THE LETTERS OF MADAME DE SÉVIGNÉ TO HER DAUGHTER AND FRIENDS

EDITED BY MRS. HALE,

AUTHORESS OF “WOMAN’S RECORD,” “NORTHWOOD,” “VIGIL OF LOVE,” “MANNERS,” ETC.

REVISED EDITION.

BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1878.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by ROBERTS BROTHERS, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

CAMBRIDGE: PRESSWORK BY JOHN WILSON AND SON.

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION.

The Editress has set forth so fully, in the introductory sketch of Madame de Sévigné’s Life and Times, her object in offering this book to the American public, that any further prologue may seem superfluous; yet there are one or two things to be said which seem to find their most proper expression in a Preface. Since the date of the first edition, the changes in the manners and feelings of the time have been rapid and continuous; and they have operated in a twofold manner.

In the first place, we have become as a nation more thoroughly acquainted with French literature, and better able to appreciate that world of the past in which the great letter-writer lived. Madame de Sévigné was a woman who lived in and for others,—for her daughter, her friends, and, at a greater distance, for the brilliant circle of distinguished men and women of which she herself was so important a figure. Her letters are made up of incident, of meetings, of conversations: they are full of references to the topics then uppermost; they draw half their charm from the personality of the writer. Literature of this sort cannot stand alone. To enjoy it to the full we must know with some minuteness the history of the times in which it was written, and of the people to whom it was written. The knowledge of these things is now spreading wider every year, as we become familiar, through originals or translations, with the masterpieces of foreign languages. For instance, probably the best French sketch of Madame de Sévigné is from the pen of M. Sainte-Beuve, the great critic

whom Mr. Arnold acknowledges for his master. This sketch has been translated by Miss Preston, and published within the last IV year.[1] Our limits forbid quotation; but to every one who can enjoy a criticism at once delicate and profound, we recommend this incomparable study.

Again, the times themselves in which we live call for the exercise of just such an influence upon the mind and style as might be wielded by these letters. We in America are almost all educated up to a certain point; few of us, unfortunately, are educated beyond it. The national character is pushing, energetic, ambitious; setting great value upon money and material luxuries, but without appreciation of the refined enjoyments that consist with a moderate purse, or the delicacy of feeling that marks a sensitive but well-balanced mind. The vortex of politics or of business draws into it all our energies; we have nothing to spare for reflection, for the observances of friendship, for the amenities of social intercourse. A life so vulgarizing alike to the mind and to the style, finds its best antidote in the letters of Madame de Sévigné. Here is a beautiful existence centred in home and friends; here are thoughts occupied by love for the dear ones around, and by sympathy with their joys and sorrows. The tumult of the outer world

is heard faintly. The writer’s mind is busied in a calmer sphere, and the exquisite tenderness of her heart gives that transparent grace to her style that has been the wonder and the despair of two centuries.

We are a letter-writing people; and no better models for letters exist than Madame de Sévigné’s. We are a practical and energetic people; and no better complement to such virtues can be found than the tender affection and delicate refinement of Madame de Sévigné.

Philadelphia, Nov. 26, 1868.

[1] Sainte-Beuve’s Portraits of Celebrated Women.

MADAME DE SÉVIGNÉ AND HER TIMES.

An honorable celebrity has been universally accorded to Madame de Sévigné. For nearly two centuries her “Letters” have been the admiration of all lovers of elegant literature. The natural grace, the “curiosa felicitas” of these epistles have rendered them remarkable as to style, and the artist-like pictures of manners, the lively accounts of cotemporaneous incidents give them very great value as aids to the study of history. Then they are trustworthy documents; every word, every circumstance is read with particular satisfaction, because the character and position of the writer assure us of her perfect intent to communicate truth.

