same Sir SInce it is impossible to withstand it I have sent you the Letter that you desired to see But you shall read it if you please to your own eares only that it may not awake Envie And that some Philarchus doe not over-heare you Loe here withall the three lines of Cardinall Bentivolio's Letter which you did so often demand of me and which J can no longer deny you without incivility Di nuovo prego V. S ria a ' ringratiar c. I doe againe intreat you to thanke Monsieur Balzac in my name and by the same opportunitie to make him an ample testimonie of my great affection towards his deserts tell him this withall that no pen doth more discourage me then his for J see too well how farre it doth surpasse mine I must confesse that in this particular to doe mee grace he hath been unjust to himselfe and that the same motion of humility that prompts Princes of his ranke and parentage to wash poore mens feet hath moved him to use me so respectfully Neither doe J pretend to take a pride in it but yet I think it will not be denied but that I may derive some comfort from it And indeed it seemes that the goodnesse of this brave Worthy would needs make me amends for the malice of my Adversaries These few lines doe weigh downe the swelling Volumes of my Opponents and I shall use no other refutation of all that hath or shall be written against me For the present Sir I am not of that man's opinion who censures that passage La noire mere des estoiles the Poet that so stiles the Night is not so bold rash as the Grammarian supposeth that reprehends him And if this be as he saith a Gasconisme Tibullus was a Gascon when he said Ludite jam Nox jungit equos currumque sequuntur Matris lascivo sydera fulvachoro The Night there is mother of the starres as in another Poet the Nurse of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nox aureorum furva nutrix syderum Our Man writes to me oft enough but he puts me to hereafter in all his Letters doth ever promise what he never performes Neverthelesse I doe believe that Hee will certifie me by the first Poste touching the event of that busines which makes you so anxious and I will not fayle to impart unto you the newes as soone as ever the Carrier bringeth them I am Sir Your c. Balzac 20. Iuly 1632. LET. XLII To Madamoisell de CAMPAGNOLE My deare Niece YOu did not well that you did not keepe that floury Chaplet which J had the favour to receive from your Lackey the winter would not have budded but for you and by consequence you should have better valued this favour and managed your Roses more sparingly They should have been bestowed about your temples for an honour to its pregnancy and not have been bestowed on an Hermit for this were to hide a miracle J see well your drift herein you would needs be liberall in a time of scarcity and loose your owne right that you might please my passion with something which is so much affected with true and lively floures Which J doe terme so because the other which men doe so much esteeme having not any odour which animates are in my judgement but faire pictures or specious carkasses But J beseech you to resolve me one scruple that doth trouble me and ease me of my perplexity Tell me was this because there be some already or because there be some yet left are these remainders or fore-runners was it the last spring that was tardy or the new that is hasty and forward loe here a Problem worthy to be discussed by the Philosophers of your Sexe and it would not be amisse to propose it to Her whom you speak of for to have her resolution I professe that if she be very expert she is a very dissembler for I could never discover her to this houre Shee hath such a heavy dull apprehension that a man had need interpret twice or thrice over what ever he speaks to her It were easier to converse with a deafe woman and I would choose rather to make my selfe understood by a Cornet then to be my own Interpreter Yet if this stupidity be without malice it is more tolerable then malicious cunning God permits himselfe to be intreated sometimes by a simple thumping of the breast and often rejects eloquent and loud prayers It is a miserable light that whose glory and luster flowes from vice only and yet is not offensive to great men A good Beast is of more worth thē a bad Angell This is the upshot of all my deare Niece that you must lay a foundation of Bounty upon which it is allowed you to raise a Structure of other virtues that are more high and more glorious You did not stand in need of this lesson but I would needs fill up my paper before I would put a period and tell you that J am Balzac 15. Dec. 1637. Your c. LET. XLIII To Monsieur the Abbat of Bois-Robert Sir THe world is full of darstardly friends but you are none of this world You can love dareingly and resolutely and J see that my injuries are commonly more apprehended by you then by my selfe neverthelesse I am much vexed with the language which you received from Messieurs the These are men that doe understand too well the points of honour for to give me any satisfaction and for my part I carry so much goodnesse about me as to demand nothing from them but my life J never beleev'd that their Superior had