I. MME De SEVIGNE

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, perhaps the most brilliant letter-writer of any âge, was born in Paris in Febniary, 1626, Her family was one of the great families of Burgundy, and she was left an orphan at the early âge of seven. In 1644 she married the Marquis de Sévigné, a Breton nobleman, with whom her married life was not happy. He was killed in a duel in 1651. Two children were the fruit of this marriage, a son, who was a brave soldier and a man of wit, and a daughter, who became the well-known Mme de Grignan, to whom the incomparable letters were addressed. The Comte de Grignan was lieutenantgeneral of Provence ; the Grignans took up their habitation there; and it was to that point that the éloquent mother addressed the letters which hâve thrown so much light upon the social and political sides of Louis XIV.'s reign. Nearly 1500 of thèse letters, either written by or addressed to Mme de Sévigné, hâve been preserved and form a picture-gallery of unparalleled vividness of the chief personages and incidents of the reign. Her principal résidences were the Hôtel Carnavalet at Paris, Livry (a few leagues from Paris), the château of Les Rochers (about 300 miles from Paris) in Brittany, and her daughter's home in Provence, where she died of small-pox in 1696.

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xii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES,

The editor has selected such letters from her voluminous correspondence as appeared to be most interesting and to throw most light on the social, literary, and political figures and problems of the day. In annotatîng thèse sélections, grammatical and philological points hâve been largely eschewed, it having been deemed more important for the purposes of this book to fix attention upon the men and women the letters describe so picturesquely than upon the language they speak. Due stress, however, has been laid upon certain différences between i7th and iQth century French wherever it has seemed necessary, for a clear understanding of the text, to emphasize thèse différences.

The author owes many obligations for explanatory notes to the éditions or observations of MM. Mesnard, Masson, Aimé- Martin, de Monmerqué, Perrin, Vauxcelles, Boissier, Grouvelle, Saint-Germain, and Walckenaer. " Sur Mme de Sévigné et son monde, sur ses amis et connaissances, et les amis de ses amis," remarks Sainte-Beuve, reviewing M. Walckenaer, "grâce aux recherches infatigables de son curieux biographe, on aura tout désormais, et plus que tout."