, according to a fun maxim of Ms de Svigné (or Ms de La Fayette), translators are like domestic staff who will send a message from their master. What is relevant to me in this comparison is not the idea of the subordinate of translators to their authors, nor the criticism of their inloyalty (see footnote 1), but the fact that the spirituelle dame places here the act of translating ‘under the Mercure sign’ as will be done later, much more so...