MADAME DE SEVIGNE AND THE mom 0F
awry AND M’P‘EARANCES

This}: £0! flu: Dug!“ of Ph. D.
MICHIGAN STATE UNNERWY
Robert N. Nicalich
1-965

 

”WWWKAh. J .‘l‘ _' . ,“*._'__.~_

_ LIBRARY f
' Michigans cc 5

(I University r w

L .

This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

MADAME DE SEVIGNE AND 111E PROBLEM OF I
REALITY AND APPEARANCES r
i

presented by

Robert N. Nicolich

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph.D. degree in French Language and
Literature

Major professor

Date 5 August 1965 f

 

0-169

 

ABSTRACT

MADAME DE SEVIGNE AND THE PROBLEM OF
REALITY AND APPEARANCES

By Robert N. Nicolich

Jean Rousset, in studying the French Baroque,

has pointed out that the problem of etre versus paraitre,

 

of reality versus appearances, is central to our

‘ This study

understanding of the seventeenth century.
of Madame de Sévigné, then, considers her response to
the above problem. It begins with a brief discussion
of her participation in honnéte society. It observes
the discrepancy that occurred between artfully composed,
exterior, honnéte appearances and an interior figmmg fig
2123, Madame de Sévigné's reaction to such circumstances
is shown to be a dual one.

Since she was highly emotional and often lacked
self-control, she found it difficult to present a

collected facade to society. She was often indiscreet,

and contemporaries like Tallemant de Réaux and Madame de

Robert N. Nicolich

La Fayette noticed this. In so far as she craved
sincerity and Openness in the communication of true
feeling toward others, she is comparable to Moliere's

Alceste in Le Misanthrope. In this connection her

 

Alceste-like temptation to withdraw from society when
unable to c0pe with it, is brought out.

Desiring sincerity, she was well-equipped to see
beneath the false mask of social appearances. She
actually used the term "mask" to indicate the dichotomy
of reality and appearances, and even composed her own
phrase to convey this idea: 'Wes dessous des cartes."

Her observations,however, did not cause her to
alter her life, for she took pleasure in merely discovering
reality beneath appearances. 0n the other hand, she
took delight in admiring composed appearances in such
pe0ple as Fouquet, Pomponne, Madame de Grignan. She
could observe them as personnages ostentatoires rather
than as personnages intimes and thus could accept the

mask of honneteté. Whereas at the outset she seemed

 

another Alceste, she was also capable of playing the
role of the compromising Philinte when faced with the
most complicated intrigues.

If she could do so, it was because she was a womanl

of vast imagination who could avoid lOgic in life and

Robert N. Nicolich

take refuge in fantasy by emphasizing appearances over
reality. She easily saw greatness and beauty in almost
everything about her. She saw great events as spectacles
and constantly compared real-life situations with the
dramatic, fictional, mythological and imaginative
creations of literature. The real and the fictional
became confused in her mind and reality became magnifi-
cently poetic for her. Her conception of life was
an exalted and aesthetic one, made possible by her
relatively isolated, unrealistic, aristocratic existence.
However, merely exterior show did not necessarily
evoke her admiration. In the most ideal situations,
as in the case of Turenne, she looked for a perfect
correspondence of outward appearances with an interior
reality of the moral order ("il faut étre si l'on
veut paraitre"). Nonetheless, she thereby placed just
as much stress on external impressions as on internal
reality and her view correSponds to the Cornelian
concept of the hero who represents great virtue admirably
displayed. Her approach to religion was just as
imaginative. The God she envisioned was a God of power,
ostentatiously asserting Himself in the surprising and

fantastic workings of His Providence.

Robert N. Nicolich
iv

Madame de Sévigné's contradictory attitude toward
Louis XIV now becomes understandable. While she resented
his politics and mistresses, she was impressed by his
great actions because she was a woman of imagination,
in love with Spectacle. She was the sort of person
who could accept a theatrical existence on the lavish
stage which the seventeenth century offered her:
magnificent ceremony, sumptuous palaces, a world of
wigs which focused its attention on the greatest actor

of all: Louis XIV.

ILa littérature de l'age baroque en France: Circé et
Te paon (Paris, T9SA), p. 2267

MADAME DE SEVIGNE AND THE PROBLEM OF
REALITY AND APPEARANCES

By

\ '1‘ J

r
v
l

L
Robert N. Nicolich

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Romance Languages

l965

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Chapter Page
I. Madame de Sévigné in honnete society. . 8
II. Her plea for sincerity. . . . . . . . . 23
III. Madame de Sévigné as another
Alceste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
IV. "Les dessous des cartes”: Reality
beneath the "mask" of appearances . . 67
V. Appearances over reality. 82
VI. Madame de Sévigné in the role of
Philinte. . O C O O C O O O O O O O O O ‘06
VII. A Solution in Aesthetics. . . . . . . . l3]
VIII. Her view of Louis XIV: synthesis
of her attitudes. . . . . . . . . . . . l80
IX. Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
X. BibIIOgraphy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2l6

INTRODUCTION

In a fairly recent article on Madame de Sévigné,
Francois Mauriac commented on the sincere declarations
of sentiment he found in her Letters. He remarked
that she never seems to pretend to possess sentiments
she does not really have, and, he interestinglyafids
that "Le vrai est que ce siécle a perruque est celui

”1 In this statement

oh l'homme s'est le moins masqué,
Mauriac touches on the problem of reality versus
appearances, of ”being” versus ”appearing”, of etre

versus paraftre. Studying the French Baroque, Jean

 

Rousset saw this problem as central to the seventeenth
century. He said, ”Avec le débat de l'étre et du
paraitre, on touche au coeur du XVIIe siécle."2
Perhaps Francois Mauriac has been guilty of too
hasty a generalization in judging all the men of a
century by what might well be their exceptional

contemporaries, the writers who possessed a more

penetrating vision capable of piercing beneath a

IFrancois Mauriac, "Notre Marquise au Coeur Secret:
la Dame au Nez Carre,” Figaro Litteraire, January
l2, I957, P. 1.

2La littératgre de l'age barogue en France; Circé
et_Te paon, (Paris,'l9SH), p. 226

 

 

superficial mask of social existence. The very fact
that seventeenth-century man should sport a wig might
be much more indicative of a frame of mind quite
willing to accept existence on what could be called

a "theatrical" level of spectacular appearances. For
is not the wig very similar in essence to what we
today would consider part of a theatrical wardrobe?
Its very purpose was that of ostentation rather than
practicality. Moreover, it might be more than a

mere coincidence that so many theorists of honneteté
in seventeenth-century France should have devoted
great efforts to advocating a highly artificial

existence for an honnéte homme in society.

 

Madame de Sévigné's contemporaries were very much
concerned with the problem of reality and appearances.
Her best friend, Madame de La Fayette, has Madame de
Chartres say in her Princesse de Cleves: "Si vous
jugez sur les apparences en ce lieu-ci, vous serez
souvent trompée: ce qui paraTt n'est presque jamais
Ia vérité."3 Albert Pingaud sees this as a criticism

by Madame de La Fayette of contemporary aristocratic

3Maris Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de
La Fayette, Romans et Nouvelles, ed. Emile Magne
(Paris: Garnier, T96T), p. 265.

 

society, which because of its narrow, leisurely
atmosphere Spent its time observing itself. The

basic law of this society was ”to appear.” Having
little to do, one observed and was observed by one's
neighbor: "Prisonniers d'un theatre dont ils sont a

la fois les acteurs et les Spectateurs...les personnages
de cette société ne songent qu'a dissimuler leurs
intéréts véritables. Chacun cache ce que les autres
cherchent a découvrir.”l+ We can see this well
exemplified in Saint-Simon's description of the court

at the death of Monseigneur, the Grand Dauphin.' Saint
Simon, keeping perfectly composed, observed and pierced
through the exterior appearances of each courtier's
sorrow in order to estimate true motivations: ”il

ne fallait qu'avoir des yeux...pour distinguer les
intéréts peints sur les visages...’ ceux-ci tranquilles
a eux-mémes, les autres pénétrés de douleur ou de

0 o A
graVIté et d'attentlon sur eux-memes, pour cacher...

leur joie."5 La Rochefoucauld was aware of such things

hBernard Pingaud, Mme de La Fayette par elle-méme
(Paris, I959), p. 84.

5Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon, Mémoires, ed.
Gonzague True, 7 vols. (Paris: Gallimard,‘Ethions
de’la Pleiade, l9A8-l96l), Ill, 8I8.

 

when he wrote: "il n'y a presque point d'homme qui
veuille, en toutes choses, se laisser voir tel qu'il
est.... Au lieu d'étre en effet ce qu'ils veulent
paraTtre, ils cherchent a paraTtre ce qu'ils ne sont
pas."6

Like other contemporary writers, Madame de Sévigné
often reflected on the idea of a false social mask
concealing a person's true feelings. Sévigné
criticism, however, has tended to consist in studies
of a factual, biographical nature, as a consultation
of our bibliography will prove. Those few critics
who have actually noted Madame de Sévigné's ability
to penetrate beneath the mask of appearances have not
deemed the subject worthy of prolonged consideration.

The subject, however, demands greater attention,
for the contradictions involved in Madame de Sévigné's
attitude are of tremendous importance. For example,
she criticized the politics of Louis XIV and yet she
blindly admired his spectacular generosity to James II
of England. She hated the mask of convention that kept

her dying aunt from asking her to remain by her bedside

.6Francois VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Oeuvres
Comglétes, ed. L. Martin-Chauffier and Jean Marchand
(Paris: Gallimard, Editions de la Pleade, l957),

p. Sll.

 

and yet she admired the composed, ”masked” figure of
Fouquet during his trial. She took great pleasure in
discovering the dichotomy of reality and appearances
in what she called ”les dessous des cartes," and yet
she readily dismissed such thdughts as "folies.”
How could she have hated hypocrisy and yet assumed
the mask of honnéte appearances to deal with her
arch-enemy, the BishOp of Marseille?

Since the implication of the problem of gtrg

and EaraTtre is social, involving man under the

 

observant eyes of his contemporaries, the study we
have undertaken here concerns Madame de Sévigné
and her contemporaries in an interchangeable audience-
performer relationship. She will be looked at both
as an observer of and as a performer in seventeenth-
century society.

We will begin with a brief discussion of her
actual participation in honnéte society and we will

briefly observe the implications of the term honnéteté

 

as well as the discrepancy that occurred between
artfully composed honfiéte appearances and basic
morality. As La Bruyére remarked, "0n connait assez

qu'un homme de bien est honnéte homme; mais il est

plaisant d'imaginer que tout honnete homme n'est pas
homme de bien."7

However, instead of emphasizing Madame de Sévigné's
genius for social life, as has too often been done,
we will look at her negative attitude toward the
constraint of a social role and her basic unwillingness
to subjugate sentiment to reasonable control. We will
then view her remarks, first negative, then positive,
on social man, and observe her personal descriptions
of her own performances before the eyes of society.
We shall try to show how, although she was a basically
sincere woman, Madame de Sévigné found it necessary
to don what she explicitly referred to as the ”mask”,
for existence in what she explicitly conceived of as
the ”theatrical” world of the formal and restrained

creature known as the honnéte homme. And while her

 

vision beneath external appearances will be seen to
be indeed penetrating and her criticism of abuses
wideSpread, she nonetheless will also be seen to
possess a lavish imagination and a highly aesthetic

vision of life permitting her to relinquish understanding

7Jean de La Bruyere, Les Caracteres, ed. Robert Garapon
(Paris: Garnier, I962), p. 367.

and to accept what we today might too hastily dismiss
as a merely artificial, unrealistic mode of existence.
In the end, we hOpe to suggest that this was the type
of mentality capable of accepting a theatrical way

of life on the magnificent stage which seventeenth-
century aristocratic France offered: lavish
ceremonies, sumptuous palaces, a world of wigs which
focused its gaze towards the Sun King, himself,who
was consciously playing the greatest role conceivable

as the "roi du theatre."8

8Warren Hamilton Lewis, The Splendid Centugy: Life
in the France 9f Louis XIV: (NewaorE, l9537, p. S.

 

I. MADAME DE SEVIGNE IN HONNETE SOCIETY

In this part of our discussion, we will deal with
two things. First, there will be a short presentation
of some biographical material on Madame de Sévigné.
Using the remarks of some of her contemporaries and
the work of some more recent researchers, as well as
some general indications which her own letters offer,
we will briefly notice how this woman frequented
seventeenth-century honnéte society in the salons and
at court. We will then pass on to a discussion of the
theories of honnéteté, emphasizing the stress which was
placed on the art of appearing pleasant, to the conse-
quent detriment of a person's true character and
Spontaneity. It will be observed that, as the century
passed, honnéte society came to emphasize extreme
calculation and self-control in all human dealings, so
that life itself acquired a high level of theatrical
artificiality. This will bring us, then, to our
discussion of whether Madame de Sévigné had the ability
to conform to the requirements of such self-conscious,
honnéte conduct.

Sainte-Beuve, writing about Madame de Sévigné in his
Portraits des Femmes, saw her as highly representative

of that ”société évanouie” of the early reign of Louis XIV.

ICharles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Oeuvres, ed, Maxime Leroy,
2 vols.‘(Paris: Gallimard, I956), ll, l002.

While Sainte-Beuve made this judgment on Madame de
Sévigné's relationship to the society of her time, almost
two centuries after she lived, there exists, nevertheless,
ample testimony of her prominence in seventeenth-century
French social circles.

Paul Mesnard, in his Notice Biographigue sur Madame
de Sévigné, based on the lengthy research conducted by
Monmerqué and Walckenaer, discusses many of Madame de
Sévigné's social activities during her visits to Paris
with her husband and during her long widowhood after his
death,2 Mesnard states that she associated with figures
such as the Duchesse de Longueville, the Marquise de
Sablé, Madame Cornuel, Corneille, Voiture, Benserade, her
two teachers Chapelain and Menage, Marigny, the abbé de
Montreuil, Saint-Pavin, Retz, La Rochefoucauld, the
Duchesse de Sully, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, her dear
friend Madame de La Fayette, the Guitauts, the Chaulnes,
etc. The gazettes of her day mention her. In I650
Loret reports in his Muse historigye that the Prince
d'Harcourt forbade his wife to receive the visits of three

2In Vol. I of the M. Monmerqué edition of Lettres de

Madame de Sévigné, de sa famille et de ses amis,

Grands Ecrivains de la France edition,TE VOls. (Paris,
l862), p. 323. This edition is hereafter referred-to
as GEF, with volume and page number in parentheses
after each citation.

 

IO

women, Madame de Montglas, the Contesse de Fiesque and
Madame de Sévigné, whom he suspected of being "trOp
guillerettes” (I, 48). Even though this society was,
as Mesnard notes, "trés-prOpre, par sa politesse, a
former I'esprit", it was also the time of the Fronde
when galantry and seduction abounded (I, 57). After the
period of mourning which followed the death of her husband
in I65I, she returned to Parisian society and was sought
after by many suitors, including her own cousin Bussy,
the interested Prince de Conti, Fouquet, and the Duc du
Lude.3 In his Muse historique of November 12, I65],
Loret notes her return to Paris from Brittany:
"Sévigny, veufve [gig] jeune et belle,
Est de\retour de la campagne,
C'est-a-dire de la Bretagne;...
Vient augmenter dans nos ruelies
I'agreable nombre des belles.
Sainte-Beuve knew this, for, when speaking of her he

said, I'elle alla dans le monde, aimée, recherchée,

courtiséé, semant autour d'elle des passions malheureuses..”5

3Gerard-Gailly, Introduction to Sévigné's Letters, I, 26.

“Quoted in Antoine Adam's notes to Tallemant des Réaux,
Historiettes, 2 vol. (Paris: Gallimard, I950), II,
I275.

5Sainte-Beuve, Oeuvres, ll, 99h-995.

 

{I

II

Valentin Conratt as well as Loret reported some scandalous
scenes that took place in her ruelle on June I8 and 20,
I652, between two gentlemen competing for her, Henri de
Chabot Rohan and the Marquis de Tonquedec, whose quarrel

entailed the necessity of having the arbitrating maréchaux

 

.92 France assign personal guards to the rivals to restrain
any fresh encounters.6 Yet Bussy, at the height of his
frenzied ire against his cousin in the uncomplimentary

portrait of her he presented in his Histoire amoureuse

 

des Gaules, actually took pains to maintain explicitly
the truth of her spotless reputation and perfect conduct.

According to Bussy's report in his Mémoires, she even

 

seems to have managed to have turned Fouquet's amorous
intentions into nothing more than a good friendship.7

During the early years of the increasingly absolutistic
rule of Louis XIV when all the life of a noble would tend
more and more to pivot around every action of the King,
Madame de Sévigné was to find herself presenting her
sixteen-year-old daughter, Marguerite, at court. Mother

and daughter were present at young Louis' fetes galantes

 

in I663, and Mademoiselle de Sévigné, well-known for her

 

dancing, took part in the royal Ballet des Arts. For her

8

entrée,the poet, Benserade, even wrote special lines.

6Mesnard, GEF, I, 58, and Gerard-Gailly, I, 27.
7Mesnard, I, 66.

8Biogra hical information in this paragraph' and the next
comes rom Mesnard, I, 94-l00.

l2

The ballet was repeated again the following year, and in

February, I66A, Marguerite danced in the Ballet des AmourS'

 

dequisés, in which we find several more lines again

 

written eSpeciaIly for her by Benserade. She played Omphale

in his Ballet de la Naissance g2 Venus, "dansé par Sa

 

Majesté" in I665. When, in I668, Louis was losing interest
in Mademoiselle deLa Valliere and no one was as yet aware
of his feelings for Montespan, a certain La Ferrillade

tried to make the King's attention fall upon Mademoiselle

de Sévigné. In an account written by the abbé de Montigny

of the July I8 fete g9 Versallles, Walckenaer found listed

 

the names of both the mother and daughter as being among
those present at a royal supper which was followed by a
presentation of Georges Dandin.

As Mesnard States, with Madame de Sévigné and her
daughter being so favorably received at court, it would
be unlikely that they would not also be found at the same
time in the most brilliant of Parisian social circles.
While letters from this period are scarce, we nevertheless
do have the testimony of Pomponne, writing on February A,
I665. He tells of a soirée at the Splendid Hotel de
Nevers at which Madame and Mademoiselle de Sévigné

were present in a rather large gathering of pe0ple, including

I 3,}

Madame de La Fayette and La Rochefoucauld, who listened
to readings by Boileau and Racine. The well-known

Du Plessis-Guénégaud family which owned the Hotel de
Nevers was actually very close to Madame de Sévigné
after the death of her husband and she was often with
them at their country estate, the Chateau de Fresnesa.
One March I2, I666 (I, lhB-lh9), in the midst of "une
compagnie choisie" including Madame de La Fayette, she
wrote a note from Fresnes to Monsieur de Pomponne, and in
August of the following year he received a letter from
her, written at the same chateau (I, ISO).

Her letters of September ll, l68h, and August 3,
I688, to Mademoiselle de Scudéry attest to her friendship
for this woman of society, whose salon she had frequented
so much that she deserved to be portrayed by her in
la Clélie, and to be mentioned by Somaize in his
Dictionnaire des Pretieuses. Both Walckenaer and Mesnard

have upheld the common belief that in la Clélie

 

Mademoiselle de Scudéry was really commenting on Madame
de Sévigné's social graces when She wrote about "Ia
Princesse Clarinte" whose bearing was so noble that
”on connoit, dés le premier instant qu'on Ia voit, qu'il
faut qu'elle soit de haute naissance, qu'elle ait passé'

toute sa vie dans le monde."9 It is also significant

9Mesnard conveniently reproduces this portrait in GEF,
I, 3l8-32l. 'This particular citation is from p. 3l9.

IA

that Tallemant des Réaux describes Madame de Sévigné

in his Historiettes as "une des plus aimables et des plus

honnestes personnes de Paris."10
Madame de Sévigné would appear, then, to have been,

a woman of society, if we rely not only on the work of

more recent researchers but also on the testimony of her

contemporaries themselves, as well on factual proof

found in her own letters. Our next step, then, is to

try to get some idea of what society in her time stressed

as a positive value, or more precisely, what was implied

in the term honnéteté which played such a great role in

seventeenth-century social life and which is at the very

heart of the problem of reality and appearances with which

we are concerned.

The most informative work done on seventeenth-century

honnéteté is probably Maurice Magendie's two volume

 

Study on La Politesse Mondaine et les theories de

 

I'honnéteté en France, au XVIIe siecle, de I600 a l660.ll
It is Magendie's conclusions in the realm of moral values
that particularly interest us, as do other conclusive

remarks made by Edith Kern as a follow-up to Magendie.‘2

'Oiaiiemant des Réaux Historiettes, ed. Antoine Adam,
2 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, I950), ll, A29.

 

IIan-3.45, $925) Here, we will be Specifically referring
to I, 305-AOI.

‘2"L'Honn8te Homme? Postscript to a Battle of the
Scholars,” Romanic Review, LIV, no. 2 (April, I963).

 

IS

AS Magendie points out, the expression honnéte homme
does not seem to have come into being in France until
I630 with the publication of Faret's L'Honnéte homme ou
l'art de plaire a la cour, but before that date the
country had already been flooded by treatises on the

subject of the prOper comportment of a courtisan or

 

mondain. Each such treatise, influenced in one way or
another by Castiglione's Cortegiano, expanded and
developed an introspective view of truly "polite" living
in the upper echelons of society. Stress was placed

on the ability to act with grace and with artful non-
chalance which would hide any impression of difficulty
in the performance of multiple physical exercises.
Special value was attached to the ability to mould one's
speech in a conversation to the particular requirements
of the interlocutor whose esteem one desired to achieve.
Cultivation of the arts and letters was considered very
beneficial for this purpose. Les bienséances had to be
observed, reason had to be obeyed, all excesses had to
be avoided, and moderation and discretion were to be
maintained. The perfect gentleman would be able to

keep himself somewhere between complete affectation and.

a level of humility which would not be unworthy for him.

l6

The art of dissimulation, then, was recommended as
necessary for success at court, a success attained only
by a compromise between honest reality and more
advantageous appearances.

How concerned seventeenth-century man was with
this "art” of living in society is proved by the great

number of explicit formulations of theories of honneteté

 

which appeared during the century. Faret, however, was
to be one of those theorists who were to have the
greatest amount of influence in France. He is eSpecially
important since, as Edith Kern has carefully pointed out,
it actually remained for Faret to equate "l'art de plaire

a la cour" with honnéteté. 0f bourgeois origins, he

 

saw no difficulty in placing a preponderant emphasis on
religion and on the value of moral virtue as a way of
pleasing society. Magendie rightly considers Faret naTve
in these respects and asks how he could possibly have
believed virtue to be a way of pleasing, especially

in a court atmosphere, and even more particularly in

the French court of I630, for he would have to unite
perfect complacency with this perfect virtue. The result
is that Faret really put morak! and savoir faire into

conflict, a difficulty which he never managed to resolve,

l7

but which in any case proves that at the beginning of

the century an equivalence was seen between l'honngte

 

homme and an homme g; bien much in the line of St.
Francis de Sales' own ideals. "Les qualités de coeur”

still had more importance than those mondaine qualities

 

of esprit and grace which would later be taken up and

finely elaborated by Méré. While. Farets honnate homme

 

o A
was a Virtuous courtesan, Méré's hgnnete homme would

 

really be an homme gg monde who would completely
subordinate what Faret saw as personal virtue and morals
to le monde.

The theory of honnéteté which Méré developed, and

 

which was to have such a great influence on French
society during the second half of the century, was
founded on an Epicurean concept of personal happiness,

‘3 It was no

a goal to be attained with Skill and tact.
longer limited to court-life, as Faret's honnete homme
had been, and was based on the sole guidance of reason,

which would enable the honnéte homme to preserve a iuste

 

mesure in all things. Magendie detects a double conflict

here. Honnéteté, being perfection itself, did indeed

 

imply, besides all those Special physical and intellectual

13This discussion of Méré is based on Magendie, II:
752-783.

18

qualities, all moral qualities, as well as those
qualities of the sentimental order which render a man
capable of loving and feeling for other humans. But,
in Opposition, Méré extolled an absolute independence
of feelings, the avoidance of any sentiment which

would dispel the tranquillity of the honngte homme.

 

Again, the honnete homme would have to adjust himself

 

to every occasion that might arise, momentarily sacri-
ficing any personal traits of his own intimate being

for the purpose of being pleasing to others. Moderation
proscribed anything that surpassed a certain mean and

it commanded the observation of la bienséance, which

was the prOper relationship, as commonly accepted, of
one's actions and words with exterior circumstances.

One was forever accomodating oneself to les gens gg

 

mgflgg. Consequently, the firm moral basis we found in
Faret was now lacking, while conformity to the common
morality of moderation became the object of la bienséance.
It is at this point, then, that we see the definite

parting of the ways for l'honnete homme and l'homme g3

 

bien. Méré himself admitted that his honnete homme

 

did not necessarily have to be a really good man, and
Magendie even feels that Méré had to be a highly

intellectual and analytical egoist to have been able to

I9

advocate such a doctrine of reflection and of deliberate
calculation paralyzing the spontaneous movement of
the heart.

That Méré's influence on the society of his time
was great goes undoubted. He frequented salons such
as those of Madame de Sablé, Madame de Longueville,
Madame de Maure, the Hotel de Rambouidllet, and we know
from testimony in the dedicatory preface to Ménage's
Observations that he was much sought after by society.
In his Conversations avec le Maréchal de Clerambadt
he tells us that he gave himself the primary task of
disseminating by his example, by his conversations
and correspondence, that "science du monde” that he had
acquired by a life-long dedication to such a study, so
that he was a veritable "professeur de bienséances."
While his first published work, the above-mentioned

Conversations, which date only from I668, contain the

 

formal exposition of his theories, Magendie sees in
Méré's many letters, written as early as I6A5, evidence
of an already elaborately analyzed theory of honnBteté.
And, finally, if we also consider that, while influencing
society, Méré himself was probably greatly influenced

by that society, we can further conclude that we are
right in seeing reflected in his theories the way of

thinking of many of his contemporaries.

20

All that we have been discussinghere about~
honngteté;, seen through its more formal and explicit
treatment predominantly in the form of treatises, can
also be found in the novels of the period. Indeed,
the century saw the Lgmgg in this way, as a method of

education in honnateté. The world d'Urfé presented

 

in his Astrée was a perfect picture of that polite
mondaine society Madame de Rambouillet was seeking to
establish around her in her salon. The heroes of La

Calprenéde's CléOpétre, Cassandre, and Faramond trans-

 

posed the characters of the pastoral Astrée to a
supposedly historic and highly adventurous setting,

more pleasing to the belligerent generation of the
Fronde. But the aim was always politeness and refinement

at which the model honngtes gens who were portrayed in

 

the romans excelled. Mademoiselle de Scudéry's figgflg
Cyrgs and Clélie portrayed still more characters that
represented man as he should be in society, as the
accomplished hgmmglggflmgflgg, actually the product of

an imagination engrossed in heroism and honnateté, but

 

at the same time the product of a penetrating, analyzing
mind capable of subtle distinctions and of piercing

rather than deeply into the human heart in order to

ZI

note, in a carte gg Tendre, the subtleties of unconscious
sentiments.Ill However, Magendie again asks how the

honngtes gens of the time, desirous of following the

 

lessons of self-consciousness and reflection taught

by Mademoiselle de Scudéry, could, in actual life,
possibly respect and carry out all the rules and
regulations of self-mastery, the continuous surveillance
of one's every movement, every word, every gesture,

the very affectation of spontaneity itself to the
detriment of authentic spontaneity.IS It is not
surprising, then, that reason should have been given

such a prominent role in the century, or that a Corneille
should have displayed on stage characters of such great
self-domination and self-determination, or that Descartes
should have published in his Traité desggaSsions an
expaition of the joint efforts of the reason and the

will in attaining the accomplishment of this self-mastry,

of this honnéteté, on the practical level of everyday

 

contact with other humans.

14Magendie, II, 636, 688.
ISMagendie, II, 69l.

I’)

22

What we have tried to Show here, then, is that the

refined man who came to be called honnete homme in the

 

course of the seventeenth century became, as Edith Kern
has chosen to summarize Magendie's findings, the aesthetic
individual whose every moment of life had been so formed
and calculated that life itself became a work of art
and acquired the artificiality of a play.'6 And with
the passing of the century more and more attention came
to be put by society on appearance alone, on the effect,
rather than on any internal values responsible for the
effect. However, even from the very outset, the theories
of the courtisan, and then of the honnéte-homme, had
this germ already present in them, for they established
so many rules and regulations on the art of pleasing,
of appearing pleasant, that no matter whether man had
high moral standards and virtuous excellence to which
his appearances conformed, he had to concern himself
with showing off this excellence to the best possible
advantage. In the end, it required a finely elaborated
system in which man became the play-actor in the theatre
of society.

Such, then, was the way of thinking and the way of
living of the hOnnBte society to which Madame de Sévigné
belonged. Our next step will be to investigate whether

she was able to conform to such standards.

'I6Kern, ”L'Honnéte Homme,” p. ll9

II. HER PLEA FOR SINCERITY

Since, as we have pointed out, honneteté came to

 

imply extreme self-mastery and calculation in one's
conduct in society, we might logically suppose that
a woman like Madame de Sévigné would have possessed
all the means necessary to practice such an art of
dissimulation, However, just a very superficial reading
of her letters would immediately indicate the contrary
for they leave us with the impression of Madame de
Sévigné as a woman of restless energy, impatience,
sensitivity and emotion. Such a highly sensitive and
emotional personality contrasts sharlyv with the extreme
artificiality of honnéte society.

For the purpose of showing this, we will therefore
consider some of the more emotional letters she wrote
to Madame de Grignan. We will notice her lack of self-
control and her interior struggle to conceal her passions
or, as she called them, her "foiblesses." We will point
out the difference between her and Madame de Grignan
in this reSpect and her inability to apply the counsels
of self-mastery offered by Descartes in his Traité des»

Passions. In society, then, this emotional woman will

 

Z3

2A

appear to have difficulty. She will provide us with
examples of her own indiscretion due to her exhuberance,
and some of her contemporaries who noticed her shortcomings
in practicing perfect honneteté will be cited. However,
this will only prove how basically sincere this woman
was for she resented the supression of geniune sentiment
for the sake of presenting a composed facade to the
public. She, who tended to externalize emotion, especially
with tears, will be seen to have appreciated frankness
and sincerity and to have criticized the selfish motivation
behind Shallow, social politeness.

Those of Madame de Sévigné's letters which most
reveal the emotional aspect of her character are perhaps
those written to her daughter in February, l67l, just
after the first heartbreaking separation when Madame de
Grignan left Paris for the long voyage southward to join
her husband in Provence. The letter of February sixth,
for example, is profoundly touching, Opening with
”J'ai beau chercher ma chere fille, je ne la trouve
plus, et tous les pas qu'elle fait l'eloignent de moi."l
The letter continues by showing us a pitiable Madame de

Sévigné going about Paris in search of comfort, ”toujours

IMarie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné, Lettres,
ed. Emile GérardiGailly, 3 vols. (Paris: Gallimard,
Editions de la PIéTade, l953757), l, l89. All subsequent
references to these letters will be made in my text
itself, directly after each citation.

