Catherine Des Roches

[2] Wanting to invest all her time in her intellectual pursuits, Catherine Des Roches never married.

[2] Contemporaries of Pierre de Ronsard, and friends of the humanist Estienne Pasquier, Catherine Des Roches and her mother were the center of a literary circle based in Poitiers between 1570 and 1587, and which included the poets Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, Barnabé Brisson, René Chopin, Antoine Loisel, Claude Binet, Nicolas Rapin and Odet de Turnèbe.

[2] The circle is most well known for a collection of gallant verse (in French, Italian, Latin and Greek) entitled La Puce de Madame Des Roches ("The Flea of Madame Des Roches", published 1583) in which the poets, inspired by an original poem by Pasquier, wrote on the theme of a flea upon Catherine's throat.

[2] The combined output of mother and daughter—which was published collectively—comprise epistles, odes, sonnets, stanzas, epitaphs, and a few dialogues in prose and verse.

Her most anthologized work is the sonnet À ma quenouille ("To My Distaff") in which she portrays a woman torn between her domestic duties and her intellectual activities.