VERSES FOR A COUNTESS
[POETRY.]
‘Récueil de differentes pieces de vers, et chansons. A l’usage de Madame la Comtesse de Lichtervelde née Comtesse de Cassina de Wonsheim 1777’.
[Belgium, 1777 and later].
Manuscript on paper, in French, 4to (175 x 130 mm), pp. [2], 161, [45, blank]; neatly written in brown ink in a single hand, c. 20 lines per page; verses in a second contemporary hand to pp. 160–161; ‘Nieuport Dragen(?)’ written at foot of title-page; a few small spots; very good in contemporary sprinkled calf, spine richly gilt in compartments; light wear to extremities.
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‘Récueil de differentes pieces de vers, et chansons. A l’usage de Madame la Comtesse de Lichtervelde née Comtesse de Cassina de Wonsheim 1777’.
An interesting commonplace of verses, songs, madrigals, epigrams, carols, and fables, many of which are apparently unpublished, compiled for the use of Albertine de Cassina (1749–1816), Comtesse de Wonsheim, who married Charles de Lichtervelde (1741–1803) in 1769.
The subject matter ranges widely, encompassing life, fear of death, friendship, madness, reason, dogs, silence, the countryside, husbands, jealousy, the French, the city of Brussels, Voltaire, Turgot, and Malherbe, amongst much else besides. There are couplets performed in the theatre at Brussels on different occasions, songs to be sung to the air of the Barber of Seville, and verses addressed to a host of society ladies.
The authors of many of the pieces are identified. Several are by the Belgian writer and society figure Marie-Caroline Murray (1741–1831), including her French rendering of Pope’s ‘The Universal Prayer’. Voltaire’s verses to Catherine the Great also feature. Other recurring names include the Prince de Ligne, d’Adhémar, de la Borde, the Chevalier de Boufflers, and the Comte d’Ursel. The collection ends with couplets composed for the fête of the Comtesse de Lichtervelde by ‘le chevalier Alexandre de Nieulant’.
