CONDORCET Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of (1741–1794).

A fine letter concerning VOLTAIRE. He brings to the lady’s attention ‘a small matter concerning one of your friends and one of your admirers [...] A letter was delivered to M. de VOLTAIRE from M. PIERRE, instructing M. de Mouchi to produce, in accordance with the King’s orders, a bust of M. le maréchal de SAXE and one of M. de Voltaire. Mr Pigal [PIGALLE] then came to ask Mr de Voltaire on which day he would be willing to sit for him. Mr de Voltaire replied with these verses, which I may be mangling. The King knows that your talent, in both the small and the great, always produces a perfect work, and by a wholly new command he wishes that your skilful chisel should descend from the hero to the trumpeter. It was impossible not to regard this commission as the result of the King’s desire to have a bust of this great man, or as a kind of tribute he wished to pay to his fame and genius. This news spread, and as far as I can judge public opinion from my corner, it was welcomed. Now it is said that these busts are a gift intended by the King for M. de Marigni, and that the choice of subjects is M. de Marigni’s. So far, Mr de Voltaire has not yet been disabused of this notion, but the public will soon be, and the pleasure this honour had given Mr de Voltaire, and the praise he had bestowed upon Mr d’ANGIVILLERS, are now becoming a source of embarrassment for both of them. Is there no way to make true what was so readily believed because it was so plausible? Could this supposed bust not be transformed into a fifth statue? A man who, at the age of sixty, staged two tragedies within a year of one another that brought honour to our theatre—does he not deserve honours as unique as himself?...