{"1": {"fulltext": "", "height": "4486", "width": "2705", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.\\nQiL* 5\\nChap......... Copyright No*\\nShelt__L\\\\/jb_.\\nUNITED STATES OF AMERICA.", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "BY LEON H. VINCENT\\nTHE BIBLIOTAPH AND OTHER\\nPEOPLE i2mo, $1.50\\nBRIEF STUDIES IN FRENCH SOCI-\\nETY AND LETTERS IN THE XVII.\\nCENTURY\\nI. HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET AND\\nthe pre cieuses i6mo, $1.00\\nII. THE FRENCH ACA- -v\\nDEMY t fo\\nIII. CORNEILLE C preparation\\nIV. MOLIERE J\\nHOUGHTON, MIFFLIN COMPANY\\nBOSTON AND NEW YORK", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "TWO COPIES HhcElVEO,\\nLiferarj of eoBgeeefc\\nQfflee of the\\nWAV 7 -I860\\nKegf.t.r of Copyright*\\nSECOND COPY,\\nCopyright, 1900, by Leon H. Vincent\\nAll rights reserved\\n58690", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0010.jp2"}, "11": {"fulltext": "Oo\\nTo my friend\\nLINDSAY SWIFT", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0011.jp2"}, "12": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0012.jp2"}, "13": {"fulltext": "4 o S fr-\u00e2\u0080\u0094 \u00e2\u0080\u0094fr\\nCONTENTS\\nh I H\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\ni/tfte/ afc Rambouillet, its Mistress and\\nits Guests 7\\nZ) \u00c2\u00a3/r/?, Malherbe, and Balzac 37\\nVoiture and Montausier 55\\nMademoiselle de Scudery and her c 7/-\\nur days 71\\n77?* Precieuses 87\\n-H-VH-\\nConclusion 111\\nBibliographical Note 117", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0013.jp2"}, "14": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0014.jp2"}, "15": {"fulltext": "HOTEL\\nDE\\nRAMBOUILLET\\nAND THE\\npr\u00c2\u00a3cieuses\\n=S8\u00c2\u00a3=\\nJL.N the Musee de Cluny in Paris\\nare to be seen two blocks of granite.\\nThey are foundation-stones of the\\nfamous* Hotel de Rambouillet. One\\nbears an inscription to the effect that\\nthe mansion of which they were once\\na part was built by the high and", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0015.jp2"}, "16": {"fulltext": "s K^\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\npowerful lord Maitre Charles d An-\\ngennes, Marquis de Rambouillet and\\nPisany. Then follows a list of his\\nother titles and offices. He was Vi-\\ndame of Mans, Baron of Chaudulor\\nand of Tallemant, a councillor in the\\nking s council of state, and master of\\nhis majesty s wardrobe. The date on\\nthe stone is June 26, 1618.\\nAt the time of the building of this\\nhotel the Marquis de Rambouillet\\nwas forty-one; the Marquise was eleven\\nyears his junior. They had already\\nbeen married eighteen years. There-\\nfore when Catherine de Vivonne be-\\ncame a bride she was but twelve years\\nof age, a child wife indeed. The wed-\\nding took place in 1600. Wedding\\ncustoms of the year 1600 differed\\nradically, no doubt, from those of the", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0016.jp2"}, "17": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRECIEUSES\\nyear 1900. But in one respect wed-\\ndings are much the same there are\\nalways the customary congratulations,\\nthe fervent prophecies of a brilliant\\nmarital career, and the private asides\\nof cynical questioning and speculation.\\nNo one, so far as we know, had the\\ngift of prophecy to the extent of being\\nable to declare on Catherine de Vi-\\nvonne s wedding-day that this young\\ngirl, with her womanly seriousness,\\nher proud spirit, and her rare genius,\\nwas to reorganize society in behalf of\\nvirtue and culture, and that without\\nputting pen to paper she was to make\\nher name an inalienable part of the\\nhistory of French literature.\\nThe story has been told many times\\nand by able men. All students know\\nthe books of Roederer, Walckenaer,", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0017.jp2"}, "18": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\nDemogeot, Cousin, and Livet. I\\nshould like by the help of these and\\nother books to resume the chief\\nfacts of the history of those splendid\\ndecades when Hotel de Rambouillet\\nwas in its full glory when poetry was\\nthought to be worth while when con-\\nversation was an art, and people be-\\nlieved that it made a difference whether\\none talked well or ill when the As-\\ntree of Honore d Urfe was the most\\nfashionable novel in the whole world;\\nwhen Corneille read his plays before\\nthey were played when Bossuet was\\na boy orator, and improvised a sermon\\nat midnight before the assembled\\nguests, whereof Voiture was led to\\nremark and few jests hold their own\\nas this has done for two hundred and\\nsixty-five years that he had never", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0018.jp2"}, "19": {"fulltext": "g\\nAND THE PRECIEUSES\\nheard any one preach so early or so\\nlate. 5\\nIt will be interesting to note how\\nafter more than forty years of social\\nsupremacy Hotel de Rambouillet de-\\nclined and its circle was scattered.\\nNew societies arose, not to take its\\nplace, but to make each a place for\\nitself. The old order changed. What\\nwas simple elegance and virtue at\\nHotel de Rambouillet became osten-\\ntation and prudery in the new salons.\\nFinally the sect of the Precieuses came\\ninto existence, and by their affectations\\nmade polite society ashamed of being\\npolite. Then came the satirists, and\\nchief among them Moliere, with his\\nsparkling comedy the Precieuses ridi-\\ncules. This play was not an attack\\nupon Hotel de Rambouillet, as we too\\n-+5^", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0019.jp2"}, "20": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\noften assume it was an attack upon\\nthe bad imitations of a society so gen-\\nuine in its character and so noble in\\nits influence that Moliere himself must\\nhave held it in highest esteem.", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0020.jp2"}, "21": {"fulltext": "=Sfc=\\nHP\\nJL HE Marquise de Rambouillet\\nwas that unusual something, a born\\nsocial leader. There are not many.\\nVery few so-called social leaders re-\\nally lead they bribe their followers\\nand do not confess it even to them-\\nselves. We dare not trust our wit to\\nmake our home pleasant to our friend,\\nso we serve ice-creams, remarked a\\nphilosopher. Of many striking facts\\nconcerning Hotel de Rambouillet and\\nits guests this is perhaps the mostnot-\\n^7^", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0021.jp2"}, "22": {"fulltext": "c ag^S\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nable, it was a place where people were\\nnot afraid to trust their wit. Two and\\na half centuries have passed, and many\\ncritical and historical facts have been\\nbrought to light touching civilization\\nin the seventeenth century, but the\\nidea which dominates all other ideas\\nis that Hotel de Rambouillet stood\\nfor the art of conversation. It was a\\nplace where men and women met for\\nthe interchange of ideas, and the only\\nplace where excellence in talk con-\\nferred social distinction.\\nWe shall always wonder at the\\ngifts of a woman who could create\\nand hold together such a society. Her\\nsuccess must needs appear almost\\nmiraculous to the good people of our\\nday, most of whom would do any-\\nthing rather than face the terrors of", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0022.jp2"}, "23": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nconversation with nothing to eat.\\nWhat shrewd woman at this end of\\nthe century would risk a potential\\nsocial success upon anything so frail\\nand intangible as mere talk The\\nresult of such timidity is that good\\ntalk is getting rarer every day.\\nHistorians credit the Marquise de\\nRambouillet with having founded the\\nfirst salon known in France. It is\\nunlikely, however, that when she es-\\ntablished herself in her new Jiome\\nCatherine de Vivonne saw the end\\nfrom the beginning. And it is even\\nmore unlikely that she had a definite\\nconception of what had never before\\nexisted. Such an assemblage as\\ngathered about her was a growth. She\\nhad the gift of social organization.\\nThis gift includes many elements, but\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00a2h- 9", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0023.jp2"}, "24": {"fulltext": "s ffi s\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\namong them obviously the power to\\nattract and the power to hold.\\nShe was an attractive woman. She\\nwas well-born, talented, beautiful, and\\nrich. And she was a good woman.\\nThis is usually considered plain praise.\\nIt suggests homely qualities and dull\\ndomesticities. Nevertheless it must\\nstand. This great society leader\\nwas austerely virtuous. Moreover\\nher downright unaffected goodness\\ninfluenced everybody about her.\\nWithout perhaps intending it, she did\\na most extraordinary thing. In a cor-\\nrupt age she made virtue fashionable.\\nTo praise her for this is not to praise\\nsuperficially we must remember how\\nmany people are unwilling to accept\\nvirtue on less advantageous terms. It\\nis something to have got such people\\nH 10", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0024.jp2"}, "25": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nto realize that it may be good form to\\nkeep the Ten Commandments.\\nThe Marquise de Rambouillet was\\nthe daughter of Jean de Vivonne,\\nMarquis de Pisani, who had been\\nFrench ambassador at the court of\\nRome. There was Italian blood in\\nher veins. Her maternal grandmother\\nwas Clarice Strozzi, a kinswoman of\\nCatharine de Medicis. The Marquise\\nwas therefore related to Marie de Me-\\ndicis, wife of Henry IV. She had\\nbecome the mother of seven children\\nbefore she was twenty-six. Of her\\nfive daughters the most famous was\\nJulie-Lucine, afterwards Duchesse de\\nMontausier. One of the sons died at\\nthe age of seven. The other, who\\ninherited his grandfather s title of\\nMarquis de Pisani, has been described\\nii", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0025.jp2"}, "26": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\nas clever, and a sworn enemy of pro-\\nfessional beaux esprits.\\nIn the first years of her wedded life\\nCatherine de Vivonne took such place\\nat court as the high rank of her own\\nand her husband s family entitled her\\nto. Her physical and moral dainti-\\nness revolted from the rude manners\\nand licentious intrigue which char-\\nacterized court life under Henry IV.\\nLittle by little she began to withdraw.\\nAs an excuse for this she could plead\\nthe responsibilities of a rapidly increas-\\ning family. The fact that she no\\nlonger went into the great world did\\nnot result in making her socially iso-\\nlated. So much of the great world\\nas was really worth knowing began to\\ncome to her. Hotel de Rambouillet\\nenjoyed from the first such distinction\\n-H- 12-1-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0026.jp2"}, "27": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nas will be necessarily conferred upon\\na house when its mistress has youth,\\nbeauty, wealth, and rank. It seems\\nalso to have been a home in our\\nmodern sense of the word. The sum\\ntotal of domestic happiness was great.\\nThis alone would serve to differen-\\ntiate its manners from those of the\\ndissolute court. Virtue was hered-\\nitary in the houses of d Angennes and\\nVivonne. Life at court and life at\\nHotel de Rambouillet were antipa-\\nthetic, says Roederer. And he also\\nsays that people who frequented both\\nplaces seemed to change their char-\\nacter when they passed from the one\\nto the other.\\nThe irreproachable purity of the\\nMarquise de Rambouillet s life has\\nbeen a most grateful theme to critics", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0027.jp2"}, "28": {"fulltext": "u~--\u00e2\u0080\u0094\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nand historians. They reflect with\\nsatisfaction that the distinguished ar-\\ntists in tattle and scandal who flour-\\nished in the seventeenth century have\\nspared her good name. In all the\\nrecords of that interesting past there\\nis not one anecdote, or rumor, or hint,\\nwhich can be construed to her dis-\\ncredit. At the present time all this\\nwould be taken for granted; but in\\n1630, if one said that a woman was\\nbeautiful, it was regarded as a striking\\nand unusual corollary if one were able\\nto add that she was good.