• Aboriginals in North America
  • Beast Literature
  • Canadiana.1
  • Dances & Music
  • Europe: Ukraine & Russia
  • Fables and Fairy Tales
  • Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
  • Feasts & Liturgy
  • Great Books Online
  • La Princesse de Clèves
  • Middle East
  • Molière
  • Nominations
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • Posts on the United States
  • The Art and Music of Russia
  • The French Revolution & Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Voyageurs Posts
  • Canadiana.2

Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: Pierre Beauchamp

Molière’s “La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas”

06 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by michelinewalker in Comédie-Ballet, Molière

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Comédie-Ballet, jealousy, Le Ballet des ballets, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Monsieur Thibaudier, Pierre Beauchamp, Rank, self-interest, Théâtre dans le théâtre, Théophraste

La comtesse d'Escarbagnas par Ed. Héd.

La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas par Edmond Hédouin (theatre-documentation. com)

La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas, a short play in prose, was written as part of the celebrations that took place when Louis-Philippe, duc d’Orléans, Monsieur, Louis XIV’s only brother, married a German princess, la princesse Palatine, his second wife. Louis-Philippe lost his first wife, Henriette d’Angleterre, on 30 June 1670. She was 26 years old.

Molière’s La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas was first performed in February 1672 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where royal divertissements often took place. (See toumoliere.net) Its first public performance took place on 8 July 1672 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. The play’s source is Greek author Theophrastus (Characters), who is also one of Molière’s sources for Les Fâcheux. Théophraste wrote portraits.

Ballet_ballet_front

The date shown in this image is inaccurate. It should read February 1672. (toumoliere.net)

Le Ballet des ballets

The nine scenes of our current play were to constitute a one-act comedy of manners, followed by a pastorale, now lost, and an intermède from Psyché. The divertissement would therefore be a comédie-ballet entitled Le Ballet des ballets. It was written by Molière, composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and choreographed by Pierre Beauchamp. In 1671, Molière had fallen out with Lully. When the play was performed for the public, on 8 July 1672, the pastoral was replaced by Molière’s Le Mariage forcé, to which intermèdes were added. These are included at the foot of this post.

escarbagnas

La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas par François Boucher (dessin) & Laurent Cars (gravure)  (sitelully.free.fr)

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

LA COMTESSE D’ESCARBAGNAS.
LE COMTE, son fils (her son).
LE VICOMTE, amant de (in love with) Julie.
JULIE, amante du Vicomte.
MONSIEUR TIBAUDIER, conseiller, amant de la Comtesse.
MONSIEUR HARPIN, receveur des tailles (tax farmer), autre amant de la Comtesse.
MONSIEUR BOBINET, précepteur de (tutor to) Monsieur le Comte.
ANDRÉE, suivante de la Comtesse.
JEANNOT, laquais de Monsieur Tibaudier.
CRIQUET, laquais de la Comtesse.

La scène est à Angoulême.

SCENE ONE

Most of Scene One is a conversation between Julie and le Vicomte, the comedy’s young lovers. First, the Vicomte tells Julie that he bumped into a fâcheux, which delayed him. He then goes on to say that he doesn’t like making believe he is in love with the Comtesse. He laments his role.  It is a “comedy.”

Que cette feinte où je me force n’étant que pour vous plaire, j’ai lieu de ne vouloir en souffrir la contrainte, que devant les yeux qui s’en divertissent. Que j’évite le tête-à-tête avec cette comtesse ridicule, dont vous m’embarrassez, et en un mot que ne venant ici que pour vous, j’ai toutes les raisons du monde d’attendre que vous y soyez.
Le Vicomte à Julie (Scène première)
[[…] I am induced not to wish to suffer the annoyance of it, except in the presence of her who is amused by it; that I avoid the tête-à-tête with this ridiculous Countess, with whom you hamper me; and, in one word that, coming here but for you, I have all the reasons possible to await until you are here.]
The Vicount Julie (Scene One, p. 64)

The Comtesse is besotted with rank and has just returned from Paris where she was surrounded by aristocrats. This, no doubt, has further consolidated her conviction that aristocrats are personnes de qualité. Julie reports to the Vicomte, the man she loves, that glittering Paris has besotted the Comtesse.

Notre comtesse d’Escarbagnas, avec son perpétuel entêtement de qualité, est un aussi bon personnage qu’on en puisse mettre sur le théâtre. Le petit voyage qu’elle a fait à Paris, l’a ramenée dans Angoulême, plus achevée qu’elle n’était. L’approche de l’air de la cour a donné à son ridicule de nouveaux agréments, et sa sottise tous les jours ne fait que croître et embellir.
Julie au Vicomte (Scène première)
[Our Countess of Escarbagnas, with her perpetual hobby of quality, is as good a character as one could put on the stage. The little excursion which she has made to Paris has brought her back to Angoulême more perfect than she was. The proximity of the court-air has given new charms to her absurdity, and her silliness does but grow and become more beautiful every day.]
Julie to the Viscount (Scene One, p. 65)

We know why the Vicomte has entered the fray. How can two bourgeois compete with a person of rank? In fact, our bourgeois are somewhat tired of courting the Comtesse. It is hoped that a petite comédie, le Vicomte as suitor, will make Monsieur Tibaudier and Monsieur Harpin press their suit. Le Vicomte, a real aristocrat is about to treat the Comtesse with a comédie. Le Vicomte‘s bourgeois rivals have been invited to attend.

SCENE TWO

We meet the Comtesse in Scene Two. She has caught a glimpse of the Vicomte leaving through a back door. She is alarmed, but Julie, her suivante, reassures her:

Non, Madame, et il a voulu témoigner par là qu’il est tout entier à vos charmes.
Julie à la Comtesse (Scène II)
[No, Madam, and by this he wished to show that he is entirely to your charms.]
Julie to the Countess (Scene Two, p. 67)

The Comtesse‘s haughty behaviour is mostly objectionable. She scolds Andrée for using the word armoire, instead of garde-robe (closet). She scolds both Andrée and Criquet, for not knowing the word soucoupe, saucer. In fact, Criquet doesn’t know the word écuyer (equerry). We also have the matter of wax candles. They may have disappeared. Andrée has suif candles, tallow candles. Finally, Andrée gets so nervous that she drops a glass sitting on a tray and breaks it. The image at the top of this post shows Andrée dropping a glass. However, Scene Two contains an extremely revealing conversation between la Comtesse and Julie, which will be discussed.

SCENE THREE

Before he arrives, Monsieur Thibaudier, one of the Comtesse‘s bourgeois suitors has Jeannot take pears to the Comtesse, to which a note is attached. The note will be read by the Vicomte to everyone in Scene Four. However, the Comtesse surprises us. As Scene Three is closing, she praises Monsieur Tibaudier:

Ce qui me plaît de ce Monsieur, c’est qu’il sait vivre avec les
personnes de ma qualité, et qu’il est fort respectueux.
La Comtesse à tous (Scene III)
[What pleases me in this Mr. Tibaudier is, that he knows how to behave with persons of my rank, and that he is very respectful.]
The Countess to all (Scene Fourteen, p. 74)

SCENE FOUR

In Scene Four, le Vicomte tells the Comtesse that the comedians are ready and that, in a quarter of an hour, they should all leave for the large room, la salle. The Countess warns that she does not want une cohue, a crush.

