BRECOURT Guillaume Marcoureau La Nopce de village, comédie.

Gay-Lemonnyer, III, 339 ;  Riffaud, 250 ; Soleinne, I, 1337.

First edition, very rare, of this charming illustrated theatre play.

The three engravings are in fine state, as described by Soleinne : The plates are not worn as in the 1674 edition, which is usually quoted in bibliographies” (see Soleinne).

Guillaume Marcoureau, known as Brécourt (1638?-1685) “author-actor, started in 1658 in Molière’s troupe, where he played the role of Alain (École des femmes). It was he whom Molière charged in the Impromptu de Versailles with his defense against those who accused him of making cryptic plays. Brécourt left him, however, and moved to the Hôtel de Bourgogne; there he succeeded in the tragic and the comic. He died, it is said, of a ruptured aneurysm while performing his comedy of Timon (February 1685)” (see Grente).

A very good copy.

Provenance : Viollet le Duc (book plate, the copy was not included in the auction sale of his collection).