eJournals Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature 43/85

Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature
0343-0758
2941-086X
Narr Verlag Tübingen
2016
4385

Cultivating Their Gardens: Women and the Art of Home Economics in Madame de Maintenon’s Dramatic Proverbs

2016
Theresa Varney Kennedy
PFSCL XLIII, 85 (2016) Cultivating Their Gardens: Women and the Art of Home Economics in Madame de Maintenon’s Dramatic Proverbs T HERESA V. K ENNEDY (B AYLOR U NIVERSITY ) Against the backdrop of an economic crisis in late seventeenth-century France, Madame de Maintenon’s proverbes inédits (1690-1710), composed for use by the girls’ boarding school she directed at Saint-Cyr, emphasized women’s role in maintaining a family budget and running a household. Unlike proto-feminist contemporaries Poullain de la Barre and Gabrielle Suchon, Maintenon does not openly contest the gender hierarchy. 1 However, the ideas that we find in Maintenon’s dramatic proverbs are progressive for the seventeenth century in terms of how they challenge traditional attitudes towards female education and women’s access to knowledge. Maintenon’s proverbs propose new skill sets for women that allow them more agency within the private sphere. Maintenon’s writings testify to her belief that women will benefit from a well-rounded education, and that women are just as capable as men of using logic. Maintenon’s proverbial instruction thus opposes traditional seventeenth-century views on the mental capacities of young women, especially considering the fact 1 The philosopher François Poullain de la Barre (1647-1723) examined the concept of intellectual equality between men and women in a series of three treatises: On the Equality of the Two Sexes (1673), On the Education of Ladies (1674), and On the Excellence of Men (1675). See Three Cartesian Feminist Treatises, ed. by Marcelle Maistre Welch, trans. by Vivien Bosley, The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002). Gabrielle Suchon (1632-1703) advocated women’s freedom and self-determination, access to knowledge, and assertion of authority in her works Treatise on Ethics and Politics (1693) and On the Celibate Life Freely Chosen; or, Life without Commitments (1700). See A Woman Who Defends All the Persons of Her Sex, ed. and trans. by Domna C. Stanton and Rebecca M. Wilkin, The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010). Theresa V. Kennedy 364 that they were written during a time when women were not expected to think independently. Although she does not argue for a direct reversal of the patriarchal hierarchy, Maintenon's proverbs encourage the creation of a “female space” within a male-dominated world. Maintenon uses her proverbs to instruct young women on how to create a quality existence within the confines of a “man’s world” (Kennedy, “Proverbes Inédits” 29-30). While Maintenon recognizes that women could not yet achieve equal status, she does not believe that women should embrace ignorance. To rise above their situation, Maintenon advises women to educate themselves in how to manage a household. Just as Voltaire’s Candide communicated the need to “cultivate our gardens,” Maintenon emphasized the development of skills that would enable women to build a productive and satisfactory home life. John Conley states that “Maintenon’s works transfer the empowerment of women to their own distinctive culture. [. . .] Women must engender a language, a code of virtue, an ensemble of practical skills, and a method of education that bear the irreducible stamp of the feminine sex” (13-14). Here Conley references a new approach to female education in which Maintenon focuses on traditional subjects, but also teaches practical skills so that women can use their knowledge to improve the quality of their lives, allowing them to transcend the limitations imposed on their sex. In this essay, I argue that the proverbs played an important role in transitioning women of noble birth from courtly life to eighteenth-century domestic life, and emphasized the development of new skills that challenged traditional, passive female education. Throughout the proverbs an emphasis is placed on home economics. There are four main skill areas that a woman must master in order to properly run a home: 1) developing an entrepreneurial spirit; 2) managing money and balancing the budget; 3) supervising servants; and 4) handling marriage contracts. Before analyzing the proverbs, I will give a brief synopsis of their usage in Saint-Cyr’s