Les caquets de l'accouchée nouvelle édition revue sur les pièces originales

The piece is a lively 17th‑century satire that stages a newborn’s delivery chamber as a stage for witty exchange. Through a series of short, bustling dialogues, courtiers, midwives and even imagined fairies comment on the pomp, superstition and vanity surrounding the birth rituals of the aristocracy. The humor arises from exaggerating the elaborate furnishings, the ceremonial foods, and the whispered rumors that swirl around the newborn, exposing both reverence and ridiculousness in equal measure.

Edited with careful notes that compare the text to surviving manuscripts, the new edition lets listeners hear the original cadence while gaining insight into the cultural background. The introduction sketches the historical practice of “caquets”—the chatter that accompanied a lady’s labor—and explains why the work remained popular for centuries. For anyone curious about early modern social life, the play offers a window into the blend of belief, spectacle and satire that defined the era’s most intimate celebrations.