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• 1 media/1742 aug 29 vol-coll874-09-01~1.jpg media/1742 aug 29 vol-coll874-09-01~1.jpg term 2016-12-16T23:26:18-08:00 Voltaire to Frederick the Great - 1742 August 29 40 See a translation of this letter. plain 2017-11-11T17:22:52-08:00 1742 August 29

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  29 August 1741 [1742]
  
  m1.      (must be                                                                                    
  m2.      from 1742)
  m3.      (the king was
  m4.      at Aix-la-Chapelle
  m5.      the 27^th  1742
  m6.      see one of the
  m7.      letters of this day
  m8.      and year dated from
  m9.      this town)[1]
  
  1.                                After your beautiful campaign, 
  2.                                After these verses brilliant and sweet, 
  3.                                Great Apollo of Germany, 
  4.                                In which Parnassus do you reside?! 
  5.                                You are in Aix[2], among us, 
  6.                                As in the Country of Charlemagne, 
  7.                                And not as in the meeting place
  8.                                Of the feverish, of fools, and of madmen 
  9.                                Accompanied by a sorry Aesculapius.
  10.         My hero, my King, please permit that an abominable cold,
  11.          which seized me while on the road from Lille to
  12.          Brussels, be somewhat diminished so that I may fly to Aix-
  13.          la-Chapelle. This cold has made me deaf—and one
  14.          must not be so in the presence of your majesty—this would be as if
  15.          one were impotent in the presence of one’s mistress.
  16.          During the three or four days that I am
  17.          condemned to remain in my bed, I shall transcribe
  18.          Mahomet[3] as it was performed, just as it delighted
  19.          the philosophers and as it horrified the believers. 
  20.          This is the story of Tartuffe[4]; the hypocrites persecuted
  21.          Molière, and fanatics have risen in arms against me. 
  22.          I yielded to the torrent without saying a single word. If Socrates
  23.          had done likewise, he would not have drunk the hemlock. I confess
   24.         that I know nothing that dishonors my country more than
   25.         this infamous superstition created to debase human nature. 
  
  [Page Break]
  
  26.           I needed the king of Prussia as my master
  27.           and the English people as my fellow citizens.  Our Frenchmen,
  28.           in general, are no more than grown children; but, finally,
  29.           to this point I always return: The small number of
  30.           thinking beings is excellent here, and for their sake we ought
  31.           to pardon the rest. With regard to my historic prattle[5],
  32.           a first shipment left Paris on the 20th of this month
  33.           addressed to the trustworthy David Girard, and
  34.           the second is all ready. I have already apologized to
  35.           your majesty for the trouble you may perhaps have in
  36.           deciphering the handwriting of the different
  37.           scribes who hastily copied what I have
  38.           gathered together.
  39.                             I imagine that the packet is currently on
  40.           the way to bore your majesty at
  41.           Aix-la-Chapelle.
  42.                             I know for certain (should men be permitted to use
  43.           this word) that it was not a clerk in Brussels
  44.           who opened the letter, which has become my
  45.           Pandora’s box; this entire fine feat was accomplished
  ​​46.           in Paris in a time of crisis, and it is a
  47.           spy for the person whom your majesty suspects[6] who is
  48.           responsible for all this evil. Your majesty had very well
  
  [Page break]
  
  49.           guessed it, you are as well-versed in small things as in
  50.           great ones.
  51.                             You are particularly well acquainted with the injustice
  52.           committed by those men who take it upon themselves to judge kings, and your
  53.           ode on this brand new subject is filled with
  54.           poetry and a true and sublime philosophy.
  55.                             May it please the heavens that your majesty be just as
  56.           right in the beautiful compliments you gave me
  57.           in your second to last letter[7] concerning the
  58.           marchioness!   
  59.                                               Ah, I swear, you have granted me
  60.                                               Too much grace and too much honor 
  61.                                               When you say that Nature 
  62.                                               Has bestowed upon me, for a certain affair, 
  63.                                               Other gifts than the gift of the heart. 
  64.                                               Would that I could have it still, 
  65.                                               This first of divine gifts, 
  66.                                               This gift that every woman adores,
  67.                                               And that disappears with our youthful years. 
  68.                                                                 I am approaching, alas, the dark night 
  69.                                               That engulfs us for good; 
  70.                                               Of a man I am only the shadow; 
  71.                                               All I have is the shadow of love. 
  72.                                                                 So, do send to poets, 
  73.                                               Who are still in the spring of their years,
  
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  74.                                            The very desirable sweet nothings
  75.                                            With which you honor my talents. 
  76.                                            Gresset[8] is in this happy time; 
  77.                                            It is Gresset who should head
  78.                                            For the Parnassus of Berlin.
  79.                                            But either too shy or too tender, 
  80.                                            He did not dare to follow this path; 
  81.                                            He languishes in his Picardie, 
  82.                                            In the arms of his whore 
  83.                                            And over his tragic verse.
   
