From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: An episodical review, in one act.
This was a much collaborated piece of work, in which Dumas himself was responsible for some scenes concerning the journal "Le Constitutionnel" and his play "Antony."
Apparently it was too "topical" to please the censorship, which greatly mutilated it before the first performance, and then stopped it altogether after its tenth appearance.
At the conclusion, Lhérie, actor and playwright, came forward and repeated this stanza, to indicate the authors :—
"Messieurs, la pièce nouvelle,
Que nous avons eu l'honneur
D'offrir, en doublant de zèle,
Au parterre connaisseur,
Cette œuvre presque sublime
Qu'on vient d'applaudir ici,
Est l'enfant très-légitime
Des trente-six pères que voici :
Messieurs Adam,
Dumersan,
Et Mallian,
Les Cogniard
Et Blanchard,
Et Lafargue et Courcy,
Barthélemy,
Duflot,
Deslandes et Chabot,
Et Dumas et Brazier,
Saint-Georges et Didier,
Puis Lherick
Et Brunswick,
Roche, Anicet Bourgeois,
Aude, Achille Dartois,
Jaime, Alboize, Dupin,
Langlet, Adolphe, enfin,
Dumanoir, Rochefort,
Et bien d'autres encor
Qui gardent l'annonyme." (1)
(1) The new piece we offer you, gentlemen all,—
'Tis an honour to play it we know,—
To the connoisseur yonder within this our hall,
With a zeal all redoubled we show.
The work, which is almost sublime, as we hold,
And by you well applauded has been,
Is the offspring of thirty-six persons all told,
As the list of them here may be seen :
Messieurs Adam,
Dumersan . . . .
. . . . . . . .
Langlet, Adolph, all kin,
Dumanoir, Rochefort,
And some others for sure,
Who their names give not in.
First performed at the Theatre des Variétés on the 24th of June, 1834.
Original (and only) edition : Paris, Marchant, 1834, large 8vo. of two columns, forming part of the "Magasin Théâtral," pp. 16.
References :—
Dumas: "Mes Mémoires," Chapter CCII. Quérard: "Supercheries Littéraires Dévoilées," Vol. I., Columns 1066-1067.
Goizet: "Histoire Anecdotique de la Collaboration au Théâtre," pp. 31-34. Lecomte: "Alexandre Dumas," pp. 114, 122. Glinel: "Alexandre Dumas et Son Œuvre," pp. 330-331. Glinel: "Théâtre Inconnu," in "Revue Biblio-Iconographique," year 1898, p. 510.
Muret: "L'Histoire par le Théâtre: 1789-1851."—1865, Troisième Série, pp. 269-272.
