ABSTRACT
In 1591, in a letter to Pierre Airault, Estienne Pasquier writes that he was invited to dine at the home of Claude-Catherine de Clermont, the duchesse de Retz (1543-1603). Inspired by his evening at the Retz salon, Pasquier wrote his Pastorale du vieillard amoureux, a dialogue between Tenot, an "ancien pasteur" and Catin, his "fidelle serviteur", and presented it to Retz with a letter of explanation in which he again takes up the debate of "bonhomme". While her admirers typically refer to her in traditional Neoplatonic style as a muse, goddess, or nymph, a style of address particularly in keeping with the fad for pastoral popular with the "salon vert" of Retz, it is obvious that she was much more than an object of inspiration. Retz's collection of writings illustrates the playful use of salon personae, as well as the ongoing fascination of the age with debates about the nature of love and men's and women's behavior in it.
