EXEGESIS

“I promised her a chateau to rival Fontainbleau.”

largest French royal châteaux. The palace as it is today is the work of many French monarchs, building on an early 16th century structure of Francis I. The building is arranged around a series of courtyards. The city of Fontainebleau has grown up around the remainder of the Forest of Fontainebleau, a former royal hunting park.The Palace of Fontainebleau, located 55 kilometres from the centre of Paris...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Fontainebleau

“So that’s the price she extorts for fealty?”

1.	History/Historical. a. fidelity to a lord. b. the obligation or the engagement to be faithful to a lord, usually sworn to by a vassal.

2.	fidelity; faithfulness.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fealty

“...spat a mouthful of Cotes du Rhone upon my breast.”

Côtes du Rhône (English: Rhone Coast) is a wine-growing Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) for the Rhône wine region of France, which may be used throughout the region, also in those areas which are covered by other AOCs. In a limited part of the region, the AOC Côtes du Rhône-Villages may be used, in some cases together with the name of the commune.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B4tes_du_Rh%C3%B4ne

“…and replaced them with musical interludes, watercolor exercises, even Marivaux.”

Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux, commonly referred to as Marivaux (February 4, 1688 - February 12, 1763), was a French novelist and dramatist. He is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, writing numerous comedies for the Comédie-Française and the Comédie-Italienne of Paris. His most important works are Le Triomphe de l'amour, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard and Les Fausses Confidences. He also published a number of essays and two important but unfinished novels, La Vie de Marianne and Le Paysan parvenu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Marivaux

“Thumbscrews and pillories, to keep the patients tranquil.”

The thumbscrew, or pilliwinks, is a torture instrument which was first used in medieval Europe. It is a simple vice, sometimes with protruding studs on the interior surfaces. The victim's thumbs or fingers were placed in the vise and slowly crushed. The thumbscrew was also applied to crush prisoners' toes, while larger, heavier devices based on the same design principle were applied to crush knees and elbows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumbscrew_(torture_device)

Pillories- A wooden framework on a post, with holes for the head and hands, in which offenders were formerly locked to be exposed to public scorn as punishment.

1. To expose to ridicule and abuse.

2. To put in a pillory as punishment.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pillories

“If you were to buttress your entreaties with, perhaps, the means to oblige them…”

1. “If you were to buttress your entreaties with, perhaps, the means to oblige them…” To support or reinforce with a buttress.
2. To sustain, prop, or bolster: “The author buttresses her analysis with lengthy dissections of several of Moore's poems” (Warren Woessner).

http://www.answers.com/topic/buttress

Entreaties- An earnest request or petition; a plea.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/entreaties

“You’re not the only one, mind you. We read Monsieuer de Laclos, and Louvet de Couvray.”

Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos (18 October 1741 - 5 September 1803) was a French novelist, official and army general, best known for writing the epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses. A unique case in French literature, he was for a long time considered to be as scandalous a writer as the Marquis de Sade or Nicolas-Edme Rétif. He was a military officer with no illusions about human relations, and an amateur writer; however, his initial plan was to "write a work which departed from the ordinary, which made a noise, and which would remain on earth after his death"; from this point of view he mostly attained his goals, since the fame of his masterwork Les Liaisons dangereuses is such that it can be considered one of the most well-known books in the world. It is one of the masterpieces of novelistic literature of the 18th century, which explores the amorous intrigues of the aristocracy. It has inspired a large number of critical and analytic commentaries, plays, and films.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Choderlos_de_Laclos

Louvet de couvray, Jean-Baptiste (1760-97). French novelist, who from 1789 onwards was actively involved in politics and was a powerful orator. He joined the Girondins, was prominent in attacking Robespierre, and had to spend a year as a fugitive. His Mémoires, not published in full until 1889, are useful for the Revolutionary period. Most 18th-c. readers, however, knew him as the author of two novels: Émilie de Varmont (1791) deals with divorce and the marriage of priests; but it was his long memoir-novel, Les Amours du chevalier de Faublas (1787-90), which made and has maintained his reputation. The light-hearted liaisons of the hero's youth lead to a sombre close, with several deaths and Faublas's temporary madness.

http://www.answers.com/topic/jean-louvet