The Marquis de Sévigné
It has been attempted to cast odium upon the memory of Mademoiselle de
l'Enclos because of her connection with the second Marquis de Sévigné,
son of the celebrated Madame de Sévigné, whose letters have been read
far and wide by those who fancy they can find something in them with
reference to the morals and practices of the court of Versailles
during her period.
The Marquis de Sévigné, by a vitiated taste quite natural in men of
weak powers, had failed to discover in a handsome woman, spirited,
perhaps of too jealous a nature or disposition to be esteemed, the
proper sentiments, or sentiments strong enough to retain his
affections. He implored Ninon to aid him in preserving her affections
and to teach him how to secure her love. Ninon undertook to give him
instructions in the art of captivating women's hearts, to show him the
nature of love and its operations, and to give him an insight into the
nature of women. The Marquis profited by these lessons to fall in love
with Ninon, finding her a thousand times more charming than his
actress or his princess. Madame de Sévigné's letter referring to the
love of her son for Ninon testifies by telling him plainly "Ninon
spoiled your father," that this passion was not so much unknown to
her as it was a matter of indifference.
The young Chevalier de Vassé often gave brilliant receptions in honor
of Ninon at Saint Cloud, which the Marquis de Sévigné always attended
as the mutual friend of both. De Vassé was well acquainted with
Ninon's peculiarities and knew that the gallantry of such a man as de
Sévigné was a feeble means of retaining the affections of a heart that
was the slave of nothing but its own fugitive desires. But he was a
man devoted to his friends and, being Epicurean in his philosophy, he
did not attempt to interfere with the affection he perceived growing
between Ninon and his friend. It never occurred to the Marquis that he
was guilty of a betrayal of friendship by paying court to Ninon, and
the latter took the Marquis' attentions as a matter of course without
considering the ingratitude of her conduct. She rather flattered
herself at having been sufficiently attractive to capture a man of de
Seine's family distinction. She had captured the heart of de Soigné,
the father, and had received so many animadversions upon her conduct
from Madame de Sévigné, that it afforded her great pleasure to "spoil"
the son as she had the father.
But her satisfaction was short-lived, for she had the chagrin to learn
soon after her conquest that de Sévigné had perished on the field of
honor at the hands of Chevalier d'Albret. Her sorrow was real, of
course, but the fire lighted by the senses is small and not enduring,
and when the occasion arises regret is not eternalized, besides there
were others waiting with impatience. His successful rival out of the
way, de Vassé supposed he had a clear field, but he did not attain his
expected happiness. He was no longer pleasing to Ninon and she did no:
hesitate to make him understand that he could never hope to win her
heart. According to her philosophy there is nothing so shameful in a
tender friendship as the art of dissimulation.
As has been said, much odium has been cast upon Mademoiselle de
l'Enclos in this de Sévigné matter. It all grew out of the dislike of
Madame de Sévigné for a woman who attracted even her own husband and
son from her side and heart, and for whom her dearest friends
professed the most intimate attachment. Madame de Grignan, the proud,
haughty daughter of the house of de Sévigné, did not scruple to array
herself on the side of Mademoiselle de l'Enclos with Madame de
Coulanges, another bright star among the noble and respectable
families of France.
"Women have the privilege of being weak," says Madame de Sévigné, "and
they make use of that privilege without scruple."
Women had never, before the time of Ninon, exercised their rights of
weakness to such an unlimited extent. There was neither honor nor
honesty to be found among them. They were common to every man who
attracted their fancy without regard to fidelity to any one in
particular. The seed sown by the infamous Catherine de Medici, the
utter depravity of the court of Charles IX, and the profligacy of
Henry IV, bore an astonishing supply of bitter fruit. The love of
pleasure had, so to speak, carried every woman off her feet, and there
was no limit to their abuses. Mademoiselle de l'Enclos, while devoting
herself to a life of pleasure, followed certain philosophical rules
and regulations which removed from the unrestrained freedom of the
times the stigma of commonness and conferred something of
respectability upon practices that nowadays would be considered
horribly immoral, but which then were regarded as nothing uncommon,
nay, were legitimate and proper. The cavaliers cut one another's
throats for the love of God and in the cause of religion, and the
women encouraged the arts, sciences, literature, and the drama, by
conferring upon talent, wit, genius and merit favors which were deemed
conducive as encouragements to the growth of intellect and
spirituality.