Madame de Sévigné lived in what the French consider their Augustan Age. Great men in arts, in arms, in literature gave glory to the most splendid monarch that ever sat on the throne of France. At the same time the position of women was both active and brilliant. The social existence of the women of the higher classes was one that gave scope to talent and opportunity to energy. In those days the great dame was occupied with the administration of her property and the exaltation of her family. Far from being absorbed in a narrow routine of personality, she considered the sacrifice of private feelings to family greatness a positive duty, and the sacrifice of family greatness to the king—that is, the state—a still more imperative obligation.

As our views of moral responsibility extend, the intellectual horizon enlarges. The woman who was accustomed to dwell upon considerations beyond mere fireside comforts or fashionable display, who went from the individual to the family, and from the family to the state, must of necessity have enlarged her understanding in proportion to the elevation and extent of her 6 views. It is only by a just development of the intellectual faculties that the heart can be properly regulated, and nowhere is this truth more strikingly illustrated than in the life of Madame de Sévigné.

Her passionate love for her daughter was always made to yield to the dictates of a wise prudence and just propriety. Though born with excessive sensibility, great vivacity, amiable instincts, and warm imagination, that is to say, with the qualities and feelings most likely to lead their possessor astray or into indiscretions, yet this youthful widow managed her estate and her children with admirable wisdom, and so regulated her own conduct as to be above the slightest censure in a court of relaxed morals and of many temptations. This was accomplished because her brilliant qualities rested on the solid basis of serious and valuable acquirements, a practical knowledge of business, and a trusting and sincere piety.

To make the example of this excellent woman more widely and familiarly known in America is the main object of this volume. As a model in private life, her conduct and character deserve to be studied. Her “Letters” are referred to by the best authorities, as the most charming specimens of epistolary art extant, yet no edition has ever been issued in this country. Nor would one be profitable, because the complete work is too large. Still it is desirable to have access to this treasury of beautiful sentiments and entertaining sketches; and we have here selected such portions of her correspondence as will make her virtues known and give those lessons of practical goodness her life so happily illustrated.

In order to do this we have arranged the correspondence on a new plan. Hitherto the “Letters” have been thrown together according to date, and the reader was compelled to change from one correspondent to another, even on the same page, often finding similar details in several consecutive epistles. In this volume each person addressed has his or her own department—thus the Letters to Madame de Grignan, the soul of the correspondence, form one unbroken series. Much care has been taken to keep the fine and often sparkling threads of narrative inwoven in the Letters continuous, and errors in the only English translation we have seen (published in London, in 1811) have been corrected by comparing it with the best French editions of the 7 “Letters.”[2] And now we will endeavor to sketch the life of this lovely and lovable woman, though the events are in no wise remarkable, and the truest portrait of her character and genius must be sought in her letters.

[2] The explanatory notes, which afford useful particulars concerning personages and events mentioned in the Letters, are partly from the French, and partly by the English translator and the present Editor.

MARIE DE RABUTIN-CHANTAL

was born February 5th, 1627, in the ancestral château of Bourbilly, between Semur and Epoisses. Her father was Celse-Bénigne de Rabutin, Baron of Chantal; her mother, Marie de Coulanges, was daughter of a Secretary of State, and belonged to a family celebrated for wit, and, generally, remarkable for integrity. The baron was slain during the siege of Rochelle, fighting against the English in their descent on the island of Rhé; and it was thought he was killed by the hand of Cromwell. The little Marie was then but eighteen months old, and soon afterward was, by the death of her mother, left an orphan indeed. The Baroness de Chantal, her grandmother, seemed the person naturally destined to have the guardianship of the child, but that lady was occupied in religious duties (she was afterward a canonized saint, and known as the “Blessed Mother of Chantal,” and seems to have deserved the distinction, according to the feeling of those days, as she founded eighty-seven religious houses), and, therefore, permitted her granddaughter to pass

into the hands of her mother’s relations. She was first taken by her grandfather, M. de Coulanges; when he died, shortly afterward, the orphan, then about nine years of age, passed into the family of her uncle, Christophe de Coulanges, Abbé de Livry. This was a fortunate event for the young girl. She was brought up and educated with her cousin, Philippe Emanuel de Coulanges, enjoying the advantages of the most intellectual society of the age; her learned uncle was her companion, and encouraged her to cultivate her talents. This last advantage can hardly be estimated now, when feminine education is common and popular; but then the instruction of young ladies was usually limited to the accomplishments of reading, writing, dancing, and embroidery. Marie de Rabutin had the entrée to her uncle’s 8 library and his encouragement, if not personal instruction, in her literary pursuits. She was taught Latin, Italian, and Spanish; her instructors were Menage and Chapelain, and other professors of polite literature. The result is before the world—that the

woman’s mind is as susceptible of cultivation as that of the man’s, and that she is made happier, better, more lovely, and more capable of doing good by a liberal and careful cultivation of her intellectual powers.

In person and manners Mademoiselle de Rabutin is represented as very attractive, if not positively beautiful. M. Ph. A. Gourville, her French biographer, thus describes her:

“An exact portrait of her person would savor of romance, and would be out of place; we may, however, represent the young Rabutin to our imagination as a truly handsome woman, with more character of countenance than beauty; with features more expressive than commanding; an easy figure, a stature rather tall than short, a redundancy of fine light hair, excellent health, a fine color, a brilliant complexion, eyes, the vivacity of which gave additional animation to her language and agility to her movements, a pleasing voice, as much knowledge of music as existed in those days, and of dancing, in which she excelled for the times. This is the idea that her portraits, her friends, or herself give of her. And certainly her nose, tending a little toward the square, which she herself ridicules, could not spoil her whole appearance as much as the age of eighteen embellished it, when, in 1644, she married Henry, Marquis de Sévigné, of an ancient family of Brittany. To this appendage of merit and charms she added a dower of a hundred thousand crowns, which,

at that period, were not of less value than seven hundred thousand francs.”

The Marquis de Sévigné was also rich, moreover he was young, handsome, and gay. Her good uncle doubtless believed he had secured the happiness of his niece by this connection; but the sequel proved otherwise. The marquis soon showed himself to be weak, vain, extravagant, and, finally, a profligate. Though he always admitted the charms and merits of his wife, yet, after a year or two, he began to neglect her for unworthy associates. The siren of that age, Ninon de l’Enclos, drew him to her side, and for that wanton the happiness of his home was sacrificed.

Bussy de Rabutin, cousin of Madame de Sévigné’s father, an 9 unprincipled man, but distinguished for wit and talent, had always admired and loved, or pretended to be in love with his fascinating cousin, and she had always laughed at his flattery and rejected his suit. He took advantage of her husband’s infidelity to offer an insulting proposal, that she should take her revenge. He was reproved in such terms of cold and calm severity as put a final repulse to his gallantry toward her. Though their intercourse continued friendly through life, yet, judging from the tone of her letters to him, always constrained, and confined chiefly to his own affairs, we feel that, though she acknowledged their relationship, she never esteemed the man.

Her husband was killed in a duel, about seven years after marriage, and Madame de Sévigné, at the age of twenty-five, was left a widow, with two children, the eldest, her son, the youngest, that idolized daughter, who made the light of her mother’s life.

In spite of the faults and vices of the Marquis de Sévigné, his sudden and shocking death greatly afflicted his wife. She was, for a time, nearly overwhelmed with sorrow, but soon found devolving upon her the hard and painful duty of endeavoring to extricate her estate from utter ruin. The follies and waste of her husband came near making her and the children penniless. She retired to the country, and, aided by the counsel and encouragement of her uncle the abbé, entered on her new duties. We quote from one of her French biographers, who seems to have searched out her history with great care:

“Madame de Sévigné’s good sense, natural rectitude, and laudable pride, gave her a taste for economy, and the advice of her uncle taught her to understand it. Her mind, notwithstanding the habit of sacrificing to the Graces, had no repugnance to business. She well knew how to sell or let estates, receive her rents, direct her workmen, etc. She did not trust to her beauty alone for gaining law-suits. Ménage relates, that one day, recommending an affair with great ease and simplicity to the President de Bellièvre, she felt herself at last a little embarrassed with the terms to be used, when she said, ‘At least, sir, I know the air perfectly, but I forget the words.’

“With regard to education, not only do the merit of her son and daughter, as well as their virtues, show the extent of her capacity in this respect, but it would be easy to extract from her 10 letters a series of maxims upon the subject, by which it would be seen that, far from adhering to the false methods in vogue in her days, she had foretold many of the improvements of which we are justly vain in ours.”

Though she devoted herself seduously to the duties of her family, yet Madame de Sévigné did not long live a recluse. She saved her property, returned to society, and passed much of her time in Paris, where she was the idol of her circle, people of the first rank in letters and worth of character, as well as stars in the fashionable world. She was also a frequent visitor at court, where the king, Louis XIV, always received her with respect.

Madame de Sévigné had many adorers, among whom were the Seigneur Turenne and the Prince de Conti, and her friends were most devoted—Fouquet was one of them, and she was true to him in his great misfortune, as her letters show. But she appears never to have had the least intention of a second marriage; to promote the happiness of her children and the enjoyment of her friends, was the object of her life. Her son, the Marquis de Sévigné, who entered the army, was very frivolous, weak, and dissipated in his youth; his mother’s watchful care and patient forbearance saved him from utter degradation. About middle age he married an amiable wife of noble family, left the army, and cultivated a taste for literature. To effect this marriage, and thus secure the reformation of her son, Madame de Sévigné gave up to him so large a portion of her estate that she was afterward in comparatively straitened circumstances.

But the daughter, Margaret Frances, was her mother’s glory, the idol that seemed to claim the worship of the mother’s soul. Passion rather than affection possessed Madame de Sévigné when writing to or of her “infinitely dear child.” That the daughter did not reciprocate this love in its full flow has been urged to prove that Madame de Grignan was cold in temperament or selfish in feeling. We do not find evidences to support this charge. The mother, ambitious for her daughter, and wishing to keep her in Paris had married her to the Count de Grignan, who was rich, and of the high nobility, and had a place at court. But he was also Lieutenant-Governor of Provence, and ordered, soon after his marriage, to his government. His wife had to follow him; she seems to have loved and respected her husband, as was her duty. She had children; she was at the head of a great 11 establishment, and she could not give the whole of her heart, thoughts, and time to her mother, as the latter did to her daughter.

The separation was a terrible privation to Madame de Sévigné, but it was the cause of her moral and literary improvement, as well as of the series of “Letters to Madame de Grignan,” which, of their kind, are unequaled in any language. The mother’s genius lives in this correspondence; her pen gives importance to the most trifling occurrences, and makes hard facts as interesting as fairy stories.

Among other advantages of life, Madame de Sévigné retained her good looks, as she did her cheerful disposition, to the last; hence the name of Mère Beauté (Mother Beauty) given her by M. de Coulanges. Her constitution was good, and she managed it with great judgment. In thirty years the only disorder she had known was rheumatism. Happy all her life by the exercise of natural affections, Madame de Sévigné thought less of the ravages of time; and when death terminated her existence in 1696, her illness, the result of the fatigue and uneasiness she had endured for some months on her daughter’s account, took her by surprise, and was announced by no symptom. It was short. In her last moments she was resigned, and perfectly calm. Thus died Madame de Sévigné, aged about seventy years, and was interred in the Collegiate Church of Grignan, leaving to posterity in the record of her blameless life, as in her exquisite writings, the brightest and purest model which her age affords.

S. J. H.

LETTER I.

In the Country, June 26, 1655.

I had no doubt that you would take some opportunity of bidding me adieu, either at my own house or from the camp at Landrecy. As I am not a woman of ceremony, I am content with the latter; and have not even thought of being angry, that you failed in coming to me before you set out.