Destiny in l’École des femmes

01 Sunday Nov 2020

Posted by michelinewalker in Molière, Theatre

Tags

Destiny, Jansenism, L'École des femmes, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard, Molière, Pierre Marivaux

c80b548e901709e78f908a2821692c31 — ***La Critique de l’École des femmes*** François Boucher & Laurent Cars

“D’après nature”

In Le Tartuffe, Molière depicted his faux dévot “d’après nature.” However, the play was banned because Tartuffe, who feigned devotion, acted very much like a devout person, which offended the dévots of Paris: la Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement.

As for L’École des femmes, it was criticized because of details mainly. For instance, one person found the manner Arnolphe questions Agnès rather crude. Arnolphe wants to know if Horace took anything from her other than her hands and arms, which he caressed. She hesitates to tell that he took the ribbon Arnolphe had given her. She says “le” and this “le” was obscene according to Climène, a précieuse.

“Ah ! ruban, tant qu’il vous plaira ; mais ce, le, où elle s’arrête, n’est pas mis pour des prunes. Il vient sur ce, le, d’étranges pensées. Ce, le, scandalise furieusement ; et quoi que vous puissiez dire, vous ne sauriez défendre l’insolence de ce, le.”
Climène (I, 3) La Critique de l’École des femmes
[Oh yes, the ribbon! But that “the,” when she checks herself, is not put there for nothing. Odd ideas are suggested by this “the.” That the is tremendously scandalous.]

The “le” (the) was not only offensive, but it was not there for nothing: “pour des prunes[.]”
“Il y a une obscénité qui n’est pas supportable.”
Climène (I, 3) La Critique de l’École des femmes
[Its obscenity is unbearable.]
Climène (I. 3)

“Les récits eux-mêmes y sont des actions suivant la constitution du sujet.”
Dorante (I, 6) La Critique de l’École des femmes
[There is a good deal of action in it, passing on the stage; the narratives are themselves actions, according to the constitution of the piece, …]
Dorante (I, 7) The School for Wives Criticized

These were indeed part of the action because Arnolphe could not tell anyone, not even Chrysalde, the play’s raisonneur, about the “star […] bent on driving [him] to despair” (The School for Wives, p. 21). Arnolphe was a star-crossed barbon.

The Dramatic Action

In L’École des femmes, the dramatic action is triggered by a doubling of the identity of the blocking character. Horace, our young lover, does not know that Arnolphe, his father’s friend, is Monsieur de la Souche and that in confiding to Arnolphe, he is in fact confiding to his rival. When Arnolphe learns that young Horace has fallen in love with Agnès who is kept sequestered by a very jealous Monsieur de la Souche, he must conceal his grief and bewilderment. He speaks to himself and, if he didn’t, there would be gaps in the dramatic action. There has to be a dialogue, which there is.

“Oh ! que j’ai souffert durant cet entretien !
Jamais trouble d’esprit ne fut égal au mien.
Avec quelle imprudence et quelle hâte extrême
Il m’est venu conter cette affaire à moi-même !”
Arnolphe (I, 4, v. 357-360) L’École des femmes
[Oh, what I have endured during this conversation! Never was trouble of mind equal to mine! With what rashness and extreme haste did he come to tell me of this affair!]
The School for Wives, p. 9.

Destiny

Destiny plays a key role in L’École des femmes and Arnolphe blames destiny throughout the play:

“Éloignement fatal ! Voyage malheureux !”
Arnolphe (II, 1, v. 385) L’École des femmes
[Fatal absence! Unfortunate voyage!]
The School for Wives, p. 9.

In scene IV, 7 Arnolphe speaks about the above-mentioned “star which is bent on driving [him] to despair,” and remains defiant.

“Quoi ? l’astre qui s’obstine à me désespérer,
Ne me donnera pas le temps de respirer,
Coup sur coup je verrai par leur intelligence,
De mes soins vigilants confondre la prudence,
D’une jeune innocente, et d’un jeune éventé ?”
Arnolphe (IV, 7, v. 1182-1186) p. 56
[What, will the star which is bent on driving me to despair allow me no time to breathe? Am I to see, through their mutual understanding, my watchful care and my wisdom defeated one after another? Must I, in my mature age, become the dupe of a simple girl and a scatter−brained young fellow?]
The School for Wives, p. 21.

