Misplaced Pages

#313686

64-557: Eugène Marin Labiche ( French pronunciation: [øʒɛn maʁɛ̃ labiʃ] ; 6 May 1815 – 22 January 1888) was a French dramatist . He remains famous for his contribution to the vaudeville genre and his passionate and domestic pochads . In the 1860s, he reached his peak with a series of successes including Le Voyage de M. Perrichon (1860), La Poudre aux yeux (1861), La Station Champbaudet (1862) and La Cagnotte (1864). He worked with Jacques Offenbach , then director of

128-486: A ceremonial sword ( l'épée ). The members bear the cost of their uniforms themselves. The robes cost around $ 50,000, and Amin Maalouf said that his induction cost him some $ 230,000 overall. The swords can be particularly expensive as they are individually designed. Some new members have had funds for them raised by committees. The Académie is France's official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of

192-482: A murder mystery play which is the longest-running West End show , it has by far the longest run of any play in the world, with its 29,500th performance having taken place as of February 2024. Contemporary playwrights in the United States are affected by recent declines in theatre attendance. No longer the only outlet for serious drama or entertaining comedies, theatrical productions must use ticket sales as

256-643: A chairperson and chief representative of the Académie. The two other officers, a Director and a Chancellor, are elected for three-month terms. The most senior member, by date of election, is the Dean of the Académie. New members are elected by the Académie itself; the original members were appointed. When a seat becomes vacant, a person may apply to the Secretary if they wish to become a candidate. Alternatively, existing members may nominate other candidates. A candidate

320-512: A form of playwright. Outside of the Western world there is Indian classical drama , with one of the oldest known playwrights being Śudraka , whose attributed plays can be dated to the second century BC. The Nāṭya Shāstra , a text on the performing arts from between 500BC-500AD, categorizes playwrights as being among the members of a theatre company, although playwrights were generally the highest in social status, with some being kings. In

384-807: A literary work), the grand prix du roman (for a novel), the Grand prix de poésie de l'Académie française (for poetry), the Grand prix de philosophie (for a philosophical work), the Grand prix du cinéma (for film), and the grand prix Gobert (for a work on French history). The Académie Française intervened in June 2008 to oppose the French Government's proposal to constitutionally offer recognition and protection to regional languages ( Flemish , Alsatian , Basque , Breton , Catalan , Corsican , Occitan , Gascon , and Arpitan ). The current members of

448-465: A member is known as l'habit vert , or green clothing. The habit vert , worn at the Académie's formal ceremonies, was first adopted during Napoleon Bonaparte's reorganization of the Institut de France . It consists of a long black coat and black-feathered bicorne , both richly embroidered with green leafy motifs, together with black trousers or skirt. Further, members other than clergy carry

512-419: A person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form—a play. (The homophone with "write" is coincidental.) The first recorded use of the term "playwright" is from 1605, 73 years before the first written record of the term "dramatist". It appears to have been first used in a pejorative sense by Ben Jonson to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson uses

576-654: A playwright, winning awards for his play The Phoenix at both the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition in 2000. Today, theatre companies have new play development programs meant to develop new American voices in playwriting. Many regional theatres have hired dramaturges and literary managers in an effort to showcase various festivals for new work, or bring in playwrights for residencies. Funding through national organizations, such as

640-597: A single body called the Institut de France . Napoleon Bonaparte , as First Consul , decided to restore the former academies, but only as "classes" or divisions of the Institut de France . The second class of the Institut was responsible for the French language, and corresponded to the former Académie Française . When King Louis XVIII came to the throne in 1816, each class regained the title of "Académie"; accordingly,

704-525: A source of income, which has caused many of them to reduce the number of new works being produced. For example, Playwrights Horizons produced only six plays in the 2002–03 seasons, compared with thirty-one in 1973–74. Playwrights commonly encounter difficulties in getting their shows produced and often cannot earn a living through their plays alone, leading them to take up other jobs to supplement their incomes. Many playwrights are also film makers . For instance, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock began his career as

SECTION 10

#1732779986314

768-421: A speech to the Académie, which includes a eulogy for the member being replaced. This is followed by a speech made by one of the members. Eight days thereafter, a public reception is held, during which the new member makes a speech thanking their colleagues for their election. On one occasion, one newly installed member, Georges de Porto-Riche , was not accorded a reception, as the eulogy he made of his predecessor

