Tartuffe EN302: European Theatre - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Tartuffe

EN302: European TheatreSlide2

Molière’s life

1622:

Born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, to a

wealthy middle-class family in Paris

c. 1643:

Joined Madeline

Béjart

and 8 others to found the

Illustre

Théâtre

1645-58:

Toured France with the

Illustre

Théâtre

1658:

Returned to Paris under the protection of Monsieur, the brother of Louis XIV; performed for the King and granted a share of the Petit Bourbon theatre

1661:

Company rehoused in the

Palais

Royal

1664:

Tartuffe

performed in its 3-act version for the King at Versailles, and subsequently banned

1667:

One performance of

L’Imposteur

(revised version of

Tartuffe

), also banned

1669:

Ban on

Tartuffe

finally lifted; became one of Molière’s most popular plays both during and after his life

1673:

Molière’s deathSlide3

Louis XIV (1638-1715)

Patron of the arts

Louis XIV was godfather to Molière’s son

Louis’ ambiguous position on ban:

‘Although the suppression of this work was a severe blow, nevertheless my misfortune was softened by your Majesty’s explanation of this matter; and I believed, Sire, that you relieved me of all grounds for complaint by your kindness in saying that your Majesty found nothing to criticize in the play that you forbade me to present in public.’ (Molière, First Petition, August 1664)

Molière’s

company

became

‘la Troupe du Roi’ in 1665;

Molière became responsible for court entertainmentsSlide4

The Fronde

Louis XIV crowned at the age of 4 in 1643; did not assume full personal power until 1660

State ruled in the interim by the queen mother, Anne of Austria, and her chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin.

Battles between provincial legislatures and the aristocracy, 1648-53

Victory in these wars established the monarchy as absolute and autocratic

Orgon

and the

Fronde

: ‘In the recent disturbances, he may have been / Reliable, brave, loyal to the Crown, / But now he’s fallen for Tartuffe…’ (p. 9)Slide5

Theatrical context

Theatre buildings:

Usually former tennis courts

Only one purpose-built theatre in all France in 1640s: the

Hôtel

de Bourgogne, built in 1548 for religious drama.

Molière’s theatre from 1661: the

Palais

-Royal…Slide6

The Palais-Royal

Physical features:

parterre

amphithéâtre

two galleries of 17 boxes on three sides (third gallery constructed in 1671)

scenic space

audience on stage (highly priced, prestigious)

Audience capacity:

40 on stage

136 in first-row boxes

120 in

amphithéâtre

136 in second-row boxes

136 in third-row boxes (after 1671)

500 in the

parterreSlide7
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Slide11

Molière’s theatre

Organisation of Molière’s theatre company:

all shareholders

largely democratic, though not everyone had an equal number of shares

financial and programming decisions made communally

sexual equality (for the most part)

older female roles like Mme

Pernelle

played by men

no director as such, but Molière probably took chargeSlide12

Molière’s style

Alexandrines

: heightened, artificial

Stock types

Intertextual casting

Molière specialised in the role of

Sganarelle

, a character who is ‘prone to self-delusion’ and often tries to impose his deluded world-view on those around him (Howarth 1995: 235); similar characters appear as:

Arnolphe

in

L’École

des femmes

(

The School for Wives

, 1662),

Orgon

in

Tartuffe

(1664),

Alceste

in

Le Misanthrope

(1666),

Harpagon

in

L’Avare

(

The Miser

, 1668),

Monsieur

Jordain

in

Le Bourgeois

gentilhomme

(

The Would-be Nobleman

, 1670),

Argan

in

Le

Malade

imaginaire

(

The Imaginary Invalid

, 1673). Slide13

Molière as actor

A contemporary spectator describing Molière as

Sganarelle

:

‘You never heard such a simpleton, or saw such a foolish face; and one doesn’t know whether to admire the author more for the way he has written the play, or the player for the way he acts it. There was never an actor with such control over his facial expression…’

(La

Neufvillenaine

,

Arguments

,

quoted

in Molière,

Oeuvres

,

ed

.

Despois

&

Mesnard

, II, p. 189)Slide14

Commedia dell’arte

Italian

commedia

dell’arte

companies performed in Paris from 1570s onwards.

