SOURCE: Holmes, Peggy P. “Mlle de Gournay's Defence of Baroque Imagery.” French Studies 8, no. 2 (April 1954): 122-31.

In the following essay, Holmes discusses de Gournay's study of the imagery and metaphors of baroque poets to illustrate the author's belief that language should be used to exhibit “the supreme expression of poetical originality.”

The writings of Marie le Jars de Gournay¹ have added considerably to our knowledge of the French language during that confused transitional period between the decline of the Renaissance and the rise of Classicism. Brunot reaped a rich harvest from the laboriously compiled lists of words to which she claimed that both Malherbe and his followers had taken exception.² Yet these shrewd comments on the vocabulary of her day, valuable as they are for a study of the progress of Malherbe's ideas, do not form the most vital part of Marie de Gournay's literary articles. It is...