832-562: A stricter interpretation of Aristotle, as this long-lost work came to light in the late 15th century. The neoclassical ideal, which was to reach its apogee in France during the 17th century, dwelled upon the unities , of action, place, and time. This meant that the playwright had to construct the play so that its "virtual" time would not exceed 24 hours, that it would be restricted to a single setting, and that there would be no subplots. Other terms, such as verisimilitude and decorum, circumscribed

896-632: Is Hans Sachs (1494–1576) who wrote 198 dramatic works. In England, The Second Shepherds' Play of the Wakefield Cycle is the best known early farce. However, farce did not appear independently in England until the 16th century with the work of John Heywood (1497–1580). Playwright William Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Most playwrights of

960-548: Is assigned a separate number. Candidates make their applications for a specific seat, not to the Académie in general: if several seats are vacant, a candidate may apply separately for each. Since a newly elected member is required to eulogize their predecessor in the installation ceremony, it is not uncommon that potential candidates refuse to apply for particular seats because they dislike the predecessors. Members are known as "les immortels" ("the Immortals") in reference to

1024-434: Is continuing work on the ninth edition, of which the first volume ( A to Enzyme ) appeared in 1992, Éocène to Mappemonde was published in 2000, and Maquereau to Quotité in 2011. In 1778, the Académie attempted to compile a "historical dictionary" of the French language; this idea was later abandoned, the work never progressing past the letter  A . As the use of English terms by media increased over

1088-492: Is elected by a majority of votes from voting members. A quorum is twenty members. If no candidate receives an absolute majority, another election must be performed at a later date. The election is valid only if the protector of the Académie, the President of France, grants their approval. The President's approbation is only a formality. The new member is then installed at a meeting of the Académie. The new member must deliver

1152-449: Is not necessary to be a member of the literary profession to become a member. The Académie has included numerous politicians, lawyers, scientists, historians, philosophers, and senior Roman Catholic clergymen. Five French heads of state have been members – Adolphe Thiers , Raymond Poincaré , Paul Deschanel , Philippe Pétain , and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing – and one foreign head of state, the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal , who

1216-483: Is practically absent from his theatre. In none of his plays did he ever venture into the depths of feminine psychology, and womankind is only represented by pretentious old maids and silly young ladies. He ridiculed marriage, but in a friendly and good-natured manner that always left a door open to repentance and timely amendment. Dramatist The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are

1280-542: Is still useful to playwrights today is the " French scene ", which is a scene in a play where the beginning and end are marked by a change in the makeup of the group of characters onstage rather than by the lights going up or down or the set being changed. Notable playwrights: Greek theater was alive and flourishing on the island of Crete. During the Cretan Renaissance two notable Greek playwrights Georgios Chortatzis and Vitsentzos Kornaros were present in

1344-494: The Ancient Greeks . William Shakespeare is amongst the most famous playwrights in literature, both in England and across the world. The word "play" is from Middle English pleye , from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsperson or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright ). The words combine to indicate

SECTION 20

#1732779986314

1408-406: The Ancient Greeks . These early plays were for annual Athenian competitions among play writers held around the 5th century BC. Such notables as Aeschylus , Sophocles , Euripides , and Aristophanes established forms still relied on by their modern counterparts. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides . The origins of Athenian tragedy remain obscure, though by

1472-689: The Battle of Verdun of World War I , was elected to the Académie in 1931 and, after his governorship of Vichy France in World War II , was forced to resign his seat in 1945. The Académie had its origins in an informal literary group deriving from the salons held at the Hôtel de Rambouillet during the late 1620s and early 1630s. The group began meeting at Valentin Conrart 's house, seeking informality. There were then nine members. Cardinal Richelieu ,

1536-594: The French Academy , is the principal French council for matters pertaining to the French language . The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu , the chief minister to King Louis XIII . Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution , it was restored as a division of the Institut de France in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte . It is the oldest of the five académies of

1600-624: The National Endowment for the Arts and the Theatre Communications Group , encouraged the partnerships of professional theatre companies and emerging playwrights. Playwrights will often have a cold reading of a script in an informal sitdown setting, which allows them to evaluate their own plays and the actors performing them. Cold reading means that the actors haven't rehearsed the work, or may be seeing it for

1664-449: The 4th century BCE, Aristotle wrote his Poetics , in which he analyzed the principle of action or praxis as the basis for tragedy. He then considered elements of drama: plot ( μύθος mythos ), character ( ἔθος ethos ), thought ( dianoia ), diction ( lexis ), music ( melodia ), and spectacle ( opsis ). Since the myths on which Greek tragedy were based were widely known, plot had to do with

1728-543: The 5th century it was institutionalised in competitions ( agon ) held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysos (the god of wine and fertility ). As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama), playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. For