  [Shelfmark: Rare  f F840, V935 d]

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  [1] These marginalia are in a different hand, in a different ink, and were written at a different time than the rest of the letter in order to indicate that the date should have been written “1742”.
  [2] Aix-la-Chapelle is now Aachen, located on the German frontier with Belgium and the Netherlands in the northwestern state of North Rhine-Westphalia.  See Aix-la-Chapelle.
  [3] Mahomet: Le fanatisme, ou Mahomet le Prophète (Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet) is a five-act tragedy written by Voltaire in 1736. Its debut performance was in Lille on 25 April 1741, and then in Paris, at the Comédie-Française on 9 August 1742.  See Mahomet.
  [4] As a result of Molière’s play Tartuffe (first performed on May 12, 1664), contemporary French and English both use the word "tartuffe" to designate a hypocrite who excessively feigns virtue, especially religious virtue. See Mahomet.
  [5] Le Siècle de Louis XIV.  Voltaire began to write this work in 1732 for which he undertook significant research during several years. In 1738 he sent a manuscript to Frederick who praised it. In 1739 Voltaire published a detailed plan of his project, together with the first two completed chapters: Essai sur l’histoire de Louis XIV which was disapproved by the court and seized. The very first (and tentative) publication of this work appeared in 1752, in Berlin. An edited and updated edition appeared in 1768. 
  [6] Fleury, André Hercule, cardinal de Fleury (22 June 1653 – 29 January 1743). He served as the chief minister of Louis XV.
  [7] D2632: Letter from Frederick to Voltaire, from Potsdam, Tuesday, 7 August 1742: “The Marquise [Mme du Châtelet] is beautiful, amiable; You are sensitive, she has a heart; You have feelings, she is not made of stone, you are not a eunuch; You have been living together for ten years. Is it possible, without insulting your manhood, to believe that you have spoken all this time of philosophy to the most amiable woman in France? If I may say so, my dear friend, you would have played a very poor character, and I did not imagine that the temple of virtue in which you lived was the exile of that of pleasure.”
  [8] Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset (29 August 1709 – 16 June 1777) was a French poet and dramatist. In 1750 he founded the Académie des Sciences, Belles-lettres et Arts d’Amiens (formerly Société Littéraire d’Amiens). He resided in Amiens (a Picardy county) until his death in 1777. See: The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Oxford University Press, 1995 (Published online: 2005).  
• 1 media/letter_thumbnail_generic.jpeg 2017-05-26T19:23:50-07:00 Voltaire to Frederick the Great - 1742 August 29 - Transcription 9 See a transcription of this letter. plain 2017-05-27T22:24:57-07:00

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                                                                                                              29 aoust, 1741.[1]
  m1.         doit être
  m2.         de 1742
  m3.         le roi etait
  m4.         à Aix la chapelle
  m5.         le 27.^A 1742[2]
  m6.         voyez une de les
  m7.         lettres de ce jour
  m8.         le an datée de
  m9.         cette ville
  
  1.                                                  Après votre belle Campagne,
  2.                                                  après ces vers brillants et doux
  3.                                                  grand appollon de l’allemagne
  4.                                                  dans quel parnasse habités vous!
  5.                                                  vous êtes dans Aix entre[3] nous,
  6.                                                  comme au Paÿs de charlemagne,
  7.                                                  et non pas comme au rendés vous
  8.                                                  du fiévreux, des sots et des fous
  9.                                                  qu’un triste Esculape accompagne.
  
  10.           Permettés mon heros, mon Roi, qu’une abominable fluxion
  11.           qui s’est emparée de moy sur le Chemin de Lille à
  12.           Bruxélles soit un peu diminuée pour que Je vole à aix
  13.           la Chapelle, cette fluxion me rend sourd; et il ne
  14.           faut pas l'être avec votre majesté, ce seroit être
  15.           impuissant en présence de sa maitresse; Je vais
  16.           pendant les trois où quatre Jours que Je suis
  17.           condamné à rester dans mon lit faire transcrire Le
  18.           Mahomet tel qu’il à été Joué, tel qu’il à plu
  19.           aux philosophes, et tel qu’il à revolté les dévots,
  20.           c’est l’avanture du Tartuffe, les hipocrites persécuterent
  21.           Moliere et les fanatiques se sont soulevés contre moi.
  22.           J’ai cédé au torrent sans dire un seul mot, si Socrate
  23.           en eut fait autant, il n’eut pas bu de la Ciguë, J’avoué
  24.           que Je ne sais rien qui Des honore [sic] plus mon Paÿs que
  25.           cette infame Superstition faitte pour avilir la nature
  
