Guilbert de Pixérécourt

Guilbert de Pixérécourt (born Jan. 22, 1773, Nancy, Fr.—died July 27, 1844, Nancy) was an astonishingly prolific dramatist who delighted popular audiences in Paris with a succession of more than a hundred plays during the first third of the 19th century. These were performed in the théâtres des boulevards, which were patronized by a far less exclusive audience than those of the official theaters and were less bound by convention. His greatest successes were melodramas—e.g., Victor (1798) and Coelina (1800). These are plays full of exciting incidents and local color, with comedy and pathos juxtaposed, which invariably end with virtue saved and vice punished. Pixérécourt, who directed the production of his own plays, laid great stress on realistic scenery. With his melodramas Pixérécourt started a theatrical tradition that survived throughout the 19th century.