DANGEAU (Philippe de Courcillon Marquis de), brother to the former, was born in 1638. The elegance of his wit and person advanced him at the court of Louis XIV. and his decided taste for letters procured him a place in the French academy and in that of sciences. He died at Paris in 1720, at the age of 82, chevalier of the order of the king, and grand master of the royal and military orders of our lady of Mont-Carmel and of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. When he was invested with this last dignity, he paid more attention than was formerly done to the choosing of chevaliers; he renewed the ancient pomp of their admission, which the public, always malicious, ridiculed. But that which should have screened him from ridicule was, that it procured him the foundation of 25 commanderies, and he employed the revenues to bring up 12 young men of the best nobility in France. Even envy then excused his elevation. At the court (says Fontenelle), where credit is never given to probity and virtue, he held always a fair and unblemished reputation. His conversation, his manners, were all regulated by a politeness, which was not the consequence merely of his associating with good company, but the offspring of an obliging and benevolent heart. We should pass over in him, on account of his honourable manners, the desire he had to be a great lord. Madame de Montefran, who did not believe he could play this part, used to say in a malicious manner, that one could not help loving and despising him at the same time. He married, first Françoise Morin, sister to the Marechal d'Estrées, and afterwards the Countess de Leveque, of a very noble house, but not opulent.
There are extant manuscript memoirs by the Marquis Dangeau, in which there are several curious anecdotes of Voltaire, Henault, and Beaumelle. Dangeau, however, did not always write these memoirs; which, according to the author of the age of Louis XIV. were compiled by an old valet de chambre, who inserted in them, without order, every ridiculous thing which he heard in the antichamber, or read in the gazettes. There still remains a small work of Dangeau's, which paints, in an interesting manner, Louis the XIV. as he was in the midst of his court.