Victorien Sardou

Victorien Sardou , 1831-1908, French dramatist. Author of some 70 plays, he won great popularity with his light comedies and pretentious historical pieces, but his reputation later declined. His best farce comedy is Divorçons! (1880, tr. 1881). Among his semihistorical melodramas are Patrie! (1869, tr. 1915) and Fédora (1882, tr. 1883), in which Sarah Bernhardt made her triumphant return to the Paris stage. Sardou's other plays written for her are La Tosca (1887, tr. 1925), the source of Puccini's opera, and Cléopâtre (1890). Two plays written for Sir Henry Irving, Robespierre (1899) and Dante (1903), were never given in French. Also among his plays in a lighter vein is Madame Sans-Gêne (1893, tr. 1901). Sardou was attacked for plagiarism but defended himself successfully. He was elected to the French Academy.

Sardou, Victorien (1831–1908), playwright. One of the most successful French dramatists of his day and an exponent, like Scribe before him, of the “well‐made” play, he saw many of his most successful Parisian works find a welcome in America. Among the best received were Ferreol (1876), Diplomacy (1878), A Scrap of Paper (1879), Divorçons (1882), Fedora (1883), La Tosca (1888), Gismonda (1894), and Madame Sans‐Gêne (1895). Most closely identified with his work in America was Fanny Davenport, who re‐created here many of the roles written for Sarah Bernhardt. One curious play of his was L'Oncle Sam, which the French government attempted to ban, surprisingly, as too derogatory of Americans. Augustin Daly agreed to produce it in New York but found no success; since no Americans took serious offense, a Parisian mounting followed the 1873 New York premiere.