Je ne veux point de cohue au moins. Que l’on dise à mon suisse qu’il ne laisse entrer personne.
La Comtesse au Vicomte (Scène IV)
I will have no crush at least. (To Criquet). Tell my porter to let no one enter.
The Countess to the Viscount (Scene Fifteen, p. 74)

So the Vicomte, who is treating la Comtesse to a comedy, is ready to cancel the performance. One cannot let in the whole town, but spectators are needed.

En ce cas, Madame, je vous déclare que je renonce à la comédie, et je n’y saurais prendre de plaisir, lorsque la compagnie n’est pas nombreuse. Croyez-moi, si vous voulez vous bien divertir, qu’on dise à vos gens de laisser entrer toute la ville.
Le Vicomte à la Comtesse (Scène IV)
[In this case, Madam, I must inform you that I shall abandon the comedy; and I cannot take any pleasure in it, if the company be not numerous. Believe me, that if you wish to amuse yourself well, you should tell your people to let the whole town come in.]
The Viscount to the Countess (Scene Fifteen, p. 74)

The Viscount then reads the note Monsieur Tibaudier has sent with the pears. Monsieur Tibaudier has made it clear that the Comtesse has been cruel, so we expect the Comtesse to be to react angrily, but she doesn’t. Some académicien might find fault with the note, but she likes it.

Il y a peut-être quelque mot qui n’est pas de l’Académie; mais j’y remarque un certain respect qui me plaît beaucoup.
La Comtesse à tous (Scène II)
[There may, perhaps, be some word in it which does not belong to the Academy; but I can read a certain respect in it which pleases me much.]
The Countess to all (Scene Fifteen.75)

Julie says:

Vous avez raison, Madame, et Monsieur le Vicomte dût-il s’en offenser, j’aimerais un homme qui m’écrirait comme cela.
Julie à la Comtesse (Scene IV)
[You are quite right, Madam, and, at the risk of offending the Viscount, I should love a man who wrote to me in this way.]
Julie to the Countess (Scene Fifteen, p. 75)

SCENE FIVE

In Scene Five, the Comtesse welcomes Monsieur Tibaudier rather warmly and the Viscount reads aloud Monsieur Tibaudier’s poems. They are so lovely that the Viscount says to himself that he has been outranked by Monsieur Thibaudier.

The Comtesse enjoys being courted by a Viscount, which we have seen in Scene Two, but she likes Monsieur Tibaudier’s note.

Self-interest and Jealousy

Scene Two is most revealing. It points to the organising principles of the play. Self-interest informs the behaviour of the Countess, and so does vanity. She may first appear obsessed with rank, but she is guided by vanity, and fear of losing the Comtesse‘s affection keeps her suitors vying for her affection.

Scene Two: Julie wonders how, having just travelled to Paris, the Comtesse can manage lowly Angoulême. She has been at Court where she met le beau monde (celebrities). Can she return to the company of a Counsellor at Law, Monsieur Tibaudier, and a tax farmer, Monsieur Harpin. They do not have a title.

Je m’étonne, Madame, que de tous ces grands noms que je devine, vous ayez pu redescendre à un monsieur Tibaudier, le conseiller, et à un monsieur Harpin, le receveur des tailles. La chute est grande, je vous l’avoue. Car pour Monsieur votre vicomte, quoique vicomte de province, c’est toujours un vicomte, et il peut faire un voyage à Paris, s’il n’en a point fait; mais un conseiller, et un receveur, sont des amants un peu bien minces [thin], pour une grande comtesse comme vous.
Julie à la Comtesse (Scène II)
[I am surprised, Madam, that after all these great names at which I guess, you have been able to come down again to a Mr. Tibaudier, a counsellor at law, and to a Mr. Harpin, a receiver of taxes. The fall is great, I confess; for, as for your Viscount, though but a country Viscount, he is at any rate a Viscount, and may make a journey to Paris, if he have not already done so: but a counsellor at law, and a receiver of taxes are somewhat inferior lovers for a grand Countess like you.]
Julie to the Countess (Scene Eleven, p. 71)

There can be no doubt that the Comtesse inhabits the world La Rochefoucauld described. Self-interest makes it necessary for her to accommodate her bourgeois suitors who must be rivals.

Ce sont gens qu’on ménage dans les provinces pour le besoin qu’on en peut avoir, ils servent au moins à remplir les vides de la galanterie, à faire nombre de soupirants; et il est bon, Madame, de ne pas laisser un amant seul maître du terrain, de peur que faute de rivaux, son amour ne s’endorme sur trop de confiance.
La Comtesse à Julie (Scène II)
[They are people whom we conciliate in the provinces for the need we may have of them; they serve at least to fill up the vacancies of gallantry; to increase the number of suitors; and it is well, Madam, not to let one lover be sole master, for fear, that, failing rivals, his love may go to sleep through too much confidence.]
The Countess to Julie (Scene Eleven, p. 72)

The Countess is the widowed mother of three sons, one of whom, le Comte, still has a tutor, Monsieur Bobinet. In Scene Eight, Monsieur Harpin, who enters the stage tardily and rather tempestuously, intimates that he has been a donneur. Might the Countess need money and have accepted money?

Monsieur Tibaudier en use comme il lui plaît, je ne sais pas de quelle façon monsieur Tibaudier a été avec vous, mais Monsieur Tibaudier n’est pas un exemple pour moi, et je ne suis point d’humeur à payer les violons pour faire danser les autres.
Monsieur Harpin (Scène VIII)
[Mr. Tibaudier behaves as it pleases him: I do not know on what footing he is with you;  but Mr. Tibaudier is not an example for me, and I am not disposed to pay the violins to let others dance.]
Monsieur Harpin (Scene Twenty-One, p. 81)

Her relationships with Messieurs Tibaudier and Harpin were waning. Hence a recourse to jealousy. Monsieur Tibaudier presses his suit successfully. His verses and true love eliminate le Vicomte.

SCENE VI

Monsieur Bobinet has arrived. He is the tutor to the Countess’ son, the Count. He reports on the Count and also brings news of the Comtesse’s two other sons:

Comment se portent mes deux autres fils, le Marquis et le Commandeur?
La Comtesse à Monsieur Bobinet (Scene VI)
How fare my two other sons, the Marquis and the Commander?
The Countess to Monsieur Bobinet (Scene Seventeen, p. 77)

She wants to know where the Count is and what he is doing. Monsieur Bobinet replies that the Count is in her “beautiful apartment with the alcove” working. 

Il compose un thème, Madame, que je viens de lui dicter, sur une épître de Cicéron.
La Comtesse à monsieur Bobinet (Scene VI)
He is composing an exercise, Madam, which I have just dictated to him upon an epistle of Cicero.
La Comtesse à monsieur Bobinet (Scene Seventeen, p.77)

SCENE VII

Given that the Vicomte has been more or less eliminated, the Comtesse wishes for her son to greet Monsieur Tibaudier. Monsieur Tibaudier is delighted, thereby pleasing the Comtesse. She is a Comtesse, which is rank, but this comtesse thrives on being admired.

Je suis ravi, Madame, que vous me concédiez la grâce d’embrasser Monsieur le Comte votre fils. On ne peut pas aimer le tronc, qu’on n’aime aussi les branches. 
Monsieur Tibaudier à la Comtesse (Scène VII)
[I am enchanted, Madam, that you concede me the favour of embracing the Count, your son. One cannot love the trunk without also loving the branches.]
Monsieur Tibaudier to the Countess (Scene Fourteen, p. 78)

We also learn that although she has three grown (or almost) sons, she still looks young.

