Abstract :

Louis-Benoît Picard (1769-1828) engaged himself, since 1812, in revising his plays, arranging them in order and justifying them with prefaces expressing his ideas and principles. These (later) prefaces are rich in analysis, judgment and reflection, and represent ideas relating to comedy and the talent of the playwright. The object of this research is to explain how Picard used his prefaces as a doctrinal corpus of his dramatic production. To do this, we will analyze the various prefaces of Picard to identify the precise principles of his comedy and his theater in general.

This article focuses on the problematic of the originality of the theatrical work of Louis-Benoît Picard (1769-1828). He repeatedly recognized that several sources of inspiration allowed the production of all his comedies to great success. Picard's strategy is carried out by his preface discourse considered as a representative discourse of his theater. This study clearly establishes that authors such as Molière, La Bruyère, Gresset, Beaumarchais and others had a major influence on the theatrical work of Picard. However, this is not without ignoring the influence of Picard himself on later literary productions. This intertextuality of Picard's work broadens the horizon of the decoding of its originality to decline in the effective adherence of his work to the cyclical changes that distinguish it from its predecessors.