\\nIt has moreover been accounted\\namong the conspicuous merits of this\\ngreat lady that she never wrote a book\\nor kept a journal. She was an excel-\\nlent talker without being either epi-\\ngrammatic or witty. She spoke per-\\nv 14 -i\u00e2\u0080\u0094", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0028.jp2"}, "29": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRE CIE USES\\nfectly Italian, French, and Spanish,\\nand studied Latin in order to be able\\nto read Vergil in the original. Her\\nvivacity was not the sort for the pos-\\nsession of which Matthew Arnold so\\noften apologized. The Marquise was\\n4 good to everybody/ Her amuse-\\nments were those of the women of\\nher time; and on the whole neither\\nmore nor less frivolous than the amuse-\\nments of to-day. She loved beautiful\\nthings, said Tallemant de Reaux, who\\nhimself loved many things that were\\nnot beautiful.\\nHotel de Rambouillet stood in Rue\\nSaint-Thomas-du-Louvre. At the\\npresent time the site is occupied by\\nthe Grand Magazin du Louvre. One\\nbuys dry-goods and millinery where\\nonce were welcomed such guests as", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0029.jp2"}, "30": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nMalherbe, Corneille, Chapelain, Voi-\\nture, La Rochefoucauld, and Madame\\nde Sevigne. This is a desolation\\nworse than that of Balclutha.\\nThe original mansion was the pro-\\nperty of Catherine de Vivonne s fa-\\nther, and was known as Hotel de\\nPisani. In 1600 it received the name\\nby which it afterward became famous.\\nMany changes were made in its con-\\nstruction from time to time. Once\\nindeed it was almost leveled to the\\nground, so radical were the projected\\nimprovements. The Marquise was\\nher own architect, and dared to change\\nthe position of the staircase, which up\\nto her time had held undisputed sway\\nover the best part of a house. She\\nbanished it to a corner and built it in\\nan easily ascending curve, a thing\\nH l6 H\u00e2\u0080\u0094", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0030.jp2"}, "31": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRiCIEUSES\\nno one seems to have thought of doing\\nbefore, at least in mansions of that\\nsort. The Marquise had that wisdom\\nwhich is denied to professional archi-\\ntects and given only to women who\\nknow what they want.\\nShe also introduced the custom of\\nhaving instead of one vast drawing-\\nroom, as dreary as it was magnificent,\\na series of rooms upon the same floor.\\nThe guest made his way to the pre-\\nsence of the great lady herself by a\\nsuccession of ante-chambers, chambers,\\nand cabinets. She seems to have been\\nthe first to realize that a room could\\nbe decorated in any other color than\\ntan or red. Her particular salon was\\ntapestried in blue velvet. This was\\nan innovation, and people commented\\nupon it. The blue room was some-\\n-1-17-1-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0031.jp2"}, "32": {"fulltext": "Ar\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nthing to see. It soon became the\\nfocus of that type of refinement and\\nlettered elegance which the Marquise\\nand her friends represented, a refine-\\nment to be rigidly distinguished from\\nthe labored and quintessential preci-\\nosity of forty years afterward.\\nFrom the first this house was de-\\nmocratic. It was impossible that\\nblood should not count for something\\nwith a woman who was both Strozzi\\nand Savelli, nevertheless other gifts\\nbesides those of long descent were\\nwelcomed at Hotel de Rambouillet.\\nOne saw a great variety of people,\\nnoblemen, ladies of high degree,\\npriests, soldiers, courtiers, poets, and\\nnovelists, and the occasional adven-\\nturer without whom society could not\\nexist. A high premium was placed\\n-H-18-H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0032.jp2"}, "33": {"fulltext": "4 -Jg^\\n^A^D TTZfi PR CIEUSES\\non wit and learning, though it was\\nhoped that wit and learning would be\\naccompanied by good manners. Men\\nof letters found that here the atmos-\\nphere had a caressing quality which\\nthey had never before experienced.\\nThey were soothed and comforted\\nthereby. Moreover their reception\\nwas so genuinely cordial that it forti-\\nfied their self-respect. When we see\\nthe haughty magnificence of bearing\\nwith which some of our modern young\\nnovelists and poets conduct them-\\nselves, even to the extent of offering\\nus two fingers to shake, it is difficult\\nto realize that there could have been\\na time when literary powers did not\\nimply a large measure of social dis-\\ntinction. But so it was. Even Vol-\\ntaire complained that in his day pro-\\nj- 19", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0033.jp2"}, "34": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\nfessional authors were snubbed. Such\\na complaint would have been better\\njustified in the first third of the sev-\\nenteenth century. The Marquise de\\nRambouillet did more perhaps than\\nany other one woman to secure for\\nauthors the privilege of being received\\ninto the best society on equal terms\\nwith the aristocracy. This, to be sure,\\nis not the chief end of literature, but\\nit may be accounted one of the rights\\nof authors considered merely as human\\nbeings. The Marquise helped them\\nto establish this right.\\nIt is a question whether there was\\nto be found in France a hostess so\\ntolerant as was she with respect to the\\nhumors and caprices of literary men.\\nShe may even have accentuated their\\npeculiarities. We have heard of\\n-H- 20+-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0034.jp2"}, "35": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nspoiled children, and some of us, no\\ndoubt, have had the pleasure of being\\nsuch. The world is full of spoiled\\nchildren. The world is also full of\\nspoiled authors, and the Marquise\\nde Rambouillet was the woman who\\ndid a great deal to spoil them. This\\nwas partly from kindness of heart,\\nand partly from a genuine respect for\\nletters. Up to her time poets and\\nauthors generally held an equivocal\\nposition in society. That complete\\nand godlike independence which men\\nlike Victor Hugo and Alfred Tenny-\\nson enjoyed was not possible in the\\nfirst half of the seventeenth century.\\nMost of the poets were attached to\\none or other of the great houses.\\nThey were domestics, though not in\\nthe restricted sense in which we now\\n-i- 21 4-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0035.jp2"}, "36": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nuse that word. A man might have a\\npoet in his house as he might have\\nany highly decorative piece of furni-\\nture. He would respect both the\\nfurniture and the poet for their in-\\ntrinsic worth, but his pride would be\\nrooted in the fact that he was the pro-\\nprietor of both. Rcederer gives a\\nlist of sixteen poets, all of whom were\\nattached to some royal or noble house.\\nThe list includes Clement Marot,\\nRonsard, Malherbe, Racan, Theophile,\\nVoiture, Sarrazin, and Benserade.\\nTheir respective positions were honor-\\nable, no doubt, but they were de-\\npendent. At Hotel de Rambouillet\\nthe poets found themselves released\\nfrom all personal obligations. The\\npoet was no longer a part of the\\nhousehold equipment of a rich and\\n\u00e2\u0080\u0094i- 22 4-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0036.jp2"}, "37": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRfiCIEUSES\\npowerful lord he was a man among\\nmen. He was able to show his pre-\\nferences, and to decide by just what\\nnobleman he would consent to be\\npatronized. Better than this he was\\nat liberty to say whether he would\\nconsent to be patronized at all, or\\nwould elect to live independently.\\nMany poets preferred patronage it\\nwas comfortable and they were used\\nto it. None the less it is a great\\nthing when men acquire the privilege\\nof being men. For this if for no\\nother reason the various Societies of\\nAuthors should build a monument to\\nthe Marquise de Rambouillet.\\nTo mention all the guests distin-\\nguished for birth, genius, and learning\\nwho at one time or another were\\nwelcomed at Hotel de Rambouillet", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0037.jp2"}, "38": {"fulltext": "\u00c2\u00abg M *=j\u00c2\u00a7\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nwould be to compile a society blue-\\nbook and a dictionary of men of\\nletters. The names are suggestive to\\nthe student, though uninteresting to\\nthe general reader.\\nHotel de Rambouillet was rebuilt\\nin 1618. Reunions had been held,\\nhowever, at an earlier date. For ex-\\nample, Armand Duplessis, afterward\\nCardinal Due de Richelieu, was pre-\\nsented to Madame de Rambouillet s\\ncircle in 1615. He was then but\\ntwenty years of age. Cospeau was\\nhis social sponsor.\\nThere are three well-defined periods\\nin the life of this salon. The first is\\nthe period of formation it includes\\nthe years between 1620 and 1630. In\\n1620 the Marquise was thirty-two\\nyears old and approaching the perfect\\n-i- 24 -H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0038.jp2"}, "39": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRiCIEUSES\\nage of thirty-five. I speak of this\\nbecause I have heard a contemporary\\nsay that thirty-five is an age which\\nneeds to be celebrated as the most\\ncharming which a matron reaches and\\nremains at. When a man has the priv-\\nilege of talking with a woman of thirty-\\nfive he may well abandon the society\\nof your raw, incoherent Juliets to the\\npink-and- white Romeos who like it.\\nConspicuous among the guests of\\nthe first period were the Due de Guise,\\nthe Due de la Tremouille, Marechal\\nde Souvre, the Marquis de Vigean,\\nArnauld d Andilly, and Chaudebonne,\\nwho had the honor of starting Voiture\\nupon his career. Notable among the\\nmen of letters were the old poet Mal-\\nherbe, his disciple the Marquis de\\nRacan, and Vaugelas, who was even", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0039.jp2"}, "40": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nthen making those minute studies of\\ncurrent speech which twenty-seven\\nyears later were to be given to the\\nworld in his famous Remarks on the\\nFrench Language. Here, too, were\\nto be seen Gombauld, Balzac, Chape-\\nlain, and Voiture. These last four\\nwere young men, all under thirty\\nwhen this period begins, while Voiture\\nwas only twenty-two. Among elect\\nand beautiful women were Charlotte\\nde Montmorency, Princesse de Conde,\\nthe Duchesse de la Tremouille, and\\nthe young Marquise de Sable. Julie\\nd Angennes, the loved daughter of the\\nhouse, was about eighteen, her friend\\nMadelaine de Scudery of the same\\nage. Youth, with all that youth im-\\nplies, was very apparent at Hotel de\\nRambouillet during this period.\\n26 -t-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0040.jp2"}, "41": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nThe second period, the period of\\ngreatest splendor, begins in 1630 and\\ncloses about 1638. The blue room\\nbecame a veritable sanctuary of taste,\\na school where the seventeenth century-\\nobtained its education. Among the\\nnew recruits were the Due d Enghien,\\nthe Due de Montausier, Saint-Evre-\\nmond, La Rochefoucauld, Patru the\\ngreat forensic orator, and Menage the\\nscholar, celebrated then for his learn-\\ning, and now because he was the\\ninstructor of Madame de Sevigne.\\nOther names, suggestive of various\\ngifts and ambitions, are Mairet, Ro-\\ntrou, Conrart, Sarrazin, Godeau, Costar,\\nBenserade, Georges de Scudery, and\\nScarron. Bossuet s first appearance\\nin this circle was in 1643. The Abbe\\nCotin began to come about this time,\\n-H- 27 H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0041.jp2"}, "42": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nunconscious that his claim to immor-\\ntality would need to be based on the\\nfacts that he was satirized by Boileau\\nand caricatured by Moliere. In\\nmarked contrast with him one might\\nmention Pierre Corneille, to whose\\ninterest Hotel de Rambouillet was\\nsufficiently devoted, for it took his\\npart against the terrible Richelieu in\\nthat sensational quarrel of the Cid.\\nThere were many brilliant women\\nboth from the aristocracy and the\\nmiddle class. Mademoiselle de Bour-\\nbon-Conde, afterwards Duchesse de\\nLongueville also Mademoiselle de\\nColigny, the future Comtesse de la\\nSuze, she who became a Catholic be-\\ncause her husband was a Protestant,\\nand who (in the language of Queen\\nChristina) separated from him in order\\nb 28 -I\u00e2\u0080\u0094", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0042.jp2"}, "43": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nnot to see him either in this world or\\nthe next. One should also mention\\nAnne de Rohan, Princesse de Gue-\\nmene, and the Comtesse de Maure.