25

pleurant et toujours mourant : il me sembloit qu'on
m'arrachoit le coeur et l'ame.” First she went to the
convent of the Sisters of the Visitation ("j'y passai
jusqu'a cinq heures sans cesser de sangloter : toutes
mes pensées me faisoient mourir"(l, I89)), then to
Madame de Lafayette's, then home to an empty house, a
sleepless night, another afternoon with Madame de La
Tromzhe in the gardens of the Arsenal, home again to
renewed tears over the receipt of her daughter's first
letter. This was to be only the beginning of much
emotional suffering for her and of the long series of
letters to her daughter which are frank confessions of
a mother's love, or, more truthfully, of this mother's
passion and even obsession and fixation on a daughter
whom she loved very sincerely, as She said, "plus que
ma vie" (I, 25l).

Time was neither to ease the sufferings nor diminish
the anguish of the initial and subsequent separations.
The letters are filled with lengthy protestations of
motherly affection. Through each group of letters
corresponding to each separation of mother and daughter
we can actually trace a veritable lifetime history of

the ups and downs of Madame de Sévigné's emotional life.

.‘

26

Every year, for example, She would remember the
anniversary date of her daugher's last departure, and
she would become melancholic.2 As Madame de Sévigné
herself explained, her sentiments and ”manieres d'aimer...
sont d'une étoffe au-dessus du commun et meme de ce
qu'on estime le plus” (I, 707). This would certainly
seem to be the case: emotions and sentiments somewhat
above the ordinary so that certain critics have even
taken to seeing in her traits of deep psychological
abnormality, noting, for example, instances when She
says, ”je vous aime Si passionnement, que je ne pense
pas qu'on puisse aller plus loin” (I, 785).

What is of special interest to us, however, is
the interior struggle going on within the mother, whose
passion for her distant daughter was too much for her to
conceal. For example, when writing in I689 to "solemnlze"
the previous year's separation, after a detailed description

of her tender sentiments She concluded with:

2See, for example, the letters of February A, I672
(I, A70) and February 5, I67A (I, 70A) which remember
the l67l separation. On May 2A, I676 (II, l06) She
remembers the I675 separation at Fontainebleau, and on
September ll, I680 (II, 8A3) she remembers the I679
separation. The I688 departure of Madame de Grignan
is remembered on October 2, I689 (Ill. 55A).

,~

27

”Voila ce que je sens et ce que je vous dis, ma chere
bonne, sans le vouloir..." (III, 55A). The insertion

of "sans le vouloir" is important since it would

seem to indicate her efforts to curb the expression of
her emotions, efforts which would be of no avail, and
which would be linked, by contrast,with her own need

for openness and sincerity. This need is indicated

here by her insertion of "ce que je sens” before "ce que
je vous dis," which suggests that she really considered
speech as the candid expression of feelings.

In the first year of separation from her daughter,
Madame de Sévigné was subject to the overwhelming
illusion that She was no longer loved by her, so much
so that She believed it, as she says, ”parce que je me
trouvois, pour des gens que je haissois, comme il me
sembloit que vous étiez pour moi...Dans ces moments, ma
bonne, il faut que je vous dise toute ma foiblesse”
.(I, 258). This "foiblesse", demonstrated by a woman
so often considered solely from the brilliant social
facade She presented to the world, is important. It
crops up time and time again. For example, after
terminating her first visit to Provence she confessed

an increase in both her motherly love and sadness with

28

a result that: “il m'en prend des saisissements, et
la nuit et le jour, dont je ne suis point du tout la
maTtresse. Je demande pardon 5 votre phiIOSOphie de
vous faire voir tant de foiblesse" (I, 752). When, at
Christmas of I688, She finally received another overdue
letter from Madame de Grignan, all too distracting from
her own Midnight Mass devotions, she could not resist
reading it before going off to Church: I'Il me fut
impossible de m'en empecher.” (III, 289). Indeed, she
seems to have been incapable of constraint, often admitting
that "la contrainte seroit tr0p grande d'étouffer toutes
mes pensées" (I, 2I5), so that often a detailed description
she would have liked to have avoided relating became
”une radoterie que je ne puis éviter” (I, 539) until She
had "bien contenté le desir que j'avois de conter (I, 5Al).
One thing especially noticeable in all these
citations is the rather submissive attitude assumed by
Madame de Sévigné in making Sincere avowals of her
sentiments. She asked pardon of Madame de Grignan for
these admissions (I, 752), excused them by insisting on
an unyielding forcefulness which caused her to "have”
to write them (I, 258; I, 539), and she even said, "Je.

m'en repens, et voudrois ne l'avoir pas fait" (I, 3l6),

29

going on to explain that she was ”naturelle”, and

”quand mon coeur est en presse, je ne puis m'empecher

de me plaindre a ceux que j'aime bien : il faut pardonner
ces sortes de foiblesses” (I, 3l6). Elsewhere, She
willingly gave her ”foiblesse” the name of ”folie" and
told Madame de Grignan, ”J'ai été dans une inquiétude

que je vous permets de nommer ridicule.” (II, 676).

What, then, really seems to have been at issue here,
is Madame de Grignan's "phil050phie,” her method of
controlling her emotions so as to preserve the tranquil
and socially acceptable facade so necessary for persons
like her in such high places as the governorship of
Provence. That She was of a temperament rather different
from that of her mother has often been discussed, and
much as been said of her rational outlook of life which
was the result of her being steeped in the theories of
Cartesian philosophy.3 -We see this when, in 1673,
writing to Bussy-Rabutin from Grignan , Corbinelli
included a note in Madame de Sévigné's letter discussing
the provincial ennuis he had avoided and the pleasure

he had derived from studying and discussing Descartes'

3See, for example, Auguste Bailly, Madame g2 Sévigné
(Paris, I955), p. 292.

II

phiIOSOphy with Madame de Grignan “qui [lal salt a
miracle, et en parle divinement” (I, 60A). In her
letters to her daughter Madame de Sévigné would often

nA

refer to Descartes as "votre pére, and, in turn,
she would note her own incapacity to deal with abstract
metaphysics, "car je suis grossiere comme votre frere :
les choses abstraites vous sont naturelles, et nous
sont contraires” (II, 737). She always considered
her own "grossiere ignorance" in contrast to her
phiIOSOphizing daughter, and, conscious of her strictly
emotional nature, she took such Special care once to
mention her making "un grand usage de notre raison et
de notre raisonnement” (II, 8A8) that we can readily
grasp the unhabitual nature of such rational application
on her part.

What seems to have been of primary concern for her
in Descartes, however, was his Traité des Passions

de I'Ame, of l6A9, which contained most of those counsels

 

that were to comprise Madame de Grignan's method of

reaction to life's situations, a reaction called her

“See also ll, A81, 61A, 62A, 722, 73A, 7A9, 779, 815.

3l

"philosophie", so greatly admired by her mother (II,
lAl-IAZ). From what we have seen so far of Madame de
Sévigné's temperament we do not have to guess how some of
the articles of the Traité must have struck her, as for
example, article 50: "il n'y a point d'ame Si faible
qu'elle ne puisse, étant bien conduite, acquérir un
pouvoir absolu surses passions."5 It is very doubtful
that she would have agreed, after all her struggles,

with Descartes' assurance of the possibility of

acquiring "un empire tres absolu” (p. 722) over one's
passions. For example, he so nicely reasoned that Since
animals can be made to control themselves, it is more
than evident that man can be made to control himself,

as well, and with less effort. Madame de Sévigné must
have especially felt the brunt of that ”foiblesse,” which
She so constantly pleaded, when she heard Descartes'
statement to the effect that those persons whose wills
could with natural ease overcome passion ”ont sans

doute les Qmes les plus fortes" while "les ames les plus

faibles de toutes" are those whose wills are continually

5René Descartes Les Passions de l'éme in Oeuvres et
Lettres, ed. André Bridoux (ParTs: Gallimard7T953),'
p, 72I hereafter cited directly in my text.

 

 

32

carried along by the passions, ”lesquelles, étant
souvent contraires les unes aux autres, la tirent
tour a tour a leur parti et...mettent I'ame au plus
deplorable état qu'elle puisse etre” (p. 720). How much
meaning and force do some of Madame de Sévigné's excla-
mations really have, when seen in this light, as when
in April, I672, She wrote, "c'est donc ainsi que vous
voulez que l'on soit, c'est-a-dire dans une profonde
tranquillité : 6 l'heureux état! mais que je suis loin
d'en sentir les douceursl (I, 52l). Madame de Grignan's
”phiIOSOphie" was all well and good in print, of course,
but things would not be so simple when Madame de Sévigné
would try to put such a ”phIIOSOphie” into practice.
Early in June, I675, we read in the letters about
a scene that had taken place between the mother and
daughter that previous May: "je ne puis jamais oublier
cette bouffée de philosophie que vous me vintes souffler
ici la veille de votre départ.” Of course, Madame de
Sévigné would try to apply her daughter's stern advice
to control her emotions: ”j'en profite autant que je
puis; mais j'ai une Si grande habitude a étre foible,
que, malgré vos bonnes lecons, je succombe souvent.”
(I, 729). Again and again she repeated statements such

as: "Vous me dites des merveilles de la conduite qu'il

In

33

faut avoir pour se gouverner...” (I, 732), or I'il faut
tacher de calmer et de posseder un peu son Sme” (I, 7A7).
However, this calm or "repos" would never come to her

for she was simply not the type to remain tranquil for

a very long period of time. Very rightly, she once
described herself as “un coeur tr0p sensible, un tem-
pérament tr0p vif...” (II, 776). Aware of her exhuberance,
she vainly attempted to restrain her Spontaneous reactions
and smother her natural sentiment according to the
”Cartesian method." In the end, however, she was forced
to resign herself to ”un coeur aussi dénué de philosophie
que le mien” (I, 789). If she dabbled in the formal
presentations of the theories of controlling the passions
it was, as she said, because ”je veux apprendre cette
science comme l'hombre, non pas pour jouer, mais pour
voir jouer" (II, IAZ).

It is natural, then, that this emotional and
somewhat uncontrollable woman should have had some
difficulty in her dealings with other humans, particularly
\vith regard to discretion. From certain statements
inade by Madame de Sévigné in response to her daughter's
letters, we can conclude that Madame de Grignan had
lactually accused her mother of a certain amount of

indhscretion. For example, the letter of June 9, I680,

3A

opens with ” 'Méchante bonne mamanl' C'est ce que vous
disoit Pauline, et c'est ce que vous me dites, ma

trés chére...C'est qu'effectivement vous ne me croyez
pas assez discrete" (II, 733). From what she went on
to say, it would appear that she had been talking to
too many peOpIe about family affairs, for she protested

that "I'amitié fli l'intérét sensible ne me font point

 

confier, a d'autres qu'a la famille, ce qui doit
étre secret.” (II, 733). Already in I672 she had
assured Madame de Grignan not to fear for any secrets
confided to hernother: ”J'ai tr0p de respect ou, pour
mieux dire, de tendresse, pour ne pas conserver ce que
vous me confieriez." Out of motherly love, and a
consequent fear of displeasing her daughter, she claimed
that there would result a l'crainte des reproches qu'on
se pourroit faire e sol-meme" which was necessary enough
"pour fermer Ia bouche” (I, 56l).

However, there were many incidents when Madame
de Sévigné neither closed her mouth nor controlled
her pen and got herself into trouble with peOple.
Early in I680 she had complained in writing to
Monsieur de Grignan's uncle, the ArchbishOp of Arles,

about his nephew's excessive expenditures. The letter

3S

somehow fell into Monsieur de Grignan's hands, and

he became terribly annoyed at his meddling mother-in-
law. This brought on a flurry of reasonings on her
part as to why she had done the rash act: "Je
comprends que M. de Grignan est un peu en col8re contre
moi...Mais je ne trouve pas qu'il y eOt beaucoup de

mal a parler confidemment e Monsieur l'Archevéque

d 'une peine qui nous est commune” (II, 559). In

I689, this same ArchbiShOp had requested for his

nephew, the Coadjuteur, a position of commandeur des

 

 

ordres gg_figj a request which Madame de Sévigné
confessed to be "sotte au dernier point," and which
she deemed to find necessary to follow up by a strong
declaration: ”Au mom de Dieu, ne croyez point que

je dise jamais un mot le-dessus; j'aimerois mieux
mourir" (III, 30l). She even dared here to consider
discretion one as of her ”petites perfections”

(III, 30l).

However, we have only to look at her two months
later, when she was victorious after one of those
lengthy procés which the Grignan's were always involved
in, and in which she always took such active part.

With the Chevalier de Grignan, Rochon, his homme d'affaires,

 

36

and Vaille, her own homme d'affaires, she was outside

 

the judges' doors awaiting the triumphal verdict.

She writes that when it finally came, "nos coeurs

ont été épanouis; ma joie vouloit briller.” We can
certainly imagine how enthusiastic she must have been
for it merited a severe scolding: ”Monsieur le
Chevalier m'a grondée; il m'a dit qu'il ne me méneroit
plus avec lui, si je ne savois me taire: c'est sa
menace" (III, 385). But this was not enough for her
expansive nature. She still continued: "J'ai voulu
parler un peu haut, d'un air de triomphe,” and Monsieur
le Chevalier admonished her again, saying, ”qui ne
savoit point dissimuler, ne savoit point régner"

(III, 385).

Madame de Sévigné, however, is not alone in
recording for us some of those instances when she lacked
tact. Her own contemporaries seem to have sensed her
weaknesses and even while lavishly complimenting her
in their literary portraits, they found themselves
at times obliged to use certain indirect turns of
phrase to conceal what they might really have disapproved

of in her.

37

One of Madame de Sévigné's most outSpoken critics
is Tallemant des Réaux. He actually gives to her
spontaneity and sincere enthusiasm the disapproving
classification of "bruskness" for he says, “Elle
est brusque et ne peut se tenir de dire ce qu'elle
croit joly, ququue assez souvent ce soient des
choses un peu gaillardes."6 He even recounts that on
one occasion when she had been given a note and asked
not to Show it to anyone, "Elle laissa passer quelques
jours, puis le monstra en disant: 'Si je l'eusse
couvéfi plus long-temps il fust devenu poulet:'”

In l66l, in his Grand disctionnaire historique

des Pretieuses, Somaize wrote about Madame de Sévigné

 

under the name Sophronie. He very noticeably
mentioned that "son esprit est vif et enjoué, et elle
est plus prOpre a la joye qu'au chagrin.”7 That he

should have mentioned her natural adaptability to joy

6This and the following quotation are from Tallemant,
Historiettes, l, A29.

7The three portraits of Madame de Sévigné by Somaize,
Madame de La Fayette, and Mademoiselle de cudéry
have been reproduced conveniently in ”Notes de la
Notice Biographi ue sur Madame de Sévigné,” by Paul
Mesnard in the GEF edition of the Lettres, I, 3l8-
323. All further references to these portraits will
be made directly in my text.

38

rather than sadness is particularly striking when
we notice that both Madame de La Fayette and
Mademoiselle de Scudéry have also made note of this
characteristic. Madame de La Fayette who wrote her
portrait under the pen name of "un inconnu”, probably
in I659 (GEF, I, 32l-322), states: "Enfin, la joye
est l'état veritable de votre Sme, et le chagrin
vous est plus contraire qu'e qui que ce soit" (GEF,
I, 32l-322). These statements do not necessarily
have to imply that Madame de Sévigné was considered
as especially gay or continually happy. In fact,
they suggest that while her capacity for joy was
indeed great, the very Opposite, a lack of it, must
have certainly left her sorely wounded, and in a
mournful state.

It is precisely the portrait by Mademoiselle de
Scudéry, published in I657 in her Clélie under the
name of "la Princesse Clarinte", that confirms this
opinion by going one step further in revealing a
rather surprising bit Of reality behind the perhaps
seemingly superficial impressions recorded at times
by the portrayers. Mademoiselle de Scudéry notes

that Madame de Sévigné herself "avoue pourtant qu'elle

39.

est quelquefois sujette 5 quelques petits chagrins
sans raison," and that "ils lui font faire tréve
avec la jois pour trOis on quatre heures seulement”
(GEF, I, 3l9). Mademoiselle de Scudéry does go on to
explain, however, that I'ces chagrins sont Si petits
et passent si vite, qu'il n'y a presque qu'elle qui
s'en apergoive.” Now, when taken in the general
tone Of the rest of the most flattering descriptions
Of Madame de Sévigné's laudable qualities this short
passage stands out, for it immediately succeeds a
long series of positively-oriented compliments. The

initial "Elle avoue pourtant..." closing with "petits

 

chagrins...seulement...§j petits...passent g1 vite...

 

il n'y a presQue qu'elle" (underlinings my own) seem
more like excuses or attempts at ameliorating what
could possibly have been considered somewhat of a
defect in the eyes of society.

There are, however, still other dubious spots
in the portrait, one being where Mademoiselle de
Scudéry's clever turn of phrase both starts with
and concludes on a highly complimentary tone about
Sévigné's “rares qualités...voix douce, juste et
charmante" and her singing "en personne de condition”,

but notes however that this is achieved ”guoigu'elle

A0

chante d'une maiere ggssionnée” (underlining is my

 

own). And still another sentence seems to link up
with this last potential disapproval Of a certain
lack Of external composure on Sévigné's part, for
again Scudéry notes that "guoigu'elle ne soit pas de
ces belles immobiles qui n'ont point d'action," all
Of her ”petites facons...ne sont qu'un pur effet de
la vivacité de son esprit.”

Finally, there is One more Statement by Madame
de La Fayette which is Of interest to us here, for
it is more explicit on the subject of Madame de Sévigné's
lack of composure than are the remarks which
Mademoiselle de Scudéry couched in highly complimentary
terms. Madame de La Fayette, of course, praises
Sévigné's ”coeur...si généreux, si bien fait et si
fidele." But this heart seems to have been so Open
that peOple actually could not believe its sincerity:
”des gens vous soupgonnent de ne le montrer pas
toujours tel qu'il est" (GEF, I, 322). And Madame
de La Fayette goes on to discuss Openly Sévigné's
imprudence in being tOO frank: "mais, au contraire,
vous etes Si accoutumée a n'y rien sentir qui ne

vous soit honorable, que meme vous y laissez voir

AI

quelquefois, ce que la prudence vous Obligeroit de
cacher" (GEF, I, 322). Madame de Sévigné does
indeed seem to have been aware of this, for She once
playfully admitted to her cousin Bussy, ”C'est un
assez beau miracle que nos fonds soient bons, sans
nous demander deS dehorS fort reguliers” (I, I68).
Such a remark proves how sincere a woman Madame
de Sévigné actually was. And it is perhaps this
sincerity, which Madame de Sévigné conveyed in her
letters, which is reSponSible for having attracted
so many readers to her over the centuries. For
example, despite all the conventional forms of
expressing love, in writing to Madame de Grignan She
skillfully managed, by clever rewording or by a Simple
variety Of her uses of the different forms themselves,
to achieve a tone of sincerity in her protestations
Of motherly love. She was fully aware, however, of
the frequedt abuse these expressions werexsubject to.
When She chose to conclude her letter Of May l0, I676
with the simple phrase, ”je vous embrasse de tout
mon coeur” (ll, 92), she found it necessary to add,
"je suis féchée que l'on ait profane cette facon de

parler; sans cela elle seroit digne d'expliquer de

A2

quelle facon je vous aime” (II, 92). Here, we can see
a commentary by Madame de Sévigné on the polite
language Of her time, an indication of how much true
meaning had become separated from the form of the
polite phrase.

How much value She attached to true sentiment and
to its communication, especially to someone well-loved,
appears in a letter dated December 1, I679, written
in response to another letter in which Madame de
Grignan had only most reluctantly conveyed to her
mother the news of her little son's illness. Madame
de Sévigné found this reluctance inconceivable,'
asking, "le moyen de cacher une telle chose?" (II,
523). In a genuinely frank statement she declared,
”Je halrois cette dissimulation extreme, et la plume
me tomberoit des mains.” (II, 523). How would one
be able to find anything else to speak of in such a
time Of sorrow, with the heart SO engrossed in this
One preoccupation? "Pour moi, j'en serois incapable,
et j'honore tant la communication des sentiments a
ceux qu'on aime, que je ne penserois jamaOiS a
épargner une inquiétude, au prejudice de la
consolation que je trouverais a faire part de ma peine
a quelqu'un que j'aimerois.” (II, 523). And She very

correctly added the remark: ”n'est ce pas le Ie vrai

A3

commerce de l'amitié? Ahl oui, ce l'est, et je n'en
connois point d'autre” (II, 523).

Still another significant comment on sincerity
was made by her in relation to her daugher's

ghilOSOphie, her ability at self-control and constraint

 

in everyday life. We have already pointed out how
she tried to follow the lessons of composure her
daughter preached to her, to be "dans...une profonde
tranquillité : 6 l'heureux étatl” (I, 52l). But she
saw the danger in the suppression of true emotion,
and even while admiring such an ability, she exclaimed,
"vous me faites peur de le souhaiter" (I, 52l). She
foresaw with fright that her daughter might receive
her most coldly upon her arrival at Grignan, controlling
any externalization of her real joy at having her
mother with her: "tout d'un coup, alors que je vous
aimerai le plus tendrement, je vous trouverai toute
froide et toute resposée...ne venez pas me donner de
cette lethargie” (I, 52l). She feared she would regret
having made such a long trip, if She were received with
emotional "glaces" on the part Of her daughter.

Almost thirteen years later, when Madame de Grignan
lNOUId be sending her a letter full Of ”mille douceurs"

in remembrance of her mother and the Abbé de Coulanges,

AA

She would return again to this same discussion. She
unhesitatingly praised the value of sentiment Over
reason, of pppgp over esprit: "quoi que vous ayez
voulu dire autrefois a la lousange de l'esprit qui
veut contrefaire [Te coeufi] , il manque, il se trompe,
il broche a tout moment...” (III, 79). She generalized
in declaring Openly that ”les gens éclairés par leur
coeur n'y sauroient etre trompés. Vive donc ce qui
vient de ce lieu...l” (III, 79).

This last exlamation was a loud cheer for the
supremacy Of emotion over reason. Actually, she
Often tended to externalize emotion, and her tears
are proof Of this. For example, from among many
other Similar occasions, we can cite her at a
performance Of Esther in tears over the beauty of
the songs adOpted from the Psalms, which were

”d'une beauté qu'on ne soutient pas sans Iarmes”

 

(III, 35l). Luili's new Libera in his Miserere

sung at the funeral service of the Chanceller Séquier
produced the same effect, and she noticed that ”tous
les yeux étoient pleins de larmes" (I, 5Al). When
she saw Ariane, a tragedy by Thomas Corneille, which
she thought dull, She nonetheless reported that with.
the arrival Of the great Chamomeslé, ”tout le monde

est ravi; et l'on pleure de son déseSpOir” (I, 507).

A5

When Francoise de Lorraine, cousin of Madame de
Grignan, took the veil at Montmartre, the ceremony

in which her long hair was cut made the new nun
resemble a sacrificial victim, a veritable lamb before
the shearer, and Madame de Sévigné was evidently struck
by one Special aspect in the report she received Of

the ceremony: "On dit que cela faisoit pleurer tout

le monde” (II, l59). Quinault and Lulli's Opera,
Roland, was to produce the same effect with its
I'endroits qui vous feront pleurer” (III, A8).

Tears abounded eSpecially in her accounts Of
great deaths and funerals. The shocking news of the
surprisingly sudden death of the Queen Of Spain,
niece of Louis XIV, brought the following report Of
externalized emotion: ”Madame crioit les hauts cris;
le Roi en sortit tout en larmes” (III, 352). Her
series of letters on the death Of Turenne is filled
with report upon report Of tearful scenes. The
letter Of August 2, I675, tells of both the Cardinal
de Bouillon's "deux jours ... danS des pleurs et des
cris continuels" and of the Official reporter to the
court coming directly from the battlefield "toujours...
baigné de larmes" (I, 783). Monsieur d' Harouys, she

l‘elated, "pleuroit hier 5 chaudes larmes (I, 790),

.A6

and Monsieur de Saint-Hilaire, despite his having
lost an arm with the same canon-Shot that killed
Turenne, "se met a crier et 5 pleurer cette grande
perte [8e Turenne]," while La Rochefoucauld ”pleure
lui-meme, en admirant la noblesse de ce sentiment”
(I, 798). How could we omit the scene at Turenne's
Own home when Madame de Sévigné went there for a
visit of condolence: "ses valetS de chambre, ses
laquais, ses pages, ses trompettes, tout étoit

fondu en larmes et faisoit fondre les autres"

(I, 833)? The most touching Of all the details which
she described at the private family burial of Turenne
at Saint-Denis was that, "ll y avoit entre autres un
petit page qui devenoit fontaine" (I, 839).

This focus Of attention on weeping is indeed
Strange for her time, for we have but to look at what
other writers, like La Bruyere,for instance, have said
on this subject. La Bruyere actually made an issue
of the fact that this contemporaries were ashamed to
weep at a tragic play, whereas they would not in the
least consider restraining immoderate laughter,
which could be considered much more vulgar in the
long run. He asked, "D'OD vient que l'on rit Si

librement au theatre, et que l'on a honté d'y

A7

pleurer?"8 And he actually answered his question
perfectly in the course Of another question which
exposed the men of his era who were most unwilling,
in general, to Show their tender feelings: "Est-ce
une peine que l'on sent 5 laisser voir que l'on est
tendre, et 5 marquer quelque faiblesse...” If we
can rely on La Bruyere, then, who was writing more
broadly for society, while Madame de Sévigné was
writing more personally for her daughter, we can say
that, Madame de Sévigné appears as an exception
among some of her less Open contemporaries.
Actually, on the practical, everyday level, we
can detect that she was irked by those people around
her whom She loved and admired but were not Open and
frank with her. The Chevalier de Grignan seems to
have been one of them. One day he excluded her from
some dealings he had with Monsieur de Lamoignon over
Grignan affairs. Considering the interest She took
in such matters, she admitted that ”cela me fit un

petit chagrin". This, and the following avowal Of

8Jean de La Bruyere, LesCaractéreS ou les Moeurs
de ce Siecle, ed. Robert Garapon (Paris: Garnler,
I962), p. 85. The following quote is also from the
same page.

 

A8

"soulagement” at being able to tell it to tell it
to Madame de Grignan, reveal how deeply She was hurt
at his hiding things from her. Two days later She
made use Of expressions such as "dehors" and
"appearances" to relate what had happened: "tous
ces dehors et toutes ces apparences de Monsieur le
Chevalier, qui m'avoient choquée avec raison,
cachoient un fond aussi bon que le v6tre...” (III, 37l).
Mademoiselle de Méré; her cousin, seems to have
been still another person who upset Madame de Sévigné
in the same manner, for Sévigné actually remarked with
surprise about her ability to be SO uncommunicative.
Her cousin was a very extravagant person, forever
changing her residences as well as her Opinions. In
I680 She was moving, again, with such deliberateness
that Madame de Sévigné noted, ”Que l'on peut croire
qu'elle en est content, quoiqu' elle ne le dise
point” (II, 890). And that this unwillingness to speak
Openly was foreign to Madame de Sévigné is evident in
her next remark: "C'est une plaisant etude que celle
deS manneres différentes de Chacun." (II, 890).
But one problem in particular, in which this

frankness of hers is eSpecially involved, is the

A9

,portrait Of Cardinal de Retz (attributed to La
Rochefoucauld) which she sent to her daughter with

the letter of June l9, I675. In view of the well-

known fact that She so adored Retz, the idea that she
could have allowed herself to be pleased with this
apparently merciless criticism has been a cause of
consternation for many a scholar. Harriet Ray Allentuch
has shown that there is not a word of reproach for Retz
in Sévigné's correSpondence despite the fact that Retz was Of
dubious reputation - a "cavalier cardinal” who whhle
flirting with treason “dreamed Of being a seventeenth-
century Catiline”9t Mrs. Allentuch has indicated

an article in which André Bertiere maintains

that the portrait in its final form did not appear as
severe to Madame de Sévigné as it does now to us, for

in her constant efforts to reconcile her friends with
one another Madame de Sévigné had managed to get La
Rouchefoucauld to temper his previous scathing comments

on Retz, which had been much more malicious.

9Harriet Ray Allentuch, Madame de Sévigné: A Portrait
in Letters (Baltimore, I963), p. 32. See aTSO her note no. 56
on this page referring to André Bertiere, ”Le portrait de
Retz par La Rochefoucauld," Revue d'histoire littéraire
de la France, LIX (juillet-septembre I959), 3l3-3Al.

 

 

J!

50

What has Often been overlooked, however, is the
manner in which Madame de Sévigné introduced the
portrait to her daughter. While one can see in her
statements an attempt to excuse the harshness of the
portrait, her words are quite familiar to us when
looked at in light of her desire for sincerity, for
she gives us still another insight into the refined
life of seventeenth-century society. Of course, She
evidently had to excuse the portrait of Retz by
saying that ”celui qui l'a fait n'est pas son intime
ami” (l, 7A2). La Rochefoucauld had not intended to
Show it to Retz or anyone else. But that she should
even have to point this out is surprising, for it
thereby suggests that if a portrait were written
to be seen by the person described in it, it would
be completely different, highly complimentary and‘
hypocritical. She found it necessary to stress the
fact that La Rochefoucauld "n'a point pretendu Ie
[RetZ] louer” (I, 7A0). However, the more revealing
explanation on her part had yet to come: "0n est Si
lassé de Iouanges en face, qu'il y a du ragoOt e
pouvoir etre assure qu'on n'a pas eu dessein de vous
faire plaisir, et que voila ce qu'on dit quand On dit

la vérité toute nue, toute naTve” (I, 7A2). To

if;

51

maintain that such a statement is Simply an excuse
for a disastrously critical portrait would be to
overlook the fact that it reveals that Madame de
Sévigné,herself, had to be very conscious, and
probably also very weary of superficial and deceiving
”Iouanges en face."

At the wedding Of Mademoiselle de Louvois, Madame
de Sévigné was indignant at the insincerity of much
of society's politeness, for it touched her in her
most delicate spot, that is, peOple were not sincerely
willing to linger long enough to hear about Madame
de Grignan, even when it was they who asked about her
in order to appear polite. It is worth seeing how She
described the occasion as a "tourbillon, la dissipation,
les demandes sans réponses les compliments sans savoir
ce que l'on dit, les civilités sans savoir a qui l'on
parle" (II, 5l7). In the midst Of what she described
as a magnificently splendid confusion of the French
peerage, "il sortit quelques questions de votre santé,
OD, ne m'étant pas assez pressée de répondre, ceux
qui les faisoient sont demeurés dans l'ignorance et

dans l'indifférence de ce qui en est: § vanité des

 

vanitésl" (II, 5l7-8). This closing exclamation is

extremely Strong. It is the same phrase from

t.

52

Ecclesiasticus chosen by Bossuet as the theme for
his Oraison Funebre de Henriette-Anne d'Angleterre.lo
Just as Bossuet used the exclamation to underscore
his ideas of the nothingness Of man and the futility
Of human desires, SO did Madame de Sévigné thereby
emphasize what she saw as vain, human behavior,
motivated solely by the base desire to present to the
world a polite, social image of the self.

To conclude, then, we have seen Madame de Sévigné's
emotional nature, her lack of self-mastery and
honnete composure and her consequent repugnance at
suppressing true sentiment for insincere but polite
Social conduct. It will not be surprising, then, if

we can now draw certain parallels between her and

the character Of Alceste in Moliere's Misanthrope.

 

loJacques-Bénigne Bossuet Oeuvres, ed. Abbe Velat
and Yvonne Chem ailler Paris: Gallimard, Biblio-
theque de la Plelade, l96l), pp. 83-l05.

