13 Thursday Feb 2020
Posted in Comédie-Ballet, Commedia dell'arte, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Molière
Polichinelle par Maurice Sand (Getty Images)
Dear Readers,
I was unwell and my computer was failing me. I asked a local technician and friend to buy a computer for me and to set it up. The former computer had not been repaired properly.
Polichinelle is a well-known character in the commedia dell’arte. He is Pulcinella.
Sincere apologies for the delay and love to everyone. We return to L’Étourdi, The Blunderer.
Polichinelle par Maurice Sand
© Micheline Walker
13 February 2020
WordPress
05 Wednesday Feb 2020
Posted in Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, Italy, Molière
Commedia dell’arte troupe I Gelosi in a late 16th-century Flemish painting (wiki2.org)
L’Étourdi (The Blunderer, or the Counterplots, c. 1653) is our next play by Molière. In fact, it is the last play we read, but although I wrote at least one post on every play, I have not always included dialogues. I will edit posts that require quotations. There will remain two short plays that are reflections on Molière’s use of the genre, by Molière and his troupe.
Once again, we have gradations within stock characters originating in the commedia dell’arte. Sbrigani, one of the zanni, is the very devil, but Mascarille, who helps Lélie, is a forgiving zanno.
Similarly, Molière’s plays feature excellent young lovers, such as the Bourgeois gentilhomme‘s Cléonte, but Lélie, L’Étourdi, spoils the work done by Mascarille. Like all the jaloux, he is his own worst enemy, but he is not a jaloux.
Lélie is a scatterbrain. Every time Mascarille succeeds in his attempts to help Lélie marry Célie, Lélie spoils the stratagem. Célie, a slave bought by Trufaldin, can be purchased, but the play features an anagnorisis, a recognition scene.
Isabella was a young lover.
Isabella par Maurice Sand (Wikipedia)
© Micheline Walker
5 February 2020
WordPress
31 Friday Jan 2020
Posted in Comédie-Ballet, Commedia dell'arte, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Molière
Tags
Aesthetics, Carnivalesque, Comédie-Ballet, commedia dell'arte, Harold C. Knutson, Jules Brody, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, pharmakos, pour rire, Tricksters
Zanni, oil painting after an engraving by Jacques Callot (Larousse)
Zanni, oil painting after an engraving by Jacques Callot (Vulgar Comedy)
MONSIEUR DE POURCEAUGNAC.
ORONTE.
JULIE, fille d’Oronte.
NÉRINE, femme d’intrigue (schemer).
LUCETTE, feinte (false) Gasconne.
ÉRASTE, amant de (in love with) Julie.
SBRIGANI, Napolitain, homme d’intrigue (schemer).
PREMIER MÉDECIN.
SECOND MÉDECIN.
L’APOTHICAIRE.
UN PAYSAN.
UNE PAYSANNE.
PREMIER MUSICIEN.
SECOND MUSICIEN.
PREMIER AVOCAT.
SECOND AVOCAT.
PREMIER SUISSE.
SECOND SUISSE.
UN EXEMPT.
DEUX ARCHERS.
PLUSIEURS MUSICIENS, JOUEURS D’INSTRUMENTS, ET DANSEURS.
La scène est à Paris
A scapegoat
I have already noted that Monsieur de Pourceaugnac seems a scapegoat, or pharmakós. which is not inconsistent with the role pharmakoi play in tragedies and comedies. Northrop Frye writes that the scapegoats, the pharmakós is “neither innocent nor guilty.”[1]
Aesthetically in the wrong
There is no reason why Monsieur de Pourceaugnac should be victimised in Paris, “this country,” or elsewhere. Arranged marriages were common in 17th-century France. Besides, had Julie found Monsieur de Pourceaugnac repulsive, he may not have married her. Monsieur de Pourceaugnac’s only problem is his name and/or looks, which has to do with aesthetics. Let us read Nérine:
S’il a envie de se marier, que ne prend-il une Limosine, et ne laisse-t-il en repos les chrétiens ? Le seul nom de Monsieur de Pourceaugnac m’a mis dans une colère effroyable. J’enrage de Monsieur de Pourceaugnac. Quand il n’y aurait que ce nom-là, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, j’y brûlerai mes livres, ou je romprai ce mariage, et vous ne serez point Madame de Pourceaugnac. Pourceaugnac ! Cela se peut-il souffrir ? Non, Pourceaugnac est une chose que je ne saurais supporter, et nous lui jouerons tant de pièces, nous lui ferons tant de niches sur niches, que nous renverrons à Limoges Monsieur de Pourceaugnac.
