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72-23,377
McCONNELL, Anne, 1941-
THE OPERA-BALLET: OPERA AS LITERATURE.
[Portions of Text in French].
The University of Arizona, Ph.D., 1972
Language and Literature, general
University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan •;
BY
ANNE McCONNELL
1972
THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED.
iii

THE OPERA-BALLET:
OPERA AS LITERATURE
by
Anne McConnell
A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the
DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
WITH A MAJOR IN FRENCH
In the Graduate College
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
1972

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
GRADUATE COLLEGE
I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my
direction by Anne McConnell
entitled THE OPERA-BALLET: OPERA AS LITERATURE
be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the
degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Dissertation Director
m
After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the
follov/ing members of the Final Examination Committee concur in
its approval and recommend its acceptance:""
\ % 1171.
fj(wrd d ~X) ^tt, W fi 1*72-
"This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's
adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the
final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into
the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory
performance at the final examination.

PLEASE NOTE:
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indistinct print.
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University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company

STATEMENT BY AUTHOR
This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of
requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and
is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers
under rules of the Library.
Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without
special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source
is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or
reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by
the copyright holder.
SIGNED:

TO MY GRANDFATHER
ROLLIN PEASE
So often
I have looked at life
And have seen nothing before me
But a closed door
With iron bars and a massive lock
Then as I looked
The door opened, and you came thru
And lo!
My prison was a house of beauty
With many rooms.
"The Door" Rollin Pease
iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is with deepest thanks that I wish to express my gratitude to
Professor Charles I. Rosenberg and Professor James R. Anthony:
Professor Rosenberg for his continuing help, encouragement, and
support, without which I could not have accomplished this task; and
Professor Anthony for his inspired teaching and research, which
caused my interest in this topic. I am also grateful to Professor
Renato I. Rosaldo; and to Professor Frank M. Chambers and
Professor Harold D. Manning, who spent long hours reading my dis­
sertation and advising me.
I cannot thank my family enough, especially my parents, for
the inspiration and support they have always given me. The loving
pride they take in the accomplishments of all their children is a rare
and wonderful phenomenon. To them, to Bernadette Komonchak, and
to all my friends--who proof-read, did my household chores, and
encouraged me--, my gratitude is boundless.
v

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT viii
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. THE ORIGINS OF OPERA IN FRANCE 7
The Ballet of the Early Seventeenth Century .... 14
The Ballet de Cour During the Reign of
Louis XIV 20
Literary Rules Applied to Ballet de Cour 28
3. MOLIERE, QUINAULT, AND LULLY: THE BIRTH OF
FRENCH OPERA 41
The Comedie - Ballet of Molifere 41
The Tragedie Lyrique of Quinault and Lully .... 55
4. LITERARY QUARRELS ON OPERA 75
5. THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV AND THE
REGENCY OF PHILIPPE D'ORLEANS 104
6. THE FIRST OPERA-BALLET: L'EUROPE GALANTE . . 131
7. THE OPERA-BALLET: DEFINITION AND
CLASSIFICATION 194
8. THE PROLOGUE 250
9. THE PASTORALE 276
The Pastorale-Comique 310
10. THE COMEDY 331
vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS- - Continued
vii
Page
11. CONCLUSION . 401
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 412

ABSTRACT
Since the seventeenth century, French opera has been con­
sidered in a literary as well as a musical light. At the time of the
ballet de cour of Benserade, the comedie-ballet of Molifere, and the
tragedie lyrique of Quinault and Lully, French musical theatre was
subject to criticism and praise as literature. The tragedie lyrique
was classified as a form of tragedy; and many critical quarrels, in­
volving important authors from Boileau to the philosophes, centered
on this genre. In seventeenth century fashion, the lyric tragedy was
grandiose, with a penchant towards le merveilleux--the magic of the
gods expressed through complicated stage machinery.
In the Regency and pre-Regency periods, reacting against the
conformity demanded by Louis XIV, many nobles moved to Paris-
establishing more intimate courts, and rebelling against the piousness
of Louis' later years by espousing a hedonistic morality. Desiring
easier pleasures, they preferred the fetes (divertissements of airs
and dances) of each act of the opera to its tragic action. Filled with
sensuality, these fetes expressed this new, amoral atmosphere.
The opera-ballets--fragmented, sensual operas--responded to
the needs of this society. They followed the model of the first opera-
ballet, L'Europe galante (1697), composed of a prologue and four
viii

entrees (really expanded fetes), each with a separate plot and charac­
ters, united by a central theme. The gods of the lyric tragedy now
banished (remaining only in the prologues), the psychology of the
characters was more realistic.
This often comic genre was peopled by Regency characters.
Typified by fickle ladies and gentlemen, in search of variety in love
and amorous of disguises, the sensuality implicit in many seventeenth
century works now became explicit. The moral of the opera-ballet
was a call to hedonistic love--a momentary pleasure, needing variety
to ward off boredom.
In these opera-ballets (L 1 Europe galante, 1697, Houdard de la
Motte; Les Fetes venitiennes, 1710, Antoine Danchet; Les Fetes de
Thalie, 1714, Joseph de la Font; Les Fetes de l'ete, 1716, Simon-
Joseph Pellegrin; Les Ages, 1718, Louis Fuzelier; and Les Plaisirs
de la campagne, 1719, Pellegrin), a careful balance was maintained
between fantasy and realism. The world of the opera-ballet was
essentially innocent, free from the satiety that accompanies a society
bent on pleasure for its own sake. The characters themselves, how­
ever, were those of the Regency: urbane, fickle, and in need of
variety. The opera-ballet, imitating the fetes galantes of Regency
courts, gave the nobles a dream-world free from the problems
accompanying their morality.
ix

These works, combining insouciant love, comedy, elegant
but simple poetry influenced by dance rhythms, often Moliferesque
dialogues, and an atmosphere of fantasy rendered perfect by the
music, did not endure past the Regency. Reflecting more and more
the cynicism of its society, the opera-ballet lost the fantasy essential
to its atmosphere. The decadence evident in the society and in the
later opera-ballets eventually forced both to a search for more per­
manent and structured forms and values. The heroism of the earlier
opera returned, though the form of the opera-ballet remained; and
other theatres took over its musico-comic role.
X

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
During the period extending from late in the reign of Louis
XIV through the regency of Philippe d'Orleans (c. 1690-1723), French
literature, art, and music were undergoing the same conditions of
crisis, flux, and change that were affecting the society and institutions
of France. Seventeenth-century classicism, the love of sweeping
form and grandiose expression, the centralization of France, both
politically and artistically, had formed an ensemble of grandeur that
soon toppled under its own weight, falling into fragments. It is this
fragmentation of society and of art forms, as well as the breaking
down of many moral and theological structures, that found expression
in the opera-ballet.
The treatment of the opera-ballet, a musico-literary phenom­
enon unique to this period, as literature is not a new idea to the
history of French letters. In fact, such a treatment may be justified
a priori on the basis of the historical French attitude toward opera,
ignoring more modern considerations. An important literary genre to
the critic, the man of letters, and the writer of manuals in the seven­
teenth and eighteenth centuries, the opera in France was sired by
1

poets such as Benserade and great dramatists such as Molifere.
Having entered the world through this highly literary door, it con­
tinued to be praised and criticized by every leading author of both
centuries, each treating opera as literature, whether he despised or
respected it. The quarrels begun by Boileau and Perrault on the
merits of the tragedie lyrique of Quinault were continued by succeed­
ing generations, and the pages of the Encyclopedie echo with the
rhetoric of critics arguing the question of the merits of opera or
creating literary rules governing it.
Not only did the most distinguished men of letters of the seven­
teenth and eighteenth centuries spend much of their time engaged in
operatic quarrels, they also attempted to write operas in order to
prove their theories. From Boileau, Racine, and La Fontaine to
Voltaire and Rousseau, the efforts (and failures) of great writers to
create masterpieces in this popular art form may be traced throughout
its history.
Although opera is now considered more a musical than a lit­
erary form, neglected by students of literature (often rightly so), the
France of that time believed in the beauty and verisimilitude of its
dialogue as much as or even more than in the expressiveness of its
music. As a result, the opera texts of the late seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries have a special literary value often lacking in
modern operas or even in those of the same period from other
2

countries. While the libretto suffered later as the music flowered, it
is true even today that the best operas (in the sense of musical drama)
are those in which the text and music complement each other and in
which the words are worthy of attention.
In spite of the importance of early French opera to the literary
critics of the time, modern literary studies are almost nonexistent,
although the recent works of many excellent musicologists treat the
texts of French opera extensively. Etienne Gros, in an analysis of
the merits of Philippe Quinault, concentrates on his opera texts, be­
lieving them to be far superior to his other writings. Joseph Kerman,
in a penetrating but sometimes prejudiced study of opera as drama,
treats the works of Quinault and Lully, but not at great length. Those
who do study French opera at its beginnings neglect the opera-ballet
of the Regency, just as many historians and critics of literature seem
to jump from the apex of the reign of Louis XIV to the full flowering of
the eighteenth century spirit, neglecting this important period. Paul
Hazard, using opera to illustrate the era of change in La Crise de la
conscience europeenne, speaks of operatic principles of the periods
preceding and following the years of crisis, ignoring the operas that
would have better proved his point. Robert Mauzi (L'Idee du bonheur
au XVIIIe si&cle) and Jean Rousset (La Litterature de l'age baroque;
Circe et le paon), understand tetter than Hazard the importance of the
3

opera to the literature of their periods of study but treat it only as a
small part of a very large overview.
This study of the opera-ballet will have three main objectives:
(1) to present a short history of the development of opera in France,
emphasizing the role it has played in the history of French literature;
(2) to classify and define the opera-ballet in relation to other musico-
literary genres, delineating at the same time the different types of
entrees (or acts) of the opera-ballet; and (3) to present and analyze
the texts of the six opera-ballets falling within my definition.
The opera-ballet, because of its importance to the Regency and
pre-Regency periods as perhaps the most perfect expression of the
reigning spirit of that time, deserves to be treated as a literary genre.
No study of that era is truly complete if it ignores the opera-ballet,
for the interaction of this genre with other works makes it an impor­
tant part of a network of literary manifestations. Since this study is
directed toward the student of literature, who has not had the oppor­
tunity to learn of the importance of the history of French opera to the
development of French letters, the opera-ballet will first be placed in
its historical context by tracing both the development of opera until the
creation of the opera-ballet, and the literary quarrels surrounding the
opera. The social context of the period of the Regency is also highly
important to the understanding of the opera-ballet, as each had a
marked effect on the other.
4

Since no modern critic of literature has treated the opera-
ballet, and since there was confusion as to its classification and defini­
tion at the time of its popularity, one of the main problems of this
study will be to classify this new, fragmented and irreverent operatic
genre. Its form is immediately definable, being a series of "sketches"
--the fragments so loved by the society in flux. The spirit and ex­
pression of the different opera-ballets are more difficult to define.
Recent works by musicologists such as Pruniferes, Masson, and
Anthony have made a first effort to classify the different types of
opera-ballet according to style, but with too great an emphasis on
chronology. Their definitions will be discussed, although this study
defines the opera-ballet in a more detailed manner, placing some of
the works they call "opera-ballets" into the category of the "ballet
heroique, " and classifying different genres of entrees within the opera-
ballets themselves.
The literary analysis of the texts of the six opera-ballets of
the Regency period (1697-1719) will of course be the most important
part of this study. These short operas, filled with pastoral and comic
characters exclusively for the first time in the history of French
opera, are important to the literary history of the eighteenth century.
Changes and developments in their style often parallel the changes in
other theatrical works and in the social and moral attitudes of the
French. Their value will be judged in light of the fact that they were
5

written to be sung, and that a full appreciation of poetry written for
music cannot be attained without the accompanying melodies and har­
monies. However, the study of these very literary texts without their
music is not unlike the study of a drama without having seen it pre­
sented on the stage. In both cases, though meant to be performed
rather than read, the texts offer much in themselves.
The treatment of the opera-ballet as literature will, X believe,
contribute to the understanding of the little-known currents of French
literature during the short period of seemingly complete liberty and
fragmentation of a society too long restrained by the pomp of the Age
of Louis XIV. As a phenomenon of history and society, this genre is
undoubtedly important, but its literary value will become evident as
well. The state of the theatre in Paris at the beginning of the eighteenth
century is a story of constant change and of interaction between theatre
and society. A study of that period is not complete if it neglects the
influence of the opera-ballet.
6

CHAPTER 2
THE ORIGINS OF OPERA IN FRANCE
Music and poetry have long been allied in France, and their
alliance may be traced as far back in history as the times of the
jongleurs, the troubadours and trouveres, and the medieval theatre.
Most troubadours and trouvferes were accomplished musicians as well
as poets, and the familiar forms they used are not only poetic but
musical. The earliest truly theatrical alliance of these two elements,
however, was the medieval momerie with elaborate costumes, settings,
and machinery, performed to entertain the Burgundian court of the
fifteenth century. Ludovic Celler describes the setting of these spec­
tacles designed to please a society interested, not only in chivalry,
but also in the refined arts of dance and music:
Si les mystSres etaient les spectacles des foules,
l'aristocratie feodale avait les siens dans l'interieur des
chateaux; les festins donnaient lieu 2. des surprises, a des
interm£des. C 1 etaient des scenes courtes, sortes de tournois
chevaleresques et galants oft figuraient, dans la salle meme du
festin, d' enormes pi&ces mecaniques montees ingenieusement,
des groupes de personnages, des trophees, des monstres surtout,
renfermant du feu ou des surprises gastronomiques. *
1. Ludovic Celler, Les Origines de 1' opera et le Ballet de
la Reine (Paris: Didier et Cie, 1868), p. 29.
7

Most of these royal entertainments were adapted from the
mascherata, Italian Carnival entertainments presented to the public
and much in vogue in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These were
brilliant festivals, in which music, poetry, and dance allied to strike
both the eye and the imagination of the spectator. These events
brought together all the best known architects, painters, sculptors,
poets, and musicians, who together created a spectacle worthy of the
elegant, hedonistic nobility of Italy. The mascherata, especially popu­
lar after the wars with Italy, were naturally appealing to the sixteenth-
century nobility of France, already endowed with a taste for gallantry,
games, and jousts. Above all, the ballet sections appealed to the
French court: "Le ballet, par son allure libre et toute de fantaisie,
se pr&tait si tous les developpements, 3. tous les caprices; il devint
d&s lors le mobile par excellence des plaisirs de cette epoque bril-
lante, artistique, galante et profondement corrompue" (Celler, p. 4).
Thus, the pleasure loving French court, especially during the regency
of Catherine de Medicis, used the form of the ballet to express
amorous intrigues and to honor mistresses or lovers (or even hus­
bands and wives) with charming fetes galantes.
Often, a masquerade was offered to a distinguished visitor, or
diplomatic envoy, but its style differed little from those meant solely
to entertain. However, such ballets usually contained special verses
written to sing the praises of the distinguished guest. In fact, the
8

first of these entertainments to be officially named a ballet was a sort
of lyric drama offered to several ambassadors from Poland in 1573.
Composed by Roland de Lassus, the little ballet contained a dialogue
in Latin between France, Peace, and Prosperity. Some of the other
musical parts of this fete sung in French were either comic, or
delicate, sentimental and amorous.
The importance of the masquerades to the development of
opera lies in the use of the sung recit. The recit was used to introduce
the action of the ballet intermfede to follow, and by the time of the
•Ballet des Polonais, the sung recit had become a recognized part of the
ballet. Even though the Academy of Baif preferred declaimed recits,
eventually eliminating the musical form altogether, the tradition
remained, and would return in the seventeenth century.
The second step in the development of dramatic music came
with the Pleiade, and with the formation of the Academy of Ba'if. The
poets of the Pleiade were fascinated by the relationship between poetry
and music, expressing this interest in many of their works. Jodelle
and Dorat wrote elegies of Roland de Lassus, and Ronsard expressed
his love for music in the Abrege de 1' art poetique. The poets of the
Pleiade believed in the musicality of language itself, stating that
poetry was already a kind of music--a pleasing combination of rhythm,
sounds, and intonations. Adding music to their poetry completed this
union. Because of this interest, Antoine de Ba'if founded, in 1567, the

"Academie de poesie et de musique, " and was accorded a royal
privilege for his academy in 1570.
The Academy tried to develop a new form of measured verse
proper to music, as had the Greeks and Romans before them. Baif,
together with the co-founder of the Academy, Thibault de Courville, a
composer, taught musicians to respect the laws of poetry and to form
their music around the rhythm of the verses. This highly successful
effort had a profound influence on later dramatic music: "lis rendi-
rent possible la creation ^t^recit dramatique, premi&re ebauche du
\
recitatif fran9ais auquel Lully clevait donner sa forme parfaite prfes
2 \
d'un sifecle plus tard. " \
\ 3
Victor Fournel, in Les Conten^porains de Moli&re, shows
how the Academy also "civilized" the masquerade by making the
expression of love more ingenious and subtle. He believes that the
Academy's careful attention to the perfection of the mise en scfene, to
the development of the orchestra, and to the logical and dramatic
progression of music, song, and dance, led directly to the idea of
opera (Fournel, II, 86).
2. Henry Pruniferes, Le Ballet de cour en France avant
Benserade et Lully (Paris: Henry Laurens, 1914), p. 62.
3. Victor Fournel, Les Contemporains de MoliSre (3 vols.;
Paris: Firmin Didot, 1866).

Thus, the Academy brought about a veritable revolution. Be­
fore the advent of the Pleiade, sixteenth-century composers, such as
Janequin, had paid little attention to the quality of the poetry they set
to music. Poetry, to him and to others, was merely a pretext for
composing, a vehicle for vocalizing at length on one or two syllables.
The Pleiade, however, with its belief that poetry and music were
sisters, each suffering without the aid of the other, changed the course
of both poetry and music in France,
One great difference exists between French and Italian efforts
to ally music and poetry, a difference which is felt even now. Although
the Academy wished to ally prosody and music, going so far as to
make the ballet steps conform to textual rhythms, the French neglected
or ignored any relationship between the dramatic meaning of the poem
or the dramatic ballet and the emotional expression of the music.
The ballet and the song were not the only objects of the experi­
ments of the Renaissance in music and poetry. As the study of
antiquity developed, and as interest arose in classic tragedy, the study
of the Greek chorus fascinated many literary figures. It is said that
D'Aubigne composed a Circe with choruses (Celler, p. 36), and Mellin
de Saint-Gelais wrote and presented Sophonisbe, in which he used the
chorus. Jodelle also tried to use choruses in his classic tragedies,
but these choruses served rather as intermSdes, unrelated to the
dramatic action of the play.
11

The first work in which all the developing elements of sung
drama seemed to come together, and the work most often cited by-
historians as the real predecessor of the opera, was the Ballet
comique de la Reine, presented at court October 15, 1581. Baltarazini
(also called Beaujoyeulx) is named as author of this entertainment in
honor of the marriage of the Due de Joyeuse, a Pair de France, and
Mademoiselle de Vaudemont, sister of the Queen. He was aided,
however, by many other authors and musicians of the time, including
La Chesnaye and perhaps Ronsard, Baif, and Desportes for the verses,
Beaulieu for the music, and Jacques Patin for the scenery and cos­
tumes.
The word comique in the title indicates the close liaison of
poetry and drama with the music and dance of the ballet. In other
words, comique here means "dramatic, " rather than "comic. " In
this ballet, the choruses and rgcits are truly integrated into the
dramatic action and develop the drama. The subject of the ballet was
the story of Circe, and all the elements of machinery, scenery, dance,
music, and poetry served to create a world of fantasy and imagination
for this mythological drama. The choice of the story of Circe cannot
be overlooked, for it is important to the understanding of the whole era
of what is now termed "the Baroque. " A people fascinated for over a
century with fantasy, with metamorphoses, with mystery and magic
could not have found a more suitable subject than this, the story of

Circe, who has the power to transform men into animals, or to work
many other magic charms on them. It is significant that Jean Rousset's
work on the baroque era is entitled La Litterature de l'ctge baroque en
4
France; Circe et le paon. In this work, Rousset shows that the
Ballet comique de la Reine is the mother of a whole series of Circe
stories, mainly in the ballet, and that she or her "substitutes": Alcina,
Medea, Calypso, Armide, Orpheus, and many others are constantly
present in the seventeenth-century ballet.
It is true that the plot of the Ballet comique de la Reine is a
model for those to follow. We see the enchanted garden of Circe, we
see choruses of enchanted beings, we see Circe render them immobile
with a wave of her magic wand, we see them rescued several times by
several gods, only to be re-immobilized by Circe. Finally saved by
Jupiter himself, all the nymphs, satyrs, and the other characters
dance a great ballet to celebrate their deliverance. Rousset describes
the magical world of Circe very aptly:
Circe, c'est la magicienne qui d'un homme fait un animal,
et de nouveau un homme; qui prete et retire 3. chacun tous les
corps, toutes les figures; plus de visages, mais des masques;
elle touche les choses, et les choses ne sont plus cq qu'elles
etaient; elle regarde le paysage et il se transforme. II semble
qu'en sa presence l'univers perde son unite, le sol sa stabilite,
les etres leur identite; tout se decompose pour se recomposer,
entrafne dans le flux d'une incessante mutation, dans un jeu
d'apparences toujours en fuite devant d'autres apparences
(Rousset, p. 16).
4. Jean Rousset, La Litterature de l'age baroque en France:
Circe et le paon (Paris: Corti, 1953).
13

Participating in this ballet with the professional singers and
dancers, were members of the court, whose education necessarily-
included the practice of these two important arts. This custom was
to continue, and until the latter part of the reign of Louis XIV, nobles
and rulers were found performing with the professional musicians and
dancers.
The Ballet comique de la Reine had less influence than might
be expected on the development of the lyric drama in France. For
many years, the old ballets, less dramatic and more episodic, came
back, and the influence of this important work seems to have been felt
in Italy more than in France. In fact, the influence of the Ballet
comique de la Reine came into France again many years later from
Italy. Even though this new form did not develop and flower immedi­
ately in France, the French had at least found a musical form proper
to their spirit: the musical divertissement.
The Ballet of the Early Seventeenth Century
In the time of Henri IV, in spite of the wars and troubles that
ravaged France, more than eighty ballets were presented to his court,
although they were not of the quality of the Ballet comique de la Reine.
Most of them were simple masquerades, with no unifying plot or theme,
and again, the courtiers commissioned them to serve the cause of love,
offering them to favorites, mistresses, or influential women at court.
14

The same sort of ballet continued through the reign of Louis
XIII, but many more machines were added, making a much more
brilliant spectacle. In 1617, a new ballet, La Delivrance de Renaud,
was presented. It was of the lineage of the Circe of 1581, having a
continuous plot allying the dances and songs. With this ballet begins
a genre which Pruni&res calls the "ballet melodramatique" (PruniSres,
Ballet, p. 119). Presented through pantomine and sung r^cits, it had
a unified plot which served as a sort of pretext for a certain number of
entrees, or ballet numbers. The word entree was to become impor-
tant to every lyric genre of the seventeenth century, and was usually
a little ballet, often with its own plot within the central action, either
serious (usually about love) or comic. Each of the ballets melodrama-
tiques ended with a grand ballet, usually a spectacular ending to the
piece. Thus, says Pruni&res, a real, well-defined dramatic genre had
developed by 1620: "Intermediaire entre l'opera et le ballet-mascarade,
il repond a l'amour des francais pour la danse expressive et pour le
the&tre. II est rationnel, voluptueux, et magnifique; il seduit les yeux,
les oreilles et les esprits". (PruniSres, Ballet, p. 120).
However, this unified form of ballet was not to last, and it
soon degenerated into a broken pastiche, sometimes unified not by a
central action, but by a theme. Some representative titles such as
Les Quolibets, Le Lundi Foire de Saint Denis, Le Balet des gueux,

Les Cris de Paris, show that the unifying theme was very loose, allow­
ing the author an almost complete liberty of choice of subject matter.
These loosely allied entries soon became more closely tied to
a stronger central theme and the ballet cl entries was born. This type
of ballet still lacked dramatic interest, however, until the advent of
Benserade and his court ballets. In fact, before he developed this
form, it continued to lose its dramatic character, and even lost the
brilliance of its mise en scSne. It also abandoned the recit, so the
libretto became practically nonexistent.
Another popular literary form of the early seventeenth century
which was to have a great influence on the development of lyric drama
in France was the pastorale. The pastorale dramatique, long a favor­
ite pastime of the court, was perfectly suited to the spirit of the court.
Peopled with shepherds and shepherdesses, the pastorale transposed
the artifice and conventions of the court into a world of simplicity,
where love was king. This world of nature was not a realistic world,
but rather a dream: "C'est qu'il ne s'agit pas de campagnes reelles,
oil le malheur aurait sa place, oft le labeur paysan chasserait l'amour,
mais d'un reve de citadins et de lettres, d'un art qui s'installe
d'emblee dans la fiction" (Rousset, p. 32). In the seventeenth century,
we see this dream land invaded by the magicians, the "Circes" of the
ballet, helping the lovers out of their difficulties by fantastic metamor­
phoses and magic spells.
16

The pastorale had always been allied with music; its simple
plot needed little recitative, and musicians needed only to create gen­
tle songs of love for this simple country peopled by lovers. Thus, by
1630 the pastorale dramatique soon became a truly lyric genre, inr
fluencing almost all the courtly music of the times. Its influence was
to extend to the comedie-ballet of Moli£re, to the trag£die lyrique,
and finally to the opera-ballet.
Toward the end of the reign of Louis XIII, the ballet & entrees
began to develop dramatically, and the libretti again became impor­
tant. Charles Silin, in a work on Benserade, traces the development
of the importance of the libretto, noting not only the fact that the text
was read by the audience, but also that the underlying sensual mean­
ing of the words was emphasized by the addition of more explicitly
vulgar verses too daring to be pronounced on stage:
As early as the sixteenth century, the occupants of floats
in processional mascarades used to drop printed leaflets containing
gallant maxims. This continued into the ballets of the
early part of the seventeenth century in which the dancers of the
first entry, after finishing the dancing, distributed to the ladies
printed livrets which contained gallant witticisms in verse or
prose having very little relation to the action of the ballet.
Sometimes, however, they contained indelicate and vulgar verses
which represented the speeches that would have been made by
the various characters if they spoke, while at other times they
were naive or cynical remarks addressed to the audience by the
dancers who were thus taking them into their confidence. Toward
the middle of the seventeenth century, we find that the distribution
of the more or less official program took place while the
spectators awaited the beginning of the performance. It was
given only to persons of quality, and particularly to ladies. It
17

outlined, more or less in detail, the various parts and entries
of the ballet, giving explanatory arguments for each part, the
names of all the dancers both noble and professional, and often
the names of all the singers and musicians. ... . A special
attraction contained in these programs was the recits that
were sung at the beginning of each part, and often elsewhere,
and the vers which applied to the dancers of each entry. 5
The author, by the addition of openly vulgar remarks in a text espe­
cially meant for the ladies, made their appreciation of the ballet more
deliciously naughty.
One of the customs of the authors of these ballets was to write
verses for the characters personifying not only the character in the
ballet, but applying also to the personality of the noble who was danc­
ing that particular role. In an often witty use of double entendre, they
eulogized or satirized the members of the court, while pretending to
describe only the characters they played. They alluded to their
amorous intrigues, praised their qualities, and encouraged their loves.
As the livrets gained in importance, many of the most famous
poets of the century wrote ballets, or contributed verses to them.
Malherbe, Sorel, PorchSres, Racan, Theophile, Voiture, Saint-Amant,
and many others composed parts of ballets; Aubignac wrote the
Ballet de la Triomphe de la Beaute in 1640, and Boisrobert wrote the
Ballet de la Seine (1623) and Les Nymphes Bocagferes (1627). Tristan
l'Hermite and Dolet also added to the anthology of early seventeenth
5. Charles I. Silin, Benserade and His Ballets de Cour
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1940), p. 192.
18

century ballets, and this tradition was to continue throughout the cen­
tury, with such authors as- Saint-Evremond, Thomas Corneille, La
Fontaine, Racine, Dancourt, and Fontenelle joining the host of authors
who wrote ballets for the court. We will see that some poets wrote
ballets against their better judgment, but felt that it was necessary to
gain favor at court. Nevertheless, it comes as a surprise to most
students of literature to discover that so many illustrious authors con­
tributed to this genre which is so neglected today, due to its often
topical nature, and to the fact that scenic requirements and a lack of
knowledge of the production techniques of the period have caused these
ballets to fall into oblivion.
Thus, a real form of lyric drama was again formed, still
called the ballet 3. entries, but now much more dramatic and literary.
Du Tralage, in his history of French theatre, defines the elements of
this drama: "L'usage des opera n'ayant pas encore este introduit en
France, le roy faisoit faire tous les ans de fort grands spectacles
qu'on nommoit balets. II y avoit un corps de sujet, represents par un
g
grand nombre d'entrees meslees de recits. " Indeed, the recit took
its place again as a unifying factor in the ballet, invading even the
entrees themselves in the form of charming airs of love and other
6. Jean Nicolas Du Tralage, Notes et documents sur l'histoire
des theatres de Paris au XVIIe si&cle: extraits (written c. 1698, pub.
Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles* 1880), p. 73.

songs related to the action of the entr ees. The expositional recit was
often in the form of a dialogue, adding new dramatic impact to the
ballet.
The brilliance of the spectacle soon returned as Richelieu,
influenced by the astonishing machinery developed by the Italians dur­
ing this period, brought sumptuous scenery back into the ballet.
The Ballet de Cour During the Reign of Louis XIV
Louis XIV, jeune, bien fait, aimant le plaisir, la flatterie
et les beaux costumes, consacre 3 la danse dix-huit ann£es de
sa vie. C'est alors que le ballet atteint sa perfection. Profitant
du progr&s du gofrt, il devient plus delicat et plus ingenieux.
Benserade en fait un genre litteraire. ^
Thus Rene Doumic describes the spirit of the court of the
young King Louis, graceful, amorous, and anxious to commission
ballets in which he could dance. Benserade, perfectly fitted to the
spirit of the court, composed many ballets for Louis XIV. At first
these ballets 3. entrees had little dramatic interest, although
Benserade 1 s vers pour les personnages are charming, witty descrip­
tions of the nobles of the court. These verses were not dramatically
composed as an integral part of the action, however, for each charac­
ter stepped forward and delivered the vers, then stepped back and
began to dance. Some critics feel that even these early ballets showed
7. Rene Doumic, Etudes sur la litterature franqaise (6 vols:. ;
Paris: Perrin et Cie, 1896-1909), I, 73.
20

the signs of a developing literary and dramatic genre, however: "Les
ballets de Benserade qui furent danse par Louis XIV vers l'an 1651
etoient encore des spectacles, composes S. la verite de sc&nes tr&s
informes et sans suite, mais qui sembloit [sic] indiquer aux auteurs
les moyens de traiter en langue francjaise des sujets suivis & limitation
des aom^dies mais chante au lieu d'etre dialogue. " It was not until
1657, with the Ballet Royal de 1'Amour malade, that a dialogued entrle
is to appear (the fourth entree), and even then the dialogue is very
primitive.
Benserade peopled his ballets with the mythical and magical
character's of antiquity, in the tradition of the Ballet comique de la
Reine, and everywhere the eye of the spectator was astounded by
metamorphoses, disguises, and masks, continuing the baroque tradi-
g
tion of flux and impermanence. He even published the Metamorphoses
of Ovid, in rondeaux, in 1676. In these charming verses, we find
8. L. J. Francoeur, Essai historique sur l'etablissement de
l'opera depuis son origine jusqu'cL nos jours, et divers notes sur ce
theatre (autographed MS, c. 1800), p. 6.
9. Although the original livrets of the ballets de cour of
Benserade and the others have not been reprinted, there are anthologies
available to the student of literature, notably Vol. II of Fournel,
Les Contemporains de MoliSre (containing 22 ballets de cour and
mascarades from 1643-1681); and Ballets et mascarades de cour, ed.
Paul Lacroix (6 vols.; Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1968), with ballet
texts from 1581 to 1655.
10. Isaac de Benserade, Metamorphoses d'Ovide en rondeaux
(Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1675).
21

the whole spirit of this period: love of magic, of change, of ideal
nature, and of love itself. In one rondeau, "Les Ages, " Benserade
expresses the classical idea of the four ages of man, describing the
attitude of each age toward life and love, a theme which will reappear
in many ballets, operas, and opera-ballets:
Comme tout va de mal en pis toujours,
De l'Age d'or bienheureux fut le cours,
II se sentit de la pure innocence,
On vid fleurir la joye, et l'abondance,
Et sans nuage estoient les premiers jours.
L'Age d'argent chercha quelques detours,
La Verite fut moins dans ses discours,
II commenca d'aller en decadence.
Comme tout va.
L'Age d'airain fut rempli de bons tours,
A l'equite les Hommes furent sourds,
De tous les maux on vid poindre l'engeance.
L'Age de fer nage en pleine vengeance,
Quel train d'horreurs! jusqu'aux tendres amours.
Comme tout va.
The Metamorphoses abound with double meanings and often very
risque verses. Perhaps some of these verses might be comparable to
the livrets passed out to the spectators in the early ballets, giving
often vulgar or obscene verses to describe the underlying sensuous-
ness of the plot. Although all the action on stage in these ballets was
a fairly delicate treatment of love, the spectators understood the hidden
meanings, even without the aid of a livret. One such rondeau in the
Metamorphoses describes the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha, a husband
22

and wife, the last remaining humans on earth after a terrible deluge,
instructed by Jupiter to repopulate the world by throwing rocks over
each other's heads. Benserade's version ends with a tongue-in-cheek
remark on this strange manner of creating human beings:
De leur travail comme ils s'y comportoient,
Corps, testes, bras, mains, pieds, jambes sortoient:
Ils firent 13. ce qu'on ne voit plus faire.
A coups de pierre.
Many of Benserade's ballets were written to celebrate victories,
or to praise Louis XIV. The prologues to his ballets often contained
apostrophes to the King and the Vers pour le Roi praised whatever
character he was playing (usually Jupiter, or the Sun), often encourag­
ing him in his amours at the same time.
The fact that Louis played such characters as Jupiter or the
Sun brings us to the point that there was a whole mythology of the court
over which Louis reigned as a benign god. Critics often point out that
MoliSre's Amphitryon expresses this idea, and we now see that it was
certainly not new to the court. All the noble lords and ladies who
danced in the ballets played parts appropriate in mythology to their
relationship to the King.
All was not apotheosis and praise in the Vers pour le Roi, how­
ever, and in the ballets in which he was encouraged in his amorous
intrigues, Louis played gentler roles such as Le Printemps, or Un
Ardent. In fact, Fournel believes these exhortations to love are of
23

primary importance in the ballets: "Presque tous ses vers pour le
Roi ne sont que des exhortations §. l'amour, ou l'apotheose plus ou
moins voilee de ses tendres faiblesses" (Fournel, II, 192).
In the Balet Royal de la Nuit (1653), which, in true baroque
fashion, contains a ballet within a ballet (Les Noces de Thetis et
Pelee), emphasizing the ideal of multiple impressions and illusion (as
in Corneille's L'lllusion comique), there are many exhortations to
love, but also constant references to the glory of the King. For
example, in one of the entrees L'Aurore announces: "Le Soleil qui
me suit c'est le jeune LOUIS." However, astral beings have advan­
tages in love as well as glory. We find Monsieur, the brother of the
King, representing a lesser being, the Morning Star. Here, in his
verses, are found the glory of the Sun, the mythological court relation­
ships, and exhortations to love:
Apres le grand Astre des Cieux,
Je suis l 1 Astre qui luit le mieux,
II n'en est point qui me conteste,
Et mon eclat jeune et vermeil
Est beaucoup moins que le Soleil,
Et beaucoup plus que tout le reste.
Mais je suis bien comme je suis,
C'est assez pour moi si je puis
Percer les barreaux et les grilles;
Et d'un trait amoureux et fin,
M'insinuer le grand matin
Dans la chambre oil couchent les Filles. H
11. All quotes from Benserade's ballets are from Isaac de
Benserade, Oeuvres (2 vols.; Paris: chez Charles de Sercy, 1698).
24

In this age of pomp and grandeur, it is amusing and refreshing to see
the king's brother speak of his joy in a less kingly but more human
occupation.
In the Ballet Royal de Thetis et Pelee, performed as part of
the Ballet de la Nuit, Louis XIV, dancing the role of Apollo, contem­
plated upon glory and love in the verses Benserade wrote for him:
Amoureux des beautez de la seule victoire
Je cours sans cesse apres la Gloire,
Et ne cours point apres Daphne.
Toutefois il le faut, c'est une Loi commune,
Qui veut que tost ou tard je coure apres quelqu'une,
Et tout Dieu que je suis je m'y vois condamne:
Que mes premiers soupirs vont attirer de presse!
Est-il Muse, Reine ou Deesse
Qui ne voulut estre Daphne?
But Louis, in this ballet, was still too young to let love overwhelm him.
At the end he appeared as the Sun, and pronounced:
Je n'ai que depuis peu roule sur 1'Horizon;
Je suis jeune, et possible est-ce aussi la Raison
Qui m'exempte des maux que la Beaute nous cause;
De-la naist le Repos dont mon ame jouit:
Car enfin tout me voit, j'eclaire toute chose,
En rien ne m'eblouit.
Benserade enjoyed urging the young King to profit from his
youth and beauty, and wrote many songs for the court expressing the
feelings he hoped Louis would experience, as in this charming piece
entitled in his Oeuvres "Paroles pour un air. "
25

Je rougis, je palis, je sofipire oft vous §tes,
Sans que vous connoissiez mon amoureux transport;
Beaux yeux, beaux innocens, vous me donnez la mort,
Et ne scavez ce que vous faites.
Bien que mon coeur brule de ces flames discretes,
N'espere aucun secours 3. son tragique sort;
Beaux yeux, beaux innocens, je benirois ma mort;
Si vous scaviez ce que vous faites (Oeuvres, I, 85).
Thus, even though the King was young, and though he contemplated
victory and glory, in most of the ballets, his thoughts were of love.
In an earlier entree of the Ballet de la Nuit, he played the part of Un
Ardent, and urged the young ladies to love him:
Objets charmans et doux,
Beautez toutes parfaites,
Pour lui vous estes faites
Comme il est fait pour vous:
Mais courez pour lui plaire
Viste comme le vent,
On ne l'attrape guere
II va toujours devant
These verses show Benserade's understanding of the King: proud and
haughty, yet young and amorous at the same time.
In the Ballet Royal des Plaisirs (1655), we find that love has
completely obscured all other thoughts for the King. Venus begins the
Second Part, "Les Divertissements de la Ville, " by announcing:
Tout cede II mon pouvoir, tout flechit sous mes loix,
Je n'en excepte personne,
Pas meme les Rois.
26

The King, in this part of the ballet, played the role of Un D^bauche,
and as five other Debauches address him, we wonder if even Benserade
believes Louis' amours have gone too far:
II n'est ni Censeur ni Regent
Qui ne soit assez indulgent
Aux voeux d'une jeunesse extr§me;
Et pour embellir vostre Cour,
Qui ne trouve excusable, mgme,
Que vous ayez un peu d'amour.
Mais d'en user comme cela,
Et de courir par ci, par 13.,
Sans vous arrester S. quelqu'une;
Que tout vous soit bon, tout egal,
La Blonde autant comme la Brune,
Ha! SIRE, c'est un fort grand mal.
The Balet Royal de Psyche (165 6) contains some charming
verses for the King, some of which recall Ronsard, and his pleas to
profit from youthful beauty before the advances of old age deprive one
of his pleasures:
(Sa Majeste, representant Le Printemps)
II ne faut pas laisser sur sa tige vieillir,
Toutes ces belles Fleurs qui sont de son domaine;
C'est le Printemps qui les amene,
C'est au Printemps 3. les cueillir.
The whole court knew about and encouraged the amours of
Louis XIV, for their whole life involved intrigues of the same sort.
The early court of Louis XIV, less splendid than it was to become
later, but perhaps more charming, found in Benserade the perfect
expression of their life:
27

(Pour LE ROY, represantant un Esprit folet)
Comme font les Amans, cela fait tout ansi,
Cela n'aura vingt ans que dans deux ans d'ici,
Cela SQait mieux danser que toute la gent Blonde:
Et n'est femme & choisir dans ce grand nombre^lcl,
A qui cela ne fit la plus grand 1 peur du monde,
Et qui ne se rendlt volontiers 5. cela.
The ballet de cour, now a true musical and literary genre,
still used the form of the ballet a entrees; that is to say that each part
was disjoined from the others dramatically, all the parts of the ballet
being loosely connected by some central theme, expressed in the
Prologue to each ballet. In Benserade's last ballets, though, the
recits and dialogues within each part of the ballet became all impor­
tant, giving a feeling of dramatic whole to the entree itself, if not to
the whole ballet. In fact, the recits began to overshadow the dancing,
and singing choruses even appeared to replace, in some entries, the
corps de ballet.
Literary Rules Applied to Ballet de Cour
Le ballet avait ses r&gles materielles et litteraires.
Sa poetique a e'te recueillie et formulee par l'abbe de Pure, et
principalement par le pSre Menestrier; mais cette poetique
n'a rien debien rigoureux, surtout comparee 5. celle des
genres dramatiques proprements dits, tels que la tragedie et
la comedie. . .. Au fond, il ne reconnaissait guSre de r&gles
que celles du plaisir (Fournel, II, 175).
The Abbe de Pure and the PSre Menestrier may not have agreed
with the last part of Fournel's statement, for they wrote long treatises
formulating theatrical rules for the ballet and took them very
28

seriously. They did recognize, however, that the ballet was a kingdom
apart; a kingdom of miracles, an enchanted place, full of movement
and metamorphosis; and that as such, the ballet could not follow the
classic rules of unity. Castil-Blaze expresses very well this attitude
toward the ballet;
Tandis que le th.eS.tre verbal s'adresse 5. la pensee, le
ballet offre au reve un sejour enchante, royaume des
metamorphoses oft les dieux s'humanisent, oft les hommes se
transforment en heros, en animaux, en plantes, voire meme
en abstractions. Sans changer de place, le public parcourt
l'univers, des Enfers aux Paradis. Tout lien avec le monde
prosa'ique est rompu. ^
It was certainly easier for later critics to apply rules to the
opera than it was for these early critics to do so with the ballet, but
they made a great effort, and what they said will apply to later forms
of lyric theatre as well. These, however, are the earliest efforts of
literary men to give direction to a form which might, in other coun­
tries, be considered purely musical.
Each critic's first effort was to define the ballet as a literary
form. One of the lesser writers, le sieur De la Croix, in a work
called L'Art de la Poesie francoise et latine, avec une idee de la
musique, defined ballet in this manner:
12. Frangois-Henri-Joseph Blaze [called Castil-Blaze J,
L'Academie imperiale de Musique: Histoire litteraire, musicale,
choreographique, facetieuse, politique, et galante de ce theatre, de
1645 g. 1855 (2 vols.; Paris: Castil-Blaze, 1856), I, 87.
29

Le Balet est icy espece de Poeme Dramatique, contenant un
sujet fabuleux, divise en entrees, oft diverses personnes font
des recits sous le nom de quelque fausse Divinity. Ces recits
expriment le Balet que l'on danse d'une maniere agreable et
d'un caractere enjoue et galant. lis- renferrnent d'ordinaire des
loiianges des faux Dieux, ou de ceux qui les representent; c'est
un des plus beaux ornemens de la Comedie. Benserade a fait
des Balets tres-agreables, aussi bien que quelques autres
poetes. 13
Jacques Bonnet, in his Histoire generale de la danse avec supplement
de l'histoire de la musique et le par allele de la peinture et de la
poesie (1724), gave the ballet an even wider range: "Le Balet, com-
munement parlant, est une maniSre de Poeme dramatique compose en
trois actes, comme nous avons vu quelquefois en France depuis le
regne de FranQois premier.
It is the Abbe de Pure who first applied a whole system of
literary rules to the ballet, in a study entitled Idees des spectacles
15
anciens et nouveaux. Pure, in this work, tried to guide writers of
ballets with some practical indications on how to write, raised ballet
to the level of comedy and tragedy, and attempted to give more unity
to the ballet of the future.
13. Le sieur De la Croix, L'Art de la poesie franqoise et
latine, avec une idee de la musique (Lyon: chez Thomas Amaulry,
1694), p. 272.
14. Jacques Bonnet, Histoire generale de la danse avec supplement
de l'histoire de la musique et le paralldle de la peinture et de
la poesie (Paris: chez d'Houry fils, 1724), p. 171.
15. Abbe Michel de Pure, Idees des spectacles ancifens et
nouveaux (Paris: M. Brunet, 1668).
30

He starts by saying that an author should choose the title of his
ballet before writing the text, as the title will express the unifying
theme. In so doing, the author will perhaps give more thought to the
unity of theme in the ballet: "Je croirois done qu'il faudroit commen-
cer absolument par-li, pour faire regner plus uniformement enchaque
Partie, la premiere et principale idee du Balet" (Pure, p. 125). He
then goes on to suggest topics suitable to the ballet, dividing these
topics into four general areas: first, some grand action in ancient or
recent history ("Car de soy il attire les esprits et les engage. " Pure,
p. 169), second, some great novelty, third, a great passion, and
fourth, a sort of catch-all category, "quelque chose d'aplicable au
Siecle et aux gens qui y font la principale figure" (Pure, p. 169). We
see, by these four topics, that the Abbe de Pure is ignoring the more
hedonistic aspects of the ballet, elevating it in subject to the level of
the tragedy. He often draws his rules not from previous practices,
but from his own ideas of what ballet should be.
Having raised ballet to a new literary height, Pure may now
compare it to the tragedy: "Ainsi la Tragedie et le Balet sont deux
sortes de Peintures, oil l'on met en veiie ce que le Monde ou I'Histoire
ont de plus illustre; oft l'on deterre et oil l'on etale les plus fins et les
plus profonds mysteres de la Nature et de la Morale" (Pure, p. 211).
The Abbe believes in the power of the ballet to elevate souls
and to instruct them, too, and that any spectacle should serve this

purpose, as had the ancient tragedy. This was a rather vain hope,
however, considering the essentially hedonistic origins of the ballet.
He ignores here the main purpose of the ballet—pleasure and enter­
tainment. For example, Benserade would have disagreed with this
principle, as is evidenced by his work.
For a moment, Pure seems to realize the difficulty of treating
ballet as a completely literary genre. This difficulty lies in the fact
that the main action is expressed in the mute gestures of the dance,
and that the recits and dialogues, however beautiful, are not a truly
integrated part of the action;
Par-la il est aise de voir la defectuosite de ces Balets, oft
l'on ne connoit rien que par les recits qu'on y chante, que par
les Vers qu'on y insere pour en debroiiiller le sujet, et pour en
faire voir l'idee, le tissu et la liaison de l'un et de l'autre.
Car ce divertissement est destine presque uniquement pour les
yeux. Les oreilles n'ont droit qu'aux seconds plaisirs: et tout
ce que le Spectateur ne peut voir exprime dans les pas, dans le
personnage, et dans les autres Jeus du Spectacle, tout cela
dis-je, n'est point une mani&re de Balet, et ne peut que
malaisement estre revetu d'une raisonnable forme (Pure, p. 211).
This does not long deter the Abbe, however, who continues to extol
the literary and spectacular beauties of the ballet. He compromises
what he has expressed above as a stumbling block, to literary treat­
ment of the ballet by defining the ballet as a sort of comedy, but with
different rules; different because the ballet has the advantage of tele­
scoping time and place onto the stage, and representing many different
actions, peoples, and countries in one evening. He returns, then, to
32

his first idea of the importance of the subject or theme as a unifying
factor: "Le Sujet est l'Ame du Balet. . .. Ainsi il regne uniquement
durant toute 1'action et dans toute la duree du divertissement, encore
que les entrees en paroissent separees, et que l'union en soit apparan-
te et interrompue" (Pure, p. 216).
When he discusses the method of expressing the subject of the
ballet, Pure seems to realize that the rather lofty subjects he had
given to the ballet at the beginning of his treatise would sit rather
uneasily in the framework of a joyous divertissement. He finally
arrives at a definition which is comparable to Jean Rousset's descrip­
tions of the baroque spirit;
Le brillant d'un Sujet doit estre toujours gracieux., et ne laisser
que d'agreables Idees. II en est de deux sortes: Les uns en ont
un passager et si j'osois user du mot de Montagne prinsautier,
qui frape d'abord qui saute aux yeux, et qui s'evanoiiit aussitot.
Les autres en cachent plus qu'ils ne montrent, et vont successivement
§. leur point, oCi. ils eclattent et oft ils durent. Mais les uns
et les autres en composent une troisieme espece qui tient des
deux, et qui sont et prompts et durables. Ce sont les plus parfaits,
ou du moins les plus propres pour le Balet. Toute [sic]
en est galant, tout en est aimable (Pure, p. 219).
Pure makes some very good suggestions toward giving the
ballet a entrees more unity. The great ballets danced at court often
had four or five parts, each divided into as many as ten entrees. Of
course, many of these ballets lasted several days, during a festival
or celebration at court, but any unity of theme or subject was almost
impossible with such a multitude of plots. Pure suggests that the

number of entrees be limited: "Quand le Sujet est arreste, il faut
faire des Points principaux, qui contiennent en eux les diverses
Entrees, dont le nombre ne pouroit estre retenu que malaisement.
Car on se souvient bien d'une division qui n'a que deux ou trois mem-
bres; et il n'est presque pas possible de retenir l'ordre ou la suite de
douze entrees" (Pure, p. 233). This last point will be important to
our study of the organization of the opera-ballet, for, though operatic
rather than choreographic, its form will follow that of the ballet de
cour; that is to say, that the piece will consist of a main theme,
illustrated by several entrees, each with a different plot, but allied to
the others by the central theme: "Je n'ay garde d'oublier icy une dif­
ference des Entrees de Balet, et des Scenes du Poeme dramatique.
Car en celuy-cy les Scenes doivent estre liees entr'elles, au lieu
qu'en celuy-13. il suffit qu'elles le soient au sujet" (Pure, p. 241).
For Pure, as for most of the critics of the seventeenth century,
the poet is the principal "author" of the ballet, and the musician does
nothing more than embellish his verses: "Mais supposant le Balet,
comme un Jeu, ou comme un Ouvrage de bel esprit ou dePoete (car
l'alternative est juste): II est vray de dire que les airs sur lesquels
on danse les diverses Entrees, doivent estre reglees par luy. C'est
au PoSte sans doute S. en ordonner la qualite et le mouvement" (Pure,
p. 260). He emphasizes this importance of the words throughout his
work, saying that song is nothing more than a "parler agreable, "

which does nothing more than add force to the words by the beauty of
its tones and melodies (Pure, p. 269).
The poet, however, has a responsibility towards the musician,
and Pure repeats the ideas of the Academy of Ba'if by saying that poetry
needs the help of music, and that to be a poet without knowing music
is to be only half a poet (Pure, p. 258).
Pure concludes by saying that it is a strange phenomenon that
words should have entered into the ballet, and that at first the words
had little value; but that now, a ballet succeeds or fails not by the
qualities of its music or dance, but by the qualities of its poetry.
In 1682, Father Claude-Francois Menestrier published what
was the most complete and definitive ars poetica of the ballet. Full of
enthusiasm for the new genre and praising it almost to an extreme, he
gives his work a verve and energy that makes it amusing and interest­
ing to read. Menestrier also saw the defects of the ballet as it existed
at the time and tried, in Des Ballets anciens et modernes selon des
16
regies du theatre, to formulate literary rules to guide future authors.
He traces its origins in antiquity, defending ballet as a truly classical
form, an idea which was to continue throughout the century in the lit­
erary quarrels about opera. He also listed the titles of all the ballets
presented at court from 1581 to 1682.
16. Claude-FranQois Menestrier, Des Ballets anciens et
modernes selon des regies du theatre (Paris: R. Guignard, 1682).
35

