Nicolas-Edme RÉTIF DE LA BRETONNE. Autograph... - Lot 165 - Ader

Lot 165
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Estimation :
1800 - 2000 EUR
Nicolas-Edme RÉTIF DE LA BRETONNE. Autograph... - Lot 165 - Ader
Nicolas-Edme RÉTIF DE LA BRETONNE. Autograph manuscript for Le Palais-Royal, [ca. 1800]; 2 pages of one sheet in-4 filled with tight handwriting (edges frayed with small tears, small holes from ink corrosion). Rare fragment of a draft of a revival of the Palais-Royal. The Palais-Royal was published in 3 volumes in 1790. According to Pierre Testud, this is a project for a "new Palais-Royal", which he dates from 1800, taking up again, with modifications, the text of the 1790 edition, and introducing new elements such as his quarrel with Louis-Sébastien Mercier and Grimod de la Reynière's affair with his cousin Angélique Mitoire. This reworking was probably intended to be part of the project of Paris dévoilé. This fragment, which presents a few erasures and corrections, is related to the first part of the Palais-Royal, Histoire des Filles de l'Allée des Soupirs, and corresponds to the end of the XXIXth Fille, Gertrude, and to most of the XXXth Fille, Isabelle. The manuscript presents a quite different, and more explicit, version of the 1790 text. The fragment begins with Isabelle's account of her apprenticeship with Mme Cunégonde: "She gave me [all] the pleasant talents, especially the cuteness [...] my sister the beautiful Mitoire, whom you adored. - You will be my moral and physical masterpiece (said Mad. Cunegonde to me, when she knew of your love for your cousin), and I will make you happy, by giving Mr. Aquilin an unheard-of, unhoped-for felicity! since I will give him, new, virginal, free, a cousin who will inspire the most lively passion [...] "Since I was dear to Mad. Cunegonde, this benefactress was only occupied with the care of making me look more like my sister Gertrude Verneuil, whose name I had been given. You feel that I have not been exposed to see a Man, whoever he was. I was destined for you, I existed only for you. You must have noticed earlier that I was a virgin, for I was told that the Knowers were never mistaken. This is my story. The outcome is in your hands"... Etc. Then comes the chapter of the XXXth Girl. The young Isabelle, also a creature of Madame Cunégonde: "She was a Queen, in air, manners, beauty. She had the thickest golden hair, a dazzling whiteness, a celestial touch, & that voluptuous turn with which Marie-Antoinette turned all heads". The story of this young girl, noticed by Madame Cunégonde who took her under her protection to train her, follows: "She chose me, from the age of 5, as she needed her to fulfill her views, and she modelled me with the most scrupulous accuracy, in the most elevated form of Europe and the whole world. I have not yet been employed (as Maman says) but she has succeeded in the august resemblance she wanted to give, to the point that I have already produced a lot of money for her, only by showing it to certain people; more or less in the manner of the wax figures of Curtius"... Etc.
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