Nérine à Julie et Éraste (I. scène première)
[If he wishes to get married why does he not take a lady born at Limoges for a wife, instead of troubling decent Christians? The name alone of Monsieur de Pourceaugnac has put me in a frightful passion. I am in a rage about Monsieur de Pourceaugnac If it were nothing but his name, this Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, I would do everything to succeed in breaking off this marriage, rather than that you should be Madam de Pourceaugnac. Pourceaugnac! is it bearable? No, Pourceaugnac is something which I cannot tolerate; and we shall play him so many tricks, we shall practice so many jokes upon jokes upon him, that we shall soon send Monsieur de Pourceaugnac back to Limoges again.]
Nérine to Julie and Éraste (II. 3, p. 94)
In his analysis of Le Misanthrope and Dom Juan, Professor Jules Brody concluded that Alceste and Dom Juan were “aesthetically in the wrong, but morally in the right” or vice versa. I am paraphrasing Professor Brody.[2] Arranged marriages were relatively common in 17th-century France, so Monsieur de Pourceaugnac cannot be faulted for “buying” a bride who will be provided with a generous dowry.
We should also note that, in Scene Two, Julie is not ready to oppose her father’s choice of a groom beyond entering a convent.
Je le menacerais de me jeter dans un convent
Julie à Éraste (I. ii)
[I would threaten him to bury myself in a convent.]
Julie to Éraste (I. 4, p. 95)
Éraste requests greater proof of her love, but Julie tells him she must await the course of events before allowing further opposition.
Mon Dieu, Éraste, contentez-vous de ce que je fais maintenant, et n’allez point tenter sur l’avenir les résolutions de mon cœur; ne fatiguez point mon devoir par les propositions d’une fâcheuse extrémité dont peut-être n’aurons-nous pas besoin; et s’il y faut venir, souffrez au moins que j’y sois entraînée par la suite des choses.
Julie à Éraste (I. ii)
[Good Heavens! Eraste, content yourself with what I am doing now; and do not tempt the resolutions of my heart upon what may happen in the future; do not make my duty more painful with proposals of annoying rashness, of which, perhaps, we may not be in need; and if we are to come to it, let me, at least be driven to it by the turn of affairs.]
Julie to Éraste (I. 4, p. 96)
Julie is quite right. She has agreed to batteries and machines that will allow people, schemers, to promote her marriage to act, but no one was to go to far. However, it turns out measures taken to let her be Éraste’s wife are too drastic. When Sbrigani is done, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac will stand accused of bigamy and, unless a schemer saves him, Sbrigani, he may be hanged. In Oronte eyes, having abandoned Lucette, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac is a méchant homme. Upon learning that Pourceaugnac abandoned Lucette, Oronte, Julie’s father, cannot prevent himself from crying. What irony!
Je ne saurais m’empêcher de pleurer. Allez, vous êtes un méchant homme.
Oronte (II. vii)
[I cannot help crying. (To Monsieur de Pourceaugnac). Go, you are a wicked man.]
Oronte (II. 8, p. 123)
When Pourceaugnac is being led away Oronte suggests that Pourceaugnac be hanged:
Allez, vous ferez bien de le faire punir, et il mérite d’être pendu.
Oronte (II. viii)
[Come, you will do well to have him punished; and he deserves to be hanged.]
