The French literary style called ''préciosité'' (, ''preciousness'') arose in the 17th century from the lively conversations and playful word games of ''les précieuses'' (), the intellectual, witty and educated women who frequented the salon of

Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (1588 – 2 December 1665), known as Madame de Rambouillet, was a society hostess and a major figure in the literary history of 17th-century France. {{French literature sidebar Life Born in Rome, she w ...

. Her ''Chambre bleue'' (the "blue room" of her ''

hôtel particulier An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a s ...

'') offered a Parisian refuge from the dangerous political factionalism and coarse manners of the royal court during the regency of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

. One of the central figures of the salon that gathered at the '' Hôtel de Rambouillet'' was Madeleine de Scudéry. She wrote voluminous romance novels that embodied the refinements of ''preciosité'' including the concepts of feminine elegance, etiquette and courtly Platonic love that were hugely popular with female audiences, but scorned by most men, including

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...

, who satirized the ''précieuses'' in his comedy ''

Les Précieuses ridicules ''Les Précieuses ridicules'' (, ''The Absurd Précieuses'' or ''The Affected Ladies'') is a one-act satire by Molière in prose. It takes aim at the '' précieuses'', the ultra-witty ladies who indulged in lively conversations, word games and, i ...

'' (1659). The "questions of love" that were debated in the ''précieuses salons reflected the " courts of love" (fictional courts which judged lovers' behavior) that were a feature of medieval courtly love. None of the women ever actually used or defined the term ''Précieuse'' themselves. Myriam Maître has found in ''préciosité'' not so much a listable series of characteristics "as an interplay of forces, a place to confront and resolve the tensions that extended through the century, the court and the field of literature". In assessing the career of

Philippe Quinault Philippe Quinault (; 3 June 1635 – 26 November 1688), French dramatist and librettist, was born in Paris. Biography Quinault was educated by the liberality of François Tristan l'Hermite, the author of ''Marianne''. Quinault's first play w ...

, which began at the ''Hôtel de Bourgogne'' in 1653, Patricia Howard noted, "For if in French theatre in the second half of the century, women's roles are preeminent, it was the précieux movement which made them so." One ''préciosité'' parlor game, the retelling of fairy tales as if spontaneously (though the tales were in fact carefully prepared), was to have great effects. Many of these fairy tales, in the ''préciosité'' style, were written, mostly notably by

Madame d'Aulnoy Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy (1650/1651 – 14 January 1705), also known as Countess d'Aulnoy, was a French author known for her literary fairy tales. When she termed her works ''contes de fées'' (fairy tales), sh ...

. This fashion for fairy tales, and the writers themselves, were a notable influence later upon Charles Perrault, and Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, the author of ''

Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...

''. The stories tended to vary from the folk tradition, for example the characters were made to be of genteel origin. Whilst the heroes and heroines of fairy tales written by the ''précieuses'' often appeared as shepherds and shepherdesses, in pastoral settings, these figures were often secretly royal or noble.

Lewis Seifert Lewis Carl Seifert (born February 1, 1962) is a professor of French Literature at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Seifert holds a DEA from the Université de Paris III (1986) and a PhD from the Department of Romance Languages at ...

, "The Marvelous in Context: The Place of the Contes de Fées in Late Seventeenth Century France", Jack Zipes, ed., The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, pp. 920-1, The ''précieuses'' are also remembered through the filter of

's one-act satire, ''

'' (1659). After years touring the provinces, this bitter

comedy of manners In English literature, the term comedy of manners (also anti-sentimental comedy) describes a genre of realistic, satirical comedy of the Restoration period (1660–1710) that questions and comments upon the manners and social conventions of a gr ...

brought Molière and his company to the attention of Parisians and attracted the patronage of

. ''Les Précieuses ridicules'' is considered to be the origin of the

pejorative A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...

connotation of ''précieuse'' as "affected". The phenomenon of the ''précieuses'' in establishing French literary classicism was first revived by Louis Roederer in 1838. His ''Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la société polie en France'', evoked an atmosphere of nostalgia for the ''douceur de vivre'' of the

Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for ...

and the aristocratic leisure of its authors, at least for the upper classes. Later, Roxane, a critical character in Edmond Rostand's 1897 play ''

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th cen ...

'', is described as a ''précieuse''. René Bary (died in 1680) a French

historiographer Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians hav ...

and rhetorician wrot
''La Rhétorique française où pour principale augmentation l'on trouve les secrets de nostre langue''
published in Paris in 1653 for the female audience of the précieuses.

Notes

References

*Howard, Patricia, "Quinault, Lully, and the Precieuses: Images of Women in Seventeenth-Century France." in ''Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music'' ed. Susan C. Cook and Judy S. Tsou, editors, pp 70–89. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. *Maître, Myriam. ''Les Précieuses: naissance des femmes de lettres en France au XVIIe siècle'', H. Champion, collection "Lumière classique", Paris, 1999 {{DEFAULTSORT:Precieuses 17th-century French literature