The Women of the French Salons

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THE WOMEN OF THE FRENCH SALONS

By Amelia Gere Mason

PREFACE

It has been a labor of love with many distinguished Frenchmen to
recall the memories of the women who have made their society so
illustrious, and to retouch with sympathetic insight the features
which time was beginning to dim. One naturally hesitates to
enter a field that has been gleaned so carefully, and with such
brilliant results, by men like Cousin, Sainte-Beuve, Goncourt,
and others of lesser note. But the social life of the two
centuries in which women played so important a role in France is
always full of human interest from whatever point of view one may
regard it. If there is not a great deal to be said that is new,
old facts may be grouped afresh, and old modes of life and
thought measured by modern standards.

In searching through the numerous memoirs, chronicles, letters,
and original manuscripts in which the records of these centuries
are hidden away, nothing has struck me so forcibly as the
remarkable mental vigor and the far-reaching influence of women
whose theater was mainly a social one. Though society has its
frivolities, it has also its serious side, and it is through the
phase of social evolution that was begun in the salons that women
have attained the position they hold today. However beautiful,
or valuable, or poetic may have been the feminine types of other
nationalities, it is in France that we find the forerunners of
the intelligent, self-poised, clear-sighted, independent modern
woman. It is possible that in the search for larger fields the
smaller but not less important ones have been in a measure
forgotten. The great stream of civilization flows from a
thousand unnoted rills that make sweet music in their course, and
swell the current as surely as the more noisy torrent. The
conditions of the past cannot be revived, nor are they desirable.
The present has its own theories and its own methods. But at a
time when the reign of luxury is rapidly establishing false
standards, and the best intellectual life makes hopeless
struggles against an ever aggressive materialism, it may be
profitable as well as interesting to consider the possibilities
that lie in a society equally removed from frivolity and
pretension, inspired by the talent, the sincerity, and the moral
force of American women, and borrowing a new element of
fascination from the simple and charming but polite informality
of the old salons.

It has been the aim in these studies to gather within a limited
compass the women who represented the social life of their time
on its most intellectual side, and to trace lightly their
influence upon civilization through the avenues of literature and
manners. Though the work may lose something in fullness from the
effort to put so much into so small a space, perhaps there is
some compensation in the opportunity of comparing, in one
gallery, the women who exercised the greatest power in France for
a period of more than two hundred years. The impossibility of
entering into the details of so many lives in a single volume is
clearly apparent. Only the most salient points can be
considered. Many who would amply repay a careful study have
simply been glanced at, and others have been omitted altogether.
As it would be out of the question in a few pages to make an
adequate portrait of women who occupy so conspicuous a place in
history as Mme. De Maintenon and Mme. De Stael, the former has
been reluctantly passed with a simple allusion, and the latter
outlined in a brief resume not at all proportional to the
relative interest or importance of the subject.

I do not claim to present a complete picture of French society,
and without wishing to give too rose-colored a view, it has not
seemed to me necessary to dwell upon its corrupt phases. If
truth compels one sometimes to state unpleasant facts in
portraying historic characters, it is as needless and unjust as
in private life to repeat idle and unproved tales, or to draw
imaginary conclusions from questionable data. The conflict of
contemporary opinion on the simplest matters leads one often to
the suspicion that all personal history is more or less disguised
fiction. The best one can do in default of direct records is to
accept authorities that are generally regarded as the most
trustworthy.

This volume is affectionately dedicated to the memory of my
mother, who followed the work with appreciative interest in its
early stages, hut did not live to see its conclusion.

Amelia Gere Mason
Paris, July 6, 1891

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. SALONS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Characteristics of French Woman--Gallic Genius for Conversation
--Social Conditions--Origin of the Salons--Their Power--Their
Composition--Their Records

CHAPTER II. THE HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET
Mme. De Rambouillet--The Salon Bleu--Its Habitues--Its
Diversions--Corneille--Balzac--Richelieu--Romance of the
Grand Conde--the Young Bossuet--Voiture--The Duchesse de
Longueville--Angelique Paulet--Julie d'Angennes--Les
Precieuses Ridicules--Decline of the Salon--Influence upon
Literature and Manners

CHAPTER III. MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDERY AND THE SAMEDIS
Salons of the Noblesse--"The Illustrious Sappho"--Her Romances--The
Samedis--Bons Mots of Mme. Cornuel--Estimate of Mlle. De Scudery

CHAPTER IV. LA GRANDE MADEMOISELLE
Her Character--Her Heroic Part in the Fronde--Her Exile--Literary
Diversions of her Salon--A Romantic Episode