curriculum. Seventeenth-Century Women’s Education Maintenon’s pedagogy represents a radical departure from traditional seventeenth-century attitudes towards women’s education. A contemporary French oratorian and rationalist philosopher, Nicolas Malebranche (1638- 1715), exemplifies the negativity that governed seventeenth-century thought with regards to women’s education: Elles [les femmes] sont incapables de pénétrer les vérités un peu difficiles à découvrir. Tout ce qui est abstrait leur est incompréhensible. Elles ne peuvent pas se servir de leur imagination pour développer des questions Cultivating Their Gardens: Women and the Art of Home Economics 365 composées, et embarrassées. Elles ne considèrent que l’écorce des choses; et leur imagination n’a point assez de force et d’étendue pour en percer le fond, et pour en comparer toutes les parties sans se distraire. Une bagatelle est capable de les détourner. (191-92) Here Malebranche underlines women’s ignorance and their inability to form judgments or to think abstractly. For Malebranche the female is incapable of using reason. This preconceived notion concerning female rationality set a precedent for a weak education system for women. While the Catholic Reformation prompted the development of teaching congregations such as the Ursulines and the Filles de Notre Dame for the lesser nobility and the bourgeoisie, the upper class did not benefit (Rapley 299-300). The convents are described as prisons rather than places of instruction: Le spectacle de ces enfants observant le silence comme des vieilles nonnes, parlant bas du lever au coucher, comme des diplomates, ne marchant jamais qu’encadrées de deux religieuses comme des prisonnières, passant d’une méditation à une autre, de l’oraison à l’instruction, n’apprenant en dehors du cathéchisme, que la lecture, l’écriture et, le dimanche, un peu d’arithmétique. (Beirne 21-22) In the convents, young girls were taught to observe silence and to meditate rather than think critically. Fénelon, in his Traité de l’éducation des filles (1687), was the first to oppose the predominant attitude towards passive female education: “Rien n’est plus négligé que l’éducation des filles. [. . .] On suppose qu’on doit donner à ce sexe peu d’instruction” (37). 2 He also attacked the practice of raising young women to be weak and timid: “On les [les filles] nourrit dans une mollesse et dans une timidité qui les rend incapables d’une conduite ferme et réglée” (77). Fénelon’s ideas challenged future educators to improve educational programs for girls from noble families in order to prepare them for the roles they were to play in a changing society. Following Fénelon’s philosophy of female education, Maintenon also expected young women to excel in logic and accounting skills for use in the home. 3 However, she took Fénelon’s educational treatise a step further by suggesting that women may be empowered by controlling family finances and earning their husbands’ esteem. Her attempt to “domesticate” these young aristocratic women opposed their aspirations to secure positions at 2 All quotes are taken from this edition: Fénelon, Traité de l’éducation des filles (Paris: Klincksieck, 1994). 3 The influence of Fénelon’s on Maintenon’s ideas has long been established. See Lougée 190; Lyons 358-59. Theresa V. Kennedy 366 court. 4 The proverbs were intended to draw the Saint-Cyriennes away from an existence that no longer promised financial security. Instead, Maintenon’s proverbs idealized women who demonstrated bourgeois values such as moderation, frugality, and resourcefulness. At the same time, it must be acknowledged that this trend was a doubleedged sword for women. As women gained more authority in the home, they lost their stronghold in the public sphere—and, more specifically, high society. Maintenon’s intentions supported the state’s goal at the end of the seventeenth century to reinforce the family unit. 5 This new tactic encouraged what would become a clear separation between public and private spheres for eighteenth-century women. Thus, the goal to domesticate women did temporarily slow women’s progress in the public sphere, as French feminist Elisabeth Badinter suggests (Kramer 48). 