Théophile Marion Dumersan

Théophile Marion Dumersan

Théophile Marion Dumersan (4 January 1780, Plou, Cher[1] – 13 April 1849, Paris) was a French writer of plays, vaudevilles, poetry, novels, chanson collections, librettos, and novels, as well as a numismatist and curator attached to the Cabinet des médailles et antiques of the Bibliothèque royale.

Life

The family's real surname was Marion[2] but – to distinguish himself from his brothers – Théophile's brother altered his surname to "du Mersan", after the name of one of its lands. The young Théophile had already found a taste for the theatre by 1795 by learning to read Racine and Molière. In that year, aged 16, whilst his family was distressed by the Reign of Terror, Théophile found work under Aubin-Louis Millin de Grandmaison, curator of the Cabinet des médailles et antiques de la Bibliothèque royale. With his colleague Théodore-Edme Mionnet, future member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, he perfected a new system for classifying medals into geographical and chronological order, and protected the collection from dispersal by the allies after Napoleon's defeat. He then published at his own expense a history of the collection and description, as newly rearranged according to historical principles, in 1838[3] All this led to his being named curator of the Cabinet in 1842.

At the age of 18, he put on his first play, titled Arlequin perruquier, ou Les Têtes à la Titus, a critique of the fashions and mores of the day, and soon began supplying the théâtres de boulevard. In two years he wrote no less than 18 plays, including L'Ange et le diable in 1799 (a 5-act drama which was produced more than 5 times, a remarkable number for that era). In total, he produced 238 pieces, more than 50 of which he wrote without a collaborator. The others were the result of a collaboration with better Parisian vaudevillistes, including Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, Nicolas Brazier, Pierre-Frédéric-Adolphe Carmouche, Marc-Antoine Désaugiers, Mélesville and Eugène Scribe. His greatest success was Les Saltimbanques, written with Charles Varin, a "farce désopilante" according to the Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle, put on at the Théâtre des Variétés in 1838.

Amidst all these productions, Dumersan also found time to write works on numismatics and the history of the theatre, including the Manuel des coulisses, a lexicon of theatrical expressions and actors' slang. Towards the end of his life, he published several collections of chansons, notably the Chansons nationales et populaires de France, published in two volumes in 1866.

Selected works

Théâtre
Chansons
Numismatique
Other

Popular French chansons

References

  1. ↑ According to the catalogue note for the Bibliothèque nationale de France and Dumersan Legion d'honneur file in French Archives Nationales.
  2. ↑ Biographical elements from the public domain Pierre Larousse, Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle, vol. VI, 1870, p. 1379-1380.
  3. ↑ Théophile Marion Dumersan, Histoire de Cabinet des Médailles, antiques et pierres gravées, avec une notice sur la Bibliothèque Royale et une description des objets exposés dans cet établissement. Paris, chez l'auteur, 1838.. His earlier Notice des monuments exposés dans le cabinet des médailles et antiques de la bibliothèque du Roi in several editions, concentrated on the antiquities and engraved gems.
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