Peter Anthony Motteux (born Pierre Antoine Motteux ; 25 February 1663 – 18 February 1718) was a French-born English author, playwright, and translator. Motteux was a significant figure in the evolution of English journalism in his era, as the publisher and editor of The Gentleman's Journal, "the first English magazine," from 1692 to 1694.
Life
A native of Rouen, he was a French Huguenot who came to England in 1685 after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. At first he lived with his godfather, Paul Dominique, and made his living as an auctioneer; by 1706 he maintained a shop in Leadenhall Street, selling imports from China, Japan, and India, and (in his own words) "silks, lace, linens, pictures, and other goods." He also held a position with the Post Office in the first decade of the 18th century.
His death in a bawdy house was thought to be suspicious, and caused a good deal of legal disturbance. Five people were tried for his murder, but were acquitted. His death was ultimately ruled an accident by erotic asphyxiation. He was survived by his widow Priscilla, two sons and a daughter.
Translations
Motteux is perhaps best known for completing Sir Thomas Urquhart's translation of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel. Books I and II of Urquhart's translation of Rabelais had been published in 1653; Motteux (with outside help) revised these, completed Urquart's translation of Book III, and translated Book IV and the possibly-spurious Book V. The entire work was published in 1693 and 1694 (reprinted in 1708; revised by John Ozell in 1737).
While Urquhart's original version of Rabelais has sometimes been acclaimed as a masterpiece in itself, critics have had reservations about Motteux's continuation. In part, Motteux suffered for frankly rendering the vulgarity of Rabelais, to a generation of readers less prepared to tolerate it than Urquhart's had been.
Motteux produced an important translation of the Miguel de Cervantes novel Don Quixote; this 4-volume 1700–03 edition (3rd edition in 1712) was credited as "translated from the original by many hands and published by Peter Motteux." Very popular in its own era, Motteux's version of the work has been condemned by later translators. John Ormsby listed numerous faults he found with Motteux's translation, and described it as "worse than worthless ... worthless as failing to represent, worse than worthless as misrepresenting" the spirit and flavour of the original.
Motteux translated other works as well, one example being The Present State of the Empire of Morocco (1695) by French diplomat François Pidou de Saint-Olon.
Dramas
Motteux wrote a series of plays and musical librettos that were produced during the 1690s and early 18th century, including:
The Loves of Mars and Venus (1695) Love's a Jest (1696) She Ventures and He Wins (1696) The Novelty, or Every Act a Play (1697) Beauty in Distress (1698) Britain's Happiness (1704) The Stage Coach (1704) The Amorous Miser, or the Younger the Wiser (1705) Thomyris, Queen of Scythia (1707) Love's Triumph (1708)
—among others. As its subtitle indicates, The Novelty was an anthology of five short plays in different genres, comedy, tragedy, pastoral, masque, and farce.
Motteux worked in the English stage genre then called "opera," which were semi-operas somewhat comparable to modern musicals; works like The Rape of Europa by Jupiter (1694), Acis and Galatea (1701), and Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus (1705), Thomyris, Queen of Scythia (17078 the first two with music by John Eccles, the third with music by Thomas Clayton and the fourth arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. His final works are translations and adaptations of opera libretti from the Italian.
As was typical of Restoration drama, Motteux's plays often adapted earlier works; and his plays in turn were adapted by others into new forms. His semi-opera The Island Princess, or the Generous Portuguese (1699) was an adaptation of John Fletcher's play The Island Princess, with music by Daniel Purcell, Richard Leveridge and Jeremiah Clarke. The mezzo-soprano, Mrs Lindsey sang interludes at its first performance at Drury Lane in February 1699.
After his death, the comic subplot of Acis and Galatea was transformed into "a comic mask" called Roger and Joan, or the Country Wedding (1739). Much later, David Garrick adapted The Novelty into a farce titled The Lying Varlet, published in 1823.