Category Archives: Commedia dell’arte

Kasyan Yaroslavovitch Golejzovsky’s Harlequin

11 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by in Art, Comedy, Commedia dell'arte

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KASYAN YAROSLAVOVITCH GOLEJZOVSKY 1892 Moscow – 1970  Moscow (Photo credit: Invaluable)

This mixed-media depiction of Harlequin, by Russian artist Kasyan Yaroslavovitch Golejzovsky, was sold at an auction, in Düsseldorf, Germany, on 9 November 2017. I congratulate its owners. I love this work of art for many reasons. For instance, movement is beautifully expressed. Would that I had the money to bid and buy at auctions. However, I visit, if only to see beautiful objects.

Harlequin is a zanno (zanni), a comic servant, who was introduced into the Commedia dell’arte by 17th – century actor – manager Zan Ganassa (c. 1540 – c. 1584): Zan (=zanni) Ganassa. Commedia dell’ arte actors were professionals. They were provided with an outline of the comedy (called a canevas in French), where they played a role, always the same role, which they improvised. The Italians travelled to other countries. Ganassa was in Spain from 1574 to 1584. Paris had its Comédie-Italienne, and Harlequin was in 18th – century London.

In the commedia erudita, however, actors used a script written by a playwright. Ben Johnson, Shakespeare, Molière and dramatists preceding them often drew their material from Plautus (254 BCE [Sarsinia, Umbria, Italy] – BCE 154)[1] and Terence (195 BCE [Carthage, current Tunisia] – 159 BCE [Greece or at sea]).[2] Roman dramatists Plautus and Terence wrote in Latin, but the vernacular, early forms of Italian, was also used by actors. However, Plautus and Terence, found their inspiration in Greek New Comedy (320 BCE to the mid 3rd century BCE), from which they also borrowed. Molière‘s Miser (1668) is rooted in Plautus’ Aulularia.

Harlequin is perhaps the best-known of the commedia dell’arte’s zanni and one of its most celebrated characters. Harlequin always wears a costume. It is part of the mask, but behind the mask there is a man, or a woman. Until the creation of Pierrot, drawn from both pantomimes and the commedia dell’arte, the stock characters of the commedia dell’arte seemed what they appeared.

However, Pierrot, created in late 17th – century France, by the Parisian Comédie-Italienne, is a sad clown, a mask wearing a mask. He entertains an audience, but he loves Columbina who loves Harlequin. This is love’s triangle, an impossible love that may feed on jealousy. As the 17th century drew to a close in France, Madame de la Fayette[3] published La Princesse de Clèves, in which her heroine will not marry Monsieur de Nemours for fear he will stop loving her once his love is reciprocated. Jean Racine‘s Phèdre fails to save Hippolyte, whom she has falsely accused of trying to seduce her, when she learns Hippolyte claims to love Aricie. La Princesse de Clèves was published in 1678, the year after Phèdre was first performed.

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Harlequin by George Barbier (Photo credit: Tumbler)

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The Duel after the Masquerade by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In this respect, he is perhaps the most enigmatic character of the commedia dell’arte, and the most human. Jealous love finds its best expression in a novel by Madame de La Fayette, La Princesse de Clèves (1678). But Molière’s Arnolphe, the blocking-character in The School for Wives, L’École des femmes, is jealous. The Gelosi (jealous) were also a commedia dell’ arte troupe, but jealous love is not associated with the Gelosi. In Britannica, we read that:

“The name was derived from the troupe’s motto, Virtù, fama ed honor ne fèr gelosi. (“We are jealous of attaining virtue, fame and honour”).[4]

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Commedia dell’arte troupe, probably depicting Isabella Andreini and the Compagnia dei Gelosi, oil … CFL—Giraudon/Art Resource, New York (Photo credit: Britannica)

Conclusion

I will close by reminding my readers of the British John Rich’s harlequinades: tom-foolery and pandemonium. Unlike the clever, nimble and clownish British zanno  Harlequin, Pierrot is mime‘s sad clown performed by Jean-Gaspard Deburau (Battiste), Jean-Louis Barrault (Baptiste), and less-acclaimed mimes.  Jean-Louis Barrault is the star of director Michel Carné‘s 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis (The Children of Paradise), one of cinema’s classics, written by Jacques Prévert. But is Picasso‘s family Harlequin “funny?” (See Arlecchino, Arlequin, Harlequin and Leo Rauth’s “fin de siècle” Pierrot in RELATED ARTICLES).

Stock characters must not deviate from their role, nor can actors. But masks tend to invite a response not intended in the manner a role is played.

Love to everyone ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

Denis Diderot, Paradoxe sur le comédien (c. 1773-1777), published in 1830. (Google) FR
Denis Diderot, Paradoxe sur le comédien, Wikipedia FR

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[1] Plautus, Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plautus)
[2] W. Geoffrey Arnott, Terrence, Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Terence)
[3] In 1655, at the age of 21, already a salonnière, she married 38-year-old François Motier, comte de La Fayette, an ancestor to Gilbert Motier, marquis de Lafayette. She bore him two sons.
[4] Gelosi, Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Compagnia-dei-Gelosi

Claude Debussy : Clair de Lune, for Piano (Suite Bergamasque No. 3), L. 75/3

Pierrot et Harlequin Mardi Gras by Cézanne

© Micheline Walker
10 November 2017
WordPress

Pantalone and Molière’s Miser

20 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by in Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, Molière

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Pantalone (1550) by Maurice Sand (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Maurice Sand

Below is an excerpt from an article I posted in 2014, when our topic was the commedia dell’arte. Pantalone is a mask, a stock character. His name may differ from play to play, but his function, or role, does not change. He is the blocking character, or the obstacle to the marriage of comedy’s young lovers, the innamorati of the commedia dell’arte and, in the case of Pantalone, money prevents the marriages that comedy favours. He is an ancestor to Molière’s Harpagon, L’Avare‘s protagonist.

The portrait I am featuring above is by Maurice Sand, whose full name is Jean-François-Maurice-Arnauld, Baron Dudevant (1823–1889). He was the son of writer George Sand  (1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), who separated from her husband, but brought up her son Maurice and daughter Solange (1828–1899). She may be the most colourful woman in 19th-century France and a prolific author. We will discuss George Sand in a future post.

Maurice Sand’s depiction of Pantalone is delightful. One of Maurice’s subject matters was la commedia dell’arte. You may remember that one of Molière‘s artists was Edmond Geffroy (29 July 1804-8 February 1895) FR. Maurice Sand’s Masques et bouffons de la comédie italienne, texte et dessins was published in 1860. Maurice was also a writer. He was a self-effacing gentleman, but kept company with the most famous writers and artists of his days.

A few weeks ago, I read André Maurois‘ biography of the three Dumas: mulatto général Dumas, Alexandre Dumas père and Alexandre Dumas fils. Maurois mentions Maurice several times. Dumas père, the most notorious Dumas (The Three Musketeers, etc.), was a very close friend of George Sand, but not her lover. Her famous lovers were composer and virtuoso pianist Chopin and poet Alfred de Musset (called Musset).

Molière and the Commedia dell’arte

Molière (15 January 1622 – 17 February 1673) was influenced by the comédie italienne and, in particular, by the commedia dell’arte. He once shared a theatre with the Italians. Moreover, Molière’s first troupe,  L’Illustre Théâtre, went bankrupt in 1645, the year it was founded. Molière spent 24 hours in jail and then left Paris and toured the provinces until 1658. We do not have the text of the many comedies he performed during the 13 years he lived outside Paris, but he may have posted a canevas, the plot, and members of his troupe improvised their role as did the actors of the commedia dell’arte.

