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18 - Women of Versailles- the Court of Louis XIV by Arthur-Leon Imbert de Saint-Amand · Women of Versailles- the Court of Louis XIV

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  Speaker 1: Section eighteen of Women of Versailles. The Court of Louis
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  Speaker 1: the fourteenth by Artour Leon Ambert de Saint Aman, translated
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  Speaker 1: by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin. This librovox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. Read by Pamela and Agami, Chapter thirteen, Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Mantinan's Letters. Madame de Mantinan is one of those
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  Speaker 1: characters who requires to be patiently and conscientiously studied by
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  Speaker 1: an observer who wishes to render an impartial judgment. At first,
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  Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth did not like the woman destined to
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  Speaker 1: become the most serious and lasting affection of his life.
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  Speaker 1: The King did not like me, she writes herself, and
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  Speaker 1: long held me in aversion. He was afraid of me
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  Speaker 1: as a wit. How was it that Louis the fourteenth
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  Speaker 1: passed from repugnance to sympathy, from distrust to confidence, from
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  Speaker 1: prejudice to admiration. It was by getting a nearer view
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  Speaker 1: of moral qualities, which at first he saw only from
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  Speaker 1: a distance. The same thing has happened to a majority
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  Speaker 1: of the critics, who, having to speak of Madame de Mantineau,
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  Speaker 1: have not been contented with superficial views, but have carefully
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  Speaker 1: analyzed the life and character of this celebrated woman. What
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  Speaker 1: has occurred to one of her principal defenders. Monsieur Teo
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  Speaker 1: Fhio Lavalais, affords a proof of the foregoing observation. When
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  Speaker 1: he brought out his east Ward de Francis, this writer
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  Speaker 1: judged Madame de Mantineaon very severely. He accused her of
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  Speaker 1: the most complete aridity of heart, of a spirit of
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  Speaker 1: narrow devotion and mean intrigue. He reproached her for having
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  Speaker 1: suggested fatal enterprises and wretched appointments to Louis the fourteenth.
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  Speaker 1: She belittled him, He says, she forced mediocre and servile
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  Speaker 1: people on him. She had, in fact the greatest share
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  Speaker 1: in the errors and disasters of the end of the reign.
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  Speaker 1: Some years later, Monsieur la Valais wrote his fine Eastward
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  Speaker 1: delin Maison Royal de Saint Cyr. In this work he says,
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  Speaker 1: Madame de Maintenon gave Louis the fourteenth none but salutary
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  Speaker 1: and disinterested councils, useful to the state and to the
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  Speaker 1: alleviation of the people. What had happened between the publication
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  Speaker 1: of these two books, the author had studied devoting a
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  Speaker 1: patient research to a work of prevailing interest. He had
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  Speaker 1: succeeded in collecting the letters and writings of Madame de Mantinon,
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  Speaker 1: thanks to communication with the dukes of Noai Mouchi Camvasis
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  Speaker 1: from Messieurs Furie de Comte Montmercuie de Chevree Hoere Boname,
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  Speaker 1: he had been able to increase the treasures of the
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  Speaker 1: archives of Saint Cyr. Madame de Mantineau is one of
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  Speaker 1: the historical personages who have written most her letters. If
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  Speaker 1: she had not destroyed, a great number of them would
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  Speaker 1: almost form a library. The Archives of Saint Cyr alone
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  Speaker 1: contain forty volumes of them, and yet the most curious
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  Speaker 1: of the letters have doubtless not been preserved. Always prudent,
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  Speaker 1: Madame de Mantonaud burned her correspondence with Louis the fourteenth,
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  Speaker 1: her husband, with Madame de Montchevrey, her most intimate friend,
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  Speaker 1: with the Bishop of chart her director. The letters of
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  Speaker 1: her youth are rare, nobody yet divined the future which
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  Speaker 1: Providence was reserving for her. Monsieur Lavalaier's collection, necessarily incomplete,
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  Speaker 1: is nevertheless an historical monument of very great value. Two
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  Speaker 1: volumes of letters and familiar discourses on the education of girls,
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  Speaker 1: two others of historical and edifying letters addressed to the
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  Speaker 1: Ladies of Saint Cyr, four volumes of general correspondents, one
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  Speaker 1: of conversations and maxims, another of miscellaneous writings, and a
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  Speaker 1: final one which includes the souvenir Madame de Caelouse. The
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  Speaker 1: memoirs of the Ladies of Saint Cyr and those of
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle d'mals form the ensemble of a publication that has
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  Speaker 1: fully illustrated a figure eminently curious to study. The collection
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  Speaker 1: of La Beaumele Voltaire's Enemy contains, along with many authentic letters,
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  Speaker 1: a great quantity of apocryphal ones. There are changes, interpolations, editions,
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  Speaker 1: and suppressions. Fabricated bits have been inserted, containing clap trap phrases,
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  Speaker 1: piquant reform, elections, maxims in the style of the eighteenth century.