1792-552: The Académie's motto , À l'immortalité ("To Immortality"), which is inscribed on the official seal of the charter granted by Cardinal Richelieu. One of the immortels is chosen by their colleagues to be the Académie's Perpetual Secretary. The Secretary is called "Perpetual", as though the holder serves for life, but holds the ability to resign; they may thereafter be styled as "Honorary Perpetual Secretary", with three post- World War II Perpetual Secretaries having previously resigned due to old age. The Perpetual Secretary acts as

1856-559: The Académie, either because their candidacies were rejected, because they were never candidates, or because they died before appropriate vacancies arose. Notable French authors who never became academicians include Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Jean-Paul Sartre , Joseph de Maistre , Honoré de Balzac , René Descartes , Denis Diderot , Romain Rolland , Charles Baudelaire , Gustave Flaubert , Molière , Marcel Proust , Jules Verne , Théophile Gautier , and Émile Zola . The official uniform of

1920-484: The Bouffes-Parisiens, to write librettos for operettas and for several comic operas. His 1851 farce The Italian Straw Hat , written with Marc-Michel , has been adapted many times to stage and screen. He was born into a bourgeois family and studied law. At the age of twenty, he contributed a short story to Chérubin magazine, entitled "Les plus belles sont les plus fausses" ("The most beautiful are

1984-651: The French head of state has always served as the Académie's protector. From 1672 to 1805, the official meetings of the Académie were in the Louvre ; since 1805, the Académie Française has met in the Collège des Quatre-Nations (known now as the Palais de l'Institut). The remaining academies of the Institut de France also meet in the Palais de l'Institut. The Académie Française has forty seats, each of which

Eugène Labiche - Misplaced Pages Continue

2048-456: The French language since the 1700s, and has criticized the view that anglicisms present an "invasion" on the French language. It distinguishes anglicisms into three categories: some that are useful to the French language and introduced vocabulary which did not have a French equivalent at the time (the Académie cites the word " confortable " as an example, from the English "comfortable"); others that are detrimental and only establish more confusion as

2112-539: The French language. The Académie publishes a dictionary of the French language, known as the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française , which is regarded as official in France. A special commission composed of several (but not all) of the members of the Académie compiles the work. The Académie has published thirteen editions of the dictionary, of which three were preliminary, eight were complete, and two were supplements for specialised words. These are: The Académie

2176-561: The Middle Ages, the earliest of which is The Play of the Greenwood by Adam de la Halle in 1276. It contains satirical scenes and folk material such as faeries and other supernatural occurrences. Farces also rose dramatically in popularity after the 13th century. The majority of these plays come from France and Germany and are similar in tone and form, emphasizing sex and bodily excretions. The best known playwright of farces

2240-485: The Palais Royal) introduced a provincial actor who was to become and to remain a great Parisian favourite, the famous comedian Grassot . In the same year, Labiche, still doubtful about his true vocation, published a romance called La Clé des champs . According to Léon Halévy , Labiche's publisher went bankrupt soon after the novel was out: "A lucky misadventure, for this timely warning of Destiny sent him back to

2304-611: The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn . As a reaction to the decadence of Charles II era productions, sentimental comedy grew in popularity. Playwrights like Colley Cibber and Richard Steele believed that humans were inherently good but capable of being led astray. The Italian Renaissance brought about

2368-667: The actors who had appeared in them, but, upon reading the plays, they realized that their success was due to the writing itself, with its humor and skilled characterization. Due to this re-evaluation of Labiche's writing, he was elected to the Académie française in 1880. Labiche died in Paris and was buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre . Some admirers have considered Labiche the equal of Molière ; his plays are more complex and less coarse than many other examples of French farce. Love

2432-631: The already dominant position of the Tuscan dialect of Florence as the model for Italian ; the Florentine academy had published its Vocabolario in 1612. During the French Revolution , the National Convention suppressed all royal academies, including the Académie Française . In 1792, the election of new members to replace those who died was prohibited; in 1793, the academies were themselves abolished. They were all replaced in 1795 by

2496-420: The ancient Greeks, playwriting involved poïesis , "the act of making". This is the source of the English word poet . Despite Chinese Theatre having performers dated back to the 6th century BC with You Meng , their perspective of theatre was such that plays had no other role than "performer" or "actor", but given that the performers were also the ones who invented their performances, they could be considered

2560-404: The arrangement and selection of existing material. Character was determined by choice and by action. Tragedy is mimesis —"the imitation of an action that is serious". He developed his notion of hamartia , or tragic flaw, an error in judgment by the main character or protagonist , which provides the basis for the "conflict-driven" play. There were also a number of secular performances staged in

