Pierre-François Godard de Beauchamps
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (May 2011) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
Pierre-François Godard de Beauchamps, born in 1689 in
Beauchamps worked for different theatres of the French capital. In 1721, he directed the performance of the play Soubrette, a comedy in one act, which was a success, and within ten years, he directed successively the plays: le Jaloux (the Jealous One); Arlequin amoureux par enchantement (Arlequin in love by spell); le Portrait (the Portrait); le Parvenu (the Upstart); le Mariage rompu (the Broken Marriage); les Effets du dépit (the Effects of Vexation); les Amants réunis (the Reunited Lovers); le Bracelet (the Bracelet); la Mère rivale (the rival Mother) and la Fausse Inconstance (the False Fickleness). Almost all were praised for their novelty at their time, but now have fallen into oblivion.
From Beauchamps, we still can find: Funestime, a novel, Paris, 1737, in-12, rare and reprinted in the 31st volume of the Cabinet des Fées; the verse Lettres d’Héloïse et d’Abailard (first of three editions, Paris 1714); and les Amours d’Ismène et d’Isménias , an imitation from the Greek of
Finally, we credit Beauchamps with : a pamphleteer libertine novel, l’Histoire du prince Apprius (Priapus) extraite des fastes du monde, depuis sa création, manuscrit persan, trouvé dans la bibliothèque du roi de Perse, traduction française par M. Esprit, gentilhomme provençal, servant dans les troupes de Perse[1] (the Story of prince Apprius, excerpt of the splendours of the world, since its creation, Persian manuscrit, found in the library of the king of the Persian Empire, French translation by Mr Esprit, country gentleman, serving in the Persian army), Constantinople (i.e. Paris, around 1722); la Haye, (i.e. Lyon), 1728, in-12. We find in some copies of this document an explanatory table giving the names of the indecent anagrams used by the author. The printer was sentenced to banishment and heavily fined ; Hipparchia, histoire galante divisée en 3 livres, avec une préface très-intéressante (Hipparchia, galant history divided in 3 book, with a very-interesting preface), Lampsaque (i.e. Paris), l’an de ce monde (1748), petit in-8°.
His Recherches sur les théâtres de France, depuis 1161 jusqu’à présent (Researches on French theatres, from 1161 until present days), Paris, in-4°, or 3 vol. in-8 where he recounts the origin and the progress of drama in France, which he made published in 1735, constitutes his most important work. Paul Lacroix, a French journalist, wrote about it:
- This book, still very useful in spite of similar works published since, consists of the history of the Count of Toulouse, the one of Théodore Tronchin, etc.[2]
Sources
- ^ Included in Romanciers libertins du XVIIIe siècle, Bibliothèque de La Pléiade, Gallimard, Paris, vol. 2, 2000
- ^ P. L. Jacob, Bibliothèque dramatique de Monsieur de Soleinne, vol. V, Paris, 1843-1844, p. 270.