Louis-François-Marie Nicolaïe (28 January 1811[1] – 8 February 1879[2]), better known as Clairville, was a 19th-century French comedian, poet,
chansonnier,
goguettier and playwright.
Biography
Son of the
Lyoneseplaywright and stage manager Alexandre-Henri Nicolaïe dit Clairville (died 1832),[3] he began in 1821 in Paris at the Luxembourg Theater as actor with
Madame Saqui, then as stage manager and finally, from 1837, exclusively as playwright.[4] He later joined the
Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique, playing small roles and developed his craft as a playwright, finding that to be his true vocation.[citation needed] He first conceived a
revue titled 1836 dans la lune, the success of which would launch his career.[citation needed] His plays included comedies, serious plays,
revues,
féeries, satires and parodies.[citation needed]
"Clarville doesn't not compose, he makes ... kind of literary thrift store, where old threadbare words and buried puns are dressed to the nine," wrote
Henri Rochefort; but he added, "not an administrative measure, not a weird ad, not a new invention that Mr. Clarville has not set in a script or turned into
couplets. This is the man of the review and parody par excellence."[citation needed]
In 1853, he published Chansons et Poésies, a collection of rhymes, from the ribald songs, "which are sung in the desert" according to Albert Blanquet, to the touching simplicity of the poems.[citation needed] He was awarded the cross of
Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1857.[citation needed]
In 1870, he composed the song Les Deux Canailles,[6] in response to the song[7]La Canaille by
Alexis Bouvier. In 1871, he wrote at least two anti-
communard songs: L'Internationale[8] where he gave his vision of the "Internationale ouvrière" as a collection of bandits,[citation needed] and La Commune[9] in which he called for the massacre of
Communards.[citation needed]
Clairville had two sons. The composer Édouard-François Nicolaïe, known as Clairville fils (1854–1904) was from his marriage with Angélique Gabrielle Pagès. Charles-Albert Nicolaïe, known as "Clairvoyance" (1833–1892), an employee at the Comptoir d'Escompte de Paris, was born of an affair with Augustine Philippon.[citation needed] Claiville was the uncle of the playwright and
librettist Charles-Victor Nicolaïe, known as Charles Clairville (1855-1927).[citation needed]
Selected works
Clairville's plays written in collaboration with leading playwrights of his time or that continue to be presented, include the following:
^Arnold Mortier, in his Soirées parisiennes 1874-1884, called him "The man with inexhaustible cards" but concluded that some of these plays may have been counterfeited.