Letter 1369. To Mother Marie Jacqueline Favre, at the

Second Monastery of Paris. [Annecy, 1635.]

Vive > Jésus!

My most dear and good Daughter,—-It grieved me, I can tell you, to write to Paris last month without sending a little note to you, but it could not be helped. Since the beginning of this year I have been ill, and I am now suffering from a heavy cold and a racking cough which wears me out. But I must write a line to our very dear Brother [de Sillery], whose letter to me breathes a heart all perfumed with piety and perfect union with God. Ah, what a happiness to live thus in the world without sharing in its miserable affections and aims! He has written his opinion on your departure from Paris in a truly religious manner. May God keep him in this good state, and increase grace in him unto the perfection of divine love! We must leave him the consolation of enjoying your sweet society at least until after Easter, and then must choose a propitious time for the journey, so that your delicate health, which makes us so anxious, may not suffer, but rather gain strength from mild and balmy weather.

The Bishop of Geneva wishes this, for, believe me, my daughter—and I speak to you before God—his Lordship has a kind heart for you, but he is naturally hasty and somewhat imperious. Hence he does not like to give in [zllegible word] his order, and at times he lets quick words escape him in speaking or writing. He showed me a letter that your dear brother wrote lately to the Marquis de Lullin in which he tells him that he has been informed by certain persons that he [the Bishop] has not much affection for those of your house, and that he does not act kindly towards them, and even takes sides with those who are against them. This has touched him to the quick. Those who sow such tares greatly offend God; and I assure you, as far as I know, it is without any foundation. Certain little happenings have occurred about some worldly affairs in which the Count de Sales, who, you know, is a saint, held rather firm; this annoyed our good Madame la Présidente, who made unpleasant complaints and attributed what the Count had done to the Bishop of Geneva, who knew nothing at all about it. I think, if M. de Vaugelas! has written to him, he will tell him quite simply everything. Ah! but it is difficult for those who live in the same town and who have a certain position there not to come into conflict sometimes; yet this need not hinder friendship. Your brother the President? is a holy man and would not wish to do them harm, and Madame la Présidente an altogether upright woman, but a little sensitive. They live, thank God, amicably. I think, with my usual confidence, I ought to tell you this.

I have not seen our good Bishop for several days, because I cannot leave my room except to hear Mass and communicate. I shall not write to my very dear Sister [M. Agnes Le Roy] your Superior this time. I salute her affectionately,

He frequented the circle of the Hétel Rambouillet, and together with others of that brilliant society, which included Scudéry, Cotin, Ménage, Chapelain, Godeau, Malherbe, Corneille, Bossuet, and Voiture, became one of the original members of the Académie Frangaise—founded by Richelieu in 1634. To him was assigned the editorship of the Dictionary of the Academy, which, however, was not published until 1694, nearly half a century after his death. To enable him to work at leisure on the dictionary, the King granted him a pension. His Remarks on the French Language, which attained the greatest success, exercised a strong influence on the French language, and thus upon French literature. The dictionary was employed by all the great authors, who boasted that they ‘talked Vaugelas.’ His translation of Quintus Curtius became famous as an application of the author’s own rules.

Upon the death of Mother M. Jacqueline Favre, the Sieur de Vaugelas received two hundred letters of condolence.¹²

Footnotes

1. Claude Favre, born June 6, 1585, at Vaugelas, a small property in Meximieux left him by the will of his grandfather, and hence known as the Sieur de Vaugelas, was also bequeathed by his father the Barony of Péroges. He was the second son of Antoine Favre, First President of Savoy, and his wife Benoite Favre, heiress of Claude Favre, a rich bourgeois of Bugey, and lost all his property in the service of Gaston d’Orléans, to whom he remained faithful in his misfortunes. Vaugelas, who never married, devoted himself with a passionately eager analysis to a thorough study of the French language, and together with Balzac and Malherbe, but to a greater degree, was the father of the great French classical style of the age of Louis XIV. ↩

2. René Favre M. de Valbonne, Senator and President of the Council of Geneva, was Mother M. Jacqueline’s eldest brother. andalloursisters. Good-bye, my dearest daughter. Believe me that nothing has nor ever will displace you from the very core of my heart, where for my consolation God has placed you, and the sweetness of it does but increase because of your true virtue and your goodness to me. “Yes, the Superior of Poitiers is very good and capable. May God hold her in His blessed hand if He permits her to be exposed to all these perishable and dangerous vanities! ↩