Le Virgile Travesty en Vers Burlesques

1655

De Beer Fb 1655 S

Paris: Guillaume de Luyne

In 1652, the poet and dramatist Paul Scarron (c.1610-1660) married Françoise d’Aubigné, who later, as Madame de Maintenon, secretly married Louis XIV. Although crippled and confined to bed, Scarron’s reputation was boosted by his famous salon gatherings, and his literary outputs, mainly comedies and burlesques such as Jodelet, ou le Maître Valet (Jodelet, or the Valet as Master, 1645) and Roman Comique (1651-1657), which is regarded as his best work. In his own day, his Virgile Travesti (1648-1653), a parody of the Aeneid, was highly regarded. This elegant production of 1655, with its engraved frontispiece, reflects something of its past standing. Today this satiric ‘travesty’ is little read.