SONNET (Thomas, sieur de Courval).

The Satyrs. Dedicated to the Queen Mother of the King. Paris, Rolet Boutonné, 1621. In-8, long-grained eggplant morocco, border around the boards drawn by a cold roulette between two double gilt fillets crossing each other at the corners, small motif at the corners, decoration of vine branches and cold scrolls, ornamented spine, interior fillet, gilt edges (English binding of the beginning of the 19th century). First edition of these four satires by Thomas Sonnet, sieur de Courval (1577-1627), Norman gentleman and poet to whom we owe a famous satire on the poignant crossings & inconveniences of marriage (1609). The author attacks here the usurers, mocking the simoniacal ecclesiastics, the officers of justice such as these cruel and corrupt judges filled with tyranny, who draw from the poor people the substance & the life and who inflate their purses of gold, the financial meschants, or the charlatan doctors who by chemical drugs put this poor State at two fingers of the Death. The title is adorned with an allegorical vignette showing women and men locked in a trap. The last leaf before the Satires, present here, is decorated on the verso with a beautiful portrait of the author aged 45 years, engraved in intaglio by Matheus. A copy a little short of margins, in a charming binding. From the libraries of Richard Heber (I, 1834, n°1833) and Édouard Pelay. Spine a little darkened.