Oronte (II. 10, p. 125)
A comedy in reverse
Not only is Monsieur de Pourceaugnac humiliated because of his name, but Molière also rearranged the usual cast of comedies so that Monsieur de Pourceaugnac is treated like a tyrannical pater familias, Oronte’s role. As for the eirôn, the threatened lovers and their usual supporters: laquais, valet, suivante, confidante, an uncle or avuncular figure, such as Le Malade imaginaire’s Béralde, Argan’s brother, they are pitiless tricksters: Sbrigani and his crew who unleash uninterrupted attacks on an innocent man. The person who will marry his daughter to a man she may be attracted to or find repulsive, is Oronte. Oronte, therefore, is the blocking-character or alazṓn. However, the man who is left in the hands of doctors threatening enemas and other procedures, the man whose creditors will be repaid by Oronte, the bigamist or polygamist who should be hanged, is Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, Oronte’s prospective son-in-law. The first doctor claims Pourceaugnac as un meuble, his property. Moreover, we are in Paris, where the accused is hanged before the trial. The play is such a charivari, hullabaloo, that Julie, Éraste’s innamorata, finds Monsieur de Pourceaugnac attractive and follows him as he is led out of “this country,” which is seen as an enlèvement, by Oronte.
Ah ! Monsieur, ce perfide de Limosin, ce traître de Monsieur de Pourceaugnac vous enlève votre fille.
Sbrigani à Oronte (III. vi)
[Ah, Sir! this perfidious Limousin, this wretch of a Monsieur de Pourceaugnac abducts your daughter!]
Sbrigani à Oronte (III. 8, p. 133)
She who would not be forced into a marriage, must marry Éraste, whom, she suspects, created all these pièces, comedies:
Ce sont sans doute des pièces qu’on lui fait, et c’est peut-être lui [Éraste] qui a trouvé cet artifice pour vous en dégoûter.
Julie à Oronte (III. vii)
[They are, no doubt, tricks which have been played upon him, and (Pointing to Eraste) it is perhaps he who invented this artifice to disgust you with him.]
Julie to Oronte and Éraste (III. ix, p. 135)
An on-stage dramatist
Yes and no. Éraste did not oppose Sbrigani’s unacceptable tricks. Monsieur de Pourceaugnac is not a théâtre dans le théâtre, but one could suggest that the dramatist is on stage and the play abundantly self-referential:
Je conduis de l’œil toutes choses, et tout ceci ne va pas mal. Nous fatiguerons tant notre provincial, qu’il faudra, ma foi, qu’il déguerpisse.
Sbrigani (II. vii)
[I am managing these things very nicely, and everything goes well as yet. We shall tire our provincial to such an extent that upon my word, he will be obliged to decamp.]
Sbrigani (II. 11, p. 125)
Julie knows about Éraste’s involvement in and provides a redressing of the comedy. She is the dutiful daughter who takes the husband her father chose for her:
They are no doubt tricks which have been played upon him, and (Pointing to Eraste) it is perhaps he who invented this artifice to disgust you with him.
Julie to Oronte (III. 9, p. 135)
Pour rire / for the fun of it
Although Monsieur de Pourceaugnac is cruel and machiavellian, it is for the main part an “all’s well that ends well.” But there are gradations within comedy. Monsieur de Pourceaugnac is a pour rire: for laughs, concocted one of the best among zanni: Sbrigani. In Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, wit prevails, and wit is ruthless. It is carnivalesque. My thesis director, Dr Harold C. Knutson, wrote a book entitled: The Triumph of Wit: Molière and Restoration Comedy. I could not end on a better note.[3]
RELATED ARTICLES
Sources and Resources
_____________________
[1] Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973 [1957]), p. 41.
[2] Brody, Jules. “Dom Juan and Le Misanthrope, or the Esthetics of Individualism in Molière, ” PMLA, 84, 1969.
[3] Knutson, Harold C. The Triumph of Wit: Molière and Restoration Comedy, Ohio State University Pres, 1988)
Love to everyone 💕
Sincere apologies for rebuilding my post. In theory, this computer was repaired, but it wasn’t. A friend and technician will take me to a store. We will buy the computer and he will set it up.
Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (see Pourceaugnac 2)
© Micheline Walker
31 January 2020
WordPress
01 Sunday Sep 2019
Posted in Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, Fêtes galantes
Tags
Apuleius, commedia dell'arte, Così van tutte, Fêtes galantes, Figaro, Molière, Mozart, Psyché, Tragédie-ballet, zanni
I wish to thank all of you for the comments you have written. The invitation to rate my posts is proof that people are reading my posts, including moliéristes. It’s a forum, not an arena.
As you know, I was ready to write my book during a forthcoming sabbatical, but I was assigned the preparation of new courses, one of which was Animals in Literature. It took away my sabbatical. I’m not writing my book online, but I am reading Molière and sharing this endeavour with my WordPress colleagues.
I realize that students can get information from my posts and other online sources. That’s fine. They may quote me, acknowledging their source, and posts can be republished. If writing my book proves impossible, I will nevertheless have discussed Molière publicly for a brief period of time and in a manner that introduces Molière to the general public. Quoting Molière in French and English is time consuming, but it is an imperative.
Crispin et Scapin par Honoré Daumier, 1865 (WikiArt.org)
Comedy Scene from Molière by Honoré Daumier (WikiArt.org)
My Pléiade edition of Molière was published in 1956. It is an old edition that does not contain the lines where Scapin tells Argante that he himself, Argante, will not break Octave’s marriage because he loves his son. However, these lines are part of the editor’s Notes et Variantes. Occasionally, Molière recycled parts of his comedies. These were his. The conversation I quoted is all but repeated in Le Malade imaginaire. The editors of the 1682 edition of the complete works of Molière excluded that part of the conversation. But the Molière 21‘s editors of the Pléiade 2010 edition have re-entered the relevant dialogue in the latest Pléiade edition, which we are using.
In Les Fourberies de Scapin, Molière juxtaposed the power of fathers and a father’s love. This juxtaposition is essential to an understanding of the play. Molière knew that there were forced marriages. Octave barely believes that his father will let him marry Géronte’s daughter Hyacinte. So, Molière also knew that fathers loved their sons and that this love was more powerful than tradition: parents choosing their children’s spouse. Molière used a subtle path, a kind destiny. Our fathers, Argante and Géronte, had chosen to marry their sons to the women their sons love, one of whom, Octave, has already married Hyacinte.
Scapin is a zanni, a valet in the service of Octave and, by the same token, in the service of the innamorati, the young couple(s). In the eighteenth century zanni became more daring. Beaumarchais wrote the Figaro Trilogy. His Marriage of Figaro would inspire Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was transformed into a beloved opera: Le nozze di Figaro (K. 492, 1786). As well, Antoine Watteau painted ethereal fêtes galantes that are inextricably associated to the commedia dell’arte. Pierrot emerges: the sad clown.
More importantly, how does one cease discussing love? Love is une constante. Le Roman de la Rose was an apex in the treatment of courtly love. The eighteenth century also brought Marivaux. His play, Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard, was performed by the Comédie-Italienne, on 23 January 1730. We need also mention Mozart/Da Ponte’s Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (K. 588, 1790), a charming love story. It is rooted in the Decameron.
Cupid and Psyche by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (Wikipedia)
Our next play is Molière’s Psyché, which he wrote in collaboration with the legendary Pierre Corneille. It is a tragi-comédie in verse and a tragédie-ballet. Its composer is Jean-Baptiste Lully and its choreographer, Pierre Beauchamp. Psyché was first performed at the Théâtre des Tuileries, on 17 January 1671.
I wrote posts on 2nd century Apuleius’ Golden Ass. It contains the Tale of Cupid and Psyche, a “digression.” Apuleius had read Ovid’s (20 March 43 BCE – 17/18 CE) Metamorphoses, an extremely influential work. Transformations have long fascinated human beings. Icarus wanted to fly. In 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson published The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and, in 1915, Franz Kafka published The Metamorphosis. We do have the loup garou (the werewolf).
Psyche is a mythical figure.
RELATED ARTICLES
Love to everyone 💕
Soave sia il vento (May the wind blow gently…)
Susan Chilcott (Fiordiligi) & Susan Graham (Dorabella)
Mozart Così fan tutte
Pierrot with Guitar by Honoré Daumier, 1869 (WikiArt.org)
© Micheline Walker
1 September 2019
WordPress
02 Saturday Mar 2019
Posted in Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, Literature, Music
Tags
Brighella, commedia dell'arte, Dom Juan, Dramma giocoso, Faux-dévot, Molière, Noblesse oblige, Sganarelle
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.
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.
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 Giovanni by Angela Buscemi
www.teatrodimessina.it
(Photo credit: Google Images)
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).
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.
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).
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.
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. ♥
—ooo—
Don Giovanni, “La ci darem la mano”
Hvorostovsky & Fleming
© Micheline Walker
24 February 2016
WordPress
11 Saturday Nov 2017
Posted in Art, Comedy, Commedia dell'arte
Tags
Columbina, commedia dell'arte, Harlequin, jealousy, Kasyan Yaroslavovitch, La Princesse de Clèves, Pierrot, stock characters, the sad clown, zanni
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.
Harlequin by George Barbier (Photo credit: Tumbler)
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]
Commedia dell’arte troupe, probably depicting Isabella Andreini and the Compagnia dei Gelosi, oil … CFL—Giraudon/Art Resource, New York (Photo credit: Britannica)
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
____________________
[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
20 Sunday Nov 2016
Posted in Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, Molière
Tags
Aulularia, commedia dell'arte, George Sand, L'Avare, Maurice Sand, Miles gloriosus, Molière, Pantalone, Plautus, The Miser
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 (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 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).
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).
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 ♥
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Molière
The Commedia dell’Arte
Sources and Resources
François Couperin 2/3, Airs, Gillot/Watteau
The Italian Comedians by Watteau, 1721 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
© Micheline Walker
20 November 2016
WordPress
20 Friday May 2016
Posted in Ballet, Commedia dell'arte, Molière
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 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
Scapin by Edmond Geffroy
© Micheline Walker
20 May 2016
WordPress
08 Sunday May 2016
Posted in Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, France, French Literature, Italy, Molière
Tags
archetypes, Atellane farces, Attic Comedy, commedia dell'arte, La Farce de Maître Pathelin, Le Malade imaginaire, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Molière
Molière and Pierre Corneille or A Collaboration by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Wikiart.org.)
Le Misanthrope
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 used prose instead of verses (12-syllable alexandrins). Molière wrote both farces and “grandes comédies.” Grandes comédies 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 old 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 functions, 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).
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]).
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 Molière 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, briefly. 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 17 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.
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.
La Farce de Maître Pathelin, court scene (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
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, Wikipedia).
Molière’s plays have been divided into farces and “grandes comédies.” Grandes comédies consisted of five acts written in verse. Verses containing 12 syllables, or pieds, were known as “alexandrins.” However, Molière also used mixed verse and blended comedic plot formulas.
So comedy is varied and Molière wrote comédies-ballets, comédies galantes, comédies héroïques, pastorals, etc. Advances in Molière scholarship show diversity. Molière’s plays were set to music by Jean-Baptiste Lully, but Marc-Antoine Charpentier was also a collaborator. He composed the music to Le Malade imaginaire.
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.
Les Farceurs, French and Italian (1670)
Molière did not write in a void. He was influenced by comedy as a genre and it’s traditions. But they also reflect the institutions, ideologies, esthetics, beliefs and goals of his age: salons, préciosité, l’honnête homme, le galant homme, casuistry, Jansenism.
My book, if there is a book, will show Molière “en son siècle,” but also everyman’s Molière.
Love to everyone. ♥
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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
WordPress
25 Thursday Feb 2016
Posted in Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, Literature, Music
≈ Comments Off on Molière’s Dom Juan
Tags
Brighella, commedia dell'arte, Dom Juan, Dramma giocoso, Faux-dévot, Molière, Noblesse oblige, Sganarelle
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.
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.
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 Giovanni by Angela Buscemi
www.teatrodimessina.it
(Photo credit: Google Images)
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).
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.
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).
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.
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.
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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. ♥
Love to everyone 💕
Don Giovanni, “La ci darem la mano”
Hvorostovsky & Fleming
Dmitri Hvorostovsky
© Micheline Walker
24 February 2016
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