Reprint of the first complete collected edition of 1682, which included for the first time six plays in their first edition (Don Garcie de Navarre, L’Impromptu de Versailles, Don Juan ou le Festin de Pierre, Mélicerte, Les Amants magnifiques and La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas). This posthumous collection of the Œuvres was compiled from manuscripts entrusted by Armande Béjart to Charles Varlet de La Grange and Vivot, former actors of the Illustre Théâtre, who introduced the stage directions, thereby ensuring the faithful transmission of the master’s plays. This edition is also the first illustrated edition of Molière, with thirty engraved copperplate figures by Sauvé after Pierre Brissart, precious documents for the history of theater, costume and stage design, in which Molière himself can sometimes be recognized in his roles.
An elegant copy with generously sized margins (height: 163 mm), handsomely bound by Chambolle-Duru.
A provenance of the first order: the actor and director Jean Meyer (1914–2003), who joined the Comédie-Française in 1937 and remained there for twenty-two years. His first major role was Harpagon in L’Avare, and his first production, eighteen years later, was Le Médecin malgré lui. He played more than two hundred roles, some fifty of them in Molière, staged plays both at the Maison de Molière and at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, the Théâtre Michel and the Théâtre des Célestins in Lyon, published a biography of the author in 1963, and directed an eleven-volume critical edition between 1968 and 1972. His last role as an actor at the Comédie-Française was in L’École des femmes, and his last production was L’École des maris. This provenance could hardly be more fitting, echoing the very history of Molière on stage.
Spine very slightly faded, otherwise a very fine copy.
From the library of Jean Meyer (bookplate and manuscript ownership inscription at the head of volume 1).
Guibert, II, pp. 651–658; Lacroix, no. 287.