Charles Collé

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Anonymous engraving from the 18th century

Charles Collé (born April 14, 1709 in Paris ; † November 3, 1783 ibid) was a French playwright and chansonnier .

Life

Charles Collé was the son of a procurator at the Châtelet Court in Paris. He first worked in a notary's office and then became an employee of Monsieur Meulan, the top tax collector of the Paris tax district, which he held for 20 years.

From an early age, Collé became interested in the verses of Jean Heguanier, then the most famous writer of couplets in Paris. At the age of about 17 he met the playwright Alexis Piron , then Pierre Gallet and, through the intermediary of the latter, Charles-François Panard , all three of whom were great masters of vaudeville . His first dramatic attempt Alphone l'impuissant was a parody of a play by Lachaussée . Through his friendship with the younger Crébillon , he found acceptance into the Paris Société de Caveau , founded in 1729 , where he was able to demonstrate his talent for popular songs. In 1739 the Société de Caveau, whose members included Claude Adrien Helvétius , Charles Pinot Duclos , Pierre-Joseph Bernard , Jean-Philippe Rameau , Alexis Piron and the two Crébillons, was dissolved and only re-established 20 years later.

In the meantime, Collé became secretary and reader to the Duke of Orléans , who was an excellent comic actor and made Collé a playwright at his private theater in the Palais Royal . The little comedies Collés, which are characterized by witty dialogue and genuine comedy, but contain rather slippery scenes, are published under the title: Théâtre de société (2 vols., Paris 1768; new edition 3 vols., 1777). The best known are: La vérité dans le vin (1747), Le galant escroc , La tète à perruque .

Collé also ventured into the Théâtre français , with plays in which he often strikes a sentimental, whiny tone. His successful character play Dupuis et Desronais , the material of which is borrowed from the novel Illustres Françaises , appeared in 1763. His comedy La Veuve (1771) was a failure and only came on stage once. By contrast, his drama "was La partie de chasse de Henri IV ", which is partially on the idea of Robert Dodsleys comedy The King and the Miller of Mansfield was based, a general favorite. The first edition of the final three-act version appeared in 1764. King Louis XV. banned the performance at the Comédie française in 1766, so that the premiere did not take place until November 1774, while the piece had enjoyed successes much earlier at its performance in the provinces. It also became a popular song game in Germany through Weißes adaptation as Die Jagd (Leipzig 1770).

Most of all, however, Collé deserves mention because of his chansons (complete edition, 2 vols, Paris 1807), which he first performed at the Caveau , and some of which come close to Béranger . His Journal historique (3 vols., Paris 1805–1807), first published by Barbier, contains mostly malicious and unjust judgments about writers and literary works from the years 1748–1772. It also contains a chronological list of all of his own works.

At an advanced age, Collé fell into melancholy due to his wife's and died on November 3, 1783 at the age of 74 in Paris. His Correspondance inédite was published by Bonhomme in 1864.

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personal data
SURNAME Collé, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French playwright and chansonnier
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1709
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH November 3, 1783
Place of death Paris