Pierre-François Lacenaire: I’m putting the finishing touches on something that will cause a sensation . . . a comedy, a farce. Or a tragedy, if you prefer. It’s all the same. There’s no difference. Or very little. For example, if a king is deceived, it’s a tragedy of infidelity. . . . But if it’s a poor devil like you or me . . . it’s no longer a tragedy, but mere buffoonery, a sorry tale of cuckolds.
Frédérick Lemaître: Yet it’s the same matter under the pauper’s cap or the crown. The dead matter of love rotting in the heads of the unloved.
Pierre-François Lacenaire: Always the same matter, the same stories, the same tears. So the genre is nothing. My play need only amuse. Starting with the author.