Pantalone, the greedy alazôn, vs the eirôn

Pantalone is a heavy father or an alazôn, the blocking character of comedy, or the person who opposes the young lovers’ marriage. As for Pantalone, he is a ‘needy’ blocking character or Pantalon de’ Bisognosi, Italian for ‘Pantalone of the Needy.’ His name derives from San Pantaleone, or Saint Pantaleon. (See Pantalone and Saint Pantaleon, Wikipedia.) As an alazôn, Pantalone is the opponent of the victorious eirôn (as in the word ironic), who helps bring about the marriage of the young lovers. The role, or function, of the alazôn may be played by several characters such as a braggart soldier, a miles gloriosus, or a pedant, il dottore. Roman playwright Plautus (c. 254–184 BCE) wrote the Aulularia, featuring the miser Euclio.

Pantalone is an ancestor to Molière’s L’Avare (The Miser). L’Avare‘s other ancestor is Euclio, the miser featured in Aulularia, the pot of gold, a play by Roman dramatist Plautus. Molière’s Miser was first performed on 9 September 1668, in the theatre of the Palais-Royal, le théâtre du Palais-Royal. Harpagon is a descendant of Plautus’ Euclio (see L’Avare, Wikipedia).

Molière’s L’Avare

My article on Molière’s L’Avare (The Miser) is ready for posting, but it is too long. This post will help me make it shorter. L’Avare originates in Greek Old Comedy and Greek New Comedy (Menander c. 342/41 – c. 290 BCE). He may be a type in the Latin Fabula palliata and Atellan Farce, but Molière’s best known-sources are Plautus‘ Aulularia and the commedia dell’arte. Money, or lack thereof, is a common obstacle to the marriage of comedy’s young lovers. As we will see in a future post, Molière’s L’Avare features two young couples and two father figures.

You may notice that a large number of individuals can be associated with Plautus’ Miles gloriosus and the commedia dell’arte‘s Pantalone, il Dottore and il Capitano. Comedies, farces in particular, often feature a boastful character. But Molière’s L’Avare is the depiction of a miser, a less prominent figure than boastful characters.

At any rate, here is a quotation from a post entitled Pantalone: la Commedia dell’arte (20 June 2014).

An Excerpt

Costume: Money

Pantalone is dressed as Pantalone and his costume is part of his mask. It is always the same and he looks like a hunchback. However, he is not Victor Hugo‘s Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831). He is a hunchback because of the bag of money he conceals. Pantalone is lustful, jealous, deceitful, selfish, lazy, full of himself (“Il Magnifico”), but, above all, greedy.

Pantalone is the metaphorical representation of money in the commedia world. (See Pantalone, Wikipedia.)

Pantalone is “di bisognosi” (dans le besoin, the needy).

Other than his hunch, Pantalone wears a red cap, red tights, yellow Turkish slippers, a short vest and a long coat. (continue reading)

Love to everyone ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

Molière

The Commedia dell’Arte

Sources and Resources

François Couperin 2/3, Airs, Gillot/Watteau

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The Italian Comedians by Watteau, 1721 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
20 November 2016
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Recurrence in Molière: Le Dépit amoureux

24 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by in Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, Molière

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Le Dépit amoureux by François Boucher (drawing) and Laurent Cars (engraving) (Photo credit: Pinterest)

Recurrence: Le Dépit amoureux

There is recurrence in Molière’s plays. In fact, my colleague James Gaines has published The Molière Encyclopedia. I have yet to read or purchase this book, but I suspect Dr Gaines, whom I met a long time ago, has listed the many jeunes premiers in Molière’s plays. I also suspect he has listed scenes of dépit amoureux (scorned love) and the one play Molière dedicated to that theme or motif. Le Dépit amoureux (1656 [Béziers] and 1659 [Paris]) was performed before Molière’s return to Paris and performed again in Paris, hence the two dates: 1656 and 1659.

The play may not have been committed to paper until Molière returned to Paris and his company became the Company of Monsieur,[1] the name given to the King’s brother. Moreover, a similar play, entitled La Cupidité, had been written by Italian dramatist Niccolò Secchi (see Le Dépit amoureux, Wikipedia).

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Scapin, Edmond Geffroy
Scapin, Edmond Geffroy

The Plot

Recurrence happens at many levels. Although Tartuffe (1664 – 1669), Dom Juan (1665) and Le Misanthrope (1666) are independent plays, the plots are the plots of comedy: that of the farcical trompeur trompé (the deceiver deceived), as in the Précieuses ridicules, or the Shakespearean “all’s well that ends well” of most grandes comédies. A comedy may in fact combine both plots, or mythoi, which seems to be the case in Molière’s problematical Tartuffe, Dom Juan and Le Misanthrope.

Moreover, literature has archetypes. The plots mentioned above are archetypal plots. As well, comedy always opposes the eirôn (as in ironic) and the alazṓn, or the blondin and the barbon.

Recurrence may occur within a genre or override genre. Our best source with respect to recurrence in general is Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism.[2] Archetypes, however, may be rooted in ancient rituals and older comedies: Greek comedy, the Atellan farce, Latin comedy (Plautus and Terrence), the commedia dell’arte. There is in fact a comic text. But let us return to dépit amoureux in Molière.

Le Dépit amoureux: a scene

Dépit amoureux (scorned love) may be a scene. In Act II of Tartuffe, Mariane tells Dorine, her maid, that Valère should fight off obstacles to their marriage. Mariane may well be doubting his love and therefore prone to jealousy. At any rate, in Tartuffe, her helplessness tends to mirror Orgon’s inability to be a tyrannical father without Tartuffe as if humane feelings were a sign a weakness. Orgon empowers Tartuffe who, in turn empowers Orgon. Similarly, Mariane would be at a loss if Dorine, her maid, did not step in to help her avoid a mariage forcé, a forced marriage. Dorine is the descendant of the astute zanni of the commedia dell’arte.

Le Dépit amoureux: an entire play

Le Dépit amoureux may also be an entire play. Molière’s Dépit amoureux (1656 – 1659) is a five-act comedy where the playwright focuses more on the young couples than on the blocking character. Le Dépit amoureux is a comédie d’intrigue, or comedy of intrigue, rather than a comédie de mœurs, or comedy of manners. A discovery, anagnorisis,[3] puts an end to the torment two young couples are subjected to. There is a great deal of suspense. The lovers[4] nearly leave one another and the audience can’t wait for the young couples to know the truth.

Our characters are the following. The name of maids and valets are between parentheses.

  • Lucile (Marinette) & Éraste (Gros-René)
  • Ascagne (Frosine) & Valère (Mascarille)
  • Albert (Lucile & Ascagne’s father)
  • Polydore (Valère’s father)
  • Métaphraste, a pedant and fâcheux
  • La Rapière, a swordsman

Before the play begins, Valère has married Ascagne, but he thinks he has married Lucile, Ascagne being a male. It is a secret marriage. Valère was the rightful heir to the fortune Ascagne has inherited.

Lucile and Ascagne are the daughters of Albert. If Ascagne had been a son, he would have been heir to a substantial amount of money. A neighbour had a son who died in early childhood. Ascagne, a girl, was given the dead child’s identity.

Lucile asks her maid Marinette to take a message to Éraste. She wants to meet him in the garden that very evening. We learn from Gros-René that Éraste is jealous of Valère (I, 2). The note reassures Éraste. All he needs to do, according to the message, is ask Albert, Lucile’s father, to give him his daughter in marriage:

Travaillez à vous rendre un père favorable. (Marinette to Éraste)
[Work on making a father agree.] (I, 3)

Éraste and Valère then bump into one another (I, 2). Valère is certain that Lucile loves him. Ascagne confides in Frosine, her maid. She says that she is a woman, that she is in love and that she has married Valère, but that the matter of the inheritance has yet to be resolved (II, 1).

We meet Albert, Lucile’s and Ascagne’s father. He wants to seek advice from the teacher Métaphraste, who is a mere fâcheux, a bore. The arrangement he made troubles Albert. He wants to put an end to his lie. Albert and Polidore, the fathers, meet. Albert wants to return the inheritance (III, 3), but Polidore says that Lucile is romantically involved with Valère, Polidore’s son, which is not acceptable (III, 4). Both fathers decide to repair the harm.

