[Rarebooks] fa:DUBOS - ON POETRY, PAINTING AND MUSIC (& THEATRE) - 1st Ed. 1748

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

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Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

[Jean-Baptiste Dubos:] Critical Reflections on Poetry, Painting and  
Music. With an inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Theatrical  
Entertainments of the Ancients. Written in French by the Abbé Du Bos,  
Member and perpetual Secretary of the French Academy. Translated into  
English by Thomas Nugent, Gent. London: Printed for John Nourse, 1748.  
FIRST EDITION. Three volumes, 8vos, in period calf, sympathetically  
rebacked with gilt-tooled spines and morocco labels; 343, 410, 244 +  
[42] pp.; w/ errata and publisher's adverts; woodcut decorations. ESTC  
N3253.
Bumping and wear to the boards at the fore-edges and corners, cracking  
to front inner hinge of vol. I, but all boards are firm and secure;  
mild age-toning to the leaves, offsetting (darkening) to the edges of  
the first and last 2-3 leaves of each vol. from the original binder's  
glue on the paste-downs, occasional small spots and touches of  
soiling; otherwise clean and sound, firmly bound. A handsome set.  
Engraved armorial bookplates of Vincent J. Robinson, C.I.E., Parnham  
[Dorset].

A sample of the wide-ranging and occasionally rather eccentric chapter  
headings: Of the Genius which forms painters and poets; Of artists  
without Genius; Of plagiaries; Of the obstacles which retard the  
progress of young artists; Of the extent of climates fitter for the  
arts and sciences than others; That the difference we observe in the  
genius of people of the same country in different ages, must be  
attributed to the variations of the air; Of the manner in which the  
reputation of poets and painters is established; That the public  
judgements prevail at length over the decisions of artists; Of the  
errors which persons are liable to, who judge of a poem by  
translation, or by the remarks of critics; That the beauties of  
execution only cannot render a poem a finished piece, tho' they can a  
picture; That we are more affected with tragedy than comedy; Of the  
personages of villains that may be introduced into tragedies; Whether  
it is proper to intermix love in tragedies; Of the choice of comic  
subjects; Some remarks on pastoral  poetry, and on the shepherds of  
eclogues; Remarks on Epic poetry; That the subject of painters are not  
exhausted; That the painters of Raphael's time had no advantage over  
those of our days; Whether the effect which painting produces on men  
be greater than that of poetry; Of Music, properly so called; Some  
reflections on Italian music; Of Sculpture; General idea of the  
ancient music; Of the masks of ancient comedians; etc., etc.

Jean-Baptiste Dubos, aka l'Abbe Du Bos, (1670-1742) was a French  
diplomat and secret agent who retired from political life and became a  
respected historian and man of letters and a member of the Académie  
Française. His major work, Réflexions critiques sur la poésie et sur  
la peinture, here presented in its first edition in English, was  
remarkable for its scope as well as its "sagacity and discrimination,"  
and was highly praised by Voltaire.