Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 03-29-08
Madeleine de Scudery
(1607-1701)
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"SPEAK WORTHILY OF TRIFLING THINGS AND SIMPLY OF GRAND THINGS."
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We have few details of the first third of Madeleine de Scudery's life: she was born at La Havre, where her father was captain of the port; by the time she was seven years old, her father was dead and Madeleine was living at the Rouen home of an uncle who had spent much time at court and who had a large library. There she acquired not only the skills needed for success in Parisian society but also a love for reading --- both translations of ancient writers and the works of modern novelists.
Madeleine's older brother, Georges, became a soldier, but in 1630 left the army to become a playwright in Paris. He wrote 16 plays, many of which were financial successes, and he was one of the writers invited to attend the salon of Catherine de Rambouillet. Sometime after the death of her mother in 1635, Madeleine went to Paris to live with her brother, and by 1639 she was an integral part of Rambouillet's salon.
In 1641 a 4-volume historical novel, Ibrahim ou L'illustre Bassa, appeared under Georges' name; in the same year, Georges was named by his publisher as the author of a collection of letters, Lettres amoureuses de divers autheurs de ce temps, which was published anonymously. A year later, another work, Les Femmes illustres ou Les Harangues heroique came out with Georges named as the author. From 1644 to 1647 brother and sister lived near Marseille, where Georges had been made captain of a fortress. On their return to Paris, Madeleine tried to secure a position as teacher of the nieces of Cardinal Mazarin; when this failed, she continued to live with Georges.
From 1649 to 1653, the civil upheaval known as the Fronde disrupted life in Paris --- and at Rambouillet's salon: the most illustrious members of the salon were Frondeurs and soon in prison or exile. Madeleine stayed neutral: she understood and sympathized with those on both sides. Georges was less successful at keeping above the dispute; although he had been elected to the Academie Francaise in 1650, he had to flee Paris in 1654 because of his involvement with a leading Frondeur. But during these same Fronde years, another novel, the 10-volume Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus (1649-53) was published, again under Georges' name.
After Georges left Paris, Madeleine lived alone and continued to hold the Saturday salon (samedi) she had begun a year or two earlier. She also began the last work that would be presented under Georges' name, the 10-volume Clelie, Histoire romaine (1654-61). Money would be a concern for most of the rest of her life: single, owning no lands to bring in rent, Madeleine lived off the income secured by her writing. Luckily, Artamene and Clelie sold well, in part because both presented pen-portraits of prominent people whom Madeleine knew and about whom her readers were curious.
However, the two novels irritated those who saw them as both disrespectful of ancient heroes and morally dangerous. The Scuderys saw Artemene (about Cyrus the Great of the 500s BCE) and Clelie (about a heroine of the early Roman republic) as prose epics, and themselves as successors to Homer. The defenders of the Greek and Roman writers did not agree. In addition, although the "good" characters in the novels were certainly virtuous, the characters discussed such topics as the value of individual choice in deciding whether or not to marry; the traditional moralists of mid-1600s France were not amused.
Modern critics have discussed the nature of the collaboration between brother and sister; the current consensus appears to be that Ibrahim and Les Femmes illustres were truly collaborations, that the anonymous Lettres amoureuses may be Madeleine's, and that Georges' chief contribution to Artemene and Clelie was the use of his already established and marketable name. From 1661, Madeleine's works were published anonymously, but they were accepted by all as hers. In that year, she published the single-volume Celinte, Nouvelle premiere. In this, as in the 1667 nouvelle titled Mathilde d'Aguilar, the conversations that were a small part of Artemene and Clelie became much more prominent. They would dominate the rest of Madeleine's writing: La promenade de Versailles in 1669, and a series of five collections of conversations (philosophical debates, some drawn from the earlier novels) published between 1680 and 1692. All from La promenade on were dedicated to Louis XIV, which may have prompted a modest pension that was granted by the king in 1683.
Despite her critics, Scudery continued until the end of her life to hold a respected position in the literary world of Paris and beyond: she received an award from the Academie Francaise, she was elected to a Paduan literary academy, and her collections of conversations were used until 1691 as texts at the king's school for aristocratic girls at Saint-Cyr.
The three long novels and some parts of the conversations were translated into English soon after their publication (each volume of Clelie was translated as soon as it came out), but modern translations are available only of small parts of a few of the works. Yet even from these, we can hear Scudery's voice.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Les Femmes illustres ou Les Harangues heroique
Conversations sur divers sujets
Conversations nouvelle sur divers sujets
Lettres amoureuses de divers autheurs de ce temps
Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus
Clelie, Histoire romaineInformation about secondary sources.
