[23] Spirit.
[24] Figures, allegories.
[25] ‘Arguments,’ discussions, such as the one that follows on the nature of the true courtier.
[26] The following anecdote of a warrior who affirmed that the entertainments of the Court were beneath him, may be cited as a specimen: ‘The Gentlewoman demaundyng him, What is then your profession? He aunswered with a frowning looke: To fight. Then saide the Gentlewoman: Seing you are not nowe at the warre nor in place to fight, I woulde thinke it beste for you to bee well besmered and set up in an armorie with other implementes of warre till time wer that you should be occupied, least you waxe more rustier than you are.’ p. 49.
[27] See below, p. 124.
[28] Historical Memoirs 1. 14. Chesterfield, who knew the salons at first hand, writes to his son, 24 December 1750, ‘Le bon goût commença seulement à se faire jour, sous le règne, je ne dis pas de Louis Treize, mais du Cardinal de Richelieu, et fut encore épuré sous celui de Louis Quatorze.... Vers la fin du règne du Cardinal de Richelieu, et au commencement de celui de Louis Quatorze, l’Hôtel de Rambouillet était le Temple du Goût, mais d’un goût pas encore tout à fait épuré.’ Letters, ed. Bradshaw, 1. 382.
[29] ‘Arthénice’ is an anagram of her name, Cathérine. It is said to have been discovered by Malherbe.
[30] This, too, is Italian. Cf. Burckhardt, Renaissance in Italy, tr. Middlemore, p. 359: ‘Social intercourse in its highest and most perfect form now ignored all distinctions of caste, and was based simply on the existence of an educated class.’
[31] Thus Mascarille in Les Précieuses Ridicules: ‘Vous verrez courir de ma façon, dans les belles ruelles de Paris, deux cents chansons, autant de sonnets, quatre cents épigrammes, et plus de mille madrigaux, sans compter les énigmes et les portraits.’
[32] Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la Langue et de la Littérature Française 4. 105.