Ann Thicknesse, Sketches of the Lives and Writings of the Ladies of France. Addressed to Mrs. Elizabeth Carter. Volume the First, London, Printed for W. Brown, in the Strand, 1778, p. 25-43.
Un exemplaire numérisé est consultable sur le site Eighteenth Century Books Online.
LOUISE LABÉ,
One of the most distinguished women among the female writers of her time. She was the wife of a rope-maker at Lyons, and called la Belle Cordiere, i. e. the beautiful rope-maker ; and possessed as much knowledge as beauty : the graces of her person set off the beauties of her mind : but what was still more extraordinary, she was an heroine, and gave proofs of courage and skill in the field : for the poets of her time celebrated her for her martial exploits, as the following lines will evince :
« En s'en allant toute armée,
Elle sembloit parmi l'armée,
Un Achile, ou un Hector. »1
This beautiful Cordiere was born in Lyons in 1527. She shewed an early disposition for languages, and the polite arts : but what marked her singular character most, was a taste for military exercises. We are ignorant of the motives which induced this lady to pursue that kind of life ; all we can learn is, that she served at the siege of Perpignan before she was sixteen years of age, where she took the name of Capitaine Loys. There is some reason, however, to conclude, that she either followed her father, or, what is more likely, her lover to the field of Mars. But the ill success the besiegers met with, obliged them to abandon the place, which determined the beautiful Lyonnoise to return home, and to pursue her studies. Nor was she inattentive to her future interest, but endeavored to procure an establishment which might enable her to enjoy tranquility and affluence the rest of her life : for soon after she married Ennemond Perrin, a rich merchant, who held a considerable traffic in cordage, and who possessed a very large estate near Lyons, where he had a house nobly furnished, and gardens which were very spacious and magnificent, which led towards a place called Belle Cour, near which a street was afterwards built, called La Belle Cordiere, in honor of Louise Labé, and which preserves its name to this day. There she collected a large library of the very best authors, and her house was the constant rendezvous of persons of distinction, and men of letters, who lived in, or near Lyons. It was an academy where every one found something that could either amuse or instruct. The charms of wit, conversation, music, (vocal and instrumental) and poetry, were all employed by the Muse, who presided there, and who was excellent herself in all. – Here I would wish to draw a viel over the rest of this lady's character : – 'Tis with regret that I recite what a French writer says, speaking of this extraordinary woman : – « Gallantry (says he) was not excluded from this agreeable place of study and science. The lovely Louise was not willing there should be any thing wanting to complete the general satisfaction of her visitors ; but her favors were granted to none but men of rank, and of letters, which last she preferred to those who possessed both birth and fortune. » – One cannot but lament that a woman, who was so near the summit of human perfection, should have sullied her fame from her neglet of virtue ; and suffered herself to be misled, either through vanity, or vicious and ungovernable passions, which rendered her in the eyes of good people, instead of an object of esteem and admiration, that of detestation and contempt : – So true it is, that the greatest beauty, the most shining talents, even added to birth and fortune, must ever lose their true value, if not accompanied by MODESTY and VIRTUE – the first of all female charms, and the only charms which are truly irresistable : – Though, in the following elegant lines she endeavored to excuse or palliate her faults :
« Le tems met fin aux hautes Pyramides ;
Le tems met fin aux fontaines humides ;
Il ne pardonne aux braves Coliscés,
II me à fin les villes plus Prisées.
Finir ausi il a accoutumé
Le feu d'amour, tant sout-il allumé.
Mais las ! en moi, il semble qu'il augmente
Avec le tems, et que plus me tourmente. »2
The distinguished manner in which Louise lived at Lyons, excited the jealousy of all the fashionable ladies of that city. They overlooked her fine sense and accomplishments, and considered her only in the low walk of a tradesman's wife ; – for, in their weak opinions, how could a simple Bourgeoise possess any real merit ? – From whence, the assemblies which were held at her house were suspected not to arise from her possessing uncommon talents, but from motives of a different kind, not much to Louise's honor : – but what increased the resentment of the women still more against her, was her writings, part of which breathed nothing but the tender sentiments of love, which were looked upon as so many lures to induce the men to attach themselves to her ; but Louise, in return, levelled part of her works at the Lyonnoise ladies, censuring them for the frivolous manner in which they employed their time, instead of improving themselves in knowledge and the polite arts. – Such indignities, and from a simple Bourgeoise too, exasperated them to the highest degree ; they looked upon it as the greatest piece of effrontery and impertinence imaginable ; and certainly, however just Louise's reproaches might be, it ill became a woman of her loose morals to take liberties with the conduct of others, and such too as would not have been easily pardoned, even from a woman of strict virtue.
But it is now time to speak of her writings, the best of which is a fiction intitled Debat de Folie et d'Amour, dedicated to her friend Clemence de Bourges, another celebrated writer, who shall be mentioned hereafter3 . [suit un résumé du « Debat », incluant deux longues citations traduites des discours d'Apollon et de Mercure]
It is with concern that we abridge the greater part of this ingenious fiction ; and thereby drop many of its original beauties, and poignant turns of wit. Many poets have endeavoured to appropriate this fable to themselves, but the invention, which is its principal merit, seems due only to the Belle Cordiere. La Fontaine most probably took the idea of his fable, intitled L'Amour et la Folie, and Erasmus his Praise of Folly4 , from this writer. The other pieces which compose this lady's collection, are some elegies and sonnets, which are held in high estimation among the French.
- 1"Escriz de divers Poëtes", pièce [24], v. 138-140.
- 2Elegie III, v. 77-84 (nous reproduisons les trois coquilles, qui rendent le texte peu compréhensible).
- 3La notice suivante est consacrée à Clémence de Bourges (p. 43-45) et elle précède celle consacrée à Pernette Du Guillet (p. 45).
- 4Confusion chronologique, qui inverse l'ordre entre le texte d'Érasme (1511) et celui de Labé (1555).