\\nPerhaps the most striking figure was\\nAngelique Paulet. They called her\\n8 the beautiful lioness because of her\\nmagnificent mane of golden hair and\\nthe haughtiness of her bearing. To\\nher was first applied a phrase which\\nafterward became famous; it was\\nsaid that she had cheveux d un blond\\nhardi. Shall we translate it hair of\\na courageous blonde It was an\\ningenious expression intended to mit-\\nigate the brutality of saying that a\\nwoman s hair was tinged with red.\\nMademoiselle Paulet had other gifts\\nbesides those of beauty and fine man-\\nners. She sang and played the lute.\\n29 -H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0043.jp2"}, "44": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nAs a tribute to the charm of her voice\\nthey invented the legend that two\\nnightingales had been found dead (of\\nenvy, no doubt) at the edge of a foun-\\ntain where Angelique Paulet had\\nsung. Clearly when the gentlemen\\nof that day set out to pay a compli-\\nment they succeeded.\\nThe third period in the life of Hotel\\nde Rambouillet, the period of decline,\\nincludes the years between 1648 and\\n1665. At the beginning of this pe-\\nriod occurred the quarrel between the\\nUranistes and the Jobelins. The\\npoint of issue was which of two son-\\nnets was the better, Voiture s sonnet\\non Uranie or Benserade s sonnet on\\nJob. The discussion was more than\\nanimated. I liken it to one of those\\nnewspaper contentions, humorous or\\n-+30 4-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0044.jp2"}, "45": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nacrid, with which we are familiar.\\nThe occasion may be slight, but the\\ninterest and comment are dispropor-\\ntionate, as in the case of the Lady and\\nthe Tiger.\\nMany causes united to bring about\\nthe decline of Hotel de Rambouillet.\\nThe marriage of Julie and the death\\nof Voiture made radical changes.\\nThe war of the Fronde threw society\\nfor the time being into a condition\\nof absolute unrest and disorder. The\\nrise of new circles where pedantry\\nand literary affectation had full swing\\nwas not without its effect. Yet amid\\nthese conditions Hotel de Rambouillet\\nwas sound at heart and the names it\\nhonored are still honorable, such as\\nMadame de La Fayette and Madame\\nde Sevigne.\\n-H-3H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0045.jp2"}, "46": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nHistorians have often lamented their\\ninability to give an accurate picture\\nof life in the blue room. We shall\\nnever know what it was like. An\\nancient building can be restored; it\\nis not so easy to restore 6 an obliterated\\nstate of society/ There were times\\nwhen the talk was almost transcen-\\ndental in its perfection. Men used\\nto speak of it in after years with some-\\nthing like awe. Wisdom prevailed\\nand affectation stayed in the back-\\nground. Chapelain was able to say\\nin 1638: They do not talk learnedly\\nbut they do talk reasonably, and there\\nis no place in the world where there is\\nmore good sense and less pedantry/\\nThey used to have parlor lectures\\nor readings. They discussed new\\nworks. Sometimes they passed a", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0046.jp2"}, "47": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\njudgment which posterity has not\\nconfirmed but that is no more than\\ncritics do nowadays. They consti-\\ntuted themselves a literary tribunal.\\nAuthors, whatever they may have\\npretended to the contrary, stood in\\nhonest fear of this tribunal. Hotel\\nde Rambouillet claimed the right to\\nmodify and restrict the growth of the\\nFrench language. There was a fitness\\nin this. These people were of the\\nbest blood, the best breeding, and the\\nbest literary culture in France. They\\nmight have contended that their use\\nof words offered a standard to which\\nthe general public would do well to\\nconform. They gave so much time\\nto the question of correct speech that\\nthey were ridiculed for it. They\\ncould afford the ridicule. In one par-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0047.jp2"}, "48": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\ntic alar their judgment was to be pre-\\nferred to that of the mockers without\\nthe gate. They had the breadth of\\nview to apprehend the great truth that\\nfine breeding is not limited to man-\\nners and dress. He is not truly well-\\nbred whose speech lacks breeding.\\nWhat if they did discuss the ques-\\ntion whether one should say muscardin\\nor muscadin, sarge or serge, Roume or\\nRome These were not the only or\\nthe most vital topics of conversation.\\nRoederer answered all that sort of\\ncriticism upon the conversation of the\\n4 blue room when he said 6 It is bet-\\nter to talk about words than about\\npeople; and he made an infinitely\\nsuggestive remark when he added\\n4 The passion for good language ought to\\nbe a national fas sion?\\n-+34*-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0048.jp2"}, "49": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRiClEUSES\\nIn its attitude on the great question\\nof language, Hotel de Rambouillet\\noffers a marked contrast to society of\\nto-day. The influence of the modern\\nfashionable world is more apparent in\\nmanners and dress than in language\\nand literature. Society is well groomed,\\nbut its garments are uniformly more\\nattractive than its parts of speech.\\nWhy should a woman get her hats\\nfrom Virot and her adjectives from\\nChimmie Fadden Not all women\\ndo, to be sure. Why should any\\nwoman, any man, lack in fastidious-\\nness about the choice of words So-\\nciety ought to be as impeccable in its\\nlanguage as it is in its attire.\\n35", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0049.jp2"}, "50": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0050.jp2"}, "51": {"fulltext": "4*\\nII\\nLET us consider three men of\\nletters whose influence was potent\\nat Hotel de Rambouillet. They are\\nd Urfe, Malherbe, and Balzac. Only\\none of the three can be accounted\\nan actual member of the circle, for\\nBalzac was seldom there, and d Urfe\\nnever.\\nHonore d Urfe was the author of a\\ngigantic romance entitled the Astree.\\nIt was a continued story written in\\ndays when continued meant long con-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0051.jp2"}, "52": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\ntinued. We sometimes complain of\\nthe novel which runs a year in a\\nmonthly magazine. Let us think on\\nour mercies. The admirers of the\\nAstree were expected to read and to\\nwait with a patience unknown to our\\nhurried generation. The first two\\nparts of the romance, comprising\\nmore than two thousand pages, were\\npublished in 1610. Then the public\\nwaited nine years for the third part,\\nand eight years more for another in-\\nstallment. D Urfe died in 1625, and\\nthe fourth part was published by his\\nprivate secretary, Balthazar Baro, who\\nalso added a fifth part, his own work,\\nbringing the story to a conclusion.\\nTherefore between the beginning of\\nthe beginning and the end of the end\\nwas an interval of not less than sev-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0052.jp2"}, "53": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRfiCIEUSES\\ncnteen years. Indeed the historians\\nassign for the meditation and writing\\nof this extraordinary book a quarter\\nof a century.\\nThe Astr ee is a pastoral romance\\nmore or less autobiographical. The\\nhero is a youth by the name of Ce-\\nladon. His manner of loving made\\nhim in the eyes of readers of that day\\nthe ideal of constancy. The type has\\ngone out of fashion. A modern\\nFrench critic hints that one would\\nmore easily resign himself to being\\ncalled a Don Juan than a Celadon.\\nFor the constancy which is admira-\\nble degenerates in Celadon s case\\ninto a humble and dog-like fidelity\\nexasperating to the reader. Men\\nhave been the slaves of love before\\nand since d Urfe s time; but they", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0053.jp2"}, "54": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nhave usually shown a healthy and\\ncommendable impatience. This vic-\\ntim of beauty s caprice rejoices in his\\nown tortures and adores the hand\\nwhich strikes him/ In his melan-\\ncholy, his inactivity, his passionate\\nendurance, Celadon is the prototype\\nof Werther, Rene, and those other\\nhandsome young pessimists of fic-\\ntion who suffer so eloquently, but\\nwho carefully refrain from doing any-\\nthing lest they mar the edge of their\\ngrief.\\nThe Astr ee had an enormous success.\\nIt became the i code of polite society.\\nThe critics find traces of its influence\\nin the tragedies of Racine, the com-\\nedies of Marivaux, the romances of\\nPrevost, in the writings of J. J. Rous-\\nseau, and even in certain stories of\\n40-1\u00e2\u0080\u0094", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0054.jp2"}, "55": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nGeorge Sand. 1 Morillot declares that\\nnothing is equal to the Astree for pre-\\nsenting a complete and accurate pic-\\nture of the contemporaries of Balzac\\nand Voiture. It is therefore one of\\nthe sources of the history of polite\\nsociety. These shepherds and shep-\\nherdesses who tend their flocks so grace-\\nfully and pay such ingenious compli-\\nments to one another bear no relation\\nto Gabriel Oak. On the contrary they\\nare people of high birth wearing the\\npastoral disguise for their own plea-\\nsure, and as a symbol of that peace and\\nrest for which the world was beginning\\nto yearn. It is a book with a key,\\nand readers were pleased to think\\n1 Brunetiere Manuel, p. 105. Jusserand\\nLe Roman anglais, p. 17.\\n-H-4I H\u00e2\u0080\u0094", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0055.jp2"}, "56": {"fulltext": "HO TEL DE RAMB O UILLE T\\nthat in spite of the masks and the\\ncostumes they recognized eminent\\nmen and women of that day.\\nThe Astree was happy in the class\\nof readers it attracted. The book\\nwhich could win the undisguised and\\nsometimes unqualified admiration of\\nSaint Francis de Sales, Camus, Patru,\\nHuet, La Fontaine, Boileau, and Ma-\\ndame de Sevigne must have had\\nnotable virtues.\\nMalherbe was held in high esteem\\nat Hotel de Rambouillet. Like many\\nmen who are self-willed, rough of\\nspeech, and imperious of manner, he\\ncould be courtly and gracious. These\\nrobust geniuses are easily controlled\\nby a woman who commands their\\nrespect and admiration. Malherbe\\nwas civilized in the presence of the\\n-^42-1-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0056.jp2"}, "57": {"fulltext": "ess ggg 1\\nAND THE PRMCIEUSES\\nMarquise, and his poetry was at all\\ntimes civilized.\\nMalherbe s verse was that of a man\\nwho thought much but was seldom\\ninspired. He was a poet of the\\nsecond order, says Pergameni, a poet\\nby reflection rather than by instinct,\\none of that class in whom reason takes\\nthe place of heart. His writing lacked\\nblood, perhaps; the man himself was\\naltogether human, positive, egoistic,\\ntyrannical.\\nHe reminds us a little of Dr. John-\\nson. He had Johnson s pungent wit,\\noverbearing manner, frankness of\\nspeech, and reverence for authority.\\nHe was like Johnson in the want of\\nexternal correspondence between the\\npoetical product and man who pro-\\nduced. Like him, too, in the way in", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0057.jp2"}, "58": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nwhich he would browbeat and intin\\nidate his circle of worshipers and\\npupils. That anecdote has the true\\nJohnsonian flavor which describes\\nMalherbe repeating some verses to\\nRacan and then asking how he liked\\nthem. Racan excused himself from\\ngiving an opinion I could not\\nunderstand them, you ate half of the\\nwords/ Malherbe, irritated, ex-\\nclaimed Mortdieu if you make\\nme angry I 11 eat them all. They\\nare mine; since I made them I am\\nable to do what I please with them.\\nThat satirical observer Tallemant\\nde Reaux says that Malherbe was the\\nworst reciter in the world, and spoiled\\nhis beautiful verses in repeating them.\\nIt was hardly possible to understand\\nhim on account of the impediment", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0058.jp2"}, "59": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nin his speech and the thickness of\\nhis voice. Besides this he spat at\\nleast six times in reciting one stanza\\nof four lines. This is why the Cav-\\nalier Marini said that he had never\\nseen a man so wet nor a poet so\\ndry.\\nTallemant gives a handful of such\\nanecdotes which help us to conceive\\nthe brusque old poet as vividly as if\\nhe had been provided with a Boswell.\\nIt was a part of Malherbe s mission\\nto castigate bad versifiers, or at least\\nversifiers whom he considered bad.