. SEVIGNE, MADAME DE, MARIE DE RABUTIN-CIIANTAL, was b. at Paris, Feb. 6, 1626. She was the only daughter of the baron de Chantal, Celse-Benignc de Rabutin, and his wife, Marie de Conlenge. She was left early an orphan; and at the age of six the care of her education devolved on her maternal uncle, the abbe de Coulange, an excellent and amiable man, who most conscientiously acquitted himself of his charge, and for whom through life his niece entertained the tenderest affection. She was carefully instructed in all the knowledge which then appertained to the education of a French gentlewoman; by the eminent scholar Menage she was taught Latin, Italian, and Spanish; and Chapelain, another literary notability of the time, also assisted in her culture. At the age of 18 (Aug. 1, 1644), she was married to the marquis Henri de Sevigne, the repre sentative of an ancient house in Brittany. The union was not a happy one. The mar quis was "a man of wit and pleasure," of the type of the period; his wit he exhibited by his happy way of squandering his wife's fortune, and he took his pleasure in neglect of her, and addiction to other women, After a time, he was killed in a duel (Feb. 5' 1651), by a certain chevalier d'Albret, his rival in a love-affair. Left with a son and daughter, Sevigne now for a few years retired almost wholly from society, and devoted herself to their education. In 1654 she returned to Paris, where her beauty, her wit, her happy social tact and vivacity, concurred, with the charm of her sweet and kindly nature, to insure her unrivaled success in the brilliant society of the period. Her lovers were legion, and among them were numbered some of the most distinguished men of whom France could then boast, as the prince de Conti, Turenne, Fouquet the superin tendent of finance, and others. But they sighed in vain: all offers of marriage she steadily declined; and from any of those lighter ties, there and then most leniently looked on—if not almost considered eomme it faut—she has left no spot upon her reputa tion. For her virtue she must have credit as virtue, and not merely the coldness which simulates it; for she was obviously of a warm, eager, even somewhat impulsive nature.
Her numerous and warm friendships, with her absolute devotion to her children, may have sufficed as food of a heart not unlikely, in lack of these, to have craved a more perilous diet. Her affection for her daughter in particular, who in 1669 became Madame de Grignan, was the ruling passion of her life; and to the separation of the mother, over long periods, from "this infinitely dear child," the world is indebted for by much the larger moiety of the collection of letters which has given fame in perpetuity to Madame de Sevigne. Madame de Grignan was one of the most beautiful and accomplished women of her time, and every way worthy of the love thus lavished without stint upon her. If she did not reciprocate its full fervor, that, as the shrewd mother well knew, was simply in the nature of the case; and not to have demonstrated in return more rapture than she really felt, ought to count as a point in her favor, rather than reverse-wise as it has been held to do. If it was the one main grief of Madame de Sevigne to he forced to live apart from her daughter, the happiness of dying beside her may perhaps have a little consoled her for it. In 1696, while on a visit to the chateau de Grig nan, she was seized with malignant small-pox, and died at the age of 70.
The letters of Madame de Sevigne, on which her fame securely rests, are charming in the abandon and easy naive frankness with which they reveal her beautiful nature. They sparkle with French esprit and spontaneous gaiety of heart; and their writer is scarce anywhere quite equaled in the delicate finesse with which, in a few careless rapid words, she flings off a scrap of light narrative, dashes in a little graceful picture, or points a dramatic situation. Above all remarkable is the lightly-moved and ever.actIve sympathy which keeps her exquisitely en rapport with the interest of whatever may be passing before