Online Encyclopedia

GEORGES DE SCUDERY (16or-1667)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 487 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

GEORGES DE

See also:
SCUDERY (16or-1667)  , the elder of the pair, was born at Havre, whither his
See also:
father had moved from Provence, on the 22nd of August 1601 . He served in the army for some time, and, though in the vein of gasconading which was almost
See also:
peculiar to him he no doubt exaggerated his services, there seems little doubt that he was a stout soldier . But he conceived a fancy for literature before he was
See also:
thirty, and during the whole of the
See also:
middle of the century he was one of the most characteristic figures of Paris . He gained the favour of Richelieu by his opposition to Corneille . He wrote a letter to the Academy criticizing the
See also:
Cid, and his
See also:
play, L'Amour tyrannique (164o), was patronized by the cardinal in opposition to Corneille . Possibly these circumstances had something to do with his appointment as governor of the fortress of Notre-Dame de la Garde, near
See also:
Marseilles in 1643, and in 165o he was elected to the Academy . During the troubles of the
See also:
Fronde he was exiled to
See also:
Normandy, where he made his fortune by a rich
See also:
marriage . He was an industrious dramatist, but L'Amour tyrannique is practically the only piece among his numerous tragi-comedies and pastorals that has escaped oblivion . His other most famous
See also:
work was the epic of Alaric (1655) . He lent his name to his
See also:
sister's first romances, but did little beyond correcting the proofs . He died at Paris on the 14th of May 1667 .
See also:
Scudery's swashbuckler affectations have been rather exaggerated by
See also:
literary gossip and tradition .

Although possibly not quite sane, he had some poetical

power, a fervent love of literature, a high sense of honour and of friendship . His sister MADELEINE (1607-1701), born also at Havre on the 15th of November 1607, was a writer of much more ability and of a much better regulated character . She was very plain and had no fortune, but her abilities were
See also:
great and she was very well educated . Establishing herself at Paris with her
See also:
brother, she was at once admitted to the Rambouillet coterie, afterwards established a
See also:
salon of her own under the title of the Societe du samedi, and for the last
See also:
half of the 17th century, under the pseudonym of " Sapho " or her own name, was acknowledged as the first blue-stocking of France and of the
See also:
world . She formed with Pellisson a close friendship only terminated by his
See also:
death in 1693 . Her lengthy novels, such as ArtamPne, ou le
See also:
Grand Cyrus (xo vols . 1648–1653), Clelie (xo vols . 1654-1661),
See also:
Ibrahim, ou l'illustre
See also:
Bassa (4 vols . 1641), Almahide, ou l'esclave reine (8 vols . 1661–1663) were the delight of all
See also:
Europe, including persons of the wit and sense of Madame de Sevigne . But neither in conception nor in execution will they bear criticism as wholes . With classical or
See also:
Oriental personages for nominal heroes and heroines, the whole language and
See also:
action are taken from the fashionable ideas of the time, and the personages can be identified either really or colourably with Mademoiselle de Scudery's contemporaries .

In Clelie, Herminius represents

Paul Pellisson; Scaurus and Lyriane were Paul Scarron and his wife (afterwards Mme de
See also:
Maintenon); and in the description of Sapho in vol. x. of Le Grand Cyrus the author paints herself . It is in Clelie that the famous Carte de Tendre appeared, a description of an
See also:
Arcadia, where the
See also:
river of Inclination waters the villages of
See also:
Billet Doux, Petits Soins and so forth . The interminable length of the stories is made out by endless conversations and, as far as incidents go, chiefly by successive abductions of the heroines, conceived and related in the most decorous spirit, for Mademoiselle de Scudery is nothing if not decorous . Nevertheless, although the books can hardly now be read through, it is still possible to perceive their attraction for a period which certainly did not lack wit . In that early day of the novel prolixity did not repel . " Sapho " had really studied mankind in her contemporaries and knew how to analyse and describe their characters with fidelity and point . Moreover her novels had the
See also:
interest always attaching to the
See also:
roman d clef . She was a real
See also:
mistress of conversation, a thing quite new to the age as far as literature was concerned, and proportionately welcome . She had a distinct vocation as a
See also:
pedagogue, and is compared by Sainte-Beuve to Mme de Geniis . She could moralize-a favourite employment of the time—with sense and propriety . Though she was incapable of the exquisite
See also:
prose of Mme de Sevigne and some other of her contemporaries, her purely literary merits were considerable . Madeleine survived her brother more than thirty years, and in her later days published numerous volumes of conversations, to a great extent extracted from her novels, thus forming a kind of
See also:
anthology of her work .

She outlived her

vogue to some extent, but retained a circle of friends to whom she was always the " incomparable Sapho." She died in Paris on the 2nd of
See also:
June 1701 . Her
See also:
Life and Correspondence were published at Paris by MM . Rathery and Boutron in 1873 . An amusing sketch of her is to be found in vol. iv. of Sainte-Beuve's Causeries du lundi . Georges de Scudery is sketched by
See also:
Theophile Gautier in his Grotesques . See also V . Cousin, La Societe francaise au X VII' siecle, vol. ii .

End of Article: GEORGES DE SCUDERY (16or-1667)
[back]
SAINT GEORGE (d. 303)
[next]
GEORGETOWN

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.