6 We should not, however, view this trend as a complete setback in terms of women’s growth. The new emphasis on domesticity did indeed improve the quality of women’s education within the private sphere. Teaching young aristocratic women to be fiscally responsible enabled them to wield more authority in the home. Fénelon maintained that women required more intelligence to run a household (which he compared to a small Republic) than they needed to gamble, discuss fashion, and practice the art of conversation (86). Freed of their obligations to courtly society, women could focus on their education. Even as they became further ensconced in the private sphere, newly developed skills and knowledge empowered them to contribute to the economy in the eighteenth century, and eventually enabled them to ease their way into the working world. 7 Thus, the proverbs suggest 4 Positions such as fille d’honneur or dame d’atours for instance, were very competitive, and carried attractive pensions. Immune from taxes, this kind of lifestyle also allowed them such pleasures as riding in carriages, dining in royal company, and sleeping in royal apartments. See Gibson 98. 5 Le père La Chaise stated that Saint-Cyr would provide the state not with more nuns, but with more virtuous mothers of families: “L’objet de Saint-Cyr, disait-il, n’est pas de multiplier les couvents, qui se multiplient assez d'eux-mêmes, mais de donner à l'Etat des femmes bien élevées; il y a assez de bonnes religieuses et pas assez de bonnes mères de famille; les jeunes filles seront mieux élevées par des personnes tenant au monde.” See Lavallée 40. 6 Badinter describes her distaste for the eighteenth-century naturalist ideology that relegated women to the private sphere: “By the end of the eighteenth-century, women found themselves completely shut out of public life” (Kramer 48). 7 Most upper-class families followed the model of the “family economy,” in which women’s work existed as part of the communal effort to keep the family afloat, usually in support of the patriarch’s occupation. Social and legal structures limited women’s capacity to work independently in the public sphere, yet there were Cultivating Their Gardens: Women and the Art of Home Economics 367 irony. Although women were made to embrace domesticity in the eighteenth century, the skills they developed in the home would allow them more mobility in the future. The dramatic proverbs and the art of home economics at Saint-Cyr During the first few years of Saint-Cyr’s operation, much emphasis was placed on culture and the performing arts, which included the staging of religious plays. This aspect of the curriculum was revised, however, after the scandalous premiere of Racine’s Esther in 1689. 8 Maintenon’s dramatic proverbs, based on French maxims for the younger girls, were written in response to the Esther debacle (Brown 210). Drawn to their capacity to instruct as well as entertain, Maintenon used them in the classroom setting: J’ai cru qu’il était raisonnable et nécessaire de divertir les enfants, et je l’ai vu pratiquer dans tous les lieux où l’on en a rassemblé; mais j’ai voulu en divertissant celles de Saint-Cyr remplir leur esprit de belles choses dont elles ne seront point honteuses dans le monde, leur apprendre à prononcer, les occuper pour les retirer de la conversation qu’elles ont entre elles, et amuser surtout les grandes qui, depuis quinze jusqu’à vingt ans, s’ennuient un peu de la vie de Saint-Cyr. (Maintenon, Lettres sur l’éducation 215) As she mentions here, the proverbs were originally used for entertainment in the salons, yet Maintenon gave them a pedagogical purpose. Scholars credit Maintenon with inventing a pedagogical genre that would be further developed by such writers as Madame de Genlis and Madame Campan (Plagnol-Diéval 44-80). Although improvisational dramatic proverbs had long been a favorite pastime amongst members of polite society, Maintenon’s collection of exceptions. See Hafter and Kushner for case studies of women that complicate the family economy model in the eighteenth-century: wives of ship captains managed family businesses in their husbands' absences; female weavers, tailors, and merchants increasingly appeared on tax rolls and guild membership lists; and female members of the nobility wielded the same legal power as their male counterparts. The point about women’s potential advancement in the working world is made in Kennedy, “Bonne mere” 83. 8 Julia Prest attributes the scandal more specifically to the performance of the play by a youthful female cast and to the fact that this was the first time that an educational institution for girls was able to attract such a large audience. Prest argues that most of the criticism—both positive and negative—had to do with the effect the performance had on the girls themselves. See Prest 59, 67. Theresa V. Kennedy 368 dramatic proverbs were some of the first to be recorded. 