political. This difference +was the result of the greater advantages of education +and training enjoyed by the females of the later period.</p> + +<p>In the beginning of the seventeenth century, young girls +were granted greater privileges and received more attention +from men and society than did their predecessors; +they thus had more opportunities for mental development, +more occasion to become aware of the temptations and injustices +of life, without falling prey to them. Such young +girls as Julie d'Angennes, Mlle. d'Arquenay, and Mlle. de +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page216" id="page216"></a>[pg 216]</span> +Pisani, took part in the balls, fêtes, garden parties, and all +amusements in which society indulged. They met young +men of their own age and became intimately acquainted +with them, morals were purer, marriages of affection were +much more frequent, and the state of married life was much +more congenial, than in any other century. Young men +paid court to the older ladies, to refine their manners and +sharpen their intellects, but not for any immoral purpose. +To a certain extent women were more world-wise when +they reached the marriageable age, and inspired respect +and admiration rather than passion and desire as in the next century.</p> + +<p>Young girls of the seventeenth century were early placed +in a convent, and when they left it they were ready for +marriage; in the meantime, they frequently visited home +and associated with their parents and brothers; at the convents +intellectual intercourse with people of high rank and +men of letters was encouraged. Yet the discipline at those +institutions was very rigid, the boarders being more carefully +watched then than later on; two nuns always accompanied +them on their walks, and when not busy with their +studies, to prevent the mind from wandering, they were +kept busy with their hands; "the transports of the soul +of the young girl, as every reflection of the intelligence, +are watched and held in check, every one of her inclinations +opposed, all originality suppressed."</p> + +<p>At first the convents were reproached for stifling all culture +and development and applying only correction and +mortification of the flesh. Mme. de Maintenon opposed +such a state of affairs, but her methods discouraged true +independence. The happiness of her charges was her one +aim, but they had no voice in the matter. When of marriageable +age, they were given a trousseau and a husband; +however, they were taught to be reasonable.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page217" id="page217"></a>[pg 217]</span> + +<p>In that century, the young girl, mixing more generally +in society, received greater consideration—hence, she became +more active and conspicuous. It will be seen that +the rôle played by the eighteenth century woman was not +so much played by the young woman as it was by the +woman of mature years, of the mother, the counsellor—the +indispensable element of society. There were three +classes of women—young women, mature women who +sought consideration, and old women who received respect +and deference, and who, as arbiters of culture, upheld the +principles already established.</p> + +<p>A young man making his début had to find favor with +one of those classes which decided his future reputation +and the extent of his favor at court, and assigned him his +place and grade, upon which depended his marriage. All +education was directed to the one end—social success. +The duty of the tutor charged with the instruction of a +young son was to give a well-rounded, general education; +by the mother, he was taught politeness, grace, amiability—a +part of his training to which more importance was +attached than to the intellectual portion. Whenever a +young man was guilty of misconduct toward a woman, his +mother was notified of the occurrence, on the same evening, +and he promptly received his reprimand. This spirit +naturally fostered that rare politeness, exquisite taste +and tact in conversation, in which the eighteenth century excels.</p> + +<p>But where did the young girls receive the education +which gave them such prestige—that consummate art of +conversation exemplified in Mme. de Boufflers, Mme. de +Luxembourg, Mme. de Sabran, the Duchess of Choiseul, +the Princess of Beauvau, the Countess of Ségur? The +sons were educated in the usages of the <i>bonne compagnie</i> +by the mothers, but the daughters did not enjoy that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page218" id="page218"></a>[pg 218]</span> +attention, for, at the age of five or six years, they were +sent to the convent; there the mother's influence could +not have reached them, and they never left the convent +except to marry. The middle class imitated the higher +class, and family life became practically impossible. All +men of any importance had a charge at court or a grade in +the army, and lived away from their families. A large +number of women were attached to the queen, spending +the greater part of their time at Versailles; the little time +passed at their homes was entirely occupied in preparation +for the evening <i>causeries</i> at the salons, in reading new +books, acquiring information upon current events, and in +superintending the making of the many necessary and +always elaborate gowns; as M. Perey so well says, "as +the toilettes and hairdressing took up the greater part of the +morning, they devoted the time used by the <i>coiffeur</i>, in +constructing complicated edifices that crushed down the +heads of women, to the reading of new books."</p> + +<p>Nearly every large establishment kept open house, dining +from twenty to thirty persons every day. They dined at +one, separated at three, were at the theatre at five, and +returned with as many friends as possible—the more, +the greater the reputation for hospitality and popularity. +Under such circumstances, the mother had no time for the +daughters, nor were the conversations at those dinners +food for young, innocent girls—and innocence was the +first requirement of a marriageable young woman.</p> + +<p>The great convents were the Abbaye-aux-Bois and +Penthemont, where the daughters of the wealthiest and +highest families were educated. In those convents or +seminaries, strange to say, the young girls were taught +the most practical domestic duties, as well as dancing, +music, painting, etc. Such teachers as Molé and Larrive +gave instruction in declamation and reading, and Noverre +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page219" id="page219"></a>[pg 219]</span> +and Dauberval in dancing; the teaching nuns were all from +the best families. The most complete costumes, scenic +decorations, and other equipments of a complete theatre +were supplied, special hours being set aside for the play. +However, much intriguing went on there, and many +friendships and lifelong enmities were formed, which later +led to serious troubles.</p> + +<p>Often, from the midst of a group of young girls of from +ten to fifteen years of age, one would be notified of her +coming marriage with a man she had never seen, and +whom, in all probability, she could not love, having given +her heart to another. If it turned out to be an uncongenial +marriage, a separate life would be the result, and, while +still absolutely ignorant of the world, those young married +women would fall prey to the charms of young gallants or +men of quality, and a liaison would follow.</p> + +<p>The difference between a liaison of the seventeenth +century and one of the eighteenth led to one essential difference +in the standards of social and moral etiquette; in the +former period, a liaison meant nothing more censurable than +an intimate friendship, a purely platonic love; the lover +simply paid homage to the lady of his choice; it was an attraction +of common intellectual interests and usually lasted +for life; in the eighteenth century, a liaison was essentially +immoral, rarely a union of interests, but rather one of +passions and physical propensities. Such relations developed +and fostered deceit, intrigues, infidelity, and rivalry, +one woman endeavoring to allure the lover of another; +affairs of that nature were the chief topic of conversation +in social circles, and were soon reflected in every phase of +the intelligent world. This will be seen in the study of the eighteenth century.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page221" id="page221"></a>[pg 221]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter VIII</h2> + +<h2>Salon Leaders<br /> +Mme. de Tencin, Mme. Geoffrin, Mme. du Deffand, Mlle. de Lespinasse, +Mme. du Châtelet</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page223" id="page223"></a>[pg 223]</span> + + +<p>In studying the vast numbers of salons of the eighteenth +century, three types are discernible, each of which was +prominent and in full sway throughout the century up to +the Revolution. To the first class belong the great literary +and philosophical salons which, though not political in +nature, finally changed politics; such were the circles of +Mme. de Tencin, Mme. Geoffrin, Mme. du Deffand, Mlle. +de Lespinasse, Mme. Necker, Mme. d'Epinay, Mme. de +Genlis; with these every literary student is familiar. +The second class includes the smaller and less important +literary, philosophical, and social salons—those of Mme. +de Marchais, Mme. de Persan, Mme. de Villars, Mme. de +Vaines, and of D'Alembert, D'Holbach, Helvétius. The +third class is of a social nature exclusively, good breeding +and good tone being the essentials; its conspicuous features +were the dinners and suppers of Suard, Saurin, the Abbés +Raynal and Morellet, of the Palais-Royal of Mme. de Blot, +of the Temple of the Prince of Conti, those of Mme. de +Beauvau, Mme. de Gramont, M. de La Popeliniére, and others.</p> + +<p>The distinctions thus made will not hold throughout, +but they facilitate the presentation of a subject that is +exceedingly complicated. It may almost be said that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page224" id="page224"></a>[pg 224]</span> +each generation of the eighteenth century had a salon +with a different physiognomy; those of 1710, 1730, 1760, +and 1780 were all inspired by different motives, causes, +and events, and were all led by women of different histories +and aspirations, whose common idol was man, but +whose ideas of what constituted a hero were as widely +different as was the constitution of society in the respective +periods. Not until the middle of the reign of +Louis XIV. did social life become detached from Versailles, +and, spreading out and circulating in a thousand hôtels, +showed itself in all its force, splendor, and elegance. The +celebrated women of the regency—Mme. de Prie, Mme. de +Parabère, Mme. de Sabran—had no salon, while those of +the Marquis d'Alluys and the Hôtels de Sully, de Duras, +de Villars, and the suppers of Mme. de Chauvelin were of +a distinctly different type from those of the earlier and the later periods.</p> + +<p>In a certain sense, the salons changed the complexion of +the age. The eighteenth century itself was friendly and +generous; it was, also, impatient and inexperienced, seeing +things not as they were but as it wished them to be, compelling +science and art to serve its purpose. It was frank, +often brutally frank, a characteristic due partly to the +conversational license of the salons. With its Fontenelle, +Voltaire, Piron, etc., it was indeed a happy century. A +<i>bon mot</i> was the event of the day and travelled over all +the civilized world.</p> + +<p>Feeling keenly the need of a guiding principle, the need +of a more substantial foundation in education, the women +of the century thought and wrote much on that subject; +such was, for the most part, the work of the great salons, +but in them the philosophical tenets of the age were also +discussed. The spirit of criticism thus created and cultivated, +which finally spread through all classes of society, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page225" id="page225"></a>[pg 225]</span> +gradually conquered the new power in the state—public +opinion which, at the end of the century, ruled supreme +in all its strength and vehemence, defying every effort of +the government to stifle it. The highest form of agreeable +and intellectual society which the world has ever +seen attained to its most complete development in these salons.</p> + +<p>Every century has had its specialty: the twelfth had its +crusades, the sixteenth its religious struggles, the seventeenth +its grand <i>goût</i>, the eighteenth its conversation and +love of reason, the nineteenth its political struggles; and +each one displayed the French passion for <i>esprit</i>; the +eighteenth, however, was, <i>par excellence</i>, the century of +<i>esprit</i>, and it was most remarkably developed in woman.</p> + +<p>"Such astonishingly loquacious people as lived in Paris +in the eighteenth century! ineffective, sardonic, verbose, +sociable, intellectual, elegant, immoral—grand gentlemen +and ladies, with tears for mimic woes and none for actual +ones, praise for wit, rewards for cleverness, and absolute +ignorance of the destinies they were preparing for themselves;" +such is the story of women and society of the +eighteenth century. Among these women the salon leaders +will be found the most attractive, and the most influential +in literature, theory of government, and social and +moral development; to the mistresses belongs the title of "politicians."</p> + +<p><i>La Ménagerie de Mme. de Tencin</i> was one of the earliest +of the eighteenth-century salons, although, in the strict +sense of the word, Mme. de Tencin's salon was of a +political rather than a literary nature. Successively nun, +mistress, mother, she was one of the shrewdest women +of the century. Born in 1681, she early became a nun; +but such was the character of her life at the convent that +it was not long before she became a mother. In 1714 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page226" id="page226"></a>[pg 226]</span> +she abandoned her conventual life and went to Paris, +where she rose to influence as the mistress of Cardinal +Dubois and of the regent, the Duke of Orléans. At +Paris her real activity began; she arrived at that gay +capital with no other collateral than a pretty face and an +extraordinary cunning, which soon brought her a fortune. +Fertile in resources of all kinds, she succeeded immediately, +and gained for her nephew the cardinal's hat. In +1717 was born to her the afterward famous d'Alembert, +whom she left upon the steps of the church Saint-Jean-le-Rond; +afterward, when he had become eminent and her +power was waning, she unsuccessfully used every means +at her command to gain his favor and recognition; the +father of that child was the Chevalier Destouches.</p> + +<p>About 1726, when lovers were numerous and friends +plentiful, the death of Lafresnaye occurred at her salon. +In his testament he stated that his death was caused by +Mme. de Tencin; however, she was too shrewd, cunning, +and careful to be guilty of permitting any weak points to +appear in her plots, and it was not difficult for her to clear +herself of that charge by the verdict of the judges, who +considered the accusation a posthumous vengeance.</p> + +<p>The great literary men whom Mme. de Tencin gathered +about her, Fontenelle, Montesquieu, Mairan, Marivaux, +Helvétius, Marmontel, were called her menagerie, or her +<i>bêtes</i>. Among them, Marivaux received a pension of one +thousand écus from her, besides drawing at will upon +the exchequer of an old maid by the name of Saint-Jean. +Marmontel, desirous of writing tragedies, took lessons +from the famous Mlle. Clairon—at his friend's expense. +To give a correct idea of the character of woman's influence +upon the literary style of that century, the words +of Marmontel may be quoted: "He who wishes to write +with precision, energy, and vigor, may live with man only; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page227" id="page227"></a>[pg 227]</span> +but he who in his style wishes to have subtleness, amenity, +charm, flexibility, will do well, I think, to live with woman."</p> + +<p>Mme. de Tencin exerted an immense influence upon the +men of her circle, especially socially; for example, she +married the wealthy M. de La Popelinière to Mlle. Dancourt. +She was one of the few really consummate diplomats; +later on, she became less associated with intrigues, +and gave lessons in current diplomacy, with which she +was perfectly familiar. Her counsel to her pupils was to +gain friends among women rather than among men. +"For," she would say, "we do whatever we wish with +men; they are so dissipated, or so preoccupied with their +personal interests, that to give attention to them would be +to neglect your own interests."</p> + +<p>Every New Year's Day the <i>bêtes</i> of her menagerie received +two yards of velvet, to make knickerbockers to be +worn at her receptions; this custom was observed up to +the last year of the existence of her salon. Her receptions +were among the first of the kind in France. Like the +majority of salon leaders, she was an authoress of no +mean ability. Her novels were widely read at the time—<i>Le +Siège de Calais</i> and <i>Les Malheurs de l'Amour</i>. Her +memoirs, throwing light upon the intrigues and plots, social +animosities, and general state of the society of the time, +are historically valuable. She died in Paris, in 1749.</p> + +<p>Among all the great salons, that of Mme. de Tencin was +the only one in which gambling was indulged in on a +wholesale scale; fortunes changed hands every evening, +a large part of the gains always falling to the lot of the +hostess, as a sort of "rake off." She herself was a professional +at the business, and by receiving private information +from headquarters, through her famous friend Law, +the <i>contrôleur-général</i>, and her lover Dubois, she was able +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page228" id="page228"></a>[pg 228]</span> +to acquire an immense fortune which she distributed freely +among her friends and favorites. Her place among the +literary salon leaders depends mainly upon her endeavors +to advance the interests of the aspiring young authors who +were willing to place themselves under her protection.</p> + +<p>After the death of Mme. de Tencin and that of Mme. de +Châtelet, who had received many of the celebrities of the +time, there remained but two distinguished, purely literary +and philosophical salons open in Paris. By right of +precedence, the <i>bêtes</i> should have gone over to the salon +of Mme. du Deffand, as she had been established some +years when Mme. Geoffrin began to receive at her residence, +which gained its first renown through the exquisite +dinners served there. But the <i>bêtes</i> all flocked to the +<i>salon bourgeois</i>, and consequently a more brilliant gathering +never assembled in a salon; here sat, enjoying the +liberal hospitalities, Fontenelle, Montesquieu, Mairan, Marmontel, +Helvétius, Diderot, D'Alembert, Thomas, D'Holbach, +Hume, Morellet, Mlle. de Lespinasse, the Marquis +de Duras, Comtesses d'Egmont and de Brionne. Here, +conversation—which, in the eighteenth century, was not +only a discussion or a dissertation, but an art—reached its +highest development; the members did not need to be eloquent, +to expatiate upon some theory or science; the conversation +moved about the members, and they had to be a part of it.</p> + +<p>Mme. Geoffrin was born in Paris in 1699, and was the +daughter of M. Rodet, <i>valet de chambre</i> of the dauphiness, +Duchesse de Bourgogne, mother of Louis XV. When +barely fifteen she was married to the wealthy M. Geoffrin, +the so-called founder of the celebrated <i>Manufacture des +Glaces de Gobelins</i>. Through his wealth and his associations +with people of nobility who bought his ware, she was +soon encouraged in her desire to entertain the nobility; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page229" id="page229"></a>[pg 229]</span> +her <i>esprit</i>, tact, intelligence, and admirable taste in dress +were all effective in bringing about the desired results.</p> + +<p>Her career was one of continual successes. When she +opened her salon, in 1741, she instituted the custom of receiving +her friends at table, not only men of letters, but +artists, architects, builders, painters, sculptors, all men of +genius and prominence. Monday was the day reserved +for artists exclusively; Marmontel, who lived with Mme. +Geoffrin for ten years "as her tenant," and the indispensable +Abbé Morellet were the exceptions who might be +present upon that day. From the very beginning she +formed the habit of permitting conversation to go just so +far, then cutting it off with her famous: <i>Voil qui est bien!</i></p> + +<p>Her husband was the <i>maître d'hôtel</i>, of whom many +interesting anecdotes are told; the best and one that illustrates +well the appreciation of individuals in those days is +the following, which is so admirably told by Lady Jackson +that we quote from her: "For some years, there sat at +the bottom of Mme. Geoffrin's dinner and supper table +a dignified-looking, white-haired old gentleman, bland in +manner, but very modest and retiring, speaking only when +spoken to, but looking very happy when the guests seemed +to enjoy the good cheer set before them. When, at last, +his customary place became vacant, and some brilliant +butterfly of madame's circle of <i>visiteurs flottants</i>, who, +perhaps, had smiled patronizingly upon the silent old gentleman, +becoming aware of his absence, would, perchance, +carelessly inquire what had become of her constant dinner +guest, madame would reply: <i>Mais, c'était mon mari. Hélas! +il est mort, le bon homme.</i> [Why, that was my husband! +alas, he is dead, poor man!] Just so little was the consideration +shown this worthy creature in his own house! +Yet it both pleased and amused him to sit there silently +and gaze at the throng of rank, fashion, and learning, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page230" id="page230"></a>[pg 230]</span> +assembled in his wife's salon, and to witness her social success."</p> + +<p>After the death of Mme. Geoffrin's husband, the immense +fortune passed under her own management, whereupon +began her real career as a social arbitress, during +which she is said to have tempered both opinions and characters. +Thomas said of her that "she was, in morals, like +that divinity of the ancients which maintained or reëstablished +limits." She was a great patroness of arts and her +rooms were decorated with pictures by Vanloo, Greuze, +Vernet, Robert, etc. She and her salon became, in time, +the acknowledged judge and dictator of matters literary +and artistic. Whenever a financier wished to purchase a +certain work of art, it was taken to her Monday dinner, +where the artists determined its artistic value and fixed the +price. Her house was a real museum; there the precious +Mariette collection was on permanent exhibition.</p> + +<p>Besides her Monday dinners to artists and her Wednesday +dinners to the literary world, she gave private luncheons +to a select few who were especially congenial. At +those functions, such celebrities as the Comtesses d'Egmont +and de Brionne, the Marquise de Duras, and the +Prince de Rohan were frequent guests.</p> + +<p>Mme. Geoffrin was shrewd and tactful enough to avoid +politics and not to permit discussions of a political nature +at her salon—precautions which she observed to keep the +government from interfering with her fortune and mode of +living. Her salon and dinners became so famous that every +foreigner going to Paris had the ambition to be received at +Mme. Geoffrin's; when any aspirant was successful in +this, she would say to her friends: <i>Soyons aimables</i> [Let us +be kind]. She spent freely of her immense fortune constantly +seeking and aiding the poor. Persons who refused +to accept her charity found little favor with her; Rousseau +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page231" id="page231"></a>[pg 231]</span> +was one of these. It was her habit to go frequently to +see friends, merely to ascertain their wants and to satisfy +them. The Abbé Morellet, Thomas, D'Alembert, and +Mlle. de Lespinasse (the only lady admitted to her Wednesdays) +were given liberal pensions. Upon each New Year's +Day, in commemoration of Mme. de Tencin, she sent each +Wednesday guest a velvet cap. Her motto was: <i>Donner +et pardonner</i> [Give and forgive].</p> + +<p>Stanislas, King of Poland, her <i>protégé</i>, whom she had +rescued from the debtor's prison in Paris, and to whom +she had shown many favors, upon being elected King of +Poland in 1764, said to her: <i>Maman, votre fils est roi</i> +[Mamma, your son is king]. Two years later, when she +paid him a visit, the leading members of the Polish nobility +met her on the road, and the king had a special residence +prepared for her. As she passed through Vienna, +Joseph II. received her, and the Empress Maria entertained +her at dinner. Upon her return to Paris, after this triumphal +tour through Europe, the members of the world of +literature and art, and even the ministers and the nobility, +flocked to see her; this demonstration was the more remarkable +from the fact that she wielded no political influence, +her only desire and pleasure seeming to lie in aiding her friends.</p> + +<p>Mme. Geoffrin was too practical and had too much good +common sense to be vain. The majority of men were influenced +by and favored her, and, which seemed strange, +she had few enemies among her own sex. Mme. Necker +said: "The old age of Mme. Geoffrin is like that of old +trees, whose age we know by the space they cover and +the quantity of roots they spread. She has seen all the +illustrious men of the century; she has discovered, with +sagacity, their peculiarities and their defects. She judges +them by their conduct, never by their talents."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page232" id="page232"></a>[pg 232]</span> + +<p>In her best years, she was intimately associated with +the Encyclopædists, to whom she paid over one hundred +thousand francs for the publication of their work. Of all +the great women of that century, she was the closest +friend of the philosophers and free-thinkers, being called +<i>La Fontenelle des Femmes</i>. She was always ready with an +answer; one day a friend pointed out to her the house of +the farmer-general Bouvet, and asked her: "Have you +ever seen anything as magnificent and in better taste?" +She replied: "I would have nothing to say if Bouvet were +the <i>frotteur</i> [floor polisher] of it."</p> + +<p>Mme. Geoffrin, more than any other woman of the +salons, possessed the three essential qualifications of a +salon leader,—good sense, tact, and intelligence. She had +also <i>esprit</i>, perfect simplicity, precision, and faultless taste; +though a sceptic, she was a diplomat who perfectly understood +the art of manœuvring. In short, Mme. Geoffrin +was an intellectual authority, a sort of minister to society, +and her salon was the great centre and rendezvous, a +veritable institution of the eighteenth century. This seems +the more remarkable when we consider that she belonged +to the bourgeoisie, and that by dint of her exquisite tact, her +almost infallible judgment, her admirable taste in dress, +and her keen intelligence, she created for herself a position +which was the envy of all Europe. Such women are +rare. During the last eighteen months of her life, though +suffering from paralysis and rheumatism, which she contracted +at a religious fête at Notre-Dame, she was unremitting +in her attention to her friends and the poor; and +up to her death, in 1777, her friends were faithful to her.</p> + +<p>That spirit, or malady, which penetrated and ruled +almost every creature in the eighteenth century found its +most notable victim in Marie de Vichy-Chamrond—Mme. +du Deffand. She, so to speak, yawned out her life in a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page233" id="page233"></a>[pg 233]</span> +blasé society without faith or ideal. That horrible affliction, +with all its painful symptoms, ennui, whose origin +was seen to lie in an excess and abuse of <i>esprit</i> in a society +that based all its pleasures and happiness upon the mind +without any higher interest than the self, infected a whole +century with an "irremediable disenchantment of others +and one's self." This self-cult, or life in and for the mind, +developed sagacity, justness of views, and an incomparable +penetration, but it neglected all the elements necessary to +contentment and those other pleasures, of which the first +is love for one's fellow beings. Mme. du Deffand exemplified +this stage of mental unbalance; and when she +wrote of her former friend and companion: "Mlle. de +Lespinasse died to-day at two o'clock; formerly, that +would have been an event for me; to-day, it is nothing at +all," she gave an idea of the indifference which was characteristic +of the society of the time—an indifference which +developed into an incurable malady and an all-consuming +egoism, stifling the heart-beat of that world which was +weary of everything and yet was unwilling to close its eyes.</p> + +<p>Marie de Vichy-Chamrond was born in 1697, of a noble +family. She began the same manner of life as that followed +by most French women, being reared in the Convent +of Madeleine de Frénel, where, when quite young, +she evinced a strong spirit of impiety, giving expression to +the most sceptical opinions upon religious subjects, to the +great dismay of her superiors and parents. At the age of +twenty she was married to the Marquis du Deffand, who +had but his brevet of colonel of a regiment of dragoons, +and whose intelligence and fortune were of a <i>nullité rare</i>. +However, her marriage was a sort of emancipation which +enabled her to enter society; and it is asserted that she +soon became the mistress of Philippe of Orléans, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page234" id="page234"></a>[pg 234]</span> +regent, from whom she received six thousand francs life income.</p> + +<p>As the result of a disagreement, she separated from her +husband, and then began a life of pleasure among the +gayest of the most fashionable world, where, through +the power of her brilliancy, wit, charm, and fascinating +beauty, she immediately became a leader. After passing +through all the phases of social life and its varied experiences—from +the society of Mme. de Prie, the type of the +dissolute woman of the Regency, from the famous suppers +of the regent, whose ingenious inventions of lewd and +wanton pleasures made him notorious, from an association +with the intriguing Duchesse de Maine, to all the great +and influential social centres of Paris—in short, after pursuing +a career of fashionable dissipation, she became +reconciled to her husband, and lived with him in peace +and happiness for a short time; but six months of regular +life affected her behavior toward the poor marquis to such +a degree that he thought it best to leave her. After that +episode, she returned to her lover; and, rejected by him +and her friends, and becoming the subject of the gossip of +the entire city, she sought consolation from one acquaintance +after another, and was miserable all the time.</p> + +<p>At the age of about thirty-four, Mme. du Deffand returned +to a kind of regular life, and, in time, won a +reputation for <i>esprit</i>, regained her honorable friends and +established for herself a kind of accepted authority. Thus, +when she opened a salon in 1742, she was able to attract +a brilliant company, which became famous after 1749, +when she took apartments in the Convent Saint-Joseph. +Here wit and polished manners, taste, vivacity, and good +sense were the requisites; literature, politics, and philosophy +were not tolerated, but "sparkling <i>bons mots</i>, glancing +epigrams, witty verses, were the avenues to social success."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page235" id="page235"></a>[pg 235]</span> + +<p>Until her dotage this woman, who, from a natural selfishness +and lack of sympathy, was incapable of loving +with the characteristic ardor of the women of her time, by +knowing how to inspire love in others, controlled and held +near her the famous men and women of her age. When +she began to realize the calamity of her failing sight, which +was probably due to her general state of restlessness and +the resultant physical decay, she received, as companion, +a relative, Mlle. de Lespinasse, who undertook the most +difficult, disagreeable, and ungrateful task of waiting on +the marquise. As Mme. du Deffand arose in time to receive +at six, mademoiselle soon announced to the friends +that she herself would be visible at an earlier hour. Thus, +it happened that Marmontel, Turgot, Condorcet, and +d'Alembert regularly assembled in mademoiselle's room—a +proceeding which soon led to a rupture between the two +women and a breach between Mme. du Deffand and +d'Alembert. The marquise was therefore left alone, blind, +but too proud to tolerate pity, yet by her conversation +retaining her power of fascination. It was about this +time that Horace Walpole became connected with her life. +Upon the death of Mme. Geoffrin, she, hearing of the imposing +ceremonies and funeral orations, exclaimed: <i>Voilà +bien du bruit pour une omelette au lard</i>. [A great ado about +a lard omelet!] Her latter years were dragged out most +miserably, being marked by a singular feverishness and +unavailing efforts toward the acceptance of some faith. +Her death, in 1780, finally brought her relief.</p> + +<p>The career of Mme. du Deffand actually began as early +as 1730, when she opened her establishment on the Rue +de Beaune, at the time that she became attached to the +president Hénault, who presided over her salon for more +than thirty years. The famous salon Du Deffand at the +Convent Saint-Joseph was not opened until 1749; there +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page236" id="page236"></a>[pg 236]</span> +she was very particular as to those whom she received, +and access to her salon was a matter of difficulty. Grimm +was never received, and Diderot was present but once. +The conversation was always intellectual, and whenever +she tired of French vivacity, she would spend an evening with Mme. Necker.</p> + +<p>A letter of Walpole to Montagu leaves, on the whole, a +splendid picture of her: "I have heard her dispute with all +sorts of people, upon all sorts of subjects, and never knew +her to be in the wrong. She humbles the learned, sets +right their disciples, and finds conversation for everybody. +As affectionate as Mme. de Sévigné, she has none of her +prejudices, but a more universal taste; and with the most +delicate frame, her spirits hurry her through a life of fatigue +that would kill me were I to remain here."</p> + +<p>The simple furnishings of her apartments, which were +very spacious and had been occupied by the famous Mme. +de Montespan, stood out in striking contrast to the elegance +of her visitors. Here she gathered about her her +two lovers, <i>le Président</i> Hénault and Pont de Veyle, besides +D'Alembert, Turgot, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Necker, +Walpole, the Abbés Barthélemy and Pernetty, the Chevalier +de Lisle, de Formant, <i>le Docteur</i> Gatti, Hume, Gibbon, +Baron de Gleichen, and many other celebrities, including +the Princesses de Beauvau, de Poix, de Talmont, +the Duchesses de Choiseul, d'Aiguillon, de Gramont, the +Maréchale de Luxembourg, the Marquises de Boufflers and +du Châtelet, the Comtesses de Rochefort, de Broglie, de +Forcalquier, Mme. Necker, Lady Pembroke, De Lauzun, +and many others, all of whom were society leaders. Whenever +Mme. du Deffand had a special supper, it was said +that Paris was at Mme. du Deffand's.</p> + +<p>Her salon, above all others, was the centre of cosmopolitanism, +where all great men, foreigners and natives, found +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page237" id="page237"></a>[pg 237]</span> +means of social intercourse, and where, more than in any +other salon, were assembled the great beauties of the day, +represented especially by the Countesses de Forcalquier +and Choiseul-Beaupré, Duchesse de La Vallière. Gallantry +and beauty were found in the Maréchale de Luxembourg +and the Comtesse de Boufflers. The philosophical movement +of the Encyclopædists and Economists was not encouraged +at all. Thus, in Mme. du Deffand's salon, we +find neither pure philosophy nor religion, nor the air of +pedants and <i>déclamateurs</i>; it was a royalist salon without +illusion, hence indifferent to all questions. It represented +the perfect type of the French model of <i>esprit de finesse</i>,—that +is, precision,—and its leader possessed a keen insight into human character.</p> + +<p>This wonderful woman, who, during a period of over +forty years, had held at her feet the élite of the French +world, at the age of about threescore and ten, fell desperately +in love with a man of fifty—Horace Walpole. She +who had never loved with her heart, but only with her +mind, then declared it better to be dead than not to love +someone. Although her actions and letters were pitiful in +the extreme, her epistles are invaluable for their incomparable +portraitures and keen reflections upon persons and +events of the time. She attracted Walpole by the possibilities +that were opened up to him by her position in +society, and by her brilliant conversation, in which she +scoffed at the clergy and the philosophers, showing a profound +insight into human nature and the society of the +time as well as into politics. Their correspondence shows +one of the most pitiful, pathetic, and lamentable love tales +in the history of society. He looked upon her friendship +as a most valuable acquisition by which he was kept in +touch with all the scandals and stories of society, of which +he was so fond, and she mistook that friendship for love. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page238" id="page238"></a>[pg 238]</span> +He felt himself flattered in being the one preferred by +such a distinguished old lady of high society.</p> + +<p>All critics are at a loss for the explanation of such a love +in a woman of seventy. Was it the result of the lifetime +of disappointment of a woman who had constantly sought +love but had never found it? Was it, thus, the hallucination +of the childish old age of the woman who was physically +consumed by incessant social functions and all-night +reading? Mme. du Deffand sees in Walpole her ideal, +and she gives expression to her feelings, regardless of +propriety; for she is childish and irresponsible. To a +certain extent, the same was true of Mme. de Staël, but +she was still physically healthy and young enough to enjoy +life and the realization of that which she had so long +desired—an ideal affection. In the case of Mme. du Deffand, +the soul was willing, but the body failed. Her +emotion can scarcely be termed love, but is rather to be +designated as a mental hallucination, an exaggerated intellectual +affection bordering upon sentimentality—the outgrowth +of that morbid imagination developed from her long suffering from ennui.</p> + +<p>She was a woman destined to pass by the side of happiness +without ever reaching it. She hardly had enjoyed +what may be called friendship; she was always either +suspicious of it and of her friends' sentiments, or she herself +broke off relations for some trivial reason. This woman, +however, always longed to believe her friends sincere, but +never succeeded. "Her friends either leave her, they die, +or they are far away; or, if present, faithful and attached +to her, she cannot believe in their affection; her cursed +scepticism deceived her heart."</p> + +<p>Mme. du Deffand was one of the few women of the +eighteenth century who saw reality and nothing but reality, +and admitted what she saw; she was gifted with such +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page239" id="page239"></a>[pg 239]</span> +quick penetration and such mental facility that she stands +out prominently as one of the brightest and most intellectual +of the spiritual women of her time. This quickness of +perception and tendency to follow a mere impression made +it difficult for her to examine closely, to be patient of details; +too sure of herself, too emotional, too passionate, she +displayed injustice, vehemence, over-enthusiasm; easily +bored and disgusted, she was, at the same time, susceptible +to infatuation. Scherer said: "She is a superior man in a +body of a nervous and weak woman."</p> + +<p>She was a woman dominated by her reason—a characteristic +which led to an incurable ennui, thus causing her +terrible suffering, but equipping her with a penetration +which saw through the world and knew man, whom she +divided into three classes: <i>les trompeurs</i>, <i>les trompés</i>, <i>les +trompettes</i>. According to her judgment, man is either +fatiguing or, if brilliantly endowed, usually false or jealous; +but she realized, also, her own shortcomings, the incompleteness +of her faculties. "The force of her thought does +not reach talent; her intelligence is active and responsive, +but fails to respond. She often shows a sovereign disdain +for herself, everybody, and everything. She arrives at a +point in life when she no longer has passion, desire, or +even curiosity; she detests life, and dreads death because +she does not know that there is another world. She is +not happy enough to do without those whom she scorns, +and must therefore seek diversion in the conversation of +stupid people, preferring anything to solitude; this refers +to the time when her best friends are no more and when +she herself is out of her former <i>milieu</i>); she was too old, +or lived too long; she belongs to another age."</p> + +<p>By her friends she was called the feminine Voltaire, and +the celebrated philosopher and she were drawn together +by a very similar habit of mind, although, to her intimates, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page240" id="page240"></a>[pg 240]</span> +she scorched Voltaire; but in writing to him she would +overwhelm him with compliments, calling him the only +orthodox representative of good taste. In general, she +detested philosophers, because their hearts were cold and +their minds preoccupied with themselves.</p> + +<p>Mme. du Deffand had an inherent passion for simplicity, +frankness, justice, and a hatred for deceit and affectation; +but, strange as it may seem, her nature required variety +in her pleasure—new people, new pursuits, new amusements, +new agitations for her hungry mind; she was too +critical to be contented and to put implicit trust in her +friends. An agnostic, always endeavoring to probe into +the nature of things, the possession of a personal, living +faith was yet the strongest desire of her heart; all her life +she longed for the peace that religion affords, but this was +denied her, although she had the spiritual assistance of +the most famous of the clergy, attended church, had her +oratory, her confessor, and faithfully studied the Bible; all +was vain—belief would not come to her. The marriage +tie was not sacred to her, which was the case with many +of the French women of the day, but she went further in +lacking all reverence for religious ceremony, though she +respected the beliefs of others.