Description
CORDAY (Charlotte). Autograph manuscript entitled "Adresse aux Français amis des loix et de la paix". 3 pp. in-4 on an azure laid paper bifeuillet mitered on an in-folio strong paper folio; some pinpricks; contemporary apostilles. An extremely rare historical document written in his own hand, the only one preserved today, with a few letters THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND ON HER DURING THE SEARCH SHE UNDERWENT ON HER ARRIVAL AT THE ABBEY PRISON. "Until when, O unfortunate Frenchmen, will you be pleased with the turmoil and divisions [...] Assés et trop longtems des factieux, des scélérats ont mis l'intérêt de leur ambition à la place de l'intérêt général..., pourquoi, ô infortuné[e]s victimes de leur fureur, pourquoi vous égorger, vous annéantir vous-même[s] pour établir l'édifice de leur tyranie sur les ruines de la France désolée. FACTIONS SHINE FROM EVERY SIDE, M[ON]TAGNE TRIUMPHES THROUGH CRIME AND OPPRESSION, a few monsters, drunk on our blood lead [c]es detestable plots, and lead us to the precipice by a thousand different paths, blinded by their assignats and even more so by their perfidious insinuations. We are working towards our ruin with more zeal and energy than we have ever seen in the conquest of liberty; O French, a little longer, and all that will remain of you is the memory of your past existence. DEJA LES DEPARTEMENTS INDIGNES MARCHENT SUR PARIS [several Girondin insurrections had broken out in the provinces, notably in Caen where Charlotte Corday had lived], already the fire of discord and civil war is setting fire to half of this vast empire; there is still a way to extinguish it, but this way, to be effective, must be swift; Already the vilest of villains, Marat, whose name alone presents the image of all crimes, by falling under the vile iron, is shaking the Mountain and making Danton, Robespierre and other brigands pale as they sit on this bloody throne, surrounded by the thunderbolt that the vile gods of humanity no doubt suspend only to make their fall more dazzling, and to frighten forever all those who would attempt to establish their fortunes on the ruins of abused peoples. FRANÇAIS, VOUS CONNAISSES VOS ENNEMIS, LEVES-VOUS, MARCHES, QUE LA MONTAGNE ANEANTIE NE LAISSE PLUS QUE DES FRERES, DES AMIS; j'ignore si le ciel vous réserve un Gouvernement républicain, mais il ne peut nous donner un Montagnard pour maître que dans l'excès de ses vangeances. O FRANCE, YOUR REST DEPENDS ON THE EXECUTION OF THE LAW, I DO NOT INJURY IT BY KILLING MARAT, CONDEMNED BY THE UNIVERSE, HE IS OUTSIDE THE LAW; what court will judge me? If I am guilty, then Alcide [another name for Heracles] was guilty when he destroyed monsters, but did he encounter any so odious [?] O FRIENDS OF HUMANITY, YOU WILL NOT REGRET A FEROcious BEAST FILLED WITH YOUR BLOOD, and you sad aristocrats whom the Revolution has not spared, you will not regret him either, you have nothing in common with him. I can offer you nothing but my life, and I thank Heaven for the freedom I have to dispose of it. No one will lose by my death, I will not imitate Pâris by killing myself [Philippe-Nicolas-Marie de Pâris who, to avenge the execution of Louis XVI, assassinated the regicide conventionnel Louis-Michel Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, and committed suicide a few days later to escape certain arrest], I want my last breath to be useful to my fellow citizens - I want my head, carried around Paris, to be a rallying sign for all friends of the law, I want the faltering Montagne to see its doom written in my blood, I want to be their last victim, and I want the venerated universe to declare that I have well deserved humanity ; besides, if they saw my conduct in a different light, I wouldn't care. "May this great deed be an object of horror Be an object of horror or admiration, My spirit not jealous to live in memory, Does not consider reproach or glory, Always independent and always a citizen, My duty is enough, all the rest is nothing. Allés, ne songés plus qu'à sortir d'esclavage." [quote from Brutus' tirade in Act III, Scene 2 of VOLTAIRE's tragedy La Mort de César] My parents and friends need not be worried, no one knew of my plans. I enclose my baptismal certificate at this address to show what can be done by the weakest hand guided by complete devotion. If I do not succeed in my enterprise, Frenchmen, I have shown you the way, you know your enemies, rise up, market and strike." CHARLOTTE CORDAY, "L'ANGE DE L'ASSASSINAT" (Alphonse de Lamartine, ibid.). Charlotte de Corday d'Armont came from an aristocratic Norman family of little means, descended from Pierre Corneille, and lived in the counter-revolutionary French West. Sensitive to new ideas, but horrified by the massacres under the Terror, e