2624-529: The care and diligence possible, to give exact rules to our language, to render it capable of treating the arts and sciences". The Académie Française has remained responsible for the regulation of French grammar, spelling, and literature. Richelieu's model, the first academy devoted to eliminating the "impurities" of a language, was the Accademia della Crusca , founded in Florence in 1582, which formalized

Eugène Labiche - Misplaced Pages Continue

2688-475: The chief minister of France, made himself protector of the group, and in anticipation of the formal creation of the academy, new members were appointed in 1634. On 22 February 1635, at Richelieu's urging, King Louis XIII granted letters patent formally establishing the council; according to the letters patent registered at the Parlement de Paris on 10 July 1637, the Académie Française was "to labor with all

2752-402: The curtain falls. For the next twenty-five years, he continued to write successful comedies and vaudevilles, all basically constructed on the same plan and containing a dose of comic observation and good sense. "Of all the subjects," he said, "which offered themselves to me, I have selected the bourgeois. Essentially mediocre in his vices and in his virtues, he stands half-way between the hero and

2816-625: The end of World War II : Philippe Pétain , Abel Bonnard , Abel Hermant , and Charles Maurras were all excluded for their association with the Vichy regime . In total, 20 members have been expelled from the Académie. There have been a total of 742 immortels , of whom eleven have been women; Marguerite Yourcenar was the first woman to be elected, in 1980, but there have been 25 unsuccessful female candidacies, dating from 1874. Individuals who are not citizens of France may be, and have been, elected. Moreover, although most academicians are writers, it

2880-585: The first time, and usually, the technical requirements are minimal. The O'Neill Festival offers summer retreats for young playwrights to develop their work with directors and actors. Playwriting collectives like 13P and Orbiter 3 gather members together to produce, rather than develop, new works. The idea of the playwriting collective is in response to plays being stuck in the development process and never advancing to production. Acad%C3%A9mie fran%C3%A7aise The Académie Française ( French pronunciation: [akademi fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ), also known as

2944-457: The institute. The body has the duty of acting as an official authority on the language; it is tasked with publishing an official dictionary of the language. The Académie comprises forty members, known as les immortels ("the immortals"). New members are elected by the members of the Académie itself . Academicians normally hold office for life, but they may resign or be dismissed for misconduct. Philippe Pétain , named Marshal of France after

3008-490: The latter part of the 16th century. The plays of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Friedrich Schiller , and other Sturm und Drang playwrights inspired a growing faith in feeling and instinct as guides to moral behavior and were part of the German romanticism movement. Aleksandr Ostrovsky was Russia's first professional playwright). Author and playwright Agatha Christie wrote The Moustrap ,

3072-485: The modernization of the French orthography , has sometimes been criticized by many linguists for allegedly behaving in an overly conservative manner. For instance, in 1997, Lionel Jospin 's government began using the feminine noun " la ministre " to refer to a female minister, following the official practice of Canada , Belgium and Switzerland and a frequent, though until then unofficial, practice in France. The Académie insisted, in accordance with French grammar rules on

3136-494: The most fake/false"). A few others followed, but failed to catch the attention of the public. Labiche tried his hand at dramatic criticism in the Revue des théâtres and in 1838, wrote and premiered two plays. The small Théâtre du Pantheon produced, to some popular success, his drama L'Avocat Loubet , while a vaudeville , Monsieur de Coyllin, ou l'homme infiniment poli (written in collaboration with Marc-Michel and performed at

3200-621: The original meaning of the word is distorted in translation; and others still that are useless or avoidable, a category of anglicisms used by "snobs" who use words from an English provenance to demarcate themselves from society and appear "in vogue". For the last category of anglicisms, the Académie writes that those words are typically short-lived in French parlance. The Académie Française has informed government officials to stop using English gaming terms like "e-sports", it should be "jeu video de competition". Likewise "streamer" should be "joueur-animateur en direct". The Académie, despite working on

3264-407: The period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. In England, after the interregnum , and Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, there was a move toward neoclassical dramaturgy. Between

SECTION 50

#1732779986314

3328-416: The prizes were created during the twentieth century, and only two prizes were awarded before 1780. In total, the Académie awards more than sixty prizes, most of them annually. The most important prize is the Grand prix de la francophonie , which was instituted in 1986, and is funded by the governments of France, Canada, Monaco, and Morocco. Other important prizes include the Grand prix de littérature (for

