femmes--allaient se chercher et se reconnaissaient avec un plaisir
inexprimable.'[9] It was easy to attack these romances. Boileau made
fun of them because the classical names borne by the characters
were so absurdly at variance with the matter of the stories.[10] But
instead of giving, as he said, a French air and spirit to Greece and
Rome, Madeleine de Scudéry only gave Greek and Roman names to France
as she knew it. The names were a transparent disguise that was not
meant to conceal the picture of fashionable society.

The next stage was the portrait by itself, without any setting. At the
height of the popularity of the romances, Mlle de Montpensier hit upon
a new kind of entertainment for the talented circle of which she was
the brilliant centre. It was nothing more nor less than a paper game.
They drew each other, or persons whom they knew, or themselves, and
under their real names. And they played the game so well that what was
written for amusement was worth printing. _Divers Portraits, Imprimés
en l'année M DC LIX_ was the simple title of the first collection,
which was intended only for the contributors.[11] When it reached its
final form in 1663, it contained over a hundred and fifty portraits,
and was offered to the public as _La Galerie des Peintures, ou Recueil
des portraits et éloges en vers et en prose, contenant les portraits
du Roy, de la Reyne, des princes, princesses, duchesses, marquises,
comtesses, et autres seigneurs et dames les plus illustres de France;
la plupart composés par eux-mêmes_.[12] The introductory defence of
the portrait cites Suetonius and Plutarch, and Horace and Montaigne,
but also states frankly the true original of the new fashion--'il faut
avouer que nous sommes très redevables au _Cyrus_ et à la _Clélie_
qui nous en ont fourni les modèles.' About the same time Antoine
Baudeau, sieur de Somaize, brought out his _Grand Dictionnaire des
Précieuses_,[13] in which there are many portraits in the accepted