MADAME DE MAINTENON.*

AN epoch in history so full of interest as that to which Madame de Maintenon imparted at once a charm and a speciality, cannot be taken up in a superficial manner. At every step personages and events arrest the reader by their grandeur or their importance. A biography of Madame de Maintenon is in reality a history of the court of Louis XIV., and it not only presents a spectacle calculated to captivate all minds, but it also records a lesson, in which, by the side of the weaknesses, faults, and errors of the time, it is still easy to perceive moral conditions that existed even amid the licentiousness of society at the period.

The celebrated Françoise d'Aubigné, or D'Aubigny, Marchioness de Maintenon, sprang from an ancient family. One of her ancestors, Geoffroy, Sire d'Aubigné, was in possession of the property of Aubigné, near Saumur; which property conferred the title of Sire, and imparted to its owner the quality of a knight. Savary, a descendant of Geoffroy, held Chinon for the King of England; and Mademoiselle de Marsilly, a cousin of Madame de Maintenon's, married, in second nuptials, Lord Bolingbroke.

Madame de Maintenon's most distinguished ancestor was, however, Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigné, a learned and stalwart Huguenot. This gallant adventurer, grandfather of Françoise, led a life of peril and adventure that has no counterpart in modern times. Ever fighting, with pen or sword, in the cause of Protestantism, he escaped manifold times from prison and the faggot, as he also did the Massacre of St. Bartholomew; and he was one of the staunchest partisans of Henri IV., till that king abjured his faith—an apostasy which mightily enraged the brave and plain-spoken old soldier. Upon this occasion he repaired at once to the king, who was at the time in the apartment of Gabrielle d'Estrées, where he remained closeted for more than two hours. During the conversation, Henry showed to him his lip, which had been wounded in Jean Châtel's attempt upon his life (1594). D'Aubigné thereupon made a remark, which became current all over France: "Sire, as yet you have only renounced God with your lips, and he has satisfied himself by wounding them; but if at any time you renounce him in heart, it is there he will wound you."

Constant d'Aubigné was the eldest son of this worthy; and Agrippa, a poet and autobiographer, as well as an experienced commander and able councillor, has recorded of this Constant, that he was not only an exceedingly bad character, given up to all kinds of vicious practices, but that he also lived in open rebellion against his own parent, having raised the standard of revolt at Maillezais and Doignon, to the command of which he had been appointed by Agrippa. Driven thence, this most unworthy son of the staunch old Huguenot took refuge in England, where his father's reputation obtained for him an appointment in the expedition for the relief of Rochelle; but he got away to

*Histoire de Madame de Maintenon et des Principaux Evènements du Règne de Louis XIV. Par M. le Duc de Noailles.

Paris, and revealed the secret. His father, indignant at such perfidious conduct, disinherited him, and laid him under his malediction. Constant then declared himself a Roman Catholic, and obtained in return the title of squire to the king, the situation of gentleman of the chamber, and the Barony of Surineau. He also married, the 27th of December, 1627, Mademoiselle de Cardillac, at Bordeaux. But his temporary prosperity did not preserve him from his old course of conduct. Having exhausted his means, he opened negotiations with the English, in the hope of getting off to Carolina; but this treachery having been discovered, he was imprisoned in the celebrated ChâteauTrompette of Bordeaux, from whence he was, by his wife's influence, transferred to Niort, and in the prison of which, Françoise d'Aubigné, afterwards Madame de Maintenon, was born, on the 27th of November, 1635.

The little Françoise lived for a time with Madame de Villette, Constant d'Aubigné's sister; but on her father's liberation she went with the other members of the family to Martinique, whence she again returned after her father's death. Madame d'Aubigné is said to have attended most strictly to the education of Françoise. Although she supported her reverses of fortune with courage, as she had borne her husband's vices with resignation, still misfortune had had the effect of making her serious and somewhat severe.

Françoise thus acquired early in life those habits of self-reliance and firmness which were of so much use to her in her subsequent career. It is related of her that when, at the prison of Niort, the gaoler's daughter taunted her with being too poor to have such toys as she had, "True," replied Françoise, "but I am a young lady, and you are not.” Françoise was also much attached to her aunt, Madame de Villette ; and when attempts were afterwards made to induce her to abjure Calvinism, she said, "I will believe anything that is wished, so long as they do not attempt to make me believe that my Aunt de Villette will be damned."

