Marie-Emmanuel-Guillaume-Marguerite Théaulon de Lambert (14 August 1787,

Aigues-Mortes Aigues-Mortes (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region of southern France. The medieval Ramparts of Aigues-Mortes, city walls surrounding th ...

– 16 November 1841) was a French playwright. A customs inspector, then an inspector of military hospitals, he composed an ''Ode'' on the birth of the

King of Rome The king of Rome () was the ruler of the Roman Kingdom, a legendary period of Roman history that functioned as an elective monarchy. According to legend, the first king of Rome was Romulus, who founded the city in 753 BC upon the Palatine H ...

which brought him thanks from

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

himself. In 1814 he sang for the

Bourbons The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a dynasty that originated in the Kingdom of France as a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. A branch descended from ...

and put on his first play, ''Les Clefs de Paris, ou le Dessert d’Henri IV'' (The Keys of Paris, or the Deservings of Henry IV), in their honour. In 1815, he composed and organised the posting of proclamations in honour of

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

. He collaborated on the royalist journals ''Le Nain rose'', ''La Foudre'', ''L’Apollon''.

Selected works

Above all during the

Bourbon restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to: France under the House of Bourbon: * Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815) Spain under the Spanish Bourbons: * Ab ...

, he wrote and put on a large number (sometimes alone, sometimes with collaborators), 250 according to one account. Written extremely quickly, most of them are only sketches, whose style often leaves something to be desired but which do not lack wit and beauty. He wrote two five-act verse comedies, ''L’Artiste ambitieux'' (1820) and ''L’Indiscret'' ( 1825), both put on at the Odéon, which sometimes rise to comic truth. His other pieces include: ''Les fiancés'' (1809); ''Stanislas en voyage'' (1812); ''La clochette'',

opéra comique ''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular ''opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Théâtre de la foire, Fair Theatres of St Germain and S ...

(1817); ''Le petit chaperon rouge'', opéra comique (1818); ''Paris à Pékin'' (1817); ''Le mariage à la hussarde'' (1819); ''Le grenadier de Fanchon'' (1824); ''Le bénéficiaire'', with

Étienne Étienne, a French analog of Stephen or Steven, is a masculine given name. An archaic variant of the name, prevalent up to the mid-17th century, is Estienne. Étienne, Etienne, Ettiene or Ettienne may refer to: People Artists and entertainers * ...

(1825); ''La mère au bal et la fille a la maison'' (1826); ''M. Jovial'', with Choquart (1827); ''Le père de la débutante'', with Bayard, etc.

Sources

Gustave Vapereau Louis Gustave Vapereau (4 April 1819 – 18 April 1906) was a French writer and lexicographer famous primarily for his dictionaries, the ''Dictionnaire universel des contemporains'' and the ''Dictionnaire universel des littérateurs''. Biography ...

, ''Dictionnaire universel des littératures'', Paris, Hachette, 1876, p. 1959 {{DEFAULTSORT:Theaulon, Emmanuel 19th-century French male writers 19th-century French dramatists and playwrights French opera librettists People from Gard 1787 births 1841 deaths French male dramatists and playwrights