92 - VIAN (Boris). Autograph poetic manuscript comprising 28 lines, on 2 pages, in-4 format; binder holes in the margins.

VIAN (Boris). Autograph poetic manuscript comprising 28 lines, on 2 pages, in-4 format; binder holes in the margins. ONE OF THE SONGS WRITTEN AS MUSICAL INTERLUDES FOR THE PLAY *La Bande à Bonnot* by Henri-François Rey. At the request of director Michel de Ré (who had previously staged a Boris Vian play, *Adam, *Ève et le troisième sexe*, in 1952) that Boris Vian wrote a dozen songs for this purpose, some of which went on to have a life of their own, such as “Les joyeux bouchers.” In his own style—at once firm and detached—Boris Vian turned them into parodies of early-20th-century realist songs, but set to more modern music and imbued with a strong libertarian spirit. *La Bande à Bonnot* premiered on December 7, 1954, at the Théâtre du Quartier Latin. EARLY VERSION of this song, known by its opening line “C’était l’époque légendaire…,” which Boris Vian, according to a handwritten note, had intended as an “epilogue.” This manuscript includes the first four stanzas and part of the fifth (out of a total of seven). “It was the legendary era When the gold louis Still reigned France polished its blinders To ignore its sad fate...” Following this are two stanzas, likely a discarded version of the song’s last two stanzas, marked “1st slow theme, military march style” “In his hopeless rebellion, A poor fellow Met his end, But he left behind in people’s memories A memory we’ll never forget. Planting deep in the heart of selfishness A long knife That’s still there He proclaimed that anarchism Will never, ever die” A final stanza, by way of conclusion, reads: “And in the balmy midday sun Passersby strolled through Paris”