Beschreibung:

VOLTAIRE, FRANÇOIS MARIE AROUET DE. Letter signed ("V") to the playwright Charles Palissot de Montenoy (sent via the bookseller Du Chêne in Paris); Aux Délices, 16 July 1762. 2 pages, small 4to, 197 x 150 mm. (7 3/4 x 5 15/16 in.), integral blank leaf with address leaf on verso, original wax seal, tipped onto a strip of modern paper, seal break, one or two minor marginal tears , in French. A fine letter, in which Voltaire expresses his preference for an unadorned literary style, compliments Palissot's latest play ( Le Rival par Ressemblance , Paris 1762) but criticises the author's choice of subject matter and his longstanding hostility toward the philosophical party. (Palissot's hugely successful play Les Philosophes had been published two years earlier). "I owe you many thanks, sir for your kindness in sending me your last play. You know that your style pleases me greatly. It is flowing, pure and easy. It does not strive for witticisms or unusual turns of phrase, and that is a great merit in this century. I would perhaps have wished that you had not chosen a subject so similar to that of the Menechmes, while lacking its drollery. [Voltaire is presumably referring to Jean-François-Regnard's play, published in 1705, based on Plautus's Menaechmi .] Perhaps in fact, if you had given yourself time to cool down over your work, you might have deleted some notes that could make you enemies. Your attacks on our dear Philosophers have always distressed me greatly, especially since you chose the period when they were being persecuted. I admit that I took the same liberties, but it was with the persecutors, the enemies of liberty, the tyrants. Men of letters should doubtlessly be united; they all think in the same manner. Why tear apart one's brothers when the persecutors are whipping them? This saddens me during my retirement, where I wished only to laugh. Count always, Sir, on the sentiments of your humble and obedient servant, V." Voltaire and Palissot remained on good terms in spite of their differences.