Pod Insights Noble Blood The Coquette Avenged About this episode Most women in 17th century France were faced with a choice: marriage, or a convent. Ninon de l'Enclos chose her own path.
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0:35 Dana Schwartz? Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manke. Listener discretion advised.
0:45 Dana Schwartz? Get thee to a nunnery, go farewell. These are Hamlet's famous words to Ophelia as the play's titular character begins to succumb to madness and paranoia. There are probably plenty of Shakespeare podcasts you could listen to for a more in-depth analysis, and we could spend hours debating whether Hamlet is actually mad or just pretending. But on a surface level, the meaning of Hamlet's orders to Ophelia is clear. A convent is a place where a woman can go to absolve her sins, to conveniently disappear. Joining a convent by force or coercion or choice is a hand that fate dealt many women,
1:30 Dana Schwartz? both real and fictional, throughout the ages. In seventeenth-century France, most upper-class women generally had two choices upon coming of age: become a wife or become a nun. Both would require following rigorous sets of social rules and accepting a fundamental lack of freedom. But what about the women who defied that choice?
1:59 Dana Schwartz? Ninon de L'Anclot was one such woman, and an incredibly unique one at that. Ninon, a student of philosophy from a young age, saw both marriage and the convent as a loss of freedom and resolved to forge a different path for herself. She became Paris's most celebrated courtesan, all while sharing her radical ideas in the city's intellectual circles. But as we know, the consequences of going against the grain are often great for women, both then and now. Ninon's lifestyle landed her imprisoned in a convent,
2:41 Dana Schwartz? and the order to "get thee to a nunnery" had come from the very top. For many women, that would be the end of their story. But Ninon was determined to continue on. And unlike the story of Ophelia, you'll find that Ninon's life was no tragedy. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood.
3:11 Dana Schwartz? Anne de L'Anclot was born in Paris on November 10, 1620. Some sources propose that her family were minor nobles, while some other historians insist that they had no noble ties. But no matter their origin, they were probably not particularly wealthy, but they were certainly involved in Parisian high society. The nickname Ninon, a traditional French diminutive of Anne, was given to her by her father. Henri de L'Anclot was an accomplished luteist and composer, and he taught his daughter to play the lute from a young age. In addition to her father's music lessons, Ninon also inherited his philosophical ideas.
3:56 Dana Schwartz? He was a neo-epicurian. Taking a brief detour to Philosophy 101 before we continue. Epicurianism derived from the teachings of the Greek sage epicurus. focuses on a secular pursuit to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. The term neo-epicurean that you'll hear today came about during the philosophy's 17th century revival. That was Ninon's father's outlook, but given how unconventional Ninon's life ended up, what was her mother's perspective? While her father had turned to the Greeks, Ninon's mother was actually a devout Catholic
4:38 Dana Schwartz? and wished to impart the strict moral standards of counter-Reformational Catholicism on her daughter. Some historians believe her mother's greatest goal was for her daughter to become a nun, and there was even a brief period during which a young Ninon was educated in a convent. Her parents' marriage was one of convenience, as you might have been able to guess, given that husband and wife could not have been more opposed ideologically. You can probably guess whom Ninon ultimately took after. In addition to embracing her father's libertinism and rejection of religion, Ninon became something
5:20 Dana Schwartz? of a musical prodigy in her youth and performed the lute and clavichord for charmed audiences that gathered in Parisian salons. At the same time, she also mastered Spanish and Italian and became an avid reader. There's an anecdotal account about Ninon in her teenage years that embodies the way she would challenge convention and authority. As the story goes, Ninon informed her friends that since women are tasked with frivolities and men are allotted freedoms they take for granted, quote, "From this moment, I will be a man." For Ninon, it wasn't a declaration about gender identity.
6:02 Dana Schwartz? It was a statement about the role she wished to play in society, about her interests and the freedoms she intended to preserve for herself. Society was only allowing women at the time to occupy an incredibly narrow space, and So Nanon would chart a course for herself attempting to live with the freedoms that a man would have. It was Nanon's determination to “live as a man would” that drove her to find another avenue besides the convent or marriage. And it was at this time that she began her famed career, taking a third option: a courtesan.