9 Maintenon’s proverbs are secular in theme, featuring real life scenarios and everyday conversations that encourage the use of reason in daily life. The pedagogical proverbs contained many lessons and applications that the girls could reflect on as they rehearsed for their future lives as mothers and wives. Each of Maintenon’s proverbs is comprised of four to nine scenes, with a small number of characters representing various social classes. The plots illustrate well-known adages that are not explicitly stated, so that, as in traditional salon games, the Saint-Cyriennes could decipher the messages, which would in turn lead to a discussion. At the same time, the “nature of such pieces with their simple plot geared towards the inscription of received wisdom and requiring the active participation of the spectators in decoding the significance of the performance, suited admirably a more serious pedagogical agenda” (Brown 211). One of Maintenon’s objectives was to make the girls aware of the responsibilities they would expect to have once they left the school; and since marriage was preferred, they would need to understand what was involved in running a household and balancing a budget. Maintenon’s ideas concerning women and home economics in the proverbs are largely inspired by Fénelon, who believed that young women should never aspire to become savantes ridicules and therefore should avoid subjects such as politics, the art of war, law, philosophy, and theology. Home economics, on the contrary, was to be their domain of specialization: “En revanche, la nature leur a donné en partage l’industrie, la propreté et l’économie pour les occuper tranquillement dans leurs maisons” (Fénelon 37). Fénelon described women as domestic engineers who had the potential to either ruin or strengthen the family fortune, since the mother of the family supervised daily domestic transactions. He defined the woman as the foundation of the family unit—and the heart of the economic sphere—but, in order for the economy to function, mothers needed to be in the home: “Le monde n’est point un fantôme, c’est l’assemblage de toutes les familles; et qui est-ce qui peut les policer avec un soin plus exact que les femmes, qui, outre leur autorité naturelle et leur assiduité dans leur maison, ont encore l’avantage d’être nées soigneuses, attentives au detail, industrieuses, insinuantes et persuasives? ” (Fénelon 38). For Maintenon, helping women to appreciate the art of home economics was no easy task, since young women were so attracted to the pleasures 9 Maintenon’s Proverbes inédits were written and recorded sometime during the last decade of the seventeenth century, but were not published until 1829 by M. de Monmerqué (Paris: Imprimerie de E. Pochard, 1829). For more information on the history of the proverb genre, see Brenner. Cultivating Their Gardens: Women and the Art of Home Economics 369 associated with high society. Another message strongly aligned with domesticity in the proverbs: the dangers of being drawn to the luster of courtly life and its false claims of affluence. To convince young women that they may have more agency in domestic life, the proverbs emphasized that courtly life offered one little influence over one’s own daily activities. For instance, the proverb “Tout ce qui reluit n’est pas or” describes a day in the life of the queen, who gets little rest and spends her time placating others. In the proverb “Toujours pêche qui en prend un”, the wise Mme Duceaux compares the courtesan to a slave who is never truly free to live his or her own life. At court one must always disguise oneself, finding it necessary “de paraître triste si le Roi l’est, quoiqu’on ne le soit point; de marquer de la joie si cela leur convient, quoiqu’on soit pénétré de chagrin; de s’ennuyer toujours, parce qu’on ne fait jamais sa volonté; de parler contre ses sentiments pour s’accommoder aux leurs” (Maintenon, Proverbes 283). 