Madame de Villette had in fact brought up the little Françoise strictly in the faith for which her grandfather had so nobly fought; but government began now to labour diligently in conversions, and Madame de Neuillant, a zealous Romanist, and a relative of Madame d'Aubigné, obtained an order to remove her from the care of Madame de Villette. This lady did everything in her power to convert the little Françoise, but the child was firm in the matter of faith. At first mildness was tried, but that failing, it was attempted to conquer her by humiliations and hardships. She was placed among the servants, and menial services were given to her to perform. "I commanded in the yard," she has since recorded, "and it was there my reign commenced." She was sent every morning with a straw hat upon her head, a long pole in her hand, and a little basket on her arm, to take charge of the turkeys, with express injunctions not to help herself from the basket until she had learned by heart five stanzas of Pibrac's.

After this she went for a time to the convent of Ursulines at Niort, but Madame de Neuillant, who was avarice itself, having refused to pay for her pension, she was sent back to her mother, who obtained means to place her in the convent of Ursulines, Rue Saint Jacques, at Paris, where she was ultimately induced to renounce her faith. In her Letters to the Demoiselles de St. Cyr, there is a lively account of what she had to undergo during

their religious combats: how she turned her back upon the altar, whenever led there; how she could not be brought to worship the host; and how the nuns fled from her or made faces at her, as if at some heretical beast.

The whole world of Paris was surprised one day by the marriage of Mademoiselle d'Aubigné, seventeen years of age, young, innocent, and beautiful, with the paralytic and palsied poet and buffoon Scarron! This extraordinary alliance was effected in the month of June, 1652. The Duke de Noailles attaches no importance to the tradition which traces the afflictions of the comic poet and satirist to his having been obliged to hide himself up to the waist in water; but whatever may have been the cause of these afflictions, the duke is at no pains to detract from those hideous portraitures which this extraordinary personage, ever ridiculing even his own imperfections, drew of himself. It is certain, however, that at the time when the salons of the Hotel Rambouillet were first opened to literary men, Scarron was the first literary man who received ladies and courtiers at his own house.* It does not appear that the ladies and courtiers in question, with the exception of Mademoiselle d'Hautefort,

Madame sainte Hautefort
Qu'on estime partout si fort,

were of the most unblemished reputation. The Duke de Noailles says, "They were not numerous-for it required a modesty that had been enhardened by habit to frequent such society-but several respectable ladies went there at times," and Scarron caused himself to be carried to the salons of the Duchess de Lesguieres, the Duchess d'Aiguillon, and elsewhere. Madame de Sevigné, even, visited him once. Mademoiselle d'Hautefort having spoken to the queen concerning Scarron, she expressed her wish to see him. The interview was characterised by the peculiar humour of the man. He asked the queen's permission to serve her in the quality of her patient! The queen smiled, and Scarron taking the smile for a brevet, immediately solicited in his new situation a lodging in the Louvre. It was, he said, an excellent oppportunity for her Majesty to found a hospital at a very small expense, since he had in himself all the disorders belonging to a whole asylum. He ultimately obtained, through the exertions of Mademoiselle d'Hautefort, a pension of 500 crowns, and an ecclesiastical benefice from the Bishop of Mans-a prelate who was sufficiently enlightened to appreciate Scarron's wit and originality, and yet whose sentiments were of a sufficiently latitudinarian character not to be alarmed at the idea of such a canon in his chapter.

It appears that Mademoiselle d'Aubigné was first introduced to the decrepid satirist by Madame de Neuillant, who, although so zealous a Catholic, appears to have frequented the poet's company; and that she was much struck by his intelligence. In a letter written shortly afterwards to Mademoiselle de Saint Hermant, she begs her friend to excuse only half a letter: “ you shall have the remainder," she adds, "when I have as much wit as M. Scarron." This letter was shown to the poet, who must have found himself much flattered, and who wrote on the occasion to Mademoiselle d'Aubigné : "Mademoiselle, I never had an idea

Vie de Scarron, par M. Guizot. Vies des Poètes Français du Siècle de Louis XIV. Paris, 1813.

that the little girl whom I saw enter my apartment about six months ago with a short dress, and who began to weep, I cannot tell why, was in reality as clever as her countenance bespoke her."

That Scarron should have fallen in love with a clever pretty girl of sixteen years of age, can be readily understood. His audacity in proposing for her is less easily explained, except by the poverty of the family, and the coarse anxiety of Madame de Neuillant to get rid of her charge. Scarron himself said of the proceeding, that "it was a very great poetical license." And when Mademoiselle d'Aubigné was asked how she could consent to such a marriage, she replied, "I preferred marrying him to a convent."*

When the marriage-contract was drawn up, Scarron said that he acknowledged to the bride the possession of four louis income, two large mutinous eyes, a body nicely stayed up, a pair of beautiful hands, and a great deal of intelligence. The notary asked him what dowry he would grant her. Immortality," he answered; "the names of the wives of kings die with them: that of the wife of Scarron will live for ever." Mademoiselle de Pons lent the future Marchioness de Maintenon her wedding apparel.

