Robespierre to a young lady

from Arras 6 June 1788

(Translation by Victoria Aris)

Madam,

It is rare to be able to write to a pretty lady in the way I am writing to you. This has always seemed to me to reduce the writers of journals to the bottom rank of literature, always assuming, that is, that one can accord them a place somewhere in the Republic of Writing at all. Unhappy are they who are deprived of the sweetest prize that could crown their hard work! Thanks to heaven and to you, I am exempt from this common disgrace; I send you my journals and you read them. I owe this advantage, madam, to the strength of your spirit as well as to the indulgence with which it pleases you to receive my creations. As a result, I see myself infinitely above the majority of the laborious writers who follow the same career as I, and I have nothing to envy in the most pleasing poets or even in the most appealing novelists, for the summit of happiness and glory for a writer, of whatever type, is to please the Graces, in whatever manner that may be. This is why, madam, as soon as my journals begin to bore you, I beg that you will inform me immediately, so that I may cease writing when you will cease to read them.

Is the little dog that you are rearing for my sister as pretty as the one you showed me when I passed through Béthune? Whatever the case may be; it will always be welcomed with honour and pleasure. One could even say that, however ugly it may be, it will always be pretty.

A man of spirit is never ugly, a famous woman once said; I think it was Mme de Sévigné. One could no doubt say something frank and true of this nature about your dog.

In any case, my sister charges me to tell you, from her, everything affectionate imaginable, and it is not in me to deny her anything when it comes to doing you justice.

I am, with respect, madam, your very humble and obedient servant,

de Robespierre
Arras, 6th June 1788

(Letter reproduced in the Annales Révolutionaires by M. Charles Vellay (1908. I. 107-109), and found in the collection of M. Georges Caïn)
According to M. Charles Vellay, this letter was addressed to a friend of Charlotte Robespierre, Miss Dehay.