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur Lavalai has found the means whereby to distinguish the
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  Speaker 1: wheat from the tares. Passing Labomel's collection through the sieve
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  Speaker 1: of a sagacious criticism, he has succeeded in verifying the
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  Speaker 1: text of the true letters and proving the apocryphal character
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  Speaker 1: of those which are false. Like the connoisseurs in autographs,
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  Speaker 1: he suspected the striking letters. Falsifiers are almost always imprudent.
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  Speaker 1: They force the note, and when they set about inventing
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  Speaker 1: a document, they want their invention to produce a profound impression.
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  Speaker 1: The correspondence of celebrated persons is generally much more simple
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  Speaker 1: far less studied than the pretended autographs attributed to them.
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  Speaker 1: One needs to be always on his guard against letters
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  Speaker 1: containing either finished portraits, profound judgments, or historical predictions. They
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  Speaker 1: are often signs of falsification, and the more striking they seem,
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  Speaker 1: the more carefully should their origin be examined. This is
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  Speaker 1: one of the rules whose strict application would prevent many mistakes.
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  Speaker 1: The majority of historical documents resembles certain inheritances. They should
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  Speaker 1: not be accepted unless on condition of not becoming liable
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  Speaker 1: to debts in excess of the assets. Madame de Maintenon's
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  Speaker 1: letters deserve the trouble that has been taken to establish
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  Speaker 1: their dates and authenticity with exactness. Baron Wolkenayer, the biographer
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  Speaker 1: of Madame de Sevignier, assigns to them the highest rank
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  Speaker 1: without hesitation Madame de Mantinean, he says, is a more
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  Speaker 1: finished model of a pistolary style than Madame de Savigner.
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  Speaker 1: The latter seldom writes, except when she feels the need
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  Speaker 1: of conversing with her daughter or other person whom she loves,
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  Speaker 1: in order to say everything, to tell the whole story.
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  Speaker 1: Madame de Mantineau, on the contrary, has always a distinct
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  Speaker 1: end in view in writing. The cleverness, proportion, elegance, and
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  Speaker 1: justice of her thoughts, the subtlety of her reflections enable
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  Speaker 1: her to attain pleasantly the goal she aims at. Her
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  Speaker 1: progress is straight and unfaltering. She follows the road without
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  Speaker 1: striking against the bushes, without deviating to right or left.
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  Speaker 1: Such was also the opinion of the First Napoleon. He
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  Speaker 1: greatly preferred the letters of Madame de Mantineau to those
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  Speaker 1: of Madame de Savignier, which were, according to him, snow
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  Speaker 1: eggs with which one could surfeit himself without overloading his stomach.
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  Speaker 1: In citing Napoleon's preference, Monsieur Desaree Nissar accepts it with
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  Speaker 1: some reservations. When Madame de Mantineau's left utters are full
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  Speaker 1: of matter, says the eminent critic one shares the opinion
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  Speaker 1: of the great Emperor. They possess to the highest degree
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  Speaker 1: a certain nameless quality of discretion, simplicity, efficacy. They do
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  Speaker 1: not dazzle by means of feminine versatility, and the naturalness
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  Speaker 1: of them pleases all the more because it proceeds rather
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  Speaker 1: from the reason which disdains mere prettiness, without desiring to
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  Speaker 1: dispense with real graces, than from the wit which plays
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  Speaker 1: with nothings. But when matter is lacking, these letters are short, dry, constrained.
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  Speaker 1: If Madame de Mantineau had had literary preoccupations, if she
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  Speaker 1: had imagined that she was writing for posterity, she would
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  Speaker 1: have produced letters still more remarkable. There is neither studied
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  Speaker 1: refinement nor pretension in her correspondence. She writes to edify,
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  Speaker 1: to invert, and to console, far more than to please.
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  Speaker 1: Her notes to the ladies and young girls of Saint
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  Speaker 1: Cyr do not outstep this pious limit. Often Madame de
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  Speaker 1: Mantinon does not take the pen herself, but while spinning
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  Speaker 1: or knitting she dictates to the young girls who act
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  Speaker 1: as her secretaries. To Mademoiselle de Lubert, Mademoiselle de Saint etienne,
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle dosment or Mademoiselle do MARDs. But in the least
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  Speaker 1: of these innumerable notes are always found those qualities of style, sobriety, proportion, conciseness,
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  Speaker 1: perfect harmony between the thought and its expression, which have
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  Speaker 1: been admired by the best judges. The two women of
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  Speaker 1: the seventeenth century whose letters are most celebrated, Madame de
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  Speaker 1: Savignier and Madame de Mantineau, felt for each other both
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  Speaker 1: sympathy and esteem. We take supper every evening with Madame Scarrot,
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  Speaker 1: wrote Madame de Sevignier in sixteen seventy two. Her disposition
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  Speaker 1: is amiable and marvelously upright. One can fancy what conversation
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  Speaker 1: might be between these choice women, both so superior, so
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  Speaker 1: well instructed, so witty, complimenting each other by their very diversities.