CHAPTER V. A LITERARY SALON AT PORT ROYAL
Mme. De Sable--Her Worldly Life--Her Retreat--Her Friends--Pascal--
The Maxims of La Rochefoucauld--Last Days of the Marquise

CHAPTER VI. MADAME DE SEVIGNE
Her Genius--Her Youth--Her Unworthy Husband--Her Impertinent
Cousin--Her love for her Daughter--Her Letters--Hotel de
Carnavalet--Mme. Duplessis Guengaud--Mme. De Coulanges--The
Curtain Falls

CHAPTER VII. MADAME DE LA FAYETTE
Her Friendship with Mme. De Sevigne--Her Education--Her
Devotion to the Princess Henrietta--Her Salon--La Rochefoucauld--
Talent as a Diplomatist--Comparison with Mme. De Maintenon--Her
Literary Work--Sadness of her Last Days--Woman in Literature

CHAPTER VIII. SALONS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Characteristics of the Eighteenth Century--Its Epicurean
Philosophy--Anecdote of Mme. Du Deffand--The Salon an Engine of
Political Power--Great Influence of Woman--Salons Defined--Literary
Dinners--Etiquette of the Salons--An Exotic on American Soil

CHAPTER IX. AN ANTECHAMBER OF THE ACADEMIE FRANCAISE
The Marquise de Lambert--Her "Bureau d'Esprit"--Fontenelle--
Advice to her Son--Wise Thoughts on the Education of Women--Her
Love of Consideration--Her Generosity--Influence of Women upon
the Academy

CHAPTER X. THE DUCHESSE DU MAINE
Her Capricious Character--Her Esprit--Mlle. De Launay--Clever
Portrait of her Mistress--Perpetual Fetes at Sceaux--Voltaire
and the "Divine Emilie"--Dilettante Character of this Salon

CHAPTERXI. MADAME DE TENCIN AND MADAM DU CHATELET
An Intriguing Chanoinesse--Her Singular Fascination--Her Salon--Its
Philosophical Character--Mlle. Aisse--Romances of Mme. De
Tencin--D'Alembert--La Belle Emilie--Voltaire--the Two Women
Compared

CHAPTER XII. MADAME GEOFFRIN AND THE PHILOSOPHERS
Cradles of the New Philosophy--Noted Salons of this Period--
Character of Mme. Geoffrin--Her Practical Education--Anecdotes
of her Husband--Composition of her Salon--Its Insidious
Influence--Her Journey to Warsaw--Her Death

CHAPTER XIII. ULTRA PHILOSOPHICAL SALONS--MADAME D'EPINAY
Mme. De Graffigny--Baron D'Holbach--Mme. D'Epinay's Portrait of
Herself--Mlle. Quinault--Rousseau--La Chevrette--Grimm--Diderot--
The Abbe Galiani--Estimate of Mme. D'Epinay

CHAPTER XIV. SALONS OF THE NOBLESSE--MADAME DU DEFFAND
La Marechale de Luxenbourg--The Temple--Comtesse de Boufflers--Mme.
Du Dufand--Her Convent Salon--Rupture with Mlle. De Lespinasse--Her
Friendship with Horace Walpole--Her Brilliancy
and her Ennui

CHAPTER XV. MADEMOISELLE DE LESPINASSE
A Romantic Career--Companion of Mme. Du Deffand--Rival Salons--
Association with the Encyclopedists--D'Alembert--A Heart Tragedy--
Impassioned Letters--A Type Unique in her Age

CHAPTER XVI. THE SALON HELVETIQUE
The Swiss Pastor's Daughter--Her Social Ambition--Her Friends
Mme. De Marchais--Mme. D'Houdetot--Duchesse de Lauzun--Character of
Mme. Necker--Death at Coppet--Close of the Most Brilliant Period of
the Salons

CHAPTER XVII. SALONS OF THE REVOLUTION--MADAME ROLAND
Change in the Character of the Salons--Mme. De Condorcet--Mme.
Roland's Story of her Own Life--A Marriage of Reason--Enthusiasm
for the Revolution--Her Modest Salon--Her Tragical Fate

CHAPTER XVIII. MADAM DE STAEL
Supremacy of Her Genius--Her Early Training--Her Sensibility--A
Mariage de Convenance--Her Salon--Anecdote of Benjamin Constant--
Her Exile--Life at Coppet--Secret Marriage--Close of a Stormy Life

CHAPTER XIX. SALONS OF THE EMPIRE AND RESTORATION--MADAME RECAMIER
A Transition period--Mme. De Montesson--Mme. De Genus--Revival
of the Literary Spirit--Mme. De Beaumont--Mme. De Remusat--Mme. De
Souza--Mme. De Duras--Mme. De Krudener--Fascination of
Mme. Recamier--Her Friends--Her Convent Salon--Chateaubriand
Decline of the Salon

CHAPTER I. SALONS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Characteristics of French Woman--Gallic Genius for Conversation
--Social Conditions--Origin of the Salons--Their Power--Their
Composition--Their Records.