\\nHe went to dine with Desportes, who\\nreceived him graciously and offered\\nto give him a version of the Psalms\\nwhich he had just printed. Do not\\ntrouble/ said Malherbe, I have seen\\nthem your soup is worth more than\\n-+45 -I-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0059.jp2"}, "60": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nyour Psalms/ The dinner is said to\\nhave been eaten in silence.\\nHe expressed his opinion of human\\nnature in his characteristic comment\\non the death of Abel. Was n t that\\na fine debut There were only three\\nor four human beings In the world,\\nand they began to kill one another;\\nafter that, what was God able to hope\\nfrom mankind that He should take\\nthe trouble to preserve them\\nMalherbe s services to French liter-\\nature were on the side of restraint,\\nfinish, nobility of form, perfection in\\nhandling the materials of poetry. He\\nwas late in beginning, and he worked\\nwith such deliberation that he left but\\na slender volume of verse. His in-\\nfluence was wide-reaching in his own\\nday, and in this happy age of crum-\\n-i- 46 4\u00e2\u0080\u0094", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0060.jp2"}, "61": {"fulltext": "C=s\\nAND THE PRiCIEUSES\\nbling idols he is secure in his reputa-\\ntion as a seventeenth century classic.\\nEven the gibes of an Arsene Hous-\\nsaye cannot affect him much. As an\\nillustration of his willingness to let a\\npoem bide its time and slowly grow\\ninto perfection they cite his verses ad-\\ndressed to the first president of Ver-\\ndun. Malherbe wished to console this\\ngentleman for the death of his wife.\\n4 By the time the stanzas were finished\\nthe gentleman had been consoled, re-\\nmarried, and was himself dead\\nIn his ill-kept and badly furnished\\napartments Malherbe presided over a\\nliterary circle composed of younger\\npoets who recognized him as the\\nmaster. The best known of these\\npupils was Racan, author of the Ber-\\ngeries, a more absent-minded gentle-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0061.jp2"}, "62": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\nman than Parson Adams, if the stories\\ntold of him be not exaggerations.\\nHe was caught young by Mal-\\nherbe, who ruled him as an old-time\\npedagogue might have done, even\\nforbidding his pupil to marry, and\\ncriticising his verse with caustic sever-\\nity. Malherbe kept Racan humble by\\ntelling him that a poet was of no more\\nuse to his country than a skittles-player,\\nand that if their own verses lived after\\nthem they would be praised as men\\nwho had been rather clever in arran-\\nging words in a certain order, but who\\nwere on the whole fools to spend their\\ntime that way.\\nBalzac is usually disposed of by\\ncalling him the Malherbe of prose,\\na facile kind of criticism made familiar\\nto us in those attempts to explain\\nh 48 H\u00e2\u0080\u0094", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0062.jp2"}, "63": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nGeorge Meredith by speaking of him\\nas a prose Browning. He was a rhe-\\ntorician, this Jean-Louis Guez de\\nBalzac, who employed the epistolary\\nform as best suited to his literary\\nneeds. James Howell read Balzac s\\nletters, and finding them little to his\\ntaste, said so in terms which it will\\nbe proper not to repeat. We need to\\nread but one of Balzac s grandiose\\nepistles and follow it with a familiar\\nletter of James Howell to understand\\nhow antipathetic the Englishman and\\nthe Frenchman were, and that for rea-\\nsons with which racial antagonism had\\nnothing to do. The letters of Balzac\\nare the opposite of familiar. They\\ncontain none of the element which\\ngives charm to what in this day are\\ncalled letters. With us a letter is\\n^49^", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0063.jp2"}, "64": {"fulltext": "e=\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nsomething natural, chatty, unostenta-\\ntious. The sentences are short, the\\nlanguage colloquial. One speaks of\\nthe sorrow of breaking in a new cook\\nor a new pair of shoes. Domestic\\nadventures are not tabooed, nor does\\nthe writer disdain to give the thrilling\\nhistory of the last church social. In\\nshort, when we speak of a letter we\\nmean the most informal type of liter-\\nary composition, a thing written with\\nsuch careless good nature that we are\\nconfused at the thought of having it\\nseen by any other eye than that for\\nwhich it was originally intended.\\nWhen, however, Balzac wrote let-\\nters he wished them to be seen of men.\\nThe letters might be addressed to a\\ngreat lord or a powerful churchman,\\nbut they were meant to be read by", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0064.jp2"}, "65": {"fulltext": "g\\nAND THE PR CIEUSES\\nwho could appreciate them, and most\\nof all by posterity. For a time Bal-\\nzac s vogue was extraordinary. He\\nwas spoken of not merely as the most\\neloquent man in France, such praise\\nwas too reserved and judicial he was\\nthe only eloquent man in France.\\nWhen he was but twenty-four years\\nof age Perron said of him to CoefFe-\\nteau If he goes on as he has begun,\\nhe will be the master of masters/\\nThey were speaking of his literary\\nstyle.\\nIt is well to be suspicious of a sev-\\nenteenth century Frenchman when\\nhe comes bearing compliments. Two\\nmen of letters might be depended\\nupon to exchange verbal caresses\\nwhatever they privately thought one\\nof the other. Nevertheless there\\n-j- 51 -h-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0065.jp2"}, "66": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\nmust have been a measure of sincerity\\namong them. This extract from one\\nof Voiture s letters shows how it was\\ncustomary to address Balzac. The\\nillustration is all the better for coming\\nfrom Voiture, who used to spice his\\ncompliments with minute touches of\\nmalice and irony. To-day all men\\nlisten to you. No one who under-\\nstands how to read is indifferent.\\nThey who are jealous for the honor of\\nthis kingdom take no more pains to\\nlearn what Monsieur the Marshal de\\nCrequy is doing than to learn what\\nyou are doing. And we have more\\nthan two generals in the army who do\\nnot make so great a sensation with\\nthirty thousand men as do you in your\\nsolitude. 5\\nVoiture reached the superlative of\\n-J- 52H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0066.jp2"}, "67": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRiCIEUSES\\npanegyric with perfect ease, like the\\naccomplished man of the world that\\nhe was. There was nothing to say-\\nmore emphatic than this: Balzac was\\nmore in the public eye than two gen-\\nerals each with thirty thousand men.\\nIn the pretty little edition of Les\\nCEuvres diverses du Sieur de Balzac\\npublished at Leyden by Jean Elzevier\\nin 1658 will be found four discourses,\\ninscribed to the Marquise de Ram-\\nbouillet. They comprise about sixty\\npages, and are in part the outcome of\\nconversations which may have taken\\nplace in the blue room. One is\\non the Roman Character, another is\\nthe continuation of a talk on Conver-\\nsation among the Romans, the third is\\non Mecenas, the fourth on Glory.\\nUpon the testimony of these letters", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0067.jp2"}, "68": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nRoederer bases his argument for the\\nhigh intellectual tone of Hotel de\\nRambouillet. The Marquise was\\ngenuinely interested in these themes.\\nThe woman who could call out such\\ndiscourses from the grand epistolier\\nde France was neither a pedant nor\\na precieuse. For the discourses do\\nnot contain enough of the pedantic to\\nsatisfy a blue-stocking, nor enough of\\naffectation to amuse a precieuse. And\\nit would be attributing an excess of\\nvanity to Balzac to suppose that in\\nwriting to the Marquise he had no\\ndisinterested motive, that he thought\\nchiefly of the admiring comment which\\nwould be called out by the reading\\nof his highly finished essays in that\\npart of the great world whose praise\\nwas best worth having.\\n^54 h_", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0068.jp2"}, "69": {"fulltext": "Ill\\nJE are warned not to think of\\nthis great house as a sort of Academy,\\na mere club of pedants and blue-\\nstockings. It was not that. It was\\nemphatically the gay world, life, so-\\nciety. Everything was there which\\nthe world enjoys, with perhaps a touch\\nof ceremonial reserve hitherto un-\\nknown. There might be grave argu-\\nments over the use of prepositions, or\\nthe propriety of admitting a new word\\nto the French language, but there was", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0069.jp2"}, "70": {"fulltext": "4 *^$\u00c2\u00a3\u00c2\u00ab!L\\nHOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\nalso music and dancing. In a house\\nfilled with young people, pleasure will\\nfre_the order of many days. The\\nparty for pleasure at Hotel de Ram-\\nbouillet was organized and headed by\\nVincent Voiture.\\nVoiture was what the French call,\\nwith untranslatable felicity, un bel\\nesprit; in England they would say\\na wit. His career shows how demo-\\ncratic Hotel de Rambouillet was, and\\nhow entirely amiable qualities atoned\\nfor the lack of a grandfather. Voi-\\nture was of humble birth, the son of a\\nwine-merchant of Amiens, but his\\ngifts carried him to a foremost place\\nin the most cultivated society of his\\nday. Men of highest rank treated\\nhim as an equal. He had abundance\\nof animal spirits, and he also had tact,\\n-H-56+-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0070.jp2"}, "71": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRfiCIEUSES\\nsuppleness of intellect, humor, a know-\\nledge of men and women. People\\nadmired his cleverness and marveled\\nat his audacity. The Due d Enghien\\nonce said If Voiture were of our\\nrank he would be unendurable. 5\\nWhen he grew old Voiture became\\npeevish, and was tolerated just as if\\nhe had been a lord or a rich uncle.\\nCousin praises Voiture because he\\nwas the first example of a man of\\nletters who lived among the great\\nand still maintained his independence/\\nThe praise would be justly bestowed\\nif it were true that Voiture took the\\nattitude of a professed man of letters.\\nHe did not. He trifled at literature.\\nBut he trifled with exceeding care, and\\nhis works live after him. He wrote\\nletters and poems. He printed no-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0071.jp2"}, "72": {"fulltext": "*m\\nHOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\nthing during his lifetime. When, after\\nhis death, these writings were collected\\nand published in two volumes, people\\nlaughed at the title which the literary-\\nexecutor gave to them the Works\\nof Vincent Voiture. But every histo-\\nrian of French literature takes them\\ninto account. Cousin gives Voiture\\nthe credit of being inventor of what\\nwe would now call vers de societe.\\nThis poet would live if only by virtue\\nof his connection with Hotel de Ram-\\nbouillet. Honors are still done him.\\nAndrew Lang translates him, and Ger-\\nman Gelehrte write theses on his\\nsyntax.\\nIn the Grand Dictionnaire des Pr e-\\ncieuses Voiture figures under the name\\nof Valere, that is, Valerius. His in-\\nfluence among the little salons was so\\nH 58 -H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0072.jp2"}, "73": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\ngreat that if he showed himself once\\nat a lady s house her reputation as a\\nprecieuse was made.\\nAt Hotel de Rambouillet he ex-\\nerted to the utmost his extraordinary\\npowers of entertainment. He ex-\\ncelled in that which we vaguely and\\nhelplessly describe as the art of keep-\\ning things going. A house which\\nwas at no time a solemn place was far-\\nther than ever from solemnity when\\nhe was present. Moreover we are in\\nFrance, and France is gay, and the\\nFrench are a gay people. We are\\nto take for granted all those things in\\nwhich youth delights, the fetes, the\\nfancy-dress balls, the collations, the\\npicnics. They loved to travesty my-\\nthological scenes in the ample Pare\\nRambouillet; this was their way of", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0073.jp2"}, "74": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\npresenting Gibson tableaux. Half\\nthe charm of their comedies and fetes\\ngrew out of the improvised character\\nof these things. That genius of the\\nLatin race for doing the right thing at\\nexactly the right time came into play.\\nWhat our cold Anglo-Saxon tempera-\\nment would spoil was infinitely light\\nand graceful under their touch.