10 Furthermore, noblewomen were opposed to the concept of work. For the woman of noble blood, “the necessity to earn a living was a vulgar fact of life contemplated in the persons of her social inferiors rather than experienced at first hand” (Gibson 97). Fénelon described the noblewoman’s complete disregard for any aspect of the economy since she considered work to be “beneath her class”: La plupart des femmes la négligent [l’économie] comme un emploi bas, qui ne convient qu’à des paysans ou à des fermiers, tout au plus à un maître d’hôtel, ou à quelque femme de charge; surtout des femmes nourries dans la mollesse, l’abondance et l’oisiveté, sont indolentes et dédaigneuses pour tout ce détail; elles ne font pas grande différence entre la vie champêtre et celle des sauvages du Canada; si vous leur parlez de vente de blé, de culture des terres, des différentes natures des revenus, de la levée des rentes et des autres droits seigneuriaux, de la meilleure manière de faire des fermes, ou d’établir des receveurs, elles croient que vous voulez les réduire à des occupations indignes d’elles. (86) Indeed, women of noble birth considered themselves unsuited for work, even though their households could no longer be fully supported by their inheritance. The proverbs emphasized economic skills that were to help the young Saint-Cyriennes to become more proactive and self-sufficient. 10 This and all subsequent quotes from the proverbs will be taken from Madame de Maintenon, Proverbes dramatiques, ed. Perry Gethner and Theresa Varney Kennedy (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2014). Theresa V. Kennedy 370 Developing an entrepreneurial spirit Throughout the proverbs, young women are instructed to be resourceful and prepared for financial disaster. For instance, the proverb “Tant vaut l’homme, tant vaut sa terre” features two women who have no inheritance. Since they last saw one another, Constance appears to have done nothing to remedy her situation, while Adélaïde has started a tutoring business in order to support herself financially: ADÉLAÏDE. Quand la perte de nos biens nous sépara, je songeai promptement à ce que je pourrais faire pour ne pas tomber dans la nécessité; je pris courage, je me mis dans une chambre, et j’attirai de petites filles chez moi; je m’appliquai à leur montrer tout ce qu’on m’avait appris dans ma jeunesse. Les parents en furent satisfaits, et il y eut de l’empressement à m’en donner. Ce travail me fournit abondamment de quoi vivre; je pris un plus grand logement, et je continue dans cet emploi, le trouvant également bon pour ma fortune et pour mon salut. (Maintenon, Proverbes 286) When Adélaïde proposes that her foil join in her business venture, Constance refuses, preferring to depend upon the charity of others. Shocked by Constance’s obstinacy, Adélaïde tells her a story to change her mind: ADÉLAÏDE. J’admirais l’autre jour deux jeunes garçons de notre quartier: l’un est né bien fait, l’autre estropié à n’avoir que les bras de libres, et tous deux dans une extrême nécessité. Celui qui est sain demande l’aumône, et l’estropié gagne, par son travail continuel, de quoi subsister, et de quoi nourrir un autre misérable qui lui rend les services dont il a besoin. (Maintenon, Proverbes 287) Her illustration of the physically challenged boy who earns a living in spite of his handicap is ineffective, however, since Constance refuses to budge, preferring to live off handouts. Clearly the Saint-Cyriennes were to identify with Adélaïde’s resourcefulness rather than with the resigned attitude of her friend. Other proverbs also emphasize the importance of proactivity. Laziness of the female mind is not tolerated in Madame de Maintenon’s world. The young Saint-Cyriennes were expected to think rationally and use logic in their everyday activities. For instance, in the proverb, “Il ne voit pas plus loin que son nez”, area homemakers take in Saint-Cyriennes to help with various household chores. However, each Saint-Cyrienne seems to fall short. For instance, Mlle Denise, who knows that she was to accompany Mme de Saint-Laurent to Paris, neglected to find out what time they were to leave, and is thus still in bed at the scheduled hour of departure. A little later, Mme de Saint-Laurent asks Mlle Denise if she was able to get a quote on the Cultivating Their Gardens: Women and the Art of Home Economics 371 price of some fabric she is interested in purchasing from a shopkeeper. Yet, when Mme de Saint-Laurent asks if she was able to get the shopkeeper to lower the price, Mlle Denise admitted that she simply took down the asking price without attempting to negotiate. Clearly Maintenon does not tolerate “shortsightedness” amongst this new generation of thrifty homemakers. Managing money and balancing the budget In the proverbs, the husband is often seen as the one who cannot manage family finances, while the wife is the more frugal of the two. For instance in “Il n’aime point le bruit s’il ne le