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La Fleur
Madame de L— is a young Flemish woman from Brussels who is about 26 years old and has tan skin and an “interesting” though not beautiful face. Yorick meets her in a coach-yard in Calais while trying to buy a carriage. He thinks she looks like a superior person and imagines, from her look of suffering, that she is a widow. Due to his overactive sentimentality and sexuality, he immediately develops a crush on her and decides to help her in some way. The owner of the coach-yard, Monsieur Dessein, keeps leaving Madame de L— and Yorick alone, which allows their flirtation to progress. Yorick is about to invite Madame de L— to travel with him in a two-person carriage, despite the risqué rumors such an arrangement might engender, when her brother arrives to travel with her. After Yorick and Madame de L— both leave Calais, they glimpse each other again at Amiens. Madame de L— sends Yorick a note asking him to deliver a letter to Madame de R— in Paris and inviting him to visit her in Brussels, where she promises to tell him her tale of suffering. Though initially her invitation delights Yorick, he recalls his romantic promises to Eliza and resolves not to visit Brussels without her. As the first and most extended of Yorick’s flirtations in France, Madame de L— serves to reveal Yorick’s sentimentality about suffering women, his overactive sexuality, and his wavering faithfulness to Eliza.
Madame de L— Quotes in A Sentimental Journey
The A Sentimental Journey quotes below are all either spoken by Madame de L— or refer to Madame de L—. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Volume 1
Quotes
I guard this box, as I would the instrumental parts of my religion, to help my mind on to something better: in truth, I seldom go abroad without it; and oft and many a time have I called up by it the courteous spirit of its owner to regulate my own, in the justlings of the world[.]
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Now where would be the harm, said I to myself, if I was to beg of this distressed lady to accept of half of my chaise?—and what mighty mischief could ensue?
In saying this, I was making not so much La Fleur’s eloge, as my own, having been in love with one princess or another all my life, and I hope I shall go on so, till I die, being firmly persuaded, that if ever I do a mean action, it must be in some interval betwixt one passion and another: whilst this interregnum lasts, I always perceive my heart locked up—I can scarce find in it, to give Misery a sixpence, and therefore I always get out of it as fast as I can, and the moment I am rekindled, I am all generosity and good will again; and would do any thing in the world either for, or with any one, if they will but satisfy me there is no sin in it.
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Why should I dissemble the matter? I had sworn to her eternal fidelity—she had a right to my whole heart—to divide my affections was to lessen them—to expose them, was to risk them: where there is risk, there may be loss—and what wilt though have, Yorick! to answer a heart so full of trust and confidence—so good, so gentle and unreproaching?
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Madame de L— Quotes in A Sentimental Journey
The A Sentimental Journey quotes below are all either spoken by Madame de L— or refer to Madame de L—. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Volume 1
Quotes
I guard this box, as I would the instrumental parts of my religion, to help my mind on to something better: in truth, I seldom go abroad without it; and oft and many a time have I called up by it the courteous spirit of its owner to regulate my own, in the justlings of the world[.]
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Now where would be the harm, said I to myself, if I was to beg of this distressed lady to accept of half of my chaise?—and what mighty mischief could ensue?
In saying this, I was making not so much La Fleur’s eloge, as my own, having been in love with one princess or another all my life, and I hope I shall go on so, till I die, being firmly persuaded, that if ever I do a mean action, it must be in some interval betwixt one passion and another: whilst this interregnum lasts, I always perceive my heart locked up—I can scarce find in it, to give Misery a sixpence, and therefore I always get out of it as fast as I can, and the moment I am rekindled, I am all generosity and good will again; and would do any thing in the world either for, or with any one, if they will but satisfy me there is no sin in it.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Why should I dissemble the matter? I had sworn to her eternal fidelity—she had a right to my whole heart—to divide my affections was to lessen them—to expose them, was to risk them: where there is risk, there may be loss—and what wilt though have, Yorick! to answer a heart so full of trust and confidence—so good, so gentle and unreproaching?