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1. At Amelia Gere Mason's The Women of the French Salons (1891), go to Chapter 3 for Mason's discussion of Scudery and translations of passages from "L'histoire de Sapho," in the last book of Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus; the chapter also gives the French original of a brief poem addressed to the painter of a lost portrait. At Chapters 5 and 6 use your browser's search function to go to "Scudery" for her descriptions of Madeleine de Sable (from Cyrus) and Marie de Sevigne (from Clelie). Look as well at Chapter 2, on Catherine de Rambouillet's salon, where Scudery made her Parisian debut.
2. The original French of the 10-volume novel, Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus, whose hero is the founder of the Persian empire of the 500s BCE (with an explanation in English by the editors as to why they chose to put the work online). At the left of the screen, you can link to individual parts or search for all the uses of a particular word. Or you can go directly to:
(a) Part 10, Book 2, which includes "L'histoire de Sapho." For the specific section which Scudery would later develop into "De la conversation" in the 1680 Conversations sur divers sujets, see "Histoire de Sapho: Phaon amoureux de Sapho" (pp.6993-7005).
(b) Part 9, Book 3, and "Histoire de Pisistrate: conversation sur la raillerie," for another excerpt that would become part of the 1680 Conversations.
3. Other writings in French:
(a) From a 1665 edition of the 1642 Les Femmes illustres ou Les Harangues heroique, "Sophonisbe a Massinissa," which illustrates the structure of each of the 20 harangues (the oration preceded by background information and followed by a description of its effect). Here Sophonisba, a captive during Rome's Punic Wars, pleads that she not be taken as a prize to Rome. (For a translation of an excerpt, see below, under "In print.")
(b) A brief poem written in 1650 on a visit to the Prince de Conde, imprisoned during the Fronde.
(c) The illustration "Carte de Tendre," engraved by Francois Chauveau for the first part of Clelie, Histoire romaine (1654); at another site, an excerpt from the novel describing the routes to the three alternative goals.
(d) Click on "Mlle. de Scudery" to go to part of the pen-portrait of Mme. de Sevigne that was included in Clelie.
(e) The two parts of the 1667 nouvelle, Mathilde d'Aguilar: first, "Les jeux servant de preface a Mathilde" (The games which serve as a preface to Mathilde), about a group of men and women in the country who take turns composing descriptions and telling tales; then, the tale told by one of the women, the story of Mathilde, a 1300s noblewoman who values freedom over marriage.
(f) An excerpt from the 1669 La promenade de Versailles.
(g) Four stanzas of a longer religious poem, "Stances sur la Resurrection," published in Jean de La Fontaine's 1670 Recueil de poesies chretiennes et diverses.
(h) Links to some of Scudery's correspondence between 1639 and 1701; you will find over 100 of her letters, as well as letters addressed to her. At another site, links to a hypertext version of five letters; here clicking on a highlighted word will take you to its other uses in these letters.
4. After an introduction to this collection of prefaces, a 1674 translation of the Preface to Ibrahim ou L'illustre Bassa (1641), by Georges de Scudery. This preface is accepted as Georges' work, but it describes the philosophy behind both the collaborations between brother and sister and Madeleine's early solo work: that romances were the prose equivalent of epic and so must be judged as such.
5. A list of Scudery's works (which, however, does not include Lettres amoureuses de divers autheurs de ce temps, now attributed to her by some scholars).
6. Essays:
(a) A biography and "literary guide" to Scudery by Elizabeth C. Goldsmith (for information on a 1988 study by Goldsmith, see below, under "Secondary sources").
(b) "Journey Through Mlle. De Scudery's Carte de Tendre: A 17th Century Salon Woman's Dream/Country of Tenderness," (2000), by Gloria Feman Orenstein, gives the author's interpretation of the map from Clelie. (Much of the essay is drawn from James S. Munro's 1986 Mademoiselle de Scudery and the Carte de Tendre; for information on that book, see "Secondary sources.")
(c) "Taking Compliments: J. L. Austin with Madeleine de Scudery" (1999), by Suzanne Popkin, looks at the giving and receiving of compliments in the "L'histoire de Sapho" section of Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus in the light of the "speech acts" theory of the philosopher J. L. Austin; unlike some critics, Popkin sees the story's end as a defeat for the once independent Sapho. Popkin provides her own translation of quoted passages (with the original given in the notes).
(d) A link to the text of Elizabeth Lee's 1890s translation, Essays by Sainte-Beuve; there go to the second use of "Scudery" for his 1851 essay on Scudery. Sainte-Beuve quotes extensively from the "Sapho" section of Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus (in which he sees Scudery describing herself) and briefly from the Conversations (which he prefers to the romances). You can also download the book as a PDF file.