Menestrier begins by praising the ballet, and by criticizing
many of its authors for mistreating it; and, showing himself to be
more perspicacious than the Abbe de Pure, expresses the belief that
the ballet is a literary genre completely separate from comedy or
tragedy, and that it is a mistake to try to treat it as one of these two
forms:
Ces spectacles oil 1'esprit, l'oreille et les yeux trouvent de
quoy se divertir si agreablement, ne meritoient pas moins
d'application que la Musique, la Peinture, et la Poesie, ces
trois admirables Soeurs, que tant de gens ont cultivees. Le
Ballet est leur fr&re aine, mais quoi qu'il ait toutes leurs
graces, et toutes leurs perfections, il a tellement ete neglige,
que plusieurs encore aujourd'huy, croyent qu'il n'est qu'une
invention de pur caprice, ou l'on peut faire entrer ce que l'on
veut, tandis que d'autres §. la verite moins hardis, mais aussi
peu instruits que ceux la de la nature de ces Representations,
se persuadent qu'il les faut regler, sur la Pratique du Theatre,
et faire des Comedies a Dariser, et des Tragedies muettes
pour faire de justes Ballets (Menestrier, p. 1).
Menestrier explains that the ballet is not a caprice and that
ancient critics felt that authors of ballets should know poetry, music,
geometry, rhetoric, fables, history, and philosophy in order to com­
pose a good ballet. He believes that erudition and mastery of poetic
forms are more important to the author of a ballet than to any other
dramatic author, for the diversity of entrees calls upon all the tools
a poet can use.
To prove that the ballet is a truly ancient form, Menestrier
traces its history back to biblical times, when Moses had his people
present a ballet of thanksgiving upon being led from Egypt. He finds
36

evidence of ballets in the Psalms and explains that the early Christian
church often celebrated feast days with dances.
society:
Menestrier also believes that such diversion is necessary to
Le divertissement n'est pas moins necessaire 3. l'esprit
pour le delasser que la nourriture l'est au corps pour l'entretenir.
C'est pour cela que Platon apres avoir forme l'idee
d'une Republique parfaite, veut que le Legislateur y introduise
des FStes et rejouissances publiques, des Festins, des Dances,
et des Spectacles pour entretenir le Peuple et delasser les
Magistrats de leur application assidue aux affaires (Menestrier,
p. 29).
The ancient representations that Menestrier calls "ballets" are
considered by many to be nothing more than dances, but Menestrier
says that as far back as Egyptian times, they were truly theatrical
presentations, representing such subjects as the movements of the sky
and the planets.
It is the ancient Greeks, however, who formulated rules for
the ballet, rules that Menestrier says still apply to the form. Since
ballets and song began to be integrated into the action of Greek tragedy,
Aristotle defined their use: "Aristote dit en parlant des Ballets en sa
Poetique, que ce sont les actions, les moeurs et les passions que 1'on
exprime en ces Dances figurees par las Cadences harmoniques, et les
mouvemens reglez des gestes, des actions, et des figures. Tout l'Art
des Ballets est fonde sur cette definition" (Menestrier, p. 40).
The subjects of the ballet must be chosen carefully, according
to Menestrier, and he believes that the poet should take them from
37

ancient history or mythology, or from the imagination, caprice, or
fantasy of the poet. Since the ballet is divided into many different
actions, the primary goal of the poet should not be narrative poetry,
but rather descriptive and emotive verses.
The ballet 3. entrees was well entrenched as a form of theatre
in the seventeenth century, and neither Pure nor Menestrier believed
in changing its kaleidoscopic format: "Le Ballet demande unite de
dessein, afin que tout s'y rapporte a un meme but, mais il ne demande
pas comme la Tragedie unite d'action, ny unite de temps, ny unite de
lieux" (Menestrier, p. 54).
The subject of a ballet may be chosen from several categories,
according to Menestrier. He is amused by the farcical ballets full of
buffoonery that reign during the Carnival, but he also believes that the
ideas of Horace may be applied to the ballet. The ballet, like any other
art form, is a painting, thus the ballet may paint history, the imagina­
tion of the poet, or a combination of the two. The combined form
(historic and imaginary) seems to attract Menestrier:
Les derniers qui sont melez de l'un et de 1'autre, ont toutes
les beautez du vray, et de la belle imitation, et celles du
vray-semblable et de la fiction, comme les Ballets qui se
fond [sic] sur les memes sujets que les tragedies, et qui n'en
sont distinguez que par les personnages feints, poetiques, et
Allegoriques, que l'on mele aux Historiques" (Menestrier,
p. 83).
With this combination of changing format and a subject combin­
ing the historic and the fantastic, ballets may be created from what
38

Menestrier calls "illusions, " consisting of an imaginary subject and
several actions: "Comme le Ballet de la Nuit, ou les entrees sont si
disparates, quoique toutes se rapportent au sujet" (Menestrier, p. 137).
To conserve the spirit of fantasy, and to make use of the
machines which transformed the stage in the wink of an eye, ballets
must always be presented at night (most court ballets of his time were
presented in palace gardens or in large inside rooms impossible to
darken completely), in order to hide the works of the machinery, pre­
senting only the objects it moved.
From these rules and analyses of Pure and Menestrier, it is
evident that the ballet de cour, mainly through the efforts of Benserade,
had become a true dramatic and poetic genre, though perhaps a sec­
ondary one in the light of later centuries:
Le progr&s du ballet de cour, considere au point de vue
litteraire, peut se resumer dans le nom de Benserade, qui
l'a porte a sa perfection. Ce nom repond, sur une moindre
echelle et dans un domaine plus modeste, a ceux de MoliSre
pour la comedie, de Corneille pour la tragedie, de La
Fontaine pour la fable. Comme eux, il a si bien innove et si
bien perfectionne qu'il doit passer pour un createur. Par
Benserade, et 5. peu pr&s par lui seul, ce qui n'avait ete
jusqu'alors qu'un divertissement plus ou moins ingenieux et
galant, mais toujours subordonne au spectacle, s'eleva a la
dignite d'un genre poetique, dont 1'etude appartient non
seulement 5. l'histoire des moeurs et de la haute societe au
dix-septi§me siScle, mais peut et doit figurer dans celle de
la litterature elle-meme (Fournel, II, 188).
As Fournel so aptly states, the ballet de cour was highly important,
not only as one of the favorite diversions of the pleasure-loving
39

French court, but also as an expression of the morals and ideals of
the time.
40

CHAPTER 3
MOLIERE, QUINAULT,. AND LULLY:
THE BIRTH OF FRENCH OPERA
The Comedie-Ballet of MoliSre
Molifere's comedy is well known and much discussed, but it is
strange that his works for music have been so neglected. Many of the
comedies of Moliere that are studied or presented in theatres now are
actually comedies-ballets, a genre he created to amuse the court and
to take advantage of the fact that he had the means to add elements
such as music and dance to his works--means usually not available to
him in Paris. Even when his best known comedies-ballets are pre­
sented, such as Le Bourgeois gentilhomme or Le Malade imaginaire,
the musical interm&des are usually omitted where possible, probably
due to the difficulties of performance when musicians, singers, and
dancers are added to the cast.
The comedie-ballet of Moli&re is a genre he created, with the
collaboration of the great court musician, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and is
considered by most critics to be one of the most important influences
on the development of opera in France. Many of these comedies con­
sisted of several acts, with ballet entries interspersed as interm§des.
41

These intermSdes often had nothing to do with the action of the comedy
itself, but were rather little plays in themselves, usually of a pastoral
nature or full of good-natured buffoonery in the Italian style.
The creation of this genre was almost an accident. The first
of his comedies-ballets, Les Facheux, was written in this form be­
cause Moli&re, wishing to present a ballet with his play, lacked
enough dancers for a really complete ballet. He decided, then, to
integrate the dance and the comedy, giving the dancers time to change
costumes during the acts of the comedy, and to participate in every
entree.
The collaboration between Lully and MoliSre was an important
one for both of them. Lully, long a favorite of Louis XIV, had already
composed ballets, songs, and incidental music for the King, but he
was ambitious and wanted to create a truly French operatic form. He
had not yet met Quinault, who was to write the texts of his operas, but
in Moli&re he found an author who knew music, and who knew how to
write words that were suitable to music. Moli&re seems to have
enjoyed the chance to let his imagination work at creating fantastic and
marvelous scenes for the ballet entrees, and their association, in spite
of its bitter ending, was at first a happy one.
Although the scenes of the intermfedes were at first fairly
loosely allied to the action of the play (or not at all, in some cases),
Molifere soon succeeded in combining music, dance, song, and the

central action of his comedy into a whole, an accomplishment never
realized by Benserade in his ballets. The Bourgeois gentilhomme is
a perfect example of this close alliance, especially in the scenes with
the Music Master and the Dancing Master. Their dances and music
enter naturally into the action, and in one of the most comic scenes
the Dancing Master, accompanied by a minuet, tries to teach Mon­
sieur Jourdain to dance, singing his instructions in increasingly
exasperated tones:
MAITRE A DANSER. --Un chapeau, monsieur, s'il vous
plait. (M. Jourdain va prendre le chapeau de son laquais et
le met par-dessus son bonnet de nuit. Son maitre lui prend
les mains et le fait danser sur un air de menuet qu'il chante.)
La, la, la;--La, la, la, la, la, la; --La, la, la, bis; --La,
la, la; --La, la. En cadence, s'il vous plait. La, la, la, la.
La jambe droite. La, la, la. Ne remuez point tant les
epaules. La, la, la, la, la; --La, la, la, la, la. Vos deux
bras sont estropies. La, la, la, la, la. Haussez la tete.
Tournez la pointe du pied en dehors. La, la, la. Dressez
votre corps.1
Almost everywhere in the comedies-ballets, Molifere follows
the advice he gave in the Bourgeois gentilhomme, through the Music
Master, that only shepherds and shepherdesses, or other characters
of their social station should sing, and that songs should never be put
in the mouths of princes or nobles. Although he sometimes has the
two young lovers of a comedy sing of their love to each other, it is
1. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin de Molifere, Le Bourgeois
gentilhomme, in Vol. VIII of Oeuvres de Moli&re, ed. Despois et
Mesnard (13 vols'., nouv. ed.; Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie,
1878), Act II, Scene i.
43

usually in a situation where the young man has disguised himself as a
Music Master (as in Le Malade imaginaire), and where he and the
young woman sing a pastoral song of love.
It is in the comedie-ballet, too, that we see many of the Italian
comedy characters so familiar to Moli&re early in his career, and who
appear in a more developed form in some of his other comedies.
These happy buffoons are charming characters, and it is unfortunate
that the public no longer has the chance to see them. Many of these
characters were played by Moli&re himself, one of the most interest­
ing being Moron in the Princesse d'Elide.
Molidre's comedies-ballets were performed, with the excep­
tion of Le Malade imaginaire, before the King, and were first pre­
sented at Versailles, or at other palaces where the King was residing,
although most of them were subsequently performed in Paris for the
public. The different setting and the noble spectators, combined with
the availability of musicians, dancers, and machines, however, made
the comedie-ballet a different sort of play from those written for the
stage in Paris. Many of them (such as Le Bourgeois gentilhomme,
La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas, and Monsieur de Pourceaugnac) are bit­
ing satires on a certain segment of society, especially the bourgeois
social climber, a style found less frequently in his other comedies
whose satire is more universally applicable to all of us. But Moli&re
was also inspired by the spirit of ""feerie" that reigned in courtly
44

entertainments, and many of his comedies-ballets transport the spec­
tator into a dream world of delicate fantasy. John Cairn cross, in his
book MoliSre bourgeois et libertin, describes the influence of courtly
entertainment on Moli£re:
II aimait le luxe; cette passion pour la musique est bien dans
le caractfere de ce grand artiste. II etait sensible au charme
des decors, des costumes, du faste, des couleurs .... Nul
doute, par consequent, qu'il n'ait ete enveloppe et plus ou
moins penetre par 1'atmosphere de splendeur et de feerie
galante de Versailles et de Saint-Germain et de ces danses
dans un cadre merveilleux, cette musique, cette exaltation de
l'amour, cette idolatrie de la jeunesse. 2
This second category of comedie-ballet is the most important
to this study, and to the history of the development of opera in France.
Among the comedies-ballets of this genre, and also in the many inter­
mixes of the other comedies-ballets, we find that Moli&re eliminates
all the troubles and difficulties of the real world, and also some of its
conventions, taking us into another, simpler world--often the world of
the pastorale, so well described by Rousset. It is in these works, too,
that MoliSre seems to combine the text, the music, and the dance
movements into a whole:
On n'aura pas de peine a comprendre pourquoi et comment,
en de pareils sujets, la musique a pu servir Moli§re. N'est-elle
pas l'art qui, le plus aisement, entraine les spectateurs pardelS.
le monde reel, qui leur donne un acces de pleinpied dans
les regions imaginaires, qui engage les esprits et les ames 3.
s'abandonner aux reves evoques par le poSte? Aussi a-t-on
toujours vu, quand la fantaisie s'est melee au drame, qu'elle
2. John Cairncross, Moliere bourgeois et libertin (Paris:
Nizet, 1963), p. 113.
45

a appele le concours de la musique, comme d'un auxiliaire
naturel et presque necessaire. La musique cree en quelque
sorte une atmosphere hors de laquelle la fantaisie ne peut
guSre s'epanouir. Lorsque les pontes d'Ath§nes, au IVe
siScle, n'eurent plus le droit d'employer le choeur, e'en fut
fait de l'art hardi et brillant d'Aristophane et de ses emules. ^
For MoliSre, music was an important tool in the creation of fantasy.
The comedie-ballet which best illustrates this marriage of
music and words in a framework of fantasy, is the Princesse d'Elide.
It was first presented in 1664, as a part of Les Plaisirs de l'lle
enchantee, a series of "fetes galantes et magnifiques, faites pour le
Roi. "
Les Plaisirs de l'lle enchantee was one of the most celebrated
of the fetes of Versailles. For three days, all the palace and grounds
were transformed into a dreamland, in which ballets, music, and
plays all contributed to the atmosphere. Ostensibly in honor of the
Queen, Marie-Ther&se, and the Queen Mother, Anne d'Autriche, both
Spaniards, these divertissements were really for Mile de la Valli&re,
current mistress of the King. It was perhaps the fact that the Queen
and the Queen Mother were Spanish that inspired Moli&re to base his
work on a play by Agustin Moreto, El Desden con el desden. All
Molifere did, say most critics, was to place the action in antiquity on
the island of Elide and to simplify the action of the Spanish play.
3. Maurice Pellisson, Les Comedies-ballets de MoliSre
(Paris: Hachette, 1914), p. 129.
46

The Princesse d'Elide was presented on the second day of the
Fete, preceded on the first day by a ballet of the four seasons, the
zodiac, and the twelve hours, and followed on the third day by the
Ballet du palais d'Alcine. Moli&re also presented three acts of his
new comedy, Tartuffe during the celebrations.
The story of the Princesse d'Elide could have been chosen by
Marivaux. The young and beautiful Princess, afraid of love, disdains
all her suitors, including the handsome Euryale, Prince of Ithaca. He
despairs of ever winning her heart, but his gouverneur, Arbate, knows
that the Princess is merely young and afraid, and that she is attracted
to Euryale. Arbate encourages Euryale to persist, saying that he is
glad to see Euryale in love, for he lacked only that quality to be a true
prince. Arbate also advises him to enlist the aid of Moron, the fool,
for the Princess confides in him, and relies on his advice. The Prin­
cess appears, followed by two of her other suitors, and says she will
be like Diana, never loving anything but the hunt and the forest. But
Moron, a good psychologist, has counseled Euryale to act completely
indifferent to the Princess, thus wounding her self-esteem, and his
disdain is already beginning to arouse her interest in him. She decides
to make every effort to cause him to fall in love with her, only to
punish him for his lack of interest. Thus, the Princess, afraid of
love but used to the adulation of her suitors, finds that her< disdain for
love is not as complete as she had believed, and begins to be confused

about her own feelings. The stratagem of Eu;ryale, the gallant and
delicate language of the court, and the contrasting humor of Moron
are well illustrated in this scene:
EURYALE: Pour moi, Madame, je n'y vais point du
tout avec cette pensee. Comme j'ai fait toute ma vie profession
de ne rien aimer, tous les soins que je prends ne vont point oft
tendent les autres. Je n'ai aucune pretention sur votre coeur,
et le seul honneur de la course est tout l'avantage oft j'aspire.
LA PRINCESSE: D'oft sort cette fierte oft l'on ne
s'attendoit point? Princesses, que dites-vous de ce jeune
Frince; Avez-vous remarque de quel ton il l'a pris?
porter!
AGLANTE: II est vrai que cela est un peu fier.
MORON: Ah! quelle brave botte il vient IS. de lui
LA PRINCESSE: Ne trouvez-vous pas qu'il y auroit
plaisir d'abaisser son orgueil, et de soumettre un peu ce coeur
qui tranche tant du brave ?
CYNTHIE: Comme vous etes accoutumee S.'ne jamais
recevoir que des hommages et des adorations de tout le monde,
un compliment pareil au sien doit vous surprendre, §. la verite.
LA PRINCESSE: Je vous avoue que cela m'a donne de
1" emotion, et que je souhaiterois fort de trouver les moyens de
chatier cette hauteur. Je n'avois pas beaucoup d'envie de me
trouver 3. cette course; mais j'y veux aller expres, et employer
toute chose pour lui donner de 1'amour.
CYNTHIE: Prenez garde, Madame: l'entreprise est
perilleuse, et lorsqu'on veut donner de l'amour, on court
risque d'en recevoir. ^
4. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin de Moli&re, La Princesse d'Elide,
in Vol. V of Oeuvres de Moli§re, Act II, Scene iv.
48

The advice Cynthie gives to the Princess is wise, in this context, where
love is the central theme and action, and the inevitable conclusion of
any plot. This sort of amorous maxim is of direct descent from the
ballet, and will continue to form much of the dialogue of the operatic
works and the opera-ballet of this century.
The central problem of the play resembles the action of the
plays of Marivaux. A young girl, of an age to marry, has no obstacles
in choosing a husband (her father is wise and indulgent, and poses no
problems in this area) except the hesitations of her own heart. The
plot will involve, then, the gradual breaking down of her defenses
until, at the end, she admits her love, and her admission is applauded
by all.
Euryale, aided by the others, accomplishes this through his
pretended indifference and interest in another woman. Finally, the
Princess, overcome with love and jealousy, admits her feelings,
which she must first identify, however:
De quelle emotion inconnue sens-je mon coeur atteint, et
quelle inquietude secr&te est venue troubler tout d'un coup la
tranquillite de mon ame ? Ne seroit-ce point aussi ce qu'on
vient de me dire? et, sans en rien savoir, n'aimerois-je
point ce jeune prince? Ah! si cela etoit, je serois personne
3. me desesperer; mais il est impossible que cela soit, et je
vois bien que je ne puis pas l'aimer. Quoi? je serois
capable de cette lachete! J'ai vu toute la terre mes pieds
avec la plus grande insensibilite du monde; les respects, les
hommages et les soumissions n'ont jamais pu toucher mon
ame, et la fier.te et le dedain en auroient triomphe! J'ai
meprise tous ceux qui m'ont aimee, et j'aimerois le seul qui
49

me m£prise! Non, non, je sais bien que je ne I'aime pas. II
n'y a pas de raison 3. cela. Mais si ce n'est pas de l'amour que
ce que je sens maintenant, qu'est-ce done que ce peut etre?
(Act IV,.Scene vi).
Thus, there is no vice to ridicule in this charming comedy. No
tyrannical father, no avarice, false literary snobbery, or hypocrisy
enters into this world peopled by nobles who have everything they
could want. Even the disappointed suitors, at the end of the play, are
quite satisfied with other marriages, and there is never any violent
rivalry. All is eliminated, then, but the central theme of love—
eliminated through the pastoral and dream-like setting of the island of
Elide, perhaps a sort of Cythera.
But, as Pellisson has pointed out, this dream-like setting and
the theme of love must be aided by music, which helps us travel to the
island where everything is good and beautiful. Thus, the intermSdes
of this comedie-ballet are closely allied to the action of the play and
are even a part of certain acts.
The first intermSde begins with the "moral" of the story.
L'Aurore appears and advises young lovers:
Quand l'amour a vos yeux offre un choix agreable,
Jeunes beautes, laissez-vous enflammer;
Moquez-vous d'affecter cet orgueil indomptable
Dont on vous dit qu'il est beau de s'armer:
Dans l'age oft l'on est aimable,
Rien n'est si beau que d'aimer.
50

Soupirez librement pour un amant fid&le,
Et bravez ceux qui voudroient vous blamer.
Un coeur tendre est aimable, et le nom de cruelle
N'est pas un nom £ se faire estimer:
Dans le temps oft l'on est belle,
Rien n'est si beau que d'aimer (Interm&de I,
Scene i).
There follows a comic scene, in which the Valets de Chiens,
aroused by l'Aurore, hurry to prepare for the hunt, singing hunting
cries and trying in vain to arouse Lyciscas, one of their number who
lacks their enthusiasm. He points out the fact that they are all sing­
ing their lines, too, which he considers a little ridiculous. This con­
trast between singing and non-singing characters in the interm&des is
often used by Moli&re, and points out both the beauty of the music and
the paradox of singing all one's dialogue.
During the hunt, when Moron, himself in love with Philis,
wanders in the woods, he sings of his love for her in verses that gently
satirize the gallant poetry of the court:
Bois, pres, fontaines, fleurs, qui voyez mon teint blSme,
Si vous ne le savez, je vous apprends que j'aime.
Philis est l'objet charmant
Qui tient mon coeur 3. 1'attache;
Et je devins son amant
La voyant traire une vache (Intermfede II, Scene i).
Later, Moron goes again to the forest to find Philis. She will
have nothing to do with him, and leaves. Moron bemoans the fact that
he can't sing, believing that singing to Philis would win her over, for
"La plupart des femmes aujourd'hui se laissent prendre par les
51

oreilles; elles sont cause que tout le monde se mele de musique. " A
Satyr arrives on the scene, and Moron asks him to teach him to sing
a love song. Molifere profits again from this musical situation to use
music and words to create comedy:
SATYRE: La, la, la, la.
MORON: La, la, la, la.
SATYRE: Fa, fa, fa, fa.
MORON: Fa toi-meme (IntermSde III, Scene ii).
Moron keeps trying to win Philis, all the while acting in the
comedy itself as a comic confidant of the Princess. He finds Philis
with Tircis, who sings very well, and Philis chides Moron: "Je te le
dis encore, je me plais avec lui; et l'on ecoute volontiers les amants,
lorsqu'ils se plaigent aussi agreablement qu'il fait. Que ne chantes-
tu comme lui?" So Moron finally tries to sing a song he has composed:
Ton extreme rigueur
S'acharne sur mon coeur.
Ah! Philis, je trepasse;
Daigne me secourir:
En seras-tu plus grasse
De m 1 avoir fait mourir? (Interm&de IV, Scene ii).
Later in the play, Moliere and Lully succeeded in integrating
the musical intermfede completely into the action. At the end of the
speech in which the Princess shows her confusion and bewilderment
about her feelings for Euryale, she calls upon ClymSne and Philis to
sing to her to make her forget her troubles. But music is meant for
52

love, and the two women sing, repeating the refrain:
Aimons, c'est le vrai moyen
De savoir ce qu'on en doit croire (IntermSde V).
The Princess leaves them to sing alone, for their songs only double
her anxiety.
The grand fete that ends the play celebrates the impending
marriage of the Princess and Euryale. All the Shepherds and Shep­
herdesses of the island have heard the news announced to them by
Venus herself and have come to offer songs and dances in honor of the
couple. The theme of the last intermfede is again a call to love:
Usez mieux, o beautes fiferes
Du pouvoir de tout charmer;
Aimez, aimables berg£res:
Nos coeurs sont faits pour aimer.
Quelque fort qu'on s'en defende,
II y faut venir un jour:
II n'est rien qui ne se rende
Aux doux charmes de 1'Amour.
Songez de bonne heure a suivre
Le plaisir de s'enflammer:
Un coeur ne commence 3. vivre
Que du jour qu'il sait aimer.
Quelque fort, etc. (IntermSde VI).
Perhaps these last verses seem unworthy of Molifere, and it is
true that they are not among his greatest. There were other things to
consider besides the poetry, however. We must remember that these
verses are meant to be light, short and rhythmic, to conform to the
exigencies of music and dance, and that in the context of the perfor­
mance, they fitted perfectly. As Pellisson indicated, music is
53

necessary to such verses of love, as it has always been since the times
of the troubadours, to give them grace and to open the listener's heart
to the meaning of the song: "Nous voulons dire qu'un auditoire, qui se
serait difficilement laisse emouvoir par la passion ou la tendresse
exprimees en paroles toutes nues, s'y abandonne volontiers quand la
musique vient eveiller la sensibilite et verser la langueur dans les
coeurs" (Pellisson, p. 98).
Although Moli&re's collaboration with Lully had a lasting
influence on French opera, helping Lully perfect a style of music to
conform to the written word, Lully's ambitions destroyed their collab­
oration. Mazarin had, as early as 1645, brought Italian opera to
France, and, although it was not as well received as were the machines
and Lully's ballets which served as intermSdes, it served to spur
Lully's ambitions. He also had rivals for the honor of creating French
opera, in the persons of Perrin and Cambert, who had written several
pastorales and who had obtained a privilege to present operas in
France. They did present one opera, Pomone, in 1671, the same year
that Molifere, with Pierre Corneille and Lully, presented the "tragedie-
ballet" (tragedie-b all et here meaning not a mixture of drama and
interm&des, as in the comedie-ballet, but rather a short ballet with a
continuous plot and tragic action) Psyche. Psyche was already a little
opera, but Lully feared the competition of Perrin and Cambert. Using
his influence with the King, he ruined them and had their privilege

transferred to him in that same year. From that time on, Lully rein­
forced the rights he had over French music, until he had a veritable
monopoly. His power was such that he could prevent the works of
other composers from being performed. His thirst for power extended
to a desire for more control over his librettist, and though Moli&re
had helped with Ps.ychg, Lully feared that a collaboration in writing
operas would lead to the dominance of the author. They ended their
association, and it was with great difficulty that Moli&re obtained per­
mission from Lully to perform his last work, the comedie-ballet, Le
Malade imaginaire. Lully never let it be performed for the court,
giving his permission for performance in Paris only after almost all
the music had been eliminated.
The Tragddie Lyrique of Quinault and Lully
Lully obtained his privilege in 1671, but the germ of French
opera had been forming for quite a while, spurred by the efforts of the
Italians, who had already developed opera. Cardinal Mazarin, inter­
ested in this new theatrical form, brought an Italian opera, La Festa
theatrale della finta pazza, to France in 1645. Some musicians were
interested by it, but most of the members of the court were bored, as
they were with a subsequent Italian opera, presented at the Louvre in
1647, Orfeo. This opera was difficult for the French to understand,
for its main interest was musical, and the plot and characters, not to
55

mention the poetry, suffered from this emphasis. However, Torelli,
the great inventor of stage machinery, had designed the scenery,
which interested the French much more than the opera. The consen­
sus of opinions was that Italian opera had little value. Voltaire
described this reaction in the article "Art Dramatique" in the
Dictionnaire philosophique:
Ce spectacle ennuya tout-Paris. Tr&s-peu de gens entendaient
l'italien, presque personne ne savait la musique, et tout le
monde halssait le cardinal: cette f§te, qui couta beaucoup
d 1 argent, fut sifflee, et bientSt apr&s les plaisants de ce temps-
15. firent le grand ballet, et le branle de la fuite de Mazarin,
danse sur le theatre de la France par lui-m§me et ses
adherents. ®
Of course, all the commentaries on this first opera were not
as cynical as that of Voltaire, but most of the enthusiastic critics
emphasized the beauty of the sets and costumes, and Nicolas Boindin,
in his Lettre sur l'op^ra, had this to say about Orfeo: "Ce spectacle
plut extreme'ment, non seulement par sa nouveaute; mais encore par
la beaute des vers, la variete des concerts, le changement des
decorations, le jeu surprenant des machines et la magnificence des
habits.
5. Fran

These machines influenced the future writers of opera, who
were to use the most complicated machinery to give the atmosphere
of the merveilleux. Pierre Corneille was also fascinated by them.
He wrote a tragedie a machines, Androm&de, in 1650, and even used
some of the machines Torelli had brought to France and left there.
Corneille's use of machines in this tragedy also made necessary the
use of music, for the machines squeaked and groaned as they were
working the marvelous changes on stage, and music covered these
unseemly noises very well. The minute Corneille had machines, he
abandoned the familiar form of French classic tragedy, which had
eliminated gods and goddesses as characters; and brought them back.
When there are machines, then, the deus ex machina (in this case,
Jupiter himself) returns, and descends from the heavens to magnifi­
cent music (hiding the squeaks of the pulleys), to save the day, or
Pegasus rides across the sky on his horse. Corneille also wrote
another machine play, La Toison d'or, in 1660, and collaborated with
Moli&re on the almost-opera, Psyche. Francoeur, in his Essai
historique sur l'Etablissement de 1'opera en France, makes this com­
mentary on the presentation of AndromSde:
Vers le commencement de l'an 1650, Pierre Corneille
donna Andromede tragedie avec des Machines et des Chants,
qui fut jouee par les Comediens de la Troupe Royale au
theatre du petit Bourbon. Cette pi&ce fit du bruit par les
Machines et les Decorations magnifiques dont elle fut
accompagnee. Ces changements de theatre donnerent lieu 3.
son Auteur d'user d'un peu plus de liberte que les regies
57

ordinaires n'en permettent. Cette pi§ce fut joue 45 fois de
suite avec le plus grand succ&s; je la presente ici, non comme
un Opera puisque les Scenes n'y etoient point chante, mais
comme le premier germe qui donna naissance §. l'Opera en
langue frangaise (Francoeur, p. 6).
In 1662 Mazarin,
Voulant enfin donner au Roi un plus grand spectacle et plus
digne de lui dans le temps de son mariage, fit representer . . .
avec une depense tr&s-considerable, Ercole Amante, l'Hercule
Amoureux, dont les entr'actes etoient des Ballets, tirez de la
pi&ce, ofl le Roi et la Reine danserent avec tous les principaux
Seigneurs de la Cour (Boindin, p. 10).
The French Court reacted much the same way as before, and preferred
the ballets composed by Lully and used as entr'actes to the opera it­
self. This mixture of opera and ballet was to cause the ballet to
invade French opera when it was formed.
All the elements needed to form a truly French opera existed,
then: the tradition of the ballet, become dramatic itself; the influence
of the pastorale dramatique, especially those of Cambert; the comedies-
ballets of MoliSre, in which he welded dramatic characterization and
music into a whole; and the Italian opera, too episodic and undramatic
for French taste, but an example of true opera nonetheless.
Lully, then, privilege in hand ("pour chanter en public des
piSces de Theatre"), had only to find the proper librettist in order to
write the opera for which he now had all the tools. He found the per­
fect partner in Philippe Quinault.
58

Quinault, already known for his works outside the lyric theater,
was as respected as Corneille and Racine in his day, although history
has not treated him as well. He was quite willing, however, to abandon
the rules of classic tragedy, and to bend his work to fit a new genre,
which he called the tragedie lyrique. This name given the opera, and
the new name with which the Theatre de l'Op£ra was christened,
"L'Academie royale de Musique, " show that the French put much more
emphasis on the literary aspects of opera than had the Italians for whom
the music was all-important, for the terms "tragedie" and "acad£mie"
were both a part of the world of literature. But the name tragedie
lyrique caused trouble for Quinault among the critics, who believed
that opera was to be treated as any other tragedy because of its name.
Putting the opera in the same category as the Academie Frangaise and
other literary academies of the time was also protested by many lit­
erary men.
The tragedie lyrique was a different genre, however, influenced
especially by "Circe, " that is to say, by the fantasy and magic of the
ballet de cour. The subtle psychology of the French classic tragedy
was replaced by the magic workings of gods and goddesses, by enchant­
ments, by spells, and by fantastic machines.
Gustave Chouquet gives us the essential elements of the tragedie
lyrique in his Histoire de la musique dramatique en France:

Aux sujets qu'a traites Quinault, 5. la coupe meme de ses
operas, on s'apertjoit que l'Academie de musique inaugura
ses representations au lendemain des plus vifs succfes du
ballet de cour. Sur ce royal theatre, tout nous vient rappeler
les divertissements aristocratiques: prologue independant de
la pi&ce, tragedie reposant sur une donnee de la fable ou
fondee sur le merveilleux, jeu des machines, eclat pompeux
du spectacle et danses introduites dans chaque acte. ?
It must be remember, however, that though the tragedie lyrique, in
spirit and manner, is a direct descendant of the ballet de cour, the
element of dance itself is subordinated to the drama.
Quinault and Lully, in creating French opera, were influenced
by the classic tragedy and by the French emphasis on words and
dramatic continuity. In order to keep this literary element, so impor­
tant to them, Lully had to create a new kind of music, unlike Italian
music, to conform to the verbal quality of the opera. He had already
found the answer in Italian opera, for, though it was mainly a string
of emotive arias, which gave free rein to the music, it was forced,
from time to time, into explanatory or expositional dialogue in order
to carry the line of the action. The means used to do this was the
recitative, a rather non-melodic, quickly sung dialogue or monologue,
accompanied usually by chord modulations, which led into the next
aria or ensemble. Lully adapted the idea of the Italian recitative to
the French drama, making it much more melodic in contrast to the
7. Gustave Chouquet, Histoire de la musique dramatique en
France (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1873), p. 113.
60

half-spoken Italian recitative. It still conformed to the inflections of
the spoken language, however, and through the invention of what he
called declamation notee, Lully succeeded in inventing a musical form
which enhanced rather than covered the text. The aria, so important
to Italian opera, was hardly distinguishable from the recitative, so
important were the words, and truly melodic airs were usually rele­
gated to the fetes, or divertissements contained in each act of the
opera. Chouquet describes this essential difference between the operas
of Italy and those of Lully and Quinault;
Pour ces voluptueux [the Italians], la sensation rfegne en
maitresse absolue 5. l'Opera. Les Frangais, au contraire,
vont chercher, meme 3. ce theatre aristocratique, un plaisir
intellectuel. Aucun des chefs de notre ecole de musique
nationale ne l'ignore; aussi la poesie et la musique restentelles,
3. leurs yeux comme aux notres, des soeurs jumelles,
qui ne doivent pas vivre en soeurs rivales (Chouquet, pp. 121-
122).
The means of expression have been found, then, and the sub;-
ject matter, except for the last operas of Quinault, will all be based
on classic mythology. The use of mythology is very important to the
opera. J,ust as in the tragedie a machines, it will serve as a vehicle
to exteriorize the tragedy, and to provide entertainment to all the
senses, in contrast to the classic tragedy, whose interest was interior
and psychological. The classic tragedy was a land of reason and
thought, the tragedie lyrique, in the tradition of the court ballet, was
a land of sensuality and magic: "Considere en tant qu'oeuvre litteraire,
61

l'opera a pour objet, en utilisant les fables de la mythologie classique
et de la legende moderne, d'exterioriser le drame et de donner aux
g
yeux les satisfactions que la tragedie leur refuse. "
The tragedie lyrique had its own rules of form, too. Bonnet
summed it up a little too concisely, but gave the basic elements of
opera: "L'Opera est une sorte de Comedie composee de cinq actes
en musique, accompagnez de danses convenables au sujet, qu'on
nomme divertissement" (Bonnet, p. 70). He mentioned all the mechani­
cal elements but the Prologue, usually an apostrophe to Louis XIV,
again using the mythology of the court. The divertissements Bonnet
mentions were often ballet entrees, but instead of being entr'actes or
intermfedes,as had been the case with Lully's ballets for the Italian
opera, they entered logically into the action of the play.
There were other differences between the opera and the classic
tragedy, especially in the work of the librettist himself. The play was
of necessity much shorter than a tragedy, for the divertissements, the
musical interludes, and the slowness of musical declamation made
normal length impossible for the author. His tragedy is shorter and
simpler, for delicate nuances of feeling or thought are lost in a musi­
cal work. The alexandrin was often missing from lyric tragedy, too,
for the length of the lines was ill-suited to many musical forms.
8. Etienne Gros, Philippe Quinault (Paris : Edouard Champion,
1926), p. 589.
62

Especially in the divertissement, where all the music is governed or
influenced by dance forms, the verses will follow these forms, or
become simply octosyllabic. The constant interruption of these fetes
made it necessary to simplify the action, for the spectators would lose
the line of a complicated intrigue during the divertissements. This
made French opera quite different from Italian opera, with its com­
plicated imbroglios, and fiery passions, for Quinault not only simpli­
fied the action, he made the emotions and passions of the characters
more subdued and contained,
Most critics approved this simplification, and Chabanon, in a
work with the sweeping title De la Musique consideree en elle-meme
et dans ses rapports avec la parole, les langues, la poesie, et le
theatre, felt that Quinault emulated the ancient Greeks in so doing:
"II chercha le merveilleux dans les sujets, et la simplicite dans la
mani&re de les traiter (procede tout-5.-fait semblable 3/celui des
Grecs).
Not only did Quinault limit the action and simplify it, he also
limited the subject matter of the opera. In this he was much criticized
by many literary men, but others defended him, saying that many sub­
jects were not meant to be sung, and that music only made such
9. Michel Paul Gui de Chabanon, De la Musique consideree en
elle-meme et dans ses rapports avec la parole, les langues, la poesie,
et le theatre (Paris: chez Pissot, 1785), p. 277.
63

subjects ridiculous. Rochemont praises the poets of French opera,
for "ils ont encore evit£ avec la meme attention les longues discussions
morales et politiques, dans la crainte que la musique n'affoiblit la
vraisemblance d'un tel dialogue.
With these ideas formulated, Quinault and Lully presented the
first of the many operas they wrote, Cadmus et Hermione, in 1673.
Their association continued until 1688, the year of the death of
Quinault, and in that time, the French opera had become the pride of
the Court and of Paris itself, where the Academie royale de Musique
was the most fashionable and exciting place to go. This even though
the spectators who wished to be seen could no longer sit on the stage,
as they had in other theatres, because of the dances and machinery;
and though the prices at the opera were double those of the other
theatres.
In order to understand French opera as conceived by Quinault,
we must study more deeply the subjects chosen for opera and Quinault's
manner of treating these subjects. As we have mentioned before, the
opera was ill-suited to intellectual discussion or political intrigues,
10. De Rochemont, Reflexions sur 1'opera franqois et sur
l'opera italien (Lausanne, 1754), p. 36.
11. See Luigi Riccoboni, Reflexions historiques et critiques
sur les differens theatres de l'Europe (Paris; J. Guerin, 1738), p,
140.
64

and the efforts of Quinault were aimed towards creating touching and
sentimental situations, which best fitted a musical accompaniment.
Though there are some comic scenes in Quinault's first libretti, the
center of the stage is given to sentimental expression, anguish, or
frightening menaces--all of which conform to the musical aspect of
the drama.
Since the trag£die lyrique exteriorised almost all the action,
eliminating most subtle interior psychology, it was also well-suited
to the French need for le spectacle. Not only the ears, but also the
eyes must be entertained and astounded. In this desire for spectacle,
the tragedie lyrique depicted many actions which the French classic
tragedy had relegated to narrative dialogue, thus destroying the unity
of action. "II en r^sultait necessairement que tout ce qui, dans la
tragedie veritable, reduite £. un conflit de passions, restait en dehors
de 1'action proprement dite, devait etre introduit par l'op£ra dans
cette action meme" (Gros, p. 587).
Because of the abbreviated structure of the lyric tragedy,
because of the limitations placed on subtle psychology by the music,
and because of the importance of the spectacle, the characters of the
lyric tragedy lack the complexity of those of the tragedy. The hero of
a lyric tragedy lacks the time or the means to develop, so he is
usually dominated by one driving force, or represents a single idea.
He also loses much of his power to control his own destiny or to change

his life, since the spectacle almost always involves le merveilleux--
that is to say, the constant intervention of the gods, casting spells,
intervening in human actions, transforming the stage from Paradise
to Hell and back again, and not leaving the poor hero much to do for
himself. The operatic hero of Quinault becomes a passive hero, con­
tent to let the gods decide his fate for him.
Le merveilleux, that all-important element in all the spectacles
destined for the aristocracy of the seventeenth century, was often con­
sidered the most important and innovative part of the tragedie lyrique:
"Ce Poeme est susceptible de toutes sortes de sujets, il embrasse
egalement l'heroique, le Pastoral et le Comique. Les Cieux et les
Magiciens, les Rois et les Bergers y remplissent tour 3. tour la Scfene,
12
et l'on voit dans un moment le Ciel et les Enfers." It was the need
for the merveilleux that destroyed, in the lyric tragedy, not only the
classic unity of action, but also those of time and place. Quinault, by
treating a tragic subject, and by calling his operas tragedies lyriques,
catered to the reigning taste for tragedy, as well as to the other tastes
of the times for magic and spectacle. Le merveilleux was constantly
present, to enhance the magic of the opera and to enchant the specta­
tors. The Abbe Batteux, a great enthusiast of Quinault 1 s opera, in a
12. Jacques Bernard Durey de Noinville, Histoire du theatre
de l'Academie royale de Musique en France (Paris: C. A. Duchesne,
1757), p. 5.
66

work with the surprising title Les Beaux-arts reduits ci un me me
principe, praised the tragedie lyrique, and said this about the gods
and demigods of the opera: "Leurs operations ressemblent 5. des
prodiges. C'est le ciel qui s'ouvre, une nue lumineuse qui apporte un
Etre celeste; c'est un palais enchante, qui disparoit au moindre signe,
et se transforme en desert. 1,13
Many critics formed theories founded on the idea of the mer-
veilleux that may be compared to the Wagnerian ideal combining all
the arts in one opera. The combination of painting, costume, archi­
tecture, poetry, dance, mechanics, and music, all culminated in the
manifestations of the merveilleux. This created the most effective of
arts, capable of transporting the spectator into an enchanted land of
fantasy. Of course, the characters of the opera, always involved in
these unreal situations, became less and less comparable to real
human beings. The encyclopedist Cahusac, another enthusiastic his­
torian of opera, felt that this was essentially necessary and good: "II
[Quinault] en ecarta l'Histoirequiavoit d£j& son Theatre [the tragedies,
of Corneille], et qui comporte une verite, trop connue, des person-
nages trop graves, des actions trop ressemblantes & la vie commune,
13. Abbe Charles Batteux, Les Beaux-arts reduits 5. un meme
principe (Paris: Durand, 1747), pp. 292-93.
67

pour que, dans nos moeurs regues, le Chant, la Musique et la Danse
14
ne forment pas une disparate ridicule avec elles."
Modern critics still wonder at this praise of the unreal and the
fantastic at the expense of human psychology and dialogue. Joseph
Kerman, in an excellent work, Opera as Drama, describes this
phenomenon: "So while Lully's recitative was much praised, the
weight of his opera shifted towards the chorus, together with the ballet
and large scenic effects--what the French aptly consider together as
15
•le merveilleux. •" Etienne Gros considers this manifestation of the
taste for the unreal in the light of what is usually considered a century
of reason and philosophy:
Quand on songe 5. la place que tenait la raison dans la litterature
et dans les arts au XVIIe siScle, il n'est pas inutile
d'ajouter que dans un cadre pareil [that is, the cadre of legend
and mythology], par lui-meme essentiellement conventionnel
et lointain, le 'langage musical' et les intermedes choreographiques
se trouvaient plus naturellement de mise et devaient
paraitre moins choquants §. des intelligences eprises de bon sens
et de verite (Gros, p. 541).
To the French, the libretto was the most important part of the
opera, in spite of the importance of le merveilleux, the ballet, and the
scenic effects. It became customary to publish the libretto immediately
upon the presentation of the opera, and a public completely taken by
14. Louis de Cahusac, La Danse ancienne et moderne, ou
Traite historique de la danse (3 vols,; The Hague: J. Neaulme, 1754),
IE, 64.
15. Joseph Kerman, Opera as Drama (New York: Vintage
Books, 1959), p. 55.
68

this new genre avidly bought and read each new libretto as it appeared,
sometimes never seeing the opera or hearing the music at all. Many
critics (some of whom only read the operas) called them the operas of
Quinault, not mentioning Lully; and Roche mo nt, in his Reflexions,
expresses the general feeling of most Frenchmen about the tragedie
lyrique and about the relationship of the poetry and the music: "Les
Francois ont donne leur attention principale au aujet et au Poeme de
leurs Operas. Chez eux la Poesie a toujours eu beaucoup de part £ la
gloire des succ&s, et la Musique n'a eu d'autre but que de faire valoir
les beautes poetiques" (Rochemont, p. 24).
Since music, at least theoretically, was to do nothing more
than enhance and embellish the words, Lully went to great length to
develop what he called la declamation notee. "Si vous voulez bien
chanter ma musique, allez entendre la Champmesle, " Lully is pur­
ported to have said at one point, and it is true that she, a good friend
of Lully, often declaimed the verses of Quinault for him, so that he
might write music that would conform to the rhythms and intonations
of theatrical declamation. Thus, declamation, instead of being rele­
gated to a very unimportant second place, as was the Italian recitative,
was given first place in all but the divertissements: "La declamation
lyrique, . .. n'est pas seulement un moyen pour l'action; c'est