Valère meets Lucile and tells her that their marriage is no longer a secret. Lucile doesn’t know what Valère is talking about. As for Ascagne, who does not see her husband during the day, she is desperate. Her husband thinks he has married her sister. She tells Frosine that she will have to kill herself (IV, 1). Meanwhile, Éraste has decided no longer to love Lucile because she loves Valère (IV, 2). Later, Lucile also decides no longer to love Éraste. It is at this point that dépit amoureux reaches a climax. However, as it reaches a climax, Lucile and Éraste reveal to what extent they loved one another. Éraste walks Lucile home…

A swordsman, La Rapière, offers to help Mascarille and Valère (V, 3). There were duels at the time.

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Marinette & Gros-René by Edmond Geffroy

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Monsieur Jourdain et son maître d’armes (Google Images)

Anagnorisis

But the moment of recognition has come (V, 4). Polidore arrives and calls Ascagne “ma fille,” my daughter, (V, 5). Valère apologizes to his father (V, 6) whose permission to marry he has not sought. He learns that Ascagne is a woman and that she, not Lucile, is the woman he married. Valère is surprised but he is pleased. He was the rightful heir, but, together, he and Ascagne are the rightful heirs. Valère forgives Lucile and Lucile forgives Valère. There will not be a duel.

Let’s look at the characters once again:

  • Lucile (Marinette) & Éraste (Gros-René)
  • Ascagne (Frosine) & Valère (Mascarille) (Ascagne has already married Valère)
  • Albert (Lucile & Ascagne’s father)
  • Polydore (Valère’s father)
  • Métaphraste, a pedant & fâcheux
  • La Rapière, a swordsman

Comic Relief

At the end of the play Lucile is about to marry Éraste and Marinette, Gros-René. For comic relief, the dépit amoureux, occurs between both masters and servants.

The Molière 21 project has featured a scene of dépit amoureux. It occurs in Molière’s Les Amants magnifiques, a comédie-ballet, first performed during Carnival season, in February 1670. Pierre Beauchamp was the choreographer and Jean-Baptiste Lully composed the music.

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Gros-René by Maurice Sand

Conclusion

So the time has come to pause.

The dépit amoureux has been dissected. Interestingly, these scenes may start with spite, but the lovers cannot help but disclose their true feelings. There is irony in dépit amoureux.

In his Molière: a New Criticism, Will Moore wonders how Molière could have written so many plays in so little time. W. Moore’s answer to his question is that Molière dealt with the “Res privata: this gave to comedy both the setting and the characters. Molière’s plays deal with the stock comic characters, in everyday situation: parents, children, the doctor, the schoolmaster, the soldier, the valet, relatives, in-laws, suitors.”[5]

As Northrop Frye writes, “‘It’s supposed to be that way.’”[6] Comedies have a happy ending. They are formulaic. However, in the case of Le Dépit amoureux, we have an interesting image. Lucile asks Marinette to take a note to Éraste. She wants to meet him Éraste that very day in the evening and in a garden. The circumstances have changed. Lucile believes Éraste has chosen another spouse. But, having expressed a wish to separate, both tell how much they loved one another, which is how comedies are “supposed” to end.

“The obstacles to the hero’s desire, then form the comic resolution.”[7] As mentioned in an earlier post, Frye also writes that “the tendency of comedy is to include as many people as possible,” in which it differs from tragedy. Moreover, as quoted in an earlier post,  “Tartuffe is sure of Orgon, and Molière is sure of his public.”[8]

However, despite the recurrences, each play is new, just as each day is new. It’s matter of intertextualité. Texts are written in the context of literature. So it follows that Molière’s plays are written in the context of comedy as a genre. But Molière’s Dépit amoureux presents a metaphor: the garden. Éraste and Lucile do meet in the garden as Lucile asked at the beginning of the play. Molière’s Dépit amoureux therefore reaches back to the Roman de la Rose, not literally but symbolically. Flowers die and are reborn and die and are reborn…

Therefore matters happen as expected. Éraste meets Lucile at the appointed hour, and they meet in a ‘garden,’ a symbol of fertility.
 

Love to everyone ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

____________________

[1] Monsieur was Philippe de France, duke of Orleans. The brother to the king was the duke of Orleans. Louis Philippe Joseph d’Orléans (13 April 1747 – 6 November 1793) was guillotined during the French Revolution. The House of Orleans was a cadet branch of the Bourbon kings or the House of Bourbon. Louis XIV had one brother.

[2] Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1973 [1957])

[3] “At the end of the play the device in the plot that brings hero and heroine together causes a new society to crystallize around the hero, and the moment when this crystallization occurs is the point of resolution in the action, the comic discovery, anagnorisis or cognitio” (Frye, p. 163).

[4] In 17th-century France, lovers, amants, were people in love. The term “lover” did not suggest sexual intimacy.

[5] Will G. Moore, Molière, a New Criticism (Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, 1949), p. 69 – 70.

[6] Northrop Frye, op. cit., p. 87.

[7] Northrop Frye, op. cit., p. 164.

[8] Will G. Moore, op. cit., p. 64.

— ooo—

Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Te Deum – Prelude

Lysandre by Edmond Geffroy

Lysandre by Edmond Geffroy

©  Micheline Walker
24 May 2016
(concluded: 24 May 2016)
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Lysandre, a “jeune premier” in Molière

20 Friday May 2016

Posted by in Ballet, Commedia dell'arte, Molière

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Lysandre by Edmond Geffroy

Lysandre, a jeune premier (a leading man) in Molière’s theatre. His name recurs as do other names, such as Clitandre, Valère.

Molière used the stock characters of the commedia dell’arte, but when he was touring the provinces, he sometimes posted a sketch, le canevas, and characters wrote their role. In other words, Molière did not write comedies before he returned to Paris. But he had to publish his Précieuses ridicules so no one else could claim the comedy, a farce, was his or hers.

This is a very short post. My computer cannot access WordPress easily. My new computer should arrive soon. I’m upgrading.

I may publish early posts, the ones that were not read.

If the computer will let me, I will read your posts.

Source

Molière

Molière by Charles Antoine Coypel (Photo credit: FR Wikipedia)

GEORG MATTHIAS MONN (1717-1750)

Concerto for cello, strings and basso continuo in G minor (1. Allegro moderato)

Performed by the Freiburger Barockorchester
Featuring Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello
Conducted by Petra Mullejans

Portraits_oeuvres_de_Moliere_-_693_Les_fourberies_de_Scapin_-_Scapin

Scapin by Edmond Geffroy

© Micheline Walker
20 May 2016
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Molière: Farces and “Grandes Comédies”

08 Sunday May 2016

Posted by in Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, France, French Literature, Italy, Molière

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Molière and Pierre Corneille

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Le Misanthrope

Farces and Comedies

  • Farces & grandes comédies
  • Commedia dell’arte
  • Atellane Farce

Getty Images has a fine selection of prints featuring farceurs. Farceurs are comédiens who are featured in burlesque plays. Molière was called the “premier farceur de France.” The farce is a comic genre in which the tables are turned on a person or persons. Molière’s Précieuses ridicules (18 November 1659) is a farce. Farces are short plays, one to three acts, and Molière’s used prose instead of verses (12-syllable alexandrins). Molière wrote both farces and “grandes comédies.” Grandes comédie are five-act plays and are usually written using alexandrins.

During the years he spent touring the provinces, we assume Molière’s troupe (his company) performed several farces. At any rate, we have no text of plays produced in the provinces, with the possible exception of one farce La Jalousie du barbouillé. A barbouillé is someone whose face is smeared.

Farce is an od genre, going back to the Atellane Farce/Fable, called Fabulae atelanae in Latin. These farces contain some of the masks of the Commedia dell’arte, a product of 16th-century Italy. Italian comedians were given sketches or scenarios and improvised on these canevas. Troupes were poor and had to make do with costumes only, rather than elaborate stagecraft, such as machines. Some farceurs, however, were supported by noblemen during carnivals such as the Carnival of Venice. Carnival season ended with Mardi Gras, the day before Lent began, Ash Wednesday.

