Part 11 (2/2)
”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 friends.h.i.+p and esteem than was ever before had. Have pity on me and lead me away---and love me still, if you can.”
_La Princesse de Cleves_ 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.”
M. d'Haussonville regards the novels of Mmes. de Charriere, 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 pa.s.sion and duty, with the victory on the side of virtue, emanate more or less from it.”
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 surpa.s.s 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.”
Mme. de La Fayette is one of the very rare French writers that have succeeded in a.n.a.lyzing love, pa.s.sion, and moral duty, without becoming monotonous, vulgar, brutal, or excessively realistic. Her creations contain the most minute a.n.a.lyses 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.
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 Houlieres 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 impa.s.sioned 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:
”I am tall, neither fat nor thin, of a very fine and easy figure.
I have a good mien, arms and hands not beautiful, 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 pa.s.sionate, and that, added to my birth, may well make my enemies tremble; but I have, also, a n.o.ble 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.”
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:
”I esteem Mme. Dacier infinitely. Our s.e.x 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 a.s.sociated 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.”
Tanneguy-Lefevre, 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.
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 a.s.sistant preceptor to the dauphin, even going so far as to request her to a.s.sist 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.
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. Lefevre. This union was spoken of by her contemporaries as ”the marriage of Greek and Latin.”
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 _esprit_, it is Mme. Dacier who is the father.”
Besides her translations of the plays of Plautus, all of Terence, the _Clouds_ and _Plutus_ of Aristophanes, she published her translation of the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ (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.
Mme. Dacier thoroughly appreciated the grandeur of Homer and knew the almost insurmountable difficulties of a translation; therefore, when in 1714 the _Iliad_ 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 G.o.d she wrote her famous _Des Causes de la Corruption du Gout_ (Causes of the Corruption of Taste), a long defence of Homer, to which La Motte replied in his _Reflexions de la Critique_ This rekindled the whole controversy, and sides were immediately formed.
Mme. Dacier was not politic; although she sustained her ideas well and displayed much erudition and depth of reason, she is said to have injured her cause by the violence of her polemic. Her immoderate tone and bitter a.s.saults 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 _esprit_, while that of Mme. Dacier was of a _homme savant_. He translated the _Iliad_ 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.”
Mme. Dacier died in 1720. ”She was a _savante_ 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.
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 n.o.bles of France. 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.”
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.
She appeared at a supper given by the king, and, by the brilliancy of her beauty and _esprit_, 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.
Sainte-Beuve said that Mme. de Caylus perfectly exemplified what was called urbanity--”politeness in speech and accent as well as in _esprit_.” In her youth she was famous for her extraordinary acting in the performance, at Saint-Cyr, of Racine's _Esther_. Mme. de Sevigne wrote: ”It is Mme. de Caylus who makes Esther.” Her brief and witty _Souvenirs_ (Memoirs), showing marvellous finesse in the art of portraiture, made her name immortal. M. Saint-Amand describes her work thus:
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