La Marchande d’oranges. [The Orange Seller]. (1827)

FULL DESCRIPTION: La Marchande d’oranges

A prompter's copy:

BRAZIER (Nicolas) & [Émile] Van der BURCH. La Marchande d’oranges. Tableau populaire en un acte mêlé de couplets par MM. Brazier et Van der Burch.
[Paris, 1827].
Manuscript, small folio. (29 x 19.5 cm). [2], 60 pp., sewn. Original paper wrapper with manuscript title. Wrapper worn with splits at the edges, some spotting to the text, but a very well-preserved manuscript written in a large and legible hand.

Manuscript of a vaudeville, the copy for the prompter [souffleur] at the Théâtre de l’Ambigu-Comique.

The cover bears a crossed-out title “Le Boulevard du Temple”, which also appears on the title page, crossed out, and replaced by: “Un coin du Boulevard ou La Marchande d’oranges / Pièce en un acte mêle de couplets”, with a manuscript note: “Pour le souffleur.”

The title page also bears the censor’s authorization dated February 15, 1827, signed by Antoine-Marie Coupart, head of the Bureau des Théâtres, with the dry stamp “Ministère de l’Intérieur”.* It seems that this play was not printed, and perhaps not performed, perhaps due to the fire that destroyed the theatre that summer. (During the night of July 13-14, 1827, the Ambigu-Comique burnt to the ground. It was quickly decided to rebuild a new auditorium, which was built on boulevard Saint-Martin. Inaugurated on June 7, 1828, the new Ambigu-Comique thrived throughout the 19th century the dramatic tradition of pantomimes and bloody melodramas that earned the Boulevard du Temple the nickname “Boulevard du Crime”.)

Brazier and Vanderburch collaborated on many plays of a similar genre, such as: Le marchand de la rue Saint-Denis (1830), Le Baron d'Hildburghausen, ou, Le bal diplomatique (1831), and Le fils adoptif : vaudeville en un acte (1834).