The Commedia dell’arte features types or masks as characters. Pantalone was always a jealous older man and jealousy is the main ‘sin’ in Molière comedies. It’s a terrible sin because through one’s own behaviour one alienates the person one loves. Molière’s finest play on this subject is L’École des femmes, The School for Wives (26 December 1662). It created a controversy.

The Italians always played the same role.  The blocking character, the character hindering the innamorati‘s marriage, coud be Pantalone, Il Dottore, Il Capitano, etc. Their roles were function, or masks, in which they followed in the footsteps of the oldest comédiens, Attic (Greek) comedy and ancient rituals. These functions are often called archetypes. (See Northrop Frye, Sources and Resources).

Les Italiens

As a child, Molière (1622 – 1673)  was influenced by Italian comedy. The Italians performed at the Pont-Neuf (still standing and called the Pont-Neuf [the new bridge]).

Biographical Notes

Molière, né Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, lived in an affluent area of Paris, rue Saint-Honoré, where Madeleine de Scudéry‘s salon was located. He studied at the Jesuit Collège de Clermont, now the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and also studied law, but may not have completed his degree.

Molière’s father, Jean Poquelin, had bought a position from Louis XIII in 1631. It should have provided Moière with a good income. In 1641, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin became “valent of the King’s chamber and keeper of carpets and upholstery” (“valet de chambre ordinaire et tapissier du roi”), but in 1643, he founded l’Illustre Théâtre with Madeleine Béjart. The troupe went bankrupt and Molière was jailed. After his release, he and his comédiens left Paris.

Upon his return to Paris, Molière had a successful but relatively short career, about fifteen years. On 17th February 1673, while playing Argan, the Imaginary Invalid, Molière collapsed. He remained on stage performing his role, but died shortly after the comedy was over. The Imaginary Invalid is a three-act comédie-ballet, set to music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and choreographed by Pierre Beauchamp.

Medieval Farces

Farces were common entertainment during the Middle Ages. They were performed to amuse spectators between scenes during long plays, such as Passion plays. Passion plays were reenactments of the Passion of Christ. These lasted for days and farces provided the “comic relief.” Passion plays have survived. The most acclaimed has been performed at Oberammergau (Bavaria), since 1634.

Pathelin

La Farce de Maître Pathelin, court scene (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The Medieval Farce: La Farce de Maître Pathelin

The most famous French medieval farce is La Farce de Maître Pierre Pathelin, The Farce of Master Pierre Pathelin (1457). We do not know the name of its author, but the farce features a legal battle. Maître is the title given lawyers. A lawyer, Maître Pathelin, has purchased fabric on credit from a clothier named Guillaume Joceaulme. Pierre Pathelin is hired to defend a shepherd named Thibaut l’Aignelet (from agneau, sheep) who stands accused of stealing a sheep (un agneau) from the cloth merchant.

In previous centuries, lawyers had not been trained, but they now learned their profession. Consequently, Maître Pierre Pathelin had fewer and fewer customers, so there were holes in his clothes and in wife Guillemette’s clothes. His not having money explains why he has bought fabric on credit. When the cloth merchant comes to his house to be paid, Pathelin make believe he is sick to escape paying.

During the trial, Guillaume Joceaulme, the cloth merchant, recognizes Maître Pathelin. So the trial takes on new dimensions. Pathelin has instructed his client to say nothing but  “Baaa” when he is asked a question, which he does. Pathelin rules against Joceaulme because of the incoherence the case presents. When Maître Pathelin asks to be paid, Thibault l’Aignelet does as he was told. He says “Baaa.” Consequently, Pathelin is “hoisted with his own petard” (trompeur trompé) as in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

La Farce de Maître Pierre Pathelin was so famous that speakers of French still say  “Revenons à nos moutons,” (Let’s get back to our sheep, i.e. Let’s get back to our topic) when the conversation is drifting to another topic.

The French farce is therefore rooted in the medieval French farces (entertainment between scenes) and in the irreverent fabliau. But it also borrows from the commedia dell’arte, Latin comedy (Plautus and Terrence), the farces of Antiquity and Greek comedy. Molière had to write down his comedies, beginning with Les Précieuses ridicules (18 November 1659) to avoid theft of his material. But when he was touring in the provinces, members of his troupe would write their part using a canevas, a sketch (see Commedia dell’arte).

The picture below depicts French as well as Italian “masks.” Molière is at the far left (brown clothes). Jodelet, who performed in the Précieuses ridicules, is standing next to him.

463907133

Les Farceurs, French and Italian (1670)

Conclusion

Molière did not write comedies in a void. There is a context, such as the Commedia dell’arte, salons, préciosité, l’honnête homme, la galanterie… 

I will be sharing my book with you as I did in my last post. The subject, Molière’s comedies, is not obscure and I would prefer not to stay away from my weblog for long periods. I am writing the book itself in French, but the posts will be in English and brief, yet complete. Molière’s plays are online publications, which is very useful. We also have images and music.

Although my book refers to La Farce de Maître Pierre Pathelin, no detail is given. But it is part of the material Molière inherited.

Love to everyone. ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Le Malade imaginaire de Molière
http://www.simphonie-du-marais.org/ch…

Madeleine Béjart, in the Précieuses ridicules (Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
8 May 2016
(revised: 9 May 2016)
WordPress

Molière’s Enigmatic Comedies

06 Friday May 2016

Posted by in Commedia dell'arte, Gallantry, Molière

≈ 6 Comments

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300px-TheatreMoliereO9

Alceste, Le Misanthrope by Edmond Geffroy

Problematical Comedies

  • Tartuffe
  • Dom Juan
  • Le Misanthrope

Molière wrote several enigmatic comedies, but Tartuffe, Dom Juan and Le Misanthrope are the better known. All three feature masks and all three could be described as  incongruous. They present daring juxtapositions.

Tartuffe

Tartuffe is our first case. Tartuffe feigns devotions to ruin a (barely) recoverable, but recoverable, father, Orgon, and his family. In Reynard the Fox, Reynard escapes a death sentence by claiming he has converted and will go to the Crusades. Feigned devotion is not a new mask. However, given Jansenism, Casuistry and Protestantism, in 17th-century France, devotion was too sensitive a subject, which imperiled Molière’s play. Tartuffe is a faux dévot and a casuiste.

Tartuffe was first performed in the summer of 1664 during Les Plaisirs de l’Isle enchantée, multi-day festivities held at the newly built Versailles. The play was banned by Louis XIV and Molière had to revise his comedy twice, in 1667 and in 1669, before it was considered as acceptable.

Dom Juan

Our second play is Molière’s Dom Juan, which premièred the following year, on 15 February 1665 and was promptly censored. Dom Juan’s valet, Sganarelle,[1] describes his master as a “grand seigneur méchant homme,” (“a great lord but a bad man”) and “un épouseur à toutes mains,” (“one who’ll marry anyone”) (I, 1). Given his rank, it seems unfitting on the part of Dom Juan to stoop to infidelities with peasant girls. Molière’s Dom Juan does not seduce Charlotte and Mathurine, but he has left his home and his wife, Done Elvire, and there was already a Dom Juan of legend. Tirso de Molina‘s (24 March 1579 – 12 March 1648) El Burlador de Sevilla lingered in the mind of spectators.

Most importantly, however, Dom Juan is calling for the wrath of God by trivializing unacceptable, sinful, behaviour. Molière’s Dom Juan will therefore suffer the fate awaiting the trompeur of all farces. The traditional plot of farces is that of the “deceiver deceived,” or “trompeur trompé,” (a reversal) and, in Dom Juan’s case, the trompé is heaven itself. Consequently, although Molière’s Dom Juan is less of a seducer than the audience might expect, he is engulfed into the earth, by a “machine,” a theatrical device, to which he is led by the hand of the dead-yet-alive stone guest, the commandeur he has killed.