</p> + +<p>She was all wit and intellectuality. In order to keep +her friends from falling under the spell of ennui, she devoted +herself to the culinary art, and her suppers became +famous for their rare dishes. "She is an example of the +type that was predominant in the time—one that had lived +too much and was dying from excess of knowledge and +pleasure; but she sought that which did not exist in that +age,—serenity, peace, faith. She was passionate, sensitive, +and sympathetic, in a cold, heartless, and unfeeling +world. She needed variety; being bored with society, +solitude, husband, lovers, herself, nothing remained for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page241" id="page241"></a>[pg 241]</span> +her but to await deliverance by death." This came to her in 1780.</p> + +<p>In matters literary, Mme. du Deffand preserved an absolute +liberty and independence of opinion. She refused +to accept the verdicts of the most competent judges; with +instinctive attractions and repulsions, she found but few +writers that pleased her. Boileau, Lesage, Chamfort, were +her favorites. She said that Buffon was of an unendurable +monotony. "He knows well what he knows, but he is +occupied with beasts only; one must be something of a +beast one's self in order to devote one's self to such an occupation."</p> + +<p>As a writer, she showed remarkable good sense, admirable +sincerity, rare judgment, justness, and precision; +depth and charm were present in a less degree than were +other desirable qualities, but she exhibited excellent <i>esprit</i>. +She was probably the most subtile, and at the same time +the most fastidious person of the century. The best portraits +of her were written by her own pen; two of them +we give, one written at the beginning of her career in +1728, the other at its end in 1774.</p> + +<p>"Mme. la Marquise du Deffand is an enemy of all falseness +and affectation. Her talk and countenance are always +the faithful interpreters of the sentiment of her soul. Her +form is not fine nor bad. She has <i>esprit</i>, is reasonable and +has a correct taste. If vivacity at times leads her off, +truth soon brings her back. After she falls into an ennui +which extinguishes all the light of her mind, she finds that +state insupportable and the cause of such unhappiness, +that she blindly embraces all that presents itself, without deliberation."</p> + +<p>(1774.) "They believe Mme. du Deffand to possess +more <i>esprit</i> than she really has; they praise and fear her, +but she merits neither the one nor the other. As far as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page242" id="page242"></a>[pg 242]</span> +her <i>esprit</i> is concerned, she is what she is; in regard to her +form, to her birth and fortune—nothing extraordinary, +nothing distinguished. Born without great talent, incapable +of great application, she is very susceptible to ennui, and, +not finding any resource within herself, she resorts to those +that surround her and this search is often without success."</p> + +<p>Mme. du Deffand arouses our curiosity because she was +such an exceptional character, led such a strange life, +made and retained friends in ways so different from those +of the noted heroines of the salons. In her youth, she +was beautiful and fascinating, with numerous lovers and +numberless suitors, but she grew even more famous as +her age increased; when infirm and blind, and living in a +convent, she ruled by virtue of her acknowledged authority +and was still able to cope with the greatest philosophers, +the chief and dean of whom, Voltaire, wrote the following four lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"Qui vous voit et qui vous entend</p> +<p>Perd bientôt sa philosophie;</p> +<p>Et tout sage avec Du Deffand</p> +<p>Voudrait en fou passer sa vie."</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>[He who sees and hears you,</p> +<p>Soon loses his philosophy.</p> +<p>Wise he who with Du Deffand</p> +<p>Insane would pass his life.]</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>Living long enough to witness the reigns of three kings +and one regent, she was brilliant enough to reign over the +intellectual and social world for over fifty years, by virtue +of her intellectuality, keenness, and wit; yet, among all the +great women of France, she is truly the one who deserves +genuine pity and sympathy.</p> + +<p>The salon of Mlle. de Lespinasse, her rival, was of a +different type, being exclusively intellectual, but permitting +absolute liberty of expression of opinions. Born in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page243" id="page243"></a>[pg 243]</span> +1732, at the house of a surgeon of Lyons, she was the +illegitimate daughter of the Comtesse d'Albon and was +baptized as the child of a man supposed to be named +Claude Lespinasse. From 1753 she was the constant +attendant to Mme. du Deffand, her mother's sister-in-law, +for a period of ten years, until she became completely +worn out physically, morally, and mentally by incessant +care and endless all-night readings. An attempt to end +her existence with sixty grains of opium failed. Owing +to the jealousy of Mme. du Deffand, a separation ensued +in 1764, when she retired some distance from the Convent +Saint-Joseph to very modest apartments, where, by +means of her friends, she was able to receive in a dignified +way. The Maréchale de Luxembourg completely fitted up +her apartment, the Duc de Choiseul succeeded in getting +her an annual pension from the king, and Mme. Geoffrin +allowed her three thousand francs.</p> + +<p>The majority of the members of her salon were from that +of Mme. du Deffand, having followed Mlle. de Lespinasse +after the rupture of the two women; besides these, there +were Condorcet, Helvétius, Grimm, Marmontel, Condillac, +Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and many others. As her hours +for receiving were after five o'clock, her friends were made +to understand that her means were not such as to warrant +suppers or dinners, four o'clock being the dinner hour in those days.</p> + +<p>Her salon immediately became known as the official +encyclopædia resort, Mme. du Deffand dubbing it <i>La Muse +de l'Encyclopédie</i>. D'Alembert was the high priest, and +it was not long before he was comfortably lodged in the +third story of her house, Mlle. de Lespinasse having nursed +him through a malignant fever which the poor man had +contracted in the wretched place where he lodged. A +strange gathering, those salons! Mlle. de Lespinasse, one +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page244" id="page244"></a>[pg 244]</span> +of the leaders in the social world, with a prominent salon, +was the illegitimate daughter of a Comtesse d'Albon, and +her presiding genius was the illegitimate son of Mme. de +Tencin; here we find the wealthiest and most elegant of +the aristocracy coming from their palaces to meet, in +friendly social and intellectual intercourse, men who lived +on a mere pittance, dressed on almost nothing, lodged in +the most wretched of dens, boarding wherever a salon or +palace was opened to them. Surely, intellect was highly +valued in those days, and moral etiquette was at a low ebb!</p> + +<p>Mlle. de Lespinasse possessed two characteristics which +were prominent in a remarkable degree—love and friendship. +She appeared to interest herself in everybody in +such a way as to make him believe that he was the +preferred of her heart; loving everybody sincerely and +affectionately, she "lacked altogether the sentimental +equilibrium." Especially pathetic was her love for two +men—the Count de Mora, a Spanish nobleman, and a +Colonel Guibert, who was celebrated for his relations with +Frederick the Great; although this wore terribly on her, +consuming her physical force, she always received her +friends with the same good grace, but often, after their departure, +she would fall into a frightful nervous fit from +which she could find relief only by the use of opium.</p> + +<p>Her love for Guibert was known to her friends, but was +a secret from her platonic lover, D'Alembert. When, after +a number of years of untold sufferings which even opium +could not relieve, she died in 1776, having been cared for +to the last by D'Alembert, the Duke de La Rochefoucauld, +and her cousin, the Marquis d'Enlezy, it was with these +words on her dying lips, addressed to Guibert: "Adieu, my +friend! If ever I return to life, I should like to use it in +loving you; but there is no longer any time." When +D'Alembert read in her correspondence that she had been +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page245" id="page245"></a>[pg 245]</span> +the mistress of Guibert for sixteen years, he was disconsolate, +and retired to the Louvre, which was his privilege +as Secretary of the Academy. He left there only to go +walking in the evening with Marmontel, who tried to +console him by recalling the changeableness of humor of +Mlle. de Lespinasse. "Yes," he would reply, "she has +changed, but not I; she no longer lived for me, but I +always lived for her. Since she is no longer, I don't +know why I am living. Ah, that I must still suffer these +moments of bitterness which she knew so well how to +soothe and make me forget! Do you remember the happy +evenings we used to pass? What is there now? Instead +of her, when coming home, I find only her shadow! This +Louvre lodging is itself a tomb, which I enter only with fright."</p> + +<p>Mlle. de Lespinasse died of grief for a lover's death, but +she left a group of lovers to lament her loss. In many +respects she was not unlike Mlle. de Scudéry; exceptionally +plain, her face was much marked with smallpox, a +disfigurement not uncommon in those days; her exceedingly +piercing and fine eyes, beautiful hair, tall and elegant +figure, excellent taste in dress, pleasing voice and a +most brilliant talent for conversation, combined to make +her one of the most attractive and popular women of her +time. As previously stated, she was the only female +admitted to the dinners given by Mme. Geoffrin to her men of letters.</p> + +<p>Mme. du Deffand's friend, <i>le Président</i> Hénault, left the +following portrait of Mlle. de Lespinasse: "You are cosmopolitan—you +are suitable to all occasions. You like +company—you like solitude. Pleasures amuse, but do +not seduce you. You have very strong passions, and of +the best kind, for they do not return often. Nature, in +endowing you with an ordinary state, gave you something +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page246" id="page246"></a>[pg 246]</span> +with which to rise above it. You are distinguished, and, +without being beautiful, you attract attention. There is +something piquant in you; one might obstinately endeavor +to turn your head, but it would be at one's own expense. +Your will must be awaited, because you cannot be made +to come. Your cheerfulness embellishes you, and relaxes +your nerves, which are too highly strung. You have your +own opinion, and you leave others their own. You are +extremely polite. You have divined <i>le monde</i>. In vain +one would transplant you—you would take root anywhere. +In short, you are not an ordinary person."</p> + +<p>The salon of Mlle. de Lespinasse was unique. Everyone +was at perfect liberty to express and sustain his own +opinions upon any subject, without danger of offending the +hostess, which, as has been seen, was not the case in +the salon of Mme. Geoffrin. Her high and sane intellectual +culture permitted her to listen to all discussions +and to take part in all. She had no strong prejudices, +having read—for Mme. du Deffand—nearly everything +that was read at that time; also, she had the talent of +preserving harmony among her members by drawing from +each one his best qualities.</p> + +<p>A woman who played a prominent part in society during +the Regency, but who had no salon in the proper sense of +that word, was Mme. du Châtelet, commonly called Voltaire's +Emilie. She was especially interested in sciences, +mathematics, geometry, and astronomy, and did more than +any other woman of that time to encourage nature study. +It was at her Château de Cirey that Voltaire found protection +when threatened with a second visit to the Bastille; +and there, from time to time for sixteen years, he did some +of the best work of his life. It was Mme. du Châtelet who +encouraged him, sympathized with him, and appreciated +his mobile humor as well as his talent. During these +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page247" id="page247"></a>[pg 247]</span> +years, while he was under the influence of madame, appeared +<i>Mérope</i>, <i>Alzire</i>, the <i>Siècle de Louis XIV</i>, etc.</p> + +<p>Mme. du Châtelet was the one great <i>femme savante</i> of +that century. In the preface to her <i>Traduction des Principes +Mathématiques de Newton</i>, Voltaire wrote: "Never +was a woman so <i>savante</i> as she, and never did a woman +merit less the saying, <i>she is a femme savante</i>. She did not +select her friends from those circles where there was a +war of <i>esprit</i>, where a sort of tribunal was established, +where they judged their century, by which, in recompense, +they were severely judged. She lived for a long time in +societies which were ignorant of what she was, and she +took no notice of this ignorance. The words precision, +justness, and force are those which correctly describe her +elegance. She would have written as Pascal and Nicole +did rather than like Mme. de Sévigné; but this severe +firmness and this tendency of her <i>esprit</i> did not make her +inaccessible to the beauties of sentiment."</p> + +<p>Maupertuis, the astronomer, wrote: "What a marvel, +moreover, to have been able to combine the fine qualities +of her sex with the sublime knowledge which we believe +uniquely made for us! This enterprising phenomenon will +make her memory eternally respected."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page249" id="page249"></a>[pg 249]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter IX</h2> + +<h2>Salon Leaders—(Continued)<br /> +Mme. Necker, Mme. d'Epinay, Mme. de Genlis: Minor Salons</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page251" id="page251"></a>[pg 251]</span> + + +<p>It seems strange indeed that in a century in which the +universal impulse was toward pleasure, and sameness of +personality was visible everywhere, the types of great +women showed such an absolute dissimilarity. The contrast +between the natural inclinations of Mme. Necker, +the wife of the great minister of finance, and the atmosphere +in which she lived, makes the study of her a most +interesting one. Born in Switzerland, the daughter of +Curchod, a poor Protestant minister, "with patriarchal +morals, solid education, and strong good sense," this moral +and stern woman was thrown into the midst of depraved +elegance, refined licentiousness, and physical debauchery. +Sincere, chaste, enthusiastic, and essentially religious, she +remained so amidst all the corruption and physical and +mental degeneracy of the age.</p> + +<p>Critics have made much ado over her marriage, a union +of pure love and mutual inclinations, amidst the marriages +of mere convenience and the gallant liaisons, such +as those of Mme. du Deffand and <i>le Président</i> Hénault, and +Mme. d'Epinay and Grimm. The matrimonial selection +of Susanne Curchod was natural in a girl of her serious +make-up, her moral education and her pure ancestry of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page252" id="page252"></a>[pg 252]</span> +strict Protestant type. As a girl of sixteen, she had given +evidence of remarkable mental ability and had acquired a +wide knowledge—physics, Latin, philosophy, metaphysics—when +she was sent to Lausanne, possibly with the idea +of meeting a future husband with whom she could become +thoroughly acquainted before giving up her independence. +There she became the centre of a group or academy of +young people, who, under her leadership, discussed subjects +of every nature. At first she showed a tendency +toward <i>préciosité</i> and the spirit of the blue-stocking rather +than toward the seriousness and dignity which marked her later career.</p> + +<p>It was at Lausanne that she met and fell in love with +Gibbon, the English historian; this love affair met with opposition +from Gibbon's father, and, after the death of the +father of his fiancée, a calamity which left her poor and +necessitated her teaching for a living, the Englishman, by +his actions and manner toward her, compelled the breaking +of their engagement. When, later in life, he went to +her salon, they became intimate friends, enjoying "the +intellectual union which had been impossible for them in their earlier days."</p> + +<p>Thus, at the age of twenty-four, Mlle. Curchod, beautiful, +virtuous, and accomplished, and at the height of her +reputation in a small town in Switzerland, was left an +orphan. She was taken to Paris by Mme. de Vermenoux, +a wealthy widow, who was sought in marriage by +M. Necker, banker and capitalist; but, as she was unable +to make up her mind to a definite answer, his attention +was attracted to her young companion. The result was +that, after a few months' sojourn in Paris, Mlle. Curchod +became the wife of M. Necker, an event which caused rejoicing +from Lausanne to Geneva. Their characters are +well portrayed in two letters, written by them to their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page253" id="page253"></a>[pg 253]</span> +friends after their marriage. M. Necker wrote, in reply +to a letter of congratulation:</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; your friend (Mlle. Curchod) was indeed +willing to have me, and I believe myself as happy as one +can be. I cannot understand how it can be you whom +they congratulate, unless it is as my friend. Will money +always be the measure of opinion? That is pitiable! He +who wins a virtuous, kind, and sensible woman—has he +not made a good transaction, whether or not she be +seated on sacks of money? Humanity, what a poor judge you are!"</p> + +<p>Shortly after her marriage, Mme. Necker wrote to one +of her friends: "My dear, I have married a man who, +according to my ideas, is the kindest of mortals, and I am +not the only one to judge thus. I had had a liking for him +ever since I learned to know him. At present, I see, in +all nature, only my husband. I take notice of other men +only in so far as they come more or less up to the +standard of my husband, and I compare them only for +the pleasure of seeing the difference." The marital +relations of this loving pair lasted throughout life; and +among great women of the eighteenth century, Mme. +Necker is one of the few examples of ideal marriage relations.</p> + +<p>Soon after their marriage, the Neckers took up their +quarters at the Rue Michel-le-Comte, where they began +to receive friends. As at that time every day in the week +was reserved by other salons,—Monday and Wednesday +at Mme. Geoffrin's, Tuesday at Helvétius's, Thursday and +Sunday at the Baron d'Holbach's,—Mme. Necker was +compelled to appoint Friday as her reception day. She +soon succeeded in attracting to her hôtel the best <i>esprit</i> of +Paris: Diderot, Suard, Grimm, Comte de Schomberg, Marmontel, +D'Alembert, Thomas, Saint-Lambert, Helvétius, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page254" id="page254"></a>[pg 254]</span> +Ducis, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the Abbés Raynal, Armand, +and Morellet, Mme. Geoffrin, Mme. du Deffand, +Mme. de Marchais, Mme. Suard, the Maréchale de Luxembourg, +the Duchesse de Lauzun, the Marquise de La Ferté-Imbault, Mme. de Boufflers.</p> + +<p>Among these visitors, most of whom were atheists, +Mme. Necker preserved her own religious opinions and +piety, although her friends at Geneva never ceased to be +concerned about her. Her admirers were many, but they +were kept within the bounds of propriety and never attempted +any gallant liberties with the hostess—except her +ardent admirer Thomas, the intensity of whose eulogies +upon her she was forced to check occasionally. It was +not long before she became very influential in filling the +vacant seats of the Academy. In this and many other +respects, her salon may be compared with that of Mme. de Lambert.</p> + +<p>Mme. Necker's idea of conducting a salon and its conversation +was much the same as the management of a +state; she believed that the hostess must never join in +the conversation as long as it goes on by itself, but, ever +watchful, must never permit disturbances, disagreements, +improprieties, or obstacles; she must animate it if it languish; +she must see that conversation never takes a dangerous, +disagreeable, or tiresome turn, and that it never +brings into undue prominence one man especially, as this +makes others jealous and displeases the entire society; it +must always interest and include all members. The discussions +at Mme. Necker's were literary and philosophical; +and to prevent even the possibility of tedium, frequent +readings were given in their place.</p> + +<p>It was at the salon of Mme. Necker that Bernardin de +Saint-Pierre first read his <i>Paul et Virginie</i>, which received +such a cold and indifferent welcome that the author, utterly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page255" id="page255"></a>[pg 255]</span> +discouraged, was on the point of burning his manuscript, +when he was prevailed upon by his friend Vernet, the +great artist, to preserve all his works. Mme. Necker was +always quite frank and outspoken, often showing a cutting +harshness and a rigor which, as was said, was little in harmony +with her bare neck and arms—a style then in vogue +at court. She never judged persons by their reputations, +but by their <i>esprit</i>; thus, it was possible for her to receive +people of the most diverse tendencies. When the Marquise +de La Ferté-Imbault, one of the few virtuous women +of the time, and of the highest aristocracy, was invited to +attend the salon of Mme. Necker and was told that the +Maréchale de Luxembourg, Mme. du Deffand, Mme. de +Boufflers, and Mme. Marchais were frequenters, she said: +"These four women are so discredited by manners, and +the first two are so dangerous, that for thirty years they +have been the horror of society."</p> + +<p>The two portraits by Marmontel and Galiani are interesting, +as throwing light upon the doings of her salon. +Marmontel wrote: "Mme. Necker is very virtuous and +instructed, but emphatic and stiff. She does not know +Mme. de Sévigné, whom she praises, and only esteems +Buffon and Thomas. She calculates all things; she sought +men of letters only as trumpets to blow in honor of her +husband. He never said a word; that was not very recreating."</p> + +<p>Galiani leaves a different impression: "There is not a +Friday that I do not go to your house <i>en esprit</i>. I arrive, +I find you now busy with your headdress, now busy with +this duchess. I seat myself at your feet. Thomas quietly +suffers, Morellet shows his anger aloud. Grimm and Suard +laugh heartily about it, and my dear Comte de Greuze +does not notice it. Marmontel finds the example worthy +to be imitated, and you, madame, make two of your most +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page256" id="page256"></a>[pg 256]</span> +beautiful virtues do battle, bashfulness and politeness, and +in this suffering you find me a little monster more embarrassing +than odious. Dinner is announced. They leave +the table and in the café all speak at the same time. +M. Necker thinks everything well, bows his head and goes away."</p> + +<p>In summer her receptions were first held at the Château +de Madrid, and, later on, in a château at Saint-Ouen; the +guests were always called for and returned in carriages +supplied by the hostess. It was in her salon, in 1770, that +the plan originated to erect the statue of Voltaire, which is +to-day the famous statue of the <i>Palais de l'Institute</i>.</p> + +<p>When, during the stirring times before the Revolution, +her salon took on a purely political nature, Mme. Necker +played a very secondary rôle. In 1788 she and her husband +were compelled to leave Paris; but being recalled by +Louis XVI., Necker managed affairs for thirteen months, +after which he retired with Mme. Necker to Coppet, where, +in 1794, the latter died.</p> + +<p>Mme. Necker never became a thorough Frenchwoman; +she always lacked the grace and charm which are the +necessary qualifications of a salon leader; intelligence was +her most meritorious quality. Her dinners were apt to +become tiresome and to drag. A very interesting story +is told of her by the Marquis de Chastellux, which was +reported by Mme. Genlis, one of her intimate friends:</p> + +<p>"Dining at Mme. Necker's, the marquis was first to +arrive, and so early that the hostess was not yet in the +salon. In walking up and down the room, he noticed a +small book under Mme. Necker's chair. He picked it up +and opened it. It was a blank book, a few of the pages of +which had been written upon by Mme. Necker. Certainly, +he would not have read a letter, but, believing to +find only a few spiritual thoughts, he read without any +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page257" id="page257"></a>[pg 257]</span> +scruples. It contained the plan for the dinner of that day, +to which he had been invited, and had been written by +Mme. Necker on the previous evening. It told what she +would say to the most prominent of the invited guests. +She wrote: 'I shall speak to the Chevalier de Chastellux +about public felicity and Agatha; to M. d'Angeviller, I shall +speak of love; between Marmontel and Guibert I shall raise +some literary discussion.' After reading the note, he hurriedly +replaced the book under the chair. A moment later, +a valet entered, saying that madame had left her notebook +in the salon. The dinner was charming for M. de +Chastellux, because he had the pleasure of hearing Mme. +Necker say, word for word, what she had written in her notebook."</p> + +<p>This woman was ever preoccupied with style, and, +throughout her life, retained the solemn, studied, and academic +air, as well as the simple, rural, innocent manner +and spirit of her early surroundings. A mere bourgeoise, +unaccustomed to elegance or to the manners of French +social life, upon entering Parisian society she set her mind +to observing, and immediately began to change her provincial +ways and to make over her <i>esprit</i> for conversation, +for circumstances, and for characters; she adjusted her +provincial spirit to that of Paris, thus making of it an +entirely new product. Later on, her salon became the +first of the modern political salons, but it was far from +reaching the prominence of that of Mme. Geoffrin, whose +characteristics were social prudence and strict propriety, +while those of Mme. Necker were virtue and goodness.</p> + +<p>Mme. Necker was never in perfect sympathy with her +visitors, the philosophers, the common basis of ideas and +sentiments never existing between her and her friends as +it did between Mme. Geoffrin and her frequenters; her tie +was always artificial. "She represented the Swiss spirit +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page258" id="page258"></a>[pg 258]</span> +in Parisian society; those serious and educated souls, virtuous +and sentimental, somewhat sad and strictly moral, +were rather tiresome to the Parisian world." Marmontel +well describes her in another of his famous portraits:</p> + +<p>"A stranger to the customs of Paris, Mme. Necker had +none of the charms and accomplishments of the young +French woman. In her manner and language she had +neither the air nor the tone of a woman reared in the +school of arts, formed at the school of high society. Without +taste in her headdress, without ease in her bearing, +without fascination in her politeness, her mind—as was +her countenance—was too properly adjusted to show +grace. But a charm more worthy of her was that of propriety, +of candor, of goodness. A virtuous education and +solitary studies had given to her all that culture can add +to an excellent nature. In her, sentiment was perfect, +but her thought was often confused and vague; instead of +clearing her ideas, meditation disturbed them; in exaggerating +them, she believed to enlarge them; in order to +extend them, she wandered off into abstractions and +hyperboles. She seemed to see certain objects only +through a fog, which augmented their importance in her +eyes; and then her expression became so inflated that the +pomposity of it would have been laughable if one had not +known her to be entirely ingenuous."</p> + +<p>"In summing up the character of Mme. Necker, we find," +says Sainte-Beuve, "first of all, a genuine individuality and +a personality with defects which at first impression are +shocking, but which only helped to render the woman and +all her aspirations the more admirable. Entering a Parisian +society with the firm decision of becoming a woman of +<i>esprit</i> and of being in relation with the <i>beaux esprits</i>, she +was able to preserve the moral conscience of her Protestant +training, to protest against the false doctrines about +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page259" id="page259"></a>[pg 259]</span> +her, to give herself up to duties in the midst of society, to +found institutions for the sick and needy,—and to leave a +memory without a stain."</p> + +<p>While, among the famous salon leaders of the eighteenth +century, Mme. Necker stands out preëminently for her +strict moral integrity and fidelity to her marriage relations, +Mme. d'Epinay is unique for the constancy of her affections +for the men to whom she owes her celebrity, Rousseau +and Grimm. Born in 1725, the record of her life +runs like that of most French women. At the age of +twenty she was married to her cousin, La Live, who later +took the name of d'Epinay, from an estate his father, the +wealthy M. de Bellegarde, had bought—a man who was +really in love with her for a whole month after their marriage, +but who, tiring of the pure affections of a loving +wife, soon began to lavish his time and fortune upon a +<i>danseuse</i>. The poor young wife was between two fires, +the extravagance and wild dissipations of her husband +and the rigid discipline and orthodoxy of her mother. +Never was a woman treated so outrageously and insultingly +as was this woman by a man who contrived in every +manner to corrupt her morals by throwing her among his +dissolute companions, Mme. d'Artz, the mistress of the +Prince de Conti, and Mlle. d'Ette, an intriguing woman +of the time; to the latter, Mme. d'Epinay confided her +troubles, and, as the result of her counsels, fell into the +hands of a M. de Francueil, handsome, clever, accomplished, +but as morally depraved as was her husband.</p> + +<p>When Mme. d'Epinay was finally convinced that her +husband was untrue to her, she felt nothing but disdain +and contempt for him, and decided to live a virtuous life; +after holding for a short time to her resolution "that a +woman may have the most profound and tender sentiment +for a man and yet remain faithful to her duties," she lost +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page260" id="page260"></a>[pg 260]</span> +herself under the influence of the professional seducer +Francueil, and, completely carried away by that passion, +she cries out, in her memoirs: <i>Francueil, Francueil, tu +m'as perdue, et tu disais que tu m'aimais</i> [You have undone +me—and you said you loved me]! Such was the lot, as +was seen, of most women of those days, who had noble +intentions, but a woman's weakness. The century did +not demand faithfulness to the marital vows; but when a +woman had once abandoned herself to love, it required +that the attachment be to a man of honor and standing. +Marriage was simply a preliminary step to freedom; after +that ceremony came the natural election of the heart and +mutual tenderness of the beings who could be mated only +through the freedom which married life afforded. A superior +illegitimate liaison was nothing unnatural—on the +contrary, it was but a natural human selection; such was +the nature of the affection of Mme. d'Epinay for this débauché Francueil.</p> + +<p>As she enjoyed absolute liberty, her lover paid his respects +to her at Epinay; there he inaugurated amusements +and took his friends. It was he who suggested the erection +of a theatre at which her friends' productions might +be offered to the world of critics. Through his efforts, +the great men who made her salon famous were gathered +at "La Chevrette," where the actors and players soon +drew the attention of literary Paris. After a year or two +of attachment, Francueil became indifferent to Mme. +d'Epinay and transferred his affections to an actress—the +sister of M. d'Epinay's mistress. Thus runs the story of +the life of the average married woman. If she remained +virtuous, she usually became resigned to her fate and lived +happily; if she undertook to imitate her husband's tactics, +she fell from the good graces of one lover to those of +another, ending her life in absolute wretchedness.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page261" id="page261"></a>[pg 261]</span> + +<p>These two men—the lover and the husband—carried on +with two sisters their licentious living and extravagances +to such an extent that the injured wife demanded a separation +of her fortune from that of her husband, in which +project her father-in-law aided her and gave her thirteen +thousand francs income. Mme. d'Epinay, in the midst of +success, became acquainted with Mlle. Quinault, the +daughter of the famous actor of the time, and herself a +great actress. This woman invited Mme. d'Epinay to her +so-called salon, which was, possibly, the most licentious +and irreligious of the salons then in vogue, where she +met Duclos, with whom she immediately formed a strong friendship.</p> + +<p>After the death of M. de Bellegarde, her wealth was +considerably increased, a piece of good fortune which enabled +her to carry out all her plans. It was at this time, +1755, that she induced Rousseau to live in her cottage, +"l'Hermitage;" and for about two years she enjoyed perfect +happiness with him. By a peculiar freak of fate she +fell in with Grimm, who was introduced to her by Rousseau +and who had, for some time, been on the hunt for a +"faithful mistress." This German by birth, but Frenchman +in spirit, had championed her at a dinner, where she +was the object of the severest reproach. She had burned +the papers of her sister, Mme. de Jully, who had betrayed +an honest husband. Stricken with smallpox, just before +dying, she confessed all to Mme. d'Epinay. The latter +owed Mme. de Jully fifty écus and the note was among +the papers of Mme. de Jully. Mme. d'Epinay was accused +of having burned the note to which it was asserted +she had access; and Grimm undertook to plead her cause, +an act which so elated madame that she turned all her affection +upon her defender, whereupon Rousseau departed. +Later on, the note having been found, Mme. d'Epinay was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page262" id="page262"></a>[pg 262]</span> +completely vindicated. Grimm then became her third lover.</p> + +<p>This third marriage, so to speak, was one of reason; the +first was one of mere emancipation; the second, one of +passion and genuine love. In 1755, worn out physically, +she took a trip to Switzerland, to be treated by the famous +Dr. Tronchin; there she became so ill that Grimm was +summoned. They remained together for about two years, +and after her return to Paris she reopened her salon of +"La Chevrette." Her reunions partook more of the nature +of our house parties; the salon was an immense room, +in which the members would pair off and divert themselves +as they pleased; in that respect "La Chevrette" +was unique. After her fortune, which at one time was +quite large, became diminished, partly through her own +extravagance and partly through that of her son, who was +the very counterpart of his father, she was forced to rent +"La Chevrette" and, later on, "La Briche," where she +had opened her second salon.</p> + +<p>The last years of her life she spent in Paris with Grimm. +She had reached such a physical condition that her sufferings +could be relieved only by the use of opium. Financial +relief came to her in 1783, when the Academy awarded +her the Montyon prize, then given for the first time, for +her <i>Conversations d'Emilie</i>. She died in the same year, +surrounded by her dearest friends—Grimm, M. and Mme. +Belgunce, and Mme. d'Houdetot.</p> + +<p>Mme. d'Epinay, in many respects, was a remarkable +woman. Amid all her social duties, with all her physical +and mental troubles, she found time to help others and to +manage her own business affairs and those of her children, +took an active interest in art, music, and literature, raised, +with the utmost care, her granddaughter, produced one of +the best works of the time for children, made tapestry, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page263" id="page263"></a>[pg 263]</span> +and wrote innumerable letters. Her fortune was lost +through the reforms of Necker.</p> + +<p>She was not a beautiful woman; but she was distinguished +by a small, thin figure, an abundance of rich dark hair, +which brought out in striking relief the peculiar whiteness +of her skin, and large brown eyes. Her five lovers she +called her five bears: Rousseau, Grimm, Desmoulin, Saint-Lambert, +Gauffecourt. An epistle to Grimm begins thus;</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"Moi, de cinq ours la souveraine,</p> +<p>Qui leur donne et present des lois,</p> +<p>Faut-il que je sois à la fois</p> +<p>Et votre esclave et votre reine,</p> +<p>O des tyrans le plus tyran?"</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>[I, sovereign over five bears,</p> +<p>Who give and prescribe laws for them—</p> +<p>Must I be your slave and queen at the same time,</p> +<p>O among tyrants, the greatest?]</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>As far as the care of the education of her children is concerned, +with its sacrifice and real application to duty, she +was sometimes called—and not unadvisedly—the type of +the ideal mother. From 1757 on her ideas and thoughts ran +to education. Her friends were all of the philosophical +trend, and intellectual labor was their chief pleasure. After +having passed through a career of excitement and love's +caprices, she longed for a peaceful, quiet existence; at that +point, however, her health gave way, and she entered upon +a new territory at Geneva. There she conquered Voltaire, +who was profuse with his compliments and kindnesses. +Upon her return she became the recognized leader +or champion of the philosophic and foreign group and the +Encyclopædists, and was regarded as the central figure +of the philosophical movement in general.</p> + +<p>The ideas of the philosophers had been gaining ground, +and were disseminated through all classes. The mere +love of pleasure and luxury at first found under Louis XV. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page264" id="page264"></a>[pg 264]</span> +gave way to more serious reflections when society was +confronted with those all-important questions which finally +culminated in the Revolution. The salon of Mme. d'Epinay +grew to be the most important and, intellectually, the most +brilliant of the time. Rousseau, Diderot, Helvétius, Duclos, +Suard, the Abbés Galiani, Raynal, the Florentine +physician Gatti, Comte de Schomberg, Chevalier de Chastellux, +Saint-Lambert, Marquis de Croixmare, the different +ambassadors, counts and princes, were frequent visitors +In this brilliant circle her letters from Voltaire, read aloud, +were always eagerly awaited. Such dramas as Voltaire's +<i>Tancred</i>, Diderot's <i>Le Père de Famille</i>, were given under +her patronage and discussed in her salon; after the performance +she entertained all the friends at supper.</p> + +<p>Upon the departure of Abbé Galiani from Paris, Mme. +d'Epinay and Diderot were intrusted with the revision and +printing of his famous <i>Dialogues sur les Blés</i>; Grimm left +to them the continuance of his <i>Correspondance Littéraire</i>. +She was known for her wonderful analytical ability and +her keen power of observation—faculties which won the +esteem and respect of such men and caused her collaboration +to be anxiously sought by them; however, she never +attempted to rival them in their particular sphere. In her +writings she displayed a reactionary tendency against the +educational methods of the day, her chief work of real +literary worth being mostly in the form of sound advice to +a child. Being a reasonable, careful, and sensible woman,—in +spite of the defects in her moral life,—she desired to +show the possibilities of a moral revolution against the +habits and customs of the time, of which she herself had +been a most unfortunate victim. She was relieved of +actual want by means of this work, which gained for her +a pension from Catherine II. of Russia, who adopted +her methods for her own children, and the award of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page265" id="page265"></a>[pg 265]</span> +Montyon prize, which was given her in a competition with a +large number of aspirants, the most famous of whom was +Mme. de Genlis. It was her ability to gain and retain the +respect of great men which won that honor for her.</p> + +<p>The memoirs of Mme. d'Epinay leave one of the most +accurate and faithful pictures of the polished society of the +France of about 1750. "Her salon was the centre about +which circled the greatest activity; it was filled with men +who ordered events, thinkers whose minds were bent upon +untangling the knotty problems of the age; it was her +salon, more than any other, that quickened the philosophical +movement of the day. Mme. d'Epinay made her +reputation not so much through her <i>esprit</i>, intelligence, or +beauty, possibly, as through the strength of her affection. +Timid, irresolute, and highly impressionable, and amiable +in disposition, she was constantly influenced by circumstances—a +quality which led her on to the two principal +occupations of her later life, education and philosophy. +To-day, her name is recalled principally for its association +with that of Rousseau, whose mistress and benefactress +she was; it is to her that the world owes his famous <i>Nouvelle Héloïse</i>.</p> + +<p>The last of the great literary and social leaders of the +eighteenth century was Mme. de Genlis, a prodigy in every +respect, an amateur performer upon nearly every instrument, +an authority on intellectual matters as well, a fine +story teller, a consummate artist, entertainer, and general +charmer. Authoress, governess of Louis-Philippe, councillor +of Bonaparte, her success as a social leader established +her reputation and places her in the file of great +women, although she was not a salon leader such as Mme. +Geoffrin or Mme. du Deffand.</p> + +<p>She was born in 1746, and at a very early age showed +a remarkable talent for music, but her general education +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page266" id="page266"></a>[pg 266]</span> +was much neglected. At the age of about seventeen she +was married to a Comte de Genlis, who had fallen in love +with her on seeing her portrait. As his relatives refused +to welcome the young girl, she was placed in the convent +of Origny, where she remained until 1764, after which +her husband took her to his brother's estate, where they +lived happily for a short time. When, in 1765, she became +a mother, her husband's family became reconciled to his +union, and, later on, took her to court.