promised me nothing Jf he hath left them no other debts to pay but this they have great cause to commend him for his good providence and thrift Jn the mean while J cannot dissemble my sorrow to you for his death nor forget to tell you that in all his ill carriages towards me he hath never done me a greater affront then this to dye If J had had some particular Revelation concerning it or if he had advertised me thereof by the Spirit of Prophecy which is spoken of in his Elogy he should have seen his prating long since condemned and should not have carried away into the other world that great opinion of sufficiency which his Fraternity did sooth him with For the other extravagant Doctor which you mention it would not be acceptable to God almighty that J should undertake his reformation it were needfull to create him anew for to amend him Jt were no mean enterprise but to examine his book and to make a breviary of all the absurd things therein contained J would choose as soone to be condemned to be a Scavenger for the streets of Paris and to carry away all the dirt out of that litle world His impertinencies are infinite and would puzzle a better Arithmetician then I am to calculate them and he that would goe about to count them Conterâ ancora in
litle wit but that J can distinguish his person from his cause He hath obliged me with so good grade and spoken of me in such high language sumptuous termes that I cannot doubt of his respect or his affection towards me And he shall likewise see my resentment of it through the whole file of my Discourse wherein I am resolved to temper my selfe so discreetly that if I perswade him not to my opinion I shall not make my proceedings odious and if I doe not rest satisfied with what he saith I shall contradict him but obliquely and with a kind of Biasse which shall not be distastfull unto him This will be perhaps the first example of modesty that hath been heard of among the Disputants of this age and we will demonstrate to those of that side who talke outragiously in Problems of small importance that the altercations of honest men are without choler and that generous enemies live better togither then malicious Burghers For the rest Sir I desire you to continue the paines that you have begun to send me wherewith J may fortify all the Approaches that are liable to assault and battery I shall feare nothing being strengthned with so powerfull succors and you will justify my cause if it be good or give it a colour of justice if it be not so See what an enterprise it was in you to love me You could never have conceived a more pernicious designe for your selfe It will repent you more then once and you will renounce at any time I am sure the sorry purchase which you have made in the acquaintance of a troublesome man Neverthelesse he is one that is most affectionately Sir Your c. Balzac 20. March 1634. LET. XXXVI To Madam DESLOGES Madam IT is now three Months that I have expected Monsieur d' Auvila that I might be informed of the state of your health But haveing lately understood that it is not so currant as I could wish it and mine being not so firme that J could adventure upon a journey J have dispatched one towards you to learne the truth thereof It will be an incredible ease to my mind if I finde that it was but a false alarme or that your sicknesse by this time be over-past J doe hope for one of the two Madame because J doe passionatly desire it but J beseech you to beleeve that it is long of my crazie body that J am no sooner clear'd of my feare and rid of the paine it put me to and that you doe not see me in person in steed of the Messenger that I have sent He hath in charge to presente you with my fine Cuts or small Ingravery which J have newly received from Paris J thought meet to send you this dumbe visit that it might not oblige you to any compliment that might put you to trouble you doe receive indeed more troublesome ones sometimes And if the sullennesse of my countenance be an object of bad presage you will confesse that the perpetuall silence that doth accompany it is a great commodity at leastwise it can never be offensive to you since it leaves you still at quiet and demanding no ceremony from you it must perplexe you lesse then the Antiquities and Originals of La Marche and Limousin Finally Madame it lyeth in you to preserve your bounties for me and maintaine me in my possession I know that Monsieur d' Aillé is of infinite value and I believe I cannot loose him since it was you that gave him me you have too good a hand to doe any thing that should not last and there is no accident that can menace and shake that friendship whereof virtue is the cause and you the Mediatrix I esteeme that of this rare Personage as a treasure and J would be well pleased that he should know by your means that J admire the Eloquence of his Dogmaticall peaceable Divinity though J doe not subscribe unto the Doctrine of his polemicall writings J most humbly kisse your hand and remaine Sir Your c. Balzac 16. Ian. 1637. LET. XXXVII To Monsieur de Sir TAke pitty on a man that hath not the leasure to live that is alwaies busy and alwaies sickly whom a thousand griefes seize upon in his