Le Chariot d’enfant, by Joseph Méry and Gérard de Nerval, and its Indian source

In 1850, Méry and Nerval staged Le Chariot d’enfant, based upon the French translation of an English translation of Śūdraka’s Mṛcchakaṭikā. The Indian play will be presented, with a comparative synopsis of the two plots, then the way the French writers made use of it will be investigated, between moderate fidelity and radical alteration: why, while making an adaptation, do they claim to be “translators”? An attempt will also be made to account for the paradoxical lack of Indian exoticism in the play, which arguably is related to Nerval’s ideas about aesthetics.