Lot n° 79
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800 - 1000
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: 560EUR
GENEST Charles-Claude (1639-1719) abbé, poète et auteur dramatique [AF 1698, 39e f].
L.A.S. "Genest" and 2 L.A., [1677-1699], to Madeleine de SCUDÉRY; 11 pages in-4, 2 addresses (foxing to the 1st letter).
Interesting correspondence to Mademoiselle de Scudéry, making a beautiful description of Marseille, and giving news of the Court and letters.
Marseille May 19 [1677]. [He is in Nevers, accompanying the Duke of Nevers who is going to Rome] He has "the pleasure of seeing Marseilles and I have found it quite worthy of the love you have for it. [There is nothing more beautiful than this coast sown with bastides, especially when one looks at it from the sea. But there is another beauty that you have not seen, because it is very new, and that is a courtyard [now the Cours Belzunce] which is a large street or a long square, in which all the houses are equal and built in the Roman style, with rows of trees on both sides and stone seats underneath from distance to distance, all of Marseilles is there in the evenings, and it is a great ornament for the city, whose houses are otherwise poorly decorated and whose streets are very narrow. The Port filled with galleys is still a surprising and magnificent object, these galleys are of a pomp which cannot be described, it is only gilding sculpture, and adjustments until the end of the oars. He tells of the reception of the duchesses by the marshal of VIVONNE on board the Réale. He mentions various people, including Nublé and Pellisson
Fontainebleau October 12 [1698]. He received the "kind madrigal" of Miss de Scudéry: "The madrigal followed by all the approval of which it is such a glorious mark, obliges me to a thousand acts of grace, and nothing touches me more than to see me thus united with the illustrious Acante [PELLISSON]. And if I have gained some new share in the honor of your benevolence, it is the most advantageous success of my speech, and I will never be able to answer worthily to these pleasant verses that by hymns of the odes, and whole Poems ". After denying the news of the death of the Duchess of BRUNSWICK who had an apoplexy, Genest relates the engagement of MADEMOISELLE [Elisabeth-Charlotte d'Orléans, daughter of Monsieur and the Palatine, with the Duke of Lorraine Léopold]: " Mademoiselle was engaged this evening at six o'clock in the King's Cabinet [....] Mr. Duke of Elbeuf will marry her tomorrow in the name of the Duke of Lorraine [...] This Princess is very amiable, has a very good mind and the best heart in the world. She has already cried a lot to leave her family, where she is so loved. Tonight there is a new music in the Salle de la Comedie where the King will be with the King and Queen of England. Relation of the life of the Court in Fontainebleau: " The appartemens the Comedie the hunt reign as the other times. The King eats with their British majesties [...] It is a large crescent table and there are seventeen place settings"... Then Genest speaks about his reception speech at the Académie Française (he had been elected on August 23 and received on September 27): "I am waiting for copies of my speech from Paris and I will give orders that they be sent to you"...
Versailles August 1 [1699]. "Your gallant madrigal, Mademoiselle, must be received with a special tribute from each of your friends, even though it is for everyone equally. It must have the same effect as a circular letter from a great Monarch for which each of those to whom it is sent has the same deference as if it were for him alone. [...] my feeble prose does not deserve to be told among those beautiful verses which have celebrated your feast. I wish you the best of luck for your health, even though it is impossible to believe that it can change when one sees the unalterable proof of your spirit. I can reply to you on behalf of Monsieur de Meaux [BOSSUET] that he received your compliment with the feelings that are due to you. I will keep it for him on his return. [] The King has been at Trianon since Thursday. The King and the Queen of England are dining there. There should have been music and illumination on the canal but as it was the day of the Queen's death [anniversary of the death of Maria Theresa of Austria, July 30, 1683] nothing was done. Genest announces the death of the grandson of the Duke of La Rochefoucauld, of M. de Mirepoix... He announces the sending of "a sort of impromptu letter to which I found myself indispensably committed. It was a very long time ago that I had not made verses. And I apply myself to things all-opposed"...
Provenance : former collection Louis MONMERQUÉ.
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