Friday, April 10, 2009
RANDOM ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA
DEFFEND, MARIA De VICHY-CHAMROND, marquise du-1697-1780- a celebrated leader in the fashionable literary society of paris during most of the 18th c. of noble family. educated at a paris convent, where she showed great intelligence, the sceptical + cynical turn of mind, which suited her part to fill in philosophical circles. parents alarmed at her radical views of freedom arranged that massillon should visit + reason w/ her, but no effect. married her at 21 to the marquis du deffend w/out her asking. the union unhappy + speedy separation. MD young + beautiful, did not, common belief, succeed in keeping herself uncontaminated by the abounding vice of the age + said she was for a time the mistress of the regent. reconciled w/ her husband, but no good + final separation. incapable of strong attachment, but her intelligence. her cynacism, + her espirit made her a center of attraction to a circle w/included nearly all the famous philosophers + literary men in paris. in 1752 became blind + took hr abode in the st joseph convent w/ a street entrance + visited by voltaire, walpole + others. in 1764 the group split in 2 by the defection of her companion madamoselle de l'epinasse. MD most affinity w// walpole. of her inumerable witty sayings, the best known is her remark on the cardinal de polignac's account of st. denis's miricle walk of 2 miles w/ his head in his hands(miricle?)-"il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute" the distance doesn't matter, it is only the 1st step that is the most difficult.
correspondence printed.