"Inspire, but do not write," said LeBrun to women. Whatever we
may think today of this rather superfluous advice, we can readily
pardon a man living in the atmosphere of the old French salons,
for falling somewhat under the special charm of their leaders.
It was a charm full of subtle flattery. These women were usually
clever and brilliant, but their cleverness and brilliancy were
exercised to bring into stronger relief the talents of their
friends. It is true that many of them wrote, as they talked, out
of the fullness of their own hearts or their own intelligence,
and with no thought of a public; but it was only an incident in
their lives, another form of diversion, which left them quite
free from the dreaded taint of feminine authorship. Their
peculiar gift was to inspire others, and much of the fascination
that gave them such power in their day still clings to their
memories. Even at this distance, they have a perpetual interest
for us. It may be that the long perspective lends them a certain
illusion which a closer view might partly dispel. Something also
may be due to the dark background against which they were
outlined. But, in spite of time and change, they stand out upon
the pages of history, glowing with an ever-fresh vitality, and
personifying the genius of a civilization of which they were the
fairest flower.

The Gallic genius is eminently a social one, but it is, of all
others, the most difficult to reproduce. The subtle grace of
manner, the magic of spoken words, are gone with the moment. The
conversations of two centuries ago are today like champagne which
has lost its sparkle. We may recall their tangible forms--the
facts, the accessories, the thoughts, even the words, but the
flavor is not there. It is the volatile essence of gaiety and
wit that especially characterizes French society. It glitters
from a thousand facets, it surprises us in a thousand delicate
turns of thought, it appears in countless movements and shades of
expression. But it refuses to be imprisoned. Hence the
impossibility of catching the essential spirit of the salons. We
know something of the men and women who frequented them, as they
have left many records of themselves. We have numerous pictures
of their social life from which we may partially reconstruct it
and trace its influence. But the nameless attraction that held
for so long a period the most serious men of letters as well as
the gay world still eludes us.

We find the same elusive quality in the women who presided over
these reunions. They were true daughters of a race of which Mme.
De Graffigny wittily said that it "escaped from the hands of
Nature when there had entered into its composition only air and
fire. They certainly were not faultless; indeed, some of them
were very faulty. Nor were they, as a rule, remarkable for
learning. Even the leaders of noted literary salons often lacked
the common essentials of a modern education. But if they wrote
badly and spelled badly, they had an abundance of that delicate
combination of intellect and wit which the French call ESPRIT.
They had also, in superlative measure, the social gifts which
women of genius reared in the library or apart from the world,
are apt to lack. The close study of books leads to a knowledge
of man rather than of men. It tends toward habits of
introspection which are fatal to the clear and swift vision
required for successful leadership of any sort. Social talent is
distinct, and implies a happy poise of character and intellect;
the delicate blending of many gifts, not the supremacy of one.
It implies taste and versatility, with fine discrimination, and
the tact to sink one's personality as well as to call out the
best in others. It was this flexibility of mind, this active
intelligence tempered with sensibility and the native instinct of
pleasing, that distinguished the French women who have left such
enduring traces upon their time. "It is not sufficient to be
wise, it is necessary also to please," said the witty and
penetrating Ninon, who thus very aptly condensed the feminine
philosophy of her race. Perhaps she has revealed the secret of
their fascination, the indefinable something which is as
difficult to analyze as the perfume of a rose.

A history of the French salons would include the history of the
entire period of which they were so prominent a factor. It would
make known to us its statesmen and its warriors; it would trace
the great currents of thought; it would give us glimpses of every
phase of society, from the diversions of the old noblesse, with
their sprinkling of literature and philosophy, to the familiar
life of the men of letters, who cast about their intimate
coteries the halo of their own genius. These salons were closely
interwoven with the best intellectual life of more than two
hundred years. Differing in tone according to the rank, taste,
or character of their leaders, they were rallying points for the
most famous men and women of their time. In these brilliant
centers, a new literature had its birth. Here was found the fine
critical sense that put its stamp on a new poem or a new play.
Here ministers were created and deposed, authors and artists were
brought into vogue, and vacant chairs in the Academie Francaise
were filled. Here the great philosophy of the eighteenth century
was cradled. Here sat the arbiters of manners, the makers of
social success. To these high tribunals came, at last, every
aspirant for fame.

