The King Amuses Himself

Interesting Facts

• The play was banned by censors immediately after its premiere in 1832, as it was considered offensive to royal authority.
• The main character of the play, the trickster Triboulet, became the prototype for the character Rigoletto in Giuseppe Verdi's opera of the same name.
• Victor Hugo wrote the play in just fifteen days.
• The play was part of a cycle Hugo called «dramas about kings», intended to showcase the vices of monarchy.
• After the play was banned, Hugo wrote a pamphlet «The King Amuses Himself and Censorship», in which he criticized censorship and defended creative freedom.