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Lenclos, Ninon de, 1620-1705

"The Celebrated Beauty of the Seventeenth Century"

A select society of wits and gallant
chevaliers soon gathered around her, and it required influence as well
as merit to gain an entrance into its ranks. Among this elite were
Count de Grammont, Saint-Evremond, Chapelle, Moliere, Fontenelle, and
a host of other no less distinguished characters, most of them
celebrated in literature, arts, sciences, and war. Ninon christened
the society "Oiseaux des Tournelles," an appellation much coveted by
the beaux and wits of Paris, and which distinguished the chosen
company from the less favored gentlemen of the great metropolis.
Among those who longed for entrance into this charming society of
choice spirits was the Count de Charleval, a polite and accomplished
chevalier, indeed, but of no particular standing as a literary
character. Nothing would do, however, but a song of triumph as a test
of his competency and he accomplished it after much labor and
consumption of midnight oil. Scarron has preserved the first stanza
in his literary works, the others being lost to the literary world,
perhaps with small regret.


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