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• 1 media/1769 dec 9 V to F vol-coll874-11-01~1 .jpg media/1769 dec 9 V to F vol-coll874-11-01~1 .jpg term 2016-12-16T22:41:37-08:00 Voltaire to Frederick the Great - 1769 December 9 17 See a translation of this letter. plain 2017-11-11T17:23:15-08:00

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  No. 7
  To the King/
  9 December 1769, at Ferney[1]
  
  1.                                                  When Thalestris[2] whom the north admired, 
  2.                                                  Visited Arbela’s[3] victor, 
  3.                                                  He gave her a formal ball, a ballet, an opera, 
  4.                                                  And, furthermore, he wrote beautiful verses for her. 
  5.                                                  They both had infinite intelligence, 
  6.                                                  It was a pleasure to hear them, so they say.
  7.                                                  It was acknowledged that Jupiter only created
  8.                                                  Women like Thalestris during Alexander’s times.
  
  9.                                Pausanias, in his Prussiaques[4], says that Alexander carried
  10.           his love for the fine arts as far as to write poems in
  11.           the language of the Welches, and he always placed in his
  12.           verses unusual piquancy, harmony, true ideas,
  13.           a wide knowledge of men, and that he
  14.           wrote these verses with unbelievable ease;  that those
  15.           that he made for Thalestris  were full of grace and harmony.
  16.           He adds that his talents greatly astonished his
  17.           Macedonians and his Thracians who had little knowledge
  18.           of Greek poetry, and that they learned from other
  19.           nations how much intelligence their master had, for
  20.           they only knew him as a brave
  21.           warrior who governed as well as he fought.
  
  [Page break]
  
  22.           In these days, says Plutarch, there was an
  23.           old Welch, dwelling in solitude in the vicinity of the
  24.           Caucassus mountains, who had formerly been at Alexander’s
  25.           court, and who lived as happily as one
  26.           could, far from the camp of the conqueror
  27.           of Arbella and of Basroc[5]. This old dotard often said
  28.           that he was very vexed at the thought of dying without
  29.           having paid court once more to the hero of
  30.           Macedonia.
  31.                             Sire,
  32.           I have no doubt that you have, at your
  33.           Court, scholars who have read Plutarch and
  34.           Xenophon in the library of your
  35.           new palace[6]; they will be able to show you the
  36.           Greek passages that I have the honor of quoting to you,
  37.           and your majesty will see that nothing could be truer.     
  38.                             I would give the entire Caucasus mountains to see this
  39.           Welche for two days at the court of Alexander.
   
  [Shelfmark: Rare  f F840, V935 d]
   

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  [1] Ferney-Voltaire (Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names ID: 7009178), a French suburb of Geneva, is in the canton of Ain, in the country of Gex, on the Swiss border, to the north of the airport of Geneva-Cointrin. For information about Voltaire and Ferney, see comment.
   

  [2] Thalestris was a (legendary) Amazon queen who is reported to have visited Alexander the Great in Hyrcania in order to conceive a child with him. For more information, see Thalestris.
   

  [3] The battle of Arbela (also known as the battle of Gaugamela) was the site of Alexander's third and decisive victory over the Persians in 331 BC. For more information, see Battle of Arbela.
   

  [4] Here, Voltaire has adapted one line of Racine’s Les Plaideurs, III.iii.  Pausanias (c. AD 110 – c. 180) was a Greek traveller and geographer. His Description of Greece is in ten books, each dedicated to some portion of Greece, The second book is focused on Corinthia, in the north-eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula.
   

  [5] Anagram of Rosbac or Rossbach, and relating to Frederick’s victory at the Battle of Rossbach (November 1757).  For more information, see Rosbac.
   

  [6] Voltaire refers here to the Sanssouci Palace, the summer palace of Frederick the Great, in Potsdam (near Berlin), which was built between 1745 and 1747. For more information, see Sanssouci Palace.
• 1 media/1769 dec 9 V to F vol-coll874-11-01~1 .jpg 2017-05-26T22:34:12-07:00 Voltaire to Frederick the Great - 1769 December 9 - Transcription 3 See a transcription of this letter. plain 2017-05-27T21:55:36-07:00

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  No. 7.
  au Roi/
  9.^e x^bre[1]  1769. à ferney[2].
  
   1.                                        Quand Talestris que le nord admira,
   2.                                        Rendit visite à ce vainqueur d’arbelle,
   3.                                        Il lui donna bal, ballet, opera,
   4.                                        Et fit deplus [sic] de jolis vers pour elle.
   5.                                        Tout deux avaient infiniment desprit;
   6.                                        C’était, dit-on, plaisir de les entendre;
   7.                                        On avouait que jupiter ne fit[3]
   8.                                        Des Talestris que du temps d’aléxandre.
  
   9.                      Pausanias dans ses Prussiaques , dit qu’aléxandre poussait
  10.  Son amour pour les beaux arts jusqu'à faire des vers dans
  11.  la langue des Welches, et qu’il mettait toujours dans ses
  12.  vers un sel peu commun, de l’harmonie, des idées
  13.  vraies, une grande connaissance des hommes, et qu’il
  14.  fesait ces vers avec une facilité incroiable; que ceux
  15.  qu’il fit pour Talestris étaient pleins de grace et d’harmonie.
  16.  il ajoute que ses talents étonnaient beaucoup ses
  17.  macédoniens et ses Thraces qui se connaissaient peu
  18.  en vers grecs, et qu’ils aprenaient par les autres
  19.  nations combien leur maître avait d’esprit, car
  20.  pour eux ils ne le connaissaient que comme un brave
  21.  guerrier qui savait gouverner comme se battre.
  
  [Page break]
  
  22.  Il y avait, dit Plutarque, dans ce temps là un
  23.  vieux Welche, retiré vers les montagnes du
  24.  Caucase, qui avait été autrefois à la cour
  25.  d’aléxandre, et qui vivait aussi heureux qu’on
  26.  pouvait l'être loin du camp du vainqueur
  27.  d’arbelles, et de Basroc. ce vieux radoteur disait
  28.  Souvent qu’il était très faché de mourir sans avoir
  29.  fait encor une fois sa cour au héros de la
  30.  macédoine.
  31.                    Sire
  32.  Je ne doute pas que vous n’aiez dans vôtre
  33.  cour des Seavants [sic] qui ont lu Plutarque, et
  34.  Xénophon dans la bibliothèque de vôtre
  35.  nouveau palais. ils pouront vous montrer les
  36.  passages grecs que j’ai l’honneur de vous citer;
  37.  et vôtre Majesté verra que rien n’est plus vrai.
  38.                    Je donnerais tout le mont caucase pour voir ce
  39.  Welche deux jours à la cour d’aléxandre.
  
  
  [Shelfmark: Rare  f F840, V935 d]
   

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  [1] Abbreviation for: Décembre.
   

  [2] This manuscript (Hoose) is the second of two manuscripts identified in both EE and OCV (Letter ID: D16032).  It is described as “copy of original document: transcription by Jean-Louis Wagnière, Voltaire’s secretary.”
  In EE’s “Manuscript Instances”, the first manuscript is described as a “Copy of original document: transcription, with a few autograph additions, located at the National Library of Russia / Российская национальная библиотека, Saint Petersburg, Sankt-Peterburg (autonomous city), Russia; Voltaire’s library, MS Vol. 7, folio/Feuillet 25.
  For corresponding print instances available in our USC collection, see: Kehl: vol. 65, pp. 392-393; OCV: vol. 119, pp. 360-361.
   

  [3] It appears that Wagnière corrected the spelling of this word by superimposing the letter “I” over the letter “a”.