Dom Juan’s father reminds his son that “noblesse oblige.” In other words, there is incongruity in Dom Juan’s behaviour and although he is a “grand seigneur,” it is arrogant on his part to ignore the commandments of a greater lord, our Lord.

Le Misanthrope

Our third case is The Misanthrope (4 June 1666). The play was not banned. However, in a letter to d’Alembert[2], a letter on theatre, Lettre à Monsieur d’Alembert sur les spectacles (1758),[3] Jean-Jacques Rousseau (28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778), who was an admirer of Molière, criticized the Misanthrope (4 June 1666) because Molière had ridiculed Alceste who is a good man. In Rousseau’s opinion, “l’homme de bien” should not be subjected to ridicule. Such a juxtaposition is incongruous, not to mention discourteous.

Where Alceste is concerned, gallantry is a factor. Alceste lives in the beau monde. However, no sooner does the curtain lift than Alceste pounces on gallants. He tells Philinte, the raisonneur, that “he hates

  1. … nothing so much as the bowing and scraping
  2. of those great makers of protestations,
  3. those affable givers of trumpery kissers,
  4. those obliging praters of empty words,
  5. who strive to outdo each other with civilities,
  6. and treat an honest man and a scoundrel with the same air and manner.”

The Misanthrope, Internet Archive
(see Wikisource, The Misanthrope)

  • Et je ne hais rien tant, que les contorsions (1)
  • De tous ces grands faiseurs de protestations, (2)
  • Ces affables donneurs d’embrassades frivoles, (3)
  • Ces obligeants diseurs d’inutiles paroles, (4)
  • Qui de civilités, avec tous, font combat, (5)
  • Et traitent du même air, l’honnête homme, et le fat.” (6) 

Le Misanthrope, I, 1, v. 43-48
(Molière 21)

It is difficult not to agree with the six lines quoted above. Alceste’s criticism of the society he lives in is accurate. However, his criticism is conditioned by the sixth line. In a world where everybody praises everybody, galanterie, good persons and scoundrels, “l’honnête et le fat,” how can he, Alceste, believe those who praise him and whose praise he needs? Alceste likes compliments and must be praised.

No one has to denigrate Alceste’s hatred of humanity and show it is false. Let him continue speaking down to the sixth line (“and treat an honest man and a scoundrel with the same air and manner”), at which point he disgraces himself irredeemably.

“But what advantage is it to you if a man courts you,
swears friendship, faith, zeal, honor, tenderness,
makes you some fulsome compliment,
and than turn round to the first rascal he meets, and does the same.” (I, 1)

The Misanthrope, Internet Archive
(see Wikisource, The Misanthrope)

  • “Quel avantage a-t-on qu’un homme vous caresse,
  • Vous jure amitié, foi, zèle, estime, tendresse,
  • Et vous fasse de vous un éloge éclatant,
  • Lorsqu’au premier faquin il court en faire autant ?” (I, 1)

We are in Célimène’s home, the young widow with whom Alceste has fallen in love and who loves Alceste. In other words, we’re at court with the individuals, courtiers and gallants, Alceste despises, threatening to find a refuge in one of the many “deserts” of French 17th-century literature. They are the very people Célimène entertains by depicting their faults gracefully: “Les rieurs sont pour vous, Madame…”  (“The laughers are on your side, Madam…”) Yet, Célimène’s “portraits” match Alceste’s depictions of others. She makes fun of the very people Alceste criticizes. In short, the misanthrope and the mondaine are the opposite sides of the very same coin.

Alceste and Célimène differ however in that Célimène can survive at court. She is twenty, pretty and witty. He’s older, he growls, and he demands frankness, not on moral grounds, but because he wishes to be certain that compliments addressed to him are true. Alceste is not a misanthrope; he is vain and insecure.

Ironically, a little gallantry would benefit Alceste, morally and esthetically. As Philinte exclaims, one does not tell a woman that she is too old to wear the makeup she uses. Moreover, would that Alceste had not criticized Oronte’s poem (I, 2) but simply changed the subject while escorting him to the door.

Alceste does combine, in one character, not only “l’homme de bien” (the good man) and “le personnage ridicule,” (the ridiculous character) but also the young lover of comedy, le blondin, barely out of boyhood, but whose marriage is awaited, and the barbon, the bearded older man who opposes the blondin‘s legitimate wishes. Alceste combines two functions, a most incongruous juxtaposition.

Célimène doesn’t feel she can follow Alceste into a “desert,” not at the age of twenty, but she will marry him. However, he insists on taking her to a “desert” and rejects her because she can’t follow him:

  •  “Non ; mon cœur à présent vous déteste,
  •   Et ce refus lui seul fait plus que tout le reste. ” (V, scène dernière)

No; my heart detests you now.
This one rebuff does more than all the rest. (V, last scene)

(see Wikisource, The Misanthrope)

220px-Tartuffe

Tartuffe, Tartuffe by Edmond Geffroy

 

241

Monsieur Loyal, Tartuffe by Edmond Geffroy

(Photo credit: Wikipedia) 

Comedy: all’s well that ends well

The above-mentioned plays may seem and are problematical, but Molière is writing comedies. In comedies, the Shakespearean “all’s well that ends well” prevails. God punishes Dom Juan. As for Tartuffe, a prince who hates fraudulent activities, “un prince ennemi de la fraude,” sees that Tartuffe is in the process of defrauding Orgon and strikes. Monsieur Loyal, the bailiff pictured above, is about to take Orgon’s belongings away, when an “Exempt” arrives and arrests the faux dévot.

But it’s a close call, too close a call. A comedy ends well, but a prince, a “deus ex machina,” should not have to intervene so that Orgon’s family is freed of its faux dévot. Nor should Molière have to use une machine. Dom Juan is led to eternal perdition by the dead-yet-alive commandeur whom he has killed. The earth rises and swallows him.

Such remedies are too drastic. A guilty finger is therefore pointed at society. It cannot remove Dom Juan, but should do so. In Tartuffe’s case, Orgon, the pater familias, has empowered Tartuffe. Therefore, Tartuffe seems a scapegoat, the pharmakós of ancient Greek comedy.

In The Misanthrope, no machine is required. Alceste is precisely as Célimène describes him in the portrait scene (II, 4): “Il prend contre lui-même assez souvent les armes[.]” (“He often takes up arms against himself[.]”).

(see Wikisource, The Misanthrope)

Conclusion

In an insightful analysis of Dom Juan and The Misanthrope, Professor Jules Brody[4]  described, as follows, the problematic of both plays. In Dom Juan and, especially, the Misanthrope, we witness the victory of the esthetically right over the morally wrong. Célimène makes people laugh by mocking them in her portraits, which is esthetically right, but morally wrong. Alceste’s behaviour, he gets angry, is esthetically wrong, but morally right. As for Dom Juan, he is un grand seigneur.

I will simply add that, in Dom Juan and Le Misanthrope, Molière pushes comedy as a genre to its very limits. In the Misanthrope, by virtue of the play’s structure, le blondin (the young lover) is le barbon (the blocking character, or the eirôn  is the alazṓn (Greek comedy).[5] In The Misanthrope, Molière may have replaced the forgiving “All’s well that ends well” by comedy’s other schéma: the farcical deceiver deceived.

As you may know, I am attempting to write a book on Molière. Hence the delays. I have just shared a few thoughts.

Love to everyone. ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

The Misanthrope is an Internet Archive publication
The Misanthrope is a Wikisource publication, translated by Curtis Hidden Page
http://fresques.ina.fr/jalons/fiche-media/InaEdu05426/le-misanthrope-de-moliere.html (the portrait scene [II, 4], video) FR

_________________________

[1] Sganarelle was Molière’s mask. (He was Brighella)

[2] Jean Le Rond d’Alembert and Denis Diderot were the co-founders of L‘Encyclopédie.

[3] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du Contrat social (Paris : Classiques Garnier, 1962), p. 150.

