Fictions of Love: Le mal d’amour and its Transmission in La Princesse de Clèves

Abstract

IN this essay I would like to bring together two topoi frequently discussed in relation to mme de Lafayette's La Princesse de Cleves--illness and the misdirected letter--as figures of and amorous experience in the novel. Though quite distinct in nature, both themes suggest the problems of circulation and vulnerability against which Lafayette's protagonist must constantly fight. By tying together these seemingly unrelated plot elements, I hope to elucidate a new appreciation of the novel's esthetic and ideological unity that so many readers have sensed and a number have sought to articulate. (1) Before examining these figural representations, I would like to consider direct descriptions of in this novel and, especially, the terms used to represent it. (2) It would be unnecessary to demonstrate at great length the negative light in which is depicted in the novel so my comments here will be brief and will focus on Lafayette's preference for the term passion to describe her Princess's experience. LAFAYETTE'S LEXICON OF LOVE First some statistical observations: the notion of love is referred to as a noun some 220 times in the novel (roughly once a page in most modern editions), divided unequally in the following way: (50 times), (22 times), inclination (32 times), passion (116 times). (3) The listing of these terms in alphabetical order, usually employed to represent neutrality, corresponds roughly, in this case, with the connotative weight--the non-neutrality associated with each word in classical discourse. Lafayette seems to go to great lengths to avoid speaking of in a neutral way. Indeed, occurrences of the noun have relatively limited presence in La Princesse de Cleves, less than a quarter of the nouns in the semantic field. In the first chapter, for example, is used only six times, always in either a negative or a mixed, impure sense. The first occurrence refers to love's absence in the diplomatic marriage the King seeks to arrange between Queen Elizabeth and Nemours: (4) une Reine qui ne m'a jamais vu[,] me veuille epouser par amour (337). The narrator later generalizes this observation for the court of France: Il y avait tant d'interets et tant de cabales differentes, et les dames y avaient tant de part, que etait toujours mele aux affaires, et les affaires a l'amour (341). Most importantly, though, the word appears in Madame de Chartres's famous lessons on addressed to her daughter: faisait souvent a sa fille des peintures de l'amour; elle lui montrait ce qu'il a d'agreable, pour persuader plus aisement sur ce qu'elle lui en apprenait de dangereux; elle lui contait le peu de sincerite des hommes, leurs tromperies et leur infidelite (338). This is, of course, essentially the book's thesis, presented in the most balanced terms possible. Lafayette's depiction of the Princess's experience will mostly exploit, however discreetly, a more charged lexicon. The two most difficult and historically dated alternative terms are inclination and galanterie. The first of these, for the first readers of La Princesse de Cleves, could not fail to evoke Madeleine de Scudery's allegorical Carte de Tendre, in which Inclination was the name of the principal city and the river that rushed amorous travelers to the capital and, quite often, past their destination into la Mer dangeureuse. The literature of preciosite, like Madame de Chartres's lesson, warned women against this danger. The Princess's overpowering feelings for Nemours will, consequently, be described more than a dozen times as an inclination. As for galanterie, often either a synonym or masculine double for preciosite, its importance has been amply demonstrated in the last quarter century, especially in a series of publications by Alain Viala, who considers it to be an essential touchstone in French classical culture. La Princesse de Cleves opens with a reference to la magnificence et galanterie (331) as the defining features of Henri Il's proto-classical court. …