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Mis à jour: 15 juin 2025
So great a loss is not to be repaired or obliterated by time." And again: "Poor Mme. de La Fayette is now wholly at a loss what to do with herself. The death of M. de La Rochefoucauld has made so terrible a void in her life that she has come to judge better of the value of such a friendship. Every one else will be comforted in the course of time, but she, alas, has nothing to occupy her mind."
Ce billet était fermé par un cachet qu'elle lui avait donné et qui portait: Friendship, esteem and eternal love.
Apart from M. de La Rochefoucauld, La Fontaine was the only one of the many great men of her time with whom Mme. de La Fayette was on terms of friendship. Boileau has left his opinion of our author in a pithy sentence. "Mme. de La Fayette," said he, "est la femme qui écrit le mieux et qui a le plus d'esprit." But this is all.
This frigid, make-believe happiness, even though supported by the satisfaction of being absolute mistress of the household, could not long suffice for a nature like Mme. de La Fayette's; and therein lies perhaps the secret of all the unwritten history that follows. Just at what time the friendship between Mme. de La Fayette and La Rochefoucauld began, is uncertain.
M. Fox ayant dit qu'il ne s'agissait pas de perdre des amis, M. Burke s'écria: «Oui, il s'agit de perdre des amis! Je connais le résultat de ma conduite; j'ai fait mon devoir au prix de mon ami, notre amitié est finie: I have done my duty at the price of my friend; our friendship is at an end. J'avertis les très honorables gentlemen, qui {p.224} sont les deux grands rivaux dans cette chambre, qu'ils doivent
This union was an important event in the life of Mme. de La Fayette, for it marks the beginning of her residence at Paris, and of her friendship with Mme. de Sévigné, who was a kinswoman of the Chevalier.
How close and lasting was this friendship is seen on almost every page of Mme. de Sévigné's correspondence. Indeed, so often does the name of Mme. de La Fayette occur in Mme. de Sévigné's letters to her daughter, that the latter may well have been jealous of her mother's friend. The companionship of Mme. de Sévigné was, after the death of La Rochefoucauld, the chief comfort of Mme. de La Fayette in her ill-health and seclusion; and it was from the sick-chamber of her friend that Mme. de Sévigné's letters would seem to have been written in those latter years. In 1693, soon after the death of Mme. de La Fayette, Mme. de Sévigné writes as follows of her dead friend: "Je me trouvois trop heureuse d'être aimée d'elle depuis un temps très-considérable; jamais nous n'avions eu le moindre nuage dans notre amitié. La longue habitude ne m'avoit point accoutumée
After the breaking-up of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, there were formed various smaller coteries, among which that of Mme. de La Fayette was by no means the least important. From her little circle of précieuses, Mme. de La Fayette was drawn to the Court of Louis XIV. chiefly through the friendship of "Madame," the Princess Henrietta of England.
However, Mme. de Sévigné's letters leave us wholly in the dark as to when this intimacy began. Sainte-Beuve holds that it was about 1665, and makes a strong argument for his view of the matter. D'Haussonville believes that this remarkable union was the result of long acquaintance and slowly ripening friendship, the acquaintance having begun in the years following Mme. de La Fayette's marriage, that is, between 1655 and 1665. He sums up the matter as follows: "Une chose est certaine: c'est que La Rochefoucauld s'est emparé peu
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