M&D spoiler p.668 Pardon my French

[Pierre-Yves Petillon]

***M&D SPOILER": Pardon my French












Nobody Asked. But just in Case Someone has a Question, I have an Answer, or
Part of.




M&D is sprinkled with French words and phrases, which is as it should be,
this being a XVIIIth century novel. Pretty weird French or pseudo-French
sometimes, but that's part of "le charme" (or "la charme").
P. 668 one stumbles upon a whole sentence in French. By Voltaire.
"Listen to what Voltaire wrote about me to the Count and Countess
d'Argental:"....sans la voix de la Le More et le Canard de Vaucanson, vous
n'auriez rien que fît ressouvenir de la gloire de la France?"
Baffling thing about this sentence is that as it stands it does not make
any sense. Speedy crypto-guesswork soon suggests though that once *qui* is
substituted to *que* it does make sense: without the voice of "la Le More"
and Vaucauson's duck, there would be nothing to remind you of France's past
(or is it quondam?) glory"/ there would be nothing  France's glory  would
be remembered by.

The quotation is from Voltaire's Letter to Charles Augustin Feriol, comte
d'Argental, and Jeanne Grace Bosc Du Bouchet, Comtesse d'Argental, dated
Brussels May 5, 1741
Letter nr 2323 in "Voltaire's Correspondence", sous la direction de
Theodore Besterman,  Genève 1955, vol. XI (1741).
As the Besterman edition runs to over 100 volumes, how likely is it that
this could have been TRP's source?
The sentence is quoted in a book on Vaucanson. André DOYON & Lucien
LIAIGRE: "Jacques Vaucanson, Mécanicien de Génie", PUF Paris 1966. With a
Trystero-like spelling mistake, "fit" instead of "fît", that might be a
*clew* -not that the difference will show on the Net, but just in case.

Not particularly helpful, OK.
 But it's nice/ disappointing to know that TRP didn't make up the quotation.

*Catherine Nicole LA MORE or LA MAURE is an opera singer Voltaire mentions
several times.
__________

Nice although Black&White Picture (Drawing) of Vaucanson's Duck - the
"shitting" duck, not the would-be "f-ing" one, to be found at site below:




Vaucanson eend - Robot Duck by Vaucanson
              Robot duck probably by Jacques de Vaucanson (1709-1782). People
              were tricked to believe that Vaucanson's duck ate, and produced
              excrements. Picture and...

http://atdmac11.let.kun.nl/ATD/HomePages/H.Schotel/Vaucanson-eend.html
              - size 2K - 24 Dec 96