Hélas! quand je le fis, j’étais si jeune que je me jouais encore avec une poupée.
La Comtesse à Julie (Scène VII)
[Alas! when he was born, I was so young that I was still playing with a doll.]
The Countess to Julie (Scene Eighteen, p. 78)

She is floating in mid-air when we hear that the comedians are ready.

Les comédiens envoient dire qu’ils sont tout prêts.
Criquet (Scène VII)
The actors send me to say that they are quite ready.
Criquet (Scene Twenty, p. 79)

Le Vicomte reflects that:

Il est nécessaire de dire, que cette comédie n’a été faite que pour lier ensemble les différents morceaux de musique, et de danse, dont on a voulu composer ce divertissement, et que…
Le Vicomte à tous (Scene VII)
[It is necessary to say that this comedy has been written only to connect together the different pieces of music and dancing of which they wished to compose this entertainment, and that…]
The Viscount to all (Scene Twenty, p. 79)

Is the dramatist within his play and is this play a théâtre dans le théâtre? I believe he is.

SCENE EIGHT

Monsieur Harpin joins everyone when the comedy has already started. He is a fâcheux.

Parbleu la chose est belle, et je me réjouis de voir ce que je vois.
Monsieur Harpin (Scène VIII)
Zounds! that is a pretty set out, and I rejoice to see what I do see.
Monsieur Harpin (Scene Twenty-One, p. 79)

Eh têtebleu la véritable comédie qui se fait ici, c’est celle que vous jouez, et si je vous trouble, c’est de quoi je me soucie peu.
Monsieur Harpin (Scène VIII)
Eh! the deuce! The real comedy which is performed here, is played by you; and if I do trouble you, I care very little about it.
Monsieur Harpin (Scene Twenty-One, p. 80)

Monsieur Harpin thinks the Vicomte is his rival.

Eh ventrebleu, s’il y a ici quelque chose de vilain, ce ne sont point mes jurements, ce sont vos actions, et il vaudrait bien mieux que vous jurassiez, vous, la tête, la mort et la sang, que de faire ce que vous faites avec Monsieur le Vicomte.
Monsieur Harpin (Scène VIII)
Eh! Odds bobs! if there be anything nasty, it is not my swearing, but your goings on; and it would be better for you to swear, heads, ‘s deaths, and blood, than to do what you are doing with the Viscount.
Monsieur Harpin (Scene Twenty-One, p. 80)

The Vicomte does not understand what is going on.

Je ne sais pas, Monsieur le Receveur, de quoi vous vous plaignez, et si...
Le Vicomte à Monsieur Harpin (Scene VIII)
I do not know, Mr. Receiver, of what you have to complain; and if…
The Viscount to Monsieur Harpin (Scene Twenty-One, p. 80)

And the Comtesse doesn’t know why Monsieur Harpin speaks to everyone.

Quand on a des chagrins jaloux, on n’en use point de la sorte, et l’on vient doucement se plaindre à la personne que l’on aime.
La Comtesse à Monsieur Harpin (Scene VIII)
When one has jealous cares, one ought not to behave in this manner; but to come and complain gently to the person one loves.
The Countess to Monsieur Harpin (Scene Twenty-One, p. 80)

Contrary to Monsieur Tibaudier, Monsieur Harpin has not gone to visit the Countess and complain. He has chosen instead to accuse the Viscount and to make a mockery of himself. In fact, Monsieur Harpin becomes quite offensive. Once again, he alludes to giving/receiving money.

Je veux dire, que je ne trouve point étrange que vous vous rendiez au mérite de Monsieur le Vicomte, vous n’êtes pas la première femme qui joue dans le monde de ces sortes de caractères, et qui ait auprès d’elle un Monsieur le Receveur, dont on lui voit trahir, et la passion, et la bourse pour le premier venu qui lui donnera dans la vue ; mais ne trouvez point étrange aussi que je ne sois point la dupe d’une infidélité si ordinaire aux coquettes du temps, et que je vienne vous assurer devant bonne compagnie, que je romps commerce avec vous, et que Monsieur le Receveur ne sera plus pour vous Monsieur le Donneur.
Monsieur Harpin (Scene VIII)
[I mean that I find nothing strange in it that you should give way to the merits of the Viscount; you are not the first woman who plays that sort of character in society, and who has a Receiver after her, whose affection and purse one finds her betray for the first comer who suits her views. But do not think it strange that I am not the dupe of an infidelity so common to the coquettes of the present day, and that I come to assure you before decent company, that I break off all connection with you, and that Mr. Receiver shall no longer be Mr. Giver to you.]
Monsieur Harpin (Scene Twenty-0ne, p. 81)

We know already that in Scene Nine, la scène dernière, le vicomte and Julie will learn that their families will allow them to marry and that le Vicomte will tell the Comtesse to marry Monsieur Tibaudier. She will resist a little, but ask Monsieur Tibaudier to marry her.

C’est sans vous offenser, Madame, et les comédies veulent de ces sortes de choses.
Le Vicomte à la Comtesse (Scène dernière)
It was meant without offence, Madam; comedies require these sorts of things.
The Viscount to the Countess (Scene Twenty-Two, p. 81)

Julie has been fully “schooled.” 

Je vous avoue, madame, qu’il y a merveilleusement à profiter de tout ce que vous dites, c’est une école que votre conversation, et j’y viens tous les jours attraper quelque chose.
Julie à la Comtesse (Scène II)
[I confess to you, Madam, that there is a marvellous deal to learn by what you say; your conversation is a school, and every day I get hold of something in it.]
Julie to the Countess (Scene Fourteen, p. 72)

Conclusion

In this comedy, jealousy is used to overcome obstacles to the marriage of the Comtesse. Monsieur Tibaudier presses his suit when a Vicomte is courting the Comtesse. On the other hand, Monsieur Harpin becomes jealous and his own worst enemy. This obstacle is to the Comtesse‘s marriage is mostly vanity on her part, which can translate as rank, but not necessarily. The Comtesse acts in her best interest. In 17th-century France, the bourgeoisie was growing and many bourgeois were rich.

However, we have a doubling or two couples. Le Vicomte and Julie face a more traditional obstacle. His father and her brothers oppose the Vicomte‘s marriage to Julie. A billet is delivered to the Vicomte. He may marry Julie. Comedy demands a fortunate péripétie, or turn of events. La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas is an “all’s that ends well” comedy. But first, all will watch the end of the comedy within the comedy. Le Ballet des ballets was a divertissement.

I have read Lucien Dallenbach’s Récit spéculaire and I am reading Georges Forestier’s Le Théâtre dans le Théâtre. Years ago, I read Jean Rousset’s books. According to Georges Forestier, the embedded (enchâssé-e) element is the missing Pastoral, situated between Scenes Eight and Nine (p. 353).[1] I would call other allusions to comedy “self-referential.”

RELATED ARTICLES

  • La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas, nearly all (31 December 2019)
  • Molière’s “Forced Marriage,” “Le Mariage forcé” (7 July 2019)
  • Molière page

Sources and Resources

  • La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas is a toutmoliere.net publication
  • The Countess of Escarbagnas is an internet archive publication
  • Henri van Laun is our translator
  • La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas is Gutenberg’s [EBook #7451]
  • Charles Heron Wall is Gutenberg’s translator
  • Images belong to the BnF and the sitelully.free.fr
  • Bold characters are mine.

Love to everyone 💕
____________________
[1] Georges Forestier Le Théâtre dans le théâtre (Genève: Droz, 1966), p. 353.

Antoine Boësset — À la fin cette bergère… 
Claire Lefilliâtre (soprano), Bruno Le Levreur, Jean-François Novelli, Arnaud Marzorati
Le Poème Harmonique — Vincent Dumestre

 

La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas, le Mariage forcé – Marc Antoine Charpentier
La Simphonie du Marais
Lyrics: Le Mariage forcé and added interludes

La comtesse d'Escarbagnas par Lalauze (1)

La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas par Adolphe Lalauze (theatre-documentation. com)

© Micheline Walker
6 January 2020
WordPress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

45.404160 -71.914291

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Molière’s ‟Les Fâcheux,” ‟The Bores” (1)

12 Thursday Dec 2019

Posted by michelinewalker in Comedy, Molière

≈ 40 Comments

Tags

jealousy, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Les Fâcheux, Love Question, Molière, Pierre Beauchamp, Question d'amour, The Bores

Les facheux par Ed. Héd. (2)

Les Fâcheux par Edmond Hédouin (theatre-documentation.com)

I may not be able to post Les Fâcheux today. It would be too long a post. But I could indicate that in Les Fâcheux, first performed on 17 August 1661, at Vaux-le-Vicomte, Nicolas Fouquet‘s magnificent castle, the spectator/reader goes from bore to bore, all of whom want to talk to our hero, Éraste, a marquis who loves Orphise to whom he seems unable to catch up. He does catch up to her in an unexpected dénouement.

The play is therefore repetitive. Éraste is forever interrupted by bores. But one of the episodes, Act Two, Scene Four, features Éraste who is asked by Clymène and Orante, to play umpire, adjudicator, in a debate on whether jealousy is a sign of love.

C’est une question à vider difficile,/ Et vous devez chercher un juge plus habile
Éraste à Clymène et Orante (II. iv)
[That is a question difficult to settle; you had best look for a more skilful judge.]
Éraste to Clymène and Orante (II. 4)

Pour moi de son esprit j’ai trop bon témoignage,/ 400 Pour craindre qu’il prononce à mon désavantage./ Enfin ce grand débat qui s’allume entre nous,/ Est de savoir s’il faut qu’un amant soit jaloux.
Orante à Éraste (II. iv)
[For my part, I am too much assured of his sense to fear that he will decide against me. Well, this great contest which rages between us is to know whether a lover should be jealous.]
Orante to Éraste (II. 4)

Ou, pour mieux expliquer ma pensée et la vôtre,/ Lequel doit plaire plus d’un jaloux ou d’un autre.
Orante à Éraste (II. iv)
[Or, the better to explain my opinion and yours, which ought to please most, a jealous man or one that is not so?]
Orante to Éraste (II. 4)

405 Pour moi, sans contredit, je suis pour le dernier.
Clymène à tous (II. iv)
[For my part, I am clearly for the last.]
Clymène to all (II. 4)

Et dans mon sentiment je tiens pour le premier.
Orante à tous (II. iv)
[As for me, I stand up for the first.]
Orante to all (II. 4)

Je crois que notre cœur doit donner son suffrage,/ À qui fait éclater du respect davantage.
Orante à tous (II. iv)

445 Et je veux, qu’un amant pour me prouver sa flamme, Sur d’éternels soupçons laisse flotter son âme,/ Et par de prompts transports, donne un signe éclatant/ De l’estime qu’il fait de celle qu’il prétend./ On s’applaudit alors de son inquiétude,/ Et s’il nous fait parfois un traitement trop rude,/ Le plaisir de le voir soumis à nos genoux,/ 450 S’excuser de l’éclat qu’il a fait contre nous,/ Ses pleurs, son désespoir d’avoir pu nous déplaire, /Est un charme à calmer toute notre colère.
Orante à tous (II. iv)
[I would that a lover, in order to prove his flame, should have his mind shaken by eternal suspicions, and, by sudden outbursts, show clearly the value he sets upon her to whose hand he aspires. Then his restlessness is applauded; and, if he sometimes treats us a little roughly, the value he sets upon her to whose hand he aspires. Then his restlessness is applauded; and, if he sometimes treats us a little roughly, the pleasure of seeing him, penitent at our feet, to excuse himself for the outbreak of which he has been guilty, his tears, his despair at having been capable of displeasing us, are a charm to soothe all our anger.]
Clymène to all (II. 4)

Si pour vous plaire il faut beaucoup d’emportement,/ Je sais qui vous pourrait donner contentement;/ 455 Et je connais des gens dans Paris plus de quatre,/ Qui comme ils le font voir, aiment jusques à battre.
Orante à tous (II. iv)
[If much violence is necessary to please you, I know who would satisfy you; I am acquainted with several men in Paris who love well enough to beat their fair ones openly.]
Orante to all (IV. 4)

Éraste’s answer is:

Puisqu’à moins d’un arrêt je ne m’en puis défaire,
Toutes deux à la fois je vous veux satisfaire;

465 Et pour ne point blâmer ce qui plaît à vos yeux,
Le jaloux aime plus, et l’autre aime bien mieux.
Éraste to all (II. iv)
[Since I cannot avoid giving judgment, I mean to satisfy you both at once; and, in order, not to blame that which is pleasing in your eyes, the jealous man loves more, but the other loves more wisely.].
Éraste to all (IV. 4)

Who would appreciate reducing a man to sudden outbursts, applauding a man’s restlessness? Who would wish to be treated a little roughly and enjoy seeing the penitent at one’s feet, witness his tears and his despair?

If Clymène enjoys the pain she inflicts, we could perhaps put her on the same footing as our tormented and jaloux, or on the other side of the same coin. This is not love.

—ooo—

Molière, Jean-Baptiste Lully (music) and Pierre Beauchamp (ballet) performed their first comédie-ballet, Les Fâcheux, at Vaux-le-Vicomte. Les Fâcheux (The Bores) was then performed at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, on 4 November 1661. In 1661, Molière’s troupe was la troupe de Monsieur, frère unique du Roi. The play’s main source is Horace‘s Satires. Les Fâcheux is a divertissement.

Love to everyone 💕

 

Provided to YouTube by CDBaby Courante De Mr. Lully · David Rogers, Joanna Blendulf & Laura Zaerr ℗ 2014 Daniel Stephens Released on: 2014-01-01 Auto-generated by YouTube.

Les facheux par F. Boucher

Les Fâcheux par François Boucher (dessin) (theatre-documentation.com)

© Micheline Walker
12 December 2019
WordPress

45.410428 -71.910306

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Molière’s “Imaginary Invalid”

04 Thursday Apr 2019

Posted by michelinewalker in Comedy, Molière

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Argan, Doctors, Hypochondria, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Molière's last play, Pierre Beauchamp, The Imaginary Invalid, Theatre-within-theatre, Three Act Comédie-Ballet, Toinette

Le_Malade_imaginaire (2)

The Hypochondriac by Honoré Daumier (WikiArt.org)

Our dramatis personæ are:

ARGAN, an imaginary invalid.
BÉLINE, second wife to ARGAN.
ANGÉLIQUE, daughter to ARGAN, in love with CLÉANTE.
LOUISON; ARGAN’S young daughter, sister to ANGÉLIQUE.
BÉRALDE, brother to ARGAN.
CLÉANTE, lover to ANGÉLIQUE.
MR. DIAFOIRUS, a physician.
THOMAS DIAFOIRUS, his son, in love with ANGÉLIQUE.
MR. PURGON, physician to ARGAN.
MR. FLEURANT, an apothecary.
MR. DE BONNEFOI, a notary.
TOINETTE, maid-servant to ARGAN.