Destiny is so cruel to Arnolphe that it brings in a “real” father. When Enrique, Agnès’ biological father, arrives, Agnès ceases to be Arnolphe’s ward, which she has been for 13 years. Arnolphe is so perturbed that, having expressed himself quite fluently in several soliloquies and asides, he suddenly loses his ability to speak. In an aparté, Chrysalde tells Arnolphe, who is returning to his house, that, given his fear of cuckolding, it is best for him not to marry. Arnolphe is indeed spared cuckolding, but he has been crushed by destiny.

Life as a game of dice: “un jeu de dés”

Destiny is so powerful that in Act IV, Scene 8, Chrysalde, the raisonneur himself, suggests that all Arnolphe can do, if betrayed by “cursed fate,” is to select an appropriate response to this “accident.” Destiny is an indomitable force that can strike anyone at any time. In fact, Chrysalde tells Arnolphe that cocuage is what one makes of it: “Le cocuage n’est que ce que l’on le fait.” (Chrysalde, IV, 8, v. 1285). Destiny (le sort) gives men a wife and life is a jeu de dés, a game of dice. One corrects such accidents as cocuage though “good management,” une bonne conduite:

“Quoi qu’on en puisse dire, enfin, le cocuage
Sous des traits moins affreux aisément s’envisage;
Et, comme je vous le dis, toute l’habileté
Ne va qu’à le savoir tourner du bon côté.”
Chrysalde (IV, 8, v. 1270-1273) L’École des femmes
[In short, say what you will, cuckolding may easily be made to seem less terrible; and, as I told you before, all your dexterity lies in being able to turn the best side outwards.]
The School for wives, p. 22.

“Mais comme c’est le sort qui nous donne une femme,
Je dis que l’on doit faire ainsi qu’au jeu de dés,
Il faut jouer d’adresse et d’une âme réduite,
Corriger le hasard par la bonne conduite.”
Chrysalde (IV, 8, v. 1282-1285) L’École des femmes
[But as fortune gives us a wife, I say that we should act as we do when we gamble with dice, when, if you do not get what you want, you must be shrewd and good−tempered, to amend your luck by good management.]
The School for wives, p. 22.

Given the power he associates with destiny, Arnolphe’s obsessive fear of cuckolding is in his nature. This immutability of nature is a premise in Molière. Arnolphe is as he is and Agnès is as she is. For instance, she can tell Horace that she is kept by a very jealous man. Agnès may be an ignorant girl, but she knows about jealousy. She also knows about the game of dice.

Agnès and Horace

In L’École des femmes, the laws of comedy are pushed to an extreme. After Agnès escapes Monsieur de la Souche, which could be the resolution of the play, Horace asks Arnolphe to house and guard Agnès so her reputation is protected.

Moreover, it is barely credible that Agnès’ biological father should arrive the moment his daughter is being led away by Arnolphe. It is also barely credible that Agnès should have fallen in love with the young man her father wanted her to marry. Molière doubles the father figure: Monsieur de la Souche and Enrique, who has decided his daughter would marry Horace. Were it not for Chrysalde’s intervention, and the power of destiny, Horace’s marriage may have been a mariage

“(…) Si son cœur a quelque répugnance.
Je tiens qu’on ne doit pas lui faire résistance.”
Chrysalde (V, 7, v. 1684-1686) L’École des femmes
[If it is repugnant to him, I think we ought not to force him. I think my brother will be of my mind.]
The School for Wives, p. 28.

“Le hasard [chance] en ces lieux avait exécuté
Ce que votre sagesse avait prémédité.”
Horace (V, 9, v. 1764-1765) L’École des femmes
[Accident has done here what your wisdom intended.]
The School for Wives, p. 29.

Such words as “hasard” (chance) and “le Ciel,” (heaven) reveal a view of the world according to which destiny controls mankind. L’École des femmes may therefore reflect Jansenism, but the word Jansenism is not used.

