literary wave of the seventeenth century
reached its brilliant climax and broke upon the shores of a new era.
But the seeds of thought had been scattered, to spring up in the great
literature of humanity that marked the eighteenth century.

CHAPTER III. MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDERY AND THE SAMEDIS

_Salons of the Noblesse--"The Illustrious Sappho"--Her Romances--The
Samedis--Bon Mots of Mme. Cornuel--Estimate of Mlle. de Scudery_

There were a few contemporary salons among the noblesse, modeled more or
less after the Hotel de Rambouillet, but none of their leaders had the
happy art of conciliating so many elements. They had a literary flavor,
and patronized men of letters, often doubtless, because it was the
fashion and the name of a well-known litterateur gave them a certain
eclat; but they were not cosmopolitan, and have left no marked traces.
One of the most important of these was the Hotel de Conde, over which
the beautiful Charlotte de Montmorency presided with such dignity and
grace, during the youth of her daughter, the Duchesse de Longueville.
Another was the Hotel de Nevers, where the gifted Marie de Gonzague,
afterward Queen of Poland, and her charming sister, the Princesse
Palatine, were the central attractions of a brilliant and intellectual
society. Richelieu, recognizing the power of the Rambouillet circle,
wished to transfer it to the salon of his niece at the Petit Luxembourg.
We have a glimpse of the young and still worldly Pascal, explaining
here his discoveries in mathematics and his experiments in physics. The
tastes of this courtly company were evidently rather serious, as we
find another celebrity, of less enduring fame, discoursing upon the
immortality of the soul. But the rank, talent, and masterful character
of the Duchesse d'Aiguillon did not suffice to give her salon the
wide influence of its model; it was tainted by her own questionable
character, and always hampered by the suspicion of political intrigues.

There were smaller coteries, however, which inherited the spirit and
continued the traditions of the Hotel de Rambouillet. Prominent among
these was that of Madeleine de Scudery, who held her Samedis in modest
fashion in the Marais. These famous reunions lacked the prestige and the
fine tone of their model, but they had a definite position, and a wide
though not altogether favorable influence. As the forerunner of Mme.
de La Fayette and Mme. de Sevigne, and one of the most eminent lite