Madame de Pompadour Read Online Free PDF Page B

intellectual paralysis which we see today in Spain. Where government was concerned they wanted more justice and less secrecy, a few mild reforms. Unfortunately the system left by Louis XIV was impervious to mild reforms, it had to be blown up by a bomb.
    These
philosophes
lived and worked in Paris, and they frequented the houses of certain hostesses, where they were able to exchange ideas in an atmosphere whose component parts, of exalted mutual admiration and miserable little jealousies, proved intensely stimulating. The talk, always good in France, has probably never reached such heights, before or since, as the conversations between Voltaire, Vauvenargues, Montesquieu, Marivaux, Fontenelle, and Helvétius. The stars, of course, would be Voltaire, with his enormous stock of interesting information, his brilliant flashes of fun, and his tender regard for the other star, Vauvenargues, who, in his turn, had a deep respect for Voltaire’s genius. The lesser lights, but not to be despised, were Marivaux, waiting impatiently for the ball to come his way; Montesquieu waiting too, but rather more calmly; Fontenelle who, though over ninety, was always ready when it did come with some appropriate story or remark that never took more than a minute; and Helvétius, fonder of listening than of talking, storing it all up in his memory. This miraculous entertainment went on round the supper tables of a few women, Mesdames Geoffrin, du Deffand, de Tencin, Madame Denis, the niece of Voltaire, and one or two others. Madame d’Etioles, with her gifts and her fortune and the liking she always had for clever men, seemed ideally suited to be such a hostess and this very soon became her object in life. She probably thought she would beat the old ladies at their own game: better educated than Madame Geoffrin, more cheerful than Madame du Deffand, less bossy than Madame de Tencin, richer than Madame Denis and prettier than any of them. Already the potential guests were very well-disposed towards her; Crébillon, Montesquieu and Fontenelle went to her house; she had been painted by Nattier and Boucher; and Madame du Deffand had written to the Président Hénault saying, ‘don’t be unfaithful to all of us with Madame d’Etioles.’ Voltaire took an almost proprietary interest in her; ‘well brought up, amiable, good, charming and talented,’ he said. ‘She was born sensible and kind hearted.’
    But Madame d’Etioles had enough worldly wisdom to realize that it is never enough for a young woman to receive; she must also be received. She knew, too, that writers like meeting society people; a
salon
only frequented by the intellectual bourgeoisie lacks elegance. The Marquise de La Ferté d’Imbault, daughter of Madame Geoffrin, says that two difficulties stood in the way of Madame d’Etioles’ ambition at this time. One was pretty Madame Poisson, who was received by certain hostesses, but was considered rather too disreputable by others, including Madame Geoffrin. The Geoffrins lived only four doors from the Hôtel de Gesvres and one day, rather to their horror, Madame Poisson and her daughter paid them a call.
    ‘The mother’, says Madame de La Ferté d’Imbault, ‘had such a bad reputation that we could not possibly have made friends with her; the daughter, however, was quite another story. I had no wish to seem rude, and it was difficult to see one without the other, but in the end I managed to return Madame d’Etioles’ call and not Madame Poisson’s. Madame d’Etioles asked my mother if she could often go and see her, to improve her knowledge of the world … One New Year’s day, she and her husband called on me at my
toilette
, so polite to me that I scolded her in a laughing way; next New Year’s day, at her own
toilette
, she had the whole Court, and the Princes of the Blood, bowing to the earth. I still laugh when I think of it.’
    The other difficulty was that his business as
fermier général
compelled M. de Tournehem