Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/464

 LABBE, LOUISE, (LA BELLE CORDIERE,) born in Lyons, in 1525 or 1526. Her father, Pierre Chardin, surnamed Labbé, was a rope-maker or seller. He had her carefully instructed in the Greek, Latin, Spanish, and Italian languages, and also 'in riding and military exercises. She was fond of music, hunting, and war. Her boldness was increased by the example of the heroines of her own time. Before she was sixteen, she went to Perpignan, in the army of the young dauphin, where, under the name of Captain Loys, she exhibited great valour. Among the numerous admirers attracted by her beauty, her talents, and her courage, a young warrior, whose name is unknown, inspired her with a lasting passion.

Louise Labbé married Ennemond Perrin, a wealthy rope-seller, by which she was enabled to devote herself entirely to her literary tastes. Her house, near Lyons, became the resort of men of letters, and persons of distinction. In these societies, where Louise was the presiding genius, everything was collected that could gratify the understanding, delight the imagination, or captivate the senses. The charms, talents, and assemblies of La belle Cordiére excited jealousy and provoked scandal in the society of Lyons, Her writings, too, sometimes voluptuous, and sometimes satirical, afforded new provocation for censure, for which her conduct gave suspicion if not proof.

The most celebrated of her works is a fiction entitled "Debat de Folie et d'Amour;" it is dedicated to her illustrious friend Clemence de Bourges. This piece is full of wit, originality, and beauty. Erasmus and La Fontaine were both indebted to it; the first, for the idea of "The Praise of Folly," and the last, for "L'Amour et la Folic." In truth, La Fontaine's poem is only a versification of the prose story of Louise Labbé. Her elegies and sonnets are highly esteemed by the French.

We may find some excuse for her conduct in the character of the age, when gallantry was not considered dishonourable; and she herself was surrounded by a crowd of agreeable and distinguished, but licentious men. Her generosity, her taste for learning, and her acquirements, so extraordinary for the times, effaced this stain in the eyes of most of her contemporaries, as we learn from tributes of esteem paid her. The street in Lyons where her house was situated was called after her, and still bears the name of La Belle Cordiére. The charm of her conversation, her accomplishments, her talents, the verses which she composed and sung to the lute, contributed to fascinate her admirers to the end of her life. She died in 1566.

LABROUSE, CLOTILDE SUZETTE COURCELLES,

French visionary, was born May 8th., 1747, of respectable parents, in the town of Vauxains, in Perigord, in the department of Dordogne. From the age of four she displayed deep religious fervour, and her greatest happiness was in the performance of her religious duties, to which, notwithstanding the remonstrances of her mother, and the raillery of her young companions, she devoted the most of her time. From her earliest years she regarded herself as an especial instrument to make known the will of God.