FRENX'H LITERARY 'SALONS' DURING THE SE\TNTEENTH CENTURY

From Gustave Masson's ' Richelieu."

The following extract will serve to illustrate further the subject of Molière's play, and more particularly the third Act : —

' Histor^' has immortalised the salons where literature was cultivated — those, we mean, of Madame de Rambouillet and of Mademoiselle de Scudéry. Had it not been for them, the précieux style would never hâve remaioed so long and so much in repute ; we should not hâve seen

' Les Femmes Savantes, act. iii. se. 2, 6 ; act. v. se. i. ^ Id., act. iii. se. 5. " Id., act. v. se. i.

springing up, not only in Paris, but from one end of France to the othcr, those innumerable socicties, humble and unpretending on the one hand, ambitious and rcfined on the other, which contributed in a remarkable manner to spread, even in the lowest classes of the bourgeoisie^ a taste for intellcctual pursuits. It is true that exaggeration and affectation were one of the results of this movement, but we find hère only an additional évidence of the genuine good which such societies produced, and we must always remember that what is really worthless does not often run the chance of being caricatured.

Mademoiselle de Scudéry's Samedis hâve had due honour paid to them by M. Victor Cousin^ and M. Sainte-Beuve ;^ there might be found Madame Cornue!, Madame de Sévigné, Conrart, Ménage, Pellisson, etc., etc. ; there was planned and designed the famous Carte du Te?idre, in which the vocabulary of love was made to sound like the articles of a gazetteer ; there the various habitués, assuming names borrowed from classical antiquity, paraded about their high-flown language under the protection of Greek and Latin désignations. Mademoiselle de Scudéry herself was SappJio [V illustre Sappho or la Dixilme Muse)j Sarrazin, Polyander ; Conrart, Théodawas; Pellisson, Acanthe, or the Chronicler, because he was the secretary of the Society ; the Duke de Saint Aignan became Ariaban ; M. de Raincy, Agaihyrse ; and Ysarn, Zenocrates. Conrart has preserved the account of one of those Samedis. He had ofifered to the fair hostess a signet made of crystal, together with a madrigal of his own composition ; she answered by another madrigal, and ail the other persons présent, fired with enthusiasm, followed suit. The day was called la Journée des Madrigaux.

The most notable of thèse réunions was held at the Hôtel de Rambouillet, in that famous salon bleu where round the Marchioness de Rambouillet assembled the bevy of précieux and précieuses. It is unfortunate that

' La Société Française au XVII*. Siècle. * Causeries du Lundi, iv.

for the great majority of readers the guests of the incomparable Arihenice should be associated with the Philaminte and the Bélise of the Femmes Savantes or the Cathos and the Madelon of the Précietises Ridicules ; but if the bluestockings of those days were not sparing enough in their use of mctaphors, it cannot be denied that they did excellent service as reformers of the French language, and Somaize's Grand Diclionnaire des Précieuses is an invaluable source of information respecting the origin of many expressions which hâve retained their place in the French vocabulary. How often, for instance, do we say of a person who keeps low Company, "C^/ hoinme s'encanaille " ? and yet this expression at the time when it was first used was considered as perfectly ridiculous. In Molière's Critique de PEcole des Femmes we find the foUowing curions dialogue : — " Climène. — Il est vrai que le goût des gens est étrangement gâté làdessus, et que le siècle s'encanaille furieusement. Élise. — Celui-là est joli encore : s'encanaille ! Est-ce vous qui l'avez inventé, madame ? Climène.- — Hé ! Élise. — Je m'en suis bien doutée." A large number of words and phrases shared the fate of s'encanailler. Denounced at first, as affected and unnatural, they gradually obtained, so to say, their rights of citizenship. " N'avoir que le masque de la vertu," "être sobre dans ses discours,' " tenir bureau d'esprit,^' and many other expressions which we might quote, are of like origin, and must not be flung aside on the plea that when Mademoiselle de Scudéry wanted the servant to snuff a candie, she exclaimed, " Inutile / retratichez le superflu de cet ardent ! "

Literary and social gatherings speedily multiplied in Paris. At the Hôtel de Condé, at the Palais Cardinal, the merits of a sonnet, a madrigal, or an epigram were laboriously discussed ; at the Luxembourg, Mademoiselle de Montpensier and her guests, anticipating La Bruyère and Vauvenargues, delighted in writing characters or portraits of each other; Madame de Sablé's salon was frequented by the Jansenists of Port-Royal. Ménage, ridiculed by Molière under the name of Vadius, tried to give to his mercuriales (Wednesday réunions) an air of sprightliness and wit which were not the usual features of his character.

But if the Hôtel de Rambouillet siooà. facile princeps at the head of the aristocratie drawing-rooms, the salon of Mademoiselle de Scudéry easily carried off the palm amongst those which represented the intellectual and cultivated bourgeoisie. The illustrious Sappho, as she was called, has often, and deservedly perhaps, been the butt of satire on account of her long-winded romances ; but \ve must remember that our point of view cannot be the same as that occupied by the critics two centuries ago, and making every allowance for the tediousness of Le Grand Cyrus and Clélie, hisloire Ro?naifie, the lady who numbered amongst her supporters persons such as Madame de Sévigné, La Fontaine, Huet, Fléchier, Bossuet, the Duke de Montausier, must hâve had some literary merit to justify her popularity.'

Tabular statement of the performances of Molière s ^Femmes Savantes,' in Paris.

Before the Befort thr Général Public. Court.

Reign of Louis XIV from 1659-1673 24 i

„ Louis XV „ 1715-1774 166 12

„ Louis XVI „ 1774-1789 71 7

Révolution „ 1 789-1 793 14

Directoire, consulate, and 1 „ o ^t- • ^

^ . > ,, 1703-1814 BâfEmpireU

first empire ) '^ s'^ f f

Restoration „ 1814-1830 115

Reign of Louis-Philipjje ,, 1830-1S48 102

Second Republic ,, 1848-1851 17

Second Empire ,, 1851-1870 218

Total 1027 50