A Rule for Children and Other Writings

by Jacqueline Pascal, John J. Conley, S.J. (Translator)

Overview

Jacqueline Pascal (1625-1661) was the sister of Blaise Pascal and a nun at the Jansenist Port-Royal convent in France. She was also a prolific writer who argued for the spiritual rights of women and the right of conscientious objection to royal, ecclesiastic, and family authority.

This book presents selections from the whole of Pascal's career as a writer, including her witty adolescent poetry and her pioneering treatise on the education of women, A Rule for Children, which drew on her experiences as schoolmistress at Port-Royal. Readers will also find Pascal's devotional treatise, which matched each moment in Christ's Passion with a corresponding virtue that his female disciples should cultivate; a transcript of her interrogation by church authorities, in which she defended the controversial theological doctrines taught at Port-Royal; a biographical sketch of her abbess, which presented Pascal's conception of the ideal nun; and a selection of letters offering spirited defenses of Pascal's right to practice her vocation, regardless of patriarchal objections.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226648347
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	11/01/2007
Series:	The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	203
File size:	278 KB

About the Author

John J. Conley, S.J., is associate professor of philosophy at Fordham University. He is the author of The Suspicion of Virtue: Women Philosophers in Neoclassical France and coeditor of Prophecy and Diplomacy: The Moral Doctrine of John Paul II.

Read an Excerpt

A Rule for Children and Other Writings

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By John J. Conley

University of Chicago Press

Copyright © 2003 John J. Conley
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0226648338

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POETRY OF JACQUELINE PASCAL - INTRODUCTION

This selection of poetry features the works that established Jacqueline Pascal's reputation as a poet in her adolescence. They belong to the favored genres of the period: sonnet, rondeau, epigram, pastoral, encomium. The early poems show the influence of the salon lyricist Benserade, while the later works bear the more heroic stamp of Corneille. In content the poems alternate among political, religious, and sentimental concerns. The political poems celebrating the personages of the French court first brought Jacqueline Pascal to the attention of the literary public. "On the Conception of the Virgin," winner of Rouen's Prix de la Tour, confirmed her eminence as a poet prodigy.

In both theme and style the poetry of Jacqueline Pascal manifests a clear evolution. The political and romantic interests of the early works gradually yield to the religious preoccupations of the later poems. The subtle, meditative reflection of the mature works replaces the bombastic exercises in rhyme and rhythm of the first poems.

From the perspective of gender, the poetry possesses additional interest. In several poems ("Epigram to Thank God for the Gift of Poetry," "Stanzas on the same Subject") Jacqueline Pascalinsists that her vocation as a writer is a gift from God. Society can neither create nor abolish her sacred right to express her beliefs in writing. Her poetry also privileges feminine images of divine power (the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Cecilia) and of political power (Queen Anne of Austria, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon). In "To the Queen, on the Regency," celebrating the inauguration of Queen Anne's rule as regent of France, Jacqueline Pascal defends the value of a female political ruler against misogynist critics.

This translation of selected poetry is based on Jacqueline Pascal, Vers de Mlle Jacqueline Pascal, in the Faugere edition, LOM, 116-56. The Faugere edition is based on the Guerrier manuscript, Pere Guerrier, Ms. 1er recueil, 240ff.

SONNET TO THE QUEEN (ON THE SUBJECT OF HER PREGNANCY; PRESENTED TO HER MAJESTY)

Let us rejoice, since our princess

Fulfills our hopes after such a long time.

By this pregnancy we know

That our anguish has died and that our sorrow has ceased.

May our hearts in this moment be full of joy,

Since our enemies will be routed from their thrones.

A dauphin will plunge them into confusion.

All their plots will collapse.

French people, offer your prayers to God.

This dear dauphin, whom you so long wanted,

Will soon fulfill your every hope.

Great God, I passionately beg you

To take our queen under your protection.

If you save her, you save France! (May 1638)



EPIGRAM ON THE QUICKENING OF THE QUEEN'S CHILD (ALSO PRESENTED TO HER MAJESTY)

This invincible child of an invincible father

Already makes us hope without limit.

Although he is still in the womb of his mother,

He makes himself both feared and desired.

He will be more valiant than the god of war

Before he has even glimpsed the heavens.

When he moved only slightly,

It was an earthquake for our enemies. (May 1638)



STANZAS FOR THE QUEEN (TO THANK HER MAJESTY FOR THE KIND RECEPTION SHE DEIGNED TO GIVE THE PREVIOUS POEMS; ALSO PRESENTED TO HER MAJESTY)

My dear children, my little poems;

In the whole world is it possible to find

A greater good than the one you possess?

You are filled with happiness.

The queen grants you a signal honor.

Her Majesty gives you a warm welcome.



Her hand deigned to receive you.

Her sweet eye fell to gaze upon you.

Silently her ears listened to you.

By an excess of goodness,

Without any merit on your part,

Her mouth called you small marvels.



But despite my glorious state,

The great sadness of no longer seeing her eyes

Opens my soul to a lingering ennui.

One moment of pleasure

Only deepens my desire

And leaves me with an endless regret for its loss.

(May 1638)



Continues...

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Series Editors' Introduction
Volume Editor's Introduction
Bibliography on Jacqueline Pascal
Poetry (1638-43)
On the Mystery of the Death of Our Lord
Jesus Christ (1651)
Report of Soeur Hacqueline de Sainte Euphémie to the
Mother Prioress of Port-Royal des Champs (1653)
A Rule for Children (1657)
Interrogation of Soeur Jacqueline de Sainte Euphémie
(Pascal), Subprioress and Novice Mistress (1661)
A Memoir of Mère Marie Angélique by Soeur
Jacqueline de Sainte Euphémie Pascal (1661)
Letters of Jacqueline Pascal (1647-61)
Series Editors' Bibliography
Index