</p> + +<p>Before her marriage, upon the departure of her father +to San Domingo to retrieve his fortunes, her mother had +found an asylum for her at the elegant home of the farmer-general +M. de La Popelinière. This occurred at the time +that Paris was theatre mad, and when great actors and +actresses were the heroes and heroines of society. At +this house the young girl became the central figure in +the theatrical and musical entertainments. After passing +through this schooling, she stood the test of the court +without any difficulty, and completely won the favor of +her husband's family, as well as that of the court ladies +and the members of the other distinguished households +where she was introduced. With an insatiable appetite +for frolics, quite in keeping with the customs of the time, +she plunged into social life with a vigor and an aptitude +which soon attracted attention. She played all sorts of +rôles at the most fashionable houses, "through her consummate +acting and <i>bons mots</i> drawing tears of vexation +from her less gifted sisters. She plays nine instruments, +writes dramas, recasts others, organizes and drills amateurs, +besides attending to a thousand and one other things."</p> + +<p>Through the influence of her aunt, Mme. de Montesson, +who was secretly married to the Duke of Orléans, Mme. +de Genlis was appointed lady-in-waiting in the household +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page267" id="page267"></a>[pg 267]</span> +of the Duchesse de Chartres, the duke's daughter-in-law, +whose salon was celebrated in Paris. She soon won the +confidence of the duchess, and became her confessor, secretary, +guide, and oracle, but did not abandon in the least +her pursuit of pleasure. She even took possession of +the heart of the duke himself, and in 1782 was made +"<i>gouverneur</i>" to his children, the Duc de Valois, later +Louis-Philippe, the Duc de Montpensier, the Comte de +Beaujolais, and Mlle. Adelaïde; for the education of her +pupils she had the use of several châteaux. Many a +piquant epigram and chanson were composed for the edification +of the "<i>gouverneur</i>." It is said that she acted as +panderer for the princes, especially Louis-Philippe, of a +"legitimate means of satisfying these ardent desires of +which I am being devoured," by leading them to the nuns +in the convents by means of a subterranean passage. The +following passages from the journal of Louis-Philippe show +the nature of his relations with her:</p> + +<p>(December, 1790.) "I went to dine with my mother +and grandfather. Although I am delighted to dine often +with my mother, I am deeply sorry to give only three +days out of the seven to my dear Bellechasse [that is, to Mme. de Genlis]."</p> + +<p>(January, 1791.) "Last evening, returned to my friend +[Mme. de Genlis]; remained there until after midnight; I +was the first one to have the good fortune of wishing her +a 'Happy New Year.' Nothing can make me happier; I +don't know what will become of me when I am no longer with her."</p> + +<p>(January, 1791.) "Yesterday, I was at the Tuileries. +The queen spoke to my father, to my brother, and said +nothing to me—neither did the king nor Monsieur, in fact, +no one. I remained at my friend's until half-past twelve. +No one in the world is so agreeable to me as is she." +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page268" id="page268"></a>[pg 268]</span> +(February, 1791.) "I was at the assembly at Bellechasse, +dined at the Palais-Royal, I was at the Jacobins, +returned to Bellechasse, after supper went to my friend's. +I remained with her alone; she treated me with an infinite +kindness; I left, the happiest man in the world." Such +language speaks for itself.</p> + +<p>No sons of a nobleman ever received a finer, more typically +modern education than did her pupils. She was, +possibly, the first teacher to use the natural method system, +teaching German, English, and Italian by conversation. +The boys were compelled to act, in the park, the +voyages of Vasco da Gama; in the dining room the great +historical tableaux were presented; in the theatre, built +especially for them, they acted all the dramas of the +<i>Théâtre d'Education</i>. She taught them how to make portfolios, +ribbons, wigs, pasteboard work, to gild, to turn, +and to do carpentering. They visited museums and manufactories, +during which expeditions they were taught to observe, +criticise, and find defects. This was the first step +taken in France in the eighteenth century toward a modern +education. Although it was superficial, in consequence of +its great breadth, yet this education inculcated manliness and courage.</p> + +<p>In 1778 Mme. de Genlis published her moral teachings +in <i>Adèle et Théodore</i>, a work which created quite a little +talk at the time, but which eventually brought upon her +the condemnation of the philosophers and Encyclopædists, +because in it she opposed liberty of conscience. When, +on the occasion of the first communion of the Duc de +Valois, she wrote her <i>Religion Considered as the Only True +Foundation of Happiness and of True Philosophy</i>, all the +Palais-Royal place hunters, philosophers, and her political +enemies, in a mass, opposed and ridiculed her. Rivarol +declared that she had no sex, that heaven had refused the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page269" id="page269"></a>[pg 269]</span> +magic of talent to her productions, as it had refused the +charm of innocence to her childhood.</p> + +<p>One of the best portraits of her is in the memoirs of +the Baroness d'Oberkirch (it was she who disturbed Mme. +de Genlis and the Duc d'Orléans while they were walking +in the gardens one night):</p> + +<p>"I did not like her, in spite of her accomplishments and +the charm of her conversation; she was too systematic. +She is a woman who has laid aside the flowing robes of +her sex for the costume of a pedagogue. Besides, nothing +about her is natural; she is constantly in an attitude, as it +were, thinking that her portrait—physical or moral—is +being taken by someone. One of the great follies of this +masculine woman is her harp, which she carries about +with her; she speaks about it when she hasn't it—she +plays on a crust of bread and practises with a thread. +When she perceives that someone is looking at her, she +rounds her arm, purses up her mouth, assumes a sentimental +expression and air, and begins to move her fingers. +Gracious! what a fine thing naturalness is!... I +spent a delightful evening at the Comtesse de La Massais's; +she had hired musicians whom she paid dear; but +Mme. de Genlis sat in the centre of the assembly, commanded, +talked, commented, sang, and would have put +the entire concert in confusion, had not the Marquise de +Livry very drolly picked a quarrel with her about her +harp, which she had brought to her. Decidedly, this +young D'Orléans has a singular governor. She holds too +closely to her rôle, and never forgets her <i>jupons</i> [skirts] +except when she ought most to remember them."</p> + +<p>During her visit to England she was petted by everyone; +but even in England there was a widespread prejudice +against her—a feeling which the mere sight of her immediately +dissipated. An English lady wrote about her:</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page270" id="page270"></a>[pg 270]</span> + +<p>"I saw her at first with a prejudice in her disfavor, +from the cruel reports I had heard; but the moment I +looked at her it was removed. There was a dignity with +her sweetness and a frankness with her modesty, that +convinced me, beyond all power of contrary report, of her +real worth and innocence."</p> + +<p>During the Revolution Mme. de Genlis travelled about +Switzerland, Germany, and England. At Berlin, owing +to her poverty, she supported herself by writing, making +trinkets, and teaching, until she was recalled to France, +under the Consulate. In Paris she produced some of her +best works—although they were written to order. Napoleon +gave her a pension of six thousand francs and handsome +apartments at the Arsenal. To this liberal pension, +the wife of his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, added three thousand francs.</p> + +<p>From Mme. de Genlis, Napoleon received a letter fortnightly, +in which epistle she communicated to him her +opinions and observations upon politics and current events. +Upon the return to power of the Orléans family, she was +put off with a meagre pension. Like many other French +women, she became more and more melancholy and misanthropic. +She was unable to control her wrath against +the philosophers and some of the contemporary writers, +such as Lamartine, Mme. de Staël, Scott, and Byron. Her +death, in 1830, was announced in these words: "Mme. de +Genlis has ceased to write—which is to announce her death."</p> + +<p>Throughout life she was so generous that as soon as +she received her pensions, presents, or earnings from her +work, the money was distributed among the poor. When +she died, she left nothing but a few worn and homely +dresses and articles of furniture. The diversity of her +works and her conduct, the politics in which she was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page271" id="page271"></a>[pg 271]</span> +steeped, the satires, the perfidious accusations that have +pursued her, have contributed to leave of her a rather +doubtful portrait; however, those who have written bitterly +against her have done so mostly from personal or +political animosity. She was so many-sided—a reformer, +teacher, pietist, politician, actress—that a true estimate +of her character is difficult. A woman of all tastes and of +various talents, she was a living encyclopædia and mistress +of all arts of pleasing. She had studied medicine, +and took special delight in the art of bleeding, which she +practised upon the peasants, each one of whom she would +present with thirty sous (thirty cents), after the bleeding—and +she never lacked patients. Mme. de Genlis was +an expert rider and huntress; also, she was graceful, with +an elegant figure, great affability, and a talent for quickly +and accurately reading character; and these gifts were +stepping-stones to popularity.</p> + +<p>She wrote incessantly, on all things, essaying every +style, every subject. "She has discoursed for the education +of princes and of lackeys; prepared maxims for the +throne and precepts for the pantry; you might say she +possessed the gift of universality. She was gifted with a +singular confidence in her own abilities, infinite curiosity, +untiring industry, and never-ending and inexhaustible energy. +She wrote nearly as much as Voltaire, and barely +excelled him in the amount of unreadable work, which, if +printed, would fill over one hundred volumes."</p> + +<p>"Let us remember," says Mr. Dobson, "her indefatigable +industry and untiring energy, her kindness to her relatives +and admirers, her courage and patience when in exile and +poverty, her great talent, perseverance, and rare facility." +In protesting vigorously against the universal neglect of +physical development, against the absence of the gymnasium +and the lack of practical knowledge in the education +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page272" id="page272"></a>[pg 272]</span> +of her time, in advocating the study of modern languages +as a means of culture and discipline, in applying to her +pupils the principles of the modern experimental and observational +education, Mme. de Genlis will retain a place +as one of the great female educators—as a woman pedagogue, +<i>par excellence</i>, of the eighteenth century.</p> + +<p>A great number of minor salons existed, which were +partly literary, partly social. From about 1750 to 1780 +the amusements varied constantly, from all-day parties in +the country to cafés served by the great women themselves, +from playing proverbs to playing synonyms, from +impromptu compositions to questionable stories, from laughter +to tears, from Blind-man's-buff to Lotto. Some of the +proverbs were quite ingenious and required elaborate +preparations; for example, at one place Mme. de Lauzun +dances with M. de Belgunce, in the simplest kind of a +costume, which represented the proverb: <i>Bonne renommée +vaut mieux que ceinture dorée</i> [A good name is rather to be +chosen than great riches]. Mme. de Marigny danced with +M. de Saint-Julien as a negro, passing her handkerchief +over her face in the various figures of the dance, meaning +<i>A laver la tête d'un More on perd sa lessive</i> [To wash a +blackamoor white].</p> + +<p>Among the social salons, the finest was the Temple of +the Prince de Conti and his mistress, the Countess de +Boufflers. It was a salon of pleasure, liberty, and unceremonious +intimacy; his <i>thés à l'anglaise</i> were served by the +great ladies themselves, attired in white aprons. The exclusive +and élite of the social world made up his company. +The most elegant assembly was that of the Maréchale de +Luxembourg; it will be considered later on. The salon of +Mme. de Beauvau rivalled that of the Maréchale de Luxembourg; +she was mistress of elegance and propriety, an +authority on and model of the usages of society. A manner +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page273" id="page273"></a>[pg 273]</span> +perhaps superior to that of any other woman, gave Mme. de +Beauvau a particular <i>politesse</i> and constituted her one of +the women who contributed most to the acceptance of Paris +as the capital of Europe, by well-bred people of all countries. +Her <i>politesse</i> was kind and without sarcasm, and, +by her own naturalness, she communicated ease. She +was not beautiful, but had a frank and open expression +and a marvellous gift of conversation, which was her delight +and in which she gloried. Her salon was conspicuous +for its untarnished honor and for the example it set of a pure conjugal love.</p> + +<p>The salon of Mme. de Grammont, at Versailles, was +visited at all hours of the day and night by the highest +officials, princes, lords, and ladies. It had activity, authority, +the secret doors, veiled and redoubtable depths of a +salon of the mistress of a king. Everybody went there +for counsel, submitted plans, and confided projects to this +lady who had willingly exiled herself from Paris.</p> + +<p>The house of M. de La Popelinière, at Passy, was noted +for its unique entertainment; there the celebrated Gossec +and Gaïffre conducted the concerts, Deshayes, master of +the ballet at the Comédie-Italienne, managed the amusements. +It was a house like a theatre and with all the +requisites of the latter; there artists and men of letters, +virtuosos and <i>danseuses</i>, ate, slept, and lodged as in a hotel. +With Mme. de Blot, mistress of the Duke of Orléans, as +hostess, the Palais-Royal ranked next to the Temple of +the Prince de Conti; it was open only to those who were +presented; after that ceremony, all those who were thus +introduced could, without invitation, dine there on all days +of the Grand Opera. On the <i>petits jours</i> a select twenty +gathered, who, when once invited, were so for all time. +The "Salon de Pomone," of Mme. de Marchais, received +its name from Mme. du Deffand on account of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page274" id="page274"></a>[pg 274]</span> +exquisite fruits and magnificent flowers which the hostess +cultivated and distributed among her friends.</p> + +<p>"La Paroisse," of Mme. Doublet de Persan, was the +salon of the sceptics and was under the constant surveillance +of the police. All the members arrived at the same +time and each took possession of the armchair reserved +for him, above which hung his portrait. On a large stand +were two registers, in which the rumors of the day were +noted—in one the doubtful, in the other the accredited. +On Saturday, a selection was made, which went to the +<i>Grand Livre</i>, which became a journal entitled <i>Nouvelles à +la Main</i>, kept by the <i>valet-de-chambre</i> of Mme. Doublet. +This book furnished the substance of the six volumes of +the <i>Mémoires Secrets</i>, which began to appear in 1770.</p> + +<p>Besides these salons of the nobility, there were those of +the financiers, a profession which had risen into prominence +within the last half century, after the death of +Louis XIV. According to the Goncourt brothers, the +greatest of these salons was that of Mme. de Grimrod de +La Reynière, who, by dint of shrewd manœuvring, by +unheard-of extravagances, excessive opulence in the furnishings +of her salon, and by the most gorgeous and rare +fêtes and suppers, had succeeded in attracting to her +establishment a number of the court and nobility.</p> + +<p>The salon of M. de La Popelinière belonged to this +class, although he was ranked, more or less, among +the nobility. There were the weekly suppers of Mme. +Suard, Mme. Saurin, the Abbé Raynal, and the luncheons +of the Abbé Morellet on the first Sunday of the month; to +the latter functions were invited all the celebrities of the +other salons, as well as artists and musicians—it was there +that the famous quarrel of the Gluck and Piccini parties +originated. The Tuesday dinners of Helvétius became +famous; it was at them that Franklin was one of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page275" id="page275"></a>[pg 275]</span> +favorites; after the death of Helvétius, he attempted in +vain to put an end to the widowhood of madame. No +man at that time was more popular than Franklin or had +as much public attention shown him.</p> + +<p>There were a number of celebrated women whose reputations +rest mainly on their wit and conversational abilities; +they may be classed as society leaders, to distinguish them from salon leaders.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page277" id="page277"></a>[pg 277]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter X</h2> + +<h2>Social Classes</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page279" id="page279"></a>[pg 279]</span> + + +<p>The belief generally prevails that devotion and constancy +did not exist among French women of the eighteenth +century; but, in spite of the very numerous instances of +infidelity which dot the pages of the history of the French +matrimonial relations of those days, many examples of +rare devotion are found, even among the nobility. Love +of the king and self-eliminating devotion to him were feelings +to which women aspired; yet we have one countess, +the Countess of Perigord, who, true to her wifehood, repels +the advances of the king, preferring a voluntary exile +to the dishonor of a life of royal favors and attentions. +There is also the example of Mme. de Trémoille; having +been stricken with smallpox, she was ministered to by +her husband, who voluntarily shared her fate and died with her.</p> + +<p>It would seem that the highest types of devotion are to +be found in the families of the ministers and men of state, +where the wife was intimately associated with the fortune +and the success of her husband. The Marquis de Croisy +and his wife were married forty years; M. and Mme. de +Maurepas lived together for fifty years, without being +separated one day. Instances are many in which reconciliations +were effected after years of unfaithfulness; these +seldom occurred, however, until the end of life was near. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page280" id="page280"></a>[pg 280]</span> +The normal type of married life among the higher classes +still remained one of most ideal and beautiful devotion, in +spite of the great number of exceptions.</p> + +<p>It must be observed that in the middle class the young +girl grew up with the mother and was given her most +tender care; surrounded with wholesome influences, she +saw little or nothing of the world, and, the constant companion +of her mother, developed much like the average +young girl of to-day. At the age of about eleven she was +sent to a convent, where—after having spent some time +in the <i>pension</i>, where instruction in religion was given her—she +was instructed by the sisters for one year.</p> + +<p>After her confirmation and her first communion, and the +home visits to all the relatives, she was placed in a <i>maison +religieuse</i>, where the sisters taught the daughters of the +common people free of charge. The young girl was also +taught dancing, music, and other accomplishments of a +like nature, but there was nothing of the feverish atmosphere +of the convent in which the daughters of the nobility +were reared; these institutions for the middle classes were +peaceful, silent, and calm, fostering a serenity and quietude. +The days passed quickly, the Sundays being eagerly +looked forward to because of the visits of the parents, who +took their daughters for drives and walks and indulged +them in other innocent diversions. Such a life had its +after effects: the young girls grew up with a taste for +system, discipline, piety, and for a rigid devotion, which +often led them to an instinctive need of doctrine and sacrifice; +consequently, in later life many turned to Jansenism.</p> + +<p>However, the young girls of this class who were not +thus educated, because their assistance was required at +home, received an early training in social as well as in +domestic affairs; they had a solid and practical, if uncouth, +foundation, combined with a worldly and, often, a frivolous +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page281" id="page281"></a>[pg 281]</span> +temperament. To them many privileges were opened: +they were taken to the opera, to concerts and to balls, to +the salons of painting, and it often happened that they developed +a craving for the society to which only the nobly +born demoiselle was admitted. When this craving went +too far, it frequently led to seduction by some of the +chevaliers who make seduction a profession.</p> + +<p>The marriage customs in these circles differed little from +those of to-day. The suitor asked permission to call and +to continue his visits; then followed the period of present +giving. The young girl was almost always absolute mistress +of the decision; if the father presented a name, the +daughter insisted upon seeing, receiving, and becoming +intimately acquainted with the suitor, a custom quite different +from that practised among the nobility. Instead of +giving her rights as it did the girl of the nobility, marriage +imposed duties upon the girl of the middle class; it closed +the world instead of opening it to her; it ended her brilliant, +gay, and easy life, instead of beginning it, as was +the case in the higher classes. This she realized, therefore +hesitated long before taking the final step which was to bind her until death.</p> + +<p>With her, becoming a wife meant infinitely more than it +did to the girl of the nobility; her husband had the management +of her money, and his vices were visited upon +her and her children—in short, he became her master in +all things. These disadvantages she was taught to consider +deeply before entering the marriage state.</p> + +<p>This state of affairs developed distinctive physiognomies +in the different classes of the middle-class society: thus, +"the wives of the financiers are dignified, stern, severe; +those of the merchants are seductive, active, gossiping, +and alert; those of the artists are free, easy, and independent, +with a strong taste for pleasure and gayety—and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page282" id="page282"></a>[pg 282]</span> +they give the tone." As we approach the end of the +century, the <i>bourgeoisie</i> begins to assume the airs, habits, +extravagances, and even the immoralities, of the higher classes.</p> + +<p>Below the <i>bourgeoise</i> was the workingwoman, whose +ideas were limited to those of a savage and who was a +woman only in sex. Her ideas of morality, decency, +conjugal happiness, children, education, were limited by +quarrels, profanity, blows, fights. At that time brandy +was the sole consolation for those women; it supplied their +moral force and their moral resistance, making them forget +cold, hunger, fatigue, evil, and giving them courage and +patience; it was the fire that sustained, comforted, and incited them.</p> + +<p>These women were not much above the level of animals, +but from them, we find, often sprang the entertainers of +the time, the queens of beauty and gallantry—Laguerre, +D'Hervieux, Sophie Arnould. Having lost their virtue +with maturity, these women had no sense of morality; in +them, nothing preserved the sense of honor—their religion +consisted of a few superstitious practices. The constituents +of duty and the virtue of women they could only +vaguely guess; marriage itself was presented to them +under the most repugnant image of constant contention.</p> + +<p>It was in such an atmosphere as this that the daughters +of these women grew up. Their talents found opportunity +for display at the public dances where some of them +would in time attract especial attention. Some became +opera singers, dancers, or actresses, and were very popular; +others became influential, and, through the efforts of +some lover, allured about them a circle of ambitious +<i>débauchés</i> or aspirants for social favors. Through their +adventures they made their way up in the world to high society.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page283" id="page283"></a>[pg 283]</span> + +<p>From this element of prostitution was disentangled, to a +large extent, the great gallantry of the eighteenth century. +This was accomplished by adding an elegance to debauch, +by clothing vice with a sort of grandeur, and by adorning +scandal with a semblance of the glory and grace of the +courtier of old. Possessing the fascination of all gifts, +prodigalities, follies, with all the appetites and tendencies +of the time, these women attracted the society of the +period—the poets, the artists, even the scientists, the philosophers, +and the nobility. Their reputation increased +with the number and standing of their lovers. The +genius of the eighteenth century circled about these street +belles—they represented the fortune of pleasure.</p> + +<p>As the church would not countenance the marriage of +an actress, she was forced to renounce the theatre when +she would marry, but once married a permit to return to +the stage was easily obtained. Society was not so severe +as the laws; it received actresses, sought out, and even +adored them; it received the women of the stage as equals, +and many of them were married by counts and dukes, +given a title, and presented at court. The regular type +of the prostitute was tolerated and even received by +society; "a word of anger, malediction, or outrage, was +seldom raised against these women: on the contrary, pity +and the commiseration of charity and tenderness were felt +for them and manifested." This was natural, for many of +them—through notoriety—reached society and, as mistresses +of the king, even the throne itself. "If such +women as Mme. de Pompadour were esteemed, what +principles remained in the name of which to judge without +pity and to condemn the <i>débauchés</i> of the street," says +Mme. de Choiseul, one of the purest of women.</p> + +<p>This class usually created and established the styles. +There is a striking contrast between the standards of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page284" id="page284"></a>[pg 284]</span> +beauty and fashions of the respective periods of Louis XIV. +and Louis XV.: "The stately figure, rich costume, awe-inspiring +peruke of the magnificent Louis XIV.—the satins, +velvets, embroideries, perfumes, and powder of the indolent +and handsome Louis XV., well illustrate the two +epochs." The beauty of the Louis XIV. age was more +serious, more imposing, imperial, classic; later in the +eighteenth century, under Louis XV., she developed into +a charming figure of <i>finesse, sveltesse et gracilité</i>, with +an extremely delicate complexion, a small mouth and thin +nose, as opposed to the strong, plump mouth and <i>nez léonin</i> +(leonine nose). More animated, the face was all movement, +the eyes talked; the <i>esprit</i> passed to the face. It +was the type of Marivaux' comedies, with an <i>esprit mobile</i>, +animated and colored by all the coquetries of grace.</p> + +<p>Later in the century, the very opposite type prevailed; +the aspiration then became to leave an emotion ungratified +rather than to seduce; a languishing expression was cultivated; +women sought to sweeten the physiognomy, to +make it tender and mild. The style of beauty changed +from the brunette with brown eyes—so much in vogue +under Louis XV., to the blonde with blue eyes under +Louis XVI. Even the red which formerly "dishonored +France," became a favorite. To obtain the much admired +pale complexion, women had themselves bled; their dress +corresponded to their complexion, light materials and pure +white being much affected.</p> + +<p>In these three stages of the development of beauty, +fashion changed to harmonize with the popular style in +beauty. In general, styles were influenced by an important +event of the day: thus, when Marie Leczinska, introduced +the fad of quadrilles, there were invented ribbons +called "quadrille of the queen"; and many other fads +originated in the same way. French taste and fashions +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page285" id="page285"></a>[pg 285]</span> +travelled over entire Europe; all Europe was <i>à la française</i>, +yoked and laced in French styles, French in art, taste, +industry. The domination of the French <i>Galerie des +Modes</i> was due to the inventive minds of French women +in relation to everything pertaining to headdress, to +detailed and delicate arrangements of every phase of ornamentation.</p> + +<p>Every country had, in Paris, its agents who eagerly +waited for the appearance of the famous doll of the Rue +Saint-Honoré; this figure was an exponent of the latest +fashions and inventions, and, changing continually, was +watched and copied by all Europe. Alterations in style +frequently originated at the supper of a mistress, in the box +of a dancer or in the atelier of a fine modiste; therefore, +in that respect, that century differed little from the present +one. Trade depended largely upon foreign patronage. +Fortunes were made by the modistes, who were the +great artists of the day and who set the fashion; but +the hairdresser and shoemaker, also, were artists, as +was seen, at least in name, and were as impertinent as prosperous.</p> + +<p>An interesting illustration of the change of fashion is +the following anecdote: In 1714, at a supper of the king, +at Versailles, two English women wore low headdress, +causing a scandal which came near costing them their +dismissal. The king happened to mention that if French +women were reasonable, they would not dress otherwise. +The word was spread, and the next day, at the king's +mass the ladies all wore their hair like the English women, +regardless of the laughter of the women who, being absent +the previous evening, had their hair dressed high. The +compliment of the king as he was leaving mass, to the +ladies with the low headdress, caused a complete change in the mode.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page286" id="page286"></a>[pg 286]</span> + +<p>It now remains but to illustrate these various classes +by types—by women who have become famous. The +Duchesse de Boufflers, Maréchale de Luxembourg, was +the woman who most completely typified the spirit and +tone of the eighteenth-century <i>classique</i> in everything that +belonged to the ancient régime which passed away with +the society of 1789. She was the daughter of the Duc de +Villeroy, and married the Duc de Boufflers in 1721; after +the death of the latter in 1747, and after having been the +mistress of M. de Luxembourg for several years, she married +him in 1750. Her youth was like that of most women +of the social world. A <i>savante</i> in intrigues at court, present +at all suppers, bouts, and pleasure trips as lady-of-the-palace +to the queen, intriguing constantly, holding her +own by her sharp wit, in a society of <i>roués et élégants +enervés</i> she soon became a leader. Mme. du Deffand left +a striking portrait of her:</p> + +<p>"Mme. la Duchesse de Boufflers is beautiful without +having the air of suspecting it. Her physiognomy is keen +and piquant, her expression reveals all the emotions of +her soul—she does not have to say what she thinks, one +guesses it. Her gestures are so natural and so perfectly +in accord with what she says, that it is difficult not to be +led to think and feel as she does. She dominates wherever +she is, and she always makes the impression she desires +to make. She makes use of her advantages almost like a +god—she permits us to believe that we have a free will +while she determines us. In general, she is more feared +than loved. She has much <i>esprit</i> and gayety. She is +constant in her engagements, faithful to her friends, truthful, +discreet, generous. If she were more clairvoyant or +if men were less ridiculous, they would find her perfect."</p> + +<p>On one occasion M. de Tressan composed this famous couplet:</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page287" id="page287"></a>[pg 287]</span> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"Quand Boufflers parut à la cour,</p> +<p>On crut voir la mère d'Amour,</p> +<p>Chacun s'empressait à lui plaire,</p> +<p>Et chacun l'avait à son tour."</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>[When Boufflers appeared at court,</p> +<p>The mother of love was thought to be seen,</p> +<p>Everyone became so eager to please her,</p> +<p>And each one had her in his turn.]</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>One day Mme. de Boufflers mumbled this before M. de +Tressan, saying to him: "Do you know the author? It +is so beautiful that I would not only pardon her, but I believe +I would embrace her." Whereupon he stammered: +<i>Eh bien! c'est moi.</i> She quickly dealt him two vigorous +slaps in the face. All feared her; no one equalled her in +skill and shrewdness, or in knowing and handling men.</p> + +<p>After her marriage to the Maréchal de Luxembourg, +she decided, about 1750, to open a salon in Paris; it +became one of the real forces of the eighteenth century, +socially and politically. While her husband lived, she did +not enjoy the freedom she desired; after his death in 1764 +she was at liberty to do as she pleased, and she then +began her career as a judge and counsellor in all social +matters. She was regarded as the oracle of taste and +urbanity, exercised a supervision over the tone and usage +of society, was the censor of <i>la bonne compagnie</i> during +the happy years of Louis XVI. This power in her was +universally recognized. She tempered the Anglomania of +the time, all excesses of familiarity and rudeness; she +never uttered a bad expression, a coarse laugh or a <i>tutoiement</i> +(thee and thou). The slightest affectation in tone +or gesture was detected and judged by her. She preserved +the good tone of society and permitted no contamination. +She retarded the reign of clubs, retained the urbanity +of French society, and preserved a proper and unique +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page288" id="page288"></a>[pg 288]</span> +character in the <i>ancien salon français</i>, in the way of +excellence of tone.</p> + +<p>The Marquise de Rambouillet, Mme. de La Fayette, +Mme. de Maintenon, Mme. de Caylus, and Mme. de +Luxembourg are of the same type—the same world, with +little variance and no decadence; in some respects, the +last may be said to have approached nearest to perfection. +"In her, the turn of critical and caustic severity was exempt +from rigidity and was accompanied by every charm +and pleasingness in her person. She often judged [a person] +by [his] ability at repartee, which she tested by +embarrassing questions across the table, judging [the +person] by the reply. She herself was never at a loss +for an answer: when shown two portraits—one of Molière +and one of La Fontaine—and asked which was the greater, +she answered: 'That one,' pointing to La Fontaine, 'is +more perfect in a <i>genre</i> less perfect.'"</p> + +<p>By the Goncourt brothers, her salon has been given its +merited credit: "The most elegant salon was that of the +Maréchale de Luxembourg, one of the most original women +of the time. She showed an originality in her judgments, +she was authority in usage, a genius in taste. About her +were pleasure, interest, novelty, letters; here was formed +the true elegance of the eighteenth century—a society +that held sway over Europe until 1789. Here was formed +the greatest institution of the time, the only one that survived +till the Revolution, that preserved—in the discredit +of all moral laws—the authority of one law, <i>la parfaite +bonne compagnie</i>, whose aim was a social one—to distinguish +itself from bad company, vulgar and provincial +society, by the perfection of the means of pleasing, by +the delicacy of friendship, by the art of considerations, +complaisances, of <i>savoir vivre</i>, by all possible researches +and refinements of <i>esprit</i>. It fixed everything—usages, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page289" id="page289"></a>[pg 289]</span> +etiquette, tone of conversation; it taught how to praise +without bombast and insipidness, to reply to a compliment +without disdaining or accepting it, to bring others to +value without appearing to protect them; it prevented all +slander. If it did not impart modesty, goodness, indulgence, +nobleness of sentiment, it at least imposed the forms, +exacting the appearances and showing the images of them. +It was the guardian of urbanity and maintained all the +laws that are derived from taste. It represented the religion +of honor; it judged, and when it condemned a man he was socially-ruined."</p> + +<p>A type of what may be called the social mistress of the +nobility—the personification of good taste, elegance and +propriety such as it should be—was the Comtesse de +Boufflers, mistress of the Prince de Conti, intimate friend +of Hume, Rousseau, and Gustave III., King of Sweden. +The countess was one of the most influential and spirituelle +members of French society, her special mission and +delight being the introduction of foreign celebrities into +French society. She piloted them, was their patroness, +spoke almost all modern languages, and visited her friends +in their respective countries. She was the most travelled +and most hospitable of great French women, hence the +woman best informed upon the world in general.</p> + +<p>She was born in Paris in 1725, and in 1746 was married +to the Comte de Boufflers-Rouvrel; soon after, becoming +enamored of the Prince de Conti, she became his +acknowledged mistress. To give an idea of the light in +which the women of that time considered those who were +mistresses of great men, the following episodes may be +cited: One day, Mme. de Boufflers, momentarily forgetting +her relations to the Prince de Conti, remarked that +she scorned a woman who <i>avait un prince du sang</i> (was +mistress of a prince of the blood). When reminded of her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page290" id="page290"></a>[pg 290]</span> +apparent inconsistency, she said: "I wish to give by +my words to virtue what I take away from it by my +actions...." On another occasion, she reproached +the Maréchale de Mirepoix for going to see Mme. de +Pompadour, and in the heat of argument said: "Why, she +is nothing but the first <i>fille</i> (mistress) of the kingdom!" +The maréchale replied: "Do not force me to count even +unto three" (Mme. de Pompadour, Mlle. Marquise, Mme. +de Boufflers). In those days, the position of mistress of +an important man attracted little more attention than +might a petty, trivial, light-hearted flirtation nowadays.</p> + +<p>After the death of M. de Boufflers, in 1764, the all-absorbing +question of society, and one of vital importance +to madame, was, Will the prince marry her? If not, will +she continue to be his mistress? In this critical period, +Hume showed his friendship and true sympathy by giving +Mme. de Boufflers most persuasive and practical advice in +reference to morals—which she did not follow. Her relations +with Rousseau showed her capable of the deepest +and most profound friendship and sympathy. According +to Sainte-Beuve, it was she who, by aid of her friends in +England, procured asylum for him with Hume at Wootton. +When Rousseau's rashness brought on the quarrel which +set in commotion and agitated the intellectual circles of +both continents, Mme. de Boufflers took his part and remained +faithful to him, securing a place for him in the +Château de Trie, which belonged to the Prince de Conti.</p> + +<p>All who came in contact with her recognized the distinction, +elevation of <i>esprit</i>, and sentiment of Mme. de Boufflers. +With her are associated the greatest names of the +time; being perfectly at home on all the political questions +of the day, she was better able to converse upon these +subjects than was any other woman of the time. When +in 1762 she visited England, she was lionized everywhere. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page291" id="page291"></a>[pg 291]</span> +She was fêted at court and in the city, and all conversation +was upon the one subject, that of her presence, which was +one of the important events of London life. Everyone +was anxious to see the famous woman, the first of rank to +visit England in two hundred years. She even received +some special attention from the eccentric Samuel Johnson, +in this manner: "Horace Walpole had taken the countess +to call on Johnson. After the conventional time of a +formal call had expired, they left, and were halfway down +stairs, when it dawned upon Johnson that it was his duty, +as host, to pay the honors of his literary residence to a +foreign lady of quality; to show himself gallant, he jumped +down from the top of the stairway, and, all agitation, +seized the hand of the countess and conducted her to her carriage."</p> + +<p>No woman at court had more friends and fewer enemies +than did Mme. de Boufflers, because "she united to the +gifts of nature and the culture of <i>esprit</i> an amiable simplicity, charming +graces, a goodness, kindness, and sensibility, +which made her forget herself always and constantly +seek to aid those about her." She made use of her influence +over the prince in such ways as would, in a measure, +recompense for her fault, and thus recommended herself +by her good actions. She was the soul of his salon, "Le +Temple." The love of these two people, through its intimacy +and public display, through its constancy, happiness, +and decency, dissipated all scandal. Always cheerful and +pleased to amuse, knowing how to pay attention to all, +always rewarding the bright remarks of others with a +smile, which all sought as a mark of approbation, no one +ever wished her any ill fortune.</p> + +<p>The last days of the Prince de Conti were cheered by +the presence of Mme. de Boufflers and the friends whom +she gathered about him to help bear his illness. The letter +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page292" id="page292"></a>[pg 292]</span> +to her from Hume, on his deathbed, is most pathetic, showing +the influence of this woman and the nature of the +impression she left upon her friends:</p> + +<p class="author">"Edinburgh, 20th of August, 1776.</p> + +<p>"Although I am certainly within a few weeks, dear Madame, +and perhaps within a few days, of my own death, I +could not forbear being struck with the death of the Prince +of Conti—so great a loss in every particular. My reflection +carried me immediately to your situation in this melancholy +incident. What a difference to you in your whole +plan of life! Pray write me some particulars, but in such +terms that you need not care, in case of my decease, into +whose hands your letter may fall.... My distemper +is a diarrhœa or disorder in my bowels, which has been +gradually undermining me for these two years, but within +these six months has been visibly hastening me to my end. +I see death approach gradually, without any anxiety or +regret. I salute you with great affection and regard, for the last time.