Le Retour de Melun

Le Retour de Melun is a drama in 5 acts and 7 tableaux by Édouard Brisebarre (1815-1871)[1] and Eugène Nus (1816-1894)[2].

Also known as Léonard and became well known in the English world in Tom Taylor's version entitled The Ticket-of-Leave Man (sometimes found as The Ticket of Leave Man).

The original text

It is adapted from the play, Le Retour de Melun by Édouard Brisebarre and Eugène Nus, published in Les Drames de la Vie in 1860, and staged as Léonard, a drama in 5 acts and 7 tableaux, at the Théâtre du boulevard du Temple on December 31 1862. The text of Léonard was edited and published by E. Dentu in 1863.

Translations and adaptations

Adapted as an English melodrama in four acts with the title The Ticket-of-Leave Man, by Tom Taylor (1817-1880)[3]. The English play was first produced at the Olympic Theatre, London, 27 March 1863 and published in the same year.

Plot

(As reported in the Eastern Province Herald): The story is one of London life - the life so vividly depicted by Dickens and other writers of the period. A young Lancashire lad, by name Robert Brierley, comes into his inheritance, and filled with a desire to see life goes to London, where he soon becomes the prey of a gang of thieves and cardsharpers. He is used as the unsuspecting tool by which to utter a sheaf of forged Bank of England notes, the gang being aware that the police are after them.

Changing a £20 note at a shop he is arrested by Hawkshaw, a detective, and is sentenced to penal servitude for four years. Prior to this, however, he meets Mary Edwards, a street singer, whom he treats kindly, with the result that she is inspired with love for the reckless young spendthrift, and by her influence changes the current of his life.

An interval of three-and-a-half years is supposed to elapse between the first and second acts, the latter being laid at May Edwards lodgings. Here light relief is afforded by some very diverting comedy, and Brierley again comes on the scene liberated ona ticket-of-leave. May is acting as housekeeper to Mr Gibson, a city bill broker and partly through her influence Robert finds employment as a messenger. But his attempt at rehabilitation of character is brought to an abrupt close by Dalton, alias Downey, who first got him into trouble.

Dalton presents a forged bill, but Melter Moss, an accomplice,seeing Hawkshaw sitting clmly as one of the clerks, gives him a warning, and by an assumption of innocence and the withdrawal of the bill the villan again escapes the just reward of his misdeed.

A very fine scene occurs between Gibson, Dalton and Hawkshaw, the act culminating in the discharge of Brierley. However, all is not lost, for Brierley, fortified by the touching conscience of his wife, he determined to not again fall into crime, but he is reduced so low by the machinations of the gang as to beg for employment as a ganger. He secures the job, but on his fellow workmen discovering him to be a ticket-of-leave man is forced to abandon it.

Ruin stares him in the face, and then Dalton and the Jew, taking advantage of his hopeless position, once more attempt to inveigle him into a life of crime by endeavouring to get Brierley to help the steal £5,000 from Mr Gibson's office.

To secure the ends of justice he apparently consents, the fourth act closing with one of the most dramatic scenes ever concieved by a modern playwright - if Taylor can be called modern. Needless to say the last act shows virtue triumphant, and vice very much the otherwise, Brierley with his character cleared, and Dalton and Moss reaping the whirlwind.

Performance history in South Africa

1867: Performed as The Ticket-of-Leave Man by "Le Roy's Original Company" in the Theatre Royal in Harrington Street, Cape Town, on 22 April.

1867: Performed again as The Ticket-of-Leave Man by "Le Roy's Original Company" in the Theatre Royal in Harrington Street, Cape Town, on 25 April, with Which shall I Marry? (Suter).

1873: Performed in the Oddfellows Hall, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck and his company on 6 December, with Turn Him Out (Williams).

1873: Performed in the Oddfellows Hall, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck and his company on 27 December, with Creatures of Impulse (Gilbert).

1874: Performed as The Ticket-of-Leave Man in the Mutual Hall, Cape Town, on 7 March by Disney Roebuck and his company, with The Area Belle (Brough and Halliday).

1875: Performed as The Ticket-of-Leave Man in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck and his company on 27 March, with The Wandering Minstrel (Mayhew).

1875: Performed as The Ticket-of-Leave Man in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck and his company on 18 June.

1875: Performed as The Ticket-of-Leave Man in the Bijou Theatre, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck and his company on 30 September, with Turn Him Out (Williams).

1876: Performed as The Ticket-of-Leave Man in the Theatre Royal, Burg Street, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck and his company on 7 June, with a ballet performance to follow.

1876: Performed as The Ticket-of-Leave Man in the Theatre Royal, Burg Street, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck and his company on 28 October, with Nemesis, or Not Wisely but Too Well (Farnie).

1877: Performed as The Ticket-of-Leave Man four times in the Theatre Royal, Burg Street, Cape Town, by Disney Roebuck and his company: on 1 and 4 September, and again on 5 and 10 December. F.C.L. Bosman (1980) mentions that songs were also sung by Miss Wynne and Miss Nathan on the first occasion.

1878: Performed as The Ticket-of-Leave Man in the Theatre Royal, Burg Street, Cape Town, by the Henry Smith and Richard Thatcher (the Smith and Thatcher Company) on 9 September, and featuring Ada Ward.

1884-5: Performed as The Ticket-of-Leave Man by the Henry Harper Company in the new Theatre Royal, Cape Town, as part of Henry Harper's first season as lessee and manager of the venue.

1892: Performed as The Ticket-of-Leave Man in the Vaudeville Theatre, Cape Town, by the Chambers Theatre Company, opening on 26 December. The cast consisted of Emma Chambers, Arthur Gilmore, Robert Brierly, James Dalton, Heinrich Varna, Mr Hawshaw, J.A. Rosier, Melter Ross, Albert Harsh, Mr Gibson, H.W. Sillaw, Sam Willougby, May Edwards, Vivienne Vincent, Mrs Willoughby and Joseph Ashman.

1901: The Ticket-of-Leave Man was staged in the Port Elizabeth Opera House during February by the Joseph Ashman Company, by arrangement with Leonard Rayne. Starring Joseph Ashman as Robert Brierley, Fred Bartlett as James Dalton, Hugh Ardale as Hawkshaw, W H Thorn as Melter Moss, Miss Dora Nazeby, as Mary Edwards, Miss Daisy Hesse as Mrs Willoughby, and Miss Mary Brammer, as a lady.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ticket-of-Leave_Man_(play)

George Rowell. 2013. Nineteenth Century Plays, Read Books Ltd[4]

http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/19038423?

Nicholas Daly. 2015. The Demographic Imagination and the Nineteenth-Century City. Cambridge University Press: p.62[5]

Facsimile version of the 1863 text of Léonard, Internet Archive[6]

[[The Eastern Province Herald], Port Elizabeth, Tuesday, February 5, 1901.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Taylor

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 206, 222, 226, 294, 306, 309-312, 315-6, 322, 324, 327, 329, 340, 343, 347, 350, 360, 363, 372, 380, 395, 438.

Go to ESAT Bibliography