16
veritablement un ideal, un plaisir parfait en lui-meme; " Lully
dressed and embellished the words without deforming them. There
was very little repetition of words and hardly any repetition of syl­
lables, a common usage in Italian opera which provided opportunities
for the singer to show off his talent for vocal gymnastics.
This even, controlled declamation, however, gave little
opportunity for the spectator to enjoy the marvels and spectacle that,
for the Frenchman, were the essence of opera, and so, in order to
provide these opportunities, and to give the singers more melodic
lines to sing, the fetes of each act became very important. Prunieres,
in his study of Lully, comments on this need for the fetes: "Pour
rompre l'uniformite de cette perpetuelle diction, il y aura des fetes
dont le pretexte naitra au cours de la piSce: danses et chansons pour-
17
ront alors se donner carrifere sans choquer la vraisemblance. "
Most critics, especially those who admired le merveilleux in French
opera, admired also the fetes, and praised them as a novel and beauti­
ful invention: "L 1 excellence du plan Frangois paroit consister dans
cette division du Poeme en dialogue et en fete. Le dialogue doit occu-
per fortement le Spectateur; c'est un plaisir serieux: la fete est un
16. Romain Rolland, Les Origines du theatre lyrique moderne:
Histoire de l'opera en Europe avant Lully et Scarlatti (nouv, ed.;
Paris: E. de Broccard, 1931), p. 260.
17. Henry Prunieres, La Vie illustre et libertine de Jean-
BaptisteLully (Paris: Plon, 1929), p. 96.
70

epos, un passage 5. des plaisirs d'un nouveau genre" (Rochemont,
p. 37). Rousseau, however, finds these fetes less than interesting,
and comments on them in his Dictionnaire de musique. In the article,
"Divertissement, " he calls the fete a "divertissement importun dont
l'auteur a soin de couper l'action dans quelque moment interessant,
et que les acteurs assis et les spectateurs debout ont la patience de
18
voir et d'entendre." He defines it more clearly in the article
"Fete":
Divertissement de chant et de danse qu'on introduit dans
un acte d'opera, et qui interrompt et suspend toujours 1'action.
Ces fetes ne sont amusantes qu'autant que l'opera meme
est ennuyeux. Dans un drame interessant et bien conduit, il
seroit impossible de les supporter (Rousseau, Dictionnaire,
Oeuvres, III, 696-697).
One of the most important elements of the Quinault-Lully opera,
and one of the most disputed by the critics, was the emphasis put on
love. The action of the opera, limited by definition to emotive situa­
tions, in a genre written mainly for a still-hedonistic court and King,
could do nothing better than to make every hero languish for love, and
to make the opera the land of love, where all the dialogue called not
only upon the actors, but also upon the spectators to worship it and
fill their lives with it. The ancestors of the opera had prepared the
way for this celebration of love long before, in the tender and gallant
18. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Dictionnaire de musique, article
"Divertissement, " in Oeuvres completes (4 vols., nouv. ed.; Paris:
Fame et Cie, 1846), III, 672.
71

pastorale, and in the court ballet. The salons of the precieuses
echoed with maxims of love with which Quinault, a disciple of the
precieuses, filled his operas:
De 1673 k 1686, cet appel S. l 1 amour retentit partout dans les
livrets de Quinault. On croirait, H les parcourir, que le but
de l'opera est de convaincre l'univers de la n£cessite d'aimer.
Hatez-vous de jouir, car le temps passe, rep&tent 5. l'envie
toutes les voix ... . Laissez-vous guider oft votre instinct
vous emporte; soyez constants ou soyez infiddles, mais aimez,
car le bonheur est dans l'amour ... . Raison? Sagesse?
Futilites. La Raison ni la Sagesse ne sont de mise 3. l'opera
(Gros, pp. 660-661).
The heroes of the opera of Quinault are not so much heroes of
the legends and mythology of antiquity, as they are well mannered,
urbane, graceful courtiers of the seventeenth century. As seventeenth-
century courtiers, their main preoccupation is with love. As Gros
says, "L'opera n'est en realite qu'un long hymne 3. l'amour, une glori­
fication du dieu vainqueur et tout puissant" (Gros, p. 658).
Thus, Quinault and Lully became the favorites of the court,
and the Journal of Dangeau shows how often Louis XIV and his court
had operas presented to them. Louis, when he was ill, would have
Quinault's libretti read to him, and the most important members of
the court journeyed to Paris to see the operas presented at the
Academie royale de Musique.
By the time of Quinault's death in 1688, the opera was a defi­
nitely established musical and literary form, with its own rules and
theories, formulated and argued over by the most distinguished of
72

critics, most of whom considered the opera a true literary genre,
even though they might not have approved of it. The opera was still
the land of le merveilleux, and was based upon Greek and Roman
legend, except for the three last operas of Quinault, Amadis (1684),
based on a Spanish novel, Roland (1685), and Armide (1686), his last
opera, based on Tasso.
Several other French authors attempted to write operas, per­
haps to try to displace Quinault in the favor of the King, knowing his
taste for this genre. Racine and Boileau tried to write a Phaeton, on
commission from the King, and failed; for their style of writing ill
fitted the delicate and amorous maxims required of them. Racine did
try, in Esther and in Athalie, to write tragedies in the Greek style
where music would logically enter into the action, but only in the
choruses of praise, and in other such episodes, not the important
dialogue itself.
La Fontaine wrote a Daphne, which Lully never set to music,
preferring Quinault's Alceste; and his Galatee, though perhaps a better
libretto, was never finished. La Fontaine, in a letter to Mme de
Thiange, in 1675, complained bitterly of the rejection of Daphne, and
of the form in which he was expected to write:
Mon oplra, tout simple, et n'etant, sans spectacle,
Qu'un ours qui vient de naitre, et non encor leche,
Plait dej&. Que m'a done Saint-Germain reproche?
Un peu de pastorale? enfin ce fut l'obstacle.
J'introduisois d'abord des bergers; et le Roi
73

ne se plait 5. donner qu'aux heros de l'emploi:
Je l'en loue. IL falloit qu'on lui vantat la suite;
Faute de quoi ma Muse aux plaintes est r£duite.
La Fontaine, as well as many other great authors, found the require­
ments of opera unsuited to their talents, and left the honor of its
authorship to Quinault.
19. Jean de La Fontaine, Oeuvres (11 vols.; Paris: Hachette,
1892), IX, 177.
74

CHAPTER 4
LITERARY QUARRELS ON OPERA
Si vous voulez savoir ce que c'est qu'un Opera, je vous
dirai que c'est un travail bizarre de PoSsie et de Musique,
oi!i le PoSte et le Musicien egalement gSnes l'un par l'autre,
se donnent bien de la peine a faire un mechant ouvrage.
"Sur L'Opera" Saint-Evremond*
The opera was established. It was a mirror and an expression
of the society of the seventeenth century and of the court of Louis XIV.
Its pompous apostrophes to the King in the prologues reflected the
fervor of the monarchy, and the public was as pleased with it as the
aristocracy. Bruneti&re commented on the extreme popularity of the
opera:
Grace, en effet, 3. la nouveaute de 1' alliance de la musique
et de la poesie, --et aussi grace aux decors--l'opera, qui
d'ailleurs traitait & ses debuts les memes sujets que la
tragedie, a plus que balance, 3. dater de 1675 ou 1680, la
popularity de la tragedie. La forme, moins severe et plus
insinuante, en etait accessible 3. un public plus nombreux;
on y goutait un plaisir plus vif; l'intelligence et surtout la
jouissance en exigeaient moins d'application. ^
1. Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, seigneur de Saint -
Evremond, "Sur l'Opera, " in Oeuvres (10 vols., nouv. ed.; Paris:
1740), III, 248.
2. Ferdinand Brunetidre, Etudes critiques sur l'histoire de
la litterature francaise (7 vols.; Paris: Hachette, 1903), VII, 191.
75

This pleasure, this easy diversion, was considered insidious
by many critics, especially by religious men, and a whole stream of
moral criticism appeared towards the end of the century, during the
religious current inspired by the new atmosphere of piety at the court
of Louis XIV. Because it was a sin to go to the opera (ignored by
most Frenchmen), these critics often based their writings on this
"immoral" spectacle on the libretti they read. Shocked by the con­
stant calls to love, and believing that this immorality was all the more
insidious because the music that accompanied it tended to put all
reason and judgment to sleep, affecting only the senses and the emo­
tions, these critics railed violently against the opera, although most
of them were crying in the wilderness as far as attendance at the opera
was concerned.
It is true that Quinault's libretti are filled with a sensuality
that must have been shocking to some people, but many modern critics
feel that this light, delicate sensuality is one of the more lasting
qualities of his lyric tragedy. The following generation would have
shocked these critics even more, for the opera-ballet was to take the
most sensual part of the lyric tragedy, the fgte, and transform it into
an operatic form expressing the more open sensuality of the eighteenth
century.
This whole controversy, as Rolland remarks, is a controversy
on the role of all art, for "L'art, et surtout le th&atre, par le
76

surexcitation qu'il porte cL la passivite humaine, peut §tre un agent
aussi puissant du mal que du bien. L'opera, par sa complete prise
de possession, est le plus redoutable des spectacles" (Rolland, p. 12).
One of the other reasons for the virulent criticism attracted
by the opera was the reputation of its actresses. All actors and act­
resses were considered immoral at the time, and were excommuni­
cated from the church, but the opera actresses, being the most sought
after as mistresses by the high society of the court and of Paris, were
singled out as the worst offenders against propriety. It was difficult
for anyone, seeing these singers on the stage, especially in operas
that constantly talked of love, to separate their private lives from the
roles they played. Dufresny, in his Amusemens serieux et comiques,
describes these lovely inhabitants of the enchanted land of opera:
Les fees d'Opera enchantent comme les autres; mais leurs
enchantements sont plus naturels, au vermilion pres.
Quoy qu'on ait fait depuis quelques annees quantite de
contes sur les Fees du temps-passe, on en fait encore davantage
sur les Fees de l'Opera; ils ne sont peut-etre pas plus vrais,
mais ils sont plus vray-semblables.
Celles-cy sont naturellement bienfaisantes; cependant elles
n'accordent point £ ceux qu 1 elles aiment le don des richesses,
elles le gardent pour elles. ^
The pious authors of the time set out to prove that one could
not go to the opera without committing a sin, and that, as the Bishop
of Toulon stated, the opera is "le theatre oil le D£mon Itale avec plus
3. Charles RiviSre Dufresny, Amusemens serieux et comiques
(2nd ed.; Paris: chez la Veuve Barbin, 1707), pp. 100-101.
77

de faste et le plus fin poison, ses pompes, ses vanitez, ses plaisirs,
et les attraits de la concupiscence, en un mot, les objets et les
mouvemens les plus propres et les plus puissans pour la corruption de
4
l'ame et du coeur. "
It was not only the little-known authors and religious men who
wrote about the moral dangers of the opera. Pluche, in Le Spectacle
de la nature, rails against Lully and Quinault for having sacrificed
truth and utility to simple amusement and for having used the power­
ful tool of the opera not to incite the spectator to enlighten his spirit,
to love his country, or to respect greatness, but rather to incite him
to perversions of the heart. For Pluche, Lully and Quinault "mirent
tout en oeuvre pour enyvrer la raison en donnant de beaux semblans,
meme des dehors de vertu, 5. la forfanterie, 5. la vengeance, 3. l'adul-
5
tSre, et 3. tous les vices. "
Bossuet, though he feared the bad influence of all theatre on
the minds of the people, feared the opera above all, again because the
music dulled the reasoning process and opened the doors of one's
heart to the vicious maxims of love and sensuality: "car c'est 13.
pr£cis£ment le danger, que pendant qu'on est enchante par la douceur
4. Quoted in Pierre Le Brun, Discours sur la comedie (2nd
ed.; Paris: chez la Veuve Delaulne), p. 252.
5. A. N. de Pluche, Le Spectacle de la nature (8 vols,; Paris:
Les Fr&res Estienne, 1755), VII, 132.
78

de la m£lodie, ou £tourdi par le merveilleux du spectacle, ces sen-
timens s'insinuent sans qu'on y pense, et plaisent sans estre apper-
6
cjeus. " He calls the libretti of Quinault "la corruption r^duite en
maximes" (Bossuet, p. 7), and accuses Lully of aiding Quinault in
this corruption by writing airs that are sung by everyone, rendering
too agreeable the vices of Quinault, and causing the vices to be im­
printed permanently on the hearts of the listeners. He replies to those
who say that if one is corrupted by the theatre, and especially by the
opera, it is accidental, and not intended by the authors, by crying out
that it is impossible to believe that these works incite passions only
by accident, "pendant tout crie qu'elles sont faites pour les exciter,
et que si elles manquent leur coup, les regies de l'art sont frustr£es"
(Bossuet, p. 14).
Even modern critics of opera have found Quinault 1 s works
overly sensual. Rene Doumic criticizes this emphasis on love,
especially because he feels that this sensuality in lyric tragedy caused
the degeneration of the classic tragedy in France:
On sait assez de quels conseils est faite la morale
amoureuse de Quinault: c'est une continuelle invitation
3. aimer, 3. prof iter de la jeunesse, S. suivre l'instinct en
d£pit des empecheurs de s' aimer 5. la ronde
H6las, petits oiseaux, que vous etes heureux
De ne sentir nulle contrainte
Et de pouvoir suivre sans crainte
6. Jacques B£nigne Bossuet, Maximes et reflexions sur la
comedie (Paris: J. Anisson, 1694), p. 8.
79

Lies doux emportments de vos coeurs amoureux!
II est difficile de dissimuler plus de grossi§ret£ sous
plus de preciosity (Doumic, p. 118).
But opera was also involved in another quarrel, more literary,
and one which would continue throughout the first half of the eighteenth
century, the querelle des anciens et des modernes. The modernes
exalted opera as the true example of "something new under the sun,"
and praised its innovations, while tracing its origins to antiquity to
give it prestige as a new development of a classical form. It differed
from anything the ancients had ever created, however, and as such,
was the rallying point of the moderns.
Boileau, seeing opera praised all around him, and, partly be­
cause he had failed miserably in his attempt to write an opera, fired
the first round in a battle that continued to be fought even in the
Encyclopedie:
L'Epouse que tu prens, sans tache en sa conduite,
Aux vertus, m'a-t'on dit, dans Port-Royale instruite,
Aux loix de son devoir regie tous ses desirs.
Mais qui peut t'assurer, qu'invincible aux plaisirs
Chez toi dans une vie ouverte 3. la licence,
Elle conservera sa premiere innocence?
Par toi-meme bien-tot conduite 3 l'Opera,
De quel air penses-tu que ta Sainte verra
D'un spectacle enchanteur la pompe harmonieuse,
Ces danses, ces Heros 3. voix luxurieuse?
Entendra ces discours sur l'amour seul roulans,
Ces doucereux Renauds, ces insensez Rolands,
Scjaura d'eux qu'3. l'Amour comme au seul Dieu Supreme,
On doit immoler tout, jusqu'3. la vertu meme:
Qu'on ne sqaurait trop tot se laisser enflammer:
Qu'on n'a regii du Ciel un coeur que pour aimer?
Et tous ces lieux communs de Morale lubrique
80

Que Lully r£chauffa des sons de sa musique
Mais de quels mouvemens en son coeur excitez
Sentira-t'elle alors tous ses sens agitez?^
Boileau had chosen to attack an enemy beloved by almost every­
one, however, and although his attack was praised by the pious, it was
considered ridiculous by many critics, especially Boileau's enemy
among the modernes, Perrault. Antoine Adam comments on the
violent reaction against Boileau:
Les contemporains virent dans cette satire une explosion de
hargne inintelligente contre la society moderne, contre son
elegance, son gout, ses delicatesses. En d£nigrant les femmes,
en d£non

But Boileau and his supporters kept denouncing the opera and its
"lascivious songs, " while Quinault's supporters continued to claim
that there was nothing wrong with the love expressed in the opera, and
that it was delicate, restrained, and tender. Voltaire later in the
battle, denounced Boileau's criticism, too, saying that the morale
lubrique, if it existed, was limited to the fgtes, where it belonged,
and that Quinault never put such maxims in the mouths of his heroes,
who expressed nothing but noble and lofty passions.
But Boileau continued to rail against opera, and feared espe­
cially what he called the "mollesse" of Quinault's verses. Still imbued
with the spirit of classicism, Boileau missed the grandeur and elo­
quence, the strong emotions and glory of the classic tragedy. In this
sort of criticism, he treated the tragedie lyrique as a form of tragedy,
and tried to apply the same standards to both. In Chant V of Le Lutrin,
he describes in comic fashion the softness and lack of backbone of
Quinault's verse:
307.
'Vien, et, sous ce rempart, 3. ce guerrier hautain
Fais voler ce Quinaut qui me reste §. la main. 1
A ces mots, il luy tient le doux et tendre ouvrage
Le Sacristain, bouillant de zele et de courage,
Le prend, se cache, approche, et droit entre les yeux
Frappe du noble ecrit 1'athlSte audacieux;
10. Voltaire, "Remarques sur Ariane, " in Oeuvres, XXXII,
82

Mais c'est pour l'ebranler une foible tempeste,
Le livre sans vigueur mollit contre sa teste. ^
Everyone seemed to enjoy these "flaccid" verses, however, and Edme
Boursault, in his Satire des Satires (1669), puts these feelings of
enjoyment into the lines of the characters of his comedy. One charac­
ter, Ortodoxe, has just seen a Quinault opera and is charmed by the
beauty of the verses. He tells how he applauded, then asks the name
of the author. He is shocked to hear that Quinault wrote the opera,
and wringing his hands in despair because the great arbiter of taste,
Boileau, has criticized Quinault, protests that he applauded in all
innocence, and that, had he known the name of the author, he would
12
have found it poor.
One of the most powerful weapons of the modernes against
Boileau was the extreme popularity of Quinault's works, and Perrault
chides Boileau for believing that there might be a greater art than
that of pleasing an audience.
Perrault also answers Boileau on the subject of the mollesse
of operatic poetry by distinguishing, as Boileau had neglected to do,
between the style of poetry found in tragedy and that found in opera.
11. Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, Le Lutrin, Chant V, in
Oeuvres, ed. Brossette (2 vols.; Amsterdam: D. Mortier, 1718),
I, 374.
12. Edme Boursault, La Satire des Satires (Paris: J. Ribou,
1669), p. 10.
83

The two are of necessity different, says Perrault, for poetry destined
to be sung could not be written as Boileau would wish it to be written.
If authors of opera followed Boileau 1 s precepts, says Perrault, he
would write words that the singers could not sing and that the specta­
tors could not understand. He explains that a singer, interpreting an
operatic air, will always cause some of the words to be lost, and that
subtle and complicated thoughts and little-known words are not fitting
13
to this sort of setting. He then explains the kind of poetry proper to
musical expression:
II faut que dans un mot qui se chante la syllabe qu'on entend
fasse deviner celle qu'on n'entend pas, que dans une phrase
quelques mots qu'on a ou'is fassent supplier ceux qui ont echapp£
& l'oreille, et enfin qu'une partie du discours suffise seule
pour le faire comprendre tout entier. Or cela ne se peut
faire 5 moins que les paroles, les expressions et les pens£es
ne soient fort naturelles, fort connues et fort usit^es;
ainsi, Monsieur, on blame Monsieur Quinault par l'endroit oil
il merite le plus d'estre lou£, qui est d'avoir sgu faire
avec un certain nombre d'expressions ordinaires, et de pens£es
fort naturelles, tant d'ouvrages si beaux et si agreables,
et tous si differens les uns des autres.(Perrault, Parallele, III,
241).
D'Alembert, in his writings, also realized that Boileau was wrong to
compare tragic poetry to the trag^die lyrique. He mentions that
Boileau did not notice that the freer verse forms used by Quinault in
his operas, and often imposed upon him by the requirements of variety
.13. Charles Perrault, Parallele des anciens et des modernes
(4 vols.; Paris: J.-B. Coignard, 1688-1697), III, 240.
84

14
in the music, made his poetry more interesting. He also points out
in his Eloge de Despr^aux, that Boileau's greatest mistake was his
disdain for Quinault (D'Alembert, Histoire, I, 61-62).
Another of the primary qualities of opera, le merveilleux,
offended Boileau and his sense of reason. He found in the magical
land offered by the opera, an insult to truth and reason. In his
Dialogues des H^ros de Roman (1688), he demands how a hero can die
while singing, and satirizes opera by offering scenes in which great
heroes dance or sing as they languish for love, forgetting all thoughts
of glory or honor. This lack of vraisemblance is to him totally ridicu­
lous, and in his Third Satire, also devoted to the defects of opera, he
expresses this unbelievable picture of the languishing hero:
Je ne s

mis dans son Alexandre, nous faisant du plus grand Heros de
l'Antiquite, un ferluquet amoureux. Je m'etonne que Desp ... ait
16
touche cette mani&re, et I'Ironie est fort dangereuse. "
The problem of verisimilitude was often one of taste, for
Boileau's adversaries in this quarrel agreed that the opera was often
less than true to life, but this they believed to be one of its greatest
qualities. Perrault defends these fables as being superior to reality:
Elles ont le don de plaire 2L toutes sortes d'esprits, aux
grands genies, de mesme qu'au menu peuple, aux vieillards
comme aux enfans; ces chimeres bien maniees amusent et
endorment la raison, quoyque contraire S. cette mesme raison,
et la charment davantage que toute la vray-semblance imaginable:
ainsi nous pouvons dire que l'invention ingenieuse des
Opera n'est pas un accroissement peu considerable §L la belle
et grande Poesie.( Perrault, Par allele, III, 284).
Perrault also finds truth and reality in the opera, however. In
17
his Critique de l'opera, he compares the Alceste of Quinault to
Euripides' version, finding Quinault far superior. Quinault, states
Perrault, has simplified the action, eliminating episodes from
Euripides that might be considered strange or laughable to his contem­
poraries, and making the characters more true to life.
16. Nicolas Pradon, "Examen de la Satire III, " in Le Triomphe
de Pradon (Lyon, 1684), p. 84.
17. Pierre Perrault, Critique de l'opera, ou Examen de la
trag£die intitulee Alceste, ou le Triomphe d'Alcide (Paris: C. Barbin,
1674).
86

Boileau remained convinced that music, true passions, and
noble feelings could not go together without the loss of the sense of
reality. In the Avertissement to the prologue of the opera he and
Racine attempted to write, he states: "On ne peut jamais faire un bon
opera parce que la musique ne sqaurait narrer; que les passions n'y
peuvent estre peintes dans tout l'estendue qu'elles demandent; que
d'ailleurs elle ne s$auroit souvent mettre en Chant les expressions
vrayment sublimes et courageuses" (Boileau, Oeuvres, II, 21). This
was perhaps a grave error, at least to state this belief in connection
with his opera prologue, for Boileau's prologue indicates that he is
highly unsuited to writing for the genre, and in trying to do so, shows
his uneasiness at every line. One of the most heated replies to
Boileau's statement came from Pierre-Charles Roy, one of the authors
of the opera-ballet, and highly successful in this genre:
Mais 1'oracle £toit un peu suspect d'interet personnel.
Despreaux avoit voulu supplanter Quinault; il l'avoue.
Avec quelles armes le combattoit-il? Avec un Prologue
qu'il auroit du ne pas imprimer .... N'accusons done
point la Musique d'une mollesse incapable d'atteindre 3.
la plus forte Poesie. Elle a des couleurs pour tous les
objets, teintes douces et fieres, selon le besoin. *8
Most other critics followed the same line as Roy, some before him
and some following him. In fact, this statement of Boileau seems to
have excited heated arguments throughout the entire first half of the
.18. Pierre-Charles Roy, "Lettre sur l'Opera, " La Nouvelle
Bigarure, IV (Juin, 1753), 127-128.
87

eighteenth century, and became a point of contention in the famous
Querelle des Bouffons in the 1750's. D'Alembert, in his Eloge de
Despreaux, went even further in his criticism of Boileau's abilities
as an author of libretti:
Despreaux entreprit, conjointement avec Racine, un Opera,
dans lequel ils crurent effacer le Poete qu'ils meprisoient, et
montrer la facilite d'un genre d'ouvrage, dont ils ne parloient
qu'avec d£dain: Despreaux en fit le Prologue, que par malheur
aucun Musicien ne put venir 3. bout de mettre en musique; Orph£e
mgme y auroit echoue. Notre Poete ne laissa pas de la faire
paroTtre avec un Preface, oft l'on trouve, sur l'expression musicale,
des assertions aussi etranges que celles de Pascal sur la
Beaute poetique; grande legon aux plus heureux genies, et de ne
point forcer leur talent, et de se taire sur ce qu'ils ignorent
(D'Alembert, Histoire, I, 61-62).
D'Alembert also commented, in a study of the prologue written by
Boileau, on the lack of understanding of both Boileau and Racine of the
type of poetry needed for opera:
A l'egard du Prologue meme, auquel ces etranges assertions
servent de Preface, il prete encore plus 3. la censure, s'il est
possible, par le sujet que par 1'execution. C'est la Po£sie et
la Musique qui se querellent sur la preference de leur Art, et
qui sont pretes & se brouiller et 3. se separer pour faire chacune
bande 3. part, lorsque tout 3 coup l'Harmonie vient les reunir.
On ne comprend pas trop comment la Musique paroit d'abord
dans ce Prologue sans l'Harmonie, qui est un de ses principaux
attributs; on comprend encore moins comment l'Harmonie
poetique et la melodie du Chant, en les supposant brouilles
ensemble, (on ne sait pas trop pourquoi), peuvent etre si
facilement reconciliees par l'Harmonie musicale; c'est-l.-dire,
apparemment par la Musique 3. plusieurs parties, qui seroit
plutot propre 3 augmenter la brouillerie, s'il y en avoit dej3
sans elle. C'est dommage que, pour la consolation de ses
ennemies, Despreaux n'ait pas acheve ce Prologue suivant le
plan qu'il a trace lui-meme (D'Alembert, Histoire, III, 95-97
[notes] ).
88

Quinault, however, secure in his own popularity and position
at court, never found it necessary to write in his own defense, and
disdained the whole quarrel. In the Temple du gout, Voltaire summed
up this attitude on the part of both the adversaries:
Despreaux, par un ordre exprSs du dieu du Gout, se
reconcilioit avec Quinault, qui est le poete des graces, comme
Despreaux est le poete de la raison.
Mais le severe satirique
Embrassait encore en grondant
Cet aimable et tendre lyrique,
Qui lui pardonnait en riant.
' Je ne me reconcilie point avec vous, disait Despreaux,
que vous ne conveniez qu'il y a bien des fadeurs dans ces
operas si agreables.
--Cela peut bien etre, dit Quinault; mais avouez aussi
que vous n'eussiez jamais fait Atys ni Armide.
Dans vos scrupuleuses beautes
Soyez vrai, precis, raisonnable;
Que vos ecrits soient respectes:
Mais permettez-moi d'§tre aimable.'^
An important point to remember, and one which will be impor­
tant to the formation of the opera-ballet, was the fact that most critics
of opera recognized the beauty or value of the separate parts of the
opera, but criticized the effort to unite all these elements into a whole,
especially in the framework of a tragedy. Many critics were of the
2 0
opinion of Geoffroy, that the opera was "un genre batard, " in which
each of the good elements was ruined by its association with the others.
19. Voltaire, "Le Temple du gout," in Oeuvres, VIII, 579.
20. Julien-Louis Geoffroy, Cours de litterature dramatique,
ou Recueil par ordre de mati&res des feuilletons de Geoffroy, precede
d'une notice historique sur sa vie et ses ouvrages, ed. Gosse (5 vols.;
Paris: Blanchard, 1819-1820), I, 447.
89

La BruySre, who was fascinated by the merveilleux in the
opera, still found it boring on the whole: "L'on voit bien que l'Opera
est l'ebauche d'un grand spectacle; il en donne l'idee .... Je ne sais
pas comment l'Opera, avec une musique si parfaite et une depense
toute royale, a pu reussir §L m'ennuyer.
The problem of verisimilitude was often discussed, too, by
others than Boileau, and the famous mot of Saint-Evremond illustrates
this attitude: "Une sottise chargee de musique, de danses, de
machines, de decorations, est une sottise magnifique, mais toujours
sottise" (Saint-Evremond, Oeuvres, III, 246). All the critics of opera
agreed on this point, that the eye and ear, and often the senses were
pleased by this spectacle, but that the mind was ignored. It was
especially difficult to accept, for Saint-Evremond and for Voltaire,
that a hero should sing during the destruction of a city, that one should
dance around a tomb, that a master call his valet in musical tones,
and that "melodieusement on tue les hommes 5 coups d'epee et de
javelot dans un combat" (Saint-Evremond, Oeuvres, III, 246). Every­
where in his writings on opera, Saint-Evremond insisted that music
was ill-fitted to heroic acts, and that the proper sort of opera to write
would be comic, or pastoral, where it would seem more natural to
21. JeandeLaBruySre, "Des Caractferes ou les Moeurs de ce
siScle, " in Oeuvres, ed. Servais (3 vols.; Paris: L. Hachette et Cie,
1865), I, 133.
90

hear the characters sing their lines, much as Moli&re had suggested
in the Bourgeois gentilhomme. The opera-ballet will fulfill this
desire of Saint-Evremond, but he will have little to say about the new
genre.
For the raisonneurs of the century, le merveilleux was also
unpardonable, as it removed what verisimilitude remained to the
psychology of the characters by eliminating any force of will they
might have had, turning over the resolution of problems to gods and
goddesses. They also felt that the machines detracted from the liter­
ary aspects of the play, and that by omitting the machines, and thus
the gods, one would render the play more interesting and touching.
The opera-ballet will also reply to this criticism, by retaining mach­
ines, but in more realistic situations, and by relegating the gods and
goddesses to the prologue.
Another rather amusing commentary of le merveilleux comes
from two sources: Rousseau and La Fontaine. They admit that per­
haps the machines would transport the spectator into a land of
enchantment, if only the machines worked properly. La Fontaine, in
his Epitre cL M. Niert sur l'opera, describes his disappointment at
having his illusions wrenched from him by having to listen to the
whistle of the head machiniste signal a change to all the other stage
hands, and by the malfunction of many of the most important parts of
the machine:

Des machines d'abord le surprenant spectacle
Eblouit le bourgeois, et fit crier miracle.
Mais la seconde fois il ne s'y pressa plus;
11 aima mieux le Cid, Horace, Heraclius.
Aussi de ces objects l'ame n'est point emue,
Et meme rarement ils contentent la vue.
Quand j'entends le sifflet, je ne trouve jamais
Le changement si prompt que je me le promets:
Souvent au plus beau char le contre-poids resiste;
Un dieu pend 5. la corde, et crie au machiniste;
Un reste de foret demeure dans la mer,
Ou la moitie cu Ciel au milieu de l'Enfer (La Fontaine,
Oeuvres, IX, 155).
Rousseau, speaking in Saint-Preux' letters to Julie, written from
Paris, describes the opera of a later time, but puts it into a frame­
work of a continuation of the age of Louis XIV. He destroys any illu­
sion one might have about the machines, point by point, comparing the
drops representing the sky to someone's wash hanging on the line, the
beautiful sun to a pitiful lantern, and denigrating the magnificence of
the char of the descending deus ex machina in the most pitiless of
terms, and the cloud on which his char descends as a "morceau de
grosse toile barbouillee" (Oeuvres, II, 142).
It is still the literary value of the poetry that occupies most of
the critics, however, and most of them feel that Quinault was just the
person to write opera--a "petit po&te" ready to sacrifice himself to the
requirements of the music. He is described as a facile poet, a
rimeur, who in defending his verses as being different because they
are destined to be set to music, admits his weakness. Quinault's
poetry is described as a mass of "babillardes, " and a sort of easy
92

prose, put into rhyme. La Fontaine, in his satirical poem, "Le
Florentin, " describing the despotic influence and requirements of
Lully upon the author of the opera (written after the rejection of La
Fontaine's Daphne), describes the sort of poetry he was forced to
write:
II me persuada;
A tort, & droit, me demanda
Du doux, du tendre, et semblables sornettes,
Petits mots, jargons d 1 amourettes
Confits au miel; bref, il m'enquinauda. 22
It is true, in part, that some of the verse, especially in the diver­
tissements or in the final scenes, is subject to this sort of criticism,
for, due to Lully's declamatory musical style and his insistence that
words and syllables not be repeated as an opportunity for the singer to
show off his gymnastic talents, there was little room for melodic airs
or virtuoso singing. Thus, the poet found several words the illustra­
tion of which would require melodic phrasing and gymnastics, and they
recur in almost every one of these scenes. The critics then sneered
at the proliferation of words such as voler, lancer, murmure, triom-
phe, and gloire in Quinault's libretti, and this proliferation will be
criticized in later operas and opera-ballets.
22. Jean de La Fontaine, "Le Florentin, 11 in Oeuvres
diverses (2 vols.; Paris: BibliothSque de la Pleiade, 1942), II, 612.
93

Boileau was not the only one to find that love had too great a
place in the opera. Voltaire joins him in bemoaning this accent put on
passion, especially since the love expressed in the opera was not nobly
passionate, but sweet and tender, and sometimes very sensual, and
not proper to the tragic form.
This brings us to the gravest accusation, and probably a valid
one, that the tragedie lyrique caused or contributed to the downfall of
classic tragedy. Doumic calls this mixed, spectacular genre, filled
with ignoble love, the "pire dissolvant" of the tragedy. Other critics
realized that the use of machines and gods, constantly intervening in
the action, displaced or eliminated the inner passions and conflicts of
the tragic characters and turned them into mere puppets. Rolland
sums up this attitude: "La tragedie a fini par mettre l'ideal de
noblesse au-dessus de l'ideal de vie; elle est, d&s lors, depassee par
l'opera. Et l'opera, par son attraction sensuelle, achSve la destruc­
tion de la tragedie" (Rolland, Origines, p. 262). In fact, the popular­
ity of the opera and of its machines caused it to influence tragic
authors, trying to maintain their audience. It has already been noted
that Corneille wrote tragedies 5. machines, and students of Racine
find that the predominance of love, although perhaps a more noble
love, in his tragedies, is a direct result of the influence of the opera.
Many critics feel, now, that the opera did not destroy the
tragedy so much as it turned tragedy in another direction, and they

point to the tragedies of Voltaire as an example. The tragic ideal of
the noble and passionnate is re-routed into an ideal of the pathetic and
often melodramatic. In spite of the fact that Cahusac defended
Quinault on this point, explaining that the critics felt as they did
simply because Quinault had made the mistake of calling his operas
tragedies, it is evident that the creation of the opera and the downfall
of the tragedy are closely allied.
The advocates of opera as a truly literary genre were numer­
ous, too, and as the first battle in what was to be a long operatic war
began, we see that French opera was defended more for its literary
beauties than for any other quality. The quarrel of the Italiens, ad­
vocates of the more musically-oriented Italian opera, and the
Frangais, advocates of a more literary and declamatory operatic
style, centered, then, on the quality of the poetry of the French opera
and used the libretti of Quinault as their rallying point.
At least at this time, the advocates of French opera won the
battle. For the French, the opera as conceived by Lully and Quinault
was the perfect expression of the spirit of the times. Its order,
dignity, and restraint, its symmetry of form, in opposition to the
passionate and free music of the Italians, expressed the ideals of the
era of Louis XIV. Rolland emphasizes this love of order, often at the
expense of thought: "En effet, son charme principal est moins dans
les passions qu'elle exprime, que dans les moyens d 1 expression, dans

l'ordre rigoureux des proportions, la sage progression des developpe-
ments, la justesse des accents, et leur convenance subtile aux senti­
ments exprimes" (Rolland, Origines, p. 261). Most modern critics
of French opera emphasize this order and logic, admiring the tragedie
lyrique as a true dramatic creation.
It is true, also, that most admirers of opera in the seventeenth
century felt that it was a dramatic genre, and that the music served
only as decoration to a work already beautiful in its own right. • Al­
though many enemies of opera decried its lack of respect for the neo-
classic rules of tragedy, its admirers felt that the lyric tragedy was a
more complete recreation of the Greek tragedy than were those of
Corneille and Racine. Voltaire, in his studies and commentaries on
the era of Louis XIV, constantly repeats this opinion, and chides
Saint-Evremond for his lack of understanding of the opera: "II ne
savait pas que les tragedies grecques et romaines etaient chantees;
que les scenes avaient une melodie semblable S. notre recitatif,
laquelle etait composle par un musicien, et que les choeurs etaient
23
executes comme les notres. " Voltaire felt that, leaving aside the
fetes, the lyric tragedy was a true tragic form, and that although
Quinault was subject to criticism for neglecting some of the virtuous
23. Voltaire, "Connaissance des beautes et des defauts de la
poesie et de l 1 eloquence dans la langue frangaise (1749), " in Oeuvres,
XXIII, 408.

traits of tragic heros, the opera retraced the form of the truly classic
tragedy.
Chabanon felt that the lyric tragedy, with the aid of music, sur­
passed the spoken forms of the day, because it created more emotion
in the spectator and carried out the ideal of catharsis (Chabanon,
p. 270). Many other critics went farther than Chabanon, claiming
that Quinault had outdone the Greeks by forming a complete whole--a
union of the arts that had never before been achieved. Durey de
Noinville, in speaking of this new creation, calls it: "le grand Oeuvre
par excellence, comme son nom le designe, et le triomphe de l'esprit
humain" (Durey de Noinville, p. 3).
Many of the defenders of opera emphasized its popularity, and
this was a point that could not easily be disputed. The opera was the
darling of the salons, and almost all the habitues of the salons of the
precieuses, no matter what they believed about other forms of litera­
ture, were united in their admiration for opera. Madame de S£vigne
spoke of opera often in her letters, and indicated the enthusiasm of
Louis XIV: "Le Roi disoit 1'autre jour que s'il etoit 5. Paris quand on
24
jouera 1'opera, il iroit tous les jours. " Mably, in his Lettres sur
l'opera, claims that the enemies of opera found it much easier to
24. Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne, "Lettre
5. Madame de Grignan, vendredi ler decembre, 1673, " Lettres de
Madame de Sevigne, de sa famille et de ses amis, ed. M. Monmerque
(14 vols.; Paris: Hachette, 1862), III, 296.
97

criticize it than to work hard at discovering why the spectator took
such pleasure in it, and demands: "par quel enchantement le Public
qui juge avec tant de justesse du merite de Corneille et de Racine au
Faubourg Saint Germain, perdroit-il le jugement en entrant au Theatre
du Palais Royal, ou s'y iroit-il ennuyer de gayete de coeur aux
25
representations de Quinault et de Lulli?"
In spite of the disenchantment of La Fontaine with the machines
of the opera, most of its advocates and even some of its critics found
that the merveilleux, and the spectacle of music, dance, and song, along
with the marvels of the decor that accompanied it, were its most
interesting and novel aspects. Even Saint-Evremond was not unaffected
by its enchantments, and described in detail the metamorphoses that
took place before the eyes of the spectator. Madame de Sevigne was
charmed by its beauties too, and admired the novelties of invention and
imagination that she saw at the opera. Dufresny, in the Amusemens
s£rieux et comiques, describes the feelings of a spectator at the opera:
L'opera est, comme je vous l'ay deja dit, un sejour enchante;
c'est le pa'is des metamorphoses: on y en voit des plus subites;
15. en un clin d'oeil, les hommes s'erigent en demy-dieux, et
les deesses s'humanisent; la le voyageur n'a point la peine de
courir le pa'is, ce sont les pa'is qui voyagent 3. ses yeux; la sans
sortir d'une place, on paspe d'un bout du monde 3. 1'autre, et des
Enfers aux Champs Elisees: vous ennuyez-vous dans un affreux
desert? Un coup de sifflet vous fait retrouver dans le pa'is des
dieux; autre coup de sifflet, vous voiltL dans le pays des Fees
(Dufresny, p. 99).
25. Abbe Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, Lettres £ Madame la
marquise de P .. . sur l'opera (Paris: Didot, 1741), p. 6.
98

Le merveilleux was also a means for many critics to accept
the lack of verisimilitude inherent in the combination of music and
words. For them, by the creation of scenes and actions not true to
real life, the authors of opera were making acceptable this improbable
combination of the arts. The question of vraisemblance, however,
was discussed on other grounds, too, and many of the defenders of
opera said that it was no more ridiculous for a hero to die while sing­
ing than while speaking in rhyme, as in the classic tragedy.
Although the predominance of love and the lack of more noble
passions was more difficult to defend, most of the advocates of opera
found that some more noble passions and subtler thought would be
ridiculous when sung, and that love was the proper ally of music.
Later critics also took into account the preoccupations of the age, and
of the court, and admitted that Quinault was only expressing the spirit
of his time. Titon du Tillet, in his Parnasse franqois, places Quinault
quite high on the list of authors he admires, and says that although his
libretti leave something to be desired, because of the emphasis placed
on love, "3. I 1 age oft etoit Quinault dans le tems qu'il composa ses
Tragedies, on doit l'excuser aisement sur les sentiments tendres et
2 6
sur quelques denouemens galans qu'on trouve dans ses Pieces. 11
26. Evrard Titon du Tillet, Le Parnasse franqois (Paris:
J. -B. Coignard, 1732), p. 407.
99

On the subject of the literary value of Quinault's verse, his
defenders admitted that his poetry differed from that found in the
spoken tragedy, and that this was necessary because of its musical
setting. This, for them, was not a good reason to criticize the style
of his verse, however. The Abbe Batteux, in Les Beaux Arts reduits
cL un meme principe, finds opera the highest imitation of nature, and
defends hotly the quality of poetry written for music:
Quoi! s'ecrie-t-on d'abord; les Cantiques des ProphStes, les
Pseaumes de David, les Odes de Pindare et d'Horace rie seront
point vrais PoSmes? Ce sont les plus parfaits. Remontez 3.
I'origine. La Poesie n'est-elle pas un Chant, qu'inspire la joie,
1'admiration, la reconnaissance? (Batteux, p. 244).
Even Saint-Evremond found that some sentiments and situations were
suited to being sung, such as prayers to the Gods, tender or unhappy
100
passions, expressions of awakening love, or the irresolution of a soul.
In this context of a. special kind of poetry, a completely differ­
ent genre from other poems (many literary manuals of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries include a chapter on "poesie lyrique, " mean­
ing the ode and the opera), the operatic poem may be praised on its
own merits. Although not full of grandeur and subtle thought,
operatic poetry, as exemplified by Quinault, was found to be natural,
27
graceful, and full of simple and unassuming beauties. Vauvenargues,
27. For further discussion of the differences between lyric
and non-lyric poetry, see:
Voltaire, Lettre 3. M. Damilaville, 14 decembre, 1767.
Voltaire, Lettre k Madame la marquise du D'effant,
26 novembre, 1775.

in his Reflexions critiques, praised what Quinault's detractors had
called defects in his poetry:
Ni la grace, ni la noblesse, ni le naturel, n'ont manque 3.
l'auteur de ces po&mes singuliers; il y a presque toujours
de la naivete dans son dialogue, et quelquefois du sentiment;
ses vers sont semes d'images charmantes et de pens£es
ingenieuses ....
On ne peut trop aimer la douceur, la mollesse, la facility
et l'harmonie tendre et touchante de la poesie de Quinault. ^8
101
Batteux and Rochemont, already cited for their enthusiasm for
opera, formulated rules and theories about the type of poetry best
suited to opera, and found that Quinault was not to be criticized for
emphasizing tender passions and sensual love, for it was the most
touching poetry, not the greatest and most thought provoking, that
went the best with music.
We know that the poetry itself, without the aid of music, was
considered quite good in the seventeenth century, and the French
avidly bought the libretti that were published the same day as the
opening of a new opera. Quinault was quoted everywhere, especially
by the pr£cieux, and Madame de Sevigne sprinkled verses from
Voltaire, Lettre li M. l'Abbe" d'Olivet, 5 janvier,
1767.
Voltaire, Le Sifecle de Louis XIV.
Geoffroy, Cours de Litterature dramatique.
Xavier de Courville, "Quinault pofete d'op£ra, "
Revue Musicale, VI (Janvier, 1925), 74-88.
28. Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, Oeuvres
(3 vols., nouv. 6d.; Paris: Durand, 1929), I, 266.

