PSICHE, Tragedie-Ballet. Representee pour le divertissement du Roi. Par J. B. P. De Moliere. A Brusselles, Chez George de Backer, Imprimeur & Marchand Libraire aux trios Mores, a la Berg-straet. 1694. Avec Privilege du Roy.

Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere:
1694 Backer (Brusselles) Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere. (1622-1673) Psiche Tragedie-Ballet. Representee pour le divertissement du Roi. Par J.B.P. de Moliere. A Brusselles, Chez George de Backer, Imprimeur & Marchand Libraire aux trois Mores, a la Berg-straet. 1694. 1st edition. 15.5cm x 9cm. [1]blank, A-B12, C1, D2, [2], [1]blank. Bound in modern paper. Ink stain affecting text on p. 27 (3cm diam.). Water stained edges but not to affect text. Engaved frontis of Psiche. 80 pp. Nice rare copy. Reserved at $100.00. This item will NOT sell below its reserve. This is an auction. If you are bidding in hopes of getting it at a lower price to the reserve, this is NOT your auction. I don't make second chance offers. It is fairly reserved since no comparable copies are found on the web. Donâe(tm)t miss this French Theater Ballet! Good luck bidding!

Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) was born in Paris on January 15, 16 22 . His father was one of eight valets de chambre tapissiers who tended the king's furniture and upholstery, so the young Poquelin received every advantage a boy could wish for. He was educated at the finest schools (the College de Clermont in Paris .) He had access to the king's court. But even as a child, Molière found it infinitely more pleasant to poke fun at the aristocracy than to associate with them. As a young boy, he learned that he could cause quite a stir by mimicking his mother's priest. His mother, a deeply religious woman, might have broken the young satirist of this habit had she not died before he was yet twelve-years-old. His father soon remarried, but in less than three years, this wife also passed away. At the age of fifteen, Jean-Baptiste was left alone with his father and was most likely apprenticed to his trade. Jean-Baptiste founded a dramatic troupe called The Illustrious Theater. It was about this time that he changed his name to Molière, probably to spare his father the embarrassment of having an actor in the family. Over the course of the next thirteen years, Molière worked feverishly to make his company the most respected dramatic troupe in Paris . (Eventually, they were awarded the coveted title "Troupe of the King.") He directed his own plays and often played the leading role himself. Molière left behind a body of work which not only changed the face of French classical comedy, but has gone on to influence the work of other dramatists the world over. The greatest of his plays include The School for Husbands (1661), The School for Wives (1662), The Misanthrope (1666), The Doctor in Spite of Himself (1666), Tartuffe (1664,1667,1669), The Miser (1668), and The Imaginary Invalid (1673).