III. MADAME DE SEVIGNE AS ANOTHER ALCESTE

Saint-Beuve has wanted to compare Madame de

Sévigné to the soubrette in Moliere's comedies, for

 

he says, "il ya de la Dorine dans Madame de Sévigné;’
une Dorine du beau monde et de la meilleure

compagnie."I

While he does also note that her vivacity
is "pleine de sens et de selN, in light Of what we

have been discussing concerning Madame de Sévigné's
desire for sincerity in human contacts, we can compare

her to Alceste in Moliere's Misanthrope. It is in

 

this play that the problem of honneteté and sincerity

 

is put into the clearest light fOr the century for
it is Alceste who is trying to prove the priority of
true sentiment over artificial dissimulation. While
Alceste is a man of impolite, brusque manners and a
man Of great extremes who falls into redicule in
front of the honnéte homme (Philinte) of the period,
he is nonetheless a man of high moral standards,

for whom the word honnéteté still retains the

 

implications of true virtue which it had when it began
to be used pOpularly by men like Faret. We can see

this, for example, when he accuses the fourbe Of being

lSainte-Beuve, Causeries pg Lundi, l6 vols. (Paris:

18A9), I, 53.

 

S3

ill .

5A

SO unjust and shrewd in certain cases where positions
are being diSputed, that, "...s'il est, par la brigue,

un rang a disputer, / Sur le plus honnéte homme on

2

le voit I'emporter.” Alceste, simple and integrally

honest, desires that
Le fond de notre coeur dans nOS discours se montre;

Que ce soit lui qui parle, et que nOS sentiments
rNe se masquent jamais sous de vains compliments

(p. AA).

Philinte, however, the typical honnéte homme in the

 

style of Méré, who is continually preoccupied with all

the things the stylized honnéte homme watches for,

 

such as les bienséances, is displeased at the austere

 

quality Of Alceste's honor. Philinte maintains that
"Il est bon de cacher ce qu'on a dans Ie coeur” (p. AA),
and asks, "Serait-il 5 prOpOS et de la bienséance/
De dire é mille gens tout ce que d'eux l'on pense?”
(p. AA).
All he emphasizes is the social value of a
"vertu traitable: (p. A6) and the usefulness Of reason

in guiding the honnete homme in his Observation of les

 

’bienséances: "La parfaite raison fuit toute extremité

..." (p. A6). Good honnete homme that he is,self—

2Le Misanthrope, II, A6 in Oeuvres Compjetes de MOIiEre,
ed.—Maurice Rat (Paris: Gallimard,BibTiOtheque de
la Plelade, I956), 2 vols. Subsequent references to
this edition will appear in my text.

' I!

.,

55

composed to the very end, he admits, that, while
every SO Often he might notice as many as a hundred
Single inbstices every day, he would never dream of
letting his annoyance over this be seen in him by his
contemporaries: "Mais quoiqu'a chaque pas je puisse
voir paraitre,/En courroux, comme vous, on ne me
voit point étre” (p. A6). He even admits that he has
learned to manipulate his innermost being to prevent
his feelings from disturbing his mask in front of
these unjust men: "J'accoutume mon Sme a souffrir
ce qu'ils font" (p. A6). And just like Madame de
Grignan, whose ability of self control Madame de
Sévigné SO admired but admitted defeat at attaining,
Philinte tells Alceste, "Mon flegme est philOSOphe
autant que votre bile" (p. A6).

It is Significant, then, that Eliante should
describe Alceste as an exception for his century.
She says,

Et Ia sincérité dont son Sme se pique

A quelque chose en SOi de noble et d'hérquue
C'est une vertue rare au Siecle d'aujourd' hui,

(p. 86).
And it is even more Significant that this man of

great morals should have to withdraw from the society

'56

of his contemporaries: ”Je vais sortir d'un gouffre
IOD triomphent les vices,/ Et chercher sur la terre
un endroit écarté..." (p. IIO).

From what we have said in our previous chapter on
Madame de Sévigné's desire for sincerity and on her
contemporaries' comments On her Openness, there is
little doubt that she would have agreed with Alceste's
statement proclaiming that our sentiments Should not
be masked under vain compliments. We have but to
repeat her own declaration, that "les gens éclairés
par leur coeur [he]...sauroient étre trompés,” a
statement which She concluded with a cheer for the
primacy Of sentiment over reason: ”Vive donc ce qui
vient [du coeur)!" (Ill, 79). However, what we went
to emphasize here is that element Of her character
which flirted with the temptation tO withdraw from
society, a temptation tO which Alceste yielded.

The seventeenth century was a period which empha-
sized the social value Of man to its utmost. Art,
itself, was so much a part of society that an artist,
quite unlike his latter-day equivalent, would scarcely
presume to consider himself alienated. AS La

Rochefoucault stated it, "il serait inutile de dire

(n

57

combien la société est nécessaire aux hommes: tous
la desirent et tous la cherchent...”3 ”(L61 plus
grand bien de la vie humaine, c'est-a-dire []e§)

"7 was how Bossuet put it

douceurs de la société,
in his Oraison Funébre for the Prince de Condé.

Yet, interestingly enough, Madame de Sévigné did not
resent withdrawal from her equals. She, who was so
loquacious that she could at times consider herself
"l'aigle de la conversation" (I, 536), did not seem
to resent her long periods Of residence at her quiet
chateau in Brittany. Even while in Paris,she was in
the habit Of withdrawing to the restful atmOSphere
of the family estate at Livry in the Shadow of the
abbey Of the same name. In I657, Mademoiselle de
Scudéry had already remarked, in a surprised tone
which suggests the exceptional, that "quand il le
faut, elle (Madame de Sévigné] se passe du monde et
de la cour, et se divertit a la campagne avec autant
de tranquillité’.que Si elle étoit née dans les

bOis" (GEF, I, 320). And what was all the more

surprising for Mademoiselle de Scudéry was, in her

3Francois VI de La Rochefoucauld, "Réflexions Diverses,”
in Oeuvres Completes ed. L. Martin-Chauffier and Jean
Marchand6TPariS: Gallimard, Bibliotheque de la
PéTade, l957), p. 508.

 

lIBossuet, Oeuvres, p. 200.

rile

I...

58

very words, that ”en effet elle en revient aussi

belle, aussi gai et aussi propre que Si elle

n'avoit bougé d'Erice [Paris]" (GEF, I, 320). Obviously,
beauty and gaiety seem to have been considered by
Mademoiselle de Scudéry as synonymous with life in
society alone, and Madame de Sévigné was to be

admired for being able to preserve her social graces
during provincial sojourns.

Actually, Madame de Sévigné seems to have greatly
desired the peace her withdrawal brought her, despite
the fact that it was imposed on her by financial
needs. Only later in life, when She eapecially
desired to be with Madame de Grignan did her solitude
become sad, but even then She still peferred it to the
folly Of the great bustling gatherings at Rennes for
the convening of the Breton Estates or for the
arrival Of her friend and neighbor, the Princesse de
fibrente. We have several accounts Of these events
from different periods of her correspondenee, something
which proves that her basically negative attitude toward
great social events did not change after l67l, when

she Started writing to her daughter.

59

We have seen above what She said in this vein
about the wedding Of Mademoiselle de Louvois in I679
(II, 5l7-8). Already in I67I, when the Breton
Estates met at Vitré, She lamented her being deprived
Of her "pauvre solitude” (I, 358), and wanted her
week at Vitré to be already ended, "afin de quitter
généreusement tous les honneurs de ce monde et de
jouir de moiéméme aux Rochers" (I, 358). She
eXpressed annoyance at the ridiculousness of many
Of the provincial "civilités", but She also recorded
her laughing at them with a good number of people
Madame de Grignan knew and who were Old friends
(I, 358). What she was tired of was the game of
politeness which life in society required. She
betrayed this in a self-conscious comment on her
over-anxious reSponses to questions peOple asked
about Madame de Grignan: "Je crois toujours que
C'est qu'on voit mes pensées au travers de mon
corps-de-jupe” (I, 357). As the week at Vitré
wore on, She actually appreciated the true intentions
of the honors accorded her, the "bonté des dames de
ce pays," but she admitted her weariness Of having

to reSpond prOperIy to them: "Je ne m'en accommoderois

6O

pas...avec toute ma civilité et ma douceur'I (I, 360).
Back at Les Rochers for a breath of air, she was
transported with joy: "j'ai besoin de me rafrafchir,
j'ai besoin de me taire" (I, 36A). Madame de
Chaulnes, wife of the Governor Of Brittany, suddenly
appeared there, too, for a moment Of peace before
returning to the still-continuing Estates, and She
had to leave as quickly as she arrived, ”plus fachée
sans doute du r6le ennuyeux qu'elle allOit reprendre"
(I, 367). Very reluctantly, Madame de Sévigné had
to follow close behind her friend in order to help
her maintain the rOle which her position in Breton‘
society required her to fulfill, but at the end of the
Estates She admitted that "la compagnie est belle

et bonne; mais c'eSt avec une grande joie qu'on se
sépare" (I, 37l).

Nine years later, when the Princesse de Tarente
arrived in Brittany, Madame de Sévigné's reaction
was quite the same to the great reception given for
her at Rennes, but the assembly ("cdtourbillon")
was all the more difficult to content with, as She
explains, "comme il étoit plus resserré, il en
étoit plus violent” (II, BIS). Writing from Rennes

she expressed a violent desire to be in her peaceful

6I

woods: “l'on m'honore trOp : je suis extrememement
affamée dc jeune et de silence. Je n'ai pas
beaucoup d'esprit... (II, 810).

But it was in the series Of letters written
during her last Stay with her now married son at Les
Rochers in I689-I690 that Madame de Sévigné repeated
over and over again expressions and phrases such as
"Les Rochers sont tranquilles" (III, A9l); or,-”Je
faiS toujours ioi...la vie douce et tranquille...:
une entiere liberté..." (III, A6A): or, "Nous sommes
ici dans un parfait et profound repos, une paix, un
Silence..." (III, A55). In a letter dated August 2l,
I689, She even used In the image of the religious
hermit, writing that a visitor named Revée, the
King's lieutenant general in Brittany, was pleased
with Les Rochers, her ”desert" (III, 5ll). But
She aSSured her daughter that She was not really
becoming withdrawn from the world because Of the
number of her visitors: ”Ne craignez point que
je devienne anachoréte" (III, 5l2). The trip She
had undertaken through Brittany in I689, before
arriving at Les Rochers, had been begun in the company
of the Chaulnes, who were magnificently received at

Rennes. Madame de Sévigné, now Sixty-three years of

9'

62

age, could not refrain from writing Openly: ”cette
vie me tourmente trOp, il est trOp question de moi,

on ne se peut cacher, cela tue" (III, A9l). And

that she was tired of being terribly polite and
acbommodating, of always Offering a pleasant countenance
to the innumerable flattering compliments she
received, is clearly seen even before the arrival

at Rennes, when after already six weeks in the company
Of the Madame de Chaulnes she Openly admired this
woman's stamina in facing her husband's colleagues
with a smile. It is Significant that Madame de
Sévigné reverted here to the theatrical image Of a
"character” on stage with which She compared Madame

de Chaulnes' conduct all across the province: "[Elle]
S'acquitte divinement de tous les personnages que la
Providence lui fait faire" (III, AA3). Divine Pro-

’ vidence had put the woman into a certainsiation in
life. To conform to it, she had to play her part,

her "role," by being the perfect honnéte femme,

 

adaptable to all Situations and all peOple. And, in
general, it is this ability to adapt that Madame de
Sévigfié did not seem to posses. For while Madame de

Chaulnes stayed in Rennes and resisted all the social

63

pressures exerted on her, Madame de Sévigné sought

refuge in solitude in the quiet woods at Les Rochers.
Her reaction to society just after her daughter's

I67l departure is still something else we must briefly

deal with, for it, too, is revealing. In I66A, during

the Fouquet trial, She had literally expressed what

her sentiments were towards others at moments Of

great tension and anxiety. She would seek out only

those peOple with whom she could feel the common bond

Of a Similar emotion: ”Je ne puis voir ni souffrir

que ces gens avec qui j'en puis parler, et qui sont

dans les mémes sentiments que moi" (I, l35). In the

same manner, on February A, l67l, after Madame de

Grignan had literally abandoned her in Paris, she

visited Madame de Lafayette who was mourning the

death Of a "soeur religieuse” and was consequently

"comme je la pouvoiS desirer" (I, l89). She Spent

the following afternoon Of February 5, being

consoled by Madame de La Troche in the gardens Of

the Arsenal and she would revert to the select

company Of this woman after her daugher's hasty

departure in June, I677. Writing "chez Ia bonne

Troche" She would add, ”[son] amitié est chiarmante

[sic] : nulle autre ne m'étoit prOpre” (II, 263).

.. I a. fill

6A

She knew very well that She could not depend on
society to listen to her sorrow or to sympathize
with her. She could seek out only those persons whom
she deemed worthy of understanding her: ”Peu de gens
sont dignes de comprendre ce que je sens; j'ai
cherché ceux qui sont de ce petit nombre, et j'ai
évité les autres" (I, I95). There were few women
like her friend Madame de Villars, Of whom she could
say: I'elle entre bien dans mes sentiments” (I, I92).
The Others, she very shrewdly noticed,were slyly trying
to distract her from thinking about Madame de
Grignan, and in expressing this, She reverted to the
étrerparaitre'concept Of deceitful appearances. She
said that She had not yet seen these peOple, ”qui
veulent, disent-ils, me divertir; parce qu'en paroles
couvertes, c'est vouloir m'empécher de penser e
vous, et cela m'offense” (I, I96). Thus, in l67l,
she could appreciate only those women with whom she
could weep Openly over her loneliness, without any
social constraint.

In I679, another separation from her daughter
occasioned her to withdraw awhile from society with

her friend Corbinelli, "qui connoit tr0p le coeur

65

humain pour n'avoir pas respecté ma douleur" (II, AA2).
This statement and the one which follows it, certainly
say as much about other peOple as they do about
Corbinelli, for Madame de Sévigné very much resented
having to repress her grief in order to offer a
dignified impression to peOple. Corbinelli, instead,
"l'a laissée faire; et comme un bon ami il n'a point
essayé sottement de me faire taire” ((I, AA2). Only
an unbearable ggt, therefore, tries to manipulate
the very tender movements of the human heart.

AS we have noticed, Madame de Sévigné admired
the "merveilles de conduite” her daughter taught
her "pour se gouverner dans ces occasions” (I, 732).
She deSperately tried to practice the rules of conduct
so as to be able to frequent society deSpite her
sorrow: "Je suis dans le train de mes amies, je vais,
je viens" (I, 732). But her best moments were those
when She actually spoke Openly of her sorfow, for I
rather than suppress it, She would appreciate being
able to relieve the pain with tears; "quelques larmes
me font un soulagement nompareil" (I, 732). But
this, She once very frankly admitted, could not be '

done before peOple, eSpecially peOple wearing social

 

 

66

”masks." She would have to remain apart: ”Je
sais les lieux OD je puis me donner cette liberté”
(I, 732).

Here, then, we have indicated that Madame de
Sévigné would have been in agreement with Alceste's
remarks on the insincerity of his century. But,
even more important, we have shown how, like Alceste;
Madame de Sévigné was tempted to withdraw from the
society of her contemporaries. Mademoisetle de
ScUdéry was quite surprised at the pleasure Madame
de Sévigné took in residing in the provinces. We
have seen how, after l67l, Madame de Sévigné maintained
a negative attitude towards great social gatherings
where she would have had to be incessantly on her
guard to maintain a polite social facade. In her
periods of great sadness she deliberately chose the
select company Of an understanding friend, or chose
to give vent to her emotions in solitude, rather
than to have to suppress her feelings by presenting
a composed image of herself in society. All in all,
this temptation to withdraw was quite Alcesurlike,
and it was something shocking for seventeenth-century
man who, like Bossuet, tended to praise "les douceurs

de la société” (Oeuvres, p. 200).

l .I. IIQM

IV. "LES DESSOUS DES CARTES" : REALITY BENEATH ‘
THE “MASK” OF APPEARANCES

In Act I, Scene I of Le MisanthrOpe,AIceste

 

demands ”que nos sentiments/Ne se masquent jamais
sous de vains compliments" (p. AA). What we want to
emphasize here is his use of the image of the mask -
the mask of social convention which conceals true
sentiment and hampers authenticity in human relations.
This image is important because Madame de Sévigné' I
was quite aware of the necessity of seeing .reality
"masked” beneath deceiving, appearances. She actually
used the image of the mask to express the dichotomy
Of appearances and reality.

Her first occasion to mention the term "mask”,
came in I672. She was on the verge of departing
on her first and much desired trip to Grignan where
she was to be reunited with her daughter. She had not
seen her Since the sad separation of February A, l67l,
and had to keep postponing her departure because of
the fatal illness of Madame de La Trousse, her aunt.I
The letter of July 2 to Madame de Grignan related

that Madame de La Trousse,already half-detached from

IMadame de La Trousse was also the sister of the Abbé
de Coulanges with whom Madame de Sevigne was to make
the trip to Grignan.

67

68

this earthly life because of her moribund state,
understood Sévigné's reasons for wanting to depart
for Provence: l'Elle me donne congé...Cela touche
sensiblement” (l, 563). Madame de Sévigné was
still determined to depart and to leave her aunt
"a demi morte," an idea which was already beginning
to bring her remorse. Nonetheless, her anxiety to
leave was so great that in her next letter of June 6,
She again happily repeated, concerning her aunt,
”Elle nous chasselous, comme je vous ai déje dit”
(I, 565).

But Madame de Sévigné did not leave, and the letter
Of June-2A, written from the Sick-room of the dying
woman, was a revelation of the truth of the aunt's
sentiments: Madame de Sévigné'now described this
woman as "desséchée”. She erte, ”Les OS lui percent
Ia peau...elle a perdu la parole” (I, 576). Given up
by the doctors, and no longer feeling any pain “parce
qu'il n'y a plus rien a consumer,” Madame de La Trousse
turned to her niece and her brother. With outstretched
hand, she told them of the extreme consolation She
was receiving from their presence at her bedside during
her last moments. Madame de Sévigné recalled perfectly

that ”il y a trois semaines qu'elle nous donna a tous

69

congé, parce qu'elle avoit encore un reste de
cérémonie” (I, 576). While the "ceremonies” of life
were still being Observed, the reality of her death
was concealed. But, as Madame de Sévigné now reported,
”presentement Ie masque est Oté“ and Madame de La
Trousse could confess her relief at having these peOple
still beside her. And finally, in a comment on life
and death, Madame de Sévigné was to compare life with
the theatrical ggppp of “comedy“, a comparison which
was intended to Show how man, by his Shallow actions,
turned life into a superficial ”comedy” of “masked”
existence. She said, ”Cela nous creva Ie coeur, et
nous fit voir qu'on joue longtemps la comédie et
qu'a la mort on dit la vérité” (I, 576). Death alone
removes the mask and reveals the true feelings that
lie behind it.

I Another occasion for her to use the idea of the
mask came, for example, in I689, in reference to the

Duc de Schomberg, who hadteen a maréchgjgg France

 

in I675, but, being Protestant, had had to emigrate
to Germany and finally to Holland. Here, he went into
the service of the Price of Orange who was reSponSibIe

for the deposition of King James II of England, whom

70

Louis XIV supported. In her letter to Bussy dated
December 9, I688, Madame de Sévigné had already
shown surprise at how Schomberg, the "ungrateful”

former French maréchal, could possibly be attached

 

to the Prince of Orange, ”la plus grand ennemi de

tous les rois [de France] dont il [Schomberg] a recu

de si grands bienfaits, et qu'il avoit servis avec

tant de reputation” (III, 268). On January l2, I689,
then, when She had found out that Schomberg's son

had received certain hereditary rights from the Prince,
as payment for service, She exclaimed: ”M. de
Schomberg est général des armes en Hollande, a la
place de ce prince, et son fils a la survivance :

voile le masque bien levé" (III, 3l6).

That Madame de Sévigné always remained sensitive
to the problem of the false "mask" of society is
revealed by a leter from Grignan to hercousin,
Coulanges, dated June l9, I695, less than a year before
her death the following April. It would appear that
her cousin had written to her about an affair he had
attended where he had seen entering ”de certaines gens
annoncés sous de grands noms." (III, 885). Madame de
Sévigné greatly admired a very Significant remark,

reportedly made by a certain Monsieur de Poissy,

7l

concerning these people unworthy of bearing grand
titles and names: "Ah! masques, je vous connois”
(III, 885). She, instead (”moi qui hais mortellement
les grands noms sur de petits sujets”), would have
liked to have been the person to have exclaimed this.
Very aarcastically, she added, "J'admire l'humilité

de ceux qui veulentlbien...porter [les grands noms]”,
for if these peOple were really humble they would not
bear such great titles. ”Il les refuseroient, s'ils
avoient I'eSprit de faire réflexion 8 ce que leur
coOte I'explication de ces beaux noms, et comme elle
tombe tout an outrage sur leurs pauvres petits noms.”
(III, 885). As she continued, it is very interesting
to note that she adOpted the image of the proud ‘
peacock to satirize these peOple, the very image which
has most recently been used to characterize the
ostentatious character of the whole period.2 These
peOple who took upon themselves great names would

have avoided SO much ridicule of their own unworthiness,

had they been more humble in the first place and never

 

2Jean Rousset,_La Littérature de I'A e Baroque en
France :‘Circé et Te Paon (Paris, TSEA).

72

attracted any attention, for I'l'on ne penseroit pas
s'ils n'avoient point voulu prendre IeS plumes du
paon, qui leur conviennent Si peu” (III, 885). It
is at this point that we find Madame de Sévigné
striking out against abuses rampant during her century.
She hOped that Poissy's exclamation, "Masque, je vous
connois!” (III, 886), might serve to correct infringe-
ments on honesty and sincerity. She would have liked
to see everyone go about in healthy fear of having

his mask removed by someone. As a result, she felt
that people might be more inclined towards humility
and self-effacement.

For this reason, then, she enjoyed all of the
serious reading She did of writers like Nicole, for
they satisfied her yearning for Open truthfulness.

In l67l she wrote: ”Ce qu'il dit de l'orgueil et de
l'amour-prOpre qui se trouve dans toutes les disputes,
et que l'on cOuvre du beau hom de l'amour de la vérité
est une chose qui me ravit. Enfin ce traité [dans

les Essais de morale] est fait pour bien du monde...”
(I, AIA). And in this moralizing aspect, she also
mentioned Moliere, who by his satire "a corrigé tant

de richules" (III, 886).

73

Madame de Sévigné, however, composed her own Special
phrase to express the oftendeceiving character of
appearances--“Ies dessous des carteS"--and in respect
to this, critics have Often noted, in passing, her
ability to discern between appearances and reality.
However, it seems that none of them have really tried
either to look deeply into this aspect of hers or to
fit it into her general conception of life.

On July 2A, I675, Madame de Sévigné wrote about
her visit to Pomponne, where together with Monsieur
and Madame de Pomponne, Madame de Vins, and Monsieur
d'Hacqueville, She passed a whole day in most lively
conversation. A favorite tOpic was I'leS dessous des
cartes" (I, 708). As she says, they tried to discover
the other unexposed side ”de toutes les choses que
nous croyons voir, et que nous ne voyons point, tout
ce qui se passe danS les familles, oh nous trouverions
de la haine, de la jalousie, de la rage, du mépris,
au lieu de toutes les belles choses qu'on met audessus
du panier et qui passent pour des vérités” (I, 768).
The image of the basket is most striking, for in the
uSe of this Single word Madame de Sévigné conjures

‘5

up the picture of a housewife at a market placing her most

é .

7A

respectable groceries on the tOp of her basket, dis-
playing perhaps even several chicken heads (as we

can see in many an old print), which, however, have

no chickens attached to them, They are Simply useful
in giving the gossiping neighbors a false impression

of the quality of the food the housewife sets before
her family. But rather than the anier, the expression
"les dessous des cartes” is the one that is more
important here. It Offers us the image of playing-cards
face down on a table. These are cards which present

to us their backs, all similar in their well-designed
looks, each hiding behind its outward appearances an
individual reality--the uneXpected ace that can capture
our king if we only eXpose our card by turning it

face up on the table. As Madame de Sévigné extended
this image into the world Of everyday reality, into

the very "game" of life itself, she said, "de la
plupart des choses que nous croyons voir, on nous
détromperoit" (I, 768). In the very way she explained
it, we can see a criticism of contemporary society
taking shape. She was most consciously aware Of the
deception of practically everything we see and take

for granted in life. "Vous pensez donc que cela est

I-I. l 1

75

ainsi dans une maison; vous pensez que l'on S'adore
en cet endroit-l5; tenez, voyez : on s'y hait jusqu'
5 la fureur, et ainsi de tout Ie reste” (I, 768).
Events themselves do not escape deceiving us, for
while we might think an event to be the result of a
certain cause, we would only need to see "les dessous
des cartes” to realize that it is all the contrary
of what we think to’be true.

This, for example, is Splendidly illustrated
by Madame de Sévigné in a later She wrote two weeks
after the letter we have just been citing. She devoted
herself to telling Madame de Grignan the latest gossip
on the relationship Of Madame de Montespan with Madame
de Maintenon who, slowly but surely, was winning the
affections Of Louis XIV away from MonteSpan. This
had already been going on for a period of two years.
What had appeared to be a ”belle amitié" between
the two women had been for this length of time ”une
véritable aversion” (I, 792). This news, of course,
was reported in quite the same terms we have been
referring to : ”Je veux, ma bonne, vous faire yoir un
petit dessous de cartes qui vous surprendra” (I, 792).
Two weeks later Madame de Sévigné had additional

information to report on the Montespan-Maintenon affair,

..a. {if

76

and we again find her stressing those deceiving
appearances. She very shrewdly observed that Maintenon's
friends were hard at work trying to conceal the truth,
and ”voyant que la dessous des cartes se voit, ils
afectent fort d'en rire et de tourner cela en
ridicule" (l, 8l9). It is on this occasion that we
can see somewhat of a lampoon in Madame de Sévigné's
subsequent comment. For, in the face of the disguised
efforts of Maintenon's friends to distract onlookers
from the truth, She explicitly refused to be held
responsible for reporting anything besides what She
had discovered two weeks earlier, AS She said, one
can never be sure ”dans un tel pays." And the rest Of
the narration can be looked at as a disapproving
commentary of MonteSpan's behavior due to the very way
in which Sévigné chose to express it: Montespan was
”en robe de chambre” actually playing with the Queen,
"Ia dame du chateau”. The Queen had to find herself
all too fortunate even to be received by her King, and
was ”souvent...chassée par un clin d'oeil qu'on fait
5 la femme de chambre” (I, 820).

But what is really Singular, is Madame de Sévigné's
reaction to this ability of hers to see clearly behind

the mask which society deceivingly presented to her.

77

She nonetheless remained relatively undisturbed by her
observations. Here, in the case of MonteSpan, we

find her avoiding any Openly hostile Statements. We
do know that to have said anything malicious about the
King's behavior with his mistresses would have been
highly dangerOus because of the censure Of the mails.
But while Madame de Sévigné seemsto have restrained
herSelf in reporting about Montespan, She seems to
have delighted in just the ability to discover ”les
dessous des cartes.” This Simple delight appears

very sincere on her part. We do not find many
indications that she seriously attempted to go far
beyond the facts of her discoveries.

For example, to return to those peOple at
Pompumelwho Spent a day discussing deceiving
appearances, we find Madame de Sévigné gayly referring
to the topic of their conversation as a Simple ”folie“,
a "divertissement". In her exact words it was as
follows: ”Je souhaitai un cabinet touttapissé de
dessous de cartes au lieu de tableaux; cette folie
nous mena bien loin, et nous divertit fort” (I, 768).
Her tone is indeed one of playful badinage that critics‘

have Often delighted in seeing in her letters. At

78

the end of the same paragraph She repeated the idea
that this account of hers was a simple I'bagatelle".

She said that even while the causes of certain events
might be quite the contrary of what we actually expect,
”le petit démon qui nous tireroit Ie rideau nous
diverteroit extremement” (I, 768). In the end, even
the MonteSpan-Maintenon struggle for royal favor was
reported in such terms. She very seriously noticed
that one does not often actually understand reality

as it is: "C'est quand je dis qu'il ya un fil de manque;
et l'on voit clair guand on voit le dessous deS cartes"
(I, 792). But a light-hearted refrain came to dispel
much of the seriousness we might have felt in the
aboVe, when she added, ”c'est la plus jolie chose

du monde” (I, 793).

”Les dessous des cartes” was, perhaps, to lead
her somewhat deeper into things with the passage of
time. Five years later She did some serious thinking
along these lines. It concerned the wedding of the son
of Madame de Lavardin to Louise-Anne de Noailles, a
daughter-in-law with whom Madame de Lavardin could
not possibly get along. Sévigné wrote that the
mother-in-Iaw, her friend, had written "qu'elle est
contente," but she herself added, ”je voiS que non”

(II, 838). It was evident to her from the fact that

79

the two women were not living under the same roof.
Furthermore, a certain Madame de Mouci had convinced
Madame de Lavardin that this match was the most
advantageous one for her son--an advice which broke
her heart but had to be taken. To this, Madame de
Sévigné added, "elle ne se plaindra point, mais pourra
bien étouffer : je voiS leurs coeurs” (II, 737).
Again, She could see beneath the assumed appearances
of happiness, and she readily expressed herself in
these terms: ”Je voiS un dessous de cartes funeste”
"II, 737). Monsieur de Lavardin would find himself
hOpeleSSIy entangled by his love for hisnother and her
incompatibility with the new daughter-in-law. He was
being sacrificed for the sake of advancing his noble
name and his family through a profitable marriage, and
Madame de Sévigné knew that ”quand je serois 5 cette
noce, je n'y verrois pas plus clair” (II, 737). While
writing this from her woods at Les Rochers, she was
extremely reflective and consequently made a very
penetrating statement for her century: namely, that
"personne n'est content dans ce monde.: pp 9gp pp xplg

(II, 737).

80

This is certainly a very severe observation,
,eSpecially for a period like the seventeenth century,
which was devoted to lavish and brilliant external
diSplay. We cannot help seeing Madame de Sévigné's
resemblance on this point to La Rochefoucauld, for
example, whom she knew quite well. Nevertheless,
she was not the type of person to change her manner
of living completely as a result of a more penetrating
observation of reality. She actually admitted this,
herself, and on the subject of the Lavardin wedding
She altered her tone from serious to playful. She
was willing to relinquish understanding and to keep
from pushing the point too far. This attitude will
be more than evident in what we shall have to say about

her religion. Considering her daughter as a philOSOphe

 

imbued with Cartesianiam, She said, "Si j'avois quel-
qu'un pour m'aider 5 philosopher, je pense que je
deviendrois une de vos écoliéres, mais je ne réve

que comme on faisoit du temps que le coeur étoit 5
gauche" (II, 737). This last phrase abruptly terminated
her moments of severe reflection which had come/to

an end on the tOpic. The Simple phrase, I'écoliére..
Gui) r’éve", playfully removed the feeling of grave
earnestness, which reflection had produced, and she was

free to write on another, less serious subject.

8l

It is evident, therefore, that Madame de Sévigné
easily perceived reality behind what She called the
"mask” or "les dessous des cartes”. However, she
would not permit herself to dwell for long on her
discoveries. Her attitude did not remain a very
serious one. As we shall eventually see, it was easy
for her to abandon the role of Alceste, when necessity

demanded it, for the role of Philinte, the compromiser.

V. APPEARANCES OVER REALITY

From what has been said SO far, it would seem
that Madame de Sévigné could not adapt to society.
Such a statement, however, would entail a deformation
of her total personality, and would be just as mis-
leading as the belief that She was extremely social.
Our purpose here, then, will be to examine the Opposite
Side of Madame de Sévigné's character, the Side which

. ’.\ A .
admired paradtre over etre and which placed less stress

 

on the importance of sincerity. As we Shall see,
Madame de Sévigné's position would seem to lie some-

where in between pgraTtre and'gtre, or rather, we

 

could more forcefully say that she was often caught
in a dilemma between the two.

