A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Boccage, Maria Anne du
BOCCAGE, MARIA ANNE DU,
A celebrated French poetess, member of the academies of Rome, Bologna, Padua, Lyons, and Rouen, was born in Rouen in 1710, and died in 1802. She was educated in Paris in a nunnery, where she evinced a love of poetry. She became the wife of a receiver of taxes in Dieppe, who died soon after the marriage, leaving her a youthful widow. She concealed her talents, however, till the charms of youth were past, and first published her productions in 1746, The first was a poem "On the Mutual Influence of the Fine Arts and Sciences." This gained the prize from the Academy of Rouen. She next attempted an imitation of "Paradise Lost," in six cantos; then of the "Death of Abel;" next a tragedy, the "Amazons;" and a poem in ten cantos, called "The Columbiad." Madame du Boccage was praised by her contemporaries with an extravagance, for which only her sex and the charms of her person can account. Forma Venus arte Minerva, was the motto of her admirers, among whom were Voltaire, Fontenelle, and Clairaut. She was always surrounded by distinguished men, and extolled in a multitude of poems, which, if collected, would fill several volumes. There is a great deal of entertaining matter in the letters which she wrote on her travels in England and Holland, and in which one may plainly see the impression she made upon her contemporaries. Her works have been translated into English, Spanish, German, and Italian