- MANUSCRIT - Collection of some pieces of poetry... Lot 7

- MANUSCRIT] - Collection of some pieces of poetry and prose taken from the four volumes of the Oeuvres meslées of Mr. de F. d. S. R., exempt from the Guards of His Serene Highness the Prince of Condé. S.l., s.d., (circa 1760), in-4, [243] ff. n. ch., covered with a medium-sized, calligraphic, very legible handwriting (about 20 lines per page), with stencil frames and ornaments, pink paper boards, smooth spine, speckled edges. Binding of the period. (spine faded, hinges split). This poetic collection was composed with great care: it presents however two rather different spellings, one, more common, with a thick and common line, the other, for some passages, fine and flexible, and which can refer as well to two scribblers as to the same one using different pens. The main problem is that of the ecdotal genre to which it is to be attached: its learned but impartial introduction (ff. [2]-[10]) and the critical notes frequently scattered below the poems make one think of a transcription by a third party of the production of a friend, the famous F. de S.-R. (who becomes S.-Rom. in one instance), all extracted from four copious volumes (more than 400 pages each, it is stated in the note, f. [4r]). But one cannot exclude that this is a literary artifice, and that the author himself gives this presentation to gain importance in the Republic of Letters. Indeed, the few details to be gleaned about the latter are quite meagre: belonging to the Prince de Condé's Guards, he served in the army; admitted as a member of the Dijon Academy (f. [220]), he was in at least symbolic correspondence with Voltaire and the president of Brosses (ff. [231-232]), etc. All this is rather uncharacteristic, and not incompatible with a fabricated character. The content, on the other hand, is quite definable: apart from very rare pieces addressed to men (two of which to his protector the Prince de Condé), it is usque ad nauseam of gallant banter addressed between 1756 and 1759 to the same woman, under different names (generally Madame de M...., but also Madame de B ...., Mademoiselle de G ..., etc.), the author's only love, referred to in the texts as Palmyre, Thémire, Glycère, Silvie, Zirphile, etc., and whose infidelity to the author's love is not known, and whose infidelity is said to have caused her lover to attempt suicide in 1761 (f. [4v]): but, as the good man is said to have taken an emetic drink along with a dose of opium, the harm was not extreme... Composed on various occasions, generally specified in the title, these poems do not form a very original production. The identification of the beautiful, cultured, learned woman seems as difficult as that of her lover. The ultimate aim, according to the supposed editor, is to paint the true picture of "a man born to be happy if he had wanted to give himself up less to the violence of his passions, impetuous passions which have triumphed and still triumph over his so-called philosophy." Joint: 15 loose ff., bearing the same kind of parts, in one of the two scripts of the body of the text.