Theater

First complete collected edition and first illustrated edition. The first edition of Dom Garcie de Navarre, L'Impromptu de Versailles, Dom Juan ou le Festin de Pierre, Les Amans magnifiques, and La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas. With thirty copper engraved illustrations by Jean Sauvé after Pierre Brassart, 9 of them included in the pagination.
19th-century red full morocco binding, spines with five raised bands, date gilt at foot, double gilt fillets to edges of covers and spine-ends, large inned gilt dentelle, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Bindings signed M. Lortic.

An exceptional copy of the famous 1682 edition housed in a very elegant binding by Marcelin Lortic, who succeeded his father Pierre-Marcellin Lortic - Baudelaire's binder.

First collected edition.
Contemporary full blonde sprinkled sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with two tools and two compartments with grotesque designs, rouletted. Title and volume labels in red morocco. One wormhole to head of the first three volumes. Spines slightly faded. Fine copy, very fresh.

Most of the comedies given by the author quickly met with success, and even under the Revolution and the Terror, the author was not troubled, donning the uniform of commander of the national guard and providing verses for civic festivals. His works bring together 11 plays carried by a lively and alert style, precise, but with weak and loose plots. The fugitive poems are pieces often close to his comedies. The editorial project was carefully revised by the author, and we owe him some notes and prefaces and the variants of his first plays, the latter died the following year in 1806.
In fine, Les querelles des deux frères, ou la famille bretonne. Chez Duminil Lesueur. 1808. On the verso of the title page, a note from the publisher: "cet ouvrage termine le quatrième volume du théâtre complet de Collin d'Harleville ; il est placé immédiatement après les Poésies fugitives." ["this work completes the fourth volume of the complete theater of Collin d'Harleville; it is placed immediately after the Fugitive Poems."]

New edition, illustrated with two frontispieces and 12 figures before letters, unsigned. A title vignette repeated on both volumes. Title pages in red and black.
Contemporary full glazed blonde calf bindings. Spines with raised bands decorated with small repeated fleurons in compartments. Red morocco title and volume labels. Decorative gilt board-edges and on leading edges. Edges gilt. The figures are slightly shorter at the outer margin. Joints partially restored. Fine copy, in good binding.
Son of the illustrious actor Montfleury, and like him attached to the Hôtel de Bourgogne, his first plays were farces around 1660, then producing about one play per year, he evolved toward satire and social criticism. He was a rival of Molière, who had mocked his father in L'Impromptu de Versailles (to which he responded with L'Impromptu de l'Hôtel de Condé), but while Molière drew his manner from Italian theater, Montfleury freely drew inspiration from Spanish theater; his comic theater is not a comedy of characters but a satire of contemporary society.
Engraved armorial bookplate of the 19th century Ph. L. de Bordes de Fortage.

First edition of the French translation established by mademoiselle R. du Puget.
Half navy blue shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands set with black fillets decorated with double black compartments at whose centers the gilt monogram of the great bibliophile Roger de Cormenin is repeated five times, joints lightly rubbed at head and foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, a slight nick to one leading edge, speckled edges.
Some foxing.
Provenance: from the library of Roger de Cormenin, son of Louis de Cormenin who was the confidant and secretary of Théophile Gautier and also the intimate friend of Gustave Flaubert.