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An Exemplary French Romantic Production: Alfred De Vigny's Chatterton
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2009
Extract
The production of Alfred de Vigny's Chatterton at the Comédie-Française, 12 February 1835, comes toward the end of the middle period of French Romantic drama. After the success of Hugo's Hernani in 1830 the French Romantics abandoned and were abandoned by the official theatre. Between 1830–1835, most of the works of Dumas, Hugo, and Vigny were produced at the Odéon or the Porte-Saint-Martin—with the notable exception of the fiasco of Hugo's Le Roi s'amuse at the Comédie in 1832. The conventions and tastes of the popular theatre audiences had not been favorable to the literary concerns of the Romantics. Dumas especially, and Hugo, to some extent, compromised their principles, while Vigny chose to remain silent. In 1835, however, Hugo and Vigny, with Angelo and Chatterton, were to return to the more literary atmosphere of the Comédie-Française. After these productions, both successes, the history of the Romantic drama in France moves into its final period with a series of failures which would culminate in the production of Hugo's Les Burgraves at the Comédie-Française in 1843, generally considered to be the terminal date in the study of French Romantic drama.
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- Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1975
References
1 The best edition of Chatterton is by Petroni, Liano (Bologna, 1962)Google Scholar. This edition includes textual variants published during Vigny's lifetime as well as variants from the manuscript, which is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Citations in my text, unless otherwise noted, are from the Oeuvres complètes: Théâtre II, ed. Baldensperger, Fernand (Paris, 1927)Google Scholar. The first edition of the play appeared at the end of March 1835.—In the Archives of the Comédie-Française are the prompt-script of the 1835 production; the livre de conduite for the reprise at the Comédie in 1857, which verifies staging notes in the 1835 text and includes floor plans for the set (see Figures); and rehearsal notes made by Vigny in 1835.
2 Oeuvres complètes: Théâtre II, p. 246Google Scholar.
3 Gazette des Théâtres, 15 February 1835.
4 Gautier, Théophile, Histoire du Romantisme (Paris, 1874), p. 161Google Scholar.
5 Figure 1 reproduces the floor plan from the promptbook for the 1857 revival of Chatterton at the Comédie-Française. That this was the original set is confirmed by Séchan, C. in his Souvenirs d'un Homme du Théâtre (Paris, 1883), p. 241Google Scholar and by Gautier, p. 156. The set, costumes, and props are described in the mise-en-scène from the Gazette des Théâtres, 8 March 1835. See Appendix I.
6 See the prompt-script, dated 12 February 1835, in the Archives of the Comédie-Française and Oeuvres complètes: Théâtre II, pp. 248 and 326Google Scholar.
7 Oeuvres complètes: Correspondance (Paris, 1933), p. 381Google Scholar.
8 Ibid.
9 Oeuvres complètes: Théâtre II, p. 348Google Scholar.
10 Ibid., p. 349.
11 Oeuvres complètes: Journal (Paris, 1935), 388Google Scholar.
12 The four pages of rehearsal notes are in the “Dossier Vigny” at the Archives of the Comédie-Française. For the speech, see Oeuvres complètes: Théâtre II, p. 293Google Scholar.
13 Gazette des Théâtres, 15 February 1835.
14 Revue des Deux Mondes, I (1835)Google Scholar.
15 For the speech, see Oeuvres complètes: Théâtre II, p. 263Google Scholar.
16 Revue de Paris, XIII (1835)Google Scholar.
17 Ibid.
18 The reconstruction is a pastiche from the following sources: Oeuvres complètes: Théâtre II, pp. 336–346Google Scholar; Revue de Paris, XIII (1835)Google Scholar; Gazette des Théâtres, 15 Fèbruary 1835; Gautier, Histoire, p. 161; Séchan, Souvenirs, pp. 273–74; the 1835 prompt-script; L'Artiste, IX, no. 3 (1835)Google Scholar.
19 These placements are confirmed by notes in the 1835 promp-script at the Comédie-Française.
20 Revue du Théâtre, III, supplement to no. 78 (1835)Google Scholar.
21 Revue du Théâtre, III, no. 63 (1835)Google Scholar.
22 See Appendix III for a list of the box office receipts. Descotes, M. in Le Drame romantique (Paris, 1955), p. 283Google Scholar, notes that the hostility to Dorval at the Comédie continued to manifest itself throughout the run of the play and that the performances of Chatterton were halted by the preparation for the reprise of Lafosses' Manlius. In addition, each time Madame Dorval's name appeared on a poster, a note “in ostentatious letters” was added announcing that Mademoiselle Mars would be appearing the next day!
23 “Chronique,” Revue des Deux Mondes (1835), p. 591.