Maria Ines Aliverti_The Miniatures of Jean Louis ... - Acting Archives

AAR Acting Archives Essays Supplement 10 – April 2011
theories of this great actor, because he was the depositary of all those traditions which,
in the theatre, have the force of law. And also because, irrespective of his long
experience of all things concerning the stage, he had a good deal of common sense. 126
This man ‘who represented both the age of Louis XIV and of Louis XV’ and who
was blessed with a profound knowledge in theatre matters had been of great help to
Arnault in the early part of his career, when the young author had submitted to his
experienced readership the tragedy of Marius à Minturnes. It is likely that Arnault drew
on him for a great deal of information and details on the art of the actors belonging
to the previous generation.
As for the years between 1786 and 1820, a new series of recollections was
planned, as these new Souvenirs were announced in the ‘Avis de l’Éditeur’:
The author of these letters takes up the history of French theatre around 1760, and
leads it up to 1786. The gap between that age and our own is considerable; but
everything leads us to believe that it has been filled, and that the nephew has brought to
completion what the uncle had left to be done. We are searching for his letters,
determined to publish them as soon as we have them all in our hands. 127
But this new work never appeared. 128
The passage of generations is a decisive factor in the development of theatrical
culture, for both actors and audiences, even more so when what we are dealing with
is not texts that survive their authors and the generations that have seen their birth,
but actors whose art, even when it reaches perfection, is by nature ephemeral. The
ephemeral character of the art of acting was felt particularly intensely by the
generation of eighteenth-century actors who fought for and played a decisive role in
the recognition of the artistic status of their profession. Both the publication of
memoirs and the widespread use of portraiture, made possible by the development
of cheap engravings and the success of theatrical illustrations (see the case of the
publisher Bell) gave actors a means to survive in the memory of future generations.
As Pierre Frantz recalled in the preface to Talma’s Réflexions sur Lekain et sur l’art
théâtral, the great actor, more than any of his predecessors, with the notable exception
126 ‘M de la Porte jouissait au Théâtre Français d’une certaine considération; il y avait droit, non
seulement parce qu’il avait soufflé Lekain, mais encore parce qu’il avait été le confident des théories de
ce grand acteur, parce qu’il était dépositaire de toutes ces traditions qui, au théâtre, ont force de loi. Et
aussi parce qu’indépendamment d’une longue expérience de tout ce qui concerne la scène, il avait
beaucoup de bon sens’. [A. V. Arnault], Souvenirs d’un sexagénaire, p. 156. On de La Porte see the entire
passage on pp. 155-156.
127 ‘L’auteur de ces lettres prend l’histoire du théâtre français vers 1760, et la conduit jusqu’en 1786. La
lacune de cette dernière époque à celle où nous sommes est grande; mais tout nous porte à croire
qu’elle ait été remplie, et que ce que l’oncle laissait à faire a été achevé par son neveu. Nous sommes à
la recherche des lettres de celui-ci, résolus de les publier dès que nous les posséderons toutes’. ‘Avis de
l’Éditeur’, in [A. V. Arnault], Les Souvenirs et les regrets (1861), pp.vi-vii. These new memoirs, which were
intended to prove the talent of contemporary actors, are also announced in the final note (ibid., p.
214).
128 As Barbier informs us: ‘On avait annoncé, comme devant y faire suite, les Souvenirs et Jouissances d’un
jeune auteur dramatique. Cet ouvrage n’a point paru’. Antoine-Alexandre Barbier, Joseph-Marie Quérard,
Paul Billard (eds.), Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, IV, 553.
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