It was to the refinement, critical taste, and oral force of a
rare woman, half French and half Italian, that the first literary
salons owed their origin and their distinctive character. In
judging of the work of Mme. De Rambouillet, we have to consider
that in the early days of the seventeenth century knowledge was
not diffused as it is today. A new light was just dawning upon
the world, but learning was still locked in the brains of
savants, or in the dusty tomes of languages that were practically
obsolete. Men of letters were dependent upon the favors of noble
but often ignorant patrons, whom they never met on a footing of
equality. The position of women was as inferior as their
education, and the incredible depravity of morals was a
sufficient answer to the oft-repeated fallacy that the purity of
the family is best maintained by feminine seclusion. It is true
there were exceptions to this reign of illiteracy. With the
natural disposition to glorify the past, the writers of the next
generation liked to refer to the golden era of the Valois and the
brilliancy of its voluptuous court. Very likely they exaggerated
a little the learning of Marguerite de Navarre, who was said to
understand Latin, Italian, Spanish, even Greek and Hebrew. But
she had rare gifts, wrote religious poems, besides the very
secular "Heptameron" which was not eminently creditable to her
refinement, held independent opinions, and surrounded herself
with men of letters. This little oasis of intellectual light,
shadowed as it was with vices, had its influence, and there were
many women in the solitude of remote chateaux who began to
cultivate a love for literature. "The very women and maidens
aspired to this praise and celestial manna of good learning,"
said Rabelais. But their reading was mainly limited to his own
unsavory satires, to Spanish pastorals, licentious poems, and
their books of devotion. It was on such a foundation that Mme.
De Rambouillet began to rear the social structure upon which her
reputation rests. She was eminently fitted for this role by her
pure character and fine intelligence; but she added to these the
advantages of rank and fortune, which gave her ample facilities
for creating a social center of sufficient attraction to focus
the best intellectual life of the age, and sufficient power to
radiate its light. Still it was the tact and discrimination to
select from the wealth of material about her, and quietly to
reconcile old traditions with the freshness of new ideas, that
especially characterized Mme. De Rambouillet.

It was this richness of material, the remarkable variety and
originality of the women who clustered round and succeeded their
graceful leader, that gave so commanding an influence to the
salons of the seventeenth century. No social life has been so
carefully studied, no women have been so minutely portrayed. The
annals of the time are full of them. They painted one another,
and they painted themselves, with realistic fidelity. The lights
and shadows are alike defined. We know their joys and their
sorrows, their passions and their follies, their tastes and their
antipathies. Their inmost life has been revealed. They animate,
as living figures, a whole class of literature which they were
largely instrumental in creating, and upon which they have left
the stamp of their own vivid personality. They appear later in
the pages of Cousin and Sainte-Beuve, with their radiant features
softened and spiritualized by the touch of time. We rise from a
perusal of these chronicles of a society long passed away, with
the feeling that we have left a company of old friends. We like
to recall their pleasant talk of themselves, of their companions,
of the lighter happenings, as well as the more serious side of
the age which they have illuminated. We seem to see their faces,
not their manner, watch the play of intellect and feeling, while
they speak. The variety is infinite and full of charm.

Mme. de Sevigne talks upon paper, of the trifling affairs of
every-day life, adding here and there a sparkling anecdote, a bit
of gossip, a delicate characterization, a trenchant criticism, a
dash of wit, a touch of feeling, or a profound thought. All this
is lighted up by her passionate love of her daughter, and in this
light we read the many-sided life of her time for twenty-five
years. Mme. de La Fayette takes the world more seriously, and
replaces the playful fancy of her friend by a richer vein of
imagination and sentiment. She sketches for us the court of
which Madame (title given to the wife of the king's brother) is
the central figure--the unfortunate Princes Henrietta whom she
loved so tenderly, and who died so tragically in her arms. She
writes novels too; not profound studies of life, but fine and
exquisite pictures of that side of the century which appealed
most to her poetic sensibility. We follow the leading characters
of the age through the ten-volume romances of Mlle. de Scudery,
which have mostly long since fallen into oblivion. Doubtless the
portraits are a trifle rose-colored, but they accord, in the
main, with more veracious history. The Grande Mademoiselle
describes herself and her friends, with the curious naivete of a
spoiled child who thinks its smallest experiences of interest to
all the world. Mme. de Maintenon gives us another picture, more
serious, more thoughtful, but illuminated with flashes of
wonderful insight.