</p> + +<p class="author">"<span class="sc">David Hume</span>."</p> + +<p>Hume died five days after this letter was written.</p> + +<p>The last years of her life she spent with her daughter-in-law, +at Auteuil, where she lived a happy life and received +the best society of Paris. When she died or under +what circumstances is not known. During the Revolution +she lived in obscurity, busying herself with charitable +work; she was one of the few women of the nobility to +escape the guillotine, "This woman, who had kept the +intellectual world alive with her <i>esprit</i> and goodness, of a +sudden vanishes like a star from the horizon; she lives on, +unnoticed by everyone, and, in that new society, no one +misses her or regrets her death."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page293" id="page293"></a>[pg 293]</span> + +<p>In order to fully appreciate the mistress of the eighteenth +century, her power and influence, her rise to popularity +and social standing, the general and accepted idea and +nature of the sentiment called love must be explained; for +it was to the peculiar development of that emotion that the +mistress owed her fortune.</p> + +<p>In the eighteenth century love became a theory, a cult; +it developed a language of its own. In the preceding age +love was declared, it spoke, it was a virtue of grandeur +and generosity, of courage and delicacy, exacting all proofs +of decency and gallantry, patient efforts, respect, vows, +discretion, and reciprocal affection. The ideal was one of +heroism, nobleness, and bravery. In the eighteenth century +this ideal became mere desire; love became voluptuousness, +which was to be found in art, music, styles, +fashions—in everything. Woman herself was nothing +more than the embodiment of voluptuousness; it made +her what she was, directing and fashioning her. Every +movement she made, every garment she wore, all the care +she applied to her appearance—all breathed this <i>volupté</i>.</p> + +<p>In paintings it was found in impure images, coquettish +immodesties, in couples embraced in the midst of flowers, +in scenes of tenderness: all these representations were +hung in the rooms of young girls, above their beds. They +grew up to know <i>volupté</i>, and, when old enough, they +longed for it. It was useless for women to try to escape +its power, and chastity naturally disappeared under these +temptations. The young girl inherited the impure instincts +of the mother, and, when matured, was ready and eager +for all that could enchant and gratify the senses.</p> + +<p>True domestic friendship and intimacy were rare, because +the husband given to a young girl had passed +through a long list of mistresses, and talked—from experience—gallant +confidences which took away the veil of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page294" id="page294"></a>[pg 294]</span> +illusion. She was immediately taken into society, where +she became familiar with the spicy proverbs and the salty +prologues of the theatre, where supposedly decent women +were present, in curtained boxes. At the suppers and +dinners, by songs and plays, at the gatherings where held +forth Duclos and others like him, in the midst of champagne, +<i>ivresse d'esprit</i>, and eloquence, she was taught and +saw the corruption of society and marriage, the disrespect +to modesty; in such an atmosphere all trace of innocence +was destroyed. She was taught that faithfulness to a +husband belonged only to the people, that it was an evidence +of stupidity. Manners, customs, and even religion +were against the preservation of innocence and purity; +and in this depravity the abbés were the leaders.</p> + +<p>Such conditions were dangerous and disastrous not to +young girls only, they affected the young men also; the +latter, amidst this social demoralization, developed their +evil tendencies, and, in a few generations, there was +formed a Paris completely debauched. Love meant nothing +more elevated than desire; for man, the paramount +idea was to have or possess; for woman, to capture. +There was no longer any mystery, any secret; the lover +left his carriage at the door of his love, as if to publish his +good fortune; he regularly made his appearance at her +house, at the hour of the toilette, at dinner and at all the +fêtes; the public announcement of the liaison was made at +the theatre when he sat in her box.</p> + +<p>There came a period when so-called love fell so low +that woman no longer questioned a man's birth, rank, or +condition, and vice versa, as long as he or she was in +demand; a successful man had nearly every woman of +prominence at his feet. The men planned their attacks +upon the women whom they desired, and the women connived, +posed, and set most ingenious traps and devised +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page295" id="page295"></a>[pg 295]</span> +most extraordinary means to captivate their hero. As the +century wore on and the vices and appetites gradually +consumed the healthy tissues, there sprang up a class of +monsters, most accomplished <i>roués</i>, consummate leaders +of theoretical and practical immorality, who were without +conscience. To gain their ends, they manipulated every +medium—valets, chambermaids, scandal, charity; their one +object was to dishonor woman.</p> + +<p>Women were no better; "a natural falseness, an acquired +dissimulation, a profound observation, a lie without +flinching, a penetrating eye, a domination of the +senses—to these they owed their faculties and qualities +so much feared at the time, and which made them +professional and consummate politicians and ministers. +Along with their gallantry, they possessed a calmness, +a tone of liberty, a cynicism; these were their weapons +and deadly ones they were to the man at whom they +were aimed."</p> + +<p>There were, in this century, superior women in whom +was exhibited a high form of love, but who realized that +perfect love was impossible in their age; yet they desired +to be loved in an intense and legitimate manner. This +phase of womanhood is well represented by Mlle. Aïssé +and Mlle. de Lespinasse, both of whom felt an irresistible +need of loving; they proclaimed their love and not only +showed themselves to be capable of loving and of intense +suffering, but proved themselves worthy of love which, in +its highest form, they felt to be an unknown quantity at +that time. Their love became a constant inspiration, a +model of devotion, almost a transfiguration of passion. +These women were products of the time; they had to be, +to compensate for the general sterility and barrenness, to +equalize the inequalities, and to pay the tribute of vice +and debauch.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page296" id="page296"></a>[pg 296]</span> + +<p>All the customs of the age were arrayed against pure +womanhood and offered it nothing but temptation. Inasmuch +as the husband belonged to court and to war more +than to domestic felicity, he left his wife alone for long +periods. The husbands themselves seemed actually to +enjoy the infidelity of their wives and were often intimate +friends of their wives' lovers; and it was no rare thing +that when the wife found no pleasure in lovers, she did +not concern herself about her husband's mistresses (unless +they were intolerably disagreeable to her), often advising +the mistress as to the best method of winning her husband.</p> + +<p>It must be admitted that this separation in marriage, +this reciprocity of liberty, this absolute tolerance, was not +a phase of the eighteenth century marriage, but was the +very character of it. In earlier times, in the sixteenth +century, infidelity was counted as such and caused trouble +in the household. If the husband abused his privileges, +the wife was obliged to bear the insult in silence, being +helpless to avenge it. If she imitated his actions, it was +under the gravest dangers to her own life and that of her +lover. The honor of the husband was closely attached to +the virtue of the wife; thus, if he sought diversion elsewhere, +and his wife fell victim to the fascinations of +another, he was ridiculed. Marriage was but an external +bond; in the eighteenth century, it was a bond only as +long as husband and wife had affection for one another; +when that no longer existed, they frankly told each other +and sought that emotion elsewhere; they ceased to be lovers and became friends.</p> + +<p>A very fertile source of so much unfaithfulness was the +frequent marriage of a ruined nobleman to a girl of fortune, +but without rank. Giving her his name was the only +moral obligation; the marriage over and the dowry portion +settled, he pursued his way, considering that he owed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page297" id="page297"></a>[pg 297]</span> +her no further duty. Very frequently, the husband, overcome +by jealousy or humiliated by the low standard of his +wife who injured or brought ridicule upon his name, would +have her kidnapped and taken to a convent. This right +was enjoyed by the husband in spite of the general liberty +of woman. A letters-patent was obtained through proof of +adultery, and the wife was imprisoned in some convent for +the rest of her life, being deprived of her dowry which fell to her husband.</p> + +<p>At one time, the great ambition of woman was to procure +a legal separation—an ambition which seems to have +developed into a fad, for at one period there were over +three hundred applicants for legal separation, a state of +affairs which so frightened Parliament that it passed rigid +laws. A striking contrast to this was the custom connected +with mourning. At the death of the husband, the +wife wore mourning, her entire establishment, with every +article of interior furnishing, was draped in the sombre hue; +she no longer went out and her house was open only to +relatives and those who came to pay visits of condolence. +Unless she married again, she remained in mourning all +her life; but it should not be understood that the veil concealed +her coquetry or prevented her from enjoying her +liberty and planning her future. Then, as to-day, there +were many examples of fanaticism and folly; one widow +would endeavor to commit suicide; another lived with the +figure of her husband in wax; another conversed, for several +hours of the day, with the shade of her husband; +others consecrated themselves to the church.</p> + +<p>This all-supreme sway of love and its attributes, left its +impression and lasting effect upon the physiognomy of the +mistress; in the early part of the century, the mistress was +chosen from the respectable aristocracy and the nobility; +gradually, however, the limits of selection were extended +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page298" id="page298"></a>[pg 298]</span> +until they included the <i>bourgeoisie</i> and, finally, the offspring +of the common <i>femme du peuple</i>. A woman from +any profession, from any stratum of society, by her charm +and intelligence, her original discoveries and inventions +of debauch and licentiousness, could easily become the +heroine of the day, the goddess of society, the goal and +aspiration of the used-up <i>roués</i> of the aristocracy. Under +Louis XIV., such popularity was an impossibility to a +woman of that sort, but society under the Regency seemed +to have awakened from the torpor and gloom of the later +years of the monarchy to a reign of unrestrained gayety and vice.</p> + +<p>The first woman to infect the social atmosphere of the +nobility with a new form of extravagance and licentiousness +was Adrienne Le Couvreur, who was the heroine of +the day during the first years of the Regency. She was +the daughter of a hatter, who had gone to Paris about +1702; while employed as a laundress, she often gave proof +of the possession of remarkable dramatic genius by her +performances at private theatricals. In 1717, through the +influence of the great actor Baron, she made her appearance +at the Comédie Française; the reappearance of that +favorite with Adrienne Le Couvreur as companion, in the +plays of Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire, reëstablished +the popularity of the French theatre. Adrienne immediately +became a favorite with the titled class, was frequently +present at Mme. de Lambert's, gave the most +sumptuous suppers herself, and was compelled to repulse +lovers of the highest nobility.</p> + +<p>Her principal lovers were Voltaire, whom she nursed +through smallpox, spending many hours in reading to him, +and Maurice of Saxony; she had children of whom the +latter was the father, and it was she who, by selling her +plate and jewelry, supplied him with forty thousand francs +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page299" id="page299"></a>[pg 299]</span> +in order to enable him to equip his soldiers when he proposed +to recover the principality of Courland. She was +generous to prodigality; but when she died, the Church +refused to grant consecrated ground for the reception of +her remains, although it condescended to accept her munificent +gift of a hundred thousand francs to charity. Her +death was said to have been caused by her rival, the +Duchesse de Bouillon, by means of poisoned pastilles administered +by a young abbé. In the night, her body was +carried by two street porters to the Rue de Bourgogne, +where it was buried. Voltaire, in great indignation at +such injustice, wrote his stinging poem <i>La Mort de Mademoiselle +Le Couvreur</i>, which was the cause of his being again obliged to leave Paris.</p> + +<p>The popularity of the Comédie Française declined after +the deaths of Baron and Adrienne Le Couvreur, until the +appearance of Mlle. Clairon, who was one of the greatest +actresses of France. Born in Flanders in 1723, at a very +early age she had wandered about the provinces, from +theatre to theatre, with itinerant troupes, winning a great +reputation at Rouen. In 1738 the leading actresses were +Mlle. Quinault, who had retired to enjoy her immense +fortune in private life, and Mlle. Dumesnil, the great +<i>tragédienne</i>. When Mlle. Clairon received an offer to +play alternately with the favorite, Mlle. Dumesnil, she +selected as her opening part <i>Phèdre</i>, the <i>rôle de triomphe</i> +of her rival.</p> + +<p>The appearance of a débutante was an event, and its +announcement brought out a large crowd; the presumption +of a provincial artist in selecting a rôle in which to rival a +great favorite had excited general ridicule, and an unusually +large audience had assembled, expecting to witness an +ignominious failure. Mlle. Clairon's stately figure, the +dignity and grace of her carriage, "her finely chiselled +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page300" id="page300"></a>[pg 300]</span> +features, her noble brow, her air of command, her clear, +deep, impassioned voice," made an immediate impression +upon the audience. She was unanimously acknowledged +as superior to Mlle. Dumesnil, and the entire social and +literary world hastened to do her homage.</p> + +<p>Mlle. Clairon did as much for the theatre as did Adrienne +Le Couvreur, especially in discarding, in her <i>Phèdre</i>, the +plumes, spangles, the panier, the frippery, which had been +the customary equipments of that rôle. She and Lecain, +the prominent actor of the day, introduced the custom of +wearing the proper costume of the characters represented. +The grace and dignity of her stage presence caused her to +be sought by the great ladies, who took lessons in her +famous courtesy <i>grande révérence</i>, which was later supplanted +by the courtesy of Mme. de Pompadour.</p> + +<p>Mlle. Clairon became the recipient of great favors and +honors, her most prominent slave being Marmontel, to +whom she had given a room in her hôtel after Mme. Geoffrin +had withdrawn from him the privilege of occupying an +apartment in her spacious establishment. She contributed +largely to the success of his plays, as well as to those of +Voltaire, whom she visited at Ferney, performing in his +private theatre. Her success was uninterrupted until she +declined to play, in the <i>Siège de Calais</i>, with an actor who +had been guilty of dishonesty; she was then thrown into +prison, and refused to reappear. When about fifty years +of age she became the mistress of the Margrave of Ansbach, +at whose court she resided for eighteen years. In +1791 she returned to Paris, where, poor and forgotten, she died in 1803.</p> + +<p>An actress or a singer who left a greater reputation +through her wit, the promptness and malignity of her repartee, +and her extravagance, than through her voice was +Sophie Arnould, the pupil of Mlle. Clairon. She was the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page301" id="page301"></a>[pg 301]</span> +daughter of an innkeeper; her first success was won through +her charming figure and her flexible voice. Some of the +ladies attached to the court of Louis XV., having heard +her sing at evening service during Passion week, had induced +the royal chapel master to employ her in the choir. +There, and by the warm eulogies of Marmontel during one +of his toilette visits to Mme. de Pompadour, the attention +of the <i>maîtresse-en-titre</i> was called to her beauty and vocal charm.</p> + +<p>Her début was made with unusual success, but she afterward +eloped with the Comte de Lauraguais, who had made +a wager that he could win the beautiful artist. After her +reappearance at Paris her career became a long series of +dissipations and unprecedented extravagances. She was +as witty as she was licentious, and many of her <i>bons mots</i> +have been collected. It was she who characterized the +great Necker and Choiseul, on being shown a box containing +their portraits: "That is receipt and expenditure"—the +credit and debit. She was one of the few prominent +women who died in favor and in comfortable circumstances.</p> + +<p>The lowest and most depraved of this licentious class of +women was Mlle. La Guimard, the legitimate daughter +of a factory inspector of cloth. In 1758 she entered the +opera as a ballet girl, but very little is known of her during +the first years of her career except in connection with +her numerous lovers. In about 1768 she was living in +most sumptuous style, her extravagances being paid for +by two lovers, the Prince de Soubise, her <i>amant utile</i>, and +the farmer-general, M. de La Borde, her <i>amant honoraire</i>.</p> + +<p>At this period she gave three suppers weekly: one for +all the great lords at court and of distinction; the second +for authors, scholars, and artists; the third being a supper +of <i>débauchées</i>, the most seductive and lascivious girls of +the opera; at the last function, luxury and debauch were +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page302" id="page302"></a>[pg 302]</span> +carried to unknown extremes. At her superb country +home, "Pantin," she gave private performances, the +magnificence of which was unprecedented and admission +to which was an honor as eagerly sought as was that of attendance at Versailles.</p> + +<p>There was another side to the nature of Mlle. La Guimard: +during the terrible cold of the winter of 1768, she +went about alone visiting the poor and needy, distributing +food and clothing purchased with the six thousand livres +given her by her lover, the Prince de Soubise, as a New +Year's gift. Her charity became so general that people of +all professions and classes went to her for assistance—actors +and artists to borrow the money with which to pay +their debts, officers with the same object in view. To one +of the latter to whom she had just lent a hundred louis +and who was about to sign a note, she said: "Sir, your +word is sufficient. I imagine that an officer will have as +much honor as <i>fille d'opéra</i>."</p> + +<p>Her performances at "Pantin" and her luxurious mode +of life required more money than the two lovers were able +to supply; therefore, another was accepted in the person +of the Bishop of Orléans, Monseigneur de Jarente, who +supplied her with money and other necessaries. In 1771 +she decided to build a hôtel with an elegant theatre which +would comfortably seat five hundred people. The opening +of this Temple de Terpsichore was the great event of the +year (1772). All the nobility was there, even the princes +of the blood, and the "delicious licenses of the presentation +were fully enjoyed by those who were fortunate enough to obtain admission."</p> + +<p>Her costumes were of such taste and became so renowned +that Marie Antoinette consulted her in reference +to her own wonderful inventions; the dresses became +known as the <i>Robe à la La Guimard</i>. Inasmuch as the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page303" id="page303"></a>[pg 303]</span> +management of the Opéra supplied all gowns, the expense +for this one artist was enormous, in 1779 amounting to +thirty thousand livres for dresses alone. In 1785, being in +financial straits, she sold her hôtel on the Rue Chaussée-d'Antin +by lottery, two thousand five hundred tickets at +one hundred and twenty livres each. None of the salons +of Paris could compare with hers in the "costliness of the +crystal and the plate of her table service, in the taste and +elegance of her floral decorations—choice exotics obtained +from a distance, regardless of expense."</p> + +<p>After appearing at the Haymarket Opera House in +London in 1789, Mlle. La Guimard decided to retire to +private life, and married M. Despréaux, the ballet master, +fifteen years her junior. During the Revolution the government +ceased to pay pensions, and as she had saved +very little of her wealth the two lived in the most straitened +circumstances. Her fate was similar to that of the average +woman of pleasure—forgotten, half-witted, stooping to any +act of indecency to gain a few sous.</p> + +<p>Such were the principal heroines of the stage, opera, +and ballet; they were in harmony with the general state +of that depraved society of which they were natural products; +transitory lights that shone for but a short space of +time, consumed by their own sensuous instinct, they +were forgotten with death. The royal mistresses lived +the same life and followed the same ideals, but exerted a +greater and more lasting influence in the state.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page305" id="page305"></a>[pg 305]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter XI</h2> + +<h2>Royal Mistresses</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page307" id="page307"></a>[pg 307]</span> + + +<p>In the study of the royal mistresses of the eighteenth +century, we encounter two in particular,—Mme. de Pompadour +and Mme. du Barry,—who, though totally different +types of women, both reflect the gradual decline of ideals and +morals in the first and last years of the reign of Louis XV. +The former dominated the king by means of her intelligence, +but the latter swayed the sovereign, already consumed +by his sensual excesses, through her peculiarly seductive sensuality.</p> + +<p>During the first years of the reign of Louis XV., one of +the most influential women was Mme. de Prie, who brought +about the marriage of the king to Marie Leczinska, the +daughter of the King of Poland, by which manœuvre she +made herself <i>Dame de Palais de la Reine</i>. The queen +naturally took her and her husband into favor, regarding +them as her and her father's benefactors and as entitled +to her warmest gratitude. Mme. de Prie succeeded in +winning the queen's affection and confidence; however, +these were of little value, inasmuch as the queen's influence +upon society and morals was not felt, for she led a +life of seclusion, shut up in her oratory and constantly on +her <i>prie-dieu</i>, and was an object of pity and ridicule.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Prie and M. le Duc, having planned to deprive +M. Fleury, the minister, of his power,—he had been the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page308" id="page308"></a>[pg 308]</span> +king's preceptor,—suddenly had the tables turned against +them. Both were exiled, and a new coterie of ladies came +into power; the Duchesse d'Alincourt replaced Mme. de +Prie, and the king and M. Fleury themselves took up the affairs of state.</p> + +<p>M. Fleury, now cardinal, perceiving that a mistress was +inevitable, consented to the choice by the dissolute men +and women of court of Mme. de Mailly,—or Mlle. de Nesle,—who +was supposed to be a disinterested person. The +king, who had no love for her, accepted her as he would +have accepted anything put before him by the court. The +queen was incapable of exerting any beneficial influence +upon him; in fact, the more he became alienated from +her, the more humble and timid did she appear when in +his presence. The reign of Mlle. de Nesle had lasted less +than a year, when the beautiful Mme. de La Tournelle, +created Duchesse de Châteauroux, replaced her; the +latter lived but a short time, being the second mistress of +Louis XV. to die within a year. After her death the +king raised the beautiful Mme. d'Etioles to the honor of +<i>maîtresse-en-titre</i>; she, as Mme. de Pompadour, was, without +doubt, the most prominent, possibly the most intelligent +and intellectual, certainly the most powerful, of all +French mistresses. It was the first time that a <i>bourgeoise</i> +of the financier class had usurped the position of mistress—that +honor having belonged exclusively to the nobility.</p> + +<p>After the first infidelities of the king, Marie Leczinska's +life became more and more austere and secluded; she +remained indoors, far from the noise and activity of Versailles, +leaving only for charitable purposes or for the +theatre. Her mornings were entirely occupied in prayers +and moral readings, after which followed a visit to the +king, a little painting, the toilette, mass, and dinner. After +dinner, she retired to her apartments and passed the time +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page309" id="page309"></a>[pg 309]</span> +making tapestry, embroidering, and in charity work—no +longer the recreation of leisure, but the duty of charity +which the poor expected. Her taste for music, the guitar, +the clavecin, all amusements in which she delighted before +her marriage, were abandoned. Under such circumstances +the mistress had full control of everything.</p> + +<p>It was prophesied of Mlle. Jeanne Poisson, at the age of +nine, that she would become the mistress of Louis XV. +(Mme. Lebon, who made this pleasing prediction, was +later rewarded with a pension of six hundred livres.) +Mlle. Jeanne was the natural daughter of a butcher, but +received a good education and, at the age of twenty, was +married to Le Normand d'Etioles, farmer of taxes. It +was shortly after this that she managed to attract the +king's attention, at a hunting party in the forest of Senart. +With the assistance of her friends, she was successful in +winning the king, and, in April, 1754, at a supper which +lasted far into the early morning, reposing in his arms, +she virtually became the mistress of Louis XV. The +actual accomplishment of this, however, depended upon +the disposal of her husband, which was easily arranged +by Louis, who ordered Le Normand d'Etioles from Paris, +thus securing her from any harm from him. The brothers +De Goncourt write thus of her talents:</p> + +<p>"Marvellous aptitudes, a scholarly and rare education, +had given to this young woman all the gifts and virtues +that made of a woman what the eighteenth century called +a virtuoso, an accomplished model of the seductions of her +time. Jeliotte had taught her singing and the clavecin; +Guibaudet, dancing; Crébillon had taught her declamation +and the art of diction; the friends of Crébillon had formed +her young mind to <i>finesse</i>, to delicacies, to lightness of +sentiment, and to irony of the <i>esprit</i> of the time. All the +talents of grace seemed to be united in her. No woman +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page310" id="page310"></a>[pg 310]</span> +mounted a horse better; none captured applause more +quickly than did she with her voice and instrument; none +recalled in a better way the tone of Gaussin or the accent +of Clairon; none could tell a story better. And there where +others could vie with her in coquetry, she carried off the +honors by her genius of toilette, by the graceful turn she +gave to a mere rag, by the air she imparted to a mere +nothing which ornamented her, by the characteristic signature +which her taste gave to everything she wore."</p> + +<p>To please and charm, Mme. d'Etioles had a complexion +of the most striking whiteness, lips somewhat pale, and +eyes of an indescribable color in which were blended +and compounded the seduction of black eyes, the seduction +of blue eyes. She had magnificent chestnut hair, +ravishing teeth, and the most delicious smile which "hollowed +her cheeks into two dimples which the engraving of +<i>La Jardinière</i> shows; she had a medium-sized and round +waist, perfect hands, a play of gestures lively and passionate +throughout, and, above all, a physiognomy of a +mobility, of a changeableness, of a marvellous animation, +wherein the soul of the woman passed ceaselessly, and +which, constantly in process of change, showed in turn an +impassioned and imperious tenderness, a noble seriousness, or roguish graces."</p> + +<p>In September, 1745, she was formally presented to the +queen and court as the Marquise de Pompadour, and, in +October, was installed at Fontainebleau in the apartments +formerly occupied by Mme. de Châteauroux, who +had just died. Her position was not an easy one, for all +the superb jealousy and hateful scorn which the aristocracy +cherished against the power and wealth of the +<i>bourgeoisie</i> were turned against her; but the court scandal-mongers +and intriguers found their match in Mme. de +Pompadour, who showed herself so superior in every +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page311" id="page311"></a>[pg 311]</span> +respect to the court ladies that the hostilities gradually +ceased, but not until the public itself had expended all its +efforts against this upstart.</p> + +<p>Her first move was to surround herself with friends, the +first of whom she wisely sought in the queen. Paying her +every possible attention, she persuaded the king to show +her more consideration. The Prince de Conti, the Paris +brothers, and others of the great financiers of France +were added to her circle. After this she began her rule +as first minister, in place of the dead Fleury, by giving +places and pensions to her favorites. The reign of +economy and domestic morality came to an end with the +accession of Mme. de Pompadour; in fact, it was soon generally +considered that those upon whom she did not +shower favors were her enemies. At this time the +nobility of France was too corrupt to raise any serious +objections to the dispensing of favors by the <i>maîtresse-en-titre</i>, +whether she were of noble birth or not.</p> + +<p>As mistress, her duties were many: to manipulate and +manage Versailles, please and captivate the king, make +allies, win over the highest officials and keep control of +them, put her own friends in office, attach to her favor +every man of prominence,—princes and ministers,—keep +in touch with the court, appease, humor, and win the honor +of the courtiers, "attach consciences, recompense capitulations, +organize about the mistress an emulation of devotion +and servility by means of prodigality of the favors of +the king and the money of the state; but what was a +more burdensome task,—she must occupy the king, aid +and agitate him, fight off constantly, from day to day and hour to hour, ennui."</p> + +<p>This terrible ennui, indifference, enervation, this lazy +and splenetic humor of the king, she succeeded in distracting, +in soothing, and amusing. She understood him +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page312" id="page312"></a>[pg 312]</span> +perfectly—therein lie the great secret of the favor of Mme. +de Pompadour and the great reason of her long domination +which only death could end. She had the patience and +genius to soothe the many ills of the monarch, possessing +an intuitive understanding of his moral temperament, and a +complete comprehension of his nervous sensibility; these +gifts were a science with her and enabled her to keep alive +his taste for and enjoyment of life. Mme. de Pompadour +is said to have taken possession of the very existence of Louis XV.</p> + +<p>"She appropriates and kills his time, robs him of the +monotony of hours, draws him through a thousand pastimes +in this eternity of ennui between morning and night, +never abandoning him for a minute, not permitting him to +fall back upon himself. She takes him away from work, +disputes him to the ministers, hides him from the ambassadors. +In his face must not be seen a cloud or the +slightest trace of care of affairs; to Maurepas, in the act +of reading some reports to the king, she says: 'Come +now, M. de Maurepas, you turn the king yellow.... +Adieu, M. de Maurepas'; and Maurepas gone, she takes +the king, she smiles upon the lover, she cheers the man."</p> + +<p>In 1747, two years after her installation, she interested +the king in a theatre, and inaugurated the famous representations +at the Théâtre des Petits Appartements; she +herself was one of its best actresses, singers, and musicians. +All the members of the nobility vied with one +another in procuring admission to these performances, as +auditors or actors. Her contemporaries say that she was +without a rival in acting, for in that art she found opportunity +to show her vivacity, her <i>esprit</i> of tone, and her +malice of expression, the effect of which was heightened +by her voice, graceful figure, and tasteful attire, which +became the envy of every court lady.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page313" id="page313"></a>[pg 313]</span> + +<p>Almost all rising young artists and men of letters were +encouraged or pensioned by Mme. de Pompadour. Her +salon would have become one of the most distinguished +of the period, as she was, herself, the most remarkably +talented and beautiful woman of her time, had not lack of +moral principles and an intense love of power led her to +seek the gratification of her ambitions in the much envied +position of mistress of the king. To assist at her toilette +became a favor more eagerly desired than presence at the +<i>petit lever</i> of the king. The court became more brilliant, +the middle class rose, the prestige of the nobility declined; +the last became, in general, but a crowd of <i>cordons bleus</i>, +eager to claim the favor of any of her protégés. Every +noble house offered a daughter in marriage to her brother, +whom she made <i>intendant</i> of public buildings, and who +looked with much displeasure upon the actions of his sister.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Pompadour made a thorough study of the politics +of Europe in relation to the affairs of the nation—a +proceeding in which she was aided by her extraordinary +intelligence, acute perception of difficulties and conditions, +domestic and foreign; by the exercise of these qualities, +she put herself in touch with the politics of France, always +consulting the best of minds and winning many friends +among them. In 1749 she succeeded in ridding herself of +her pronounced enemy, Maurepas, minister and confidential +adviser of the king, and subsequently began her reign as +absolute mistress and governor of France.</p> + +<p>Her life then became one of constant labor, which gradually +undermined her health. Appreciating the mental +indolence of Louis, she would place before him a clear and +succinct résumé of all important questions of state affairs, +which she, better than any other, knew how to present +without wearying him. Realizing that her power depended +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page314" id="page314"></a>[pg 314]</span> +upon her influence over the king, and that she was surrounded +by men and women who were simply waiting for +a favorable opportunity to cause her downfall, she was +constantly on the defensive. She considered it "the business +of her life to make her yoke so easy and pleasant, +and from habit so necessary to him, that an effort to +shake it off would be an effort that would cause him +real pain." Her happiest hours—for she did not love the +king—were those spent with her brother, the Marquis de +Marigny, in the midst of artists, musicians, and men of letters.</p> + +<p>As for the queen, she was in the background, absolutely. +"All the prerogatives of a princess of a sovereign house +were, at this time, about 1750, conferred by the king upon +Mme. de Pompadour, and all the pomp and parade then +deemed indispensable to rank so exalted were fully assumed +by her." At the opera, she had her <i>loge</i> with the king, +her tribune at the chapel of Versailles where she heard +mass, her servants were of the nobility, her carriage had the +ducal arms, her etiquette was that of Mme. de Montespan, +Her father was ennobled to De Marigny, her brother to be +Marquis de Vandières. The marriage of her daughter to +a son of the king and his former mistress was planned, +then with a son of Richelieu, then with others of the +nobility; fortunately, the girl died.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Pompadour gradually amassed a royal fortune, +buying the magnificent estate of Crécy for six hundred +and fifty thousand livres; "La Celle," near Versailles, for +twenty-six thousand livres; the Hôtel d'Evreaux, at Paris, +for seventy-five thousand livres—and these were her minor +expenses; her paintings, sculpture, china, pottery, etc., +cost France over thirty-six million livres. Her imagination +in art and inventions was wonderful; she retouched +and decorated the château in which she was received by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page315" id="page315"></a>[pg 315]</span> +the king; she made "Choisy"—the king's property—her +own, as it were, by all the embellishments she ordered +and the expenditures which her lover lavished upon it at +her request. All the luxuries of the life at "Choisy," all +the refinements even to the smallest detail, had their origin +in her inventions. It was she who planned the fairy +château with its wonderful furniture, her own invention.</p> + +<p>At that time, her whole life was spent in adding variety +to the life of the king and in distracting the ennui which +pursued him. In her retreats she affected the simplicity +of country life; the gardens contained sheepfolds and were +free from the pomp of the conventional French gardens; +there were cradles of myrtle and jasmine, rosebushes, +rustic hiding places, statues of Cupid, and fields of jonquils +filled the air with the most intoxicating perfume. There +she amused her sovereign by appearing in various characters +and acting the parts—now a royal personage, now a gardener's maid.</p> + +<p>However, in spite of all cunning study of the sensuous +nature of the king, in spite of this perpetual enchantment +of his senses, this favorite was obliged to fight for her +power every minute of her existence. If hers were a +conquest, it was a laborious one, held only through ceaseless +activity; continual brainwork, all the countermoves +and manœuvres of the courtesan, were required to keep +Mme. de Pompadour seated in this position, which was +surrounded by snares and dangers.</p> + +<p>To possess the time of the king, occupy his enemies, +soothe his fatigue, arouse his wearied body condemned to +a milk diet, to preserve her beauty—all these were the +least of her tasks. She must be ever watchful, see evil +in every smile, danger in every success, divine secret +plots, be on guard to resist the court, the royal family, the +ministry. For her there was no moment of repose: even +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page316" id="page316"></a>[pg 316]</span> +during the effusions of love she must act the spy upon the +king, and, with presence of mind and calmness, must seek +in the deceitful face of the man the secrets of the master.</p> + +<p>Every morning witnessed the opening of a new comedy: +a gay smile, a tranquil brow, a light song, must ever disguise +the mind's preoccupation and all the machinations of +her fertile brain. At one time the Comte d'Argenson, +desiring to succeed Fleury as minister, almost arrived +at supplanting Mme. de Pompadour by young Mme. de +Choiseul, who, having charmed the king on one occasion, +obtained from him a promise that he would make her his +mistress—which would necessitate desertion of Mme. de +Pompadour; but, by the natural charms of which age had +not robbed her and by bringing all her past experience +into play, Mme. de Pompadour once more scored a triumph +and remained the actual minister to the king. All this +nervous strain was gradually killing her, and, to overcome +her physical weakness, her weary senses, her frigid disposition, +she resorted to artificial stimulants to keep her +blood at the boiling point and enable her to satisfy the phlegmatic king.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly the most disgraceful act of this all-powerful +woman was the maintaining of a house of pleasure for the +king, to which establishment she allured some of the most +beautiful girls of the nobility, as well as of the <i>bourgeoisie</i>. +These young women supposed that they were being supported +by a wealthy nobleman; their children were given +a pension of from three thousand to twelve thousand livres, +and the mother received one hundred thousand francs and +was sent to the provinces to marry; a father and mother +were easily bought for the child. Thus was this clandestine +trade carried on by those two—the king satisfying his +utter depravity, and Mme. de Pompadour making herself +all the more secure against a possible rival.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page317" id="page317"></a>[pg 317]</span> + +<p>All this time her active brain was ever planning for +higher honors and greater power. She aspired to becoming +<i>dame de palais</i>, but as an excommunicated soul, a +woman living in flagrant violation of the laws of morality +and separated from her husband, she could not receive +absolution from the Church, in spite of her intriguing to +that effect. She did succeed, however, in influencing the +king to make her lady of honor to the queen; therefore, +in gorgeous robes, she was ever afterward present at all court functions.</p> + +<p>She began to patronize the great men of the day, to +make of them her debtors, pension them, lodge them in +the Palais d'Etat, secure them from prison, and to place +them in the Academy. Voltaire became her favorite, and +she made of him an Academician, historiographer of +France, ordinary gentleman of the chamber, with permission +to sell his charge and to retain the title and privileges. +For these favors he thanked her in the following poem:</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i8">"Ainsi donc vous réunissez</p> +<p>Tous les arts, tous les goûts, tous les talents de plaire;</p> +<p class="i8">Pompadour vous embellissez</p> +<p class="i8">La Cour, le Parnasse et Cythère,</p> +<p>Charme de tous les cœurs, trésor d'un seul mortel,</p> +<p class="i8">Qu'un sort si beau soit éternel!"</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>[Thus you unite all the arts, all the tastes, all the talents, +of pleasing; Pompadour, you embellish the court, Parnassus, +and Cythera. Charm of all hearts, treasure of one +mortal, may a lot so beautiful be eternal!]