MARMONTEL Jean-François (1723-1799) poète, auteur dramatique - Lot 143

Lot n° 143
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MARMONTEL Jean-François (1723-1799) poète, auteur dramatique - Lot 143
MARMONTEL Jean-François (1723-1799) poète, auteur dramatique, philosophe et critique [AF 1763, 17e f]. L.A.S. "Marmontel" (minute with corrections), Paris 25 August 1780, to a Russian Prince; 3 pages in-4. Praise for Catherine II of Russia. He praises the prince's gracious manners and style, "worthy of what we call here the old court," and thanks him for the tea, furs, and a "mandarin robe" that he will wear "on the mornings when I will play the role of an old scholar with the young people who consult me about their works. [I am very sensitive, my prince, to the confidence you have given me of the worthy apostille that your august empress has put to your letter. This Catherine is a master-king, and it is from her that one must learn to know men, to use them and to make them worthwhile. Her way of ruling is simple, frank, natural; one can see that she was born for great things; an empire to govern does not weigh an ounce on her; she gives it the wobble like another woman at her spinning wheel, and handles a scepter with the same ease as Hercules handled his club. He turns a compliment on the writings of the empress; then, having crossed out some lines on a "Chinese code" of which the prince spoke, he crosses out another concerning the operas of which he remade the librettos for PICCINNI: "One has just taken again the opera of Roland and it had even more applause than in the novelty. That of Atys will have the same fate. It is, in all respects, a model. It is necessary to give to the ears that GLUCK has barbarized, the time to become humanized ". He adds that a memoir of GAILLARD "on slavery and servitude", and a translation of Sophocles by LA HARPE, read in public session of the Academy, were "highly applauded".
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