Some writers claim that the founding of the French Academy had its inception at her rooms, where many of the members met and where, later on, they discussed the work of the Academy.  Her one desire for the language was to have it advance and develop, preserving every word, resorting to old ones, accepting new ones only when necessary.  Thus, among French female educators, Mlle. de Gournay deserves a prominent place, because of her high ideals and earnest efforts in the study of the language, for the courage with which she advanced her convictions regarding woman, and for the high moral standard which she set by her own conduct.

In Louise Labe—­La Belle Cordiere—­we meet a warrior, as well as a woman of letters.  The great movement of the Renaissance, as it swept northward, invaded Lyons; there Louise Labe endeavored to do what Ronsard and the Pleiade were doing at Paris.  A great part of her youth she passed in war, wearing man’s apparel and assuming the name of “Captain Loys”; at an early age, she left home with a company of soldiers passing through Lyons on the way to lay siege to Perpignan, where she showed pluck, bravery, and skill.  Upon her return, she married a merchant ropemaker, whence her sobriquet—­La Belle Cordiere.

She soon won a reputation by gathering about her a circle of men, who complimented her in the most elegant language and read poetry with her.  Science and literature were discussed and the praises of love sung with passionate, inflamed eloquence.  In this circle of congenial spirits, “she gave rise to doubts as to her virtue.”  As her husband was wealthy, she was able to collect an immense library and to entertain at her pleasure; she could converse in almost any language, and all travellers stopped at Lyons and called to see her at her salon.  Her writings consisted of sonnets, elegies, and dialogues in prose; her influence, being too local, is not marked.  Her greatest claim to attention is that she encouraged letters in a city which was beyond the reach of every literary movement.  Such were the women of the sixteenth century; in no epoch in French history have women played a greater role; art, literature, morals, politics, all were governed by them.  They were active in every phase of life, hunting with men, taking part in and causing duels, intriguing and initiating intrigues.  “In the midst of battle, while cannon-balls and musket-shots rained about her, Catherine de’ Medici was as brave and unconcerned as the most valiant of men.  Diana of Poitiers was called the most wondrous woman, the woman of eternal youth, the beautiful huntress; it was she whom Jean Goujon sculptured, nude and triumphant, embracing with marble arms a mysterious stag, enamoured like Leda’s swan.”