Nicolas-Edme RÉTIF DE LA BRETONNE. Autograph manuscript for - Lot 135

Nicolas-Edme RÉTIF DE LA BRETONNE. Autograph manuscript for Le Palais-Royal, [circa 1800]; 2pages of one sheet in-4 filled with tight handwriting (edges chipped with small misses, small holes from ink corrosion). Rare fragment of a project to revive the Palais-Royal. Le 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 and modifying 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. It was probably intended as part of the Paris dévoilé project. This fragment, with a few erasures and corrections, is part of the first part of Palais-Royal, Histoire des Filles de l'Allée des Soupirs, and corresponds to the end of the XXIXth Fille, Gertrude, and most of the XXXth Fille, Isabelle. The manuscript presents a completely different, and more explicit, version of the 1790 text. The fragment begins with Isabelle's account of her apprenticeship with Madame Cunégonde: "She gave me [all] the pleasant talents, especially the cuteness [...] my sister the beautiful Mitoire, whom you adored. - You will be my moral & physical masterpiece (said Mad. Cunegonde, when she knew of your love for your cousin), and I will make you happy, by giving Mr. Aquilin an unheard-of, unhoped-for happiness! since I will give him, new, virginal, free, a cousin who will inspire him with the most vivid passion [...] "Since I was dear to Mad. Cunegonde, this benefactress was only occupied with 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, because I've been told that Connoisseurs are never mistaken. That's my story. The outcome is in your hands"... Etc. Then comes the chapter on the XXXth Daughter. The young Isabelle, another of Madame Cunégonde's creatures: "She was a Queen in air, manners and beauty. She had the thickest golden hair, a dazzling whiteness, a heavenly complexion, & that voluptuous turn with which Marie-Antoinette then turned all heads". The story follows of this young girl, noticed by Madame Cunégonde, who took her under her protection to train her: "She chose me, from the age of 5, as she needed her to fulfill her views, & she modelled me with the most scrupulous exactitude, in the most elevated form in Europe & 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 her to certain people; more or less in the manner of Curtius' wax figures"... Etc.