



Produced by Theresa Armao





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, but
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

CHAPTER XI. 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