“Allons dans la maison débrouiller ces mystères,
Payer à notre ami ses soins officieux,
Et rendre grâce au Ciel qui fait tout pour le mieux.”
Chrysalde (V, 9, v. 1775 -1765) L’École des femmes
[Let us go inside, and clear up these mysteries. Let us shew our friend some return for his great pains, and thank Heaven, which orders all for the best.]
The School for Wives, p. 29.

**Lecture de Molière** par Jean-François de Troy

Conclusion

In 1662, the Church of France opposed Jesuits, who at the time used casuistry,[2] and Jansenists, who believed in predestination. Port-Royal (Jansenism) is an indelible page of French history and it inspired Blaise Pascal‘s masterful Lettres provinciales, a brillant attack of casuistry. Pascal’s last Lettre provinciale was written in 1657.

In Tartuffe, there is a reference to casuistry. Tartuffe knows how to “pacify scruples:”

“Je sais l’art de lever [to lift] des scrupules.”
Tartuffe (IV, 4, v. 1486)
[I know the art of pacifying scruples.]
Tartuffe

However, Molière does not associate L’École des femmes with an ideology. We know that Molière borrowed his subject matter from Paul Scarron‘s translation of a Spanish novella by Doña Maria de Zayas y Sotomayor, which Scarron entitled La Précaution inutile. We also know that L’École des femmes has Italian antecedents. It could be, therefore, that ancestors to L’École des femmes gave destiny an important role. Yet, it seems unlikely that they gave destiny as decisive a role as Molière did.

Jansenists maintained that only those whom God had chosen would be saved. This notion was referred to as the theory of predestination, a theory associated with Saint Augustine, or Augustine of Hippo (13 November 354 CE – 28 August 430 CE).

Molière did not have to refer to an ideology when writing L’École des femmes. He did not need to. Comedy promotes the success of the young lovers. Yet seldom has destiny countered a barbon‘s wishes as imperatively. Dismissing predestination is somewhat difficult because of the central role given soliloquies. Arnolphe must hide from Horace that he is Monsieur de la Souche, until Chrysalde says:

“(…) Ce nom l’aigrit ;
C’est Monsieur de la Souche, on vous l’a déjà dit.”
Chrysalde (V, 7, v. 1712-1703)
[That name annoys him. He is Monsieur de la Souche, as you were told before.]
The School for Wives, p. 28.

As noted above, in L’École des femmes, life is compared to a jeu de dés [dice]. Gambling is also invoked by Agnès herself.

“Mon Dieu, ne gagez pas, vous perdriez vraiment.”
Agnès (II, 5, v. 474) [3]
[Oh, Heaven, do not bet; you would assuredly lose.]
The School for wives, p.10.

However, I will not conclude that L’École des femmes reflects Jansenism, except marginally. The laws of comedy promote the marriage of the young lovers and farces do not tolerate boasting. Moreover, jealousy is a topos, a lieu commun.

But I will note that Molière’s L’École des femmes seems a prelude to Marivaux‘ exquisite comedies. It is a “jeu de l’amour et du hasard,” a “Game of love and chance,” without Watteau‘s ethereal Fêtes galantes.

Love to everyone 💕

RELATED ARTICLES

L’École des femmes, part one (29 May 2016)
L’École des femmes, part two (2 June 2016)
Molière’s Tartuffe, a reading (17 May 2016)
Jesuits & Jansenists (2 April 2015)
Pascal’s “Provincial Letters” (27 March 2015)
Jansenism: a Church Divided (24 March 2015)
Casuistry, or how to sin without sinning (25 March 2012)

Sources and Resources

L’École des femmes is a Molière 21 publication FR
La Critique de l’École des femmes is a Molière 21 publication FR
The School for Wives is an e-text (UK) EN
The School for Wives Criticized is an Internet Archive publication EN

_________________________

[1] Gabriel Conesa, Le Dialogue moliéresque (Paris: SEDES-CDU, 1992), p. 30.[2] Roxanne Lalande, “L’École des femmes: matrimony and the laws of chance,” in David Bradby and Andrew Calder (editors), The Cambridge Companion to Molière (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 165-176.
[3] “casuistry”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia
_________________________
Bourbeau-Walker, Micheline. « L’échec d’Arnolphe : loi du genre ou faille intérieure », in Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, (Seattle-Tübingen, 1984, Vol. XI, N^o 20), pp. 79-92.

