Mademoiselle de
Scudery, leaving, for the time, her twelve-volume romance, about Cyrus
and Ibrahim, led on a troop of Moliere's Precieuses Ridicules, and here
recited her verses, and talked pedantically to Pellisson, the ugliest
man in Paris, of whom Boileau wrote:
'L'or meme a Pellisson donne un teint de beaute.'
Then there was Madame de la Sabliere, who was as masculine as her
husband the marquis was effeminate; the Duchesse de Lesdiguieres, who
was so anxious to be thought a wit that she employed the Chevalier de
Mere to make her one; and the Comtesse de la Suze, a clever but foolish
woman.
The men were poets, courtiers, and pedants. Menage with his tiresome
memory, Montreuil and Marigni the song-writers, the elegant De Grammont,
Turenne, Coligni, the gallant Abbe Tetu, and many another celebrity,
thronged the rooms where Scarron sat in his curious wheelbarrow.
The conversation was decidedly light; often, indeed, obscene, in spite
of the presence of ladies; but always witty. The hostility of Scarron to
the reigning cardinal was a great recommendation, and when all else
flagged, or the cripple had an unusually sharp attack, he had but to
start with a line of his 'Mazarinade,' and out came a fresh lampoon, a
new caricature, or fresh rounds of wit fired off at the Italian, from
the well-filled cartridge-boxes of the guests, many of whom kept their
_mots_ ready made up for discharge.
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