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SCRIBE, AUGUSTIN EUGENE (1791-1860, F...

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 482 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SCRIBE, AUGUSTIN See also:EUGENE (1791-1860, See also:French dramatist, was See also:born in See also:Paris on the 24th of See also:December 1791. His See also:father was a See also:silk See also:merchant, and he was well educated, being destined for the See also:bar. But, having a real See also:gift for the See also:theatre, a gift which unfortunately was not allied with a corresponding See also:literary See also:power, he very soon began to write for the See also:stage. His first piece, Le Pretendu sans le savoir, was produced without his name at the Varietes in 181o, and was a failure. Numerous other plays, written in collaboration with various authors, followed; but Scribe achieved no distinct success till 1815, when Une Nuit de la garde nationale, written in collaboration with Delestre-Poirson, made him famous. Thenceforward his fertility was unceasing and its results prodigious. He wrote every See also:kind of See also:drama—. vaudevilles, comedies, tragedies, See also:opera-libretti. To the Gymnase theatre alone he is said to have furnished a See also:hundred and fifty pieces before 183o. This extraordinary fecundity is explained by the systematic methods of collaboration which he established. He had a number of co-workers, one of whom supplied the See also:story, another the See also:dialogue, a third the jokes and so on. He is said in some cases to have sent sums of See also:money for " See also:copyright in ideas " to men who were unaware that he had taken suggestions from their See also:work. Among his collaborators were See also:Jean See also:Henri See also:Dupin (1787-1887), Germain See also:Delavigne, Delestre-Poirson, Melesville (A.

H. J. See also:

Duveyrier), Marc-See also:Antoine Desaugiers, See also:Xavier See also:Saintine and See also:Gabriel See also:Legouve. His debut in serious See also:comedy was made at the Theatre See also:Francais in 1822 with Valerie, the first of many successful pieces of the same kind. His See also:industry was untiring and his knowledge both of the mechanism of the stage and of the tastes of the See also:audience was wonderful. For purely theatrical ability he is unrivalled, and his plays are still regarded as See also:models of dramatic construction. Moreover he was for fifty years the best exponent of the ideas of the French See also:middle classes, so that he deserves respectful See also:attention, even though his See also:style be vulgar and his characters See also:commonplace. He wrote a few novels, but none of any See also:mark. The best-known of Scribe's pieces after his first successful one are Une Chaine (1842); Le Verre d'eau (1842); Adrienne See also:Lecouvreur (1849), in See also:conjunction with Legouve; See also:Bertrand et See also:Raton, ou l'See also:art de conspirer; and the libretti of many of the most famous operas of the middle of the See also:century, especially those of See also:Auber and See also:Meyerbeer. The books of La Muette de See also:Portici, Fra See also:Diavolo, See also:Robert le Diable, and of See also:Les See also:Huguenots are wholly or in See also:part by him. Scribe died in Paris on the loth of See also:February 1861. His fEuvres completes appeared in seventy-six volumes in 1874-'885.

See Legouve, Eugene Scribe (1874).

End of Article: SCRIBE, AUGUSTIN EUGENE (1791-1860, French dramatist, was born in Paris on the 24th of December 1791. His father was a silk merchant, and he was well educated, being destined for the bar. But, having a real gift for the theatre, a gift which unfortunately

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