COCHIN, N. / BASSET. - Nouveau jeu des théatres de Melpomene, Momus et Thalie.

Game board with 63 numbered pictorial compartments, each showing an actor or actress in role; lettered with his or her name, the name of the character, the play and the theatre in which it ran.
Probably etched by Nicolas Cochin. Here with the address "A Paris Chez Basset Marchand d'Estampes Rue St.Jacques au coin de celle de Mathurins N. 64".

The rectangular spiral shows costumed characters from French theatres, with each actor, role and theatre being named. Apart from its interest to theatre historians, it is also of interest as a game because, although it has the classic 63 spaces, the arrangement of the favorable goose-type spaces is on every eighth space. They are chosen to mark “disastrous effects”: for example, the first such space shows Charles XII (of Sweden) in the Battle of Pultava (Poltava, 1709, in which battle he was decisively humbled by the forces of Peter the Great). At 48 is Cain in the Death of Abel, again a strange choice for a favorable space. By contrast, the classic death space at 58, with the requirement to begin the game again, shows the roles of Cadet Roussel and of Manon in the play Cadet Roussel Hector. Other hazard spaces of the classic game are recognized by special rules.
For example, at space 19, we find the role of Sophie in The Little Messenger, where the instructions are to pay for the message and to stay for two turns. Because of the unusual spacing of the goose-type doubling spaces, a special rule is needed for the two possible combinations making up a first throw of 8, i.e., 6 and 2 - go to 26; 5 and 3 - go to 53.
These destination spaces are just those expected in the classic game of Goose, but no rule is given for the initial throw of double 4. Like many variant Goose games, this version seems to have been constructed without much thought as to its practicability. (Adrian Seville)