{"id":142,"date":"2008-11-24T19:55:44","date_gmt":"2008-11-24T17:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hume.doesntexist.org\/\/?p=142"},"modified":"2009-07-08T23:31:33","modified_gmt":"2009-07-08T21:31:33","slug":"brieven-van-hume-over-amsterdam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archief.somtijds.nl\/hume-blog\/?p=142","title":{"rendered":"Brieven van Hume over Amsterdam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 113 To: Blanc [55] p 227<\/strong>
\nI had heard of the Dutch Translation of my political Discourses\u2020\u00a02 before yours; but have never yet seen it. I sent a Copy of my other Writings (except the History) to the Bookseller at Amsterdam .\u2020\u00a03 This I wou’d not have done, had I known, that you had any Thoughts of translating them: But it is of no Consequence. I have the Honor to be<\/p>\n

Sir Your most obedient & most humble Servant<\/p>\n

DAVID HUME<\/p>\n

Edinburgh<\/p>\n

5th of Novr 1755.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a02 Mauvillon’s.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a03 Some of these appeared as OEuvres philosophiques de Mr D. Hume [translated by J.-B. M\u00e9rian and J.-B.-R. Robinet], Amsterdam , J. H.Schneider, 1758-60, 5 vols., 8vo. The Essays Moral and Political, however,were not all translated into French till later.<\/p>\n

Hume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 94 To: Blanc [54] Fn 1 p 191<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a01 Jean-Bernard Le Blanc (1707-81), French man of letters, ‘historiographe des B\u00e1\u00a2timens du Roy de France’; author of Lettres d’un Fran\u00e1\u00a7ois concernant le gouvernement, la politique et les moeurs des Anglois et Fran\u00e1\u00a7ois, 3 vols., Paris, 1745 (English translation, Letters on the English and French Nations, 2 vols., Dublin, 1747); translator of Hume’s Political Discourses as Discours politiques de M. Hume, traduits de l’Anglois, Amsterdam (et se vend \u00e1\u00a0 Paris), 1754, 2 vols., 12mo, and 2nd edit., Dresden, 1755, 2 vols. 8vo.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a02 Le Blanc opened the correspondence with this letter from Paris (MS., R.S.E.; Burton, i. 458 f.). He announces that he is sending a copy of his translation of the Pol. Disc., and asks Hume to read it with care and to point out any errors in translation. The sooner this is done the better, he says, ‘car il est bon de vous dire que cette traduction, gr\u00e1\u00a2ce \u00e1\u00a0 l’excellence de l’original se d\u00e9bite ici comme un roman…. Le libraire m’avertit qu’il sera bient\u00e1\u00b4t tems de penser \u00e1\u00a0 la seconde \u00e9dition. J’attendray votre r\u00e9ponse pour l’enrichir de vos remarques qui feront que celle-ci sera re\u00e1\u00a7ue du public avec encor plus d’applaudissements.’<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a03 Sic in MS.<\/p>\n

Hume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 94 To: Blanc [54] Fn 1 p 192<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a01 Published as vol. iv of the Essays and Treatises, 1754.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a02 I doubt if Le Blanc really meant that. What he said, after asking for Hume’s comments on the translation, was: ‘J’en profiterai \u00e1\u00a0 la premiere \u00e9dition,
\nainsi que des remarques, changements, ou additions qu’il vous plaira me communiquer, soit \u00e1\u00a0 l’occasion de vos discours, soit sur les autres ouvrages anglois dont je parle dans mes notes.’<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a03 Vol. i of Essays and Treatises, 1753.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a04 The opening of the essay Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion. In its earlier form it opened: ‘There is a certain delicacy of passion, to which some people are subject, that makes them extremely sensible….’<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a05 Vol. iii of Essays and Treatises, 1753.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a06 Vol. ii of Essays and Treatises, 1754 (reprinted, still as third edition, in 1756).<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a07 The second edition appeared, first with A. Millar’s name on the titlepage in 1750, and then with M. Cooper’s, in the same year.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a08 I presume he means the 4 vols. of Essays and Treatises, including vol. iv, Political Discourses.<\/p>\n

