Source:
Eccentric Biography; or, Memoirs of Remarkable Female Characters, Ancient and Modern, pages 92 to 93, by anonymous author, 1803; original at The British Library
The biography:
... The fortune which the adventurer Michon, known under the name of Bourdelot, made by her countenance and liberality, was also a great scandal to literature. He had no pretensions to learning; and, though sprightly, was indecent; he was brought to court by the learned Saumaise, and, for a time, drove literary merit out of it, making learning the object of his ridicule, and exacting from Christina an exorbitant tribute to the weakness and inconstancy of her sex; for even Christina, with respect to this man, shewed herself to be weak and inconstant. When at last she was compelled, by the public indignation, to banish this unworthy minion, she distinguished him by marks of the greatest confidence, and heaped presents upon him with the most shameful prodigality. Yet he was no sooner gone, than her regard for him was at an end. She was ashamed of the favour she had shewn him, and in a short time thought of him only with hatred and contempt; and, though she did afterwards correspond with him, it was only to render him subservient to a taste for literature, which he had for a time suspended, by giving him commissions for such valuable books as appeared in France, where Bourdelot was born, and whither he retired. ...
Above: Kristina.
Above: Pierre Bourdelot.
Above: Claude Saumaise.
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