Voltaire to Frederick the Great (1770 March 9) - Leaf 1
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Voltaire to Frederick the Great - 1770 March 9
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46.252076,6.0973562
1770 March 9
No. 8. to Friedrich der GrosseFerney,[1] 9 th March 17701. It is too much to have all this fire
2. Which so strongly inspires you,
3. Which shines, which pleases, and which is admired
4. When others have too little of it.
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5. Among humans you have too many advantages
6. Your exploits, your writings
7. Astonish humans, great and wise
8. Who before you are too small.
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9. I had too much hope in my youth,
10. And, in maturity, too many troubles;
11. But in old age where I am
12. Alas! I have too little wisdom.
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13. From France it is said that in our times
14. A few muses have exiled themselves.
15. We do not have too many scholars,
16. We have too few geniuses.
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17. To live and die near you
18. Would have been too much for me to set my sights,
19. And if my fate is barely pleasant
20. It is to it that I want to lash out.
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21. Sire, it is evident that you have too much of everything, and I have too little.
22. Your epistle to Madame de Morian[2] on this subject is charming.
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23. For more than thirty years you have surprised me every
24. day. I can well understand how an idle young Parisian
25. can write pretty French verses when all that he has to
26. do in the morning is to dress himself, but that a king of
27. the North who singly governs some
28. twenty provinces, can effortlessly write poetry à la Chaulieu[3],
29. verses which are both poetical and the poetry of a man
30. of the world, is something for which I cannot account. What?
31. You vanquish us in Thuringia[4] and you write
32. poetry better than we do. This is too much,
33. and you cause me too many regrets
34. to know that I cannot die near your heroic and
35. poetic majesty.
[Shelfmark: Rare f F840, V935 d]
[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 Ferney.
[2] Madame de Morian was a lady at the royal court of Frederick William I of Prussia and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover. For information about Frederick II’s epistle, see Madame de Morian.
[4] Allusion to the battle of Rossbach, 5 November 1757. For more information about this battle, see Rossbach. -
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Voltaire to Frederick the Great - 1770 March 9 - Transcription
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No. 8 au Friedrich der Grosse[1]à Ferney 9.e Mars 1770[2].1. C’en est trop d’avoir tout ce feu
2. Qui si vivement vous inspire,
3. Qui luit, qui plait, et qu’on admire,
4. Quand les autres en ont trop peu.
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5. Sur les humains trop d’avantages,
6. Dans vos exploits, dans vos écrits,
7. Etonnent les grands et les Sages
8. Qui devant vous sont trop petits.
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9. Et dans l’age mur trop dennuis [sic];
11. Mais dans la vieillesse où je suis
12. hélas! j’ai trop peu de Sagesse.
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13. De france on dit que dans ce temps
14. Quelques muses se sont bannies.
15. Nous n’avons pas trop de savants,
16. Nous avons trop peu de génies.
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17. Vivre et mourir auprès de vous
18. C’eut été pour moi trop prétendre
19. Et Si mon sort est trop peu doux
20. C’est à lui que je veux m’en prendre.
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21. Sire, il est clair que vous avez trop de tout, et moi trop peu.
22. vôtre épitre à Madame De Morian sur ce sujet est charmante.
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23. il y a plus de trente ans que vous m’étonnez tous les
24. jours. je conçois bien comment un jeune parisien oisif
25. peut faire de jolis vers français, quand il n’a rien à
26. faire le matin que sa toilette ; mais qu’un Roi du
27. nord qui gouverne tout seul une vingtaine de
28. provinces, fasse sans peine des vers à la chaulieu,
29. des vers qui sont à la fois d’un poëte et d’un homme
30. de bonne compagnie, c’est ce qui me passe. quoi !
31. vous nous battez en Thuringe, et vous faittes des
32. vers mieux que nous ! c’est là qu’il y a du trop,
33. et vous me causez trop de regrȇts de ne pas
34. mourir auprès de Votre Majesté héroïque et
35. poëtique.
[Shelfmark: Rare f F840, V935 d]
[1] This note was added later in pencil.
[2] This manuscript (Hoose) ) is the second of two manuscripts identified in both EE and OCV (Letter ID: D16213). 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 “holograph draft, the date in Wagnière’s hand” 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. 398-399; OCV: vol. 120, pp. 82-83.
