Jean Aicard, ‘Molière à Shakespeare’, 1879: Introduction

‘Molière à Shakspeare’ was recited on 2 June 1879 by the leading actor François Got as the prologue to a forty-performance season given by the Comédie-Française at the Gaiety Theatre in London. An understanding of what prompted Jean Aicard's poem and what makes it significant depends on the knowledge of its context. This short introduction to a transcription of the prologue outlines that context and briefly compares the poem with its companion piece, a one-act play on another Shakespearean theme, produced by the same author for the last night of the season which this prologue introduced.