Reviving Cicero in Drama: From the Ancient World to the Modern Stage by Gesine Manuwald

Author:Gesine Manuwald [Manuwald, Gesine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Drama, Ancient & Classical, History, Ancient, Rome, Literary Criticism, Philosophy, History & Surveys, General, Social History
ISBN: 9781786725585
Google: 7ROEDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: 2018-10-30T21:09:45+00:00

4.43 Alexandre Dumas / Auguste Maquet, Catilina (1848)

Context

Alexandre Dumas (père) (1802–1870) was a prolific and successful French writer; he was largely self-taught and wrote plays, novels, essays, travel pieces and articles for magazines. Dumas worked with a number of assistants and collaborators, the most famous of whom is Auguste Maquet (1813–1888): Maquet was educated at the Lycée Charlemagne (in Paris) and became a professor at the age of eighteen. He got acquainted with Dumas in 1838, and the two started to collaborate on literary works. Maquet tended to outline the plot and the characters, while Dumas added dialogue and details. Maquet often was not named on the publications. Therefore, he took Dumas to court to get recognition, but only achieved an increase in his payment. The two men collaborated on novels and plays, including Les Trois Mousquetaires / The Three Musketeers (1844) and Le Comte de Monte-Cristo / The Count of Monte Cristo (1844). Earlier Dumas wrote other dramas on subjects from Roman history, Les Gracques (1827; later destroyed) and Caligula (1837).

Catilina was first performed at the Théâtre Historique in Paris on 14 October 1848. The Théâtre Historique was founded upon the request of Alexandre Dumas in 1846; it opened in 1847 and closed again in 1850. The venue was then used by the Opéra National (1851–1852), which became the Théâtre Lyrique (1852–1862); it reopened again as Théâtre Historique for a short period (1862–1863) and was then demolished. For this performance the music was contributed by Mr. Warney, and the scenery was created by the producer Mr. Caron.

The piece is described as ‘Drame en 5 actes et 7 tableaux’ since in addition to the five acts there are a prologue and an epilogue with separate settings and scenes.

The play was adapted into Spanish (as four acts and in verse) a couple of decades later: Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (1814–1873) was a Cuban-born Spanish writer, who spent her life partly in Cuba and partly in Spain. She wrote a controversial anti-slavery novel entitled Sab (1841) as well as numerous plays and poems, some of which again provoked mixed reactions. The drama Catilina, based on the play by Dumas and Maquet, was published in Seville in 1867, but not performed on stage.

Bibliographical information

text:

CATILINA | Drame en 5 actes et 7 tableaux, | PAR | MM. ALEXANDRE DUMAS ET AUGUSTE MAQUET. | Prix: 1 franc. | MICHEL LÉVY FRÈRES, LIBRAIRES-ÉDITEURS | des Œuvres d'Alexandre Dumas, format in-18 anglais, et du théâtre de Victor Hugo | RUE VIVIENNE, 1 | PARIS. – 1848 (BIBLIOTHÈQUE DRAMATIQUE | Théâtre modern.).

[available at: https://archive.org/details/catilinadrameen00maqugoog; http://www.mediterranees.net/histoire_romaine/catilina/dumas/index.html]

repr. in: THÉATRE COMPLET | DE | ALEX. DUMAS | NEUVIÈME SÉRIE | CATILINA | LA JEUNESSE DES MOUSQUETAIRES | LES MOUSQUETAIRES | PARIS | MICHEL LÉVY FRÈRES, LIBRAIRES ÉDITEURS | RUE VIVIENNE, 2 BIS, ET BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS, 15 | A LA LIBRAIRE NOUVELLE | 1864 (pp. 1–172).

[available on Google Books]

Spanish adaptation: CATILINA. | DRAMA EN CUATRO ACTOS Y EN VERSO, | D.’ G. G. DE AVELLANEDA. | REFUNDICION DEL ESCRITO EN FRANCÉS Y EN PROSA, CON | IGUAL TÍTULO, | POR LOS SRES.

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