Charles-Maurice Talleyrand-Périgord, Prince de Bénévent, Abbé de Saint-Denis at Reims, Vicar General to the Archbishop of Reims, Member of the Assembly of the Clergy, Agent General of the Clergy, Bishop of Autun, Depute to the States General (National Assembly), Administrator of the Department of Paris, Member of the Institut National and Académie Française, Foreign Minister, Grand Chamberlain, French Representative at the Congress of Vienna, President of the Council, Ambassador to London
and
Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste de Choiseul-Gouoffier, Scholar in studies of ancient Greece, Member of the Académie Française, Member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Ambassador to Constantinople, collector of ancient Classical sculpture, Director of the Academy of Arts and Imperial Public Library of Russia, Lithuanian lord, Minister of France, Peer of France:
Schoolboy Friends
The mausoleum of Duke Richilieu
Hulks heavily in Sorbonne students’ minds,
But once Charles finished there, he took the view
That entertaining friends, purchasing finds
In bookshops, and a little house to share
Them with his favorite one, “the charming boy,”
Auguste, was happiness. They made a pair
Of life-long friends. They were each other’s joy
For almost sixty years. Talleyrand wrote
Of Auguste, “He bore, still bears, all the cares,
The pleasures and the dreams of my life.” Quote
Whatever you select concerning pairs
Of men, you’ll find it hard to rise above
These two. Mean ambition? These two had love.