Les Originaux ou Monsieur du Cap-Vert

Data
Title:	Les Originaux ou Monsieur du Cap-Vert
Genus:	comedy
Original language:	French
Author:	Voltaire
Publishing year:	1820
Premiere:	not listed
people
M. du Cap-Vert , Corsair Le President Bodin La Présidente Bodin Le Comte Des-Apprèts son-in-law from Bodin La Comtesse , wife of the count Le Chevalier du Hasard , the count's unknown brother Fanchon , youngest daughter of the President, sister of the Countess and lover of the Chevalier Mme. Du Cap-Vert , wife of the corsair M. de L'`Étrier , squire of the count M. du Toupet , the Count's hairdresser The Count's valet, a page Champagne , lackey to the President Nuit-Blanche , Lakai des Chevaliers Mme. Rafle , governess

Les Originaux ou Monsieur du Cap-Vert is a comedy in three acts and in prose by Voltaire . The piece, created in 1732, was only performed privately in the year of its creation. The first book edition appeared in Paris in 1820 in the Lequien edition.

action

The action takes place in Paris in the house of President Bodin. The host, President Bodin, and his wife cultivate early bourgeois neuroses. Bodin fell for astrology. President Bodin suffers from imaginary diseases and lives on pills. Bodin promised his daughter Fanchon to a school friend, the aged corsair Monsieur du Cap-Vert. However, she loves the Chevalier du Hasard, who lives in the daytime. Fanchon's sister married Count Des-Apprèts, who, however, does not want to overcome the difference in class. Only the arrival of the corsair's wife, who was still alive against all expectations, resolves the confused situation. Hasard and Des-Apprèts turn out to be the bourgeois sons of the corsair. The civil framework has been restored. The corsair returns to his wife. Hasard and Fanchon can marry. Bodin gives up astrology.

Literary source and biographical references

Voltaire wrote the play Les Originaux in 1732 to entertain his friends and noble patrons. The few surviving manuscripts have different titles: Le grand Boursoufle, Les Origineaux (sic!) Or Monsieur du Cap-Vert. Voltaire took the motif for Les Originaux and L'Échange from the play The Relapse by John Vanbrugh , which he had seen at the Dury Lane Theater during his stay in London.

Performances and contemporary reception

According to Voltaire, the comedy Les Originaux was performed privately in 1732. There was no public performance on the stages.

Going to press

Les Originaux were first published in 1820 in Volume IX of the Oeuvres de Voltaire by E.-A. Lequien published.

First editions

• Les Originaux ou Monsieur du Cap-Vert , in: Oeuvres de Voltaire, Volume IX, Paris, Lequien, 1820, 8 °

literature

• Valérie André: Les Originaux , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 149.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Valérie André: Les Originaux , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 149.
2. ^ Valérie André: L'Échange , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 67.