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The Princess De Montpensier By: Madame de La Fayette (1634-1693) |
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by Mme. de Lafayette
Introduction
By Oliver C. Colt
This story was written by Madame de Lafayette and published anonymously
in 1662. It is set in a period almost 100 years previously during the
sanguinary wars of the counter reformation, when the Catholic rulers of
Europe, with the encouragement of the Papacy, were bent on extirpating
the followers of the creeds of Luther and Calvin. I am not qualified to
embark on a historical analysis, and shall do no more than say that
many of the persons who are involved in the tale actually existed, and
the events referred to actually took place. The weak and vicious King
and his malign and unscrupulous mother are real enough, as is a Duc de
Montpensier, a Prince of the Blood, who achieved some notoriety for the
cruelty with which he treated any Huguenots who fell into his hands,
and for the leadership he gave to the assassins during the atrocious
massacre of St. Bartholomew's day. He was married and had progeny, but the woman to whom he was married
was not the heroine of this romance, who is a fictional character, as
is the Comte de Chabannes. The Duc de Guise of the period whose father had been killed fighting
against the Protestants, did marry the Princess de Portein, but this
was for political reasons and not to satisfy the wishes of a Princess
de Montpensier. It will be noticed, I think, that women were traded in marriage with
little or no regard to their personal emotions, and no doubt, as has
been remarked by others, marriages without love encouraged love outside
marriage. Whatever the reality, the literary conventions of the time
seem to have dictated that we should be treated only to ardent glances,
fervent declarations, swoonings and courtly gestures; we are not led
even to the bedroom door, let alone the amorous couch. I wonder,
however, if the reader might not think that this little tale written
more than three hundred years ago contains the elements of many of the
romantic novels and soap operas which have followed it. At one level it is a cautionary tale about the consequences of marital
infidelity; at another it is a story of a woman betrayed, treated as a
pretty bauble for the gratification of men, and cast aside when she has
served her purpose, or a butterfly trapped in a net woven by uncaring
fate. Her end is rather too contrived for modern taste, but, even
today, characters who are about to be written out of the plot in soap
operas are sometimes smitten by mysterious and fatal disorders of the
brain. The unfortunate Comte de Chabannes is the archetypical "decent chap,"
the faithful but rejected swain who sacrifices himself for the welfare
of his beloved without expectation of reward. In the hands of another
writer, with some modification, he could have provided a happy ending
in the "Mills and Boon" tradition. This translation is not a schoolroom exercise, for although I have not
altered the story, I have altered the exact way in which it is told in
the original, with the aim of making it more acceptable to the modern
reader. All translation must involve paraphrase, for what sounds well
in one language may sound ridiculous if translated literally into
another, and it is for the translator to decide how far this process
may be carried. Whether I have succeeded in my task, only the reader
can say. The Princess de Montpensier
By Madame de Lafayette
Translated by Oliver C. Colt
Mézières It was while the civil war of religion was tearing France apart that
the only daughter of the Marquis of Mézières, a very considerable
heiress, both because of her wealth and the illustrious house of Anjou
from which she was descended, was promised in marriage to the Duc de
Maine, the younger brother of the Duc de Guise. The marriage was delayed because of the youth of this heiress, but the
elder of the brothers, the Duc de Guise, who saw much of her, and who
saw also the burgeoning of what was to become a great beauty, fell in
love with her and was loved in return... Continue reading book >>
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Genres for this book |
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History |
Literature |
Romance |
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Wikipedia – Madame de La Fayette |
Wikipedia – The Princess De Montpensier |
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