Details
CHAMFORT, Sébastien Roch Nicolas (1714-1794). Autograph letter signed ('Ch.'), to an unidentified correspondant ['Cit[oyen] Rep[resentant'], including cancellations and amendments, n.p., n.d. [1793-94], 1½ pages, 4to.
A despairing letter written after his attempted suicide and begging his correspondent to end his miseries: 'Quatre mois de Chagrin douleureuse et Probablement la perte d'un oeil, fruite du desespoir ou m'a jetté la rigueur d'un pareil traitement a l'egard d'un patriote qu'on navoit jamais accusé que d'exaltation ... Je brule de ferveur comme vous, au nom des Lettres que vous cultivez ... songez que chaque jour ajouté a ma longue detention consomme ma ruine entiére, en necessitant pour moi la vente je ne dis pas de mes meubles dont je ne me soucie guere, mais celle de mes outils, c'est a dire de mes livres, le seul bien qui me reste, qui diminue tous les jours, malheur très grand pour un homme de lettres'.
Famous for his epigrams and aphorisms, Chamfort was attached to the Court but became an ardent republican, and secretary to the Jacobin Club until 1791. Appointed by Roland to be administrator of the Bibliothèque Nationale he was denounced by a colleague during the Terror and imprisoned -- 'sous la garde d'un gendarme puis d'un "sans culotte"'. Late in 1793 he made a disastrous attempt at suicide and died of his injuries the next year.
A despairing letter written after his attempted suicide and begging his correspondent to end his miseries: 'Quatre mois de Chagrin douleureuse et Probablement la perte d'un oeil, fruite du desespoir ou m'a jetté la rigueur d'un pareil traitement a l'egard d'un patriote qu'on navoit jamais accusé que d'exaltation ... Je brule de ferveur comme vous, au nom des Lettres que vous cultivez ... songez que chaque jour ajouté a ma longue detention consomme ma ruine entiére, en necessitant pour moi la vente je ne dis pas de mes meubles dont je ne me soucie guere, mais celle de mes outils, c'est a dire de mes livres, le seul bien qui me reste, qui diminue tous les jours, malheur très grand pour un homme de lettres'.
Famous for his epigrams and aphorisms, Chamfort was attached to the Court but became an ardent republican, and secretary to the Jacobin Club until 1791. Appointed by Roland to be administrator of the Bibliothèque Nationale he was denounced by a colleague during the Terror and imprisoned -- 'sous la garde d'un gendarme puis d'un "sans culotte"'. Late in 1793 he made a disastrous attempt at suicide and died of his injuries the next year.
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