Cologne, Ches PIERRE de la VALLEE, M.DC.LVIII." It is the Elzevir
edition, or what passes for such; but the binder has cut down the
margin so that the words "Les Provinciales" almost touch the top of
the page. Often the wretch--he lived, judging by his style, in
Derome's time, before the Revolution--has sliced into the head-
titles of the pages. Thus the book, with its old red morocco cover
and gilded flowers on the back, is no proper companion for "Les
Pensees de M. PASCAL (Wolfganck, 1672)," which some sober Dutchman
has left with a fair allowance of margin, an inch "taller" in its
vellum coat than its neighbour in morocco. Here once more, is "LES
FASCHEUX, Comedie de I. B. P. MOLIERE, Representee sur Le Theatre du
Palais Royal. A Paris, Chez GABRIEL QUINET, au Palais, dans la
Galerie des Prisonniers, a l'Ange Gabriel, M.DCLXIII. Avec
privilege du Roy." What a crowd of pleasant memories the
bibliophile, and he only, finds in these dry words of the title.
Quinet, the bookseller, lived "au Palais," in that pretty old arcade
where Corneille cast the scene of his comedy, "La Galerie du
Palais." In the Geneva edition of Corneille, 1774, you can see
Gravelot's engraving of the place; it is a print full of exquisite
charm (engraved by Le Mure in 1762). Here is the long arcade, in
shape exactly like the galleries of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
The bookseller's booth is arched over, and is open at front and
side. Dorimant and Cleante are looking out; one leans on the books
on the window-sill, the other lounges at the door, and they watch
the pretty Hippolyte who is chaffering with the lace-seller at the
opposite shop. "Ce visage vaut mieux que toutes vos chansons," says
Dorimant to the bookseller. So they loitered, and bought books, and
flirted in their lace ruffles, and ribbons, and flowing locks, and
wide canons, when Moliere was young, and when this little old book
was new, and lying on the shelves of honest Quinet in the Palace