Chapter author : Isabelle Schwartz-Gastine

Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company

Eighteenth-century France did not get to see Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. However, the basic plot was familiar through two contradictory influences: Boccaccio’s happy-ending Filocolo (cf. the lost play of Chevalier de Chastellux, successfully performed at Château de la Chevrette for an elite society in 1770, and Comte de Ségur’s opera in 1793), and Bandello’s tragic novella after Dante’s Purgatory (cf. a drama by d’Ozicourt, obviously a nom-de-plume, published in 1771). In 1772 Jean-François Ducis presented his version of Romeo and Juliet, the first to be indebted to Shakespeare, albeit through Pierre-Antoine de La Place’s patchy summary. It had a long run at the Comédie-Française, but saw few performances until 1827, the year Harriet Smithson successfully took the part of Juliet at the Odéon to Charles Kemble’s Roméo, announcing Romanticism on stage. Article outline Introduction Diverging early versions The beginnings of Romanticism The English season Notes References

Updated on 01/01/2017