122 - JARRY (Alfred). Ubu Roi. A drama in five acts in prose. Restored in its entirety as it was performed by the puppets of the Théâtre des Phynances in 1888. Paris: Mercure de France, 1896. In-18, decorated embroidered cloth, gilt title, untrimmed, cover intact (Paul Vié).

JARRY (Alfred). Ubu Roi. A drama in five acts in prose. Restored in its entirety as it was performed by the puppets of the Théâtre des Phynances in 1888. Paris: Mercure de France, 1896. In-18, decorated embroidered cloth, gilt title, untrimmed, cover intact (Paul Vié). FIRST EDITION of Jarry’s masterpiece, featuring on the frontispiece two portraits drawn by the author. *Ubu Roi* premiered at the Théâtre de l’Œuvre on December 10, 1896, directed by Lugné-Poe. The scandalized audience witnessed, without fully understanding it, a double birth: that of a myth and that of a certain modern theater. Modern theater is, for example, that of Apollinaire, Artaud, or Ionesco—and so many others—who acknowledged their debt to *Ubu Roi*; it is true that the *Merdre!* throws a tremendous spanner in the works of an entire body of classical literature (En français dans le texte, Paris, BnF, 1990, no. 322). A RARE COPY, WITH A SIGNED DEDICATION TO OCTAVE MIRBEAU, BOUND IN HARDCOVER AT THE TIME BY HIS USUAL BOOKBINDER. No. 427 in the catalog of his sale.