fait”, M. de Saint-Maur is a tyrant who forbids his children and his wife from making purchases that he sees as extravagant, but is unable himself to keep from spending the family fortune. He expresses his dissatisfaction at his son Jules’ excessive spending on clothes, horses, dogs, and on everything else that may lead to financial ruin. Additionally, he denies his wife the pleasure of inviting two of her friends to dinner because of the cost, and he forbids his daughter from indulging in gambling. His wife, who tells her children that he is their “maître” and that they must obey, does not question his authority when he orders her to make preparations for a sumptuous dinner for fifteen guests to take place the following day. Through the example of the hypocritical husband, this proverb dismantles the negative stereotype of women as frivolous spenders, and suggests that the woman may be the best-qualified money manager. In other proverbs, the husband draws upon his wife’s talents to balance the budget. In the proverb, “Les femmes font et défont les maisons”, M. du Chateau brags of his wife’s ability to singlehandedly manage the household and their finances: Dès le lendemain de nos noces, je la priai de conduire notre petite maison, et je lui montrai l’état de nos affaires, qui n’étaient pas trop bonnes; {361} elle me demanda si je lui donnais tout pouvoir, et je l’en assurai. Elle commença par retrancher la moitié de ce que j’avais réglé pour elle, sans toucher à ce qui était pour moi; elle s’occupa tout entière de son salut, de son ménage, de ses enfants dès qu’elle en eut, et se défit bientôt par là de la compagnie qui venait chez moi, et qui me faisait de la dépense, me disant que nos vrais amis nous demeureraient et s’accommoderaient de nos manières, et qu’il ne fallait pas se ruiner avec les autres. (Maintenon, Proverbes 329) Mme du Chateau’s foil in the proverb is a certain Mme de Rémont, who is apparently the cause of her husband’s downfall. While she herself receives many guests, hosts dinner parties, and hires many servants, she neglects to properly run the household. When Mme de Rémont’s family becomes Theresa V. Kennedy 372 bankrupt, her own children disown her. Clearly, Mme du Chateau, the woman who is able to manage the family budget, is more esteemed. Supervising servants In addition to mastering the basic fundamentals of household finances, women needed to learn how to manage servants. These two skills went hand in hand, according to Fénelon: Il y a la science de se faire servir, qui n’est pas petite; [. . .] il faut connaître les fonctions auxquelles on veut les appliquer, le temps et la peine qu’il faut donner à chaque chose, la manière de la bien faire, et la dépense qui y est nécessaire. Vous gronderez mal à propos un officier, par exemple, si vous voulez qu’il ait dressé un fruit plus promptement qu’il n’est possible, ou si vous ne savez pas à peu près le prix et la quantité du sucre et des autres choses qui doivent entrer dans ce que vous lui faites faire; ainsi vous êtes en danger d’être la dupe ou le fléau de vos domestiques, si vous n’avez quelque connaissance de leurs métiers. (89) Again, Fénelon observed that learning to manage servants and understanding their occupations went against the nature of noblewomen, who were not used to treating servants with respect and compassion: “Il ne sera pas facile d’accoutumer les jeunes personnes de qualité à cette conduite douce et charitable; car l’impatience et l’ardeur de la jeunesse, jointe à la fausse idée qu’on leur donne de leur naissance, leur fait regarder les domestiques à peu près comme des chevaux; on se croit d’une autre nature que les valets, on suppose qu’ils sont faits pour la commodité de leurs maîtres” (89). The proper management of one’s servants was a crucial skill that a woman needed to master in order to run her home efficiently. The proverbs are full of both positive and negative examples for women when it comes to managing servants. In most cases, there is a clear relationship between the proper treatment of servants and an efficient home. For instance, the proverb “Tel maître, tel valet” emphasizes the idea that the better a mistress treats her servant, the better she will be served in turn. The proverb parallels two very different mistress/ servant relationships. In the first scene, Catherine compares her mistress Mme de Merville to a “vrai démon” while Marie compares her mistress Mme de Verneuille to an “ange du paradis” (Maintenon, Proverbes 73-74). While Catherine