An excellent example of this is the announcement
of the engagement of the Grande Mademoiselle with
Monsieur de Lauzun, a man of lower aristocratic rank.
Louis XIV refused to grant permission for their
marriage, even after Lauzun had already received
from Mademoiselle a host of new titles and honors.
These would make him distinguished enough to be mentioned
in a formal marriage contract with her. The cancella-
tion of the engagement came as a surprise to all of

the court, and the two figures of Lauzun and

82

83

Mademoiselle can almost be said to represent the

two sides of Madame de Sévigné's character. On the

one hand, there was the emotional character of
Mademoiselle, who seems to become almost ridiculous

in Madame de Sévigné's description of her: "Pour
Mademoiselle, suivant son humeur, elle éclata en

pleurs, en cris, en douleurs violentes, en plaintes
excessives; et tout le jour elle n'a [Sid] pas sorti

de son lit...” (I, l83). Yet, at the same time,

this woman of extremes, in whOm Madame de Sévigné
detects ridicule, is rendered almost tragic by the
account of Madame de Sévigné's visit to her. Madame

de Sévigné very sympathetically noted that Mademoiselle,
who lacked all prudence in handling the affair, was

very happy to have someone around to whom she could Open
her heart, because "son coeur étoit trOp plein" (I, l86).
This last comment which portrays Mademoiselle in a
very human way, diSpels the foolish impressions of
her we might have been forming in our minds. While
she had formerly seemed like a child, pouting at not
being granted her wish, her tearful exclamations now,
on "quelle cruelle prudencel”, make her so extremely
human and tragic. Madame de Sévigné, herself touched,

visited her in this state three times and noted that

8A

that Mademoiselle correctly sensed that she was ”une
personne qui sentolt ses douleurs; elle ne s'est pas
trompée." (I, l86). Madame de Sévigné even admitted
that on this occasion she found certain sentiments
"qu'on ne sent guere pour des personnes d'un tel
rang." However, She asked Coulanges (to whom this
letter was addressed) to keep what She had written a
secret between himself and his wife, "car vous jugez
bien que cette causerie seroit entierement riducule
avic d'autres” (I, l86). She was aware that
Mademoiselle's extravagant conduct appeared ridiculous
to the normal, composed honnéte homme.

On the other hand, in sharp contrast to the
emotional Mademoiselle, there was Lauzun, and Madame
de Sévigné very deliberately took the trouble twice
to describe with admiration his magnificent behavior
in the face of great disappointment. He received the
bad news "avec tout le respect, toute la soumission,
toute la fermeté, et tout le désespoir que méritoit
une si grande chute" (I, l83). She used the theatrical
image of the performer when she said that ”Monsieur
de Lauzun a joué son personnage en perfection.” (I,~l8A).
His courage and his sorrow, "mélée d'un profond I

reSpect..., l'ontfait admirer de tout le monde” (I, l8A).

85

It is Significant, then, that although Madame
de Sévigné sympathized with Mademoiselle, she chose to
admire Lauzun, just as her contemporaries admired him.
This reveals how much Stress She did place, after all,
on appearances. AS Starobinski or Rousset would say,
she observed him as if he were a ”personnage ostentatoire.”]

She was not primarily concerned with what could
be considered his personnage intime--the real, thinking
and feeling Lauzun. Rather, her interest was in the
external impression made by his behavior. She looked
at the image of him which She saw reflected in the ob-
servant eyes of the court Spectators.

Since she was abTe to look at Lauzun in this manner,
we can now turn to the other side of Madame de Sévigné.
She no longer appears to us as the woman of absolute
sincerity, but as a woman willing to accept the mask
of honneteté. We can begin by examining this in the
series of letters Madame de Sévigné wrote to Monsieur
de Pomponne, from November l7 to the end of December,
I66A, during and after the Fouquet trial. The letters
reveal just what attitude she admired in a person

standing before the eyes of society at every moment.

IJean Starobinski, "Sur Corneille," in L'Oeil vivant
(Paris, l96l), p. 63. Rousset, Circe et le paon,

p. 2l7.

.86

By way of background, it must first be mentioned
that historians, in general, have not found Fouquet to
be as blameless as Madame de Sévigné portrays him.

When Mazarin raised him to the position of surintendant

des finances in I653 he was confronted with a system

 

Of finances that was in most part corrupt. However, he
succeeded quite well in getting both urgently needed
funds for the crown and a great deal of personal prestige
for himself. He shrewdly manipulated this system, using
any means possible to attain his desired end. Mazarin
was not actually unaware of Fouquet's lack of scruples,
either. Through his ability Fouquet succeeded in
amassing an immense personal fortune, and it appears
that he made use of government funds for this purpose.
This was all the more displeasing to Louis, who saw
Fouquet as a rival of his glory and had him arrested
and brought to trial.

That Madame de Sévigné was not unaware of certain
dishonesties of which Fouquet might have been guilty is
shown, for example, in her letter of November l7, when

she paraphrased him as saying before his judges that

2For example, see Auguste Bailly, Le r5gne de Louis XIV

(Paris, I9A6), p. 3A-37, 80-88.

87

“souvent on faisoit des choses par autorité, que quel-
quefois on ne trouvoit pas justes quand on y avoit fait
réflexion" (I, l20). We can see this, too, five days
later, when she noted in reference to a Special
interrogation that “ce ne soit uncbs endroits de son
affaire le plus glissant” (I, l2A). Madame de Sévigné's
friendship with Fouquet had been very close. She showed
a great attachment to the old friend in whose disgrace
She had been unjustly implicated through the discovery

of some of her letters in one of his cassettes.

 

Therefore, She very easily brushed aside any moral
concern on her part.

Her letters on the trial contain almost nothing
but admiration for his conduct under pressure. Actually,
She seems to have placed great Stress on the need for
reporting such details. These letters are full of
numerous Observations on how well Fouquet chose his
words: ”Monsieur Foucquet a été internogé ce matin
sur le marc d'or; il y a tras-bien répondu” (I, l23),
and on the affair of the pension deS gabelles, ”M.
Foucquet a tres-bien répondu” (I, l20). This pre-
occupation Of hers seems to have been but an extension
of her major preoccupation over the wonderfully calm and
composed honnéte facade the surintendant was offering

the world.

88

Along this line Madame de Sévigné very carefully
told Pomponne that "ceux qui aiment M. Foucquet trouvent
cette tranquillité admirable, je suis de ce‘nombre"

(I, l23). On the other hand, "les autres disent que
c'est une affectation : voil5 le monde” (I, l23).
Fouquet's enemies, using the truth for their purposes,
could well apply the pejorative word "affectation” to
his composed behavior, while his friends saw his
controlled reactions as something admirable. His
tranquillity was actually for all purposes a studied
art, the application of which was most in conformity
with the dictionary meaning of ”studied pretense"

given for the word "affectation." This is proved most
clearly in a letter written only two days earlier than
the one just quoted, in which Madame de Sévigné reported
that Fouquet had requested one of his friends to have
the judges' verdict made known to him in prison by a
secret means, by a "voie enchantée,” as She called it.
He then could prepare himself to receive with utmost
composure the actual verdict when it would be announced
to him. She indirectly paraphrased his own words when
She wrote: ”pourvu qu'il ait une demi-heure 5 se

preparer, il est capable de recevoir sans émotion tout

89

la piS qu'on lui puisse apprendre” (I, l22). This is
certainly ”studied pretence”, except that perhaps
after numerous applications of this art of self-
composure, one could become capable of manipulating
the very movements of the human heart.

This constant concern with appearances recurs
again and again in a way that proves to us that it
played a very important part in Madame de Sévigné's
mental orientation and her Outlook on man among his
equals. On December 2, She noted how Fouquet spoke
”Si admirablement bien, que plusieurs n'ont pu
S'empacher de l'admirer” (I, l32). When at a certain
moment he accurately defined a "crime d'Etat”, much
to the consternation of Chanceller Séguier, "Toute
la France a su et admiré cette réponse" (I, I36).

And during the most crucial and tense moments Of
deliberation over the verdict, while all of Paris
was agitated over the latest events, She wrote,
"c'est une chose divine que la resignation et la
fermeté de notre cher malheureux...il faudroit faire
des volumes 5 sa Iouange” (I, IAI).

The emphasis Madame de Sévigné put; on the art
of self-domination, that noteworthy characteristic of

the honnete homme, is especially seen on occasions

 

90

when Fouquet actually lost his temper. On December 2,
she had in some way explained the reason for his usually
perfect comportment when she quoted the words of
Monsieur Renard to her on Fouquet: “ll faut avouer

que cet homme est incomparable; il n'a jamais Si

bien parlé danS le parlement, il se posséde mieux qu'il

 

n'a jamais felt” (I, I32). ,Sg ppsseder stands out
here, but Fquuet'S veritable explosion was to come
on at least two occasions.

One occasion came on December A, when "notrezpauvre
ami étoit échauffe, et n'étoit pas tout 5 fait le
ma‘itre de son émotion...[ll] a tres-bien dit, mais
avec chaleur et colere” (I, l3A). Madame de Sévigné's
whole tone seems to change here from one of intense
admiration to one Of condescending pity, betrayed by
her use of both the eXpression "pauvre ami” and of the
”mais." This suggests that one's words can be basically
sound and good, but that their ever-so-important effect
(which She was on the lookout for) can be destroyed
by tones of anger. This, of course, is nothing really
new in human psychology but the extraordinary emphasis
given to this concern in these thirteen letters,

which we possess on Fouquet, is something quite Special.

1‘

9I

Again, on November 2l, Fouquet lost his patience,
and She said with concern, ”il l'a un peu trOp témoigné,
a reSpondu avec un air et une hauteur qui out déplu.

ll se corrigera, car cette maniere n'est pas bonne"

(I, l2A). It is interesting that as a way of expeSSing
Fouquet's impatient answer she should choose the term
”trOplémoigné," for these very words imply that her
primary concern rested not on the fact of his impatience
itself, but rather on his behavior which betrayed and
revealed it, that "maniére" which was displeasing.

A judge named Pressort, who did not seem to have
been able to Open his mouth without "emportement"

(I, I37), was the Special Object of her hostility.

On December I7, she noted that he Spoke for four
hours ”avec tant de véhémence, tant de chaleur, tant
d'emportement, tant de rage, que plusieurs des juges
en étofient; scandalisés, et l'on croit que cette
furie peut faire plus de bien que de mal 5 notre
pauvre ami" (I, I39). The very fact that one might
Speak in an excited manner was so distaiaful to

the seventeenth century that the outcome of a trial
could be determined by the Side which acted with

the most reasoned moderation.

92

Olivier d'Ormesson, the rapporteur d l

 

commission at the trial, is an interesting figure.
That he was Madame de Sévigné's ally is well-known,
and it would naturally be expected of her to say some
rather complimentary things about him. What She

said about him, then, in this approving manner is
highly indicative of what She definitely admired in

a good man. For example, when he recapitulated the
proceedings in a very fair and unprejudiced manner
She said that "il a parlé avec une netteté, une
intelligence et une capacité extraordinaire" that

his enemies attempted to quiet him with interruptions
(I, I37). His verdict, while rather severe, was that
Fouquet be exiled rather than executed as his enemies
wanted him to be. Madame de Sévigné immediately
declared, "M. d'Ormesson a couronné par I5 55
reputation“ (I, l38). In her following letter she
went on to describe the ”estime extraordinaire” he
acquired by his judgment, SO well eXpressed with such

eloquence and agrémentthat "jamais homme de sa

 

profession n'a au une plus belle occasion de se faire
parOTtre” (I, I39). What emphasis She puts on

reputation, pstime, and finally parOTtre is more than

 

93

evident here. The world of appearances is given
primary consideration in her mind, and it is all
immensely magnified, especially when in the end she
is able to say that Monsieur dWIrmesson could have
exposed himself to every kind of praise, but, with
most commendable modesty, after having Shown off

so ostensibly, he assumed a contrary attitude and

”il s'est caché avec soin” (I, I39). It would not

be unfitting to cite here a remark on such moderation
made by La Rochefoucauld, which would very well
accentuate the pleasure Madame de Sévigné took in
reporting Monsieur d“Ormesson's brilliance and
modesty under the specific terms She used. La
Rochefoucauld says, "enfin la moderation des hommes
dans leur plus haute élévation est un désir de
paraitre plus gfands que leur fortune” (Maxim l8,
PléTade ed., p. A09). In light of this, we can say
that Madame de Sévigné was not satisfied with admiring
Monsieur d'Ormesson'S brilliant Speech. Instead, she
chose to look at his supposed modesty as the perfect
touch which gloriously magnified his brilliance.
While La Rochefoucauld would have called it ”un désir‘

de paraftre plus grand que [S5] fortune,” Madame de

9h

Sévigné was only concerned here with le paraitre
in the positive sense. She ignored the pejorative,
selfish, psychological motivations of d'Ormesson's
behavior.

We can say, then, that the world of human beings
was often seen by her in view of effects, the effect
of a brilliant diSplay of appearances before other
humans who could admire and esteem the reputation
one had acquired in a Splendid and spectacular manner.

Another interesting personality was Simon Arnauld
de Pomponne, to whom Madame de Sévigné had addressed
the letters on Fouquet. He had become Louis XIV's
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in l67l, but
on November l8, I679, he was disgraced at the hands
of Colbert, just after Madame de Sévigné had been
visiting his family at Pomponne. In her letter to
Madame de Grignan on the 29th of that month she
cbscribed a visit she made to him with Madame de
Coulanges after his disgrace. She first mentioned
that a ”ministre de cette humeur, avec une facilité
d'eSprit et une bonté comme la sienne est une chose
si rare” (II, 516). Little wonder, then, that this
docile man would be able to present himself so well

before her despite his sorrow. Madame de Sévigné

l

95

remarked, “je fus...touchée de le voir entrer avec
cette mine amable, sans tristesse, sans abattement”
(II, 516). That she should report this is quite
surprising, for in her preceding letters describing
the actual day of disgrace, she told of all the sorrow
'that filled the Pomponne family, their poor finances
and dreary future. Her first visit to the family

just after they had received the bad news presented

a "spectacle douloureux” (II, 509), with the women in
tears and a Monsieur de Pomponne who embraced her
Jsans pouvoir pronouncer une parole” (II, 599). What
a change we have now a week later when this man seems
to have recollected himself! A description in the
letter just cited had been limited to five sorrowful
words. It became two letters later, a complete
turn-about, a veritable paragraph-long laudation on
the tranquillity of this man whom we really suspect

to be still quite saddened. The truth is revealed

in his Opening words to Madame de Coulanges: ”il

la loua de s'etre souvenue d'un malheureux.” (ll, 5l6).
But what so charmed Madame de Sévigné was that ,
”il ne s'arréta point longtemps sur ce chapitre.”

Good honnete homme that he was, he would render

 

himself pleasing by the use of that wonderful art of

96

conversation, which would not contain any mournful,
displeasing tones. Instead of talking about his
troubles, he passed to other, lighter subjects, ”qui
pouvoient former une conversation; il la rendit
agréable comme autrefois, sans affectation pourtant
d'étre qai, et d'une maniére si noble, si naturelle,

et si précisément mfilée et composée de tout ce qu'iI
falloit pour attirer notre admiration" (II, 516).
Madame de Sévigné expressed the extreme subfleties
involved in his ability to present a carefully worked,
agreeable exterior to society with such words as
”maniére...melée et composée” and ”tout ce qu'il
fallait pour attirer...admiration.” This is evident
further in the same passage under discussion in which
she included the statement that she instinctively

felt like helping these poor peOple: "je leur rends
des soins si naturellement, que je me retiens, de

peur que le vrai n'efit l'air d'une affectation et

d'une fausse générosité : ils sont contents de moi"
(II, 516). Such a statement shows how much appearance-
oriented these people actually were. A simple spon-
taneous gesture of kindness could be so easily mistaken

for something contrived that this gesture itself had

to appear genuine. We have here the very affectation

97

of spontaneity itself to the detriment of true
spontaneity. It is more than evident that we are in

the realm of the Chevalier de Méré's honnéte homme

 

who calculated and composed his every action to appear
pleasing to society.

However, we can go still another step further
in saying that the century placed the borderline
between naturalness and affectation much more into
the territory of what we today would consider pure
and simple affectation or studied pretence. The very
word "natural“ as used by the century is suspect.
While Madame de Sévigné in our last citation used it
to indicate true feelings, we find her using it
elsewhere in a somewhat artificial sense, in reference
to letters, which are really compositions for which
one uses art. Madame de Sévigné reports that in
letter writing one finds one's mind ”embarrassé de
mille pensées différentes”. This mental confusion
does not at all transfer itself to paper. The letter
which results is ”nette et naturelle”-- ”fiaturelle”
logically signifying the appearances or impresfion of
naturalness or of true spontaneity. In actuality

this had to be somewhat altered by the very transfer

of thought into written language.

98

l'Naturel”, for her, can be expressed paradoxi-
cally as "unnatural naturalness", That she was aware
of this possibility,/p:oved by her playful reference
in the followingterms to her daughter's artificial
but natural-looking_make-up: ”Vos cheveux frisés

naturellement avec le fer, poudrés naturellement

 

 

avec une livre de poudre, du rouge naturel : cela
est plaisant" (I, 500). And to think that this is
precisely what Madame de Grignan herself called_
”negligence”!

The same thing can be discerned in her statement
about Pomponne Speaking ”sans affectation pourtant
d'étre gai" (II, 516). He might not have affected
gaiety itself but his whole attitude in front of the
two ladies was especially assumed for their benefit,
especially in the light of what we have been discussing.
Actually, his perfectly polite and polished behavior,
in contrast to the horrid reality of the most trying
circumstances he found himself in, was a thousand
times more eloquent for Madame de Sévigné than any
loud lamentations or breast-beating on his part
would have been. His conversation, of such noble

manner to attract admiration, resulted in that ”il

99

n'eut pas de peine a l'attirer, et méme nos SOUpirs.
Enfin, nous l'allons revoir,...si parfait, comme

inous l'avons vu autrefois" (II, 516). Again, certain
words belie an awareness on her part of a conscious
intention behind his assumed attitude, for while we
have seen that she noted that his manner of conversing
had everything it needed (tout ce qu'il falloit)

to attract admiration, she now says, in fact, that

it did succeed in this without much difficulty (”il
n'eut pas de peine"). It was, then, paradoxically,

a type of "affected unaffectedness,” for Madame de
Sévigné could very easily have said in simpler terms
something like, ”we admired his ability to converse.”
Had she done so, however, she would have failed in
communicating to Madame de Grignan those subtle and
complex contrivances, the ”manieres composées” of

the human facade which intrigued them as much as it
did the whole century, a century that had managed to
develop such a finely worked theory of the artificial,

social man, for actual use on the practical level of

human intercourse.

100

And, here too, Madame de Sévigné certainly did
not refrain from literally using the Special expression,
honnéte homme, in this context: "Enfin il [Pomponne]
ne sera plus que le plus honnéte homme du monde”
(II, 516). Her general concept of the artificial
honnEte figmmg_which Pomponne represented, would seem

to coincide with that concept of honnéteté deve10ped

 

through the second half of the century.

Pomponne was not to remain master of his emotion.
Two months later, on February 5, 1680, he presented
himself before Louis XIV at Saint-Germain. Madame de
Sévigné's tone of admiration, was to change as well.
Of course, she would never condemn her unfortunate
friend's weakness, but by her badly concealed efforts
at excuse we can detect her displeasure at having to
report the truth. The day of the visit, she tells us,
was "bien triste" (II, 601). Monsieur de Pomponne
"craignoit fort cette journée...|l étoit saisi"
(II, 601). He completely submitted himself to Louis'
power. Louis in turn, knew very well how to treat
his victim with the utmost courtesy and mercy now

that the dirty work of dismissal had been completed.

101

This royal benevolence resulted in that ”M. de
Pomponne ne put retenir quelques larmes en lui
parlant du malheur qu'il avoit eu de lui déplaire”
(II, 602). We emphasize here the words ”he put”,
Pomponne's inability to control his tears, those
”marques de foiblesse qufil espéroit que Sa Majesté
lui pardonneroit” (II, 602). In turn, she noted

how Louis received these tears which "venoient d'un
si bon fonds.ll But while Pomponne's innermost feelings
were genuine enough,reither Madame de Sévigné nor
Pomponne would have wanted Louis to be aware of the
depths of personal sorrow caused by the disgrace. In
a second paragraph we find Madame de Sévigné obliged
to continue a more detailed series of excuses for
Pomponne's weakness: Pomponne "efit bien voulu
paroltre plus ferme, il étoit au désespoir, mais il
ne fut pas le maitre de son émotion." And how much
she, too, while commiserating with this man, realized
the importance of the self-controlled facade.

becomes evident in a last comment: "C'est la seule
occasion ou il ait paru tr0p touché” (II, 602). It
suggeste'that what happened only once was really a

faux pas or a crack in the facade that would never be

 

seen again.

102

Other occasions also provided Madame de Sévigné
with the same Opportunity to admire a composed and
dignified figure, either standing calmly in the midst
of confusion or bravely bearing great sorrow. For
example, when the French army was thoughtto have crossed
the river Yssel, a branch of the Rhine, in 1672,
she especially enjoyed reporting that in the midst
of the confusion the Prince de Condé had crossed the
river "trois ou quatre fois en bateau, tout paisible-
ment, donnant ses ordres partout avec ce sang-froid
et cette valeur divine que vous connoissez” (I, 570).
As a result of wounds received in this battle, La
Rochefoucauld's oldest son, the Prince de Marsillac,
died. Madame de Sévigné made special note of the
fact that La Rochefoucauld received the news in her
presence, as if no one should have been there at a
time of such grief for a man who did not desire to
show his emotion. He could not help being "tres vivement
affligé,” and, as a result, she noted that "ses
larmes ont coulé du fond du coeur, et sa fermeté l'a
empéché d'éclater” (I, 570).

It is in such a context that we can see how Madame

de Sévigné was thinking when on March 15, 1680, she

103

described the scene at La Rochefoucauld's bedside
in the last days of his illness. His son, the
Chevalier de Marsillac, had arrived at midnight
”comblé de douleur amere,” and, she seriously notes,
I'il fut longtemps a se faire un visage et une conten-
ance" (II, 6&5). The whole narration is striking.
Filled with grief, the Chevalier calmly entered the
death room, talked to his father, and while ”on fut
persuadé que le dedans étoit troublé...il n'en
parut rien, et il oublia de lui parler de ea maladie.”
Then, in a sudden turnabout, after an amazing display
of self-control, the Chevalier left the room and
took off his ”mask” of composure to give vent to his
emotions: ”[il] ressortit pour crever” (II, 645).

The seventeenth century, which elaborated the

refined theory of the honnéte homme, made a strict

 

art out of social behavior and regulated actions,
emotions, and reSponses to the highest degree in
every circumstance. Madame de Sévigné's outlook

was also oriented in this direction, as we have noted,
and we have clear proof of it in a letter to Madame
de Grignan in which she reproached her daughter for

constantly undervaluating herself. She wrote a long

10h

list of her daugher‘s best characteristics which,
interestingly enough, are almost all involved in the
area of human relations and the successful manipu-
lation of peOple. While Marguerite had among other
things I'du jugement, du discernenytfl'she also
possessed ”de I'habileté, de l'insinuation, du
dessein..., de la prudence, de la conduite, de la
fermeté, de la présence d'eSprit, de l'éloquence, et
le don de vous faire aimer quand il vous plait”
(II, 735). And she summed it all up as foflows:
”pour tout dire en un mot, Vous avez 1e fond pour
'etre tout ce que vous voudrez” (II, 735). To be
able to assume any posture which a given situation
might require was obviousiy of great value to Madame
de Sévigné. She seemed convinced that with clever
conduct, regulated by a sharp presence of mind,
someone like her daughter could discern the most
fruitful means of making herself loved at any given
moment by almost any given person.

From the foregoing, then, we can conclude that
Madame de Sévigné, while confessing a lack of perfect
self-restraint, was influenced by the honnéte social
ideal of her time for she subscribed to its basic
tenets. She admired Fouquet, Pamponne, Olivier

d'Ormesson, La Rochefoucauld, the Chevalier de Marcillac

105

and her own daughter. She observed them as individuals

\

presenting themselves to others, as personnages

 

ostentatoires rather than as personnages intimes with
feelings and emotions. This proves that she was
easily impressed by appearances despite her plea for

frankness and candidness in human relations.

V1. MADAME DE SEVIGNE IN THE ROLE OF PHILINTE

At the beginning of our study, Madame de Sévigné
appeared to us as incapable of constraint, a hopeless
victim of her motherly love. However, we shall now \
see that when she was faced with the most complicated
intrigues and had to extricate herself from the most
demanding of situations, she was able to pull all
of her forces together for she was certainly not
ignorant of the art of dissimulation. In her own
words she said, "je sais comme il faut ménager aux
autres ce que nous avous dans la téte" (II, 196).
Indeed, in practice she was often able to assume the
role of the dissimulator and the Philinte-like
compromiser.

A number of critics have wanted to see in Madame
de Sévigné's ability to deal tactfully with peOple a
reflection on her kindheartedness and hertmm spirit
of reconcilation which shunned quarrels. Harriet Ray
Allentuch has most recently seen this and ascribed it
to a basic desire in her to compel affection (Allentuch,

lh2-lhh). While this fact must certainly be taken into

106

107

account, such considerations have, in the past, often
fallen into extremely sentimental idealizations of
Madame de Sévigné's great and generous heart, against
which still other critics have very forcefully
rebelled, like Jean Choleau, who with only the most
ironical of intentions saw fit to entitle his book
Le Grand coeur de Madame de Sévigné.I The world
of reality at the time when Madame de Sévigné was
writing was the highly social and extremely complex
noble world which had come more and more under the
domination of an absolute ruler. It was a system
which any aristocrat desirous not only of advancement
but simply of existence would eventually have to
contend with. Madame de Sévigné would have to
compromise to keep herself and her family existing
in this society.

This is more than evident in her letter of
August 19, I675. To replace the loss of Turenne,

Louis XIV had nominated eight new maréchaux g; France,

 

an event which had aroused the whole court since these

I(Vitré: Unvaniez Arvor, I959).

108

men now claimed the privilege of being addressed no
longer as "monsieur" but as ”monseigneur.” Most
noblemen, including Monsieur de Grignan, were unwilling
to accord this honor to their former equals. In order
to assist her son-in-law, who found it necessary to
correspond with the new Maréchal de Vivonne, Madame

de Sévigné agreed to write the letter for him, and

she said, ”j' y ficherois un monseigneur en faveur

de son nom. Pour les autres [maréchaux], i1 faut
chicaner comme Beuvron et Lavardin : ils font écrire
leurs soeurs, leurs meres...et ils évitent la décision”
(I, 810).

"Chicaner" was the perfect word for it, and
Madame de Sévigné does not appear to have been very
much above using such tricky strategems. In a letter
to Bussy in 1681 she again referred to this problem of

addressing the new maréchaux, and she wrote a scathing

 

commentary on the political situation in contemporary
France. She said, ”Non, rien ne se décide en France,
tout se tourne en chicane et en prétentions” (II, 901).
Her next sentence, however, betrays her reaction to '

the situation, for she would nonetheless submit to the

109

necessity ”de chicaner”, using all the I'pull"
available in time of need. For this purpose she
advised I'que les plus sages évitent de se faire des
ennemis, ou de perdre leur amis“ (II, 901). Thus,
when the BishOp of Marseille very cruelly undertook
to mention Monsieur de Grignan's I'paresse naturelle”
in front of Louis XIV, the Marquis de Charost inter-
vened in his defense, and Madame de Sévigné repeated
this same idea of the necessity of useful friends,
saying, with reference to Charost, l'Voila de ces gens
que je trouve toujours qu'il faut aimer et instruire"
(I, #80). Friends were often seriously considered
from a solely utilitarian point of view, and once in
writing to Bussy that he should preserve his old
friends, she reminded him of his children's need for
a father's friends in high places, ”dont le secours
peut leur étre nécessaire en l'état oh ils sont”
(II, 900).

Even in handling her very best and closest
friends we find Madame de Sévigné manoeuvering. In
1690, after she had already been away from Paris a

year, she planned to head directly southward to Grignan,

WMT ”n ~ Ima-

110

without first returning to Paris where Madame de La
Fayette and Madame de Lavardin were hOping to see her.
Despite her friendship for them, she would not alter
her decision, but she wrote to her daughter that "je
veux avoir un procédé honnete avec olles, et sinCEre,
et faire valoir 1a raison de mes affaires, d'une
maniere qui ne paroisse pas me moquer d'elles et
changer tout d'un coup, si vous alliez a Paris“

(III, 757). What she was really doing was concealing
from the two friends the truth of her still intense
desire to see her daughter for, after all, ”on ne
meurt point de l‘absence de ses amies" (111,751),
while one can possibly suspectthat Madame de Sévigné
could die from the absence of her ”chére fille."

If, instead, Madame de Grignan were suddenly to come
to Paris, her mother would be close behind her, a
reversal of action with unpleasant implcations for
the two friends. Thus, the news of her present
inability to return to Paris was a ”dureté que je
veux éviter, quoique vraie, et ménager un peu mieux
des amies si aimables et qui présentement et
actuellement sont toutes occupées des vos affaires”

(III, 757). Madame de Sévigné wanted to be careful

111

with the two ladies, and her separation of sincerity
itself from ”un procédé honnete" is quite remarkable,
since the latter, equivalent to “ménagement”, would

seem to concern itself somewhat more with appearances,
with the manner itself of handling friends as Opposed

to the intentions expressed by these motions and
manners. Although her intentions may have undoubtedly
been sincere, this reveals an extraordinary amount of
preoccupation with appearances, with the impression
sincerity itself would make under the very ”appearances”

Of sincerity: "1e ménagement et l'honnete procéde'

 

ue 'e veux avoir avec des amies ui...meritent d‘étre
q J . q

aimées et traitées sincérement” (III, 758, underlings

 

are my own). This might at first seem to be a
contrived distinction on our part, but it is here

that we find a clue to the way of life of a whole
century, one that made such a dichotomy out of lfétre
and lg paraitre. For what other reason woudd Madame

de Sévigné have been so careful as to take all the
precautions necessary in order not to let any unforseen
reversal of plans "appear'' as a mockery of her friends?
As La Rochefoucauld said, ”Dans toutes les professions,

chaoun affecte une mine et un extérieur, pour paraitre

112

ce qu'il veut qu'on 1e croie : ainsi on peut dire
que le monde n'est composé que de mines” (Maxime
256, FléTade ed., p. uuz).\

This becomes much clearer, if we cite still
other instances when Madame de Sévigné observed the
Egg; - paraitre dichotomy and acted accordingly. For
example, we find her saying the following about
Madame de Vins, sister-in-law of Pomponne: “Madame de
1 Vins me parut hier fort tendre pour vous, ma fille,
c'est-a-dire 5 sa mode; mais sa mode est bonne : il

ne me parut aucun interligne a tout ce qu'elle disoit"

 

(I, 750). 0r again (two weeks earlier), about the
same woman: "je vis hier Madame de Vins, qui recut
trés-agréablement...ce que vous dites de sa tendresse

: elle avoue que ce jourila elle ne fut pas interligne”

 

(I, 734). What surprising admissions these are,
first on the part of Madame de Vins who acknowledged
the possibility Of an expression of friendship on

her part as capable of having other implications, and
then on the part of Madame de Sévigné who very
congenially proceeded to analyze for credibility, at
the next encounter, Madame de Vinsl same expression

Of friendship. Madame de Sévigné, interestingly enough,

113

made no other comment than the one quoted, and
passed, apparently unperturbed, to other matters.
Again, we have the case of the baron d'Oppede,

premier president d3 Provence who came to congratulate

 

Madame de Grignan after the birth of Marie-Blanche.
Madame de Sévigné said that she had never seen "de

si grandes apparences d'une véritable amitié” (I, 175),

“w—‘-_m 12‘ c II-‘fl

a statement in which the word ”apparence” could easily
have been omitted, were she not so concerned with the
possible gap between appearances and reality. Only
nine days later she reported another visit from
d‘0ppede, and again she was seemingly concerned with

the a earances: "on ne eut témoi ner lus d'honnéteté,
pp p g p

 

ni prendre plus d'intérét a ce qui vous touche...il

nous a parlé le plus franchement et le mieux du

monde...” (I, 178). It is evident that she was closely
observing this man in order to be able to send

diplomatic advice on how to handle him to Monsieur

de Grignan for she wrote, ”on ne connoit d'abord les
hommes que par les paroles, il faut les croire jusqu'a

ce que les actions les détruisent” (I, 178). Appearances,
then, are such that we find outselves obliged to rely

on them.

