LA FAYETTE (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La... - Lot 8 - Osenat

Lot 8
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LA FAYETTE (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La... - Lot 8 - Osenat
LA FAYETTE (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, countess of). Autograph letter to Gilles Ménage. [Château de Nades], "this 2nd November" [1655]. 2 pp. in-4, address on the back. SUPERB LITERARY LETTER FROM MADAME DE LA FAYETTE, TO HER FRIEND THE GRAMMAIRIAN GILLES MÉNAGE, who would collaborate in the writing of her first story, La Princesse de Montpensier (1662). "I don't know if I'm very happy that you gave my letter to the younger Barillon [Antoine Barillon, councillor at the Parliament of Paris and future intendant of Orleans, from a family friendly to La Fayette] because it seems to me that it was so badly based that it would have been as good as not to have had it. I find it very pleasant that Mr. de Candale compliments you on not having seen me. I think it is for you alone that he makes them, because for me he does not know me at all and has not even thought of wanting to know me. [The Duke of Candale, Louis-Charles-Gaston de Nogaret de Foix, was the only son of the Duke of Épernon and had a military career]. I am very happy that you approve of what I have told you about CLÉLIE [a novel by Madeleine de SCUDÉRY published from 1654 to 1660, and which was one of the most brilliant publishing successes of the Grand Siècle] but I am angry that you do not agree with me. I am well of your opinion on what you say of the beautiful spirit of the Romans, but SONGÉS AUSSISIVE THAT THE BEAUTIFUL SPIRIT OF THE ROMANS TOURNOI[T] OF THE COSTÉ OF AN EXTRAORDINARY GENEROSITY AND OF AN INFINITE LOVE FOR THE COUNTRY AND THAT IT DOES NOT ALLOW TO DISPUTE TENDER AND GALANTINE QUESTIONS AS THEY ARE IN CLÉLIE, and remembered that in the time of Tarquin eloquence and politeness were not coined in Rome as they have been since. Rome was only beginning and was not yet unrolled. You have not sent me anything about the works of SARASIN, which leads me to believe that they are not yet printed [established by Gilles Ménage and Paul Pellisson, the posthumous edition of the Works of Jean-François Sarasin, who died in 1654, was published in 1656 by the Parisian bookseller Augustin Courbé]. I beg you to tell me if you believe that LA PUCELLE DE M. CHAPELAIN will succeed in the world and that it answers the expectation that one has had for so long. [This epic poem, entitled La Pucelle ou la France délivrée, was published in 1656 by Augustin Courbé, with illustrations by Abraham Bosse]. I would like to see LA DE[RNIE]RE ELEGIE DE LA COMTESSE DE LA SUSE. As you praise her very much and you are not a great praiser of your nature, this makes me believe that she is beautiful. [Woman of letters and one of the "Précieuses", wife of the count of La Suze, Henriette de Coligny published numerous texts, including famous elegies, separately or in collective collections]. My husband is a thousand times your servant. Farewell, you know what I am to you. Madame de La Fayette, Correspondance, Paris, Gallimard (Nrf ), 1942, p. 58.
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