Quinault's operas throughout her letters. She also judged many of
them by the libretti she read, even before seeing the opera, and
honored her favorite friends by sending them copies of the libretti.
Most eighteenth-century critics, more removed from the
quarrels over the first operas, judged Quinault kindly, and found that
he had made no small contribution to the literature of the seventeenth
century. Voltaire sums up this feeling about Quinault in Le SiScle de
Louis XIV: "Le veritable eloge d'un poete c'est qu'on retienne ses
29
vers. On sait par coeur des scSnes entiferes de Quinault."
The opera had become an established genre, accepted as a
102
literary form by both its enemies and its advocates, and it had acquired
its own group of theoreticians, formulating rules and definitions of the
operatic form as they would have with any other literary genre.
Among those who tried to create an ars poetica for opera were
Perrault, Chabanon, and Mably, and later Batteux.
This new genre, full of pomp and order, reflecting the magni­
ficence of the court of Louis XIV, but also full of a tender and often
naive sensuality, was soon to change, reflecting the changing times
and the end of the reign of the Sun King. However, the changes brought
about in society and art at the end of the seventeenth century found
their origins in that century and its artistic expressions. Thus, as
29. Voltaire, Le Si5cle de Louis XIV, in Oeuvres, XIV, 550.

these changes are discussed, we will find that perhaps "change of
emphasis" will be a more appropriate term to use to describe the
hedonism and sensuality of the period that followed.
A new kind of opera will reflect the new society, but again, the
seeds of this new opera had been sown long before, and the problems
already posed to literary men by opera will remain; some to be solved
by the opera-ballet, some to continue through the eighteenth century.
These problems, to sum them up, were: the difficulties of
composing poetry destined for music, the emphasis put on love, the
illogic of this "genre batard" and its emphasis on le merveilleux, the
destruction of the three unities of the tragedy, and the moral dangers
posed by this spectacle which attacked all the senses and replaced
reason with folly.
103

CHAPTER 5
THE END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV AND THE
REGENCY OF PHILIPPE D'ORLEANS
Influenced by Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV, toward the
end of the seventeenth century, became pious and inward, turning
away from the sensual pleasures of his early reign. He imposed this
piety on the rest of the court, forcing upon the aristocracy a devotion
that was, in most cases, false. Whatever their opinions of Louis' new
attitudes, the courtiers who wished to remain in his favor went to the
constant chapel services at Versailles to impress him, hiding the
latest novel in their missals. Much of the outer pomp of the court dis­
appeared and many of the court musicians and decorators found little
work left for them to do at Versailles. Arsfene Houssaye, in La
Regence, describes this new atmosphere at court; "Le mysticisme
Sensuel a remplace les pompes et les oeuvres de l'ancienne cour. Le
siScle vieux se fait hermite; la gloire prend le voile. Tout s'assom-
brit, tout decline. Louis XIV, ce roi sur lequel r&gne une femme, se
courbe lentement vers la tombe. Bossuet a l'air de triompher ....
Tout prend le masque de la devotion.
1. Ars&ne Houssaye, La Regence (Paris: E. Dentu, 1875), p. 51.
104

The court seemed to follow Louis in his new enthusiasm, but
though they followed him to church as they had followed him to the
beautiful f&tes of the preceding era, it was with long and hypocritical
faces. They followed, though, rather than rebel, for the mythology
Louis had created around himself was strong, as was the power he
wielded. Duclos, in his Memoires secrets sur les rSgnes de Louis
XIV et de Louis XV, indicates the unanimity with which the court at
first followed the new preoccupation of the King: "Tant que le Roi
avoit ete occupe de ses amours, la cour avoit ete galante: aussitot
105
que le confesseur s'en fut empare, elle devint triste et hypocrite. On
s'etoit empresse aux fetes, aux spectacles; on courut 5. la chapelle:
2
mais le Roi etoit toujours le dieu §. qui s'adressoit un nouveau culte."
For the gallant courtiers of the King, inherent in this new
atmosphere of virtue and austerity was extreme boredom, for them
the worst of evils. Not only had they to show the King a mask of sin­
cere piety, but also to let themselves be deprived of the pleasure of
the spectacles which had once graced the court.
This seemingly sudden change in Louis XIV and the sudden
austerity of thought (although not of comfort) at Versailles might seem
2. Charles Pinot Duclos, Memoires secrets sur les r§gnes de
Louis XIV et de Louis XV, vol. X of Memoires pour servir £. l'histoire
de France, ed. Michaud et Poujoulat (Paris: chez l'editeur du commentaire
analytique du code civil, 1839), p. 490.

to contradict the whole sensual spirit of his early reign. The sen­
106
suality of the court of the young King and the later, more pompous and
subtle sensuality of the opera were in general subordinate to the love
of form, symmetry, balance, pomp, and grandeur, and to the worship
of Louis, King of his Mount Olympus, Versailles. The same worship
of the King still remained in this last period of his life, but it was now
the worship of the representative head of the Church in France--a
more saintly and respectable ideal in the eyes of the church, perhaps,
but much less appealing to the minds and senses of the worshippers.
All the entertainments forgone by Louis XIV went on still in
Paris, almost unaffected by their lack of patronage from Versailles.
Paris had always repelled Louis, and he had purposely spent the time
and money of France on Versailles to remove himself to a world com­
pletely created and controlled by him. Paris, a city which reminded
him of the Fronde, and a city full of the poor common people unpleas-
ing to the sight of a king, had held little appeal for Louis XIV since
his youth. At Versailles, too, he could better control the aristocracy,
for he was at the center of all that went on, and knew exactly who was
too-often absent from court. The Paris that Louis spurned now be­
came the refuge of the bored courtiers.
At Versailles, the constant necessity of playing a pious role
completely unfitted to the temperament of the courtiers filled them
with the desire to flee to Paris. They played their roles well when at

court, a fact to which La Bruy&re attested: "Le courtisan autrefois
107
avoit ses cheveux, etoit en chausses et en pourpoint, portoit de larges
canons, et etoit libertin. Cela ne sied plus: il porte une perruque,
3
l'habit serre, le bas uni, et il est devot: tout se rfegle par la mode."
La Bruy&re, in "De la Cour, " also described vividly the talent for
hypocrisy possessed by the courtiers. They hid their dislikes, their
passions, the true feelings of their heart, all behind a mask of the
deepest sincerity. Thus they indulged Louis XIV at Versailles, wear­
ing the proper masks, and indulged themselves in Paris.
Paris, still thought of as a rather wicked city, has had its
reputation for a long time. The "City of Lights" was considered a den
of evil by many in the seventeenth century, a city in which all virtue
was lost. Boileau, not limiting his Satires to the sole criticism of the
immorality of opera, also decried the debaucheries of Paris:
Quittons done pour jamais une ville importune
Oft l'honneur est en guerre aveque la Fortune;
Oil le vice orgeuilleux s'erige en souverain,
Et va la mitre en teste et la crosse a la main;
Oft la science, triste, affreuse et deslaissee,
Est par tout des bons lieux. comme infame chassee;
Oil le seul art en vogue est l'art de bien voler;
Oft tout me choque; enfin, ou . .. . Je n'ose parler. ^
While Versailles and the officials of church and state tried to
carry out the precepts of the new austere piety ordained by the King,
3. La BruySre, "De la Mode, " in Oeuvres, II, 150.
4. Boileau, "Satire I, " in Oeuvres, I, 26.

the society of Paris lived in the most openly free conditions. It was
not only the low segment of society that gave Paris this reputation of
freedom, for the nobility, building more and more small hotels and
palaces for their "small" pleasures, led the way. Noblemen and
noblewomen could be found enjoying the less pompous and more sen­
sual glories of their new homes, decorated throughout to incite all to
love, and enjoying, in these homes, the favors of opera singers,
actors and actresses, and dancers.
108
Abandoning grandeur, accepting the fragmentation of the court
in contrast to the unified court at Versailles, many of the lesser nobles
were called "Petits Maitres," scorned by the old guard and popular
with the new: "De tous les peuples du monde les Courtisans sont ceux
qui s'ennuyent le plus hors de leur pa'is natal, les vieux surtout: car
les jeunes §. qui la vanite vient avant 1'ambition, aiment mieux dominer
la Ville, que de s'elever & la Cour; c'est peut-etre ce caractere de
petitesse et de domination qui leur a attire le nom de Petit Maitre"
(Dufresny, pp. 47-48).
The pomposity and splendor of the Court of Louis XIV already
fading and the court moving to Paris, a "Regency" spirit began long
before the death of Louis XIV in 1715 and the subsequent regency of
Philippe d'Orleans. The mythology of the Sun King was old and faded,
no longer inspiring worship, and the other inhabitants of Mount

Olympus, the lesser gods and goddesses of the court, became real
men and women; men and women seeking never to be bored again.
109
Pleasure in and for itself became the sole refuge from boredom
for this new society, and the nobility bent their efforts to the discov­
ery and profusion of all the possible pleasures afforded them by the
senses. Love, now more open and much less delicate than that of the
preceding era, will become the supreme ruler of the Parisians. The
hedonism of the early Court of Louis XIV was always, at least in the
literary works that express it, well hidden behind characters removed
in time and place from the actual court and made acceptable by the
beauty of the ceremony and art that surrounded and masked it. Now
love lost many of its disguises and also many of its qualities. Instead
of being a spiritual and tenderly sensual emotion, love became more
superficial and more physically oriented. Since it was superficial,
the all-important pleasure it gave was only momentary; thus a lover
was forced to multiply his amorous experiences, insuring him against
the evils of boredom.
This frantic quest for pleasure differed from the philosophical
ideas of pleasure and happiness that had been formulated in the seven­
teenth century. For the classic man of the seventeenth century and
for the eighteenth-century philosophes who were to follow, the wise,
slow search for happiness through pleasure was a part of a gradual
learning and thoughtful adaptation to life. For the petits maitres and

-the rest of the Regency court, however, there was little thought
110
involved in their pleasure, which consisted of a constant renewing and
rediscovering of sensual delights. Voltaire, in a letter to the Due de
Sully, in 1720, deplored this frivolous and indelicate preoccupation of
the youth of Paris:
Helas! aujourd'hui la jeunesse
A fait 3. la delicatesse
Succeder la grossidrete
La debauche et la volupte,
Et la vaine et lache pares se
A cette sage oisivete
Que l'etude occupait sans cesse.^
Because of the more uninhibited attitudes of society, and in
spite of the new piety and strictness of the King and the Church, the
atmosphere of this pre-Regency and Regency period became more re­
laxed and free of religious fanaticism. Society on the whole was more
tolerant, and a greater degree of religious and political freedom
reigned, even before the death of Louis XIV. This new relaxation of
strict morals on the part of the court and the bourgeoisie widened the
schism between Louis XIV and his people. By the time of his death,
Louis had truly outlived his time and his glory, as well as his power.
The family of Louis XIV had suffered misfortunes and deaths.
When he died in 1715 the heir to the throne, his great-grandson Louis
5. FranQois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Voltaire's Correspondance
(103 vols.; Geneva: Institut et Musee Voltaire, 1953), I, 125
(To Maximilien Henri de Bethune, due de Sully, & Paris, le 18 aout,
1720).

XV, was only five years old. It was rumored that Philippe, due
d'Orleans, the future Regent, had poisoned the parents of Louis XV
and his other living brother, all three having died in 1712, but these
rumors seem not to have been too widely believed, for although Louis
XIV did not give Philippe d'Orleans the power he desired in his will,
Ill
he did appoint him guardian to his heir. Philippe d'Orleans, not satis­
fied with the will, promptly had it broken by the Parlement, and
became the sole Regent of France.
The death of Louis XIV was cause for great celebration among
many of his subjects, as they reacted against the financial and moral
burden imposed by the old King. The newly developing spirit of the
Regency broke out of its bonds, or rather took off its mask, and the
scandalous Regency period began. The libertines of Paris, both
philosophical and moral, had found their true leader in Philippe
d'Orleans, whose intrigues and debaucheries, not to mention his re­
volutionary ideas, led the way for the rest of the courtiers. He estab­
lished his residence in the Palais Royal in Paris, abandoning Ver­
sailles and surrounding himself with such questionable characters as
the abbe Dubois, a notoriously debauched clergyman. Desnoiresterres,
in a study of the comedy of the eighteenth century, describes the
Regent as a true incarnation of the morals of the period: "L'epoque
avait sa formule, son incarnation dans l'homme, qui devenait le

maitre; et Philippe d'Orleans allait representer admirablement cette
societe prise de vin, faisant litifere de ses croyances, de ses vertus
forcees, de son passe glorieux, pour se precipiter dans tous les
excSs.
112
Philippe d'Orleans loved and incessantly searched for pleasure.
He was intelligent and well-read, and seems to have held many of the
old French monarchic ideals in contempt, causing many historians to
blame him, because of his debaucheries and contempt for these prin­
ciples, for the ultimate downfall of the monarchy in France. Houssaye
describes the Regent's "revolutionary" tendencies in this fashion:
Le Regent etait un revolutionnaire. II y avait dans sa nature
du Diderot et du Mirabeau. Venu un peu plus tard, il eut grave
le frontispice de l'Encyclopedie, il eftt fonde un club et il fut
mort sur l'echafaud avec Danton. En attendant, il fondait le bal
de 1'opera, comme un autre aurait fonde une eglise. II aimait
les femmes, sa femme et les femmes d'autrui, pourvu qu'elles
fussent belles. Don Juan s'etait fait artiste (Houssaye, p. 78).
A Don Juan he was, if one is to believe all the chronicles of the
times, and what better place to find new mistresses than at the opera,
where, on and off stage, all incited to love. Philippe founded the
masked bals d'opera, creating a milieu in which the new society could
more openly show its new morals (or lack thereof). The spirit that
reigned at these balls was sensual and hedonistic, and little of the out­
ward delicacy of manners in courting ladies was left.
6. Gustave Desnoiresterres, La Comedie satirique au XVHIe
si&cle (Paris: E. Perrin, 1885), p. 1.

Touchard-Lafosse, whose delightfully written gossip, called the
Chroniques de l'Oeil de Boeuf, presents an indulgent and amusing
account of the morals of the Regent, explains the lack of delicacy on
113
the part of the Regent and his followers: "Pour lui l'inconstance n'eut
jamais assez d'ailes, 1'amour assez de pretresses. Ses liaisons ne
sont que des fantaisies ... . Aux yeux du regent, ce sont des fadaises
que ces preliminaires de tendresse qui plaisent tant aux ames reelle-
ment passionnees; il n'admet le je vous aime que comme mot d'ordre
7
des voluptes."
Despite his educational and intellectual accomplishments, the
Regent pushed debauchery to its limits, and in many of the chronicles
of the regency rumors are repeated such as the widespread story that
he also made love to his own daughters. It is doubtful that all the
debaucheries attributed to him are true, but the spirit he encouraged
and the company he kept caused the rumors to fly:
Malgre ses talents et les ressources de son esprit, il ne
pouvoit se suffire long-temps 2t lui-meme: la dissipation, le
bruit, la debauche, lui etoient necessaires. II admettoit dans
sa societe des gens que tout homme qui se respecte n'auroit
pas avoues pour amis, malgre la naissance et le rang de
quelques-uns d'entre eux. Le Regent, qui pour se plaire avec
eux ne les en estimait pas davantage, les appeloit ses roues,
en parlant d'eux et devant eux (Duclos, 495).
7. Georges Touchard-Lafosse, Chroniques de l'Oeil de
Boeuf, des petits appartements de la cour et des salons de Paris,
sous Louis XIV, la regence, Louis XV et Louis XVI (nouv. ed. augmentee
du rSgne de Louis XIII, 2 vols.; Paris: E. Barba, 18--?),
II, 14.

114
The arts adapt to the new atmosphere, soon reflecting the new
preoccupation of the society of Paris: the search for pleasure.
Although they suffered setbacks through the influence of the Church
and Madame de Maintenon, the arts moved away from the pomp, glory,
and grandeur of the previous era to a smaller form. The art of
Versailles became the art of Paris--more fragmented, intimate, and
sensual.
In spite of the general move toward Paris, both physically and
morally, the new party of devots, led by Madame de Maintenon and
many church leaders, still had the power to keep the members of court
out of the theatre for a short while. However, realizing the declining
powers of Louis XIV and reacting against the devots, the nobility of
Paris, by 1695, was again filling all the theatres of Paris. The
theatre lived in fear in spite of its popularity, because of the strength
of its enemies, and in 1696 actors were refused absolution by the
Church, and were refused the sacrament of marriage in 1697.
The theatre that suffered the most from this persecution was
the Theatre des Italiens. The Italian actors, beloved by the public
for a kind of comedy that had influenced many French dramatic works,
were reprimanded strongly in 1688 and 1695, and from 1695 until
their expulsion in 1697, a policeman was required to attend each per­
formance in their theatre. This troupe, with its complete freedom of
action, burlesque and farcical gestures, and colorful costumes, had

pleased Louis XIV in his youth, but their very freedom of expression,
high satire, and the fact that they .were foreign, made them the main
target of the party of Madame de Maintenon. The public regretted
deeply this loss, and almost immediately other theatres took over
some of the qualities of Italian comedy: the theatres of the Foire, and
the opera, which had shared a theatre with the Italians. The Foire
theatres thus far had been nothing more than marionnette theatres,
but now began to present little comedies and farces, and soon satires
and parodies, using the talents of many of the Italian actors who had
not left France when their troupe was banished.
The refusal of absolution to actors was extended, in 1704, to
the spectators, by the Bishop of Toulon. In an Ordonnance, he stated:
"Nous enjoignons 3. tous confesseurs de refuser 1'absolution 3. ceux,
qui aprfes avoir ete repris, ne voudroient pas cesser de frequenter la
Comedie et l'Oplra. Et nous defendons ci. tous PrStres, Beneficiers
et Ecclesiastiques de ce Diocese ou y residant, d'assister aux Bals,
Opera ou Comedies 2L peine d'excommunication encourue ipso facto"
(quoted in LeBrun, p. 253).
Apart from the expulsion of the Italian comedy, however, these
edicts and enmities had little effect on the theatre of Paris, for it
expressed the morals of the spectators, and catered to its new public,
the disenchanted court of Louis XIV. Touchard-Lafosse describes
this change in society, a change that will be reflected in the art forms

of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; and although he
116
says that this change took place overnight after the death of Louis XIV
(as it did with some faithful courtiers), it describes a disenchantment
and desire for frankness that occurred throughout the end of the reign
of Louis XIV:
Nos debauches deguises en devots, ne se flattaient pas d'en
imposer £. leurs contemporains; mais enfin ils se genaient, et
la contrainte, quoiqu'on en dise, ne rend pas toujours le plaisir
plus piquant. Quel changement depuis la regence, non pas dans
les principes, mais dans la physionomie morale du temps! Les
mimes hommes qui il y a six mois laissaient voir toujours le
coin d'un livre d'heures sortant de leur poche, s'empressent
aujourd'hui de se montrer aux croisees de leurs petites maisons
avec des roues ou des danseuses d'Opera. Les memes femmes
qu'on rencontrait journellement dans l'oratoire de madame de
Maintenon, parlant bulle Unigenitus, reliques et sermons, sollicitent
avec ardeur une place aux soupers du regent (Touchard-
Lafosse, I, 73).
The soupers of the Regent mentioned by Touchard-Lafosse were
a typical entertainment of the period, characterized by their relative
intimacy compared to the former glorious entertainments of Versailles,
by the mixed company of nobles, actresses, dancers, and singers; and
by their sensual entertainments that often pleased and scandalized Paris
at the same time. Even the more restrained and old-fashioned enter­
tainments of the nobility were offered, not as a part of a grand ballet
at Versailles, but as an intimate diversion for their friends in their
own little courts.
Thus, despite the Church, the devots, and Madame de
Maintenon, the theatre and all the other arts became more intimate,

open, and sensual, as artists no longer created according to the will
117
of the King, but according to the tastes of their public. Grandiose and
royal paintings yielded to the charm and bittersweet dissipation of
Watteau (one of his early paintings is a sad depiction of the departure
of the Italian Comedians), and the other arts followed the same path.
The great works of the seventeenth century were broken into fragments,
less boring and easier to understand, no longer expressing the grandi­
ose ideal of the court of Louis XIV.
The salon still remained an important forum for the discussion
of literature, but its spirit changed. The sincerity, however mis­
placed, of the early precieuses was replaced by more emphasis on
savoir-vivrn, on cynicism, and on satire. The petits maitres often
reigned over the salons, the social conventions and restraints of salon
life of the preceding era yielding to the discussion of sensations, of a
more open love, and of the search for pleasure over the search for
truth and of folly over reason. Dufresny described this contrast well
in a description of the petit maitre: "Le Courtisan s'etudie S. cacher
son dereglement sous des dehors reglez. Le Petit Maistre fait vanite
de paroitre encore plus deregle qu'iln'est" (Dufresny, p. 49).
The habitues of the salons insisted, in formulating their ideas,
not only that the theatre should be the representation of things that are
good, but that its subjects must conform to the time and to the public.
The opera, with its emphasis on love, especially in the fetes, fit this

new society much more than the classical theatre of Corneille,
118
Racine, and Moli&re. Doumic, who constantly decries this preference,
resenting its triumph over a form of theatre he considers much more
worthy of literary and moral recognition, nonetheless describes well
the new dramatic tastes of the court of the late seventeenth century--
tastes which will continue into the Regency:
Une cour galante, le monde elegant, les femmes et les
marquis, tous les doucereux et les enjoues, ceux qui prefSrent
le 'vain plaisir' aux jouissances de l 1 esprit, ceux qui ne
demandent 5 l'art que de les amuser, tels sont ceux pour qui
se prepare et au gre de qui se fagonne le divertissement de
l 1 opera. C'est le triomphe de l'influence mondaine. Ceux-13.
ne peuvent dej§.'plus supporter ni l'hero'isme de Corneille,
suranne et qui les fait sourire, ni la fantaisie de MoliSre,
qu'ils trouvent triviale. Ce sont les memes qui feront 5.
Racine une guerre implacable et ne lui pardonneront pas d'avoir
exprime la verite de la nature humaine. lis ne veulent rien que
de factice, ils n'admettent rien que de conventionnel, ils ne
goutent rien que de fade (Doumic, I, 114).
Doumic goes too far here, for perhaps the "verite de la nature
humaine" for Racine was not the same truth for the Regency, although
Racine's truths have outlived those of the Regency. Doumic's descrip­
tion of the "pleasures of the mind" would have made most critics of
the early eighteenth century shudder, for even a serious critic,
Houdard de la Motte, felt that no new idea could enter the mind or
heart of a spectator without first giving pleasure to the reader or
spectator.
The more "frivolous" pleasures became primary, the educa­
tional goal of the classic theatre losing ground to the search for

pleasure and diversion. Voltaire feared and decried this attitude,
complaining in a letter in 1716 that the less difficult comedy that had
come from Italy was preferred above the comedy of Molifere:
J'entends dire
Que tout Paris est enchante
Des attraits de la nouveaute,
Que son gout delicat pref&re
L'enjouement agreable et fin
De Scaramouche et d'Arlequin
Au pesant et fade MoliSre. °
Not only was the old grandeur of style and of content brought
119
down by this new audience, but also the pleasure formerly found in the
contemplation of a well-proportioned and symmetrical literary work.
The whole was no longer as important as its parts, and the audiences
of the Regency took their pleasure from the contemplation of and
delight with details and fragments. As Gustave Lanson says, this
society had "moins de muscles que de nerfs, " and a new style of art
was needed to satify the nerves and senses of the public.
This emphasis on detail and ornamentation was a natural
development of art, which now catered to the mores of a nobility that,
in its search for necessarily momentary pleasures, needed artifice
and variety to renew their interest through the surprise of constantly
changing details: "Aux grandes forces de l'univers se substituent
ornements et accessoires, inventes par l'art le moins spontane.
1716).
8. Voltaire, Correspondance, I, 73 (to ? 5. Sully, septembre,

L'essentiel de la volupte est bien ce refus de la nature au profit de
l'artifice. L'univers voluptueux est un univers de machines et de
9
magies .... La volupte est une sorte de mecanique du plaisir,"
This artifice and machinery are evident in the paintings of Watteau,
in which theatre and society became one and the games of the nobility
were masques in which they were actors playing the parts of lovers,
jesters, and musicians.
Not only the theatre and painting, but almost all the literary
120
forms of the seventeenth century came under attack and were changed
during this time. The war of the Anciens and the Modernes, begun
long before, had finally been won by the Modernes, even in the
Academie, as the old guard was replaced by Quinault, l'Abbe Boyer,
the Abbe de Lavan, Benserade, Charpentier, Perrault, Fontenelle,
and Houdard de la Motte. The new wave of writers attacked all the
sacred principles of the old literature, and often their rhetoric was
more influential than the plays and poetry they wrote to prove their
premises. Ecorcheville, in his penetrating study of the aesthetics of
the period between Lully and Rameau, sums up the assault made on
all forms of literature:
9. Robert Mauzi, L'Idee du bonheur dans la litterature et dans
la pensee franqaises au XVIIIe siScle (3rd ed.; Paris: Librairie
Armand Colin, 1967), p. 427.

121
II faut l'avouer, les belles-lettres ne traversferent
peut-etre jamais, en France, un moment plus critique et plus
perilleux que ce demi-si&cle qui separe Boileau de 1'Encyclopedic.
• Elles furent assaillies de toutes parts. Suspectes 2t
cause de la vanite de leurs fictions, l'invraisemblance de leurs
images, elles se virent obligees de defendre leurs formes
mimes. A cote de la guerre fameuse des anciens et des modernes,
elles durent soutenir des attaques, moins cel&bres mais
cependant fort vives. Ici c'est la prose, conduite par La Motte
et Fontenelle qui somme la poesie de se rendre, et la rime de
mettre en bas les armes; 15. c'est la rhetorique, poursuivie
par des adversaires tenaces, qui voudraient la depouiller de sa
parure eloquente. Polemiques dont l'eclat est eteint aujourd'hui,
mais que.l'histoire de l'esthetique ne saurait ignorer. 10
The opera in this period took on a new importance, as the
tragedies of Corneille and Racine and the comedies of MoliSre faded
from view. A new taste, what Ecorcheville calls "l'esthetique fondee
sur 1'emotion personnelle" (Ecorcheville, p. 25), found in the opera
the perfect expression of its ideas; and the variety and constant change
inherent in the operatic form fulfilled the need for constant novelty
and surprise. The public liked not only the spectacle and sumptuous
decors and costumes of the opera, but also the libretti, in which the
author was allowed more freedom and imagination than was allowed
the tragic author.
The opera and the ballet de cour had suffered the loss of the
patronage of the King, but had gained the adulation of the public. It
is true that the court ballet had become fairly rare, but after the
10. Ecorcheville, De Lulli 5 Rameau, 1690-1730; l'esthetique
musicale (Paris: Impressions L. -M. Fortin et Cie, 1906), p. 87.

death of Lully in 1687, and during the period prior to the development
of the new opera-ballet, new composers and librettists wrote several
ballets St entrees for presentation at the Palais-Royal. The notorious
immorality of the opera actresses and dancers increased, as did their
fame and fortune at this time, the new freedom allowing them to flaunt
their liaisons in public. This added an even more sensual flavor to
the presentations at the Palais-Royal, and from time to time, says Du
Tralage, amorous nobles were allowed to sit on the stage and flirt
with the "filles d 1 opera. 11 Du Tralage also comments on the popularity
of the opera performers as mistresses: "Un seigneur de la cour et
un riche partisan se font une merite d'avoir pour maltresse une fille
de l'Opera; cela est du bel air, c'est la mode" (Du Tralage, p. 86).
He even explains, in a poem entitled "Sur les Filles de l'Opera 3.
Paris, en 1696, " what a "suitor" must pay for the attentions of the
opera actresses:
Ce beau lieu fournit des belles
A tous les gens d'& present:
Desmatins, pour de 1'argent;
La Moreau, pour des dentelles
La grande Diort, pour son pain,
La Rochois le fait pour rien.
La Deschars, pour la bombance;
La Renaud, pour un habit;
La Carre, pour le deduit;
La Desplace, pour la pance;
La Dufort, pour des bijoux . ..
Ah! que les hommes sont fous.

L'on marchande la Lemaire,
Mais on n'aura pas les gands;
La Descots aime les grands;
Elle fait comme sa mere . . .
Enfin elles nous trompent tous,
Elles se moquent de nous (Du
Tralage, pp. 92-93).
This irreverent author concludes that the Academie de Musique "est
aussi devenue l'academie d'amour" (Du Tralage, p. 87).
The opera is the medium that complies best with the require­
ments of a new society, but even opera must be modified to suit new
123
tastes. The composers and librettists who followed Lully and Quinault
did little to change the style they had invented, except to emphasize
melody more than had Lully, following the new taste for Italian music.
The words were still not sacrificed to the music, however, and the
French opera kept an essentially French style. The diversity of the
opera, with its changing scenes and varied fetes, did help the ballet
a entrees become popular again, for the loosely allied entrees, each
with its own plot, answered well the need for novelty. Titon du Tillet,
in Le Parnasse francais, places opera high on the list of the arts, and
cites its diversity as one of its most important qualities:
Dans tous les ouvrages d'esprit la diver site est absolument
necessaire; c'est elle qui a le vrai don de plaire et d'offrir
toujours de nouveaux charmes; elle fait l'agrement de tout ce
qui se presente & la vue et a l'esprit; c'est elle qui rend toujours
la nature admirable, et qui fait le merveilleux de la peinture
qui la represente.
C'est cette diversite qui rend la Musique si charmante,
et qui fait la perfection des Opera (Titon du Tillet, p. 20).

As the large group of courtiers gathered by Louis XIV at
Versailles moved to Paris it was fragmented into smaller courts
ruled over by dukes and princes, and these nobles commissioned the
former Court composers to create fetes, ballets, and other diver­
tissements for them and their followers. It was seldom that a tragic
opera was presented in this new court, and the pastorale, which had
lain dormant during the heyday of the tragedie lyrique, or which had
been incorporated into the tragedie lyrique and the comedie-ballet,
now became a favorite form of entertainment of these groups. Its
shorter, less pompous or grandiose form, and its subject matter,
love, suited the spirit of the smaller courts, adapting well to the new
quest for sensual pleasures.
The pastorale had always been imbued with love, which was
its proper and fitting subject matter, and had always been a favorite
124
diversion of the court. In it, they could watch themselves (for no true
shepherd or shepherdess ever enters this fantastic land), pursuing
love free of the conventions and restraints of real life. They could
also regard the pastorale with some nostalgia for a kind of simple and
naive life that they would never have.
Inconstancy and change had always existed in the pastorale, as
well as triangular love situations, and often inconstancy was praised
as a manner of perpetually renewing one's pleasure. In the sixteenth
and seventeenth century, however, constancy and happiness in love

with one person might be said to have been the dream of the noble
spectators, a dream which was often fulfilled for them only on the
stage. In the eyes of the new society the vol age of the old pastorale
becomes the ideal character, for he embodies the idea of constant
125
novelty and search for a multiplication of sensual pleasures. We will
see that the na'ive atmosphere of the old pastorale and the nostalgia
for a purer sort of life will be less evident in the new pastorales, as
truly contemporary characters, true equivalents of the petits maltres,
people the stage.
Some nostalgia still remained, though, and the new pastorale,
as well as the opera-ballet, kept a sort of childlike simplicity and
charm that the debauched courtiers had lost long before. Thus, the
simple, though sensual love of the pastorale, when compared to the
society whose mores it was expressing, still masked and purified the
true feelings of the spectator. This mask, this preoccupation with
na'ive games in the midst of a debauchery that soon satiated and left
nothing to the spirit, is often evident in the faces of the noble ladies
and gentlemen that people the paintings of Watteau. Ecorcheville sees
in this mask the signs of hypocrisy: "La galanterie de 1'opera, et le
bel esprit de la poesie sont tous voisins l'un de l'autre. Ici et 15. une
mgme aversion s'est emparee des gens senses, lorsqu'ils ont vu les
diverses formes de l'activite envahies par une hypocrisie de senti­
ment qui est bien la plus pitoyable maladie du siScle" (Ecorcheville,

p. 89). Hypocrisy is certainly present, but we must not forget that
the simplified and purified sensuality of the pastorale and of the
126
operatic forms of the times still express an ideal: a sort of nostalgic
yearning to be free of constraint and yet to keep a certain youth and
beauty. These spectacles, in other words, are society's way of hav­
ing its cake and eating it, too.
Because of the desire for pleasures in number, and because of
the desire to wear a mask, pretending one was a simple berger of the
pastorale, the courtiers of Paris began to regard the divertissement
as a real part of their lives, not an unreal moment of play-acting.
Mauzi, describing this need of the regency society, places a great em­
phasis on the pastorale, the opera, and other divertissements: "Le
divertissement cesse d'etre une aberration ou un chatiment. II devient
la faqon la plus naturelle de s'accommoder de la vie" (Mauzi, p. 389).
Farther along in his study, he expresses the artificiality of the new
society, emphasizing the fact that since love was no longer an emotion
but a simple sensual pleasure of short duration, it was accompanied
by all the accessories of the theatre: "La feerie n'est que le decor
necessaire d'un viol langoureux" (Mauzi, p. 423). He explains that
theatre and music were necessary to make these sensual pleasures
more interesting, concluding that this essential pleasure of the Regency
became each time a little play, or opera: "Des musiques invisibles
accompagnent toutes les phases de 1' amour. Bien loin d'etre une

delectation intime, c'est dans les machines, les accessoires de
theatre, les echos et les parfums artificiels que la volupte reside.
Le plaisir se met en sc&ne a la fagon d'un opera" (Mauzi, p. 424).
The theatrical arts, because they participate in the life of the
society in so close a manner, must necessarily reflect this close
alliance in their more public forms. Thus, more simplicity and less
grandeur, more shepherds and fewer heroes will fill the stages of
127
Paris, and the all-important logic and reason of the preceding era will
yield to the praise of sensation, unreason, and folly. Even Houdard
de la Motte, in his reasonings on the eclogue, concluded that senti­
ment evaded and even triumphed over reason: "Rien n'est souvent si
ingenieux que le sentiment, non pas qu'il soit jamais recherche, mais
parce qu'il supprime tout raisonnement, et qu'il allie quelquefois des
choses qui paroissent contraires, faute d'en etablir les liaisons par
des propositions deployees. He further stated that, when an author
has a choice between clarity of thought and force of emotion, the latter
must be chosen: "Le coeur aime mieux sentir beaucoup, quoique
confusement, que d'avoir une vue plus distincte aux depens de son
emotion" (La Motte, "Eglogue, " Oeuvres, III, 306). La Motte also
believed that the pastorale and the eclogue have great advantages in
putting emphasis on love and sensuality, for there being little else to
11. Antoine Houdard de La Motte, "Discours sur 1'eglogue, "
in Oeuvres (7 vols.; Paris, 1754), III, 309.

128
do in the simple life represented, nothing" detracts from this preoccu­
pation, as might be the case in the life of a more heroic character in
another genre. He also realized the nostalgic element present in the
sight of a spectacle of such simplicity and naivete: "VoilS. leur
felicite, d'autant plus delicate, quoi que nous en pensions, que leur
gofit n'etant pas emousse, ils sentent vivement les plaisirs simples
qui sont presque perdus pour nous" (La Motte, "Eglogue, " Oeuvres,
in, 297).
Composers and librettists alike, commissioned by the smaller
courts who cared little for glory or heroics and much for love and
pleasure, began to write divertissements, often in pastoral form,
beginning to neglect the heroic tragedie lyrique, or making the tragedy
less heroic and more sentimental.
Another musico-dramatic illustration of the need for variety
that existed at the time and of the rising interest in the fetes of the
opera at the expense of the main action, was a presentation called
fragments. This operatic spectacle combined acts or fetes from dif­
ferent operas and ballets into an evening of constant variety. This
practice extended even to the presentation of an entire opera, when a
fragment of another opera or ballet would frequently be added as a
divertissement to the evening's entertainment. The presentation of
fragments, enjoyed by a public that was easily bored and demanded
constant variety, and having no unifying theme or plot, being four or

five acts from as many operas, was deplored by critics and authors
who felt this popular new form destroyed any dramatic interest the
opera might have:
On appelle ainsi & l'Opera de Paris le-choix de trois ou
quatre actes de ballet, qu?on tire de divers opera, et qu'on
rassemble, quoiqu'ils n'aient aucun rapport entre eux, pour
§tre representes successivement le m@me jour, et remplir,
avec leurs entr'actes, la duree d'un spectacle ordinaire. II
n'y a qu'un homme sans gout qui puisse imaginer un pareil
ramassis, et qu'un theatre sans interet oft l'on puisse le
supporter. 12
129
The taste for the pastorale, the renewed interest in the ballet,
and the presentation of the fragments, led naturally to the creation of
a new form of opera; a form that combined these elements into a new
whole, more dramatic than the ballet, often more daringly contem­
porary and comic than the old pastorale, and with the variety of action
of the fragments. Ecorcheville describes this operatic manifestation
of a changing society:
En effet, pendant ces soixante ans (de 1666 £. 1726), l'op^ra
avait singuli&rement prospere dans la voie de la galanterie;
le drame s'emiettait en ballets et fragments romanesques;
la verite de la declamation succombait sous les ornements
du chant ... . C'est par 'l'Europe galante' que Campra se
substitue H Colasse; c'est par les 'Indes galantes' aussi, que
le grand Rameau dut tenter la faveur d'un public hostile cL
tout ce qui s'ecartait de son gout favori (Ecorcheville, p. 66).
12. Rousseau, Dictionnaire de musique, article "Fragmens, "
in Oeuvres completes, III, 698.

130
This new form of opera, the opera-ballet, was a genre that did
not last long, although the reprises of these works continued through­
out the century, but it was a perfect manifestation of the changing
times and tastes of a fluctuating society, cut adrift at the end of the
seventeenth century, and having found no permanency in the life that
followed.

CHAPTER 6
THE FIRST OPERA-BALLET: L'EUROPE GALANTE
Music, especially operatic music, was an essential part of the
society of the end of the seventeenth century and the Regency, and as
we have shown, music is an important key to the understanding of
Regency mores:
A l'epoque des contes libertins de Crebillon, des saillies de
Piron et de Chamfort et des madrigaux de Dorat; 3. celle oft les
bibliothequaires du roi, les Moncrif et les Gentil-Bernard,
feuilletaient plus souvent la liste des actrices de l'Opera que
les livres dont ils avaient la garde; au temps oil les abbes etaient
galants (Voisenon, Bern&s, Prevost) ou commensaux de
d'Holbach; lorsque Boucher, dont le pinceau profane peignit
meme ses Vierges sous les traits des Venus de coulisses,
brossait les decors de Castor et Pollux, on ne peut exiger de la
musique francjaise sous la Regence ou sous le r&gne de ..
Pompadour, qu'elle chante exclusivement les louanges du
Seigneur en un choeur 3. quatre voix. II est normal qu'elle ait
effeuille sur les planches comme dans les salons cette guirlande
de fleurs qui etait 3 Sicyone la ceinture des Graces, et au
XVIIIe si&cle, la ceinture de France. *
Opera entered into literary disputes, as well as the life of the
new society. The quarrel of the anciens and the modernes ended its
final episode on the subject of opera: "Qui s'attendrait 3. voir paraitre
la musique dans la traduction de Vitrufe de Perrault, dans la
1. Jean Gaudefroy-Denombynes, Les Jugements allemands
sur la musique francaise au XVIIIe siScle (Paris: G. P. Maisonneuve,
1941), p. 32.
131

•Dissertation sur Hom&re' de Terrasson, dans le 'Manuel d'Epict&te'
de Dacier? Partout otl il s'agit de litterature ou d'art, partout oft
132
l'esprit curieux s'agite et s'inqui§te, apparait le phenom&ne musical"
(Ecorcheville, p. 23).
For the new society, however, new operatic forms were need­
ed, and the opera-ballet was to respond to this need. Its creation was
preceded by a new interest in the old ballet 5. entrees and by the pro­
duction of fragments of Lully and Quinault operas. Many music lovers
now considered the ballet scenes presented in the fragments to be the
best of the works of Lully and Quinault, believing them to be much
more natural and charming than the declamatory and tragic parts of
the operas that had been so highly respected by the preceding genera­
tion. In response to this new interest in the ballet sections of the
tragedy, or the fetes, as they were named, Lully and Quinault, before
the latter's death, wrote two ballets, Le Triomphe de 1'Amour (1681)
and the Temple de la Paix (1685), to answer the new taste for variety.
Titon du Tillet, in Le Parnasse franqais, insists upon this need for
constant novelty in theatrical and literary works, as in the multiplica­
tion of pleasures sought out by the society of the Regency:
Dans tous les ouvrages d'esprit la diversite est absolument
necessaire; c'est elle qui a le vrai don de plaire et d'offrir
toujours de nouveaux charmes; elle fait l'agrement de tout
ce qui se presente 3. la vue et & l'esprit; c'est elle qui rend
toujours la nature admirable, et qui fait le merveilleux de
la peinture qui la represente" (Titon du Tillet, p. 20).

Thus the ballet, long neglected for the greater glories of the
lyric tragedy, was reborn, but in a new guise; for the opera, having
133
been aided in its birth by the ballet, now lent its. machines, its decors
and its dramatic character to the new ballet. The two late ballets of
Lully and Quinault were more dramatically oriented, the r£cits and
songs often becoming true dramatic dialogues, although the dance was
still all-important. Cahusac, in his Traite historique de la danse,
after expressing the opinion that dance is incapable of expressing a
continuous dramatic action, but is best suited to expressing only one
movement of that action, says that the Temple de la Paix and the
Triomphe de 1'Amour were not true ballets: "Quinault imagina un
genre mixte, qui n'en etoit pas un, dans lequel les rlcits firent la
partie la plus considerable du Spectacle. La Danse n'y fut qu'en sous-
ordre" (Cahusac, III, 103!).. Although Cahusac may have exaggerated
the importance of the dialogue,: it is true that the fetes of the tragedy,
with their mixture of dialogue and dance, had influenced the new ballet.
It is impossible to call these two ballets real opera, but they
are truly the predecessors of a new operatic form that will borrow the
outward form of the ballet, making it dramatic. The love of variety
exhibited by the pleasure-seekers of the Regency was fulfilled by
these spectacles in which each act consisted of a different plot and
characters, unified only by a central theme. This form had lain dor­
mant for many years, primarily because of the classicists' love for

symmetry and simplicity of form and grandeur of style. The ballet £
entrees, fulfilling none of these classical requirements, had disap­
134
peared in disgrace until the Regency spirit, more pleased with details
and decorations full of variety and novelty, caused its renaissance.
As Pruni&res put it, in his study of Lecepf de la Vieville; "Au gout de
la majestueuse simplicity succedait insensiblement la recherche du
detail ingenieux et joli qui allait faire la charme du style rocaille. On
desirait dejS. moins satisfaire la raison par l'exacte proportion et le
symetrique agencement des parties qu'jl ravir les sens par quelque
2
disposition imprevue et pittoresque. "
Besides the need for constant diversion and entertainment, the
new society needed and demanded a new operatic form in which they
might see themselves (or rather an ideal image of themselves), not
the heroes and gods of the old operas. Heroics were not in their
character, the courtly gods of Versailles having long since become
human beings again.
The Ballet des Saisons, presented in 1695 and composed by
Colasse, with a libretto by the Abbe Pic, was the first ballet to ven­
ture to the threshold of opera. Banished already are the heroes of the
tragedie lyrique, and, although many of the characters are gods or
2. Henry PruniSres, "Lecerf de la Vieville et le gout classique,
" Bulletin franqais de la S. I. M., IV (15 juin, 1908), p. 619.

demi-gods, they are joyful and amorous, representing well the new
morality of the pre-regency period. The entrees depict the four
seasons, an already popular topic, and a separate plot for each sea­
135
son, set in a pastoral framework, completes the theme. Although the
characters are shallow, and though the dialogue may not be the most
inspired, the Ballet des Saisons was definitely dramatic, and the
dance began to take second place to the dialogue and action of the
characters. Typical of salon games of love, each season in this bal.-?
let represents a different kind of love:. Springtime is the time of
"1"amour coquet, " and the librettist paints a charming picture of
haughty Flore and the volage, Zephire. Flore finally yields to love,
with the persuasion of Le Printemps, and all ends well. The charac­
ters of Zephire and Flore are here the predecessors of many pastoral
characters of the opera-ballet, but the allegorical character of Le
Printemps will be banished from the opera-ballet along with the gods
and goddesses. Summertime, in the ballet, is symbolized by "l 1 amour
constant et fidelle, 11 and as the faithful Vertumne triumphs, the chorus
sings a typical call to love, found in many of Quinault's fetes, and the
mainspring of the Regency opera:
Dans le bel age 3. quoy bon vous contraindre?
Jeunes beautez laissez-vous enflammer,
Rien n'est si doux que le plaisir d'aimer;
L'indifference est tout ce qu'il faut craindre.
3. All excerpts from the Ballet des 1 Saisons taken from Abbe
Pic, Le Ballet des Saisons (Paris: chez C. Ballard, 1695).

In the third entree, or that of Autumn, the author depicts
"l 1 amour paisible, ou l'amour dans le Mariage. " This being the sea­
son of the new wine, Bacchus enters into the play, and the praises of
wine are sung, especially as wine banishes reason. The praise of
folly, sensuality, and drink at the expense of reason will continue
throughout the opera-ballet as a favorite theme:
Je produis la douce boisson
Qui bannit de nos jeux l'importune Raison.
At the end of "L'Hiver., " or "l'amour brutal, " just as the lovely
Orithee is about to be carried off by the jealous Boree, she is res­
cued by Apollo and all his suite, and the four seasons appear. All
sing the praises of the four seasons, ending the ballet.
Le Ballet des Saisons did not banish altogether the mythical
and heroic characters of the lyric tragedy, and did not complete the
136
development of the ballet into a truly operatic form. It was, however,
much more dramatic, had many more regency characters and ideas,
and brought the ballet form to the point where it could be imagined
that an opera with the same format could be written. Thus begins the
history of the opera-ballet, one of the most important artistic and
literary forms of the Regency, and one of the most complete expres­
sions of the Regency spirit.
In 1697, in the month of October, two young men, Antoine
Houdard de la Motte and Andre Campra, presented the first

opera-ballet, L'Europe galante. It was an immediate success, and
made the reputations of the two who had conceived it. Andre Campra
was to become the leading composer in this new genre, but Houdard
de la Motte, ambitious and anxious to make a name for himself in
137
more "serious" genres, soon terminated his relationship to the opera,
having written a charming pastorale, a comedie-ballet, a b all et­
her o'ique and other operatic works. Although L'Europe galante was
his sole work in the non-heroic opera-ballet, La Motte is credited
with defining it completely, the only later addition to the form being
entrees in a truly comic rather than pastoral vein. As the creator of
a new and popular genre, he merits our attention perhaps more than
some of the later librettists of the opera-ballet.
Although his fame has diminished with the years, La Motte was
one of the leading dramatists, critics, and arbiters of taste of the
early eighteenth century. Because his interests varied from writing
fairy tales to translating Homer to writing operas, tragedies, and
criticism, and finally to attacking poetry itself, his work is often
uneven, and much of it is justly forgotten today. However, in sneer­
ing at many of his ideas on the tragedy and on poetry and at his rather
poor attempts to write or translate poetic works into prose, we ignore
many charming and delightful aspects of the rest of his works, for­
getting his importance to his period, not only in the quarrel of the

anciens and the modernes, but as a contributor to the body of repre­
sentative works of the Regency.
La Motte was born in 1672 in Paris, and studied humanities
138
and law at the Sorbonne. He enjoyed the theatre, and acted in several
comedies by Moli&re with his classmates. His first attempt at writ­
ing was a comedy for the Comedie Italienne, in 1693. Called Les
Originaux, it was not a success, and La Motte was humiliated.
D'Alembert, in his "Eloge de La Motte, " remarked on the meaning of
having failed in this theatre: "Une Comedie, son coup d'essai, tomba,
et tomba au Theatre Italien, qui n'etant alors qu'un Theatre de farce,
ne laissoit pas meme 3. l'auteur infortune la consolation de croire que
les Spectateurs avoient ete difficiles. La disgrace ne pouvoit etre
plus mortifiante" (D'Alembert, Academie, I, 236). In fact, his dis­
grace was so deep that La Motte decided to renounce the worldly life
of the theatre and of letters and to become a monk at the Abbey of La
Trappe. As d'Alembert says, he "se crut penitent parce qu'il etoit
humilie" (D'Alembert, Academie, I, 237). With this attitude, his
vocation lasted only as long as the depth of his humiliation; and as the
memory of his disgrace faded so did his desire to remain a monk. He
plunged back into the world with a vengeance, showing all his aptitude
for gallantry in his next work, L'Europe galante. With this opera-
ballet he succeeded completely in conquering Paris, obliterating the
memory of his past failure.