is forced to eat table scraps that make her ill, Marie, on the other hand, eats well. Furthermore, Mme de Merville uses offensive language to motivate her servant Catherine, which is largely ineffective since Catherine responds in kind. Mme de Merville refers to Catherine as “grande bête” and “sotte”, and when her dinner is not ready on time she exclaims “j’ai envie de te casser la Cultivating Their Gardens: Women and the Art of Home Economics 373 tête” to which her servant Catherine replies “Je m’en consolerais, car vous seriez pendue” (Maintenon, Proverbes 76). At the end of the proverb we learn that Mme de Merville’s daughter was abducted, and that her servant Catherine did nothing to prevent it. Meanwhile, Marie learned that the girl to whom Mme de Verneuille’s son was to be betrothed had no dowry, and informed her mistress, thereby saving her from financial ruin and disgrace. In sum, this proverb emphasizes the golden rule. One must treat one’s servant with dignity if one wishes to be treated in kind. The proverb “Il n’est rien de si orgueilleux qu’un gueux revêtu” extends the idea that, unlike those sans naissance, women born into nobility and wealth should already know how to treat their servants (or those who serve them) with dignity. In this proverb, Mélanie, a servant, hopes to find a stable position in a well-established, wealthy aristocratic home. The procureur manages to find her a position in the home of a very wealthy family, but warns her that those he is placing her with are demanding and difficult to appease. Almost as an afterthought, he adds that they are sans naissance, and made a fortune despite their lack of a title. La Verdure, their lackey who accompanies Mélanie to her new home, explains that her new mistress is the heir to a fishmonger’s fortune. 11 Mélanie finds her new mistress to be entirely unreasonable. For instance, in scene six Mme Martin asks Mélanie to bring her a chair. When Mélanie does not bring Mme Martin an armchair, her mistress scolds her, although she never specified. In the last scene, Mélanie and her friend Alphonsine compare their mistresses. Alphonsine’s mistress is the ideal mistress whose considerate behavior towards all of those in her household is to be imitated: ALPHONSINE. Ma maîtresse se lève à une heure réglée, elle n’appelle personne, et prie Dieu assez longtemps pour me donner celui dont j’ai besoin [. . .] Au retour, [de la messe] elle s’habille sans y donner beaucoup de soin, elle lit tout haut, ou me {323} fait lire en travaillant assise auprès d’elle; on dîne, je mange avec elle s’il n’y a point trop de monde; elle demeure quelque temps avec la compagnie, s’il y en a, et il m’est libre d’y demeurer, ou d’aller où je veux. Quand il n’y a personne, elle est quelque temps avec son mari, elle reprend son ouvrage dès qu’il est sorti, elle me parle avec une bonté charmante; on fait encore quelque lecture, elle prie Dieu, et je puis faire mes prières auprès d’elle, ou aller dans ma chambre; on soupe comme on a dîné, on cause quelques moments après le souper, ensuite elle prie Dieu et se couche. (Maintenon, Proverbes 302) 11 Note the jeux de mots in this instance. Une harengère literally means ‘fishmonger’, but it was also used in the seventeenth century to describe a woman who was quarrelsome and vulgar in her language and manners: ‘femme insolente qui chante pouilles, qui a coutume de dire beaucoup d’injures’. See Dictionnaire 691. Theresa V. Kennedy 374 As her foil, Mélanie’s mistress does not treat her servants with respect, and thereby cannot keep them very long, resulting in an unstable and costly lifestyle that does not reflect well on the family’s reputation: Ma maîtresse se lève un jour à sept heures, un jour à midi, parce qu’elle prétend que les gens de qualité en usent ainsi; elle prend un bouillon, se met à sa toilette, où elle est jusqu’à deux heures, et de très mauvaise humeur; elle fait apporter tous ses habits, et ne sait celui qu’elle veut mettre; elle gronde sans cesse de ce qu’on touche les choses qu’on lui donne. Elle me reproche de ne pas savoir vivre avec les grands; elle m’appelle campagnarde, gueuse, miserable [. . .] je suis tout le jour debout; ma maîtresse ne travaille jamais; elle attend compagnie, et il n’en vient guère, ce qui la met de mauvaise humeur; tous leurs gens vont les quitter, et je crois faire de même. (Maintenon, Proverbes 303) Clearly the better a mistress treats her servants, the more her servants will esteem her, and the more efficiently her household