\\nVoiture also had a taste for the\\nkind of joke called practical. For\\nthis he has been reproved. Bourciez\\ncalls him the enfant terrible of Hotel\\nde Rambouillet. One illustration of\\nhis mischievous wit is given in all the\\nbooks. He encountered on the street\\na wandering animal-trainer with two\\ndancing bears. He brought all three\\nup stair and through corridor into the\\nroom where, on the other side of a\\nh 60 4-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0074.jp2"}, "75": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nlarge screen, the Marquise and a group\\nof her friends were sitting. One can\\nguess the consternation of this lady\\nwhen, on hearing a scuffling behind\\nher, she looked around and saw four\\nhairy paws resting on the top of the\\nscreen with muzzles laid between them\\nand bearish eyes blinking down upon\\nher.\\nWas it in punishment for this jest\\nthat the Marquise persuaded Voiture\\nthat he was almost losing his mind,\\nor at least becoming an unconscious\\nplagiarist? He used, after the ap-\\nproved custom of the day, to hand his\\nverses about in manuscript. The\\nMarquise had one of his newest poems\\nprinted and the leaf bound into\\na volume. Then she called his at-\\ntention to the extraordinary resem-\\n-t- 61", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0075.jp2"}, "76": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nblance between the two poems. For\\nthe moment Voiture was staggered,\\nand fully believed that at the time he\\nwas, as he supposed, writing original\\nverse, he must have been remember-\\ning something he had read.\\nAnother personage at Hotel de\\nRambouillet was the Due de Montau-\\nsier. He played as prominent a\\nrole as V-oiture, but was so utterly un-\\nlike the little poet that the two men\\nform a piquant contrast.\\nMontausier made his first appear-\\nance at Hotel de Rambouillet in 1631.\\nHe was then Marquis de Salle, and\\nbarely twenty-two years of age. He\\nbecame enamored of Julie, and later\\nan aspirant for her hand. If it were\\never true that a young lady accepted\\na suitor because all the world spoke\\n-H 62", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0076.jp2"}, "77": {"fulltext": "s=\\nAND THE PR CIEUSES\\nwell of him, Montausier would have\\nmade easy conquest, for he was a man\\nwhom no one named unless to praise.\\nThis is a little surprising since his\\nvirtues were of a rugged and militant\\nsort. The tradition is significant\\nwhich says that Moliere drew from\\nMontausier some of the finest traits\\nin the character of the Misanthrope.\\nMost men who pay court to wo-\\nmen expect their reward within a\\nreasonable time. This particular\\ncourtship was protracted to thirteen\\nyears. It is accounted a phenomenal\\ncase in the annals of love-making.\\nWe are not, however, to suppose\\nthat Montausier spent thirteen years\\nat the lady s feet, breathing amorous\\nsighs, and writing sonnets to her\\nbeauty. Some gallants made love in\\n-+63+-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0077.jp2"}, "78": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DERAMBOUILLET\\nthis feeble fashion, imitating Celadon\\nin the Astree. Montausier was of\\nmore heroic build. He was a soldier.\\nHis courting was punctuated with\\nbattles, wounds, and imprisonments.\\nBut he returned from the wars with\\nbut one thought to win the hand\\nof Julie d Angennes. The situation\\nbecame intense. Everybody wondered\\nhow it was going to turn out. The\\nlover was worthy of his mistress, but\\nshe wished not to marry. He laid\\nsiege to the fortress of her affections\\nstrictly in accordance with the rules.\\nAll the world, as the French say, be-\\ncame absorbed in this interesting\\ndrama. The most intimate friends of\\nthe Marquise took it upon themselves\\nto speak in Montausier s behalf. Even\\nthe great Richelieu brought his in-\\n64 -i\u00e2\u0080\u0094", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0078.jp2"}, "79": {"fulltext": "4\\nAND THE PR CIEUSES\\nfluence to bear. The courtship was\\nso long drawn out that there was time\\nfor the aspect of French politics to\\nchange, and a new minister to come\\ninto power Mazarin was no less sym-\\npathetic than his illustrious predeces-\\nsor. Even the Queen spoke for Mon-\\ntausier. The young man himself\\ntook one step which meant a good\\ndeal in those days; he changed his\\nreligion. The house of d Angennes\\nwas Catholic Montausier was a Cal-\\nvinist. He embraced the old faith,\\nand observed that it made little differ-\\nence by which route one went to\\nHeaven.\\nMontausier, as I have said, was\\ntwenty-two years old when he first\\nsaw Julie d Angennes. He was thirty-\\nfive when the marriage took place.\\n^654-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0079.jp2"}, "80": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\nThis was in 1645. The bride was\\nthree years older than her husband.\\nIn 1641 Montausier complimented\\nthe lady of his affections with that\\ngraceful gift known as the Guirlande\\nde Julie. It was a beautiful folio\\nvolume, the leaves of vellum, the\\nbinding of red morocco doublee by\\nLe Gascon, and bearing the mono-\\ngram J-L, for Julie-Lucine, both on\\nthe outside and inside of the cover.\\nThe frontispiece was a zephyr hold-\\ning in one hand a rose and in the other\\na garland of twenty-nine flowers. On\\nthe succeeding leaves of the volume\\neach flower was painted separately by\\nRobert, and beneath were madrigals\\ninscribed in the hand of the famous\\ncalligraphist, Nicholas Jarry. The\\nmadrigals were sixty-two in number,\\n\u00e2\u0080\u0094i- 66 -i\u00e2\u0080\u0094", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0080.jp2"}, "81": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nNineteen poets contributed, among\\nthem Chapelain, Gombauld, Scudery,\\nRacan, and Conrart. Sixteen of the\\nthreescore poems are by Montausier\\nhimself. Voiture alone of those whom\\nwe should expect to find represented\\nwas not of the number. Did the en-\\nfant terrible of Hotel de Rambouillet\\nactually pout and refuse to play,\\nas Bourciez hints In 1855 Cousin\\nwas able to thank God in a manner\\ntruly French that the Guirlande de\\nJulie was still in existence, a carefully\\nguarded treasure in one of the noble\\nhouses of France. It has been upon\\nthe market at least once, and then\\nbrought the considerable sum of three\\nthousand dollars. That was a hun-\\ndred years ago. One hardly dares to\\nthink to what towering height the\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00941- 67", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0081.jp2"}, "82": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nvirtuosi and bibliophiles of to-day\\nmight run the price if the Garland\\nwere to be brought to the block.\\nHistorians date the decline of Ho-\\ntel de Rambouillet from Julie s mar-\\nriage. She represented the younger\\nlife of the stately house. If the Mar-\\nquise herself could not be called old\\nin 1645 she was at least of middle\\nage she had passed her fifty-seventh\\nbirthday. For thirty-five years she\\nhad presided over a circle whose name\\nis to this day the synonym for refine-\\nment and culture. During that time\\nother women had learned, partly from\\nher, the art of conducting a salon.\\nMany of these women were gifted\\nand of high social standing. They\\nwere able to preside with grace and\\nintelligence. Many of them were of", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0082.jp2"}, "83": {"fulltext": "^iVZ r#\u00c2\u00a3 PR CIEUSES\\nlittle culture and possessed only of\\nthe imitative faculty. The best they\\ncould do was to travesty what they\\nhad seen or heard in the fc blue room,\\nor still worse to travesty what they\\nhad not known by experience but\\nonly heard about. Between 1645 and\\n1648 a new word precieuse 5 began\\nto pass from lip to lip. Without\\nattempting to give an accurate defi-\\nnition to it the public adopted it.\\nThey to whom the word was applied\\naccepted it with complacency; they\\nwho applied it to others did so with\\nan accent which might mean anything\\nfrom admiration to contempt.\\n69.", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0083.jp2"}, "84": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0084.jp2"}, "85": {"fulltext": "IV\\n.HO were the Precieuses We\\nare usually taught to believe that all\\nthe habitual frequenters of the blue\\nroom are to be so accounted. But\\nRoederer, the first historian to have\\ndefinite ideas on the subject, and the\\nhistorian who has succeeded in im-\\nposing his ideas on all other writ-\\ners, says not so. As I understand\\nhim, Preciosity may have cradled in\\nthe blue room, and the Marquise de\\nRambouillet will always be reputed\\n71", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0085.jp2"}, "86": {"fulltext": "e=\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nits mother but she is not to be held\\nresponsible for the later vagaries of\\nher offspring.\\nTake the so-called English aes-\\nthetic movement of a few years since.\\nRuskin was in a way responsible for\\nthe whole affair, sun-flowers, knee-\\nbreeches, clinging garments, the opera\\nof Patience, all of it. That is to\\nsay, he was as much responsible for it\\nas the Marquise de Rambouillet was\\nresponsible for the antics of the pre-\\ncieuses. Hotel de Rambouillet had\\nits affectations, but the extravagances\\nwhich called out the satire of Moliere\\nwere devised by the precieuses for\\ntheir own peculiar enjoyment. Even\\nat the time when Marini, the Nea-\\npolitan poet, was her honored guest,\\nhe who is thought to represent verbal", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0086.jp2"}, "87": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\naffectation carried to its extreme, the\\nMarquise remained faithful to Mal-\\nherbe. The poet of law and order\\nwas her poet.\\nEvery good and useful thing has its\\nparody. There is not a patent medi-\\ncine of reputed worth which does not\\nbear upon its label the warning, Be-\\nware of imitations.\\nThe salons which came into exist-\\nence just before and during the de-\\ncline of Hotel de Rambouillet were\\nmodeled more or less imperfectly\\nupon it. No woman had the social\\ngifts of the Marquise, no woman could\\nhope to bring together such a number\\nof shining lights. They did what\\nthey could. Some did well and some\\ndid very ill. In almost every case\\nthere was lack of a wholesome re-\\n^73^", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0087.jp2"}, "88": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nstraining force. It was hardly pos-\\nsible to play the fool before the stately\\nMarquise and her daughters, before\\nreal wits and real poets; but there\\nwas no end to the airs these women\\nput on when they set up, each for\\nherself a petty literary court.\\nFour or five of these salons deserve\\nonly courteous mention. Such were\\nHotel d Albret and Hotel de Riche-\\nlieu, which continued the aristocratic\\ntraditions of the 6 blue room. Hotel\\nd Albret was a princely mansion where\\none met the best of society, attracted\\nthere by the hospitality of the marshal,\\nhis high position, and his genuine\\nlove of conversation and letters.\\nMonsieur and Madame de Richelieu\\nhad about the same guests that one\\nfound at Hotel d Albret for example,\\n-+744-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0088.jp2"}, "89": {"fulltext": "s=\\nAND THE PR CIEUSES\\nMadame de Scarron was often to be\\nseen at these houses. They were\\nspoken of as copies, and in a way\\ncontinuations, of Hotel de Rambou-\\nillet. But they lacked a Voiture, by\\nwhose vivacity and wit their reputa-\\ntion might be carried down to pos-\\nterity. 1\\nOther circles of distinction were\\nthose of Mademoiselle de Montpen-\\nsier, the daughter of Gaston, Due d Or-\\nleans, the lady general of the Fronde,\\nnow living in splendid disgrace at\\nthe Luxembourg; of Madame de\\nLongueville, Madame de Sable, and\\nMadame de La Fayette. The world\\nis indebted to two of these women\\n1 Rcederer Memoir e sur la Societe polie, chap,\\nxiii.