Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/338

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.NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. APRIL 22, me.

this subject, forget it, forget all these deliriums of my youth, for my part j have drunk of the River lethe". j remember nothing but my friends.

In my original comments upon this letter I noted that Thieriot, who was a lifelong friend and correspondent of Voltaire, was called by Grimm in his ' Memoires ' (1772) a " literary peddler " (colporteur litteraire), and was the first addressee of all Voltaire's ' Lettres sur les Anglais.' He died in 1772, over 80 years of age, thus predeceasing Voltaire (d. May 30, 1778, aged 84) by more than six years. At Thieriot 's death Vol- taire took steps successfully to reclaim the prodigious number of letters he had written to Thieriot. The name of Voltaire's sister, whose death is alluded to, was Marguerite Catherine (Marie), wife of Mignot, Correcteur de la Chambre des Comptes, and the mother of Madame de Fontaine and Madame Denis, the niece who figures so prominently as Voltaire's housekeeper and companion at Cirey, Ferney, and " Les Delices." Madame Denis was a clever woman (for all the somewhat spiteful portrait painted of her by Madame d'Epinay) capable of writing a comedy (' The Coquette '), and of sharing with the great Lekain, the chief roles in her uncle's ' Zaire ' when privately produced at the Delices. After Voltaire's death she, with the assistance of his secretary Wagniere, negotiated the sale of her uncle's library to Catherine of Russia for 135,398 livres (about 5,415Z.). Having lived all her life with the wittiest man in Europe, she ended it at 68 by wedding en secondes noces the dullest, Duvivier, aged 48, known as the Extinguisher.

The " Jew called Medina " is identical with the Jewish banker Acosta, who, as Wagniere reports the story from Voltaire's own lips thirty years later, met the presenta- tion of the bill of exchange drawn upon him with the staggering confession: "Sir, I am very sorry I cannot pay you; for, in the name of the Lord, I went into bankruptcy three days ago." " My damned Jew " behaved as generously as his " broken " state allowed, and King George II. (perhaps "the English gentleman unknown to " Voltaire), having heard of his embarrass- ment, sent him a hundred guineas.

Sir Everard Faulkner (or Fawkner) has had such full justice done him in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' by Voltaire himself, and in Mr. Archibald Ballantyne's and Prof. Churton Collins's books that it is unnecessary here to do more than mention that from a Turkey or Levant merchant he became in turn the English

Ambassador at the Porte, Postmaster- General (and the subject of one of Georga Selwyn's jokes about robbing the mail, when gambling at White's), secretary to the Duke of Cumberland on his Fontenoy campaign, Voltaire's lifelong correspondent, and dedi- catee of the poet's tragedy of ' Zaire.' It was probably through his connexion with the Levant Company, with which Voltaire had dealings, that he first became known. to Voltaire.

" Our Poor Henry " alludes to the pub- lication by subscription of the London quarto edition of ' La Henriade,' elsewhere fondly alluded to by Voltaire as his fits and his bdtard, and stigmatized by the brilliant improwisatore Rivarol as " a skinny sketch,, a skeleton epic, lacking muscle, flesh, and colour."

Another paragraph of The Aihenceum article deals with the villanies and in- gratitudes of the Abbe Desfontaines, which are set out in all their disgraceful details in chap. xxxv. of Mr. James Parton's ' Life of Voltaire ' (vol. i. pp. 397-413).

In 1913 appeared Prof. Lucien Foulet's book, * Correspondance de Voltaire, 1726-9,' reviewed in The Athenaeum on Jan. 3, 1914. Prof. Foulet is of opinion that the letter wn written to Thieriot on Oct. 26, 1726, and was sent back to England at Voltaire' & request, so that Pope might see Voltaire's eulogy of his poem. He contends that it was handed to Bishop Atterbury, who was living in Paris in exile in 1723, and had made Voltaire's acquaintance before he was lodged in the Bastille. Morice, Atterbury 's son-in- law writes to the latter on March 5, 1727, that extracts from the letter had "been shewn to our Twickenham friend, who could not but be pleased with them" ('Miscel- laneous Works of Bishop Atterbury,' 1790).

Last stage of all. The letter is to be- included in Christie's Red Cross Sale on Friday, April 28 (lot 2691). Voltaire, the lover of England, could desire no better des- tiny for it. Surely either the British Museum or the Bibliotheque Nationale should be its ultimate resting-place. For Voltaire was the true founder of the Entente Cordiale, and,, great-hearted cynic that he was, has uttered in this very letter words of generosity which in themselves seem to herald an alliance between the two great nations ; and to-day his spirit would add to his eulogy : " a nation, of soldiers and comrades with France and her sons and daughters." \- ,..,_

A. FORBES SIEVEKINO, 12 Seymour Street, Portman Square, W.