Early Women of the Salons
The “salons” of 17th and 18th century Paris are an important chapter in the
history of women’s rights. These salons were essentially dinner-discussions,
attended by aristocratic ladies and invited philosophers, politicians, writers and
artists. It was here, for the first time, that women could discuss intellectual topics in
perfect equality with men and have their opinions accepted. And what an
impression these evening must have made on foreign guests! The English historian,
Edward Gibbon, wrote, after visiting these salons in Paris, that he found “the
women far superior to the men.”
The salon also offered a vehicle by which women, through their influence on
the men, could participate in and have some effect on political life. Many modern
writers also credit the salons for their influence in the development of the French
language. Here standards were developed for clear expression, elegance and
courtesy in manner.
What made these salons come into existence at this time? Certainly the
quality of the hostess was a factor, but it was not the worship of her beauty, but her
intelligence, elegance, personality and her ability to stimulate quality discussion that
made some salons popular. Perhaps we should credit the Enlightenment for this
golden era, for now society was suddenly free from the ancient threats of the
Church and any topic was eligible for discussion. Horace Walpole, observing this
phenomenon for the first time in 1765, was shocked to find neither religion nor the
state exempt from criticism.
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There is God and the King to be pulled down...men and women are
devoutly employed in the demolition. They think me quite profane for
having any belief left.
We present here brief sketches of some of the most extraordinary women
associated with this intellectual movement in France.
Catherine de Vivonne, Marquise de Rambouillet, 1588 -- 1665
The institution of the salon in France began with Catherine de Vivonne,
daughter of the Marquis of Pisani, French Ambassador to the papacy, and Giulia
Savelli, a Roman lady. Married at age 12 to Charles d’Angennes, an high official
under Henry IV and Louis XIII, and later to the Marquis of Rambouillet, the young
lady found disgust in the coarseness and intrigue of French court life, as compared
to the precision in speech and refined manners she had come to know in Italy.
Thus she began, in 1607, at the Hôtel Pisani, later renamed Hôtel de
Rambouillet, the first important French salon. With her natural kindness and lack
of prejudice she was able to bring everyone together on the same level for
discussion. There, there was never an example of poor manners, questionable
characters, nor were political intrigues allowed. As this salon continued for 50
years, its influence on aristocratic French manners was significant. In addition to
serious discussions, there were concerts, comedies and even fireworks.
By the second quarter of the 17th century she was entertaining virtually all
the more important personages in French society and literature, including La
Rochefoucauld, Richelieu, Malherbe and Guez de Balzac.
Her high ideals and flawless character also became a model for many
aristocratic women. She is described by Mlle de Scudéry, in her novel, Cyrus, as
follows,
The spirit and soul of this marvelous person surpass by far her
beauty: the first has no limits in its extent and the other has no equal in its
generosity, goodness, justice and purity. The intellect of [Mme. de
Rambouillet] is not like that of those whose minds have no brilliancy except
that which nature has given them, for she has cultivated it carefully, and I
think I can say that there are no belles connaissances that she has not
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acquired. She knows various languages, and is ignorant of hardly anything
that is worth knowing; but she knows it all without making a display of
knowing it, and one would say, in hearing her talk, “she is so modest that she
speaks admirably of things, through simple common sense only”; on the
contrary, she is versed in all things; the most advanced sciences are not
beyond her, and she is perfectly acquainted with the most difficult arts.
Never has any person possessed such a delicate knowledge as hers of fine
works of prose and poetry; she judges them, however, with wonderful
moderation, never abandoning the seemliness of her sex, though she is far
above it. In the whole court, there is not a person with any spirit and virtue
that does not go to her house. Nothing is considered beautiful if it does not
have her approval; no stranger ever comes who does not desire to see her and
do her homage, and there are no excellent artists who do not wish to have the
glory of her approbation of their works.
Mme de Rambouillet also personally designed her Hôtel Pisani,
revolutionizing architecture by introducing large, high doors and windows and
placing the staircase on the side to enlarge the usable space of the rooms. When the
Luxembourg palace was being planned, its architects were instructed to study her
Hôtel. Mlle de Scudéry describes the environment she found in the Hôtel Pisani.
Mme. de Rambouillet had built, according to her own design, a palace
which is one of the finest in the world; she has found the art of constructing a
palace of vast extent in a situation of mediocre grandeur. Order, harmony,
and elegance are in all the apartments, and in the furniture also; everything
is magnificent, even unique; the lamps are different from those of other
palaces, her cabinets are full of objects which show the judgment of her who
chose them. In her palace, the air is always scented; many baskets full of
magnificent flowers make a continual spring in her room, and the place
which she frequents ordinarily is so agreeable and so imaginative as to make
one feel as if she were in some enchanted place.
