Pièce 47 - ‘Coup d’oeil sur le mariage’, by Charles Bagard

This MS was presumably written some time between 1755, when the stanza of Passeroni’s Il Cicerone translated on f. ii was first published, and 1772, when Bagard died. It was afterwards owned by the playwright Guilbert de Pixerécourt and was included in the auction of his manuscripts held at Sil-vestre’s in Paris between 4 and 14 Nov. 1840. (See Autographes et manuscrits de M. G. de Pixerécourt … dont le vente aura lieu le mercredi 4 novembre 1840 et jours suivans … rue des Bons-Enfans, no 30, maison Sylvestre, p. 109.) The armorial bookplate of Robert, Earl of Crewe, is pasted inside the front cover.

A dissertation on marriage. The title of the work appears at the top of p. 1, with the motto ‘Spes animi credula mutui’ (Horace, Odes, IV. i. 30). At the end of the work (p. 36) is written ‘Fin du Coup d’oeil Sur Le mariage’. The text contains numerous alterations. For further details see the list of contents below. On the spine is stamped ‘Melanges de Bagard. M.S. Autographe.’

CONTENTS

(On a slip pasted to the third flyleaf.) ‘Bagard medecin du roi de pologne | manuscrit curieux’.

p. i: Table of contents.

p. ii: Untitled verses. A translation of Passeroni’s Il Cicerone, Part I, Canto IX, Stanza 43.
8 lines: ‘Souvent au bout d’une semaine | De L’hymen un Nouveau martyr | Avec Sa femme qui le gêne | Mange le pain de repentir. | Tel un Rat que la faim engage | Dans un piege avec art fermé | Maudit quand il Est enfermé | Et La Ratiere et Le fromage’. Subscribed ‘Passeroni Chant IXe’. The translation is evidently by Bagard himself. Draft versions of several of the lines have been struck through.

pp. 1–2: Introduction.

pp. 3–7: I. ‘Du Plaisir de venus Et de l’amour.’

pp. 7–15: II. ‘De L’amitié Et de l’affection.’

pp. 15–20: III. ‘De la lignée ou des Enfans.’

pp. 20–1: IV. ‘De L’alliance.’

pp. 21–2: V. ‘De la fortune Et du Soin de sa maison.’

pp. 23–6: VI. ‘De l’aptitude aux affaires, savoir a l’agriculture[,] Au Commerce, a la cour, au Gouvernement, aux fonctions civiles Et militaires.’

pp. 26–31: VII. ‘De L’aptitude au Etudes Mathématiques[,] Physiques Et critiques.’

pp. 31–4: VIII. ‘De La Santé Et de la longue vie.’

pp. 34–6: IX. ‘Des plaisirs, Comme des voyages, des fêtes, Des presens qui Se font entre amis, des Depenses de Goût Et de plaisir.’