ABSTRACT

La Guette fully expects, as she indicates, that her readers will be familiar with memoirs by men testifying to history and their place in it, describing military exploits and the contributions of their family in the public realms of government and diplomacy, peacemaking and war. That her readers may also have read a few memoirs by women is suggested in her preface, but their inclusion is exceptional and requires justification at the outset. In La Guette's case, the events of her life included participation in military action and negotiation, repeated occasions in which she successfully disguised herself as a man, and a strong attraction to "masculine" endeavors.2 Her bookseller, in his own preface to the reader, identifies the author as a woman with the "heart" of a man:

... je l'appelle femme bien qu'elle ait une humeur entierement opposee a celle de son sexe, puisque je lui ai oui" dire plusieurs fois, que qui pourrait voir son coeur a nue le trouverait tout viril, et y remarquerait une generosite qui n' est pas ordinaire aux femmes. (n. pag.) (I call her a woman even though she has a disposition entirely opposed to that of her sex, as I have heard her say many times that whoever might see her exposed heart would find it completely virile, and would notice a generosity of spirit that is not common in women.)

Just as she perceives as historically worthy those parts of her life in which she has played a male role, so it is La Guette's masculine self-image that authorizes her to print them. In grounding her authority to publish her memoirs in her

participationinpubliclife,LaGuetteisstrategicallylinkingherselfwitha publishingtraditionoflongstanding.Towriteandcirculateone'smemoirswas toproduceapublicdocumenttestifyingtoahistoricalperiodorevent.Male authorsofmemoirslaidclaimtoaprivilegedvantagepointwithrespectto theperiodofhistoryinwhichtheylived.Theywereparticipants,forexample, inthemilitarycampaignstheyrecorded,ortheywerecourtierswhohad bothobservedandinfluencedaffairsofstate.Thetypicalmemorialistwas impersonalandself-effacing,oratleastworkedatseemingso.Authorsof memoirsoftenreferredtothemselvesinthethirdperson,asiftostressthe objectivityoftheiraccounts,andalludedtotheirpersonalroleintheevents theywererecountingonlytosustaintheirclaimtolegitimacyaskeepersofthe historicalrecord.