From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: A vaudeville in tableaux, by MM. Alexandre et Henri. Actually this parody of "Henri III. et Sa Cour" was the composition of Dumas, Cave, Langic and de Leuven.
Dumas himself says : '' 'Henri III.,' foreordained to meet with a great success, or at any rate to make a sensation, had also to have its parody; to facilitate the execution of this important work, I had sent my performance in advance to de Leuven and Rousseau ; then, at their request, I had worked with them at the piece to the best of my ability, and we called it 'Le Roi Dagobert et sa Cour.' But the censorship regarded this title as lacking in respect to the descendant of Dagobert . . . so we altered the title to that of 'La Cour du Roi Pétaud,' to which the censorship raised no objection. Just as if nobody was descended from le Roi Pétaud ! So the parody of 'Henri III. et Sa Cour' was played at the Vaudeville under this title. It parodies the play scene for scene. Now, at the conclusion of the fourth act, the farewell scene between the hero of the parody and his porter was imitated from that of Saint-Mégrin and his servant. In this extremely tender, touching and sentimental scene the hero asks the porter for a lock of his hair, to the tune of 'Dormez donc, mes chères amours!' which was all the rage just then, and most appropriate to the occasion. . . ."
First performed at the Vaudeville Théâtre on the 28th of February, 1829.
This piece was never printed, and is apparently wholly lost.
References :—
Dumas: "Mes Mémoires," Chapter CXXXVII. Quérard: "Supercheries Littéraires Dévoilées," Vol. 1., Column 1054. Lecomte: "Alexandre Dumas," p. 112.
Albert: "Théâtres des Boulevards," pp. 290-91.
Refer also to "Henri III. et Sa Cour," on pp. 28-30 of this work.
