Charles-Claude GENEST (1639-1719), poet and playwright, elec - Lot 551

Lot 551
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Charles-Claude GENEST (1639-1719), poet and playwright, elec - Lot 551
Charles-Claude GENEST (1639-1719), poet and playwright, elected to the French Academy in 1698. 2 autograph letters to Madeleine de Scudéry. 8 pp. in-8. Fontainebleau and Versailles, 1698-1699. Addresses on the back. Beautiful and long literary letters to one of the most famous precious, evoking his entry to the academy and giving him news of the Court. He received the "amiable madrigal" of Mlle de Scudéry : "The madrigal followed by all the approval of which it is such a glorious mark, obliges me to a thousand acts of grace, and nothing touches me more than to see me thus united with the illustrious Acante [Paul Pellisson]. And if I have gained some new share in the honor of your benevolence, it is the most advantageous success of my speech, and I will never be able to answer worthily to these pleasant verses that by hymns of the odes, and whole Poems ". After denying the news of the death of the Duchess of Brunswick who had an apoplexy, Genest relates the engagement of Mademoiselle [Elisabeth-Charlotte d'Orléans, daughter of Monsieur and the Palatine, to the Duke of Lorraine Léopold]: "Mademoiselle was engaged this evening at six o'clock in the King's Cabinet [....] Mr. Duke of Elbeuf will marry her tomorrow in the name of the Duke of Lorraine [...] This Princess is very amiable, has a very good mind and the best heart in the world. She has already cried a lot to leave her family, where she is so loved. Tonight there is new music in the Salle de la Comedie where the King will be with the King and Queen of England. Relation of the life of the Court in Fontainebleau: " The appartemens the Comedie the hunt reign as the other times. The King eats with their British majesties [...] It is a big table in crescent and there are seventeen place settings [] ". Then Genest speaks about his reception speech at the Académie Française (he had been elected on August 23 and received on September 27): "I am waiting for copies of my speech from Paris and I will give orders that they be sent to you []". Second letter. "Your gallant madrigal, Mademoiselle, must be received with a special tribute from each of your friends, although it is for all of them equally. It must have the same effect as a circular letter from a great Monarch for which each of those to whom it is sent has the same deference as if it were for him alone. [...] my feeble prose does not deserve to be told among those beautiful verses which have celebrated your feast. I wish you the best of luck for your health, even though it is impossible to believe that it can change when one sees the unalterable proof of your spirit. I can reply to you on behalf of Monsieur de Meaux [Bossuet] that he has received your compliment with the feelings that are due to you. I will keep it for him when he returns. [The King has been at Trianon since Thursday. The King and the Queen of England are dining there. There should have been music and illumination on the canal but as it was the day of the Queen's death [anniversary of the death of Maria Theresa of Austria, July 30, 1683] nothing was done. Genest announces the death of the grandson of the Duke of La Rochefoucauld, of M. de Mirepoix... He announces the sending of "a kind of impromptu letter in which I found myself indispensably engaged. It was a long time ago that I had not made verses. And I apply myself to things all-opposed [] ". Provenance : former collection of Louis Monmerqué.
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