Letter from Voltaire to Marie de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise Du Deffand, 26 March 1774
Identifiers
CMV:
CMV33477
Repository:
Shelfmark:
Lot 52
Title:
Letter from Voltaire to Marie de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise Du Deffand, 26 March 1774
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No related collections found.
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Content
People:
Incipit Diplomatic:
j’aurais bien envie madame de vous payer votre quartier, puisque cois dites que je ne vous écris quune fois en trois moins.
Incipit Modernised:
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Brief Summary:
Letter from Voltaire to Marie-Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise Du Deffand, written from Ferney and dated 26 March 1774.
Detailed Summary:
In this letter, Voltaire responds to a missive from the Marquise Du Deffand and begins by mentioning one of her friends, the captain of dragoons Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas de Lisle (1735-1783) whom Voltaire regrets is convinced that he is the author of an Épître à Ninon. Voltaire praises Russian men and women of letters and claims that French is spoken more purely at the court of Catherine the Great than at Versailles because French ladies do not pride themselves on knowing the grammar. He then turns to Catherine the Great, who he notes does not write verse, but knows her stuff very well, and makes very good jokes about Emilian Pugachev.
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Physical Description
Material(s):
Extent:
2 ff.
Format:
Dimensions:
186 x 113 mm
Hands:
1
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Additional Comments:
There is some staining to f.1r and an area of discolouration along the left-hand side of f.1v.
Materiality Keywords:
Decorations:
Undecorated
Additions:
There is a minor correction to the tex on l.8 of f.2r.
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