MALHERBE FRANÇOIS DE (1555-1628) - Lot 92

Lot 92
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MALHERBE FRANÇOIS DE (1555-1628) - Lot 92
MALHERBE FRANÇOIS DE (1555-1628) L.A.S. "Malherbe", Paris October 18, 1625, to Honorat de RACAN, "Monsieur de Racan gentilhomme ordre de la chambre du roy a la Roche au maine"; 3 pages folio, addressed with red wax seals of arms (one almost intact, the other broken). Remarkable and long familiar letter from Malherbe to Racan, with a beautiful verve of language, quoting his own verses, and evoking the news of the time. [Malherbe, who stayed with the Court in Fontainebleau, returned to Paris, while Racan is still in his land of Touraine. Malherbe laughs amiably at his desire to marry Mme de Termes ("the lady of Burgundy"), sister-in-law of the Grand-Ecuyer Roger de Bellegarde. He mentions the preparation of the Recueil de lettres nouvelles by Nicolas Faret (1627). The letter was published as early as 1630 in Les Œuvres de François de Malherbe (Paris, Chappelain, 1630, book II, letter 14); it presents some erasures and variants with the published text]. "We are back in Paris. It is time to wake up my laziness. It has slept as long as Endymion or wars are needed. But certainly if I did not reply to two letters I received from you, the fault is not all hers. I was at Fontainebleau, which is a place from which no one goes to you, and to send them to Paris, in order to have them delivered to you, there was no appearance of persuading a man as despondent as I am that passing through so many hands, they could without running into some fortune arrive at yours. He therefore sends back to her, through the knight du BUEIL, the letters, "such as I received them, they have not moved from my fireplace since I have them". As for the letters of Mme des LOGES (leader of a circle of poets and fine spirits), he has not let anyone see them, and does not know where he has kept them: "We will look for them when you come. For the lady of Bourgongne [Mme de TERMES] I will not write to her since you do not approve of her. So I didn't really want to. I do not willingly take the trouble to do things of which I hope for neither pleasure nor profit. If she had sent me mustard, her honesty would have aroused mine. But she has no use for me, nor for you, whatever her letters tell you. She writes well but what she writes is worthless. If she were to come here, you would be lost, for she would laugh at you about your moustache, and laughing at it where she is, your displeasure is lessened by a thing you do not see. I am complacent as usual, that is to say, completely unpleasant. But I don't know what to do about it. I don't have to force my mood. It is good, I would like yours to be like it. I hope that in the end you will become wise & you will say like me When I see Helene in the world returned Full as ever of charms & of appeals Not being loved by her I will not love her. [These three lines come from a lost play by Malherbe, of which he quotes 22 lines in another letter to Racan, which is said to be an eglogue in honor of the Marquise de Rambouillet]. Malherbe urges Racan to hurry up "if you want us to put something of yours in the collection of letters that we are going to make [...] Mr. FARET had told me that he wanted to write some to you", but Malherbe has received nothing from him. "We have no news. It is said that we were beaten at Valteline but how I know nothing about it. I never inquire about the particulars of a thing I would like that was not at all. I would like as much a husband who was told that his wife had ridden, who would like to know if it was under a pear tree or under an apple tree, on the edge of the bed or on top of it, what skirt she had on, how the gallant was dressed. Of the tedious things it is only too much to know the bulk of it, without asking for the smallest part". Then on the false news "that the count of TILLY had been deported by the king of Denmark. He who had made the tale, had killed the father, the son, the nephew. I believe that if he could have killed all his descendants by the Day of Judgment, he would have killed them. But all this has turned out to be false, if not completely false, then at least mostly false. It is said that there was some light fighting in which he lost 4 or 500 men and the king of Denmark 2 or 300. So much so that it is held that he raised the siege of Nienbourg. God give us more. My wishes do not stop there. For I love the Spaniards as much as ever. The Court is in St Germain. The King's mother [Marie de Médicis] went to Monceaux, but she will go beyond to S. Germain. Who believes she will return to this place believes that she will not. The King [Anne of Austria] is doing well. We believe that she is leaving today for St. Germain," where Malherbe will go in a few days. "We expect you on St. Martin's Day. It is the real time for you to return, because all the ma[jes]tés will be in Paris"... Œuvres (Bibl. de la Pléiade), p.
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