Hume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 94 To: Blanc [54] Fn 1 p 193<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a01 From a letter of Gavin Hamilton, the bookseller in question, to William Strahan, printed by Hill (p. 3, n. 2), it appears that Hume was originally offered
\n\u00c2\u00a31,200 in all, in return for which the booksellers were to have the right to print 2,000 copies of each of the 3 vols. of the History when ready. As things fell out, Hume did not give Messrs. Hamilton, Balfour, and Neill the chance to publish any volume after the first. He objected to contracting for books too far ahead.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a02 A reference to the quarrels between the clergy and the Parlement of Paris, in which the Court took first one side and then the other. In May 1753 the King by lettres de cachet ordered all Presidents and Councillors to residences that were named for them, away from Paris, the Grand Council being sent to Pontoise. The result was the publication of the Grandes Remonstrances on 23 May, containing the memorable statement: ‘If subjects owe obedience to kings,
\nkings on their side owe obedience to law.’ In 1754 the Court reversed its policy, and recalled the exiled parlementaires.
\n
\nHume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 101 To: Blanc [54] Fn 2 p 207<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a02 Discours politiques de Mr David Hume, traduits de l’Anglois par M. de M*** [El\u00e9azar de Mauvillon], Amsterdam , 1754 (16mo, pp. ii, 355).<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a03 Le Blanc thought so too. In his letter of 25 Dec. 1754 he says: ‘J’ay vu ici la traduction de vos Discours Politiques imprim\u00e9e en Hollande; elle ne se peut pas lire…. Le traducteur quel qu’il soit ne sait constament ni l’anglois ni le fran\u00e1\u00a7ois. C’est probablement un de ces auteurs qui travaillent \u00e1\u00a0 la foire pour les libraires de Hollande, et dont les ouvrages bons ou mauvais se d\u00e9bitent aux foires de Leipsig et de Francfort…. Cette traduction passe ici pour \u00eatre d’un Mr Mauvillon de Leipsig dont le m\u00e9tier est de faire des livres fran\u00e1\u00a7ois pour l’Allemagne, et d’enseigner ce qu’il ne sait pas, c’est \u00e1\u00a0 dire votre langue et la n\u00e1\u00b4tre’ (MS., R.S.E.; Burton, i. 461).<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a04 Voltaire’s breach with Frederick the Great was an old story by this time.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a05 Voltaire did spend a month (June-July 1754) at the abbey of S\u00e9nones, living to all outward seeming as a monk but writing free-thinking articles for the Encyclop\u00e9die. The episode was a piece of hypocrisy designed to facilitate his return to Paris and the French Court.<\/p>\n

Hume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 101 To: Blanc [54] Fn 1 p 208<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a01 David Mallet edited all Bolingbroke’s Works in 5 vols., 1753-4. With Hume’s opinion cf. Horace Walpole (Letters, iii. 269): ‘It is comical to see how he [Bolingbroke] is given up here, since the best of his writings, his metaphysical divinity, have been published. While he betrayed and abused every man who trusted him, or who had forgiven him, or to whom he was obliged, he was a hero, a patriot, and a philosopher, and the greatest genius of the age: the moment his Craftsmen against Moses and St. Paul, &c., were published, we have discovered that he was the worst man and the worst writer in the world.’<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a02 James Harris (1709-80), a man of rank and wealth; M.P., Lord of Admiralty, and Lord of the Treasury; Secretary and Controller to Queen, 1774-80; author of Hermes, or a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal Grammar (1751), and Philosophical Arrangements (1775). As Hume notes, he was an Aristotelian, and applied Aristotle’s methods to modern problems.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a03 Gabriel Girard (1677-1748), author of Synonymes fran\u00e1\u00a7ois; leurs diff\u00e9rentes significations et le choix qu’il en faut faire pour parler avec justesse, a very popular work many times reprinted during the century.<\/p>\n

