not
go to her house. Nothing is considered beautiful if it does not
have her approval; no stranger ever comes who does not desire to see
Cleomire and do her homage, and there are no excellent artisans who
do not wish to have the glory of her approbation of their works. All
people who write in Phenicie have sung her praises; and she possesses
the esteem of everyone to such a marvellous degree that there is no
one who has ever seen her who has not said thousands of favorable
things about her--who has not been charmed likewise by her beauty,
_esprit_, sweetness, and generosity."

Mlle. de Scudery describes the salon of Mme. de Rambouillet in the
following:

"Cleomire (Mme. de Rambouillet) had built, according to her own
design, a place which is one of the finest in the world; she has found
the art of constructing a palace of vast extent in a situation
of mediocre grandeur. Order, harmony, and elegance are in all the
apartments, and in the furniture also; everything is magnificent,
even unique; the lamps are different from those of other palaces, her
cabinets are full of objects which show the judgment of her who chose
them. In her palace, the air is always scented; many baskets full of
magnificent flowers make a continual spring in her room, and the place
which she frequents ordinarily is so agreeable and so imaginative as
to make one feel as if she were in some enchanted place."

The very names of the frequenters of the salon of Mme. de Rambouillet
testify to the prominence of her position in the world of culture:
Mlle. de Scudery, Mlle. du Vigean; Mmes. de Longueville, de la Vergne,
de La Fayette, de Sable, de Hautefort, de Sevigne, de la Suze, Marie
de Gonzague, Duchesse d'Aiguillon, Mmes. des Houlieres, Cornuel,
Aubry, and their respective husbands; the great literary men: Rotrou,
Scarron, Saint-Evremond, Malherbe, Racan, Chapelain, Voiture, Conrart,
Benserade, Pellisson, Segrais, Vaugelas, Menage, Tallemant des Reaux,
Balzac, Mairet, Corneille, Bossuet, etc. In the entire period of the
French salon, no other such brilliant gathering of men and women of
social standing, princely blood, genuine intelligence, and literary
ability ever assembled from motives other than those of politics
or intrigue; here was a gathering purely social and for purposes of
mutual refinement. The nobility went through a process of polishing,
and the men of letters sharpened their intelligence and modified their
manners and customs.

Jul