Being herself an authority of Italian and Spanish history and art, Mme. de
Rambouillet, through her salon, became an important intellectual force in Paris.
Moreover, she was widely respected as a rare good person in an otherwise corrupt
age. She remained faithful to an inferior husband in an age of sexual license and
maintained optimism in life though losing two young children. As much as anyone,
she introduced good taste to France.
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Madeleine de Scudéry, 1607 - -1701
Mme de Scudéry lost her parents early in life and was reared by an uncle
who provided her a thorough education in literature, the arts and languages. She
never married, as she believed that all men become tyrants as husbands. She
wanted love, but she required that it be Platonic love.
Admired for the qualities of her mind and soul, her salon was unusual for it
was frequented by the bourgeoisie, rather than the aristocracy. She led her salon,
speaking without affectation, and objected to being called a savante. The
discussions of her salon were often light-hearted, often centering on humor.
Particularly enjoyed was a form called the sonnet-enigma, a sonnet in which the
listener must guess what is being described. An example:
I am both stupid and bright, honest and dishonest;
Less sincere at court than in a simple hovel;
With a pleasant air, I make the boldest tremble,
The strong let me pass, the wise stop me.
There is no joy to anyone without me;
I embellish at times, at times I distort;
I disdain and I applaud;
To share me, one must not be stupid.
The smaller my throne, the greater my beauty;
I enlarge it, however, on both sides,
Often showing defects which are made sport of.
I leave my brilliancy when I am without witness,
And I can boast of being the thing which
contents the most and costs the least.
The correct answer is “a smile.” After the demise of the salon of Mme. de
Rambouillet, Mme de Scudéry also began an additional weekly meeting for
members of the aristocracy.
She collaborated with her brother in writing some 80 volumes, mostly
romance novels. The brother supplied the general plot and she the dialogue and
character development. On one occasion they were discussing their next novel in a
tavern in Lyons. Their discussion of poison, etc., was overheard by a gentleman
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from Auvergne who reported them to the authorities under the impression that they
were planning the assassination of the king and they were temporarily placed in
prison. Scribe used this incident for his drama, L’Auberge ou les Brigands sans le
Savoir.
Among the topics which Mme de Scudéry emphasized in her novels, was the
importance of education for women. This is expressed in a passage from her novel,
Cyrus.
Is not the ordinary idea of the education of women a peculiar one?
They are not to be coquettes nor gallants, and yet they are carefully taught
all that is peculiar to gallantry without being permitted to know anything
that can strengthen their virtue or occupy their minds. Don’t imagine,
however, that I do not wish women to be elegant, to dance or to sing; but I
should like to see as much care devoted to her mind as to her body, and
between being ignorant and savante I should like to see a road taken which
would prevent annoyance from an impertinent sufficiency or from a tiresome
stupidity. I should like very much to be able to say of anyone of my sex that
she knows a hundred things of which she does not boast, that she has a wellbalanced mind, that she speaks well, writes correctly, and knows the world;
but I do not wish it to be said of her that she is a femme savante. The best
women of the world when they are together in a large number rarely say
anything that is worth anything and are more ennuyé than if they were
alone; on the contrary, there is something that I cannot express, which makes
it possible for men to enliven and divert a company of ladies more than the
most amiable woman on earth could do.
Her novels were respected for their realism in character portrayal. In fact,
many of her characters were portraits of court persons which were recognizable to
all her friends and many of her friends began to use the pseudonyms given them in
her books.
Ninon de Lenclos, 17th Century
One of many salons which came into existence after the example of that of
Mme de Rambouillet was that of Ninon de Lenclos, a brilliant woman of fine taste.
It was at her hôtel that Molière first read his Tartuffe, before an audience which
included Lully and Racine.
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Ninon was considered remarkable for her ability not only to rise above her
failed love affairs, but to continue in the most cordial relations with former lovers.
On the arrival of her first child, an enthusiastic debate arose between the Count
d’Estrés and the Abbé d’Effiat, both of whom claimed the honor of being the father.
Ninon, greatly amused, suggested that they throw dice to decide. Her other child
was reared apart from her and when he became a young man he fell in love with
her. When she confided she was actually his mother, he blew his brains out. Ninon,
in so far as anyone could tell, was unaffected.
Among her friends were the greatest men of France and one French writer
called her, “the spiritual mother of Voltaire.”