The Imaginary Invalid is a comédie-ballet, but Molière having fallen out with Lully, the music for Le Malade imaginaire was composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Pierre Beauchamp choreographed the comédie-ballet. It was performed for the first time on 10th February 1673 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. On 17th February, during the fourth performance of his play, Molière collapsed. He finished playing his role and was taken home where he hemorrhaged and died. He was 51. Molière, born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673), suffered from tuberculosis.

Le Malade imaginaire is the fourth play in which Molière mocked doctors. There had been relatively recent progress in medicine. In the 16th century, Ambroise Paré, a French barber surgeon made advances in surgery and other areas of medicine. Other scientists were also studying the human body. However, during Molière’s life time, most doctors did more harm than good. Many of Louis XIV’s legitimate children died due to poor treatment at the hands of doctors. When Louis died, only one of his legitimate children had survived. A woman protected Louis XIV’s only heir by keeping him away from doctors.

The play is rooted in various plays that featuring a theatre in the theatre, a play-within-a-play, on Molière’s own plays and farces on doctors and medieval farces and fabliaux. In fact, Béralde, Argan’s brother, defends Molière himself, which I would call “nouveau théâtre.” The play is also rooted in Molière’s own L’Impromptu de Versailles FR (1663), a defence of Molière within Molière.

 

comedy-scene-scene-from-molière.jpg!PinterestSmall (2)

Scene from Molière by Honoré Daumier (WikiArt.org)

 

the-two-doctors-and-death.jpg!Large (2)

The Two Doctors and Death by Honoré Daumier (WikiArt.org)

The Blocking Character or Alazṓn

Hypochondria is considered a medical diagnosis, but the society of the play does not view Argan as sick. His brother Béralde tells Argan that he is not sick. Toinette also suggests that Argan is not sick. When the curtain lifts, Argan is counting how much his treatments are costing him. Money is always important in comedies and plays a role in Argan’s choice of a husband for his daughter Angélique. She is to marry a doctor, as Argan needs an in-house doctor.

Toinette & her Master

Toinette, the maid, walks in and says, unrestrained by her position, that Argan’s doctors have found a “milk-cow:”

Ce Monsieur Fleurant-là, et ce Monsieur Purgon s’égayent bien sur votre corps; ils ont en vous une bonne vache à lait; et je voudrais bien leur demander quel mal vous avez, pour vous faire tant de remèdes.
Toinette à Argan (I. ii, p. 9)
[This Mr. Fleurant and Mr. Purgon amuse themselves finely with your body. They have a  rare milk-cow in you, I must say; and I should like them to tell me what disease it is you have for them to physic you so.]
Toinette to Argan (I. 2)

Où est-ce donc que nous sommes? et quelle audace est-ce là à une coquine de servante de parler de la sorte devant son maître?
Argan à Toinette (I. V, p. 16)
[What have we come to? And what boldness is this for a scrub of a servant to speak in such a way before her master?]
Argan à Toinette
(I. 5)

Quand un maître ne songe pas à ce qu’il fait, une servante bien sensée est en droit de le redresser.
Toinette à Argan (I. V, p. 16)
[When a master does not consider what he is doing, a sensible servant should set him right.]
Toinette to Argan (I. 5)

The Doctors

However, Angélique wishes to marry Cléante, and, in a quiproquo (I. v), she agrees to marry Thomas Diafoirus, a doctor who fares poorly as a suitor:

Nous lisons, des anciens, Mademoiselle, que leur coutume était d’enlever par force de la maison des pères les filles qu’on menait marier, afin qu’il ne semblât pas que ce fût de leur consentement, qu’elles convolaient dans les bras d’un homme.
Thomas Diafoirus à Angélique (II. vi, p. 42)
Les anciens, Monsieur, sont les anciens, et nous sommes les gens de maintenant. Les grimaces ne sont point nécessaires dans notre siècle, et quand un mariage nous plaît, nous savons fort bien y aller, sans qu’on nous y traîne. Donnez-vous patience; si vous m’aimez, Monsieur, vous devez vouloir tout ce que je veux.
Angélique à Thomas Diafoirus (II. vi, p. 42)
[We read in the ancients, Madam, that it was their custom to carry off by main force from their father’s house the maiden they wished to marry, so that the latter might not seem to fly of her own accord into the arms of a man.
Thomas Diafoirus to Angélique (II. 6)
The ancients, Sir, are the ancients; but we are the moderns. Pretences are not necessary in our age; and when a marriage pleases us, we know very well how to go to it without being dragged by force. Have a little patience; if you love me, Sir, you ought to do what I wish.]
Angélique to Thomas Diafoirus (II. 6)

Fortunately, we have doublings, particularly in the case of Argan. Béralde is Argan’s brother and a benevolent uncle, which may explain why Angélique mistakenly agreed to marry Thomas Diafoirus. She probably thought her uncle had spoken to Argan.

The New Wife: Béline

Argan has remarried. Béline flatters Argan as much as possible, but as comedy would have it, a second wife may be a fortune hunter. She is, in fact, the archetypal and often derided belle-mère (mother-in-law):

Chacun a son but en se mariant. Pour moi, qui ne veux un mari que pour l’aimer véritablement, et qui prétends en faire tout l’attachement de ma vie, je vous avoue que j’y cherche quelque précaution. Il y en a d’aucunes qui prennent des maris seulement pour se tirer de la contrainte de leurs parents, et se mettre en état de faire tout ce qu’elles voudront. Il y en a d’autres, Madame, qui font du mariage un commerce de pur intérêt; qui ne se marient que pour gagner des douaires; que pour s’enrichir par la mort de ceux qu’elles épousent, et courent sans scrupule de mari en mari, pour s’approprier leurs dépouilles. Ces personnes-là à la vérité n’y cherchent pas tant de façons, et regardent peu la personne.
Angélique à Béline (II. vi, p. 43)
[We all have our own end in marrying. For my part, as I only want a husband that I can love sincerely, and as I intend to consecrate my whole life to him, I feel bound, I confess, to be cautious. There are some who marry simply to free themselves from the yoke of their parents, and to be at liberty to do all they like. There are others, Madam, who see in marriage only a matter of mere interest; who marry only to get a settlement, and to enrich themselves by the death of those they marry. They pass without scruple from husband to husband, with an eye to their possessions. These, no doubt, Madam, are not so difficult to satisfy, and care little what the husband is like.]
Angélique to Béline (II. 7)

Béline would not force Angélique to marry Thomas Diafoirus, but she would have her locked up in a convent.

Écoute, il n’y a point de milieu à cela. Choisis d’épouser dans quatre jours, ou Monsieur, ou un couvent. Ne vous mettez pas en peine, je la rangerai bien.
Argan à Angélique (II. vi, p. 44)
[Listen to me! Of two things, one. Either you will marry this gentleman or you will go into a convent. I give you four days to consider. (TO BÉLINE) Don’t be anxious; I will bring her to reason.]
Argan to Angélique (II. 8)

 Doublings

  • Toinette
  • Béralde

Early in the comedy, we learn that Angélique and her younger sister Louison have lost their mother. Angélique discusses her “lover” with Toinette (I.iii and iv, pp. 9-10).  Therefore, one assumes that, in the eyes of Angélique and her younger sister Louison, Toinette is more than a servant. She may not be a surrogate mother, but she is also a doubling, un dédoublement. Were she not, Béline, Argan’s second wife, would be too powerful. For instance, Argan wants to make a Will and Béline herself brings in the notary (I. vi, p. 79; I. 8).