6:44 Dana Schwartz? I find the word “courtesan” interesting because as a culture, we have found no shortage of both euphemisms and derogatory terms for sex workers. But to me, courtesan conveys something specific. There’s some sophistication there, in my opinion, a little glamour. Merriam-Webster describes courtesan as “a female sex worker with a courtly, wealthy, or upper-class clientele.” The word first appears in the mid-1500s, deriving from the Middle French “courtesan,” literally meaning “woman of the court.” Many courtesans came from poorer backgrounds and began their careers as more “lower-class
7:29 Dana Schwartz? prostitutes,” while others came from more well-off backgrounds and became courtesans to improve their social and political currency. Courtesans were expected to be artistically and/or intellectually engaging. Their primary job was, of course, companionship and usually sexual pleasure for their benefactors, but it was nearly equally important that they “entertained” through other avenues. Nanon was neither wealthy nor poor, and she likely saw a courtesan as a path to both financial and social independence. Her personal philosophy also must have contributed to her decision.
8:11 Dana Schwartz? Unlike the vast majority of her contemporaries, Nanon did not see sex as an immoral act. As she would later write, “Oh, you mortals who rely so much on the power of your virtue, no matter how great your strength may be.” There are moments when the most virtuous person becomes the weakest. The reason for this strange fact is that nature is always pursuing us. It is always aiming to achieve its ends. The desire for love in a woman is a substantial part of her natural constitution. Her virtue has only been patched on. This outlook goes hand in hand with her rejection of the Christian church's teachings.
8:56 Dana Schwartz? If desire is not inherently sinful, then repentance is not the point of existence. Nanon's first step to begin her new life was to acquire her own residence in Paris, which she likely did using inheritance from the recent death of her father. She settled on a street in the fashionable quarter of the Marais. The neighborhood was the heart of many of Paris's most esteemed intellectual circles, where men and women would gather to engage with new, often bohemian, ideas. Just as Nanon had charmed Parisian society with her lute years earlier,
9:38 Dana Schwartz? she soon captivated its attention yet again. She gained a reputation for being different from other courtesans at the time because of her openly independent nature. As Nanon's French biographer Roger Duchamp put it, roughly translated into English, Nanon earned her living by having sex. Having sex was not her life. She was known for her strict boundaries. She would be the one to determine when a relationship started and ended. It wasn't unusual for a courtesan to gain enough social currency that she could afford to exert that control, choosing which lover she took instead of the other way around. But Nanon seems to have reached that point quicker than most.
10:23 Dana Schwartz? As the famed memoirist Saint-Simon wrote of her, "Nanon always had crowds of adorers, but never more than one lover at a time. And when she tired of the present occupier, she said so frankly and took another. Yet such was the authority of this wanton that no man dared fall out with his successful rival. He was only too happy to be allowed to visit as a familiar friend."
10:52 Dana Schwartz? We don't have a clear timeline of when her relationships with her various benefactors started or ended, but we do know their names. Her most famous lovers included the king's cousin, the general Louis II de Bourbon, otherwise known as Le Grand Conde, as well as François, Duke de la Roche-Foucault, member of one of the most illustrious French noble families, and a published writer and frequent salon fixture himself. Among her spurned petitioners was Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to Louis XIII, known for accumulating an enormous amount of power and influence in both the Catholic Church and French monarchy.
11:36 Dana Schwartz? His rejection speaks to the weight of Nanon's social currency as well as her goals. If she simply sought to acquire wealth and power, why would she have refused one of France's most powerful figures? We don't know her specific reasons for refusing Richelieu's advances, but we can probably imagine that Nanon might have taken issue with his "censorship of the press" and his consolidation of power away from the "nobility," her clientele, family, and friends. Years into her career, Nanon found herself facing a "new and different" sort of relationship.
12:16 Dana Schwartz? In 1652, when she would have been in her early 30s, she was pursued by a well-known nobleman, Louis de Mornay. De Mornay gets a mention in Saint-Simon's memoirs as well, where he's simply described as making "a lot of noise with women." I'm not sure if that's literal or metaphorical, but it's no surprise then that he was married when he and Nanon began a relationship. The couple actually had a son together, Louis, and for three years, the three of them lived together in the country, where Nanon studied and the nobleman hunted while they both cared for their son.
13:00 Dana Schwartz? However, Ninon wasn't suited for the quiet country life, and she ultimately wasn't suited for de Mornay, a man with ultimately boring, fairly conventional and lowbrow interests. Ninon returned to Paris in 1655, and her son seems to have stayed at court. We don't know for sure what kind of relationship Ninon had with him throughout the rest of her life. Returning to her previous career, as it turned out, wouldn't be as smooth as she might have hoped. Ninon was used to ending relationships on her terms, but de Mornay appears not to have gotten that message.