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  Speaker 1: Madame de Savignier a strong and richly endowed nature, a
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  Speaker 1: young and beautiful widow, virtuous but with a free and
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  Speaker 1: dauntless humor, A dazzling celemene sister Ti Moliere, as sent
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  Speaker 1: Beauve calls her, a woman whose character's speech in writing
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  Speaker 1: are alike. Intense justifies what was said to her by
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  Speaker 1: her friend Madame de Lafayette, You seem born for pleasures,
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  Speaker 1: and they seem to have been made for you. Your presence, augments,
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  Speaker 1: entertainments and entertainments augment your beauty when your surroundings. In
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  Speaker 1: a word, joy is the true condition of your soul,
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  Speaker 1: and chagrin is more contrary to you than to anyone else.
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  Speaker 1: Her image, sparkling like her wit, appears to us in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of those fetes which her pen brings to
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  Speaker 1: life again, like the wand of a magician. What shall
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  Speaker 1: I tell you? Magnificences, illuminations all France, worn out coats
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  Speaker 1: and gold brocade, ones, jewels, braziers of fire and of flowers,
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  Speaker 1: heaps of carriages, cries in the streets, lighted torches, carriages backing,
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  Speaker 1: and people run over in fine a whirl, dissipation, questions
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  Speaker 1: without answers, compliments without knowing what one says, civilities without
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  Speaker 1: knowing to whom one is speaking, feet tangled in trains.
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  Speaker 1: Madame de Savigner, whose letters passed from hand to hand
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  Speaker 1: in drawing rooms and chateau, wrote for the galleries somewhat.
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  Speaker 1: She says herself, My style is so negligent that it
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  Speaker 1: needs a naturally worldly mind to put up with it,
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  Speaker 1: but that does not prevent her from understanding the worth
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  Speaker 1: of it when she lets her pen trot with the
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  Speaker 1: bridle hanging loose, when she pleases herself by giving her
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  Speaker 1: daughter the top of all the panniers, that is to say,
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  Speaker 1: the freshness of her wit, her head, her eyes, her pen,
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  Speaker 1: her inkstand, and the rest goes as it can. She
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  Speaker 1: very well knows that society dotes on this style, in
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  Speaker 1: which all the graces and marvels of the great century
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  Speaker 1: are reflected as in a looking glass. Her letters are
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  Speaker 1: the model of conique. To employ an expression used in
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  Speaker 1: existing journalism in the nineteenth century as in the seventeenth,
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  Speaker 1: it is a woman who carries off the palm for
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  Speaker 1: this species of literature which demands so much wit. Madame
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  Speaker 1: Emil de Giardin has been the sauvignier of our epoch.
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  Speaker 1: Madame de Maintenon could not or would not aspire to
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  Speaker 1: this holy worldly glory. Far from aiming at effect, she
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  Speaker 1: voluntarily diminishes that which she produces, Like a true devitee
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  Speaker 1: who tones down the brilliancy of her glances. She moderates
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  Speaker 1: her style and tempers her wit. She sacrifices, brilliant qualities
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  Speaker 1: to solid ones, too much imagination, too much fervor, alarm.
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  Speaker 1: Her sassire must not resemble the Hotel d'albre or the
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  Speaker 1: Hotel d Richelieu. One must not speak to nuns as
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  Speaker 1: one would to bluestockings. Enjoyment, gallic animation, good tempered gaiety
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  Speaker 1: fall to the lot of Madame de Sevigni. What marks
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  Speaker 1: Madame de Mantinon is experience, reason, profundity. The one laughs
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  Speaker 1: from ear to ear, the other barely smiles. The one
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  Speaker 1: has illusions about everything, admirations which border on naivete ecstasies
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  Speaker 1: when in the presence of the royal sun. The other
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  Speaker 1: never allows herself to be fascinated either by the King
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  Speaker 1: or the court, by men, women or things. She has
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  Speaker 1: seen human grandeurs too close at hand not to understand
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  Speaker 1: their nothingness, and her conclusions bear the imprint of a
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  Speaker 1: profound sadness. Madame de Savignier also has attacks of melancholy
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  Speaker 1: at times, but the cloud passes quickly and she is
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  Speaker 1: again in broad sunshine. Gaiety, frank, communicative, radiant gaiety is
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  Speaker 1: the basis of the character of this woman. More witty deductive,
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  Speaker 1: amusing than any other. Madame de Savignier shines by imagination,
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  Speaker 1: Madame Dementinon by judgment. The one permits herself to be
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  Speaker 1: dazzled and ebriated. The other always preserves her indifference. The
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  Speaker 1: one exaggerates the splendors of the court, the others seize
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  Speaker 1: them as they are. The one is more of a woman,
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  Speaker 1: the other more of a saint. To those who still
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  Speaker 1: feel an antipathy to Madame de Maintenon, we venture to
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  Speaker 1: offer a word of counsel. It is to read before judging.
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  Speaker 1: The letters of this calumniated woman are an autobiography which
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  Speaker 1: shows us every fold of her heart, and are not
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  Speaker 1: less interesting from the psychological than from the historical point
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  Speaker 1: of view. More reflection than vivacity, more wisdom than passion,
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  Speaker 1: more gravity than charm, more authority than grace, more solidity
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  Speaker 1: than brilliancy. Such are the characteristics of a correspondence which
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  Speaker 1: might justify the expression The style is the woman. End
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  Speaker 1: of Section eighteen.