17 juin 1753 (1) : Clairaut (Paris) écrit à Richardson :
Dear Sir Tho' I have been a considerable time without answering to your obliging letter [perdue NDM], I would rather undertake an apology for writing you at all than for so long a silence. But as I am so flattered of continuing in a correspondance with you that I can't help asking you now and then how you do and the state in which are two persons I regret infinitely to have passed with almost as soon as I got their acquaintance, I mean Sr Ch. Grandison and Myss Byron [(Richardson 53-54) en préparation]. My best in my present condition is to call sometimes on their elders Pamela [(Richardson 40)] and Clarissa [(Richardson 48)]. They are so known and loved here that I may have often the pleasure of talking of them, but as to those two I have known before their being introduced in the world I am obliged to keep in myself all I know of them and I long for the moment of their coming forth. Pray if you have fixed that time let me know it as well as if you remember sometimes a man who is for ever dear Sir y[ou]r obliged humble and obedient servant Clairaut. Paris June the 17th I beseech you to recall me in the memory of the Speaker [Arthur Onslow] whenever you meet with him. [Adresse] Angleterre / Mr S. Richardson / in Salisbury Court Fleet Street / London (SB, J 1750).
Clairaut répond à une lettre perdue de Richardson. Il lui avait déjà écrit le 6 avril (cf. 6 avril 1753 (2)). Richardson répond à Clairaut le 5 juillet (cf. 5 juillet 1753 (1)).
Abréviations
NDM : Note de moi, Olivier Courcelle.
SB : Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Berlin.
Références
Richardson (Samuel), Pamela, or Virtue rewarded, 2 vol., London, 1740.
Richardson (Samuel), Clarissa, or, the History of a young lady, 7 vol., London, 1748 [Prévost] [Plus].
Courcelle (Olivier), « 17 juin 1753 (1) : Clairaut (Paris) écrit à Richardson », Chronologie de la vie de Clairaut (1713-1765) [En ligne], http://www.clairaut.com/n17juin1753po1pf.html [Notice publiée le 16 décembre 2010].