Popular farce at the

Hôtel

de Bourgogne:

Turlupin

, the braggart (Henri Legrand)

Gros

-Guillaume, the fat man (Robert Guerin)

Gaultier-Garguille

, the old man (

Hugues

Guéru

)

Tiberio

Fiorilli

(Scaramouche) and his company were resident in Paris 1639-48 and then again from 1660 (as the Troupe de la

Comédie

Italienne

) at the

Palais

-Royal, which they shared with Molière.

From the

commedia

dell’arte

, Molière learned ‘how to improvise on stock situations according to the nature of each audience; like them he often performed with a mask or floured face’ (

Maland

1970: 173)Slide15

Abraham Bosse,

Comedians at the theatre of Hotel de Bourgogne,

c. 1634

:

Turlupin,

Gaultier-Garguille & Gros-Guillaume

Slide16

Italian and French Comedians Playing in Farces

, 1670 (detail)Slide17

Neo-classical comedy

Conventions:

contemporary bourgeois setting

family focus (rather than historical / heroic)

young love vs. parental opposition

Pierre Corneille: comedy as ‘a portrait of the manners and conversation of persons of good breeding’:

‘The exclusion of what we should call genuinely “comic” material from this definition was entirely in keeping with the firm distinction between comedy and farce established by the Renaissance theorists, for whom the imitation of life, not the arousing of laughter, was to be the comic dramatist’s goal.’ (Howarth 1995: 233)Slide18

Molière on comedy

La Critique de L’École des femmes

(1663):

URANIE.

… Tragedy, no doubt, is something grand when it is rightly handled ; but comedy has many charms; and I think ’tis no less difficult to write than tragedy.

DORANTE.

You are right,

madame

; and as for difficulty, you would not be wrong if you should add a little to the scale of comedy. I think myself ’tis easier to be grand over grand sentiments, brave adverse fortune, challenge destiny, and hurl defiance at the gods than to exhibit in a proper spirit the absurdities of men and show their failings pleasantly upon the stage. … ’tis indeed a curious enterprise to make the honest public laugh. (Scene VII, p. 340) Slide19

Classical comic theory

Aristotle:

‘Comedy, as we have said, is an imitation of people who are worse than the average.’

His ideas were expanded upon by the 4

th

century AD philosopher

Evanthius

:

‘Comedy is a story treating of various habits and customs of public and private affairs, from which one may learn what is of use in life, on the one hand, and what must be avoided, on the other.’ (quoted in Palmer 1984: 30) Slide20

Molière as satirist

‘Whereas the duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them, I felt that, being in that profession, I could do no better than to attack, by ludicrous portrayals, the vices of my age.’ (Molière’s

First Petition

, August 1664)

Some of his satirical targets included:

French literary fashion (

Les

Précieuses

ridicules

),

courtiers (

Les

Fâcheux

),

middle-class patriarchs (

Sganarelle

,

L’École

des

maris

,

L’École

des femmes

),

scholars (

Le

Mariage

forcé

),

doctors (

L’Amour

médecin

)

even

his

own

audience (

La Critique de L’École des femmes

)Slide21

Tartuffe

as religious satire

Depicts an actual social phenomenon: the ‘lay director’

Religious/sexual

double

entendres

in Act 3: ‘May He [God] grant you all the joy that I, / His humble servant, also wish for you.’ (p. 42)

Even after he has shown his hand, Tartuffe uses language which is both sexually and religiously charged. The following is a parody of the

Salve Regina

:

Can’t you look kindly on this wretch?

Can’t you find it in your heart

To pour the balm of consolation

On your unworthy slave

Writhing in agony here at your feet?