Anne Thèrése de Courcelles, Marquise de Lambert, 1647 -- 1733
During the 18th century, the court of France lost its bearings and under
Louis XV literature, society and morals again became degenerate. The literary
salons organized by women were nearly the sole agency working toward good
manners. As a result, some women became very influential, causing the great
writer, Montesquieu, to observe,
There is not a person who has any employment at the court in Paris or
in the provinces, who has not the influence of a woman through whom all
favors pass.
The salon of Mme de Lambert was one of those influential centers which
influenced society in Paris. Married to Henri de Lambert, Marquis de Bris en
Auxerrois in 1666, her first salon was held in the Hôtel de Lambert on the Ile SaintLouis. After her husband’s death, the Duc de Nevers gave her for life a large
portion of the Palais Mazarin (today the National Library), which she redecorated
with works of art and resumed her salon.
Tuesday dinners were for scientists and aristocrats and Wednesday dinners
were for artists and writers, among whom were Voltaire, Montesquieu, Fontenelle
and Marivaux, during which there was conversation and the discussion of new
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books. Her’s were for serious discussion only, no card-playing or music, please!
The new craze of gambling was not allowed, as a regular member of her salon,
Fontenelle pointed out.
It was, with very few exceptions, the only house which had been
preserved from the epidemic of gambling -- the only house where persons
congregated simply for the sake of talking sensibly and with esprit.
We can perhaps overhear some topics of these conversations in two books on
practical morality she wrote for her children, Avis d’une mère à son fils, and Avis
d’une mère à sa fille. Oddly enough, the authorities tried to prevent the distribution
of these books by purchasing the entire editions, but foreign prints survived.
She taught her children to be satisfied with nothing but the highest attainable
object and to try to think differently from the lowly and common people -- there
were enough of those in the court, she said. She stressed the importance of
conscience being their best guide.
Conscience is defined as that interior sentiment of a delicate honor
which assures you that you have nothing with which to reproach yourself.
She advised her son to choose his friends from among men above him, for
among his peers “he might cultivate negligence and his mind might become dull.”
She also cautioned him against undue modesty for “modesty is a languor of the soul,
which prevents it from soaring and rapidly carrying itself to glory.”
She criticized the education of young women who “are destined to please,
and are given lessons only in methods of delighting and pleasing.” To be normal,
and to be able to resist temptation, women must be educated to think.
Try to find resources within yourself -- this is a revenue of certain
pleasures. Do not believe that your only virtue is modesty; there are many
women who know no other virtue, and who imagine that it relieves them of
all duties toward society; they believe they are right in lacking all others and
think themselves privileged to be proud and slanderous with impunity. You
must have a gentle modesty; a good woman may have the advantages of a
man’s friendship without abandoning honesty and faithfulness to her duties.
Nothing is so difficult as to please without the use of what seems like
coquettishness. It is more often by their defects than by their good qualities
that women please men; men seek to profit by the weaknesses of good and
kind women, for whose virtues they care nothing, and they prefer to be
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amused by persons not very estimable than to be forced merely to admire
virtuous persons.
Some of her maxims became often quoted, such as, “It is not always faults
that undo us; it is the manner of conducting ourselves after having committed
them.”
A fitting tribute to her is found among the letters of the marquis d’Argenson.
Her works contain a complete course in the most perfect morals for
the use of the world and the present time. Some affectation of the préciosité
is found; but, what beautiful thoughts, what delicate sentiments! How well
she speaks of the duties of women, of friendship, of old age, of the difference
between actual character and reputation!
Mme de Sablé, 1600 -- 1678)
Mme de Sablé (1600-1678) was married to the wealthy Marquis de Sablé, but
he soon abandoned her. Within a few years she lost all the members of her
immediate family and, together with the Countess de Maure, took up residence in
the Place Royale to devote herself to literature.
In her apartments influential persons, among them La Rochefoucauld,
gathered to discuss both religious and literary affairs and to enjoy her cuisine of the
most delicate and delicious dishes. It was considered that she and Mme de
Rambouillet were the arbiters of elegance and good taste in Paris.
She left two treatises, on friendship and on the education of children.
Marie Marguerite Daumard Arouet, died in 1702
Marie was the wife of a successful attorney, was a lively and intelligent
woman whose home was a minor salon in Paris during the last years of the 17th
century. Before she died at age 40, she had 5 children. One of these, François
Marie Arouet, was so weak as a child that no one thought he would live. But he
lived until age 84 and is known to the world as Voltaire.
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