chamber and a thousand persecutions throng upon from without Monsieur de knowes it well that I am no dissembler and will testify unto you I assure my selfe that in the state that I am in I can but admire those letters to the which I should frame an answere I avow unto you Sir that it cost me some paines to decipher them But yet I doe not complaine of my travell which found most happy successe J have discovered infinite rarities under the riddles of your Scribe and I did not mistake the Graces though He had begrimed them all over I send them back to you since it is your request and yet notwithstanding I cease not to deteine them my memory is not so unfaithfull but it preserves the better part of your faire compositions as well as of your excellent conversation It is certaine that this gave me some gusts and appetites which I never had before you came hither I am not good Sir but by your goodnesse if I have any degree of holy heate in me it is neither proper nor naturall unto me J have it from your communication You are at this day one of those Authors whom I cite still with a grace and an Emphasis I doe arme my selfe with your reasons against the enimies of Truth you are all my French Divinity What a harvest might be reapt think you of devout meditations and Spirituall Treatises from lesse seed thē are your Discourses and Letters A man might extract from them more sapp and juice then from many Quadragesimall Sermons of Spanish Postillers and were they but a litle amplified they might serve for compleat Apologies of Christian doctrine and solid refutations of unsound Philosophie Your acquaintance then is no small purchase J owe you more thē vulgar thanks for it But since you desire none other but my edification insteed of minting fastidious complements for you J will labour to put your wholsome counsailes in practise J will become a good man if J can that you may be celebrated in my works being not contented with words The curing of a disease doth sufficiently proclaime the soveraignty of the remedy and it is a farre better way to magnifie your stile by performing actions of vertue which it doth propose as its end then to cry out Euge at every period There is no hopes to goe beyond this Remember me if you please in your Sacrifices that is love me effectually after your way since J am after mine and that very sincerely Sir Your c. Balzac 30. Decemb. 1636. LET. XXXVIII To Monsieur Girard Officiall of the Church of Angoulesme Sir YOur favours have exhausted my thanks I cannot choose but acquaint you that I doe repossesse my old
vel Parrhasià in accessionem vilissimae picturae cedere We must not urge a man that is intent upon more important affaires Yet when your leasure serves be pleas'd to perfect that same Translation try if our language can expresse Terence in that noblenesse of style and the Character of Scipio and Laelius which the Roman Nation observe to be in it Jn the meane time Sir to have the more colour to demand of you I send you here a small gift some Verses which I received lately from one of my friends in England who doth chardge the Muses of the Low-Countreyes with the making You are in some sort interessed in 't seeing they question the credit trueth of an Author who among you is cryed for Indubitable and seeme to thwart your judgement of him as concerning the certainty of his Testimonie But in good sooth the Flemmings have reason to require such a scrupulous and punctuall truth in our newes They who are the most fabulous Historians of this Age and for the most part truck away nothing but Apocryphall Relations By changing the proper names only in their Verses we might retort all their Sarcasmes upon them-selves wee could speake truely of their Gazet what they have falsely written of ours and tell them farther that that which they deride so is well esteem'd all over by the most ingenious Nation of the world It is certaine that the fine wits of Rome doe admire the acutenesse and apposite expressions therein and Monsieur the Abbat of upon his return from Italy did assure me that it was pronounc'd in the Academy of the Humorists that each section of the Parisian Gazet was worth a Chapter in Florus or Valerius Maximus They are Sir as you know Epigrams in prose and the determination of so famous a Tribunall is a sufficient Countermure against the assaults of this new Poem I would desire you to impart it to Monsieur Gaulmim and some other grave Judges of Latin learning That we may know the gust of your great world and what we are to believe in the Provinces The Description of the Bureau d' Adresse seemes to me to have been drawn upon the plaine or modell of that Palace which Ovid hath erected to Fame But you will make us upon this all the rest most large and learned Observations and I doe promise my selfe to receive from you at once both a Translation and a Commentary I am perfectly Sir Your c. Balzac 25. Nov. 1636. LET. XXVII To the same Sir Since I wrote my Letter it comes to my head that for a Counter-cuffe to the Gazeta Parisiensis we might send to the Low-Countrey-men Historia Hispana and fill it with Comicall sport enough First we must make it to be the incestuous Off-spring of the Giants