\\n^75^", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0089.jp2"}, "90": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nfor their share in the Maxims of\\nLa Rochefoucauld. The Marquise\\nde Sable wrote maxims. So did the\\nmembers of her circle. At this house,\\nwhose attractions were sufficient to\\nbring Arnauld and Pascal, the con-\\nversation turned on high and serious\\nthemes, metaphysics, theology, physi-\\ncal science, grammar. How vital the\\nquestion of correct speech was held to\\nbe we know from a little book on the\\nart of translation written by the gen-\\ntleman who called himself Sieur de\\nLestang, and dedicated to Madame\\nde Sable. I know, he says, that the\\nmasters of our language consult you\\nin their doubts, make you the arbi-\\ntress of their differences, and submit\\nto your decisions. In truth you are\\nthe person who best knows all the\\n-j- 76+-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0090.jp2"}, "91": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRE CIE USES\\nlaws and rules of discourse, who best\\nknows how to utter sentiments and\\nideas with grace and clarity, who\\nbest knows how to employ those\\nhappy forms of expression at once\\ningenious, charming, and characteris-\\ntically French. In short, you are the\\none who best knows all those myster-\\nies and delicacies of style of which\\nMonsieur de Vaugelas speaks/\\nThe Maxims of La Rochefoucauld\\nas they appeared in their earliest form\\nrepresent the genius of their author\\nplus the influence of Madame de\\nSable. In their later and less cynical\\nform is to be perceived a measure of\\nthe humanizing and generous influ-\\nence of Madame de La Fayette. One\\nmay not speak lightly of the tastes,\\nmanners, or occupations of any one\\n^77^", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0091.jp2"}, "92": {"fulltext": "I\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nof these ruelles of the second order/\\nThere must have been much that was\\nadmirable in the life there, since it\\ncompelled the admiration of Huet,\\nLa Fontaine, La Rochefoucauld, and\\nMadame de Sevigne.\\nThe most spectacular of these\\nlesser coteries was that of Madeleine\\nde Scudery. Brunetiere is sneering in\\nhis tone when he speaks of this lady\\nCette pauvre Sapho, he says. She\\nhad many admirable qualities, though\\nit seems extravagant to call her, as\\nM. Barthelemy does, the most re-\\nmarkable figure of the seventeenth\\ncentury/ She composed romances of\\na length unknown to the feeble read-\\ners of our day. Every story was in\\nten volumes when it was not in more\\nand every volume was a quarto. At\\nH 78 H", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0092.jp2"}, "93": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRiCIEUSES\\nfirst glance one would incline to say\\nthat a single romance by Madeleine\\nde Scudery contained almost as much\\nreading matter as all the Waverley\\nnovels taken together. She was the\\nmost pitiless writer of fiction that the\\nworld has ever known. Even M.\\nBarthelemy admits that her romances\\nseem long and monotonous to us.\\nIt is beyond belief that her books\\nwere ever read at least that they\\nwere ever read through. The fasci-\\nnation they exercised was in part due\\nto the fact that under classical names\\nwere to be recognized notable con-\\ntemporaries. People read the Grand\\nCyrus in order to see themselves as\\nMadeleine de Scudery saw them.\\nThe manners, events, ideas were of\\ntheir own day, and not of some vague\\n-+79-*-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0093.jp2"}, "94": {"fulltext": "s=\\nHOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\npast as they pretended to be. The\\ncharacters have been identified. Vic-\\ntor Cousin devoted two volumes\\ncomprising nearly a thousand pages\\nto an interpretation of French society\\nin the seventeenth century according\\nto the Grand Cyrus. Mandane is\\nthe Duchesse de Longueville; Cyrus\\nis the great Conde; Cleomire is the\\nMarquise de Rambouillet Angelique\\nPaulet is Elise and so on.\\nThe romance of Clelie has for\\nfrontispiece a remarkable map designed\\nby Mademoiselle de Scudery to illus-\\ntrate the progress of the great pas-\\nsion. It is a map of the Kingdom\\nof Tenderness. Here are pleasant\\nvalleys, hills and plains, villages and\\ncities. There is a well-defined road\\nwhich lovers may travel. They\\n-H-80+-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0094.jp2"}, "95": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRE CIE USES\\nwander along the shore of the Lake\\nof Indifference and presently come to\\nthe town of Respect. Then they\\npass through a number of villages\\nsuch as Love-letter, Letter-gallant,\\nPretty-verses, Complaisance, Submis-\\nsion, Little Attentions, Assiduity,\\nEagerness, Sensibility. In this way\\none fell in love according to Made-\\nmoiselle de Scudery. On her map\\nthere was also a perfidious river called\\nInclination, perfidious because it led\\nto the Ocean Dangerous. All this sen-\\ntimental rubbish was highly esteemed\\nin the year 1656, not alone by the\\nprecieuses, but by people of taste and\\njudgment as well; and a grave and\\nlearned body of men, the French\\nAcademy, bestowed on La Scuderi\\nthe Balzac prize of Eloquence.", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0095.jp2"}, "96": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nIn Alfred de Vigny s historical ro-\\nmance of Cinq-Mars is a scene at the\\nhouse of Marion de Lorme where are\\ngathered together among numerous\\ngallants and fine gentlemen certain\\nmen of letters, Corneille, young Moli-\\nere, Georges de Scudery, the brother\\nof Madeleine, also Descartes, two or\\nthree members of the Academy, and,\\nof all men, John Milton Georges de\\nScudery has a map of the Kingdom\\nof Tenderness which he explains to\\nan admiring group. Young Poque-\\nlin professes not to find the wit of the\\ncarte de Tendre very interesting, is\\nsnubbed into silence, and consoles\\nhimself by meditating the Prkieuses\\nridicules. Later in the evening Mil-\\nton recites from Paradise Lost to the\\nsatisfaction of a few of his auditors\\n-j- 82+-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0096.jp2"}, "97": {"fulltext": "4 *Z^-=\\nAND THE PRiCIEUSES\\nand to the dismay of the majority.\\nThe scene is not entirely convincing.\\nThere are too many distinguished\\nmen on the stage at the same time.\\nThe effect is exaggerated and theat-\\nrical. Undoubtedly the episode is\\nbest judged from a point of view quite\\nother than that which an Englishman\\nor an American would naturally take.\\nAlfred de Vigny s motive is none the\\nless suggestive he wishes to contrast\\nthe product of the salons and coteries\\nwith that greater literature which is\\nindependent of fashion and unaffected\\nby the caprices of society.\\nWhen a woman is plain she may\\nbe praised for some virtue which is\\nsuperior to good looks. The critic\\nwho described Madeleine de Scudery\\nas a homely old maid was generous", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0097.jp2"}, "98": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nenough to add that she was good.\\nShe was a very amiable woman and\\nhad been cordially received at Hotel\\nde Rambouillet. That she got many\\nof her ideas there is indisputable it\\nis not so easy to believe, as some\\nwriters would have us believe, that\\nshe represented the pure tradition of\\nthe blue room of Arthenice.\\nShe began to hold her famous\\n6 Saturdays some time between 1645\\nand 1650. Her house became the\\nnormal school of precieuses of the\\nthorough-going sort. Wherein it dif-\\nfered from that more splendid school\\nof manners at Hotel de Rambouillet\\nis clearly explained by Cousin. At\\nthe older house the circle was largely\\naristocratic, distinguished by fine blood\\nas well as by fine breeding. If the\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00941-84-1\u00e2\u0080\u0094", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0098.jp2"}, "99": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nconversation was of literature, that did\\nnot preclude other themes. They\\ntalked of everything, of war, of reli-\\ngion, of politics. The influence which\\nemanated from this society was far-\\nreaching because the matters there dis-\\ncussed were of varied interest, not con-\\nfined to belles-lettres. On the other\\nhand the Saturdays were out and out\\nliterary, and therefore apt to be afflicted\\nwith that malaise which is always\\napparent if a number of people with\\nliterary leanings get together. The\\nsalon of Mademoiselle de Scudery\\nhad its better and its worse state, to\\nbe sure, but the general tendency\\nwas in the direction of preciosity\\npure and simple. Moreover the so-\\nciety was mixed. A few members of\\nthe elite came from time to time,\\nH 85 -I", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0099.jp2"}, "100": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nbut the Saturdays as a whole lacked\\ndistinction.\\nCousin makes this comparison. At\\nHotel de Rambouillet men and wo-\\nmen sought to express noble things\\nin a simple manner at the Satur-\\ndays they seemed to be trying to utter\\nunimportant things in a manner both\\nstrained and pretentious.\\n86-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0100.jp2"}, "101": {"fulltext": "V\\nT\\nJLHE small salons increased in\\nnumber. The frequenters thereof\\nmultiplied. The new word precieuse\\nbegan to be used in a restricted sense.\\nThe word was not so used until about\\nthirteen years after the great period of\\nHotel de Rambouillet.\\nHow marked the contrast was be-\\ntween the older house and the new\\nsalons becomes clear when we note\\nthe themes of conversation among the\\nprecieuses. For example, they dis-\\n-+87+-\\n\\\\S", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0101.jp2"}, "102": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\ncussed the great question whether\\nhistory should be preferred to romance,\\nor romance to history. Being new\\nwomen, they were agitated over the\\nquestion how much liberty it was\\nwoman s right to enjoy. Some took\\nthe ground that if husbands were sus-\\npicious, then it was the privilege of\\nwives to give them a reason for sus-\\npicion. One may guess accurately\\nhow such a topic would have been\\nreceived at Hotel de Rambouillet\\nThey mingled all kinds of diverse in-\\nterests in a manner truly grotesque.\\nThey prepared a manual of conversa-\\ntion. They dressed dolls with a view\\nto studying the effect of the new\\nfashions which they proposed to in-\\ntroduce. They conversed in a manner\\nso alambiquee that it ended like the\\n^88+-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0102.jp2"}, "103": {"fulltext": "n\\nAND THE PR C1EUSES\\nmeeting of a Browning society no\\none of them could understand the\\nothers. They made impromptus and\\nmadrigals. In short, they did all\\nsorts of things, no one of which would\\nthey have dared to do at Hotel de\\nRambouillet. Yet in many instances\\nthey seemed to have learned their les-\\nson of the older house. But the dig-\\nnity, the ceremonial repression which\\nthe Marquise herself exercised together\\nwith her own personal sweetness and\\ngood sense all these elements were\\nlacking.\\nThey annexed, though they can\\nhardly be said to have conquered, the\\nentire kingdom of knowledge. Some\\nwere philosophical. A precieuse who\\nhad lost a friend by death gave a dis-\\nquisition on grief. She maintained the\\n\u00e2\u0080\u00941-89-1\u00e2\u0080\u0094", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0103.jp2"}, "104": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\ninteresting thesis that the chief purpose\\nof grief is to help one to live over again\\nall the pleasure one has enjoyed with\\nthe lost friend. Others took the\\nhomely position that the object of\\ngrief is to make one miserable. Ma-\\ndemoiselle Dupre, an acquaintance of\\nMademoiselle de Scudery, became\\npassionately addicted to the philosophy\\nof Descartes. She interpreted it to\\nher friends, though it is quite possible\\nthat her interpretation of Cartesianism\\nbelongs in the same category with\\nMrs. Montague s defense of Shake-\\nspeare. Her ambitions were duly re-\\ncognized, however, and in her par-\\nticular circle she was called La\\nCartesienne.\\nSome of the precieuses were enthu-\\nsiastic over ^physical science. They\\nv 90", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0104.jp2"}, "105": {"fulltext": "s lrt\\nAND THE PR CIEUSES\\ncould readily be induced to leave it\\nand talk literature. For example,\\nWas Corneille to be preferred to Ben-\\nserade? And might not Chapelain\\nbe preferred to either\\nThey were perhaps most active over\\nquestions of grammar and rhetoric.\\nThey invented many new phrases and\\nexpressions to the eternal laughter of\\noutsiders, and to their own supreme\\ncontent. Not a few of these phrases\\nsurvive to this day and are accounted\\ngood French. On the other hand,\\nwith this passion for neologisms, they\\nseem really to have striven for that\\nhappy medium between the slipshod\\nand the pompous and extravagant type\\nof speech. At least they made a\\nsolemn vow that in conversation they\\nwould aim in purity of style at the\\n-+91+-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0105.jp2"}, "106": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\nrooting out of words in questionable\\ntaste, and they proclaimed unending\\nwar against pedants and provincials.