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Relations Between French Plays and Ballets From 1581 to 1650
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
As there is abundant evidence, reliable though anonymous, that scholarly circles are not without special interest just now in the ballet, it may be the proper time to consider that form of art in some of its historical relations to the theater. A recent book by Henry Prunières, le Ballet de cour en France avant Benserade et Lully, gives us for the first time a thorough treatment of the ballet during one of its great periods, the first half of the seventeenth century. It is only now, therefore, that the relations which then existed between the ballets and the plays of France can be adequately discussed. A full treatment of the subject would require and may attract the labors of a doctor's dissertation, but the general relationships can be established from material we already possess and special cases can be pointed out in which one genre borrowed directly and indisputably from the other.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1916
References
1 Paris, 1914.
2 Cf. Prunières, op. cit., pp. 82 ff.
3 Ibid., p. 119.
4 Ibid., p. 124.
5 Ibid., pp. 125-128.
6 Cf. N. de Montreux, Arimène, Paris, 1597; Poulet, Clorinde, Paris, 1598; Hardy, Alphée; Troterel, Driade amoureuse, Rouen, 1606, Théocris, Rouen, 1610; Bouchet, Sidère, 1609.
7 Cf. Hardy, Méléagre, Procris, Alceste, etc.; Prévost, Œdipe, Hercule, Poitiers, 1614; Charles de L'Espine, Descente d'Orphée aux enfers, Louvain, 1614; Garnier, Bradamante; de Montreux, Isabelle, 1594; Bauter, Rodomontade, Mort de Roger, Paris, 1605; Billard, Genèvre, Paris, 1610; Aymard de Veins, Clorinde, Paris, 1599, Sophronie, Rouen, 1599.
8 Certainly in the Arimène of Nicolas de Montreux; perhaps in l'Heureux désespéré, by C. A. de C., Paris, 1613, and in the plays dealing with Hercules by Prévost and Mainfray.
9 Cf. Perrin, Sichem, Paris, 1589; Beliard, Charlot, Troyes, 1592; Bernier de la Brousse, Bergerie, Poitiers, 1618; Chrétien des Croix, Amantes, Rouen, 1613.
10 See Malherbe, letter 98; Lanson, Études sur les origines de la tragédie classique en France, Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France, 1903, pp. 177 ff.
11 According to d'Aubigné the Ballet comique de la reine cost 400,000 écus; cf. Prunières, op. cit., p. 89.
12 Except for Théophile's ballets, some of which were written as early as 1618 or 1619, according to La Chèvre, Le Procès du poète Théophile de Viau, Paris, Champion, 1909, vol. i, p. 29.
13 See Lanson, loc. cit., under the year 1622.
14 Cf. Rigal, Le Théâtre 
avant la période classique, Paris, 1901, p. 68.
15 See Gazette, 1634, p. 527 and de Beauchamps, Recherches, iii, p. 49.
16 See Gazette, 1636, p. 40. The play, called Cleoreste in the Gazette, is supposed to be Baro's Clorise.
17 See de Beauchamps, loc. cit.
18 See Marolles, Mémoires, edition of Amsterdam, 1755, p. 237.
19 See Soulié, Recherches sur Molière, p. 175, and Fournel, Contemporains de Molière, ii, p. 185.
20 Cf. his Registre, July 11 and 18, 1664.
21 Historiettes, edition of Monmerqué and Paris, v, p. 487.
22 Cf. Paul Lacroix, Ballets et mascarades de Cour, de Henri III à Louis XIV, Geneva and Turin, 1868-1870, i, p. 135.
23 Ibid., i, pp. 215 ff.
24 Ibid., ii, pp. 213, 303 ff.; iii, pp. 131, 250 ff.
25 Ibid., iii, p. 296.
26 Ibid., iv, pp. 155 ff.
27 Ibid., i, p. 193.
28 Ibid., iii, p. 245.
29 Ibid., iii, p. 257.
30 Ibid., vi, p. 127. The ballet was published without date and is dated by Lacroix “vers 1647.”
31 Ibid., iii, pp. 163, 164.
32 Cf. the speech of the inhabitants of northern lands in the same ballet and that of the Albanian in the Vallée de Misère (1633); Lacroix, op. cit., iv, pp. 253, 254.
33 Act iii, sc. iv.
34 Cf. Mahelot, Mémoire, lists for Lencosie and Clitophon.
35 Cf. Bibliothèque du théâtre françois, Dresden, 1768, i, p. 543.
36 Cf. Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France, 1915, p. 512.
37 See Lacroix, op. cit., iii, p. 87.
38 Ibid., iii, p. 59.
39 Ibid., v, p. 41.
40 Ibid., iii, p. 295 and iv, p. 277.
41 Privilege, March 13, 1635; acted as early as 1634. This play has been overlooked by students of the ballet.
42 Lacroix, op. cit., iv, p. 212.
43 In the play there is a reference by the dancers to a “moulin qui nous resiste.” Cf. the use of moulinets in a ballet of 1612; Lacroix, op. cit., i, p. 205.
44 Agarite, Act iii, sc. iii.
45 Lacroix, op. cit., ii, pp. 217, 218.
46 Lacroix, op. cit., iv, p. 161.
47 Ibid., v, pp. 243-261. Neither is dated. Lacroix suggests 1636 as the probable year of their appearing, but the verses of the first are by Bordier, most of whose writing for ballets was done towards 1625-1630, and there are references in it to the country's being at peace and to the presence of the queen-mother. As Marie de Medici fled from court in 1631 and as there was little peace from that year till 1659, which seems too late for Bordier, the most probable time is the fall of 1630, a date that satisfies all requirements. The second ballet may have been written much later.
48 Lacroix, op. cit., vi, pp. 51, 52.
49 Ibid., vi, pp. 161-176. Lacroix dates “vers 1646.” It must have appeared as late as the following year, for, among plays mentioned, Héraclius was first represented in December, 1646, or January, 1647, and the Intrigue des Filoux was given at Fontainebleau in October, 1647, probably for the first time; cf. Fournel, Théâtre Français au XVI et au XVII siècle, ii, p. 511. It is improbable that the ballet was written much later.
50 The introduction of these women and the existence of friendly relations between the men make it likely that Rotrou's Ménechmes, played about 1631, is intended rather than his Sosies, played in 1636, though the name is, of course, taken from the latter play.
51 D'Ouville, la Coiffeuse à la mode, privilege, 1646.
52 Scudéry, l'Illustre Bassa, printed in 1643.
53 Scarron, Jodelet ou le Maître 
, played about 1645.
54 Sallebray, la Belle Egyptienne, printed in 1642.
55 By Beys, played about 1635.
56 Benserade ou la Ménardière, la Pucelle d'Orléans, printed in 1642.
57 Le Vert, le Docteur amoureux, printed in 1638, and not, as Lacroix believes, the farce played by Molière on his return to Paris in 1658.
58 By Corneille, played in 1632.
59 By L'Estoille, played in 1647.
60 By Desmaretz, played in 1637.
61 Corneille, Héraclius, played in 1646 or 1647; Gillet de la Tessonnerie, Sigismond duc de Varsau printed in 1646; Corneille, Cinna, played in 1640; probably Corneille's Rodogune, played in 1645 or 1646, rather than that of Gilbert, printed in 1646, although the cruel queen-mother, for whom the verses of the ballet are intended, is named Cléopâtre in Corneille's play, Rodogune in Gilbert's, the author of the ballet either confusing her with her daughter-in-law or deliberately changing her name because another Cléopâtre was to follow; Corneille's Pompée rather than the Cléopâtre of Mairet, played in 1635, or the Cléopâtre of Benserade, probably played in 1635; Tristan, Marianne, played in 1636; Mairet, Sophonisbe, played in 1634.