Le Bret, Cuigy, Casteljaloux, Bignon, Royer de Prade et Regnault des Boisclairs : du nouveau sur quelques bons amis de Cyrano et sur l’édition posthume des États et Empires de la Lune (1657)

Abstract

This article deals mainly with Henry Le Bret, Cyrano’s friend and editor. Only Le Bret’s Parisian years are concerned here, the ones which preceeded his clerical career in Montauban.Till now very little was known of Le Bret’s Parisian period and nothing at all of his career as a « avocat au Conseil Privé du Roi ». Long investigations in Archives Nationales (Paris, CARAN), mainly in notarial deeds (Minutier Central) and in Conseil Privé’s archives (series V6), as well as in Archives départementales de Tarn-et-Garonne (Montauban), allowed me to revive many of his friends and clients : in the second category can be found Bishop of Albi, Gaspard de Daillon du Lude, related to the Roquelaures, and to Cyrano through the wealthy Feydeau family ; in the first category appear many people named in Le Bret’s posthumous preface of Cyrano’s Etats et Empires de la Lune (1657), like the Cuigys, the Durets, Captain Carbon de Casteljaloux, the engraver Bignon and the dramatist and historian Royer de Prade. They were all living in a delimited area of the « Marais » (Right Bank : rues de la Verrerie, des Billettes, Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie, Simon Lefranc and Sainte-Avoye) ; even Cyrano’s protectors were there, Regnault des Boisclairs at rue de la Verrerie, and Duke of Arpajon, whose residence partly burnt in January 1655, at Vieille rue du Temple. A precious notarial deed reveals that Le Bret was a cleric before Cyrano died, situation which should bring a new light on the making of the posthumous edition, published with numerous cuts (« lacunes ») and variants ; another notarized document concerns the donation of Clamard « seigneurie » to Cuigy junior in 1656, donation which not only explains a variant of the posthumous edition but also provides an irrefutable evidence that Cyrano’s novel was altered after his death.Among the addenda completing this article are the autograph last will of Casteljaloux, written in 1642 in Clamard where he died in 1654, the donation of Clamard to Cuigy junior (1656) and a substantial repayment to Le Bret by Royer de Prade (1657) just before the former went to Montauban.