41
CORDAY (Charlotte). Autograph manuscript entitled "Adresse aux Français amis des loix et de la paix". 3 pp. in-4 on an azure laid paper bifeuillet mitered on an in-folio strong paper folio; some pinpricks; contemporary apostilles. An extremely rare historical document written in his own hand, the only one preserved today, with a few letters THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND ON HER DURING THE SEARCH SHE UNDERWENT ON HER ARRIVAL AT THE ABBEY PRISON. "Until when, O unfortunate Frenchmen, will you be pleased with the turmoil and divisions [...] Assés et trop longtems des factieux, des scélérats ont mis l'intérêt de leur ambition à la place de l'intérêt général..., pourquoi, ô infortuné[e]s victimes de leur fureur, pourquoi vous égorger, vous annéantir vous-même[s] pour établir l'édifice de leur tyranie sur les ruines de la France désolée. FACTIONS SHINE FROM EVERY SIDE, M[ON]TAGNE TRIUMPHES THROUGH CRIME AND OPPRESSION, a few monsters, drunk on our blood lead [c]es detestable plots, and lead us to the precipice by a thousand different paths, blinded by their assignats and even more so by their perfidious insinuations. We are working towards our ruin with more zeal and energy than we have ever seen in the conquest of liberty; O French, a little longer, and all that will remain of you is the memory of your past existence. DEJA LES DEPARTEMENTS INDIGNES MARCHENT SUR PARIS [several Girondin insurrections had broken out in the provinces, notably in Caen where Charlotte Corday had lived], already the fire of discord and civil war is setting fire to half of this vast empire; there is still a way to extinguish it, but this way, to be effective, must be swift; Already the vilest of villains, Marat, whose name alone presents the image of all crimes, by falling under the vile iron, is shaking the Mountain and making Danton, Robespierre and other brigands pale as they sit on this bloody throne, surrounded by the thunderbolt that the vile gods of humanity no doubt suspend only to make their fall more dazzling, and to frighten forever all those who would attempt to establish their fortunes on the ruins of abused peoples. FRANÇAIS, VOUS CONNAISSES VOS ENNEMIS, LEVES-VOUS, MARCHES, QUE LA MONTAGNE ANEANTIE NE LAISSE PLUS QUE DES FRERES, DES AMIS; j'ignore si le ciel vous réserve un Gouvernement républicain, mais il ne peut nous donner un Montagnard pour maître que dans l'excès de ses vangeances. O FRANCE, YOUR REST DEPENDS ON THE EXECUTION OF THE LAW, I DO NOT INJURY IT BY KILLING MARAT, CONDEMNED BY THE UNIVERSE, HE IS OUTSIDE THE LAW; what court will judge me? If I am guilty, then Alcide [another name for Heracles] was guilty when he destroyed monsters, but did he encounter any so odious [?] O FRIENDS OF HUMANITY, YOU WILL NOT REGRET A FEROcious BEAST FILLED WITH YOUR BLOOD, and you sad aristocrats whom the Revolution has not spared, you will not regret him either, you have nothing in common with him. I can offer you nothing but my life, and I thank Heaven for the freedom I have to dispose of it. No one will lose by my death, I will not imitate Pâris by killing myself [Philippe-Nicolas-Marie de Pâris who, to avenge the execution of Louis XVI, assassinated the regicide conventionnel Louis-Michel Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, and committed suicide a few days later to escape certain arrest], I want my last breath to be useful to my fellow citizens - I want my head, carried around Paris, to be a rallying sign for all friends of the law, I want the faltering Montagne to see its doom written in my blood, I want to be their last victim, and I want the venerated universe to declare that I have well deserved humanity ; besides, if they saw my conduct in a different light, I wouldn't care. "May this great deed be an object of horror Be an object of horror or admiration, My spirit not jealous to live in memory, Does not consider reproach or glory, Always independent and always a citizen, My duty is enough, all the rest is nothing. Allés, ne songés plus qu'à sortir d'esclavage." [quote from Brutus' tirade in Act III, Scene 2 of VOLTAIRE's tragedy La Mort de César] My parents and friends need not be worried, no one knew of my plans. I enclose my baptismal certificate at this address to show what can be done by the weakest hand guided by complete devotion. If I do not succeed in my enterprise, Frenchmen, I have shown you the way, you know your enemies, rise up, market and strike." CHARLOTTE CORDAY, "L'ANGE DE L'ASSASSINAT" (Alphonse de Lamartine, ibid.). Charlotte de Corday d'Armont came from an aristocratic Norman family of little means, descended from Pierre Corneille, and lived in the counter-revolutionary French West. Sensitive to new ideas, but horrified by the massacres under the Terror, e
