Poem in French by Dom Pedro II (1890)

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Exiled, in the last year of his life, Dom Pedro II pays homage to a French institution with a poem.

Manuscript poem by Dom Pedro II for Instituto Stanislas. One page, in French. 11.2 cm x 17.6 cm. France, 1890. Excellent condition. Single piece.

Au college Stanislas,

Le grec et le latin nous font mieux connaitre
sans presque l´oublier ce que fait la nature
Beauté leur doit toujours notre littérature
et deux mères, beau monstre la faisant paraitre
Le calcul de l´intègre constamment le maitre
Que dessin rendra doux ainsi que la peinture
Dont complete l'effet notre Sainte Ecriture
Feront toute ignorance certes disparaitre
Et si quelcun enfin poussera un hélas
Ne trouvant de remède à sa grande détresse
Je dirai que toujours au collège Stanislas
Il n´a été célèbre que par sa paresse
Of savoir même peu étant toujours fort las

D Pedro d´Alcantara

Qui tous ces vers composant
Dans une langue étrangere
N est pas outrecuidant
S'il croit se taker d'affaire

Dom Pedro II appreciated France and, particularly, Cannes, a city in the south of the country where he usually went to take long walks, study and rest. The city is currently known for its international film festival. In addition, it houses a school that would become renowned, the Stanislas Institute, where members of the Brazilian royal family used to study and in which D. Pedro II paid homage with his poem.

With the Republic proclaimed on November 15, 1889, Dom Pedro II left Brazil with the imperial family. Therefore, the Emperor's documents on this last trip, a year before his death, in Paris, are quite unusual. The production of poems by Dom Pedro II seems to have been a rare exercise and symbolizes well his love for the arts, for the sciences, in short, for knowledge.