LARIVEY, PIERRE (c. 1550–1612), French dramatist, of Italian origin, was the son of one of the Giunta, the famous printers of Florence and Venice. The family was established at Troyes and had taken the name of Larivey or L’Arrivey, by way of translation from giunto. Pierre Larivey appears to have cast horoscopes, and to have acted as clerk to the chapter of the church of St Étienne, of which he eventually became a canon. He has no claim to be the originator of French comedy. The Corrivaux of Jean de la Taille dates from 1562, but Larivey naturalized the Italian comedy of intrigue in France. He adapted, rather than translated, twelve Italian comedies into French prose. The first volume of the Comédies facétieuses appeared in 1579, and the second in 1611. Only nine in all were printed.[1] The licence of the manners depicted in these plays is matched by the coarseness of the expression. Larivey’s merit lies in the use of popular language in dialogue, which often rises to real excellence, and was not without influence on Molière and Regnard. Molière’s L’Avare owes something to the scene in Larivey’s masterpiece, Les Esprits, where Séverin laments the loss of his purse, and the opening scene of the piece seems to have suggested Regnard’s Retour imprévu. It is uncertain whether Larivey’s plays were represented, though they were evidently written for the stage. In any case prose comedy gained very little ground in popular favour before the time of Molière. Larivey was the author of many translations, varying in subject from the Facétieuses nuits (1573) of Straparola to the Humanité de Jésus-Christ (1604) from Pietro Aretino.
- ↑ Le Laquais, from the Ragazzo of Ludovico Dolce; La Veuve, from the Vedova of Nicolo Buonaparte; Les Esprits, from the Aridosio of Lorenzino de Medicis; Le Morfondu, from the Gelosia of Antonio Grazzini; Les Jaloux, from the Gelosi of Vincent Gabbiani; and Les Escolliers, from the Cecca of Girolamo Razzi, in the first volume; and in the second, Constance, from the Costanza of Razzi; Le Fidèle, from the Fedele of Luigi Pasqualigo; and Les Tromperies, from the Inganni of N. Secchi.