Le Roi s'amuse

Le roi s'amuse (French pronunciation: ​[lə ʁwa samyz]; literally, The King Amuses Himself or The King Has Fun) is a French play in five acts written by Victor Hugo. First performed on 22 November 1832 but banned by the government after one evening, the play was used for Verdi's 1851 opera Rigoletto.

François 1er, king of France

Triboulet, his jester
Blanche, daughter of Triboulet
Monsieur de Saint-Vallier, father of Diane de Poitiers
Saltabadil, a hired assassin
Maguelonne, a street player
Clément Marot, royal poet
Monsieur De Pienne
Monsieur De Gordes
Monsieur De Pardaillan
Monsieur De Brion
Monsieur De Montchenu
Monsieur De Montmorency
Monsieur De Cossé
Monsieur De La Tour-Landry
Madame De Cossé
Dame Bérarde

Un Gentilhomme de la Reine
Un Valet du Roi
Un Médecin
Seigneurs, Pages
Gens du Peuple

The action takes place in Paris in an unspecified year in the 1520s ("152...") .

The first act is set during a nocturnal party at the Louvre palace; the second in the deserted cul-de-sac Bussy; the third in an antechamber of the King at the Louvre, and the fourth and fifth acts on the banks of the river Seine by the Château de la Tournelle.

The hero of the play, Triboulet (a historical character during the reigns of Louis XII and François I of France) is a court jester, through whose words Hugo attacks contemporary society. The king is a profligate and a womanizer, constantly looking for new conquests. Having set his sights on a new mistress, the Countess de Cossé, Triboulet encourages the king to kill her husband. Triboulet is despised by the courtiers, who plot to abduct the young woman living with him whom they assume is his mistress. The sudden appearance of the Comte de Saint-Vallier, the father of Diana de Poitiers, seduced by the king, to demand compensation from the monarch, leads the king and Triboulet to mock him, upon which the aristocrat curses them.

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