It can be readily imagined what must have been this intelligent and beautiful young girl's feelings when entering upon such an alliance. The paralytic poet had said, thinking of the often cynical buffoonery of his life and conversation, "I will not do anything foolish to her, but I will teach her many follies." Quite the reverse, however, took place. "Before three years had elapsed," Segrais tells us, "she had corrected him of many of his faults and vices." Madame Scarron appears, indeed, to have devoted her whole energies to doing away with whatever evil repute might have accrued to her from the bad name of her husband. Madame de Caylus asserts that her conduct was so strict, and her discipline so severe, that no one who frequented the house dared to use a word with a double meaning in her presence; and that it became a saying, that if it was a question of taking a liberty before the queen or before Madame Scarron, no one would hesitate as to the alternative.‡

But while Madame Scarron laboured to give a new tone to her husband's habits, and to improve his society, amiability was not sacrificed to decency. Every one was kindly received; persons of more respectable character than heretofore frequented the house; and she herself was kind and attentive as a wife, and still more attentive as a pupil. Under the tutorship of her gifted although afflicted husband, she learnt the Spanish, Italian, and Latin languages; she became an adept in criticism, and acquired an infinite fund of various information. She had more par

ticularly acquired great powers of conversation. It was of this epoch in her life that the story is current, that a servant came to her one day and whispered-" Madame, one more story: the roast is wanting to day."

The roast must, indeed, have been often wanting; for we have seen what Scarron's dowry was, and Madame Scarron had to go through the rough apprenticeship of positive want. The most curious thing of all is, that in the midst of the direst poverty, the poet persevered in grati

* Memoir de Tallemant des Réaux, article Scarron. † Segraisiana, p. 59.

Souvenirs de Madame de Caylus.

fying all his inclinations-his love of good company and good cheer, and even his love of the fine arts. It is not without surprise that we read in Poussin's letters, that he was, at or about this time, engaged at Rome upon two pictures which had been bespoken by Scarron; one of which was to be a Bacchic subject.* Yet Scarron had at this very epoch lost even his pension as prebendary of Mans, which had been conferred on Gerault, valet and factotum of Menage. Who will say that old institutions do not sometimes require cleansing?

"Unfortunately," remarks M. de Noailles, "for Madame de Maintenon, it is only after she had attained a certain age that her elevation made her the cynosure of all eyes. We only know her after she had passed her meridian; we never present her to our minds but in her dress of Quaker-like simplicity, her hood; serious and devout, ruling over a court become as serious as herself; and bearing, with the weight of years, the weight of her ennui and that of the king. The most familiar of her portraits, that in which she was represented by Mignard as the Roman Saint Francoise, when she was sixty years of age, has a noble but at the same time a sorrowful expression, which assist in fixing her upon the imagination in that particular aspect. Some of her early letters, and the memoirs of a few of her contemporaries, give us some idea of what she was when young. Charming in her person-full of grace, intelligence and liveliness, as well as of wisdom, reserve and judgment-she had an oval face, chestnut hair; very fair, almost pale, complexion, black eyebrows and long eyelashes; eyes brown, almost black, almond-shaped, at once sparkling yet mild; regular and delicate features, a graceful and intelligent expression, and a manner which gave distinction to her whole being. It is thus that she appears in the portrait on enamel, of Petitot, preserved in the Louvre, and in the picture which Scarron had painted of her by Mignard, at about the same period—that is, about 1659, and when Madame Scarron was about twenty-four years of age."

So charming a person could not fail to be generally liked; and, as she herself avows in her letters, she aspired to nothing less. Her most intimate friends were ladies of the highest respectability-Madame de Montchevreuil and Madame Fouquet; to the latter of whom she was often indeed indebted for being able to get through her embarrassments at home, little dreaming that one day she herself would be the protectress of these great ladies. The Duke of Noailles devotes many a long page to attest to Madame Scarron's correct conduct as a wife. The main facts to the contrary that have been adduced were her intimacy with the celebrated Ninon de l'Enclos, and the love which Villarceaux, Ninon's great favourite, acknowledgedly bore for her. But against these most inconclusive data the historian brings the testimony of Sorbière; of M. Méré, formerly a preceptor and admirer of Mademoiselle d'Aubigné ; of Tallemant de Réaux, the great chronicler of all the intrigues of the day; and of Ninon de l'Enclos herself. The eccentric Queen Christina of Sweden, when visiting Scarron, is related to have said "I permit you to be in love with me: the queen has made you her patient; I make you my Roland." But when she saw Madame Scarron she said—" It

Lettres de Nicolas Poussin, edition de 1824. Lettres du 7 Fevrier, 1649, et du 29 Mai, 1650.