Talk:Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras

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Military history: Biography / European / French / Early Modern

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Poor Sourcing

"Upon the reading of his death warrant, he remarked, "I see that you have made three spelling mistakes."[2][3][4]"

The sources given for this claim are all anecdotal. None cite a contemporary source. None are in French. All are worthless as history.

They are sufficient to show that this anecdote was being said *about* the Marquis by the late 19th century. They do not show that the event actually occurred. There appears to be no evidence that this statement is anything other than fiction. The earliest reference I can find is in a story by Alexandre Dumas, La Comtesse de Charny (1853), which, however, describes it differently:

Le testament dicté, monsieur de Favras demanda à le lire et à le signer.

On lui délia les mains; il lut le testament, corrigea trois fautes d'orthographe qu'avait faites le greffier, et signa au bas de chaque page : «Mahi de Favras.»

Note that (a) the event described is Favras correcting three spelling errors, not remarking on them and (b) that this is not history but fiction, in which, by artistic license, the author is entitled to add imaginative details "to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative."RandomCritic (talk) 14:59, 18 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]