W. Lafontaine (10 July 1796 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

– 1859 in the

10th arrondissement of Paris The 10th arrondissement of Paris (''Xe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''dixième'' ("10th arrondissement of Paris" = "dixième arrondisseme ...

) was a 19th-century French playwright.

Biography

This was probably the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

of Jean Baptiste Joseph Lafontaine who made himself called "Wanincka" (short for Jean in Russian). Born in the Russian Empire, he came to France in 1802 or 1803 with his father and two brothers. He served in the

Imperial Guard An imperial guard or palace guard is a special group of troops (or a member thereof) of an empire, typically closely associated directly with the Emperor or Empress. Usually these troops embody a more elite status than other imperial forces, in ...

from 1812 to 1815 and then as a rifleman until 1817. After he returned to civilian life, he lived in Paris at 9 Rue du Helder when he married Antoinette Marie Laurentine Almaïde Arnoult de

Sartrouville Sartrouville () is a commune in the Yvelines department, Île-de-France, north central France. it is located in the north-western suburbs of Paris, from the center of Paris. Name In the Middle Ages the name Sartrouville was recorded in Medieval ...

on 18 November 1820. On the

marriage certificate A marriage certificate (sometimes: marriage lines) is an official statement that two people are married. In most jurisdictions, a marriage certificate is issued by a government official only after the civil registration of the marriage. In som ...

, his profession is "man of letters". He then made himself called Wanincka de La Fontaine: he is thus designated on the

death certificate A death certificate is either a legal document issued by a medical practitioner which states when a person died, or a document issued by a government civil registration office, that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death, as ...

of his wife Antoinette, and again on the marriage certificate of his brother Joseph-Pierre at Chamboeuf in 1820 as well as in the

birth certificate A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuin ...

of his first son Joseph Paul in 1821. He later became

commissaire de police ''Commissaire de police'' is a rank or group of ranks in the French National Police. It should not be confused with the French appointment of "armed forces commissary" (''commissaire des armées'') which is an administrative military position. O ...

in Paris and lived at 7 rue des Carmelites. Whereas he thought he was exempted to apply for naturalization (since he was married to a French woman and father of five children born in France, and having lived thirty years in France), he must apply to be naturalized French on 28 December 1835 because, at the time, if born abroad, even from French parents, people had to be naturalized to have French nationality and be employed at the service of the State. His

plays Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

were given on the most important Parisian stages of the 19th century, including the

Théâtre des Variétés The Théâtre des Variétés is a theatre and "salle de spectacles" at 7–8, boulevard Montmartre, 2nd arrondissement, in Paris. It was declared a monument historique in 1974. History It owes its creation to the theatre director Mademoiselle ...

, Théâtre de la Gaîté, and the

Théâtre du Vaudeville The Théâtre du Vaudeville was a theatre company in Paris. It opened on 12 January 1792 on rue de Chartres. Its directors, Piis and Barré, mainly put on "petites pièces mêlées de couplets sur des airs connus", including vaudevilles. Af ...

. He is buried in

Neuilly sur Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the are ...

Works

*1819: ''Le Mariage à la husarde, ou Une nuit de printemps'', comedy in 1 act and in

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

, mingled with vaudevilles, with

Armand d'Artois Armand d'Artois (3 October 1788 – 28 March 1867) was a 19th-century French playwright and librettist, and also Achille d'Artois's brother. Biography Trained for the bar, he first worked as an attorney but the success of his play ''Les Fin ...

and

Emmanuel Théaulon Marie-Emmanuel-Guillaume-Marguerite Théaulon de Lambert (14 August 1787, Aigues-Mortes – 16 November 1841) was a French playwright. A customs inspector, then an inspector of military hospitals, he composed an ''Ode'' on the birth of the King o ...

*1819: ''M. Furet, ou l'Homme aux secrets'', comedy in 1 act and in prose, mingled with

couplet A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...

s, with

Nicolas Brazier Nicolas Brazier (17 February 1783, Paris - 18 February 1838) was a French chansonnier and vaudevillist. Life Son of a boarding school master and author of school manuals, Brazier's education was however strongly neglected due to the French Revo ...

Pierre Carmouche Pierre Carmouche (9 April 1797 - 9 December 1868) was a French playwright and chansonnier. He wrote more than 200 successful plays, comedies, comédies en vaudevilles and texts for opéras comiques, in collaboration with diverse authors - Braz ...

and

Armand-François Jouslin de La Salle Armand-François Jouslin de La Salle, (15 September 1794 – 1 July 1863) was a French lawyer, journalist, dramatist and theatre director. Jouslin de La Salle was administrator of the Comédie-Française from 1832 to 1837, and then of the théâ ...

*1819: ''Les Plaideurs de Racine'', comédie-anecdote in 1 act and in prose, with Brazier *1821: ''L'Auberge du grand Frédéric'', comédie en vaudeville in 1 act, with Théaulon *1821: ''Les Voleurs supposés'', comédie en vaudeville in 1 act, with Mélesville and

Gabriel-Alexandre Belle Gabriel-Alexandre Belle (4 March 1782 – 20 October 1855) was a 19th-century French writer and playwright. Belle was honoured by being made a . Biography A former commissioner of war, a member of the Soupers de Momus, an editor at the ''La N ...