</p> + +<p>Voltaire dedicated his <i>Tancrède</i> to her; in fact, his influence +and favor were so great that he was about to receive +an invitation to the <i>petits soupers</i> of the king, when the +nobility rose up in arms against him, and, as Louis XV. +disliked him, the coveted honor was never attained. To +Crébillon, who had given her elocution lessons in her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page318" id="page318"></a>[pg 318]</span> +early days and who was now in want, she gave a pension +of a hundred louis and quarters at the Louvre. Buffon, +Montesquieu, Marmontel, and many other men of note +were taken under her protection.</p> + +<p>It was Mme. de Pompadour who founded, supported, +and encouraged a national china factory; the French owe +Sèvres to her, for its artists were complimented and inspired +by her inveterate zeal, her persistency, her courage, +and were assisted by her money. She brought it into +favor, established exhibits, sold and eulogized the ware +herself, until it became a favorite. Also, through her +management and zeal the Military School was founded.</p> + +<p>The disasters of the Seven Years' War are all charged +to Mme. de Pompadour. The motive which caused her +to decide in favor of an alliance with Austria against Frederick +the Great was a personal desire for revenge; the +latter monarch had dubbed her "Cotillon IV," and had +rather scorned her, refusing to have anything to do with +a Mlle. de Poisson, "especially as she is arrogant and +lacks the respect due to crowned heads." The flattering +propositions of the Austrian ambassador, Kaunitz, who +treated with her in person and won her over, did much to +set her against Germany, and induced her to influence +Louis XV. to accept her view of the situation—a scheme +in which she was victorious over all the ministers; the +result was the Austrian alliance. The letter of Kaunitz to +her, in 1756, will illustrate her position:</p> + +<p>"Everything done, Madame, between the two courts, +is absolutely due to your zeal and wisdom. I feel it and +cannot refuse myself the satisfaction of telling you and of +thanking you for having been my guide up to the present +time. I must not even keep you ignorant of the fact that +their Imperial Majesties give you the full justice due you +and have for you all the sentiments you can desire. What +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page319" id="page319"></a>[pg 319]</span> +has been done must merit, it seems to me, the approbation +of the impartial public and of posterity. But what +remains to be done is too great and too worthy of you for +you to give up the task of contributing and to leave imperfect +a work which cannot fail to make you forever dear to +your country. I am, therefore, persuaded that you will +continue your attention to an object so important. In +this case, I look upon success as certain and I already +share, in advance, the glory and satisfaction which +must come to you, no one being able to be more sincerely +and respectfully attached to you than is your very +humble and obedient servant, the Count de Kaunitz-Rietberg."</p> + +<p>She received her first check when, Damiens having +attempted to assassinate the king, the dauphin was regent +for eleven days. She was confined to her room and heard +nothing from the king, who was in the hands of the clergy. +Among the friends who abandoned her was her protégé +Machault, the guard of the seals, who conspired with +D'Argenson to deprive her of her power and went so far +as to order her departure. After the king's recovery, both +D'Argenson and Machault were dismissed and Mme. de +Pompadour became more powerful than before.</p> + +<p>Her influence and usurpation of power bore heavily upon +every department of state; she appointed all the ministers, +made all nominations, managed the foreign policy and politics, +directed the army and even arranged the plans of +battle. Absolute mistress of the ministry, she satisfied +all demands of the Austrian court, a move which brought +her the most flattering letter from Kaunitz, in which he +gives her the credit for all the transactions between the two courts.</p> + +<p>Despite all her political duties and intrigues, she found +time for art and literature. Not one minute of the day +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page320" id="page320"></a>[pg 320]</span> +was lost in idleness, every moment being occupied with +interviews with artists and men of letters, with the furnishers +of her numerous châteaux, architects, designers, +engineers, to whom she confided her plans for embellishing +Paris. Being herself an accomplished artist, she was able +to win the respect and attention of these men. Her correspondence +was immense and of every nature, political and +personal. She was an incessant reader, or rather student, +of books on the most serious questions, which furnished +her knowledge of terms of state, precedents of history, +ancient and modern law; she was familiar with the contents +of works on philosophy, the drama, singing, and +music, and with novels of all nations; her library was large and well selected.</p> + +<p>During the latter years of her life she was considered +as the first minister of state or even as regent of the kingdom, +rather than as mere mistress. Louis XV. looked to +her for the enforcement of the laws and his own orders. +She was forced to receive, at any time, foreign ambassadors +and ministers; she had to meet in the Cabinet de +Travail and give counsel to the generals who were her +protégés; the clergy went to her and laid before her their +plaints, and through her the financiers arranged their transactions +with the state.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all this influence and power, the record +of her last years is a sorrowful one. More than ever +queen, she was no longer loved by the king, who went +to Passy to continue his liaison with a young girl, the +daughter of a lawyer. When Louis XV. as much as +recognized a son by this woman, Mme. de Pompadour +became deeply concerned; but the king was too much a +slave to her domination to replace her, so she retained +favor and confidence; the following letter shows that she enjoyed little else:</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page321" id="page321"></a>[pg 321]</span> + +<p>"The more I advance in years, my dear brother, the more +philosophical are my reflections. I am quite sure that you +will think the same. Except the happiness of being with +the king, who assuredly consoles me in everything, the rest +is only a tissue of wickedness, of platitudes, of all the +miseries to which poor human beings are liable. A fine +matter for reflection (especially for anyone born as meditative +as I)!..." Later on, she wrote: "Everywhere +where there are human beings, my dear brother, you will +find falseness and all the vices of which they are capable. +To live alone would be too tiresome, thus we must endure +them with their defects and appear not to see them."</p> + +<p>She realized that the king kept her only out of charity +and for fear of taking up any energetic resolution. Her +greatest disappointment was the utter failure of her political +plans and aspirations, which came to naught by the +Treaty of Paris. There was absolutely no glory left for +her, and chagrin gradually consumed her. Her health had +been delicate from youth; consumption was fast making +inroads and undermining her constitution, and the numerous +miscarriages of her early years as mistress contributed +to her physical ruin. For years she had kept herself up +by artificial means, and had hidden her loss of flesh and +fading beauty by all sorts of dress contrivances, rouges, +and powders. She died in 1764, at the age of forty-two.</p> + +<p>Writers differ as to the true nature of Mme. de Pompadour, +some saying that she was bereft of all feeling, a +callous, hard-hearted monster; others maintain that she +was tender-hearted and sympathetic. However, the majority +agree as to her possession of many of the essential +qualifications of an able minister of state, as well as great +aptitude for carrying on diplomatic negotiations.</p> + +<p>She was the greatest patroness of art that France ever +possessed, giving to it the best hours of her leisure; it was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page322" id="page322"></a>[pg 322]</span> +her pastime, her consolation, her extravagance, and her +ruin. All eminent artists of the eighteenth century were +her clients. Artists were nourished, so to speak, by her +favors. It may truthfully be said that the eighteenth-century +art is a Pompadour product, if not a creation. +The whole century was a sort of great relic of the favorite. +Fashions and modes were slaves to her caprice, every new +creation being dependent upon her approbation for its survival—the +carriage, the <i>cheminée</i>, sofa, bed, chair, fan, and +even the <i>étui</i> and toothpick, were fashioned after her ideas. +"She is the godmother and queen of the rococo." Such a +eulogy, given by the De Goncourt brothers, is not shared +by all critics. Guizot wrote: "As frivolous as she was +deeply depraved and base-minded in her calculating easiness +of virtue, she had more ambition than comported with +her mental calibre or her force of character; she had taken +it into her head to govern, by turns promoting and overthrowing +the ministers, herself proffering advice to the +king, sometimes to good purpose, but still more often with +a levity as fatal as her obstinacy."</p> + +<p>In <i>The Old Régime</i>, Lady Jackson has given an unprejudiced +estimate of her: "She was the most accomplished +and talented woman of her time; distinguished, above all +others, for her enlightened patronage of science and of the +arts, also for the encouragement she gave to the development +of improvements in various manufactures which had +stood still or were on the decline until favored by her; a +fresh impulse was given to progress, and a perfection attained +which has never been surpassed and, in fact, rarely +equalled. <i>Les Gobelins</i>, the carpets of the Savonnerie, the +<i>porcelaine de Sèvres</i>, were all, at her request, declared +<i>Manufactures Royales</i>. Some of the finest specimens of +the products of Sèvres, in ornamental groups of figures, +were modelled and painted by Mme. de Pompadour, as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page323" id="page323"></a>[pg 323]</span> +presents to the queen.... The name of Pompadour +is, indeed, intimately associated with a whole school of art +of the Louis Quinze period—art so inimitable in its grace +and elegance that it has stood the test of time and remains +unsurpassed. Artists and poets and men of science vied +with each other in admiration of her talents and taste. +And it was not mere flattery, but simply the praise due to +an enlightened patroness and a distinguished artist."</p> + +<p>If we consider the morals of high society, we shall +scarcely find one woman of rank who could cast a stone at +Madame de Pompadour. While admitting her moral shortcomings, +it must nevertheless be acknowledged that she +showed an exceptional ability in maintaining, for twenty +years, her influence over such a man as Louis XV. Such +was the power of this woman, the daughter of a tradesman, +mistress, king in all save title. She was, however, +less powerful than her successor,—that successor who +was less clever and less ambitious, who "never made the +least scrupulous blush at the lowness of her origin and +the irregularity of her life,"—Mme. du Barry.</p> + +<p>Mme. du Barry was the natural daughter of Anne Béqus, +who was supported by M. Dumonceau, a rich banker at +Paris. The child was put into a convent, and, after passing +through different phases of life, she was finally placed +in a house of pleasure, where she captivated the Comte du +Barry, at whose harem she became the favorite. The +count, who had once before tried to supply the king with a +mistress, now planned for his favorite. The king ordered +the brother of Du Barry, Guillaume, to hasten to Paris +to marry a lady of the king's choice. The girl's name +had been changed officially and by the clergy, and a +dowry had been given her. Thus was it possible for the +king, after she had become the Comtesse du Barry, to +take her as a mistress. Her husband was sent back +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page324" id="page324"></a>[pg 324]</span> +to Toulouse, where he was stationed, while his wife was +lodged at Versailles, within easy access of the king's own chamber.</p> + + +<p>After much intriguing and diplomacy on the part of her +friends, especially Richelieu, she was to be presented at +court. The scene is well described by the De Goncourt +brothers, and affords a truthful picture of court manners +and customs of the latter part of the reign of Louis XV.:</p> + +<p>"The great day had arrived—Paris was rushing to Versailles. +The presentation was to take place in the evening, +after worship. The hour was approaching. Richelieu, +filling his charge as first gentleman, was with the king, +Choiseul was on the other side. Both were waiting, +counting the moments and watching the king. The latter, +ill at ease, restless, agitated, looked every minute at his +watch. He paced up and down, uttered indistinct words, +was vexed at the noise at the gates and the avenues, the +reason of which he inquired of Choiseul. 'Sire, the people—informed +that to-day Mme. du Barry is to have the +honor of being presented to Your Majesty—have come +from all parts to witness her <i>entrée</i>, not being able to witness +the reception Your Majesty will give her.' The time +has long since passed—Mme. du Barry does not appear. +Choiseul (her enemy) and his friends radiate joy; Richelieu, +in a corner of the room, feels assurance failing him. +The king goes to the window, looks into the night—nothing. +Finally, he decides, he opens his mouth to countermand +the presentation. 'Sire, Mme. du Barry!' cries +Richelieu, who had just recognized the carriage and the +livery of the favorite; 'she will enter if you give the order.' +Just then, Mme. du Barry enters behind the Comtesse de +Béarn, bedecked with the hundred thousand francs' worth +of diamonds the king had sent her, coifed in that superb +headdress whose long scaffolding had almost made her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page325" id="page325"></a>[pg 325]</span> +miss the hour of presentation, dressed in one of those triumphant +robes which the women of the eighteenth century +called 'robes of combat,' armed in that toilette in which +the eyes of a blind woman (Mme. du Deffand) see the +destiny of Europe and the fate of ministers; and it is an +apparition so beaming, so dazzling, that, in the first moments +of surprise, the greatest enemies of the favorite +cannot escape the charm of the woman, and renounce calumniating her beauty."</p> + +<p>According to reports, her beauty must have been of the +ideal type of the time. All the portraits and images that +Mme. du Barry has left of herself, in marble, engraving, or +on canvas, show a <i>mignonne</i> perfection of body and face. +Her hair was long, silky, of an ashen blonde, and was +dressed like the hair of a child; her brows and lashes were +brown, her nose small and finely cut. "It was a complexion +which the century compared to a roseleaf fallen +into milk. It was a neck which was like the neck of an +antique statue...." In her were victorious youth, +life, and a sort of the divinity of a Hébé; about her hovered +that charm of intoxication, which made Voltaire cry out +before one of her portraits: <i>L'original était fait pour les +dieux!</i> [The original was made for the gods!]</p> + +<p>In her lofty position, Mme. du Barry sought to overcome +the objections of the titled class, to quell jealousies and +petty quarrels; she did not usurp any power and always +endeavored not to trouble or embarrass anyone. After +some time, she succeeded in winning the favor of some of +the ladies, and, when her influence was fairly well established, +she began to plan the overthrow of her enemy, +De Choiseul, minister of Louis XV. She became the +favorite of artists and musicians, and all Europe began to +talk and write about this woman whom art had immortalized +on canvas and who was then controlling the destinies +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page326" id="page326"></a>[pg 326]</span> +of France. She succeeded, under the apprenticeship of +her lover, the Duc d'Aiguillon, who was the outspoken +enemy of De Choiseul, in accomplishing the fall of the +minister and the fortune of her friend. This success required +but a short time for its culmination, for in 1770 he +was deprived of his office and was exiled to Chantilly.</p> + +<p>Mme. du Barry was never an implacable enemy; she +was too kind-hearted for that; thus, when her friend +D'Aiguillon insisted on depriving De Choiseul of his fortune, +she managed to procure for the latter a pension of +sixty-thousand livres and one million écus in cash, in spite +of the opposition of D'Aiguillon. After the fall of that +minister all the princes of the blood were glad to pay her +homage. She became almost as powerful as Mme. de +Pompadour, but her influence was not directed in the same channels.</p> + +<p>Her life was a mere senseless dream of <i>femme galante</i>, +a luxurious revel, a constant whirl of pleasures, and extravagance +in jewelry, silks, gems, etc. A service in silver +was no longer rich enough—she had one in solid gold. To +house all her gems of art, rare objects, furniture, she +caused to be constructed a temple of art, "Luciennes," +one of the most sumptuous, exquisite structures ever fitted +out. The money for this was supplied by the <i>contrôleur +général</i>, the Abbé Ferray, whose politics, science, duty, +and aim in life consisted in never allowing Mme. du Barry +to lack money. All discipline, morality, in fact everything, degenerated.</p> + +<p>She had no rancor or desire for vengeance; she never +humiliated those whom she could destroy; she always +punished by silence, yet never won eternal silence by +letters patent; generous to a fault, giving and permitting +everything about her to be taken, she opened her purse to +all who were kind to her and to all who happened in some +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page327" id="page327"></a>[pg 327]</span> +way to please her. Keeping the heart of Louis XV. was +no easy matter, as the case of Mme. de Pompadour clearly +showed. The majority of his friends and her enemies +endeavored to force a new mistress upon the king; surrounded +on all sides by candidates for her coveted position, +Mme. du Barry managed to hold her own. When the +king was prostrated by smallpox, he sent her away on the last day.</p> + +<p>The reign of Mme. du Barry was not one of tyranny, +nor was it a domination in the strict sense of that word; +for she was a nonentity politically, without ideas or plans. +"Study the favor of Mme. du Barry: nothing that emanates +from her belongs to her; she possesses neither an +idea nor an enemy; she controls all the historical events of +her time, without desiring them, without comprehending +them.... She serves friendships and individuals, +without knowing how to serve a cause or a system or a +party, and she is protected by the providential course of +things, without having to worry about an effort, intrigues, or gratitude."</p> + +<p>Her power and influence cannot be compared with those +of her predecessor, Mme. de Pompadour. Modes were followed, +but never invented by her. "With her taste for +the pleasures of a grisette, her patronage falls from the +opera to the couplet, from paintings and statuaries to +bronzes and sculptures in wood; her <i>clientèle</i> are no longer +artists, philosophers, poets—they are the gods of lower +domains, mimics, buffoons, dancers, comedians." She +was the lowest and most common type of woman ever influential in France.</p> + +<p>After the death of the king, she was ordered to leave +Versailles and live with her aunt. Later on, she was permitted +to reside within ten leagues of Paris; all her former +friends and admirers then returned, and she continued to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page328" id="page328"></a>[pg 328]</span> +live the life of old, buying everything for which she had a +fancy and living in the most sumptuous style, never worrying +about the payment of her debts. After a few years +she was entirely forgotten, living at Luciennes with but a +few intimate friends and her lover, the Duc de Brissac.</p> + +<p>At the outbreak of the Revolution, she was living at +Luciennes in great luxury on the fortune left her by the +duke. Probably she would have escaped the guillotine had +she not been so possessed with the idea of retaining her +wealth. Four trips to England were undertaken by her, +and on her return she found her estates usurped by a man +named Grieve, who, anxious to obtain possession of her +riches, finally succeeded in procuring her arrest while +her enemies were in power. From Sainte-Pélagie they +took her to the Conciergerie, to the room which Marie Antoinette had occupied.</p> + +<p>Accused of being the instrument of Pitt, of being an +accomplice in the foreign war, of the insurrection in La +Vendée, of the disorders in the south, the jury, out one +hour, brought in a verdict of guilty, fixing the punishment +at death within twenty-four hours, on the Place de la +République. Upon hearing her sentence, she broke down +completely and confessed everything she had hidden in +the garden at Luciennes. On her way to the scaffold, +she was a most pitiable sight to behold—the only prominent +French woman, victim of the Revolution, to die a +coward. The last words of this once famous and popular +mistress were: "Life, life, leave me my life! I will give +all my wealth to the nation. Another minute, hangman! +<i>A moi! A moi!</i>" and the heavy iron cut short her pitiful +screams, thus ending the life of the last royal mistress.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page329" id="page329"></a>[pg 329]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter XII</h2> + +<h2>Marie Antoinette and the Revolution</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page331" id="page331"></a>[pg 331]</span> + + +<p>The condition of France at the end of the reign of +Louis XV. was most deplorable—injustice, misery, bankruptcy, +and instability everywhere. The action of the +law could be overridden by the use of arbitrary warrants +of arrest—<i>lettres de cachet</i>. The artisans of the towns +were hampered by the system of taxation, but the peasant +had the greatest cause for complaint; he was oppressed +by the feudal dues and many taxes, which often amounted +to sixty per cent of his earnings. The government was +absolute, but rotten and tottering; the people, oppressively +and unjustly governed, were just beginning to be conscious +of their condition and to seek the cause of it, while +the educated classes were saturated with revolutionary +doctrines which not only destroyed their loyalty to the +old institutions, but created constant aspirations toward new ones.</p> + +<p>Thus, when Louis XVI., a mere boy, began to reign, +the whole French administrative body was corrupt, self-seeking, +and in the hands of lawyers, a class that dominated +almost every phase of government. In general, +inefficiency, idleness, and dishonesty had obtained a ruling +place in the governing body; the few honest men who had +a minor share in the administration either fell into a sort +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page332" id="page332"></a>[pg 332]</span> +of disheartened acquiescence or lost their fortunes and +reputations in hopeless revolt.</p> + +<p>Under these conditions Louis XVI. began his reign; and +although peace seemed to exist externally, the country +was in revolution. France was as much under the modern +"ring rule" as any country ever was—a condition of +affairs largely due to the nature of the young king, whose +predominant characteristics might be called a supreme +awkwardness and an unpardonable lack of will power. +He was a man who, during the first part of his reign, led +a pure life; he possessed good and philanthropic intentions, +but was hampered by a weak intellect and a stubbornness +which bore little resemblance to real strength of will. +Also, he entertained strong religious convictions, which +were extremely detrimental to his policy and caused disagreements +with his ministers—Turgot, on account of +his philosophical principles, Necker, on account of his Protestantism.</p> + +<p>His wife had those qualities which he lacked, decision +and strength of character; unfortunately, she wielded no +influence over him in the beginning, and when she did +gain it, she used it in a fatal manner, because she was +ignorant of the needs of France. Throughout her career of +power, she evinced headstrong wilfulness in pursuing her +own course. Thus, totally incapable of acting for himself, +Louis XVI. was practically at the mercy of his aunts, wife, +courtiers, and ministers, who fitted his policy to their own +desires and notions; therefore, the vast stream of emoluments +and honors was diverted by the ministers and courtiers +into channels of their own selection. There were +formed parties and combinations which were constantly +intriguing for or against each other.</p> + +<p>At the time of the accession of Louis XVI., when poverty +was general over the kingdom, the household of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page333" id="page333"></a>[pg 333]</span> +king consisted of nearly four thousand civilians, nine thousand +military men, and relatives to the enormous number +of two thousand, the supporting of which dependents cost +France some forty-five million francs annually. Luckily +there was no mistress to govern, as under Louis XV., but, +in place of one mistress who was the dispenser of favors, +there were numerous intriguing court women who were as +corrupt and frivolous as the men. These split the court +into factions. As the finances of the country sank to the +lowest ebb, odium was naturally cast upon the whole court, +without exception, by the people; hence, the wholesale +slaughter of the nobility during the Revolution.</p> + +<p>In this period, the most critical in the history of France, +the queen, Marie Antoinette, as the central figure, the +leader of society, the model and example to whom all +looked for advice upon morals and fashions, played an important +rôle. Although not of French birth, she deserves +to be ranked among the women influential in France, since +she became so thoroughly imbued with French traits and +characteristics that she forgot her native tongue. French +life and spirit moulded her in such fashion that even the +French look upon her as a French woman.</p> + +<p>Before judging this unfortunate princess who has been +condemned by so many critics, we must take into consideration +the demands that were made upon her. Parade +was the primary requisite: she was obliged to keep up the +splendor and attractiveness of the French monarchy; in +this she excelled, for her manner was dignified, gracious, +and "appropriately discriminating. It is said that she +could bow to ten persons with one movement, giving, with +her head and eyes, the recognition due to each one." It is +said, also, that as she passed among the ladies of her court, +she surpassed them all in the nobility of her countenance +and the dignified grace of her carriage. All foreigners +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page334" id="page334"></a>[pg 334]</span> +were enchanted with her, and to them she owes no small +part of her posthumous popularity.</p> + +<p>She was reproached by French women for being exclusively +devoted to the society of a select, intimate circle. +Moreover, her conduct brought slander upon her; as her +companions she chose men and women of bad reputation, +and was constantly surrounded by dissipated young noblemen +whom she permitted to come into her presence in +costumes which shocked conservative people; she encouraged +gambling, frequented the worst gambling house of +the time, that of the Princesse de Guéménée, and visited +masked balls where the worst women of the capital jostled +the great nobles of the court; her husband seldom accompanied +her to these pleasure resorts.</p> + +<p>During part of the reign of Marie Antoinette the country +was waging an expensive war and was deeply in debt, but +the queen did not set an example of economy by retrenching +her expenses; although her personal allowance was much +larger than that of the preceding queen, she was always +in debt and lost heavily at gambling. Generally, she +avoided interference with the government of the state, but +as the wife of so incapable a king she was forced into an +attempt at directing public matters. Whenever she did +mingle in state affairs, it was generally fatal to her interests +and popularity. She usually carried out her wishes, +for the king shrank from disappointing his wife and dreaded +domestic contentions.</p> + +<p>He permitted her to go out as she did with the Comte +d'Artois, her brother-in-law, to masked balls, races, rides +in the Bois de Boulogne, and on expeditions to the salon +of the Princesse de Guéménée, where she contracted +the ills of a chronically empty purse and late hours. +When attacked by measles, to relieve her ennui—which +her ladies were not successful in doing—she procured the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page335" id="page335"></a>[pg 335]</span> +consent of the king to the presence of four gentlemen, +who waited upon her, coming at seven in the morning and +not departing until eleven at night; and these were some +of the most depraved and debauched among the nobility—such +as De Besenval, the Duc de Coigny, and the Duc de Guines.</p> + +<p>While in power, she always sided with extravagance +and the court, against economy and the nation. If we +add to all these defects a vain and frivolous disposition, a +nature fond of admiration, pleasure, and popularity, and +lending a willing ear to all flattery, compliments, and counsels +of her favorites, her Austrian birth, and as "little +dignity as a Paris grisette in her escapades with the dissipated +and arrogant Comte d'Artois," we have, in general, +the causes of her wide unpopularity.</p> + +<p>It will be seen that as long as she was frivolous and +imprudent, she was flattered and admired; as soon as she +became absolutely irreproachable, she was overwhelmed +with harsh judgments and expressions of ill will. The first +period was during the first years of the reign of Louis XVI., +while he was still all-powerful and popular; the second +phase of her character developed during the trying days +of the king's first fall into disfavor and his ultimate imprisonment +and death. From this account of her career, +it will be seen that Marie Antoinette, as dauphiness and +queen, was rather the victim of fate and the invidious +intrigues of a depraved court than herself an instigator +and promulgator of the extravagance and dissipation of which she was accused.</p> + +<p>We must remember the atmosphere into which Marie +Antoinette was thrust upon her arrival in France. One +of the first to sup with her was that most licentious of all +royal mistresses, Mme. du Barry, who asked for the privilege +of dining with the new princess—a favor which the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page336" id="page336"></a>[pg 336]</span> +dissipated and weak king granted. Louis XV. was nothing +more than a slave to vice and his mistresses. The king's +daughters—Mmes. Adelaïde, Victoire, and Sophie—were +pious but narrow-minded women, resolutely hostile to +Mme. du Barry and intriguing against her. The Comtes +de Provence and d'Artois were both pleasure-loving princes +of doubtful character; their sisters—Mmes. Clotilde and +Elisabeth—had no importance. The family was divided +against itself, each member being jealous of the others. +The dauphin, being of a retiring disposition and of a close +and self-contained nature, did little to add to the happiness +of the young princess. Thus, she was literally forced +to depend upon her own resources for pleasure and amusement +and was at the mercy of the court, which was +never more divided than in about 1770—the time of her appearance.</p> + +<p>At that time there were two parties—the Choiseul, +or Austrian, party, and those who opposed the policy of +Choiseul, especially in the expulsion of the Jesuits; the +latter were called the party of the <i>dèvôts</i> and were led by +Chancellor Maupeau and the Duc d'Aiguillon. This faction, +with the mistress—Mme. du Barry—as the motive power, +soon broke up the power of Choiseul. The young and +innocent foreign princess, unschooled in intrigue and politics, +could not escape both political parties; upon her +entrance into the French court, she was immediately +classed with one or the other of these rival factions and +thus made enemies by whatever turn she took, and was +caught in a network of intrigues from which extrication was almost impossible.</p> + +<p>Here, in this whirl of social excesses, her habits were +formed; hers being a lively, alert, active nature, fond of +pleasure and somewhat inclined toward raillery, she soon +became so absorbed in the many distractions of court life +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page337" id="page337"></a>[pg 337]</span> +that little time was left her for indulgence in reflection of +a serious nature. Her manner of life at this time in part +explains her subsequent career of heedlessness, excessive +extravagance, and gayety.</p> + +<p>At first her aunts—Mmes. Adelaïde and Sophie—succeeded +in partially estranging her from Louis XV., who +had taken a strong fancy to his granddaughter; but this +influence was soon overcome—then these aunts turned +against her. Her popularity, however, increased. Innumerable +instances might be cited to show her kindness +to the poor, to her servants, to anyone in need—a quality +which made her popular with the masses. In time almost +everyone at court was apparently enslaved by her attractions +and endeavored to please the dauphiness—this was +about 1774, when she was at the height of her popularity.</p> + +<p>However, there developed a striking contrast between +the dauphiness and the queen; Burke called the former +"the morning star, full of life and splendor and joy." In +fact, she was a mere girl, childlike, passing a gay and +innocent life over a road mined with ambushes and intrigues +which were intended to bring ruin upon her and +destined eventually to accomplish their purpose. By +being always prompt in her charities, having inherited +her mother's devotion to the poor, she won golden opinions +on all sides; and the reputation thus gained was +augmented by her animated, graceful manner and her youthful beauty.</p> + +<p>Little accustomed to the magnificence that surrounded +her, she soon wearied of it, craving simpler manners and +the greater freedom of private intercourse. When, as +queen, she indulged these desires, she brought upon herself +the abuse and vilification of her enemies. While +dauphiness, her actions could not cause the nation's reproach +or arouse public resentment; as queen, however, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page338" id="page338"></a>[pg 338]</span> +her behavior was subject to the strictest rules of etiquette, +and she was responsible for the morals and general tone +of her court. This responsibility Marie Antoinette failed +to realize until it was too late.</p> + +<p>Upon the accession of Louis XVI., a clean sweep was +made of the licentious and discredited agents of Mme. du +Barry, and a new ministry was created. The former mistress, +with her lover, the Duc d'Aiguillon, was banished, +although Mme. Adelaïde succeeded in having Maurepas, +uncle of the Duc d'Aiguillon, made minister. Marie Antoinette +had little interest in the appointment after she failed +to gain the honor for her favorite, De Choiseul, who had +negotiated her marriage.</p> + +<p>The queen then proceeded to carry out her long-cherished +wishes for society dinners at which she could preside. +Her every act, however, was governed by inflexible +laws of etiquette, some of which she most impatiently +suffered, but many of which she impatiently put aside. +With this manner of entertaining begins her reign as queen +of taste and fashion, for Louis XVI. left to his wife the +responsibility of organizing all entertainments, and her +aspiration was to make the court of France the most +splendid in the world. From that time on, all her movements, +her apparel, her manners, to the minutest detail, +were imitated by the court ladies. This custom, of course, +led to reckless extravagance among the nobility, for whenever +Marie Antoinette appeared in a new gown, which +was almost daily, the ladies of the nobility must perforce copy it.</p> + +<p>Tidings of these extravagances of the queen and her +court in time reached the empress-mother in Vienna. +Marie Thérèse severely reproached her daughter, writing: +"My daughter, my dear daughter, the first queen—is she +to grow like this? The idea is insupportable to me." Yet, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page339" id="page339"></a>[pg 339]</span> +"to speak the exact truth," said her counsellor, Mercy, +when writing to the empress-mother, "there is less to +complain of in the evil which exists than in the lack of all +the good which might exist." It is chronicled to her credit +that all her expenditure was not upon herself alone, but +that she was equally lavish when she attempted charity.</p> + +<p>Her first political act, the removal of Turgot, was disastrous. +She thought she was humoring public opinion, +which was strongly against the minister on account of his +many reforms, but her primary reason was rather one of +personal vengeance. Turgot had been openly hostile to +her friend and favorite, the Duc de Guines. She was +then in the midst of her period of dissipation; "dazzled by +the glory of the throne, intoxicated by public approval," +she overstepped the bounds of royal propriety, neglecting +etiquette and forgetting that she was secretly hated by the +people because of her origin; her greatest error was in +forgetting that she was Queen of France and no longer the mere dauphiness.</p> + +<p>Under the escort of her brother-in-law, the Comte d'Artois, +she was constantly occupied with pleasures and had +time for little else. The king, retiring every night at +eleven and rising at five, had all the doors locked; so the +queen, who returned early in the morning, was compelled +to enter by the back door and pass through the servants' +apartments. Such behavior gave plentiful material to +M. de Provence, the king's brother, who remained at +home and composed, for the <i>Mercure de France</i>, all sorts +of stories, from so-called trustworthy information, on the +king, on society, and especially on the doings of the queen.</p> + +<p>Marie Antoinette's fondness for the chase and the English +racing fad, for gambling, billiards, and her <i>petits soupers</i> +after the riding and racing, gave ample opportunity to +the gossipmongers and enemies. In spite of the vigorous +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page340" id="page340"></a>[pg 340]</span> +remonstrances of her mother, the empress, she persisted in +her wild career of dissipation and extravagance, and drew +upon herself more and more the disrespect of the people, +especially in appearing at places frequented by the disreputable +of both sexes, by entering into all noisy and +vulgar amusements, by her disregard and disdain of all the +conventionalities of the court. She increased her unpopularity +by reviving the sport of sleighing; for this purpose +she had gorgeous sleighs constructed at a time when the +population of France was in misery. Such proceedings +caused libels, epigrams, and satirical chansonnettes to flow +thick and fast from her enemies. Her one idea was to +seek congenial pleasures: she appeared to be wholly oblivious +to the disapproval of public opinion.</p> + +<p>The slanderous tongues of her husband's aunts, the +"jealousies and bitter backbiting of her own intimate +circle of friends," the infamous accusations brought against +her by her sisters-in-law, the attacks of the Comte de +Provence, and the indifference of the king himself, all +helped to increase her unpopularity.</p> + +<p>Among her personal friends was the Princesse de Lamballe, +whose influence was preponderant for several years; +she was not a conspicuously wise woman, but one of spotless +character. Her ambitions, personal and for her relatives, +often caused much trouble, for she became the +mouthpiece of her allies and her clients, for whom she +"solicited recommendations with as much pertinacity as +if she had been the most inveterate place hunter on her +own account." Her favors were too much in one direction +to suit the queen, for, much attached to the memory of +her husband, the princess naturally sympathized with the +Orléans faction. As superintendent of the household of +the queen, replacing the Comtesse de Noailles, she gave +rise to much scandal. Her salary, through intrigues, had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page341" id="page341"></a>[pg 341]</span> +been raised to fifty thousand écus, while her privileges +were enormous; for instance, no lady of the queen could +execute an order given her without first obtaining the consent +of the superintendent. The displeasure and vexation +which this restriction caused among the court ladies may +be imagined; complaints became so frequent that the +queen tired of them, and her affection for her friend was thus cooled.</p> + +<p>She sought other friends, among whom Mme. de Polignac +was the favorite and almost supplanted the Princesse de +Lamballe in the regard of the queen. To her she presented +a large grant of money, the tabouret of a duchess, +the post of governess to the children of France; and her +friends received the appointments of ambassadors, and +nominations to inferior offices. She was not by nature +an intriguing woman, but was soon surrounded by a set of +young men and women who made use of her favor and +took advantage of her influence; the result was the formation +of a regular Polignac set, almost all questionable persons, +but an exclusive circle, permitting no division of +favor, and undoing all who endeavored to rival them. +This coterie of favorites may be said to have caused Marie +Antoinette as much unpopularity and contributed as much +to her ruin, and even to that of royalty, as did any other +cause originating at court. Mme. de Lamballe was no +match for her rival, so she retired, a move which increased +the influence of Mme. de Polignac, to whose house the +whole court flocked. The queen followed her wherever +she went, made her husband duke, and permitted her to sit in her presence.</p> + +<p>By spending so much of her time at the salons of Mme. +de Polignac and the Princesse de Guéménée, the queen +excited the displeasure and enmity of many of the court +and the people; at those places, De Besenval, De Ligny, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page342" id="page342"></a>[pg 342]</span> +De Lauzun,—men of the most licentious habits and expert +spendthrifts,—seemed to enjoy her intimate friendship, a +state of affairs which caused many scandalous stories and +helped to alienate some of the greatest houses of France. +This injudicious display of preference for her own circle of +friends also fostered a general distrust and dislike among +the people. The first families of France preferred to absent +themselves from her weekly balls at Versailles, since +attendance would probably result in their being ignored by +the queen, who permitted herself to be so engrossed by a +bevy of favorites and her own amusements as scarcely to notice other guests.