L’ Art De Régner

L’Art de Régner is a tragi-comedy by Gillet de La Tessonerie, first published in 1645. It is unusual in that structurally each of its five acts is a separate playlet. The sub-title, Le Sage Gouverneur, refers to the role of a royal tutor, probably meant to be the duc de Bassompierre, to whom the play is dedicated. Each playlet is prefaced by a lesson from the tutor, and the complete play is concluded by the young prince’s words of gratitude for his dramatic education.

Frontispice de l'edition de 1645 (Cliche: British Library), II; INTRODUCTION, V; La Dynamique de l'Art de regner, IX; Le Jeu des acteurs, le decor et la question du rideau, XV; Un Roi modele, XX; Etablissement du texte, XXV; Frontispice de l'edition allemande de 1661 (Cliche: British Library), XXVII; BIBLIOGRAPHIE, XXVIII; L' ART DE REGNER; Dedicace, 3; Dessein du poeme de l'Art de regner, 7; Acte Premier, 9; Acte II, 27; Acte III, 51; Acte IV, 71; Acte V, 97; Notes, 113.

Little is known of the life of Gillet de La Tessonerie. His birth and date of death are tentatively given as 1620 and 1660. He was a member of the council of the Cour des Monnaies in 1642, and wrote nine plays between 1640 and 1657. Peggy Chaplin is a lecturer in French, specialising in seventeenth-century theatre, at the University of Keele.