The Dog of Montarges

The Dog of Montargis, or Murder in the Wood was a 19th-century melodrama, based on the tale of Robert Macaire and his trial-by-combat with a dog. It arose from the Parisian actor and theatre director René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt and premiered on 18 June 1814 as Le Chien de Montargis, ou la Forêt de Bondy, mélodrame historique en trois actes et à grand spectacle at the Parisian Théâtre de la Gaîté on Boulevard du Temple, where it had an uninterrupted run in that theatre's repertoire until 1834. Like many melodramas, it had several English language adaptations. John Fawcett, manager of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, applied on September 17, 1814 for a license to present a two-act adaptation by William Barrymore, originally titled Murder Will Out with the alternate and more commonly used title The Dog of Montargis, or, The Forest of Bondy. The first performance was September 30. Other adaptations followed, including an 1816 three-act version attributed to Sir Henry Bishop, and a two-act version by Thomas Dibdin. Versions were performed at many playhouses in London and in the United States throughout the nineteenth century.

A German translation by Ignaz Franz Castelli, with music by Ignaz von Seyfried, premiered on 4 October 1815 at Berlin's Königliche Schauspiele. It already had a competitor in Vienna in September 1815, with Joseph August Adam's Der Hund des Aubri de Montdidier, oder der Zweikampf auf der Insel Notre-Dame. Ein romantisches Schauspiel in vier Aufzügen, but this did not become generally accepted alongside Castelli and Pixérécourt's version, and the piece soon spread throughout Europe, even being given at Weimar for the great dog-lover Charles Augustus starring Charles Augustus's lover Karoline Jagemann.

The plot is based on a legend from the 14th century, that survived in a letter from Julius Caesar Scaliger. A knight and favourite of King Charles V, Aubry de Montdidier, is murdered in 1371 by his rival Robert Macaire in the forest near Bondy. Aubry's hound, the only creature that actually witnessed the murder, succeeds in bringing suspicion on Macaire. The king decides it would be God's will to allow the dog and the accused to fight.

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