</p> + +<p>Her eulogists find excuse for all this in her lightness of +heart and gay spirits, as well as in the manner of her +rearing, having been brought up in the court of Louis XV., +where she saw shameless vice tolerated and even condoned. +Although she preserved her virtue in the midst of +all this dissipation, she became callous to the shortcomings +of her friends and her own finer perceptions became +blunted. Thus, in the most critical years of her reign, +her nobler nature suffered deterioration, which resulted fatally.</p> + +<p>Despite many warnings, she could not or would not do +without those friends. She excused anything in those +who could make themselves useful to her amusement: +everyone who catered to her taste received her favor. +M. Rocheterie, in his admirable work, <i>The Life of Marie +Antoinette</i>, gives as the source of her great love of pleasure +her very strongly affectionate disposition,—the need +of showering upon someone the overflowing of an ardent +nature,—together with the desire for activity so natural +in a princess of nineteen. As a place in which to vent all +these emotions, these ebullitions of affections and amusements, +the king presented her with the château "Little +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page343" id="page343"></a>[pg 343]</span> +Trianon," where she might enjoy herself as she liked, +away from the intrigues of court.</p> + +<p>Marie Antoinette has become better known as the queen +of "Little Trianon" than as a queen of Versailles. At +the former place she gave full license to her creative bent. +Her palace, as well as her environments, she fashioned +according to her own ideas, which were not French and +only made her stand out the more conspicuously as a foreigner. +From this sort of fairy creation arose the distinctively +Marie Antoinette art and style; she caused artists to +exhaust their fertile brains in devising the most curious and +magnificent, the newest and most fanciful creations, quite +regardless of cost—and this while her people were starving +and crying for bread! The angry murmurings of the +populace did not reach the ears of the gay queen, who, had +she been conscious of them, might have allowed her bright +eyes to become dim for a time, but would have soon forgotten the passing cloud.</p> + +<p>There was constant festivity about the queen and her +companions, but no etiquette; there was no household, +only friends—the Polignacs, Mme. Elisabeth, Monsieur, +the Comte d'Artois, and, occasionally, the king. To be +sure, the amusements were innocent—open-air balls, rides, +lawn fêtes, all made particularly attractive by the affability +of the young queen, who showed each guest some particular +attention; all departed enchanted with the place and its +delights and, especially, with the graciousness of the royal +hostess. There all artists and authors of France were encouraged +and patronized—with the exception of Voltaire; +the queen refused to patronize a man whose view upon +morality had caused so much trouble.</p> + +<p>Music and the drama received especial protection from +her. The triumph of Gluck's <i>Iphigénie en Aulide</i>, in 1774, +was the first victory of Marie Antoinette over the former +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page344" id="page344"></a>[pg 344]</span> +mistress and the Piccini party. This was the second +musical quarrel in France, the first having occurred in +1754, between the lovers of French and Italian music, +with Mme. de Pompadour as protectress. After Gluck +had monopolized the French opera for eight years, the +Italian, Piccini, was brought from Italy in 1776. Quinault's +<i>Roland</i> was arranged for him by Marmontel and +was presented in 1778, unsuccessfully; Gluck presented +his <i>Iphigénie en Aulide</i>, and no opera ever received such +general approbation. "The scene was all uproar and confusion, +demoniacal enthusiasm; women threw their gloves, +fans, lace kerchiefs, at the actors; men stamped and yelled; +the enthusiasm of the public reached actual frenzy. All +did honor to the composer and to the queen."</p> + +<p>Marie Antoinette, however, also gave Piccini her protection. +Gluck, armed with German theories and supporting +French music, maintained for dramatic interest, +the subordination of music to poetry, the union or close +relation of song and recitative; whereas, the Italian opera +represented by Piccini had no dramatic unity, no great +ensembles, nothing but short airs, detached, without connection—no +substance, but mere ornamentation. Gluck +proved, also, that tragedy could be introduced in opera, +while Piccini maintained that opera could embrace only the +fable—the marvellous and fairylike. This musical quarrel +became a veritable national issue, every salon, the Academy, +and all clubs being partisans of one or the other theory; +it did much to mould the later French and German music, +and much credit is due the queen for the support given and +the intelligence displayed in so important an issue.</p> + +<p>All singers, actors, writers, geniuses in all things, were +sure of welcome and protection from Marie Antoinette; but +she permitted her passion for the theatre to carry her to +extremes unbecoming her position, for she consorted with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page345" id="page345"></a>[pg 345]</span> +comedians, played their parts, and associated with them +as though they were her equals. Such conduct as this, +and her exclusiveness in court circles, encouraged calumny. +Versailles was deserted by the best families, and all the +pomp and traditions of the French monarchs were abandoned. +The king, in sanctioning these amusements at the +"Little Trianon," lost the respect and esteem of the nobility, +but the queen was held responsible for all evil,—for +the deficit in the treasury, and the increase in taxes; to +such an extent was she blamed, that the tide of public +popularity turned and she was regarded with suspicion, envy, and even hatred.</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1777 the queen's brother, the Emperor +Joseph II. of Austria, arrived in Paris for a visit to his +sister and the court of France. The relations between him +and Marie Antoinette became quite intimate; the emperor, +always disposed to be critical, did not hesitate to warn his +sister of the dangers of her situation, pointing out to her +her weakness in thus being led on by her love of pleasure, +and the deplorable consequences which this weakness +would infallibly entail in the future. The queen acknowledged +the justness of the emperor's reasoning, and, though +often deeply offended by his frankness and severity, she +determined upon reform. This resolution was, to some +extent, influenced by the hope of pregnancy; so, when +her expectations in that direction proved to be without +foundation, so keen was the disappointment thus occasioned, +that, in order to forget it, she plunged into dissipation +to such an extent that it soon developed into a +veritable passion. Bitterly disappointed, vexed with a +husband whose coldness constantly irritated her ardent +nature, fretful and nervous, there naturally developed a +morbid state of mind which explains the impetuosity with +which she attempted to escape from herself.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page346" id="page346"></a>[pg 346]</span> + +<p>In December, 1778, a daughter was born to the queen, +and she welcomed her with these words: "Poor little one, +you are not desired, but you will be none the less dear to +me! A son would have belonged to the state—you will +belong to me." After this event the queen gave herself +up to thoughts and pursuits of a more serious nature. +In 1779 the dauphin was born, and from that period Marie +Antoinette considered herself no longer a foreigner.</p> + +<p>After the death of Maurepas, minister and counsellor to +the king, the queen became more influential in court matters. +She relieved the indolent monarch of much responsibility, +but only to hand it over to her favorites. The +period from 1781 to 1785 was the most brilliant of the +court of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, one of dissipation +and extravagance, the rich <i>bourgeoisie</i> vying with the +nobility in their luxurious style of living and in lavish +expenditure. "The finest silks that Lyons could weave, +the most beautiful laces that Alençon could produce, the +most gorgeous equipages, the most expensive furniture, +inlaid and carved, the tapestry of Beauvais and the porcelain +of Sèvres—all were in the greatest demand." Necker +was replaced by incompetent ministers, the treasury was +depleted, and the poor became more and more restless and +threatening. Once more, and with increased vehemence, +was heard the cry: <i>A bas l'Autrichienne!</i></p> + +<p>During the American war of the Revolution, Marie Antoinette +was always favorable to the Colonial cause, protecting +La Fayette and encouraging all volunteers of the +nobility, who embarked for America in great numbers. +She presented Washington with a full-length portrait of +herself, loudly and publicly proclaiming her sympathy for +things American. She assured Rochambeau of her good +will, and procured for La Fayette a high command in the +<i>corps d'armée</i> which was to be sent to America. When +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page347" id="page347"></a>[pg 347]</span> +Necker and other ministers were negotiating for peace, +from 1781 to 1785, she persisted in asserting that American +independence should be acknowledged; and when it +was declared, she rejoiced as at no political event in her own country.</p> + +<p>Her political adventures were few; in fact, she disliked +politics and desired to keep aloof from the intrigues of the +ministers. She may have been instrumental in the downfall +of Necker—at least, she secured the appointment, as +minister of finance, of the worthless Calonne, who, it will +be remembered, brought about the ruin of France in a +short period. In time, however, the queen recognized his +worthlessness and would have nothing to do with him, +thus making in him another implacable enemy.</p> + +<p>Events were fast diminishing the popularity of the +queen. When, after the long-disputed question of presenting +the <i>Marriage of Figaro</i>, she herself undertook to +play in <i>The Barber of Seville</i> in her theatre at the Trianon, +she overstepped the bounds of propriety. Then followed +the affair of the diamond necklace, in which the worst, +most cunning, and most notorious rogues abused the name +of the queen. That was the great adventure of the eighteenth +century. Boehmer, the court jeweler, had, in a +number of years, procured a collection of stones for an +incomparable necklace. This was intended for Mme. du +Barry, but Boehmer offered it to the queen, who refused +to purchase it, and he considered himself ruined. It may +be well to add that the queen had previously purchased +a pair of diamond earrings which had been ordered by +Louis XV. for his mistress; for those ornaments she paid +almost half her annual pin money, amounting to nine +hundred thousand francs. The jeweler, therefore, had +good reason to hope that she would relieve him of the necklace.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page348" id="page348"></a>[pg 348]</span> + +<p>An adventuress, a Mme. de La Motte, acquainted at +court and also with the Prince Louis de Rohan, who had +incurred the displeasure of the queen, informed the cardinal +that Marie Antoinette was willing to again extend to +him her favor. She counterfeited notes, and even went +so far as to appoint a meeting at midnight in the park at +Versailles. The supposed queen who appeared was no +other than an English girl, who dropped a rose with the +words: "You know what that means." The cardinal was +informed that the queen desired to buy the necklace, but +that it was to be kept secret—it was to be purchased for +her by a great noble, who was to remain unknown. All +necessary papers were signed, and the necklace turned +over to the Prince de Rohan, who, in turn, intrusted it to +Mme. de La Motte to be given to the queen; but the agent +was not long in having it taken apart, and soon her husband +was selling diamonds in great quantities to English jewelers.</p> + +<p>In time, as no payments were received and no favors +were shown by the queen, an investigation followed. The +result was a trial which lasted nine months; the cardinal +was declared not guilty, the signature of the queen false, +Mme. de La Motte was sentenced to be whipped, branded, +and imprisoned for life, and her husband was condemned +to the galleys. Nevertheless, much censure fell to the +share of the queen. It was the beginning of the end of +her reign as a favorite whose faults could be condoned. +She was beginning to reap the fruits of her former dissipations. +In about 1787, when she least deserved it, she +became the butt of calumny, intrigues, and pamphlets.</p> + +<p>During these years she was the most devoted of mothers; +she personally looked after her four children, watched by +their bedsides when they were ill, shutting herself up with +them in the château so that they would not communicate +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page349" id="page349"></a>[pg 349]</span> +their disease to the children who played in the park. In +1785 the king purchased Saint-Cloud and presented it to +the queen, together with six millions in her own right, +to enjoy and dispose of as she pleased. That act added +the last straw to the burden of resentment of the overwrought +public; from that time she was known as "Madame +Deficit." Also she was accused of having sent her brother, +Joseph II., one hundred million livres in three years. She +was hissed at the opera. In 1788 there were many who +refused to dance with the queen. In the preceding year a +caricature was openly sold, showing Louis XVI. and his +queen seated at a sumptuous table, while a starving crowd +surrounded them; it bore the legend: "The king drinks, +the queen eats, while the people cry!" Calonne, minister +of finance, an intimate friend of the Polignacs, but in disfavor +with the queen, also made common cause with the +enemies, in songs and perfidious insinuations. Upon his +fall, in 1787, the queen's position became even worse.</p> + +<p>The last period of the life of the queen, La Rocheterie +calls the militant period—it was one in which the joy of +living was no more; trouble, sorrows upon sorrows, and +anxieties replaced the former care-free, happy radiance of +her youth. At the reunion of the States-General, while +the country at large was full of confidence and the king +was still a hero, the queen was the one dark spot; calumny +had done its work—the whole country seemed to be saturated +with an implacable hatred and prejudice against her +whom they considered the source of all evil. Throughout +the ceremonies attending the States-General, the queen +was received with the same ominous silence; no one lifted +his voice to cheer her, but the Duc d'Orléans was always +applauded, to her humiliation.</p> + +<p>Whatever may have been the faults and excesses of +her youth, their period was over and in their place arose +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page350" id="page350"></a>[pg 350]</span> +all the noble sentiments so long dormant. When the king +was about to go to Paris as the prisoner of the infuriated +mob, La Fayette asked the queen: "Madame, what is your +personal intention?" "I know the fate which awaits me, +but my duty is to die at the feet of the king and in the +arms of my children," replied the queen. During the following +days of anxiety she showed wonderful courage and +graciousness, "winning much popularity by her serene +dignity, the incomparable charm which pervaded her whole +person, and her affability."</p> + +<p>Upon the urgent request of the queen the Polignac set +departed, and Mme. de Lamballe endeavored to do the +honors for the queen, by receptions three times a week, +given to make friends in the Assembly. At those functions +all conditions of people assembled, and instead of +the witty, brilliant conversations of the old salon there +were politics, conspiracies, plots; instead of the gay and +laughing faces of the old times there were the worn and +anxious faces of weary, discouraged men and women. +There was, indeed, a sad contrast between the gay, frivolous, +haughty queen of the early days, and this captive +queen—submissive, dignified, "majestic in her bearing, +heroic, and reconciled to her awful fate."</p> + +<p>Her period of imprisonment, the cruelty, neglect, inadequate +food and garments, her torture and indescribable +sufferings, the insults of the crowd and the newspapers, +her heroic death, all belong to history. "The first crime +of the Revolution was the death of the king, but the most +frightful was the death of the queen." Napoleon said: +"The queen's death was a crime worse than regicide." +"A crime absolutely unjustifiable," adds La Rocheterie, +"since it had no pretext whatever to offer as an excuse; a +crime eminently impolitic, since it struck down a foreign +princess, the most sacred of hostages; a crime beyond +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page351" id="page351"></a>[pg 351]</span> +measure, since the victim was a woman who possessed honors without power."</p> + +<p>Because Marie Antoinette played a romantic rôle in +French history, it is quite natural to find conflicting and +contradictory opinions among her biographers. The most +conflicting may be summed up in these words: the queen's +influence upon the Revolution was great—her extravagances, +her haughty bearing, her scorn of the etiquette of +royalty, her enemies, her prejudices, the arrests which +she caused, etc. Then her pernicious influence upon the +king, after the breaking out of the Revolution—she caused +his hesitancy, which led to such disastrous results, and his +plan of annihilating the States Assembly; the gathering of +the foreign troops and his many contradictory and uncertain +commands were all laid at her door, making of her an +important and guilty party to the Revolution. Another +estimate is more humane and, probably, is the result of +cooler reflection, yet is not always accepted by Frenchmen +or the world at large. It represents her as neither saint +nor sinner, but as a pure, fascinating woman, always +chaste, though somewhat rash and frivolous. Proud and +energetic, if inconsiderate in her political actions and somewhat +too impulsive in the selection of friends upon whom +to bestow her favors, she is yet worthy of the title of +queen by the very dignity of her bearing; always a true +woman, seductive and tender of heart, she became a martyr +"through the extremity of her trials and her triumphant death."</p> + +<p>Although history makes Marie Antoinette a central figure +during the reign of Louis XVI. and the period of the Revolution, +yet her personal influence was practically limited +to the domain of the social world of customs and manners; +her political influence issued mainly from or was due to the +concatenation of conditions and circumstances, the results +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page352" id="page352"></a>[pg 352]</span> +of her friends' doings, while her social triumphs were +products of her own activity. The two women—her intimate +friends—who during this period were of greatest +prominence, who owed their elevation and standing entirely +to the queen, were women of whom little has survived. +In her time, Mme. de Polignac was an influential +woman, wielding tremendous power, contributing largely +to the shaping and climaxing of France's fate; yet this +influence was centred in reality in the Polignac set, which +was composed of the most important, daring, and consummate +intriguers that the court of France had ever seen. +She escaped the guillotine, and by doing so escaped the attention of posterity.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Lamballe, who wrote nothing, did nothing, effected +nothing, is better known to the world at large, is +more respected and honored, than is Mme. de Polignac or +even the great salon leaders such as Mme. de Genlis or +Mlle. de Lespinasse. She owes this prominence to her +undying devotion to her queen, to her marvellous beauty, +and to her tragic death on the guillotine. She was not +even bright or witty, the essentials of greatness among +French women—not one <i>bon mot</i> has survived her; but +she may well be placed by the side of her queen for one +sublime virtue, too rare in those days,—chastity. She +was Princess of Sardinia; upon the request of the Duke +of Penthièvre to Louis XV. to select a wife for his son, +the Prince of Lamballe, she was chosen. A year after the +marriage the prince died; and although the marriage had +not been a happy one, because of the dissolute life of the +prince, his wife forgave him, and "sorrowed for him as though he deserved it."</p> + +<p>When in 1768 the queen died, two parties immediately +formed, the object of both of them being to provide +Louis XV. with a wife: one may be called the reform +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page353" id="page353"></a>[pg 353]</span> +party, striving to keep the old king in the paths of decency; +while the other was composed of the typical eighteenth +century intriguers, endeavoring to revive the "grand +old times." The candidate of the former was Mme. de +Lamballe, that of the latter, the dissolute Duchesse du +Barry. This state of affairs was made possible by the +disagreement of the political and social schemes of the +court and ministry. Soon after, in 1770, the king negotiated +the marriage of Marie Antoinette and the dauphin, +and from that time began the friendship of the future +queen and the Princesse de Lamballe. Entering the unfamiliar +circle of this highly debauched court, the young +dauphiness sought a sympathetic friend, and found her in +the princess. No figure in that society was more disinterested +and unselfishly devoted. In all the queen's undertakings, +fêtes, and other amusements, she was inseparable +from the princess, who was indeed a rare exception to the +majority of the women of that time.</p> + +<p>The friendship of these two women was uninterrupted, +save for a period extending from 1778 to 1785, when +Mme. de Polignac and her set of intriguers succeeded in +estranging them and usurping all the favors of the queen. +When the outside world was accrediting to Marie Antoinette +every popular misfortune, when she lost by death both the +dauphin and the Princess Beatrice, when fate was against +her, when the future promised nothing but evil, she found +no stauncher friend, better consoler, more ardent admirer, +than her old companion. Learning of the removal of the +royal family to the Tuileries, she rejoined the queen. In +1791, with the escape of the royal fugitives, the princess +left for England, to seek the protection of the English government +for her royal friends.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dobson says she was scarcely the <i>discrète et insinuante +et touchante Lamballe</i>, with a marvellous sang-froid, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page354" id="page354"></a>[pg 354]</span> +hardly the astute diplomatist, that De Lescure makes her. +"She was rather the quiet, imposing Lamballe of old, interested +in her friends and what she could do for them, but +never shrewd and diplomatic." In November she returned +to France, to meet her queen and to suffer death for her +sake,—and for this unswerving devotion she has a place +in history. She stands out also as the one normal woman +in the crowds of impetuous, shallow, petty, and, in many +cases, pitifully debauched women of the time. Not majestic +greatness, but a direct, unaffected sweetness and consistent +goodness entitle her to rank among the great women of France.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page355" id="page355"></a>[pg 355]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter XIII</h2> + +<h2>Women of the Revolution and the Empire</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page357" id="page357"></a>[pg 357]</span> + + +<p>Many women of the revolutionary period have no claim +for mention other than a last glorious moment on the +guillotine—"ennobled and endeared by the self-possession +and dignity with which they faced death, their whole life +seems to have been lived for that one moment." The +society which had brought on and stirred up the Revolution +was enervated and febrile. Paris was one large +kennel of libellers and pamphleteers and intriguers. The +salon frequenters were trained conversationalists and brilliant +beauties who danced and drank, discoursed and intrigued. +It was a superficial elegance, with virtue only +assumed. The art of pleasing had been developed to perfection, +but, instead of the actual accomplishments of the +old régime, there was merely the outward appearance—luxury, +dress, and magnificence; the bearing and language +were of the ambitious common people. "The great women +are those who, the day before, were taken from the cellar +or garret of the salon."</p> + +<p>During the Directorate, luxury and libertinism reigned +almost as absolutely as during the monarchy. Barras was +supreme. He had his mistress, or <i>maîtresse-en-titre</i>, in the +beautiful Mme. Tallien, the queen of beauty of the salon of +<i>la mode</i>. Ease and dissolute enjoyment were the aims +of Barras, and in these his mistress was his equal. They +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page358" id="page358"></a>[pg 358]</span> +gave the most sumptuous dinners, prepared by the famous +chefs of the late aristocratic kitchens, while the people +were starving or living on black bread. She impudently +arrayed herself in the crown diamonds and appeared at +the reception given to Napoleon.</p> + +<p>The salons under the Empire are said to have preserved +French politeness, courtesy, and the usages of <i>la bonne +compagnie</i>, but intolerance and tyranny reigned there; the +spirit of intrigue only was obeyed. From the beginning +of the Revolution to the Empire, it may be said that the +streets of Paris from one end to the other were a wild +turmoil of people in fever heat—ready for any crime or +cruelty, anxious for anything promising excitement. Where +formerly the elegant lovers of the nobility were wont to +promenade, the rabid populace held undisputed possession.</p> + +<p>These were years, about 1780 to 1800, during which +women shared the same fate with men; and, consigned to +the same prisons, ever resigned and ready to die for principle, +they knew how to die nobly. It was truly an age +of the martyrdom of woman—an age in which she lived, +through almost superhuman conditions, at the side of man. +She was all-powerful, triumphant as never before; not, +however, through her intellectual superiority as in the +previous age, but through her courage. There was not one +powerful woman standing out alone, but groups of them, +hosts of them. It was during the Directorate especially +that woman controlled almost every phase of activity.</p> + +<p>The woman who embodied all the heterogeneous vices +of the past nobility and the rising plebs was Mme. Tallien, +the goddess of vice and of the vulgar display of wealth. +Her caprices were scrupulously followed, while about her +jealousy and slanders were thick. Then immorality had +no veil, but was low, brutish, and open to everyone. With +the accession of Napoleon to absolute power, there was a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page359" id="page359"></a>[pg 359]</span> +fusion of the element just described with the remnant of +the old régime. Josephine soon formed a select and congenial +social circle, excluding Mme. Tallien and the Directorate +adherents. Evidences of saddening memories of the +past and a general gloom were visible everywhere in this +circle. The disappointment of the nobility on returning +from their exile was somewhat lessened by the very select +bi-weekly reunions in the salon of Talleyrand, and by +the brilliant suppers of the old régime, which were revived +at the Hôtel d'Anjou.</p> + +<p>The salon of Mme. de Staël was a political debating club +rather than a purely social reunion. She being an ardent +Republican, it was in her salon that the Royalist plot to +bring back the Bourbons was overthrown. In a short +time there were a number of brilliant salons, each one +showing a nature as distinct as those of the eighteenth +century. Thus, Joseph Bonaparte received the distinguished +governmentals and the intriguing women of +society at the Château de Mortfoulaine; at Lucien Bonaparte's +hôtel youth and beauty assembled; at Mme. de +Permon's salon there were music and conversation, tea, +lemonade, and biscuits, twice a week. It remains but to +characterize these different ages of French social and +political evolution by the great women who, each one of +her age, are the representative types.</p> + +<p>The woman who, during the Revolution, not only added +her name to the long list of martyrs, but who also made +history and contributed to the very nature of those days +of terror and uncertainty, was Mme. Roland, whom critics +both extol and condemn—the fate of all historical characters. +It would be difficult to estimate this remarkable +person and her work without some details of her life.</p> + +<p>When a mere girl she showed signs of a tempestuous +future; she was seductive, but impulsive, with an inborn +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page360" id="page360"></a>[pg 360]</span> +love for the common people—which is not always credited +to her—and for democracy. These qualities were quickened +during her experience at Versailles, for while there +for a few days' visit she saw the pitiless social world in all +its orgies, revelries of luxury, and wanton extravagances. +There, also, she contracted that deep-seated hatred for the queen and royalty.</p> + +<p>There was, indeed, a long list of suitors for the hand of +the impulsive maiden; but owing to her views as to a husband +and her restless, unsettled state of mind, she could +not decide upon any one of them. To her mother, when +urged to accept one, she said: "I should not like a husband +to order me about, for he would teach me only to +resist him; but neither do I wish to rule my husband. +Either I am much mistaken, or those creatures, six feet +high, with beard on their chins, seldom fail to make us feel +that they are stronger; now, if the good man should suddenly +bethink himself to remind me of his strength he +would provoke me, and if he submitted to me he would +make me feel ashamed of my power." For such a woman +marriage was certainly a difficult problem. Finally, Roland +de la Platières came within her circle; and although somewhat +adverse to him at first, after a number of his visits +she wrote: "I have been much charmed by the solidity of +his judgment and his cultured and interesting conversation." +Just such a man appealed to her nature and was +in harmony with her views. After months of monotonous +life in the convent to which she had retired, she at last +consented to become the wife of Roland, not from expectations +of any fortune, but purely from a sense of devoting +herself to the happiness of an honorable man, to making his life sweeter.</p> + +<p>Roland, scrupulously conscientious, painstaking, and observing, +had won the position of inspector of manufactures, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page361" id="page361"></a>[pg 361]</span> +which took him away on foreign travels part of the time. +He had acquired a thorough knowledge of manufacturing +and the principles of political economy. The first years +of their life were spent in each other's society exclusively, +as he was insanely jealous of her; she rarely left his side, +and they studied the same works, copied and revised his +manuscripts, and corrected his proofs. In this she was +indispensable to him. But her activity did not stop with +literary work; she managed her husband's household, and +for miles around her home the peasants soon learned to +know her through her charitable deeds. She was the village +doctor, often going for miles to attend the poor in distress. +With her own hands she prepared dainty dishes +with which to tempt her husband's appetite. Thus, her +best years were spent upon things for which much less +ability would have sufficed. She watched with breathless +interest the installation of Necker and the dismissal +of Turgot, the convocation of the notables, the struggles for +financial recovery, and, finally, the calling of a States-General, +which had not been in session since 1614. During +the first stormy years, 1789-1790, she wrote burning +missives to her friend Bosc, at Paris, which appeared +anonymously in the <i>Patriote Français</i>, edited by Brissot, +the future Girondist leader. Soon came the commission of +Roland as the first citizen of the city of Lyons, which had +a debt of forty million francs, to acquaint the National +Assembly with its affairs.</p> + +<p>When, in 1791, Mme. Roland arrived at Paris—for she +accompanied her husband—she had already become an +ardent Republican. She immediately threw herself into +the whirlwind of popular enthusiasm. Her house became +the centre of an advanced political group, which met +there four times a week to discuss state questions. There +Danton, Robespierre, Pétion, Condorcet, Buzot, and others +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page362" id="page362"></a>[pg 362]</span> +were seen. She ably aided her husband in all his work as +commissioner to the National Assembly. She was indefatigable +in penning stirring letters and petitions to the +Jacobin societies in the different departments. A staunch +friend of Robespierre, she did much to protect him in his +first efforts in public. On returning home, after her husband +had completed his mission, she was no longer the +same quiet, contented, submissive woman; she longed for +activity in the midst of excitement.</p> + +<p>With the meeting of the Legislative Assembly, in 1791, +the group of men sent up from the Gironde immediately +became the leaders, and when Mme. Roland returned to +Paris she became the centre of this circle, exhorting and +stimulating, advising and ordering. Through her friend +Brissot, who was all-powerful in the Assembly, about +February, 1792, as leader of the Girondists, who were +looking for men not yet practically involved in politics, +but qualified by experience for political life, her husband +was made minister of the interior, and in March, 1792, he +and his wife entered upon their duties. She was a keen +reader of human nature, at first glance giving her husband +a penetrating and generally truthful judgment of men. +Being able to comprehend the temperaments of the ministers, +she managed them with inimitable tact. Although all +the Girondist ministers were supposed friends, she readily +saw how difficult it would be for a small group of men with +the same principles to act in concert. Seeing the political +machine in motion at close range, she lost some of her +enthusiasm for revolutionary leaders; above all, she recognized +the need of a great leader. As wife of the minister, +installed in the ministerial residence with no other +woman present, she gave two dinners weekly to her husband's +colleagues, to the members of the Assembly, and to political friends.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page363" id="page363"></a>[pg 363]</span> + +<p>Her husband, the French Quaker of the Revolution, in +all his simplicity of dress and honesty, was being constantly +duped by the apparent good nature and sincerity +of the king, against whom his wife was constantly warning +him. It was she who, convinced of the king's duplicity +and the need of a safeguard for the country, originated +the plan of a federate camp of twenty thousand men to +protect Paris when war had been declared against Austria. +It was she who wrote a letter to the king in the name of +the council, but sent in Roland's own name, imploring him +not to arouse the mistrust of the nation by constantly betraying +his suspicion of it, but to show his love by adopting +measures for the welfare and safety of the country. +The effect of this letter, which became historical, was the +fall of the ministers. After their recall, her husband became +more and more powerful. The political circulars which +were published by his paper, <i>The Sentinel</i>, were composed +by her. Then came the horrible massacres and executions +by the hundreds, which inspired Mme. Roland with +hatred for Danton, a feeling she communicated to the +whole Girondist party. She desired above everything to +see punished the perpetrators of the September massacres. +In this plan the Girondists failed. Robespierre, Danton, and +Marat were victorious, and Mme. Roland and her party fell.</p> + +<p>When all parties and the whole populace vied with each +other in welcoming back the victorious General Dumouriez, +there seemed to be a possibility of a reconciliation between +Danton and Mme. Roland, for when the general went to +dine with her he presented her with a bouquet of magnificent +oleanders. This dinner, on October 14th, auguring +good fortune to all, was the last success of Mme. Roland. +She had been pushed to the very front of the Revolution. +She coöperated in composing and promulgating the +numerous writings of her husband by which public opinion +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page364" id="page364"></a>[pg 364]</span> +was to be instructed. But she retained her implacable +hatred for Danton, who, when her husband, ready to resign, +was pressed to remain in office, cried out in the convention: +"Why not invite Mme. Roland to the ministry, +too! everyone knows that Roland is not alone in the +office!" At this period her husband made the fatal mistake +of appropriating a chest of important state papers and +examining them himself instead of calling together a commission. +As is known, the papers turned out to be fatal +to Louis XVI. Libels and denunciations were pronounced +against Roland, but his wife, called before the convention, +not only succeeded in turning aside all accusations, but +was voted the honors of the sitting.</p> + +<p>At the time of the trial of the king, the power and influence +of the Girondists were waning; then the Rolands became +the butt of many violent and unreasonable outbursts. +With the resignation of Roland on January 22, 1792, the +day of the execution of the king, the fate of the Girondists +was sealed. This time the minister was not asked to reconsider; +in fact, his exposure of the pilfering then going +on among the officials made him one of the most unpopular +men in Paris. Upon their return to private life, Mme. +Roland was accused of forming the plot to destroy the +republic. When an armed force arrived one morning at +half-past five o'clock to arrest her husband, she resisted +them, herself going to the convention to expose the iniquity +of such a proceeding. Failing in this, she returned to her +husband, to find him safe with a friend. Being again arrested, +she met the ordeal with her accustomed courage; +and when the officers offered to pull down the blinds of +the carriage, to shield her from the gaze of the unfriendly +public, she said: "No, gentlemen! innocence, however +oppressed, should not assume the attitude of guilt. I fear +the eyes of no one, and do not wish to escape even those +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page365" id="page365"></a>[pg 365]</span> +of my enemies." "You have much more character than +many men," they replied; "you can calmly await justice," +"Justice!" she cried; "if it existed, I should not be in +your power! I would go to the scaffold as calmly as if +sent by iniquitous men. I fear only guilt, and despise injustice and death!"</p> + +<p>She has been deeply criticised for her letters written to +her friend Buzot while she was in prison; yet it should be +remembered that there was not the slightest chance of +their meeting again, and, besides, the letters reveal the +terrible struggle through which she had passed. While +in prison, her beauty, grace, and fearlessness won and +humanized nearly all who came under her spell. She was +once unexpectedly set at liberty, but only to be sentenced +to the lowest of prisons—Sainte-Pélagie. There, in the +space of about one month, her memoirs, now among the +French classics, were written. At the Conciergerie, where +the lowest criminals and the filthiest paupers were crowded +into cells with the highest of the nobility, and where the +cowardly Mme. du Barry spent her last hours, Mme. Roland, +by her quiet dignity and patient serenity, commanded +silence and respect, and calmness and peace replaced angry +and pitiful wrangling. The prisoners clung to her, crying +and kissing her hand, while she spoke words of advice and +consolation to the doomed women, who "looked upon her +as a beneficent divinity." Her conduct under these circumstances +alone is sufficient to keep alive her memory. +In the last days, she clung to and upheld most passionately +her principles of liberty and moderation, and in her conversation +with Beugnot it was evident that she had been +the real inspiration in the Girondist party for all that was +best and most uplifting.</p> + +<p>The charge against her when before the bar of judgment +of Fouquier-Tinville, the terrible prosecutor, consisted in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page366" id="page366"></a>[pg 366]</span> +her relation to the Girondists who had been condemned to +death as traitors to the republic. She met her death heroically, +as became a woman who had lived bravely. At +the very last moment of her life, she offered consolation +to fellow victims. Her death was that of the greatest +heroine of the Revolution, the climax of a life the one +ambition of which had been to save her country and to +shed her blood for it. As she rode through the city in her +pure white raiment, serenely radiant in her own innocence, +she was the embodiment of all that was highest and +purest in the Revolution—one of the best and greatest +women known to French history. She stands out as a +representative of the French Republic.</p> + +<p>There are a number of traits of Mme. Roland which +should be considered before giving a final estimate of her +character, of her rôle in French history, and of her right +to be ranked among the most illustrious women of France. +Critics in general seem to show her a marked hostility; +such men as Caro assert that she had no modesty, that +she lacked sentiment, delicacy, and reserve. M. Saint-Amand +said that she reflected the vices and virtues of her +age, summing up the passions and illusions, being intellectually +and morally the disciple of Rousseau, but socially +personifying the third estate, which in the beginning asked +for nothing, but later demanded all. Politics made her +cruel at times, although by nature she was good and sensible. +He declared that with her acquaintance with Buzot +began her career of love and ambition. In love, she believed +herself a patriot, but all the various phases of her +public career were simply the results of her emotions. +Thus, for example, in order to see Buzot, she persuaded +her husband to return to Paris to seek his fortune and +make the realization of her dreams possible. She desired +to play a rôle for which her origin had not destined her, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page367" id="page367"></a>[pg 367]</span> +which made her actions appear theatrical and affected. It +is evident that she hated both the king and the queen, and +at the council for the Girondist ministry demanded the +death of the royal couple. And yet, Saint-Amand cites +her as the most beautiful of that group of martyrs who +lost their lives in the first heat of the Revolution—as the +genius among them by her force, purity, and grace—the +brilliant and austere muse in all the saintliness of martyrdom.