LAYA

Jean-Louis Laya (1761-1833) was born in Paris of a family of Spanish descent. His education was received at the Collège de Lisieux in Paris. He began his literary career in 1785 with a comedy, le Nouveau Narcisse, written in collaboration with Legouvé, which was received by the Comédie-Française but never performed. The following year he and Legouvé published a volume of elegies entitled Essais de deux amis. In 1790 Laya succeeded in having two plays performed at the Comédie-Française: a comedy, les Dangers de l'opinion, and a tragedy, Jean Calas, inspired by the success of M.-J. Chénier's Charles IX. These plays brought him into prominence as a dramatist. He followed them in 1793 with the comedy, l'Ami des lois, the most famous of all the Revolutionary plays and his chief claim to fame. On account of the moderate stand which he had taken in this play he was declared hors la loi by the Commune a few months later and compelled to remain in concealment during the whole of the Terror. With the return of more settled conditions Laya reappeared and gave his attention to various literary activities. He became a collaborator of a number of periodicals and produced three plays: les Deux Stuarts (1797), Falkland (1799), one of Talma's great successes, and Une Journée du jeune Néron (1799). He endeavored in vain to obtain a political office under the Consulate and finally took a position in the French Embassy in Dresden. Upon his return to France he was appointed a professor first at the Lycée Charlemagne and then at the Lycée Napoléon, and in 1813 he succeeded Delille to the chair of literary history and French poetry at the Sorbonne. The French Academy elected him to membership in 1817. A short time later he was named censor of the theatres. He continued his several duties until his death in 1833.

The first performance of l'Ami des lois at the Comédie-Française on January 2, 1793, during the trial of Louis XVI, was a political event. It may be considered the last, futile, stand of the moderate party. The decisive moment in the struggle between la Gironde and la Montagne, the moderate and extremist groups among the revolutionists, was at hand. It was an act of considerable courage to produce this protest against mob-rule only nineteen days before the execution of the king. The play was from the first a great success and aroused an immense amount of discussion. The extremists considered it a direct attack upon themselves and insisted that the author had portrayed Robespierre in his character Nomophage, and Marat in Duricrâne. After four performances it was suspended by the General Council of the Commune, which was controlled by the extremists, and the actors of the Comédie-Française were ordered to submit their weekly repertory to the Council in advance; thus the censorship was again established. The author addressed an energetic protest to the Convention, in which he declared: "Je n'ai point fait, comme on ose le dire, de mon art, qui doit être l'école du civisme et des mœurs, la satire des individus. De traits épars dans la Révolution, j'ai composé les formes de mes personnages; je n'ai point vu tel et tel; j'ai vu les hommes." The Convention sustained this protest and the performance of the play was allowed to continue for one day. Then a decree was issued forbidding all plays that might cause public disorder, and the performances of l'Ami des lois had to be abandoned.

The play was revived on June 6, 1795, with little success because conditions had changed and its timeliness had passed. Like all of the purely Revolutionary plays, it was written for the moment; and it bears plenty of evidence of hasty composition. It also illustrates, as do all these plays, the fact that the Revolutionary dramatists had no time to consider innovations in technique; but it has its interest as a typical production of the Revolutionary period.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Euvres complètes de J.-L. Laya, Paris, 1836, 5 vols. Notice biographique sur J.-L. Laya (anonymous), Paris, 1833. CH. NODIER: Discours de réception à l'Académie Française, 1833. c. G. ÉTIENNE and A. MARTAINVILLE : Histoire du théâtre français depuis le commencement de la Révolution jusqu'à la réunion générale, Paris, 1802, 4 vols. H. WELSCHINGER: Le Théâtre de la Révolution, Paris, 1881. L. MOLAND: Le Théâtre de la Révolution, Paris, 1877. F. BRUNETIÈRE: Le Théâtre de la Révolution, in Études critiques. 2e série.

La scène est à Paris, dans la maison de M. de Versac. Le théâtre est éclairé.

1 club, probably the Club des Jacobins, the ultra-extremist group among the revolutionists.

1 Coblenz was one of the headquarters of the émigrés, or fugitive royalists. Early in 1792 they succeeded in gaining military support first from Austria and then from Prussia. The armies of these two countries invaded France and were turned back by French volunteers at the battle of Valmy, September 20, 1792.

3 pandours, a force of ruthless, irregular soldiers raised in 1741 near Pandur, Hungary, by Baron von der Trenk, Forlis means here the invading Austrian forces.