A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Saint Chamont, (Madame la Marquise de)
SAINT CHAMONT (MADAME LA MARQUISE DE), was the Daughter of an Italian Architect, and a Parisian Lady of Fashion.
Her maiden name was Margaretta, but before the age of fourteen she was married to the Marquis de Saint Chamont, who died in the year 1750, at which time, she was obliged to prove her marriage by a process which lasted three years. The merits of which were, during the whole time, not only the subject of conversation in Paris, but throughout all Europe; but at last she triumphed over an host of enemies and false witnesses, who strove to vilify and defame her.
She commenced author, it is said, at the particular request of the marquis her husband; and first wrote an elegy, on the Duke of Sully, which stamped her fame as a writer. In all her works we meet with a pure diction, natural reflections, noble sentiments, pathetic, ingenious and void of all affectation.
She wrote many pieces for the theatre, which were well received; and many works which have contended for the prizes of the French academy. An eulogium on Descartes has been highly admired. She likewise wrote Les Amans sans le savoir, which is much esteemed.