Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Texts
- Introduction: Women, Entertainment, and Precursors of the French Salon , 1532–1615
- 1 At Play in Italy and France: Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Social Continuities
- 2 Marie-Catherine de Pierrevive and the Dames des Roches: Proto-Salon Entertainment in Lyon and Poitiers
- 3 Antoinette de Loynes and Madeleine de l’Aubespine: Entertainment among the Parisian Noblesse de robe
- 4 Claude-Catherine de Clermont: Amusement and Escapism among the Noblesse d’épée and Royal Milieu
- 5 Marguerite de Valois and Proto-Précieuse Taste
- 6 L’Histoire de La Chiaramonte: A Divertissement for the Circle of Marguerite de Valois
- Conclusion : Sixteenth-Century Société Mondaine and the Persistence of Entertainment Practices
- Appendix: Estienne Pasquier and His Social Network
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Claude-Catherine de Clermont: Amusement and Escapism among the Noblesse d’épée and Royal Milieu
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 February 2024
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Texts
- Introduction: Women, Entertainment, and Precursors of the French Salon , 1532–1615
- 1 At Play in Italy and France: Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Social Continuities
- 2 Marie-Catherine de Pierrevive and the Dames des Roches: Proto-Salon Entertainment in Lyon and Poitiers
- 3 Antoinette de Loynes and Madeleine de l’Aubespine: Entertainment among the Parisian Noblesse de robe
- 4 Claude-Catherine de Clermont: Amusement and Escapism among the Noblesse d’épée and Royal Milieu
- 5 Marguerite de Valois and Proto-Précieuse Taste
- 6 L’Histoire de La Chiaramonte: A Divertissement for the Circle of Marguerite de Valois
- Conclusion : Sixteenth-Century Société Mondaine and the Persistence of Entertainment Practices
- Appendix: Estienne Pasquier and His Social Network
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract: The ludic literary hospitality of Claude Catherine de Clermont, duchesse de Retz, was enjoyed by Marguerite de Valois, high-ranking court women, and many leading poets, several of whom were well known to Antoinette de Loynes and Madeleine de l’Aubespine. A member of the noblesse d’épée, Retz was the daughter-in-law of Marie de Pierrevive and cousin of Jean de Vivonne, father of the marquise de Rambouillet. Tributes to Retz by Marie de Romieu and Pasquier's remembrances of entertainment in her home, as well as traces of her circle's activities in a manuscript album, reveal fascinating elements of this group, whose style of sociability resonates with that popular in Lyon and Poitiers and illustrates Huizinga's and Fink's notions of idyllic play worlds.
Keywords: Claude-Catherine de Clermont (Retz), Estienne Pasquier, Marie-Catherine de Pierrevive (Gondi), Marie de Romieu, Jean de Vivonne, Ippolita Scaravelli (de Chastellier)
For all these troubles the King has used of late to call certain poets and philosophers into his chamber to hear them dispute three or four hours together de primis causis de sensu et sensibili and such like questions. The auditors are none but the King, the Queen of Navarre, the Duke of Nevers, the Countess of Retz, and another lady or two.
— Valentine DaleI also choose among the Court to put in this rank [of ladies of merit] the maréschale de Rez and Mme de Ligneroles.… These two have shown that they know about more things than words, in the Academy which King Henri III had erected, and I remember one day among others, that the debate was on the excellence of the moral and intellectual virtues: they were antagonists, and were admired.
— Agrippa d’AubignéAbout three weeks ago … Madame de Rets invited me to supper, where one found numerous lords of mark. The entire evening was spent on an infinity of good and beautiful topics concerning the calamity of our times and on the hopes and despairs that each of us held according to the diversity of his opinions.
— Estienne PasquierClaude-Catherine de Clermont, maréschale and then duchesse de Retz, was a member of the noblesse d’épée (the nobility of the sword), the oldest and highest-ranking echelon of French nobility, and she holds an intriguing position in the history of early modern French literary society.
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- Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2023