Perrault, [Ch.]. Tales of Passed Times by Mother Goose. With Morals. And Englished by R.S(amber) Gent. To which is added a New one, viz. The Discreet Princess.- Contes du Tems Passé de Ma Mere L'Oye. Avec des Morales. Augmentée d'une Nouvelle, viz. L'Adroite Princesse. The Sixth Edition, Corrected. and adorned with fine Cuts.

London: for J. Melvil, 1764. ISBN: seattle. Small 8vo. 227, (1 blank) pp. Old half calf. With woodcut vignette on two titles, one title in English at the beginning, the other in French for the added story, richly engraved frontispiece, and 8 fine engraved plates by H. Immink, one for each fairy tale.

$19,500

Early English bilingual edition of the fairy tales by Charles Perrault with parallel texts in English and French on facing pages. The added tale by Perrault's niece Marie Jeanne L'Héritier de Villaudon is also with parallel texts in English and French on opposite pages, and starts on page 150, so it is a fairly lengthy one. The fine engraved plates by the Dutch artist H. Immink are here of somewhat smaller size than the text-leaves, so they were probably printed elsewhere, perhaps in The Netherlands. They illustrate each fable in rich and elegant scenes, and the frontispiece, which is still inspired by the original, a woman spinning and telling tales to three children before the fire, is now executed in the more flourishing and elegant style of the full 18th century. The translation here is stated to be the one by R. Sambler Gent(leman), which was found advertised in the "Morning Chronicle" of 1729, but of which no edition earlier is known than the third, of 1741. Another translation, by G.M. Gent(leman), first published in about 1765, but of which the eleventh edition of 1799 is the earliest known, succeeded the translations by R. Samber. Gumuchian however, states that G. M., who is Guy Miege, was the first English translator, from the start in 1729. It was the first English translator, whoever he was, who was responsible for the switch from "La Belle au Bois Dormant", that is "The Beauty in the Sleeping Wood" to "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood", probably due to a faulty understanding of the French language, but since kept in all translations, not only in the English, but also in the other European translations, like the Dutch and the German. The English translation was the oldest, from 1729, then followed the first Dutch translation in 1754. French editions had already been published in The Netherlands from the start however, in 1696, and the first German edition appeared in 1790. All 18th century editions are extremely rare. Good copy, with all the prints in fine and strong impressions.- (Binding sl. rubbed & restored).

¶ Muir p. 51; Cohen-De Ricci 789; this ed. not in Brunet, and no 18th century English ed. in Gumuchian, or Boekenoogen; not in Coll. Osborne; cf. Gumuchian 4422, note (English ed. by G.M. of ca. 1810).