Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Female Literature In France In The Seventeenth Century.
ENVOI . Love , the earliest-born of faith , Makes youth ' s pathway fair and smooth , Whispering low beneath his breath , It were folly not to love ! When he holds us in his thrall Ealse and faithless does he
prove ; And thus I declare to all , 'Tis insanity to love !" MADEMOISELLE CATHERINE BEBNABD , AVIIO was bom at Rouen in 1662 , Avas the distant relative of Corneille and Fontenelle , the latter of Avhom took great interest in her literary success . From an early age she had been accustomed to hear her parents exult
in then * connexion with those two celebrated men ; and , impelled by a spirit of emxdation , it was not long ere she began to test her own powers of composition . As is almost universall y the case with the young and enthusiastic , she commenced her
career of authorship m verse ; and poured forth , comparatiA'ely without effort , sonnets , madrigals , epigrams , ancl ballads . Then , pluming her wing for a higher flight , she turned her attention to the stage , and Avrote several rhymed comedies . Having abjured the Protestant faith , in which she hacl been reared , and encouraged by the praise of Fontenelle , she proceeded to Paris ;
where , through the kind offices of her kinsman and patron , she soon became favom * ably knoxAm to the poets and philosophers of the capital , and produced many graceful fugitive pieces . The fact of her obtaining several academical prizes soon secured to her a species of celebrity ; which Avas the more willingly acknoAvledged as her agreeable manners and amiable disposition endeared her to
those Avho sought her acquaintance , among whom were many persons of high rank and station . The Paduan Academy of Ricovrati conferred upon her the honoxn * of membership ; the Countess de Pont-Chartrain gave her a pension ; and subsequently a second , amoxmting to six hundred annual livres , Avas bestowed upon her by the sovereign .
The greatest literary triumphs of Mademoiselle Bernard Avere , hoAvever , her historical romances ; one of AA'hich , entitled "Eleonor d'Yvree , " is Avritten Avith such extraordinary grace and delicacy , andAvith so much deep and earnest feeling , that some of her critics have not hesitated to attribute many of its beauties to the pen of Fontenelle ; alleging that , from the extraordinary interest Avhich he evinced in her success , nothing coulcl be more natural than that he should lend the aid of his talent to the embellishment
of her Avorks . This assertion appears to me , I confess , hoAvever , extremely doubtful ; it being essentially the privilege of a Avoman to analyze and depict those subtle feelings of the heart , and
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Female Literature In France In The Seventeenth Century.
ENVOI . Love , the earliest-born of faith , Makes youth ' s pathway fair and smooth , Whispering low beneath his breath , It were folly not to love ! When he holds us in his thrall Ealse and faithless does he
prove ; And thus I declare to all , 'Tis insanity to love !" MADEMOISELLE CATHERINE BEBNABD , AVIIO was bom at Rouen in 1662 , Avas the distant relative of Corneille and Fontenelle , the latter of Avhom took great interest in her literary success . From an early age she had been accustomed to hear her parents exult
in then * connexion with those two celebrated men ; and , impelled by a spirit of emxdation , it was not long ere she began to test her own powers of composition . As is almost universall y the case with the young and enthusiastic , she commenced her
career of authorship m verse ; and poured forth , comparatiA'ely without effort , sonnets , madrigals , epigrams , ancl ballads . Then , pluming her wing for a higher flight , she turned her attention to the stage , and Avrote several rhymed comedies . Having abjured the Protestant faith , in which she hacl been reared , and encouraged by the praise of Fontenelle , she proceeded to Paris ;
where , through the kind offices of her kinsman and patron , she soon became favom * ably knoxAm to the poets and philosophers of the capital , and produced many graceful fugitive pieces . The fact of her obtaining several academical prizes soon secured to her a species of celebrity ; which Avas the more willingly acknoAvledged as her agreeable manners and amiable disposition endeared her to
those Avho sought her acquaintance , among whom were many persons of high rank and station . The Paduan Academy of Ricovrati conferred upon her the honoxn * of membership ; the Countess de Pont-Chartrain gave her a pension ; and subsequently a second , amoxmting to six hundred annual livres , Avas bestowed upon her by the sovereign .
The greatest literary triumphs of Mademoiselle Bernard Avere , hoAvever , her historical romances ; one of AA'hich , entitled "Eleonor d'Yvree , " is Avritten Avith such extraordinary grace and delicacy , andAvith so much deep and earnest feeling , that some of her critics have not hesitated to attribute many of its beauties to the pen of Fontenelle ; alleging that , from the extraordinary interest Avhich he evinced in her success , nothing coulcl be more natural than that he should lend the aid of his talent to the embellishment
of her Avorks . This assertion appears to me , I confess , hoAvever , extremely doubtful ; it being essentially the privilege of a Avoman to analyze and depict those subtle feelings of the heart , and