From Reviews (ADR) by Arthur D. Rypinski:
A very clever and amusing "play within a play" constructed by Dumas in 1850
by combining with Molière's circa 1650 classic, The Love Doctor (L'Amour Médecin)
comprising about 50 percent text by Molière, and 50 percent by Dumas.
The stage set for the play consists of the stage set for the "Love Doctor"
tilted diagonally across the stage, with the audience able to view both the
back stage (upstage left) and an area for the "audience" in downstage right.
The concept (or "shtick" to use the technical language) is that we are
watching a circa 1650 theatrical troupe preparing to perform "Love Doctor"
and the Seventeenth Century audience preparing to watch. Dumas' plot,
involving two rival actresses, two rival suitors in the audience, and a
desperately harried manager, plays out before, during, and after the
performance of "Love Doctor" which is also performed in its entirety.
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: Written in one evening to be performed on the anniversary of Molière's birth.
It is Dumas' work, though Houssaye and a couple of other friends sat with him round the dinner-table, and upon them he sharpened his wit.
The intention was to give the earlier piece the natural setting of the stage as seen in Moliere's own day. This proved so successful, and the linking of Dumas' additions is so well done, that the audiences were completely misled. They sometimes hissed Molière, thinking his work Dumas' ; at others they applauded Dumas, believing the scene one of Moliere's. These mistakes rendered the public furious, and the play only ran three nights : it was literally killed by its skilful construction. These "interludes" are most amusing and witty, even to read.
First performed at the Théâtre Français on the 15th of January, 1850.
It was apparently not published until included among the collected plays, about 1864.
It is now included in Vol. X. of the 15 Vol. series, and in Vol. XVI. of that in 25 Vols.. as issued by Calmann-Lévy.
References :— Parran: "Bibliographie d'Alex. Dumas," page 32. Glinel: "A. Dumas et Son Œuvre," pp. 423-24. Gautier: "Art Dramatique," Série VI., pp. 142-45. Lecomte: "Alexandre Dumas," page 119. Houssaye: "Les Confessions," Vol. III., pp. 99-103. (In the English translation by Vandam: "Behind the Scenes of the Comédie Française," pp. 229-33.)
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: (CLXVI.) Prologue, Scene i., wholly in verse, fourteen lyric lines. These lines are not by Dumas, but by Molière.
