POLIGNAC, Yolande de (subject).

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Confession et repentir, ou, la nouvelle madeleine convertie. Early editions of these three satirical tracts from the beginning of the French Revolution. These slender works target a favourite of Marie Antoinette, charging her with "becoming rich by intrigues, [and] using those riches to exhaust her senses and fulfil her pleasures" ("devenue riche par ses intrigues, employoit des millions pour éguiser ses sens & satisfaire ses plaisirs") (Boudoir, p. 1).Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron (1749-1793), known as Madame de Polignac, became one of the queen's closest friends. Polignac initially declined an invitation to move to Versailles on account of the expense, whereupon Marie Antoinette undertook to settle the outstanding debts of her entire family. During the revolution, Polignac became the focus of considerable public hatred for her expenditure and perceived debauchery, fleeing Versailles for Austria. These pamphlets are typical of the gossip circulating around her, as when the Confession has its Polignac proclaim: "No sooner was I married than I didn't hesitate to defile the marital bed with the most vile prostitution" ("a peine ai je été dans les bras de l'hymen, que je n'ai pas craint de souiller la couche nuptiale par la prostitution la plus infâme") (p. 5).Many 18th-century French pamphlets, including these examples, were published in a range of editions, and all of these are rare.

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