begotten upon their own sister Fame for the high and mighty lies wherewith it doth abuse the credulity of the simple and in truth the naturall pride of that Nation which appeares even in the wandring Begger in extreamest misery and those Rhodomontades which to them are so proper and usuall that their very complements reteine a smack of them are worthy of so Illustrious an Extraction and to descend in a direct Line from Enceladus and Mimas and Briareus This premis'd Sir and enricht with your art I would have this monstrous Issue gaine upon the beleefe of the Jndians the Cockneyes of Europe that the beginning of the universall Monarchy promised to Spaine will betide just the next yeare which is the climactericall yeare of all other States that God's will is that there should bee but one Monarch upon earth that the Pope himself for his better accommodation doth mean to resigne Rome to him exchange it for the Arch-Bishoprick of Toledo That the Battle where the King of Sueden was slaine was the last sigh of dying liberty that this Prince was no such thing as we took him to be and for those atchievements of his which we entertain'd with such wonder nothing was performed without the help of Magick by vertue only of some charmes characters and the assistance of the Powers of Hell which at last were found too weak against the House of Austria That to the end that second causes and humane meanes might concurre with the Designe of Providence forreine affaires doe seeme to comply of them-selves to this great change That the King of England is not so brave but that he would be contented to be a Feudatary of the King of Spaine and if it goes to the worst that there will not be wanting some Gun-powdermen to make him caper in the ayre with his whole Realme That the cinders of the Holy-League and the remainder of the Huguenot Party begin to flame a new in France by the bellowes and Libells of S t Germains that they have bargain'd with some secret Engineers who have undertaken to fortify Rochell in one night That Duke Charles must be revenged upon Nancy and that he doth hold Paris already in extremity that if there be not a Spanish Garrison already in Turin and Casall there will be one when it shall seeme good to his Catholike Maiesty and when the Dukes of Savoy and Mantua shall be received into his favour That he will none of Venice or Amsterdam because that an Illuminatée of Madrid and a Sybille of Naples have assured him that the Sea will one day swallow up these two great Citties and the losse of his Spaniards that should be their Commanders would be a cause of great griefe unto him That he had long since chastis'd the Rebells of Holland if some considerations of state had not hindred him from it But let him preserve that land of contradiction for a Fencing-schoole for his owne Subjects to keep them from idlenesse and to breathe them by continuall exercise That for the rest if the world will not be so easily conquered hee hath in his coffers wherewith to buy it And hereabouts this Daughter of Fame and Enceladus her Brother must raise her tone higher and out-bid her first figure or number shee must with one dash of the pen make more gold then the Sun can make in a thousand years she must make the windes laboure and force the Ocean to groane under the new Fleet which according to her computation must arrive every moneth punctually at Lisbon and Sivill she must make a discovery if needs be of the third Indies find out all the hidden mines there not those within the Demaines of Anti-Christ excepted cause them to be guarded by those evill Spirits which S. Augustin cals for this reason Incubones Thesaurorum c. Behold Sir a rude draught of a work which expects from you its consummation and perfection which you might soone finish if your Poeticall fancy should once seize you Here is matter you see for an excellent Irony and wherewith to continue it to a hundred verses and more though the Comoedy did affect you ne're so litle especially when
sùl'ombroso dosso c. Will count the Trees on top of shady Appennine Assoone or waves when windes doe chafe the curling Brine Jf this Bearer shall stand in need of recommendation to the Councell J doubt not but knowing his name and what a share J beare in his interests you will effectually assist him for love of me who am more then any man in the world Sir Your c. Balzac 30. Ian. 1629. LET. XLIV To the same Sir I Am ever this Month confin'd to my bed where I received your Letter directed from Roan To read there the continuation of your sicknesse could not you must think be any assuagement of mine J bestow a thousand curses upon the waters of Fórges for impairing your health Propertius hath not been more liberall or bestowed more upon the Baiae that kill'd Augustus his Nephew But a maine difference is that this man was a Poet and did but act griefe but I am truly afflicted and true friendship doth really suffer more then flattery can personate J am very sorry that hath not demean'd himselfe towards you so well as he should have done and if you have resolv'd upon his ruine I doe not mean to step in between him and it and undertake his protection I doe ever side with all your passions