[4] Jules Brody, “Don Juan” and “Le Misanthrope,” or The Esthetics of Individualism in Molière,” PMLA, 84 (May 1969), p. 559 – 575.

[5] Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, “Le Misanthrope, ou la comédie éclatée,” in ed. David Trott & Nicole Boursier. L’Âge du Théâtre en France /The Age of Theater in France (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Academic Printing and Publishing, 1988), p. 53 – 61.

Handel‘s Sarabande
« Concerts royaux, Quatrième concert: Sarabanda »
Armonie Symphony Orchestra, Stefano Seghedoni

12773-004-FB78D609

Pierrot (Gilles) by Watteau (Photo credit: Google images)

© Micheline Walker
6 May 2016
(revised: 6 May 2016)
WordPress

 

  

Fêtes galantes & Galanterie

25 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by in Art, Commedia dell'arte, Courtly Love, Dance, French Literature

≈ 6 Comments

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L'Embarquement pour Cythère

Embarquement pour Cythère by Jean-Antoine Watteau (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Despite the use of the word “for” (pour), it would appear that Jean-Antoine Watteau‘s (10 October 1684 – 18 July 1721) The Embarkation for Cythera (Louvre version)[1] depicts “a departure” from the island of Cythera, the birthplace of Venus. According to Wikipedia, whose sites dealing with our subject have just been maintained, it symbolises “the temporary nature of human happiness.” (See Fêtes galantes, Wikipedia).

Consequently, the characters portrayed in The Embarkation for Cythera are not leaving our imperfect world to travel to the land of love, a land resembling Madeleine de Scudéry‘s (15 November 1607 – 2 June 1701), famous carte de Tendre, or map of Tendre. They are returning from Cythera.

Rosalba_Carriera_Portrait_Antoine_Watteau

Antoine Watteau by Rosalba Carriera, 1721 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fêtes galantes: a Definition

The term fêtes galantes was adopted by the French Academy in 1717 when Watteau handed in his reception piece to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. It refers to a “courtship party,” such as a masquerade ball that borrowed from the commedia dell’arte. In particular, the term Fêtes galantes refers to the paintings of Jean-Antoine Watteau who died of tuberculosis at the age of 36, in 1721. There had never been paintings such as Jean-Antoine Watteau’s. (See Fêtes galantes, Wikipedia.) Watteau therefore set a trend. Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Boucher, Nicolas Lancret and other 18th-century artists also depicted Fêtes galantes. It became a favourite subject matter and it fits the reign of Louis XV (Louis quinze).

Pierrot (Gilles)
Mezzetin
L’Enseigne de Gersaint

Paintings, texts and Music

The Embarkation for Cythera is a painting rather than a text.  After Watteau, however, Fêtes galantes re-entered literary works and music. The best-known literary Fêtes galantes is a collection of poems by Paul Verlaine, published in 1869. The theme also suffuses Pierre Louÿs’ Les Chansons de Bilitis.

Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes were a source of inspiration to composers Gabriel Fauré,  Claude Debussy, and Reynaldo Hahn, among others.

The 17th Century

  • galant homme vs homme galant
  • the salons

The term Fêtes galantes has roots in both 17th-century honnêteté and préciosité. As mentioned above, there was, on the one hand, a galant  homme. He was an honnête homme and at times a précieux. On the other hand, there was un homme galant or a womanizer. The homme galant, was unlikely to be invited to salons, with the possible exception of persons such as Giacomo Casanova (2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798).

The préciosité Molière mocked in his Précieuses ridicules (1659) developed in salons and promoted  Platonic love.  In Les Précieuses ridicules, Cathos expresses disdain for a man’s body. She tells her uncle Gorgibus:

Comment est-ce qu’on peut souffrir la pensée de coucher contre un homme vraiment nu ? (Les Précieuses ridicules, I, 4)
(How can one suffer the thought of sleeping next to a truly naked man?)

Salon Literature

  • word games
  • pastoral and heroic romances
  • la carte de Tendre

In early salons, the main activity of salonniers and salonnières was literature, witty literature. Salonniers and salonnières engaged in “word games,” or the creation of ingenuous little poems. For instance, they would be given the end of lines of poetry to which they had to attach a beginning. These bouts-rimés (rhymed ends), as they were called, demanded inventiveness and substantial linguistic skills. A main characteristic of salon literature, poems mainly, is the use of the conceit (la pointe).

However, salonniers and salonnières savoured pastoral romances such as Honoré d’Urfée‘s L’Astrée and heroic romances. Occasionally, they played shepherds and shepherdesses, which were flights from reality, as would be, to a certain extent Paul Verlaine‘s hedonistic and somewhat decadent fin de siècle Fêtes galantes. In other words, despite préciosité, love was a main interest in salons.

In fact, to be understood, galanterie must be contextualized. Paul Verlaine’s poems were hedonistic, but they were poems and therefore fictional. There is a Cythera, but Venus is a mythological figure. Madeleine de Scudéry‘s (15 November 1607 – 2 June 1701), carte de Tendre, or map of Tendre, published in Clélie, histoire romaine, is a product of the imagination. Yet, préciosité is a moment in the history of love. Précieuses were real women.

La Guirlande de Julie

One instance of précieux love is the fourteen-year courtship Julie d’Angennes FR (1607 – 15 novembre 1671), Madame de Rambouillet‘s daughter, imposed on the Charles de Saint-Maure, duc de Montausier. Here, however, one senses genuine apprehensions: pregnancy, childbirth, and infant mortality. On her 35th birthday, Montausier gave Julie the exquisite Guirlande de Julie[2] a collection of 62 madrigals,[3] but Julie made the Duke wait five more years. This is how “precious” and perhaps frightened she was. They married on 15 July 1645 and, although the Duc de Montausier was an honnête homme and a galant homme, he was un homme. Julie got pregnant and gave birth to a daughter.

Préciosité, as mocked in Molière’s Précieuses ridicules (1659), was short-lived. However, as noted above, préciosité or  disembodied love is a milestone in the history of love. It belongs to the querelle des femmes, the woman question. It therefore differs from chivalry and the Roman de la Rose, which promoted courtly love without rejecting sexual intimacy.

Madame de Rambouillet

Catherine de Vivonne, Marquise de Rambouillet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

La Chambre bleue d’Arthénice

Italian-born Catherine de Vivonne, Marquise de Rambouillet (1588 – 2 December 1665) opened the first salon: L’Hôtel de Rambouillet, rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre. Its Catherine de Vivonne called herself Arthénice, an anagram of Catherine. Hôtels were private residences (un hôtel particulier) and salon hostesses received once or twice a week. The hostess usually sat in bed and her guests were in a ruelle, literally and alley way, on a side of the bed. Madame de Rambouillet received in her blue room, la chambre bleue. Occasionally, salonniers and salonnières went on a picnic. That outing was called un cadeau, a gift. When the Marquise closed her salon, Madeleine de Scudéry (15 November 1607 – 2 June 1701) opened hers. Mademoiselle de Scudéry never married.

Fêtes galantes

Let us return to Watteau’s 18th-century Fêtes galantes, Jean-Antoine Watteau’s paintings depicting “courtship parties.” (See Fêtes galantes, Wikipedia).

In Fêtes galantes personal sentiment is masked by delicately clever evocations of scenes and characters from the Italian commedia dell’arte and from the sophisticated pastorals of 18th-century painters, such as Watteau and Nicolas Lancret, and perhaps also from the contemporary mood-evoking paintings of Adolphe Monticelli.[4]

Fêtes galantes are associated with the commedia dell’arte. Actors were, as in ‘to be,’ “masks.” As well, the sad clown is an archetype. Masquerade balls have survived. Balls go back to the ballet de cour. They are courtly and have a counterpart in festivals and carnavals.

The Laws of Gallantry

Charles Sorel, who was named the historiographer of France in 1635, wrote Les Loix de la galanterie, first published in 1644, but galants met and discussed the rules of gallantry.

