Richard III: drame et cinq actes, en prose (French Edition)
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
Juan Victor Séjour Marcou et Ferrand was an American expatriate writer who worked in France.
Background
Juan Victor Séjour was born on June 2, 1817 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, to François Marcou, a free mulatto father from Saint-Domingue (Haiti), and Eloisa Philippe Ferrand, a New Orleans quadroon. His parents were married afterwards in 1825.
Fransois owned and ran a dry-cleaning establishment on Chartres Street in New Orleans and was sufficiently well-off to send his son to the Ste. Barbe Academy conducted by Michel Seligny, an intelligent and well-educated colored man.
Education
His parents were wealthy, and had him educated in a private school. Victor showed an early interest in literature and when only seventeen read one of his poems in French before a meeting of La Societe des Artisans, a social and benevolent association of the Creole mulattoes. Soon after this his family sent him to a college in Paris.
Career
When he finished studies in Paris he continued to live in France and made his debut as an author with an heroic poem, Le Retour de Napoleon, published in 1841. It was so well received that he was welcomed in literary circles and came to know both Alexandre Dumas and Emile Augier, the distinguished French playwright.
It was followed in 1849 by La Chute de Sejan, probably an adaptation of Ben Jonson's Sejanus. In all, there were twenty-one of his plays produced in Paris; two of them were written in collaboration with Theodore Barriere, and one each with Jules Bresil and Adolphe Jaime, the younger.
His greatest successes were Richard III, 1852; Les Noces Venitiennes, 1855; Le Fils de la Nuit, 1856; Les Grands Vassaux, 1859; Les Fils de Charles Quint, 1864, and Les Volontaires de 1814, 1862, the only work based upon an American theme, that of the brave defenders of New Orleans against the English. All of these were published within a year or two of their production.
He had a thorough knowledge of stage direction and was so conscientious a craftsman that he tried to improve his plays until the very last minute, even going so far as to hand little memorandum slips with changes in lines to the actors on first nights as they went on the stage. During the initial performance of Le Fils de la Nuit, after the first four acts had been played, he rehearsed during the intermission an entirely new version of the last act. For some time all Paris flocked to his opening nights. The spectacular magnificence of his settings and the sumptuousness of the costumes struck the fancy of the populace which secretly regretted the pageantry and heroics of the first Napoleon, and Sejour's plays became successful in spite of the hollow ring of his pretentious dialogue.
Unfortunately, however, popular taste changed, and the grandiose spectacles, which were all he knew how to produce, lost favor. He fell on evil days and was forced to hawk about from manager to manager his two plays, Cromwell and Le Vampire, the latter a great fantastic drama.
After a heart-breaking experience, for a man who had once had all Paris at his feet, Le Vampire was accepted by the Gaete, but before the play could be produced he was taken to the charity ward of a hospital in Paris, where he died of galloping consumption, the result of the privations he had suffered during his penniless days.
Achievements
His famous short story "Le Mulâtre" ("The Mulatto") is the earliest known work of fiction by a Creole author. Victor Sejour had also a reputation of great playwright and wrote popular dramas The Jew of Seville, Richard III. Sejour's plays became extremely successful, his last were Cromwell and Le Vampire.
