Alfred Jarry.

Letter addressed to Laurent Tailhade. Paris, April 2, 1906. Autograph letter signed, 2 pages in-8, on a double sheet of paper on the Mercure de France letterhead. Important letter about the mirlitonesque theater and a project of representation of Ubu roi, to one of his most fervent supporters. He approves the idea of a conference by Tailhade which would precede a shortened performance of Ubu, which Kolney, Laurent Tailhade's brother-in-law, has informed him of. Such a project smiles to me, first of all you know my admiration for you, and I would be very proud that Monsieuze [sic] Ubu, which you were already willing to glorify (notably by the 'vive l'armerdre!' and other mentions and congruous quotations), was consecrated in this way by you, and then Gémier, as you know, announced several times such a reenactment - during his theater - which did not take place, especially because I left Paris at that moment. I believe moreover that Guitry, whom I often see in the country at Demi-Lune, would not refuse to lend his theater; the moment seems propitious to him, announcing two novels to be published by Fasquelle and a series of baroque volumes, by Sansot, which he entitled Théâtre Mirlitonesque and three of which contain "unpublished Ubu and a shortened version (rightly!) of this one for the puppet - and the three others devoted to 'mirlitonesque' verse pieces. The ubuesque and mirlitonesque theater would be, I think, a subject which would not displease Your Truculence, and of the conference it would be possible for you to make, for our joy, a big, fat, pretty small booklet at Sansot". The conference project did not succeed and only two volumes of Mirlitonesque theater were published that year by Sansot, Par la taille and Ubu sur la butte, a reduction in two acts of Ubu roi. It is only after Jarry's death that Ubu will be staged for the second time at the Théâtre Antoine, twelve years after its creation in 1896. This letter was published in the n° 10 of the Cahiers du Collège de Pataphysique, having served as "patalogue" to the famous Expojarrysition of 1953.