Le Caffé, ou l’Ecossaise, Comédie en cinq actes. Par Mr. Hume, traduite en français par M. de Voltaire. Réprésentées pour la première fois par les Comédiens Français ordinaires du Roi, le 26 Juillet 1760. Nouvelle édition, à laquelle on a joint par supplément les corrections & augmentations faites aux Répresentations.
Geneve: Chez les Frères Cramer, 1760. Early reprint, published in the same year as the first edition. (The first edition has a London imprint, though it was actually printed in Geneva, too, and Voltaire’s name does not appear on the title.). Small brown stain on verso of title-page and next recto, some light dampstaining at top corner. Generally a very good copy. Full modern speckled calf, gilt-ruled spine, edges stained red. Twelvemo. [2], pp. [iii]-viij [p. iii misnumbered v], [iii]-xii, 108 p. Item #7699
A spurious publication in which Voltaire blatantly pretends that this is a French translation of an original work by the brother of David Hume. According to Voltaire, Hume’s brother was pastor at an Edinburgh church, and had produced two other plays, which had been produced in London. (“…il est le frère de ce célèbre philosophe Mr. Hume, qui a creusé avec tant de hardiesse & de sagacité les fondements de la métaphysique & de la morale; ces deux philosophes sont également honneur à l’Ecosse leur patrie” (preface). All editions of this work are rare. OCLC lists one copy of the present edition, the Library of Congress copy. Of the first edition, OCLC lists seven copies: Yale, Maryland, New York Public Library, Cornell, Harvard, Texas, Chicago.
Bengesco 222. See Mossner, Life of David Hume, p. 154, p. 368; The Forgotten Hume, 1943, p. 63.
Price: $600.00