will operate. Handling marriage contracts Another important responsibility left to the mère de famille was finding a suitable marriage partner for her daughters. This was an enormous financial burden since women did not and could not inherit family fortunes, and their daughters had to be provided with a dowry that would attract a potential spouse. Finding a match who could offer a daughter a sound financial future was largely a business venture that sometimes led to abusive practices. Many examples that we find in the proverbs are those who attempt to exploit the system in order to avoid paying a large dowry. In the proverb “Entre deux selles le derrière à terre”, Mme de Saint-Clair attempts to “play the field” to see which potential marriage partner will offer the most attractive marriage contract. Although she has already promised her daughter to a certain M. de la Houssaye, she agreed to draw up a contract as well with the Marquis de Bellecourt, who appeared financially well-off and was only requesting a dowry of cent mille francs. However, when the suitors find out that they are both under contract at the same time, they withdraw their marriage proposals, leaving Mme de Saint-Clair with a ruined reputation and perhaps little chance of securing her daughter a future marriage contract. The proverb “Ils s’entendent tous comme larrons en foire” also exposes the bad practices of mothers who are more interested in protecting their own financial status than in establishing futures for their daughters. In the first scene, Mme Desgranges tells her friend Mme de Vienne that she is unwilling to contribute to her daughter’s dowry because she wants to keep Cultivating Their Gardens: Women and the Art of Home Economics 375 the money for herself. M. de Saint-Hilaire is interested in Mlle Desgranges, and asks Mme Desgrange’s servant Marion to help him convince Mme Desgranges to arrange a marriage. Meanwhile Mme de Vienne asks her cousin, Mme de Surville, to speak to Mme Desgranges. Mme Desgranges tells Mme de Surville that she will marry her daughter to M. de Saint-Hilaire only if she does not have to pay a dowry or the fees for a wedding ceremony. M. de Saint-Hilaire agrees to marry her without a dowry, as long as her mother can secure her financial future. Mme Desgranges finally agrees to marry her as her première héritière so that she can only inherit her money when Mme Desgranges is dead. This proverb criticizes selfish mothers who are not willing to make financial sacrifices in order to secure the well-being and financial futures of their daughters, so that their daughters may, in turn, enjoy the benefit of a stable home life. Conclusion This essay has shown how Maintenon’s proverbs teach women the skills needed to properly run a home. The proverbs witness the important role that pedagogical theater played in helping young aristocratic women adapt to a new lifestyle brought on by economic and social change. Although the proverbs are far from promoting a feminist agenda, they mark a radical departure from traditional seventeenth-century women’s education— advocating the mastery of skills that allowed women to develop a better understanding of microeconomics. For instance, Maintenon was particularly focused on eradicating harmful practices (such as abuse of servants) that did not contribute positively to efficient home environments. Maintenon taught the Saint-Cyriennes that if they could win the esteem of everyone in their households, they would in turn gain a greater sense of self-worth for themselves and future generations of women. Although this kind of agency was limited to the private sphere, it provided women with a better education and more freedom than they would have either at court or in the convent. Most importantly, Maintenon’s proverbs teach women to become self-sufficient. This aspect of her teaching truly sets her proverbs apart from traditional conduct books. Understanding the skills associated with microeconomics allowed women to become active, equal members in their homes and communities. The eighteenth-century homemaker, who was able to multi-task, balancing both work and child rearing, is the forerunner of the modern-day career woman. Even if women were limited to an assigned domestic space, that step back—as it were—equipped them with the knowledge and experience that allowed them to take two steps forward when the New Republic Theresa V. Kennedy 376 provided fresh opportunities to women. 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