A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Loges, (Mary Bruneau des)
LOGES (MARY BRUNEAU DES) a French Lady,
One of the most illustrious women of the seventeenth century. In the year 1599, married Charles, Lord des Loges, gentleman in ordinary of the king's bedchamber, by whom she had nine children, of whom only five survived her. She died 1641, in Limousin. Her zeal for the reformed religion, which she constantly professed all her lifetime, her piety and exalted mind, shone with a fresh eclat towards the latter end of her life, when she suffered, as she had already done on other occasions, several domestic vexations, which she bore with true christian patience and constancy. Her piety diminished not the singular gaiety of her mind, yet it was sincere and fervent. Her grand-nieces, Luzerne, who retired into Holland to profess more freely the reformed religion, were highly esteemed for their piety and other great qualities, of whom Madame de Aulnoy need only be mentioned.
Balzac celebrates her in his Latin poems, under the name of Urania. He speaks of her in many parts of his other works as the person in the world he esteemed the most, and as his most sincere and estimable friend; and mentions her reproving him severely for the too indiscriminate praise he distributed in his writings. Unintentionally he has attributed some pieces of poetry to her, not of her own writing. In effect, it is not at present well known what she did write, as nothing of hers was published collectively, though she was called the tenth muse by her contemporaries.
Malherbe, who was tenacious of bestowing his esteem, was a particular friend of Mad. des Loges, as was Racan, Gombaud, and almost all the beaux-esprits of that age. Foreigners of the highest distinction sought her acquaintance when they came to Paris, and she corresponded with some crowned heads.