11A

Madame de Sévigné's long and stormy relationship
with the BishOp of Marseille offers us an excellent
example of how she behaved and thought in crucial
situations in which she had to assume a mask of polite
appearances. Her dealings with the BishOp were mostly
concerned with the interest she took in Grignan
affairs, for, relying on her common sense, she frequently
gave wise counsel to Monsieur de Grignan who willingly
heeded the advice of his mother-in-law. The difficulties
which Monsieur de Grignan faced in Provence were caused

by the fact that he was only lieutenant général of

 

the province, substituting for a governor who was
still a child. Consequently, when he was assigned to
the province, the two men who shared control of the

parlement, the Baron d'Oppede and Monsieur de

 

Fonbin-Janson, BishOp Of Marseille, were unwilling

to relinquish to him their control Of the assembly.
While Monsieur d'Oppede eventually recognized Monsieur
de Grignan's authority, the BishOp remained stubborn
and unyielding. When the BishOp was put in contact
with Madame de Sévigné, she wrote to her daughter that
she had cordially answered his letter in a way l'si
franche et si sinOEre et conforme é cette amitié que

vous vous étes jurés” (I, 252). But this ”amitié” is

115

really explained by a paradoxical turn of phrase
Madame de Sévigné claimed to have found in Tacitus,

an "amitié...'dont la dissimulation est le lien, et
votre intérét le fondement'" (I, 252). Madame de
Sévigné's reSponse was, again, ”J'entre doncu dans

ce sentiment, et je l'approuve, puisqu'il le faut"

(I, 252). Her letter to the Bishop, then, “si franche
et si sincere", was to present nothing but an
appearance Of natural frankness especially assumed for
the sake of furthering her daugHer's interests with
this formidable Opponent.

In further complications with the secretary of
Monsieur de VendOme, Governor of Provence, Madame de
Sévigné advised that her son-in-law be "le solliciteur
du secrétaire du gouverneur : autrement il paroitroit
que ce qu'a offert...(Monsieur de Grignan] ne seroit
que des paroles" (I, 252). This tactic, hOwever, was
for the intention of keeping Monsieur de Grignan
from the obligation of having to make certain payments
to the secretary the following year. And, as if
this were not enough, some more manoeuvering would

be needed with theifishop: ”i1 faut aussi captiver

1.]

116

Monsieur de Marseille, et lui faire croire qu'il

est de vos amis” (I, 252). Actions with double
intentions, appearances, some deception, all is
approved Of as part of the game of life: ”J'approve
la conduite que vous voulez avoir avec lui; je vois
bien qu'elle est nécessaire” (I, 252).

On June 7, 1671 she wrote to her daughter again,
in keeping with what we have already noticed
concerning the BishOp, "Continuez I'amitié sincére
qui est entre vous...” (1, 30h). But the phrase
"amitié sincere” certainly stands out here, because
it is followed by "ne levez point le masque” (I, 304).
Of course, the ”masque" is that Of"dissimulation”,
but her very use of a word indicating a concealment
Of true, underlying hatred shows that this ”amitié”
was not really "sincere" but was simply the outward
appearances of an "amitié sincere”. That the ideas
of a false mask of friendship and sincere friendship
should have been paradoxicalw related by her is not
at all strange, for she was actually playing the
"game” Of politics, and a very important ”game" at
that, in a society where the very term honnéteté,

which had been chosen as its epithet, had become bankrupt.2

2Edith Kern, "L'Honnete Homme,” p. 118.

117

At the end of January, 1673, while she was at
Grignan, Madame de Sévigné payed a visit to Marseille,
where the BishOp received her in the most spectacular
manner possible, whfle at the same time he was blocking
an allotment of funds which Monsieur de Grignan had
requested for the many mail expenses he had incurred
in Official business. In the midst of the magnificent
public welcome Madame de Sévigné noted that the
pOpulation of Marseille was "cent mille Smes.” However,
when she wondered "combien i1 y en a de bellesll
(I, 600), she was probably thinking of the crafty
BishOp. In general, she was not one to trust any
provengal, preferring her Open Bretons to these sly
southerners: "J'aime nos Bretons; ils sentent un
peu 1e vin; mais votre fleur d'orange ne cache pas
de si bons coeurs” (I, 382). Critics have Often quoted
a well-known phrase of hers, found in her second letter
from Marseille: ”poignarder et embrasser, ce sont
des maniéres” (I, 601), but this has led to the
exclusion of more complete eXplanatory sentences

preceding and following it: "J'admire plus que jamais
de donner avec tant d'ostentation les choses du dehors,

de refuser en particulier ce qui tient au coeur" (1, 600-1).

118

In this statement, where the seventeenth¥century use

of "admirerll could Often express surprise rather than
actual admiration, Madame de Sévigne’ remarked at how
human actions do not often correspond to the realm

of true feeling. But while she had been seeingtehind
the facade, she too had been putting on her own

appearances of honnéte componpment: "on voudroit

 

m'avoir Oté l'esprit; car au milieu de mes honnétetés
on voit que je vois” (I, 601). In this instance she
would have reacted with laughter for the whole aféir
had comic potentials: ”Je crois qu'on [l'éveque] '
riroit avec moi, si on l'osoit; tout est de caréme-
prenant” (I, 601).

Madame de Sévigné seems to have been quite an
expert at assuming honnéte appearances, and she
particularly enjoyed playing a role and observing
others playing a role designed to conceal true feelings.
For example, when one of her former suitors, the
Duc de Lude, had a serious attack of gout at Saht-Germain,
all of his lady friends, including Madame de Sévigné,
were in anxiety. With great pleasure, however, she
reported to her daughter that ”l'on jouait si bien,
et l'on cachoit cette tristesse si habilement, qu'elle

ne paroissoit point du tout; et llon se livroit, pour

.911. ..

lull-I

119

mieux tromper, au martyre insupportable d'etre a la
cour,cH€tre belle et parée" (II, 629). Life itself
therefore, seems to have been made a mascarade, and
it is not strange, then, that Madame de Sévigné was
aware of the affinities of such situations with
theatrical play acting.

A masterpiece of self-conscious acting on her
part came in 1689 with her report on an excursion to
Saint Cyr with Madame de Coulanges to see Racine's
Esther. In her description of the play our attention
is drawn just as much to the audience as to the play
itself. First she described the seating arrangement,
noting that the maréchal de BellefOnds came to sit
"par choix” beside her. But it is really the next
comment that is extremely interesting: ”Nous écoutémes,
1e maréchal et moi, cette tragédie avec une attention
qui fut remarquée, et de certaines Iouanges sourdes
et bien placées, qui n'étoient peut-étre pas sous
les fontages de toutes les dames" (III, 350-351).

She reminds us of those famous, puritanical ladies
described by Uranie in scene three of Moliere's
Critique de I'Ecole des Femmes, who were ”plus chastes

des oreilles que de tout le reste du corps'I and who

I A]

120

affected all sorts Of I'mines" during a presentation

of the Ecole des Femmes.3 we find Madame de Sévigné

 

assuming somewhat the same ”mines,” of another type
and for another purpose, to be sure, but obviously
with skill, for she accompanied the acting of Esther
on stage with a certain number of studied actions on
her part, her "Iouanges sourdes” and I'bien placées"
(which would draw attention to her as a Spectator. We
might well ask where the separation between theatrical
appearances and reality took place, if it did at

all. She finally got around to describing the ”exces
de l'agrément” of Esther, a perfect ”rapport de la
musique...” etc., but she had to interject again the
role Of the spectator: "on est attentif, et on n'a
point d'autre peine que celle de voir finir une si
aimable piece" (III, 351). She returned to writing
about the play, ”tout y est simple..." etc., only

to end by saying that the beauty of the play was

such that ”on ne (is) soutient pas sans larmes.” Once

again she mentioned "l'attention" as the best Sign of

3Oeuvres CompléteS‘de Moliere, PléTade ed., 1, 529.

121

approval one could give to the play, but this apparently
neutral statement gains much when we consider that

her attention was, as she had previous said, "remarquée,"
since she had accompanied it with select vocal
”Iouanges.”

Madame de Sévigné seems to have been extremely
self-conscious during all of this, and it is apparent
that she was aiming for special effects, for the
maréchal de Bellefonds jumped up to tell the King
how fortunate he was to have been seated near a woman
"qui étoit bien digne d'avoir vu Esther” (III, 351).
How else would her worthiness have been known, had
she not been ostentatious about it? Of course, she
took the pains to remark that Louis ”eut quelque
plaisir de voir mes sinceres admirations sans bruit
et sans éclat" (III, 351), but we must suppose that
"sans bruit et sans éclat” refers,.more precisely, to
a tasteful way of making just the right amount of
vocal "bruit” in order to be noticed. Louis, on one
of those rare occasions, favored Madame de Sévigné
by speaking to her personally. She knew that all

eyes were fixed on her for she was extremely self-conscious,

122

and took great care to arrange a skillful reply for
the king. She notes that her composure was such that
she answered him “sans m'étonner,” and just how much
she considered herself as a performer before the eyes
Of the court (her audience) is revealed by her
remark: ”0e Roi) me laissa l'Objet de l'envie”

(III, 351)..

In Madame de Sévigné's letters, there frequently
recurs this view of the individual as a performer
staging a show for society. For example, in 1673,
there was a dispute between Monsieur de Grignan and
the BishOp of Marseille over the candidates for the

position of procureur Of Provence. When Louis XIV

 

settled the diSpute by royal decree Madame de Sévigné
noted, concerning Monsieur de Grignan, "il a joué
son r3le divinementll (I, 659). And, including again
his brother, the Coadjuteur, and Madame de Grignan,
she added, "Enfin vous avez fait tous trois vos
personnages en perfection.”

Again,a year earlier, we find her Observing
one of her contemporaries performing a certain role

for society. Her Observation is quite amusing for she

123

noticed the comic potentials in such situations. In
this case, the Princesse de Conti had died, and,
at a gathering at Madame de Longueville's house,
Madame de Brissac seemed inconsolable over the late
Princesse. However, as Madame de Sévigné writes,
"par malheur 1e comte de Guiche se mit a causer avec
elle [Madame de Brissad]; elle oublia son r81e, aussi
bien que celui du désespoir 1e jour de la mort; car
il falloit en un certain endroit qu'elle e0t perdu
connoissance; elle l'oublia, et reconnut fort bien
des gens qui entroient” (I, #78).

This use Of terminology which was derived from
the theatre clearly reveals Madame de Sévigné's
awareness of the implications of the theories of

the artificial honnéte homme we have discussed. She

 

was definitely aware of the fact that all too many
refined manners and courtesies were nothing but
external appearances carefully assumed for the purpose
of giving to others a pleasing impression of oneself.
How important, then, does the simple word ”paru"
become in her statements, such as the one she made
during the Fouquet trial when the inimical Chancelier

Séguier went four times to the Church of Sainte Marie

124

to venerate tearfully the relics of Saint Francis de
Sales: ”Il...parut pendant ces quatre visites si
touché du desir de son salut...qu'une plus fine que
la [here] supérieure y auroit été trompée" (I, 126).
She endowed his lavish display of piety with the
theatrical category of ”comédie”, for she could not
reconcile piety with his hostile, uncharitable
actions.

Madame de Sévigné, being so much a part Of such
a society, could not help having to submit to its
ways and to adOpt its tactics.\ In the process, then,
her use Of the term honnéte ran the gamut of all
its possible implications. It could indicate polished

honnétes appearances, intentionally and somewhat

 

dishonestly assumed for a cause, as when Madame de
Grignan wrote a calculated letter over which her
mother could exclaim, ”je n'ai jamais rien vu de

si honnéte et de 51 politique” (I, 566). It could
convey an idea of moral integrity: ”si honnétes

gens que vous I'étes" (I, 630) and in whose conduct
"la droiture et la sincérité sont en usage" (I, 477).
or, she could confuse both of these implications of I

honneteté, as when she paradoxically advised her son,

 

who was simultaneously involved in love affairs with

125

both Ninon and la Champmeslé, ”que c'étoit une vilaine
trahison et basse et indigne d'un homme de qualité,

et que meme dans les Choses malhonnétes, il y avoit

de l'honnéteté a observer” (1, 266).

The practical compromise Madame de Sévigné managed
to make between sincere sentiment and the politeness
which social etiquette required is perhaps best
exemplified in her lengthy advice to her daughter on
the prOper response she should make to Cardinal de

Retz's not too beautiful gift of a cassolette. She

 

was convinced the Cardinal's intentions were good.
Therefore, these intentions had to be respected. But,

at the same time, shrewd and careful ménagement would

 

have to be observed in writing a note of thanks:
"Songez...que celui qui vous...donne [1a cassolette],
l'a crue tres-belle et trés-précieuse, et en cette
qualité i1 vous en fait un présent d'amitié;... il
faut toujours regarder e l'intention et régler par la
notre reconnoissance” (I, 794). Her intentions were
surely among the best, but such studied detail and
lengthy exposition of otherwise merely practical
advice reveals a great preoccupation with both ideal

truthfulness and the imperatives of social etiquette.

126

For this reason, we are not surprised to find her
also advising that ”il faut dans une fete un visage
qui ne gate point 1a beauté de la décoration; et
quand on n'en a point, i1 faut en emprunter, ou n'y
point aller" (III, 94). The mask must be accepted if
one wants to go out into society. And so, after the
successful outcome Of one of her daugher's legal cases,
after having sollicited all the judges, it was her
duty to appear as grateful as possible: I'Nous avons
remercié tous nos juges quand ils sont sortis, variant,
chacun de n8tre c6té, notre reconnoissance en vingt
facons" (III, 386).

In conclusion, her own attitude in the face of
society was eXplicitly summed Up one day in 1689,
when She answered a letter in which Madame de Grignan
had considered the boldness of youth. Youth is rash
and brazen. It sees no Obstacles, but sees all
things as possible. The situation changes, however,
with maturity: "On trouve qu'on a besoin de tout le
monde; on a un proces, i1 faut solliciter, il faut se
familiariser, i1 faut vivre avec les vivants, i1 faut

rétrécir son eSprit d'un c6té et l'ouvrir de l'autre...”

127

(III, 451).“ Madame de Sévigné's philOSOphie

was, then, in short, ”il faut vivre avec les vivants."
And this is precisely what Moliere's Philinte answers
to Alceste's grievances against humanity and to his
anger over the falseness Of men: ”Mais estice une
raison que leur peu d'équité/ Pour vouloir se tirer

de leur société?" (V. iii, 1559-60). In this

respect, then, Madame de Sévigné resembles Philinte,
the compromiser. Whereas the frank Alceste demands
that "Le fond de notre coeur dans nos discours se

montre" the moderate Philinte sensibly replies,

#Another proof of this attitude of hers can be seen
in her observations on volume one of the Essais by
Nicole, who counselled indifference to human estime
and worldly approbation: "Il est vrai que c 'est
une perfection un peu au- -dessus de l'humanite, que
l'ndifference u'il veut de nous pour l'estime ou
l'approbation u Monde” (1,412). She knew she was
incapable of applying this advice but she still
enjoyed listenin to its fundamental idealism. She
added in her following letter, "je crois. ..qu'il
faut un peu de grace et que la philosophie seule ne
suffit pas. " (1,413). In the end, however, she saw
the fallacy of Nicole' s own argument concerning Des
Moyens de conserver lajpaix avec les hommes, which
implied the social value of accommodating one' 5 self
to all men: l‘Il nous met a un si haut point la paix
et l'union avec le prochain, et nous conseille de
l'acquérir aux dépends de tant de choses, qu'il n' y a
pas moyen apres cela d'etre indifférente sur ce. ..
[gue.notre prochaiqj pense de nous” (I, 413- 414).

128

Il est bon de cacher ce qu 'On a dans le coeur.

Serait-il a propos et de la bienséance

De dire a mille ens tout ce que d'eux l'on

pense? (p. 44

Like Alceste, Madame de Sévigné desired sincerity and
truthfulness. She was often incapable of controlling
the movements Of her heart. Yet, in the end, she
admired Madame de Grignan for her self-control,
praised Pomponne's poised resistance against deSpair,

and exalted Fouquet's composure, that, had she said

anything about lg MisanthrOpe it would undoubtedly have

 

been against Alceste. When it became a question of
advancing or Simply surviving in the small world of
aristocratic, seventeenth-century society, Madamech
Sévigné knew very well how to don the mask of honngte
dissimulation. She gave shrewd advice to Monsieur

de Grignan concerning his provincial government, and
when confronted with her arch-enemy, the BishOp of
Marseille, she conducted herself perfectly. She knew
how to choose words, how to arrange them with art, how
to aim for special effects. She displayed extreme
self-conscious concern with exterior appearances and
impressions, and could use her own "attentkan" as a

means of drawing attention to herself. All of this

129

suggests a conception Of man as living life at a
very high level Of a paradoxical "studied naturalness?
which risks turning into artificiality when the very
act of watching a play requires watchfulness of one's
self, when going into court-circles, looking beautiful
and composed, is exactly what one does when one is in
terrible anxiety over the fate of a former suitor.
Finally, while we have used two of Moliere's
characters, Alceste and Philinte, to represent two
sides of Madame de Sévigné's Often contradictory

response to the problem Of Etre and paraitre, it would

 

be more appropriate to compare her with Moliere,
himself. Since both Alceste and Philinte can be looked
at as representing two aSpects of their creator, it

can be said that through an honest Alceste MOIiene
sought to condemn the abuses and moral laxity he
Observed around him in society. However, he nonetheless
chose to permit this high-minded character to go to
extremes and to appear rediculous, while a well-mannered,
polished, but compromising Philinte apparently seems

to be the victor. The outcome is ambiguous, and in

this way it can be said that MoliEre aveided having

to state bluntly what his philOSOphy of life might

130

have been. He avoided making an Open declaration of
something that, perhaps, might have offended his
illustrious protector, Louis XIV, who was reSponsible
for the whole Of French seventeenth-century social
order. In the same way, since non-conformity was
unthinkable, in order to survive in such a closed,
aristocratic society, Madame de Sévigne’ had to have
resource to duplicity. The Alceste in her had, at
times, to yield to the Philinte. Yet it never
yielded completely, and the two managed to exist side
by side, By this duplicity, then, does Madame de

Sévigné most resemble Moliere.

VII. A SOLUTION IN AESTHETICS

The fact that an honest, individualistic Madame
de Sévigné compromised with society, should not
necessarily imply that she was a person living ”in
bad faith." Such a compromise did not actually
result from a severe violation of her conscience.
Despite her yearning for authenticity, it seems to
have been easy for her to accept the fact that life

in society demanded honn8teté. And, if She accepted

 

honnéteté, it was because she could easily overlook

 

reality and accept appearances. It will now become

evident that this was all made possible by her vast
imagination. She was a highly idealistic person who
yearned for things magnificent, sublime, and transcending,
and who, as a result, could easily accept the unreal.

Lanson once said that the essential characteristic
of Madame de Sévigné was her great imagination.I That
she herself was aware Of her capacity to appreciate

those things which especially stirred her imaginative

lGustave Lanson, Histoire de la Littérature Frangaise,
remaniée et comPIEtée pour la périOde 1850-1950;par
Paul Tforau. (Paris, 1963), p. 486.

 

131

132

faculty was revealed one day in 1671, when at forty-four
years Of age she confessed a child-like love for the
fantastic adventures related by La Calprenede in his
long roman, Clégpétre, of admittedly poor style: "Je
trouve...gu‘i1 est detestable, et je ne laisse pas

de m'y prendre comme a de la glu. La beauté des
sentiments, la violence des passions, 1a grandeur des
événements, et le succes miraculeux de leur redoutable
épée tout cela m'entraine comme une petite fille"

(I, 332). Philip E. Arsenault has remarked on the
great amount of serious reading Madame de Sévigné did,
for she absorbed histories, biographies, and memoires.2
But from her own comments on these works we can SUSpeCt
that she looked on them from a rather imaginative

point of view, for, notwithstanding their apparent
seriousness, they supplied her with much-enjoyed
excitement and adventure.

Just as she loved La Calprenede‘s CléOpatre for

 

”les grands coups d'épée de l'invincible Artaban”

(I, 327) and for the sentiments described, I'd'une

 

2Philip Elwyn Arsenault, The Literary Opinions of
Madame de évigné, unpubl. diss. (Princeton, 1959),
p. 93.

 

I33

perfection qui remplit mon idée sur les belles ames”

(I, 334), she devoured the Histoire des Croisades

 

of the Jesuit historian Louis Maimbourg, deSpite his
notoriously bad style (I, 853). She was eSpecially
moved by the character of Judas Macchabeus, and she
said of him: "c'étoit un grand héros” (I, 873).

When her daughter wrote that she was being lax in

her own reading of Tacitus, Madame de Sévigné asked,
”Laisserez-—vous Germanicus au milieu de ses conquetes?"
(I, 331). From this, we can see how much she was
fascinated by great men and their deeds, and it is not
surprising that She should have proclaimed “divine”

a certain Histoire de Tertullien et d'Origéne,

 

published under the pen-name of le Sieur de La Mothe
(I, 855). From the poetic heroes of Tasso's Jerusalem

Delivered she went to Maimboug's Croisades without

 

 

difficulty: ”L' Histoire des Croisades est tres belle,

 

surtout a ceux qui ont lule Tasse, et qui revoient
leurs vieux amis en prose et en histoire" (I, 855).
And from here it was easy for her to proceed to
French history: ”je suis dans l'Histoire de France;

les croisades m'y ont jetée" (I, 903).

134

In this jumble of readings the real and the
fictional became confused, but in the confusion, the
real became magnificently poetic for the mind of Madame
de Sévigné. Josephus' siege of Jersusalem received
the following acclaim: "tout est beau, tout est
grand; cette lecture est magnifique” (I, 902). 0r
again, "il faut que vous avouiez qulil y a une grandeur
et une dignité dans cette histoire, qui ne se trouve
en nulle autre” (II, 13). Her comment on the history
of the taking Of ConstantinOple by Mahomet II was that
”cet événement est grand, et si singulier, si brillant,
si extraordinaire, qu'on en est eI'Ilevé'l (III, 603).
Beauty, greatness, magnificence, dignity, are what
she saw in these works, historic and imaginative
alike, and thrilled by fantastic displays of heroism
and nobility she was overjoyed at finding some actual
Grignan anceinrs mentioned in Maimbourg's Croisades.

A certain Adhémar, she noted, had been "un grandissime
seigneur il ya six cents ans.” Another Castellane
”faisoit une grande figure” Over five hundred years
before (I, 900-901). And it is important that she
should have used the expression "grande figure”

because that is precisely what she desired to make

135

out of the Comte de Grignan by comparing him to his
Adhémar ancestor. ”ll étoit aimé comme vous," she
told him, and recounted a most fantastic story
concerning his death: "Sa mort mit en deuil une armée
de trois cent mille hommes, et fit pleurer tous les
princes chrétiens" (I, 900). Madame de Sévigné was not
disturbed by the fact that the details of this fabulous
historical narrative might have been exaggerated.
She looked, instead, upon all these things as truly
great and magnificent and did not hesitate even to
look upon contemporary reality in much the same way.

A significant example is to be found in a letter
She wrote in 1677, when Madame de Grignan in Provence
made a trip to see a girl who had been so suddenly
struck dead by a bolt of lightning that she seemed
still quite alive: "Cette petite fille toute morte,
sans qu'il y paroisse,...me paroit une chose bien
étonnante," she commented (II, 338). She then
admitted that ”j'aime toutes les choses extraordinaires“
(II, 338). This was a spectacularly different way of
dying and she was fascinated. But it led to another
statement which we want to emphasize here, because of;
its unique outlook which is eXpressive in general of

much of Madame de Sévigné. It concerned the thunder

136

heard over the chfiteau of Grignan, a vast and imposing
building set on tOp Of a rocky elevation, with a huge
terrace overlooking the hilly, chateau-studded, surrounding
terrain, circumscribed in the distance by huge,
snow-capped mountains. The setting was impressive
and Madame de Sévigné remarked: ”Vos tonnerres sont
bons a Grignan: ils ont un éclat et une majesté
au-dessus de tous les autres...C'est un Jupiter
tonnant'I (II, 339). That she should have seen majesty
and magnificence in thunder is noteworthy, and it is
even more so, if we consider her comparison of its
almost supra-natural qualities to a divinity,uOJupiter,
the mythological symbol Of royal power itself. We
shall see in our next chapter that for these very
reasons of Spectacular majesty and magnificence she
admired Louis XIV. NO matter what she disliked in
Louis' charader or politics, she was taken in by
his majesty, and harsh reality became forgotten within
the grandeur and Splendor that surrounded it.

This characteristic of Madame de Sévigné ; to see
magnificence and greatness all about her can be called
poetic, in the widest sense of the word, signifying

that exercise of her fancy or imagination continuously

137

directed towards seeing in things the beautiful and
the lofty, and most often even the sublime. In this
sense, then, can we also say that she was profoundly
idealistic, for while, as we have pointed out, she
had the vision to penetrate to the reality beneath
the artificial mask of society, in the end she chose
to relinquish understanding and penetration for the
benefit of enjoying the spectacle which appearances,
magnified several times, offered.

Indeed, the word "spectacle" was most Often used
by her. The death of her aunt, for example, was described
in such terms, that is, as "un spectacle triste et
dévot tout ensemble” (1, 522). She exclaimed over
Madame de Grignan's attention to her health, ”Quel
spectacle charmant de vous voir appliquée a votre
santé" (II, 510). Her visit to the recently disgraced
Pomponne was "un Spectacle douloureux" (II, 509).

What thrilled her in Bossuet's Oraison Funebre for

 

the Prince de Condé was his comparison of Condé with

Turenne and the "grand spectacle qu'il présente des

deux grands hommes que Dieu a donnés au Roi” (III, 158).
Her concept of great moments as "Spectacles”

was but a step in the direction of seeing much of life's

actions as theatrical, and this, too, we have already

138

pointed out, as for example in connection with her
derogatory references to the "comedy" at court over
the MonteSpan-Maintenon struggle for favor. Most of
the court, she exdained, desired "un changement de
theatre" (II, 195). And the withdrawal of Madame de
Soubise from Versailles, the result of her vain and
immoderate desires to become a lady-in-waiting, found
Madame de Sévigné comparing herself to a spectator

of a comic court: "Elle se cache...et cette parfaite
solitude, ne nous plait pas, a nous autres spectateurs”
(II, 574).

However, her use of theatrical references acquired
much more distinction in her adaptation of them to
more serious instances. It reveals, actually, how
profoundly sensitive Madame de Sévigné was to a type
of theatrical outlook on life, for many events acquired
in her mind more solemn and imposing prOportions by
being seen within such a framework. She was serious
when she wrote about the rheumatism, which afflicted
her in 1675-1676, as being comparable to a play:

"Je vous assure qu'un rhumatisme est une des belles
pieces qu'on puisse avoir: j'ai un grand respect poUr
lui; il a son commencement, son augmentation, son

période et sa fin” (II, 34). An even more profound

139

statement bore this same sort Of comparison when the
King of England was made to flee his country before
the forces of William of Orange: ”Voila de 51 grands
événements, qu'il n'est pas aisé d'en comprendre le
dénouement" (III, 305). And on this occasion she
even extended the comparison into a world-view in
which man himself was made a Spectator of the Will Of
God: ”Cette méme Providence qui regle tout, démélera
tout; nous sommes ici les spectateurs trés aveugles
et tres ignorants'| (III, 305).

Terms of a distinct theatrical flavor crOp up
again and again in the letters. When the English Queen
reached Boulogne before her husband, she remained
there in continuous tears and prayers, with Louis XIV
himself worried over King James' fate. To this news,
Madame de Sévigné concluded: "Voila une grande
scene” (III, 295). And in another letter she again
referred to the presence of William of Orange in London
in the same terms: ”tout le monde se fait une affaire
particuliere de cette grande scene (III, 297). A trip
she took to Versailles was for her still another
”changement de scene" (II, 153), and when she

witnessed the magnificent but sad royal supper at

140

Saint-Germain she wrote, I'J'ai donc vu cette scene”
(I, 692). All of the dramatic possibilities Of the
engagement between the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle
de 81015 were reported by her in what was described
still again as a "petite scéne” (II, 545). Her mind
was so oriented tOwards the theatrical that since she
would refer to "scenes" she could naturally also
refer to Grignan as "1e théStre OD j'ai le plus
d'attention, quoiqu'il ne soit pas le plus important
de l'EurOpe” (III, 476). Grignan affairs were even
referred to as plays with full plots in which she,
too, had a dramtic role as ”témoin de tous ces dénoue-
ments...je ne puis faire d'autre personnage que de
souhaiter et de tenir les mains élevées vers le
ciel" (III, 49). But Madame de Grignan was really the
central character on this stage and was chided by her
mother for going about informally dressed or ”costumed“
while pregnant, in an untidy and dreary black cape,
which was "bien ennuyeuse pour les Spectateurs" (I, 312).
Madame de Sévigné's imagination did not stOp
here with seeing just the theatrical or dramatic
possibilities of life itself. She seems to have been

constantly making comparisons between real-life

141

situations and the fictional, mythological and
imaginative creations of literature. And, in the
process, reality itself became magnified and glorified
many times over, as when she used the figure Of
Andromaque in reference to the Comtesse de Guiche,
recently widowed and in black mourning-dress, who was
nonetheless present at a lavish supper at Saint-Germain.
The economy of means Madame de Sévigné used, and the
dramatic forcefulness which this simple reference
attained, eliminating all explanation, is amazing:
"La comtesse de Guiche...est au diner, quoique

Andromaque; 1a Reine l'a voulun” (I, 692). When in

 

1671 Madame de Ludres was one of three women bitten
by a dog and sent to Dieppe for the traditional cure
by three plungesinto the frigid ocean, Madame de
Sévigné saw in her another Andromeda tied to a rock
and exposed as prey to a monster from which the Comte
de Tréville, another Perseus on his winged horse,
Pegasus, would save her: ”Ne trouvez-vous point, ma
bonne, que Ludres ressemble a Androméde? Pour moi,
je la vois attachée au rocher, et Tréville sur un
cheval ailé, qui tue le monstre” (I, 22). And,

extending this image to Mademoiselle d'Houdancourt who

142

was to marry the ugly and debauched Duc de Ventadour,
she exclaimed, "Je craindrois plus ce monstre que
celui d'Andromede” (I, 223).