13:42 Dana Schwartz? When she refused to return to him despite his pleas, he fell into a fever. To console his distress, she cut off her hair and sent the curled locks to his bedside. It didn't do much to appease her scorned ex-lover, but it did evidently start a trend. Women across Paris began to sport bobbed hair à la Ninon. Eventually, like all of her other former lovers, de Mornay forgave Ninon, and they settled into a friendship.
14:20 Dana Schwartz? It wasn't just hairstyles that were changing in Paris. The fronde, the two short wars between the French nobility and Louis XIV's regency government, further asserted the power of the monarchy and Cardinal Mazarin, young Louis's minister and Richelieu's successor. With this assertion came a wave of conservatism, and conservatives famously don't favor openly atheist courtesans. It was only a year after Ninon's return to the city in 1656 that the queen mother of France, Anne of Austria, was petitioned by a group of Ninon's detractors,
15:05 Dana Schwartz? aka those who might have been jealous of her status, wary of her status. of her philosophy, or both, to silence her. The petition ultimately led to Nanon's imprisonment in a convent, home to many, quote, "wayward women of the 17th century." While there were those who joined the convent voluntarily, the French convent primarily functioned as an alternative to prison for rebellious women. Nanon had designed a life for herself specifically to circumvent the choice between marriage or convent, but in the end, she was still sentenced to the latter.
15:45 Dana Schwartz? The writing of Nanon that has survived is philosophical, not diaristic, so we're left to imagine how she must have felt confined to those walls. As we know, Nanon was not fated to stay at the convent for long. The story goes that her savior was actually not, as you might have been expecting, one of her many powerful lovers, but a kindred spirit, Christina, the exiled queen of Sweden, who we actually discussed in the early podcast episode. Queen Christina removed her own crown. You can see why the monarch who described herself as having, quote, "an insurmountable
16:27 Dana Schwartz? distaste for marriage," as well as, quote, "for all the things that females talked about and did," would be impressed by Nanon's convictions. Christina often wore masculine clothing. She barely combed her hair and cared far more about her studies than she did running a country. She was, just a reminder, it's been a while since the episode, ultimately forced to abdicate her throne for her refusal to marry and intend to convert to Catholicism. Christina was only in her twenties when she abdicated, and so much of her life after the throne was spent traveling Europe. During her time in Parisian society, she likely heard much about Nanon's rise and
17:09 Dana Schwartz? fall and decided to visit her in the convent. Their conversation must have made an impact, and sounds like an off-Broadway play waiting to happen. Christina swiftly intervened, and Nanon was set free.
17:26 Dana Schwartz? In 1659, a pamphlet began to circulate around Paris, wonderfully entitled “The Coquette Avenged.” It was a short work, but it boldly described the possibility of living a good, fulfilling life outside the constraints of religion. While it’s not a certainty, the work has long been attributed to Nanon, and it’s believed to have been written during her time in the convent, proving that her imprisonment only further cemented her beliefs and convictions.
18:01 Dana Schwartz? After her brief stay with the nuns, Nanon returned to being a courtesan, but in the 1660s, she would ultimately say goodbye to that part of her life and dedicate herself to her literary circle. While Nanon had attended and hosted numerous salons in her time, in 1667, she established her regular salon at the Hotel de Sagon in Paris, which would continue to meet for the rest of her life. Her guests were some of the city’s most prominent intellectuals, artists, and political thinkers. The most famous names among her friends include Saint-Simon, the memoirist we’ve
18:41 Dana Schwartz? quoted several times now, Moliere, the iconic playwright, and the woman known as Madame Scaran, who actually secretly married Louis XIV, following the death of Queen Maria Theresa. Nanon’s surviving philosophical work comes from her letters to another attendee of her salons, a man named Charles de Sevigny, an aristocrat and the son of Madame de Sevigny, who’s remembered to this day as a 17th-century literary icon for her own letter-writing. Nanon appears to have taken Charles, 28-years her junior, under her wing, or, in her own
19:22 Dana Schwartz? words, “You ought to be aware of the fact that when a woman has lost the freshness of her first youth and takes a special interest in a young man, everybody says she desires to make a worldling of him.” You know the maleness of this expression. "I do not care to expose myself to its application. All the service I am willing to render you is to become your confidant. You will tell me your troubles and I will tell you what is in my mind. Likewise aid you to know your own heart and that of a woman." Charles, in his youthful ignorance, had found himself struggling to find a woman that returned his affections. Nanon became something of his dating guru.