3392-443: The scoundrel, between the saint and the profligate." During the second period of his career Labiche collaborated with Alfred Delacour , Adolphe Choler , and others. Emile Augier said: "The distinctive qualities which secured a lasting vogue for the plays of Labiche are to be found in all the comedies written by him with different collaborators, and are conspicuously absent from those which they wrote without him." Even more important

3456-489: The second class of the Institut became the Académie Française . Since 1816, the existence of the Académie Française has been uninterrupted. The President of France is the "protector" or patron of the Académie. Cardinal Richelieu originally adopted this role; upon his death in 1642, Pierre Séguier , the Chancellor of France , succeeded him. King Louis XIV adopted the function when Séguier died in 1672; since then,

3520-567: The stage, and retired to his rural property in Sologne. There, he devoted his energies to supervising agricultural work and to reclaiming land and marshes. His lifelong friend, Émile Augier , visited him there, and strongly advised Labiche to publish a collected and revised edition of his works. Though Labiche was initially reluctant, he issued, during 1878 and 1879, his comic plays in ten volumes, which were enthusiastically received. Many people had assumed that Labiche's plays owed their popularity to

3584-631: The stage, where a career of success was awaiting him." There was yet another obstacle in the way. When he married, Labiche solemnly promised his wife's parents that he would renounce a profession then considered incompatible with moral regularity and domestic happiness. A year later, his wife released him from his vow, and Labiche recalled the incident when he dedicated the first edition of his complete works to her. In conjunction with Charles Varin , Marc-Michel , Louis François Clairville , Philippe François Dumanoir , and others, he contributed comic plays interspersed with couplets to various Paris theatres. He

3648-557: The subject matter significantly. For example, verisimilitude limits of the unities. Decorum fitted proper protocols for behavior and language on stage. In France, contained too many events and actions, thus, violating the 24-hour restriction of the unity of time. Neoclassicism never had as much traction in England, and Shakespeare 's plays are directly opposed to these models, while in Italy, improvised and bawdy commedia dell'arte and opera were more popular forms. One structural unit that

3712-474: The traditional use of the masculine noun, on the use of " le ministre " for a minister of either gender. In 2017, 77 linguists retaliated with an opinion column to denounce the "incompetence and anachronism of the Académie". Use of either form remains highly controversial. The Académie Française is responsible for awarding several different prizes in various fields (including literature, painting, poetry, theatre, cinema, history, and translation). Almost all of

3776-441: The word in his Epigram 49, which is thought to refer to John Marston or Thomas Dekker : Jonson described himself as a poet, not a playwright, since plays during that time were written in meter and so were regarded as the province of poets. This view was held as late as the early 19th century. The term "playwright" later again lost this negative connotation. The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are

3840-543: The years, the Académie has tried to prevent the Anglicization of the French language. For example, the Académie has recommended the avoidance of loanwords from modern English (such as walkman , computer , software and e-mail ), in favour of neologisms, i.e. newly coined French words derived from existing ones ( baladeur , ordinateur , logiciel , and courriel respectively). The Académie has also noted that anglicisms have been present in

3904-432: Was also the first African elected, in 1983. Other famous members include Voltaire ; Montesquieu ; Victor Hugo ; Alexandre Dumas, fils ; Émile Littré ; Louis Pasteur ; Louis de Broglie ; and Henri Poincaré . Many notable French writers have not become members of the Académie Française . In 1855, the writer Arsène Houssaye devised the expression "forty-first seat" for deserving individuals who were never elected to

SECTION 60

#1732779986314

3968-473: Was considered a successful but undistinguished vaudevillist, until he paired with Marc-Michel to create the five-act farce , Un Chapeau de paille d'Italie ( The Italian Straw Hat ), which turned out to be a major success upon its opening in August 1851. It is an accomplished specimen of the French imbroglio -style play, in which someone is in search of something, but does not find it till five minutes before

4032-406: Was considered unsatisfactory, and he refused to rewrite it. Georges Clemenceau refused to be received, as he feared being received by his enemy, Raymond Poincaré . Members remain in the Académie for life. The council may dismiss an academician for grave misconduct. The first dismissal occurred in 1638, when Auger de Moléon de Granier was expelled for theft. The most recent dismissals occurred at

4096-418: Was his professional relationship with actor Jean Marie Geoffroy , who specialized in Labiche's pompous and fussy bourgeois characters. Many of Labiche's roles were written specifically for Geoffroy. Célimare le bien-aimé (1863), Le Voyage de M. Perrichon (1860), La Grammaire , Un Pied dans le crime , La Cagnotte (1864), were some of Labiche's most important plays. In 1877, he ended his connection with

#313686