102 - SCUDÉRY, Madeleine de [Le Havre, 1607 – Paris, 1701], French writer.

SCUDÉRY, Madeleine de [Le Havre, 1607 – Paris, 1701], French writer. Autograph letter signed “Madeleine de Scudery” to Queen Marie-Thérèse. 4 pages, in-4°. She thanks the Queen fervently, “for I find such glory in being the object of the kindness of a great Queen who has never needed anyone else’s kindness, and who owes the praise bestowed upon her throughout the world solely to her own justice.” But since, in the letter I received, Your Majesty praises the great institution of Saint-Cyr with great delicacy and nobility, I have made the use of it that I ought to, and I can assure Your Majesty that she would be pleased if she knew the joy she has brought without having intended to do so. Moreover, Madam, I venture to respond to the closing of Your Majesty’s letter by saying that she will never be forgotten and that her glory will endure as long as the universe. People of ordinary merit sometimes die in the memory of all men without actually dying, but a great Queen of heroic character, whose mind and heart distinguish themselves so highly on all kinds of occasions and who possesses so many outstanding qualities, can never fall into oblivion.”