La Farce Des Quiolards.
Rouen, Catherine Machuel (widow of J. I Oursel) ?1700.
12mo (133 x 77 mm.). 23p.
Crushed Jansenist red morocco (Duru 1857), gilt spine title, all edges gilt; ruled in red.
THE ONLY PRE-1800 PROSE WORK PUBLISHED IN THE ROUENNAIS DIALECT. The plot concerns a cobbler and his wife who come into money, only to foolishly lose it all: a local take on the themes of Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. The cobbler, his wife and their servant all speak in dialect, called la langue purinique (“piss talk”), while the police officer and haughty merchant speak standard French.
The Oursel printing family dominated the publication of this work (Catherine printed at least two other editions). No pre-19th-century printing is held by a U.S. library. In good condition, bookplates of Julien Félix and Édouard Pelay (Catalogue (1923) 155; incorrect imprint and date).
¶See Lepelley’s Paroles de Normands 67-8 and Frère’s Manuel du bibliographe normand I: 455 and Lane’s Catalogue of the Molière Collection in Harvard College Library 98.
Price: $7,800.00