Jean-Baptiste Robinet Antoine Yart Theatrical censorship As early as 1701, the plays were in turn the subject of royal censorship: read before publication by the censors under the authority of the lieutenant general of police, the pieces were authorized either as such and received approval, or with cuts or corrections, when they were not simply prohibited. Voltaire paid the price for his Mohammed (1743), Sedaine for his Deserter (1769); The Barber of Seville and the Marriage of Figaro de Beaumarchais escaped only thanks to the obstinacy of Marie Antoinette. Theatrical censors 1701-1721: Marc-René de Voyer, Marquis of Argenson (1652-1721) 1721-1726:? 1726-1734: Father Claude Cherrier (1655-1738) 1735-1762: Prosper Jolyot of Crebillon (1674-1762) 1762-1774: François-Louis Claude Marin 1721-1809) 1774-1776: Claude Prosper Jolyot of Crebillon (1707-1777) 1776-1777: Louis-Edme Billardon of Sauvigny (1736-1812) 1777-1790: Jean Baptiste Antoine Suard (1733-1817) 1790-1792: Joly3 1804-1815: Jean-Louis Brousse-Desfaucherets, Pierre-Edouard Lemonty, Charles de Lacretelle and Joseph-Alphonse Esmenard 1815-1822: Charles-Joseph Loeillard of Avrigny, Pierre-Edouard Lemontey, Charles de Lacretelle and Joseph-Alphonse Esmenard 1822-1827: Jacques Honoré de Lourdoueix, Charles de Lacretelle, René Alissan of Chazet, Jean-Louis Laya and Antoine Quatremère of Quincy 1827-1830:? See also Censorship in France References Sources Claude-Marin Saugrain, Code of the bookstore and printing of Paris, Paris, at the expense of the Community, 1744. Raymond Birn, The Royal Censorship of Books in Enlightenment France, Paris, Odile Jacob, 2007 (). William Hanley, A biographical dictionary of English censors 1742-1789, Ferney, International Center for the Study of the Eighteenth Century, 2005 () Biography of the royal censors, Paris, at the merchants of novelties, 1821. Victor Hallays-Dabot, History of theatrical censorship in France, Paris, E. Dentu, 1862. History of books Censorship in France