Gédéon
Tallemant des Réaux (November 7, 1619 – November 6, 1692) was a French gossip.
Gédéon
Tallemant des Réaux (November 7, 1619 – November 6, 1692) was a French gossip.
Tallemant was born in La Rochelle, the son of a Huguenot (Protestant) banker. He is considered (with the exception of the Duc de Saint-Simon) the wittiest anecdotalist in French literature. His razor wit bubbles through every vignette, but he was also a refined psychologist and analyst of human motivation. He was probably not gay, but is the source for much of what we know about homosexuals in the seventeenth century, and he was extremely attentive to the sexual mores of his contemporaries. Thus he reports, for example, that the Abbé Boisrobert boasted of having been sodomised twice by Madame de Piémont's lackey.
Tallemant is an important source of information on Louis XIII. He suggests that Marie de’ Médici had deliberately attempted to enfeeble her son by rendering him effeminate (as it was suggested Anne of Austria later did in the case of Philippe d'Orléans). The king's first affections were for Saint-Amour, his coach driver, then Haran, his kennel-master. After which came the Duc de Luynes, then Barradas and Monsieur de Cinq-Mars (allegedly selected for him as an amusement by Cardinal Richelieu). The king drew Cinq-Mars into bed as early as seven o'clock, Tallemant reported in his Historiettes (not published until 1834), and was seen covering his hands with kisses before he could get in. When at war, Louis XIII had reports of Cinq-Mars's health sent several times a day. None of this prevented Cinq-Mars being beheaded. Louis XIII did not often share a bed with Anne of Austria. Efforts were early made to interest him in women, but seem to have been largely unavailing. He did, however, profess love for women, but as a chaste admiration. On one occasion the Abbé Boisrobert was moved to celebrate such an infatuation in verse. The king objected to the words ‘with desire’ on the grounds that he desired nothing. Boisrobert obligingly amended the line to ‘without desire’.
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