Note 10 — Chapter III · The Position of French Women in Eighteenth Century Society.
Reading edition
The "Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France" (Tome XXIII, XXIV and XXV) contains a contribution by M. Raymond Toinet entitled: "Les Ecrivains moralistes au 17ième siècle"; being an alphabetical nomenclature of moral writings published during the age of Louis the Fourteenth (1638-1715). In this list works of a feminist or an anti-feminist nature figure so largely that little doubt can be entertained as to the interest taken in the topic under discussion. They may be conveniently classified as follows:
1. Assertions of female superiority, including a. o. two French translations of Agrippa, three pieces entitled: "Le Triomphe des Dames", and one by Mlle. Jacquette Guillaume, entitled: "Les Dames Illustres". They were frequently combined with attacks on the male half of humanity, as in the case of Regnard's "Satire contre les Maris".
2. Apologies for the female sex, including Perrault's "Apologie des Femmes", Poullain de la Barre's "Egalité des deux Sexes", and a Latin translation of Anna Maria Schuurman. Some were meant as a refutation of some male attack. To this class belong Ninon de l'Enclos' "Coquette Vengee" and a number of replies to Boileau's satire.
3. Attacks on the female sex, which are gradually diminishing in number, or rather changing from the direct invective to the moral essay with a didactic purpose, busying itself with the female morals and the female character. A collection of pieces dealing with the problem of sexual preference was published in 1698 by de Vertron under the name of "La nouvelle Pandore, ou les femmes illustres du siècle de Louis le Grand".
4. Rules of female conduct, for the use of young ladies "about to enter the world", insisting chiefly on the feminine duty of preserving the reputation. A translation of Lord Halifax's "Advice" (see page 83), "Etrennes ou conseils d'un homme de qualité à sa fille" seems to have attracted some notice.
5. Pieces dealing with the relations between the sexes in daily intercourse, including the subjects of love and gallantry, and of marriage. Some are directly favourable to the state of matrimony, pointing to the reciprocal duties of the partners in the contract, and instructing them in the readiest way to happiness; others, frequently deriving their inspiration from Boileau, arguing about marriage as a social institution and enumerating its advantages and its drawbacks. To the period under discussion belongs a translation of Erasmus' "Christian Marriage".
6. Treatises of female education, containing a plea for the development of the female intellect. They are, as yet, remarkably few. Beyond the contributions by Poullain de la Barre and Fénelon there are some half-dozen pieces dealing with the education of girls on a religious basis, and a few in which the question of the pursuit of science and philosophy by women is stated and answered favourably. There was an "Apologie de la science des Dames, par Cléante", (1662); a treatise entitled: "Avantages que les femmes peuvent recevoir de la philosophie et principalement de la morale", (1667); another by René Bary bearing the somewhat questionable title of "La fine philosophie accommodée à l'intelligence des dames", and, in conclusion, one by Guillaume Colletet, headed: "Question célèbre, s'il est nécessaire ou non que les filles soient savantes, agitée de part et d'autre par Mlle Anne Marie de Schurmann, hollandoise, et André Rivet, poictevin, le tout mis en françois par le sieur Colletet" (1646).