</p> + +<p>The two maxims which Mme. Roland followed throughout +her career had much to do with her fall: security is +the tomb of liberty; indulgence toward men in authority +is the means of pushing them to despotism. These maxims +as her motto or impulse, united with the spirit of push, +energy, and at times rashness and impropriety, naturally +led her to her ruin in those days of revolutionary ideas. +She was a woman of powerful passion controlled by reason, +and with frankness, devotion, courage, and fidelity as +forces impelling her to activity. But there was one great +defect which was at the bottom of her misfortunes,—a too +great ambition, which often led her into perilous paths, +even to the scaffold, which, in its turn, covered her errors.</p> + +<p>She is said to have married M. Roland more as a theory +than as a husband, for her ideas of marriage were such as +to make pure, disinterested love impossible. Her husband +was in many respects her intellectual superior, but she +excelled him in versatility. Being her senior by twenty +years, when he grew old and infirm he depended upon her +for a great deal, all of which contributed to her restlessness +and unhappiness. Then there developed in her that +terrible struggle between loyalty to her husband and passion +for Buzot, in which reason conquered. This devotion +to duty was indeed rare in those days, when passion was +supreme and pure love was almost unknown. Mr. Dobson +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page368" id="page368"></a>[pg 368]</span> +says that this one trait by which she gave real expression +of virtue is profoundly a product of her mental self. Her +instinct would have led her to self-abandonment, so +common in that day, but her "man by the head" self +was stronger than her "woman by the heart" self. These +two sides of her character, fostered by incessant reading, +incited her fearful and unrelenting hatreds as well as her +passion, "masculine enough to be mistrusted and feminine +enough to be admired." These two qualities made her a +power and an attraction. Her better side will continue to +shine clearer as the horror of those days is revealed. +Whatever may be the effects of her ambitious nature and +of her unfortunate passion for Buzot, by the very virtue of +her intellect and reasoning she will remain the one great +woman of the Revolution who willingly and conscientiously +sacrificed her life for her country.</p> + +<p>A type perhaps more universally known in her relation +to the Revolution than is Mme. Roland, though no better +understood, was Charlotte Corday. Possessed of a most +intense patriotism and an unusual emotional nature, she +represented better than any other woman of her age the +peculiar French trait—namely, the emotional perfectly +combined with the mathematical. She was unique; her +compatriots practised the art of studying themselves, in +order to be attractive, and thus accomplished their ends, +while her ambition was not to please merely, but to be of +some real, practical value to her troubled country. She +stands out, however, as the product of the end of the +eighteenth century, a natural result of the reading of +philosophy and political pamphlets. Quite naturally, she +entertained such philosophical sentiments as this: "No +one will lose in losing me, and the country may be better +off for the sacrifice. Death comes only once, and let us +use it to the good of the country or the greatest number of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page369" id="page369"></a>[pg 369]</span> +people." Thus, her philosophy led her to a complete +detachment from her individual self, and fostered the idea +of dying for her country.</p> + +<p>Her decision to rid France of Marat was arrived at by +degrees of silent brooding over the evils which beset her +native land; at last she felt herself called to some great +act which would necessitate the loss of her life. "The +time brought forth desperation, intense warmth of feeling, +concentrated upon some purpose or object;" the reasoning +self seemed to be stifled by the intensity of the emotion. +Yet, reason was to conquer in her. When the Girondists +returned to Caen and described Robespierre and Marat in +the darkest colors, she at once felt moved to put forth all +her efforts to rid France of that evil blot—Marat. She +was beautiful, strong, and graceful, presenting a most +striking appearance. Loved by all, she felt love and +devotion only for her country. Desperate and determined, +she set out to fulfil her mission. She was a mere expression +of the conservative element which acts only when +driven by sheer necessity. Her reason impressed her +with her duty and circumstances; the time acted upon +her mind. "Easy, calm, resigned, she looked upon the +angry masses of people who cursed her," confident that +she had done her country a service, and proud that she +had been the fortunate one to render it. This was her +glory, and for this she will be remembered in history.</p> + +<p>Possibly the rarest phenomenon in the history of the +illustrious women of France is Mme. Récamier, who, by +force of her beauty and social fascination, and without intellectual +gifts or even wit, won for herself the position of +queen of French society, which she held for nearly half a +century. The very name of Récamier has come to evoke +a vision of beauty, a beauty so well known to every lover +of art who has visited the Luxembourg and gazed upon the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page370" id="page370"></a>[pg 370]</span> +figure "so flexible and elegant, with head well poised, +brilliant complexion, little rosy mouth with pearly teeth, +black curling hair, soft expressive eyes, and a bearing indicative +of indolence and pride, yet with a face beaming +with good nature and sympathy." Her beauty has been +considered perfect, but a recent writer has proved this to +be an error. M.J. Turquan, in a new volume on Mme. +Récamier, is everything but sympathetic to the woman at +whom criticism has rarely been pointed. "Quite a contrast +to her extraordinary beauty of face," he declares, +"were her hands, with big fingers square at the end and +having flat nails. The same may be said of her feet, +which were not only big, but were without the slightest +trace of <i>finesse</i> in their lines." But though Turquan has +raised numerous points in her disfavor, they are not at all +likely to detract from her unrivalled reputation for beauty.</p> + +<p>Critics have made of her a sort of enigmatic figure, +supernatural and having only the form of the human. +Thus, in Lamartine we find the following description: +"The young girl was, they say, a <i>sous-entendu</i> of nature: +she could be a wife, she could not be a mother. These are +the two mysteries we must respect, but which we must +know to have been the secret of the entire life of Mme. +Récamier—a mournful and eternal enigma which will never +have its words divined,... All her looks produced an +intoxication, but brought hope to no heart. The divine +statue had not descended from its pedestal for anyone, +as though such a performance would have been too divine +for a mortal." Her beauty was so marked, so singular, +that wherever she appeared—at the ball, the theatre—it +caused a sensation; all turned to look at her and admire in +subdued astonishment. Her form was said to be marvellously +elegant and supple, her neck of an exquisite perfection, +her mouth "deliciously small and pink, her teeth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page371" id="page371"></a>[pg 371]</span> +veritable pearls set in coral, her arms splendidly moulded, +her eyes full of sweetness and admiration, her nose most +attractive in its regularity, her physiognomy candid and +spiritual, her air indolent and haughty, and her attitude reserved. +Before this ensemble, you remained in ecstasy." +All this beauty was particularly well set off by an exquisite +white dress adorned with pearls—a style she affected the year around.</p> + +<p>But her beauty alone could hardly have contributed to +the marvellous success of Mme. Récamier, as some critics +assert. Guizot, for instance, suspects her nature to have +been less superficial than other writers might lead one to +suppose. He said: "This passionate admiration, this constant +affection, this insatiable taste for society and conversation, +won her a wide friendship. All who approached +and knew her—foreigners and Frenchmen, princes and the +middle classes, saints and worldlings, philosophers and +artists, adversaries as well as partisans—all she inspired +with the ideas and causes she espoused." Her qualities +outside of her beauty were tact, generosity, and elevation +of soul, combined with an amiable grace which was unlimited, +however superficial it may have been. Knowing +how to maintain, in her salon, harmony and even cordial +relations between men of the most varied temperaments +and political ideas, it was possible for her to remain all her +life an intelligent and warm-hearted bond between the +élite minds and their diverse sentiments, which she tactfully +tempered. Though ever faithful to one cause, she +admitted men and women of all parties to her salon. She +was moderate and just in the midst of the most arduous +struggles, tolerant toward her adversaries, generous toward +the conquered, sympathetic to all, and remarkably successful +in conciliating all political, literary, and philosophical +opinions as well as the passions which she aroused in her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page372" id="page372"></a>[pg 372]</span> +worshippers. To these qualities, as much as to her beauty, +were due the harmony of her life, the unity of her character—which +were never troubled by the turmoils of politics +or the emotions of love. She was not wife, mother, or +lover; "she never belonged to anyone in soul or sense." +Always mistress of her imagination as well as of her heart, +she permitted herself to be charmed but never carried +away—receiving from all, but giving nothing in return. +Her life was brilliant, but there was lurking in the background +the demon of sadness and lassitude and the terrible +disease of the eighteenth century,—ennui.</p> + +<p>Two splendid portraits of Mme. Récamier are left to us: +one by her passionate but unsuccessful lover, Benjamin +Constant, picturing her as the personification of attractiveness; +the other by M. Lenormant, showing that she +desired constant admiration: "She lacked the affections +which bring veritable happiness and the true dignity of +woman. Her barren heart, desirous of tenderness and +devotion, sought recompense for this need of living, in the +homage of passionate admiration, the language of which +pleases the ears." Mme. Récamier, while still a child, +seemed to realize the power of her beauty, and even +before her marriage in 1793 she would often say, when +demanded in marriage: "Mon Dieu! how beautiful I must +be already!" A mere girl when married, being only sixteen +years of age, she felt no love for her husband, who +was her senior by twenty-five years. Soon after the +terrible times of "the Reign of Terror" she found herself +one of the most beautiful women in Paris, and her husband +one of the wealthiest of bankers. The three rival +women of the times were Mme. Récamier, Mme. Tallien, +and Josephine. The terrible days of the guillotine were +succeeded by an uninterrupted reign of pleasure, "when +a fever of amusement possessed everyone, and the desire +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page373" id="page373"></a>[pg 373]</span> +for distraction of all kinds seemed to have been pushed to +its limits." M. Turquan states that in the reign of dissolute +extravagance, immorality, and gorgeous splendor, +Mme. Récamier formed a striking contrast by her simplicity. +Her first triumph was at the church Saint-Roche, +the most fashionable of Paris, where she was selected to +raise a purse for charity. On one occasion the collection +amounted to twenty thousand francs, all due to the beauty +of the woman passing the plate. She was soon invited by +her friend Barras to all the balls and fêtes under the Directorate.</p> + +<p>In 1798 M. Récamier bought the house formerly tenanted +by Necker, and later established himself in a château at +Clichy, where he received his friends, among whom was +Lucien Bonaparte, who attempted the ruin of the beautiful +hostess, but without success. Napoleon himself attempted +in vain to win her to his court as maid of honor and as an +ornament, her refusal incurring his anger, especially as +she was the height of fashion and courted by all the great +men of the age. Through her preference for the Royalists—persisting +in her line of conduct in spite of her friend +Fouché—she finally incurred the enmity of the emperor. +Even the Princess Caroline endeavored to obtain Mme. +Récamier's friendship for Napoleon, "but, although the +princess gave her <i>loge</i> twice to the favorite, and upon each +occasion the emperor went to the theatre expressly to +gaze upon her, she remained firm in her refusal, which +was one of the causes of the downfall of her banker husband, +whom Napoleon might have saved had his wife been +the emperor's friend." Napoleon certainly resented her +refusal, for when requested to save Récamier's bank he +replied: "I am not in love with Mme. Récamier!" Thus, +because his wife preferred the aristocracy to the favors of +Napoleon, the banker lost his fortune.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page374" id="page374"></a>[pg 374]</span> + +<p>She, however, bore her misfortunes with great reserve, +immediately selling her jewels and her hôtel; after which +they both retired to small apartments, where they were +even more honored and had greater social prestige than +ever. She at once made her salon the centre of hostility +against the emperor, who, according to Turquan, did not +banish her, but her friend Mme. de Staël, with whom she +passed over into Switzerland. Here began her romance +with Prince August of Prussia, who became so enamored +of her that he asked her hand in marriage. Encouraged +by Mme. de Staël, she even went so far as to ask her husband +for a divorce, that she might wed the royal aspirant. +Her husband generously consented to this, but at the same +time set forth to her the peculiar position which she would +occupy, an argument that opened her eyes to her ingratitude, +and she refused the prince.</p> + +<p>Upon the fall of Napoleon, Mme. Récamier returned to +Paris and, her husband's fortune being restored, gathered +about her all the great nobles of the ancient régime. But +fortune was unkind to her husband for the second time, +and she withdrew to the Abbaye-au-Bois, where she occupied +a small apartment on the third floor. Here her distinguished +friends followed her—such as Chateaubriand +and the Duc de Montmorency. Between her and the +famous author of <i>Le Génie du Christianisme</i> there sprang +up a friendship which lasted thirty years. During this +time it is said that he visited her at a certain hour each +day, the people in the neighborhood setting their clocks +by his appearance. When he was absent on missions, he +wrote her of every act of his life. Both, weary of the +dissipations of society and its flatteries, sought a pure and +lofty friendship, spiritual and affectionate, with no improper +intimacy. There was mutual admiration and mutual respect. +Even Chateaubriand's wife, who was an invalid +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page375" id="page375"></a>[pg 375]</span> +and with whom he spent every evening, encouraged his +friendship with Mme. Récamier. When, through the fall +of Charles X., Chateaubriand lost his power, the friendship +did not cease. M. Turquan insists that he did not +really care seriously for Mme. Récamier, that his visits +were the outgrowth of mere habit. But it is to be seen +that throughout his book Turquan has little sympathy +for his subject, whom he pictures as a beautiful, heartless, +intriguing woman with immense hands, flat, square fingers, and large feet.</p> + +<p>The influence possessed by Mme. Récamier was most +remarkable; for with the new statesmen, Thiers, Guizot, +Mignet, De Tocqueville, Sainte-Beuve, as well as the nobles +and princes, she was on most cordial terms, and was received +in any salon which she chose to visit. Her unbounded +sympathy, tact, and common sense made her +friendship and counsel much in demand by great men. +One trait, however, her exclusiveness, caused much discomfort +in her life, such as bringing upon her the ill will of Napoleon.</p> + +<p>In her later years her physical beauty gradually developed +into a moral beauty. She was never a passionate +woman, but rather passively affectionate; purely unselfish, +her one desire always was to make people love her and to +be happy. Her friendship with Chateaubriand in the later +days was possibly the most ideal and noble in the history +of French women. He never failed to make his appearance +in the afternoon at the <i>abbaye</i>, driven in a carriage to +her threshold, where he was placed in an armchair and +wheeled to a corner by her fireplace. On one of those +visits, he asked her to marry him—he being seventy-nine, +she seventy-one—and bear his illustrious name. "Why +should we marry at our age?" Mme. Récamier replied. +"There is no impropriety in my taking care of you. If +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page376" id="page376"></a>[pg 376]</span> +solitude is painful to you, I am ready to live in the same +house with you. The world will do justice to the purity +of our friendship. Years and blindness give me this right. +Let us change nothing in so perfect an affection." Her +charm never deserted her, and she continued to the very +last to receive the greatest men and women of the day. +Still the reigning beauty and the queen of French society, +she died at the age of seventy-two, of cholera.</p> + +<p>There is a wide difference between Mme. Récamier and +Josephine, the two women of the Napoleonic era who exerted +so powerful an influence upon the social and political +fortunes of France. At the time of Napoleon's first success, +the former was only twenty-one, with Madonna-like +charms and attractiveness; the latter, thirty-five, but with +exquisite taste in dress and skill in beautifying. Possessed +of unstudied natural grace and elegance, and always attired +in perfect harmony with her beauty of face and form, she +could easily stand a comparison with the other beauties of +the day, all of whom studied her air and manner and +marked the aristocratic ease and poise of her real <i>noblesse</i> +of the old régime.</p> + +<p>"Josephine had a faded and brown complexion, which +she remedied with rouge and powder; her small mouth +concealed her bad teeth; her elegant figure and graceful +movements, refined expression, gentle voice and dignity, +all dexterously expressed with an air of coquetry, made +her delightful." The happiest part of the life of Napoleon +and Josephine was during their stay in Italy, when he +was absolutely faithful to her. As soon as Napoleon left +for Egypt, Talleyrand secured the erasure of many noble +names from the list of the proscribed exiles and soon gathered +about him a large number of Royalists, who immediately +began to pay court to Josephine. Napoleon had +enjoined her to keep her salon according to the means he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page377" id="page377"></a>[pg 377]</span> +provided and to entertain all influential people. To this +she was equal; and all men of elevated rank, the most +distinguished artists, men of letters, orators, and musicians, +found her salon an enjoyable retreat. No greater +galaxy of talent and genius ever assembled under the old +régime than was found there,—David, Lebrun, Lesueur, +Grétry, Cherubini, Méhul, J. Chénier, Hoffman, Ducis, +Désaugiers, Legouvé, and others.</p> + +<p>But her life was not without its difficulties. She was +always annoyed by the Bonaparte family, who were jealous +of her influence over Bonaparte. Exceedingly extravagant, +in fact a spendthrift, she was always in need of +money. Her virtues, however, easily offset these defects. +Josephine never offended anyone, never argued politics; +she made friends in all classes, thus conciliating Republicans +and aristocrats; therefore, her greatest influence was +as a mediator between two classes of society, by which +she, more than any other woman, unconsciously contributed +to the forming of a new social France. Napoleon +was wise enough to recognize such diplomacy, and encouraged +her to intrigue like an experienced diplomat. +She was the most efficient aid and means to his future +plans, and M. Saint-Amand says that without her he would +possibly never have become emperor. When he returned +from Egypt and found her away,—she had gone to meet +him, but missed him,—his suspicions were aroused as to +her fidelity, as she had been accused of many misdeeds. +When the reconciliation finally took place, after a day of +sobbing and pleading, she put to work all her tact and +knowledge of Parisian society to help her husband to the <i>coup d'état</i>.</p> + +<p>She was always of great service to Napoleon in his +relations with the men of whom he wished to make use; +fascinating them and drawing them over to him, she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page378" id="page378"></a>[pg 378]</span> +charmed such persons as Barras, Gohier, Fouché, Moreau, +Talleyrand, Sièyes, and others. By her skill she kept +hidden Napoleon's plans until all was ripe for them. She +was in the secret of the 18th Brumaire; "nothing was +concealed from her. In every conference at which she +was present, her discretion, gentleness, grace, and the +ready ingenuity of her delicate and cool intelligence were +of great service." During the Directorate she allayed +jealousies and appeased the differences between Republicans +and Royalists. As wife of the First Consul, she conciliated +the <i>émigrés</i>. At that time she was probably the +most important figure in France. The <i>émigrés</i> would call +at her salon in the morning so as to avoid meeting her +husband, with whom they refused to associate. Her task +was not easy, but she knew so well how to say a kind +word to all, and her tact was so great that when she became +empress the duties and requirements of that office +were natural to her. She won the Republicans by her +friendship with Fouché, the representative of the revolutionary +element—the aristocracy, by her dignity and +refinement. Her whole appearance had a peculiar charm.</p> + +<p>In 1803 the conditions began to be reversed. In 1796 +Josephine had worried Napoleon on account of her inconstancy; +she was then young and beautiful, while he was +penniless and ailing. In 1803 he was thirty-four and she +forty—he in his prime, wealthy and popular, she faded +and powerless, no longer able to give cause for suspicion. +However, nothing could make Napoleon reject her, because +she was useful to him. "Her kindness was a weapon +against her enemies, a charm for her friends, and the +source of her power over her husband." "I gained battles, +Josephine gained me hearts," are the well-known +words of Napoleon. As empress she had every wish +gratified, but she realized that a woman of her age could +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page379" id="page379"></a>[pg 379]</span> +not continue indefinitely her fascination over a man as +capricious as Napoleon. In the brilliant court of Fontainebleau +she held the highest place, and no one could suspect +the anxieties that tormented her, so cool and happy did she appear.</p> + +<p>Josephine did many things that later on gradually helped +reconcile Napoleon to a divorce: her pride, her aristocratic +tendencies, extravagance and lavishness; her objection to +the marriage of Hortense to General Duroc on the grounds +of humble birth; her religious tendencies; her difficulty in +keeping secrets, which led to highly tragic scenes between +her and Bonaparte; the encouragement she gave to the +jealousies and hatred of her brothers and sisters-in-law, +who maliciously slandered her at every opportunity; and finally, her barrenness.</p> + +<p>Her career after her divorce was honorable, and to-day +Josephine is still held in the highest esteem in France and +in the world at large. Her greatness is not in having been +the wife of a great emperor, but in knowing how to adapt +herself to the conditions in France into which she was +suddenly thrust. As a conciliator and a mediator between +two almost hopelessly irreconcilable classes of society, she +deserves a prominent place among great French women.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page381" id="page381"></a>[pg 381]</span> + + + + +<h2>Chapter XIV</h2> + +<h2>Women of the Nineteenth Century</h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page383" id="page383"></a>[pg 383]</span> + + +<p>Among the unusually large number of prominent French +women which the nineteenth century produced, possibly +not more than a half-dozen names will survive,—Mme. +de Staël, George Sand, Rosa Bonheur, Sarah Bernhardt, +Mme. Lebrun, and Rachel. This circumstance is, possibly, +largely due to the character of the century: its activity, +its varied accomplishments, its wide progress along so +many lines, its social development, its absolute freedom +and tolerance—all of which tended to open a field for +women more extensive than in any preceding century.</p> + +<p>The salon, in its old-time glory, became a thing of the +past; and the passing of this institution lessened, to a large +extent, the possibility of great influence on the part of +women. In short, the mode of life became, in the nineteenth +century, unfavorable to the absolute power exercised +by woman in former times. She was now on a level +with man, enjoying more privileges and being looked upon +more as the equal and possible rival of man. It became +necessary for woman to make and establish her own position, +whereas, under the old régime, her power and position +were established by custom, which regarded her vocation +as entirely distinct from that of man. The result was a +host of prominent and active women, but few really great +ones. Undoubtedly by far the most important and influential +was Madame de Staël, but her influence and work +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page384" id="page384"></a>[pg 384]</span> +are so intimately associated with her life that any account +of her which aims at giving a true estimate of her significance +must necessarily involve much biography.</p> + +<p>Her mother, the Mme. Necker of salon fame, endeavored +to bring up her daughter as the <i>chef d'œuvre</i> of natural +art,—pious, modest in her conversation, dignified in her +behavior, without pride or frivolity, but with wide knowledge. +In this ambition she partly succeeded. At the age +of eleven the young girl was present at receptions, where +she listened to discussions by such men as Grimm, Buffon, +Suard, and others. Her parents took her to the theatre, +and she would subsequently compose short stories on +what she had heard and seen. Rousseau became her +ideal, but she enjoyed all literature, showing an insatiable +desire for knowledge. From her early youth to her death, +her conversation was ever the result of her own impulse; +consequently, it was uncontrolled and lacked the seriousness +imparted by deep reflection.</p> + +<p>Interested in all things except Nature, which seemed +mournful to her, while solitude horrified her, society was +her delight. At the age of twenty she wrote: "A woman +must have nothing to herself and must find all power in +that which she loves." Her masculine ideal was a man of +society, of success, a hero of the Academy, a superior +genius, animated more by the desire to please than to be +useful. During these early years she wrote a great deal, +her work being mostly in the form of sentimental utterances, +but very little has survived her.</p> + +<p>When she reached marriageable age, many ambitions of +her parents were frustrated by her independent will. Pitt, +Mirabeau, Bonaparte, were considered, but destiny had in +store for her a Swedish ambassador, Staël-Holstein, a man +of good family, but with little money and plenty of debts, +who had been looking out for a comfortable dowry. In +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page385" id="page385"></a>[pg 385]</span> +1786, at the time when Marie Antoinette was at the height +of her popularity, this girl of twenty years was married to +a man seventeen years her senior, who had no affection +for her and whom she could not love.</p> + +<p>At Paris she immediately opened a salon, which soon +eclipsed, both in beauty and wit, that of her mother; there +her eloquence, enthusiasm, and conversational gifts captivated +all, but her imprudent language, the recklessness +of her conduct, her scorn of all etiquette, her outspoken +preferences, frightened away women and stunned men. +Her sympathy for her friends, Talleyrand, Narbonne, De +Montmorency, together with the approaching Revolution, +drew her into politics. When her father was called by the +nation to the control of its finances, his daughter shared his glories.</p> + +<p>Her salon was the centre of the élite and of all literary +and political discussions; but as the majority of its frequenters +were partisans of the English constitution and +expressed their views openly and freely, her enemies +became numerous. When Narbonne was made minister +of war, a great triumph for her and her party, the eloquence +of his reports was attributed to her, and when he +fell into disgrace she rescued him. However, the atmosphere +of Paris was too unfriendly, so she left in 1792 for +her home at Coppet, which became an asylum for all the +proscribed. When she visited England, she began a thorough +study of its mode of life, its customs, and its parliamentary +institutions. Upon her return to Coppet she +wrote <i>Réflexions sur le Procès de la Reine</i>, to excite the +commiseration of the judges. After the death of her +mother in 1794, she devoted her energies to the education of her two boys.</p> + +<p>After the violence of her love for Benjamin Constant, +who drew her back to politics, was somewhat cooled, she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page386" id="page386"></a>[pg 386]</span> +became an ardent Republican, writing her treatise <i>Réflexions +sur la Paix adressées a M. Pitt et aux Anglais</i>, which +facilitated her return in 1795 to Paris, where she found +her husband reinstalled as ambassador. Her hôtel in the +Rue de Bac was reopened, and she proceeded to form a +salon from the débris of society floating about in Paris. It +was an assembly of queer characters—elements of the old +and new régime, but not at all reconciled, converts of the +Jacobin party returning for the first time into society, +surrounded by the women of the old régime, using all +imaginable efforts and flattery to obtain the <i>rentrée</i> of a +brother, a son, or a lover; it was composed of the most +moderate Revolutionists, of former Constitutionalists, of +exiles of the Monarchy, whom she endeavored to bring +over to the Republican cause.</p> + +<p>Through the influence of Mme. de Staël, the decree of +banishment was repealed by the convention, thus opening +Paris to Talleyrand. In 1795 appeared her <i>Réflexions sur +la Paix Intérieure</i>; the aim of that work being to organize +the French Republic on the plan of the United States; it +strongly opposed the restoration of the Monarchy. The +Comité du Salut Publique accused her of double play, of +favoring intrigues, and, seeing the plots of the Royalists, +she adopted a new plan in her salon; politics being too +dangerous, she decided to devote herself more to literature. +In her book <i>Les Passions</i> she endeavored to crush her +calumniators; she wrote: "Condemned to celebrity, without +being able to be known I find need of making myself known by my writings."</p> + +<p>It was not safe for her to return to Paris until 1797, when +her friend Talleyrand was made minister of foreign affairs. +Her efforts to charm Napoleon led only to estrangement, +although he appointed her friend Benjamin Constant to +the tribunate; but when he publicly announced the advent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page387" id="page387"></a>[pg 387]</span> +of the tyrant Napoleon, she was accused of inciting her +friends against the government, and was again banished +to Coppet, where she wrote the celebrated work <i>De la +Littérature Considérée sous ses Rapports avec les Institutions +Sociales</i>, a singular mixture of satirical allusions to Napoleon's +government and cabals against his power; in that +work she announced, also, her belief in the regeneration +of French literature by the influence of foreign literature, +and endeavored to show the relations which exist between +political institutions and literature. Thus, she was the +first to bring the message of a general cosmopolitan relationship +of literatures and literary ideas.</p> + +<p>In 1802 she returned to Paris and began to show, on +every possible occasion, a morbid hatred for Napoleon. +When her father published his work <i>Dernières Vues de +Politique et de Finance</i>, expressing a desire to write against +the tyranny of one, after having fought so long that of the +multitude, the emperor immediately accused Mme. de Staël +of instilling these ideas into her father. Her salon and +forty of her friends were put into the interdict.</p> + +<p>After the death of her husband in 1802, she was free to +marry Benjamin Constant; and after refusing him, she +wrote her novel <i>Delphine</i> to give vent to her feelings. +The two famous lines found in almost every work on +Mme. de Staël may be quoted here, as they well express +her ideas on marriage: "A man must know how to brave +an opinion, and a woman must submit to it." This qualification +Benjamin Constant lacked, and at that time she +was unable to give the submission.</p> + +<p>Her travels in Germany, Russia, and Italy were one +great succession of triumphs; by her brilliancy, her wonderful +gift of conversation, and her quickness of comprehension, +she everywhere baffled and astounded those with +whom she conversed. Schiller declared that when she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page388" id="page388"></a>[pg 388]</span> +left he felt as though he were just convalescing after a long +spell of illness. One day she abruptly asked the staid old +philosopher Fichte: "M. Fichte, can you give me, in a +short time, an <i>aperçu</i> of your system of philosophy, and +tell me what you mean by your ego? I find it very obscure." +He began by translating his thoughts into French, +very deliberately. After talking for some ten minutes, in +the midst of a deep argument she interrupted him, crying +out: "Enough, M. Fichte, quite enough! I understand you +perfectly; I have seen your system in illustration—it is an +adventure of Baron Münchhausen." The philosopher assumed +a tragic attitude, and a spell of silence fell upon the audience.</p> + +<p>The result of her visit to Italy was her novel <i>Corinne</i>, +in which the problems of the destiny of women of genius—the +relative joys of love and glory—are discussed. This +work remained for a whole generation the standard of +love and ideals, and at the same time revealed Italy to the +French, After a second visit to Germany, she began to +labor seriously on her work on that country, in 1810 going +<i>incognito</i> to Paris to have it printed. Ten thousand copies, +ready for sale, were destroyed before reaching the public. +This work opened the German world to the French; it +applied, to a great nation, the doctrine of progress, defending +the independence and originality of nations, while +endeavoring to show that the future lay in the reciprocal +respect of the rights of people, declaring that nations are +not at all the arbitrary work of men or the fatal work of +circumstances, and that the submission of one people to +another is contrary to nature. She wished to make "poor +and noble Germany" conscious of its intellectual riches, +and to prove that Europe could obtain peace only through +the liberation of that country. The censors accused +her of lack of patriotism in provoking the Germans to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page389" id="page389"></a>[pg 389]</span> +independence, and of questionable taste in praising their +literature; consequently, the book was denounced, all the +copies obtainable were destroyed, and a vigorous search +for the manuscript was undertaken. After this episode, +her friends were not permitted to visit her at Coppet.</p> + +<p>In 1811 she was secretly married to a young Italian officer, +Albert de Rocca, a handsome man of twenty-three—she +was then forty-five. In him she realized the conditions +which she described in <i>Delphine</i>, namely, a man who +braved an opinion and prejudices; and she was ready to +submit herself to him, Coppet became the centre for +endless pleasures and fêtes; Mme. de Staël began to write +comedies and to forget Paris entirely. This blissful happiness +was suddenly checked by the emperor, who determined +to show his displeasure and also to give evidence of +his power by banishing Schlegel and exiling Mme. Récamier +and De Montmorency, who continued to visit Mme. +de Staël. Fear for the safety of her husband and children +influenced her to leave for Russia, where the czar ordered +all Russians to honor her as the enemy of Napoleon. Indeed, +she was everywhere received like a visiting queen.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1816 she returned to Paris, and spent +a number of months very happily in her old style—in the +society of the salon. Though devoured by insomnia, +enervated by the use of opium, and besieged by fear of +death, she accepted all invitations, and kept open house +herself, receiving in the morning, at dinner, and in the +evening; and though at night she paced the floor for hours +or tossed about on her bed until morning, she was yet +fresh for all the pleasures of the next day. But this mode +of existence was undermining her health.</p> + +<p>She endured this constant strain until one evening in +February, 1817, when, at a ball at the Duke of Decazes's, +in the midst of her pleasure, she was stricken with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page390" id="page390"></a>[pg 390]</span> +paralysis. At the Rue des Mathurins, she had all her friends +come and dine with her. Chateaubriand, who was one of +the party, entered her room upon one occasion and found +her suffering intensely, but able to raise herself and say: +"Bonjour, my dear Francis! I am suffering, but that does +not hinder me from loving you." She lingered until July, +when there ended a life which not only influenced but +even modified politics and the institutions of nations, +which exercised, by writings, an incalculable influence upon +French literature, opening paths which previously had not been trod.</p> + +<p>The most important of her works is <i>De l'Allemagne</i>, in +writing which her only desire was to make Germany +known to the French, to explain it by comparison with +France and to make her people admire it, and to open new +paths to poetry. According to her, Germany possessed +no classic prose, because the Germans attributed less importance +to style than did the French. German poetry, +however, had a distinct charm, being all sentiment and +poetry of the soul, touching and penetrating; whereas +French poetry was all <i>esprit</i>, eloquence, reason, raillery.</p> + +<p>In her treatise on the drama, she was the first in French +literature to use the term "romantic" and to define it; +but she had not invented the word, Wieland having used +it to designate the country in which the ancient Roman +literature flourished. Her definition was: "The classic +word is sometimes taken as a synonym of perfection. I +use it in another acceptance by considering classic poetry +that of the ancients and romantic poetry that which +holds in some way to the chivalresque traditions. The +literature of the ancients is a transplanted literature with +us; but romantic or chivalresque literature is indigenous. +An imitation of works coming from a political, social, and +religious midst different from ours means a literature +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page391" id="page391"></a>[pg 391]</span> +which is no longer in relation with us, which has never +been popular, and which will become less so every day. +On the contrary, the romantic literature is the only one +which is susceptible of being perfected, because it bears +its roots from our soil and is, consequently, the only one +which can be revived and increased. It expresses our +religion and recalls our history." This opinion alone +was enough to create a revolt among her contemporaries. +Almost all other interpretations of <i>Faust</i> were based on her conception.</p> + +<p>At the time of its publication, her book was considered +to have been written in a political spirit, but her motive +was far from that; it was the action of a generous heart, a +book as true and loyal to the French as was ever a book +written by a Frenchman. In her work <i>Considérations sur +la Révolution Française</i> she expressed the most advanced +ideas on politics and government. The Revolution freed +France and made it prosper; "every absolute monarch +enslaves his country, and freedom reigns not in politics +nor in the arts and sciences. Local and provincial liberties +have formed nations, but royalty has deformed the +nation by turning it to profit." Mme. de Staël found +nothing to admire in Louis XIV., and to Richelieu she +attributed the destruction of the originality of the French +character, of its loyalty, candor, and independence. In +that work she advocated education, which she considered +a duty of the government to the people. "Schools must +be established for the education of the poor, universities +for the study of all languages, literatures, and sciences;" +these ideas took root after her death.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Staël was a finished writer; because of its +force, openness, and seriousness, her style might be +termed a masculine one; she wrote to persuade and, as a +rule, succeeded. Her grave defect seemed to be in her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page392" id="page392"></a>[pg 392]</span> +inspirations, which were always superior to her ideas, and +in her sentiments, which she invariably turned to passions.</p> + +<p>Few French writers have exercised such a great influence +in so many directions, and it became specially marked +after her death; while living, the gossip against her salon +prevented her opinions from being accepted or taking root. +Her political influence was great at her time and lasted +some twenty years. Directly influenced by her were +Narbonne, De Montmorency, Benjamin Constant, and the +Duc Victor de Broglie, her son-in-law. By her and her +father, the Globe, the orators of the Academy and the +tribune, and the politicians of the day, were inspired. +The greatest was Guizot, who interpreted and preached in +the spirit of Mme. de Staël. In history her influence was +equally felt, especially in Guizot's <i>Essays on the History of +France</i>, and in his <i>History of Civilization</i>, wherein civilization +was considered as the constant progress in justice, in +society, and in the state. To her Guizot owed his idea of +<i>Amour dans le Mariage</i>. <i>The Historical Essays on England</i>, +by Rémusat, an ardent admirer of hers, was largely influenced +by her <i>Considérations</i>, while Tocqueville's <i>Ancien +Régime</i> contains many of her ideas.