Edition original edition of the Poems by one of our famous “Précieuses”, Madame Deshoulières.
“She enjoyed a long time the foremost place amongewomen poets…
et is much better than her reputation”. (Sainte-Beuve)
Le superb copy from the Duke of La Vallière, cited by Brunet,
bound in red morocco around 1730 by P.Anguerrand.
Paris, 1688.
“Voltaire admired her greatly.”
Madame Deshoulières (1637-1694). Poetry by Madame Deshoulières.
In Paris, at the Widow of Sébastien Mabre-Cramoisy, 1688. With His Majesty’s Privilege.
In-8 of (2) ff., including the author’s portrait, 220 pp. and (6) ff. for the Table, the Pprivilege of June 19, 1678, and the printing finishing of December 30, 1687.
Full red morocco, double gilt lines around the boards, smooth ornately decorated spine, gilt lines on cuts, inner roulettes, gilt edges. Binding by Pierre Anguerrand around 1730.
165 x 105 mm.
Original edition of extreme rarity, published by the author, bound in old morocco, of the poems of Madame Deshoulières, one of the famous “Précieuses”.
Gifted with all the qualities of body and mind, she received the most refined education, learned Latin, Spanish, Italian, music, dance, equestrian skills. She studied poetry under the direction of a master, Hesroult. At thirteen, according to Sainte-Beuve, or eighteen according to other historians, she married Guillaume Deshoulières, a gentleman of Condé, whom she followed in the Fronde, exiling with him to Brussels. Staying in Paris, Mme Deshoulières mingled with scholars and fine minds: Ménage, Conrart, Benserade, and listened to Gassendi, whose theories she embraced (Bayle cited her in his article on Spinoza). Joining her husband in Brussels in 1655, she encountered societal success there, then was imprisoned for demanding too vigorously from the Flemish authorities the pension owed to her husband. Released and returned to Paris, she connected with the best writers and the greatest society names: Corneille, to whom she was always loyal, his brother Thomas, Pellisson, Quinault, Fléchier, Mascaron, La Rochefoucauld, Montausier, Vivonne, Saint-Aignan, Vauban. She was especially well-received at the Hôtel de Bouillon and the Hôtel de Nevers. It was there that she inspired and led the cabal against Phèdre by Racine. She hosted a literary salon and remained faithful to the admirations of her youth.
During the quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns, she naturally sided with Perrault. Somaize placed her in his Dictionary of the Précieuses, under the name Dioclée.
She specialized in pastoral poetry and found a way to compose idylls or eclogues about the small or great events of court life, such as “idyls” on the death of Montausier, the king’s return to health, the birth of “Monsieur, Duke of Burgundy”, an eclogue titled “Louis”. In her eclogues, elegies, epistles, songs, she celebrates her familiar animals, her dog, her cat, her sheep, and her ewes.
The cited famous eclogue in anthologies is: “On the flowered shores the Seine waters…”. She has grace, wit, gentleness, a rather lively sensitivity, a certain naivety. Voltaire admired her greatly.
“She enjoyed a long time the foremost place among women poets” wrote Sainte-Beuve.
The works of Madame Deshoulières often echo the intellectual games of her salon, a Parisian counterpoint to the court of the young Louis XIV, which was attended by the two Corneilles, Tallemant, La Rochefoucauld, Duke of Montausier, Bussy-Rabutin… and Perrault.
“But it is the elegiac and pastoral vein inherited from L’Astrée that will mark her success in the 18eth century: her eclogues and idylls establish a serious poetry that advocates the innocent and bucolic life of animals, far from the passions of men corrupted by ambition and greed.”.
This original edition of the Poems by one of our famous précieuses is very rare and has always been sought after by bibliophiles, especially the two only copies cited in old morocco: the copy in old morocco with the arms of Madame de Chambillart, 1620 F. Gold (a colossal bid) at the sale of Baron Pichon and the second copy bound in old morocco – the present copy – around 1730 by Anguerrand from the library of the Duke of La Vallière.
