Ninon de l'Enclos

Ninon de Lanclos
Etching by Antoine-Jean-Baptiste Coupé (1784 -ca. 1852)
Born	(1620-11-10)10 November 1620 Paris, France
Died	17 October 1705(1705-10-17) (aged 84) Paris, France

Anne "Ninon" de l'Enclos also spelled Ninon de Lenclos and Ninon de Lanclos (10 November 1620 – 17 October 1705) was a French author, courtesan, freethinker, and patron of the arts.

Born Anne de Lenclos in Paris on 10 November 1620, she was nicknamed "Ninon" by her father Henri de l'Enclos at an early age. Her father, a lutenist and published composer, taught her to sing and play the lute. In 1632, he was exiled from France after a duel; when Ninon's mother died ten years later, the unmarried Ninon entered a convent, only to leave the next year. For the remainder of her life, she was determined to remain unmarried and independent.

Returning to Paris, she became a popular figure in the salons, and her own drawing room became a centre for the discussion and consumption of the literary arts. In her early thirties she was responsible for encouraging the young Molière, and when she died she left money for the son of her accountant, a nine-year-old named François Marie Arouet, later to become known as Voltaire, so he could buy books.

It was during this period that her life as a courtesan began. Ninon took a succession of notable and wealthy lovers, including the king's cousin the Great Condé, Gaston de Coligny, and François, duc de La Rochefoucauld. These men did not support her, however; she prided herself on her independent income. "Ninon always had crowds of adorers but never more than one lover at a time, and when she tired of the present occupier, she said so frankly and took another. Yet such was the authority of this wanton, that no man dared fall out with his successful rival; he was only too happy to be allowed to visit as a familiar friend," Saint-Simon wrote. In 1652, Ninon took up with Louis de Mornay, the marquis de Villarceaux, by whom she had a son, also named Louis. She lived with the marquis until 1655, when she returned to Paris. When she would not return to him, the marquis fell into a fever; to console him, Ninon cut her hair and sent the shorn locks to him, starting a vogue for bobbed hair à la Ninon.