139
Soon a favorite of the salon society, especially of the patroness
of the arts, the Duchesse du Maine, La Motte wrote many charming
pastorales and short ballets or comedies that were presented as even­
ing entertainment by the new Parisian society. All these works show
a charm and delicacy that surprise those who have read La Motte's
rather heavy-handed treatment of other genres, and most critics who
have read his lyric works believe them to be his best. Antoine Adam,
in his discussion of La Motte, states that the presentation of L'Europe
galante "fut le debut d'une belle carri^re dramatique" (Adam, Histoire,
V, 310). Contemporaries of La Motte praised his creation of a new
genre, and most felt that L'Europe galante was a masterpiece.
Voltaire, in describing the life of Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, a rival of
La Motte, compared the two thus: "II debuta par le ballet de l'Europe
galante, en 1697, et il le lut 5. MM Boindin, Saurin et La Faye le
cadet, qui etaient de bons juges. lis dirent publiquement que Rousseau
ferait fort bien de renoncer & 1" opera, et qu'il s'elevait un homme qui
4
valait bien mieux que lui en ce genre."
Although his successes were great in the genre of the opera-
ballet, and in other musical genres such as the pastorale (La Pastor­
ale d'Isae, 1697) and a musical comedy called comedie-ballet but
more musical than the genre created by Moli&re (Le Carnaval et La
334.
4. Voltaire, "Vie de J. -B. Rousseau, " in Oeuvres, XXII,

140
Folie, 1703); and though these works were what the public praised him
for, La Motte was ambitious, one of his greatest ambitions being to
succeed in "serious" writing, thereby being elected to the Academie
Francaise. Although the public governed the true tastes of the Regen­
cy society, the Academie still remained rather conservative,consider­
ing such works as the opera-ballet interesting but too frivolous to
merit their attention. La Motte entered the battles of the ancients and
moderns, on the side of the moderns and wrote several tragedies that
were great successes at the time, especially In§s de Castro, written
in 1723. He also wrote odes, some of which are still considered
excellent, and translated the Iliad into French.
Accompanying all these sorties into "serious" literature were
all sorts of treatises on the genres, written by La Motte partly to
explain his methods and to illustrate his new ideas on the side of the
modernes, but also to defend himself from his many critics. He is
strangely silent on the opera, with the exception of his Discours sur
l'eglogue, which in treating the pastoral form of poetry, also con­
siders the dramatic pastorale and its close alliance with music and
the theme of love; principles which apply to the opera-ballet perfectly.
D'Alembert and several other historians and critics have remarked on
La Motte's silence concerning the opera, and d'Alembert offers this
explanation for it, which seems quite probably true:

141
On peut etre etonne qu'aprds tant de succSs au theatre lyrique
la Motte, qui a tant ecrit sur l'ode, sur le poeme epique, sur
la fable, sur la tragedie, n'ait rien ecrit sur l'opera. Personne
n'avoit plus de droit d'y donner des lois, et comme auteur souvent
couronne, et surtout comme createur. Mais cette superiorite
1 ' meme a ete la cause de son silence. Dans les autres
genres de poesie, ses succ&s furent tres-disputes; & l'opera ils
n'ont point eu de contradicteurs, et l'auteur n'a point ete-oblige
de justifier ou de reclamer les suffrages par de subtiles apologies.
On ne plaide guSre devant le public que les causes perdues, ou
du moins equivoques, et on se met peu en peine d'etayer son
droit par de froids preceptes, quand on se sent en etat de gagner
son proems par des exemples (D'Alembert, Academie, I, 326-27).
It is true that the "froids preceptes" of La Motte in his dis­
courses on the tragedy, the fable, the ode, and other genres are all
that remain to our generation, the performance of pastorales and
opera-ballets having been discontinued long ago. And yet in his lyric
works La Motte had no need to defend himself. Tastet condenses this
whole idea in his history of the Academie Francaise: "De tous les
genres qu'il avait essayes, l'opera est le seul sur lequel il n'ait point
disserte, sans doute parce que la, il n'avait eu que des triomphes sans
5
contradicteurs, et que l'on ne plaide point les causes gagnees. "
To most critics, La Motte had little talent for "la haute
poesie. " It is true that he was surpassed by other authors in almost
every genre with the exception of the opera, and that he was at his
best in the elegant courtly atmosphere of the Parisian salons, writing
entertainments that expressed the mood and tastes of this society
5. Lyrtee Tastet, Histoire des quarante fauteuils de
l'Academie franqaise (4 vols. ; Paris: Lacroix-Comon, 1855), III, 135.

ather than the grandeur of classical times or of the preceding cen­
tury. The Abbe de Castres, in his survey of French literature,
142
written in 1774, recognized the talents, diversity, and elegance of La
Motte, but also defined his greatest mistake:
Ecrivain elegant, bon Poete §. certains egards, on trouveroit
dans la diversite de ses Ouvrages de quoi former cinq ou six
reputations preferables & celle d'un grand nombre de nos
Litterateurs actuels, quoiqu'en embrassant trop de genres,
il se soit montre foible, dans presque tous, pour avoir
meconneu ses talents. ®
La Harpe also believed that the talents of La Motte were better suited
to the elegance and charm of the opera and the pastorale: "Lamotte,
incapable d'atteindre 3. la poesie tragique, se trouva beaucoup plus au
niveau de la pastorale dramatique, qui n'exige aucune esp&ce de force,
mais seulement de 1'esprit, et cette sorte d 1 elegance qui resulte d'une
diction pure et claire, d'un tour facile et agreable, et ne va gu&re au-
dela.
With the exception of Infes de Castro, still considered an im­
portant example of the "degenerate" tragedy of the early eighteenth
century, La Motte's tragedies, in which he tried to break the three
unities, treat more pathetic subjects (to the point of melodrama), and
eliminate poetry from the tragic form, are considered to be far
6. Abbe S. de Castres, Les Trois Siecles de la litterature
francoise (nouv. ed. corr. et augm., 4 vols., 1774), III, 170.
7. Jean Francjois La Harpe, Lycee, ou Cours de litterature
ancienne et moderne (8 vols.; Paris: chez H. Agasse, 1813), VII,187.

inferior to the tragedies of Voltaire. His true talents lay in elegant
143
lyric expression, which he often neglected for the more glorious forms
of literature. La Motte was right to consider that his lighter talents
would not carry much weight with the literary critics, although they
charmed his audiences. Even when d'Alembert defends this talent as
a true artistic ability, he admits its inferiority:
Aussi, le talent de la Poesie lyrique, quoique tres-inferieur
sans doute 5. celui de la grande Poesie, n'est pas beaucoup plus
commun, parce qu'il se forme de plusieurs qualites de second
ordre, dont l'accord se trouve rarement dans le Poete au degre
juste, potir que ses vers soient chantans sans etre trop sonores,
et faciles sans etre laches. La Motte eut l'avantage de reunir
ces qualites (D'Alembert, Academie, I, 240).
Fontenelle, one of La Motte's best friends, defended his talents slightly
better in an Eloge pronounced before the Academie Frangaise, to which
La Motte was admitted in 1710, taking the seat of Thomas Corneille:
Un autre Theatre a encore plus souvent occupe le meme
Auteur, c'est celui oii la Musique s'unissant 5. la Poesie la
pare quelquefois, et la tient toujours dans un rigoreux esclavage.
De grands PoStes ont fierement meprise ce genre, dont
leur genie trop roide et trop inflexible les excluoit; et quand
ils ont voulu prouver que leur mepris ne venoit pas d'incapacite,
ils n'ont fait que prouver par des efforts malheureux, que c'est
un genre trfes-difficile. M. de la Motte eut ete aussi en droit de
le mepriser, mais il a fait mieux, il a reussi. ®
In spite of the attitudes of the critics, it was not the "rabble, "
but the well-educated noble classes who preferred these lesser genres
8. Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, "Eloge de La Motte donne
par M. de Fontenelle devant l'Academie franqaise, " in La Motte,
Oeuvres, V, xliv.

as the true expression of their desires, pleasures, dreams, and
tastes. Felix Clement explained the areas to which La Motte should
have limited himself in rather vehement terms, but knew that these
areas merited some attention:
: Peu ne pour la grande Poesie, il avoit dans l'esprit cette
tournure agreable, qui embellit les choses les plus communes;
cette imagination qui s'abaisse plus aisement qu'elle ne s'eleve.
De lei. le merite de ses Opera, d'une grande partie de ces
Fables, et de tout ce qu'il a imite d'Anacreon. VoileL'le cercle
d'oft la Motte ne devoit point sortir; voila sa patrie: hors de-lcL,
c'est un etranger qui defigure la langue du Pays oil il se trouve,
et qui ose en attaquer les usages. ®
Thus we see that the spirit of the Regency and the love of sensual
144
pleasure, rendered public by the opera and the pastorale and especial­
ly by the opera-ballet, did not easily enter the hallowed halls of lit­
erary criticism; and that the charming and hedonistic expressions of
this spirit have been neglected, partly through change in attitudes,
partly through misunderstanding.
La Motte, in both his serious and lighter works, has been mis­
understood and considered dry and dated, yet there are moments and
expressions in his driest works that still charm and that reveal La
Motte to be the spokesman for the spirit of the Regency in literature:
Je scjai que de grands hommes ont suppose H presque tous
les genres de Poesie des vues plus hautes et plus solides; ils
ont cru que le but du Poeme epique etoit de convaincre l'esprit
9. Felix Clement, Anecdotes dramatiques (3 vols.; Paris: la
veuve Duchesne, 1775), III, 266-67.

d'une verite importante, que la fin de la Tragedie etoit de
purger les passions, et celle de la Comedie de corriger les
moeurs. Je croi cependant, avec le respect que nous devons
§. nos Maatres, que le but de tous ces Ouvrages n'a et^ que de
plaire par l'imitation.
Soit que l'imitation, en multipliant, en quelque sorte, les
ev^nemens et les objets, satisfasse en partie la curiosite
humaine; soit qu'en excitant les passions, elle tire l'homme
de cet ennui, qui le saisit toiijours des qu'il est trop &
lui-m§me; soit qu'elle inspire de l 1 admiration pour celui qui
imite; soit qu'elle occupe agreablement par la comparaison de
l'objet meme avec l'image; soit enfin, comme je le crois, que
toutes ces causes se joignent et agissent d'intelligence; l'esprit
humain n'y trouve que trop de charmes, et il s'est fait de tout
temps des plaisirs conformes £. ce goilt qui nait avec lui.
What better manifesto of Regency literature could one wish? Here
we find the idea of pleasure before instruction; we find the idea of
multiplicity and novelty to banish the boredom so prevalent in this
145
satiated society; we find also the need for the Regency spectator to see
himself in literary works--if not a true image of himself, then a
dream-self, more delicate and naive than he. Yet this passage comes
from the rather dry "Discours sur la poesie en general, et sur l'ode
en particulier, " composed to explain his method of writing odes.
This passage from the "Discours sur l'ode" shows us that,
though La Motte did not write a specific "Discours sur l'opera, " his
ideas on many other genres indicate the spirit that led him to invent
the opera-ballet. Even while discussing the tragedy, La Motte
10. Antoine Houdard de La Motte, Odes, avec un Discours sur
la poesie en general, et sur l'ode en particulier (Paris: chez Gregoire
Dupuis, 1707).

propounded ideas that would be better carried out by the opera-ballet
than by the tragedy. La Motte may not have been aware that these
146
ideas would either destroy the tragedy or lead away from it to another
genre, and many of the ideas he presented (even the preceding one
about pleasure being all-important) are certainly found in antiquity
and in classical theory; but La Motte, in re-arranging these precepts
and in changing the emphasis put on certain ideas, showed us his
thoughts on what would please an audience of the Regency. For exam­
ple, in his second discourse on tragedy, written in 1722 upon the pre­
sentation of his tragedy, Romulus, he propounded the dual ideal of
easily digestible material, simple to understand with the multiplicity
of these simple actions for variety's sake:
L'avantage de la simplicite, c'est de n'avoir besoin que de
la plus legere attention du Spectateur. On suit un objet avec
d'autant plus de plaisir, qu'on l'embrasse avec moins de peine,
et le coeur entre plus aisement dans la passion, quand l 1 esprit
n'est pas occupe H demeler les circonstances qui la fondent.
L'inconvenient de la simplicite, c'est de ne pas assez
exercer 1'imagination, toujours avide de nouveaux objets, et
de degenerer bien-tot en une languissante uniformite. Le
remede a cet inconvenient, c'est d'allier la variete 3. la simplicite,
de maniere qu'on multiplie en quelque facjon le meme
objet, en le presentant de diverses faces (La Motte, Oeuvres,
V, 150).
How better could one carry out this ideal of multiplying the same sub­
ject, presenting it in several different ways, than through the opera-
ballet, in which each act presents a different facet of the same
overall theme ?

In many of his various defenses and discourses, La Motte
emphasized the need for simplicity and for a logical order of action,
147
so that the spectator would not have to work too hard to follow the plot,
thereby paying less attention to the emotions and the characters. In
his "Discours sur l'eglogue, " La Motte expresses many ideas directly
applicable to the opera-ballet, which was at first pastoral in nature,
and recommends again this simplicity of action: "Car enfin un ouvrage
de poesie, et sur-tout une Eglogue, ne doit pas §tre une etude, mais
un amusement; qui, tout utile qu'il faut tacher de la rendre, ne doit
rien couter 5. 1'esprit" (La Motte, Oeuvres, III, 291). This insistance
on ease and pleasure as the main goals of the author made La Motte
ill-suited to the tragic and epic forms of poetry, but showed he was
the perfect author for the elegant and sensual pleasures, easily
attained, of the new Regency society.
La Motte insisted often, in his most serious writings,
that pleasure came above all other benefits to be derived from art:
On insiste, et l'on dit encore d'apr&s les Anciens, que
la Poesie est un art, et que tout art a necessairement une
fin utile. Ce qu'il y a de clair dans cette proposition,
c'est que tous les arts ont une fin: l'utile qu'on ajoute ne
sert qu'S. rendre la proposition equivoque; £l moins que sous
ce nom vague d'utile, on ne veuille aussi comprendre le
plaisir, qui est en effet un des plus grands besoins de
l'homme. H
11. La Motte, "Discours sur la poesie, " in Oeuvres, VI, 21.

This art of pleasing, according to La Motte, is truly the only goal of
148
the author of an eclogue, the matter of the eclogue and of the pastorale
being love, and only love. In the pastorale, the author must eliminate
all philosophy and reasoning in the characters, for the characters
must be full of emotion, not of wit:
Outre que le serieux et la solidite du raisonnement ne conviendroient
pas 2l des Bergers; ils n'exciteroient pas ces
douces emotions qui sont seules capables d'attacher. II
faut done exciter les sentimens par les sentimens, reveiller
toujours l'imagination par des faits et des objets agreables;
offrir, en un mot, la matiere des reflexions, et non pas les
reflexions memes" (La Motte, "Eglogue, " Oeuvres, III, 291-
92).
Thus, the pastorale, the eclogue, and the opera-ballet must represent
sentiment and emotion, in order to excite these same sentiments and
emotions in the spectators; and one must eliminate what La Motte
calls "le langage de la raison" from these genres. For La Motte, the
dryness of reason, even when reason is speaking of love, eliminates
the emotion from the thought. In a rather humorous attempt to illus­
trate how to write lines for a shepherd of the eclogue (humorous
because La Motte's example of the simple turn of phrase necessary to
express emotion is certainly simpler, but not full of emotion, and very
un-shepherd-like, as befits the pastoral of the day), La Motte explains
the difference between reason and emotion:
Si un Berger desole de 1'absence de sa Bergere se contente
de dire, en regrettant les plaisirs qu'il goutoit avant son
depart. Je la voyois souvent, et c'etoit-la mon souverain
bonheur: mais quand je ne la voyois pas, j'etois occupe du

soin de la chercher sans cesse; et la surete ou l'esperatice
de la trouver etoit le seul plaisir qui put me flatter au defaut
de 1'autre. Ce seroit toujours-la un sentiment, mais si
lentement exprime qu'il tiendroit presque lieu d'insensibilite
au Lecteur. Voulez-vous rendre au contraire £. ce sentiment
toute la vivacite qui lui est naturelle ? Faites dire au Berger
(Si je ne lav.oyois, ,je la cherchois du moins.) Sa premiere,
sa souveraine felicite est rapidement exprimee par ce tour,
si je ne la voyais, et son second plaisir est peint aussi dans
toute sa force par ces mots, je la cherchois du moins.
Telle est la nature du sentiment: s'il s'exprime dans une
etendue trop exacte et trop scrupuleuse, il disparoit en
quelque sorte, au lieu de se deployer; et il acquiert, pour
ainsi dire, toute la secheresse du raisonnement (La Motte,
"Eglogue, " Oeuvres, III, 304-5).
The point La Motte makes here, however reminiscent of
Mascarille, is important to our analysis of the texts themselves.
Many critics of opera felt that these short, condensed expressions of
sentiment were too witty, dry, and reasonable. La Motte has just
149
tried to prove the contrary, in showing us what a really dry expression
of these sentiments would be. Since the time of Quinault, opera was
filled with what its detractors called "maximes"; that is to say, con­
densed ideas or emotions, which do often end up sounding like an
adage, or like a witty turn of phrase invented by a salon dandy. La
Motte contradicts this opinion rather well, explaining that though these
expressions may seem ingenious and witty, there is a way to judge
whether they are founded upon wit or sentiment:
Pour ne s'y point meprendre et pour reconnoitre si un sentiment
est naif, quelque fin et quelque ingenieux qu'il paroisse, c'est
de transformer le sentiment en proposition generale; et si la
proposition est vraie, il ne reste plus qu'a examiner si l'expression
du sentiment en est une consequence bien legitime: car,

comme je l'ai dit, le sentiment supprime les principes, et
c'est cette supression qui lui donne l'air de subtil et d'ingenieux
(La Motte, "Eglogue, " Oeuvres, III, 312).
Sentiment and passion being the proper matter of the eclogue,
150
the style must conform to the emotions expressed, and eliminate what
the Regency period was to call "la triste raison" from this genre. La
Motte is often difficult to place in this battle against reason and for
pleasure, for he defended pleasure and emotion by reasoning about
them in his many treatises; and though his best works are in the vein
of the sensual court entertainment, he never married, nor seemed to
live the "high life, " keeping perhaps some of the Abbey of La Trappe
with him even in the midst of the Regency courts. In his "Discours
sur l 1 eglogue, " he goes much farther than to limit this emphasis on
pleasure and sentiment to the pastorale whose matter is love. La
Motte tells us that no truth may be learned or assimilated without the
sugar-coating of sentiment:
II faut que la verite qu'on a en vue soit pro pre a interesser le
coeur, parce que le plaisir ne sgaurait naitre que des passions,
mais des passions moderees. Les connoissances separees du
sentiment sont indifferentes aux hommes, et la verite ne nous
plait qu'autant qu'elle a quelque rapport §L notre bonheur (La
Motte, "Eglogue, " Oeuvres, III, 289).
One of the reasons why La Motte placed such a great emphasis
on love and sentiment was that he felt that, in order to succeed, a poet
must attract women to his plays, for without their presence the men
would not attend:

Un Poete veut reussir, et pour reussir, il faut plaire.
Les femmes forment une grande partie des spectateurs; et c'est
cette partie meme qui attire l'autre. Qu'on ne vo'ie point
de femmes a un Spectacle, on n'y verra bientot plus d'hommes:
elles seroient les mattresses, si, elles pouvaient s'entendre,
de faire durer les Phaedre de Pradon, et de faire tomber celle
de Racine, comme si leur presence devenoit le plus grand
interet de la piece: or pour les emouvoir, quelle passion plus
puissante que l'amour?^
Here La Motte is expressing a situation that existed in the Regency.
We have already seen that the presence of a singer, dancer, or act­
151
ress known to be of great beauty, and known to be the current mistress
of a celebrated courtier, could not only bring about a sort of double
interpretation of the play she was in, but could also attract a large
audience, no matter what the play. The same phenomenon now began
to occur with the women in the audience. Not only did one go to see
and to be seen, to flirt with one's suitors and meet one's lover in a
loge, but also one chose to carry out these amorous games at plays
and operas whose themes and actions suited the intentions of the spec­
tators. Therefore, the presence of the women, for whom the whole
game was intended, was highly important.
To an author who felt that one must attract women with plays
full of love, opera was a logical genre to choose as a vehicle for this
theme, for music and love have always gone together:
12. La Motte, "Premier Discours sur la tragedie 3. l'occasion
des Macchabees, " in Oeuvres, V, 31.

152
J'ai fait regner l'Amour dans tout le Ballet des Arts; c'est un
defaut que vous ne lui pouvez pardonner. Ne diroit-on pas que
l'Amour est une passion etrangdre a l'Opera, et que la Politique,
la grandeur d'ame et la terreur en font les beautes ordinaires?
Mais vous sqavez tout le contraire. Tout ce qui n'est point
Amour refroidit la Musique et l'Auditeur. *3
La Motte goes even farther, though, and says that since love is the
only passion that almost every human being has experienced at one
time or another, thereby making it the most universal passion, all
authors have used it in all genres, knowing that audiences never tire
of the subject.
La Motte was a restless man, and believed in constant novelty
and change to chase away the slightest possibility of boredom; and to
prove that, contrary to the principles of the anciens, there were new
things to be found and expressed that had never been expressed before:
Qu'on ne dise pas qu'il n'y a plus de pensees nouvelles, et que
depuisque lfonpense, l'esprit humain a imagine tout ce qui se
peut dire. Je trouverois aussi raisonnable de croire que la
Nature s'est epuisee sur la difference des visages, et qu'il ne
peut plus naltre d'homme a l'avenir qui ne ressemble precisement
a quelqu'autre qui ait ete (La Motte, Oeuvres, III, 37).
La Motte pushed his desire for novelty to the point of wanting novelty
for its own sake, however, and his tragedies suffered from this as
much as his ballets and pastorales profited from the idea. Anxious to
create a "new" tragedy, La Motte attempted to refute the rules of the
three unities, and later even tried to eliminate poetry from the tragic
13. La Motte, "Reponse a la critique du Ballet des Arts, " in
Oeuvres, VI, 198.

theatre. He used the tragedie lyrique as the prime example of the
fact that multiplicity and novelty did not confuse a tragedy, for the
operatic tragedy was a complete success with the audience:
On change souvent de Scene dans les Opera; et c'est m§me une
regie de cette sorte d'Ouvrage. L'action en paroit-elle moins
vraie, et l'imagination s'avise-t-elle d'en etre blessee? Au
contraire, l'illusion loin d'y perdre n'en devient que plus forte;
et cela prouve bien qu'il nous plait, et que nous nous faisons
des principes de fantaisie, puisque nous condamnons 5. un
Theatre ce que nous aprouvons a un autre dans le meme genre
(La Motte, "Premier Discours, " Oeuvres, V, 39).
153
In this defense of the destruction of the unity of place, we see also the
destruction of the tragedy, so feared by the critics of opera in the late
seventeenth century. Here also is the new taste of the new society
manifesting itself in all genres of literature rather than limiting itself
to opera and ballet, as it had in the seventeenth century, which had
drawn distinct lines between the different genres. The taste for novel­
ty, as well as the search for pleasure and sensual delights, will now
invade all forms, but it is still the opera which will be best suited to
this new taste, and it is the operatic works of the period that outshine
the decadent tragedies of the Regency.
La Motte, in the same "Discours, " tries to prove that the
unity of time is also ridiculous, for the heart and passions follow no
rules, with the exception of the rule of pleasure and variety:
Cette unite de tems si recommandee dans les Tragedies, n'estelle
pas encore violee dans les Opera, sans qu'on s'en plaigne?
L'action d'Alceste et celle d'Armide s'etendent sans doute bien
au-del3. des vingt-quatre heures, et cependant cette license

n'emousse pas le moins du monde l'interet qu'on prend aux
personnages. Le coeur n'est point esclave des regies que
l 1 esprit a imaginees sans son aveu, et il ne lui coute rien de
se faire toutes les illusions necessaires £i son plaisir (La
Motte, "Premier Discours, " Oeuvres, Vj 41).
154
Thus La Motte overtly uses the opera to destroy the rules of the clas­
sic tragedy, and though his tragedies are not now considered equal to
those of Voltaire, and rightly so, those of Voltaire show the same
tendencies to turn to sentimentality and melodrama, destroying the
simple, forceful symmetry of the classic tragedy. La Motte failed in
his effort to defend his new tragedies by comparing them to opera, but
the principles he expressed in defending his tragedies show the under­
standing he had both of the tastes of his times and of the operatic genre
in general.
In trying to destroy the classic tragedy, La Motte brought down
the wrath of many critics on his head, including Voltaire, who, though
his tragedies show the same tendencies as those of La Motte, had
illusions and ideals about the tragedy that remained classical. In
answer to the ideas of La Motte comparing opera to tragedy, which
may be summed up by a statement he made in the "Second Discours
sur la tragedie"; "L'Opera, malgre ses defauts, a cette avantage sur
la Tragedie, qu'il offre aux yeux bien des actions qu'elle n'ose que
raconter" (La Motte, Oeuvres, II, 52); Voltaire replied: . "M. de
Lamotte les [the rules of classic tragedy] appelle des principes de
fantaisie, et pretend qu'on peut fort bien s'en passer dans nos

tragedies, parce qu'elles sont negligees dans nos operas: c'est, ce
me semble, vouloir reformer un gouvernement regulier sur l'exem-
14
pie d'une anarchie." Voltaire was right, but the spirit of anarchy
was present, and the Regency called more for variety than for a
"gouvernement regulier. "
The critical judgments of the works of La Motte are quite
varied, but there seems to be a new realization that he was at his
best in the lyric genres. As a result, modern critics, no longer
155
treating him as an historical character useful only to the knowledge of
the quarrel of the anciens and the modernes, are re-examining his
works in this light. To most, however, he remains an enigma, be­
cause of his talent for lyricism that he seemed to make every effort to
abandon or even to destroy. Ecorcheville comments on this paradox:
PoSte lyrique de profession, il ne cesse de protester qu'il
n'est point dupe de son propre enthousiasme, et l'on pourrait
croire qu'il ne monte au sommet du Pinde que pour avoir le
plaisir d'en descendre. Collaborateur de Destouches et de
Campra, il succ&de il Quinault dans la faveur publique, et
contribue tr§s efficacement avec Fontenelle a prolonger la vie
de l'opera. Mais sa carri&re se termine par un eclat contre
la musicalite du langage, sorte de defi porte aux muses, dont
il avait toujours accepte les bienfaits (Ecorcheville, p. 100).
In spite of his final defiance of lyricism and pqetry, most of the works
of La Motte are dedicated to lyricism, and to the type of elegant, sen­
sual, and light games of love found in the most popular works of his
14. Voltaire, "Preface d'Oedipe, edition de 1730 (Reponse a
Lamotte), " in Oeuvres, II, 52.

time. In his best moments, he sought not to instruct, or to incite
156
great and deep passions, but to amuse, and to stimulate more mundane
pleasures. In one of his "Odes Anacreontiques" (the best of his Odes
because of their more natural and sprightly mood), La Motte writes of
his own abilities:
Auteurs, dont les superbes rimes
Chantent les Heros et les Dieux,
Et qui dans vos routes sublimes
A peine on peut suivre des yeux.
Rivaux de la vive Iliade,
Qui dans un Poeme anime
Pourriez du vainqueur d'Encelade
Peindre le courroux enflamme.
Vous qui sur les pas de Sophocle,
Pour effrayer l'orgueil cruel,
De Polynice et d'Eteocle,
Renouvelleriez le duel.
Ne pretendez plus au Parnasse
Vous asseoir encor les premiers;
Apollon avant vous m'y place,
Ceint de myrtes et de lauriers.
En vain votre Muse fertile
Sgait toucher, instruire, etonner.
Je s

after Lully and before Rameau. Highly popular with the small courts
in Paris at the time of the Regency, he remained a favorite at the
157
court of Louis XV, and died at Versailles in 1744. At first a composer
of religious music, and at the time of the composition of L'Europe
galante master of music at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, he,
like La Motte, plunged directly into the sensuality of the times with
this new opera. D'Alembert commented on this abrupt change in his
"Eloge de La Motte":
Campra, qui n'avoit fait encore que des messes, et des motets
pour la cathedrale de Paris, transfuge comme La Motte du
sacre au profane, mit cet opera en musique, et fut si enivre,
ou plutot si perverti par le succSs, que l'eglise 5 laquelle il
avoit jusqu'alors consacre ses talens, se vit aussi obligee, non
sans douleur, de l'abandonner au theatre (D'Alembert, Academie,
I, 323).
Because of his position at the Cathedral, Campra at first used a
pseudonym; but all Paris soon knew the name of the composer of this
new and delightful opera, and Du Tralage reports an epigram which
circulated among Parisian society about the situation of Campra and
the church:
Quand Notre Archeveque sgaura
L'auteur du nouvel opera,
Aussitost il decampera
De Campra.
Du Tralage also reports a variant that was even more amusing:
Tout aussitost de Campra
Decampera (Du Tralage, p. 104).

Campra, having become very popular in the new Parisian
society, wrote many divertissements for the entertainment of the
nobles at court, and especially for the future Regent, the Due de
Chartres (who became Due d'Orleans in 1701). One quite typical
entertainment was written for the Grand Dauphin to honor his mis­
158
tress, the Princesse de Conti. The Due de Chartres was also present,
and, because he was a patron of the arts and had good taste in these
matters, Campra tried very hard to please him, as did his librettist,
Danchet. Called Venus, fete galante, and presented in 1698, the
divertissement compares in typical fashion the beauties of the Princess
with those of Venus, and makes much of the love of Jupiter for Venus.
In spite of the fact that much time had to be spent glorifying the Grand
Dauphin, the charm and sensual yet delicate pleasures of the diver­
tissement were not smothered, and it remains an elegant example of
the type of work the musicians of the little Parisian courts were called
upon to write. Campra continued to be a part of the coterie of nobles
interested in fleeing Versailles and creating a new and entertaining
life in Paris, and around 1698, he became music professor to the Due
de Chartres. Although he did not continue long at this position, he
remained a good friend of the Regent. His works for the opera stage
were numerous, including many lyric tragedies, which had certainly
not gone out of style with the advent of the new opera-ballet, and he
continued to compose opera-ballets and heroic ballets. His music

loses much of the declamatory style of Lully in his tragedies, and
tends slightly towards the more melodic style of writing typical of
Italy and now more popular in France, a situation which had caused
159
many quarrels between the advocates of French and Italian music, and
which would continue to do so until the end of the querelle des Bouffons,
in the middle of the century.
Together, La Motte and Campra created a genre which was to
influence opera all through the regency and the beginning of the reign
of Louis XVthe opera-ballet. Barthelemy, in his study of Campra,
points out the importance of L'Europe galante: "Le 24 octobre, 1697,
constitue une grande date dans l'histoire de 1'opera franqais classique.
L'opera-ballet de 1'Europe galante en effet, est plus qu'un grand
succ&s, il est le manifeste d'un changement de gout, d'une nouvelle
16
orientation des esprits. "
This opera-ballet was a true innovation in many ways. It took
the form of the ballet a entrees, turning it into a true opera (though
most opera-ballets were to be called ballets for most of this period,
creating some confusion). The description made of L'Europe galante
by the Duchesse d'Orleans, the Princesse Palatine, whose letters are
full of revealing commentaries on what she saw in Paris and at court
as the mother of the future Regent, is quite simple, but explains the
16. Maurice Barthelemy, Andre Campra (Paris: Picard et
Cie, 1957), p. 46.

opera-ballet very well: "Nous irons 3. l'Opera. Ce qu'on y joue
maintenant n'est 21 la verite qu'un ballet, mais c'est bien gentil. II
s'appelle l'Europe galante. On y montre comment les Frangais, les
160
Espagnols, les Italiens et les Turcs font l'amour; le caract&re de ces
17
nations y est si parfaitement depeint que e'en est tr&s amusant."
The comment of the Frincesse Palatine is indicative of the
emphasis put on love in the opera-ballet. This love is more human
and realistic, though still in a pastoral setting, for the gods, goddes­
ses, demi-gods, and mythical heroes are all banished from the stage
(with the exception of the prologues), and only human beings, true
Regency characters, ever appear in these works. Even in this gentle
and pastoral opera, we find, in the humanization of the characters,
the beginnings of comedy, for the opera-ballet was to become the first
comic opera in France, taking over some of the functions of the
Comedie Italienne, with which it had shared a theatre.
For a society insistent upon diversity and novelty in all arts,
L'Europe galante offered a perfect entertainment. Castil-Blaze, in
his history of the opera, commented upon this taste for diversity: "Ce
fut le premier essai de ce genre, qui plut infiniment i. cause de sa
diversite. II y en avait beaucoup a montrer sur la scSne, en quelques
17. Elisabeth Charlotte, duchesse d'Orleans, Lettres de
Madame Falatine, ed. Hubert Juin (Paris: Club du meilleur livre,
19--), p. 133 (Lettre Si la Raugrave Louise, Paris, le 10 novembre,
1697).

161
heures, des amours, des costumes, des edifices fran5ais, espagnols,
italiens et turcs" (Castil-Blaze, Academie, I, 63). There was, how­
ever, a unity to the opera, but a new one: that of character, or of
theme. Lionel de la Laurencie explains this new unity:
L'Europe galante est un ballet ethnographique dans le genre du
Ballet des diverses parties du monde dont parle Menestrier.
A l'unite d'action, au drame unique, se deroulant en 5 actes,
on substitue, dans le Ballet, l'unite de caract£re; les diverses
entrees se relient ainsi dans un meme 'dessein. '18
La Motte explains his design in an Avis placed in the libretto before
the first entree:
On a choisi des Nations de l'Europe, celles dont les caracteres
se contrastent davantage et promettent plus de jeu pour
le Theatre: La France, l'Espagne, l'ltalie et la Turquie. On
a suivi les idees ordinaires qu'on a du genie de leurs Peuples.
Le Francjois est peint volage, indiscret et coquet; l'Espagnol,
fidele et romanesque; l'ltalien, jaloux, fin et violent; et enfin,
l'on a exprime, autant que le Theatre l'a pu permettre, la
hauteur et la souverainete des Sultans, et l'emportement des
Sultanes. 19
As La Laurencie says: "Sur ce canevas eminemment galant, La Motte
a brode de pittoresques scenes" (La Laurencie, "Notes, " p. 248). It
is true that the picturesque quality of the opera is one of its greatest
18. Lionel de la Laurencie, "Notes sur la jeunesse d'Andre
Campra, " Sammelbande der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft, X
(1908-1909), pp. 244-45.
19. All excerpts from L'Europe galante taken from text as
published in three versions, with only slight variants, mainly in
spelling: 1. La Motte, Oeuvres; 2. Recueil general des opera, ed.
J. N. de Francine (16 vols.; Paris: Ballard, 1703-1745); 3. L'Europe
galante, ballet, Partition generale (Paris: Ballard, 1724).

162
charms. Not only do we see the differences between the nations in the
matter of love, but we see them from a French point of view, which
tends to exaggerate the qualities of the other countries rendering them
almost comic. Though each entree is quite short, still giving much
time to the dance, the characters are definitely alive, and not simply
stereotypes.
A detailed study of this opera and its qualities will aid in defin­
ing the genre of the opera-ballet by using L 1 Europe galante as the exam­
ple future works will imitate. Since the opera-ballet consisted of
several entrees, each having its own separate plot and characters, the
unity of design or theme necessary to ally these entrees was expressed
in a prologue, usually of less dramatic or poetic value than the rest of
the opera, but important to the understanding of the entrees that followed
and illustrated the theme. The prologue of L 1 Europe galante is innova-
tive. Though its characters are mythological, in contrast to the human
characters of the other entrees, the gods and goddesses of the pro­
logue do not spend their time singing apotheoses of Louis XIV, as they
had done in the operas of Quinault and Lully, and even in the ballets.
Instead, the characters, though mythological, express here only the
theme of the opera and of the Regency period at the same time.
La Motte tells us that at the beginning of the prologue we see:
"une Forge galante, oii les Graces, les Plaisirs et les Ris sont
occupees 2t forger les traits de 1'Amour. Venus y descend pour les

exciter au travail. " Venup 1 words to the others, to incite them to
work, show the importance of love to the theme of the opera:
Frappez, frappez, ne vous lassez jamais;
Qu'S. vos travaux l'Echo reponde.
Pour le''Fils.de Venus forgez de nouveaux traits:
Qu'ils portent dans les coeurs une atteinte profonde.
Frappez, frappez, ne vous lassez jamais;
Vous travaillez pour le bonheur du monde.
The Graces, Pleasures, and Laughs repeat these words, in a sort of
graceful and joyous version of the "Anvil Chorus." Venus continues
to explain the importance of love, and, in so doing speaks in reality
not to the characters on stage, but to the spectators:
Jeunes coeurs, essayez la douceur de ses armes;
Qui s'en laisse blesser eprouve mille charmes.
163
This tendency to speak to the audience in a prologue will continue, and
the technique of inciting the spectators to love came from the fetes of
the lyric tragedy, in which all the characters tended to sing a sort of
"moral" of the story to the audience. In inciting all young hearts on
the stage to love, they spoke to the hearts of the spectators, saying
what they wanted to hear, and, in a way, justifying even their illicit
love by their glorification of it. This incitement to love becomes
more explicit in the prologue of.L'Europe galante when some of the
Graces, with the Chorus repeating their words, sing these verses:
Souffrez que l'Amour vous blesse:
Belles, chassez la fierte:
: Apprenez que la tendresse
Est l'ame de la Beaute.

Si vous voulez que les Graces
Vous accompagnent toujours,
Pour les voir suivre vos traces,
Suivez celles des Amours.
C'est dans une tendresse extreme
Qu'on trouve des plaisirs parfaits.
On n'est content que quand on aime,
Les autres biens sont sans attraits.
Pour §tre heureux 1* Amour lui-meme
S'est blesse de ses traits.
There is no evidence that poor Boileau ever saw this opera, having
probably given up on them long before, but the "morale lubrique" that
164
he found in the operas of Quinault is certainly doubled in these verses.
The spectators are told, in a very graceful and elegant way, that a
proud and haughty woman cannot be beautiful, for tenderness is the
soul of beauty. They are told that in order to keep one's beauty and
attractiveness, one must follow the precepts of love; finally, one is
told that no other physical or moral good has any value unless it is
accompanied by this passion. Certainly all the sensuality of the
Regency is found in this credo, but it is expressed in a charming and
almost naive manner which was also necessary to the new society, in
order to help them forget the jaded outlook on life acquired by those
who consciously and intently devote their lives to nothing but sensual
pleasures. This duality of joy and charm in play-acting, and the al­
most desperate search for pleasure, knowing it only lasts a moment
and that boredom will return, may be seen in the Regency characters
that peopled the paintings of Watteau. Almost always engaged in a

theatrical or musical game, their faces often express boredom or
despair. The game on the stage was meant to restore for a moment
some sort of ideal, at the same time expressing the sensuality of the
period.
The beginning of the prologue also announces to the audience
that no pathetic or tragic actions will be seen, and that even the pas­
sion of love, which can sometimes be forceful and noble, will here be
treated lightly and joyfully. Barthelemy goes perhaps too far in his
description of this new tone set by the opera-ballet, in saying that it
even becomes "bouffon, " but he explains well the difference between
this and preceding operas: "On ne trouve, dans 1'Europe galante,
aucun des sentiments qui font des heros de la tragedie, des dieux, ni
aucune situation tendue ou pathetique. Tout le char me de la pifece
165
provient du sujet, de son ton galant et tendre, souvent joyeux, parfois
badin ou bouffon" (Barthelemy, Campra, pp. 53-54).
The charming, light music of the Graces is suddenly interrupted
by the entrance of La Discorde, announced by a complete change in
the musical mood. Discord announces that the laws of love have been
thrown over and that discord now reigns over at least Europe, if not
the rest of the universe. Venus contradicts Discord, announcing that
she will make her suffer cruel torments by forcing her to observe the
victory of Love over all of Europe, commanding that the forge be trans­
formed before their eyes so that the "divers changements" will serve

to prove to Discord that she has lost her war against Love. Discord
calls on the Furies to create inconstancy and jealousy, in order to
166
disturb the workings of Love, but Venus refuses to listen to her, sing­
ing a charming air predicting new conquests for Love:
Ah! que ce jour
Va faire 3. 1' Amour
De conquetes nouvelles!
Que ses appas
Vont sofimettre de Belles
Qui n'y pensent pas!
II va flechir tous les coeurs rebelles;
II va pour jamais
Les ^lesser de ses traits.
Loin de les craindre,
Cherchons leurs coups.
Quel coeur peut se plaindre
D'un tour ment si doux?
Au dieu d' Amour cedons la victoire;
Quand il nous soumet 3. ses desirs,
C'est moins pour sa gloire
Que pour nos plaisirs.
How many women in the audience wondered if they would be the next
victim of Cupid's arrow, and, in listening to this air, thought not of
the characters soon to appear on stage as victims of Love, but of
themselves. This is the effect both the author and the spectators
desired. At the end of the prologue, Venus announces that Discord
must now watch Love triumph over France, which will be the first
country treated in this voyage of Europe.
"La France, 11 the second entree of the opera, as the author
has already told us, will treat the national quality of the French in
love, which is that of a careless lover, who, in true Regency

manner, cannot remain faithful to one woman, but must multiply his
amorous experiences, and so his pleasure. La Motte also told us the
167
Frenchman is indiscreet in his love, and must talk about it to one and
all, no matter what the consequences. The action of the act will also
be a model followed by all the other entrees in the opera: two scenes
of exposition, the third for the divertissement (now so called because
the fete, as such scenes had been called before, is the basic matter of
the whole opera), the fourth scene for the denouement, and the fifth
for the conclusion of the action, often including another divertissement.
The charming volage of "La France, " is, of course, a shep­
herd, in the pastoral tradition of the ballet; but also in the pastoral
tradition, he is more Regency character than shepherd. We find him
preparing a fete galante in honor of his love, and his friend, PhilSne,
comments on his faithfulness, thinking that Silvandre, the "hero, " is
preparing to honor Doris, a proud shepherdess who has not as yet
yielded to Silvandre;
Quoi? pour l'Objet de votre ardeur
Vous preparez encore une Fete nouvelle?
Tant de fidelite doit flechir sa rigueur;
Elle se lassera de refuser son coeur
Aux soins que vous prenez pour elle.(Scene i).
Silvandre, however, reveals to PhilSne that he no longer loves Doris,
and is preparing his fete for a new love. In answer to the shock of
Philfene ("Ciel! qu'entens-je?" of course), Silvandre sings a credo of
infidelity, a credo which is certainly not new to the pastorale, but

which heretofore has taken second place to faithful love:
L' Amour m 1 off re un nouveau vainqueur,
Et me force d'etre infidele.
Je romps mes premiers noeuds pour des noeuds plus charmans:
Mon infidelite m'est chere,
Et j'ai plus de plaisir a trahir mes sermens,
Que je n'en sentis 3. les faire.. (Scene, i)
Here, in a much more charming manner, La Motte illustrates the
reasoning he had used in his "Discourssur l'eglogue," condensing the
ideas of the volage into a few graceful phrases, well-balanced and
elegant. La Motte's characters never slow the movement of senti­
ment by long reasoning about their feelings, and though it would take
168
real lovers a long time to condense their sentiments into such polished
form, this brevity is necessary to the action of the pastorale.
Another of the pleasures of inconstancy lies, for Silvandre,
not only in breaking off old affairs, but in the feeling of triumph one
has in submitting another proud beauty to the pleasures of love. He
states that the woman who now attracts him, Gephise, is as indifferent
to him as Doris had been, and concludes:
Que mon triomphe seroit beau
Si je la soumettois au Dieu qu'elle meprise! (Scene i)
This pleasure in making a woman submit to one's charms is the main
object of the Regency pleasure-seeker, who is easily satiated with a
too-easy conquest. In fact, as Silvandre states, the moment he wins
a new love, the game is no longer interesting to him, and he looks for
new conquests, beginning the game again. This game must continue,

for in this new society, ignoring the more philosophical and ideal
169
values of the preceding century but having no new lasting values, there
is no permanence in happiness, only a series of momentary pleasures
in life, which, in order to amuse or entertain, must be multiplied, as
pleasure itself never lasts more than a moment.
Thus, we find that Silvandre has sought a new love because
Doris had finally yielded to him. He cannot, therefore, sustain his
interest in her, for the game is over:
L'Amour en comblant nos desirs
A de nouveaux noeuds nous appelle.
Plus de fois on est infidelle,
Et plus on goute de plaisirs. ..(Scene i)
Silvandre, in this first scene, has expressed his sentiments on plea­
sure as well as those of the spectators, but he remains a happy, care­
free, and sympathetic character, free of the unpleasant side effects of
this sort of credo, side effects which have caused his audience to be
cynical and almost desperate in their search for pleasure. The ideal
of the pastorale is still present, even though the nature of its action
has changed somewhat. It remains an amusement in which the audi­
ence may see themselves as they would like to be, retaining the
pleasures of the world, but losing none of their freshness and naivety
in the process.
Cephise, the object of Silvandre's new love, now enters as
Silvandre and Philandre leave, Silvandre wishing to impress her with

the fete before declaring himself. One of the most charming charac­
ters of the opera, she expresses the disdain of a naive, beautiful girl
170
for the love all around her, for as yet she has not felt its effects. She
could be the Princesse d'Elide, or any one of many of Marivaux's
young women, on the brink of awakening to love;
Paisibles lieux, agreables retraites,
Je n'aimerai jamais que vous.
En vain mille Bergers viennent S. mes genoux
Me jurer des ardeurs parfaites.
Beaux lieux, n'en soyez point jaloux,
Je meprise leur flamme, et je les quitte tous
Pour le plaisir que vous me faites.
Paisibles lieux, agreables retraites,
Je n'aimerai jamais que vous.
Pour forcer mon coeur a se rendre
On fait des efforts chaque jour;
Mais quelques pleurs que je fasse repandre,
Quelques sermens que l'on me fasse entendre,
Ce sont les pieges de 1'Amour;
Je me garderai bien de m'y laisser surprendre. (Scene ii)
With this charming and poetic expression, Cephise expresses her
fidelity to the beauty of nature and her fear of the traps of love, which
destroy the peace she feels. She also shows herself to be the perfect
target for Silvandre, for the conquest of such a woman will be a true
triumph.
Cephise is interrupted in her musing by a group of shepherds
and shepherdesses, who enter, dancing and singing, to offer her the
fete planned by Silvandre. The words sung by this chorus are typical

171
of the incitements to love often sung by the choruses of the fetes of the
of the opera, and now of the opera-ballet:
Aimez, aimez, belle Bergere,
Laissez-vous enflammer:
Que sert l'avantage de plaire,
Sans le plaisir d'aimer? (Scene iii)
Solo airs, sung often to the rhythms of the traditional dances of the
ballet, enlarge upon this theme:
Aimons dans la jeune saison,
Cedons, cedons §. la tendresse.
Nous en faut-il d'autre raison
Que le penchant qui nous en presse?
En vain une erreur extreme
Nous defend de nous enflammer;
Notre coeur sent assez lui-meme
Le besoin qu'il a d'aimer., (Scene iii)
As Cephise demands who has offered her this homage,
Silvandre enters and declares himself in words full of ardor and love,
which, had the spectators not seen him declare his credo of incon­
stancy, might be very convincing:
Voyez vous genoux cet Amant empresse.
Je decouvre en tremblant l'ardeur qui me possede;
Mais pardonnez aux maux dont je me sens presse;
C'est dans les yeux qui m'ont blesse
Que j'en viens chercher le remede. (Scene iv)
As Cephise argues with Silvandre, asking if he has taken her for Doris
and refusing his love, which must be inconstant if it changes so often,
Silvandre offers his reasons for having changed in a new light. His
turn of phrase and his gallant reasoning are so polished here that no
one may pretend that he is a shepherd, but rather a worldly petit maitre:

Lorsque Doris me parut belle,
Je ne connoissois pas encore vos attraits,
II faudroit pour etre fidele
Vous avoir toujours vue ou ne vous voir jamais.
J'ai senti pour vous seule une flamme parfaite.
Je n'ai jamais aime comme j'aime en ce jour:
Doris etoit ma derniere amourette,
Vous etes mon premier amour. (Scene iv)
The words are worthy of any serious suitor seeing his true love for
the first time, and forgetting all his former escapades. However,
172
this kind of declaration, in the seventeenth century, meant a pledge of
faithful love, a pledge which we, the spectators know will never be
kept by Silvandre. Therefore, the poetic expression and the per­
suasiveness of Silvandre are here nothing but a strategy in the game
of love; a game that is finished once won.
This entree ends in a rather novel manner, with no real resolu­
tion to the plot; but how can there be? Silvandre, in order to be the
typical French volage, must not fall into the trap of faithfulness him­
self, so the audience must be left with the knowledge that his games
will continue endlessly. As Cephise, still refusing his advances,
leaves the stage followed by Silvandre, the spurned Doris enters,
bemoaning her situation and finally vowing to wait until Silvandre's
inconstancy brings him back to her, completing the feeling of con­
tinuity and perpetual chase. In this final aria, Doris, in the noble
style of Racine, first declares vengeance on the two who have betrayed

her, but, unlike the tragic and idealistic heroine of tragedy, decides
to be practical about the situation as her emotion abates:
Quel funeste coup pour mon ame!
• Quoi!. Silvandre, tu me trahis?
Ingrat, qu'as-tu fait de ta flamme?
C'est Doris qui te cherche, et c'est toi qui la fuis.
Tu me jurois que l'Astre qui m'eclaire
S'eteindroit avant ton amour;
Au-delS. du tombeau je devois t'etre chere;
Jamais ardeur ne parut plus sincere:
Helas! que de sermens tu trahis en ce jour!
Tu crois trouver ailleurs une plus douce chaine:
Mais, perfide, crois-tu que je t'y laisse en paix?
J'irai troubler sans cesse en rivale inhumaine,
Les douceurs que tu te promets:
Mon amour outrage me tiendra lieu de haine,
Et je te rendrai bien les maux que tu me fais.
Mais ses tourmens calmeront-t!ils ma peine?
Non, non; il faut plutot lu'i cacher mon couroux.
Que dans d'autres liens un nouveau feu l'entralne: *
II ne jouira point de mon depit jaloux;
Et j'attendrai qu'3. mes genoux
Son inconstance le ramene. (Scene v)
Doris shows herself to be sophisticated enough to play the game as
well as anyone, waiting patiently for Silvandre to return, which she
173
knows he will do through his inconstancy to other women. In realizing
that he will return, though, she accepts two things. First, she
realizes that showing jealousy will not bring him back, as the game
would not be interesting if he knew she still loved him that much.
Secondly, she realizes that even though he may come back to her in
his wanderings from flower to flower, he will not remain forever, but

174
will continue the game. In accepting this as a fact of life, Doris shows
herself to be a true Regency character as much as is Silvandre.
La Motte tells us that the character of the Spaniard in love is
that he is faithful and romantic. However, to a Frenchman in the
seventeenth and eighteenth century, and even today, this faithfulness
and devotion, this romantic outlook, are somewhat incomprehensible
and even a little ridiculous. The Spaniard with all his ideals seems
unrealistic to the Frenchman, who takes a more practical view of love.
Thus, in the third entree, "L'Espagne, " we see two devoted Spanish
lovers argue about who is the more faithful and devoted to his true
love, in an entire entree in which we never see either one of the ladies
mentioned; a situation hardly typical to the Frenchman, who may
enjoy chasing a difficult beauty, but always in the hope and expectation
that she will let him catch her, and to whom it is very impractical and
uninteresting to stand below a balcony and declare undying love to a
woman one cannot even see!
The entree begins with a beautiful serenade of Dom Pedro
beneath the balcony of his love. This serenade, though the words are
beautiful, shows the complete contrast between the Spanish and the
French. Dom Pedro, who is willing to die for his mistress, and who
finally declares he will die of sadness if she refuses him and of
happiness if she accepts him, is the opposite of Silvandre, for whom
love is only a game, a constant amusement:

