273 - SCUDERY (Madeleine de), 1607–1701.

SCUDERY (Madeleine de), 1607–1701. Autograph letter, “Madeleine de Scudéry,” undated, May 21 [1695], 2 pp. and 1/4 in-4, to Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630–1721), Bishop of Avranches. A very fine literary letter to Huet, devoted to the eloquence of Father Charles de La Rue and most likely to his famous eulogy for Marshal de Luxembourg. Madeleine de Scudéry apologizes for delaying her thanks to Huet for sending her the “beautiful work by the Reverend Father de La Rue” : eager to read it, she had preferred to wait so that she could “combine [her] praise with [her] thanks.” Having finished reading it, however, she declares herself almost incapable of doing it justice, so superior does the Jesuit’s eloquence seem to her compared to her own expressions. She particularly admires the preacher’s style: “All his words are noble, natural, and persuasive; he brings to life before our eyes what he wishes to depict; he strips even the highest praise of anything that might make it seem like flattery, and imbues it with an air of truth that persuades both those who hear it and those who read it.” She further praises the skill with which he managed to avoid the pitfalls inherent in this kind of eloquence, before thanking Huet “for the pleasure I had in admiring him.” The work in question is most likely the Funeral Oration for François-Henri de Montmorency, Duke of Luxembourg, delivered in Paris by the Jesuit Charles de La Rue (1643–1725) on April 21, 1695, and immediately printed thereafter. The chronological proximity to this letter of May 21—exactly one month later—as well as Scudéry’s remarks on the particular difficulties of eulogies and flattery, make this identification particularly convincing. The eulogy was published in Paris in 1695 by the widow of Simon Bénard. The letter also attests to the long intellectual friendship between Madeleine de Scudéry and Pierre-Daniel Huet, whose *Treatise on the Origin of Novels* she had commented on as early as 1670. A significant portion of their handwritten correspondence was once preserved by Huet; the surviving old copies demonstrate the frequency of their literary exchanges. A fine critical appraisal, by one of the great women of letters of the Grand Siècle, of the oratorical art of one of the most renowned preachers of the reign of Louis XIV. Includes its original cultural property export certificate from the Ministry of Culture.