Details
CHÉNIER, Marie-Joseph-Blaise de (1764-1811, poet and playwright, younger brother of André Chénier). Autograph letter signed ('Dechenier De Courmenay') comprising 64 lines in verse entitled 'Epitre à Monsieur de Voltaire par un jeune homme de 13 ans', followed by a page in prose, n.p. [Paris], n.d., [1778 or later], 3 pages, 4to. Provenance: Sotheby's sale of Autograph Letters and Manuscripts of Voltaire and his Circle, 11 June 1968 (lot 132).
A youthful effusion celebrating Voltaire as a classical hero and referring to his famous campaign against the condemnation of Jean Calas in 1762:
'Ce celebre Voltaire aimé par la valeur
Qui la chantait avec tant de genie,
Des Calas opprimés ce zelé defenseur,
Qui voulut leur sauver la vie;
Des beaux arts gemissant ce digne Protecteur
Dont l'éclat scut vaincre l'Envie ... '
Chénier recalls (in prose) that he wrote in September 1777 to Voltaire urging him to come to Paris and, encouraged by his mother and great-uncle, Monsieur de Lusignan, sends this product of his very ordinary talent ('Si elle vous déchire les oreilles, comme un bon chrétien vous me la pardonnerez'). He asks for something in Voltaire's hand which he will keep as a precious reminder of the greatest figure of the 18th century.
The poem is not the same as Chénier's similarly titled published work, the Epître à Voltaire (1806), which is considerably longer and in a different metre (Besterman, D. 21045).
A youthful effusion celebrating Voltaire as a classical hero and referring to his famous campaign against the condemnation of Jean Calas in 1762:
'Ce celebre Voltaire aimé par la valeur
Qui la chantait avec tant de genie,
Des Calas opprimés ce zelé defenseur,
Qui voulut leur sauver la vie;
Des beaux arts gemissant ce digne Protecteur
Dont l'éclat scut vaincre l'Envie ... '
Chénier recalls (in prose) that he wrote in September 1777 to Voltaire urging him to come to Paris and, encouraged by his mother and great-uncle, Monsieur de Lusignan, sends this product of his very ordinary talent ('Si elle vous déchire les oreilles, comme un bon chrétien vous me la pardonnerez'). He asks for something in Voltaire's hand which he will keep as a precious reminder of the greatest figure of the 18th century.
The poem is not the same as Chénier's similarly titled published work, the Epître à Voltaire (1806), which is considerably longer and in a different metre (Besterman, D. 21045).
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