\\nThey brought about a radical\\nchange in spelling. They decided to\\nabolish the superfluous letters from\\nsuch words as teste, hostel, tousjours,\\ngoust, and the like. Such changes as\\nthey made still hold good. To this\\nday people spell these words tete,\\nhotel, toujours, gout. Rcederer quotes\\nfrom Somaize a list of one hundred\\nand thirty-four words, nearly all of\\nwhich owe their present spelling to\\nthe influence of the precieuses. This\\nis an interesting fact, for we have it\\non the authority of Tallemant that\\nsome of the precieuses never learned\\nto spell at all.\\nThe truth is, preciosity includes so\\n-H-92-I-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0106.jp2"}, "107": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRiCIEUSES\\nmany contradictory elements that it is\\ndifficult to characterize it. One would\\nsuppose from the attitude of hostile\\ncritics that it was a deadly sin to be\\na precieuse. Whether it was or not\\nseems really to have depended upon\\nthe kind of precieuse one was. There\\nwere many varieties, some neither\\nadmirable nor the reverse, some quite\\nridiculous. To this last class belonged\\nsuch women as Madelon and Cathos\\nin the play. In fact, to call a woman\\na precieuse was to be indefinite.\\nThere must be a qualifying adjective.\\nThe lady might be a precieuse illustre,\\nor a precieuse grande, or simply a\\nprecieuse ridicule and it was a long\\nway from first to last. The chief de-\\nfect of preciosity as it showed itself\\nin ruelles of the second and third", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0107.jp2"}, "108": {"fulltext": "tr S\\nHOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\norder was its glorifications of trifles.\\nThese people loved to play at literary-\\ngames, but they had no great care for\\nliterature. They delighted in mere\\nbagatelles, such as enigmas and sonnets\\nto a lady s eyebrow. We are appalled\\nat the sight of Dean Swift spending\\nhis final melancholy days in writing\\nconundrums it was the last infirmity\\nof a mind which if not noble had at\\nleast noble qualities. But what shall\\nwe say when a whole society of intel-\\nligent men and women give them-\\nselves up to such frivolities? And\\none is astonished to see with how\\ngrave a face they carried on their\\nelaborate fooling. There must have\\nbeen a few who would gladly have\\nbroken away from bagatelles, whether\\nliterary or conversational, in order to", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0108.jp2"}, "109": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nintroduce more wholesome influence.\\nThe courage was lacking. The pun-\\nishment for taking one s ease in these\\ncharming courts was that one con-\\nformed to what appeared to be the\\nchief source of their charm. A man\\nmight know that he was stifling the\\nhigher and more rugged qualities of\\nliterature, but he conformed just the\\nsame.\\nThis bright, artificial world had its\\nhistoriographer. His name was So-\\nmaize. He holds a place in the an-\\nnals of literature not because he was\\na writer, but because he made a Dic-\\ntionary of the Precieuses, containing\\npen-portraits, comments on their phi-\\nlosophy, and a collection of their\\nphrases and circumlocutions. There\\nwere two editions of the dictionary,\\n-+95+~", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0109.jp2"}, "110": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\none little and one big. The c grand\\ndictionary gives the names of seven\\nhundred recognized precieuses, never\\nthe real name, to be sure, but a classi-\\ncal counterpart which was understood\\nby the elect.\\nSomaize defends the precieuses, or\\nat least seems to do so. He combats\\nthe popular error that a precieuse is a\\nwoman at least forty-five years old,\\nplain, and opposed to matrimony. It\\nis a mistake also to suppose that the\\npossession of wit alone entitles wo-\\nmen to be called precieuses. Only\\nthey may be so designated who busy\\nthemselves in writing or in correcting\\nthe writing of others, who lay stress\\nupon the reading of romances, and\\nabove all, who invent ways of speak-\\ning which are bizarre in their novelty\\n-h 96 H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0110.jp2"}, "111": {"fulltext": "-gQ\u00c2\u00a3 s\\n^ATZ) r#\u00c2\u00a3 PR CIEUSES\\nand unusual in their significance.\\nSomaize says that it was one of the\\ndoctrines of the precieuses that a\\nthought was of no value when it\\ncould be understood by all the world\\nthey held themselves under obligation\\nto speak otherwise than do common\\npeople, so that their ideas might be\\ngrasped only by those who have men-\\ntal powers above the vulgar. Thus\\nhe accounts for their efforts to destroy\\nthe old language and substitute for it\\none that is not only new, but peculiar\\nto themselves.\\nIf you were a genuine precieuse\\nyou had two names, one the name\\nwhich your parents gave you, the\\nother a poetical name, nom de Par-\\nnasse. This seems foolish, but is not\\nso foolish as it seems. I do not speak", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0111.jp2"}, "112": {"fulltext": "\u00c2\u00abs\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nby the card, but I take it the custom\\npartly originated in the need to have\\na more euphonious word for poetry\\nthan is offered in the average proper\\nname. And we all know that privi-\\nleges are accorded poets which are\\ndenied to commercial travelers. Lan-\\ndor addressed a poem to Ianthe.\\nThis was not the young lady s name\\nshe was a Miss Jones. But one can-\\nnot use that sort of name in poetry\\nany more than he can E. Mandeville\\nStubbs or M. Pett Mudge. To be\\nsure Wordsworth did it, but he failed\\nto establish the practice as a universal\\npoetic custom. It is a mere question\\nof euphony. Wilkinson sounds harsh\\nin poetry, yet the ear hears with de-\\nlight such phrases as Sidney s sister\\nPembroke s mother. Those words\\n-1-98 -K-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0112.jp2"}, "113": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR C1EUSES\\nwere not without grace long before\\nthey acquired the meaning which we\\nattach to them.\\nMoreover this renaming of people\\nis an innocent sophistication which\\nhas the sanction of antiquity. It pre-\\nvails in all literature of a certain age.\\nMen were never themselves, but al-\\nways somebody else, and the most\\nfashionable of gentlemen and ladies\\nloved to think that they were shep-\\nherds and shepherdesses. Shake-\\nspeare does not speak of Marlowe as\\nthe late Christopher Marlowe, or as\\nthe distinguished playwright and\\npoet who has so recently died, but\\ncalls him shepherd. Malherbe re-\\nchristened the Marquise de Ram-\\nbouillet Arthenice, an anagram on\\nCatherine. This fact has disturbed", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0113.jp2"}, "114": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nsome critics like the readable Paul\\nAlbert, for example, who calls Hotel\\nde Rambouillet a hot-house in\\nwhich were nursed exotic plants\\nbrought from Italy and Spain, plants\\nof no particular use except to show\\nFrenchmen what queer literary flora\\nwas produced in foreign lands.\\nPreciosity is after all only a matter\\nof degree. It is well to be refined\\nthe sin of the precieuses consisted in\\nrefining upon refinement until spon-\\ntaneity and naturalness were entirely\\nlost. Take that question of the\\nchoice of words. At Hotel de Ram-\\nbouillet it seemed best to avoid cer-\\ntain words and to substitute circum-\\nlocutions. There is no harm in this.\\nLet language be made as pliant as\\npossible. But let this flexibility be\\n-h IOO -H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0114.jp2"}, "115": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nobtained by legitimate means, and let\\ngood sense reign in the deliberations\\nof the self-appointed judges. If it be\\na sin to use a circumlocution instead\\nof a plain term, then are all men sin-\\nners. We should be lenient towards\\nthose who use words to conceal\\nthoughts still more towards those\\nwho use words to express with re-\\nstraint a thought which otherwise\\nmight come with dismaying blunt-\\nness. For example, there are certain\\nvigorous old English words which\\nwe rarely utter. It is not because\\nthey are coarse or indecent, but be-\\ncause they are definite and positive.\\nSuch words are entirely reputable\\nand more than expressive. No feel-\\ning of prejudice attaches to them\\nwhen they occur in the Scripture les-\\n101", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0115.jp2"}, "116": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\nson, or are met with in literature of a\\nrobust type like the plays of Shake-\\nspeare or the novels of Fielding. For\\nconversational purposes they may be\\nsaid to have disappeared.\\nThe reason may be in part this.\\nThe public classifies words for itself,\\nwith little heed to the classification of\\ngrammarians and philologists. The\\npublic takes many words and puts\\nthem in either of two categories, out-\\nof-door words and drawing-room\\nwords. Moreover it is not always\\nthought a virtue to bring out-of-door\\nexpressions into the drawing-room.\\nIt may be daring and original/ but\\nas a matter of taste it is as if an oars-\\nman, to show his originality and in-\\ndependence, were to go out to dine\\nin the costume in which he had been\\n-f- 102 -I-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0116.jp2"}, "117": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRECIS USES\\nrowing in his shell. People admit\\nthat there are ranks or orders of words,\\nadmit it by their practice even when\\nthey do not theorize about it. The\\nproof lies in the fact that they inva-\\nriably suppress certain words and use\\nan equivalent.\\nSuch suppression is not in itself\\nmadness, but that way the madness\\nof preciosity lies. If we habitually\\nuse a synonym which is rather worse\\nthan the word supplanted, if we strain\\nat gnats and swallow camels, we de-\\nmonstrate anew that the spirit of pre-\\nciosity is still potent. Indeed the\\nprecieuses are not dead; male and\\nfemale they still exist. The modern\\nspirit manifests itself in a hundred\\nways. Sometimes it runs to deca-\\ndent prose and verse in the effort to\\n-+103*-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0117.jp2"}, "118": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RJMBOUILLET\\nbe striking. Sometimes it prompts\\nto the printing of books on paper\\nwhich might have been made to wrap\\nsteaks in, and the illustration of one s\\npoetic ideas by means of decorations\\nrather less intelligible than an ordi-\\nnary nightmare. Sometimes it finds\\nits highest joy in being published in\\nan edition so limited that after the\\npersonal friends have been supplied\\nthe volume is at once catalogued as\\nscarce and out of print. There is\\nnothing reprehensible in being out of\\nprint most books are rather better so.\\nBut when the first edition of Poems,\\nchiefly in the Scottish Dialect, published\\nat Kilmarnock, became scarce and\\nout of print, it was for reasons un-\\nknown to amateurs of preciosity.\\nIn these and similar matters we are\\n-h 104-1-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0118.jp2"}, "119": {"fulltext": "^VZ r#\u00c2\u00a3 PR CIEUSES\\ntaught to believe that good sense and\\ngood taste prevailed at Hotel de\\nRambouillet. The testimony of\\nChapelain, already quoted, is conclu-\\nsive. Other and quite as good testi-\\nmony is not wanting. In the outer\\ncircles of preciosity, however, it was\\nquite otherwise. A thoroughgoing\\nprecieuse, to whom words were rather\\nmore important than ideas, would not\\nspeak of her ears she would say the\\ngates of my understanding she would\\nspeak of night as the mother of silence,\\nwar as the mother of discord a hat\\nwas not a hat, it was the defer of the\\nweather (1 afFronteur des temps) chairs\\nwere the indisp ens able s of conversation\\nand tears were the pearls of Iris no\\none shed tears, he shed pearls. Teeth\\nwere the furniture of the mouth a ser-\\n105-1-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0119.jp2"}, "120": {"fulltext": "I? B,^r s v,,\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOVILLET\\ngeant of police was the bad angel of\\ncriminals; a mirror was known as a\\npainter of supreme fidelity and soup\\nmasqueraded under the phrase, the\\nharmony of two elements.