Lettre autographe signée, "dans le plus triste exil du monde", au dramaturge auxerrois Edme Joseph Villetard

Autograph letter signed by Germaine de Staël, dated in her hand January 9, 1807, addressed to Edme Joseph Villetard, sent from "Meulan dep. de Seine et Oise". Two pages on a bifolium.
Autograph address on verso and traces of seal.
Folds inherent to mailing, tear with small lack, not affecting text, on the address leaf, due to opening of the seal.
The baroness praises the play by the translator and dramatist from Auxerre, Villetard, Constantin et la primitive église ou le fanatisme politique. One senses in this letter all the bitterness of the baroness, forced into endless exile by the Imperial palace. As the letter indicates, she would nonetheless make brief clandestine stays in Paris to converse with the great minds of her time.

"J'étais fort malade Monsieur, quand vous avez bien voulu m'envoyer votre tragédie du 4e siècle que depuis j'ai vainement cherché votre adresse pour vous écrire tout ce que je pensais de cette tragédie où l'on voit ce me semble tous les sentiments et toutes les pensées d'un homme éclairé et énergique. J'espère que les circonstances me rapprocheront de Paris, et si j'ai l'honneur de vous voir Monsieur, je vous exprimerai ma reconnaissance pour le souvenir que vous avez bien voulu me faire parvenir dans le plus triste exil du monde, en vérité je ne me serais pas doutée qu'Auxerre eut jamais été la demeure d'un esprit aussi distingué que le vôtre" (I was quite ill, Sir, when you were so kind as to send me your tragedy of the 4th century, since which I have sought in vain for your address to write to you all that I thought of this tragedy in which one sees, it seems to me, all the sentiments and all the thoughts of an enlightened and energetic man. I hope that circumstances will bring me closer to Paris, and if I have the honor of seeing you, Sir, I will express to you my gratitude for the remembrance you were so kind as to send me in the saddest exile in the world, truly I would never have suspected that Auxerre had ever been the dwelling of a mind as distinguished as yours).