Ninon was affected by the spirit of the times, and being a woman, it
was impossible for her to resist desire when aided by philosophy and
force of example. Her intimacy with de Sévigné grew out of her attempt
to teach a young, vigorous, passionate man how to gain the love of a
cold-blooded, vain and conceited woman. Her letters will show the
various stages of her desires as she went along vainly struggling to
beat something like comprehension into the dull brain of a clod, who
could not understand the simplest principle of love, or the smallest
point in the female character. At last she resolved to use an argument
that was convincing with the brightest minds with whom she had ever
dealt, that is, the power of her own love, and if the Marquis had
lived, perhaps he might have become an ornament to society and an
honor to his family.
To do this, however, she violated her compact with de Vassé, betrayed
his confidence and opened the way for the animadversions of Madame de
Sévigné. At that time de Sévigné was in love with an actress,
Mademoiselle Champmêlé, but desired to withdraw his affections, or
rather transfer them to a higher object, a countess, or a princess, as
the reader may infer from his mother's hints in one of her letters to
be given hereafter. To Ninon, therefore, he went for instruction and
advice as to the best course to pursue to get rid of one love and on
with a new. Madame de Sévigné and Madame de La Fayette vainly implored
him to avoid Ninon as he would the pest. The more they prayed and
entreated, the closer he came to Ninon until she became his ideal.
Ninon, herself was captivated by his pleasant conversation, agreeable
manners and seductive traits. She knew that he had had a love affair
with Champmêlé, the actress, and when she began to obtain an
ascendency over his mind, she wormed out of him all the letters he had
ever received from the comedienne. Some say it was jealousy on Ninon's
part, but any one who reads her letters to de Sévigné will see between
the lines a disposition on his part to wander away after a new
charmer. Others, however, say that she intended to send them to the
Marquis de Tonnerre, whom the actress had betrayed for de Sévigné.
But Madame de Sévigné, to whom her son had confessed his folly in
giving up the letters, perhaps fearing to be embroiled in a
disgraceful duel over an actress, made him blush at his cruel
sacrifice of a woman who loved him, and made him understand that even
in dishonesty there were certain rules of honesty to be observed. She
worked upon his mind until he felt that he had committed a
dishonorable act, and when he had reached that point, it was easy to
get the letters away from Ninon partly by artifice, partly by force.
Madame de Sévigné tells the story in a letter to her daughter, Madame
de Grignan:
"Elle (Ninon) voulut l'autre jour lui faire donner des lettres de la
comedienne (Champmêlé); il les lui donna; elle en était jalouse; elle
voulait les donner à un amant de la princesse, afin de lui faire
donner quelque coups de baudrier. Il me le vint dire: je lui fis voir
que c'était une infamie de couper ainsi la gorge à une petite créature
pour l'avoir aimer; je representai qu'elle n'avait point sacrifié ses
lettres, comme on voulait lui faire croire pour l'animer. Il entra
dans mes raisons; il courut chez Ninon, et moitié par adresse, et
moitié par force, il retira les lettres de cette pauvre diablesse."
It was easy for a doting mother like Madame de Sévigné to credit
everything her son manufactured for her delectation. The dramatic
incident of de Sévigné taking letters from Ninon de l'Enclos partly by
ingenuity and partly by force, resembled his tale that he had left
Ninon and that he did not care for her while all the time they were
inseparable. He was truly a lover of Penelope, the bow of Ulysses
having betrayed his weakness.
"The malady of his soul," says his mother, "afflicted his body. He
thought himself like the good Esos; he would have himself boiled in a
caldron with aromatic herbs to restore his vigor."
But Ninon's opinion of him was somewhat different. She lamented his
untimely end, but did not hesitate to express her views.
"He was a man beyond definition," was her panegyric. "He possessed a
soul of pulp, a body of wet paper, and a heart of pumpkin fricasseed
in snow."
She finally became ashamed of ever having loved him, and insisted that
they were never more than brother and sister. She tried to make
something out of him by exposing all the secrets of the female heart,
and initiating him in the mysteries of human love, but as she said:
"His heart was a pumpkin fricasseed in snow."