CHARPENTIER François (1620-1702) littérateur et... Lot n° 29

L.A.S. "Charpentier", "Wednesday at one o'clock in the morning" [1658], to Madeleine de SCUDÉRY; 3 pages in 4. Beautiful and rare letter with verses to Mademoiselle de Scudéry, on Xenophon's Cyropedia of which he has just published a translation. He received the bill brought to him by MÉNAGE. "If time would have allowed it I would have thanked you at once, because it is impossible to hold back such a just resentment. You have paid too much for the work that I took the boldness to offer you; the esteem that you have for it is certainly beyond its merit"... He attributes his praise to the fact "that he speaks of one of your oldest friends. I know, Mademoiselle, that Cyrus is one of your friends [Le Grand Cyrus de Mlle de Scudéry was published in 1653], and that your friendship is one of his most glorious achievements. It is in this consideration, that his name is in the most beautiful mouths of France and that it serves now of maintenance to the polite world which otherwise would not know it gueres "... The letter continues in verse: "And I, who know him quite perfectly, If you believe my oath, I would have had little care to revive his glory, Though he once had a thousand submissive peoples, If I had not learned elsewhere than in history That he possesses the honor to be of your friends "... On the last page, Mademoiselle de SCUDÉRY has noted in her hand : " letter from Charpentier ", as indicated by a note from MONMERQUE to whom this letter belonged. Very rare (according to Raoul Bonnet, there would be only about ten known letters from Charpentier).