La Princesse De Clèves | Page 3

Court, into the seclusion and quiet of her little band of chosen
friends, urged partly by her distaste for Court life and partly by her
increasing ill-health. But her society was still much sought after; for a
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 plutôt 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
maîtresse 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'âme et de
l'esprit de Mme. de La Fayette." And again: "C'est aux environs de

l'année 1670 que La Rochefoucauld commença 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