Moliere, [Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]:

$2,750 · Offered by William Reese Company

THE WORKS OF MONSIEUR DE MOLIERE. IN SIX VOLUMES. The first collected edition of Moliere in English, translated (with the exception of two of the plays), with a prefatory Life, by John Ozell, a prolific translator of the times who found his capacity for such work derided by Pope and Swift. Moliere was of considerable influence on the English stage via adaptations and derivatives by greater and lesser talents, and even if the translations printed here were considered less than graceful by some, they were widely read. At the end of his Dedication to the Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, Ozell notes "that the Misanthrope and Malade Imaginaire... are translated by other Persons, whose Names I forbear to mention, since they have thought fit to conceal themselves."

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