We have several e-copies of Sorel’s Loix or lois de la galanterie. However, despite repeated attempts, I have not found a translation into English of Charles Sorel‘s (c. 1602 – 7 March 1674) Loix de la galanterie. I presume there is a translation, but it is not on the internet. In my next post, I will therefore provide not a translation, but a summary of Les Loix de la galanterie, using Ludovic Lalanne’s text.

Conclusion

The terms honnête homme and galant homme are no longer used, nor is the term gentilhomme. The honnête homme is now called a gentleman in both French and English. The word gallant has survived and is used to describe men who still open the door of a car to help a woman out or hold a heavy door when a fragile individual enters or leaves a building or are very polite. The term “grande dame” is used to describe particularly accomplished women, including women who had a salon.

Fêtes galantes now belong to the discourse on love refined or “galant,” but love as depicted in Watteau’s ethereal Fêtes galantes.

With kind regards to everyone. ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

____________________
[1]  Another version is housed at the Charlottenburg, in Berlin.
[2] Calligraphy by Nicolas Jaret. Paintings by Nicolas Robert.
[3]  A madrigal could be either a song and a poem.
[4] “Paul Verlaine”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 22 Apr. 2016 <http://www.britannica.com/biography/Verlaine-Paul>.

Jean-Léon_Gérôme_-_Duel_After_a_Masquerade_Ball

Duel after a Masquerade Ball by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

©  Micheline Walker
25 April 2016
WordPress

Molière’s Dom Juan

25 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by in Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, Literature, Music

≈ Comments Off on Molière’s Dom Juan

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don-juan-illustration-1938-1_jpg!Blog
Don Juán, illustration by Carlos Saenz de Tejada, 1938
(Photo credit: WikiArt.org)

I’ve been writing a chapter on Molière‘s enigmatic Dom Juan (1665), the same Don Juán as Tirso de Molina‘s (24 March 1579 – 12 March 1648) Burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra and Mozart‘s Don Giovanni (1587) composed on a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte.

A Dramma giocoso

Molière’s Dom Juan does not seem a comedy. It lacks a young couple trying to marry despite a heavy father’s objections. However, it borrows elements from the Italian commedia dell’arte. Molière’s Dom Juan has in fact been labelled a dramma giocoso, a playful or comic drama, blending tragic and comical elements, which violates the rules of 17th-century French drama.

For instance, Sganarelle is a descendant of Brighella, a zanni in the Italian commedia dell’arte. He and Dom Juan are nearly always together, which makes for an incongruous relationship: Dom Juan is the master and Sganarelle, the valet. Molière’s play is a Saturnalia.

The Characters and other Elements

Our main characters are Dom Juan and his valet, Sganarelle (Mozart’s Leporello), played by Molière when the play premièred on 15 February 1665.

Dom Juan is Done Elvire’s husband. She has left a convent to marry him, but he no longer wishes to be her husband. He wants to be “free.” Done Elvire’s brothers, Dom Carlos and Dom Alonse, must avenge Done Elvire: (point d’honneur, point of honour), but fail to do so. When Dom Carlos speaks to Done Juan (V. iii), the latter has become a faux dévot, a man who feigns devotion to serve earthly needs. It appears Molière is meditating his Tartuffe (1664).

The play also features two peasant girls, Charlotte and Mathurine, whom Dom Juan tries to “seduce.” He’s told Charlotte that he will marry her, but her fiancé, Pierrot, puts up a fight. Dom Juan has also told Mathurine that he will marry her. However, there is no successful seduction in Molière’s play, not even a kiss, except on Charlotte’s hand, that she describes as black. This scene is the “La ci darem la mano,” of Mozart’s Don Giovanni (see video below).

Molière’s play on Don Juán is singularly devoid of eroticism. His Dom Juan is compiling conquests, as does Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. However, the catalogo Dom Juan keeps is a metaphorical rather than literal catalogo. Yet, at the beginning of the play (I. i) Sganarelle tells Gusman, Done Elvire’s escort and servant, that Dom Juan is the very devil. He is a grand seigneur [lord] méchant homme, an aristocrat, but an evil man.

Don%20Giovanni2

Don%20Giovanni%201

Don Giovanni by Angela Buscemi
www.teatrodimessina.it
 (Photo credit: Google Images)

The Plot

In fact, other than the above-mentioned events the plot of Molière’s Dom Juan consists in a series of fruitless attempts to save Dom Juan from eternal damnation. The individuals begging Dom Juan to convert are Sganarelle (1), Dom Juan’s valet, Done Elvire (2), Dom Juan’s abandoned wife, and Dom Louis (3), Dom Juan’s father.

When Sganarelle warns his master, whom he calls a pèlerin, a pilgrim, that he may be punished, he is silenced immediately, not by an angry, but verbose or quiet Dom Juan. Sganarelle falls short of words and when his master will not speak, he collapses (III. i).

Noblesse oblige

Similarly, when Dom Louis, Dom Juan’s father, bemoans the fact that aristocracy is no longer as it was, Dom Juan listens, but does not hear. When Dom Louis is finished, Dom Juan simply invites him to sit down so he can speak more comfortably (IV. iv). In 1665, the noblesse oblige of earlier years has been replaced by self-interest.

Later (IV. vi), Done Elvire implores Dom Juan to mend his ways as God is about to strike. He lets her speak, but as she is leaving, he invites her to stay overnight. It is late. Done Elvire leaves. It is as though she had not spoken a word.

Dom Juan as faux dévot

At the beginning of act V, Dom Louis returns and praises his son who now feigns devotion. Dom Louis does not notice that Dom Juan is putting on an act. Moreover, it is as a faux dévot that Dom Juan dismisses Dom Carlos. He will not live with Done Elvire as man and wife, because it is God’s will (V. iii).

Retribution

However, Dom Juan has killed a Commandeur. There is a statue of the Commandeur with whom Dom Juan is to have dinner. At the appointed hour, the statue of the Commandeur takes him by the hand which causes the earth to move and engulf Dom Juan.

Conclusion

The above is an incomplete introduction to Molière’s Dom Juan, not to say le donjuanisme. I have left out the encounter with Francisque, a poor man, and uneven fight, &c. But this is a beginning.

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

Baryton Dmitri Hvorostovsky has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. He’s being treated in the best facilities, in London, England, but these are shattering news. He has a very rich voice. I hope he soon recovers.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky died on 22 November 2017.  May he rest in peace.

With kind regards to all of you. ♥ 

 

Don Giovanni, “La ci darem la mano”
Hvorostovsky & Fleming

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Dmitri Hvorostovsky

© Micheline Walker
24 February 2016
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A Glimpse at the Boutet de Monvel Dynasty

03 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by in Art Deco, Commedia dell'arte, Illustrations

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costumesparisiens_pour_st_moritz_1341_433

Pour St Moritz by George Barbier (Photo credit: Google Images)

I have been trying to understand the conflict in the Middle East, but had to pause because reports I read seemed to contradict one another.

It therefore occurred to me to send you an amusing post.

The Monvel are a dynasty. Bernard is the son of Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel (18 October 1850 – 16 March 1913), but he had cousins who where also illustrators and designers. George Barbier (1882–1932) was a first cousin who made illustrations for fashion magazines. He may be the better-known Boutet de Monvel. Pierre Brissaud (23 December 1885–1964) was also a first cousin.

However, the most sophisticated and wealthiest was Bernard Boutet de Monvel (9 August 1881 – 28 October 1949) who travelled back and forth between Paris and New York to decorate homes. He was enormously talented and elegant. Bernard was killed in the plane crash that also took the life of Ginette Neveu (11 August 1919 – 28 October 1949) and her brother, her accompanist. Ginette Neveu was one of the best violinists ever. World boxing champion Marcel Cerdan, Édith Piaf‘s partner at the time, was another victim of the crash.

