Rabelais pastiched Unpublished satires of “Le Régent” Philippe d’Orléans (1715–1723)

Following the death of Louis XIV, pseudo-Rabelaisian chronicles began to circulate in Paris in manuscript form. One of these was attributed to Voltaire, another was entitled Rabelais ressuscité, and two others were presented as the seventh and eighth Livres de la Geste. The anonymous authors(s) imitated Rabelais’s style, narrating the exploits of Le Régent, his Bacchic excesses, his incestuous affairs, his difficulties with the Parliament of Paris, the corruption of his companions (the ‘Roués’), and the scandal of John Law’s Banque générale.