Aphra Behn’s ‘Emperor of the Moon’ and its French Source ‘Arlequin, Empereur dans la lune

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Aphra Behn’s spectacular farce, Emperor of the Moon (1687), so engaged audiences that it was restaged well into the eighteenth century. Her play was largely adapted from Anne Mauduit de Fatouville’s Arlequin, Empereur dans la lune (1684), a commedia dell'arte production by the Comedie-Italienne troupe, a performance which also proved immensely popular with Parisian audiences. Within its witty and amusing three acts, Behn’s play explores a number of contemporary concerns – from commedia dell'arte, to gender and politics, to science and astronomy, including a plurality of worlds, for example – all culminating in the third act’s operatic spectacle. This volume offers a transcription of Behn’s 1687 play with extensive annotations, a critical discussion of Behn’s text, and the first English translation of Fatouville’s eight French and Italian scenes.