L’Histoire de La Chiaramonte

Marie de Beaulieu’s L’Histoire de La Chiaramonte is a repository of entertainments, subjects, and literary genres embraced by Marguerite de Valois and her circle. A detailed synopsis of L’Histoire de La Chiaramonte, which has not yet been translated or edited in a modern edition, is provided. Beaulieu’s characters that represent members of Marguerite de Valois’s milieu are further considered, as are the prefatory material and poetry of compliment that accompany the main text. An examination of the games, conversations, and actions of the characters, as well as Beaulieu’s literary references, shows that they illustrate the myriad ways the work is meant to please the influential proto-salonnières of the sixteenth century and foreshadow such taste in the later seventeenth century.