A marquis with a suggestive name (the Marquis de Coquencu, literally Marquis of Rooster-in-ass) exposes his run of bad luck to the audience: him and the Marquise (Marchioness) cannot conceive a child. He uses different tricks, such as stimulating drugs or increasingly bizarre sexual games to finally have an heir. However, the Marquise’s moods change from one extreme to the other; she beats the Marquis, and feigns a feeling of faintness to have an affair with the Domestique (Servant). In the second act, two new characters hide in the bushes to defecate, leading to numerous scatological jokes, most notably when the Marquise, pregnant, assures that she enjoys the smell of excrement to the point of asking the Marquis to bring them back to their place and cook them. The play ends with another domestic quarrel.

Glove-puppet

Adults

Rolland Amédée

Jean Duboys (Jean-Charles Du Boys)

France

Paris

Printed

Eroticism

Pornography

Licentiousness

Sexuality

Adultery

Scatology

Servant

Couple

Pregnancy

Farcical

Erotic

Comical

Le Théâtre érotique de la rue de la Santé (1866 edition). Anonymous illustration.

French

Toucher de la merde c’est signe d’argent

Erotic scene

Scene of copulation

Aria

Song

Comedy of language

Situation comedy

Defecation on stage

Argument

Seduction scene

Signe d'argent

Sign of money

Florestant – a young married man – left his wife in their house and went to see Urinette – a prostitute. However, neither Urinette’s touch nor his own imagination succeed in animating the young man. After several unsuccessful attempts, Urinette – desperate and furious – leaves Florestant alone and ashamed.

Lemercier de Neuville Louis

Vaudeville

Slang

Prostitution

Brothel

Félicien Rops, frontispiece for the Théâtre érotique de la rue de la Santé (1864).