La Matronne chinoise
is a new critical edition of a two-act comedy by Pierre-René Lemonnier, first performed in paris in 1765.  Lemonnier adapted a theme which dates back to the Latin writer Petronius and is also present in an old Chinese story that has been more recently taken up by Voltaire: the story of an apparently inconsolable widow who rapidly finds consolation in the arms of another.
The edition is accompanied by a full introduction setting out the play’s historical and thematic context, along with an analysis of its versification and an appendix reproducing earlier versions of the tale from Petronius to Voltaire.