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The Petit Marquis, the Jeune Blondin, and the Monarch: Issues in Appropriate Costuming for Molière's Dom Juan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Stephen V. Dock
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Extract

Critics have long attested to the various irregularities of Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre, one of Molière's most unusual plays. In its time, according to W. D. Howarth, it was regarded as “a curious freak.” Numerous mysteries surround the creation and production of Dom Juan. Molière wrote it to fill in a gap created by the recent interdiction of Le Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur at a time when he needed a successful play to dress up a somewhat limited and worn-out repertory. In searching for a success, it was natural that Molière should choose the highly popular Don Juan theme. Following the lead of Tirso de Molina in Spain and of Cicognini and Giliberto in Italy, the French were taking their turn: Dorimon's Le Festin de pierre ou le Fils criminel premiered in Lyon in 1658; the same year the Italian actors mounted their own commedia dell'arte version called Il convitato di pietra in Paris in the theatre of the Petit Bourbon which they shared with Molière; and the actor Villiers's version, which had the same title as Dorimon's, premiered at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1659. It is quite possible that all three played concurrently in Paris in the early 1660s, and Molière and his actors may well have gone to see their competitors' renditions.

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Articles
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 30 , Issue 1-2 , May 1989 , pp. 1 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1989

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References

Notes

1 Dom Juan has been criticized for not adhering to the unities of time and place (de BéVotte, Georges Gendarme, La Légende de Dom Juan, son évolution dans la littérature des origines au romantisme[Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1970], 172–173Google Scholar; Michaut, Gustave, Les Luttes de Moliére [Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1925], 147Google Scholar; and Pelous, J.-M., “Les Problemes du temps dans le Dom Juan de Molière,” La Revue des sciences Humaines 152 [1973]: 555–63)Google Scholar. René Pintard proves that Molièere's predecessors Dorimon and Villiers clumsily disregarded the unities of time and place and demonstrates that Molière modified his play to fit into a thirty-six hour framework, skillfully incorporating five different sets (“Temps et lieux dans le Dom Juan de Molière” in Studi in onore di Italo Siciliano [Florence: Olschki, Leo S. Editore, 1966], 997–1006Google Scholar. Nonetheless, critics seem to be generally uncomfortable with Molière's Dom Juan. Hubert, Judd (Molière and the Comedy of Intellect [Berkeley and Los Angeles: California UP, 1962], 113–117)Google Scholar believes that, uncharacteristically, “Molière appears to have strung together a certain number of tableaux” and states that Molière has neglected the unity of place “which changes more frequently than in almost any other play of the period”; Lawrence, Francis (“Dom Juan and the Manifest God: Molière's Antitragic Hero,” PMLA 93 [1978]: 86)CrossRefGoogle Scholar informs us that critics of Molière “have been most uncomfortable with his blend of farce and the merveilleux”; and James Doolittle's opinion appears quite negative: “The consensus appears to be that Dom Juan as a whole is at best uneven in quality and taste, faulty in construction and characterization, questionable, if not reprehensible in doctrine, brilliant and mediocre, limpid and problematical” (“The Humanity of Molière's Dom Juan,” PMLA 68 [1953]: 509)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Molière, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Dom Juan ou le festin de pierre, ed. Howarth, W. D. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1968), viiiGoogle Scholar.

3 Molière, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Ouvres completes, ed. Couton, Georges, 2 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, 1971, II: 13Google Scholar, hereafter “Couton, OC.” All citations of Molière's Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre will come from the second volume of this edition and will be indicated by act (capital Roman numeral) scene (small Roman numeral) and page number (Arabic numeral); all references to Couton's critical commentary will be identified by volume (capital Roman numeral) followed by a colon, followed by page number.

4 Jurgens, Madeleine and Maxfield-Miller, Elizabeth, Cent Ans de Recherches sur Molíere, sur sa famille, et sur les comédiens de sa troupe (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1963), 156Google Scholar.

5 See Herzel, Roger, “The Scenery for the Original Production of Dom Juan,” in The Age of Theatre in France, ed. Trott, David and Boursier, Nicole (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Academic Printing and Publishing, 1988), 247–255Google Scholar.

