Ninon de l’Enclos
By PIERRE MIGNARD.
(Oval. Crimson and Orange Dress.)
Born at Paris, 1615. Died, 1705.—The early education of Anne de l’Enclos was not calculated to lead to favourable results. The characters of her parents were strangely opposed to each other, and remarkable for violent extremes. “M. de l’Enclos, duelliste, musicien, homme de plaisir, gentilhomme; Madame de l’Enclos, sévère, exacte.” The mother’s wish was to immure her daughter in a convent, a project which the father strenuously opposed. But by the time the girl had attained her fifteenth year she was left an orphan, at liberty to follow her own devices. Scepticism and Epicureanism were very prevalent at this epoch, and of these schools Ninon became a too willing disciple. She soon became the centre of attraction; her conquests were legion. Voltaire said: “There will be soon as many histories of Ninon as there are of Louis XIV.” Voltaire was only thirteen years old when he was first presented to Mademoiselle de l’Enclos, who was much struck with him, and evidently detected some promise of his future greatness. At her death she bequeathed him 2000 francs to buy books. She was a strange mixture of self-indulgence and self-restraint: at one time her conduct was so outrageous in its immorality as to scandalize even the Court of the Great Monarch, and it was reported that she was advised to emigrate, “Mais elle ne partit point,” says St. Beuve; “elle continua la même vie, en baissant légèrement le ton.” Later on, he says: “Elle rangea sa vie et la réduisit petit à petit, sur le pied honorable, où on la vit finir.” St. Simon “le sévère,” says: “Ninon eût des amis illustres de toutes les sortes, et elle les conserva tous. Tout se conduisit chez elle, avec un respect et une décence extrème—jamais ni jeu, ni ris élevés, ni dispute; sa conversation était charmante, désinteressée, fidèle, secrète au dernier point.” She was temperate in eating and drinking, and would never suffer drunkards at her table; indeed in her youth, she appears to have drunk no wine, though occasionally in some of her later letters to St. Evremond, she discourses somewhat enthusiastically on a subject so near to her correspondent’s heart, and speaking of her advanced age she says: “L’appétit est quelque chose dont je jouis encore.” St. Beuve tells us: “Qu’elle réfléchissait dans un âge, et dans un train de vie, où à peine les autres sont capables de penser, et elle, qui resta si longtemps jeune par l’esprit, se trouva mûre par là aussi avant l’âge.” La Force says: “Je n’ai pas connu cette Ninon dans sa beauté, mais à l’âge de cinquante et de soixante [the report ran until past 80] elle a eu des amants qui l’ont fort aimé, et les plus honnêtes gens de France pour amis.” Her salon was the most brilliant in Paris; parents schemed that their children’s débût in the world should be made under Ninon’s auspices, and Madame de Coulanges observes: “Les femmes courent après elle aujourd’hui, comme d’autres gens y couraient autrefois.” Even the straight-laced Madame de Maintenon, in speaking of her brother, writes to her thus: “Continuez, Mademoiselle, à donner de bons conseils à M. d’Aubigné: il à bien besoin des leçons de Leontium; [this was Ninon’s nickname, so called from the favourite disciple of Epicurus] les avis d’une amie aimable persuadent toujours plus que les conseils d’une sœur sévère.” Tallemant says that her beauty was never very remarkable: “Son esprit etoit plus charmant que son visage—dès qu’elle parloit, on était pris et ravi.” She sang, and played on the lute. “‘La sensibilité,’ dit elle, ‘est l’ame du chant.’” Her portrait is drawn by Mademoiselle de Scudéry in her novel of “Clélie.” “Elle parle volontiers; elle rit aisément, elle aime à faire une innocente guerre à ses amis. Les cheveux d’un beau chatain, le visage rond, le teint vif, la bouche agréable, les lèvres fort incarnates, une petite fosse au menton, les yeux noirs, brillants, pleins de feu, souriants, et la physionomie fine, enjouée, et fort spirituelle.” It can scarcely be denied that this description entitles to beauty, and so indeed do the portraits at Hinchingbrook and Althorp, though she was apparently at an advanced age when the latter was painted. “On a dit d’elle, qu’à la table elle étoit ivre dès la soupe! ivre de bonne humeur, et de saillies;” for as we have seen before, she was always temperate. Her letters to St. Evremond when they were both old, are most characteristic. They occasionally lament together over their age, but appear to have had many gleams of consolation. From the highest and truest of all comfort, they seem to have cut themselves off; and yet, in Ninon’s touching and eloquent letter to her correspondent, on the occasion of the death of the Duchesse de Mazarin, his dearest friend, there is this passage: “Si on pouvoit penser comme Madame de Chevreuse, qui croyoit en mourant, qu’elle alloit causer avec tous ses amis en l’autre monde, il seroit doux de le penser.” In another letter to the same, she says: “Nous allons mériter la louange de la postérité, pour la durée de nos vies, et celle de l’amitié; je crois que je vivrai autant que vous. Adieu Monsieur; pourquoi n’est ce pas un bon jour?” This was something like a prophecy, as they died within two years of each other, one having completed, the other within a few months of, ninety years of age. In speaking of her reception of a friend, whom St. Evremond had recommended to her notice, she says: “J’ai lu (devant lui) votre lettre avec des lunettes, mais elles ne me sieyent pas mal; j’ai toujours eu la mine grave.” Again: “Tout le monde me dit, que j’ai moins à me plaindre du temps qu’une autre; de quelque sorte que cela soit, qui m’aurait proposé une telle vie, je me serois pendue.” In spite of which, her letters are invariably cheerful. St. Evremond says, in very nearly the same strain as he writes to his other frequent correspondent the Duchess of Mazarin: “La nature commence à faire voir par vous, qu’il est possible de ne point vieillir. Vous êtes de tous les pays, aussi estimée à Londres qu’à Paris: vous êtes de tous les temps, vous êtes la maîtresse du présent et du passé.” Ninon died at her house at Paris about five o’clock in the evening, having outlived her ninetieth birthday by five months.
Note.—The Abbé Charles de St. Evremond, to whom we are indebted for so much information relating to Ninon de l’Enclos, and the Duchesse de Mazarin, was (originally) a soldier, an author, and a statesman—likewise a bon vivant, in all of which characters, he distinguished himself. He was in great favour at one time with Cardinal Mazarin, but having incurred that potentate’s displeasure, he thought it prudent to take refuge in England, where he remained till his death, in 1703, having made friends with all the leading men in that country, and being in great favour with the ladies, for his agreeable conversation and delicate flattery.