(e) "The Scuderies," an essay of the early 1800s by the English critic and historian Isaac D'Israeli, which considers Madeleine's early writing and includes a passage about her by a contemporary, the scholar-satirist Gilles Menage.
7. Reviews: (for excerpts from the translations, see "In print"; for information on the other books' treatment of Scudery, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Nancy L. Locklin on Jane Donawerth's and Julie Strongson's 2004 translation, Selected Letters, Orations, and Rhetorical Dialogues.
(b) Katharine J. Hamerton on Karen Newman's 2003 translation of part of Book 10 of Artemene, The Story of Sapho.
(c) Katherine Crawford on Anne E. Duggan's 2005 study, Salonnieres, Furies, and Fairies: The Politics of Gender and Cultural Change in Absolutist France;
(d) Vern L. Bullough on the 2001 essay collection, Homosexuality in French History and Culture.
(e) Jeffrey S. Ravel on Abby E. Zanger's 1997 study, Scenes from the Marriage of Louis XIV: Nuptial Fictions and the Making of Absolutist Power.
8. Portraits, etc.:
(a) A contemporary painting.
(b) A 1739 etching, based on a drawing made of Scudery by Elisabeth Sophie Cheron (1648-1711).
(c) The opening page of the first volume (1649) of Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus.
9. For less-than-favorable contemporary reactions to Scudery's early work:
(a) Links to the individual scenes of a translation, by Henri van Laun, of Moliere's 1659 one-act play, Les Precieuses ridicules; note especially Scene 4's references to Scudery's characters, Cyrus and Clelie, and to the "country of Tenderness."
(b) In the original French of Nicolas Boileau's 1694 Satire X, go to "abord" for the assertion (over 30 years after the book's publication) that reading Clelie could lead women to a life of crime.
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Les Femmes illustres ou Les Harangues heroique, Conversations sur divers sujets, Conversations nouvelle sur divers sujets, Lettres amoureuses de divers autheurs de ce temps
[Jane Donawerth and Julie Strongson have translated 4 of the 20 orations in the 1665 edition of Femmes illustres, three discussions from the 1680 Conversations sur divers sujets, one discussion from the 1684 Conversations nouvelle, and 13 of the 102 letters in the 1641 Lettres amoureuses. The introduction summarizes the book's contents and discusses Scudery's rhetoric and style. The notes and bibliography are helpful. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Scudery, Madeleine de. Selected letters, orations, and rhetorical
dialogues; edited and translated by Jane Donawerth and Julie
Strongson (Other voice in early modern Europe). Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2004. (xxxi, 174 p.: ill.)
LC#: PQ1922 .A1 2004; ISBN: 0226144038, 0226144046
Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-43) and index
Les Femmes illustres ou Les Harangues heroique (1642)
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"Such sentiments are suitable for philosophers but not for
kings."
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[Two of the orations of Femmes illustres show Scudery presenting opposing views on suicide, and presenting each convincingly. In one, the Carthaginian queen Sophonisba justifies to her husband her decision to kill herself rather than suffer the indignity of being taken to Rome as a captive and made part of a general's triumphal procession. (You can see the original online):]
Those who say that true generosity consists in suffering fatal accidents with constancy and that to quit life in order to avoid misfortune (according to their opinion) is yielding victory to Fortune, these people, I say, do not know the true glory of princes. Such sentiments are suitable for philosophers but not for kings, whose every action should be a heroic example of courage. But if departing from life is allowed (which I do not doubt), it must certainly be when one can avoid the shame of being led in triumph.
...[W]hen all is lost and there remains no other choice but chains or death, we must break the bonds that attach us to life in order to escape those of bondage. [pp.73-74]
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"There is no difference between philosophers and kings."
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[The very next oration is that of Zenobia, also a queen, one who has fought against the Romans, been captured, and been led in chains in a Roman triumph. Here she forbids her daughters to be ashamed:]
No, my daughters, I have done nothing in my life that gives me greater satisfaction than following a triumphal chariot with equanimity. It is truly at such times that it is necessary to have a heroic soul, and never let it be said to me that in such encounters despair is a virtue and constancy a weakness....
Also, let no one tell me that this sort of constancy is more appropriate to philosophers than to kings. And you must recognize, my daughters, that there is no difference between philosophers and kings, except that the one teaches true wisdom and the others should practice it.
...I hold that those who would live with glory should die as reluctantly as possible. And to speak reasonably, untimely death is more a mark of remorse, repentance, and weakness than of grandeur and courage. [pp.81-82]
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"...without our having the right to claim any part of them...."