Sommeil, qui chaque nuit jouissez de ma belle,
Ne versez point encor vos pavots sur ses yeux,
Attendez pour regner sur elle
Qu'elle ait appris mes tendres feux.
Je vais parler; c'est assez me contraindre,
C'est trop cacher les maux qu'elle me fait souffrir;
Du moins il est temps de m'en plaindre
Lorsque je suis pret d'en mourir.
Ah! s'il plaisoit eI l'objet que j'adore
De soulager mon amoureux tourment,
Le sort fatal que je deplore
Deviendroit un destin charmant.
Mais ma mort est tofijours certaine,
Quelque succfes qu'Amour daigne me preparer:
Que Lucile soit inhumaine,
Ou sensible a l'ardeur que je viens declarer,
II faudra toujours expirer
De mon plaisir ou de ma peine. (Scene i)
Words that the frank and joyful Silvandre probably would never speak,
even in playing the game of love by being insincere. Dom Pedro, in
what to the French is typical Spanish fashion, would welcome death;
it would become "un destin charmant, " if Lucile would only declare
her love for him. He (as well as the other lover, Dom Carlos), al­
most seems to enjoy wallowing in despair and uncertainty as to the
outcome of his suit. Dom Carlos, when he enters, bringing a troupe
of dancers and musicians, expresses these same sentiments:
La nuit ramene en vain le repos dans le monde,
Mon coeur est toujours agite;
Mais mon trouble et mes soins font ma felicite,
J'aime mieux en jouir que d'une paix profonde. (Scene ii)
Dom Carlos then orders the musicians to serenade his love,
Leonore, and their serenade is the divertissement of this act.
175

176
Although the main characters may be typically Spanish, the 'musicians
could very well be French, for their song is addressed to the night,
and to all the secrets she hides, especially secrets of love. The musi­
cians encourage the night to be discreet:
Nuit, soyez fidele;
L'Amour ne revele
Ses secrets qu'a vous.
S'il veut §. quelque cruelle
Faire enfin sentir ses coups,
Nuit, soyez fidele;
L'Amour ne revele
Ses secrets qu'a vous.
Si quelque amant pres de sa belle
Trompe les yeux des jaloux;
Nuit, soyez fiddle;
Et cachez 5. tous
Des mysteres si doux:
Nuit, soyez fidelle;
L'Amour ne revele
Ses secrets qu'a vous. (Scene iii)
With its repeated refrain and sensual verses, this serenade is an
insinuating incitement to love that any Frenchwoman in the audience
would surely have followed, but the proud and Spanish Leonore does
not deign to show herself to Dom Carlos, who despairs of ever winning
her love;
Quoi! la nuit, si propice 3. l'amoureuse flamme,
Ne me sert pas mieux que le jour? (Scene iii)
Finally demanding how Leonore can ignore the most faithful lover in
the world, Dom Carlos has broached a subject on which the hidden
Dom Pedro cannot keep silent. He explains to Dom Carlos that it is

impossible that he should call himself the most faithful of lovers, for
h&r.-Oo.m Pedro, holds that title:
N'usurpez point le nom de plus fidele amant,
C'est moi qui me pique de l'etre. (Scene iv)
Their argument, from that point, proceeds to a quarrel over which
177
one of their mistresses is the rbost worthy of inspiring the most faith­
ful love. The quarrel ends in a duet, praising this kind of dispute,
for it shows their faithfulness to their loves, and again, the plot is not
really resolved, for we know that this type of dispute will continue as
their pride in their faithfulness increases. Discord, however, must
not govern these quarrels between lovers, for they are not the disputes
of enemies, but merely discussions of the intensity of a good emotion,
love:
Que notre ardeur soit eternelle,
L 1 Amour nous pro met mille attraits;
Disputons & jamais
A qui sera plus tendre et plus fidele. (Scene iv)
The act ends with more serenades, in Spanish and in French, and the
final air, in French, expresses the theme of the entree:
Soyez constans dans vos amours,
Amans, on est pret 2t se rendre:
Un coeur qu'on attaque toujours
Se lasse enfin de se defendre;
Tot ou tard il vient d'heureux jours
A qui sqait les attendre. (Scene v)
La Motte then takes us to Italy, where a lover is "jaloux, fin
et violent, " and where many of the masquerades and fetes galantes of

of the Regency originated. Italy will be a favorite country with the
authors of the opera-ballet, but, as in the pastorale, usually only as
178
a decor for the loves and games of the French. Here, in a sumptuous
hall prepared for a ball, we find traces of some of the characters left
from the Italian Comedy, expelled the same year L'Europe galante
was written. The jealous lover was a stock character in both Italian
and French comedy, and Octavio, in "L'ltalie, " certainly comes
nearer to being a truly comic or ridiculous character than any other
in the opera. The entree opens with a discussion between Olimpia and
her jealous lover, Octavio. She complains that jealousy offends both
her and the god of love, being an emotion that is not only useless but
unenjoyable:
Que sert, ingrat, de vous aimer ?
Vous ne cessez point de vous plaindre. (Scene i)
In his reply, Octavio shows how ridiculous he is, for he complains of
her supposed unfaithfulness, while at the same time he expresses the
pleasure he feels in being in love:
Je ne me plaindrois pas,
Si vous m'aimiez comme il faut que l'on aime;
A suivre sans cesse vos pas
Je trouve une douceur extreme:
Tous les autres plaisirs sont pour moi sans appas;
Du bonheur de vous voir je fais mon bien supreme;
Helas! si vous m'aimiez de m§me
Je ne me plaindrois pas. (Scene i)
During their argument, we find out that Octavio 1 s fears have
been heightened by the fact that Olimpia has been invited to this

sumptuous ball. He expresses a typical jealous sentiment, but
ridiculous to the audience of the period, saying that he sacrifices
everything for her, and she does not reciprocate (For instance, she
could have refused the invitation.):
Je renonce 2t tout pour vos charmes,
Et vous ne quittez rien pour moi. (Scene i)
Olimpia, impatient with the poutings of Octavio and more
179
"French" in her outlook on love, explains the difference between their
ideas, ordering Octavio to leave the "amoureux empire," for jealousy
does not belong there:
Sortez de 1' amoureux empire,
Ou devenez plus tranquille en aimant.
Un coeur qui s'allarme aisement
N'est point heureux quand il sofipire.
pour moi l'Amour est un plaisir charmant
Pour vous c'est un martyre. (Scene i)
Octavio replies that it is nothing but an excess of love that makes him
jealous, and that she should be proud of having inspired this love. He
wishes, in typical fashion again, that he could take her away to some
hidden retreat, where they could be happy in their love without the fear
of rivals fanning Octavio's jealousy. We have already seen, however,
that Olimpia is not made for a solitary retreat, but is better fitted to
the more luxurious and sensual pleasures of the masked ball and
divertissements that will be offered in this magnificent palace. Octavio
leaves, with a warning that he will be watching Olimpia every moment,

180
and a Troupe of Masques enters and sings a warning to jealous lovers
that contains a prediction for us of what is in store for Octavio:
Tendres amans, rassemblons-nous.
Pour les coeurs que l'Amour enchalne,
Quel s£jour peut etre plus doux?
S'il se trouve ici des jaloux,
L' amour ne les amene
Que pour les tromper tous. (Scene iii)
Continuing the touches of local color he had added to the pre­
ceding entree, La Motte here adds airs in Italian, continuing the idea
that jealous lovers will be punished, for (in a translation by La Motte
immediately following the Italian text, "Sens de l'ltalien"):
II [love] veut qu'on engage les coeurs,
Et defend qu'on les tyrannise. (Scene iii)
The divertissement then passes to another great theme of the
Regency and of the opera-ballet, the praise of folly and the banishing
of reason from such charming fetes as the one presented for Olimpia
in the beautiful ballroom:
Bannissons de ces lieux l'importune raison,
Elle vaut moins qu'une aimable folie;
Un doux exc&s sied bien dans la jeune saison;
Pour etre heureux il faut qu'un coeur s'oublie.
(Scene iii)
These words are a far cry from the conscious reasoning of the charac­
ters of Corneille, of the thinkers of the seventeenth century, and of
the ideal of control, of "retenu" and the banishment of excesses from
one's life. The " Venitienne" who sings the above text, continues to
incite all around her. (at the ball, on stage, and in the audience) to love,

expressing a true manifesto of the new hierarchy, ruled by pleasure,
that governed France:
Rendez-vous, jeunes coeurs, cedez & vos desirs,
Tout vous inspire un tendre badinage;
Ne preferez jamais la sagesse aux plaisirs,
II vaut bien mieux etre heureux qu'etre sage.
(Scene iii)
In the verses sung by the Venitienne, we also find the idea of
the strength of the fSte galante, and of the effect it would have on the
audience and on the lady to whom it was offered:
Mille amours deguises dans ce charmant sejour
Comblent nos coeurs d'une douceur extreme;
Si quelqu'un en ces lieux est entre sans amour,
Ne craignons pas qu'il en sorte de meme. (Scene iii)
and the chorus repeats, between the verses of the Venitienne, these
words:
Livrons-nous aux plaisirs, il n'est rien de plus doux;
Pour qui seroient-ils faits, si ce n'etoit pour nous?
During this divertissement, one of the Masques dances with
181
Olimpia, and, as La Motte says, "fait remarquer beaucoup d'empres-
sement pour elle. " This presentation-of a divertissement quite
explicitly inciting to love, while the new lover, who had probably
arranged the whole thing, dances with the woman he desires, is the
kind of amorous divertissement that many court gentlemen and petits
maltres used in their attempts at amorous conquests, the idea being
that no woman could resist a so concentrated assault on her senses
and feelings. At the end of the divertissement, Octavio is seen to

follow the Masque offstage, and we find Olimpia alone wondering why
Octavio is no longer dogging her footsteps.
182
Olimpia is doubly disturbed by the absence of Octavio, for she
has fallen in love with the disguised man, and fears Octavio may have
seen it in their eyes, which indiscreetly yield up our secret emotions:
Peut-etre de nos yeux la douce intelligence
N'a pu garder le secret de nos coeurs;
Ces indiscrets temoins de nos tendres langueurs
Ont enfin rompu le silence.
Ah! faut-il qu'une injuste loi
Destine §. ce jaloux le reste de ma vie?
Lies soins que son Rival a laisse voir pour moi
Me font redouter sa furie. (Scene iii)
She is interrupted by the entrance of Octavio, who is hastily sheathing
his dagger, and who announces:
Va, cours de ton amant recevoir les adieux;
II expire pres de ces lieux. (Scene iv)
Olimpia faints, and Octavio reveals that he has not killed her
new lover, but that he wanted to test her, as Ferdinand had tested
Chim&ne. He is carried away by his emotion, and, though he is often
a ridiculous character, Octavio 1 s words here carry an emotional and
dramatic force:
En vain je l'ai suivi, ce trop heureux Amant.
Fatale fete, nuit trop sombre,
C'est vous dont le tumulte et l 1 ombre
Ont derobe ses jours §. mon ressentiment.
(&. Olimpia)
Tu reprens tes esprits, cruelle, cl ce langage!
Je suis le seul qui souffre ici.
De tous ses mouvemens je sens croitre ma rage

Je voulois lui surprendre un secret qui m'outrage;
Je n'ai que trop bien reussi. (Scene iv)
Expressing a sort of fatality, Olimpia explains that Octavio
must not chide her, for it is to love that he must complain. "Je
183
l'aurois ecoute s'il m'efit parle pour vous, " says Olimpia, and Octavio
replies in a rage, that all he did for her, all he felt for her was use­
less against the heart of this fickle woman, and vows to kill his rival.
Olimpia berates him, explaining that it is also his fault she doesn't
love him:
C'etoit 5. moi de vous aimer,
Mais c'etoit a vous de me plaire. (Scene iv)
Olimpia, quite calm now in the face of all Octavio's threats,
leaves him alone to sing of his rage and frustration. He vows again
to kill his rival, then, at the conclusion of the tirade has second
thoughts:
Ne vaudroit-il pas mieux rompre un fatal lien?
Mais le puis-je? quel vain espoir me flate?
Sans l'objet de mes feux je n'espere plus rien;
C'est sa seule rigueur qu'il faut que je combatte
Allons tomber encore aux genoux de l'ingrate,
Pour attendrir son coeur, ou pour percer le mien. (Scene v)
Some might see in this last vow a sort of tragic end to this act
of the opera, but considering the character of Octavio, which vacillates
from raging to pleading on bended knee, we may accept the fact that
Discord has lost the day again, and that the only inconvenience to the
characters of "L'ltalie" will be the constant pleadings of Octavio to

Olimpia, while she calmly pursues her new affair. Octavio, in the
184
space of six lines, has shown himself to be so undecided about what to
do that Olimpia and her lover may be fairly sure that he will never
bring himself to kill his rival, nor himself.
"La Turquie, " the fourth and final entree of the opera, con­
tinues the tradition of interest in this exotic land, an interest common
since earlier in the reign of Louis XIV, when all of France was im­
pressed and interested by the sumptuous costumes and alien customs
of a group of ambassadors sent to Louis XIV from Turkey. This
interest in a sort of romanticized version of Turkey and the middle
east in general will continue throughout much of the eighteenth century,
and many authors such as Montesquieu and Voltaire will use these
exotic lands as settings for their stories and novels. The tone of this
entree is more elevated perhaps, in its main action, than that of the
other acts of the opera, but it is considerably lightened by the diver­
tissement, a charming pastoral fete offered by the gardeners of the
palace of the Sultan.
The intrigue of this act lies in the rivalry between two women
for the position of favorite of the Sultan Zuliman, and the action takes
place in the garden of the harem, with a marvelous palace in the back­
ground. At the beginning of the entree, Zayde, a slave, sings of her
love for Zuliman, and with charming modesty, complains that her
beauty is not strong enough to impress him. The refrain of her air is

a good example of the use of antithesis and of the condensation of a
sentiment into a short, elegant turn of phrase:
185
Mes yeux, ne pourrez-vous jamais
Forcer mon vainqueur a se rendre ? (Scene i)
She recounts her fear when she was first taken into slavery, then tells
how her fear was transformed into love, and declares:
Et je me trouvai trop heureuse
D'etre captive auprSs de lui.
She prays that the strength of her love will be recognized by him when
he comes, for he has called on all the harem to assemble in the gar­
den.
The Sultan Zuliman and his current favorite, Roxane, enter as
Zayde leaves, and we find that, in a quieter and more noble way,
Zuliman has some of the traits of Silvandre. Berated by Roxane, who
realizes Zuliman loves her no longer, he replies:
Je ne romprois pas notre chalne
Si vous s

186
Je sens les plus vives allarmes;
Mais respect me force a murmurer tout bas,
Et me fait devorer mes soupirs et mes larmes. (Scene ii)
But of course, even in saying this to him, she has expressed her
jealousy and complained of her position, a situation which could not
have occurred in the days of the greatest respect for the power of
Louis XIV, during which almost all kingly figures on stage were treated
with great awe, as they all implied, to some degree, the relationship
between the French and their king.
Zuliman is magnanimous, however, and even apologizes to
Roxane, for she deserves to be better treated. His sympathetic refusal
of her love, though, is perhaps more hurtful than Olimpia's calm and
masterful refusal of Octavio, for Roxane feels that she is no longer
attractive at all:
Vous meritez un sort plus doux,
Et mon coeur a regret se detache du votre;
La Pitie parle encor pour vous,
Mais 1'Amour parle pour une autre. (Scene ii)
Ordering Roxane to cease her complaining and to respect his
pleasures by remaining and watching the divertissement he has pre­
pared, he calls on the women of the harem to dance for him, while
Roxane watches carefully to learn who is the new object of his love.
The divertissement, led by the airs of Zayde, is again a call to love,
but this time with a new twist: Zayde is calling upon all the Sultanas
to love their master, while rejoicing in the knowledge that he loves

187
them all. This situation, because it is removed from France, enables
one man to love many women at one time, though he may have a favor­
ite, and must have set the Regency spectators to dreaming of moving
to Turkey. Zayde expresses this exotic and desirable situation quite
discreetly:
Dans ces lieux tout doit le satisfaire;
Pour ce charmant Vainqueur laissons-nous enflammer;
Attendons le bonheur de lui plaire
En jouissant toujours du plaisir de l'aimer.
(Scene iii)
As Zayde ends her song, Zuliman rises and announces his love
for her, kept a secret until now. She, in the sweetly modest fashion
of a Sultana, refuses to believe that this is true, and Zuliman explains
that for her he feels a love that he has never felt before. Here he
differs from Silvandre, for he has been inconstant only as long as the
right woman had not presented herself to his view, but he vows, and
quite believably, that now he will always remain faithful to Zayde. He
does admit, however, that this kind of faithful love was at first unac­
ceptable to him, and that he had tried in vain to woo other women in
order to forget Zayde. All efforts at inconstancy had failed, however,
and now he must yield to the beauty of Zayde forever:
J'esperois affranchir mon ame
Du peril d 1 engager sa foi;
Et je ne voulois pas me permettre une flamme
Qui prit trop d'empire sur moi.
J'ai long-tems differe de vous rendre les armes
Pour eviter d'eternelles amours.

Des beautes de ces lieux j'empruntois le secours;
Mais vous triomphez de leurs charmes,
Et jev'ous aime, enfin, pour vous aimer toujours.
(Scene iv)
It cannot be overemphasized that this declaration of undying love,
though reluctant, is still considered by most authors the only sort of
188
love fitting for a ruler or a hero, and that, for this reason, there will
be very few nobles or rulers of Zuliman's stature in future opera-
ballets. They will move to a new form of opera-ballet called the
ballet-hero'lque, and the opera-ballet, with very few exceptions, will
limit itself to characters more equal in rank to the noble but not rul­
ing spectators.
Roxane, overcome with jealousy, draws a dagger, and tries to
stab Zayde. Zuliman takes the dagger from her, and asks her how
she dares attempt such an act. Her answer shows that she is more
ancien regime. Not only is she jealous, but she is ashamed that
Zuliman has lost all pride in himself and has yielded so completely to
love, letting it rule him when he should rule all:
Quand tu formas les noeuds que tu romps pour jamais
J'eprouvai ta fierte jusque dans ta tendresse;
Helas! c'est avec d'autres traits
Que 1'Amour aujourd'hui te blesse;
Devant ses yeux ton orgueil cesse.
J'ai voulu vanger mes attraits,
Et te punir de ta foiblesse. (Scene iv)
Roxane here presents an almost tragic figure, again more common to
the ballet-hero'ique than to the opera-ballet. Her exit line continues

this tragic expression, as she declares that no punishment meted out
for her actions by Zuliman could be as terrible for her as the regret
189
that she was unable to take revenge. She demands that Zayde take the
dagger and stab her, for she has already wounded her heart with even
crueller stabs. At the point where the whole entree is about to turn
into a short lyric tragedy, Zuliman has Roxane removed, and he and
Zayde immediately forget her jealous rage, declaring their love for
each other:
Livrons nos coeurs a la tendresse
Ne formons que d'heureux desirsj
Aimons-nous, aimons-nous sans cesse,
Comptons nos jours par nos plaisirs. (Scene v)
To make the joy of the occasion triumph completely over the
sadness of Jftoxane, the Bostangis, or gardeners of the harem, enter
and sing and dance in honor of the Sultan's new favorite. They sing,
as had the "Turks" of Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, in lingua franca,
and praise their Sultan in terms that apply charmingly to that with
which they are the most familiar, gardening. Again, La Motte trans­
lated his lingua franca airs into French, so that the meaning is quite
clear, and so that the charm of their allusions to gardening is com­
pletely understood:
Qu'il ignore a jamais les peines,
Qu 1 il eprouve mille douc eur s,
Qu'il. brille autant que les fleurs,
Qu'il dure autant que les chSnes.

Qu'il reunisse en lui la force et le courage;
Que ses voisins jaloux
Craignent plus son couroux
Que nos fruits ne craignent l'orage.
Qu'au devant de ses voeux les coeurs viennent s'offrir
Que pour son bonheur tout conspire;
Et que le Ciel fasse toujours fleurir
Et ses jardins et son empire. (Scene v)
This is a retelling of the ideas of the divertissement, though,
rather than a direct translation, and the charm of the rhythmic airs
comes out only in the lingua franca verses, many of which are quite
easily understood:
As the
appear again,
En regnar,
En amar,
Far tributir
L'occidento, l'oriento.
En regnar,
En amar,
Sempre sentir
Plazer sensa tormento.
revels of the Bostangis are ended, Venus and Discord
Discord pleading for mercy, crying that
Tout echappe a ma haine,
Et tout cede a l 1 Amour.
Venus' point is proved quite sufficiently, and Discord flees the uni­
verse, going to Hell, the only place she knows she may reign without
rival. Venus sends her followers, "les Jeux et les Plaisirs," out
into the world to increase the empire of love.
A charming and sensual expression of the times, and the per­
fect type of the opera-ballet, L'Europe galante is a model followed by
190

all the others. Though the entrees "L'Espagne" and "La Turquie"
were probably not as influential as the others,--"L'Espagne" from a
dramatic point of view, and "La Turquie" because of its more heroic
191
elements--there is much in the ballet, both formally and stylistically,
that will be imitated by the future authors of opera-ballets.
The fortunes of L'Europe galante were quite good, and it was
presented many times in the years following its origihal successful
20
opening. Reprises are listed through 1755, when the Italian opera
was beginning to take a more definite foothold, and the opera buff a and
the comic operettas of the Foire were beginning to develop a new kind
of comic opera. L'Europe galante, though, may be considered to be
the first true French opera of a comic nature.
Although posterity has, in general, judged La Motte harshly,
L'Europe galante has escaped most of the criticism leveled at his
other works. Titon du Tillet, in Le Parnasse frangois, places him in
high esteem, mentioning mainly this opera: "La Motte est digne
d'occuper une place brillante sur le Parnasse. Pour moi, je dirai
20. L. C., Due de La Valli&re, Ballets, opera et autres
ouvrages lyriques (Paris: Bauche, 1760), p. 118, lists reprises on:
May 18, 1706,
August 20, 1715,
June 20, 1724,
June 14, 1736,
May 9, 1744,
August 26, 1755.
"L'ltalie," third entree, was presented before the King at
Versailles, February 15, 1755.

seulement que dfes l'slge de vingt-six ou de vingt-sept ans, il s'y etoit
192
marqu£ une place par son Ballet de l'Europe galante" (Titon du Tillet,
p. 657). In 1757, Durey de Noinville noted that "l'Europe galante et
ses autres Poemes pour 1'Opera dureront autant que le Theatre pour
lequel ces Pieces ont ete faites" (Durey de Noinville, p. 219). Madame
de Sevigne quoted verses from L'Europe galante in her letters to
illustrate points she was making (for instance in her letter to
d'Hericourt, 1735). D'Alembert cites it as a good example of stage
21
writing.
All was not praise, however, and the voice of Voltaire, a little
too reasonable even in his pleasures to accept the genre of the opera-
ballet as a good form of opera, gave La Motte rather left-handed
compliments on L'Europe galante:
Ces sortes d'ouvrage n'ont aucune liaison. Chaque acte y est
comme etranglee; mais la variete du spectacle, et les petites
chansonnettes que le musicien fait reussir et que le parterre
rep&te, amusent le public, qui court a ces representations sans
en faire grand cas. Le premier ballet dans ce goiit, qui a servi
de mod&le aux autres, est celui de l'Europe galante d'Houdard
de la Motte: Car ceux de Quinault etaient encore plus mediocres;
son Temple de la Paix, par exemple, n'est qu'un assemblage de
chansons, sans aucune action. 22
21. Jean le Rond d'Alembert, "Fragments sur la musique, "
in Oeuvres et correspondances inedites, ed. Charles Henry (Paris:
Perrin, 1887), p. 187.
22. Voltaire, "Connaissance (article 'Opera');"in Oeuvres,
XXIII, 410.

193
La Harpe, who had little good to say about the opera, and who
attributed its success to the scenery and also to the novelty of the
genre, was very perceptive in noting that it did answer a great need
at the time for diversity and constant change:
II y en avait beaucoup el montrer sur la scfene, en quelques
heures, des amours et des costumes franqois, italiens, espagnols
et turcs; et c'est ce qui fit courir 5. l'Europe galante .. . [et]
ce qui s'accorde fort bien avec un spectacle devenu proprement
un rendez-vous pour la jeunesse, la beaute l'oisivete et l'opulence;
et ce qui s'accorde peut-etre encore plus avec le caract&re
de la societe frangaise, qui aurait voulu rassembler en un jour
les jouissances d'une annee. C'est bien 13., je l'avoue, un
violent symptome de l'ennui; mais oft done 1'ennui se logera-t-il,
si ce n'est au milieu du desoeuvrement et dans la satiete des
plaisirs (La Harpe, VII, 191).
Despite the reservations of some critics, La Motte, in creat­
ing the opera-ballet, had responded to the esthetic needs of a new
society. L'Europe galante, because of this response and because of
its obvious dramatic and poetic qualities, became the example all
future authors of works in this genre were to follow, modifying the
original very little.

CHAPTER 7
THE OPERA-BALLET: DEFINITION
AND CLASSIFICATION
This new form of opera, of which L'Europe galante was the
prototype, will now enjoy great success in France, and will reign sup­
reme, but only for a very limited period. From the first performance
of L'Europe galante in 1697, the works which fall into the rather nar­
row definition of the genre opera-ballet cover a period which lasts
until 1719, although the ballet-hero'ique, another form of opera-ballet,
will continue much longer. From the fact that the ballet-he ro'ique con­
tinued after this date, we may conclude that many of the tastes of the
Regency had not died, and that the search for pleasure and variety was
not limited to these very few years.
There were several reasons for the short life span of the opera-
ballet. One was that the society of the Regency could not long sustain
such a determined chase after pleasure, and that the coming of age of
LouisXV gave a new organization to the court, though Louis XV was
certainly not as domineering as had been Louis XIV. Thus, the
pleasure-seeking, society continued its quest, but in a calmer, more
194

dignified way, giving rise once more to art forms of a more heroic
nature in order to honor and glorify the king.
195
A second cause of the early demise of the genre was the return
of the Comedie Italienne, invited back to France by the Regent soon
after Louis XIV died. Its popularity had waned somewhat in the
interim, the spectators having forgotten what Italian they had under­
stood previously, and the troupe was not triumphantly successful until
1718, when Autreau wrote a play for them in French, Le Naufrage du
port 5. 1'Anglais. To this French play was added a musical score by
Mouret, and from that time, many of the "Italian" comedies were
filled with musical divertissements and intermfedes, thus becoming
again popular with the spectators, and removing two of the raisons
d'etre of the opera-ballet: it was the departure of the Italians that had
caused opera to fill in the empty space left by their passing, and to add
music to the charm and comedy of the former "roommate" of the
Academie royale c}e Musique. The first opera-ballet was even written
by a man who had made his theatrical debut (however inauspicious) at
the Italian Theatre, and the ties between the two forms had been
strong.
The opera-ballet was not destined to develop into another type
of opera. Even though, especially in the later opera-ballets, we find
more and more comedy and realism (a realism which never strayed
too far from the charm and fantasy of the old pastorale, however),

the opera-ballet was not the predecessor of the comic opera. In fact,
the comedies of the Foires, from which the comic opera developed,
helped to bring about an end to the opera-ballet in its comic form by-
taking over many of its functions. When permission was given to
196
Favart and to other authors and directors at the Foire to present plays,
musical acts, and parodies with words, instead of limiting them to the
system of using signs and sign language, to which the law had pre­
viously reduced them, the seed of comic opera was sown. This
theatre together with the Italian comedy, took over the musico-comic
functions of the opera-ballet, becoming the forerunner of the comic
opera.
Having defined its limits in history, we must again emphasize
the social and literary aspect of the opera-ballet, inherent in its style
and structure, that were to limit it in time, regardless of other in­
fluences. As an expression, often called "perfect! 1 by the critics, of
the Regency, its ideals and literary style, it was destined, like the
Regency, to a short life. The philosopher of the later periods of the
century whose youth had been spent in the frivolous occupations of the
Regency may have remembered this genre with nostalgia, enjoying the
many reprises of the opera-ballets, but the spirit of the Regency was
in itself self-destructive. Voltaire wrote from Cirey, asking for news
about Les Indes galantes of Rameau, hoping that the grand new com­
poser could also be frivolous:

Mandez-moi done si le grand musicien Rameau est aussi
maximus in minimis et si de la sublime de sa grande musique
il descend avec succ&s aux graces na'ives du ballet. J'aime les
gens qui savent quitter }e sublime pour badiner. Je voudrais
que Newton eut fait des vaudevilles; je l'en estimerais
davantage. *
Rameau's ballet did succeed, but in a heroic rather than a frivolous
way. Voltaire's nostalgia was for a past that had disappeared, or
197
whose trends and passions had developed into more serious and deeper
pursuits.
The pleasure sought by the society of the Regency could not, by
definition, be deep, serious, or thoughtful. The constant quest for
pleasure, rather than for a more lasting happiness, forced the man of
the Regency to search outside of himself, for, unlike happiness,
pleasure must be stimulated by external objects. Mauzi expresses
this essential difference in L'ldee de bonheur au XVIIIe siScle:
Deux raisons s'opposent a 1'identification du;plaisir et du
bonheur: la necessite de preserver le repos et le respect
de la loi morale. Les plaisirs empechent en effet d'inter ior.iser
le bonheur, lui otent sa plenitude, sa valeur de
recueillement. lis sont non seulement fugitifs et discontinus,
mais exterieurs cL l'ame. L'ame qui eprouve un plaisir jouit
d'autre chose que d'elle-meme. Or le bonheur consiste 3.
jouir de soi (Mauzi, pp. 388-89).
For such a society, boredom was the supreme evil, and part
of the constant play-acting and masquerading of the Regency was
meant to provide a constant source of variety and change. Mauzi
1. Voltaire, Correspondance, IV, 110 (to Berger, & Cirey,
le 24 aout, 1735).

again explains this need: "Quelles que soient son intensite ou sa
qualite, le plaisir n'echappe jamais 3. sa nature, qui en fait un etat
198
d'ame de l'instant. L'homme est done force de renouveler perpetuel-
lement ses impressions agreables. La premifere condition du plaisir
est la diversite" (Mauzi, p. 389).
This constant search for a momentary remedy against the sole
evil of boredom, though delicately and gracefully expressed in the
opera-ballet, led to a cul-de-sac, as boredom inevitably crept into the
lives of the most enthusiastic pleasure seeker, forcing him to make
greater and greater efforts to find novelty and to divert his already
satiated mind. At first, making a doctrine of his debauchery, the
Regency man proclaimed that there was no evil save that of boredom
(and perhaps lack of social grace). He celebrated his freedom from
all other restraints, and what had in the past been considered evil or
corrupt became part of the game of variety:
Tout le monde est corrompu. Mais il est charmant. II apporte
& faire le mal tant d 1 esprit, tant de gaite, tant de grace qu'on
rougirait de s'indigner. Les vieilles disciplines ont fini par
ceder, et le monde se sent merveilleusement libre et joyeux.
Une sorte de f§te galante commence, oil les magistrats devenus
petits-maltres, oil les officiers revenus des armees m&nent la
danse (Adam, Histoire, V, 286).
But behind this joyous celebration of freedom is the sigh of fatigue and
of satiety. The smiles of the men and women in the paintings of
Watteau are half smile half sadness. Perhaps the opera-ballet was as
short-lived as the tolerance of this generation for complete freedom,

199
without bonds, but without any solid foundation at the same time. The
life of this art form which so suited its times lasted, in historical
terms, no longer than the fleeting pleasures sought by its generation.
The opera-ballet served the fatigued and jaded spectator in
many ways. It provided variety and change, it invoked the doctrine
of sensual pleasures, and it mirrored only the happier and more
joyous aspects of the period, ignoring fatigue and satiety and concen­
trating instead on the enthusiasm of the young just setting out on their
quest for pleasure.
Though the church and the parties of devots vilified the opera,
and declared it immoral, it is evident that moral criticism had noth­
ing to do with the demise of the opera-ballet. In spite of the attitude
of the church, it had long been tacitly accepted that everyone went to
the opera. The only unpardonable sin was to flaunt one's impiety by
proclaiming in writing one's support of opera and theatre. Ecorche-
ville recounts that Sautout wrote a "Dissertation" in defense of opera
that was not passed by the censor, who was La Motte.
Having now determined the historical limits of the opera-
ballet, and having presented its prototype, L'Europe galante, we may
now define the genre in more specific terms, distinguishing the opera-
ballet from its many relatives. The form of the opera-ballet is its
most distinctive feature, expressing and illustrating the need for
variety and diversity at the time of the Regency. It is an easy,

elaxing entertainment, which requires no great depth of emotion,
thought, or application on the part of the spectator. Even Voltaire,
200
who preferred a sort of "sage oisivete, " defined the opera in terms of
ease and entertainment: "VoylS. tout l'interest que je connois dans un
opera. Un beau spectacle bien varie, des fetes brillantes, beaucoup
2
d'airs, peu de recitatifs, des actes courts, c'est IS. ce qui me plait."
In order to provide what Voltaire and the others required, the
authors of the opera-ballet followed a formula of composition well-
expressed by Nougaret in De l'Art du thgatre: "Observons au sujet
des Operas-Balets, qu'ils sont composes de plusieurs Actes qui n'ont
aucun rapport les uns aux autres, puisqu'ils forment autant de Pifeces
detachees, rassemblees sous un meme titre. " He neglects in this
definition only the role of the prologue, which is supplied by La Porte:
"On se plaint que dans la plupart de ces Ballets les Actes forment
entr'eux quelques rapports generaux, etrangers ll l'action, et que le
Spectateur n'appercevroit jamais, si l'Auteur n'avoit soin de l'en
4
avertir dans le Prologue." Though La Porte saw certain literary and
dramatic inconveniences in this form, it was well defended by one of
2. Voltaire, Correspondance, IV, 230 (to Nicolas Claude
Thieriot, 3. Cirey, le 25 decembre, 1735).
3. Pierre Jean Baptiste Nougaret, De l'Art du theatre (2 vols.;
Paris: Chez Cailleau, 1769), II, 230.
4. La Porte, Dictionnaire dramatique, article "Ballet, " (3
vols.; Paris: Chez Lacombe, 1776), I, 162.

201
its authors, Roy, in his "Lettre sur l'opera": "Cette sorte de drame,
qui en assemble trois ou quatre dans un meme cadre, qui presente des
sujets traites chacun en un Acte avec un divertissement, germe de
1*action, plait par la variete, et sympathise avec 1'impatience
frangaise;
Although the form came mainly from fragmentation of the
trag£die lyrique and from the old court ballet, the Italian comedy had
its influence on the variety in the opera-ballet. Antoine Adam says of
the plays presented by the Italians before their departure, "Leurs
pieces n'offraient ni intrigue coherente, ni unite de structure. Elles
etaient faites de scfenes 2t peine liees. Elles n'etaient souvent qu'une
suite de sketches" (Adam, Histoire, V, 282).
The main source of the structure of the opera-ballet was the
court ballet, with the operatic style and dialogue borrowed from the
fetes of the lyric tragedy. It was the fete, and not the tragedy itself,
that interested many of the Regency spectators, and the adaptation of
these entertaining and lighter sections of the tragedy was a perfect
answer to the new needs. These fetes were also easier to listen to,
for, though the rules governing verisimilitude in speech for opera
characters in France were still observed, the dramatic and some­
times tedious declamation of the tragedy was not present in the fetes.
5. Pierre-Charles Roy, "Lettre sur l'opera, "
La Nouvelle Bigarure, IV (Juin, 1753), p. 130.

They consisted mostly of airs (many based on dance rhythms) and of
202
dances, whose melodies pleased the lazier spectator tired of listening
to the declamation notee of Lully. This emphasis on airs and melody
helped bring French opera to a more Italianate style of opera, though
many of the abuses of melody and vocal gymnastics common in Italy
were still banned from the French stage.
Because of the dramatic origins of this form, many of the
opera-ballets will be named "Fetes" (Les Fetes venitiennes, Les
Ffetes de Thalie, Les FStes de l'ete, etc.). Paul-Marie Mas son, in .
his article on Les Fetes venitiennes, defines the meaning of the use of
this term in so many opera-ballet titles;
Le mot "fete" est alors synonyme de "divertissement"; il
designe une petite oeuvre de musique et de danse, sur une
affabulation d'ordinaire extremement tenue et legere. C'est
un peu dans ce sens qu'il faut entendre le terme "fete galante'. 1 ,
qui est si caracteristique de cette epoque ... . Done, le titre
de Fetes Venitiennes ne signifie pas seulement "rejouissances
qui ont lieu & Venise", mais aussi et surtout "serie de divertissements
de musique et de danse dont les sujets ont pour
sc&ne Venise", "fetes 5. sujet venitien".
Les titres de ce genre sont extremement frequents dans les
opera-ballets du temps, car la designation de "fete", peut tr£s
bien convenir 3. la plupart des entrees de 1'opera-ballet. ®
It was not only the form, but also the subject matter of the fete
of the lyric tragedy that interested the new generation. It was in the
fetes that the most explicit incitements to love were expressed, and
6. Paul-Marie Masson, "Les Fetes venitiennes de Campra, "
Revue de Musicologie, XIII (1932), p. 133.

from which came most of the "lieux communs de morale lubrique"
described by Boileau. The new public, tired of tragic heroes, pre­
ferred these gallant sentiments.
Since, in this new operatic form, the acts of the opera were
now called "fetes, " the fetes within the acts were now called diver­
tissements, thus avoiding confusion; with the fetes of the tragedy,
which were of shorter duration and lesser importance than the acts of
an opera-ballet. In general, since the tone of the acts, or entrees of
203
the opera-ballet was already quite happy and even comic, the introduc­
tion of the divertissement did not interrupt the dramatic action as
abruptly as it had done in the lyric tragedy, where a fete seemed
incongruous in the middle of the denouement of the tragic action. As
a result, the dramatic unity of the entrees themselves, though not of
the whole opera, is tighter than it was in the lyric tragedy.
Though the taste for variety was strong, the authors of the
opera-ballet did ally the entrees of their operas to a central theme,
expressed in the prologue. This organization of the opera-ballet was
highly criticized, the expression of theme being foreign to the action
of the opera. This process was necessary, however, for having
abolished even the unity of action, the author of the opera-ballet sub­
stituted a new unity--that of character or of theme. This loose and
varied form, united by a theme, will persist long after the demise of
the comic form of the opera-ballet, and will, in its heroic form,

assure the success of Rameau in the operatic world (with Les Indes
galantes, in 1735).
The subject matter of the opera-ballet was love. Love now
reigned to the exclusion of all other sentiments, and no pretense was
made at expressing more "noble" sentiments, in contrast to many-
works of the past, in which the author had tried to hide the emphasis
he was putting on love with a thin layer of more noble and lofty
thoughts, mainly for the sake of form and good taste. The court had
moved to Paris, was enjoying its freedom from the restraint of Ver­
204
sailles, and spent its time in mad pursuit of love. The theatre and the
opera, in particular, were the scenes of many amorous conquests,
and the themes expressed on the stage reflected the thoughts and ac­
tions of the spectators. La Motte indicates this, and says that in
order to attract women to the theatre (for without them, no men would
come), love must be the sole subject of the play or opera. Optimistic
authors like La Motte believed that the possibilities and variations of
this theme were inexhaustible and that no audience would ever tire of
love. Voltaire commented on this phenomenon of his times: "Une
seule sc&ne d'amour, heureusement mise en musique et chantee par
un acteur applaudi, attire tout Paris, et rend les beautes vraies
insipides. Les personnes de la cour ne peuvent plus supporter

205
Polyeucte, quand elles sortent d'un ballet oil elles ont entendu quelques
7
couplets aises S. retenir* "
We see from this statement of Voltaire that the love expressed
by the opera is a different kind of love from that which exists, surely,
even.in Polyeucte. To the new society, an all-consuming, deep and
almost tragic passion was rather ridiculous. Life and love were
nothing but games, and love no more than the nicest of pleasures, none
of which affects us deeply or lasts very long. This type of love is
already evident in L'Europe galante. At the end of "La France" and
of "L'ltalie, " almost tragic tirades are sung by the forsaken lovers.
The new attitude that this sort of sentiment cannot long prevail, and
that the loss of one love is not the least bit tragic, there being innum­
erable others to choose from, wins out over the Cornelian sentiments
of the beginning of the aria, and each accepts his fate more readily
and philosophically, turning to a possible new solution, and not insist­
ing on the now ridiculous position of pining away, killing oneself, or
destroying one's rival.
Because of the new devil-may-care attitude towards changing
emotions, the superficiality of these emotions, the love of playing
games, and the desire for novelty, inconstancy becomes another of the
favorite themes of the opera-ballet. Mauzi describes this new idea:
7. Voltaire, "Connaissance (article 'Opera'), " in Oeuvres,
XXIH, 411.

206
II existe tout un courant, au XVIIIe si&cle, pour justifier
I'inconstance, precieuse aptitude de l'ame. Seule I'inconstance
permet 3. l'lme de se mouvoir, de se renouveler, de progresser,
au lieu de rester figee dans une desesperante uniformite.
Comme les personnages de Marivaux, les heros de roman qui
trahissent un amour pour un autre, ne se sentent jamais
coupables (Mauzi, p. 434).
Rousset comments on the fact that the new mode becomes not fidelity
to one person (or even intermittent fidelity), but fidelity to incon­
stancy, which becomes a credo of the life of the Regency man: "Apr&s
I'inconstance successive et I'inconstance alternative, voici une
troisiSme variante: l'inconstant fidSle par inconstance" (Rousset,
p. 41).
Because love and inconstancy, two of the greatest pleasures,
now reign supreme in the opera, reason, often called "la triste
raison, " and a word used often to describe many authors of the seven­
teenth and eighteenth centuries, is banished in shame. What good is
reason to the pleasure seeker? His only ideal is unreason and the
joyful folly of freeing himself from the bonds and systems of reason.
The opera-ballet expresses this theme perhaps more than the other
literary forms of the era, for it has long been accustomed to defying
reason, by its very existence. Doumic, in his comparison of opera
and tragedy, says that reason is the only possible basis for a true
tragedy, and complains that: "l'opera est, par definition, un per-
petuel defi jete la raison" (Doumic, I, 126). Nothing could have
satisfied the Regency more, and the challenge to reason, often hidden

through the desire of authors such as Quinault to appear reasonable,
now comes out into the open, and the "defi" offered to reason in the
opera-ballet is clear and explicit.
The titles of some of the operatic works of the time, and
207
especially of the opera-ballet or the entrees of the opera-ballet, show
a great interest on the part of the authors in Italy, and especially in
Venice. The new society imitated the Italian Comedy in their masques,
and the romantic ideal of Italy and Venice as hedonistic and pleasure-
loving societies was quite common at the time. Often, too, placing
the action of an act or of a whole opera in Italy helped make it more
applicable to contemporary life while avoiding the risky venture of
placing the characters in France. The opera was daring and sensual
--more so than the other art forms--, and though the society was cer­
tainly more open, it was certainly safer to place the obviously French
characters in a pastoral setting or in Italy. This also added to the
spirit of fantasy, for the idea of realistic or satirical comedy, with
more true-to-life characters, did not help the spectators to forget
their defects. They did not want to learn about themselves at the
opera, they wanted to enjoy themselves, and see characters resem­
bling themselves act out the ideal of their society, not criticize its
defects. Venice is described the way the French saw it, in Histoire
des amours de Valerie et du noble venitien Barbarigo, by Galli de
Bibiena. Written in 1741, it purports to be a translation of the

Memoires of Barbarigo, who died in 1718. At the beginning of the
book, the scene is set for us by this description of Venice, which
could well apply to the Parisian society of the Regency:
Venise, comme tout le monde sait, est une ville de liberte.
L'impudence y est portee jusqu'au point qu'on se fait un mlrite
de la debauche. On n'y connolt pas 1'amour delicat, ni les
tendres unions qui se forment entre des coeurs vertueux, que
l'estime a commencees, que le merite entretient, et que la
vertu dirige. ®
208
Taking all these elements into account, excepting the emphasis
on Italy, the aforementioned qualities of the opera-ballet could also
apply to the ballet-heroique, in most aspects. Though the subject
matter is more heroic in these ballets, the real topic is still love, as
it had been in the lyric tragedy of Quinault. What is it then that dis­
tinguished the opera-ballet from the ballet-hero'ique ? The main dif­
ference is the banishment of gods, goddesses, and mythical heroes
from the opera-ballet, and their relegation to the prologue alone. The
ballet-heroique, even when its characters are patently not gods and
goddesses but ill-disguised Parisians, differs stylistically from the
opera-ballet. Its dialogues are more stilted and restrained, and a
certain natural charm and psychological insight found in the opera-
ballet are lacking in the ballet-hero'ique. The characters of the opera-
ballet are as free as their regency counterparts, unrestrained by any
8. Jean Galli de Bibiena, Histoire des amours de Valerie et
du noble venitien Barbarigo (2 vols.; Lausanne and Geneva: Chez
Bousquet, 1741), I, 3.

209
positions as rulers or gods, or by a desire for honor and glory. They
do whatever pleases them, without thought for position, honor, or
fame, and therefore seem much less stilted than the characters of the
b allet - he r o'ique. Barthelemy describes this freedom and charm in an
analysis of L'Europe galante: "on ne trouve, dans 1'Europe galante,
aucun des sentiments qui font des heros de la tragedie, des dieux, ni
aucune situation tendue ou pathetique. Tout le charme de la pi&ce
provient du sujet, de son ton galant et tendre, souvent joyeux, parfois
badin ou bouffon" (Barthelemy, p. 5j3).
Gods and heroes, then, are absent, and the opera-ballet is
more understandable to the spectators, conforming more to the new
ideals of a society that participated no longer in the glorification of
the great god-hero, Louis XIV.
The daring of the opera-ballet will even go so far as to place
its action in Paris, and to introduce true comic scenes into the opera.
These scenes are more in the style of Marivaux than of MoliSre (with
the exception of the Princesse d'Elide), for the laughter inspired is
more indulgent than caustic or ridiculing, and few characters in the
opera-ballet's comic scenes are ridiculous in more than a clownish
way. Paul-Marie Masson considers the introduction of comedy to be
an important development in the history of opera, and even ties the
comedy of the opera-ballet to the opera-comique: "lis evoquent souv­
ent les realites de la vie moderne et donnent parfois mati&re S. des

sc&nes de veritable comedie. A ce point de vue, l'opera-ballet a
certainement contribue, avant l'av&nement de 1'opera-comique, S.
introduire un peu de vraisemblance et de naturel dans notre theatre
g
musical. 11
The style of the poetry in the opera-ballet, if anything, con­
210
sists even more of the maxims and condensed turns of phrase than had
the lyric tragedy. Due to its abbreviated form and plot, and due to its
lack of heroic or grand sentiments, its style will be more simple and
graceful, but at the same time will be criticized as being too simple
and limited. In analyzing the poetic and dramatic value of the libretti,
one must keep in mind the limitations imposed on the dialogue and airs
by the music, as La Motte had described them. The need for con­
densed expressions of feelings rather than dissertations on sentiment,
and the need for simple musical words conducive to a good relation­
ship with the music, are constantly present in the mind of the author
of the opera-ballet. La Porte wrote of this need in his Dictionnaire
dramatique. He counsels the poet thus:
Une autre attention qu'il doit avoir, c'est de s'attacher S. ce que
ses Vers soient sonores, et susceptibles de chant. Tous les
mots de notre langue n'ont pas cet avantage. II y a un choix 5.
faire; c'est ce qui a fait dire, sans doute, qu'il ne falloit que
vingt mots Francois pour faire un Opera (La Porte, Article
"Musique, "II, 282).
9. Paul-Marie Masson, L'Opera de Rameau (Paris: H.
Laurens, 1930), p. 23.