Oh, you creature from Heaven,

Be the temple where I worship! (pp. 45-6)Slide22

Tartuffe

as religious satire

Perhaps this satire was precisely targeted:

Cléante

on religious hypocrites: ‘There’s a lot of them about’ (p. 17)

There is a possible reference to the Jesuit ‘direction of intention’ in the following lines: ‘scruples can be got rid of… There’s an established way / Of squaring bad actions with good intentions. I’ll teach you the theology.’ (p. 66)

More persuasive is Molière’s loaded use of the term ‘

cabale

’, both in the play (‘There are powerful cabals and cliques out there’, p. 76) and in his Second Petition (August 1667) – this word was widely used as a derogatory term for the

Compagnie

du Saint-

Sacrement

…Slide23

Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement

Compagnie

du Saint-

Sacrement

(Company of the Blessed Sacrament)

founded 1627

Catholic secret society

missionary

charitable

religious

police

nicknamed

la cabale des

dévôts

very powerful in 1664, declined by 1669

The

Président

de

Lamoignon

, who banned

Tartuffe

in 1664, was a member.

It was also he who had given the order to burn alive the heretical writer Simon Morin, along with all his books, in 1663. Slide24

Lost versions of the play

First performance at Versailles on May 12,1664:

only three acts (possibly the current Acts I, III and IV)

Mariane

and

Valère’s

plot may not have been so developed (or even present) in this version of the play

well-received by Louis XIV

Second version performed in Paris on August 5, 1667:

five acts

renamed

Panulphe

, or

L’Imposteur

impostor no longer dressed as a religious man

banned after just one performance

Final version performed 5 February 1669 Slide25

Tartuffe

as satire

Molière’s ‘Preface’ to

Tartuffe

(23 March 1669) describes the play as ‘a skilful poem which, by agreeable lessons, reprimands men’s defects’:

‘If the mission of comedy is to correct men’s vices, I fail to see why some should be privileged. In the State, this one is of an importance much more dangerous than all the others; and we have seen that the theatre is a great force for correction.’

‘It is a great blow to vice to expose it to everyone’s laughter. We can easily stand being reprehended, but we cannot stand being mocked. We are willing to be wicked, but we will not be ridiculous.’ Slide26

Henri Bergson

French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) published his influential essay ‘Laughter’ in 1900.

In it, he argued that humour arises from ‘automatism’ and ‘inelasticity’ in characters.

‘In laughter we always find an

unavowed

intention to humiliate, and consequently correct our neighbour.’ (

Sypher

1956: 148)Slide27

Orgon’s inelasticity

ORGON.

…my own brother, children, mother, wife,

Could die, I wouldn’t lose a moment’s sleep.

CLÉANTE.

How very human. (p. 14)

Orgon

as machine:

‘And Tartuffe? … Poor man!’

Dorine’s

asides and

Orgon’s

mechanical response to them in Act 2

Orgon’s

alternated lines to

Damis

and Tartuffe in Act 3

His response upon discovering the truth

Damis

is similarly mechanical – he ruins

Elmire’s

plan, and almost gets into serious trouble at the end

Mme.

Pernelle

(significant that she was played by a male actor?)Slide28

Tartuffe

as farce

Structure and

kinaesthetics

Careful building of hints

Careful signposting of key plot elements (e.g. hiding place,

Mariane’s

engagement)

Building of pace:

Physical image of the besieged family

Act 5’s entrances and exitsSlide29

Tartuffe

’s structure

Constant raising of the stakes:

Orgon

orders

Mariane

to marry Tartuffe (Act 2)

Orgon

brings forward

Mariane’s

proposed marriage to ‘today’ (Act 3)

Orgon

disinherits

Damis

(Act 3)

Orgon

resolves to put the deeds to the house in Tartuffe’s name ‘today’ (end of Act 3)

As

Orgon

realises Tartuffe’s true nature, Tartuffe orders him out of the house and threatens reprisal (Act 4)

The play confirms the existence and contents of

Orgon’s

strong-box (Act 5)

M. Loyal arrives to evict the family (Act 5)

Valère

arrives with news that

Orgon

is ‘in mortal danger’ and urges him to flee (Act 5)

Tartuffe arrives to arrest

Orgon

(Act 5)Slide30

The ending

Given that the play is so brilliantly structured in terms of set-up and pay-off in many other respects, why is no mention made of the crucially-important strong-box before Act 5?

Is the final act implausible?

(Do each of the last three acts play with implausible climaxes?)

How do we read the play’s

deus

(or

rex

)

ex

machina

?