The real threat, however, is Argan’s wish to have a doctor as his son-in-law. Argan is marrying his daughter to Thomas Diafoirus, so his needs are satisfied. That is his reason:

Ma raison est, que me voyant infirme, et malade comme je suis, je veux me faire un gendre, et des alliés médecins, afin de m’appuyer de bons secours contre ma maladie, d’avoir dans ma famille les sources des remèdes qui me sont nécessaires, et d’être à même des consultations, et des ordonnances.
Argan à Toinette (I. V, pp. 13- 14)
[My reason is, that seeing myself infirm and sick, I wish to have a son-in-law and relatives who are doctors, in order to secure their kind assistance in my illness, to have in my family the fountain-head of those remedies which are necessary to me, and to be within reach of consultations and prescriptions.]
Argan à Toinette (I. 5)

797px-Le_malade_imaginaire_-_btv1b8438362h (2)

The Imaginary Invalid (wikimedia.commons.org)

Comedy as a genre seldom creates fathers so objectionable that, as the curtain falls, they cannot re-enter the society of the play. L’Avare‘s Harpagon is happy to have found his precious cassette and his children are marrying at no cost to him. In the Imaginary Invalid, Toinettes says to Argan:

Vous n’aurez pas ce cœur-là. (I. v, p. 15)
[You will never have the heart to do it.] (1. 5)

Moreover, not only does Angélique have a surrogate mother, but, as mentioned above, Molière has also created a surrogate father. Béralde, Argan’s brother, is an uncle and an avuncular figure. He visits Argan to propose a husband for Angélique:

J’étais venu ici, mon frère, vous proposer un parti pour ma nièce Angélique.
Béralde à Argan (II. ix, p. 49)
I came here, brother, to propose a match for my niece, Angélique.
Béralde to Argan (II. 12)

Argan gets angry, revealing a degree of strength he claimed he did not possess when his brother arrived. He also shows his total dependence on doctors. He needs to put a doctor in his household.

Béralde on Doctors and Molière

At this point, a long discussion takes place regarding Argan’s medical needs, medicine, doctors and Molière (III. iii, p. 51-58). In Béralde’s eyes, his brother Argan is perfectly healthy, which could be, but hypochondria is an illness in itself. In Molière’s comedies,  characters are as they are. No one can change fancies and obsessions, or chimères.  L’Avare‘s Harpagon is a miser and will remain a miser. Monsieur Jourdain is made into a mamamouchi and, in the end, although all his doctors leave, Argan allows Cléante to marry Angélique, provided he becomes a doctor. Clothes suffice. They make you into what you appear.

Béralde explains Molière to his besotted brother. Molière was very sick. His sickness was all he could bear. The doctors of the day knowing little about medicine could have incapacitated him:

Il [Molière] a ses raisons pour n’en point vouloir, et il soutient que cela n’est permis qu’aux gens vigoureux et robustes, et qui ont des forces de reste pour porter les remèdes avec la maladie; mais que pour lui il n’a justement de la force, que pour porter son mal.
Béralde à Argan (III. iii, p. 55)
[He has his reasons for not wishing to have anything to do; he is certain that only strong and robust constitutions can bear their remedies in addition to the illness, and he has only just enough strength for his sickness.]
Béralde to Argan (III. 3)

Béralde criticizes doctors, but reasonably so. Who could have cured Molière of turberculosis? He at least did not lose time seeking the help of doctors and losing energy through blood-letting, une saignée, a favourite remedy in 17th-century medicine. 

But in come the doctors ready to give Argan his enema. There were all kinds of enemas, not just water. But Béralde gets after the doctors who end up leaving, which is a tragedy for Argan who is convinced he needs the care of a physician, even if it means forcing his daughter to marry Thomas Diafoirus. Thomas Diafoirus believes that forcing a woman into a marriage is acceptable.

Le Théâtre dans le Théâtre

The doctors having left Toinette, a servant and caregiver to Angélique and Louison, decides to play doctor. She diagnoses a lung problem, which was Molière’s disease. She also suggests treatments that Argan cannot accept: the removal of an eye and an arm. This is a play.

The doctors having left, the time has also come to discuss Angélique’s marriage. Argan wishes to do as his new wife has suggested, which is to throw Angélique into a convent. But Béline should be coming home soon. So, Toinette asks Argan to make believe he is dead. Feigning death is also theatrical. When Béline is informed of his death, she thanks heaven:

Le Ciel en soit loué. Me voilà délivrée d’un grand fardeau. Que tu es sotte, Toinette,
de t’affliger de cette mort!
Béline à Toinette (III. xii, p. 65)
[Heaven be praised. I am delivered. How silly of you, Toinette, to be so afflicted at his death.]
Béline to Toinette (III. 16)
Va, va, cela n’en vaut pas la peine. Quelle perte est-ce que la sienne, et de quoi servait-il sur la terre? Un homme incommode à tout le monde, malpropre, dégoûtant, sans cesse un lavement, ou une médecine dans le ventre, mouchant, toussant, crachant toujours, sans esprit, ennuyeux, de mauvaise humeur, fatiguant sans cesse les gens, et grondant jour et nuit servantes, et valets.
Béline à Toinette (III. xii, p. 65)
[Pooh! it is not worth the trouble. What loss is it to anybody, and what good did he do in this world? A wretch, unpleasant to everybody; of nauseous, dirty habits; always a clyster or a dose of physic in his body. Always snivelling, coughing, spitting; a stupid,
tedious, ill-natured fellow, who was for ever fatiguing people and scolding night and day at his maids and servants.]
Béline to Toinette ((III. 16)

Béline quickly asks Toinette to help her get to the money.

2006AG4465_jpg_l (8)

Le Malade imaginaire by Charles Robert Leslie (R.A.), 1843 (Victoria and Albert Museum)

Argan feigns death a second time, another theater. When Angélique hears that her father has died, she is devastated.

Ô Ciel! quelle infortune! quelle atteinte cruelle! Hélas! faut-il que je perde mon père, la seule chose qui me restait au monde; et qu’encore pour un surcroît de désespoir, je le perde dans un moment où il était irrité contre moi? Que deviendrai-je, malheureuse, et quelle consolation trouver après une si grande perte?
Angélique à Toinette (III. viii, p. 67)
O heavens! what a misfortune! What a cruel grief! Alas why must I lose my father, the only being left me in the world? and why should I lose him, too, at a time when he was angry with me? What will become of me, unhappy girl that I am? What consolation can I find after so great a loss?
Angélique to Toinette (III, 20)

—ooo—

Doublings play an important role in The Imaginary Invalid. Toinette and Béralde do help the comedy’s young lovers. We find in Toinette and Béralde such ruse and determination, that Argan allows Angélique and Cléante to marry. However, Argan makes the marriage conditional on Cléante becoming a doctor. The young lovers may marry, which is the goal of comedy, but our heavy father succeeds in having a son-in-law who is a doctor. His needs are satisfied.

A post is a post, so I cannot discuss the Interludes. Yet, one performance should be noted. Cléante arrives at Argan’s house. Antoinette hesitates, but allows him to enter Orgon’s room. He and Angélique must speak before entering a life-long relationship. Marriage follows courtship. In order to speak to Angélique, Cléante makes Orgon believe that he is replacing Angélique’s singing teacher. Another performance is required. Once the singing lesson is over, Cléante is reassured that both lovers share the same feelings. The lovers in this play are therefore active and earn the support of Béralde and Toinette.

