Name Thomas-Simon Gueullette | Role Playwright | |
Died December 2, 1766, Saint-Maurice, France Books The Transmigrations of the Mandarin Fum-Hoam (Chinese Tales) | ||
Thomas-Simon Gueullette (2 June 1683 - 2 December 1766) was a French lawyer, playwright, scholar and man of letters, who also wrote fairy tales and works on the theatre itself.
Contents
Life
A lawyer at the Chatelet de Paris, then substitute for the procureur du roi, Gueullette was a bibliophile and collector who collected several placards and journals of his time, His several works on the Theatre-Italien, which survive in manuscript, formed the basis for the Parfaict brothers in their Histoire de l'ancien Theatre Italien.
Gueullette was above all known for the publication of several amusing fairy tales : les Soirees bretonnes, nouveaux contes de fees (Paris, 1712, in-12) ; les Mille et un Quarts-d’heure, contes tartares (Ibid., 1715, 2 vol. in-12 ; 1753, 3 vol. in-12) ; les Aventures merveilleuses du mandarin Fum-Hoam, contes chinois (Ibid., 1723, 2 vol. in-12) ; les Sultanes de Guzarate, contes mogols (Ibid., 1732, 3 vol. in-12) ; les Mille et une Heures, contes peruviens (Amsterdam, 1733, 2 vol. in-12).
Gueullette was the author of over 60 plays, many of which he put on at the Theatre-Italien, where some had great success : La vie est un songe in 1717 (for which he was the translator), Arlequin-Pluton (1719) ; le Tresor suppose, en trois actes (s. d.) ; l’Horoscope accompli (1727), etc.
He also worked as an editor : Histoire du petit Jehan de Saintre (1724, 3 vol. in-12) ; Essays by Montaigne (1725, 3 vol. in-4°) ; Works of Rabelais (1732, 6 vol. in-8°) ; Pathelin, by Pierre Blanchet (1748, in-12), etc.
The Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal has nine volumes of manuscripts by Gueullette.