[Lagrange-Chancel (François Joseph)]
Les Philippiques
ou les Odes sur le Regent
Description:
very fine manuscript in ink on paper, text written on rectos with 'Remarques' opposite, uniformly slightly brown and a little spotting,
ff. [ii], 36, pp. 37-45, [1, on the recto of the rear free endpaper], 8vo,
contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, minor wear to extremities, armorial bookplate of Robert de Billy on the front free endpaper, and an unidentified monogramatic bookplate inside the front cover, good
Publication Details:
No place or date, c. 1720
Notes: This virulent satire on the Le Régent was printed in Amsterdam in 1723 (the year of Le Régent's death), having then but three odes, and again there in an undated edition, with 4 Odes. The complement of 5 was printed in Paris in 1795: a 6th was added to the edition of 1858. Written in 1720, and circulated in MS, it was rigourously suppressed by the Régime, and the author was persecuted. The charges against le Duc include incest with his daughter. This is an early version of the Philippiques, in that the 4th Ode is added later in another hand - good, but not as accomplished as the main text:...moreThis virulent satire on the Le Régent was printed in Amsterdam in 1723 (the year of Le Régent's death), having then but three odes, and again there in an undated edition, with 4 Odes. The complement of 5 was printed in Paris in 1795: a 6th was added to the edition of 1858. Written in 1720, and circulated in MS, it was rigourously suppressed by the Régime, and the author was persecuted. The charges against le Duc include incest with his daughter. This is an early version of the Philippiques, in that the 4th Ode is added later in another hand - good, but not as accomplished as the main text: this accounts for change from foliation to pagination, so that it could be squeezed into the available space. The Remarques consist of historical and explanatory notes, and identifications of the personages. In the 4th Ode the notes are in the margins. The last page gives the text for the funeral oration on Le Régent's delivered by Michel Poncet, Bishop of Angers (Job 30, 22), followed by a few satirical lines on the bishop. Lagrange-Chancel was a child prodigy, producing dramas from the age of nine, so promising that the elderly Racine came out of retirement to lend his support. But the Philippiques are his best known work, and rattle along marvellously. Robert de Billy, 1869-1953, French diplomat and friend of Marcel Proust. The monogram in the bookplate consists of 4 intertwined Bs (?another de Billy bookplate). HIDE
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Price: £1,500
Subject: History
Published Date: c. 1720
Stock Number: 58751
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