ÉON (Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste Timothée de Beaumont, c - Lot 5

ÉON (Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste Timothée de Beaumont, chevalier d'). Manuscript entitled "Extrait de la lettre de Mlle d'Éon à sa mère". Hameau du Petit-Montreuil, 1778. One p. 1/2 in-4, erasures and corrections. SUPERB DOCUMENT EVOQUING HIS RETICENCES TO PERMANENTLY ADOPT THE FEMALE DRESS WHICH HE WAS PERIODICALLY REQUIRED TO WEAR FOR HIS PLEASURE: the Chevalier d'Éon had indeed been ordered by the royal power to stick to a feminine dress, and had departed from it on several occasions. Minister Vergennes had ordered him to confine himself to the property of Edme-Jacques Genêt, head of the translators' office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Chevalier d'Éon, who was a friend of Genêt, had lived with him for a time in the village of Petit-Montreuil near Versailles. "Madlle Bertin, Madame Genêt her dear daughters [Rose Bertin, Marie-Antoinette's milliner ; Marie-Anne-Louise Cardon, wife of Edme-Jacques Genet, and their four daughters, all in the service of the Royal Household, among them Henriette, future Madame Campan, then Marie-Antoinette's chambermaid] MANY OTHER ELEGANT WOMEN OF THE COURT, BELIEVE THAT MY CHAINS ARE LIGHT BECAUSE THEY ARE GILDED, BRILLIANT GIVEN BY THE KING AND THE QUEEN ; but my servitude is complete because they are also given to me by law, and I must wear them with respect and gratitude, without knowing the sweetness and pleasure of a woman's slavery. All I see, all I feel is that MY BEAUTIFUL CHANGE HAS LOST ME MY NATURAL FREEDOM, and this loss produces in me such a general dejection that it leaves me with nothing but the courage to remain a virtuous girl. The state of dependence and constraint in which the decency of my dress keeps me, resumed under the eyes of the Court under which I must appear every day, has forced me to resume its use and habit, subjecting me to all the measures taken to make me forget the misfortune of my past life and inspire me with the love of the tranquil happiness I enjoy in spite of myself. This gentle violence compresses my heart and mind. I CANNOT LOOK INTO THE ICE WITHOUT BEING HELD BACK BY MY COIFFURE MY DRESS as much as by the example of madame de mesdemoiselles Genêt who keep me in gentle, patient suffering of my present condition. For my own benefit, I must in all things surrender to the will of the Court, I must in concert with Madame Genêt work to consolidate my slavery myself to obtain the freedom to go and live under the wings of my mother whom I honor dearly that there remains no doubt of my voluntary obedience to exist happily under the laws and yoke of my sex." TRAVESTI AND DIPLOMATE OF LOUIS XV, L'EXTRAVAGANT CHEVALIER D'ÉON (1728-1810), was first employed in St. Petersburg in 1755 as agent to the King's Secret, then in 1756 as secretary to the ambassador, Duc de Nivernais. He followed the latter to London in 1762, still as ambassadorial secretary, to assist him in the peace talks with England, and it was he who brought Louis XV the ratification of the peace treaty - the king rewarded him with the title of minister plenipotentiary. That same year, however, the Chevalier d'Éon quarreled with the Duke's successor, the Comte de Guerchy, to whom he refused to hand over secret diplomatic papers that could compromise France in the eyes of England. On the one hand, he accused the Count of trying to have him assassinated, resulting in a huge public scandal; on the other, he demanded money from Versailles to return the papers. At the same time, from 1769 onwards, he began to be known for his eccentric behavior, including cross-dressing and calling himself the "Chevalière d'Éon". In 1777, after negotiations with Beaumarchais on his behalf, he agreed to return the papers he had kept, and was authorized to return to France, but was ordered to dress only as a woman from then on - having failed to do so, he was imprisoned for a time, then placed under house arrest. He left for England in 1785 to settle his affairs, but never returned to France. Ruined by the Revolution, he survived by giving fencing lessons, and ended his life in London in great financial difficulty. THE CHEVALIER D'ÉON SERVED AS BEAUMARCHAIS' MODEL FOR THE CHARACTER OF CHERUBIN IN LE MARIAGE DE FIGARO.