Les Prôneurs, ou Le Tartuffe littéraire, Comédie en trois actes, en vers. - Dorat, Claude-Joseph 1734-1780 (Paris Delalain, 1777)
A lively satire of the people in Julie de Lespinasse's society, i.e. the philosophical party. Dorat kept it in his portfolio for several years without being able to have it performed. The philosophers, who were not spared, used the powerful men of their party to prevent the play from being performed. The main character of the play is D'Alembert who, under the name of "Callidès", plays the role of leader of the advocates. The scene in which he initiates a young follower into the mysteries of the order is very pleasant. In this play we find some portraits drawn with a rather vigorous brush, among others, those of Palissot and Clément de Dijon, of whom Dorat had reason to complain; of the former, because he had portrayed him in a less than advantageous manner in his Dunciade; of the latter, because he had made a bitter criticism of his poem De la déclamation.
motto by Voltaire on the frontispiece: "Le Philosophe est seul, & l'Imposteur fait Secte."
Dorat published most of his works with numerous engravings by Clément-Pierre Marillier and Charles Eisen, which made them masterpieces of art and typographic luxury
4 beautiful engravings after Clément-Pierre Marillier (1740-1808), by Pierre Duffos le Jeune (1742-1816) , Louis Michel Halbou (1730-1809) and Pierre Adrien Le Beau (1744-1804)
Ex libris of Bibl. Kammer , Stockholm (plate), Ida Schoeller (plate) and H. Volkmann 1926 (manuscript)
Keywords: 18th Century (1701-1800); Play (theater); Comedy; Satire; France