and perplexing likeness to Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Lady of Lyons, first acted on 14 February 1838. The idea of a valet set by a scorned lover to woo a fine lady had been turned to dramatic account in Molière's Les Précieuses ridicules. Hugo certainly used Henri de Latouche's La Reine d'Espagne (1831). In his very inaccurate autobiography, Victor Hugo raconté par un témoin de sa vie, Hugo notes as sources for the play Madame d'Aulnoy's Memoirs de la cour d'Espagne, Relation du voyage d'Espagne (1690), Alonso Nuñez de Castro's Solo Madrid es corte (1675) and Jean de Vayrac's État présent d'Espagne (1718). Adaptations Felix Mendelssohn wrote a song from and an overture to Ruy Blas on commission in 1839. Mendelssohn however detested the play. The overture is his opus 95, the song is La chanson des lavandières in his 3 Lieder (Op. 77) in a translation by the Austrian poet Karl Ferdinand Dräxler. Maxime de Redon created a parody, Ruy Brac, first performed in 1838 Maxime de Redon des Chapelles Irish actor and dramatist Edmund Falconer translated Ruy Blas in 1858. It was performed at the Princess Theatre, London, in late 1858. W. S. Gilbert wrote a burlesque of the play, by the same name, in Warne's Christmas Annual for 1866. An opera of the same name, by Filippo Marchetti with a libretto by Carlo d'Ormeville was produced at La Scala in Milan in 1869. A musical comedy, Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué, by A. C. Torr and Herbert F. Clark with music by Meyer Lutz, premiered in 1889. A 1948 movie, again called Ruy Blas, was directed by Pierre Billon, adapted by Jean Cocteau, and starring Jean Marais, Danielle Darrieux and Marcel Herrand. A 1971 movie, La folie des grandeurs, directed by Gérard Oury, adapted by Danièle Thomson, and starring Alice Sapritch, Louis de Funès and Yves Montand, is also based on the play. It also formed the basis for a 2002 telefilm by Jacques Weber, again called Ruy Blas. See also Don César de Bazan Maritana Notes References Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. Information about the background of the play on hugo-online Lancaster, H. Carrington. "The Genesis of Ruy Blas" in Modern Philology, Vol. 14, No. 11 (March 1917), pp. 641–46 External links Plays by Victor Hugo 1838 plays Plays set in Spain Fiction set in 1699 Plays adapted