La Princesse De Clèves par Mme de La Fayette / Edited with Introduction and Notes

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COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY B.F. SLEDD AND H. GORRELL
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The Athenæum Press
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Mme. de la Fayette, whose maiden name was Marie-Magdeleine Pioche de La Vergne, was born at Paris in 1634. Her father belonged to the lesser nobility, and was for awhile governor of Pontoise, and later of Havre. Her mother was sprung from an ancient family of Provence, among whom, says Auger, literary talent had long been a heritage; but the mother herself—if we are to believe Mme. de La Fayette's biographers—possessed no talent save that of intrigue. This opinion of Mme. de La Vergne, however, rests mainly upon the testimony of Cardinal de Retz; and may it not be that Mme. de La Fayette has drawn for us the portrait of her mother in the person of Mme. de Chartres? If this be true, Mme. de La Vergne, vain and intriguing though she may have been, was not wholly unworthy of her daughter.
The early education of Mme. de La Fayette—for by this name we can best speak of her—was made the special care of her father, un père en qui le mérite égaloit la tendresse. Later, she was put under Ménage, and possibly Rapin. Segrais, with his usual garrulousness, tells the following story: