Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T13:34:43.764Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - The master and the mirror: Scaramouche and Molière

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2007

David Bradby
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London
Andrew Calder
Affiliation:
University College London
Get access

Summary

Qualis erit? tanto docente magistro. What will he be like with such a great master? With hindsight it is difficult to know how seriously to take the question accompanying the frontispiece illustration to Le Boulanger de Chalussay's attack on Molière (fig. 7). Though Weyen's print has been described by the Italian theatre scholar Ferdinando Taviani as perhaps the only image we have of a seventeenth-century actor transmitting his knowledge to another, the same scholar reminds us that, whereas a similar image would not be out of place in an eastern context, or if it had depicted western clowns, acrobats or dancers, this one in particular is a satirical depiction of two actors, and therefore its overriding intention is the denigration of its target, Molière.

If this is so, then presumably the satire is intended to function by the association of the French actor/author with the great Neapolitan actor/clown Tiberio Fiorilli, studying his comic grimaces with the aid of a mirror and under the threat of an eel-skin whip. This chapter will examine the extent to which we can trace this relationship and the effect it has had upon both Molière's own acting and the acting of Molière in France and Italy at the close of the twentieth century. Starting with seventeenth-century eyewitness accounts, I will concentrate particularly upon the implications of Molière's relationship with Scaramouche for his jeu or style of playing. Developing positions put forward by H. Gaston Hall, I will consider the interplay between the French farce tradition, the Italian comic actors' reliance on physicality and the relationship of mask to seventeenth-century theories of physiognomy.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×