A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Bernard, Catharine
BERNARD, CATHARINE,
Of the academy of the Ricovrate of Padua, was born at Rouen, and died at Paris in 1712. Her works were several times crowned by the French academy, and by that of the Jeux-Floraux. Two of her tragedies were represented at the French theatre, "Brutus," in 1691, and "Laodamia." It is thought she composed these pieces conjointly with Fontenelle, her friend and countryman. She wrote several other works in verse, showing ease and sometimes delicacy. She acquired some celebrity by her placet to Louis the Fourteenth, to petition for the two hundred crowns given to her annually by that prince; it is to be seen in the "Recueil de vers Choisis du père Bonhors." She discontinued writing for the theatre at the advice of Madame la Chanceliére de Pont-Chartrain, who gave her a pension; even suppressing several little pieces, which might have given wrong impressions of her manners and religion. Two romances are likewise ascribed to her; "The Count d'Amboise," and "Ines of Cordova." Some of the journalists attributed to her, others to Fontenelle, the account of the "Island of Borneo."