Rabelais on the stage of the Théâtre du Vaudeville at the end of the French Directory Le Quart-d’heure de Rabelais (Paris, Théâtre du Vaudeville, 25 Nivôse, Year VII)

In keeping with the tradition of vaudevilles focused on historical figures, Le Quart-d’heure de Rabelais (1799) chose to revive a time-honored character. In the play, the humanist’s erudition is replaced by a charming buffoonery for which he was well known. Playwrights Dieulafoy and Le Prévost d’Iray sought to preserve only the image of the man as mischievous, a bon vivant who, after a plot punctuated by witticisms and embellished by music, would eventually worm out of trouble.