Most of these women wrote simply to amuse themselves and their
friends. It was only another mode of their versatile expression.
With rare exceptions, they were not authors consciously or by
intention. They wrote spontaneously, and often with reckless
disregard of grammar and orthography. But the people who move
across their gossiping pages are alive. The century passes in
review before us as we read. The men and women who made its
literature so brilliant and its salons so famous, become vivid
realities. Prominent among the fair faces that look out upon us
at every turn, from court and salon, is that of the Duchesse de
Longueville, sister of the Grand Conde, and heroine of the
Fronde. Her lovely blue eyes, with their dreamy languor and
"luminous awakenings," turn the heads alike of men and women, of
poet and critic, of statesman and priest. We trace her brief
career through her pure and ardent youth, her loveless marriage,
her fatal passion for La Rochefoucauld, the final shattering of
all her illusions; and when at last, tired of the world, she bows
her beautiful head in penitent prayer, we too love and forgive
her, as others have done. Were not twenty-five years of
suffering and penance an ample expiation? She was one of the
three women of whom Cardinal Mazarin said that they were "capable
of governing and overturning three kingdoms." The others were
the intriguing Duchesse de Chevreuse, who dazzled the age by her
beauty and her daring escapades, and the fascinating Anne de
Gonzague, better known as the Princesse Palatine, of whose
winning manners, conversational charm, penetrating intellect, and
loyal character Bossuet spoke so eloquently at her death. We
catch pleasant glimpses of Mme. Deshoulieres, beautiful and a
poet; of Mme. Cornuel, of whom it was said that "every sin she
confessed was an epigram"; of Mme. de Choisy, witty and piquante;
of Mme. de Doulanges, also a wit and femme d'esprit.

Linked with these by a thousand ties of sympathy and affection
were the worthy counterparts of Pascal and Arnauld, of Bossuet
and Fenelon, the devoted women who poured out their passionate
souls at the foot of the cross, and laid their earthly hopes upon
the altar of divine love. We follow the devout Jacqueline Pascal
to the cloister in which she buries her brilliant youth to die at
thirty-five of a wounded conscience and a broken heart. Many a
bruised spirit, as it turns from the gay world to the mystic
devotion which touches a new chord in its jaded sensibilities,
finds support and inspiration in the strong and fervid sympathy
of Jacqueline Arnauld, better known as Mere Angelique of Port
Royal. This profound spiritual passion was a part of the intense
life of the century, which gravitated from love and ambition to
the extremes of penitence and asceticism.

A multitude of minor figures, graceful and poetic, brilliant and
spirituelles, flit across the canvas, leaving the fragrance of an
exquisite individuality, and tempting one to extend the list of
the versatile women who toned and colored the society of the
period. But we have to do, at present, especially with those who
gathered and blended this fresh intelligence, delicate fancy,
emotional wealth, and religious fervor, into a society including
such men as Corneille, Balzac, Bossuet, Richelieu, Conde, Pascal,
Arnault, and La Rochefoucauld--those who are known as leaders of
more or less celebrated salons. Of these, Mme. de Rambouillet
and Mme. de Sable were among the best representative types of
their time, and the first of the long line of social queens who,
through their special gift of leadership, held so potent a sway
for two centuries.

CHAPTER II. THE HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET
Mme. de Rambouillet--The Salon Bleu--Its Habitues--Its
Diversions--Corneille--Balzac--Richelieu--Romance of the
Grand Conde--The Young Bossuet--Voiture--The Duchesse de
Longueville--Angelique Paulet--Julie d'Angennes--Les
Precieuses Ridicules--Decline of the Salon--Influence upon
Literature and Manners

The Hotel de Rambouillet has been called the "cradle of polished
society," but the personality of its hostess is less familiar
than that of many who followed in her train. This may be partly
due to the fact that she left no record of herself on paper. She
aptly embodied the kind advice of Le Brun. It was her special
talent to inspire others and to combine the various elements of a
brilliant and complex social life. The rare tact which enabled
her to do this lay largely in a certain self-effacement and the
peculiar harmony of a nature which presented few salient points.
She is best represented by the salon of which she was the
architect and the animating spirit; but even this is better known
today through its faults than its virtues. It is a pleasant task
to clear off a little dust from its memorials, and to paint in
fresh colors one who played so important a role in the history of
literature and manners.

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