Add MS 57917

ANTHOLOGY OF VERSE AND PROSE BY FRENCH WRITERS; circa 1653-1751. Mostly French. Partly Latin, and printed. This collection of one hundred and four pieces, mostly in verse, was initially compiled circa 1743-1747 as a series of separate pamphlets, each with its own title-page, copied in a single hand. Authors represented include Philippe Habert, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, Noel Bosquillon, François Joseph de la Grange-Chancel and Pierre de Villiers. Two pieces (ff. 148v-151), one by and the other addressed to Voltaire, were added in another hand at the end of the final gathering, after but circa 1751. The second of two printed items carries on the title-page (f. 73) the inscription 'Disson', which may represent the signature of the poet and dramatist Pierre Gabriel Disson (fl. 1749-1754). Purchased from Quaritch, 28 March 1973.

Paper; ff. iv+151. 220 x 168mm. Contemporary binding of mottled calf. Spine includes five raised bands with gilt decorations consisting of fleurons and label of red leather bearing legend 'RECEU DE POESI'. Large comb endpapers and red silk book-marker. Papers of mixed stock, partly countermarked with maker's name 'Montargis' (fl. circa 1753-1755: see Raymond Gaudriault, Filigranes et autres caractèristiques des papiers fabriqués en France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Paris, 1995, p. 246). Contemporary pagination, in ink, present in nos. (1) and (3)-(5) only. First section inscribed at foot of first page (f. 1) with 'Premier Cuyer', and on f. 12v with catchword 'Coloque', subsequently deleted. Laid down inside front cover engraved bookplates (f. i) of Frédéric Lachèvre, French bibliographer, and (f. ii) Desmond Flower, translator and bibliographer. Modern pencilled notes include number 'Acq 674' in top left-hand corner of f. iiiv and price '£100' on facing page (f. iv), with bookseller's code and number 31689 on last leaf (f. 150).

The main contents, listed mostly under the titles given on the prefatory leaves of each section, are as follows;

1. ff. 1-12. Six 'Morceaux Choisis En Vers. Meslange [divers deleted]'. Included (ff. 9-11v) is Voltaire's 'Discours Sur La nature du Plaisir. Par Mr. Voltaire 4e p.', beg. 'Jusqu'à quand verrons nous ce reveu fanatique', which formed the fifth poem in his 'Discours en Verse sur l'Homme'. A note at the end quotes eleven verses from the version published in the Recueil de pièces fugitives en prose et en vers. Par. M. de Voltaire (Paris, 1740), where it replaces a passage of nineteen that stand in the main text here.

2. ff. 13-18. Three anonymous 'Pieces En Vers Sur La Mort', the first (ff. 14-17) beg. 'Nous ne mourrons pas moins qu'à cette heure fatalle'.

3. ff. 19-41v. Forty-six 'Pieces Tirées du Livre Intitulée Nouvelle Elite des Poésies Héroiques [et Galliardes] de ce tems. 1743', a work first published at Utrecht in 1737. Besides madrigals, elegies and epigrams the pieces include (ff. 36-41v) 'La Temple de La Mort' by Philippe Habert.

4. ff. 42-51v. Four 'Eglogues', with two other short pieces. The eclogues 'Tircis et Philis' (ff. 43-45), here headed 'Idille', and 'Tircis Et Climène' (ff. 47v-50) were printed with variants in l'Élite des poésies fugitives, vol. 2 (1769), pp. 169-173 and 37-41, with attributions to l'Abbé Louis Mangenot and Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle respectively. For a calligraphic copy, 1780, of 'Tircis et Philis' see Add. 27930, ff. 2-4.

5. ff. 52-64. Five 'Pieces Critiques Sur Le Regne de Louis XIV. En Vers.' Included are two prose-satires (ff. 53v-58), with explanatory notes, entitled 'Le Jeu Du Piquet' and 'Le Jeu de L'ombre', first printed in 1647, along with a verse-epitaph (f. 59) for the King by Crébillon, beg. 'France, de ton tyran, orne ainsi le tombeau.

6. ff. 65-78. Nine 'Pieces A La Gloire de Louis Quatorze'. Partly Latin and printed. Included among the sonnets, acrostic verses, etc., are (ff. 68v-70) a 'Portrait de Louis le Grand' by l'abbé Noel Bosquillon, first printed in 1688, and two printed quarto pamphlets, viz.:

(a) ff. 71-72. Anonymous verses to Abel Servien, Marquis de Sablé et de Château Neuf, entitled 'A Monseignevr le Comte de Servien Sur sa promotion à la Surintendance. Stances' (n.pl., [1653]). Quarto. Bifolium, paginated 1-3.

(b) ff. 73-78. Eustache Le Noble de Tennelière: Poème latin de Mr de Santeuil de Saint Victor, Pour le Roy. Traduit Par Monsieur Le Noble (Paris: Claude Mazuel, 1692). Quarto. pp. 12. Partly Latin.

7. ff. 79-106v. Four verse-satires on Philippe, Duc d'Orleans, Regent of France, by François Joseph de la Grange-Chancel; 1720-1723. Extensively annotated texts of these pieces, along with a reply to 'Les Philippiques', are now Kings 141; and see Lansdowne 1170, ff. 126-151. As follows;

(a) ff. 79-102. 'Les Philippiques Par Monsieur de La Grange', comprising three poems accompanied by explanatory 'Remarques' in prose, first printed in 1720. The title-page (f. 79) carries the note 'Ces vers ont p– etre Faite en 1720. du tems de L'agie, Je les ay transcrits Sur un manuscrit en 1746'. For further copies see Add. 19672, ff. 15-23, and Eg. 658, ff. 1-39v, where they are followed (ff. 40-56v) by two further 'Odes' numbered IV and V.

(b) ff. 103-106. 'Parodie de La Derniere scene de Mitridate, Contre La Regence', composed on the occasion of the death of the Duke in 1723. The 'Parodie', which has its own title-page, is followed (f. 105v) by two pieces dated Aug. 1647, the second of them a verse-inscription on a portrait of the Young Pretender.

8. ff. 107-121v. 'Songe Du Petit Pere André [Religieux Augustin] Contre Les Jésuites' (ff. 107-115), in prose, by the preacher André Boullanger (d. 1657), followed by nineteen other pieces, partly on the Jesuits.

9. ff. 122-148v. 'L'art DE Prêcher A Vn abbé', in three numbered 'Chants', by l'Abbé Pierre de Villiers, first printed under this title in 1683.

10. ff. 148v-151v. Poems by and addressed to Voltaire, added in a different hand following the 'finis' of the main collection, circa 1751, viz.:

(a) ff. 148v-150. 'Les Tonneaux, Epitre de M. De Voltaire au Roy de Prusse', [1751], beg. 'Blaise Pascal a tort, il en faut convenir'.

(b) ff. 150-151. 'Epitre à M. De Voltaire, Sur celle qu'il vient d'écrire au Roy de Prusse intituleé Les Tonneaux, et Sur les vers qu'il a adressés au Cardinal Qiuirini, au sujet de l'Eglise Catholique de Berlin', beg. 'Blaise Pascal a tort; vous n'avés pas raison'.