PETIT-JEHAN Claude Virgile goguenard, ou Le douziesme livre de l’Énéide travesty, (puisque Traversty y a.)

Barbier, IV, 1037, Cioranescu, III, 54591; Jean Leclerc, “La bibliothèque humaniste du Virgile Goguenard”, Les Bibliothèques, entre imaginaires et réalités, Arras, Artois Presses Université, 2009.

First edition.

Literary transvestism originated in 1633 with Giovanbattista Lalli, who also pastiched ancient literature with L’Eneide travestita. This comic version of the text was soon emulated by others, including Scarron, who published Virgile travesty en vers burlesques in 1648. Scarron’s parody was republished in 1652, the date of our edition. Virgile goguenard belongs fully to the burlesque vogue and was, moreover, conceived and printed at the height of the Fronde. The attribution of this work raises questions: “L’Extraict du Privilege du Roy” attributes the work to a certain “Claude Petit-Jehan Advocat en Parlement”, while the very long Epistre à Henry de Savoye is signed L.D.L.

According to Frédéric Lachèvre, in his Bibliographie des recueils collectifs de poésies, these initials refer to Laurent de Laffemas, the son of Isaac de Laffemas, a king’s adviser and civil lieutenant devoted to Richelieu. The attribution of the work is therefore more appropriate to a friend of Scarron and the Cardinal de Retz, a worldly abbot who composed mazarinades and who is also said to have published L’Enfer burlesque […] The false attribution of the privilege would perhaps be a decoy to fool the censors, especially as privileges were not to be ceded lightly to the authors of mazarinades during the Fronde”. (see Leclerc).

The engraved frontispiece is by François Chauveau, who also illustrated works by Scarron and D’Assoucy. It presents a fictitious library in which many works can be identified, including the sources of the text. Scarron’s two travestissements, le Typhon and le Virgile travesty, are present alongside Villon and Marot. 

Some occasional spotting. Marginal staining on pages 87 to 93, without affecting the text. 

A fine copy.