Rokoko oder Die alten Herren

Rokoko oder Die alten Herren, a five-act comedy (Lustspiel) by H. Laube, first performed at Dresden in April 1842, and published in 1846. It is an effective comedy of intrigue set at Versailles about 1745 in the time of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour, who is one of the characters. A marriage is arranged between Mélanie de Gérard and Prosper de Didier. The Pompadour, who wishes to have Mélanie available for the King's pleasure, sets an intriguer, the Abbé de la Sauce, to work to stop the match. He unearths family secrets, but his own lasciviousness (he tries, unsuccessfully, to abduct Mélanie) and the counter-intrigues of his enemies prove too much for him. Mélanie marries, not Prosper, but Viktor, a young nobleman, whom she loves, and the Abbé is consigned to the Bastille by a lettre de cachet. The play closes with a reference to the frankness of the new age replacing the corruption of the older generation (Die alten Herren of the title): ‘denn der Jugend gehört die Zukunft’.