20:07 Dana Schwartz? As you can probably guess, her advice to him wasn't the kind of soundbites you can hear on TikTok from dating experts, but rather a reflection of her philosophical beliefs regarding sex, gender, and the nature of humans themselves. In one letter, she writes, "It is not because you," referring to both Charles and men at large, "possess superior qualities that you are an agreeable companion, to be embraced without stretched arms. You must be sympathetic, amusing, important to the pleasure of others. I warn you that you cannot succeed in any other manner, especially with women. Now tell me, what would you like me to do with your learning,
20:51 Dana Schwartz? with the geometry of your mind, and with the exactitude of your memory? Dear Marquis, if you have such advantages, if you have no personal charm to balance your austerity, you will not please women. I can vouch for that. Far from pleasing them, you will seem to them like an intimidating critic. You will so constrain them that any pleasure they might have enjoyed in your presence will be banished. In other words, don't be all head and no heart."
21:26 Dana Schwartz? While this is surely a bit of tough love, it's also a blatant disavowal of conventional gender roles. Relationships, Nanon argues, cannot work when a man is expected to only be the head and the woman only the heart. What is love without reciprocity? While Nanon encouraged men to work on their charm, she began to further encourage fellow women to work on their minds. Her salon began hosting lectures, and at each one, men paid a fee while women were admitted for free. The original ladies' night. By this point in her life, Nanon was approaching her eighties.
22:08 Dana Schwartz? "I am of your opinion," she wrote in a letter, "that wrinkles are a mark of wisdom." That series of letters, the last written works we have of Nanon's, add a new face to her philosophy, which is her thoughts on aging and mortality. While she complained of physical discomfort and transformations, she was not dismayed by changes in her appearance. The soul and the mind, she believed, shone far brighter than beauty. Nanon de Lencloz died of natural causes in Paris in 1705, at 84 years old. In a letter to a friend, written not long before her death, she wrote,
22:50 Dana Schwartz? "Your life has been too illustrious not to be lived in the same manner until the end. Do not permit hell to frighten you. Pronounce the word 'love' boldly, and that of old age will never pass your lips."
23:06 Dana Schwartz? That's the story of the life of Nanon de Lencloz. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about her lasting literary legacy.
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24:09 Speaker 05 You know, a song is a story and the verse is setting the scene. And for me, at least, it's allowing me to be personal and vulnerable with the audience, whether it's about my wife and I'm being vulnerable about her, or it's about, you know, my parents and I'm being vulnerable to them. And it's almost like a cinematic piece in a way where each song tells that beautiful story.
24:27 Speaker 03 It's gonna be one hell of a trip. Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeart Radio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Nile Rodgers, producer, songwriter, guitarist, and co-founder of the group Chic. A great song has a way of defining a moment, a moment of joy, heartbreak, or anything in between.
24:57 Speaker 03 This fall, I'll be driving across the country, dropping in on some of the coolest, most fascinating artists working today. We'll go deep into their lives and careers and hear what it was like before the moment that made them. From hitmakers like Miguel...
25:14 Speaker 04 That last year, finishing that record was the hardest experience of my life. Regardless of how everyone else buys into this, I believe in this and I'm gonna push.
25:26 Speaker 03 To rising stars like Alex Warren.
25:29 Speaker 05 You know, a song is a story and the verse is setting the scene. And for me, at least, it's allowing me to be personal and vulnerable with the audience, whether it's about my wife and I'm being vulnerable about her, or it's about, you know, my parents and I'm being vulnerable to them. And it's almost like a cinematic piece in a way where each song tells that beautiful story.
25:47 Speaker 03 It's gonna be one hell of a trip. Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeart Radio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
26:02 Dana Schwartz? Nanon's legacy in the literary world might have been far greater than she would ever be able to know. After her death, she still sought to encourage education, and she gave some money in her will to the promising nine-year-old godson of a friend. The boy seemed like he had potential. Maybe he had something dazzling about him, or maybe Nanon was just trying to be nice. The boy, whose name was François-Marie Arway, would use the money to buy books. If that name doesn't sound familiar, it's probably because he's far better known today by his pen name, Voltaire.
26:49 Dana Schwartz? Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sender, Amy Height, and Giulia Milani. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Reema Ilkayali, and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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28:01 Dana Schwartz? This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
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