Adrienne Lecouvreur — Eugène Scribe
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Adrienne Lecouvreur Author : Eugène Scribe Ernest Legouvé Editor : Theodore Ely Hamilton Release date : July 10, 2019 [eBook #59886] Most recently updated: January 24, 2021 Language : English, French Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59886 Credits : Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) *** START OF D. PROFESSOR OF ROMANCE PHILOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR BY SCRIBE AND LEGOUVÉ EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY THEODORE ELY HAMILTON, Ph.D. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMERICAN BRANCH: 35 West 32nd Street LONDON, TORONTO, MELBOURNE & BOMBAY HUMPHREY MILFORD 1917 All rights reserved Copyright, 1917 by Oxford University Press AMERICAN BRANCH INTRODUCTION Scribe and Legouvé Augustin Eugène Scribe was born at Paris, December 24th, 1791. He studied law but manifested early in life a strong inclination toward the drama. The first of his plays to be favored with the full approval of the public was Une nuit de la garde nationale , written in 1816, in collaboration with Delestre-Poirson. Thereafter, his success was great and continued. He produced plays in rapid succession for two and even three theaters at the same time. Many of them were written jointly with some collaborator. In 1816 appeared also Le nouveau Pourceaugnac and Le solliciteur , highly praised by Schlegel. In 1820 Scribe was engaged to write exclusively for a new theater established by his friend Poison, under the patronage of the Duchesse de Berri. In less than ten years (1821-30) he produced over one hundred plays. Among the best of these are: Le mariage enfantin , Le colonel , La loge du portier , Le baiser au porteur , La reine de seize ans , La marraine , Le diplomate , Le plus beau jour de la vie , and Le mariage de raison . For the Théâtre-Français he supplied the following plays: Valérie (1822), Le mariage d’argent (1827), Bertrand et Raton (1833), Une passion secrète (1834), La camaraderie (1837), Le verre d’eau (1840), Adrienne Lecouvreur (1849), Les contes de la reine de Navarre and La bataille de dames (1851), Mon étoile (1853), Feu Lionel and Les doigts de fée (1858). Several of these are still widely known. Adrienne Lecouvreur , which is described elsewhere, was written with Ernest Legouvé (1807-1903) and is a really beautiful play. La bataille de dames , also written with Legouvé, is well known for its rapid action and sprightly dialogue. Scribe also composed the libretti of the following operas: La dame blanche (1825), by Boïeldieu; La muette de Portici (1828), Fra Diavolo (1830), Le cheval de bronze (1835), and others, by Auber; Robert le Diable (1831), Les Huguenots (1836), and Le prophète (1849), by Meyerbeer. He wrote a number of novels, among which are Carlo Broschi , Judith , Le roi de carreau , and Maurice . Though widely read, they made no great literary mark. In 1836 the French Academy elected Scribe to membership. His productivity was enormous. Either alone or in collaboration, he produced over four hundred plays. At least three hundred and fifty of these have been printed separately in various collections of dramas, as Le théâtre de madame , La France dramatique , Le magazin théâtral , and Le théâtre illustré . A complete edition of his works has now been published by Calmann-Lévy, Paris. His many successful plays gave him large financial returns and his wealth increased rapidly. He left the most considerable fortune ever accumulated by any author of France. He died at Paris on the 20th of February, 1861. Scribe was not great in a purely literary way. His style is not all that could be desired. Neither was he a profound thinker or psychologist, nor a herald of new ideas. His ideas of morality were those current in his time. His world is that of the materialistic and self-satisfied bourgeoisie of the reign of Louis-Philippe. His shortcomings are manifest and have been severely handled by more than one eminent critic. It is, nevertheless, undeniable that Scribe was a master at handling the plot and action of a drama. He possessed a most intimate knowledge of the technique of plays and the requirements of the stage. He excelled in the art of maintaining the interest of the spectator by skillful and rapid changes in the situation, by an abundance of action, and by a vivacious and lifelike conversation. He possessed in a very high degree the power to please and entertain an audience and to produce the desired theatrical effect. When M. Octave Feuillet (1821-1890) succeeded Eugène Scribe as a member of the French Academy, on March 26th, 1863, he said in his address of reception: “Un des arts les plus difficiles dans le domaine de l’invention littéraire, c’est celui de charmer l’imagination sans l’ébranler, de toucher le cœur sans le troubler, d’amuser les hommes sans les corrompre: ce fut l’art suprême de Scribe.” And in his response to this discourse, M. Vitet (1802-1873) thus eulogized the remarkable inventive genius of Scribe.—“Il y avait chez Scribe une faculté puissante et vraiment supérieure qui lui assurait et qui m’explique cette suprématie sur le théâtre de son temps. C’était un don d’invention dramatique que personne avant lui peut-être n’avait ainsi possédé: le don de découvrir à chaque pas, presque à propos de rien, des combinaisons théâtrales d’un effet neuf et saisissant; et de les découvrir, non pas en germe seulement ou à peine ébauchées, mais en relief, en action, et déjà sur la scène. Pendant le temps qu’il faut à ses confrères pour préparer un plan, il en achève plus