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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
In 1920, the Revue mondiale published an unedited dialogue of Diderot with the Abbé de Barthélemy from a manuscript which had been found, it was said, among the papers of Sainte-Beuve by his secretary, Jules Troubat. Albert Cim (Cimochowski), an occasional contributor to the review, wrote a brief note on the history of the dialogue and said that Troubat had very much wanted to see the text published. Troubat died, however, in 1914 before he could arrange for its publication. Cim, having made a copy of the manuscript, determined to carry out Troubat's intentions and, after the First World War, he enlisted the sympathies of Jean Finot, managing editor of the Revue mondiale. One year later, the publisher, Albert Messein, who had just published a collection of anecdotes on the life of Diderot (Historiettes, collected by Suzy Leparc), agreed with Cim that the dialogue deserved a more lasting format than the pages of a semimonthly review and brought out the thin volume of the dialogue's text.
1 My interest in this problem was initially aroused (see my Diderot's Determined Fatalist [New York: King's Crown, 1950] p. 216) and has been encouraged by two wiser Diderot scholars, Norman Torrey and Herbert Dieckmann, both of whom remain suspicious of the authenticity of the dialogue. Dieckmann (in Studies in Honor of Fred W. Shipley, St. Louis, 1942, p. 188), says “authenticity very doubtful.”
2 Diderot: Interpreter of Nature (New York, 1943).
3 Some of the other interior clues follow: (1) A paraphrased text of Voltaire is quoted and referred to as recently written; I have been unable to identify this text. (2) Swift's A Modest Proposal (1726) is given as having been written “il n'y a pas très longtemps.” (3) Diderot's letter to Voltaire dated 11 June 1749 is mentioned by Barthélémy who says in the dialogue: “Il a circulé certaine lettre de vous.” This letter which appears for the first time in the Brière edition of Diderot's works (Paris, 1821, xii, 249–253) might possibly have circulated amongst members of the philosophic clan, but it seems highly improbable. Arthur Wilson (Revue d'histoire littéraire, li [1951], 257–260) has shown that the Brière edition printed an expurgated copy of the letter. The integral text of the letter which Wilson found in the Dreer Collection of Autographs in the Historical Society of Philadelphia was first printed by him in the article mentioned. Very probably the expurgation of the Brière letter was the work of the Vandeuls. Thus it would seem highly improbable that Barthélémy could have seen that letter or that Diderot in writing his dialogue would have suggested that he could have seen it. When the text of the dialogue (Paris: Messein, 1921—hereafter Bart) has Diderot say (p. 32) that he wrote that letter “pour lui faire plaisir” (to Voltaire), one finds it difficult to believe either that this is basically true (the letter contains some of Diderot's most serious thinking and reflects his theological feelings of 1749) or that Diderot would have admitted as much, even if it were true. (4) Jean Craig (d. 1600) is mentioned (in relation to his estimate of the end of the world) as having been dead “depuis un siècle et demi.” (5) The Council of Trent (mentioned nowhere else in Diderot) of 1542–63 is spoken of as barely two centuries ago.
4 Meister tells us that Grimm took only the letters of Catherine II with him (Diderot, Œuvres complètes, ed. Assézat-Tourneux [Paris: Gamier, 1875–77], xviii, 350).
5 See Herbert Dieckmann, Inventaire du Fonds Vandeul (Geneva: Droz, 1951).
6 M. Jean Bonnerot, the foremost Sainte-Beuve scholar, in an exchange of correspondence, finds absolutely no mention of such a manuscript among Sainte-Beuve's papers. He has communicated to Herbert Dieckmann (who has kindly passed on the information) that he finds the story of the manuscript fantastic.
7 Although the most jealous of the philosophers and un-friendliest toward Barthélémy were D'AIembert and Duclos, one must suppose that Diderot, particularly from 1758 to the early sixties, was included in Barthélemy's statement: “Quelques philosophes ne me pardonnèrent jamais l'acceptation momentanée du privilège du Mercure et encore moins la protection de M. et Mme de Choiseul” (Mémoires sur la vie et quelques uns des ouvrages de l'abbé Barthélemy, Paris, Didot, an vii [1799]).
8 He is mentioned both in Sainte-Beuve and in Cim.
9 Longuerue is nowhere mentioned in the works of Diderot. He is, however, mentioned by Cim, and only once (in a footnote to Portraits de femmes) by Sainte-Beuve.
10 Numerals following Bart (see n. 3 above) are page numbers. Other references are to abbreviated titles of works, with volume and page, in the Assézat-Tourneux Œuvres complètes.
11 My thanks to Arthur Wilson, who read these notes, for encouraging the inclusion of some discussion of punctuation.
12 The same must be said, it seems to me, for Sainte-Beuve's first secretary (1855–59), Jules Levallois. It seems very unlikely that the sober author of Corneille inconnu, Sainte-Beuve, and other critical works would have lent himselt to a pastiche of Diderot, and this despite his edition of the papiers Moultou (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, ses amis et ses ennemis, 1865), his lively interest in vocabulary and style studies (see J. Levallois, Sainte-Beuve [Paris: Didier, 1872], p. 210), and his close friendship with Albert Cim.
13 Correspondance générale de Ste-Beuve (Paris: Stock, 1935–), ii, 515.
14 In Sept.–Oct. 1830, Sainte-Beuve published his article on Diderot, entitled “Mémoires et correspondance de Diderot,” in the Globe. M. G. Michaut has since shown that under cover of quotation from Diderot, Sainte-Beuve was really addressing a secret message to a current amorata. Bonnerot mentions the incident (Correspondance, i, 205, n. 1) and continues to remark that this “procédé assez mystérieux de Sainte-Beuve est assez dans ses habitudes.” If it shows nothing else, the incident underscores once again Sainte-Beuve's close knowledge of Diderot texts and his turning to that author for his literary recreations.
15 Paris: Alcan, 1924. Diderot is mentioned here, among other references to him, in connection with Massillon's sermon, “Sur le petit nombre des élus,” which figures in the Barthélémy dialogue and nowhere else in Diderot's writings. Cim reminds the reader of the text of the dialogue so recently published, at his encouragement, in the Revue mondiale.