To Benjamin Franklin from the Baronne de Bourdic, 20 [April?] 1783
From the Baronne de Bourdic7
ALS: American Philosophical Society
a paris le 20 [April 1783?]8 rue Jacob hotel de modene
Le desir que javois Monsieur davoir une Correspondance avec vous me fit prendre avec empressement Les lettres que vous me chargeates de traduire; sans reflechir aux difficultes qui se sont presentees; pour une allemande qui a quitte Sa patrie depuis l’age de quatre ans9 la traduction d’une lettre de quatre pages devenoit un ouvrage; aussi ai je reste bien longtemps; vous Seul èties Capable de me donner asses de patience pour en venir a bout; jai lhonneur de vous lenvoyer et vous demande un millions de pardons non de mon inexactitude mais de mon peu d’intelligence qui me force a employer trois semaines pour une affaire de trois heures; malgrè mon peu de talent je mets un prix a mon travail je demande de voir encore une fois avant de retourner dans ma province un homme aussi interessant par ses vertus qu’etonnant par son genie deux mots de votre main pour massurer que Ce projet ne vous deplait point et vous verres bientot Celle qui a lhonneur detre Monsieur votre tres humble et tres obeissante Servante
DE LESTANG Baronne DE Bourdic
jadis La mse [marquise] dentremont
Endorsed: La Baronne de Bourdic A Paris
7. This is the first of five surviving letters, partially dated at best, from Marie-Anne-Henriette Payan de L’Estang (1744–1802), a poet from Nîmes who spent most of 1783 in Paris, although the exact dates of her stay are unknown. Shortly after her arrival she made it her business to meet BF, and subsequently visited him as frequently as possible, “even at the risk of becoming troublesome,” as she admitted upon her departure (Bourdic to BF, undated, APS). She began writing poetry at the age of 16, after the death of her first husband, the marquis d’Antremont. In 1777 she married the baron de Bourdic. By the time she arrived in Paris, her reputation was established: Voltaire was one of her correspondents and admirers, her poems appeared regularly in the Almanach des muses, and in 1782 she was made a member of the Académie de Nîmes. She so captivated the writer Blin de Sainmore that, shortly after the date of the present letter, he published a 26-line poem in praise of her talents (Jour. de Paris, May 8, 1783). See the DBF, under Bourdic-Viot; Gilbert Chinard, “Benjamin Franklin et la muse provinciale,” APS Proc., XCVII (1953), 493–510; Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, pp. 194–5.
8. Dated on the basis of the German letter she returns to BF along with her translation, which she says took her three weeks to complete. The German original, by August Friedemann Rühle von Lilienstern, March 14, 1783, is summarized in the headnote to Martineau’s letter of Jan. 25.
9. The baronne was born in Dresden, though she was descended from noble families of the south of France: Dictionnaire de la noblesse, XV, 529–30.