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Jean-Louis Laya (4 December 1761, Paris – 25 August 1833,Meudon) was a French playwright. He wrote his first comedy in collaboration withGabriel-Marie Legouvé in 1785. The piece, however, though accepted by theComédie française, was never represented. In 1789 he produced a plea for religious toleration in the form of a five-act tragedy in verse,Jean Calas. In his next work, the injustice of the disgrace cast on a family by the crime of one of its members formed the theme ofLes Dangers de l'opinion (1790).[1]
It is by hisAmi des lois (1793) that Laya is best remembered. This energetic protest againstmob rule, with its scarcely veiled characterizations ofMaximilien Robespierre as Nomophage and ofJean-Paul Marat as Duricrne, was an act of the highest courage, for the play was produced at theThéâtre Français (temporarily Théâtre de la Nation) only nineteen days before theexecution of Louis XVI.[2]
Ten days after its first production the piece was prohibited by theCommune, but the public demanded its representation; themayor of Paris was compelled to appeal to theNational Convention, and the piece was played while some 30,000 Parisians guarded the hall. Laya went into hiding, and several persons convicted of having a copy of the play in their possession wereguillotined.[3]
At the end of theTerror Laya returned to Paris. In 1813 he replacedDelille in the Paris chair of literary history and French poetry; he was admitted to theAcadémie française in 1817. Laya produced in 1797Les Deux Stuarts, and in 1799Falkland, the title-role of which providedTalma with one of his finest opportunities. Laya's works, which chiefly owe their interest to the circumstances attending their production, were collected in 1836–1837.[3] His son,Léon, was also a playwright.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Laya, Jean Louis".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 310–311.