Crispin rival de son maître

12mo, red morocco, triple gilt fillet, ribbed spine decorated, gilt fillets on the edges, inner gilt roll, gilt edges. Binding signed by Trautz-Bauzonnet.

151 x 92 mm.

Lesage, Alain René. Crispin, Rival of His Master. Comedy. By Monsieur Le Sage.
Paris, 1707.

Rare first edition of this comedy by Alain René Lesage (1668-1747).

Turcaret, a former servant turned unscrupulous, deceitful financier, lavishes his wealth on a Baroness he loves, who in turn spends it on a young Knight she has taken a fancy to. Swindled by everyone, unmasked and then ruined, he ends up in the hands of justice, while the valet Frontin pockets his money and triumphs: "Thus ends the reign of Monsieur Turcaret; mine is about to begin." Lesage's brilliant play thus serves, in 1709, as a mirror of an age when penniless aristocrats and wealthy bourgeois share the same amusements, while their valets dream of leaving service to make it on their own. Two years earlier, in a short one-act play, Crispin became his master's rival to court a young woman whose dowry he would claim for himself. Two comedies about money that circulates as lightly as words in a world of cheerful trickery where people are endlessly deceived.

Crispin, the servant of Valère, a young gentleman of quality, tries to make his fortune without his master's knowledge by cleverly speculating on some of the latter's adventures. Valère loves Angélique, the daughter of a vain bourgeois, Oronte, who wants to marry her to Damis, the son of a friend of his. Crispin learns from Labranche, Damis's valet, that the latter, having already contracted a secret marriage in his homeland, cannot and does not want to agree to the union his father Orgon and Oronte are planning. Labranche, having come to Paris to arrange matters, offers Crispin the chance to use a scheme that will be both a farce and a scam. Labranche presents Crispin, richly dressed, and has him pass as Damis. Apart from a few slips, Crispin speaks so elegantly, and argues so skillfully, that he immediately gains Madame Oronte’s trust. But the cunning valet covets Angélique’s dowry, who refuses to marry a man she could never love, and whom she has, moreover, never seen. She protests in vain. Luckily for her, Valère, who had kept in the background on his valet’s advice, discovers her predicament, and the play ends with the marriage of the two lovers. Oronte reconciles with Orgon, who arrives to excuse his son for failing to keep his promise to marry. This play can be compared to the performances of Italian "commedia dell’arte": following Molière’s example, the author aimed to bring a lively and brilliant character to the comic aspects; the jokes are free from vulgarity. Finally, he skillfully highlights the characters of the two valets—cunning, unscrupulous, and adept at taking advantage of every opportunity.

From the libraries of Robert Hoe and John Whipple Frothingham with bookplates.

Beautiful copy.