‘We live in an enlightened age. Our King,

Who reads us like a book, hates any fraud; […]

To make sure that his judgement’s really fair,

He gathers in the facts till they’re complete. […]

His expert eyes weren’t fooled; they straightaway

Saw the hideous face behind the mask.’ (p. 84)Slide31

Interpreting behaviour

Other characters are impostors of sorts:

Elmire

and

Dorine

feign attitudes which are not their own for strategic reasons;

M.

Loyal’s

discourse is radically at odds with his purpose;

Mariane

and

Valère

waste time and emotional energy masking their true feelings for one another in Act 2 (while

Dorine

watches with incredulous amusement);

Even

Cléante

advises deception (‘You were rash to tackle him head on; / More roundabout methods were needed’; p. 72);

Valère

is the one character in the play to prove his sincerity by his

actions

(this is emphasised by the play’s final line).Slide32

Interpreting behaviour

Tartuffe tells the truth in order to deceive:

‘Yes, brother, I am evil, guilty, / A miserable sinner, full of iniquity, / The vilest wretch that ever trod this earth; / Every second of my criminal life is steeped in filth…’ (p. 49)

‘Ah, the pain I suffer / When people try to blacken my name’ (p. 52)

‘They want you to doubt me’ (p. 53)Slide33

Interpreting behaviour

Cléante

as

raisonneur

‘I can tell truth from make-believe’ (p. 16)

‘The very language of

Cléante’s

assertion that he can ‘du faux avec le

vrai

faire la

différence

’ (354) recalls one of the most influential books of the century, Descartes’

Discours

de la

Méthode

(1637) … In the first paragraph of his

Discours

Descartes assumes that men are all equally endowed by nature with a common sense which enables them to ‘

distinguer

le

vrai

d’avec

le faux’.’ (Gaston Hall 1976: 21)

Cléante

advises

Orgon

to ‘See the real face behind the mask’ (p. 16) and to ‘Learn to distinguish between virtue, / Real and feigned’ (p. 72).

How easy is this?Slide34

Interpreting behaviour

Dorine

speaks scathingly of ‘professional prudery’ (p. 8):

Those who live in the most fragile glass-houses

Always cast the first stone…

They paint people as black as they can

To camouflage their own activities,

Put up smoke-screens, play the innocent,

Hoping to deflect the criticism

Coming their way. (p. 7)

Molière accuses his own audience of this in

La Critique de L’École des femmes

:

URANIE.

I know nothing so ridiculous as this super-sensitive virtue which finds evil everywhere, supposes criminal meaning in the most innocent words, and takes offence at shadows. (Scene III, p. 313) Slide35

Interpreting behaviour

Elsewhere in

La Critique

, Molière’s

raisonneur

Dorante

praises audience members who judge a play ‘by its effect on them, – not by blind prejudice, or silly complaisance, or foolish prudery.’ (Scene VI, p. 323-4)

La Critique

goes on:

URANIE.

All those ridiculous pictures which the stage presents should be regarded without prejudice by every one. They are public mirrors, in which we never ought to show we see ourselves; to be so scandalized at such reproofs is openly confessing our defects. (Scene VII, p. 335) Slide36

References

Bergson, H. (1900) ‘Laughter’, in

Sypher

, W. (1956)

Comedy

, New York: Doubleday Anchor, 59-190.

Gaston Hall, H. (1976)

Molière: Tartuffe

, Studies in French Literature, London: Edward Arnold.

Howarth, William D. (1995) ‘French Renaissance and Neo-Classical Theatre’ in John Russell Brown [ed.]

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Theatre

, Oxford: OUP, pp. 220-51.

Maland

, David (1970)

Culture & Society in Seventeenth-Century France

, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Molière (1663)

La Critique de L’École des Femmes

in

Molière

,

trans

.

Katharine Prescott

Wormeley

, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1897, Vol. VI: pp. 299-357.

Norman, Larry F. (2006) ‘Molière as satirist’ in David Bradby & Andrew Calder [

eds

]

The Cambridge Companion to Molière

, Cambridge: CUP, pp. 57-70.

Palmer, D. J [ed.] (1984)

Comedy: Developments in Criticism

, London: Macmillan.

Williford

, Christa (2006)

Playhouses of 17th-Century Paris

,

http://people.brynmawr.edu/cwillifo/pscp/index.htm