Le Chien de Montargis, ou la Forêt de Bondy

Le Chien de Montargis, ou la Forêt de Bondy is a French melodrama by René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt ()[].

The original text

The plot is based on a legend from the 14th century, as recorded in a letter from Julius Caesar Scaliger, who tells of a French courtier who was murdered in the forest of Bondy, north of Paris. The only witness to the murder was his dog, which pursued Robert Macaire, the perpetrator, until he was captured. The king ordered that Macaire, armed with a stick, and the dog should fight a duel, which took place on the Isle de Notre Dame, and the dog won, forcing Macaire to confess and be hanged. (See Pickeral 134, as cited in Wikipedia[])

The best-known version, allegedly by Michel de Montaigne, was recorded as a handwritten note in a copy of his Essais (Apology for Raimond de Sebond, livre II/12, where Plutarch quoted a story about the dog); but this is certainly a forgery.[4] Pixérécourt gives eight sources for its dramatisation, including Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye and Philippe-Auguste de Sainte-Foix.[5]

A statue of the fight is a landmark in the French community of Montargis.

Based on the tale of Robert Macaire and his trial-by-combat with a dog, the play premiered on 18 June 1814 as Le Chien de Montargis, ou la Forêt de Bondy, mélodrame historique en trois actes et à grand spectacle at the Parisian Théâtre de la Gaîté on Boulevard du Temple, produced and directed by De Pixérécourt. It ran uninterrupted run in the Théâtre de la Gaîté's repertoire until 1834.

Translations and adaptations

Translated and adapted into English by various authors, including

The Dog of Montargis, or The Forest of Bondy, a two-act adaptation by William Barrymore. Barrymore's version was originally titled Murder Will Out, but the alternate title of The Dog of Montargis, or The Forest of Bondy would become the more commonly used. First performed in London on 30 September 1814 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.

The Dog of Montargis, or Murder in the Wood by

(1816), a three-act version attributed to Sir Henry Bishop ()[]

The Dog of Montargis, or The Forest of Bondy, a two-act version by Thomas Dibdin ()[]