1 Rare Bilingual Pastorale Drama, 1603 Important for the study of

Rare Bilingual Pastorale Drama, 1603
Important for the study of the early Italian pastorale in France
(Bracciolini, François [Franceso Braccolini dell=Api; 1566-1645]). Le Dédain Amoureux.
Pastorale. Faite Françoise sur l=Italien du Sieur, François Bracciolini. Paris: Matthieu
Guillemot, 1603. Soleinne 4449. Brunet I 1195. Original edition of the translation into French of
Bracciolini=s l=Amoroso Sdegno: Favola Pastorale (first printed Venice: Senese 1597/8).*
12mo. 17th century calf, rebacked with original spine preserved. Very good copy (title page
darkened). Page of title, page of priv. dated 16 Dec 1602, 3pp dedication “A Son Amy, Clavd.
Enoch, Virey Secretaire de Monseignevr le Prince (de Condé),” 6pp argument, 5pp prologue, 2pp
acteurs, 166 leaves of text, 1p blank, 6pp “Rime Pastorali,” 2pp errata Italian, 1p blank 1p errata
French. Collation: (A)-P12, 1l. Five-act pastoral translated into French prose with Italian verse on
facing pages. Anonymous translation signed “I.P.S.”**
Le Dédain Amoureux concerns a couple, Acris and Cloris, who fell in love in infancy before they
were separated by events. With their names changed, Acris lives as a shepherd who believes his
beloved Cloris (now a nymph) is dead. Like other Italian pastorales, Le Dédain Amoureux
features a horrifying and grotesque centaur. In V2, the satyr threatens Cloris, if she will not submit
to him, to Akiss your naked, stripped bones, all broken, bloodied and ruined, but still remains of
you.@
According to Dabney, a portion of the plot is unique in that it revolves around the success of
Acris in winning the love of Cloris by pretending to disdain her, which Aseems to have appeared in
none of the other pastorals of the day@ (367).
The paucity of early pastorale dramas in France, according to Dabney, is because comedy was not
very popular on the stage. Thus, a pastoral play, with its happy denouement and comic figure of the
satyr, did not readily find an audience. Apart from the many French editions and adaptations or
derivations of Tasso=s Aminta and Guarini=s Pastor Fido, Marsan notes only eleven Italian authors
whose pastoral drama or fiction were translated into French—many of these in the mid-16th
century or in the late 1620s during the height of the pastorale vogue.*** Marsan lists only two
Italian pastorals printed during the first decade of the 17th century: Myrtille by Isabelle Andreini
(translated anonymously and published in 1602), then Dédain Amoureux in 1603 (curiously, also
anonymous).
Daniela Mauri does not like the French prose translation. Although it has high points of vivid
language, she finds the translation is often obscure and composed in convoluted baroque
constructions. She does not understand why the lively verse of Bracciolini becomes uneven prose
in the French version. For Mauri, the real value of the French publication lies in the rescue an
almost forgotten Italian text, which deserves to occupy a prominent position in the evolution of the
pastoral drama.
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For the modern scholar, it is important to examine early pastorales in France since the genre,
although it died out in the 1630s, became the foundation for opera in the 17th century.
* The Folger copy (Clubb #189) includes the Rime Pastorali, as does our edition. According to
Beckett, l=Amoroso Sdegno is an important work, although overshadowed by the pastorales by
Guarini and Tasso. Although now forgotten, A ‘l=Amoroso Sdegno’ is accounted one of the best
produced in that age.@
** This is the Paris: Matthieu Guillemot, 1603 edition, not to be confused with the 1613 translation
by Isaac de la Grange (Paris: Jean Libert). Barbier, lists the 1613 edition translated by de la Grange
(p.1611), but does not list the 1603 edition. He does note, however, that the play was performed in
1603 at Theatre du Marais.
*** Toldo lists about twenty pastorales in French.
References:
Barbier, Antoine-Alexandre and Charles Théodore Beauvais de Préau. Biographie Universelle
Classique: ou, Dictionnaire Historique Portatif. Paris: C. Gosselin, 1829.
Beckett, William. A Universal Biography: Including Scriptural, Classical and Mythological
Memoirs, Together with Accounts of Many Eminent Living Characters. London: Mayhew, Isaac
and Co., 1834.
Dabney, Lancaster E. French Dramatic Literature in the Reign of Henri IV. Austin, Texas:
University Cooperative Society, 1952.
Losada-Goya, José-Manuel. Bibliographie Critique de la Littérature Espagnole en France au
XVIIe Siècle: Présence et Influence. Genève: Librairie Droz, 1999.
Mauri, Daniela. Voyage en Arcadie: Sur les Origines Italiennes du Théâtre Pastoral Français à
l’Âge Baroque. Paris: Champion, 1996.
Sampson, Lisa. Pastoral Drama in Early Modern Italy: The Making of a New Genre. Oxford:
Legenda/MHRA, 2006.
Toldo, Pierre. La Comédie Française de la Renaissance. In Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la
France, 5e Année, no. 2 (1898): 220-264.
Holdings: OCLC: No North American locations.
$3,000.00
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