"Besides excite Sanzogno, the composer text left the French writer Catulle Mendès (1841-1909) wroth, who decided to prosecute him by plagiarism of his La femme du tabarin (1887), even trying to prevent one presentation of the opera in Brussels. Some critics point out the similarities in the trama of I Pagliacci and the play Un drama nuevo (1867), by the Spanish Manuel Tamayo y Baus (1829-1898)." (Perpetuo)