“Me voilà hors du naufrage”
Charles Tessier, Carnets de Voyages
Claire Lefilliâtre, Le Poème Harmonique.

N^o 62 (Page on Molière)

From “Ballet de Cour” to “Comédie-Ballet”

10 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by michelinewalker in Ballet, France, Grotesque, Italy, Theatre, Wars of Religion

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Académie Royale de Musique, Ballet comique de la Reine, Ballet de Cour, Ballet de la Merlaison, Comédie-Ballet, Daniel Rabel, grotesque, Le Roi danse, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Lully, Molière

Wedding_ball_of_the_Duc_de_Joyeuse,_1581 Wedding of Anne de Joyeuse with Marguerite de Vaudémont, 24 September 1581 in Le Louvre. On the left under the dai are Henri III, Catherine de Médicis, and Queen Louise. French school 1581-1582. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Le Ballet comique de la Reine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Molière (15 January 1622 – 17 February 1673), born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, spent several years performing outside Paris. His first troupe, l’Illustre Théâtre, established in 1643, went bankrupt and, in 1645, Molière was imprisoned. He had to leave for the provinces.

Les Précieuses ridicules, a one-act play which premièred on 18 November 1659, was Molière’s first Parisian success and he would produce several other plays, about thirty-four, eleven of which were comédies-ballets, ten with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and one, with music by Charpentier. However, preceding the comédie-ballet, was the ballet de cour.

The Ballet de Cour

Circé ou le Balet comique de la Royne (1581)

The first ballet, a ballet de cour, was Circé ou le Balet comique de la Royne (1581). It was commissioned by Catherine de’ Medici, and choreographed by Balthasar Beaujoyeulx, or Baldassarre da Belgioioso. As we have seen frequently, the Renaissance began in Italy and, consequently, many ‘French’ institutions find their origin in Italy. Dissemination was often due to marriages.

The Ballet comique de la Reine was performed on 15 October 1581 at the court of Catherine de’ Medici. It was part of the wedding celebration of the Duc de Joyeuse‘s, a court ‘mignon,’ a dandy, marriage to Queen Louise’s sister, Marguerite of Lorraine). The text of the ballet was written by Nicolas Filleul de la Chesnayne. Girard de Beaulieu wrote the music.

The Ballet comique de la Reine was created for the wedding celebration of Queen Louise’s sister, who married le Duc de Joyeuse (1561 – 1687), a court ‘mignon,’ a dandy. The text was by Nicolas Filleul de la Chesnayne. Girard de Beaulieu wrote the music. And, as noted above, Beaujoyeux, or Belgioioso, was its choreographer.

Louise was married to Henri III of France, a son a Henri II and Catherine de’ Medici, who was assassinated by Jacques Clément, a Catholic fanatic. As for Anne de Joyeuse (1561 – 1687), he perished at the hands of French Calvinist Protestants, called Huguenots, 800 of whom he had slaughtered. In fact, the French wars of religion are the backdrop to the creation of the ballet de cour.

sans-titre

“Les Fées de la forêt de Saint-Germain” (First performed in February 1625)
“Entrée des Esperlucates ”
“Grand Ballet de la douairière de Billebahaut” (First performed in February 1626)

Daniel Rabel: the “grotesque” in the ballet de cour

Daniel Rabel
the grotesque

Daniel Rabel (1578 – 3 January 1637) was a man of many talents. Wikipedia describes Rabel as “a Renaissance French painter, engraver, miniaturist, botanist and natural history illustrator.” As a painter, Rabel produced grotesque depictions of ballet, but beginning in 1617 until his death in 1637, Rabel was a set designer for theatres and for ballets de cour.

In our context the term grotesque (from grotto) is not pejorative. The ‘grotesque’ is an aesthetics as is the ‘baroque.’ Medieval gargoyles and misericords are acceptably ‘grotesques.’ Beverly Minster, a 12th-century cathedral, has a fine collection of grotesque misericords. In the 19th century, Hugo would revive the grotesque. His 1831 novel, Notre-Dame de Paris features Quasimodo, a hunchback. The “grotesque” is associated with the Middle Ages and the 19th century.

