Adams Papers

2d Saturday.

2d Saturday.

Went to the shops, and bought some things A.M. P.M Mr. D. and Mr. Artaud1 went to the German play, I stay’d at home.

1Artaud’s identity is uncertain, but in a Diary entry written seventeen years later, JQA provides a fuller account of his relationship with this man. “The Chevalier de Villenotte, told me,” JQA wrote, “he had seen me at Artaud’s at Petersburg in the year 1782. I had altogether forgotten it. Poor Artaud, died it seems in 1784 of a fever, caught at Peterhoff, at the annual festival there, upon St. John’s day, in June. His woman then returned to Dunkirk, and afterwards went back to Petersbourg, where she was taken by a Venitian minister; who upon being removed to Constantinople, carried her with him; since which Villenotte has heard nothing of her” (JQA, Diary, 26 July 1799). JQA’s and Dana’s change of lodgings, mentioned in the entry for 29 Jan. (above), Artaud’s daily presence thereafter, his frequent absence at dinner, and JQA’s having been seen “at Artaud’s” all suggest that the two Americans were probably lodging at Artaud’s house. Artaud’s “woman” may have been his housekeeper, who would have served them meals and would have seen to other needs. Some such role would explain why JQA gave so much space to her in his 1799 entry.

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