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[The last of the 20 orations is that of the Greek poet Sappho, who speaks to a younger woman, Erinna, to urge her to study and to write. In her opening, Sappho defends the ability of women:]
Those who say that beauty is woman's share and that fine arts, great literature, and all the sublime and exalted sciences fall under the domain of men, without our having the right to claim any part of them, are far from both justice and truth. If this were so, all women would be born with beauty and all men with a strong disposition to become learned; otherwise, nature would be unfair in her allotment of these gifts. Nevertheless, we see every day that ugliness can be found in our sex and stupidity in the other. [p.88]
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"Make the whole world see."
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[Near the end of her oration Sappho urges Erinna to write, in order to show skeptical men, the "common enemies," that women can achieve the praise of posterity for more than physical beauty:]
Make it known to our common enemies that it is as easy for us to conquer through the force of our intelligence as through the beauty of our eyes. Make clear your judgment through contempt for those aspersions that the vulgar will cast on your resolve. Make the whole world see, from the beautiful painting of your imagination, from the noble endeavors of your mind, from the lovely achievements of your memory, and from the stunning signs of your judgment that you alone will offer the benefit of reestablishing the glory of all women. [p.94]
Conversations sur divers sujets (1680)
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"Some days... I despair that I am a woman"
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[The last books of the novel Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus had been published in 1653. When, 27 years later, Scudery published the first of her collections of "rhetorical dialogues," Conversations sur divers sujets, she included, with name changes and other revisions, at least two excerpts from Artamene (you can see the originals online). Perhaps most interesting are the passages added for the first time, so representing Scudery's 1680 thoughts. In "De la conversation," she adds several paragraphs in which a woman, Athis, reports the words of a friend, Lydice, irritated by a group of women who had spoken only of "tedious trifles":]
"Well, Athis, will you still condemn me for preferring the conversation of men to that of women?... For my part," she said, "some days I am so irritated by my sex that I despair that I am a woman, especially when I find myself in one of those conversations composed entirely of dresses, furniture, jewels, and similar things...."
After having laughed at what Lydice said, I wished to defend women in general and told her I was persuaded there are as many men as ladies whose conversation is scarcely agreeable....
"But, Athis, it is not this that I am concerned with. For what I am telling you is that the most amiable women in the world, when they are together in a great number, and without any men, say hardly anything of value and are more bored than if they were alone. But it is not the same for men who are well-bred. Their conversation is, without doubt, less enjoyable when there no ladies than when there are. But commonly, though it is more serious, it is not irrational, and they can more easily be without us than we without them." [pp.99-100]
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"He allowed his reason to govern more than his desire."
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[In the 1653 Artamene, there is a brief discussion of the advantage of a monarchy over a republic. In 1680, in the conversation "De la raillerie," this is replaced by a lengthy description of a great king, who turns out to be Louis XIV (from whom Scudery would receive a pension three years later). After a description of the king's childhood:]
Then he himself began to steer the ship..., and contrary to the inveterate practices of rulers during his time, who were nothing but the instruments of their ministers, he made all his ministers his instruments. He wanted to see everything and know everything. He listened to all his subjects, who (up to that point) had had hardly any access to their amiable lord. He did not call for diversions except as respite from his work. He assigned hours each day for all the royal responsibilities and days for each sort of business, and what was even more marvelous, he allowed his reason to govern more than his desire. [p.136]
Conversations nouvelle sur divers sujets (1684)
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"One speaks... of friendship as if one were speaking of
love."
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[One of the sections of the 1684 Conversations nouvelle is "Conversation de la maniere d'ecrire des lettres," a version of which had been published in Clelie, Histoire romaine. In it one of the women describes proper "letters of gallantry" (as opposed to "love letters"):]
It is proper in these that wit should have all one's attention, that imagination should have freedom to play, and that judgment should not appear so severe that one may not mingle some agreeable foolishness among matters more serious. One is able to mock ingeniously, praise and flattery agreeably find their place in them; in them one speaks sometimes of friendship, as if one were speaking of love; in them one searches for novelty; in them one is able also to speak innocent lies; one makes up news when one knows none; one passes from one subject to another without constraint and these sort of letters are properly called a conversation between absent persons. [p.147]
Lettres amoureuses de divers autheurs de ce temps (1641)
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"You will say to me... that my friendship sounds like love."
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[Although the above passage was written 43 years after the 1641 Lettres amoureuses de divers autheurs de ce temps, it may be a guide to reading those two-thirds of the 1641 letters that appear to be either a correspondence between two women (the view of translators Donawerth & Strongson) or letters sent by various men to different women (the view of Joan DeJean, 1989; see below, under "Secondary sources"). One of the letters asks the recipient for understanding (the brackets indicate the translators' clarifications):]
...I need your judgment more than your memory in order to stay in your good graces, because your memory only shows things as they appear, while your judgment can discover them as they are. Don't be satisfied with the power to win hearts when you also might have the power to penetrate them---such is the affection that you produce there. Don't be like the sun, whose heat extends further than its light and who produces gold and metals in the earth, where the brightness of her rays will never penetrate.
