Conclusion

Abstract

The preceding consideration of eighty selected plays reveals that a large number of playwrights of the period 1784–1834 achieved considerable success by dramatizing bibliographical anecdotes concerning seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French literary figures. In addition to converting into dramatic form a narrative of an interesting incident or episode from the life of a literary figure, the playwrights sought to present a recognizable portrait of this figure — “revivre l’original” — as they were wont to say. Such a dramatic portrait, when successfully drawn, was much appreciated by the well-read among the audience and offered a novel way of introducing a literary figure to those who were less familiar with French literary history. Numerous reviews and commentaries, found in the journals of the period and in the prefaces to the published dramatizations, attest to the profound impression which the portrayals of certain literary figures made upon the spectators. A number of dramatizations of the better-known literary figures were given as many as fifty performances.