rary
women of the century with which her life ran parallel, Mlle. de Scudery
has a distinct interest for us and it is to her keen observation and
facile pen that we are indebted for the most complete and vivid picture
of the social life of the period.

The "illustrious Sappho," as she was pleased to be called, certainly did
not possess the beauty popularly accorded to her namesake and prototype.
She was tall and thin, with a long, dark, and not at all regular face;
Mme. Cornuel said that one could see clearly "she was destined by
Providence to blacken paper, as she sweat ink from every pore." But,
if we may credit her admirers, who were numerous, she had fine eyes,
a pleasing expression, and an agreeable address. She evidently did
not overestimate her personal attractions, as will be seen from the
following quatrain, which she wrote upon a portrait made by one of her
friends.

Nanteuil, en faisant mon image,
A de son art divin signale le pouvoir;
Je hais mes yeux dans mon miroir,
Je les aime dans son ouvrage.

She had her share, however, of small but harmless vanities, and spoke
of her impoverished family, says Tallemant, "as one might speak of the
overthrow of the Greek empire." Her father belonged to an old and noble
house of Provence, but removed to Normandy, where he married and died,
leaving two children with a heritage of talent and poverty. A trace of
the Provencal spirit always clung to Madeleine, who was born in 1607,
and lived until the first year of the following century. After losing
her mother, who is said to have been a woman of some distinction, she
was carefully educated by an uncle in all the accomplishments of
the age, as well as in the serious studies which were then unusual.
According to her friend Conrart she was a veritable encyclopedia
of knowledge both useful and ornamental. "She had a prodigious
imagination," he writes, "an excellent memory, an exquisite judgment,
a lively temper, and a natural disposition to understand everything
curious which she saw done, and everything laudable which she heard
talked of. She learned the things that concern agriculture, gardening,
housekeeping, cooking, and a life in the country; also the causes and
effects of maladies, the composition of an infinite number of remedies,
perfumes, scented waters and distillations useful or agreeable. She
wished to play the lute, and took some lessons with success." In
addition to all this, she mastered