By the very same means, the quarters being
prepared at the H8tel Carnavalet for the arrival of
Madame de Grignan were not simple rooms, but a
veritable Carthage under construction, with Madame de
Grignan, by implication, nothing less than a Queen
Dido (II, 824). Madame de Montespan, building her
"enchanted" palace Of Clagny, was also compared to
Dido. She was ”la belle si occupée des ouvrageset des
enchantements que l'on fait pour elle, que pour moi
je me représente Didon qui fait bStir Carthage”

(I, 739). But Clagny"itself was comparable to the
enchanted palace of Armida which distracted the hero
Rinaldo in Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (I, 792).
Another Carthage was the vast work Madame de Sévigné
had undertaken in the laying out of her gardens and
woods at Les Rochers (II, 748). Even the BishOp of
Marseille, French Ambassador to Poland in 1675, was
made a latter-day ArchbishOp Turpin at the side of
his Roland, the King of Poland: ”On nous dépeint
ici Monsieur de Marseille l'épée a la main, aux

cOtés du roi de Pologne, ayant eu deux chevaux tués

I'll IIIIII ll. l‘lIlI-llllili

{I

143

sous lui, et donnant 1a chasse aux Tartares, comme
l'archeveque Turpin 1a donnoit aux Sarrasins” (I, 895).
The Princesse de Tarente, her neighbor: at Les Rochers,
was comparable to a Nymphe, for she wrote of her: La
princesse éclaire ces bois comme 1a nymphe Galatée"
(II, 862). The concerted efforts which Madame de
Sévigné had exerted in getting an army post Of guidon
for her son Charles were "nos folies de don Quichotte”
(I, 819). When a poor trimmings-dealer, who had found
himself unable to pay his taxes and had been
dispossessed, attempted in his fury to murder his wife
and four children, Madame de Sévigné could think of
nothing less important than Josephus and the famine
during the siege of Jerusalem. She Spoke almost as

if she, too, had been in Jerusalem during those days:
“depuis 1e siege de Jérusalem, il ne s'est point vu
une telle fureur" (I, 879). And finally, when in

1689, Louis XIV was gathering his armies she exclaimed,
"jamais roi de France ne s'est vu trois cent mille
hommes sur pied; i1 n'y avoit que les rois de Perse"
(III, 361). In this way Louis XIV became for her a

new Cyrus the Great.

144

For Madame de Sévigné persons and events took
on spectacular proportions, and the division between
fantasy and reality easily disappeared. She enjoyed
explaining things by their almost unreal and incredible
characteristics, as if they were so fantastic that
we should only expect to find them in the imaginary
world of the novel. The Prince de Gonti and Mademoiselle
de Blois "s'aiment comme dans les romans” (II, 544),
she said, but these were not the only peOple she saw
comparable to heroes and henflnes found in romances.
The Chevalier de Grignan, for example, was also "plus
beau qu'un héros de roman, digne d'Qtre l'image du
premier tome" (I, 269), and Madame de Grignan's
description of the magnificent receptions she was
given in Provence was "admirable...je crois lire un
jOli roman, dont l'héroine m'est extrémement chére”
(I, 548). When Madame de Grignan sent word that she
feared she was expecting the birth of a daughter
instead of a much longed-for male heir, Madame de
Sévigné's imagination set to work at making the new
baby a sort of female Moses: ”je vous aiderai a
l'exposer sur le RhOne dans un petit panier de jonc,
et puis elle abordera dans quelque royaume OD sa

beauté sera le sujet d'un roman” (I, 355). And when

145

the King and Queen of England set up an exiled court
at Saint-Germain, she declared, ”Ils m'ont fait
souvenir d'abord de mes chers romans" (III, 330).

In fact, the whole episode of the escape of James
II and his Queen to France, aided by the undaunted
Lauzun, fascinated Madame de Sévigné. In letter after
letter she explicitly referred to its ”romantic"(in
the sense of romance) character. Her letter of
December 24, 1688, reported that James II had
entrusted his wife and the tiny Prince of wales to
Lauzun. He escorted them down the stOrmy Thames in an
open boat to a common yacht which :l»n passed
inconspicuously among the Dutch warships. The
precious cargo then arrived at the haven of France.
How right she was when she closed her report with
"Voila le premier tome du roman" (III, 289). It was
she who was to write the story of King James' escape,
impressed as she was by Lauzun's ”jolie action,”
"grande hardiesse," and by "ce grand événement”,
in general (111, 289). She was shocked, later, when
Lauzun returned to Versailles unrewarded for his
bravery. She said, ”on lui a 6té 1e romanesque et le
merveilleux de son aventure" (III, 318). In another

letter she disappointedly added, ”II est tout simplement

146

revenu a la cour, et son action n'a rien de si
extraordinaire; on en avoit d'abord composé un fort
joli roman” (III, 319). But she had one more chance
to indulge in the extraordinary and the highly
imaginative, for,when James II left France, King Louis
gave him his own armor. In her rapture she commented,
”nOs romans ne faisoient rien de plus galant" (III, 360),
and she let her imagination soar with visions of
fantastic, epic heroes, Of whom Louis was obviously

a reincarnation: "voila donc...le casque, la cuirasse
de Renaud, d'Amadis, et de tous nos paladins les plus
célébres; je n'ai pas voulu dire d' Hector, car il
étoit malheureux” (III, 360).

"Romanesque” was her word, then, for the Signing
of what was to be only a provisional Peace of Poland.
The Polish King, Sobieski, was described as "ce
héros, a la téte de quinze mille hommes, entouré
de deux sent mille, [gui] les a forcés, l'épée a la
main, de signer 1a traité" (II, 253). Again, this
made her think Of her novels: "depuis CalprenEde
on n'avoit rien vu de pareil" (II, 253). The
governor of the Provencal town of Orange, in revolt
against Monsieur de Grignan, was an "homme romanesque"

in the midst Of his rather small but well-defended

I47

ville-forte (I, 637). Another Provencal gentleman
named Barbantane was esteemed by her as ”un des plus
braves hommes du monde, d' une valeur romanesque”

(I, 674). And evidently one of the reasons for which
she adored the Princesse de Tarente was that, as she
revealed, ”Elle a un style romanesque dans ce qu'elle
conte” (I, 882). News came from the Danish court of
the rivalry of two nobles for the hand of Mademoiselle
de la Trémouille. When war broke out against Sweden,
these two rivals were on the battlefield "se piquant
de faire des actions romanesques pour plaire a la
princesse" (I, 866). And again Madame de Sévigné
referred to these happenings as if they were actually
the matter of a romance, adding, "Voila le premier
tome; je vous en manderai la suite" (1, 866). Even
in a letter she wrote to Du Plessis, she asked, "Vous
me ferez a loisir un second tome 'devos aventures"
(III, 550).

Madame de Sévigné, it is evident, clearly
thought of reality in terms of the dramatic and the
poetic, in terms Of the fantastic, adventurous
literature she devoured, and her statements are frank
avowals of this. Her next step was to see practically

everyone in terms of the hero and heroine. It is

I48

important that we point out how Often she did this,
for it, too, reveals the spectacular proportions she
thought in, and betrays a yearning on her part for

the sublime and the magnificent. Even, as we shall
see, for the transcending.

To use once again the example of King Louis'

favors to James; II of England we can note how she saw
his great generosity as ”bontés hérofques” (III, 337).
In the same way she related how Achille de Harlay,

then procureur général, had willingly given up to his

 

creditors a parcel of land he had received as a gift.
He had felt it unjust to leave his creditors without
the money they had given to him in all good faith.

Her comment was: "cela est hérojque...je ne connois
point une plus belle...3me" (I, 879). She saw supreme
heroism in the trip a pregnant Madame de Guitaut under-
took, travelling down the treacherous Rhone to join
her husband at Lyon. Madame de Sévigné extolled her
courage, declaring, "Tout de bon, cela est hérquue,
on ne peut tr0p l'admirer" (I, 751). When Madame de
Grignan expressed her preoccupation with her mother's
health, Madame de Sévigné again answered, ”vous ne
perdez rien de vos hérolques et tendres sentiments”

(III, 44). By 1690, Grignan finances were in a

149

frightful state but the Count nonetheless had to
maintain a lavish chateau. Madame de Sévigné once
again used the image of a theatre to dramatize the
great part her daughter was playing in all of this.
She wanted to pass "derriere 1e rideau et de vous
faire venir sur le theatre” (III, 738). ”Votre

r61e est hérOTque,” she declared for Madame de
Grignan, who seemed like a saint and a pagan hero

at one and the same time in her mother's eyes: "Ma
bonne, quelle force Dieu vous a donnéeI Vous me
faites souvenir d' Horace, qui sépara ses ennemis pour
les combattre Séparément” (III, 738). Horace's

action was the equivalent of Madame de Grignan's
Christian patience, a statement which her mother
Openly avowed as "tellement au-dessus de ma portée,
que je joins l'admiration a la part que mon coeur m'y
fait prendre" (III, 738). And, even better, Madame de
Grignan managed to mask the horrid reality of her
sorry financial and legal state, undertaking with ease
"des conversations plaisantes qui feroient croire que
vous @tes toute libre" (III, 738). This won greater
admiring exclamations from her mother who heaped her
praises together in a most exhuberant manner: "voila

...ce qui est tres miraculeux, tres admirable, trés

150

estimable; et c'est aussi ce que j'admire et que je
-loue sans cesse..." (III, 738).

Madame de Sévigné saw heroism everywhere, for
she never hesitated to admire a different, extra-
ordinary action. Without the slightest uncertainty
she could greatly amplify its merit. When Retz went
Off on his religious retreat from the world, she was
extremely moved and wrote, "11 nous parOTt que son
courage est infini“ (I, 748). She proclaimed that
”son 3me est d'un ordre si supéfieur, qu'il ne falloit
pas attendre une fin de lui toute commune, comme des
autres hommes" (I, 729). He had lived by a rule
which commanded him "de faire toujours ce qu'il y
a de plus grand et de plus héroique.” The effort
exerted by Masnau, a man at the Fouquet trial, who
despite severe pain from nephritis put in an
appearance at the courtroom, was described as another
"action hérOique" (I, 141). A certain Madame de
Mouci exemplified a "personnage hérOTque” (II, 737),
and the Chevalier de Grignan, ailing with gout, was
a "pauvre héros" (III, 211). SheSpOke in magnificent
terms of La Rochefoucauld mourning the death of his

son: ”il est au premier rang de ce que j'ai jamais

151

vu de courage, de mérite, de tendresse et de raison”
(I, 575). It was common for Madame de Sévigné to
speak in such superlatives. Even the famous poisoner,
Madame Voisin, was recorded by her as having been
courageous at the stake, and as having presented
herself heroically to her executioners (II, 618).

She was also overwhelmingly impressed by the servants
of the Cardinal de Retz who blindly clung to their
master's house after he had retreated from the world:
”Clest une chose hérquue que les sentiments de ces
gens-la,” she said, I'Ils préférent l'honneur de ne
le point quitter aux meilleures conditions de la
cour" (I, 747). She would go to his house literally
to admire them: l'quoique je ne puisse entrer dans
cette maison sans douleur, les domestiques qui y
étoient encore m'y faisoient passer pour les admirer"
(I, 748). ”On ne peut les entendre sans admirer

leur affection,” she said (I, 747-748), and she actually
took pleasure in the spectacularly dramatic possi-
bilities Of the sudden illness of one servant,
striken on the very eve of the Cardinal's departure,
and carried Off by death in nine days: ”Le pauvre
Peau a mieux fait encor, il est mort” (I, 748). What
better moment could a faithful servant have chosen to

die than at the departure of his beloved master?

152

The letters of Madame de Sévigné reveal a woman
who was accustomed to looking out on the world in great
and magnificent perspectives. Her letters abound with
such adjectives as g£§3g_and begg. For example, the
Breton Estates at Vitré were classified as ”une
trés-belle, tres-grande et trés-magnifique assembleé
(I, 377). In an earlier letter she had also said,
”Les grandeurs de province sont ici dans leur lustre;
de sort que l'autre jour la beauté de la charge de
Madame de Grignan fut admirée et enviée” (I, 372).
When her daughter wrote about the chateau of Grignan
itself, it was represented with l'un air de grandeur
et une magnificence dont je suis enchantée” (I, 317),
and about Madame de Grignan she added, "En vérité,
c'est un grand plaisir que d'étre, comme vous étes,
une véritable grande dame” (I, 318). In reference to
a former governor of Provence, she had the chance to
admire "son beau gouvernement..., toutes ces belles
villes,...si grandes, si considérables” (III, 457).

Her daughter was not singular in this general
glorification. We find Madame de Sévigné exflaiming

Over Turenne's nephew, the Duc de Lorges, who conducted

Illlnl'll-‘Ila‘lll
$1
\

I.-FP VIE" a...

153

himself magnificently in battle just after his uncle's
death: "c'est une gloire bien complete pour M. de
Lorges" (I, 796). His brave conduct after having his
horse Shot' from out and under him was further
described as ”une si belle action” (I, 796). Saint-
Hilaire, reSponsible for having stOpped Turenne at

the very Spot where he was to meet his death by canon-
fire, reminded her of a Roman hero: I'Ecoutez, je vous
prie, ma bonne, une chose qui me parolt belle: il

me semble que je lis l'histoire romaine'I (I, 798).
Saint-Hilaire lOSt his arm with the same shot which
finished Off Turenne. Then the immediately admonished
his own son not to weep over him but over the great
general. In one of the most Spectacularly unselfish
acts, oblivious of his own lost arm, he proceeded to
mourn Turenne. Madame de Sévigné added, "M. de La
Rochefoucauld pleure Iui-méme, en admirant la noblesse
de ce sentiment” (I, 798). And Mademoiselle de la
Valliere, taking her vows on entering the Carmelite
cloister, ”fit donc cette action, cette belle et
courageuse personne, comme toutes les autres de sa
vie, d'une maniére noble et chamante" (I, 728).

Madame de Sévigné was highly impressed by all such

actions, and she unhesitatingly extolled them and

154

magnified their value with certain constantly

recurring terms. An adjective like begg appears under
such disparate circumstances as : ”ce beau gouvernement
[de Bretagne)” (III, 587); ”cette belle compagnie a
cheval" (Her grandsontiregiment) (III, 298); Fléchier's
Vie de Théodose as "une si belle vie” (III, 605); and
even her newly resumed correspondance to Bussy which

she called, ”cette belle action” (I, 159).

This profoundly idealistic outlook which craved
to see the great and good in things was firmly rooted
in the ideology of the aristocratic nobility of which
Madame de Sévigné was a part. SO much of what she
exalted--majesty, hexism, greatness--were considered
the attributes of nobility itself. The composition
of this elevated and closed aristocratic society was
such that it permitted her to exhibit a system of
values far above what she would have considered an
ordinary level. We have already cited her avowal
of a predilection for ”toutes les choses extra-
ordinaires” (II, 338). The word "extraordinary'I in
its fullest literal significance Of ”being beyond
and exceeding the common order'I is the best word to

characterize her outlook on life, so deeply aristocratic.

155

In a letter to her cousin Bussy, dated 1668, she
discussed a family genealogy Bussy was writing. She
expressed her pride at being a member of the aris-
tocracy through an eSpecially important lineage.

She said, "11 y a plaisir d'étaler une bonne chevalerie,
quand on y est Obligé” (I, 158), While the twentieth
century might condemn her for her ancestor-worship,

she could in all justice exhibit her moderate pride

in that nobility on which her era placed such great
emphasis. When, in 1685, Bussy sent her a c0py of

the completed genealogy, she was pleased with the
obscure origins of her family, since the most distant
ancestor that could be cited had lived over five
hundred years before. By then, the family had become
already powerful and an imposingly noble one: ”Ce
commencement de maison me plait fort.... 11 y a peu
de gens qui puissent trouver une si belle téte“

(III, 96). Her enthusiasm and feeling of aristocratic
well-being was revealed in still another statement to
Bussy: "J'en suis charmée, et toucbébe d'une véritable
joie que vous ayez au moins tiré de vos malheurs...

la connoissance de ce que vous étes" (III, 96). She
was fully aware Of her nobility, not only on the
Rabutin side but also through marriage to the Sévignés,

whose ancestors she listed when all the Breton nobles

156

were legally obliged to prove their descent: llceux
qui...ont le plus [de noblesse], ont pris plaisir de
se servir de cette occasion pour étaler leur
merchandise. Voici la nOtre” (I, 160).

This woman, then, who was of such an extraordinary
background and who was living a life relatively
isolated from the common lot, could Often very easily
indulge in the basic idealism of noble values.

Madame de Sévigné was far removed from what we today
would consider practical everyday reality. Thus,
she would permit herself to concentrate on the most
refined things of life, to center her attention on
the highest social Spheres, and to revel in a somewhat
imaginary, fictitious order of things. The aristo-
cractic life, already enormously exalted by the very
distinction it made between the noble and the common
man, became for Madame de Sévigné even more elevated
into an artistically-fashioned and highly aesthetic
form of existence.

The most candid statements she made concerning
nobility and all its trappings came in 1689, while
Madame de Grignan was being lavishly received at

Avignon, ”toute a la grande, toute brillante" (III, 457).

157

She looked upon the privileges of nobility as having
been bestowed by God, and she felt secure in a
moderate enjoyment of such distinctions: ”en
vérité, il n'est pas naturel de ne point aimer
quelquefois des places qui sont au-dessus des autres”
(III, 457). "Cela est...dans 1' ordre de Dieu,‘I

she maintained. ”Je comprends que Dieu vous ayant
donné la...place, avec tous les agréments, toutes
les distinctions, et les marques de confiance que
vous avez encore, en vérité i1 n'y auroit pas de
raison ni de sincérité a trouver que c'est la plus
ridicule et la plus désagréable chose du Monde”
(III, 457). And, in another letter on the same
reception at Avignon, she discussed the Special

distinction of the cordon bleu Louis XIV had bestowed

 

on certain oobles, including the Grignans. She began

her letter with a sucCession of exclamations on the
beauty of the ceremonies and of the martial music,

"cette maniere de vous saluer si belle et si respectueuse;
la bonne mine de M. de Grignan...si a prOpos..."

(111, 462-463). She admitted that the trappings of
nobility were prOperly on diSplay at such occasions:

"Vofla justement la place des cordons bleus: ”C'est

158

pour cela qu'ils sont faits” (III, 463). Nobility,
she felt, had the perfect right to diSplay their
wealth, power, and aristocratic bearing. The use of
adornment to accentuate such display was wonderful:
"ces sortes de parures sont justement faites pour
les gens de la naissance et de la dignité de M. de
Grignan." Of course, it had to be done with taste
and care: ”L'Ostentation des personnes modestes
n'offense point l‘orgeuil des autres: c'est que ce
n'est point de l'ostentation ni de l'orgueil, et
qu'on fait justice au vrai mérite” (III, 463). In
this quote Madame de Sévigné dwelled on the negative
aSpect of ”ostentation,” which connotes the vain,
ambitious showing off Of something calculated to win
admiration. Instead, we must insist on a more noble
aspect, that of pomp, the Opposite Of that which in
ostentation is considered arrogant. It is in this
aura of pomp that Madame de Sévigné looked at life.
We can see her as she described herself in 1675, in
a small boat on the Loire, arriving by night at the
Lavardin chateau at Nantes, being received by the
Marquis de Lavardin and many other nobles, all carrying

torches. ”Du milieu de la riviere cette scene étoit

159

admirable,” she said, but the self-assurance and
self-admiration of her succeeding comment is
important: "elle donna une grande idée de moi a
mes bateliers” (I, 855). She exhibited the same
playful desire for personal display when she wrote:
”la poste m'attend, comme si j'étois gouvernante du
Maine, et je prends plaisir de la faire attendre,
par grandeur" (I, 430).

Erich Auerbach, in his study subtitled ‘lhe

Representation of Reality in Western Literature, has

 

pointed out that in the tragedies of Racine we find

a most refined, tragic personage unknown to antiquity.
In him appear neither the everyday aspects of common
actiOns nor "creatural characteristics."3 This

tragic personage is greatly exalted, completely
conscious Of his princely rank, unconcerned with the
practical aSpects Of his actual function of rulership,
and isolated in a sublime, tragic ”posture." And, we
can say, this same extraordinary, exalted and isolated
conception of reality is present in Madame de Sévigné.

It is present, however, somewhat less strongly than

3Mimesis (Princeton, 1953), pp. 370-394.

160

it is in Racine, since life is only too real and the
most powerful imagination cannot make life completely
artificial. The letters, after all, were primarily

a form of everyday communication and would necessarily
have to convey some harsh reality. Nonetheless, the
comparison between the theatrical world of Racine and
the world of Madame de Sévigné is interesting,
because it shows that the interpretation we have
offered of Madame de Sévigné in terms of the theatre
is a valid one. It shows that Madame de Sévigné's
exalted vision of life was commonly found in the
theatre of her time, and, inversely, it suggests

that the gigantic heroes of the stage were not that
much removed from what Madame de Sévigné would
imaginatively have likedko consider exalted, everyday
existence. For this reason, then, she could make
certain statements which have merited for her severe
judgments from critics; in our own century. We are
much less willing to accept today, the imaginative

in everyday reality. We are inclined to dismiss such
an aesthetic outlook as being highly unrealistic.

The most notable of her statements in this reSpect

is contained in her description of Madame Voisin On

the day of execution: "A cinq heures on la lia; et

161

avec une torche a la main, elle parut dans le
tombegssg, habillée de blanc: c'est une sorted'habit
pour/brOlée" (II, 617). This last phrase, which
reveals the most frivolous of curiosities, ”what

one wears on the way to the stake," seems indifferently
cruel. It cannot be understood in its prOper sense
unless we realize to what extent Madame de Sévigné
treated all reality as a form of theatre.

We must not, however, get the false impresSion
that Madame de Sévigné's admiration Of unrealistic,
theatrical diSplay was always accompanied by her
approval of merely shallow, exterior Show. It must
immediately be pointed out that, more Often than not,
she tried to discover a perfect coinciding of the
'exterior image of appearances with an interior reality
of the moral order. It will be noted that when she
affirmed the Grignans' every right to the ostentatious
trappings of nobility, she tried to see this right as
established on a sound moral foundation: she said
that through external diSplay, "on fait justice au
vrai mérite" (III, 463), and she Sincerely believed
that the Grignans possessed this ”vraie mérite.”

We have already seen how much she was attracted by

162

virtue when she remarked about Retz's ӎme...d'un

ordre si supérieur" (I, 729). Indeed, one day in

1675, she remarked to her daughter, ”j'admire combien
nous estimons les vertus morales" (I, 861). What
brought this on was a remark about Monsieur d'Harouys,
her cousin, in whom she saw an ”esprit supérieur a
toutes les choses qui font l'occupation des autres,
cette humeur douce et bienfaisante, cette ame...
grande” (I, 861). He was, she thought, a veritable
model for kings. It is important that while She
delighted in observing this man as he appeared to her,
she hOped, nonetheless, to find beneath the externals--
beneath his ”humeur douce” a solid moral basis which
was his "grande Sme.” Consequently, we must insist
that Madame de Sévigné placed much importance on

both moral values and the external effects they created.
In fact, whenever she referred to the hero and talked
about things heroic, she was just as concerned with
the internal, moral order as she was with externally
fantastic acts. This attitude is summed up in her
statements about those books in she first became
acquainted with the adventurous heroes she admired.)

La Calprenéde's Cléogfitre was one of these, and she

 

very enthusiastically said: ”II y a d'horribles

163

endroits dans Cleépatre; mais 11 y en a de beaux,

 

et la droite vertu est bien dans son trOne" (I, 355).
Eighteen years later her attitude was unchanged,

and she still saw moral excellence exemplified in

the literature she read: ”je trouvois qu'un jeune
homme devenoit généreux et brave en voyant mes héros,
et qu'une fille devenoit honnéte et sage en lisant

Cleépatre" (III, 598).

 

Madame de Sévigné's remarks at the death of
Turenne best describe all that we have been saying
here, for they prove that she did not look upon
paraTtre as something shallow. Of all the great men
she everIwroteabout, Turenne was the one to whom she
devoted the greatest number of letters and the longest,
most explicit, Iaudatory comments. Her first letter
of July 31, 1675, related the death of Turenne by
canon-fire. He had been ”le plus grand capitaine”
and ”le plus honnéte homme du monde" and during the
last three months of his life he had observed ”une
conduite toute miraculeuse? His life, admired by
truly religious men, was crowned by the last and most
glorious day of his death (I, 780). In her letter Of
August 6, she added: "11 meurt au milieu de sa gloire.

Sa réputation ne pouvait plus augmenter” (I, 786).

164

She saw the full dramatic value of the sudden, unexpected,
and glorius death on the battlefield, which was the
surest way for the hero to attract the general attention
and admiration his last moments deserved. ”Quelquefois,
a force de vivre, l'étoile palit," she said. I'II

est plus sOr de couper dans le vif, principalement

pour les héros, dont toutes les actions sont si
Observées" (I, 786). In letter after letter she
described the most dramatic consequences of his death;
the cries of the army, the effect of the news on

Paris, on the court, the passage Of his body through
towns and villages on its way to Saint-Denis, and the
tearful funeral services there at which she was present.
All of these details were concerned with the external
impression made by the hero on those observing him,

in life and in death. As she said, his actions had

been ”Si Observées (I, 786).

Nevertheless, what really impressed Madame de
Sévigné was the magnificent example of moral integrity
this man left. If we can believe her, no one
questioned the Spiritual state of his soul: ”il n'est
pas tombé dans le téte d'aucun dévot qu'elle ne ffit

pas en bon état: on ne sauroit comprendre que le mal

165

et le péché pussent étre dans son coeur" (I, 805).

In fact, she heard explicitly from Turenne's nephew,
the Cardinal de Bouillon, that he had been free of

all mortal sin (I, 801). So she proceeded to extol
and admire this man and She heaped her praises one
upon another: "l'innocence de ses moeurs, la

pureté de ses intentions, son humilité éloignée de
tout sort d'affectation, la solide gloire dont il
étoit plein, sans faste et sans ostentation, aimant

la vertu pour elle-meme, sans se soucier de l'approbation
des hommes: une charité généreuse et chrétienne”

(I, 805-806). These praises, while so concerned with
interior reality, that is, with Turenne's great virtue,
are just as concerned with the external impression
made by his moral perfection. At one and the same
time Madame de Sévigné pierced to the very heart of
his intimate being by praising the purity Of his
intentions, and yet when she mentioned his "solide
gloire," she was gaping in admiration at the brilliant
external effect his virtue was creating. Obviously,
she was unaware of the contradiction she made when

she proclaimed that this man, full of gloire, was

unconcerned with the approbation of others. In order

166

to exist, gloire required the admiring eyes of other
men.. The splendid radiance given off by Turenne's
moral perfection would have been useless had there
not been the admiring eyes of peOple like Madame de
Sévigné to reflect this radiance back onto Turenne,
to make him glorieux. As Descartes defined it in his
Traitédes_passions de l'éme, the very existence of

a person's ”gloire” depended on others, for "[3a]
gloire est une espece de joie fondée sur l'amour
qu'on a pour SOi-méme, et qui vient de l'opinion

ou de l'espérance qu'on a d'étre loué par quelques
autres" (Oeuvres, p. 791). By contrast, then, when
Madame de Sévigné wrote that Turenne loved virtue
"sans se soucier de l'approbation des hommes,” She
was undoubtedly thinking of the traditional Christian,
ascetic ideal of self-effacing humility. This
tradition stressed perfection through good works

done unobserved, and saw hypocrisy in the almsgiver
who blew his trumpet on the street corner to attract
the attention of other men to his good deeds. When
she wrote about Turenne's gloire, she was unconsciously
projecting onto him what can be commonly called

Cornelian heroic values. Starobinski put it so well

167

in his essay, L'Oeil Vivant, when he said,

Le héroe de Corneille a pour témoin l'univers.

11 se sait et se veut exposdaux yeux de tous les
peuples et de tous les siecles. II appelle sur

lui les regards du monde; il 5' y Offre, admirable,
eblouissant. Dans chacun de ses mouvements, 1e
héros cornélien entend faire voir uel il est...

et il reconquiert, dans re regard etonné de
l'univers, une existence désormais transfigurée par
la gloire. A travers ce regard, tout lui est rendu
au centuple (p. 71).

 

It is apparent that in such respects, Madame de
Sévigné's conception Of the hero tended to be like
Corneille's. She could not be satisfied with incon-
Spicuous greatness. It had to be displayed and admired
by everyone. This is made evident by the fact that
she first remarked on Turenne's ”charité généreuse
et chrétienne,” and then proceeded to describe his
great gesture of having furnished a needy English
regiment with supplies at his own expense. "Vous
ai-je pas conté comme il rhabilla ce régiment anglois
(i1 lui en coOta quatorze mille francs), et resta
sans argent?" (I, 806). Such a statement Shows that
she placed just as much emphasis on the grand,
magnificent gesture as on the actual virtue Of charity
which let itself be Spectacularly seen. Here, then,

is the perfect correspondence of interior reality and

 

168

external appearances, the perfect identification of
§t£g_with paraitre. As Madame de Sévigné went on to
say in another letter, ”rien n'est bon que d'avoir
une belle et bonne éme: on la voit en toute chose
comme au travers d'un coeur de cristal...ll faut
etre, il faut étre, Si l'on veut paroitre” (I, 848).
She demanded, by virtue of her open sincerity, that
there be a correspondence between inner and exterior
dignity and greatness; between the impression one
gives to society and the reality behind that impression.Ek¢
by her- statement, "il faut étre, Si l'on veut
paraitre,” she equated étge and araitre, and placed
just as much stress on appearances, as on the reality
underlying the appearances. In fact, the magnificent
appearances of virtue on diSplay could have, for Madame
de Sévigné, the inestimable value of confirming the
greatness of that virtue which would otherwise remain
hidden. By sUch exteriorization, interior reality
could, in a sense, acquire an Objective, exterior
existence of its own. We can apply to Madame de
Sévigné's vision of the Spectacular virtuous hero
what Starobinski says about Corneille's heroes who
dazzle their observers by their greatness: ”Loin

d'etre trompeur cet éblouissement consacre l'essence

169

et la valeur vraie des étres admirables. L'oeil
ébloui est le témoin d'une grandeur insurpassé”
(p. 72).

Unfortunately, the world was much too full of
peOple like the hypocritical BishOp of Marseille.
SO, when Madame de Sévigné found a good man like
Turenne, she lavished upon him praise after praise,
and ended with a glorification -- a sort of apotheosis
-- of his soul which she saw as having gone directly
to heaven to be with God Himself: "nul dévot ne
s'est advisé de douter que Dieu ne l'th recue a bras
ouverts” (I, 806). Or again, ”une telle Sme est bien
digne du ciel; elle venoit tr0p droit de Dieu pour
n'y pas retourner” (I, 801). The reason why Madame
de Sévigné preferred the strong-willed heroes of
Corneille to the conscience-torn heroes of Racine has
now become evident. As Jean Rousset stated it, the
Cornelian hero is ”un personnage d'ostentation”? He
is the exceptional, exalted being, "a l'3me forte,”

who Offers himself as a Spectacle to the public.5

hCircé et le paon, p. 217.

 

SPaulGBénichou, Morales du Grand Siecle (Paris, 1948),
p. l

 

170

Madame de Sévigné, who glorified Turenne, saw in

these heroes the idealization Of her many aspirations.
As a woman of great sincerity she longed for exceptional
moral virtue. As a woman of great imagination she
could yield to the seduction of Splendid appearances.
In the Cornelian hero she found the perfect conformity
of appearances to reality. She saw his virtuous,
spectacular §t£e of magnificent prOportions offering

to its viewers an equally grand image Of itself.