without premeditation and that man that doth not please you hath no allurements so powerfull as can render him pleasing to me neverthelesse if this mans offence were veniall and your justice could be satisfied J would adventure to beg his pardon and would become his surety that he should willingly undergoe all the punishments that you would inflict upon him to regaine your favour There are some businesses betweene us that force me to dissemble a litle and doe not permit an apparent rupture if there come not from you an expresse order to the contrary But being once freed out of this turmoile if he be so unlucky as to offend you againe I declare unto you that I doe even now renounce him and J had rather forget my obligations to him then to carry affections repugnant to yours Your Cousen is too generous to oblige so nobly a man whom he never knew and J had rather beleeve that his esteeme of me is but the consequence of your love then to imagine it to be an apprehension of any merit in mee J doe purpose a voyage beyond the seas the next year If J take ship at Diepe as J hope to doe J shall not faile to goe and kisse His hands at Röan to make him see that the Monster that Father Goulu speaks of is a tame Beast at least and capable of knowledge If J did exceedingly rejoyce at the newes when a Canonship was bestowed upon you J forgot how farre this Dignity was below your deserts It sufficeth me that I give you some testimony that I am not sorry for it and that J consider it as in the croude among other Benefices that shall fall upon you knowing that some few mens lives that be not yet dead are the onely obstacles to your Virtues J expect by the first Post some better newes concerning your health and ever remaine with all my soule Sir Your c. Balzac 10. May 1634. LET. XLV To the same Sir YOur last message did give me exceeding content though I am well assured of your affection towards me yet I take a singular delight to read in your Letters that you love me These be words whose fragrancy time cannot weare away and which will be as pleasant to me many years hence as when they were first spoken I am indeed ravished with your last protestations But I rejoyce with you the rather for the felicity of this new age since you are in part the cause of it and that by your suggestions Monsieur doth purpose to allot a considerable Tenement of lands for the releefe of poore and disconsolate Muses We shall see this year Sonnets and Odes and Elegies enough The Almanack doth promise wonderfull plenty and Parnassus must not yeeld lesse then it did under the Pontificate of Leo the Tenth For you Sir if you believe me you shall never take pen in hand againe but in case of necessity and only that commerce may not decay Hitherto you have been a Horace now you are a Mecenas and if we doe not celebrate you every Scribler of us and addresse our Works both in prose and verse to you you have just cause to indict us of ingratitude For my part I would willingly both live and dye under your patronage and I doe provide an Oration for you in genere demonstrativo wherein at first salute J shall astonish the world with this great prodigy That you are both a complete Courtier and a perfect Friend Since you would absolutely have it so that J come to Paris it is to you that J shall make my most frequent resorts to doe my respects and it is in your Cabinet that I shall by your good leave redeeme the time which J have lost in the Country but we must give place a while to the anger of stormeing Iove or to speak the language of men we must permit it to raine and freeze in Beausse and not goe to out-brave the month of February J have no great need to dye out of too much dareing My health is still very infirme and unconstant and if J did not take incredible care I say not to preserve my person but only to continue my sleepes you had lost me a great while since Since J am wholly yours you will allow me the use of this word and take it not ill that J reckon my selfe in the number of those things that are not to you indifferent You have infinitely obliged me in assuring Monsieur the Count of of the continuance of my zeale and fidelity J have made him so eminent and publike a marke that as J can never recant it so can he never suspect it I omit a thousand things that I should tell you of but this will be imploiment for the next weeke and I am forced to conclude that I am Sir Your c. Balzac 10. Feb. 1632. LET. XLVI To Monsieur de Savignac Sir EIther I have not well interpreted my selfe or Monsieur de hath not well understood me I doe ever value the merits of Madame d' Anguitar and if it must be that I must by a second act cōfirme that testimonie which I have given of Her I am ready to declare my selfe a new and to commende once more a Lady that is so praise-worthy It is true that for the interest of her Honour it will be some thing materiall to understand the cause that made my intentions to be mis-construed and that I leade you to the very source of this jealousie Whereas it seem'd to certaine Cavaliers my friends that I did too much approve of her singular humour and frequent retirings one of the most eloquent of them took a fancy to publish his dislike in