Henry Becque

Henry Becque (1837-1899) was a French playwright who wrote in French during the second half of the nineteenth century. His significance lies in pointing theatre towards a plainer and more critical approach, at a time when melodrama and the drawing-room comedy dominated the stage, anticipating what would later be called realist theatre.

Before establishing himself as a dramatist, Becque tried other forms. In 1867 he wrote the libretto for Victorin de Joncières's opera Sardanapale, a work modelled on Lord Byron. His first major play, Michel Pauper, appeared in 1870, yet it took years to be appreciated. Only when it was revived at the Odéon in 1886 did audiences and critics begin to grasp its importance.

His style turned away from theatrical effect. Les Corbeaux (1882) confirmed him as an innovator, and in 1885 he produced his most successful play, La Parisienne, a biting piece about middle-class life. His preoccupations include social hypocrisy and the power struggles within the family, handled with a disillusioned eye.

In his last years he wrote little. He published Querelles littéraires (1890) and Souvenirs d'un auteur dramatique (1895), collections of articles in which he did not spare his opponents. In 1899 his Théâtre complet appeared in three volumes, gathering much of his stage work.

His legacy rests largely on the disciples who carried on the tradition he had created. His reputation abroad stayed modest: in 1910 the English novelist Arnold Bennett lamented that Becque was almost unknown in England, though he counted him among the great dramatists of the nineteenth century.