Hume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 101 To: Blanc [54] Fn 1 p 209<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a01 Lyttelton’s Henry II, which he wrote and re-wrote with infinite pains and which in the end made very dry reading, did not begin to appear till 1764, but the printing was begun in 1755.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a02 William Guthrie (1708-70). The book referred to here is probably An Essay upon English Tragedy, with Remarks upon the Abb\u00e9 Le Blanc’s Observations on the English Stage, 1747.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hume: TLDH Vol 2 App B [Early French Translators] p 343
\nAPPENDIX B
\nHUME’S EARLY FRENCH TRANSLATORS (zie: ‘Over vroege Franse vertalingen’)
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Hume: TLDH Vol 2 App B [Early French Translators] p 344<\/p>\n

Hume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 225 To: Robertson [63] Fn 1 p 415<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a01 Octavie Guichard, Madame Belot (died 1805). Left a young widow with an income of only 60 livres a year, she sold her annuity for 1,200 livres and spent the money in learning English. Her first book was Reflexions d’une provinciale sur le discours de J.-Jacques Rousseau touchant l’in\u00e9galit\u00e9 des conditions, 1756; her second, M\u00e9langes de litt\u00e9rature angloise, 2 parts, 1759 (which included a translation of Garth’s Dispensary). Her Hume translations were: Histoire de la Maison de Tudor, sur le Tr\u00e1\u00b4ne d’Angleterre, Par M. David Hume, Traduite de l’Anglois, Par Madame B***, Amsterdam , 2 vols., 4to, 1763; and Histoire de la Maison de Plantagenet, sur le Tr\u00e1\u00b4ne d’Angleterre, Depuis l’Invasion de Jules C\u00e9sar, jusqu’ \u00e1\u00a0 l’av\u00e9nement de Henry VII. Par M. David Hume, Traduite de l’Anglois Par Madame B***, Amsterdam , 2 vols., 4to, 1765. She also translated Johnson’s Rasselas, 1768. In Dec. 1765 she married Jean-Baptiste-Fran\u00e1\u00a7ois Durey de Meini\u00e8res, Pr\u00e9sident de Meini\u00e8res (born 1705), who had some time before established her in his house in order that she might have the use of his fine library.<\/p>\n

Hume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 225 To: Robertson [63] Fn 1 p 416<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a01 Grimm says of Mme Belot’s translation of The Tudors: [‘Elle] ne prend point dans le public, et . . . on lui reproche d\u00e9j\u00e1\u00a0 un style lourd, froid, et l\u00e1\u00a2che (Corr. Litt., iii. 331); and of The Plantagenets: [Le style de Mme Belot] ‘plat et “Ce gouvernement ne ressemblait pas mal \u00e1\u00a0 l’aristocratie polonaise” et Mme Belot traduit: “Ce gouvernement ressemblait assez \u00e1\u00a0 une aristocratie polie”. . . On a dit que M. Hume avait revu lui-m\u00eame les \u00e9preuves de cette traduction, et son s\u00e9jour \u00e1\u00a0 Paris pouvait rendre la chose vraisemblable; mais cela n’est pas vrai’ (ibid., iv. 403).<\/p>\n

Hume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 225 To: Robertson [63] Fn 1 p 417<\/strong>
\n\u2020\u00a01 Apparently Stewart omitted a passage here.<\/p>\n

\u2020\u00a02 Several books purporting to be extracts from these Memoirs have been published, but the MSS. themselves seem to have been destroyed during the French Revolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hume: TLDH Vol 1 Ltr 113 To: Blanc [55] p 227 I had heard of the Dutch Translation of my political Discourses\u2020\u00a02 before yours; but have never yet seen it. I sent a Copy of my other Writings (except the History) to the Bookseller at Amsterdam .\u2020\u00a03 This I wou’d not have done, had I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,229],"tags":[52,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archief.somtijds.nl\/hume-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archief.somtijds.nl\/hume-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archief.somtijds.nl\/hume-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archief.somtijds.nl\/hume-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archief.somtijds.nl\/hume-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archief.somtijds.nl\/hume-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1867,"href":"https:\/\/archief.somtijds.nl\/hume-blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/1867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archief.somtijds.nl\/hume-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archief.somtijds.nl\/hume-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archief.somtijds.nl\/hume-blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}