Description

9 AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT PAGES a first draft of Quadrille including 3 pages of previously unpublished dialogue

Premiered in September 1937 at the Théâtre de la Madeleine (after a preview at the Théâtre Municipal d'Orléans), the play ran for 173 performances and was made into a film with the same cast (including Sacha Guitry in the role of Philippe) in January 1938. Today it is considered one of the classics of Sacha Guitry's repertoire.

The manuscript includes:

• an extract (4 pp.) from a dialogue between Philippe and Claudine in Act I, second tableau, with major corrections and a few formal differences from the printed text.
• 1 excerpt (1 p. on blue paper) from a dialogue between Paulette and Philippe in Act II, second tableau, with major corrections and a few formal differences from the printed text.
• 1 excerpt (1 p.) from a dialogue between Philippe and Paulette in Act IV, second tableau, with a few corrections and a few formal differences from the printed text.
• 3 pp. of unpublished dialogue between Claudine and Paulette, presumably prepared for Act IV, second tableau. Numerous corrections.

Paulette :
Don't you think Philippe has been extraordinary in all this?

Claudine :
Ah, yes.

Paulette :
I thought I knew him: I was wrong. Now I know him - and I can even say that I know him better than he knows himself. As long as there hasn't been a history between two people like the one we've just had, they can hide their true nature very well - and I didn't think Philip was so different from the idea we have of him.

Then :

In terms of their work, do you think men are very intelligent? I don't think so. How many of them you see in enviable positions, letting themselves be taken in by little maids who don't amount to anything!

They're all convinced that we're inferior to them, so let them have this illusion, because it's precisely this illusion that allows us to lead them by the nose as we see fit.

André Bernard's extensive collection, dispersed in November 2011, did not include any manuscripts for Quadrille.

The programme for the Théâtre de la Madeleine is attached. (booklet of [14] ff.) containing, between several pages of advertising, portraits of the actors, a note on the décor of old wood panelling and furniture supplied by the Jansen shop, and a text by Sacha Guitry on Mozart "Une ange est venu sur la terre".