You will say to me that this is a language of courtship and that my friendship sounds like love. But why would [love] not have the same vocabulary, since it has the same intensity. [Love] differs only in its goal and not in its strength. Don't disapprove then if I beg you to help me make you see the extremity of my affection.... [p.47]
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Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus
(1653)
[Karen Newman has translated that part of the last book of
Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus, which contains "L'histoire
de Sapho" (you can see the original online). She also gives
her translation of the last "harangue" of Les Femmes
illustres, in which Sappho speaks to Erinna. Newman's introduction
briefly treats Scudery's writing and her use of the character
"Sapho" (Newman uses the French form of the Greek poet's
name, which was the pseudonym used for Scudery in the salons).
The book's bibliography covers earlier critical studies in English
and in French. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Scudery, Madeleine de. The story of Sapho; translated and
with an introduction by Karen Newman (The other voice in early
modern Europe). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. (xxxi,
155 p.)
LC#: PQ1922.A8 E5 2003; ISBN: 0226143988, 0226143996
Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-155)
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"She knows... how to anatomize an amorous heart."
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[In the last book of Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus, one of the male characters tells a woman the story of Sappho: about a group of friends, men and women, who have formed a kind of salon on Lesbos, with Sappho as their leader. The city of Mytilene sounds very much like Paris, the salon very much like Scudery's in the 1660s. The narrator, after describing Sappho's skill at poetry, says:]
She also writes prose quite well --- her works are so tender that the hearts of all who read what she writes are moved.... She can describe sentiments difficult to describe with such delicacy, and she knows so well how to anatomize an amorous heart... that she is able to rehearse the jealousies, anxieties, impatience, joys, antipathies, sighs, despair, hopes, rebellions --- all the tumultuous feelings of love know only to those who feel or have felt them. [p.15]
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"...without pedantry, without conceit, and without disdain."
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[He goes on to praise her kind of learning and the way she presents it to others:]
...Sapho has seen all that is worth seeing and has taken pains to learn all that merits her curiosity.... She has even sought to know all those works with which so-called learned ladies entertain themselves.
"But what is admirable in her, this person who knows so many varied things, is that she knows them without pedantry, without conceit, and without disdain for those who are unlearned. Her conversation is so natural and easy, so charming, that is general conversation she is never heard to say anything but what someone untutored, but of large understanding, might say.... Only to her particular friends does she acknowledge her learning. [pp.15-16]
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"There is nothing you can't say in conversation."
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[Later, there is a discussion among the "particular friends" as to what makes good conversation between men and women. Sappho gives her view. (This passage would be included in "De la conversation" in the 1680 Conversations sur divers sujets):]
"The great secret is always to speak worthily of trifling things and simply of grand things, to speak delightfully of galanterie and to speak without affectation or undue gravity. And though conversations should always be both natural and reasonable, I wouldn't hesitate to say that there are occasions when even the various learned sciences may enter the conversation gracefully and when agreeable foolishness can also find a place as long as it is charming and clever.
"Be assured I'm not lying, you can speak well and reasonably, yet there is nothing you can't say in conversation, as long as you consider well where you are and to whom you speak and who you are yourself...." [pp.57-58]
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" I want a lover without wanting a husband."
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[Although Sappho values friendship, she does not feel the same about marriage. Early in the story, one of the male characters notices her sadness at the wedding of a friend:]
"It must be, then," said Tisander, "that you don't consider marriage a good." "It is true," answered Sapho, "I consider it an unending slavery." "So you consider all men tyrants?" rejoined Tisander. "I believe they all may become so once they become husbands," she replied.... [p.19]
[Later, Sappho meets a young man, Phaon: she begins to care about him but still rejects marriage. She tells her closest friend what she wants of love:]
"I would have this love be tender and sensitive and make of the smallest things the greatest pleasures. I want a love with the solidity of friendship founded on esteem and inclination....
"Finally, my dear Cyndon, I want a lover without wanting a husband. I want a lover who will content himself with possession of my heart, who will love me until death, because if I don't find a love such as I describe, I don't want love at all." [pp.50-51]
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"...though they may have exaggerated the sweetness of friendship."
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[Sappho and Phaon become closer, and for a while both are happy. However, Phaon's jealousy is aroused when he read poems written by Sappho to Cyndon, the narrator's sister:]
...[H]e read a song that she had written at my sister's return in which there were in few words all the transports of joy that the most ardent love can cause in a loving heart when reunited with a loved one after being apart....