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Bernard Boutet de Monvel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A  Golden Age of Illustration

France didn’t have a Golden Age of illustration, at least not for children’s literature. However, it had a golden age of fashion illustrators whose pochoirs (stencils) appeared on the cover of French magazines and other magazines, such as Vogue. Particularly famous was George Barbier who is associated mainly with La Gazette du bon ton. George Barbier and Pierre Brissaud were Bernard’s first cousins. All were illustrators, but none had the sophistication of Bernard Boutet de Monvel. Bernard was a work of art as a person and slightly précieux. His portrait of The Maharaja of Indore seems a reflection of Bernard Boutet de Monvel, the artist.

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The Maharaja of Indore by Bernard Boutet de Monvel, c. 1934 (Photo credit: Google Images)

Fashion and the Ballets Russes

In other words, France had its Golden Age of illustrators, but only Louis-Maurice, Bernard’s father, was mainly an illustrator of children’s literature, not his son nor his nephews, George Barbier and Pierre Brissaud. They illustrated fashion magazines and worked for the Ballets Russes, as did Pablo Picasso.

My posts on the Boutet de Monvel dynasty generated an interest in pochoirs. Reproductions are now available from various companies.

RELATED ARTICLES

Illustrating Fashion Magazines: Barbier & Colleagues (16 August 2014)
George Barbier’s Fêtes galantes (14 August 2014)
The Art of Maurice Boutet de Monvel (1 September 2012)
The Ballets Russes, Vaslav Nijinsky & George Barbier (27 July 2012)

 

With best wishes to all of you. ♥ 

art3720481

© Micheline Walker
3 January 2016
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George Barbier’s Fêtes galantes

13 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Art Deco, Commedia dell'arte, French Literature

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George Barbier

Cover by George Barbier (Photo credit: Wikimedia.org, all)

Pierrot et Arlequin, George Barbier

Pierrot and Harlequin by George Barbier

Art Deco

Jean-Gaspard Deburau
Charles Deburau (Jean-Gaspard’s son)
Jean-Louis Barrault
Pantomine and Mine
Les Enfants du Paradis 
 

A few weeks ago, I posted an article on “Leo Rauth’s fin de siècle Pierrot.” Leo Rauth died too young and under tragic circumstances. However, although Rauth‘s artwork predates George Barbier‘s (1882–1932), who is considered an Art Deco artist, both artists depicted commedia dell’arte stock characters: Pedrolino, or Pierrot formerly known as Gilles, and Harlequin (Arlecchino and Arlequin) and did so in “galant” fashion following in the footsteps of Jean-Antoine Watteau (10 October 1684 – 18 July 1721).

Pierrot is a major figure in France. He appears in the art of Antoine Watteau, a student of Claude Gillot (both eighteenth-century artists, middle and late). Pierrot then grows into Jean-Gaspard Deburau‘s Battiste, a role Charles Deburau, Jean-Gaspard’s son, inherited. Pierrot had entered the world of pantomime and mime.

These one-man performances were replacing entertainment by the large troupes of the commedia dell’arte and the Comédie-Italienne. Pierrot’s apotheosis is Baptiste, a role played by Jean-Louis Barrault in Les Enfants du Paradis, Paradise being distant and inexpensive seats or benches. Les Enfants du Paradis is a legendary film directed by Marcel Carné who used a text by Jacques Prévert.

Barbier as Fashion Illustrator

George Barbier: illustrator 
japonisme
Printmaking
“pochoirs” (stenciling)
engravings 
 

However, Leo Rauth differs from George Barbier. First, Barbier is considered an Art Deco artist. Second, he was a fashion illustrator at a time when haute couture was developing rapidly and the publishing industry sensed an opportunity it quickly seized. Moreover, japonisme, woodblock printing, would prove the technique of artists who needed copies of their work: posters, illustrations. Printmaking was not new to the western world. François Chauveau engraved the Carte de Tendre.

As you know, the fine arts diversified in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century due, to a large extent, to japonisme. Japanese prints flooded  Europe, France and England particularly. They were plentiful and therefore an inexpensive yet beautiful artwork. Illustrators needed such a tool.

Barbier, used pochoirs (stenciling)[I] that enabled him to make replicas of his designs, but many artists chose various forms of engraving. They made etchings (on copper usually), woodcuts (wood), linocuts (linoleum) or some other material.

Engraving is referred to as an intaglio technique. For instance, etchers trace their drawing into a “ground” applied to metal, they use acid to bite into the drawing. They then insert ink that flows into the engraved (etched) parts of the metal and, when pressed onto paper, only the engraved or etched parts of the pieces of metal, the image, will show on the paper. Artists and designers can also make reproductions of their work using lithography, silkscreens (stenciling) and pochoirs (also stenciling).

Chansons de France pour les petits enfants

Chansons de France pour les petits enfants Maurice B. de Monvel

The Boutet de Monvel Dynasty

Maurice Boutet de Monvel
his son: Bernard Boutet de Monvel
his nephews: George Barbier and Pierre Brissaud
 

George Barbier

George Barbier belonged to a dynasty. He was the nephew of Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel (1851– 1913) to whom we owe the Chansons de France pour les petits enfants, Jeanne d’Arc (online), illustrations of 22 Fables by Jean de La Fontaine  (online; see Sources and Resources).

Barbier was also a first cousin to, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, Maurice’s son as well as a first cousin to Maurice’s other nephew, Pierre Brissaud. All three were occasional designers and/or illustrators, or exclusively illustrators and designers.

Among a growing number of fashion magazines, the three cousins and numerous colleagues provided illustrations to La Gazette du Bon Ton, which was founded in 1912 by Lucien Vogel and was distributed by Condé Nast. Its American counterpart was La Gazette du Bon Genre, an Internet Archive publication (See Sources and Resources).

Barbier also designed theatre and ballet costumes. In fact, he helped Erté, Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990) design sets and costumes for the Folies Bergère. In French “R” is pronounced er and “T,” té = Erté. In fact, Barbier led a group nicknamed “The Knights of the Bracelet,” by Vogue.

The Plane Crash: 28 October 1949

Bernard was also an interior designer, a portraitist, and the last of the Paris dandies, a work of art in himself. He died as he lived, conspicuously. Bernard B. de Monvel was killed in the Air France Lockheed Constellation crash of 28 October 1949, in the Azores. Among the forty-eight victims were world-champion boxer Marcel Cerdan  (aged 33), Edith Piaf‘s lover, and virtuoso violinist Ginette Neveu (aged 30). Benard B. de Monvel was 68.

Conclusion

As I was going through my neglected email, I found an advertisement for this pochoir.

art deco table

“Original pochoir by Bagge Huguet from La Gazette du Bon Ton, a leading Art Deco revue in Paris in the 1920s, showcasing the latest fashion and design. The Art Deco period was a highpoint in French art. Leading artists included Georges Lepape, Georges [sic] Barbier, Edouard Garcia Benito, Erté, and others.”

But let us look at Barbier’s reading of Fêtes galantes. Les Années folles, or the Golden Twenties, were a reborn fête galante, à la Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby (1925) that dictated a degree of resemblance between Rauth and Barbier. However, people danced the Charleston, not the sensual tango a product of the 1890s.

RELATED ARTICLE

Sources and Resources

The Gallery

Harlequin, George Barbier

Harlequin by George Barbier

Harlequin, George Barbier

Harlequin by George Barbier

Harlequin, George Barbier
La Vénitienne, George Barbier
Harlequin, George Barbier

Harlequin by George Barbier (Photo credit: Tumbler)

 (Please click on the small images to enlarge them.)

Harlequin, George Barbier

Harlequin by George Barbier

Brighella & Pierrot, George Barbier

Brighella & Pierrot by George Barbier

images

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[I] “stenciling.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 12 Aug. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/565251/stenciling>.

Ginette Neveu plays Maurice Ravel‘s Tzigane

 
by-barbier-georges-sketch-proposal-for-the-ballet-carnival-russian-ballets-of-diaghilev-theatre-company© Micheline Walker 
12 August 2014
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