</p> + +<p>Literature owes even more to her works, which encouraged +the study of foreign literatures; almost all translations +were due to her works. Michelet, Quinet, Nodier, Victor +Hugo, so much influenced by German literature, owe their +knowledge of it mainly to her. Too much credit may be +given her when it is stated that all Mignons, Marguerites, +Mephistopheles, etc., proceeded indirectly from her work, +as well as nearly all descriptions of travels. Lamartine +undoubtedly used her <i>De l'Allemagne</i> and her <i>Des Passions</i> +freely. The heroine of <i>Jocelyn</i> is called but a daughter of +<i>Delphine</i>, and the same author's terrible invective against +Napoleon was inspired by her.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page393" id="page393"></a>[pg 393]</span> + +<p>Mme. de Staël had an indestructible faith in human +reason, liberty, and justice; she believed in human perfection +and in the hope of progress. "From Rousseau, she +received that passionate tenderness, that confidence in the +inherent goodness of man. Believing in an intimate communion +of man with God, her religion was spirit and sentiment +which had no need of pomp or symbols, of an +intermediary between God and man." She was not so +much a great writer as she was a great thinker, or rather +a discoverer of new thoughts. By instituting a new criticism +and by opening new literatures to the French, she +succeeded in emancipating art from fixed rules and in +facilitating the sudden growth of romanticism in France.</p> + +<p>In her life, her great desire was to spread happiness and +to obtain it, to love and to be loved in return. In politics +it was always the sentiment of justice which appealed to +her, in literature it was the ideal. Sincerity was manifested +in everything she said and did. Pity for the misery +of her fellow beings, the sentiment of the dignity of man and +his right to independence, of his future grandeur founded +on his moral elevation, the cult of justice, and the love of +liberty—such were the prevailing thoughts of her life and works.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Staël's chief influence will always remain in +the domain of literature; she was the first French writer +to introduce and exercise a European or cosmopolitan influence +by uniting the literatures of the north and the south +and clearly defining the distinction between them. By +the expression of her idea that French literature had decayed +on account of the exclusive social spirit, and that +its only means of regeneration lay in the study and absorption +of new models, she cut French taste loose from +traditions and freed literature from superannuated conventionalities. +Also, by her idea that a common civilization +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page394" id="page394"></a>[pg 394]</span> +must be fostered, a union of the eastern and western +ideals, and that literature must be the common expression +thereof, whose object must be the amelioration of humanity, +morally and religiously, she gave to the world at large +ideas which are only now being fully appreciated and +nearing realization. In her novels she vigorously protested +against the lot of woman in modern society, against +her obligation to submit everything to opinion, against the +innumerable obstacles in the way of her development—thus +heralding George Sand and the general movement +toward woman's emancipation. France has never had a +more forceful, energetic, influential, cosmopolitan, and at +the same time moral, writer than Mme. de Staël.</p> + +<p>The events in the life of George Sand had comparatively +little influence upon her works, which were mainly the expression +of her nature. As a young girl, she was strongly +influenced by her mother, an amiable but rather frivolous +woman, and by her grandmother, a serious, cold, ceremonious +old lady. Calm and well balanced, and possessing +an ardent imagination, she followed her own inclinations +when, as a girl of sixteen, she was married to a man for +whom she had no love. After living an indifferent sort of +life with her husband for ten years, they separated; and +she, with her children, went to Paris to find work.</p> + +<p>After a number of unsuccessful efforts of a literary nature, +she wrote <i>Indiana</i>, which immediately made her +success. Her articles were sought by the journals, and +from about 1830 her life was that of the average artist +and writer of the time. Her relations with Chopin and +Alfred de Musset are too well known to require repetition. +After 1850 she retired to her home, the Château +de Nohant, where she enjoyed the companionship of her +son, her daughter-in-law, and her grandchildren; she died there in 1876.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page395" id="page395"></a>[pg 395]</span> + +<p>To appreciate her works, it is more important to study +her nature than her career. This has been admirably +done by the Comte d'Haussonville. George Sand is said +to have possessed a dual nature, which seemed to contradict +itself, but which explains her works—a dreamy and +meditative, and a lively, frolicsome nature; the first might +throw light upon her religious crisis, the second, upon her +social side. The combination of these two phases caused +the numerous conflicts of opinions and doctrines, extending +her knowledge and inciting her curiosity; the not +infrequent result was an intellectual and moral bewilderment +and the deepest melancholy, from which she with +great difficulty freed herself. Because of these peculiarities +she was constantly agitated, her strongly reflective +nature keeping her awake to all important questions of the day.</p> + +<p>Her intellectual development may be traced in her works, +which, from 1830 to 1840, were personal, lyrical, spontaneous—a +direct flow from inspiration, issuing from a common +source of emotions and personal sorrows, being the +expressions of her habitual reflections, of her moral agitations, +of her real and imaginary sufferings. These first +works were a protest against the tyranny of marriage, +and expressed her conception of a woman in love—a love +profound and naïve, exalted and sincere, passionate and +chaste: such is pictured in <i>Indiana</i>. In <i>Valentine</i> she +portrays the impious and unfortunate marriage that the +sacrilegious conventions of the world have imposed, and +the results issuing therefrom. In all of these early works +are seen an inventiveness, a lively <i>allure</i>, an exquisite +style, a freshness and brilliancy, <i>finesse</i> and grace; but +they show an undisciplined talent, giving vent to feelings +that her unbounded enthusiasm would not allow to be +checked—there is emotion, but no system.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page396" id="page396"></a>[pg 396]</span> + +<p>In her second period, from about 1840 to 1848, her reflection +and emotion combined produced a system and +theories. The higher problems took stronger hold on her +as she matured; philosophy and religious science in their +deeper phases excited her emotive faculties, which threw +out a mere echo of what she had heard and studied. Her +inspiration thus came from without, throwing out those +endless declamatory outbursts which we meet in <i>Consuelo</i> +and in <i>Comtesse de Rudolstadt</i>. These theory-novels +were soon followed by novels dealing with social problems, +now and then relieved by delightful idyllics such +as <i>La Mare au Diable</i> and <i>François le Champi</i>. This +third tendency M. d'Haussonville considers the least successful.</p> + +<p>After 1850 there appeared from her pen a series of historical +novels, especially fine in the portrayal of characters, +variety of situations, movement, and intrigues; these are +free from all social theories; in these, reverting to her first +tendencies, she is at her best in elegance and clearness, in +analysis of characters. Thus does the work of George +Sand change from a personal lyricism, in which the emotions, +held in check during a solitary and dreamy youth, +burst forth in brilliant and passionate fiction, to a theoretical, +systematic novel, finally reverting to the first efforts, +but tempered by experience and age.</p> + +<p>M. d'Haussonville says that in the strict sense of the +word George Sand had no doctrines, but possessed a powerful +imagination that manifested itself at various periods +of her life. Whatever the principles might have been at +first, they were made concrete under a sentiment with +her, for her heart was her first inspiration, her teacher in +all things. The ideas are thus analyzed through her sentiments +under a threefold inspiration,—love, passion for +humanity, sentiment for Nature.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page397" id="page397"></a>[pg 397]</span> + +<p>According to other novels, love is the unique affair of +life; without love we do not really live, before love enters +life we do not live, and after we cease to love there is +no object in life. This love comes directly from God, of +whom George Sand had ideas peculiar to herself. The +majority of her characters have a sort of mystic, exalted +love, looking upon it as a sacred right, making of themselves +great priests rather than genuine human lovers. +This love, issuing from God, is sacred; therefore, the +yielding to it is a pious act; he who resists commits sacrilege, +while he who blames others for it is impious; for +love legitimizes itself by itself. Such a theory naturally +led her to a sensual ideality, and her heroes rose to the +highest phase of fatalism and voluptuousness; this impelled +her to protest against the social laws. Jacques says:</p> + +<p>"I do not doubt at all that marriage will be abolished if +humankind makes any progress toward justice and reason; +a bond more human and none the less sacred will replace +this one and will take care of the children which may +issue from a man and woman, without ever interfering +with the liberty of either. But men are too coarse and +women are too cowardly to ask for a law more noble than +the iron law which binds them—beings without conscience—and +virtue must be burdened with heavy chains."</p> + +<p>Yet, in none of her books did George Sand ever submit +any theories as to how such children would be cared for; +apparently, such a difficulty never troubled her, since +almost all of the children of her books die of some disease, +while to one—Jacques—she gives the advice to take his +own life, so that his wife may be free to love elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Her social theories are marked by an exaltation of sentiment, +a weakness, an incoherency in conception, caused +by her ardent love for theories and ideas, but which, in +her passionate sentiment and her loyal enthusiasm, she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page398" id="page398"></a>[pg 398]</span> +always confounds and confuses. From early youth she +manifested an immense goodness, a profound tenderness, +and a deep compassion for human misery. She rarely +became angry, even though she suffered cruelly. Her +own law of life and her message to the world was—be +good. The only strong element within her, she said, was +the need of loving, which manifested itself under the form +of tenderness and emotion, devotion and religious ecstasy; +and when this faith was shaken, doubt and social disturbances overwhelmed her.</p> + +<p>Throughout life her consolation was Nature. "It was +half of her genius and the surest of her inspirations." No +other French novelist has been able to "express in words +the lights and shades, harmonies and contrasts, the magic +of sounds, the symphonies of color, the depth and distances +of the woods, the infinite movement of the sea and +the sky—the interior soul of Nature, that vibrates in everything +and everybody." With Lamartine and Michelet, she +has best reflected and expressed the dreams and hopes and +loves of the first half of the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>George Sand saw Nature, lived in her, sympathized with +her, and loved her as did few other French writers; therefore, +she showed more memory than pure imagination in +her work, for she always found Nature more beautiful +in actuality than she could picture her mentally, while +other great writers, like Lamartine, saw her less beautiful +in reality than in their imagination; hence, they were disappointed +in Nature, while for George Sand she was the +truest friend. The world will always be interested in her +descriptions of Nature, because with Nature she always +associated something of human life—a thought or a sentiment; +her landscapes belonged to her characters—there is +always a soul living in them, for, to George Sand, man +and Nature were inseparable.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page399" id="page399"></a>[pg 399]</span> + +<p>Thus, every novel of this authoress consists of a situation +and a landscape, the poetic union of which nothing +can mar. "Man associated with Nature and Nature with +man is a great law of art; no painter has practised it +with instinct more delicate or sure." Because Nature, in +her early youth, was her inspiration, guide, even her God, +she returned to her later in life. M. Jules Lemaître wrote +that her works will remain eternally beautiful, because +they teach us how to love Nature as divine and good, and +to find in that love peace and solace. There are many +parts of her work which show as detailed, accurate, and +realistic descriptions as those by Balzac. She constantly +employed two elements—the fanciful and the realistic.</p> + +<p>George Sand never studied or knew how to compose a +work, how to preserve the unity of the subject or the +unity in tone in characters; hence, there was nothing +calculated or premeditated—everything was spontaneous. +No preparation of plan did she ever think of—a mode of +procedure which naturally resulted in a negligent style +and caused the composition to drag. Her inspiration +seemed to go so far, then she resorted to her imagination, +to the chimerical, forcing events and characters. "There +are many defects in the style—such as the sentimental +part, the romanesque in the violent expression of sentiments +or invention of situations, the exaggerated improbabilities +of events, the excessive declamation; but how +many compensating qualities are there to offset these defects!"</p> + +<p>Her method of writing was very simple. It was the +love of writing that impelled her, almost without premeditation, +to put into words her dreams, meditations, and +chimeras under concrete and living forms. Yet, by the +largeness of her sympathy and the ardor of her passions, +by the abundant inventions of stories, and by the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page400" id="page400"></a>[pg 400]</span> +harmonious word-flow, she deserves to be ranked among +the greatest writers of France. Her career, taken as a +whole, is one of prodigious fecundity—a literary life that +has "enchanted by its fictions or troubled by its dreams" +four or five generations. Never diminishing in quality or +inspiration, there are surprises in every new work.</p> + +<p>No doubt George Sand has, for a generation or more, +been somewhat forgotten, but what great writer has not +shared the same fate? When the materialistic age has +passed away, many famous writers of the past will be +resurrected, and with them George Sand; for her novels, +although written to please and entertain, discuss questions +of religion, philosophy, morality, problems of the heart, +conscience, and education,—and this is done in such a +dramatic way that one feels all to be true. More than +that, her characters are all capable of carrying out, to the +end, a common moral and general theme with eloquence seldom found in novels.</p> + +<p>An interesting comparison might be made between Mme. +de Staël and George Sand, the two greatest women writers +of France. Both wrote from their experience of life, and +fought passionately against the prejudices and restrictions +of social conventions; both were ideal natures and were +severely tried in the school of life, profiting by their experiences; +both possessed highly sensitive natures, and +suffered much; both were keenly enthusiastic and sympathetic, +with pardonable weaknesses; both lived through +tragic wars; both evinced a dislike for the commonplace +and strove for greater freedom, but for different publics, +after unhappy marriages, both rose up as accusers against +the prevalent system of marrying young girls. But Mme. +de Staël was a virtuoso in conversation, a salon queen, +and her happiness was to be found in society alone; while +George Sand found her happiness in communion with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page401" id="page401"></a>[pg 401]</span> +Nature. This explains the two natures, their sufferings, +their joys, their writings.</p> + +<p>The greatest punishment ever inflicted upon Mme. de +Staël was her exile, for it deprived her of her social life, a +fact of which the emperor was well aware. Her entire +literary effort was directed to describing her social life +and the relation of society to life. "She belongs to the +moralists and to the writers who wrote of society and +man—social psychologists." Not poetic or artistic by nature, +but with an exceptional power of observation, she +shows on every side the influence of a pedagogical, literary, +and social training; she was the product of an artificial culture.</p> + +<p>George Sand, on the contrary, was a product of Nature, +reared in free intercourse and unrestrained relation with +her genius and Nature. A powerful passion and a mighty +fantasy made of her a poetess and an artist. These two +qualities were manifested in her intense and deep feeling +for the beauty of Nature, in her power of invention, in a +harmonious equilibrium between idealism and realism. +Her fantasy overbalanced her reason, impeding its development +and thus relegating it to a secondary rôle. +"She is possibly the only French writer who possessed +no <i>esprit</i> (in the sense that it is used in French +society)—that playful, epigrammatic, querulous wit of conversation."</p> + +<p>She never enjoyed communion with others for any length +of time, or the companionship of anyone for a long period; +the companions of which she never tired were the fields +and woods, birds and dogs; therefore, she enjoyed those +people most who were nearer her ideals, the peasants and +workmen, and these she best describes. Thus, her whole +creation is one of instinct rather than of reason, as it +was with Mme. de Staël. George Sand was a genius, a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page402" id="page402"></a>[pg 402]</span> +master-product of Nature, while Mme. de Staël was a talent, +a consummate work of the art of modern culture; she reflects, +while George Sand creates from impulse; the latter +was a true poetess, communing with Nature, while the +banker's daughter was an observing thinker, communicating +with society—but both were great writers.</p> + +<p>Intimately associated with George Sand is Rosa Bonheur, +in all of whose canvases we find the same aim, the +same spirit, the same message, that are found in so many +of the novels of George Sand. They were two women +who have contributed, through different branches, masterworks +that will be enjoyed and appreciated at all times. +"It would be difficult not to speak of <i>La Mare au Diable</i> +and the <i>Meunier d'Angibault</i> when recalling the fields +where Rosa Bonheur speeds the plow or places the oxen +lowering their patient heads under the yoke."</p> + +<p>In the evening, at home, while other members of the +family were at work, one member read aloud to the rest; +and George Sand was a favorite author with the Bonheur +group of artists. It was while reading <i>La Mare au Diable</i> +that Rosa conceived the idea of the work which by some +critics is pronounced her masterpiece, <i>Plowing in Nivernais</i>. +The artist's deep sympathy was aroused by her love of +Nature, which no contemporary novelist expressed or appreciated +as did George Sand. In all her works, and +throughout the long life of the artist, there is absolutely +nothing unhealthy or immoral to be found. The novelist +had theories which were inspired by her passion, and these +became unhealthy at times; she belongs first of all to +France, while Rosa Bonheur belongs first of all to the +world, her message reaching the young and old of every +clime and every people. The novelist is to be associated +with the artist by virtue of her exquisite, simple, and +wholesome peasant stories.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page403" id="page403"></a>[pg 403]</span> + +<p>The entire Bonheur family were artists, and all were +moral and genuinely sympathetic. As a young girl, Rosa +manifested an intense love for Nature, sunshine, and +the woods; always independent in manners, she used to +caricature her teachers; and while walking out into the +country, she would draw, with charcoal or in sand, any +objects that met her eye. Her father was not long in +detecting her talent. She was wedded to her art from the +very beginning, showing no taste for or interest in any +other subject. As soon as her father gave permission to +follow art as a profession, she devoted all her energy +to advancing herself in what she felt to be her life's work. +For four years the young girl could be seen every day at +the Louvre, copying the great masters and receiving principally +from them her ideas of coloring and harmony, while +from her father she learned her technique. After she had +mastered these two principles, she decided to specialize in pastoral nature.</p> + +<p>From that time her whole life was given up to the study +of Nature and animals. Not able to study those near by, +she procured a fine Beauvais sheep, which served as her +model for two years. From the very first her work showed +accuracy, purity, and an intuitive perception of Nature, +and these qualities soon placed her among the foremost +artists of the time. Her struggle for reputation and glory +was not a long and arduous one, for after 1845 her fame +was established—she was then but twenty-three years +old; and after 1849, having exhibited some thirty pictures, +her reputation had become European.</p> + +<p>In order to be able to study her models with greater +ease and freedom from the annoyance and coarse incivilities +of the workmen at the slaughter houses, farmyards, +and markets that she was in the habit of visiting, she adopted the garb of man.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page404" id="page404"></a>[pg 404]</span> + +<p>Her honors in life were many, though always unsought. +The Empress Eugénie, while regent during the absence +of Napoleon III., went in person to her château and put +around her neck the ribbon of the decoration of the Grand +Cross of the Legion of Honor, then for the first time bestowed +upon woman for merit other than bravery and +charity. The Emperor Maximilian of Mexico conferred +upon her the decoration of San Carlos; the King of Belgium +created her a chevalier of his order, the first honor +won by a woman; the King of Spain made her a Commander +of the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic; and +President Carnot created her an Officer of the Legion of Honor.</p> + +<p>With qualities such as she possessed, Rosa Bonheur +could not fail to attain immortality. Her success was due +in no small degree to the scientific instruction which she +received when a mere child; having been taught, from the +very first, how to paint directly from a model, she supplemented +this training by a period of four years of copying +great masters. In the latter period she studied Paul +Potter's work rather slavishly, but was individual enough +to combine only the best in him with the best in herself; +this gave her an originality such as possibly no other +animal painter ever possessed—-not even Landseer, who is +said to be "stronger in telling the story than in the manner of telling it."</p> + +<p>Rosa Bonheur was too independent and original to follow +any particular school or master, for her only inspiration +and guide were her models, always living near by and +upon intimate terms with her. Thus, in all her paintings, +we instinctively feel that she painted from conviction, +from her own observation, nothing being added for mere +artistic effect. To some extent her pictures impress one +as a perfect French poem in which there is no superfluous +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page405" id="page405"></a>[pg 405]</span> +word, in which no word could be changed without destroying +the effect of the whole; thus, in her paintings +there is not a superfluous brush stroke; everything is +necessary to the telling of the story; but she excels the +perfect poem, for, in French literature, it seldom has a +message distinct from its technique, while her pictures +breathe the very essence of sympathy, love, and life. +We feel that she thoroughly knew her subjects as a connoisseur; +but her animals do not impress one as the production +of an artist who knew them as do horse traders +and cattle dealers, who know their stock from the purely +physical standpoint; the animals of this artist are from the +brush of one who was familiar with their habits, who loved +them, had lived with and studied them—who knew and +appreciated their higher qualities. Rosa Bonheur most harmoniously +united two essential elements in art—a scientific +as well as sympathetic conception of her subject. Possibly +this is the reason that her pictures appeal to animal +lovers throughout the world.</p> + +<p>As was stated, she was independent, hence kept aloof +from the corruptions of contemporary French art and its +technique lovers, always pursuing an even tenor in her +art and never permitting one of her pictures to leave +her studio in a crude or unfinished state. In all her long +career she kept her original sketches, never parting with +one, in spite of the most tempting offers; and this explains +the fact that the work of her later years exhibits the freshness +and other qualities of that of her youth. Thus, her +art has gained by her experience, even though her best +work was done between about 1848 and 1860, and is especially +marked by its excellence in composition, the anatomy, +the breadth of touch, the harmony of coloring, and +the action, although it is said to lack the spontaneity, the +originality, and the highly imaginative quality which are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page406" id="page406"></a>[pg 406]</span> +at their best in <i>The Horse Fair</i>; the same qualities seem to +have been possessed by many of her contemporaries, such as Troyon.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding these apparent defects, Rosa Bonheur +stands for something higher in art than do most of her contemporaries. +She was not influenced by the skilled and +often corrupt technicians; she perfected her technique by +study of the old masters and learned her art from Nature; +wisely keeping free from the ornamental, gorgeous, and +highly imaginative and exaggerated historical Romantic +school, in French art she stands out almost alone with +Millet. Whatever may be said of the more virile and +masculine art of other great animal painters, Rosa Bonheur, +by her truthfulness, her science, her close association +and intimate communion with her animal world, by +the glad and healthy vigor which her paintings breathe, +has taught the world the great lesson that there are intelligence, +will, love, and even soul, in animals.</p> + +<p>Her art and life inspired respect and admiration; we +have nothing to regret, nothing to conceal; we desire to +love her for her animals, and we must esteem her for her +grand devotion to her art and family, for her purity and +charity, for her kindness to and love for those in the lower +walks of life, for her goodness and honesty. An illustration +of the last quality may be taken from her dealings +with art collectors. After having offered her <i>Horse Fair</i>, +which she desired should remain in France, to her own +town for twelve thousand francs, she sold it for forty +thousand francs to Mr. Gambert, but with the condition +which she thus expressed: "I am grateful for your giving +me such a noble price, but I do not like to feel that I have +taken advantage of your liberality. Let us see how we +can combine matters. You will not be able to have an +engraving made from so large a canvas; suppose I paint you +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page407" id="page407"></a>[pg 407]</span> +a small one of the same subject, of which I will make you a +present." Naturally, the gift was accepted, and the smaller +canvas now hangs in the National Gallery of London.</p> + +<p>In all her dealings she showed this kindness and uprightness, +sympathy and honesty. Although numberless orders +were constantly coming to her, she never let them hurry +her in her work. She was, possibly, the highest and +noblest type—certainly among great French women—of +that strong and solid virtue which constitutes the backbone +and the very essence of French national strength. +The reputation of Rosa Bonheur has never been blemished +by the least touch of petty jealousy, hatred, envy, vanity, +or pride—and, among all great French women, she is one +of the few of whom this may be said. She won for herself +and her noble art the genuine and lasting sympathy of the world at large.</p> + +<p>The only woman artist in France deserving a place +beside Rosa Bonheur belongs properly under the reign of +Louis XVI., although she lived almost to the middle of the +nineteenth century. At the age of twenty, Mme. Lebrun +was already famous as the leading portrait painter; this +was during the most popular period of Marie Antoinette—1775 +to 1785. In 1775, but a young girl, admitted to all +the sessions of the Academy as recognition of her portraits +of La Bruyère and Cardinal Fleury, she made her life +unhappy and gave her art a serious blow by consenting to +marry the then great art critic and collector of art, Lebrun. +His passion for gambling and women ruined her fortune +and almost ended her career as an artist. Her own conduct +was not irreproachable.</p> + +<p>Mme. Lebrun will be remembered principally as the +great painter of Marie Antoinette, who posed for her more +than twenty times. The most prominent people of Europe +eagerly sought her work, while socially she was welcomed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page408" id="page408"></a>[pg 408]</span> +everywhere. Her famous suppers and entertainments in +her modestly furnished hôtel, at which Garat sang, Grétry +played the piano, and Viotti and Prince Henry of Prussia +assisted, were the events of the day. Her reputation as a +painter of the great ladies and gentlemen of nobility, and +her entertainments, naturally associated her with the nobility; +hence, she shared their unpopularity at the outbreak +of the Revolution and left France.</p> + +<p>It is doubtful whether any artist—certainly no French +artist—ever received more attention and honors, or was +made a member of so many art academies, than Mme. +Lebrun. It would be difficult to make any comparison +between her and Rosa Bonheur, their respective spheres +of art being so different. Only the future will speak as to +the relative positions of each in French art.</p> + +<p>In the domain of the dramatic art of the nineteenth century, +two women have made their names well known +throughout Europe and America,—Rachel, and Sarah Bernhardt, +both tragédiennes and both daughters of Israel. +While Rachel was, without question, the greatest tragédienne +that France ever produced, excelling Bernhardt in +deep tragic force, she yet lacked many qualities which our +contemporary possesses in a high degree. She had constantly +to contend with a cruel fate and a wicked, grasping +nature, which brought her to an early grave. The wretched +slave of her greedy and rapacious father and managers, +who cared for her only in so far as she enriched them by +her genius and popularity, hers was a miserable existence, +which detracted from her acting, checked her development, +and finally undermined her health.</p> + +<p>After her critical period of apprenticeship was successfully +passed and she was free to govern herself, she rose +to be queen of the French stage—a position which she +held for eighteen years, during which she was worshipped +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page409" id="page409"></a>[pg 409]</span> +and petted by the whole world. As a social leader, she was +received and made much of by the great ladies of the Faubourg +Saint-Germain. Her taste in dress was exquisite in +its simplicity, being in perfect harmony with the reserved, +retiring, and amiable actress herself.</p> + +<p>Possibly no actress, singer, or other public woman ever +received such homage and general recognition. With all +her great qualities as an actress, vigor, grandeur, wild, +savage energy, superb articulation, irreproachable diction, +and a marvellous sense of situations, she lacked the one +quality which we miss in Sarah Bernhardt also—a true +tenderness and compassion. As a tragédienne she can be +compared to Talma only. Her greed for money soon ended +her brilliant career; unlike her sister in art, she amassed a +fortune, leaving over one million five hundred thousand francs.</p> + +<p>Compared with Bernhardt, Rachel is said to have been +the greater in pure tragedy, but she did not possess as +many arts of fascination. There are many points of +similarity between the two actresses: Rachel was at +times artificial, wanting in tenderness and depth, while +at times she was superhuman in her passion and emotion, +and often put more into her rôle than was intended; +and the acting of Sarah Bernhardt has the same +characteristics. Rachel, however, was much more subject +to moods and fits of inspiration than is Bernhardt—especially +was she incapable of acting at her best on +evenings of her first appearance in a new rôle. Her +critical power was very weak in comparison with her intellectual +power, the reverse being true of her modern rival. +Rachel's greatest inspiration was <i>Phèdre</i>, and in this rôle +Bernhardt "is weak, unequal. We see all the viciousness +in <i>Phèdre</i> and none of her grandeur. She breaks herself +to pieces against the huge difficulties of the conception +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page410" id="page410"></a>[pg 410]</span> +and does not succeed in moving us.... Rachel was +the mouthpiece of the gods; no longer a free agent, she +poured forth every epithet of adoration that Aphrodite +could suggest, clambering up higher and higher in the intensity +of her emotions, whilst her audience hung breathless, +riveted on every word, and dared to burst forth in +thunders of applause only after she had vanished from their sight."</p> + +<p>Both of these artists were children of the lower class, +and struggled with a fate which required grit, tenacity, and +determination to win success. The artist of to-day is no +social leader—"never the companion of man, but his slave +or his despot." It is entirely her physical charms and the +outward or artificial requisites of her art that make her +what she is. According to Mr. Lynch, her tragedy "is +but one of disorder, fury, and folly—passions not deep, but +unbridled and hysterical in their intensest display. Her +<i>forte</i> lies in the ornate and elaborate exhibition of rôles," +for which she creates the most capricious and fantastic +garbs. She is a great manager,—omitting the financial +part,—quite a writer, somewhat of a painter and sculptor, +throwing her money away, except to her creditors, adored +by some and execrated by others. Her care of her physical +self and her utter disregard for money have undoubtedly +contributed to her long and brilliant career; rest and +idleness are her most cruel punishments. All nervous +energy, never happy, restless, she is a true <i>fin de siècle</i> product.</p> + +<p>Among the large number of women who wielded influence +in the nineteenth century, either through their salons +or through their works, Mme. Guizot was one of the most +important as the author of treatises on education and as a +moralist. As an intimate friend of Suard, she was placed, +as a contributor, on the <i>Publiciste</i>, and for ten years wrote +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page411" id="page411"></a>[pg 411]</span> +articles on morality, society, and literature which showed a +varied talent, much depth, and justness. Fond of polemics, +she never failed to attack men like La Harpe, De Bonald, +etc., thus making herself felt as an influence to be reckoned +with in matters literary and moral.</p> + +<p>As Mme. Guizot, she naturally had a powerful influence +upon her husband, shaping his thoughts and theories, for +she immediately espoused his principles and interests. In +1821, at the age of forty-eight, she began her literary +work again, after a period of rest, writing novels in which +the maternal love and the ardent and pious sentiments of a +woman married late in life are reflected. In her theories +of education she showed a highly practical spirit. Sainte-Beuve +said that, next to Mme. de Staël, "she was the +woman endowed with the most sagacity and intelligence; +the sentiment that she inspires is that of respect and +esteem—and these terms can only do her justice."</p> + +<p>Mme. de Duras, in her salon, represented the Restoration, +"by a composite of aristocracy and affability, of +brilliant wit and seriousness, semi-liberal and somewhat +progressive." Her credit lies in the fact that, by her keen +wit, she kept in harmony a heterogeneous mixture of +social life. She wrote a number of novels, which are, for +the most part, "a mere delicate and discreet expression of her interior life."</p> + +<p>Mme. Ackermann, German in her entire makeup, was, +among French female writers, one of the deepest thinkers +of the nineteenth century. A true mystic, she was, from +early youth, filled with ardent, dreamy vagaries, to which +she gave expression in verse—poems which reflect a pessimism +which is rather the expression of her life's experiences, +and of twenty-four years of solitude after two +years of happy wedded state, than an actual depression and +a discouraging philosophy of life. Her poetry shows a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page412" id="page412"></a>[pg 412]</span> +vigor, depth, precision of form, and strength of expression +seldom found in poetry of French women.</p> + +<p>One of the most conspicuous figures in the latter half of +the nineteenth century is Mme. Adam,—Juliette Lamber,—an +unusual woman in every respect. In 1879 she founded +the <i>Nouvelle Revue</i>, on the plan of the <i>Revue des Deux +Mondes</i>, for which she wrote political and literary articles +which showed much talent. In politics she is a Republican +and something of a socialist, a somewhat sensational—but +modestly sensational—figure. She has been called "a +necessary continuator of George Sand." Her salon was the +great centre for all Republicans and one of the most brilliant +and important of this century. In literature her name +is connected with the movement called neo-Hellenism, the +aim of which seems to have been to inspire a love and +sympathy for the art, religion, and literature of ancient +and modern Greece. In her works she shows a deep +insight into Greek life and art. Her name will always +be connected with the Republican movement in France; +as a salon leader, <i>femme de lettres</i>, journalist, and female +politician, no woman is better known in France in the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>A woman who might be called the rival of Mme. Adam, +but whose activity occurred much earlier in the century, +was Mme. Emile de Girardin,—Delphine Gay,—who ruled, +at least for a short time, the social and literary world of +Paris at her hôtel in the Rue Chaillot. Her very early +precocity, combined with her rare beauty, made her famous. +In 1836, after having written a number of poems which +showed a weak sentimentality and a quite mannered emotion, +she founded the <i>Courrier Français</i>, for which she wrote +articles on the questions of the day—effusions which were +written upon the spur of the moment and were very unreliable. +Her dramas were hardly successful, although they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page413" id="page413"></a>[pg 413]</span> +were played by the great Rachel. Her present claim to +fame is based upon the brilliancy of her salon.</p> + +<p>The future will possibly remember Mme. Alphonse +Daudet more as the wife of the great Daudet than as a +writer, although, according to M. Jules Lemaître, she possessed +the gift of <i>écriture artiste</i> to a remarkable degree. +According to him, sureness and exactness and a striking +truth of impressions are her characteristics as a writer. +She exercised a most wholesome power over Alphonse +Daudet, taking him away from bad influences, giving him +a home, dignity, and happiness, and saving him from brutality +and pessimism; she was his guardian and censor; +she preserved his grace and noble sentiments. The nature +of her relations to him should ensure the preservation of her name to posterity.</p> + +<p>We are accustomed to give Gyp—Sybille Gabrielle Marie +Antoinette de Riquetti de Mirabeau, Comtesse de Martel +de Janville—little credit for seriousness or morality, associating +her with the average brilliant, flippant novelists, +who write because they possess the knack of writing in a +brilliant style. Her object is to show that man, in a civilized +state in society, is vain, coarse, and ridiculous. She +paints Parisian society to demonstrate that the apparently +fortunate ones of the world are not to be envied, that they +are miserable in their so-called joys and ridiculous in their +pleasures and their elegance. She has described the most +<i>risqué</i> situations and the most delightful women, but she +gives us to understand that the latter are not to be loved. +The vanity of the social world might be called her text.</p> + +<p>Mme. Blanc—Thérèse de Solms—is known to us to-day +as the first woman to reveal English and American authors +and habits to her contemporaries. By advocating American +customs she has done much to ameliorate the condition +of French girls, by giving them a freer intercourse +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page414" id="page414"></a>[pg 414]</span> +with young men and permitting them to see more of the +world before entering upon married life.</p> + +<p>Mme. Gréville, who died recently, deserves a place +among the prominent women writers of France. No +<i>femme de lettres</i> ever received more honors, prizes, and +decorations than she; a number of her writings were +crowned by the Academy. A member of the Société des +Gens de Lettres, with all her literary work she was a +domestic woman, keeping aloof from all feminist movements. +Her husband, Professor Durand, to show his +esteem and admiration for her, adopted her name—a wise +act, for it may preserve his name with that of his talented wife.</p> + +<p>Many other names might be cited, but, as the list of +prominent women is practically without end, owing to the +indefiniteness of the term "prominent," we shall close +with these names, which have become familiar in both continents.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Women of Modern France, by Hugo P. 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