6 Varlet, Charles, de La Grange, sieur, Extraict des Receptes et des affaires de la Comédie depuis Pasques de l'année 1659 apartenant au S' De La Grange l'un des Comédiens du Roi, rpt. ed. Chevalley, Sylvie (Geneva: Editions Minkoff, 1972), 73–74Google Scholar.

7 Howarth, , Dom Juan xxxiiiGoogle Scholar.

8 Magnin, Charles, “Le Don [sic] Juan de Molière au Théâtre-Français,” La Revue des Deux Mondes 1 (1847): 423Google Scholar, dates the first revival of Molière's Dom Juan at 15 January 1844 at the Théâtre-Français (I'Odéon). Georges Couton (OC, II: 8) states that it was first revived at l'Odéon in 1841 (Despois, Eugène and Mesnard, Paul, editors of the Oeuvres de Molière [Paris: Hachette, 1895, 13 vols. series “Les Grands Ecrivains de la France,” hereafter “GEF” V, 54] specify 17 11 1841Google Scholar) and later at the Coméie-Française in 1847.

9 Couton, OC, II: 3, 5.

10 Ibid.: 1290. The 1683 Amsterdam edition is shorter in two places than Vivot's and La Grange's 1682 edition, leading Georges Couton to believe that the Amsterdam edition represents the oldest version of the text, one which Molière probably re-worked between 1665 and 1673.

11 Ibid.: 7.

12 Fournel, Victor, Les Contemporains de Molière, recueil de comédies, rares ou peu connues jouées de 1650 à 1680…(Paris: Librairie de Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1875), 323Google Scholar.

13 Ibid. All translations in this article are my own.

14 Chevalley, Registre de La Grange, 275, 327, 330, 334, 338, 341–342, 344, 346–347. It was put on sixteen times at the Hôtel Guénégaud, where Molière's former troupe had been joined with that of the Hôtel de Bourgogne by royal edict to form La Troupe Royale on August 25,1680 (op. cit. 400–401), and twice en visite to royal châteaux, once at Chambord and once at Versailles. One must remember that in substance and in length, Champmeslé's Les Fragments de Molière was essentially a curtainraiser and was always paired with more substantial comedies or tragedies. Thus paired, it brought in a total of 7,631 livres 5 sous, or an average of 477 livres per public performance.

15 Couton, OC, II: 4.

16 Gendarme de BéVotte, Légende, 236.

17 Chevalley, Registre de La Grange, 190.

18 Ibid., 190–192, 199, 201–202, 212–214, 217, 222, 225–226, 231, 236, 242–243, 248, 252–253, 256, 262–263, 266, 270–271, 276, 278, 282, 292–293, 298, 303, 317, 325, 328, 334, 344, 349, and 356. It brought in 32,850 livres 15 sous or a solid average of 608 livres 7 sous per performance. It required even more start-up money than Molière's play: on 26 February 1677, after the fourth performance, La Grange notes having paid out 1,700 livres in frais extraordinaires for scene painting, flats and carpentry (op. cit. 190).

19 Pizzari, Serafino, Le Mythe de Dom Juan et la comédie de Molière (Paris: Nizet, 1986), 75Google Scholar.

20 All references to Thomas Corneille's Le Festin de pierre will be to Thomas Guillain's 1683 Paris edition. The line count throughout is my own.

21 Furetière, Antoine (Dictionnaire universel, 3 vols. [La Haye and Rotterdam: Arount, Chez & Leers, Reiner, 1690, rpt. ed. Paris: Le Robert, 1978]Google Scholar, hereafter “Furetière, DU”) II, s. v. FAIT is very specific about the adjective fait referring to physical attributes: “Bien fait, mal fait, se dit de celuy qui a bonne ou mauvaise mine, qui est de belle ou de vilaine taille.”

22 “Dom Juan est-il comique?” in La Cohérence intérieure. Etudes sur la littérature française du XVIIe siècle présentées en hommage à Judd Hubert ed. Van Baelen, Jacqueline and Rubin, David L. (Paris: Jean-Michel Place, 1977), 34Google Scholar.