  [Page break after line 25]
  
  26.           humaine. il me falloit le Roy de prusse pour maitre
  27.           et le peuple anglois pour Conciptoyen. nos françois
  28.           en général ne sont que de grands Enfans; mais aussi
  29.           c’est à quoi Je reviens toujours, le petit nombre des
  30.           Êtres pensans est excellent chès nous, et demande
  31.           grace pour le reste, à l'Egard de mon Bavardage
  32.           historique, une premiere Cargaison partit le 20 de
  33.           ce mois de paris adressée au fidel David Girard, et
  34.           la seconde est toute prête. J’ai deja demandé à
  35.           votre majesté pardon de la peine qu’elle aura
  36.           peut être à Déchiffrer le Caractère des differents
  37.           Ecrivains qui m’ont Copié à la hate ce que J’ai
  38.           rassemblé.
  39.                             Je m’imagine que le Paquet est actuellement en
  40.           chemin pour venir Ennuyer Votre Majesté a aix la
  41.           chapelle.
  42.                             Je sais certainement, (si ce mot est permis aux
  43.           hommes) que ce n’est point vn Commis de Bruxelles
  44.           qui à ouvert la léttre la quelle est devenuë la
  45.           Boëte de Pandore; tout ce bel exploit s’est fait
  46.           à Paris dans un temps de Crise, et c’est un
  47.           espion de la personne que Votre Majesté soupconne, qui à
  48.           fait tout le mal. Votre majesté l’avoit très bien
  
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  49.           deviné, elle se connoit aux petites choses, comme aux
  50.           grandes.
  51.                             Surtout qu’elle Connoit bien les Jnjustices des
  52.           hommes, qui se mêlent de Juger les Rois, et que son
  53.           ode sur cette matière toute neuve est pleine d’une
  54.           Poësie et d’une philosophie vraie et Sublime.
  55.                             Plut au ciel que votre majesté eut Egallement
  56.           raison dans les beaux Compliments qu’elle me fait
  57.           dans son avant derniere léttre au sujet de La
  58.           marquise.
  59.                                               Ah! vous m’avés fait Je vous Jure
  60.                                               et trop de grace et trop d’honneur
  61.                                               quand vous dites que la nature
  62.                                               m’a fait pour Certaine avanture
  63.                                               d’autres dons que le don du Coeur
  64.                                               plut au ciel que Je l’eusse encore
  65.                                               ce premier des Divins présents
  66.                                               ce don que toute femme adore
  67.                                               et qui passe avec nos beaux ans.
  68.                                                                 J’approche helas! de la nuit sombre
  69.                                               qui nous Engloutit sans retour
  70.                                              d’un homme je ne suis que l'Ombre
  71.                                               Je n’ai que l’Ombre de l’Amour
  72.                                                                 Adressés donc à des Poëtes
  73.                                               qui soient encore dans leur printems
  
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  74.                                               les très désirables fleuréttes
  75.                                               dont vous honorés mes talens,
  76.                                               gresset est dans cet heureux temps
  77.                                               c’est gresset qui devoit se rendre
  78.                                               dans le Parnasse de Berlin
  79.                                               mais où trop timide ou trop tendre
  80.                                               il n’osa faire ce chemin;
  81.                                               il Languit dans sa picardie
  82.                                               entre les bras de sa Catin
  83.                                               et sur des vers de tragédie.
   
  
  [Shelfmark: Rare  f F840, V935 d]

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  [1] This (Hoose) manuscript’s date (1741) is corrected to 1742 in the marginalia to the left. These marginalia are in a different hand, in a different ink, and were written at a different time than the rest of the letter.  
  This manuscript is the second of two manuscripts identified in both EE and OCV (Letter ID: D2647).  It is described as a “copy of original document: old transcription.”
  In EE’s “Manuscript Instances”, the first manuscript is described as a holograph draft located at
  National Library of Russia / Российская национальная библиотека, Saint Petersburg, Sankt-Peterburg (autonomous city), Russia. Collection: Voltaire’s library, MS vol. 7, folio/Feuillet 1-2.
  For corresponding print instances of this letter available in our USC collection, see:  Kehl: vol. 65, pp. 126-129; OCV: vol. 92, pp. 240-243.
  [2] See date of letter D2646: “à Aix-la-Chapelle, ce 26 [27] d'août 1742.”
  [3] For this word, “entre”, three initial letters have been crossed out and replaced above the strikethrough by the letters “en”.