Such diSplay appealed to her much more than the tragic
Spectacle of Racine's characters. They are refined

and exalted, but, as Starobinski says, for the Racinian
hero "Etre vu n'implique pas la gloire, mais la honte.
Tel qu'il se montre, dans son impulsion passionnée,

1e héros racinien ne peut ni S'approuver lui-meme,

ni étre reconnu par ses rivaux” (p. 73). Paul

Bénichou is quite right in pointing out the significance
Of Madame de Sévigné's statement: "Vive donc notre
vieil ami Corneillel'I (I, 498)§’ Her use Of "vieil,"
Bénichou says, referred not only to the early dates of
Corneille's works but also to an older form of moral
inspiration which she saw in him. Such inspiration

was based on an Optimistic confidence in the power of

the human will. It pre-dated the Spread of pessimistic,

6Cited by Bénichou, p. 14.

171

scrupulous, soul-searching Jansenism which would
undermine human self-assurance. It must be noted along
with Henri Busson that Madame de Sévigné was attracted
to Jansenism.7 However, in this reSpect, G. Santini
makes an interesting reflection on Madame de Sévigné's
interest in the writings of Jansenists like Nicole,
and sees her interest as a psychological aSpiration
toward moral perfection, which her own weak
temperament craved to imitate.8 Thus, the theatrical
heroes of Corneille and the moral tenets of Nicole's
Essais, although of somewhat different inspiration,
came together in Madame de Sévigné's readings as
representative of those great and heroic virtues which
she so admired. One day, in 1671, she commented on
Nicole, admitting the impossibility of fulfilling his

counsels but confessing blind admiration for such

7Henri Busson La Religion des Classiques,gl660-l685
(Paris, 1948).

 

8G. Santini, ed. Lettere, by Madame de Sévigné (Napoli:
Edizioni scientifiche ialiane, 1960), p. 26. Santinl's
precise statement is that Jansenism expressed for
her ”la sua aspirazione alla fortezza e alla perfezione
morale cui contrastava 1a fondamentale e consapevole
debolezza del suo temperamento.” '

172

idealistic perfection: ”11 est vrai que c'est une
perfection un peu au-dessus de l'humanité, que
l'indifférence qu'il veut de nous pour l'estime ou
l'improbation du monde" (I, 412). And she added,
“mais quoique dans l'exécution on se trouve faible,
c'est pourtant un plaisir que de méditer avec lui,”

Here we find a highly idealistic Madame de
Sévigné, aspiring after transcending values far
surpassing the common order. For this reason did she
adore the heroic, and for this reason, as well, did
she end up admiring Racine's Esther, In her description
of Esther She reveals to us all of her immense
aSpirations, aSpirations which, as we can now see,
were ultimately for the divine: ”La sainte Ecriture
est suivie exactement danS cette piece; tout est beau,
tout est grand, tout est traité avec dignité" (III, 341).
The letter reporting her presence at a performance of
the play itself contained the following comment: "tout
y est innocent, tout y est sublime et touchant: cette
fidélité de l'histoire sainte donne du respect" (III, 351).
In this description the word ”sublime” is noteworthy,
the direction of Madame de Sévigné's thought was quite

similar In the case of the many sermons she took SO

‘173

much pleasure in. One particular passage on a sermon,
given by Bourdaloue in 1675 in honor of Notre-Dame,
contains a transcending movement which probably
equals Madame de Sévigné's own ecstasy and her aroused
religious aspirations: "(1e sermofi] transporta tout
le monde; il étoit d'une force qu'il faisoit trembler
les courtisans, et jamais un prédicateur évangélique
n'a préché sihautement et Si généreusement les
vérités chrétiennes...cela fut poussé au point de
la plus haute perfection, et certains endroits furent
poussés comme les auroit poussés l'apOtre saint Paul"
(I, 705-706). She Spoke in exactly the same ecstatic
manner when She spoke of Corneille's "divines et
sublimes beautés qui nous transportent." She censured
Racine's early works because she saw in them I'rien de
parfaitement beau, rien qui enleve, point de ces
tirades de Corneille qui font frissonner” (I, 498).
Her aspiration for the transcendent, evident in
these passages which heap sublime adjectives one upon

another, was naturally to be very much a part of her

174

religiousness.9 Having seen how idealistic Madame de
Sévigné was, we cannot pass over the final and most
conclusive idea1--her Faith--by which she placed all
of her trust in Divine Providence.lo For faced with
the problem of the Divine and the Eternal, she did not
hesitate to embrace blindly the Supernatural. She

saw the Will of God at work ih all the pleasures and
sorrows of life.

We have already pointed out how incapable of under-
standing Cartesianism she felt herself to be and how
much a woman of emotion and imagination she was instead.
We can add that even what she Said of her admiration
for the intellectual gamer of chess proves this. For
chess was for Madame de Sévigné, "le plus raisonnable

de tous les jeux" (II, 600), but turned out to be too

9Many critics have discussed this subject. See, for
example, Busson, Religion des Classigues; es ecially
Yvonne Pirat, Madame dé—Sevigné (Paris, 1959 , a revised
edition of her earlier La petite- -fille d'une grande
sainte: Madame de Sévigné,,sa SpiritualiteTAvignon,
1931), and Cecile Gazier, 7Madame de Sevigne (Paris, 1933).

 

10Here, again, many a critic has dwelled on the
possible Jansenistic implications of her trust in
Providence. We limit ourselves to the position of
Providence in the tOpic under discussion.

175

much for her mind to COpe with. She felt ”la misere
et les bornes de l'esprit" and her ”imbécillité”

(II, 625). Her approach to religion was not
intellectual. ,She was greatly impressed by the
writings of Saint Augustine and Saint Paul. When the
great problems raised during the century, such as
grace, predestination, and infant baptism faced her,
she preferred to answer as she felt Saint Augustine
had, by saying, ”je n'en sais rien” (II, 784).
Immediately she relinquished understanding and threw
herself blindly upon the mercy of God (111, 739).
preferring, in the face of Jansenistic predestination,
to insist upon the Will of God rather than on the
intricacies and nuances of the problem itself. She
maintained that "puisqu'il (Dieu) l'a voulu ainsi,
cela est fort bien, et rien ne pouvoit étre mieux,

sa volonté étant assurément 1a régle et la justice”
(II, 784). She agreed we might form in our minds a
very harsh image of God if we stOp to consider the
possibility of salvation being limited to the few.
But, she repeated, neither Saint Augustine nor Saint
Paul made any contrived efforts to improve this image
of the Creator: ”Ils ne marchandent point a dire que

Dieu dispose de ses créatures, comme 1e potier....

176

115 ne sont point en peine de faire des compliments
pour sauver sa justice...et apres tout, que doit-il
(Dieu) aux hommes?” (II, 779). The God she envisioned
was a God of power. She insisted that for God to be
really God, He had to be almighty and supreme. He

had to dominate man; no casuist should be able to
trifle with the workings of Divine Will. She insisted,
"Cjej me représente Dieu comme Dieu, comme un maitre,
comme un souverain créateur et auteur de l'univers,

et comme un etre tres-parfait (II, 779).” And she
extended the comparison She had made between man's

life and the almost unreal world of the stage, when
she saw man as nothing but alflind and ignorant
spectator Of the workings of Providence (III, 305).

For Madame de Sévigné, it was through the working of
Providence that God manifested himself to the world
and asserted His authority and Supremacy. This
powerful God appealed to the imaginative element in
her. Especially after 1680, when she had what Busson
calls a religious crisis, almost every letter she wrote

11

contained some mention of the Divine Will. Even

IILa Religion des Classiques, p. 37.

 

177

before this date, for example, while Madame de Sévigné
was at Pomponne, she saw the Secretary Of State leave
for Paris. She was unaware of the fact that he was

no longer a Minister, but a Simple man in disgrace.

Her reaction was far from despair. She asked, ”Croyez-
vous que toutes ces conduites soient jetées au

hasard?? (II, 530), and, answering her own question,
she insisted: "Non, non, gardez-vous-en bien; c'est
Dieu qui conduit tout, et dont les desseins sont
toujours adorables, quoiqu'ils nous soient amers et
inconnus” (II, 530). When Madame de Grignan was

deeply concerned over her husband's affairs, her mother
consoled her with: "Au nom de Dieu, soutenez-vous,

et croyez que les arrangements de la Providence sont
quelquefois bien contraires a ce que nous pensons"

(I, 738). When Madame de Sévigné's aunt was dying on
eve of the long-awaited departure for Grignan, She
again optimistically exlaimed, I'Que dites-vouscbs
arrangements des choses de ce monde? Pour moi je

les admire" (I, 518). And during the siege of Limbourg
in June, 1675, She completely abandoned herself to

the Will of God saying, I'il faut tout abandonner a

la Providence" (I, 744).

178

God, then, was at the simmit of her system of
great values. Just as She poeticized reality by
comparing peOple with literary heroes, by seeing
everywhere the dramatic and the Spectacular, by
looking out onto the world in vast and magnificent
perspectives, she saw Divine Providence at work in
one of the greatest world-visions possible. This was
the climax of all of her immense aspirations,
aspirations due to a deep feeling of religion and
piety.

To conclude, we have seen that the sincere Madame
de Sévigné, who was able to compromise with society,
was able to do so without feeling that she was violating
her conscience. She could very easily relinquish
her understanding and enjoy the magnificent appearances
offered her. This was possible because she was a
woman of vast imagination. She adored great and
sublime things Such as the magnificent figures of
noble heroes whom she met in her readings. She easily
extended the realm of fiction into the realm of reality,
and, in the confusion that followed, reality became
beautifully poetic for her. She saw existence itself

as something theatrical. Every moment of life became

179

aesthetic. Persons and events took on fantastic
qualities. Her letters are filled with adjectives

like ggaflg and beag. Being a member of the aristocracy,
she could indulge in such fantasy, for she was Spared
constant contact with harsh reality. However, we must
not assume that the pleasure she took in spectacle

was simply a product of her fancy. In the most ideal
situation she sought a correSpondence between reality
and appearances, between great virtue and magnificent
diSplay. She saw this in Turenne, in the great heroes
of Corneille's plays, and to an extent, in Jansenistic
writings on moral perfection. She was highly idealistic,
Iand She aSpired after transcending values far surpassing
the common order. She foundihe perfect fulfillment

of such aSpirations in religion, and she placed God

at the head of her system of great values. This God
was, for her, a God of power, who manifested Himself

in the workings of His Providence. She was but a
humble, admiring spectator, as she had been a spectator
in the theatre of life where her contemporaries--the

Grignans, Fouquet, Pomponne--were playing.

VIII. HER VIEW OF LOUIS XIV: SYNTHESIS
OF HER ATTITUDES

The problem of reality and appearances, as it
presented itself to Madame de Sévigné, and her double
reaction to it, is well exemplified by her attitudes
toward Louis XIV. In the letters we find both
criticism and admiration of the King, and it is
impossible to proclaim Madame de Sévigné either a
severe critic or an abject idolater of the monarchy.
She was both. If we have understood the two aSpects
of Madame de Sévigné's character, the Alceste in her
that could nonetheless yield to the Philinte, we will
be able to understand her double, contradictory,
reaction to Louis XIV.

The French historian, Auguste Bailly, who is
also one of Madame de Sévigné's most recent biographers,
noted in his book on Le Regne de Louis XIVI that when
the royal armies crossed the Rhine in June 1672, in
a Spot least defended by the Dutch, the slight combat
which followed was needlessly caused by the impetuous

Duc de Longueville who fell upon the already fleeing
I(Paris, 1946), p. 151.

180

181

enemy and managed thereby to get himself killed.

What took place then, was more Of a scuffle than an all
out combat, but in Paris the crossing of the Rhine was
celebrated as one of the most fantastic and successful
military ventures of all time, a feat of arms unequalled
by Caesar himself. Auguste Bailly maintains that

Madame de Sévigné was probably much more exact in a
statement to her daughter when She said that had it

not been for Longueville's impulsiveness the Dutch

would have been driven back without bloodshed.

That Madame de Sévigné did not let herself fall
into the general enthusiasm for Louis' bravura is
partly explained by her all too real feelings over
t0; death Of the duc de Longueville and of the other
nobles whose families she knew, and by her fear for
her own son's peril in the battle. But that this
crossing did not ellicit in her any extravagant praise
for Louis XIV is significant for another reason. It
would prove that Harriet Allentuch has noted, that
there is hardly any basis for the ”myth” that Madame
de Sévigné was one of the ”herd of abject idolaters

encircling Louis XIV" (p. 128).

182

Perhaps one Of the most important passages
noted by critics desirous of pointing out that she
did not blindly adore the King is one that appears in
her letter of June 13, I685.2 The religious order
of the Minims in Provence had dedicated a thesis to
Louis in which, she says, it clearly appeared that
God H;mself was but a COpy of the King. Boussuet
saw this thesis and Openly disapproved of it. But
it is interesting to note how precisely Madame de
Sévigné described the Situation: ”Monsieur de
Meaux...1'a montrée au Roi, disant que sa Majesté ne
doit pas la souffrir. II a été de cet avis: on l'a
renvoyée en Sorbonne pour juger: elle a dit qu'il
lav falloit supprimer" (III, 78). Two things stand
out in the passage: first, that Bossuet seems only
to have suggested to Louis that the thesis was unsound
and, secondly, that the final deciSion as to whether
the thesis could be sound or not rested on the King
himself. WhikaBossuet was the man of the Church,
more capable of actually deciding on such matters, the

Short statement that His Majesty "a été de cet avis”

2See,for exam 1e, Gaston Boissier, Madame de Sévigné
(Paris, 1919 , p. 158.

183

suggests, negatively, that if Louis had not been ”de
cet avis”, the theologiéal error in the thesis would
have been left standing. By her very manner of
phrasing her statement Madame de Sévigné unconsciously
revealed how much a part of her was the traditional
monarchic outlook of the time. In her following
sentence, however, She Openly stated her discontent
over such adulation Of the King. She used an expression
that leads us to believe that she was already greatly
annoyed at a Situation which placed a King immediately
after God in power, authority, and glory: I'TrOp est
trop: je n'eusse jamais soupconné des Minimes d'en
venir a cette extremité” (III, 78).

That she Should often have left her frequent
descriptions of the King without further comments of
a critical nature, goes without saying in a period
when the mails were not safe, when Louvois, the
surintendant général des postes himself, had to take
the most lavish precautions to prevent the interception
of his own private letters through those very mails for

which he had guaranteed secrecy.3 But the descriptions

3Eu ene Vaille, Histoire Généralecbs Postes Fran aises,
Vo . IV;, Louvois, Surintendant General des POS es

(Paris, 1951), pp. 123-125.

184

of Louis XIV which we find in Madame de Sévigné's

Letters are often very eloquent in betraying her

feelings towards the King for the picture she offers

us of him from time to time is not exactly complimentary.
In the early series Of letters we have from the

period of Fouquet's trial in 1664, a time when Madame

de Sévigné was apparently at court with Marguerite

and therefore closer to the young Louis XIV, we find

important references to him. An especially well-known

one is found in her letter of December 1. She related

that one day the King, who was dabbling in poetry,

asked the Maréchal de Gramont whether he liked a

certain madrigal which he himself had found unpleasing.

Thinking that the way was Open for safe, unfavorable

criticism, the Maréchal promptly declared the madrigal

I'le plussot et le plus ridicule" that he had ever

read (I, 131). The King led him on even further,

making him declare ”que celui qui l'a fait est bien fat.”

Only then did Louis chose to admit that it was he who

had composed the madrigal. Madame de Sévigné concluded:

"Pour moi, qui aime toujours a faire deS reflexions,

je voudrois qui 1e Roi en fit la-dessus, et qu'il

jugefit par la combien il est loin de connoitre jamais

la vérité" (I, 132).

 

185

How clear her insight was into the intrigues at
court is revealed in the above statement made at a
time she seemed anxious to exhonerate the person Of
the King. Her letter of December 11, 1664, related
certain injustices in the Fouquet affair, which she
was sure Louis' ministers had presented before him in
quite an unfavorable manner: ”N'étes-vous point
désespéré qu'on fasse entendre les choses de cette
facon-la a un prince qui aimeroit la justice et la
vérité s'il les connoissoit?? (I, 138). That at his
royal lave; he Should declare Fouqueta dangerous
man was explained by her in this manner: ”voila ce
qu'on lui met dans la téte" (I, 138). Her confidence
in Louis was shaken when eleven days later, in
reference to him, she impetuously quoted a line from
Vergil, which asked whether anger could enter into
the hearts Of the"GodS.'I She had to deny it: llDe
telles vengeances rudeS et basses ne sauroint partir
d'un coeur comme celui de notre maitre. On se sert
de son nom, et on 1e profane” (I, 145). But, only
eight more days later, after she had actually obuerved
Louis at a court ballet, she limited herself to hOping
against hOpe for the liberation of Fouquet, Since Louis

was now'comparable tothe character Goffredo in Tasso's

186

Jerusalem Delivered, for he suddently appeared as

 

immovable, inspiring more fear than hOpe by his ”rigida
semblanza”. ”Cependant je me garde bien de me
décourager” (I, 147), she insisted, without any grounds
whatsoever for her hope.

By 1672, she saw the King in a different light.
We shall have to cite but One example of her many
passive descriptions of the King's behavior. What
makes these passages so interesting is the fact that
they are apparently presented to us in such an
impartial fashion. However, it is evident that Madame
de Sévigné was deliberately illusive and playful, and
we can detect in small details what she was really
thinking. We can look at her letter dated June 13,
I672. The King had granted Monsieur de Lauriere the
position of Sénéchal of Poitou on the request of his
brother-in-law, Monsieur de Montausier, only to
discover that the Comte de Matha actually deserved
the position, an hereditary one in his family. Louis
then undertook to promise Lauriére another post, if
he relinquished his present one, but all the King
received in turn was a letter from Montausier telling

of Lauriere's impossibility to resign, since he had

I87

already accepted ”les compliments dans la province.”
The King, Montausier suggested, could give another
position to Matha. Madame de Sévigné continued:

"Le Roi fut piqué, et se mordant les lévres: 'Eh

bien! dit i1, je la lui laisse pour trois ans;

mais je la donne ensuite pour toujours au petit
Matha'” (I, 569). The detail "se mordant les lavres "
gives a good visual image of the anger Louis had
inside him over these brazen nobles, an anger which

he unpityingly expressed by his punhishment of their
boldness. And that Madame de Sévigné fully sensed

his treachery is hinted at in her next remark, addressed
distinctly to the Comte de Grignan, who was related to
Montausier, but who depended on the King's good graces
to succeed in his own position. Her statement echoes
like a "bewarel": ”C'étoit a M. de Grignan que je
devois mander ceci” (I, 569).

The crossing of the Rhine chronologically
followed this letter by only a few days. We have
already seen one of her comments on the battle.
Another, on June 27, seems a bit more enthusiastic,
but her conclusion is so Startling that it attracts.

our immediate interest. First we read, ”Cette victoire

188

est admirable, wt fait voir que rien ne peut résister
aux forces et a la conduite de Sa Majesté” (I, 578).
But this is followed by: |'Le plus sflr, c'est de
I'honorer et de Ie craindre, et de n'en parler qu'avec
admiration” (I, 578). Honor out of fear is quite the
contrary of adulation, and any admiration She would
have expressed at this point would be the result of
a negative constraint of not daring to say anything
else. That Louis was capable and powerful was
undeniable. She knew absolutism could not be Opposed,
so she acquiesced, but she still did not refrain
from looking beneath the King's grand appearances.
This is attested to by her bold statement concerning
the French defeat at Consaarbruck which Louis was
trying to conceal by means of moderated and subdued
accounts: "Voilé ce que Sa Majesté a dit; mais a
Paris on dit et on croit savoir que c'est une vraie
déroute” (I, 804). The strength of her affirmation
is more than positive in her last phrase: "Toute
l'infanterie a été défaite, et la cavalerie en fuite
et en désordre” (I, 804).

The death of Turenne, as we noted, made a great
impression Upon Madame de Sévigné, but what troubled

her immensely was that in the midst of the intrigues

189

of Louis' two mistresses, each struggling to belong
alone to the King, the death of the great hero went
forgotten: ”... a quel point la perte du héros a

été promptement oubliée dans cette maison: c'a été
une chose scandaleuse” (I, 793). We can detect how
little she esteemed the behavior of these women, when
several letters later she found it incessary to affirm
that the great and noble soul of Turenne could not be
that easily forgotten. She suggested, by contrast,
that his goodness was of far greater worth than the
bickering Of certain lower creatures, and that none-
theless there were still many more ideal-minded peOple
around who could not easily turn away from such an
example of great virture. Her precise words were:

"Ne croyez point...que Son souvenir soit fini..., ce
fleuve qui entraine tout, n'entraine pas Sit8t une
telle mémoire; elle est consacrée a l'immortalité,

et méme dans le coeur d'une infinité de gens dont

les sentiments sont fixés sur ce sujet? (I, 805).

We have already seen some examples of Madame de
Sévigné's reports on the King's mistresses. Phrases
such as ”Quanto joue en robe de chambre avec la dame_
du chéteau” (I, 820) cannot be taken as simply passive

remarks on royal behavior. Quanto or uantova was

190

the code-word she used in the mails for Montespan,

and "la dame du chateau” referred to the Queen sho

had to feel herself honored to be in the presence of
her husband and his informally-clad mistress. There

is an ironic tone underlying these narratives as, 1
for example, in the repetitive ami and amie she uses

to signify Louis and Maintenon: "cette belle amitié

de Mme de Montespan et de son amie qui voyage est

une véritable aversion.... C'est que l'amie est

d'un orgueil qui la rend revoltée contre les ordres

de l'autre.... On gronde l'ami d'avoir trop d'amitié
pour cette glorieuse” (I, 172). The same ironic

tone is present when Madame de Sévigné refers to
Maintenon's friends as "les amis de l'amie” (I, 792),
or when she writes that Maintenon "veut bien etre

au pere [LouiS], mais non a la mere (Montespafi)” (I, 792).
The playfulness and mischievous intent of the code
words Madame de Sévigné uses suggest a hidden intention
to ridicule and criticize the actions of these personages.
It becomes especially evident in another comment She
makes just after her visit to Versailles where she saw
the Queen's own ladies-in-waiting actually in the
service of MonteSpan at court games, at suppers and

concerts. Her surprise is obvious: ”Rien n'est caché,

191

rien n'est secret; les promenades en triomphe: cet
air déplairoit encore plus a une femme ‘Eaintenodj
qui seroit un peu jalouse; mais tout le monde est
content” (I, 792). And while everyone seemed
satisfied with this basically corrupt Situation,
Madame de Sévigné, it appears, was troubled.

A very harsh view Of Louis XIV as a cruel and
heartless man is glimpsed in a comparatively short
paragraph found in her letter of August 21, 1675,
dating from the same general period we have so far
been discussing. _It is remarable that it Should
follow, in her order Of thought, a paragraph on the

affair Of the new maréchaux which told how Pomponne

 

had heard straight from the King that it was diSpleasing

to him to see the title of Monseigneur refused to men

 

like the Maréchal de Vivonne. Everyone, by royal
command, should be prepared to Observe the new order

of things. We can sense Madame de Sévigné's feelings
when she says with trepidation, "La royauté est

établie au dela de ce que vous pouvez vous imaginer:

on ne se léve plus, at on ne regarde personne" (I, 821).
As proof of it She related the following account which,

especially in this case, deserves citation in full in

192

order to appreciate its forcefulness: (The
capitalized ”Elle” refers to ”Sa Majesté”)

L'autre jour, une pauvre mere toute en pleurs,

qui a perdu le plus joli garcon du monde,

demandoit sa charge a‘Sa Majeste, Elle passa;

ensuite, et toute a genoux, cette pauvre Madame

de Froulai se traina a ses pieds, lui

demandant avec des criS et des sanglots

qu'Elle eut pitié d'elle; Elle passa sans

s 'arréter (1,821).
The sharp contrast of the pitiless King and the
pitiable implorer is overwhelming. It is recorded with
the utmost restraint, but Madame de Sévigné's use of
the adjective "pauvre” conveys an intellectual and
emotional evaluation, which directs our own sentiments
to the cause of Madame de Froulai.

Critics have not often been wrong in noticing
Madame de Sévigné's Frondeur tendencies and they are
right in recalling that her husband had actively
participated in the Fronde on the side of the revolting
nobles, in the company of her cousin, Bussy, and her
friend Retz“. Indeed, She had a general tendency

to bring up past times in comparison to the present

system, and it is probably this liberty of the Old

llSee, for example, Mesnard, GEF, I, 73.

193

nobility which was still in her that made it possible
for her to sense that all was not well under Louis XIV.
We have just pointed out above how she said, "Ia
royauté est établie au dela de ce que vous pouvez
vous imaginer" (I, 821), and this type of statement,
which reveals a sort of amazement at the achievements
of absolutism, often reappears in the letters. Once,
while mentioning/:wfitservices rendered to the King
outside of Versailbs, went unnoticed and unrewarded,
she betrayed her yearning for a happier past saying,
"c'étoit autrefois le contraire” (II, 563).

In 1689, when the King removed from the Governor
of Brittany, the Duc de Chaulnes, the independent right
to choose his own députés to Versailles, Madame de
Sévigné dashed Off an extremely long letter, exposing
many of her thoughts on the great centralization taking
place in the French government. She revealed her
Frondeur tendencies in the terms in which she Spoke
of the position of grandeur whichbelonged to the
noble aristocrat, but this is not too astonishing,
if we consider that Madame de Sévigné was Sixty-three
years of age by this date and had been brought up with
a different outlook on the concept of the aristocracy.
Yet, at the same time, it is very interesting to see

her Observations, for while they are intended for the

194

-support of the noble prerogative, they reveal a
criticism Of the absolute subjection the foolish
nobles themselves had accepted before the person of
the King. Madame de Sévigné thereby struck out at a
system which, in the long run, she saw as ridiculous.
She Started out by paraphrasing the words Of the
Duc de Chaulnes which convey the idea, again, of what
former days were like, words which for this reason
interested Madame de Sévigné: ”ll nous disoit...
qu'il n'étoit plus 1e maitre comme autrefois, qu'il
falloit venir un peu montrer son visage a la cour”
(III, 586). She next Spoke out for the independent
rights which belonged historically to the provinces:
”Trouvez-vous vien noble et bien juste de se faire
un mérite de dégrader ce beau gouvernement?" (III, 587).
But then, in portraying the poor, hard-working noble,
She implied the very folly of these nobles themselves,
who in their blind adulation were basically responsible
for the loss of their honors: "Hélasl ces pauvres
gouverneurs, que ne font-ils point pour plaire a
leur maitre? Avec quelle joie avec quel zele ne
courent-ils point 5 l'hOpital pour son serVICe?” They
become self-effacing, to the very detriment of their

own health and private interests, and if they want to

 

195

act grandly, "faire les rois”, "n'est-ce pas pour le
service du vrai roi?" (11, 587). In the end she
referred once more to the theatrical term, "comedy,"
for a comparison" "Hélasl ils sont Si passionnés
pour sa personne, qu'ils ne souhaitent que de quitter
ces grands r81es de comédie, pour le venir regarder

a Versailles...." (III, 587). Madame de Sévigné took
the side Of the nobles, but with a certain feeling of
futility that makes us feel that she sensed how
purposeless were their efforts to please the King,
and how ridiculous the noble made himself by his
servitude.

It is her letter of March 13, 1680, that contains
one Of her longest pieces of explicit advice to the
Grignans on their relationship to the King and his
court. In it, Madame de Sévigné exposed her own
awareness Of how much the court had changed since the
days of her youth, and she set down a statement of
policy, very much in keeping with her general attitude
towards society which we have already seen.

In this letter her Opening phrase suggests her
as an observer of change: "Ce n'est plus un pays
étranger que la cour, c'est la Heu OD il doit étre:

on est a son devoir, on a une contenance” (11, 639-640).

196

Only by being at court could one really observe for
Oneself all the nuances of everyday occurrences. She
therefore told her daughter and son-in-law that their
reluctance to travel up to Versailles made them appear
out-Of-date, and as if they belonged to another
generafion: l'je vous prie tous deux de vous mirer

et de voir Si vous ates de la viellle cour." Here
She actually seems to have been Speaking from her own
experience and knowledge of the court of earlier days,
but it is significant that after a very lengthy
encouragement, with assurances of a good reception

for them at Versailles, She concluded that, if She
were the Grignans, "Je tacherois donc, mes chers
enfants, de me mettre en état de venir un peu tater

Ia Providence, prendre part au bonheur de mes cadets,
et vivre avec les vivants” (II, 640). We have already
seen elsewhere that to I'live among the living," to
accept society and politics such as they are, is what
She believed in doing on the practical level, and

thus it is not surprising if, in the end, in the
presence of His Majesty himself, impressionable as
She was, she let herself be caught by the royal Spell
and yielded to the great impression the King made On

those who came into his presence..

197

In his Histore amoureuse Bussy had chided Madame

 

de Sévigné for being so susceptible to the impression
the King made on her by dancing with her one evening
at Versailles. He maliciously quoted her as over-
enthusiastically crying out ”Vive 1e roi!" and

saying, ”11 faut avouer que 1e roi a de grandes qudités;
je crois qu'il obscurcira la gloire de tous ses
predecesseurs."5 Bussy saw her easy impressionability,
and we too can see how susceptible she was to Louis'
charm in her letter on Esther. It was after having
watched the play that She was singularly honored by
the King who came Over to her seat to exchange a few
words with her. We have already seen elsewhere how
much importance She placed on her own attention and
reaction to the play, how she studied every one of

her movements, and every muffled word of praise which
she uttered during the performance. In the exchange
She had with His Majesty afterwards she seems extremely
reSpectful. She noted that she responded to his
opening words "sans m'étonner,” saying, "'Sire, je
suis charmée; ce que je sens est au-dessus des
paroles'" (III, 351). Her very tone suggests her
exultation over the fact that he Should have chosen to

address her. She succeeded beautifully in conveying

5Cited by Mesnard, I, 95.

198

this when at the very end of their exchange she
wrote, "Et puis Sa Majesté s'en alla, at me laissa
l'object de l'envie.” She fOllowed this by noting
that Monsieur 1e Prince et Madame 1a Princesse also
"vinrent me dire un mot" and Madame de Maintenon,
”un éclair." How She bathed in the royal limelight
is further seen in her statement: ”je répondis 5
tout, car j'étois en fortune," and later she told
the Chevalier de Grignan "tout naivement mes petites
prospérités, ne voulant pOint les cachoter sans
savoir pourquoi..." (III, 351).

Beneath all this there seems to lie a feeling
of temendous excitement, and, knowing Madame de
Sévigné's exuberance and uncontrollable emotions we
can understand why she felt urged to relate her
"prospérités...sans savoir pourquoi." She continued
in this vein, affirming again, with full assurance
to her daughter, that the Chevalier did not find in her
"ni une sotte vanité, ni un tranSport de bourgeoisie:
demandezilui” (II, 352). As -a. reallt, we never
quite notice, as Auguste Bailly has pointed out, that
Louis' words to her amounted to practically nothing in
terms of concrete value, for what he had said was I
simply, "'Madame, je suis assuré que vous avez été

content,'” and "'Racine a bien de l'esprit '" (III, 351).

199

Bailly puts it very well when he says that she seriously

gathered up these words of the master, herself

insensitive to their meaninglessness, for, ”tombés de

la bouche royale, ce sont des perles et des diamants.”6
Madame de Sévigné's admiration for Louis XIV was

not limited only to personal contacts She had with him.

