Paillasse

Paillasse (or La Paillasse in some sources, i.e. "Clown" or "The Clown") is a French drama in five acts by Adolphe d' Ennery (1811-1899)[2] and Marc Fournier (1818-1879)

Not to be confused with the opera Pagliacci (known as Paillasse in French and The Players in English) by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

The original text

Featuring a clown named "Belphégor" (see also Belphegor), it was a great success and became the source for a number of English adaptations by various authors. It was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre de la Gaité, on 9 November 1850. Published in Paris by Dondey-Dupré, 1850 and in Volume 17 of Magasin théâtral illustré by J. A. Lelong, Brussels, in 1850.

Translations and adaptations

The play immediately became the source for a number of English adaptations or derivative works by various authors produced in the 1850's and later.

Among the most notable are:

Belphegor the Itinerant (or Belphegor, or The Mountebank and His Wife,1851) by John Courtney; Belphegor, or The Mountebank and His Wife (or Belphegor, the Buffoon, or The Robbers of the Revolution,1851) by Thomas Higgie and Thomas Hailes Lacy; Belphegor the Mountebank, or Pride of Bath (1851) by Benjamin Nottingham Webster; Belphegor the Mountebank, or Woman's Constancy (1856) by C. Webb; and The Acrobat (1891) by Wilson Barrett.

Belphegor (1889) by J. Wilton Jones and Belphegor by L. S. Buckingham are possibly also derivatives of the French play.

Webb's 1856 version was used as the basis for the 1921 British silent film called Belphegor the Mountebank, directed by Bert Wynne and starring Milton Rosmer, Kathleen Vaughan and Warwick Ward. (In some editions Charles Dillon is also mentioned as an author.)

Performance history in South Africa

Though no French performances of the orginal Ennery and Fournier play have so far been identified in South Africa, a number of the derivative English plays have been done in the country.

See for example the entries on Belphegor, or The Mountebank and His Wife (Courtney) and Belphegor the Mountebank, or Woman's Constancy (Webb).

Sources

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

https://www.amazon.fr/Paillasse-%C3%A9preuves-Belph%C3%A9gor-Adolphe-dEnnery/dp/B0068FAC9A

Facsimile version of the original Le Long text for Paillasse, Google E-book[1]

Facsimile version of the original Dondey-Dupré text for Paillasse[2]

ranscript version of the original text for Courtney 4 act version of Belphegor, or The Mountebank and His Wife[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Courtney_(playwright)

Alfred Harbage, Sylvia S. Wagonheim. 1989. Annals of English Drama, 975-1700. Psychology Press: p. 369[4]

Frederick Wilse Bateson (Ed.). 1940 The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, Volumes 1-5 CUP Archive[5]

Hambleton Theatrical Collection, 1790-1941[6]

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.

Sources

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

https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/7160135

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Webster,_Benjamin_Nottingham_(DNB00)

Facsimile version of the score for Belphegor or the Wishes[7]

https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Belphegor%20the%20Mountebank%20(1921%20film)&item_type=topic

https://www.amazon.fr/Paillasse-%C3%A9preuves-Belph%C3%A9gor-Adolphe-dEnnery/dp/B0068FAC9A

Facsimile version of the original Le Long text for Paillasse, Google E-book[8]

Allardyce Nicoll. 1975. History of English Drama 1660-1900[9]

Facsimile version of the original Dondey-Dupré text for Paillasse[10]

http://www.worldcat.org/title/belphegor-the-mountebank-or-womans-constancy-a-drama-in-three-acts/oclc/15014227/editions?editionsView=true&referer=br

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011540171

Facsimile version of the original text for the Higgie 3 act version of Belphegor, or The Mountebank and His Wife, The HathiTrust Digital Library[11]

Transcript version of the original text for Courtney 4 act version of Belphegor, or The Mountebank and His Wife[12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Courtney_(playwright)

http://www.worldcat.org/title/belphegor-or-the-mountebank-and-his-wife-a-romantic-and-domestic-drama-in-three-acts/oclc/24495274

Alfred Harbage, Sylvia S. Wagonheim. 1989. Annals of English Drama, 975-1700. Psychology Press: p. 369[13]

Frederick Wilse Bateson (Ed.). 1940 The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, Volumes 1-5 CUP Archive[14]

Hambleton Theatrical Collection, 1790-1941[15]

Go to ESAT Bibliography

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