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La Carte de Tendre, or the Map of the Country of Tenderness, made its debut in the first volume of Madeleine de Scudéry's novel Clélie (1654). It is a map of the mythical Country of Tenderness, which is also a metaphor for Mlle de Scudéry's heart and for her salon. As a salon game that soon became the rage in Seventeenth-century Parisian salon society, it can be viewed as a precursor of many board games, and one might also claim that it foreshadows certain contemporary computer games. However, I see it more as a map of Mlle de Scudéry's desire, and of the emotional geography of the territory of her political ambition and her sexual imagination.
Mapping the domain of love had already been attempted several times before she created her map of the domain of tender friendship. What differentiates her map from the others is that Tendre, the capital city of her country, was also her heart and her salon. However, since she had vowed to remain celibate and unmarried all of her life, her map does not lead to the sexual consummation of love. Indeed, love was banned from her country and her salon. Tendre is the country of intimate friendship for Madeleine de Scudéry.
James S. Munro, in his study Mademoiselle de Scudéry and the Carte de Tendre, places the creation of this salon map game in the tradition of allegorical maps of fantasy countries such as the Carte du Royaume d'Amour, which appeared in 1659 in the first volume of the Recueil de Sercy, attributed to Tristan l'Hermite. The destination of Tristan's pilgrim is Jouîssance [Pleasure].(1) Munro writes:
The allegory transparently represents the development of a particular kind of liaison which must have been commonplace at the time; having met in the wood called Belle-Assemblée, "qui est un bois fort agreable où il y a presque toujours Concerts de Luths & de Voix, ou du moins la grande Bande des Violons & souuent la Comedie & le Bal" [which is a very agreeable forest where there are almost always vocal and lute concerts or at least the great Band of violins and often theatre or a Ball], the lovers pass through Reueuë, Visite and Soûpirs [Received, Visit and Sighs] to...