Although she might have disagreed with his treatment

Of his subjects, with his mistresses, his provincial

politics, his absolutism, She revered him for his

great and magnificant gestures, for that "instinct

d'une majesté théétrale”, which historians like

Bailly have seen in him (p. 96). Every moment Of the

King's life had acquired a theatrical character, and

he had learned to play his role Of perfect king and

superhuman creature with the utmost skill. He

instituted elaborate ritual and ceremony to accompany

his most ordinary gesture, and it was to this that

Madame de Sévigné was not in the least insensitive.

She admired the King's sublime and Splendid aspects,

for, in his taste for the theatrical, in his posseSsion

\

of the most lavish theatrical accessories available,

6Bailly, Le regne de Louis XIV, p. 110. Hereafter,
references to this appear difectly in my text.

200

and in his perfect assumption of the grandest and
most perfect role conceivable, he might well have been

the most honnéte homme of his century.

 

Already, in 1672, in the process of recounting
the audience Louis had granted to the Dutch Ambassador,
Madame de Sévigné had repeated certain details that
seem to have attracted her attention and to have
merited her recording them. She notes that in
haughtily replying to the ambassador from the little
country which he saw as a threat to France, "Le Roi
prit la parole,...avec une majesté et une grace
merveilleuse,...." (I, 447). His Spectacular
gestures appear to have charmed her, and so, when he
most magnificently received at court James II, the
depOsed King of England, Madame de Sévigné filled her
letters with descripfions which now bear looking into.

The arrival of James II was to take place at
Saint-Germain on the Epiphany (or the Feast of Kings),
January 6, 1689. In a letter to Bussy on that day
She drew a comparison between the feast and the actual
events: "Ce sera justement aujourd'hui 1a veritable
féte des rois, bien agréable pour celui qui protege
et qui sert. de refuge, et bien triste pour celui

qui a grand besoin d'un asile” (III, 305). And her

201

belief that this event offered: ”de grands Objects
and grands sujets de meditation...” reveals how much
Madame de Sevigne admired the characteristic of
greatness inherent in the situation, in which the two
greatest men of France and England would come together
in a scene that would render Louis XIV reSplendent

in his generosity.

That she saw the essential theatricality of the
situation is shown by her wanting to send the Abbé
Tétu, who was suffering from insomnia, to Saint-
Germain for the distraction which the Spectable of the
arrival of the new court would Offer him: "il cherche
des Spectacles...en peut-on voir un plus grand et
plus digne de faire de grandes diversions?" (III, 310).
Her use here of the words gggflg and giggg entail a
value judgment which informs us of how much esteem
she attached to the extraordinary event, which so
aroused her imagination.

It becomes even clearer in a few lines she wrote
as introduction to the actual details of the arrival
of Their English Majesties, for she compared Louis XIV
with thepDivine God, Himself, because of the great.

ostentation of kindness and mercy he made upon receiving

202

the exiled rulers: "Cependant 1e Roi fait pour ces
Majestés angloises des choses toutes divines; car
n'est-ce point étre l'image du Tout-Puissant que de
soutenir un roi chassé, trahi, abandohné comme il
est?" (III, 310). Once again She revealed her I
awareness of the inherent theatricality of the
character of the King and She gave it full approval:
"la belle Sme du Roi se plait a jouer ce grand r81e
(III, 310). She absorbed every single detail of each
of Louis' magnificant gestures and, without excusing
her wealth of detail as she had often done elsewhere,7
she proceeded to relate how the King actually went
out in person to receive the Queen and the Prince of
Wales, accompanied by his whole court in a Spectacular
procession of one hundred carriages each drawn by six
horses. She carefully remarked that he actually

got out of his own carriage for the little Prince of
Wales, "et ne voulut pas que ce petit enfant, beau
comme un ange, a ce qu'on dit, descendit; i1 l'embrassa

tendrement" (III, 311). We can imagine this touching

7See, for example, her long letter describin ever

detail of the pompes funebres of the Chance ler Seguier,
after which she wrote: ”...quelle espéce de lettre
est-ce ici? Je pense que je suis folle. A quoi peut
servir une Si grande narration? Vraiment j'ai bien
contenté le desir que j'avois de conter” (I, 541).

 

203

scene of the little Prince embraced by the great

King, and we can be sure Louis was aware of the
spectacular quality of this gesture. Madame de
Sévigné then carefully went on to note how he greeted
the Queen, put her on his right in his own carriage,
introduced her to Monseigneur and Monsieur, had her
magnificently served at Saint-Germain, and regaled

her with a gift of "six mille louis d'or." All this
was repeated again when James II arrived the following
day, and again Madame de Sévigné found it necessary to
note carefully that Louis anticipated him and went

to meet him "au bout de la salle des gardes.“ The
scene was very touching whel"le roi d'Angleterre se
baissa fort, comme S'il efit voulu embrasser ses
genoux; 1e Roi l'en empécha et l'embrassa a trois

ou quatre reprises fort cordialement” (III, 311).8

8How much Madame de La Fayette was also sensitive to
such grand gesture can be seen in a ver \similar
episode she wrote in her Princesse de C eves, first
published in 1678. The Duke of Alba arriVEH at the
Louvre for his Marriage\to Madame: "Le roi attendit
lui-meme 1e duc d'Albe a la premiere porte du Louvre
.... Lorsque ce duc fut proche du roi, il voulut lui
embrasser les genoux; mais Ie roi l'en empécha et

le fit marcher a son cote...” (Madame de La Fayette,
Romans et Nouvelles, ed. Emile Magne (Paris:
ZClassiques Garnier, 1961), p. 342.

204

Louis left James with something even grander, his
palace of Saint-Germain itself, which he could treat
as his own home.

How much all of this intrigued her can still be
seen in her subsequent letters which show her absorbed
in the slightest details of court behavior and the
problem of precedence caused by the arrival of the
English court (III, 315). When the Queen of England
went to Versailles to visit Madame la Dauphine, she
took care to specify that, "Le Roi alla la recevoir
a son carrosse" and, when She was ready to leave,

”le Roi se fit avertir, et la remit dans son carrosse"
(III, 319).

But what received even greater admiration from
Madame de Sévigné was the departure of the King of
England at the end of the following March, when Louis
not only Offered to James arms for ten thousand men
but actually reached the height of magnanimity by
granting him his own arms. This Splendid gesture
brought forth a great deal of applause from Madame de
Sévigné whose powerful and easily impressed imagination
elaborated it into a fantastic, sublime, and almost
unreal deed of the type She found only in the words of

a La Calprenede, whom she adored. "Nos romans ne

205

faisoient rien de plus galant,” she said, adding,

“Que ne fera point ce roi brave et malheureux avec
ces armes toujours victorieuses?" (III, 360). Her
imagination, as we have already seen, poetically
glorified these arms: "Le voila donc avec le casque,
la cuirasse de Renaud, d"Amadis, et de tous nos
paladins les plus célébres". Her final approbation
was summed as follows:. ”11 n'y a point d'offres de
toutes choses que le Roi ne lui ait faites: la
générosité, 1a magnanimité ne passe point plus loin..."
(III, 360). When the Chevalier de Grignan returned
from Versailles with further news of the departure,

it gave her another occasion to write to her daughter,
listing in great detail all Of the many gifts Louis
gave to James: "11 la comblé de toutes choses, et
grandes, et petites” (III, 367). The French King's
clever and paradoxical goodbye, expressing hope never
to see the King of England again, who would only
return if he were unable to secure his throne, was
followed by Madame de Sévigné's adulant remark: \
"Peut-on mieux dire?" (III, 367). By her style of
heaping up the great names of the virtues, She
revealed all her enthusiasm, admiration, and transport.
She said, ”enfin\la générosité, 1a magnificence, la
magnanimité n'on jamais tant paru que dans cette

occasion" (III, 367). She was happy to repeat all

206

Of the same in a letter to the President de Moulceau
to whom she wrote on the same day, recounting and
relisting the many gifts, and again quoting Louis'
remarks, which she closed with an even more elaborate
statement: "Rien n'est mieux dit, rien n'est plus
juste: jamais la générosité, la magnificence, la
magnanimité, n'ont été exercées comme elles l'ont

été par Sa Majesté" (III, 369).

SO it is that despite the harsh truth of reality
which Madame de Sévigné saw at times beneath the
spendid facade of the King and his court, she
preferred, at other moments, to enjoy the appearances
of Splendor which the very glory of the King offered
her. It is significant that in one of the phrases we
have just quoted she Should Strike up the old theme

of étre and paraitre, and this time place most of her

 

attention on paraitre: ”la générosité, Ia magnificence,
la magnanimitékn'Ont jamais tantlggg..." (III, 367).

As in the case of Turenne, she loved the great virtues,
but she appreciated them when they were ostensibly

seen. When Louis lavishly diSplayed such virtures,
Madame de Sévigné was more than willing to admit that
such appearances corresponded to reality, and she

overlooked all of her former criticisms of the King.

207

It was the characteristic of ostentation and extra-
ordinary diSplay that stirred her imagination and
aroused her fancy so that the cruel facts of cold
reality easily went forgotten out of delight for

the extravagant.

IX. CONCLUSION

In our investigation Of Madame de Sévigné's

response to the problem of étre and paraitre we began

 

with the presentation of some biographical material

on her. Her contemporaries, more recent researchers,
and indications in her letters Show that, to all
appearances, she was actively engaged in the honnéte
society of her time. A brief look at the theories of
honnéteté Showed how, as the seventeenth century

passed, this society came to emphasize great calculation
and self-control in all human dealings. Life became
highly artificial and the term "honnete" lost its

original meaning since the exterior honnéte homme did

 

not necessarily correspond to an interior figmmg gs bien.
Madame de Sévigné reacted in two ways to this
aituation. AS we can see in her highly emotional \
letters, She Often lacked self-control, She was very
eaxuberant, and, asla result, she was often indiscreet.
She tended to externalize emotion in tears. It was
difficult for her to present a collected facade to
society, and her contemporaries, like Tallemant de-

Reéux and Madame de Lalayette, noticed this. Madame

208

209

de Sévigné was a basically sincere woman. Possessing
an Open personality, She attached great value to true
sentiment and its communication. In this respect

we have compared her to Moliere's Alceste in Le
MisanthrOpe, and we have also detected in her the
Alceste-like temptation to withdraw from society when
She felt unable to c0pe with it.

Such a frank and Sincere woman was well-equipped
to see beneath the false mask of social appearances.
She actually used the term "mask" on certain occasions
to indicate the discrepancy between internal reality
and exterior impressions. She saw, for example, how
the politeness of her dying aunt had been but a
”mask" concealing her desire to have her niece and her
brother at her bedside. Shesaw the unworthiness of
certain peOple who ostentatiously bore grand titles
and names. She even composed her own phrase to convey
the dichotomy of reality and apparences: "les dessous
des cartes."‘

Madame de Sévigné, however, was not the person
to alter her life because of her observatiOns. She
remained relatively undisturbed, and limited herself

to taking pleasure in her discoveries which she called

210

"folies” and "divertissements". She did not remain
completely serious in her reflections. The other side
of Madame de Sévigné's character overlooked the stress
she often placed on sincerity. She took pleasure in
{admiring composed appearances in peOple. In contrast
to the temperamental Mademoiselle, she appreciated the
controlled Lauzun. She often looked upon peOple as
personnages ostentatoires rather than as thinking and
feeling personnages intimes. She could accept the
mask of honnéteté. From this point Of view she Observed
Fouquet, Olivbr d'Ormesson, Pomponne, La Rochefoucauld,
her own daughter. She Saw and admired them as
individuals presenting themselves to others. Despite
her desire for candidness in human relations, She was
‘easily impressed by artificial appearances.

Faced with the most complicated intrigues, Madame
de Sévigné, who at the outset had appeared to be
another Alceste, was nonetheless capable Of playing
the role of the compromising Philinte. When necessity
demanded it, she was capable of dissimulation. Her
word for it was "chicaner". ”Il faut vivre avec les
vivants,” she insited (III, 451). She used shrewd,

honnéte stratagems in dealing with her friends in what

211

she still paradoxically considered a ”sincere”
manner. She handled the crafty Bishop of Marseilles
vvith what She called an "amitié sincere", which was
for all purposes a "mask" of friendship. Her
description of the performance of Esther presents a
masterpiece of self-conscious acting on her part.
She often thought of herself and others as performers
in the theatre of SOCiety and she made frequent use
of terminology derived from the theatre.

If Madame de Sévigné who craved sincerity was
also able to admire the composed facade of others
and could enjoy playing the role of Philinte, it was
because She was a woman Of vast imagination who
could avoid logic firlife, and take refuge in fantasy.
Her many_readings prove this. She loved the romans
of La Calprenede, full of exiled and wandering princes,
the heroic characters of Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata,
Josephus' narrations Of the Jewish Wars, the long
tirade of Le Cid after his battle with the Moors.
She looked upon serious readings such as histories,
biographies and memoires from the same imaginative
point of view. The real and the fictional became
confused in her mind, and the real thereby became
magnificently poetic for her. She saw greatness and

beauty in almost everything about her. Great events

212

were considered "spectacles”. She constantly compared
real-life Situations with the dramatic, fictional,
mythological and imaginative creations of literature.
For example, she looked upon Madame de MonteSpan
building Clagny, Madame de Grignan at Carnavalet and
herself at work in the gardens? of Les Rochers, as
seventeenth-century Queen Didos constructing new
Carthages. The letters are filled with words like
.9222 and gggflg,

This glorified outlook was firmly rooted in the
aristocratic ideology.‘ Madame de Sévigné lived a life
relatively isolated from the common lot. Moving in
the narrowest and highest social spheres She could
well afford to indulge in more imaginative things.
Hers was an exalted, aesthetic form of existence.

However, we have pointed out that ther admiration
of unrealistic, dramatic display was not based on
merely Shallow, exterior Show. In the most ideal
situations, she saw a perfect correspondence of
outward appearances with an interior reality of the
moral order. She loved the ostentatious trappings of
nobility and, in the case Of the Grignans, she saw

their right to such ostentation based on a sound moral

213

foundation: ”on fait justice au vrai mérite” (III, 463).
As in the case of Turenne, she admired moral excellence
Spectacularly revealed to the world. 'By saying, "il
faut étre, si l'on veut paraitre” (I, 848), she placed
just as much stress on external impression as on
internal reality. She could not be satisfied with
inconspicuous greatness. Her view of the hero
corresponded to that seen in the plays of Corneille:
great virtue given over to universal admiration. For
this reason she preferred the gigantic heroes of
Corneille to the tragic spectacle of Racine's
characters. She saw in Corneille an older, pre-
Jansenistic form of moral inSpiration. If she was
attracted to the Jansenistic writings of authors like
Nicole, it was due to her own psychological aspiration
toward moral perfection which she saw exemplified in
them.

Just as Madame de Sévigné could avoid logic and
overlook her desire for sincerity in accepting the
polite mask of the compromiser, She did not find it
hard to relinquish understanding when she was confronted

with the religious problems of her time such as

predistination. Her approach to religion was imaginative.

214

Since she loved to discover the great and the fantastic

in things it was natural that she should find

fulfillment of this desire in the mysteries of religion.
The God She envisioned was a GOd of power, ostentatiously
asserting Himself in the surprising workings of His
Providence. What appealed to her in the Divinity was

the element of mystery and fantasy which fired her
imagination.

The problem of Madame de Sévigné's duplex and
contradictory attitude towards Louis XIV which has
often puzzled critics now becomes more understandable.
As a women of sincerity and moral integrity she
resented his politics and his mistresses. But as a
woman of imagination, in love with spectacle, She was
impressed by his great actions.

Such was Madame de Sévigné, the woman who enjoyed
a theatrical existence on the lavish Stage which the
seventeenth-century offered to her.

Her very vision of the world, while greatly
realistic in certain aspects, ended up being one that
saw life in highly artificial, illusionistic, superalitive
and exalted terms. It was this sort of person who

could easily accept the elaborate and fantastic ceremony

215

of court life, the grand, theatrical setting which
was Versailles, the dazzling spectacle of baroque
pompes-funebres, and a highly aesthetic everyday
existence for which one donned a finely-studied

social mask.

X. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editions Of the Letters Of Madame de Sévigné

Sévigné, Marie de Rabutin Chantal, Marquise de. Lettres.
3 vols Edited by Emile Gerard- Galll Paris:
Gallimard (Bibliotheque de la Plélade), 1953-

1957

Lettres de Madame de Sevigne, de sa famille
et de ses amis, ed. Louis JeanNicolas MOnmerque.

Les Grands Ecrivains de la France. 14 vols.
Paris, 1862-1868.

Critical Works on Madame de Sévigné

Adam, Antoine. Histoire de la littérature francaise
au XVIIe siecTe. Vol. IV. Paris, 1954.

Aldis, Janet. The Queen of Letter- Writers, Marquise
de Sé vigne Dame de BouFBIlly,:T626'-l696}

London, 1907'.

Allentuch, Harriet Ray. Madame de Sévigné: A Portrait
- in Letters. Baltimore, 1963.

 

Alméras, Henri d'. ”Mme de Sevigné en Provence, "La
revue modiale, CLIX (l juin 1924), 281-291_

Amiot, Charles- Gustave. "Madame de Sevigné a l'occasion
du tricentenaire de sa naissance, ” Revue
Hebdomadaire (l3 février, 1926), 210- 228.

 

Arsenault, Philip Elwyn. The Literarerpinions of
Madame de Sevigne. Dissertation. Princeton,

N.Y., 1959

Babou, Hippolyte. Les Amoureux de Madame de Séviqné;
les femmes vertueuses du grand Siecle. «Paris,
1862.

 

216

217

Baldensper er, Fernand. "L'Heureux Paradoxe de Madame
de evigné, La continuité de sa culture,"
Romanic Review, XXXIII (1942), 32- 40.

 

 

Bailly,?Auguste. Madame de Sevigne. Paris, 1955.

Baroli, Lisa. "Sullo Stile di Madame de Sevigné," "

 

Letterature Moderne, No. 6(novembre- dicembre
1953). I
Beaunier, Andre. "Madame de Sevigné "Histoire de la

 

litterature francaise illustree, Vol.1

(Paris, 1923), 294-299

Bertiere, Andre, "Le portrait de Retz par La Rochefoucauld, ”
Revue d'histoire litteraire de la France, LIX
(juillet- septembre 1959(jl3l3- 341.

 

Boissier, Gaston. Madame de Sévigné. Paris, 1919.

 

Bourde de la Rogerie, Henri. ”Terres et seigneuries
de la famille de Sevigne,” extrait des Memoires
de la Societé d' histoire et d'archeologie de
Bretaqne. Rennes, n. d.

 

 

 

Bourdeaut, A. "Madame de Sevigné au Pays nantais,”
Mémoires de la societe d'histoire et d'archeologie
de Bretagne, VII (1926),‘243- -297.

 

Bremond, Henri. Histoire Littéraire du Sentiment
Reliqieux en France Heguis la fin des guerres
de Religion 'usqu'a nos jours. 9 Vols. Paris,
1928, Vol. IX.

 

 

 

Brunel, L. ”Note sur un passage de Madame de Sevigné,“
Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France, VIII
(juillet- septembrel901), 357-376.

 

Brunet, Gabriel. "Madame de Sevigné, " Mercurece France
(15 fevrier I926) 50- 98, also in his Evocations
litteraires. Paris, 1931..

 

 

Buffenoir, Hippolyte. "Les residences de Mme de
Sevi né, " La nouvelle revue, CXVII (15 mars

1899, 299- -321.

 

 

Busson, Henri. "Le memorare de Madame de Sevigne,”
Revue de la mediterrane, VIII (mai juin 1950),
266-272.

. 'La Religion deS classiqges, 1660-1685.

 

 

Paris, 1948.

218

Bussy, Roger de Rabutin, Comte de. Histoire des
Gaules, suivie des romans historico- -satiriques
du l7e Siecle. Vol.1. Edltedby PauT Boiteau.
Paris: P. Jannet, 1856. .

Cabanes, Auguste. Médecins amateurs. Paris, 1932.

 

Celarié, Henriette. Madame de Sévignég sa famille et
ses amis. ParTS, 1925.

Champris, Henry Gaillard de. "Autour d'un proces
intenté a la memoire de Madame de Sévigné,"
Revue deS travaux de l'academie des sciences
ggrslgs et politlgues, 2Ieme semestre—(T954),

Choleau, Jean. Le grand coeur de Madame de Sevigne.
Vitré: Unvaniez Arvor, T959.

Collot, Augustin. Pages d'histoire bourguignonne:
Madame de Séviqné dans les vignes du Seigneur
a Saulieu on a00t71612. NUits: impr. E.
Filibier, n.d. .-

Combes, Francois. Madame de Sévignéihistorien.
Paris, 1885.

 

Crump, Phillis E. Nature in the Age of Louis XIV.
London, 1928.

Depping, Guillaume. "Quelques pieces inédites concernant
Madame de Sevi né et les Coulanges," Séances
et travaux de 7' 'académie deS sciences morales
et golitigues, CXVIII_(1882), 533F560.

Dutronc, Fr. S. J. "Madame de Sevigné et la musique, ”
Bulletin bibliographigge dt pédagoqigye du
musee belge, XXX (15 juillet 1926), 209- 214.

 

Elbée, Jean d'. "Le frater inconnu, "La revue
hebdomadaire. (l6 septembre-18 novemBre,
T9337. IX. 267- 298 421 -uso, 579- 598, x: 58- 69.
ItsE lg7, 316- -339, Lou- 489, XI 39- -59, 208- 223,
3 30

Faguet, Emile. Dix-septieme siécle;_études litteraires.
Paris, 1903.

219

Faure, Gabriel. Ames et Décors Romanesgues. Paris,

1925.

FitzGerald, Edward. Dictionary of Madame de Sevigne.
2 vols. Edited by Mary Eleanor FitzGerald
Kerrich. London, 19lh.

 

 

Friedmann, Clara. "La Coltura italiana di Madame de
Sévigné," Giornale stogico della letterature
italiana, LXET1912), 1-72.

 

Gaubert, René, Dr. Deux stations rivales: Vichy et
Bourbon-llArchambauTt au de-septiéme siécle.
Paris, 19E6.

 

 

Gautier, Léon. Portraits du XVIIe siécle. Paris, 1890.

 

Gazier, Cécile. Madame de Sévigné. Paris, 1933.

I

. ”Mme de Sévigne et Port- Royal "
Correspondent, CCCII (février 1926), y508- 523.

 

 

Gérard- -Gailly, Emile. L'enfance et la jeunesse heureuse
de Madame de Sévigne (réFUtatIon'd‘une légende).
Paris, T926.

Les sth couches de Madame de
Grignan. Ees sept fiancees de Charles de
Sevigne. Paris. T936.

 

Giraud, Victor. Portraits d'gmes. Paris, 1929.

Graffin, Rober. "Mme de Sevigne au pays du Maine,"
Revue hiSDrigue et archeologigue du Maine,-

XLVII (1900), TED-159

Guyard, Marius Francois. "Faut- il damner Madame de
Sévigné?“ Etudes, CCLXXX (février 195A),
193- 202.

Hallays André. Madame de Sévigné: cours professé
a la société des conferences. Paris, 1921.

Hanlet, l'Abbe Camille. Introduction aux lettres de
Madame de 86 vi né. (Collection Lebegue, 6e
serie, no. 621 Bruxelles, l9h5.

. "Les idées chrétiennes de Mmede
Sevigne," Revuegénérale, CXLIII (l9h0), 243-263.

 

220

Hébert, Huberte. Le Merveilleux destin de quatre
fillettes, 17enFance aventureuse de Francoise
HTAUEigne:_Marie dE’Rabutin- Chanta1 Heanette
EWAng1eterre,Hortensede Beauharnais.Par1$,

95h

 

 

Hérard, Madeleine. Madame de Sévigné, Demoiselle de
Bourgogne. Dijon, 1959.

Heron-Allen, Edward. Memoranda of memorabilia encountered
in the course of a sentimenta1 journey through
the correspondence oF1Madame de Sévigné and her
lFriendf. London, 1928} ‘

Herz, Micheline. "Madame de Sévigné telle qu 'elle fut, ”
Modern Language Notes, LXXIV (November 1959),
621-629

 

Irvine, Lyn. Ll. Ten Letter-Writers. London, 1932.

Janet, Paul. Les lettres de Madame de Grignan.
Paris, 1895.

 

 

Jouhandeau, Marcel. "La vraie Sévigné,” Ecrits de
Paris (septembre 1959), 76-8 .

Kauffman, Lida. Die Briefe der Manhme de Sevigné.
KUIn: Kolner romanistische Arbeiten (Neue
Folge, Heft 2), l95h.

Kogel, Therese. Bilder bei Mme de Sévigné (metaphern
und vergleichél; eine 1exikograph1$che Arbeit.
Wurzburg, 1937.

La Briere, Léon de. Madame de Sévigné en Bretagne.
Paris, 1882. .

Lacour, Paul. "Les gaiIIardises de Mmede Sévigne, "
Nouvelle revue, XXI (15 mai 1911), 219- 233.

Lanson, Gustave. Histoire de la Litterature Francaise,
remaniee et completee pour 1a periode 1830-1950
par au rau. arIs, 9 3, pp. 7.

L'Eleu, M. ”Madame de Sévigné dans le Maine," Bulletin

de la societé d'agricultureL sciences et arts
de la Sarthe, L (19251, 13- 37.

 

 

 

221

Lemoine, Jean. Madame de Sévigné, sa famille et ses
amis d'aprés'des d0cuments inéths. Paris,
1926.

 

‘., and H. Bourde de La Rogerie. Madame
de Seviqné aux Rochers: Le livre de comptes de
l'abbe Rahue1'(1669-167E). Rennes, 1930.

 

Mallevoue, Francois de. "La maison natale de Mme
de Sévigné," Bulletin de la societe de l'histoire
de Paris et de 1'11e de France (1882), 35-E1.

Masson, Frédéric. Le marquis de Grignan. Paris, 1882.

 

Marcu, Eva. "Madame de Sevigné and Her dau hter,”
Romanic Review, LI (October 1960), 2-191.

 

Mauriac, Francois. ”Notre Marquise au coeur secret.
La dame au nez carré, " Figaro Litteraire
(12 janvier 1957),

Mesnard, P. Notice Biographigue, in Vol.1 of the
Grands ECrivains de 1a France edition of the
Lettres de Madame de1§évigné.

Midol, D. Souvenir du tri-centenaire de Madame de
Sevigne: L'Abbaye 3e Livry depuis 1a RevOTution
jusgu'é nosgjours. Le Raincy, 1926.

 

Mongrédien, Georges. I'Un ami de Mme de Sévigné,
Jean Corbinelli, ” Mercure de France, CCCIV
(octobre 1948), 222-235.\

 

Montigny, Maurice, M. En voyageant avec Madame de
evigne. Paris, 1920.

Montmorillon, Marquis de. ”L'exil de Bussy- -Rabutin
en Morvan. Son grand combat avec Madame de
Sévignéé” Revue bleue, LXXIII (7 septembre

1935 , 05-611.

Mornet, Daniel. Histoire de la littérature francsaise
classique, 1660-1700, ses caractéres véritables,
ses aspects inconnus. 3éme ed. Par1§, 19E7.

{\

222

Murbach, Janet M. Le vrai visaqe de la comtesse de
Gri nan. These de Doctorat dTUniversite,
Universite de Toulouse, 1939.

Noyes, Alfred. ”The Enigma of Mme de Sevigné, "
Gantemporary Review, CLXXXIX (March 1956),
9- 53

Orieux, Jean. "Bussy- Rabutin, grand seigneur disgracié,"
La revue des deux mondes (l janvier 1958),

42-55; (15 janvier 1958L 316- 326.

 

Perreau, M. E. -H. "Racine et le café dans la correSpondance
de Mme de Sévigné," Mémoires de l'académie
des sciences, inscriptions et belles- lettres
de Toulouse, X111 (1935?, 165- 179.

I. an Inn" u n'ilmififl‘afi

Pirat, Yvonne. (La Petite-fille d'une grande sainte:
Madame de SéVignéTfi sa Spiritualité. Avignon,
T931.

. Madame de Sévigné. Paris, 1959.

Pocquet de Haut- Jussé, Barthélémg-Amboise- -Marie.
I‘Madame de Sévigné et la retagne, ” Mémoires
de la société d'histoire et d'archeologie 3e

Breta ne, V11, no. A, 2eme partie (1926),
207-231.

Rat, Maurice. "N'est- -on pas sévere pour Madame de9
Grignan?” Figaro littéraire (22 mai 195R),

Revenel, Florence L. Women and the French Tradition;
New York, 1918.

 

Santini, G. editor. Madame de Sévigné, Lettere.
Napoli, 1960.

Sainte- -Beuve, Charles Augustin. Oeuvres. 2 vols.
Ed. Maxime Leroy. Paris: Gallimard (Editions
de la Pléiade), 1956.

Saporta, Gaston, Marquis de. La Famille de Madame de
Sévigné en Provence d'agres des d6Cuments
inédits. Paris, 1889.

223

Schmidt, Marianne. Madame de Sévigné und das

offentliche Leben ihrer Zeit. Munich, 1935.

 

 

Sommer, E. Lexigue de la langue de Madame de Sévigné,
avec une introdUction grammaticale, in Vols.
13 and 1h of the Grands Ecrivains de la France
edition of the Lettres de Madame de Sévigné.
Paris, 1866.

 

Soulairol, Jean. “Marcel Proust et Madame de Sévigné,”
La Revue Hebdomadaire (20 fevrier 1926),
3354389.

Stanley, Arthur. Madame de Sévigné,Her Letters and
Her World. LondOn, l9fi6.

 

 

 

Strachez, Giles Lytton. Portraits in Miniature and
ther Essays. New York, 1931.

 

Taillandier, Saint René, Mme. Madame de Sévigné et sa
fille. Paris, 1938.

 

. Adieu! Madame de
Sévigné.... Paris, 19h7.

 

 

Tilley, Arthur. Madame de Sévigné: Some aspects of
Her Life and Character. Cambridge, England,
1936.

 

Walckenaer, Charles A., Baron de. Memoires touchant
la vie et les écrits de Marie de Rabutin-Chantal,

dame de BourbilTyLMarquise de SévigfiE. Paris,
1853-1856.

 

 

Other Words Cited

Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of
Reality in Western Literature. Princeton, 1953.

 

Bailly, Auguste. Le Régne de Louis XIV. Paris, 19h6.

Bénichou, Paul. Morales du Grand Siecle. Paris, 1958.

224

Descartes, René. Oeuvres. Ed. André Bridoux.
Paris: Gallimard (Editions de la PléVade),
953.

Kern, Edith. "'L'Honnéte Homme': Postscript to a
Battle of the Scholars," Romanic Review,
LIV (April 1963), 113-120.

 

La Bruyére, Jean de. Les Caracteres. Ed. Robert
Garapon. Paris: Garnier, 1962.

 

Lewis, Warren Hamilton. The Splendid Century: Life
in the France of Louis XIV. New York, 1953.

Magendie,’Maurice. La Politesse Mondaine et les
theories de 1'honn5teté,gen France, au XVlle
siec1e,vde 1600 a 1660. 2 vols. Paris, 1925.

Pingaud, Bernard. Madame de La Fayette par elle-meme.
Paris, 1959.

Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de. Mémoires.
Ed. Gonzague Truc. Paris: Gallimard
(Biblithéque de la Pléiade), 19h8-1961.

 

Starobinski, Jean. L'Oeil Vivant. Paris, 1961.

Tallemant des Réaux, Gédéon. Historiettes. 2 vols.
Ed. Antoine Adam. Paris: Ga111mard (Editions
de la Pléiade), 1960.

 

"ill‘lllillflllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII“