Lenclos

Lenclos, NINON DE, one of those characters that could have appeared only in the French society of the 17th century, was born of good family at Paris, 15th May 1616. Even as a child she was remarkable for her beauty and grace. She was carefully educated, spoke several foreign languages, excelled in music and dancing, and had a great fund of sharp and lively wit. At the age of ten she read Montaigne's Essays. Six years later she commenced her long career of licentious gallantry by an amour with the Comte de Chatillon—to whom succeeded innumerable favourites, but never more than one at a time. Among her lovers we may mention the Marquis de Villareaux, the Marquis de Seigné, the great Condé, the Duc de Larochehoucauld, Marshal d'Albret, Marshal d'Estrées, the Abbé d'Effiat, and La Châtre. She had two sons, but never showed in regard to them the slightest instinct of maternity. The fate of one was horrible. Brought up in ignorance of his mother, he followed the rest of the world, and conceived a passion for her. When she informed him of the relation that subsisted between them, the unhappy youth was seized with horror, and blew out his brains in a frenzy of remorse—a calamity which did not seriously affect Ninon. She was nearly as celebrated for her manners as for her beauty. The most respectable women sent their children to her house to acquire taste, style, politeness. So great was her reputation that, when Queen Christina of Sweden came to Paris, she said she wished particularly to visit the French Academy and Ninon de Lenclos. We may gather some idea of her wit and sense from the fact that Larochehoucauld consulted her upon his maxims, Molière upon his comedies, and Scarron upon his romances. She died 17th October 1706, at the age of ninety, having preserved some remains of her beauty almost to the last. Mirecourt's Mémoires is a romance; the letters attributed to her are mostly spurious, but there is a notice of her letters to St Evremond in Sainte-Beuve's Causeries du Lundi. See also Capefigue's Ninon de Lenclos (Paris, 1864).