23 “The Issues of Nobility and Identity in Dom Juan and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme,” French Review 59 (February 1986): 403–404Google Scholar.

24 Mongrédien, Georges, La Vie Quotidienne sous Louis XIV (Paris: Hachette, 1948), 67Google Scholar.

25 Couton, , OC, I: 1250, n. 2Google Scholar.

26 The Sun King (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), 49Google Scholar.

27 de Marly, Diana, Louis XIV & Versailles (London: B. T. Batsford, 1987), 61–63Google Scholar.

28 Cent Ans, 712.

29 Diana de Marly, Louis XIV & Versailles, 23. Flame was also the color of Louis XIV's livery (Couton, OC, I: 752).

30 Mongrédien (La Vie quotidienne, 78–79) describes male courtiers' decorations thus: “From the shoulders to the shoes, the costume is decorated with lace canons and with galands, multicolored clusters of ribbons which are attached to the shoulder, the sleeve, the garter and which give to our dandies a ridiculous ruffled look. With the drawstrings and cords, these canons and ribbon clusters constitute a group of fallals called ‘la petite-oie’” (my translation). Cf. Diana de Marly, Louis XIV & Versailles, 22–23.

31 Couton, OC, I: 631–632. In L'Impromptu de Versailles, Molière reminds La Grange that the stylish marquis combs his wig in public while humming a tune (“Souvenez-vous de venir, comme je vous ai dit, là, avec cet air qu'on nomme le bel air, peignant votre perruque et grondant une petite chanson entre vos dents.” (I, iii, p. 685)

32 Furetière, DU, II. s. v. QUALITE. Done Elvire's servant Gusman refers to Dom Juan not just as “un homme de qualité” but as “un homme de sa qualité” (my emphasis).

33 Diana de Marly, Louis XIV & Versailles, 37.

34 Diana de Marly informs us that Philip IV essentially forbade the wearing of French fashions in Spain: “As France had been an enemy and a challenge to Habsburg rule of Europe, Philip IV in 1623 had introduced his Capitulos de Reformacion and banned the French styles of huge lace collars, long hair, and clothes slashed and embroidered. In the Spanish empire all officials and courtiers had to wear a plain doublet and narrow knee breeches, and the special golilla collar of plain white linen stiffened in shellac, instead of immoderate ruffs.” (Louis XIV & Versailles, 22); on the same page of Marly's book, in illustration 8, we see a 1656 painting by Louis Testlin entitled “French Luxury Victorious over Spanish Pride” which contrasts the exuberant fashions of the French court with the terribly outmoded ones of the Spanish court.

35 Meyer, Daniel, L'Histoire du Roy (Paris: Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1980), 24–25Google Scholar, and Baschet, Jacques, Tapisseries de France (Paris: Nouvelles Editions Françaises, 1947), 51Google Scholar.

36 Diana de Marly (Ibid. 31) tells us that “Louis XIV was very vain about his dark blond hair and did not adopt a full perruque until 1672.” Mongrédien (La Vie quotidienne, 82) says that Louis XIV adopted a wig in 1673.

37 Gaines, James F., Social Structures in Molière's Theater (Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1984), 88–89Google Scholar.

38 Brody, Jules,“Dom Juan and Le Misanthrope, or The Ethics of Individualism in Molière,” PMLA 84 (1969): 564CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Gaines, Social Structures, 25.

40 Hubert, Intellect, 126.

41 Howarth, , Dom Juan, 95, n. 1507Google Scholar.

42 According to Krauss, Janine(Le Dom Juan de Molière: une libération[Paris: A. G. Nizet, 1978], 91)Google Scholar, fashion and good taste were the last designated domains of the nobles of Louis XIV's court.

43 Gaines, Social Structures, 109.

44 Ibid., 95–96.

45 Furetière, DU, II. s. v. GENTILHOMME: “A man of noble extraction who owes his nobility neither to his office [position] nor to Letters of the Prince.”