211
In studying the works that fall into this definition of the opera-
ballet, we find that there are distinct literary genres represented
among the different entrees, and that the best way to study and analyze
these varied operas is to categorize the different genres of entrees.
The literary characteristics of each genre will then be shown in their
proper light, and so, in a way, each entree will be treated as a sepa­
rate work. As this destroys somewhat the concept of unity of charac­
ter or theme, the sole unifying force of the opera-ballet, a summary
will be given of each opera, and several operas will be treated as a
whole because all their entrees fall into the same category.
The prologue is a genre in itself, being in general a sort of
allegory expressing the theme of the opera-ballet which will be illus­
trated by the following entrees. It is in this act of the opera-ballet
that the gods and goddesses of Greek and Roman mythology still reside
and serve a very real purpose. Since each god and goddess represents
a certain idea or theme in mythology, or governs over a certain type
of human emotion or activity, their presence in this allegorical act is
quite natural, and in better literary taste than would be their inclusion
in the action itself.
Typified by "La France, " in L'Europe galante, the most com­
mon genre of entree of the early opera-ballet in particular is the
pastorale. Here, in a rather neutral setting, freeing the characters
from everyday cares and problems, the theme of love and freedom is

expressed by. charming and unrealistic shepherds preoccupied with
212
love, allowing the spectator to transport himself vicariously to a sort
of perpetual Isle of Cythera.
Under this same heading of fantasy (fantasy here meaning
removal from the cares and problems of real life, but not complete
removal into a world of magical beings) may be included also those
entries which, though not set in a true pastoral setting, still carry
out the purpose of the pastorale. Many of the acts which take place in
other European countries, such as Italy and Spain fall into this cate­
gory, for, though these acts approach the surroundings of real life
more closely, the emphasis here is still on the fact that one is trans­
posed to a place where customs and costumes are different--a place
where one may masquerade as someone different, detaching oneself
from mundane life for a while.
The opera-ballet became more daring as it progressed, how­
ever, and more and more true elements of comedy (the germ of which
we saw in L'Europe galante) grow and develop as the genre develops.
Though there are comic scenes in Les Fetes venitiennes (1710) they
still take place in foreign lands, and it is not until the coming of Les
Fetes de Thalie, in 1714, that the author dares specify that the scene
takes place "au bord de la Seine, " and that the characters are dressed
in contemporary French costume. Though some of the characters are
perhaps slightly ridiculous in some of the comic entrees, the emphasis

is not on a realistic portrayal of human weaknesses. The spectators
did not want to learn about their faults, they wanted to be indulged in
213
their fantasies. The comedy of the opera-ballet, then, is soft, indul­
gent, and still, in many ways a sort of fantasy in the tradition of La
Princesse d'Elide. If the author of the opera-ballet wished to inspire
a more hearty laughter, he would often use an Italianate buffoon, in
the style of Moron in La Princesse d'Elide. Charming and silly, he
could not be identified with the spectators, and their laughter at him
could be perfectly free of the need for self-examination or protection.
In beginning to define and distinguish the opera-ballet in its
truly comic form from the ballet - he ro'ique, an article by Paul-Marie
Masson, "Le Ballet hero'ique, is a great aid. At the time the
ballets were written, most opera-ballets were called, without much
regard to content or form, "Ballet, " "Opera-ballet, " "Ballet-opera, "
or "Ballet-hero'ique"; though the latter term came into use long after
the first ballets-hero'iques were written, and was still not applied con­
sistently to the genre even after its invention. Masson emphasizes
the character of the early opera-ballet, especially, and its progres­
sion towards more natural characters and more realistic and comic
intrigues. He then sees a slow influence of the lyric tragedy, still
being written and still considered a "higher" genre, creeping into the
10. Paul-Marie Masson, "Le Ballet heroique, " La Revue
Musicale, IX (Juin, 1928), pp. 132-154.

opera-ballet, which begins again to show the presence of heroes,
214
divinities, and legendary or historical characters. However, Masson
overemphasizes, I believe, the importance of a truly heroic, or
almost tragic action in a ballet, necessary, in his opinion, to the
definition of the ballet-hero'ique. This is perhaps true, in the strictest
sense of the definition of "heroic, " but between his definition of the
ballet-hero'ique and mine of the opera-ballet, there remain a few
works that seem not to fall into either category. Such works as La
Motte's Le Triomphe des Arts enter this no-man's-land, as well as
many of the works of Roy, such as Les Elements and Les Stratagemes
de 1'Amour. In these ballets, the characters are either mythological
or historic, yet the action is more in the character of the action of the
opera-ballet. Love is the supreme passion, inconstancy is a code of
many of the characters, and most of the gods, goddesses, and heroes
are nothing more than the petits maitres and sensual ladies of the
Regency. I have chosen not to include such works in my definition of
the genre opera-ballet, however: one of the most important qualities
of the opera-ballet is a better, more natural psychology and a tendency
toward the comic, whereas these operas, with their characters already
defined by legend and history, show little novelty of character and no
comedy. The characters of these operas being well-known figures,
their psychology is a little flat.

The author of the first two true opera-ballets to follow
L'Europe galante, and the man who was to become Campra's favorite
librettist, was Antoine Danchet. Born in Riom in 1671, he had
215
attained, by the age of twenty-one, the chair of rhetoric at the College
de Chartres. He arrived in Paris to be the tutor of the two sons of
Mme de Turgis, but, attracted by the theatre, he wrote his first opera,
Hesione, in 1700. This participation in such a scandalous enterprise
shocked the family of his students, and when they failed to extract a
promise from him to abandon the opera, he was fired from his job.
He became one of the most successful librettists of his day, and, in
general, was more highly respected by critics than most of his col­
leagues, with the exception of La Motte. Well-liked in Parisian
society, he wrote several divertissements for noble families, and was
as well known for his lyric tragedies as for his ballets and opera-
ballets. Although some sneered at this talent for opera, still consid­
ered secondary by serious critics (for example, Voltaire wrote of
him; "Danchet ... a reussi 3. l'aide du musicien dans quelques operas,
qui sont moins mauvais que ces tragedies. most of his contem­
poraries respected his abilities, and he was elected to the Academie
franqaise in 1712. The judgments that appeared after his death in
1728 agree, on the whole, that, though his works are sometimes too
11. Voltaire, Le SiScle de Louis XIV, in Oeuvres, XIV, 59.

dry to touch the heart profoundly, his knowledge of and talent for plot
construction and dramatic action far surpassed those of La Motte.
216
It is his opera-ballets, in fact, that made Danchet's reputation
for him. Though I will treat only Les F§tes venitiennes, which is his
only opera that falls into the category of the true comic opera-ballet,
its predecessor, Les Muses, of 1703, announced already the comic
talent of this author. In fact, the last entree of Les Muses, "L'Amour
medecin, ou la Comedie, 11 is a charming comedy in an almost molier-
esque fashion. The other acts, however, even another "Comedie" and
"La Satire, " fall into the category of the heroic, for the main charac­
ter of "La Satire" is Diogenes, and "La Comedie" is set in noble sur­
roundings not conducive to the joyful play of the opera-ballet. It must
be noted, however, that "L'Amour medecin, " which was not borrowed
from Moliere's comedy of the same title but from a more ancient
Roman comedy, is the first true comedy in the opera-ballet. The
seeds of comedy were present in L'Europe galante, but no comic ac­
tion was followed throughout an act until the writing of Les Muses.
Les F£tes venitiennes, the most celebrated of all opera-ballets
was first performed July 8, 1710. The music was composed by
Campra, who had also written the music for Les Muses, and Les
Fetes venitiennes enjoyed a long and successful life, with reprises
recorded through 1759. Though we will find that other authors, with­
in the flexible structure of the opera-ballet, will add or substitute

entrees to their works, Danchet holds the record for this activity, as
a short history and analysis of the opera will show.
The prologue, "La Triomphe de la Folie sur la Raison, dans
217
le temps du Carnaval, " is well described by its title. The first entree
of the June, 1710 version was "La Fete des Barqueroles," a dramati­
cally weak divertissement, depicting the celebrations for the victor of
a contest between the Gondoliers of Venice. "La Serenade et les
joueurs" is the title of the second entree, a charming and comic story
of the discovery by two women, rivals for the love of Leandre, that
the volage has now fallen in love with another woman. The intrigue
and psychology are excellently painted, and dramatically, this is one
of the best acts of the opera.
In "L'Amour saltinbanque, " one of the characters in this
Venitian setting is a Frenchman, Eraste. Eraste prepares a fate
galante for the woman he loves, the young Leonore, who is well-
guarded by her old duenna, Nerine. Nerine constantly warns Leonore
against the advances of the Frenchman, for the "climat dangereux" of
France tends to produce inconstancy in its inhabitants. The fete of the
Saltinbanques includes masques dressed as allegorical characters, one
of which is Love, singing of the "new" kind of love of the society.
Eraste, when Love has finished describing the inconstant love of the
day, arises and says that, in contrast, he is a faithful lover. Nerine

is overwhelmed, and lets the two go off together. Again, there are
218
many elements of comedy here, especially in the character of Nerine.
At the tenth performance of Les Fetes venitiennes, a new
entree, "La Fete marine, " was substituted for the weak "Barque-
roles. " Though the plot is stronger, this substitute entree is not of
the dramatic quality of the second and third entrees. Cephise,
jealously guarded by her old protector, Astolphe, who wishes to mar­
ry her, is brought by Astolphe to the shore on pretense of offering her
a fete. His real intention is to put her on a boat and to sail to an
exotic land far away from the young Venitians of whom he is so jeal­
ous. Dorante, Cephise's love, disguises himself as a sailor on the
ship, however, brings the ladies on board, and sails without Astolphe,
who is left raging on the shore (actually crying out "O rage, odeses-
poir!"). Many opportunities for comedy abound in this plot, but the
characters remain rather flat and uninteresting.
On August 8, 1710, the prologue was removed, and in its place
a new entree, "Le Bal, " was presented. Not a true prologue, it soon
became a regular entree of the opera, and a new prologue was written
and added the fourteenth of October, called "Le Carnaval dans
Venise." "Le Bal" is reminiscent of the scenes of the Maltre de
Musique and the Maltre de Danse in the Bourgeois gentilhomme.
These two are preparing a great fete for the palace of a Polish prince,
Alamir, who has been disguising himself as a Frenchman and a

nobleman of his court as the Prince, in order to test the strength of
the love of Iphise for him. Though the characters are not very well
rounded, the action and dialogue is interesting, and the bragging of
219
the Music Master and the Dancing Master becomes so extravagant and
amusing that the only way to stop them is to cut them off and send
them away.
"Les Serenades et les Joueurs" was replaced, on the fifth of
September of the same year by "Les Devins de la Place Saint Marc. "
Again, the man the lovely Venitian Zelie loves is a Frenchman,
Leandre. Zelie, unsure of his love, and suspecting him of being a
typical French volage, disguises herself as a "Bohemienne, " in order
to learn his true sentiments. The character of the inconstant Leandre
is charmingly portrayed, and he is an interesting and rounded charac­
ter. His true thoughts come gradually to the fore, as he consults
Zelie, who pretends to be a fortune teller. She leads him subtly to
admit his inconstancy, then to defend it in a credo much like that of
Silvandre in L'Europe galante. He even states that he would be
betraying his French birth if he remained faithful to one woman. When
Zelie reveals her identity to Leandre, she shows more fortitude than
most opera-ballet women who love a volage--she leaves him. He is
undaunted, however, for her "investigation" in disguise has shown him
that she must love him, and he follows her, ready to try again.

One of the most interesting of the new entrees written for the
FStes venitiennes is "L'Opera, 11 which took the place of the "Fete
marine" at the same time the new prologue was added. Not only a
very good little comedy, it is also an important description of the
220
opera and of its morals. Damire, disguised as Boree, awaits the per­
formance of "Zephire et Flore, " the opera to be presented that even­
ing, for he has fallen in love with the leading lady, Leontine. His
confidant is ashamed that love should have brought his friend, a great
warrior, to disguise himself as an opera singer in order to be near
his love. We also realize that the confidant suspects the morals of
Leontine, considering her position. Leontine then confesses her love
for Damire to her friend, Lucie, who expresses the whole theme of
the opera, by saying that opera singers are meant to inspire love in
the spectators, and to take pleasure in that, but not to be stricken by
a faithful and ardent love. If Leontine really feels this way, says
Lucie, she is not meant for the opera. The singing master enters, a
marvelous and charming character--a sort of absent-minded profes­
sor. He is disturbed by something he refuses to tell Leontine, but he
interjects comments on it during her singing lesson so that she finally
understands that a suitor had tried to send to her a message via the
singing master. These interjections eventually reveal the content of
the message. The opera "Zephire et Flore" begins, and at the right
point Boree enters to carry her off, but when Jupiter is supposed to

come to the aid of Zephire, rescuing Flore, nothing happens. The
opera singers learn that "Boree-Damire" and "Flore-Leontine" have
run off together, to the consternation of the actor playing Zephire.
One other entree was later added to this opera, entitled "Le
221
Triomphe de la Folie, Comedie. " The main character is reminiscent
of Moron in La Princesse d'Elide; he is charming, lovable, and
slightly silly. He is the classic Italian Arlequin, but this Arlequin is
disguised as Diogenes, wearing a philosopher's robe over his Italian
costume, ahd carrying a lantern. Singing the praises of wisdom and
reason (already suspect because of the singer), he is renouncing
Folly, who plays a role in the entree. (There are several other alle­
gorical characters in this opera, but all of them, except in this case,
are obviously masques taking the part of an allegorical character dur­
ing a divertissement. ) Arlequin is not searching for an honest man,
but a wise man--one who has not fallen prey to folly. His search is
doomed, however, for all the men he encounters (a Doctor, a Spaniard,
a Frenchman) are madly in love with someone, and acting like fools
about their love. The last person to enter the stage is the lovely
Colombine, and Arlequin is lost to reason forever, for he has no
defense against her beauty. The two lovers sing the credo of all
opera-ballets: "Que le penchant du coeur nous serve de sagesse, et
notre plaisir de raison. "

222
Les Fetes venitiennes, in all its forms and possible combina­
tions of acts, was the rage of Paris. Voltaire complained of its
popularity, still claiming the mediocrity of opera, and decrying its
victory over tragedy:
La meilleure comedie, la meilleure tragedies n'est jamais
frequentee par les memes personnes aussi assidument qu'un
opera mediocre. Les beautes regulieres, nobles, sev&res,
ne sont pas les plus recherchees par le vulgaire: si l'on
represente une ou deux fois Cinna, on joue trois mois les
Fetes venitiennes.
Voltaire railed at the theatregoer in vain, however. The heroism and
glory of Cinna were of an age gone by, and the new opera-ballet was a
more convenient diversion for the new society.
As Barthelemy points out in his study of Campra, the impor­
tance of Les Fetes venitiennes lies not only in its obvious popularity
and success, but in its literary qualities, especially those comic
qualities which are now fully developed from the seed found in
L'Europe galante. He ends his analysis by calling it "un assemblage
de veritables petites comedies en un acte" (Barthelemy, p. 109).
The first opera-ballet to include not only comedy but charac­
ters dressed in more realistic fashion and an action which takes place
in France (a more realistic France than the pastoral scene of "La
France" in L'Europe galante), was Les Fetes de Thalie, first pre­
sented on August 14, 1714. Joseph de La Font was the author, and
12. Voltaire, "Discussion sur la tragedie," in Oeuvres,IV, 493.

Mouret composed the music. La Font (1686-1725) was the son of a
Procureur at the Parliament of Paris, and though he is not discussed
223
as much as La Motte and Danchet by critics of the time, most literary
analyses of his works emphasize his talent for comedy, especially as
illustrated by Les Fetes de Thalie. One of his one-act comedies, Les
Trois Frferes rivaux, enjoyed great success in Paris, and is still con­
sidered one of the better comedies of the period following the death of
Moli£re.
In Histoire du theatre franqois, by Claude and Franqois
Parfaict, who tend to gossip about the authors they discuss, but in a
charming and amusing way, we find a very personal biography of La
Font. Allied to the theatre from the age of twenty-one, he wrote for
and was friends with the actors of the time. The volume of his works
is small, and the brothers Parfaict point out some of the reasons for
this paucity of material by describing the way he spent his leisure
hours, which seemed to be many:
M. de la Font s'est peu repandu dans le monde; de ses
occupations litteraires, il passoit a des parties de promenades
autour de Paris, ou avec quelques amis de son gout, il
s'etablissoit plusieurs jours dans le cabaret qui lui paroissoit
le plus riant: & ces plaisirs bachiques succedoit la passion du
jeu, et comme ses facultes pecunieres ne lui permettoient pas
de frequenter les maisons privilegiees de son tems, il etoit
oblige de se contenter de celles, oft dans un troisieme etage,
on brille avec trois ou quatre pistoles. D'une indifference
philosophique sur l'ameublement des lieux et le choix des compagnies
qui s'y trouvoient, M. de la Font n'y appercevoit d'autre
defectuosite, que la perte de son argent, qui ne manquoit
jamais de passer en d'autres mains; de sorte que maudissant

le jeu, et tout ce qui y avoit rapport, il se remmettoit §.
travailler, et du travail il revenoit au jeu ou aux promenades
dont on a parle, et ainsi successivement ses jours
s'ecoulerent. 13
Les F§tes de Thalie and three other works for opera
224
(Hypermnestre, tragedy, 1716; Les Amours de Prothee, ballet, 1720;
and a tragedy written in collaboration with Pellegrin, Orion, pre­
sented in 1728, after La Font's death), are generally considered, as
Clement says, "la partie brillante de ses Oeuvres" (Clement, Anec­
dotes, III, 247). Les Fetes de Thalie remains his masterpiece, and
its realism caused a sensational uproar in Paris. Originally consist­
ing of a prologue and three entrees ("La Fille, " "La Veuve, " and "La
Femme"), the opera was later augmented by a fourth act called "La
Critique des Fetes de Thalie, " inspired by the controversy surround­
ing this new kind of opera. A year later La Font replaced "La Veuve"
with a new entree entitled "La Veuve coquette, " on March 12, 1715;
and on June 25, 1722, he added a new entree, one of the best-known
of the opera, "La Provencjale. " Reprises of this opera-ballet are
listed in various registers and histories of opera through 1754, and
"La Femme" was presented at Versailles in 1755. "La Provencjale"
enjoyed an even longer life, for it was produced at the opera in June,
1778.
13. Claude et Francois Parfaict, Histoire du theatre franqois
depuis son origine jusqu'au present (15 vols.; Paris: P. G. Le
Mercier, 1745-1749), XV, 155-56.

In his Avertissement, added to the text of the ballet for its
publication in the Recueil general des opera, La Font wrote of the
realism he had used in the work, and of the reaction of the public to
this new idea:
Voila, je croi, le premier Opera ou l'on ait vu des Femmes
habillees a la Frantjoise, et des Confidantes du ton des Soubrettes
de la Comedie; c'est aussi la premiere fois que l'on a
hazarde de certaines expressions convenables au Comique,
mais nouvelles jusqu'alors et meme inconniies sur la Scene
Lyrique; le Public en fut d'abord allarme, cependant le Theatre
qui rdgne du commencement jusqu'a la fin de ce Balet se trouva
si amusant et si enjoiie, qu'on y venoit en foule presque 3.
contre-coeur. Je me fis conscience de divertir ainsi le Public
malgre lui, et pour rendre son plaisir pur et tranquile je me
depechai de faire moi-meme la Critique de mon Ouvrage oft je
donnai tout le merite du succds a la Musique et 3. la Danse
(Recueil, Vol. XI).
225
Many critics commented on this new phenomenon at the opera,
where the costumes had remained, even in the opera-ballet, the
rather fantastic costumes of the seventeenth century: feathered and
spangled imitations of the costumes of antiquity. Castil-Blaze des­
cribes this shocking difference: "Accoutume depuis longtemps aux
harnais antiques, aux tuniques grecques, aux jaquettes des chevaliers,
le public fut d'abord alarme, depayse. II vint en foule aux F§tes de
Thalie, mais ce n'etait pas sans critiquer 1'innovation" (Castil-Blaze,
Academie, I, 73).
In his desire to write a truly comic opera-ballet, La Font did
add characters from the contemporary French scene that had certainly
never appeared in an opera before. The soubrettes of whom he speaks

are charming and pert, and even in the pastoral acts, such as "La
Veuve coquette, " financiers take part in the action, removing the
opera-ballet in many ways from the land of fantasy in which it had so
22 6
long resided. The comedy of the opera-ballet, however, never leaves
the world of fantasy completely, even in this work. Biting satire of a
social group is lacking, and the laughter inspired by the comic scenes
of such opera-ballets is agreeable and gentle. This comedy parallels
closely that of the lighter works of Regnard and Dancourt, and reminds
one strongly of Marivaux. Renee Viollier, in an article on Les Fetes
de Thalie, remarks on this quality of the comedy of La Font, and on
the idea of most opera critics that too satirical or philosophical comedy
is ill-fitted to a musical setting: "Le comique y est agreable et de
manidre a bien aller avec la musique, car le comique, tourne d'une
14
certaine facjon, n'y va quelquefois pas mal. "
The prologue of the opera-ballet tells, of course, of the
triumph of Thalie, the Muse of Comedy, over Melpomene, the Muse
of Tragedy. This prologue expresses what Voltaire has constantly
protested against: that the "beautes reguli&res" of the tragedy are no
longer in vogue, and that the comedy and the opera are more pleasing
to the spectators of the Regency. Thalie's point in this prologue has
14. Renee Viollier, "Un Opera-ballet du XVIIIe si&cle: Les
Festes ou le Triomphe de Thalie, " Revue de Musicologie, LIV (Mai,
1935), p. 83.

to do with love. She claims that tragic love is no fun, and that she
presents this passion in a more pleasing light. Apollo appears, and
asks why the fete he has commanded is not ready, while Melpom&ne
complains that everyone is trying to get rid of her. Apollo asks why
Melpomene can't combine her pompous airs with the charming airs of
227
Thalie, as she used to do in the past. Melpomene complains that that
would be debasing to her heroes and kings. Apollo obviously wants to
be entertained, and in trying to explain that each Muse should be the
equal of the other, he insults Melpomene, who leaves, followed by her
suite of heroes. Thalie triumphs, and the fetes may begin.
The first entree, "La Fille, " is a truly comic act. Acaste,
who has just rescued Cleon from slavery in Algeria, has returned with
him to Marseilles, where he is to try again to win the heart of the
girl he loves, Leonore. Cleon, after ten years' captivity, reflects on
the joy his wife will feel at his return. The comedy begins when
Acaste tries to convince the cruel Lenore to yield to him. He is aided
by the pleas of Leonore 1 s mother, Belise (whose comic character is
underlined by the fact that she is played by a man). Seeing that
Leonore continues to refuse, Belise suggests that Acaste find another,
more mature woman. Acaste pretends to like the idea, and as
Leonore becomes more and more jealous, Belise reveals to Acaste
that she is exactly the right woman for him. Her husband, she states,
has been gone for ten years, and must be dead, and she has all the

qualities her daughter lacks. Cleon arrives to hear Belise's plead­
ings, and chides her, his wife, for being unfaithful. Acaste explains
that, on his side, it was a ruse to win the heart of Leonore, and the
228
four are happily reunited. Belise is a truly comic character, and her
slow insinuations leading to her declaration of love are well-timed.
Both versions of the second entree, "La Veuve," and "La
Veuve coquette, " are much weaker dramatically than the other acts of
this opera-ballet. La Font seemed to miss obvious opportunities for
comic situations, and the action remains rather flat. In "La Veuve, "
the lovely, widow, Isabelle, loved by Leandre, cannot bring herself to
accept his declarations of love (more, one is brought to believe, from
guilt at having fallen in love with Leandre than from grief at the death
of her husband). She feels it is her duty to mourn, though she doesn't
want to. A charming soubrette, Iphise, advises Isabelle that Leandre
is coming to see her, and, in good comic fashion, teases Isabelle by
tantalizing her with information she won't tell her. If Iphise had a
larger role to play in this entree, it would most certainly be more
comic. Even after the fete Leandre offers her, Isabelle cannot bring
herself to yield to him.
"La Veuve coquette" is dressed, says La Font, in "un demi
deiiil galant. " This sets the theme of her coquetry, for she loves the
appearances of widowhood--the attractiveness to men of the bereaved
woman. Surrounded by admirers, she accepts none, and savors her

supremacy. Two suitors especially—Chrisogon, a financier, and
Leandre, an officer--desire her hand in marriage, and, having com­
229
pared notes, they demand that she choose between them. She pretends
to cry, saying that they don't understand that a widow of only two years
cannot forget her husband so easily, but promises to give them their
answer after the fete that the financier has commanded for her, men­
tioning that he has spared no expense--a line that was certainly new
to the operatic stage. Following the fete, celebrating the joys of
marriage, Isabelle saucily announces that she loves neither of them,
and they leave, Doris making a "grande reverence" to each one of
them. This last action of Doris is almost the only occasion where her
soubrette quality shows, and aside from the feigned crying scene, the
character of Isabelle is left rather undeveloped, too.
The need for variety and disguises to vary one's pleasures,
the idea that marriage kills love, for love in marriage changes to duty,
and the tolerance of husband and wife for the other's caprices, so
prevalent in the Regency, are all present in the third entree, "La
Femme. " With the addition of the soubrette Dorine, and her husband
Zerbin, this act is one of the best in the opera. Caliste, married to
Dorante, is accosted by Dorine, who urges her to anger, for her hus­
band is on his way with a fete for another woman, believing Caliste to
be away. Caliste laughs, and says that she is the new love. Her hus­
band danced with her at a masked ball, and, not recognizing her, fell

in love with her. She promised to meet him today and remove her
mask. Understanding that love abates when one is married, Caliste
is delighted that, by varying her costume, she has been able to light
the fire of love in her husband once more. Both she and her husband,
230
as he speaks with Zerbin, are quite frank about love being transformed
into respect and losing its excitement once one is married. During
the fete, while Caliste and Dorante are dancing together, Dorine
decides to try the same trick on Zerbin, but gets more than she bar­
gained for, as he tells her he hates marriage, and that it has so dis­
gusted him that he doesn't want to look for more trouble by chasing
other women. They would probably be just like his ill-humored,
jealous wife. We never see Dorine 1 s expected wrath at the end, but
Zerbin's fear when the two women unmask, after Caliste has forced
her husband to declare that he will never again love his wife, indi­
cates what Zerbin expects from Dorine. As for Caliste and Dorante,
who both have reason to be angry, and she to feel hurt and jealous,
they both laugh, in true Regency fashion, and appreciate the fact that
this ruse has put new excitement into their lives. Many critics be­
lieve that the idea of the disguised wife fooling the husband came from
Boindin's comedy of 1703, Le Bal d'Auteuil, in which a wife disguised
seduces her husband into consenting to let his daughter marry the man
she loves.

In "La Critique des Fetes de Thalie, " La Font, perhaps fear­
ing he had gone too far, shows Thalie, Terpsicore, and Polymnie,
Muses of Dance and of Music, disputing about who should have credit
for the success of the opera-ballet. Momus, in judging, belittles the
verses of Thalie, thus giving credit to the music and dance for the
success of the piece, even though he finally decides, at the end, to
divide the honors equally among the three.
"La Proven

eautiful, commands the sailors and "Matelottes" to offer her a fete,
and, as Nlrine and Crisante, surrounded by dancers and unable to
follow, shout their anger, the two lovers leave in the boat, and
Florine calls back that, since she is so ugly and Nerine is so beauti­
ful, Crisante should be satisfied with Nerine.
232
Two of the opera-ballets that fall into the comic category, but
which have much more of a pastoral nature than the others, Les Fetes
de l'ete (1716) and Les Plaisirs de la campagne (1719), are of dis­
puted authorship. Most critics now attribute them to the Abbe
Pellegrin, though they were originally signed by his "protegee, "
Mademoiselle Barbier. Though both authors wrote prolifically, and
though it is quite possible that Mile Barbier wrote the libretti, it is
also quite possible that the Abbe, like Campra, was at first reluctant
to sign his name to such a hedonistic entertainment, even though most
Abbes of the Regency were notoriously uncelibate and quite sought
after in gallant circles. Clement and La Porte believe that Mademoi­
selle Barbier wrote the libretti, though conceding that Pellegrin often
aided her. Later studies of opera, such as those of Durey deNoinville
and La Valli&re, attribute the composition of these opera-ballets to
Pellegrin, without mention of Mile Barbier, and some repertory lists,
unable to decide, list as the author "Pellegrin-Barbier. " Eug&ne de
Bricqueville, in a study entitled Deux Abbes d 1 opera au siScle dernier

(1889), tends to support the authorship of Pellegrin, but also states
the case for those who are undecided:
Tandis que Simon-Joseph Pellegrin confectionnait des
cantiques, une demoiselle Marie-Anne Barbier rimaillait des
tragedies. Or, comme les deux auteurs passaient pour frayer
ensemble, il fut convenu, d&s qu'on entendit les premiers vers
d'Aric et Petus, de Mile Barbier, que celle-ci n'etait que le
prSte-nom de l'abbe. La poetesse cria au mensonge, et, pensant
detruire tout soupqon, fit jouer, l'annee suivante, une
Cornelie de sa fa

only way to interest the society of the times in religion. These
"hymns" had some success, and later, Pellegrin composed Histoire
234
de I'ancien et du nouveau Testament, avec le fruit qu'on en peut tirer,
le tout mis en musique sur des airs de vaudevilles. More followed,
such as an imitation of Jesus Christ set to vaudeville airs, and the
Psalms of David set to the opera music of Lully and Campra. Most
of these pieces were highly successful, and ran into several editions.
Pellegrin's eccentricities were well known to Parisian society,
as was his rather bizarre personal appearance. Bricqueville cites a
review of a parody presented by the Comediens du Roy, in which
Pellegrin was admirably portrayed:
Tout 21 coup un immense eclat de rire secoue la salle du
parterre aux plus hautes loges. La comm&re vient d'introduire
un petit homme vetu de noir, avec le collet maladroitement
ajuste, les bas troues et mal tir£s, les Souliers faisant bee de
corbin, les manchettes en charpie et un mauvais habit de
tirelaine, d'oii s'echappent plus de cent petits rouleaux de papier
imprime. Le personnage est tellement ressemblant que le
public, du premier coup, le designe tout haut et d'une seulevoix.
. . . C'est un des types de Paris, une des curiosites de la
Republique des Lettres. C'est PELLEGRIN, par ma foil. Simon-
Joseph Pellegrin lui-meme, admirablement portraicture. Son
geste, son accent meridional, son begaiement, sa demarche
gauche, tous les details ont ete minutieusement etudies, et
pour ajouter encore & l'illusion, l'acteur charge de representer
le rimailleur s'est procure l'accoutrement complet de son
modfele (Bricqueville, pp. 2-3).
Though the two opera-ballets of Pellegrin are not the best of
the genre, they have their charming and comic moments, and often,
even in the most pastoral setting, give the spectator a realistic idea

of the petits maitres and the charming ladies of the society he knew.
His epitaph, an epigram, shows the character of his works, divided
between the sacred and the profane, or trying to combine the two:
Le matin catholique, et le soir idolatre,
II dinait de l'autel, et soupait du theatre.
Pellegrin's operatic works are numerous, including some
ballets (Les Caracteres de 1'Amour, 1738; La Princesse d'Elide,
1728), many tragedies, and the first opera composed by Rameau in
1733, Hippolyte et Aricie. His two opera-ballets are not as comic or
as well written as the others, and the record of their reprises shows
235
this. Les Fetes de l'ete, with music composed by Monteclair, played
from June through September, 1716, with a new entree, "Les Jours
d'ete, 11 being added in September. After it closed, it was not pro­
duced again until 1725, and was never presented again. Les Plaisirs
de la campagne, with music written by Bertin, was never presented
again after its first run in August, 1719.
The prologue to Les Fetes de l'ete shows a countryside whose
springtime beauties are beginning to fade in the summer heat. The
characters, "Les Amants et les Amantes, " regret the end of Spring,
and beg Venus to liven up the Summer by filling it with love. She
obliges, and all are happy. One charming characteristic of this opera-
ballet is that, in typically gallant fashion, and heeding the many airs
that praise the night for hiding illicit love affairs, Pellegrin has

written the entrees of "Les Jours" and "Les Matinees" as light pas­
236
torales, and the entries of "Les Soirees" and "Les Nuits" are devoted
to a more sensual "Regency" love.
The first entree, "Les Matinees d'ete," is a pastorale, with
one rather interesting character, ClimSne; but it is on the whole a
little flat and simple. ClimSne is a fun-loving young girl, who ridi­
cules love, and makes fun of lovers who pine and sigh. She plays
games with lovers, too, and at the moment, has persuaded Sylvie that
Daphnis loves ClimSne, and not Sylvie. Sylvie is unhappy, but tries
to hide it by declaring her pleasure in planning to take vengeance on
Daphnis for his infidelity. She falls asleep on the grass, and Daphnis,
who believes she has been unfaithful to him, declaring that he still
loves her in spite of this fact, discovers the sleeping Sylvie just as
she, half-asleep, begins to sigh and cry "Daphnis, ah! que n'es-tu
fidele! " He wakes her, they realize that ClimSne has been teasing
them, and all ends well with a divertissement.
There is much more comedy and characterization in the second
entree, "Les Journees d'ete. " Still set in pastoral surroundings, this
act contains more of the characters from the comedy rather than the
pastorale, such as the lively Agatine, another soubrette, and Lisidor,
a vain volage, whose vanity becomes truly comic. Cephise, in love
with the faithful Dorante, but pretending to love Lisidor, in order to
test the faithfulness of Dorante 1 s love, in the fashion of the precieuses,

complains to Lisidor of his lack of attention, and spurs him on to
more and more explanations of what an honor it is to fall in love with
him. He continues to declare his vain love for Cephise, until the
question of marriage arises, when he suggests putting off marriage
for quite a while, thus making it all the sweeter. The hunt begins,
237
and Cephise follows it in her chariot. Soon Cephise and Dorante, who
is overcome with emotion, return. Her chariot has been destroyed
in an accident, and he fears she has been hurt. She keeps her mask
of cruelty on, though, and orders Dorante back to the hunt. He com­
plains of her indifference to him, and she protests that she does not
love Lisidor, but another, as ardent a lover as Dorante. Cephise
tells him to return to the hunt, and that she will announce her choice
after the fete. Lisidor's vanity is well expressed at the end of the
entree, for when Cephise is about to announce her choice, he suggests
that it would be more tactful to wait until Dorante has left, so as not
to wound his pride. Cephise and Dorante have their revenge on
Lisidor, when she declares her love for Dorante, and when Lisidor
believes the whole thing is nothing but a "songe trompeur. " Thus, in
this entree, we see a less lovable volage than the others that people
the opera-ballet, and one whose defeat is complete.
Though I have stated that this opera-ballet is perhaps of lesser
importance than some of the others, the third and fourth acts show
much more wit and characterization than the first two, and will be

discussed at greater length in the chapter on comedy. The third
entree, "Les Soirees d'ete," has good comic characters, is more
238
realistic in its close depiction of Parisian society, and retains the air
of fantasy found in the plays of Marivaux, through the emphasis placed
on the love just beginning to bloom in the heart of the charming
Hortense. The action is specified as tajcing place on "Les Rives de la
Seine, " and some of the dialogue points out the preoccupation of the
Parisians with masques and divertissements, and their need to come
to such entertainments to see and be seen. The action is more
involved than that of most opera-ballets, involving the plot of Argante,
the old tutor of Hortense, to kidnap her before she discovers love, and
to seclude her so that she will love him, for her parents wish her to
marry a young man. Lisis, a young "galant, " loves Hortense, and
uses every bit of his eloquence to persuade her that the evil picture of
love painted for her by Argante is false. Doris, the confidante of
Hortense, is witty and crafty, and adds another good soubrette to the
growing list of opera-ballet characters. She loves Zerbin, the confi­
dant of Argante, and the dialogue between them, especially when she
tries to discover Argante 1 s scheme from Zerbin, is especially comic
and well written. She finally persuades Zerbin to tell her, but only
after promising to marry him, and they succeed in quitting the shores
of the Seine in the very boat Argante had prepared to carry Hortense
away.

The most comic of the entrees is the last, called "Les Nuits
d'et£. " Again, the plot is considerably more complicated than that of
239
the ordinary entree, and though this sort of complicated action is diffi­
cult to work with effectively in so short a time, Pellegrin has suc­
ceeded in making it clear and amusing. The-scene is again in the
"Allees" of a Parisian garden, prepared for a masked ball, and the
idea of disguise will serve to complicate the action. Val&re, the faith­
ful lover of Belise, complains of her pleasureful occupation of adding
new conquests to her list; and she explains that she loves him faith­
fully, and that her conquests of other men, to whom she never yields,
should only increase his pride. As he leaves, angry, his friend
OctaVe follows him, arousing jealousy in the heart of Belise, who loves
Octave. ValSre and Octave decide to disguise themselves and pay
court to their respective damsels, hoping to discover if each is truly
faithful. Valfere in disguise interests Belise, who nonetheless re­
mains faithful to him, even when this "new" lover protests that he
would indeed be proud to let her go on making new conquests. She
merely sighs, "H£las! que n'gtes-vous Valere!" He then reveals his
identity, satisfied of her faithfulness. They go to find Octave, for
they fear he may not fare so well, and find that Lucinde is charmed
by this new lover, finally yielding to him. Her defense, before the
angry Octave, is that he did not love her enough for her to remain
faithful, and as his anger increases, so does her joy at his jealousy.

240
It is finally revealed that Lucinde knew all along of Octave's ruse, and
was only teaching him a lesson. All ends well with a fete. One of the
interesting qualities of this act is that the fete is completely integrated
into the action of the play. Since the setting of the action is a fete
galante, the chorus comes and goes, and the dances and songs are
interspersed throughout the play.
The prologue of Les Plaisirs de la campagne shows a sad Pan
and Palfes, alone in the beauty of the countryside, abandoned by men.
TerpSicore joins them, and they all urge human beings to leave reason
and wisdom, and to come, for a time, to find love and pleasure in the
country. Terpsicore finally leaves to ally her art with that of Thalie,
to illustrate to the inhabitants of Paris the attractions of the country.
The first entree, entitled "La Pesche, " is a rather flat story
of a long-lost lover returned home and determined to test the faithful­
ness of his lady before revealing his return. The scene is by the sea,
near a country house prepared for "une Pesche galantei 11 Val£re is
the lover, thought to be lost at sea, who returns to find that this
"Pesche galante" is in honor of Dorimdne, whom he loves. He is
jealous that the volage Leandre is preparing this divertissement for
Dorim&ne, even when he learns that her parents have forced her to
attend it. He disguises himself as an Italian sailor, and during the
fete, sings in Italian of the lovely portrait he carries of Dorim&ne.
She, seeing that he has the portrait she gave ValSre, believes that

Val&re has drowned and that this sailor found the portrait floating on
241
the sea (as he says, like Venus rising from the waves), and declaring
that she must die too, begins to leave the stage, when Valfere reveals
his identity, and all are happy except Leandre. Again, Pellegrin
seems to enjoy punishing inconstancy and rewarding faithfulness more
than most operatic authors of the time. The confidante of Dorim&ne,
Lisette, is not a true soubrette. Her reasonings are usually quite
solemn, and the only more lively note in her dialogue is an air in
which she sings of the impermanence of love.
The plot of the second entree, "La Vandange, " is almost too
complicated for a one-act play, although the dialogue is at times more
spirited and interesting than that of "La Pesche. " This entree is also
significant in that money, usually excluded from the fantasy of the
opera-ballet as being a little too realistic and base, is one of the main
motivating factors of the plot. Agathine and Angelique, noble sisters,
are both in disguise: Agathine as the servant of Clarice, and
Angelique as a simple shepherdess. The reason for this disguise is
that the rich old lord, Oronte, wishes to marry his son, Dorante, to
Clarice. Dorante and Angelique are in love, however, and Agathine
has thought of a ruse, using these disguises, to discover Clarice's
motives and to persuade Oronte to approve of Dorante's marriage to
Angelique. Agathine soon discovers that Clarice's sole reason for
marrying Dorante is money, and that her only fear is that the old

•Oronte might marry again, thus making his wife his heir. Agathine,
meanwhile, has attracted the roving eye of old Oronte, and tells
Angelique and Dorante that she is willing to help them by agreeing to
marry Oronte, then to influence him in Angelique's favor. This kind
of sacrifice on the part of a young and beautiful woman also pushes us
too much into the real world of unpleasant necessity, as does the
reaction of Angelique to this proposal. She suspects her sister of
242
i
wanting only to take Dorante 1 s money from him by marrying his father.
After this misunderstanding is resolved, Agathine, in a witty dialogue
not unlike that in La Serva Padrona, persuades Oronte to marry her,
then reveals her true noble identity. Clarice is of course insulted at
the thought that she and Dorante will no longer inherit from Oronte,
and leaves, opening the way for Angelique and Dorante to be married.
A festival of the grape harvest ends the act.
"La Chasse, " the last entree, takes place in a rather wild
forest, definitely not the charming woods, conducive to love, of the
pastorale. To this forest, despairing at the coldness of his love,
Artenice, Lisimon has fled. Today, however, Artenice enters, over­
come with emotion and love at having seen Lisimon dash out of the
woods and stab a monstrous animal in order to save her life. Sure
that it was Lisimon that saved her, she announces that she will give
her hand to the man who killed the monster. The comic intrigue be­
gins, for the vain and cowardly Lisis takes advantage of the fact that

he believes that the true hero is not present, to claim the feat as his
own. Cleone, the confidante of Artenice, is as surprised at the fact
that Lisis could have kept his exploit a secret this long as at the fact
that he accomplished the death of the beast. Artenice, confused and
upset, wondering if her eyes had deceived her, hesitates to give her
243
hand to Lisis, when the monster staggers onto the stage to die. Lisis
takes the dagger from its body, and says it is one more proof of his
deed, but Lisimon quietly takes the dagger from him, and places it in
the sheath he wears. Lisis wanders off, claiming to look for new
heroic exploits to accomplish, and the others celebrate the success of
the hunt and the love of Artenice and Lisimon. The characters of
Cleone and Lisis are quite interesting, but again, the plot and action
are a little flat, and the two lovers are not very lively.
Louis Fuzelier, the author of the one remaining opera-ballet
in this genre, Les Ages, was generally considered a "hack" writer in
his time, partly because of his rather insipid libretti written for many
of Rameau's operas. Part of this is due to the attitude of Rameau
toward libretti, which he rather disdained, saying he could set any­
thing to music, and part is due to the new emphasis on the musical
rather than the literary qualities of the opera after the Regency. It is
true that many of his more serious pieces are flat and lack grandeur
or depth, but some of his comedies, especially Les Ages, show true
talent. He wrote many comedies for the Theatre Italien and the

theatres of the Foire, where he contributed to the works for mar ion -
nette theatre and to the birth of the opera-comique. His numerous
works cover a long period, for he was born in 1672 and lived to the
age of eighty.
In his Avertissement to the libretto of Les Ages, Fuzelier
wrote a remarkable defense of comedy in opera, and of the "lighter"
forms of poetry and amusement held in such disdain by the "serious"
critics of literature. In it, he professes all the elements necessary
to the opera-ballet, and derides those who would render art boring by
always making it useful or profound. It is a perfect expression of the
Regency man toward his diversions, and of the author of those diver­
sions:
On verra dans ce Balet, que j'ai cru que Thalie avoit des
droits sur la Musique aussi bien que Melpomene. Je ne ferai
pas une longue Dissertation pour prouver que le genre comique
n'est pas incompatible avec les beautes de l'harmonie. Si le
Balet des Ages que je presente au Public le divertit, mon
projet est justifie; si la Piece n'a pas le bonheur de plaire,
mon Apologie seroit pour moi un nouveau crime, et pour mes
Lecteurs une surcharge d 1 ennui. Je declare aux Delicats de
profession, aux Beaux Esprits Grammairiens, et aux Niveleurs
des Plans Dramatiques, que je n'ai pretendu donner qu'un tissu
de Maximes enjotlees, liees par une intrigue legere, qui pfit
occasionner des Airs gracieux et des danses variees: c'est
ce me semble, ce qui doit constituer le fonds d'un Balet. Je
sqai que je cours risque de deplaire & ces tristes Voluptueux
qui n'aiment que les plaisirs graves, qui veulent au'Apollon ne
paroisse pas un seul instant sans coturne, que les Muses soient
toujours en habit de ceremonie, et ne leur permettent jamais
les graces du deshabiller. Enfin, qui ont fait voeu de n'etre
touches dans un Opera que de ces Morceaux patetiques que le
depit et la colere chantent quelquefois avec tant de methode
244

et de proprete! Je me consolerai tres aisement de leur censure
la plus aigre, si le Public ne l'adopte pas: Je demande seulement
aux Critiques plus judicieux et moins passionnes, la grace
de se souvenir de mon intention, en examinant mon Ouvrage,
et de ne pas me punir trop severement d'avoir craint de les
ennuyer.
245
Fuzelier did accomplish his design in this opera-ballet, though
he may not have done so in some of his other works. As Masson
states:
Fuzelier . .. £tait un vieux routier d 1 opera, .... Mais il
pouvait passer 3. juste titre pour un des maltres de l"opera-ballet,
puisqu'il avait collabore avec Campra dans le Ballet des Ages,
avec Colin de Blamont dans les Fetes Grecques et Romaines
(1723), avec Mouret dans les Amours des Dieux (1727), trois
des succ&s les plus marquants du genre (Masson, Rameau, p.
108).
He also collaborated with Rameau on the ballet that was to win Rameau
complete success in the opera, Les Indes galantes.
Fuzelier seems to be able to arouse emotional wrath in his
critics better than most authors of opera-ballet, in spite of his suc­
cesses; for example, La Harpe had this to say of his works: "C'est
bien le plus froid et le plus plat rimeur, le bel-esprit le plus glaQant
et le plus glace qui ait fait chanter §. l'Opera des furiboles dialoguees"
(La Harpe, VII, 220).
The prologue to Les Ages (first presented October 9, 1718 and
presented again in 1724) expresses the idea that youth, with the aid of
16. Louis Fuzelier, "Avertissement" to libretto of Les Ages
(Paris: Ribou, 1718).

Venus, will triumph over the evil Time. Bacchus joins the celebra­
246
tion of Venus' victory, and Venus sings a strange credo for the begin­
ning of the "Age of Reason, " as the eighteenth century is usually
called. This credo is no strange phenomenon, though, especially
during the Regency:
Veilles Bacchus, veilles Amour,
Endormes la Raison severe,
Triomphes dans ce beau sejour.
Empeches-la de nous distraire.
Quel jour charmant! quel heureux jour!
Quand vous la forces 2t se taire!
The first entree of Les Ages is a charming story of the birth
of love in a young girl, too fresh and naive to realize that her new
feelings are love. It is also a comic story of disguises, and the old
servant who protects the young Florise, Artemise, is an excellent
comic character, as well as the lover Leandre's servant,Zerbin.
The scene is again by the River Seine, but now it is stated specifically
that we see in the background the Foire de Bezons. Zerbin and ;
Leandre enter, both in disguise for the masque of the evening, but
Leandre is disguised in the same costume as that which Artemise will
wear, in order to be able to approach the easily frightened Florise
while Zerbin diverts Artemise's attention. Florise and Artemise
enter, Artemise warning Florise of the dangers that lurk on the banks
of the Seine, and to guard herself against men. Florise shows her
spirit when she asks why Artemise is always chasing men if she

247
dislikes them so, and Artemise shows her vanity and refusal to admit
her age in this dialogue. Zerbin does lure Artemise away, and
Leandre, in a charming dialogue with Florise, pretending he is
Artemise, describes love in different terms. Florise finally admits
that she has felt such things for Leandre, and he reveals his identity.
Zerbin and Artemise return, and Artemise happily agrees to the
marriage of Leandre and Florise because Zerbin, in order to keep her
away from the lovers, has proposed to her. Some of his grumbling
remarks are quite amusing, and we leave him still trying to decide
how to extricate himself from his promise.
There really is not much plot to the second entree, "L'Age
viril, ou l'Amour coquet. " The characters of this act have reached
the age, just after youth, when love is no longer fresh, and when the
games and fencing matches must begin, in order to arouse jealousies,
renew interest, or forget an unfaithful lover. Most of the action
revolves around Eraste, who lives in a chateau in Champagne, drink­
ing a little too much to pay enough attention to wooing Lucinde, a
coquettish woman who enjoys teasing him. He is at first jealous be­
cause of the visit of Damon, a volage, who has come to devote the
afternoon (he can not spare any more time) to his old flame, who is,
of course, Lucinde. When he finds she is engaged to Eraste, he
declares he has come here to visit another woman, stating, to save
his pride, that he was unfaithful to Lucinde before she was to him.

