Details
MIRABEAU, Gabriel Honore Riqueti de (1749-1791). Autograph letter signed ('Mirabeau fils') to his wife (Emilie de Marignane), n.p. [Vincennes prison], 13 April 1778, in French, complaining angrily of her conduct towards him, one page, 8vo (small stains not affecting text).
A letter of cold and bitter reproach, written while in solitary confinement, in which Mirabeau accuses his wife of her failure to send him the news of their son promised in her letter of the previous September. 'Si quelqu'une de vos amies avoit des relations de parenté avec un homme, soustrait au commerce des humains, condamné à la privation la plus entière de toute correspondance et dont le fils fût auprès d'elle, sans qu'aucun autre en pût donner des nouvelles à ce malheureux père, que conseilleriez vous à votre amie?....Il me semble, madame, qu'après sept mois de silence, il seroit presque tems de m'apprendre si mon enfant existe'. If the idea of writing to him is so repugnant, he continues, she may at least dictate a message, accusing her 'sans exaggeration et sans humeur' of inhumanity in denying him news of the child.
Mirabeau had contracted his ill-judged marriage with the Provencal heiress, Emilie de Marignane, in 1772, and their son was born the following year. Soon bankrupted by his own extravagances, and angered by Emilie's infidelities, Mirabeau was imprisoned for debt, escaped, and after various adventures, including embarking on an affair with a married woman of twenty-two, was imprisoned again at Vincennes. During this imprisonment he wrote a manual on kingship and polished up his verbal and intellectual talents. His child, Victor, died suddenly, just six months after this letter was written.
A letter of cold and bitter reproach, written while in solitary confinement, in which Mirabeau accuses his wife of her failure to send him the news of their son promised in her letter of the previous September. 'Si quelqu'une de vos amies avoit des relations de parenté avec un homme, soustrait au commerce des humains, condamné à la privation la plus entière de toute correspondance et dont le fils fût auprès d'elle, sans qu'aucun autre en pût donner des nouvelles à ce malheureux père, que conseilleriez vous à votre amie?....Il me semble, madame, qu'après sept mois de silence, il seroit presque tems de m'apprendre si mon enfant existe'. If the idea of writing to him is so repugnant, he continues, she may at least dictate a message, accusing her 'sans exaggeration et sans humeur' of inhumanity in denying him news of the child.
Mirabeau had contracted his ill-judged marriage with the Provencal heiress, Emilie de Marignane, in 1772, and their son was born the following year. Soon bankrupted by his own extravagances, and angered by Emilie's infidelities, Mirabeau was imprisoned for debt, escaped, and after various adventures, including embarking on an affair with a married woman of twenty-two, was imprisoned again at Vincennes. During this imprisonment he wrote a manual on kingship and polished up his verbal and intellectual talents. His child, Victor, died suddenly, just six months after this letter was written.