Doublings occur in Le Malade imaginaire, but spectacles follow spectacles, including the singing lesson. The ultimate among these performances is Argan feigning death, is théâtre dans le théâtre. He discovers his second wife isn’t what he thought she was. He feigns death a second time, and realizes he has a loving daughter. The ceremony during which Cléante will be transformed into a doctor is also theatrical.

Angélique tells her uncle:
Mais, mon oncle, il me semble que vous vous jouez un peu beaucoup de mon père.
Angélique à Béralde (III. xiv, p. 69)
Mais, ma nièce, ce n’est pas tant le jouer, que s’accommoder à ses fantaisies. Tout ceci n’est qu’entre nous. Nous y pouvons aussi prendre chacun un personnage, et nous donner ainsi la comédie les uns aux autres. Le carnaval autorise cela. Allons vite préparer toutes choses.
Angélique à Béralde (III. xiv, p. 69)
[But, uncle, it seems to me that you are making fun of my father.]
Angélique to Béralde (III. last scene)
[But, niece, it is not making too much fun of him to fall in with
his fancies. We may each of us take part in it ourselves, and thus
perform the comedy for each other’s amusement. Carnival time
authorises it. Let us go quickly and get everything ready.]
Béralde to Angélique (III. last scene)

Ruses (trickery) are perfectly acceptable in comedy, farce, in particular. However, The Imaginary Invalid is a series of spectacles. “Carnival time authorises it,” but recourse to so many ploys mocks reality to a barely acceptable degree. It seems too audacious a redemptive mechanism. All the world’s stage.

Yet, as Will More puts it, “[t]he plot of Le Malade Imaginaire is … little more than the various gullibilities of a hypochondriac.”[1]  

____________________
Will G. Moore, Molière a New Criticism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1949), p. 72.

Love to everyone 💕

Marc-Antoine Charpentier

comedy-scene-scene-from-molière.jpg!PinterestSmall (2)

© Micheline Walker
4 April 2019
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, part one

15 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by michelinewalker in Comédie-Ballet, Molière

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Bourgeoisie, Comédie-Ballet, Lully, Molière, Monsieur Jourdain, Pierre Beauchamp, Turquerie

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme by Edmond Geffroy (Wiki2.org)

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, 1670 

  • comédie-ballet
  • prose & five acts
  • the plot: blondin-berne-barbon  
  • bourgeoisie
  • turqueries

Molière‘s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme premièred at Chambord, a Loire château, on 14 October 1670. It was performed as a divertissement du Roi, entertainment for the King.  On 23 November it was performed in Paris, at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal.

A Comédie-Ballet

Le Bourgeois gentilhomme is a five-act comédie-ballet written in prose rather than the twelve-syllable or pieds l’alexandrin, the ‘vers noble.’’ As we have seen, Dom Juan (1665) is also a comedy in five acts, a criterion for grandes comédies, but it is written in prose. So doubt lingers as to Dom Juan‘s status as a comedy. Is it or is it not a grande comédie? Doubt also lingers about L’Avare, The Miser. It could be argued that the use of prose in a five-act play is a dramatic device. Dom Juan is a serious play in need of comic relief. Incongruity and ambiquity are hallmarks of Molière’s comedies.

Molière’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme is a comédie-ballet consisting of five acts. However, as in Dom Juan, Molière uses prose rather than the “vers noble,” the twelve-syllable French alexandrine. Prose is associated with farces. As a comédie-ballet, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme is a mixed genre and perhaps best described as a genre of its own. Molière’s first comédie-ballet was Les Fâcheux, a three-act verse play by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, dit Molière, words/lyrics, Giambattista Lulli, dit Jean-Baptiste Lully, choreography, and composer Pierre Beauchamp. It was performed in 1861 at Vaux-le-Vicomte, Nicolas Fouquet‘s castle. The Bourgeois Gentilhomme was written by Molière, its music composed Jean-Baptiste Lully. Its choreographer was Pierre Beauchamp, the sets were by Carlo Vigarani and the costumes were done by the chevalier d’Arvieux. (See Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Wiki2.org)

The Plot & Bourgeoisie

The Bourgeois Gentilhomme‘s plot is the usual blondin-berne-barbon (the young lover fools the old man), which is the Shakespearean “all’s well that ends well.” The young lovers are Cléonte and Lucile, Monsieur Jourdain’s daughter. Monsieur Jourdain is a blocking-character in that he is attempting to elevate himself from bourgeoisie to aristocratie and wants his daughter to marry an aristocrat. He is a domestic tyrant.

As you may recall, in 17th-century France, offices could be bought. In 1631, under Louis XIII, Molière’s father, Jean Poquelin, bought an office, “valet de chambre ordinaire et tapissier du roi” (valet of the King’s chamber and keeper of carpets and upholstery). It could have provided Molière with a comfortable living, had he not wanted to be a playwright and an actor. In other words, the sale of offices allowed members of the Third Estate to rise to prominence. Bourgeois, rich and powerful, were at court.

Monsieur Jourdain, our barbon, is not a gentilhomme; he is an enriched bourgeois attempting to become a gentilhomme. The title of Molière’s play is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, which differs little from grand seigneur méchant homme, in Dom Juan and, in The Misanthrope, the atrabilaire amoureux,[1] Alceste’s contrariness. Monsieur Jourdain could be described as a senex iratus, an alazṓn. The alazṓn, whether a miles gloriosus or a senex iratus is defined as “an impostor that sees himself as greater than he actually is.” Monsieur Jourdain is not a faux dévôt. He is a social climber.

A Turquerie

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme opposes the young lovers, Lucile and Cléonte, and Monsieur Jourdain, the alazṓn. Monsieur Jourdain wants his daughter to marry an aristocrat, but Covielle, Cléonte’s laquais, and Cléonte devise une comédie, a play within a play,[2] featuring fashionable Turks, une turquerie,[3] during which Lucile accepts to marry Cléonte, disguised as the son of the Grand Turc. Lucile realizes that the son of the Grand Turc is Cléonte in disguise, but mere appearances easily fool Monsieur Jourdain who has been made a Mamamouchi.

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Molière, page
  • Vaux-le-Vicomte, Nicolas Fouquet’s Rise and Fall (20 August 2013)
  • Abbé Sieyès’ “The Third Estate” (6 August 2018)

Sources and Resources

  • Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme is a toutmoliere.net publication
  • The Middle-Class Gentleman is a Wikisource publication
    translated by Philip Dwight Jones

___________________

[1] Atrabilious (See Four Temperaments, Wiki2.org)

[2] Georges Forestier has proposed a new term: théâtre dans le théâtre. See Georges Forestier, Le Théâtre dans le Théâtre (Genève: Droz, 1996), pp. 9- 10.

[3] In 1536, an alliance was established between Francis I of France and Suleiman the Magnificent. (See Franco-Ottoman Alliance, Wiki2.org).
Montesquieu wrote his Persian Letters (Lettres persanes) in 1721.
Rameau composed his Indes galantes, an Opéra-Ballet in 1735. One of its entrées is Le Turc généreux.

Our dramatis personæ is:

Monsieur Jourdain, bourgeois.
Madame Jourdain, his wife.
Lucile, their daughter.
Nicole, maid.
Cléonte, suitor of Lucile.
Covielle, Cléonte’s valet.
Dorante, Count, suitor of Dorimène.
Dorimène, Marchioness.
Music Master.
Pupil of the Music Master.
Dancing Master.
Fencing Master.
Master of Philosophy.
Tailor.
Tailor’s apprentice.
Two lackeys.
Many male and female musicians, instrumentalists, dancers, cooks,
tailor’s apprentices, and others necessary for the interludes.

