DU BROQUART, G. - La Fille d'Astrée, ou, La Suite des berger - Lot 169

DU BROQUART, G. - La Fille d'Astrée, ou, La Suite des bergeries de Forets: Contenant plusieurs Histoires de nostre temps mises sous noms empruntez, qui font voir les effects de la vertu & de l'honneste affection. Paris, Pierre Billaine, 1633. In-8, (6) ff, 929 (1) pp, (1) f., yellowed paper, russ, worm damage to lower margin of qqs. ff. with loss of qqs. letters, ivory vellum with flaps. LEVER 89. Same work as ''Seconde partie de la Bellaure triomphante (1633). Burgundian author whom Papillon (I, 185) does not hesitate to call a genius. He presents himself as a continuator of l'Astrée, and sets his novel, like this one, in a real-life setting: Pagny, on the banks of the Arar in Burgundy. It's a roman à clé in which Du Broquart has assembled memoirs that his father, "aged at the court of two or three kings", had enjoyed writing about memorable events he had witnessed or taken part in. For example, the long story of Bajamond and Clarimène features, under assumed names, the real-life adventures of Louis de Savoie, mother of François I, the chevalier Duprat, and the connétable de Bourbon (Magendie, p. 251). But Du Broquart doesn't just write a novel of intrigue. He peppers the narrative with moral and political reflections: - p. 27, he describes the dangers of a favorite who is too powerful. - p. 132, he notes that "the riches and goods that make me a true man of honor cannot be taken from me". - p. 724-725, he criticizes forced marriages, even by monarchs, and defends natural inclination - p. 297-303, he praises the shepherds of the Pagny region, whose frugal lifestyle ensures purity of morals and who have nothing to envy of the great, who are corrupted by wealth and whose distant origins were also in simple huts.