\\nThese and similar expressions to the\\nnumber of several hundred were col-\\nlected by Somaize from the lips of\\npeople who used them, or from the\\nletters and romances of the time, and\\nare to be found in his Grand Diction-\\nnaire des Pretieuses. A scientific clas-\\nsification of them is given in the\\nfourth volume of the Histoire de la\\nLangue et de la Litterature fran^aise^\\nnow publishing under the editorial\\ndirection of that distinguished scholar,\\nM. Petit de Julleville. The malady\\nwas widespread. Moliere himself was\\nnot wholly able to escape it. Nei-\\n106", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0120.jp2"}, "121": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR CIEUSES\\nther was Corneille. In much the\\nsame way Shakespeare dropped into\\noccasional Euphuistic forms even\\nwhen he was not laughing at Eu-\\nphuism.\\nWhen preciosity reached the coun-\\ntry towns it became more ridiculous\\nthan ever, and fell quite naturally\\nunder the lash of the satirist. Mo-\\nliere is believed to have tried the ef-\\nfect of the Precieuses ridicules in the\\nprovinces before he produced it in\\nParis. There were so many pre-\\ncieuses in Lyons that Somaize de-\\nvoted twenty-eight pages to them in\\nan appendix to the Dictionnaire.\\nThey were to be found at Bordeaux,\\nat Aix, at Poitiers, at Aries, and at\\nMontpellier. In the Voyage de Cha-\\npelle et de Bachaumont is an account\\n-H- IO7", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0121.jp2"}, "122": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nof a visit to a gathering of country\\nprecieuses, the very type which Mo-\\nliere must often have encountered\\nduring his years of provincial travel.\\nChapelle describes their affected and\\npretentious airs. He satirizes their\\ntawdry rhetoric, and turns them into\\nridicule by making them talk of the\\n4 divine beauty of Mademoiselle de\\nScudery, and speak of Pellisson as an\\nAdonis. When one of these ladies\\nreferred to D Assoucy as a member\\nof the French Academy, Chapelle de-\\nclares that he and his companions\\nwere seized with so irresistible a desire\\nto laugh that they were obliged to\\nleave the room and leave the house\\nthey went back to their inn to have\\ntheir laugh out at leisure.\\nThere was abundant material for\\n108-1-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0122.jp2"}, "123": {"fulltext": "=a\\nAND THE PRfiCIEUSES\\nsatire in the externals of preciosity,\\nas may be learned by reading Livet s\\naccount of a morning at the house\\nof some representative blue-stock-\\ning. These people lived comic opera\\nand did n t know it. One would\\nlike to have seen such a gathering,\\nthe high-priestess throned upon her\\ncouch, the spaces on either side of\\nthe bed (the ruelles) filled with ladies\\nand gallants, the fluttering of fans and\\nfeathers, the rustle and gleam of satin\\nand silk, the little beribboned canes\\nwhich they waved incessantly while\\nthey talked; the talk itself, infinitely\\nclever in some cases and infinitely\\nabsurd in others the flourishes and\\nbows, the compliments and witti-\\ncisms; and then the general serenity\\nwhich filled every breast, the con-\\n-I- 109 4-\\nV", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0123.jp2"}, "124": {"fulltext": "HOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nsciousness that no vulgar sound could\\nmar the turn of a verse or the climax\\nof an apostrophe, for the door-knocker\\nwas carefully muffled.\\nno-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0124.jp2"}, "125": {"fulltext": "VI\\nHP\\nJlfcHE Marquise de Rambouillet\\ndied in 1665. For some time before\\nher death the salon had been but a\\nshadow of its former self. The mem-\\nory of the great days survived, but\\nthe great days were no longer pos-\\nsible. New ideas had begun to\\nmould the literature of the seven-\\nteenth century. Preciosity was not\\nannihilated by Moliere s attack, but\\nmore than ever it became a reproach\\nand a byword. The latter-day pre-\\n111 4-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0125.jp2"}, "126": {"fulltext": "HOTEL BE RAMBOVILLET\\ncieuses had the name but not the\\npower. They might summon spirits\\nfrom the vasty deep, but the only\\nresponse was the irreverent laughter of\\nspectators.\\nThat preciosity had many virtues\\ncannot be denied. It was exceeding\\npicturesque also and picturesque-\\nness alone is a virtue for which we\\nought to be grateful. The pages\\nwhich contain its history are among\\nthe most fascinating in the annals of\\nFrench literature. The Marquise\\nwas in many ways a great woman.\\nShe was admirable in her own day,\\nshe is admirable in ours. It was no\\nsmall accomplishment to have had\\na refining influence upon one s day\\nand generation. It was no little or\\nunworthy thing to have retained\\n-I- II2-H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0126.jp2"}, "127": {"fulltext": "AND THE PRfiCIEUSES\\none s social supremacy through so\\nmany years, and by entirely legiti-\\nmate methods. Historians have ex-\\naggerated the intellectual frivolity of\\nHotel de Rambouillet. After all it\\nseems less culpable to be frivolous\\nover words and ideas than over cards;\\nand if it is a question of ultimate\\nidiocy, charades are no worse than\\ndancing. Let us not exaggerate the\\nsignificance of trifles. Incredible as\\nit may appear, I have seen human\\nbeings playing hjalma the men were\\ncollege-graduates and the women\\nbelonged to clubs. If, then, we are\\ninclined to laugh at a society which\\ncould divide into two hostile camps\\non the question which of two sonnets\\nwas the better, we may take comfort\\nin the compensating thought that", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0127.jp2"}, "128": {"fulltext": "a ltdr\\nHOTEL DE RAMBOUILLET\\nthese people actually knew a sonnet\\nwhen they saw one.\\nThe statement may be hard to\\nprove, but without doubt the circle\\nof Hotel de Rambouillet better de-\\nserves our respect than the best so-\\nciety of any favorite centre at the\\npresent day. It was the misfortune\\nof Hotel de Rambouillet to have out-\\nlived its usefulness. But that may\\nhappen to any man, any woman, any\\norganization. It was also its misfor-\\ntune to have been imitated, and badly\\nimitated. Yet the genuine is none\\nthe less genuine because the spurious\\nexists. Hotel de Rambouillet has its\\nplace, and that a great place in the\\nhistory of the seventeenth century.\\nIt was the incomparable vestibule of\\nmodern culture. The men of that\\n1", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0128.jp2"}, "129": {"fulltext": "AND THE PR^CIEUSES\\ngeneration had no reason to regret\\nthat they had frequented the blue\\nroom of Arthenice. Some no doubt\\nlearned affectation, but more learned\\nto think delicately, and all to speak\\nwell/\\n115.", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0129.jp2"}, "130": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0130.jp2"}, "131": {"fulltext": "BIBLIOGRAPHICAL\\nNOTE\\n1 HIS sketch of Hotel de Rambouillet\\nwill serve no real purpose unless it stimu-\\nlates the reader to consult a few, at least,\\nof the many books and essays in which\\nFrench critical scholarship and genius have\\ninterpreted the history of seventeenth cen-\\ntury literature. Larroumet well says that\\none might make a small library out of the\\nbooks devoted to the societe precieuse.\\nThe following bibliography is for the use\\nof c gentle readers it is not addressed to\\n117 -t-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0131.jp2"}, "132": {"fulltext": "g\\nBIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\\nliterary specialists or professional bibliogra-\\nphers.\\nHaving in mind, therefore, the amateur\\nof good books rather than the pundit, I\\nhave grouped the materials relating to\\nHotel de Rambouillet and the Precieuses\\nthus\\nFirst The more or less condensed no-\\ntices to be found in manuals of French\\nliterature. These works are inexpensive\\nand accessible. They present the subject\\nin epitome.\\ni Lanson (Gustave), Histoire de la Lit-\\nterature frangaise. Paris, Hachette, 1898,\\nPP- 3 68 -39!-\\n2. Lintilhac (Eugene), Litterature fran-\\nfaise. Paris, Andre fils, 1895. Deuxieme\\npartie, pp. 9-16.\\n3. Brunettere (Ferdinand), Manuel de\\nV histoire de la Litter ature frangaise. Paris,\\nDelagrave, 1898, pp. 106-130.\\n118", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0132.jp2"}, "133": {"fulltext": "BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\\nEach of the above-named books is rich\\nin bibliographical references.\\n4. Geruzez (Eugene), Histoire de la Lit-\\nterature fran^aise. Paris, Didier, 1869, pp.\\n35-63.\\n5. Albert (Paul), Litter ature fran^aise\\ndes origines a la fin du XVI e Steele. Paris,\\nHachette, 1881, pp. 387-404.\\n6. Pergameni (Hermann), Histoire ge-\\nnerate de la Litterature fran$aise. Paris,\\nAlcan, 1889, PP- 209-213.\\nSecond Extended accounts and mono-\\ngraphs.\\n1. Petit de Julie ville (L.), Histoire de\\nla Langue et de la Litterature fran$aise.\\nParis, Colin, 1897. Vol. IV., chapters 1,\\n2, and 7.\\nThis magnificent work is being written\\nby collaboration. The chapters in ques-\\ntion are by Petit de Julleville, Bourciez,\\n119", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0133.jp2"}, "134": {"fulltext": "BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\\nand Morillot. Excellent bibliographies at\\nthe end of each chapter.\\n2. Demogeot (Jacques), Tableau de la\\nLitter ature fran^aise au XVII e Steele avant\\nCorneille et Descartes. Paris, Hachette,\\n1859, PP- 205-300.\\n3. Li vet (Ch.-L.), Precieux et Pr ecieuses,\\ncaracteres et mceurs litter aires du XVII e\\nSiecle. Paris, Didier, 1859.\\n4. Rcederer (P. L.), Memoire pour servir\\na Vhistoire de la Societe polie en France.\\nParis, Didot, 1835.\\nPrivately printed and expensive. Mod-\\nest Parisian booksellers will sometimes part\\nwith the volume for ten dollars. There is\\na copy in the Boston Public Library.\\n5. Cousin (Victor), La Societe fran$aise\\nau XVII e Siecle d apres la Grand Cyrus.\\nParis, Perrin, 1886, two vols. La Jeu-\\nnesse de Mme. de Longueville. Paris, Perrin,\\n1897. Mme. de Sable, Paris, Didier, 1882.\\n120 H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0134.jp2"}, "135": {"fulltext": "BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\\n6. Brunetifere (F.), Etudes Critiques,\\ndeuxieme serie La Societe precieuse, a\\nreview of La Jeunesse de Flechier by the\\nAbbe Fabre.\\nIn this essay Brunetiere makes his often\\nquoted distinction between the esprit gau-\\nlois and the esprit precieux.\\n7. Larroumet (Gustave), Notice histo-\\nrique sur les Precieuses ridicules. Paris, Gar-\\nnier.\\nThis book should be in the hands of all\\nstudents. The eighty pages of introduction\\nare in the highest degree suggestive and\\ninforming.\\n8. Crane (Thomas Frederick), La Soci-\\nete fran$aise au XVII e Siecle. New York,\\nPutnam, 1889.\\nContains a large and carefully selected\\ngroup of passages relating to Hotel de\\nRambouillet, nearly all from contemporary\\nwriters. There are copious notes, an intro-\\n121 -j-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0135.jp2"}, "136": {"fulltext": "j^ tT 1\\nBIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\\nduction of thirty-four pages, a bibliography,\\nand a reproduction of the c Carte du\\nTendre.\\ng. Breitinger (H.), Jus neuern Litter a-\\nturen. Zurich, 1879, pp. 1-54. Der\\nSalon Rambouillet und seine culturgeschicht-\\nliche Bedeutung.\\n10. Colombey (Emile), Ruelles, Salons^\\net Cabarets. Paris, Dentu, 1892.\\nThis list does not begin to exhaust the\\nnumber of critical and historical studies.\\nThe reader who consults these will have\\nno difficulty in getting track of what he\\nwants. The numerous passages scattered\\nthrough the various writings of Sainte-\\nBeuve should be read.\\nThird Direct sources, among which\\nare\\n1. Tallemant de R6aux Les Histori-\\nettes, 3 e edition, De Monmerque et Paulin\\nParis. Paris, Techener, 1862, six vols.\\n122 H-", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0136.jp2"}, "137": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0137.jp2"}, "138": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0138.jp2"}, "139": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0139.jp2"}, "140": {"fulltext": "1900", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0140.jp2"}, "141": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3741", "width": "2135", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0141.jp2"}, "142": {"fulltext": "", "height": "4479", "width": "2427", "jp2-path": "htelderambouille00vinc_0142.jp2"}}