Et la postérité, dans toutes les provinces, Donnera votre exemple aux plus généreux princes. AUGUSTE J'en accepte l'augure, et j'ose l'espérer: Ainsi toujours les Dieux vous daignent inspirer! Qu'on redouble demain les heureux sacrifices Que nous leur offrirons sous de meilleurs auspices, Et que vos conjurés entendent publier 1775 Qu'Auguste a tout appris, et veut tout oublier. 1780 NOTES A M. DE MONTORON Page 1.-1. M. de Montoron, a rich financier, was premier président au bureau des finances de Montauban. He was generous to a fault, but of limited education. Through the lavish way in which he spent his money, he made a deep impression on his contemporaries, though he finally died poor and forgotten in 1664. Facts and gossip of interest. about him may be found in Tallemant des Réaux, (Historiettes VI, p. 226 ff.). Corneille's letter was written for the purpose of flattering the rich banker, and causing him to loosen the strings of his ever-ready purse. The plan was successful, for according to Tallemant des Réaux, who was a distant relative of Montoron, he gave Corneille two hundred pistols as reward (Historiettes III, p. 248). The extreme tone of flattery in which the letter is written must not be misinterpreted. It was the custom of the times, and in reality of no further consequence, than the often extravagant terms employed to this day in the signatures of letters. Yet this letter grew famous in its time, and dedications à la Montoron became proverbial. Corneille was criticised for it by his contemporaries. So Scarron († 1660) said in one of his prefaces: “Quelques poètes au grand collier ont eu l'intention d'aller chercher dans les finances ceux qui dépensaient leur bien aussi aisément qu'ils l'avaient amassé Je ne doute point que ces marchands poétiques n'aient donné à ces publicains libéraux toutes les vertus, jusques aux militaires," and Guéret († 1688) in his Parnasse Réformé makes the remark: "Si vous ignorez ce que c'est que les Panégyriques à la Montoron, vous n'avez qu'à le demander à M. Corneille, et il vous dira que son Cinna n'a pas été la plus malheureuse de ses dédicaces." ... Page 2.—1. Note the evident reference to this sentence in Scarron's criticism cited above. Montoron for a short time had been an officer in the régiment des gardes. SENECA Page 4. 1. Corneille's text omits several words here. In Seneca the passage reads "in communi quidem republica gladium movit: quum hoc aetatis esset quod tu nunc es, duodevicesimum," etc. Page 6. 1. Comparison with Montaigne's translation shows that the latter misunderstood this passage, since he placed a period after impedio. In the first edition of Cinna a comma stood in this place, as the sense requires, but in that of 1648, we find a period, as in Montaigne. It seems as though Corneille had here followed Montaigne more closely than Seneca; cp. the presence of penser in l. 1535 and souffrir in 1. 1540. Both words stand in Montaigne's text, and the first at least is not suggested by Seneca. MONTAIGNE Page 7.- -1. This extract from the Essais of Montaigne stands only in the first edition of Cinna. Coneille suppressed it in the editions of the play from 1648-1656. Page 9. 1. libertin Latin LIBERTINUS, meaning freedman or son of a freedman. LETTRE DE BALZAC Page 10. 1. This letter of Balzac († 1654) under date of January 17, 1643, was printed by Corneille in the edition of the year 1648. It is of great interest, because it shows the contemporary interpretation of the play. Cp. Introduction, p. xiii. In the Quarrel of the Cid Balzac, in a letter addressed to Scudéry, had taken the part of Corneille. 2. Corneille had probably expressed this sentiment in the letter which accompanied the volume sent to Balzac. |