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SARDOU, VICTORIEN (1831-1908)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 219 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SARDOU, VICTORIEN (1831-1908) , See also:French dramatist, was See also:born in See also:Paris on the 5th of See also:September 1831. The Sardous were settled at Le Cannet, a See also:village near See also:Cannes, where they owned an See also:estate, planted with See also:olive trees. A See also:night's See also:frost killed all the trees and the See also:family was ruined. Victorien's See also:father, See also:Antoine See also:Leandre Sardou, came to Paris in See also:search of employment. He was in See also:succession a See also:book-keeper at a commercial See also:establishment, a See also:professor of book-keeping, the See also:head of a provincial school, then a private See also:tutor and a schoolmaster in Paris, besides editing grammars, dictionaries and See also:treatises on various subjects. With all these occupations, he hardly succeeded in making a livelihood, and when he retired to his native See also:country, Victorien was See also:left on his own resources. He had begun studying See also:medicine, but hadto desist for want of funds. He taught French to See also:foreign pupils: he also gave lessons in Latin, See also:history and See also:mathematics to students, and wrote articles for cheap encyclopaedias. At the same See also:time he was trying to make headway in the See also:literary See also:world. His talents had been encouraged by an old bas-bleu, Mme de Bawl, who had published novels and enjoyed some reputation in the days of the Restoration. But she could do little for her protege. Victorien Sardou made efforts to attract the See also:attention of Mlle See also:Rachel, and to win her support by submitting to her a See also:drama, La Reine Ulfra, founded on an old See also:Swedish See also:chronicle.

A See also:

play of his, La Taverne See also:des etudiants, was produced at the Odeon on the 1st of See also:April 1854, but met with a stormy reception, owing to a rumour that the Mutant had been instructed and commissioned by the See also:government to insult the students. La Taverne was withdrawn after five nights. Another drama by Sardou, See also:Bernard See also:Palissy, was accepted at the same See also:theatre, but the arrangement was cancelled in consequence of a See also:change in the management. A See also:Canadian play, Fleur de Liane, would have been produced at the See also:Ambigu but for the See also:death of the manager. Le See also:Bossu, which he wrote for See also:Charles See also:Albert See also:Fechter, did not satisfy the actor; and when the play was successfully produced, the nominal authorship, by some unfortunate arrangement, had been transferred to other men. M Sardou submitted to Adolphe Montigny (Lemoine-Montigny), manager of the Gymnase, a play entitled Paris d l'envers, which contained the love See also:scene, after-wards so famous, in Nos Intimes. Montigny thought See also:fit to consult See also:Eugene See also:Scribe, who was revolted by the scene in question. Sardou See also:felt the pangs of actual want, and his misfortunes culminated in an attack of typhoid See also:fever. He was dying in his See also:garret, surrounded with his rejected See also:manuscripts. A See also:lady who was living in the same See also:house unexpectedly came to his assistance. Her name was Mlle de Brecourt. She had theatrical connexions, and was a See also:special favourite of Mlle See also:Dejazet.

She nursed him, cured him, and, when he was well again, introduced him to her friend. Then See also:

fortune began to smile on the author. It is true that Candide, the first play he wrote for Mlle Dejazet, was stopped by the See also:censor, but See also:Les Premieres Armes de See also:Figaro, See also:Monsieur See also:Garat, and Les Pres See also:Saint See also:Gervais, produced almost in succession, had a splendid run, and Les Pattes de mouche (186o: afterwards anglicized as A Scrap of See also:Paper) obtained a similar success at the Gymnase. Fedora (1882) was written expressly for Sarah See also:Bernhardt, as were many of his later plays. He soon ranked with the two undisputed leaders of dramatic See also:art, See also:Augier and See also:Dumas. He lacked the powerful See also:humour, the eloquence and moral vigour of the former, the passionate conviction and pungent wit of the latter, but he was a See also:master of See also:clever and easy flowing See also:dialogue. He adhered to Scribe's constructive methods, which combined the three old kinds of See also:comedy—the comedy of See also:character, of See also:manners and of intrigue—with the drame See also:bourgeois, and blended the heterogeneous elements into a compact See also:body and living unity. He was no less dexterous in handling his materials than his master had been before him, and at the same time opened a wider See also:field to social See also:satire. He ridiculed the vulgar and selfish See also:middle-class See also:person in Nos Intimes (1861: anglicized as Peril), the See also:gay old bachelors in Les Vieux Garcons (1865), the See also:modern Tartufes in Sera phine (1868), the rural See also:element in Nos Bons Villageois (1866), old-fashioned customs and antiquated See also:political beliefs in Les Ganaches (1862), the revolutionary spirit and those who thrive on it in Rabagas (1872) and Le Roi Carotte (1872), the then threatened See also:divorce See also:laws in Divorcons (188o). He struck a new vein by introducing a strong historic element in some of his dramatic romances. Thus he borrowed See also:Theodora (1884) from See also:Byzantine See also:annals, La Haine (1874) from See also:Italian See also:chronicles, La Duchesse d'Athenes from the forgotten records of See also:medieval See also:Greece. Patrie (1869) is founded on the rising of the Dutch See also:gueux at the end of the 16th See also:century.

The scene of La Sorciere (1904) was laid in See also:

Spain in the 16th century. The French Revolution furnished him with three plays, Les Mervalleuses, See also:Thermidor (189x) and See also:Robespierre (1902). The last named was written expressly for See also:Sir See also:Henry See also:Irving, and produced at the See also:Lyceum theatre, as was See also:Dante (1903). The imperia epoen was revived in La Toscal (1887) and Madame Sans Gene (1893). Later plays were La Piste (1905) and Le Drame des poisons (1907). In many of these plays, however, it was too obvious that a thin See also:varnish of historic learning, acquired for the purpose, had been artificially laid on to See also:cover modern thoughts and feelings. But a few—Patrie and La Haine (1874), for instance —exhibit a true insight into the strong passions of past ages. M. Sardou married his benefactress, Mlle de Brecourt, but eight years later he became a widower, and soon after the revolution of 187o was married a second time, to Mlle Soulie, the daughter of the erudite Eudore Soulie, who for many years superintended the Musee de See also:Versailles. He was elected to the French See also:Academy in the See also:room of the poet See also:Joseph See also:Autran (1813-1877), and took his seat on the 22nd of May 1878. He died at Paris on the 8th of See also:November 1908. See L.

Lacour, Trais theatres (188o); See also:

Brander See also:Matthews, French Dramatists (New See also:York, 1881); R. See also:Doumic, Ecrivains d'aujourd'hui (Paris, 1895) ; F. See also:Sarcey, Quarante ans de theatre (vol. vi., 1901).

End of Article: SARDOU, VICTORIEN (1831-1908)

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