Pierre-François Godard de Beauchamps, born in 1689 in Paris, where he died on March 12, 1761, was a playwright, theater historian, libertine novelist and French translator. In his youth he was the secretary of François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi, who became governor of the child King Louis XV of France. His most famous works are Arlequin amoureux par enchantement and Les Amans réunis . Beauchamps worked for different theatres of the French capital. In 1721, he directed the performance of the playSoubrette, a comedy in one act, which was a success, and within ten years, he directed successively the plays: le Jaloux ; Arlequin amoureux par enchantement ; le Portrait ; le Parvenu ; le Mariage rompu ; les Effets du dépit ; les Amants réunis ; le Bracelet ; la Mère rivale and la Fausse Inconstance . Almost all were praised for their novelty at their time, but now have fallen into oblivion. From Beauchamps, we still can find: Funestime, a novel, Paris, 1737, in-12, rare and reprinted in the 31st volume of the Cabinet des Fées; the verse Lettres d’Héloïse et d’Abailard ; and les Amours d’Ismène et d’Isménias, an imitation from the Greek of Eustathius Macrembolites. The work of Beauchamps was printed in Paris, under the rubrique de la Haye, 1743, in-8°, and was reprinted, in the same town, in 1797, in-4° ; the second edition is adorned with illumination drawings, Imitation du roman grec de Théodore Prodrome Pria, 1746, in-8°. This imitation differ from a translation which came out the same year, Paris, in-12, and which author have stayed unknown. Finally, we credit Beauchamps with : a pamphleteer libertine novel, l’Histoire du prince Apprius extraite des fastes du monde, depuis sa création, manuscrit persan, trouvé dans la bibliothèque du roi de Perse, traduction française par M. Esprit, gentilhomme provençal, servant dans les troupes de Perse , Constantinople ; la Haye,, 1728, in-12. We find in some copies of this document an explanatory table giving the names of the indecent anagrams used by the author. The printer was sentenced to banishment and heavily fined ; Hipparchia, histoire galante divisée en 3 livres, avec une préface très-intéressante , Lampsaque, l’an de ce monde, petit in-8°. His Recherches sur les théâtres de France, depuis 1161 jusqu’à présent, Paris, in-4°, or 3 vol. in-8 where he recounts the origin and the progress of drama in France, which he made published in 1735, constitutes his most important work. Paul Lacroix, a French journalist, wrote about it:
