La Princesse De Clèves | Page 3

notice of her death in the Mercure galant, tells us that when she could no longer go to the Court, the Court might be said to have come to her.
Mme. de La Fayette was some twenty-two years old,--long past the usual marriageable age of French maidens,--when, in 1655, she was married to the Count de La Fayette. Little is known of her married life. Boissier in his Vie de Mme. de Sévigné says: "When the correspondence of Mme. de Sévigné with her daughter begins (1671), Mme. de La Fayette has been long a widow." But of this early widowhood there is no positive evidence, the weight of testimony being rather to the contrary. Those who are curious in this matter are referred to d'Haussonville's Vie de Mme. de La Fayette, where the whole controversy is summed up in the following words: "Une chose est certaine: c'est qu'il faut renoncer désormais à considérer Mme. de La Fayette comme une jeune veuve."
Of Monsieur de La Fayette's relations to his wife, we are almost wholly ignorant; and the sole evidence--beyond a line or two in Mme. de La Fayette's letters--that he existed at all, was the birth to the wife of two children. "We find now and then," says La Bruyère, "a woman who has so obliterated her husband that there is in the world no mention of him, and whether he is alive or whether he is dead is equally uncertain." Doubtless her husband discovered--as did many of her friends--that Mme. de La Fayette was a woman whose personality overshadowed everything around her.
That there was little congeniality between husband and wife cannot be doubted, yet Mme. de La Fayette's own letters go to prove that for a time at least she was not unhappy. In a letter to Ménage, written from Auvergne soon after her marriage, she says: "La solitude que je trouve ici m'est plut?t agréable qu'ennuyeuse. Le soin que je prends de ma maison, m'occupe et me divertit fort et comme d'ailleurs je n'ai point de chagrins, que mon époux m'adore, que je l'aime fort, que je suis ma?tresse absolue, je vous assure que la vie que je mène est fort heureuse.... Quand on croit être heureuse vous savez que cela suffit pour l'être."
This frigid, make-believe happiness, even though supported by the satisfaction of being absolute mistress of the household, could not long suffice for a nature like Mme. de La Fayette's; and therein lies perhaps the secret of all the unwritten history that follows.
Just at what time the friendship between Mme. de La Fayette and La Rochefoucauld began, is uncertain. Boissier in his Vie de Mme. de Sévigné says that when, in 1671, the correspondence between mother and daughter begins, "Mme. de La Fayette has but recently united herself with the Duc de La Rochefoucauld in that close intimacy which gave the world so much to talk about."
However, Mme. de Sévigné's letters leave us wholly in the dark as to when this intimacy began. Sainte-Beuve holds that it was about 1665, and makes a strong argument for his view of the matter. D'Haussonville believes that this remarkable union was the result of long acquaintance and slowly ripening friendship, the acquaintance having begun in the years following Mme. de La Fayette's marriage,--that is, between 1655 and 1665. He sums up the matter as follows: "Une chose est certaine: c'est que La Rochefoucauld s'est emparé peu à peu de l'ame et de l'esprit de Mme. de La Fayette." And again: "C'est aux environs de l'année 1670 que La Rochefoucauld commen?a à faire ouvertement partie de l'existence de Mme. de La Fayette." And here we leave this much-vexed problem of chronology.
Of the nature of this union and of the talk it gave rise to, we shall not speak. Mme. de Sévigné tells all that need be known. "Leur mauvaise santé," writes she, "les rendoit comme nécessaires l'un à l'autre.... je crois que nulle passion ne peut surpasser la force d'une telle liaison." The influence of this friendship upon each may best be set forth in the words of Mme. de La Fayette: "M. de La Rochefoucauld m'a donné de l'esprit, mais j'ai réformé son coeur." La Rochefoucauld had been embittered by disappointed ambition, ill health, and the loss of his favorite son; and his opinion of humanity in general and of woman in particular was none too lofty, to say the least. Perhaps Mme. de La Fayette's greatest service in this respect was in toning down the severity of the immortal Maxims.
We know how deep and lasting was the grief of Mme. de La Fayette for the loss of the man with whose life her own had been so long and so closely united. On March 17th, 1680, Mme. de Sévigné writes: "M. de La Rochefoucauld died last night. When again will