Documentatieblad werkgroep Achttiende eeuw. Jaargang 1991

[p. 27]

R.H. Vermij
Answer to professor Rosenberg

The reaction by professor Rosenberg has the merit of centering around the right question: what is the case for Tyssot's authorship of the Voyages et avantures de Jaques Massé?

The novel appeared anonymously, be it in 1710 or 1714. As Rosenberg himself has shown, there remained uncertainty about the author for a long time. Of eighteenth-century writers, only J. Mylius attributed the book to Tyssot, in 1740. Other names were being mentioned as well and confusion reigned well into the nineteenth century.^1. The attribution to Tyssot, then, seems hardly well-founded. However, when in our century the genre of imaginary voyages aroused new interest, thisattribution was uncritically taken for granted. It has not been questioned seriously since. Rosenberg, indeed, has scanned Tyssot's works for hints concerning the authorship, but without doubting the received opinion. As it seems to me, his arguments are convincing only insofar as one is already a priori convinced that Tyssot was the author. In a book as full of events and allusions as the Voyages, one can find ‘internal evidence’ for any case. Why should the mention of a governor Tyssot of Surinam (with wrong dates) be more telling than that of a governor Van Rheden of Batavia?^2. And that Tyssot's son at some time was engaged in a duel slightly similar to one mentioned in the novel only shows that, apparently, duels not only occured in novels. At first sight, the letter to his son of 1720 presents us with more convincing evidence. I should remark, however, that Alcan et Bélize is attributed by Rosenberg to Tyssot solely on the ground of its occurence in this letter, which weakens his case considerably. Moreover, the passage is a bit larger than the sentences quoted by Rosenberg. Tyssot not only speaks of books, but also of portraits, and rondeaux he made at the occasion of the birthdays of his wife. If his son really had complained of being neglected when Tyssot practiced ‘à mes amis la distribution de mes ouvrages’, this probably referred to occasional poems like the latter.

1. A. Rosenberg, Tyssot de Patot and his work 1655-1738 (The Hague 1972) 99-100.

2. Ibidem, 115-116, 119.

[p. 28]

As for the letter to Du Puis ‘in which Tyssot disclaims authorship of the novel’ (strictly speaking, Tyssot does not disclaim anything; he just avoids the question), I do not think I misinterpreted it. It is exactly because of its character of badinage that I cannot take it seriously. Tyssot, indeed, was no man of false modesty and he liked making himself seem important. But that does not prove that he wrote the Voyages. On the contrary, such an attitude seems fully consistent with his not denying the authorship of a work he had not written. I do not see why we should not believe him when he tells us that he simply had read the manuscript before its being printed. As we know, circulation of manuscripts was common practice. Moreover. this assessment is in full accordance with what he says in still another letter, addressed to Van Keppel.^3.

Reading beyond the plain meaning of these letters, so full of irony and wit, is a very thorny bussiness and therefore hardly likely to provide conclusive evidence. Of course, the interpretation of a scholar like Rosenberg, so thoroughly acquainted with Tyssot's work, should be considered seriously. But interpretations have their limits. Rosenberg goes a bit far when, on the ground of his conviction that Tyssot could have written all things attributed to him, he simply waves aside the possibility of joint authorship, without even mentioning the pertinent and unequivocal testimony to the contrary of Marchand's Dictionnaire.^4.

In short, the case for Tyssot's authorship is extremely weak. I still feel there is no evidence at all that he wrote Jaques Massé. And, as long as nobody can point to another and more probable candidate for ‘le voyage imprimé a Bourdeaux’ mentioned in the letter by De Beyer, we have a rather strong argument that he did not.

3. Tyssot de Patot, Lettres choisies, II (The Hague 1727) 358-359.

4. P. Marchand, Dictionnaire historique ou mémoires critiques et littéraires concernant la vie et les ouvrages de divers personnages distingués particulièrement dans la Réplublique des Lettres, I (La Haye 1758) 318. (Also quoted in my former article on Tyssot, p. 114.)