A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Labé, (Louisa)
One of the most distinguished poets of her time, gained great celebrity in the reign of Henry II. by her wit and genius. She shewed an early disposition for languages and the polite arts: but what was still more extraordinary, she was a heroine; and the poets of her age have celebrated her martial exploits. We are ignorant of the motives which induced her to pursue that kind of life; all we can learn is, that she served at the siege of Perpignan before she was sixteen years of age, where she took the name of Captain Loys, There is some reason to conclude, however, that she either followed her father or her lover to the field; but the ill success of the besiegers obliged them to abandon the place, which determined the beautiful Lyonnoise to return home and pursue her studies. Nor was she inattentive to her future interest; but endeavoured to preserve an establishment which might enable her to enjoy tranquillity and affluence the rest of her life: for soon after she married Ennemond Perrin, a rich merchant, who held a considerable traffic in cordage, and who possessed a very large estate near Lyons, where he had a house nobly furnished, and gardens which were very spacious and magnificent.
There she collected a large library of the very best authors, and her house was the constant rendezvous of persons of distinction, and men of letters, who live in or near Lyons. It was an academy where every one found something which might either amuse or instruct. The charms of wit, conversation, music (vocal and instrumental) and poetry, were all employed by the muse who presided there, and who was excellent herself in all. Her cabinet was copiously supplied with books in the vulgar tongue, in Latin, Italian, and Spanish; and it formed a part of the amusement of her house to read the best authors in each
It is with regret I recite what a French writer says farther; speaking of this extraordinary woman; "Gallantry," says he, "was not excluded from this agreeable place of study and science. The lovely Louisa was not wailing there should be any thing wanting to complete the general satisfaction of her visitors; but she preferred men of rank and letters to those who were possessed of both birth and fortune." One cannot but lament that she should thus have sullied such exalted taste and genius.
The distinguished manner in which Louisa lived at Lyons excited the jealousy of the ladies of that city. They overlooked her fine sense and accomplishments, and considered her only as a tradesman's wife; from whence they suspected that the assemblies held at her house were more owing to her beauty than to her uncommon talents. But what increased this resentment was her writings, which, treating of love, they considered as so many lures to induce the men to attach themselves to her; but Louisa, in return, levelled part of her works at the Lyonnoise ladies, censuring them for the frivolous manner in which they employed their time, instead of improving themselves in knowledge and the polite arts.
Many poets have endeavoured to appropriate her ingenious fiction of Love and Folly to themselves; but the invention, which is its principal merit, seems due only to La Belle Cordiere. La Fontaine most probably took the idea of his fable, entitled, L’Amour et la Folie, and Erasmus, his Praise of Folly, from this writer. The other pieces which compose this lady's collection, are some elegies and sonnets, which are held in high estimation by the French.