*1822: ''La Chercheuse d'esprit'', comédie en vaudeville by Favart, given to theatre with changes, with

Théophile Marion Dumersan Théophile Marion Dumersan (4 January 1780, Plou, Cher – 13 April 1849, Paris) was a French writer of plays, vaudevilles, poetry, novels, chanson collections, librettos, and novels, as well as a numismatist and curator attached to the Cabinet ...

*1823: ''Les Dames Martin, ou le Mari'', la femme et la veuve, comédie en vaudeville in 1 act, with

Henri de Tully Jules-Henry de Tully (1 May 1798 – 12 July 1846) was a French librettist and playwright. Life A deputy Commissioner of the king at the Monnaie de Paris, a member of the Société Lyrique, an administrator of the Théâtre du Luxembourg, he ...

*1823: ''Les Femmes et le secret'', one-act comedy, mingled with couplets, with Gaspard Touret *1823: ''Mon ami Christophe'', one-act comédie en vaudeville, with

Charles Dupeuty Charles Désiré Dupeuty (6 February 1798 – 20 October 1865), was a 19th-century French librettist and playwright. Biography After he studied at the Lycée Impérial, he enrolled in the army during the Hundred Days then worked as an employee ...

and

Ferdinand de Villeneuve Ferdinand de Villeneuve (5 June 1801 – 27 September 1858) was a 19th-century French playwright. Short biography He made his debut in the theatre at the age of 21 by partnering with Charles Dupeuty, and began to be successful from 1823 onwar ...

*1823: ''Trilby, ou le Lutin du foyer'', one-act comedy, mingled with couplets, with Théaulon and Jouslin de La Salle *1824: ''La Jeunesse d'un grand peintre, ou les Artistes à Rome'', comedy in 1 act and in prose, mingled with couplets, with

Jules Vernet Jules Vernet (? - 1845) was a 19th-century French dramatist whose plays were presented on the most famous Parisian stages of his time including the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin, the Théâtre du Vaudeville, the Théâtre des Variétés, and t ...

*1825: ''Le Docteur du défunt'', one-act comédie en vaudeville, with

and

Léon Laya Léon Laya (c.1810 in Paris – 5 September 1872 in Paris) was a 19th-century French playwright. The académicien Jean-Louis Laya was his father. Léon Laya was the author of a number of successful comedies, alternating between the delicacy or pu ...

*1825: ''La Dot et la fille, ou le Commis marchand'', one-act comedy, mingled with couplet, with Louis Gabriel Montigny *1825: ''Le Marchand de parapluies, ou la Noce à la guinguette'', comédie grivoise in 1 act, mingled with couplets, with

Marc-Antoine Désaugiers Marc-Antoine Désaugiers (1742 – 10 September 1793) was a French composer of numerous operas as well as a cantata on the storming of the Bastille and several pieces of sacred music. He was born in Fréjus. He studied music there but was largely ...

*1827: ''Les Compagnons du devoir, ou le Tour de France'', one-act tableau-vaudeville, with

Étienne Crétu Étienne Crétu was an 18th-19th-century French playwright. The son of Anthelme Crétu, managing director of the Théâtre des Variétés who associated him to the direction, his plays were presented in this theatre from 1801 to 1828. Works *17 ...

and

Louis-Émile Vanderburch Louis-Émile Vanderburch (30 September 1794 – 30 March 1862) was a 19th-century French writer and playwright. The painter Dominique Joseph Vanderburch (1722–1785) was his grandfather. Biography After he started a career in teaching as a p ...

*1827: ''Joseph II ou l'inconnu au cabaret'', comédie en vaudeville, with

Félix-Auguste Duvert Félix-Auguste Duvert (12 January 1795 – 19 October 1876) was a 19th-century French playwright and vaudevillist. Biography Félix-Auguste Duvert was first a soldier. A volunteer in 1811 among the riflemen of the young guard, he then was par ...

and

Alexandre-Joseph Le Roy de Bacre Alexandre-Joseph Le Roy de Bacre, born in Paris, was a 19th-century French playwright. Biography He first made a career in the army as an officer before devoting himself to theater. He attended the military school in Ventimiglia and served as a ...

*1828: ''M. Rossignol, ou le Prétendu de province'', one-act folie-vaudeville, with Duvert and de Tully *1829: ''Mon oncle le bossu, ou les Deux pupilles'', one-act comedy, in prose, with

Mélesville Baron Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier, pen-name Mélesville (13 December 1787 in Paris – 7 November 1865 in Marly-le-Roi) was a French dramatist. The playwright Mélesville fils was his son. Life The son of Honoré-Nicolas-Marie Duveyrier, M� ...

and Eugène de Gaville

Bibliography

* Henry Lyonnet, ''Dictionnaire des comédiens français'', 1911, (p. 408) *

Joseph-Marie Quérard Joseph Marie Quérard (25 December 1797 – 3 December 1865) was a French bibliographer. He was born at Rennes, where he was apprenticed to a bookseller. Sent abroad on business, he remained in Vienna from 1819 to 1824, where he drew up the fi ...

, ''Lafontaine W.'', in ''La France littéraire ou dictionnaire bibliographique des savants...'', 1930, (p. 418) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lafontaine, W. 19th-century French dramatists and playwrights Writers from Paris 1796 births 1859 deaths Expatriates in the Russian Empire