Le Roi danse

“Les Fées de la forêt de Saint-Germain” was danced at the Louvre in February 1625, with Louis XIII himself in the role of a “valiant fighter.” (See Daniel Rabel, Wikipedia.) Louis XIII also danced in the ballet he composed, the Ballet de la Merlaison.

Louis XIII and his brother, Gaston d’Orléans, danced in the Ballet du Sérieux et du Grotesque. Louis XIV was also a dancer. On 23 February 1653, Louis XIV danced in the Ballet de la Nuit, at the Petit-Bourbon, a theater.

Louis XIV

Louis XIII’s Le Ballet de la Merlaison

You may remember that Louis XIII, the Sun-King’s father, wrote the Ballet de la Merlaison. Louis XIII was a composer and he composed a ballet. Consequently, the creation of ballet is associated with both Louis XIII and his son, Louis XIV. However, Louis XIII’s Ballet de la Merlaison is a ballet de cour as had been Circé ou le Balet Comique de la Royne. As noted above, Louis XIII performed in the ballet he composed.

Other ballets de cour were performed before 1661, when Molière created Les Fâcheux, (the Bores), to music by Lully. King Louis XIII, the Sun-King’s father (Louis XIV), was a composer and, as noted above, he played a role in “Les Fées de la forêt de Saint-Germain.” Louis XIII composed the Ballet de la Merlaison, a ballet de cour.

Maurice_Leloir_-_Le_ballet_de_la_Merlaison

Le Ballet de la Merlaison by Maurice Leloir, in Dumas père’s The Three Musketeers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Comédie-ballet

Le Bourgeois gentilhomme: comédie ballet and “play-within-a-play”
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Molière

For a long time, little attention was given Molière’s contribution to ballet, and my book, if ever it is published, will not improve matters as I will discuss only one comédie-ballet: George Dandin (1668). However, one cannot ignore Le Bourgeois gentihomme (14 November 1670), where the ballet is both entertainment and a play-within-a play. Monsieur Jourdain is deceived into marrying his daughter Lucile to Cléonte who has disguised himself into the son of the Mufti, le grand Turc. This is a case of comedy rescuing comedy.

Molière wrote the text of his comédies-ballets, and the text may be read independently of the divertissements, for which he also wrote the text. However, these ballets inject laughter into Molière’s comedies several of which are somber works. The ballets are, to a large extent, part of the comic text.

Except for The Imaginary Invalid (1673), the music of Molière’s comédies-ballets was composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully, born Giovanni Battista Lulli. Pierre Beauchamp (30 October 1631 – February 1705) was Molière’s choreographer.

All three, Molière (playwright), Lully (composer and dancer) and Pierre Beauchamp (choreographer), are major figures in their respective profession and Molière’s comédie-ballet a significant step in the creation of ballet. Lully was named director of Académie Royale de Musique in 1669 and worked with Philippe Quinault, his librettist. The Académie Royale de Musique developed into the Paris Opéra and the smaller Opéra Garnier. Since 1989, performances have been held at the 2700-seat theatre Opéra Bastille.

L’Opéra Garnier

L’Opéra Garnier, Le Grand Foyer

Comédie-ballet and le style galant

Voltaire’s La Princesse de Navarre (1745), the last comédie-ballet
Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Les Indes galantes (1735)
André Campra‘s L’Europe galante (1697)

Several ballets de cour and the related comédies-ballets were staged. It would seem that Voltaire La Princesse de Navarre (1745) is that last comédie-ballet. It was performed to music by Jean-Philippe Rameau (25 September 1683 – 12 September 1764). (See Comédie-ballet, Wikipedia.)

A few years earlier, Rameau had composed Les Indes galantes with libretto by Louis Fuzelier. It was performed by the Académie Royale de Musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal, in Paris, on 23 August 1735. The ‘style galant’ had entered comédie-ballet heralded by André Campra‘s L’Europe galante, written to a text by Antoine Houdar de la Motte on 24 October 1697. It was an opéra-ballet, which we are not discussing, not a comédie-ballet.

We close with Rameau’s Les Indes galantes, which was not an opera but a turning-point in the history of ballet in the galant style. Specialists were now developing ballet.