FRENCH THEATRE

The Golden Age of French Theatre:

The Reign of Louis 14 (1643-1715)

Had not Louis, as his father before him, adored and supported the theatre, which was denigrated by the powerful French clergy, it would surely not have flourished as it did to produce such an array of luminaries. (Note: a French actor was automatically excommunicated by the Church and refused a Christian burial.)

Two Greatest Dramatists of the Golden Age of French Theatre:

1. Racine (1639-1699) "Master of French Tragedy" - Jean Baptiste Racine was a hot-tempered genius who alienated most of his contemporaries, including the dramatists Corneille and Moliere, Racine is known for his psychological dramas. He was a gifted classical scholar, and his dramas are renditions or "renovations" of Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus, but with added psychological depth. His greatest creations are his female characters, in such tragedies as Iphigenia and Phaedra. Racine was known as a Neoclassical purists, following with precision the rules as presented by Aristotle in the Poetics. One of the great critical debates during the Neoclassical period was over who was the premier tragedian: Shakespeare, Corneille, or Racine.

2. Moliere, Jean Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673), "Comedien Extraordinaire"

Considering Moliere came from a well-to-do middle class background (his father was a prosperous upholster and member of the King's household), considering the scurrilous reputation of actors and the vitreous attitude towards them by the Church, and considering Jean Baptiste's Jesuit schooling, it is amazing that Moliere chose to become an actor.

Perhaps the beautiful Madeline Bejart had some influence on his decision. Whatever the case, in 1643, Jean Baptiste Poquelin left the comforts of home for the embraces of Mlle. Bejart and the “hard knocks” life of the little troop of actors of the Illustre Theatre. For 12 years Moliere led a "gypsy" life: refining his acting and directing skills, and eventually writing farces in the style of the commedia dell'arte (Italian low-life comedy with its stock characters, buffoonery and slapstick). Having refined his craft and settling down in Paris, he attracted the attention and, most important, the patronage of Louis XIV, serving him and eventually becoming the arranger of royal entertainment, a 17^th century royal impresario.

His greatest comedies are in the vein of Aristophanes, who sought to remediate human weakness and foibles through laughter (comedy was, in other words, "didactic"). All of Moliere's major works were didactic:

1) Don Juan attacked the unscrupulous courtier;

2) The Misanthrope was a vehicle for Moliere's rationalistic philosophy of "good sense" and "moderation";

3) The Miser attacked human avarice and parental authority;

4) Tartuffe exposed the religious hypocrite, which didn't go very far to please the corrupt 17^th-century Church.

The only playwright of his day to rival Moliere's comedic talent was Shakespeare (1564-1616), who like his French counterpart was both a superb businessman and successful actor/director/writer. However, unlike Shakespeare, Moliere had no talent for tragedy, and his comic proclivities were more in the vein of a Ben Jonson, whose "comedy of humours" featured characters (type or stock characters) with single dominant characteristics, such as avarice, lechery, parsimony, naivete, etc.

All of Moliere's work caused an uproar, church censure, and sometimes even riots. Tartuffe was twice rewritten after partial presentations, after several official closings and censure by the clergy, and was at last performed "in total" more than five years after the first attempt to perform the play.

Moliere's life was filled with irony and contradiction. He never married his great love Madeline Bejart but did marry at age 40 her little sister Armande Bejart, 20 years his junior. He felt betrayed by Louis, after serving him for years, when royal patronage began to wane. Finally, true to the adage "the show must go on," Moliere was playing a hypochondriac in his last play February 17, 1673, when he collapsed on stage, hemorrhaging from consumptive lungs. He recovered after a few minutes, finished the play, and died a few hours later. He was buried in the cemetery (though in the dead of night for fear of Church censure), only because of the influence of the King; Moliere would continue to be reviled by the Church, whom he had forever alienated with his brilliant play, Tartuffe.

Tartuffe

1.Moliere meant the play to be read as a "portrait of a religious hypocrite." Thus, he associates with this theme the “mask motif,” a common Neoclassical theme in the literature.

2. How does the play reflect neoclassical aesthetic ideas discussed in class? 3. What Neoclassical philosophic ideas does the play reflect?

4. What characters are types in order to allow Moliere's broad satire (307)?

a) Mmd. Pernelle and her son Orgon = religious fanatics hoodwinked by the charlatan Tartuffe--312, Orgon = deluded dupe;

b) Dorine = the sharp, witty and wise servant—310;

c) Mariane and Valere = the young love interest in the play;

d) Cleante and Elmire = voices of reason;

e) Tartuffe = the religious hypocrite and the charlatan.

Of all these characters, who is Moliere’s “center of intelligence”?

5. Why does Moliere wait so long for Tartuffe's entrance?

6. What motifs do you find in the play?

a) "Mask" (315)

b) Theatre's parallel to Society

c) Moderation or the "Golden Mean"

d) Moliere's distrust of patriarchal power, (322)

7. Why does Dorine think that Elmire would be best to handle the Tartuffe problem? On page 332, Elmire gets Tartuffe into a position where she can control him; how? Who foils the plan? How does Orgon take the news that Tartuffe made a "pass" at his wife?

8. What does Orgon offer Tartuffe in order to seal his devotion? How does Mariane react to the news? (340)

9. How do they finally trap the old "lech" and religious hypocrite? (345)

10. Tartuffe is a wily sensualist; what else does he hold over the head of Orgon to control his benefactor?

11. Who saves the day, and how is this particularly "politically correct" on

the part of Moliere? (355)

12. In an age of extraordinary misogyny, was Moliere a misogynist?