...[S]he described their tender affection, their sincerity with one another, their pleasures, their walks, their conversations about the sweetness of friendship , and a thousand other such things. Madam, all the delights the most delicate love could invent were described in these verses, though they may have exaggerated the sweetness of friendship. [pp.69-70]
[The male narrator sees Sappho's words as exaggeration because they treat of friendship between women; for him, friendship cannot be as sweet as love. Phaon goes further: he finds it simply impossible that Sappho could have written such verses for a woman --- therefore she must love a man:]
"Ah, Democedes,... I am the most unhappy lover on earth," he replied, "because without a doubt, Sapho loves someone. ...[I]t is absolutely impossible to write of things so tenderly and passionately without having felt them." [p.70]
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"We talk about love in all our conversations."
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[Over time Phaon becomes convinced that he is Sappho's only love, but then she in turn becomes jealous (because the amiable Phaon is not sufficiently unhappy when he is not with her). Sappho's problem in solved when a visitor, Clirantes, comes to tell her of a utopian land, Sarmatae:]
"Since the founder of our state wanted his subjects to be committed to their country, he wished them to be bound by love. So gallantry is preserved among us..., and all the customs of lovers are as old as our state and are almost as inviolable as those of religion.... Since peace, leisure and plenty are always ours, we talk about love in all our conversations so that those who visit our country... are so astonished... to find such civility and gallantry, that they can't help but show their surprise." [p.121]
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"He promised, with considerable reluctance...."
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[Clirantes also tells Sappho and her friends that those who come to Sarmatae are never allowed to leave. The narrator describes Sappho's decision to move to this utopia and to see if Phaon would go with her:]
...[A]fter having thought carefully, she concluded that she could not live happily without Phaon's love and that she could never be assured of his affection if she were separated from him. So... she resolved to require of Phaon a powerful proof of his love by obliging him to follow her... Furthermore, she would oblige him to do so knowing that she would never marry him....
...[T]he next day Sapho told Phaon all she had to tell him. He joyfully accepted her proposal to go with her to the country of the Sarmatae, but he promised, with considerable reluctance, never to press her to marry him. Nevertheless, since she allowed him to love her tenderly, and she promised as well to love him, in the end he promised all she asked so that Sapho considered herself the happiest woman in the world and Phaon also believed himself the happiest lover on earth. [pp.132-33]
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"To love always..., one must never marry."
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[The pair go off to Sarmatae, but there Phaon's "considerable reluctance" reasserts itself; he appeals to Sarmatae's law courts, but, due to Sappho's rhetorical skill, unsuccessfully:]
They did have... a little matter that came up after they arrived. Since there were laws concerning love, and judges who knew only things having to do with that passion, Phaon sued to oblige them to charge Sapho to allow him to hope that one day he might marry her. According to the country's laws, Sapho was required to plead her case and Phaon his, which they both did admirably. But in the end, Sapho made people understand so skillfully that to love always, with an equal ardor, one must never marry, that the judges ordered Phaon not to press her further and declared that only she might grant such a favor....
Since then, they have lived as peacefully as ever could be imagined, and they enjoy all the sweets a gallant, delicate, and tender love can inspire in the hearts of those who possess it. [pp.135-36]
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Clelie, Histoire romaine (1654-61)
[One section (Part 4, book 2) of a 1678 translation by George Havers, of Clelie, Histoire romaine, is given in this anthology. The full title of the 1678 English version was Clelia, an excellent new romance: the whole work in five parts, dedicated to Mademoiselle de Longueville. Written in French by the exquisite pen of Monsieur de Scudery, governour of Nostredame de la Garde. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Women critics 1660-1820: an anthology / edited by the Folger
Collective on Early Women Critics. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, c1995. (xxv, 410 p.)
LC#: PN99.E9 W66 1995; ISBN: 0253328721, 0253209633
Includes bibliographical references (p. 399-401) and index
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"What she said was not that which ought to be done."
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[In this part of Clelie, Scudery treats a topic much discussed in mid-1600s Paris, the comparative merits of works of history and works of fiction; the former genre had been respected for centuries, while the latter was seen by some as valueless, if not actually dangerous. Here, during the days of the early Roman Republic, in a conversation among six friends about the writing of fiction, the character Plotina invites a discussion by a tongue-in-cheek description of how she would go about writing a "fable":]
"All Women should be admirably fair, and all Men should be as valiant as Hector,... I would make Prodigies fall out every moment , and without troubling myself to invent with judgment, I should suffer my fancy to act as it pleased...."
Plotina spoke this with a certain sprightly air which made it apparent... that she only design'd to draw Anacreon, Herminius and Amilcar to speak, who no doubt were able to speak excellently upon this Subject. [p.2]
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"There is a third way to be taken."
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[Plotina's ploy works, for all begin to give their views about plausibility, which leads to a defense of "wonderful accidents" (much like those to be found in the Scudery novels). Plotina begins by asking why she should not "make Prodigies fall out every moment." When the others laugh, she says:]
..."[W]herein is my opinion so absurd?"
"Because," answered Anacreon, "when you invent a Fable, your purpose is to be believed, and the true art of Fiction is handsomely to resemble truth...."
"But if an Historian of this kind," answered Valeria,"never relates things but such as appear to be true, and are of easie belief, methinks his composures will be extream vulgar, and not much delightful."
"You are upon a tender point, Valeria," reply'd Amilcar, "for in disallowing things incredible and impossible, it is not intended to employ only such as are mean and common; there is a third way to be taken, which is the most delightful of all, and most reasonable. Wonderful accidents are so far from being forbidden, that they are necessary, provided they do not happen too often, and produce handsome effects; only odd and impossible things are absolutely condemned." [p.3]
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"Such a writer must be... the Creator of his Works."
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[The discussion then moves on to the difficulties involved in writing history and fiction. Herminius lists the skills needed by a historian, but concludes:]
"However, when a man is provided with faithful memorials. has liv'd himself in the world, and has part of the qualities necessary to to an Historian, 'tis easie to make a History not wholly bad.
"But to compose an accurate Fable, adorned with all that can render it agreeable or profitable, I conceive it necessary, not only to have a hundred knowledges more comprehensive and particular. Such a writer must be (as I may so speak) the Creator of his Works; he must understand the art of setting forth Virtue, and exhibiting it as a thing not difficult to be practis'd. He must know the World, not only as the Author of a History ought, but he must understand the handsome mode of the World perfectly, politeness of conversation, the art of ingenious raillery, and that of making innocent Satyrs; nor must he be ignorant of that composing of Verses, writing Letters, and making Orations....
"Whence it is easie to judge, that it is much more difficult to make a Work of this nature, than to write a History." [p.6]
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"... a mere trifle, and an unprofitable amusement."
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[Herminius' words lead to the question of the morality of fiction:]
"I am of your opinion," added Amilcar, "but that which seems strange to me is, that if it were possible to find one that had compos'd a Fable of this nature, yet there would also be found a great number of people, who would speak of it but as a mere trifle, and an unprofitable amusement; and I know divers antient Senators here, and also several Roman matrons, who would be so affrighted with a Love-story, that they would absolutely forbid their Children from casting their eye upon any such." [p.7]
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"...a Map of the World... seen in Epitome."
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[Herminius replies, perhaps recalling for the reader the "Carte de Tendre" of the book's first volume:]
"...[T]hose good Senators and severe Matrons are to blame for hindering their Children from reading a Work wherein they might find wherewith to understand the practice of all Virtues, and by the advantage of which they might spare the pains of traveling, to become persons of worth and accomplisht; since there may be made so handsome a Map of the World that it might be seen in Epitome, without going forth of their closets....
Therefore I do not weigh the morosity of some unreasonable people, who blame a Work of this nature, but at the venture of undergoing their injustice, I wish I were the Author of one. [p. 8]
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[Nicole Aronson's 1978 study, translated by Stuart R. Aronson, is probably still the best place to start. Nicole Aronson's own later research has corrected some of the statements (chiefly about Scudery's early life), but you will find here a detailed description of the early long novels and the later shorter works, as well as an account of Scudery's reception by contemporaries and by later critics. Prose passages are quoted in translation, although the originals are not given. The book has a useful chronology and notes:]
Aronson, Nicole. Mademoiselle de Scudery; translated by Stuart
R. Aronson (Twayne's world authors series; TWAS 441). Boston:
Twayne Publishers, c1978. (178 p.: port.)
LC#: PQ1922.Z5 A83; ISBN: 0805762787
Includes index. Bibliography: p. 171-174
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[Louise Barry's article deals not with the well known description of Versailles in Scudery's 1669 Promenade de Versailles but with the narrative in which the description is embedded, a tale of a hero's conflict between love and loyalty to his king. Barry sees the work as a warning to Louis XIV of the danger of trying to exert complete control over his courtiers. Quoted passages are not translated but are usually made clear in the discussion. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Barry, Louise. Dissimulation and Deception in Madeleine de
Scudery's Promenade de Versailles. Seventeenth-Century French
Studies, 28 (2006), 135-45.
LC#: DC33.4 .S48; ISSN: 0377-3515
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[Two chapters of Anne E. Duggan's study deal with Scudery.