46 Gaines, Social Structures, 41–42.

47 Ibid. 39.

48 Brody, “The Ethics of Individualism in Molière”: 563.

49 Cent Ans, 569.

50 Couton, OC, II: 1299.

51 Dock, Stephen Varick, “Molière and Dress: The Seventeenth-Century Evidence of His Interest In Theatre Costuming and Contemporary Fashions,” diss., Vanderbilt University, 1979, 142, 142, 149Google Scholar.

52 Ibid., 105–106.

53 Arnavon, Jacques, Le Dom Juan de Molière (Copenhagen: Glydendal, 1968), 204Google Scholar.

54 Tobin, Ronald W., “Dom Juan, ou le principe du plaisir” in Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature 23 (1985): 27Google Scholar.

55 Dock, “Molière and Dress,” 112–115.

56 Because of their high cost, costumes were used as long as possible. Even Molière's Argan costume for Le Malade imaginaire which he had worn on stage the day of his death was altered to fit La Thorillière, the actor who replaced Molière in that role (see my article “La Reconstitution du costume porté par Molière dans Le Malade imaginaire,” La Revue d'Histore du Théâtre 30 [1978]: 127–131Google Scholar.

57 The adjectives propre and ajusté appear synonymous, signifying that a person is nattily and gallantly attired: Furetière, DU, III, s. v. PROPRE “se dit aussi de ce qui est bien net, bien orné” and Ibid. I, s. v. AJUSTE “signifie aussi, Orner, embellir, parer.”

58 GEF, V: 33–34.

59 Gendarme de Bévotte, Légende, 180.

60 Dreano, M., “Monsieur de Queriolet et Dom Juan,” Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France 62 (1962): 503–513Google Scholar. In his youth, Queriolet joined the Turkish army, chased women (he preferred virgins committed to God), provoked duels, killed a lord, wished his father dead, and gave alms frequently with the proviso that recipients not mention God. He was converted in 1636 and was ordained a priest in 1638. Queriolet's history must have been well known, for Louis XIV's mother Anne d'Autriche supposedly asked to speak with him, and in 1652 or 1653 Conti spoke with Queriolet in Bordeaux. Molière would presumably have known Queriolet's biography, Le grand pécheur converti, représenté dans les deux états de la vie de M. de Queriolet, prestre, conseiller au Parlement de Rennes, which first appeared in 1663.

61 Howarth, , Dom Juan, xxviii, n. 2Google Scholar.

62 Couton, OC, II: 22.

63 Troquet-Heine, Marie-Paule, “Le Dom Juan de Molière et le prince de Conti,” Dix-Septième Siècle 31 (1979): 408Google Scholar.

64 Krauss, , Le Dom Juan de Molière, 88, 90.Google Scholar

65 Arnavon, Le Dom Juan de Molière, 25.

66 “Molière juriste dans Dom Juan,” Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France 72 (1972): 950Google Scholar.

67 Cairncross, John, “Facteurs ‘réflexifs’ et faits répertoriables dans Molière,” Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature 25 (1986): 79Google Scholar.

68 GEF, V: 33.

69 Calder, Andrew, “Attitudes to Belief in Dorimon's Festin de pierre and Molière's Dom Juan,” Seventeenth Century French Studies 8 (1986): 112CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 Lawrence, “Manifest God”: 86, 88, 92.

71 Brody, “The Esthetics of Individualism in Molière”: 564.

72 Albanese, Ralph Jr., Le Dynamisme de la peur chez Molière: une analyse socio-culturelle de Dom Juan, Tartuffe et I'Ecole des femmes (University, Mississippi: Romance Monographs, 1976), 91Google Scholar.

73 Gaines, Social Structures, 90.

74 Krauss, Le Dom Juan de Molière, 87.

75 Brody, “The Esthetics of Individualism in Molière”: 566–68. Cf. Calder, “Attitudes to Belief”: 107.

76 Dom Juan, comédie en cinq actes de Molière. Spectacle de Patrice Chériau, étude de Gilles Sander. (Paris: Editions de L'Avant Scenè, 1976), 2Google Scholar.

77 Bernard, René, “‘Dom Juan’: super Huster” L'Express international (13 November 1987): 53Google Scholar.