MALHERBE François de (1555 - 1628) poète - Lot 103

Lot n° 103.Bis
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6000 - 8000 EUR
MALHERBE François de (1555 - 1628) poète - Lot 103
MALHERBE François de (1555 - 1628) poète L.A.S. "Malherbe", Paris March 13, 1623, to his cousin M. du BOUILLON, King's counselor and treasurer of France at the office of Caen; 2 pages in-fol., address with red wax seals on purple silk lakes. Beautiful letter to his cousin, about the incognito passage in France of the Prince of Wales, future Charles I of England. The letter was collected in the OEuvres of 1630 (book II, letter 32). "Sir my cousin, You never receive my letters without some importunity and I never receive yours without some favor. Your package has just been returned to me, and in it, the contract for the constitution of an annuity which I desire. I have already protested to you that the number of your kindnesses has exhausted my thanks. So do not expect any more from me. I am married to the fact that I am unable to offer you any revenge; but I would have to be better off with fortune than I am to expect this gratification. She will do with it as she sees fit. My consolation is that as you have always loved me freely, you will do the same in the future [...] As for our news, I trust that you will have been told of the Prince of Wales' passage. I believe that by this impatience he wanted to show his mistress the greatness of his love. He saw the ball of the Queen, and saw the one he once desired for a wife [Henriette-Marie de France, whom he married in 1625]. It will be up to him, when he has seen the Spanish one, to judge whether he has lost or won. As for me, my cousin, I will tell you without cajolery that our lady is one of the most beautiful princesses in the world, and that I do not believe that there is not a person of her quality, but a damsel in France whose spirit does not lose its cause if it is compared with hers. I was this morning at the audience of Lord Hays [envoy of King James I of England], of which I heard nothing; but I did notice that the king made him look very well both at the reception and at the leave. The reason for the audience was the excuse for the Prince of Wales to come in this small crew, and thus disguised as he was. We are expecting Monsieur le Prince this week. There are some who imagine some novelty in his coming. For myself I do not agree with them. There was much talk of a trip to Picardy; but if it has not been completely broken off, it has at least been postponed, to the great satisfaction of the whole Court and of myself in particular, who had the trouble of going to Compiegne to have my arrest made [...] I forgot to tell you that yesterday the King sent a courier to Montpellier to have Monsr de Rohan released, whom Mr de Valance had detained"... OEuvres (Bibl. de la Pléiade), p. 202.
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