The scene is Monsieur Jourdain’s house in Paris.

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
Molière-Lully
Le Poème Harmonique

Pierre_Mignard_-_Portrait_de_Jean-Baptiste_Poquelin_dit_Molière_(1622-1673)_-_Google_Art_Project_(cropped) (2)

Portrait of Molière by Pierre Mignard (ca. 1658) (Wiki2.org)

© Micheline Walker
15 March 2019
WordPress

 

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Les Indes galantes & Le Bourgeois gentilhomme: “turqueries”

30 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in History, Literature, Music

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Jean-Batiste de Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Les Indes galantes, Molière, Montesquieu, Nations, Persian ambassadors, Pierre Beauchamp

Louis XIV invites Molière to share his supper – an unfounded Romantic anecdote, illustrated in an 1863 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Rameau’s Les Indes galantes

There are a few points I should discuss before we leave behind Jean-Philippe Rameau‘s  Les Indes galantes.

Les Nations

As you know, Jean-Philippe Rameau was inspired to write Les Indes galantes after watching Amerindians dance.  However, after the Prologue, Rameau’s Indes galantes features

  • a gracious Turk, “un Turc généreux”
  • Incas from Peru, and
  • Persians ((Flowers – Persian Feast), “Les Fleurs – Fête persane”

In fact, only the final of the four acts is linked directly to Amerindians.  Moreover, that fourth entrée was composed later than the first three acts.  It is called

  • New Act – Les Sauvages (written [Louis Fuzelier] and composed [Rameau] a little later)

Needless to say, this piqued my curiosity.  I also noticed the frequent use of the word “nations” in the music literature of the time, beginning with the reign of Louis XIV or as of Jean-Baptiste Lully.  The final ballet constituting the Bourgeois gentilhomme is named “Ballets des Nations.”  Rameau was Lully’s successor.

For instance, Marin Marais wrote a Suitte [sic] d’un goût [taste] étranger [foreign] in 1717, performed by Jorgi Savall who has been restoring music of the 17th and 18th century.  Jorgi Savall provided the music for the film Tous les matins du monde (Every morning in the world).  Why say du monde (of the world)?

Savall’s ensemble, called the Concert des nations, has also recorded music by Rameau.   It could be that the word had a slightly different connotation, that it simply meant “d’un goût étranger” as in Marin Marais‘s Suitte d’un goût étranger. For six months Marin Marais was a student of Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe whose story is told in Tous les matins du monde.

Sifting through the music of François Couperin (10 November 1668 – 11 September 1733), I noted that François Couperin[i] wrote a piece entitled Les Nations.  I doubt that in the 17th- and 18th century France, the word nation had the same meaning as it does today.  It may have encompassed a wider territory that our current nations.  Moreover, Amerindians consisted of nations.

A Woman in Turkish Dress, pastel on parchment, by Jean-Étienne Liotard  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Orientalism or “Turquerie”

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Byzantine Empire had fallen into the hands of Ottoman Turks in the middle of the fifteenth century (1453).  As a result, Byzantine scholars (Greek culture) fled to Western Europe prompting a Renaissance, the Renaissance.  However, if, on the one hand, the fall of the Byzantine Empire had a great impact on Western Europe, the revival of Greek culture, on the other hand, citizens of the now huge Ottoman Empire travelled north creating a taste for all things oriental, but also threatening European cities.

The Orient was not new to Europeans but Orientalism reached an apex in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  Orientalism in fashion became known as “turquerie” and, in its early days, “turquerie” included Persia, which may confer a degree of unity to Les Indes galantes’ various entrées.  Matters did not change until the publication, in 1721, of Montesquieu‘s Persian Letters (Lettres persanes).

Persian Ambassadors at the Court of Louis XIV, studio of Antoine Coypel, c. 1715 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Montesquieu‘s[i] Persian Letters were written after the visit, at the court of France, of ambassador Mohammed Reza Beg or Mehemet Riza Beg.  In 1715, the year Louis XIV died, he was visited by Persian ambassador Mohammed Riza Beg who established an embassy in Marseilles.  Montesquieu’s Lettres Persanes were written and published after the ambassador and his entourage spent several months at the court of Louis XIV.

Turqueries à la Molière and Lully

However, the word “turquerie” has two meanings.  The first, as we have seen, is orientalism.  However, in Molière’s Bourgeois gentilhomme, a “turquerie”  is a play-within-a-play that fools Monsieur Jourdain, the senex iratus of the comedy, who is rich but untitled, into thinking he has been conferred a title, that of mamamouchi.  Cléonte, the young man who wishes to marry Lucile, who loves him, then asks for her hand in marriage dressed as the son of the Sultan of Turkey.  She resists until Cléonte succeeds in letting her know that he is wearing a disguise.  (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Act V, Scene 5)

Louis XIV was very fond of turqueries. The music was composed by Jean Baptiste Lully (Giovanni Battista Lulli; 28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687). The ballet was choreographed by Pierre Beauchamp. But the comedy was written by Molière (1622- 1673), one of France’s foremost dramatists ever.

« Le roi veut un ballet, et qu’il y ait une turquerie plaisante ; au poète, au musicien, aux danseurs de bâtir là-dessus un divertissement qui plaise au roi… »

“The king wants a ballet, and wants it to have a pleasant turquerie;  the poet, the musician and the dancers must therefore build from this ballet and turquerie entertainment that will please the king…”[ii]

Added to the turquerie, the fifth and final act of the Bourgeois gentilhomme (The Would-be Gentleman), is the Ballets des Nations.  It features Gascons, people from Gascony, Spaniards and Italians as well as a blend of persons from different classes.  So the idea of nation surfaces again.

In short, both the Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670) and Rameau’s Indes galantes are turqueries and illustrate the two kinds of turqueries, Orientalism and a deceitful play-within-a-play.  Each may in fact combine elements of both turqueries.

Related articles
  • Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Les Indes galantes” (michelinewalker.com)
  • William Christie: a Performance of “Les Indes galantes” (michelinewalker.com)
  • Rameau & Audubon: Birds of a Feather… (michelinewalker.com)
_________________________
 
[i]  Montesquieu’s full name is Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 1689 – 10 February 1755), but he is referred to as Montesquieu.  His most influential book is The Spirit of the Laws, De l’Esprit des Lois, published in Geneva in 1748.
 
[ii] Charles Mazouer, Trois comédies de Molière (Bordeaux: Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 2008), p. 17.
 
Portrait of Molière by Nicolas Mignard

Portrait of Molière by Nicolas Mignard (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Molière & Lully: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, 1670

© Micheline Walker
30 September 2012
WordPress
45.408358 -71.934658

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Europa

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,507 other subscribers

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Epiphany 2023
  • Pavarotti sings Schubert’s « Ave Maria »
  • Yves Montand chante “À Bicyclette”
  • Almost ready
  • Bicycles for Migrant Farm Workers
  • Tout Molière.net : parti …
  • Remembering Belaud
  • Monet’s Magpie
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws in Quebec, 2
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws

Archives

Calendar

February 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  
« Jan    

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • WordPress.org

micheline.walker@videotron.ca

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker

Social

Social

  • View belaud44’s profile on Facebook
  • View Follow @mouchette_02’s profile on Twitter
  • View Micheline Walker’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View belaud44’s profile on YouTube
  • View Miicheline Walker’s profile on Google+
  • View michelinewalker’s profile on WordPress.org

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker
Follow Micheline's Blog on WordPress.com

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

  • Follow Following
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Join 2,475 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: