Deffand, MARIE DE VICHY-CHAMBROND, MARQUISE DU

Deffand, MARIE DE VICHY-CHAMBROND, MARQUISE DU, one of the most brilliant letter-writers of the 18th century, was a member of a noble Burgundian house, and was born in 1697. She was educated in a convent in Paris, and as a girl became famous for her wit, audacity, and beauty. In 1718 she married the Marquis du Deffand, from whom she shortly afterwards separated. She led a life of gallantry for a number of years, and became a conspicuous figure in the literary society of Paris, her salon in the Rue Saint Dominique being a favourite resort of the philosophes. She was a correspondent of Voltaire, Montesquieu, D'Alembert, and other great men of letters of her day. In 1753 she became blind, and in the following year she invited Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse to live with her and help her to preside over her salon. The arrangement lasted for ten years, when a quarrel broke out through Madame du Deffand's jealousy, and Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse departed, taking away with her D'Alembert and others of the elder lady's former admirers. From 1766 Madame du Deffand carried on an interesting correspondence with Horace Walpole, who held her in the highest estimation, and pressed the use of his purse on her when she fell into pecuniary troubles. 'To say nothing of her extraordinary parts,' Walpole wrote, 'she is certainly the most generous friendly being upon earth.' As a matter of fact, however, she was as selfish and spiteful as she was witty and shrewd. She died at Paris, September 24, 1780. See Correspondance de Madame du Deffand (new ed. 5 vols. 1865-67); her Letters to Horace Walpole and Voltaire (4 vols. Lond. 1810); and Asse, Md^lle. de Lespinasse et la Marquise du Deffand (1877).