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He at the same time overwhelmed Marshal Bellefonds with kindnesses. "He sent for him into his study," says Madame de Sevigne, and said to him, 'Marshal, I want to know why you are anxious to leave me. Is it a devout feeling? Is it a desire for retirement? Is it the pressure of your debts?
She was left a widow at five and twenty by the death of a very indifferent husband, and she was not disposed to make a second venture. Before getting killed in a duel, M. de Sevigne had made a considerable gap in the property of his wife, who, however, had brought him more than five hundred thousand livres.
It was considered, in its day, a manual for kings, and it became a standard book, on account of the elegance of its style, the purity of its morals, and the classic taste it was likely to foster in the youthful mind. Madame de Sevigne made no pretensions to authorship.
He so often disturbed Pelisson, that the latter, raising his head, crossly said, "At least, La Fontaine, supply me with a rhyme, since you have the run of the gardens at Parnassus." "What rhyme do you want?" asked the Fabler as Madame de Sevigne used to call him. "I want a rhyme to lumiere." "Orniere," answered La Fontaine.
In her frame of mind, she could not see men without studying their dispositions, and she knew them thoroughly, her experience extending over a period of seventy-five years of intimate association with men of every stamp, from the Royal prince to the Marquis de Sévigné, the latter wearying her to such an extent that she designated him as "a man beyond definition; with a soul of pulp, a body of wet paper, and a heart of pumpkin fricasseed in snow," his own mother, the renowned Madame de Sévigné, admitting that he was "a heart fool."
But when my day comes to taste the delights of Quebec, I hope I may not be too old to enjoy it." "The Governor honours you, Menard, with this undertaking." "He honoured De Sévigné with a majority and turned him loose in Quebec." "Too bad, Menard, too bad," the Major laughed. "Now I, who ask nothing better than a brisk campaign, must rot here in Quebec until I die." "Are you not to go?" "No.
It is vexing that Mme de Sévigné, who might have spared us two or three of her immortal pages, although she incessantly mentions and even quotes La Rochefoucauld, generally refrains from describing him.
It was Ninon de l'Enclos whose brilliant mentality and intellectual genius formed the minds, the souls, the genius, of such master minds as Saint-Evremond, La Rouchefoucauld, Molière, Scarron, La Fontaine, Fontenelle, and a host of others in literature and fine arts; the Great Condé, de Grammont, de Sévigné, and the flower of the chivalry of France, in war, politics, and diplomacy.
A great preacher arose in France, the "Eagle of the Pulpit," as he was called, or "The great Pan," as Madame de Sévigné, loved to designate him. His renown for eloquence and piety reached Ninon's ears and she conceived a scheme, so it is said; to bring this great orator to her feet.
Madame Rachel has made the characters of Racine familiar to all France, and has revived all his blemishes as well as beauties. The poet met with much severe criticism after the representation of the last mentioned of his plays. Madame Sevigne was one of Corneille's warmest admirers, and did not join the company of Racine worshipers.
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