One, "Love Orders Chaos: Madeleine de Scudery's Clelie,
Historie Romaine," provides an analysis of Clelie,
clearly explaining the structure of Book I's Carte de Tendre
and its function throughout the entire novel. The following chapter,
"Adults at Play: Les Chroniques des Samedis de Mademoiselle
de Scudery," discusses the as-yet-untranslated report
of the gatherings at Scudery's salon during the 1650s. Throughout,
Duggan gives the original and her translation of all passages
quoted. (See
the book's table of contents online.)]
Duggan, Anne E. Salonnieres, furies, and fairies: the politics
of gender and cultural change in absolutist France. Newark: University
of Delaware Press; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses,
c2005. (288 p.: ill., facsims.)
LC#: PQ245 .D84 2005; ISBN: 0874138973
Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-279) and index
------------------
[This collection includes an essay by Leonard Hinds, "Female
Friendship as the Foundation of Love in Madeleine de Scudery's
'Histoire de Sapho,'" which tells how the historical Sappho
was viewed in 1600s France and discusses Scudery's treatment
of friendship and of love between the sexes in Book 10 of Artamene
ou Le Grand Cyrus. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Homosexuality in French history and culture / Jeffrey Merrick,
Michael Sibalis, editors. New York: Harrington Park Press, c2001.
(293 p.)
LC#: HQ76.3 .F8 H647 2001; ISBN:1560232625
"Co-published simultaneously as Journal of homosexuality,
volume 41, numbers 3/4 2001." Includes bibliographical references
and index
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[Joan E. DeJean's study of the interpretation of Sappho from the 1500s includes a discussion (pp. 96-110) of Scudery's Lettres amoureuses, of Femmes illustres, and of the story of Sappho in Artemene. DeJean appears to have been the first to identify the anonymous Lettres amoureuses as a work by Scudery. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
DeJean, Joan E. Fictions of Sappho, 1546-1937 (Women in culture
and society). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. (xviii,
383 p.: ill.)
LC#: PQ143.A3 D45 1989; ISBN: 0226141357, 0226141365
Bibliography: p. 359-370. Includes index
-------------------
[The first chapter of this later study by DeJean provides
a useful description of "salon writing," and the second
focuses on the "Carte de Tendre" and Scudery's relationship
to preciosite:]
DeJean, Joan E. Tender geographies: women and the origins
of the novel in France (Gender and culture). New York: Columbia
University Press, c1991. (xii, 297 p.: ill.)
LC#: PQ637.W64 D4 1991; ISBN: 0231062303
Includes bibliographical references (p. [271]-284) and index
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[James S. Munro's study discusses the origin of and reaction to the "Carte de Tendre"" in the first book of Clelie, as well as its relevance to that novel and to Scudery's other works. The passages quoted are not translated, but their meaning is usually made clear in the discussion. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Munro, James S. Mademoiselle de Scudery and the Carte de Tendre
(Durham modern languages series. FM; 3). Durham: University of
Durham, 1986. (97 p.: map)
LC#: PQ1922 .C5 M86 1986; ISBN: 0907310125
Bibliography: p. 93-97
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[One of the chapters of Elizabeth C. Goldsmith's study discusses Scudery's five books of conversations, written between 1680 and 1693, and what they reveal about salon society. Goldsmith sees the conversations as creating a world of equals, in which each person's view is balanced aganst those of others:]
Goldsmith, Elizabeth C. Exclusive conversations: the art of
interaction in seventeenth-century France. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1988. (viii, 186 p.)
LC#:PQ249 .G64 1988; ISBN:0812281020
Includes index. Bibliography: p. [175]-181
-----------------
[Erica Harth also deals with Scudery's conversations (pp. 43-58, 98-105). Harth discusses them as one kind of reaction to the growing influence of the writing of Rene Descartes:]
Harth, Erica. Cartesian women: versions and subversions of
rational discourse in the old regime (Reading women writing).
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992. (xi, 267 p.)
LC#: PQ245 .H35 1992; ISBN: 0801427150, 0801499984
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[In the course of describing the written works that grew out of the marriage of Louis XIV to the Spanish Maria Teresa, Abby E. Zanger, in Chapter 5, discusses and quotes from the opening of Scudery's 1661 novel, Celinte, Nouvelle premiere, in which a group of friends discuss the value and dangers of curiosity. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Zanger, Abby E. Scenes from the marriage
of Louis XIV: nuptial fictions and the making of absolutist power.
Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997. (xv, 244 p.,
[12] p. of plates: ill.)
LC#: DC128.5 .Z36 1997; ISBN: 0804729778
Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-237) and index
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Updated 03-29-08