The sparring between Eraste and Lucinde continues, she chiding him
for drinking too much and forgetting love, and he complaining of her
inconstancy. A fete, offered to her by Cleon, a rich man of the area,
248
approaches, and Eraste, thoroughly jealous, pretends he doesn't love
Lucinde any more. She knows he is jealous, and is happy that he has
forgotten his wine to think about her.
The last entree, "La Vieillesse, ou 1'Amour jotte," is a
veritable comedy, with the frightened figure of the old suitor, Argant,
stimulating most of the laughter. Silvanire, whose father is forcing
her to marry Argant, but who loves Valfere, disguises herself as a
cavalier, and waits in the garden where Argant is to present a fete
galante for her. When Argant arrives, she, using many doubles
entendres about being with Silvanire night and day, thus lessening
Argant's desire for her, pretends to be Silvanire's lover and threatens
to kill Argant. He is already cowed and trembling when Val&re ar­
rives, and threatens in his turn to kill Argant. Argant, in order to
save his skin, points to Silvanire in disguise and says that "she" is
Valere's true rival. Of course, Val&re recognizes Silvanire, and
they continue the joke on Argant, until, when the fete arrives, led by
Silvanire's father, Argant retires from the field of suitors, frightened
and confused. Silvanire's father consents to her marriage with Val&re,
and the fete begins.

The fete is also a sort of finale to the opera, and is entitled
"Le Triomphe de la Folie sur tous les ages. " A fitting end to the
comic portrayal of the old man, Argant, mooning about, in love with
the young Silvanire.
These six opera-ballets are the only ones which fit my defini­
tion of the opera-ballet in its early comic manifestations. Covering
the short period from 1697 to 1719, they show the characteristic sen­
249
suality of their times as well as the love for variety which will continue
through the ballet-hero'Ique. Having eliminated all mythical and his­
torical characters from their dramatic action and having replaced
them with contemporary or buffoonish characters, these opera-ballets
show a dramatic psychology and spirited action worthy of study.

CHAPTER 8
THE PROLOGUE
Due to the fact that each opera-ballet contains at least four
separate plots and often more, any analysis of their literary and
dramatic characteristics may easily become as fragmented and diver­
sified as the works themselves. Because of this difficulty, and be­
cause of the differing types of action within the same opera-ballet, I
have chosen to divide the acts of each work into dramatic genres: the
prologue, the pastorale, and the comedy.
The prologue of the opera-ballet is an absolute necessity to
provide the unifying factor for the diverse entrees. It is by no means
a new invention of the authors of the opera-ballet; in fact, it is the one
entree of this new operatic form that resembles its predecessors quite
closely. The old ballet de cour, having the same fragmented form as
the later opera-ballet, needed a prologue for the same reason; and
every tragedie lyrique was preceded by a prologue. One of the other
reasons for its use in earlier ballets and operas (which did not need it
as a unifying factor) was to praise the monarch. Especially during the
reign of Louis XIV, this practice became so important thatinQuinault's
operas many of the prologues barely mention in passing the subject of
250

the tragedy, concentrating on grandiose or gallant apotheoses of the
king.
251
These earlier prologues followed a sort of formula, with some
of the elements often being emphasized more than the others, but
usually containing all the elements of the formula. The King was
praised (for his virtue, if Virtue was the main character, for wisdom,
if Wisdom reigned over the prologue, for peace, if Peace was celeb­
rating the end of a war or battle, etc.), but then love was brought in to
show that pleasure also reigned at court, and, if there was time, the
subject of the opera was mentioned.
For the sake of comparison, an examination of a prologue to a
Quinault tragedie lyrique is essential to our knowledge of the origins
of the prologue of the opera-ballet and of the differences between the
two types of prologue. A typical prologue is that to Armide (1686).
In it, La Gloire and La Sagesse argue about which one rules over the
heart of the great King of France, referred to at first simply as
"L'auguste heros que j'aime. " La Sagesse praises "la douceur de ses
lois, " and La Gloire sings of his "glorieux exploits. " Their dispute
turns into mutual admiration, however, and they continue to argue,
each taking the side of the other. After many flattering references to
Louis' exploits, both heroic and wise, they say that their only dispute
should be to decide which one loves him the best, for they reign
equally in his heart. La Sagesse then invites us all to enjoy the

entertainment prepared for the great King, where the story will be of
Renaud, who will,
Malgre la volupte,
Suivre un conseil fiddle et sage.
Here, though love will be present, Glory and Wisdom will win:
Nous le verrons sortir du palais enchante,
Oft par 1'amour d'Armide il etoit arrete,
Et voler oil la gloire appelle son courage.
Le grand roi qui partage entre nous ses desirs
Aime a nous voir, meme dans ses plaisirs. *
Though love takes up more of other prologues in the lyric
252
tragedy, it is usually tempered by a more lofty and kingly virtue. The
prologue of the ballet, on the other hand, did not always modify the
emphasis put on love, for the ballet did not pretend to be noble or
glorious, but entertaining and open.
Much of the style of the earlier prologues will remain in those
of the opera-ballet, as will the allegorical and mythical characters who
played its main roles. There will be no mention of Louis XIV, how­
ever, even though most of these "Regency" works were written before
his death. Since the opera-ballet was invented when Louis XIV no
longer commissioned great spectacles of ballet and opera at Versailles
(which had not only entertained, but had repeated constantly the
mythology of the court of the Sun King), the necessity of praising him
1. All excerpts from Armide are from Philippe Quinault,
Oeuvres choisies (2 vols.; Paris: chez Crapulet, 1824), I, pp. 385-
431.

ecame secondary to the amusement of the audience. The petits
maitres of Paris wanted to hear nothing of the King from whose court
they had fled, and mention of Louis was eliminated.
The omission of apostrophes to the King was also necessary
because of the need to explain the theme of the opera-ballet to the
253
spectators. In this way, the prologue to the opera-ballet was dramati­
cally more important than it was to the lyric tragedy. The only unity
in the opera-ballet being the unity of theme, this entree, though still
of little dramatic value, would be missed much more if eliminated
than would be the prologue to the lyric tragedy.
The prologue of the opera-ballet still lacks any real dramatic
interest or attention to character. The author intended none, the
primary goal of the prologue being to express a theme: an idea that
was to be illustrated by the dramatic action to follow. Even the title
and the list of characters for each prologue show its essentially illus­
trative function. In Les Fetes de Thalie, MelpomSne and Thalie are
ready to do battle on the stage of the Opera; in Les Fetes venitiennes
the delightfully "Regency" title of the prologue is "Le Triomphe de la
Folie sur la Raison dans le Temps du Carnaval"; and so the current
continues throughout the opera-ballet.
Because of this essential function of the prologue, the main
characteristics of the genre are: the presence of allegorical figures
or gods and goddesses as the main characters, the atmosphere of

le merveilleux still alive in this part of the opera-ballet, a lack of
254
dramatic value and of spirited dialogue, the inclusion of charming airs
and choruses which sum up the theme of the opera-ballet, and the pre­
dominance of the themes of love and folly.
The allegorical or mythological figures portrayed in the pro­
logue often lack any true psychological character at all, so tied up
are they in the allegorical meaning of their mere presence on the
stage. They tend to do what mythology expects them to do, though
now and then they do it with a Regency attitude. It is not that the gods
and goddesses are Regency characters, though; they are simply
chosen for their characteristics, to conform to Regency ideals.
Some of the more interesting mythological and allegorical
figures of the prologues are the evil forces that come to destroy the
happiness of the charming people on the stage. One such character is
La Raison, in Les Fetes venitiennes. La Folie, another of the live­
lier prologue characters, has just finished her praise of folly, when
Reason comes to spoil their fun. Reason speaks in noble terms:
Arretez: est-ce en vain que mon flambeau vous luit?
Mortels, reconnoissez l'erreur qui vous seduit.
Les doux fruits de la Sagesse
Sont les biens les plus parfaits;
Aucun de vous ne s'empresse
D'en connoitre les attraits.
Elle etablit dans une ame
L 1 aimable tr anquillite:

Heureux le coeur qui s'enflame
Pour sa divine beaute. 2
The spectators, however, as well as the other characters on stage,
want nothing of the philosophical tranquillity of which Reason speaks,
and Folly teases her finally chasing her away by dancing a comic
dance.
In Les Ages, too, the fun and pleasure of the youthful figures
of the prologue are interrupted by the entrance of Le Temps, a true
villain to the Regency man, who lived only for physical beauty and
pleasure, fearing the ravages of old age:
Venez tristes Sujets soumis 3. ma puissance
Marquez-moi votre obeissance.
Poursuivons la Jeunesse et troublons ses beaux jours.
Chassons les Ris errans sous ces ombrages,
Otons 3. la Beaute leur utile secours;
Le plaisir scait du Tems arreter les ravages.
Poursuivons la Jeunesse et troublons ses beaux jours. ^
255
2. All excerpts from Les Fetes venitiennes taken from Antoine
Danchet, Les Festes venitiennes, in Recueil general des opera, Vol.
X, after comparison with: Antoine Danchet, Les Festes venitiennes,
in Theatre de M. Danchet (Paris: chez Grange, 1751); and Antoine
Danchet and Andre Campra, Les Festes venitiennes, Ballet en musique,
score (Paris: Christophe Ballard, 1714).
3. All excerpts from Les Ages taken from Louis Fuzelier,
Les Ages, Balet, libretto (Paris: Ribou, 1718), after comparison
with: Louis Fuzelier, Le Balet des Ages, in Recueil general des
opera, Vol. XII; and Louis Fuzelier and Andre Campra, Les Ages,
score, MS, n. d.

But poor old Time is also expelled from the company, as his every
effort is thwarted or interrupted by the joyous games of the youthful
dancers, an action which the author notes expresses the character of
youth, "qui est d'oublier les chagrins d£s qu'ils disparoissent."
La Folie, in Les Fetes venitiennes, is not the only "good"
character in the prologues who has some traits other than her mytho­
logical ones. Terpsichore, in Les Plaisirs de la campagne, is a
happy, insouciant character, expressing her penchant not only for
256
dance, but also for comedy and love. She charmingly urges the young
to dance, sing, and play, profiting from the beauty and energy of their
youth. Thalie, not only in Les Fetes de Thalie, where she is a charac­
ter, but also in other prologues where she is mentioned, is not only
the Muse of Comedy, she also seems to govern love and youth.
Another character treated with respect in the prologue to Les
Fetes de Thalie, but who definitely loses her battle with Thalie, is
the Muse of Tragedy, Melpomfene. She often speaks in alexandrins,
rather than in the varied or shorter verses used more commonly in
the opera-ballet. One finally realizes that the respect given her by
Apollo is only a sort of "lip service" to the critics, and that her down­
fall is complete.
The presence of so many mythological characters causes the
prologues to be the entrees into which some of the most exciting spec­
tacles will enter. Still enamored of le merveilleux, the new society

liked this chance for it to appear in all its glory, and then to fade
somewhat before the more realistic entrees of the rest of the opera-
ballet. (However, very complicated machinery was still used in the
257
other entrees, as part of the divertissements, but with a more realis­
tic flavor.) Most of the prologues take place somewhere in the forest
or near a charming hameau, where characters named "Les Jeux" and
"Les Ris" abound, and where the "marvelous" action of the gods and
goddesses is often a transformation of the ordinary fields and trees
into a sort of enchanted garden, full of bright flowers (as in Les Fetes
de l'ete). Sometimes the gods and goddesses descended from the
heavens on a char, one machine which was difficult to use in the more
realistic entertainments of the other entrees. The costumes for the
prologue could often be more fantastic and imaginary than the others,
although the Carnival disguises of Les Fetes venitiennes, for instance,
must have been quite sumptuous throughout.
Because of the requirements of the prologue--that is, allegori­
cal or mythological characters, and a plot that serves only to expose
the theme--, the style of the poetry and the dramatic qualities suffer
greatly from neglect. It is almost impossible to find a good dialogue,
and the following passage from Les Fetes de l'ete is typical of the
prologue style. Perhaps that is why actual dialogue is avoided as
much as possible, and why the characters expose their philosophy in
longer airs rather than through discussion:

(L'Ete vient dans un char)
L'ETE
Je viens de mes faveurs vous combler a mon tour.
CHOEUR d'Amants et d'Amantes
II [Le Printemps] nous quitte! il fuit! il s'envole!
L'ETE
Quoy! rien ne vous console?
CHOEUR
Si vous voulez regner, faites regner l 1 Amour.
L'ETE
Au plus puissant des Dieux il faut rendre les armes,
Que 1'Amour, que Venus icy regne avec moy;
Reine de tous les coeurs, viens, fais briller tes charmes,
On ne peut etre heureux sans toy. ^
258
The dialogue between Thalie and Melpomene, though still lack­
ing dramatic interest, is probably the best of the prologues. In it,
Fuzelier has kept the allegorical aspect of the two characters, but has
also injected a more real feeling of personal jealousy. Their charac­
ters are well differentiated, Melpomene tending to get overwrought
easily and to burst into long, tragic lines, while Thalie replies easily
and naturally:
4. All excerpts from Les Fetes de l'ete taken from Abbe
Simon-Joseph Pellegrin, Les Festes de l'ete, in Recueil general
des opera, Vol. XII, after comparison with: Abbe Simon-Joseph
Pellegrin and Michel Pignolet de Monteclair, Les Festes de l'ete,
Ballet en musique, score (Paris: J. B. Christophe Ballard, 1716).

MELPOMENE
Dieux! quels frivoles sons! que vois-je? c'est Thalie!
Vient-elle de sesr jeux etaler la folie?
Osez-vous done vous faire voir
En des lieux pleins de mon pouvoir?
THALIE
Je viens avec les Ris pour egayer la Sc&ne.
MELPOMENE
Armide, Phaeton, Atis,
Roland, Bellerophon, Thetis,
De ce brillant sejour me rendent Souveraine,
Muse retirez-vous.
THALIE
Je le voi bien, ma Soeur, un mouvement jaloux
Contre moi vous anime.
MELPOMENE
Clroyez-vous de mes Vers effacer le sublime?
THALIE
Sans vous rien disputer, je voudrois entre nous
Par un autre chemin meriter quelque estime.
MELPOMENE
Vous meritez mon courroux.
THALIE
Ma Soeur, un mot seul peut suffire,
Pour faire voir qu'on me doit preferer;
On est bien-tot las de pleurer,
Se lasse-t-on jamais de rire?
Vous faites 5. l'Amour une cruelle offense
De ne l'offrir que furieux,
Sous des traits plus rians je l'offre a tous les yeux,
Qui de nous sert mieux sa puissance? 5
259
5. All excerpts from Les Fetes de Thalie taken from, 1.
Joseph de la Font, Les Festes de Thalie, Balet, libretto including "La
Veuve" and "La Critique des Festes de Thalie" (2nd ed.; Paris: Ribou,
1714); 2. Joseph de la Font, La Provenqale, petite piSce representee

260
Because the purpose of the prologue is to expose the theme, it
abounds in maxims even more than the rest of the opera-ballet. Many-
are from the salons of the precieuses, as is this example from Les
Ages, preciously calling the sighs of lovers the "incense of love":
Soupirez, reverez le Dieu qui vous engage,
Soupirez nuit et jour,
Jeunes coeurs, les soupirs sont l'Encens de 1'Amour:
Qu'il est doux de lui rendre hommage!
The precious turns of phrase in the prologues have far less dramatic
value than the witty maxims and silly advice given by the petits
maltres and the confidantes of the other acts. Because the prologue
characters lack psychological interest, the maxims or other self-
conscious phrases they utter are dramatically gratuitous, taking the
form of advice addressed to the spectator:
VENUS
Je veux qu'au tendre Amour tous les coeurs soient soumis,
Sa gloire me fut toujours chere,
Les Victoires du Pils
Font le Triomphe de la Mere. (Les Fetes de l'ete)
La Harpe, in criticizing the operatic works of Fuzelier, spoke
of a phenomenon that is especially obvious in the prologue, the
5. la suite des Festes de Thalie, libretto (Paris: la veuve Ribou, 1722);
and 3. Joseph de la Font, Les Festes ou le Triomphe de Thalie, with
"La Veuve coquette" replacing "La Veuve, " in Recueil general des
opera, Vol. XI; after comparison with: Joseph de la Font and Jean-
Joseph Mouret, Les Festes ou le Triomphe de Thalie, Ballet en
musique, score (Paris: J. B. Christophe Ballard, 1714).

constant use of certain words, especially in the final scene: "Je ne
sais si l'on trouverait chez lui une scene sans un couplet oft il fait
voler, regner, lancer, triompher (La Harpe, VII, 230). The impor­
tance of these words, whose meanings lent themselves easily to a
little word painting on the part of the composer, giving him and the
singers a chance to show their virtuosity without sacrificing the veri­
similitude of the dialogue, was great in the opera, but especially in
the prologue and in the divertissements. These words will tend to
appear inevitably at the end of each prologue, thus making the finale
more impressive musically. One of the choruses that seems to use
every one of these stock words is the final chorus of the prologue to
Les Plaisirs de la campagne:
Paisibles bois, brillez de nouveaux charmes;
Volez aimables Jeux, Plaisirs rassemblez-vous:
Regnez heureux repos, fuyez tristes allarmes,
Qu'on goute dans ces lieux les plaisirs les plus doux. ®
With "brillez, " "volez, " "regnez," and "fuyez" all included in three
short lines, the composer had many occasions to illustrate these
words with long, fast-running notes and other musical devices.
The musical influence on the words was not always of this
261
type, however, and in fact, it is in the divertissement of the prologue,
6. All excerpts from Les Plaisirs de la campagne taken from
Abbe Simon-Joseph Pellegrin, Les Plaisirs de la campagne, Balet,
libretto (Paris: chez la veuve de P. Ribou, 1719), after comparison
with: Abbe Simon-Joseph Pellegrin, Les Plaisirs de la campagne, in
Recueil general des opera, Vol. XII.

262
governed by dance rhythms, that much of the poetry becomes simpler
and more natural. The dance rhythms force the poetry into a form
with shorter lines, the old alexandrin and the octosyllabic line being
reduced to a five-syllable line for example. The lines are often of
unequal length, again to conform to a dance rhythm or simply to give
the musician a more varied field in which to compose. This practice
had entered into the creation of poetry for music quite early in the
history of the ballet, as Menestrier notes: "Les Vers libres de
mesures inegales, qui s'etoient depuis peu introduits en France pour
les lettres enjouees, ne contribuerent pas peu faire reussir ces
actions par la liberte que l'on eut d'en faire de cette sorte au lieu des
Vers Alexandrins .... On connut que ces petits Vers etoient plus
7
propres pour la Musique que les autres." One good example of this
easier, more natural poetry, is in the prologue to Les Fetes de l'£t£;
L' Amour regne en Maltre
Sur ces verds Coteaux,
Pour nous il fait naitre
Les jours les plus beaux:
La Saison nouvelle
Ornoit moins nos champs;
Quand 1'Amour s'en mele,
Tout devient Printemps.
The fgte continues with an air containing lines of varying length:
7. Claude Francjois Menestrier, Des Representations en
musique anciennes et modernes (Paris: chez Rene Guignard, 1681),
p. 210.

Nos beaux jours sont pour la tendresse,
Aimons, le temps presse;
Qu'attendon-nous ?
Lies Plaisirs nous suivront sans cesse;
L 1 Amour scait les rassembler tous.
Though the preceding selections are of a more natural and
graceful quality, their nature, that of the exposition of a theme with­
out the addition of psychological interest, makes them rather cold.
The poet, realizing this, has neglected the literary qualities of the
prologue, which seems to be nothing more than a necessary evil at
263
times, concentrating his poetic powers on the other parts of the opera-
ballet.
There are times when an author provides the poetry of the
prologue with a little more life and dramatization. Danchet, in the
prologue to Les Fetes v^nitiennes, characterizes the role of La
Raison quite well, using this essentially undesirable character to
point out the excesses of the Regency society. In a description of their
love of disguises that reminds us of the bittersweet quality of the
paintings of Watteau, we see the essential satiety and lack of purpose
behind the smiles and laughter of the courtly ladies and gentlemen
playing at theatrical games:
Sous des traits empruntez ils cachent leur visage,
Ce bizare deguisement
De celui de leurs coeurs est une foible image.
H£b£, in whose gardens the action of the prologue to Les Ages
takes place, is charming and attractive, and though her calls to enjoy

youth and to love without ceasing are couched in the typical language
of the prologue, her essentially gay and joyous character is still
apparent, and the poetry profits from this:
: Sortez de ces paisibles bois,
Venez, troupe charmante, accourez cL ma voix.
Rassemblez-vous, le plaisir vous appelle,
De vos jeunes momens consacrez le cours;
Et marquez tous vos beaux jours
Par une fete nouvelle:
Rassemblez-vous, le plaisir vous appelle.
Les Loix que vous suivez sont faites par les Jeux,
Connoissez tout le prix d'un si doux avantage:
C'est etre doublement heureux
Que de l'etre & votre age.
Ici le plaisir seul exerce son pouvoir:
Riez, dansez, chantez sans cesse,
C'est 15. votre devoir
Agreable jeunesse.
Many of the examples already cited serve to illustrate the
main themes of the opera-ballet, as expressed in the prologues. It is
this exposition of themes, and of a sort of Regency morality, that is
264
the most important quality of the prologue to the opera-ballet. In fact,
it is usually the barest and most flagrant expression of this sensual
morality, for the other entrees, because of their dramatic interest,
couch this new morality in slightly more hidden, but perhaps more
insinuating forms. It is this open emphasis on love, on Paris and the
Paris opera as the capitals of sensuality, on the triumph of folly over
reason, on drinking, and on the idea of the masquerade, that makes .
the prologue worthy of literary attention.

The main theme expressed by most prologues and by all the
265
opera-ballets, is that of love, at first still thinly disguised with an air
of delicacy and tenderness, and later exposed in a more sensual man­
ner. It is in the later opera-ballet that love begins to be accompanied
by Bacchus and by folly, and folly even seems to triumph over love as
the governing force of life in the later opera-ballet. The author will
transform all the gods, goddesses, and allegorical figures in his pro­
logues, no matter what they originally represent, into characters that
sing its praises. Even Thalie (or especially Thalie), the Muse of
Comedy, will emphasize that her comedy is that of love, in contrast
to the sad mask this emotion must wear in the tragedy (see p. 259). ..
Love is usually connected with youth, as the passage cited
(pp. 264) . from Les Ages serves to illustrate. This theme is impor­
tant, for old age, with its accompanying ugliness and weakness, is
held in horror by the Regency man, who insists on crowding more and
more pleasures into his youth before he becomes too old to attract the
opposite sex. Some of the entrees of the ballets will graphically illus­
trate this theme, for many of the plots involve old men who try to
abduct the young women they love; for, old and unattractive, they have
no arms with which to fight with their young rivals for the love of a
young woman.
The operas abound with final choruses that call the audience to
profit from youth and taste all the pleasures of love. The prologue to

Les Fetes de l'ete is a good example of this type of poetry. The
whole prologue is based on the theme, expressed by Venus, that love
is the conquerer of all:
. Amour, ne cesse point de regner sur les coeurs:
Que tout ce qui respire
Reconoisse l'Empire
Du plus aimable des Vainqueurs.
266
Often, in these calls to love, the author is able to indicate what
the subjects of the entrees to follow will be. For instance, in Les
FStes de Thalie, the title of which gives little indication of the exact
way he will illustrate the theme, we begin to realize that the theme of
age will have something to do with the action when Thalie urges youth
to profit from the days when they are attractive:
Venez, volez de toutes parts
Je vais offrir S. vos regards
Des Jeux sans pleurs et sans tristesse.
Mon art est le plus doux des arts,
II est l'amour de la Jeunesse,
Et je fais le

The acts of the opera-ballet will then treat the married woman ("La
Femme 11 ), the widow ("La Veuve" and "La Veuve coquette")} and the
young girl just awakening to love ("La Fille").
267
The same method of exposing the structure of the opera-ballet
is followed in Les Fetes de l'ete, where, while the chorus praises the
omnipresent influence of love, it shows that the action will be divided
by time of day ("Les Matinees d'ete, " "Les Jours d'ete, " "Les
Soirees de l'ete, " and "Les Nuits de l'ete. "):
Que l'Astre qui donne le Jour
S'eleve dans les Cieux, ou descende dans l'Onde:
Qu'il plonge I'univers dans une Nuit profonde:
Tout est favorable £. l'Amour.
Often the author even made note of the fact that the different entrees
to follow were here indicated, in the livrets bought by the audience.
Not only is love extolled in the prologues, Paris and the opera
of Paris are praised as the places where this ideal of love is best
carried out. Even when the scene is in a wood, and the atmosphere is
essentially pastoral, when the lovers and gods on the stage begin
urging Love to descend from Mount Olympus to the place of their cele­
brations, the inference is quite clear that the place where love and
sensuality descends is in Paris, or on the banks of the Seine near
Paris, where many fetes galantes took place:
Dans ces lieux tranquilles
Tout rit a nos voeux.
lis sont les Aziles

268
Des Ris et des Jeux;
Et l'aimable Mere
Du Dieu des Amants,
Doit quitter Cythere
Pour ces lieux charmants. (Les Fetes de l'ete)
Not the real Paris of the daytime, even then a bustling city,
but the Paris of the night--the Paris of the opera, of the fetes, of
games and disguises--was the city conducive to the atmosphere of
love sought after by the members of court and their friends. In Les
Plaisirs de la campagne, Pellegrin expresses these same ideas, but
in a less poetic style, bordering on doggerel:
Dans nos bois,
Mille charmes
Brillent 5. la fois,
On ne sent point d'allarmes
Sous nos douces loix.
Lieux charmants
Oil l'on ne doit attendre
Que d 1 heureux moments!
D&s qu'un coeur tendre,
Fait entendre
Ses premier soupirs,
Tout rit & ses desirs.
In Les Ages, Fuzelier also makes it quite clear that it is on
the banks of the Seine that love finds its happiest dwelling place, liv­
ing side by side with Bacchus:
Heureux l 1 empire! heureux le sort
Qui l'un 3.1'autre les enchaine!
C'est seulement aux rives de la Seine,
Que 1'Amour et Bacchus regnent toujours d'accord.
The masquerade, by contributing a new chance at variety and
diversity to the people of the court, is extolled as the game that

intensifies one's pleasure and enjoyment of love, and will be illus­
trated by many of the entrees of the opera-ballets whose action takes
place during masquerades and masked balls. Even conjugal love, an
essentially boring state because of its lack of variety, may be ren­
269
dered interesting by the use of disguise, as the entree of "LaFemme"
in Les Fetes de Thalie illustrates. This use of disguise for interest
and amorous games is extolled in the prologue of Les Fetes venitien-
nes. It was from Venice that the idea of the masquerade came to
France, and the French idealized that city not only as the origin of the
many Italian characters useful for disguises but also as a city with a
reputation for loose morals. Venice, in the opera-ballet, is the
equivalent of what Paris is trying to be, and it is often safer for the
author to use Venice as the setting for the action of the play, in order
to keep the fantasy of removal from real life, but still to treat a
society essentially like Parisian society.
In the prologue to Les Fetes venitiennes, Le Carnaval begins
the action by singing the praises of Venice, where the gods of love
have descended, abandoning Cythera. He urges amorous ladies to
seek pleasure in Venice, for
Vous y trouverez mille Amants
Occupez du soin de vous plaire.
But ladies and gentlemen of high degree must still look after their
reputation, and disguise offers both the pleasure of variety and the

safety of anonymity:
Pour cacher un tendre mistere
J'off re d'heureux deguisements;
Volez, Amours, volez, abandonnez Cythere,
Venez sur des bords plus charmants.
270
La Raison rails against this disguise (see p. 263), but she is quickly
chased away, and disguise and folly reign over the life of Venice, and
of Paris.
The emphasis on folly and the criticism of reason are every­
where present, not only in the prologues of the opera-ballet but in many
of the divertissements. In a society filled only with a desire for
momentary voluptuousness, and not for those enduring philosophical
pleasures which require seriousness and effort, the influence of
reason was a wet blanket. Reason showed these sensual pleasures to
be passing, causing one to think of the future, when, old and unattrac­
tive, one would have nothing left. At the beginning of the great Age of
Reason, the opera-ballet and all the Regency society fought a violent
battle against this enemy of their enjoyment.
One of the themes most often expressed in extolling "La Folie"
is that of the happiness of folly and the sadness of reason. Reason,
say many prologues, is for old people who can no longer amuse them­
selves with the sensual pleasures of life; and to respect reason in one's
youth is to grow old before one's time:

La tristesse est un noir poison,
Qui fait vieillir dfes le bel age,
Mortels, ce n'est pas etre sage,
Que de l'etre en toute saison.
Pourquoi donner §. la raison
Le tems qu'on doit au badinage?
271
This idea of happiness and laughter being essentially unreason­
able qualities reappears, even when the "La Raison" is not an actual
character. For instance, when Thalie is arguing with Melpomfene in
Les F&tes de Thalie, she contrasts the happiness of her state with the
sadness of the balance and reason of tragedy:
Ma Soeur, un mot seul peut suffire,
Pour faire voir qu'on me doit preferer;
On est bien-tot las de pleurer,
Se lasse-t-on jamais de rire ?
. It is in Les Fetes venitiennes, however, that the praise of folly
becomes the main point of the prologue, although this is still one of the
earlier and more delicate of the opera-ballets. When La Folie enters,
she sings of her attractions to the troupe of Masques celebrating the
Carnival:
Accourez, hatez-vous,
Goutez les charmes de la vie,
Je les dispense tous,
II n'en est point sans la Folie.
Les plaisirs regnent dans ma cour,
C'est moy seule qui les inspire.
Je sers de guide au tendre amour
Et je partage son empire.

272
When folly was praised so highly, there were bound to be some objec­
tions from the more serious critics, many of whom thought of folly in
its more serious form, that of madness. Houdard de la Motte, in
defending a divertissement he had written called Le Carnaval et la
Folie, written in 1703, defined what he meant by the word "folly":
J'avoue que ceux qui entendroient par Folie ce derangement
de cerveau qui exclut les hommes de la Societe, ne trouveroient
pas leur compte au caractere de ma Deesse; mais aussi ce
n'est pas 1& ce que j'ai du peindre; c'est seulement l'exc&s des
passions, le caprice, la legerete et pour ainsi dire, la folie
courante .... Mon dessein a ete que la Folie ne fit rien de
raisonnable, mais qu'elle ne fit rien dont on ne put trouver des
exemples dans le commerce des hommes (La Motte, Oeuvres,
VI, 348).
The idea of folly and of disguise go hand in hand in the prologue
to Les Fetes venitiennes, for it is disguise that makes us freer to act
capricious, feeling that we are really not ourselves, but another,
represented by the mask we wear. The rather righteous critic
Riccoboni reflected on the masquerade of Venice and on its influence
on folly and immorality:
A Venise on va masque aux Spectacles: ce qui est d'une
grande commodite pour les Nobles, et sur-tout pour les
Senateurs, et les autres personnes qui occupent les grandes
places, parce qu'S. la faveur du masque ils sont dispenses de
porter l'habit qui designe leur qualite ou leur emploi, et que
le Doge meme peut aller seul avec cette precaution (Riccoboni,
I, 23).
It is in Venice, then, where one goes in disguise even to the
theatre, that folly may be given free rein. At the end of the prologue

to Lies Fetes venitiennes, La Folie reassures the masques of her
supremacy, following the angry exit of La Raison:
Ne vous allarmez point; voyez quels sont les Sages,
lis le sont moins que vous;
lis n'osent en public refuser leurs hommages,
Cependant en secret je les gouverne tous.
This character, then, is speaking of the sort of folly that is
273
found in all men, "la folie courante" of La Motte. The final chorus of
the prologue is not only the theme of the opera-ballet which it pre­
cedes, it is also the credo of the audience:
Chantons, et nous rejouissons
Laissez-nous, Raison trop severe;
Nous donner d'austeres leqons,
N'est pas le moyen de nous plaire.
Chantons, et nous rejouissons,
Laissez-nous, Raison trop severe.
In Les Ages, whose more obvious realism and perhaps more
cynical debauchery will be considered in the chapter on comedy, the
prologue emphasizes this debauchery and perhaps presages the end of
the genre of the opera-ballet. Essentially a work of fantasy, never
approaching too closely the more realistic and less pleasant side of
pleasure seeking, the opera-ballet here becomes a very close neigh­
bor to both the satirical comedy of the time and the comic opera. In
the prologue, all the debaucheries mentioned before seem to combine,
with the addition of the god Bacchus, who, we find in one of the later
entrees, is quite useful for forgetting boredom when one cannot think
of enough varied amusements to fill out his life:

Veilles Bacchus, veilles Amour,
Endormes la Raison severe,
Triomphes dans ce beau sejour.
Empeches-la de nous distraire.
Quel jour charmant! quel heureux jour!
Quand vous la forces k se taire!
Veilles Bacchus, Veilles Amour,
Endormes la Raison severe,
Triomphes dans ce beau sejour.
274
Though the prologue in all forms of musical writing was highly-
criticized by many literary men, it remained an integral part of
French opera many years after the necessity for such an act, as a
unifying factor for the different forms of opera-ballet, was gone. It
is true that in the opera-ballet, because of its diversity, the prologue
was a necessary evil, despite its lack of literary or dramatic merit.
The prologues of the opera-ballet have, in general, much more dra­
matic interest than the prologues of the tragedie lyrique which have
nothing to do with the subject of the tragedies which they precede, and
serve only as a vehicle for apostrophes to the King. An interesting
phenomenon occurred in the 1720's, however. Though the society and
the court had professed to be tired of centralization and for more
independent pleasures and interests, when Louis XV came of age in
1723, they turned voluntarily back to the old forms of prologue, heap­
ing heroic praise on the new King. Perhaps fatigue with constant
freedom had caused them to welcome a King back into their midst.

The prologue returned to its original form, less interesting
275
even than the prologue of the opera-ballet, and remained a tradition of
the operatic stage despite the railings of critics such as Jean-Jacques
Rousseau:
Lie mieux seroit de n'en avoir pas besoin, et de supprimer
tout-5-fait les prologues, qui ne font gufere qu'ennuyer et
impatienter les spectateurs, ou nuire 3. 1'interSt de la pi£ce,
en usant d'avance les moyens de plaire et d'interesser.
Aussi les opera francjois sont-ils les seuls oil l'on ait
conserve des prologues; encore ne les y souffre-t-on que
parce qu'on n'ose murmurer contre les fadeurs dont ils
sont pleins. 8
The prologue to the opera-ballet, despite its defects, is the only one
to escape this criticism. Although Rousseau's description of its style
is justified, the prologue served a dramatic purpose in the opera-
ballet, which it did not serve in other operatic genres.
8. Rousseau, Dictionnaire, article "Prologue, " in Oeuvres,
I, 779.

CHAPTER 9
THE PASTORALE
Although the tendency of the opera-ballet is definitely toward
the comic, the pastorale is still an important genre of entree, and
almost every opera-ballet contains at least one of these acts. It is
often difficult to distinguish between what I have called "pastorale"
and "comedy," however, for even in the latter the air of fantasy typi­
cal to the former is still evident. The atmosphere of the pastorale,
essentially light and removed from any biting satire or cynicism, per­
vades all of the opera-ballet, with the exception only of certain
entrees or characters.
The main factor distinguishing the two genres is the degree of
reality depicted. This is evident in the consideration of parallel plots
of the comedies and pastorales. There are many plots which, if
resumed in a few words, would be indistinguishable as to their genre.
It is often the characters themselves rather than the plots which aid
in distinguishing one genre from another. A confidante of the pas­
torale, for instance, will be sympathetic and helpful, and perhaps
even a little witty at times, but she will lack the comic qualities of
the spirited soubrette of the comedy. In the pastorales, the only
276

277
obstacles to a happy ending to the love story are the hesitations of the
lovers, caused not by any outside forces, but by their own fears or
misunderstandings. In the comedy, many more outside obstacles
posed by strict duennas, old and amorous guardians, and jealous spite,
will complicate the plot and the characters. The characters of the
pastorale are always young, usually falling in love for the first time,
and keeping many of their youthful ideals of purity and faithfulness.
This contrasts greatly with many of the more mature, experienced
characters of the comedy, who are more realistic portrayals of the
people of the Regency period.
Love in the pastorale is still an idealization, even though the
essential theme is a call for one and all to join in the celebration of
the more sensuous aspects of love. The pastorale has its volages,
but they lose the respect of the charming ladies involved, who choose
more faithful lovers. The cruel beauty who loves not but who enjoys
teasing lovers is also present in the pastorale, but she, as the volage,
is seldom the central character of the play. In the comedy, these two
characters will become the main objects of interest, approaching the
realism of the life of the Regency and its game playing.
The pastorale, then, retains many of the traits of the forms
that engendered it, including the pastorale dramatique, the pastoral
interludes of the comedie-ballet, and many of the fetes of the tragedie
lyrique. In keeping to an essentially seventeenth-century tradition,

however, the author of the pastorales of these operas did not enslave
himself to the characters and plots of the older forms. Many of the
278
characters are modified to fit the times, and the volages of the opera-
ballet pastorale remind one of the petits maltres of the Regency. The
fetes of the pastorale will be more openly sensual, expressing the
ideas of the new morality of the times.
The tendency toward realism and even light comedy in the pas­
torales of the opera-ballet is especially evident in the fact that many
entrees which are obviously pastoral in their content, plot, and charac­
ters, take place not in a pastoral setting but in more realistic sur­
roundings. This is especially evident in Les FStes venitiennes, in
which several of the entrees are pastorales, but still take place in or
near Venice. These forms, pastoral in type but approaching the more
realistic quality of the comedy, might be called pastorales comiques.
Love in the opera-ballet, whether it be comic or pastoral, is
quite in keeping with the games of the Regency. We find very few
characters that are carried away by a violent passion. The reigning
feeling is often that of relaxation, or even laziness in some cases. In
this society taken with pleasures, intense mental happiness or anguish
did not exist, or if it did, it was hidden under a mask of indifference.
Even the jealousy of the spurned characters of the opera-ballet is
carefully controlled and often ridiculed by the other characters (as we
have seen in "L'ltalie, " of L'Europe galante). Love here is peaceful

and interesting, as a game is interesting, and even the most sincere
expressions of love will be delicate and controlled. Mauzi, in speak­
ing of the idea of "le repos" offered by the pastorale and related
279
genres, explained this atmosphere and the reasons for this insistance
on eliminating the more passionate emotions:
Tous les sentiments y sont epures, traites sur un mode mineur.
La grSce et l'indolence y temp&rent les emportements du coeur,
la brutalite des d£sirs, l'aigreur du desespoir. L'amour,
surtout passionne, est peu compatible avec le repos. Mais pour
que l'oisivete ne se change pas en ennui, il faut l'animer de
quelque maniSre. A ce titre, l'amour est permis: un amour
paisible et tendre qui n'alterera pas l'euphorie du loisir. Seuls
les bergers, etres charmants et irresponsables, savent accorder
la paresse et l'amour (Mauzi, p. 375).
Although the idea of repose may seem contrary to the ideals of
the Regency and more in keeping with the "sage oisivete" of Voltaire,
we must remember that the opera-ballet was offering, in a world of
frantic quest for the pleasures of love (but not for its passions), all
the delights of such love without all the work and pain ordinarily neces­
sary to the winning of pleasure. The repose of the pastorale is a
true dream world for the spectator, a world peopled by characters
with the same desires as those of the spectator, but with no obstacles
to the leisurely and often lazy pursuit of their fulfillment. It is be­
cause of this essential indolence that few opera-ballet characters,
especially in the pastorales, rage in anguish against a fate they be­
lieve to be unjust. Either they contemplate their sadness quietly and

almost voluptuously or they shrug their shoulders and look for good
luck elsewhere.
Because of this essential trait of the characters of the pasto­
rale, so like the indifference of the Regency man to deep emotions,
280
the pastorale, even in its setting of fantasy is a true expression of the
times. Its appeal to the audience was complete, and Regency society
responded by creating more pastorales in their masques and entertain­
ments given for their friends. This interlacing of theatre and real
life has perhaps never been so evident as it was at the time of the
Regency, and it became difficult to distinguish the artifice of the pas­
torale from the "real" existence of the people, which consisted mainly
in creating more artifice:
Les v§tements ou les voiles composent les corps, les masques
se confondent avec les visages, le decor passe pour 1'edifice;
on n'atteint au vrai qu'en prenant le detour de l 1 artifice. La
pastorale ne se defend pas d'etre un trompe-l'oeil; elle ne
donne pas ses bosquets pour de vraies forets; elle ne donne pas
ses bergers pour de vrais bergers: ils se parent, ils revgtent
un monde d'emprunt, ils entrent dans leur existence pastorale
comme dans un deguisement (Rousset, p. 33).
In a study of the texts of the pastorales of the opera-ballet,
several characteristics are important to note, and will be discussed
at length. The keeping of fantasy and simple characters, even when
the setting becomes more realistic, is an important background to the
stfmosphere of the pastorale. The characters themselves, usually
ignoring situations in which to be witty or saucy, concentrate on the

delicate and restrained expressions of their love, their inconstancy,
or their fears. Although they retain an essentially pastoral flavor,
never going too far in their comic aspects, some, especially the sec­
ondary characters, tend towards the comic. The themes of the
Regency and of the pastorale in general are expressed openly in the
divertissements, as well as the "moral" of the action of the pastoral
entree. The dialogue, though much stronger and more dramatic than
that of the prologue, remains restrained and delicate, often sounding
like a discussion in a salon of one of the precieuses. In contrast, the
281
airs, especially some of the rondeaux in which the characters express
their feelings of love, are especially strong poetically.
Because of the absence of any really "bad" characters (even
the volages are charming and amusing in their egocentric way), the
plot is usually based on an interior obstacle to the uniting of the two
lovers of the play. In "La Chasse, " of Les Plaisirs de la campagne,
for example, the only obstacle to the marriage of Lisimon and
Artenice is her coquetry and his timidity. Her love for playing games
and his brave slaying of the monster for her eliminate these obstruct­
ing forces, and they are happily united. In this entree, too, the
boastful and inconstant Lisis, spurned by Artenice, is not full of woe
at the outcome:

Ciel! c'est pour la premiere fois
Qu'on me force 2L rendre les armes;
Mais pour me consoler de perdre tant de charmes
Je vole & de nouveaux exploits. (Scene iv)
282
Another good example of these interior obstacles is the entree
of "La Veuve" in Les Fetes de Thalie. Perhaps this entree was
replaced by "La Veuve coquette" because the former was obviously a
pastorale, in an opera-ballet that proposed to be totally comic.
Isabelle, who had been attracted to Leandre even before her marriage
to her now dead husband, resists Leandre's pleadings more from guilt
than from grief. She is confused because of her happiness at being
free to love Leandre, and even at the end of the entree, we are not
sure of the outcome of Leandre's suit.
A more precious plot, but one still within the definition of the
pastorale, is that of "Les Jours d'ete, " in Les Fetes de l'etg.
Cephise, a true precieuse, pretends to love the volage Lisidor, in
order to test the strength and faithfulness of Dorante's love for her.
Dorante proves worthy of her respect, which she gives to him, at the
same time punishing Lisidor for his boastfulness by leading him on
until she announces her preference for Dorante.
Most of the characters in these entrees are true descendants
of the characters of the seventeenth century pastorale, and carry the
same names. It is not until the pastorale comique that the characters,
in keeping with their new realism, take names more common to the

283
comedy. The young beauties, filled with the first awakenings of love,
are especially interesting, and are present in almost all of the typical
pastoral entrees ("La Veuve" from Les Fetes de Thalie, "Les
Matinees d'et£" from Les Fetes de l'ete, "Les Jours d'ete" from the
same opera-ballet, and "La Chasse" from Les Plaisirs de la
campagne). The widow of "La Veuve, " Isabelle, is perhaps made to
seem more ridiculous in her hesitations than the other heroines for
she continues her resistance out of guilt long after she should have
yielded to the pleadings of love. In fact, her confidante, Iphise, is so
exasperated with her at the end of the play that she says, in the very
last line, as Isabelle continues to hesitate, "Allez sur son tombeau
consulter votre epoux. " (Scene v)
The other typical heroines of this genre are not so hesitant,
yielding to love at the end of the action. Artenice, in "La Chasse, "
is a direct descendant of characters such as La Princesse d'Elide and
Cephise (in "La France" of L'Europe galante). Though young and
attractive, she has been a cruel beauty, refusing the love of her many
suitors. We learn, in her conversation with her confidante, Cleone,
that this has been only out of fear and because she has never been in
love herself. Her pitiless air, seeming to want to triumph over all
men by making them fall in love with her while she remains aloof, is
only the result of youth and naivete. - Even her feigned preference for
Lisis, the volage, is a form of protection, for playing amorous games

with an inconstant lover prevents one from becoming too deeply-
involved emotionally. Her admission of love for Lisimon comes at
the beginning of the entree, though poor Lisimon does not learn of it
until the end, partly through continued hesitation on the part of
Artenice and partly because of the complications of the plot.
Artenice's expression of awakening love at the beginning of the act is
a delicate study of the feelings and hesitations of a young girl experi­
encing these emotions for the first time:
Amour d£s l'clge le plus tendre,
J'ai deffie tes traits vainqueurs:
Sans songer jamais cL me rendre,
J'aimois 5. triompher des coeurs:
Au milieu des Jeux et des F§tes,
Mille hommages m'etoient rendus,
Et les jours passez sans conquStes,
Etoient pour moi des jours perdus.
C'en est fait, de 1'Amour j'ai subi l'esclavage;
Lisimon m'a sauve le jour:
Cleone, en faut-il davantage
Pour livrer un coeur 3. 1'Amour? (Scene i)
284
Sylvie, of "Les Matinees d'ete, " is the simplest and most naive
heroine of this first type of pastorale. She and the man she loves,
Daphnis, are victims of the practical jokes of the cruel beauty
ClimSne, who causes each to doubt the other's fidelity. Climfene, in
laughingly taunting Sylvie by telling her that Daphnis is inconstant,
arouses a desire for vengeance in the na'ive Sylvie. Through her spite
and desire for revenge, she shows her love for Daphnis, as Climfene
points out to her. Her simplicity and na'ivete are illustrated by her

dialogue, in which, true to the love of the pastorale, she feels not
anguish, but simply disappointment and confusion:
C'est luy, qui le premier rompt un si beau lien,
L'Ingrat, que n'avoit-il un coeur comme le mien!
II n'auroit point de reproche £. me faire. (Scene ii)
Gephise, in "Les Jours d'£te," is less appealing, perhaps
285
because she is so essentially a precieuse, taking delight in putting her
lover to a test to prove his fidelity, much in the style of the games of
the salons. If treated a little more broadly, she could easily become
Magdelon or Cathos, but here she is a true noble precieuse, retaining
a certain amount of our sympathy. She explains her ruse, which is
similar to that of Artenice except that the misunderstanding on the
part of Lisimon was not created wholly by Artenice, but was more cir­
cumstantial. Here, Gephise has created a conscious ruse to prove the
faithfulness of Dorante:
Par une feinte indifference
Je prends soin d'irriter ses feux.
Et pour eprouver sa constance,
Je luy montre un Rival heureux. (Scene i)
Gephise suits the pastorale, however, for much of the dialogue in this
genre is calm discussion, using clever turns of phrase and precious
comparisons and analogies to formulate maxims and rules for love.
One cruel beauty who prefers her inconstancy and games of
love to real emotion is ClimSne, in "Les Matinees d'ete." She is
what Artenice must have been before falling in love with Lisimon, and

we feel distinctly that, though she continues to play her games and
scoff at love, all she needs is to meet the man that will change her,
as Artenice had changed upon meeting Lisimon. One difference be­
tween her and Artenice is that Clim&ne is truly cruel in her game
286
playing. Making the two lovers doubt each other and live in sorrow at
the loss of their love, simply for a lark, does not seem too kind. We
must remember that games such as those created by Clim&ne serve,
in the mind of the spectators and of the lovers on stage, to enhance
love and add excitement to their pleasure. Clim&ne protests at the
end that she knew that Sylvie and Daphnis would eventually uncover her
ruse and that it only made life a little more interesting for a time. At
the end of the play, she goes off to invent more tricks, seeming
almost to be a sort of leader of amorous games, a catalyst who brings
interest and variety to love. Her credo, that youth should be spent in
play, ignoring deep emotions, is an idea that pervades the life and
entertainments of the Regency:
L'Amour veut que tout soupire
Dans un si charmant sejour:
: Pour moy, je n'y fais que rire
Des Amants et de 1'Amour.
Les beaux jours de la jeunesse
'Sont pour les Ris et les Jeux;
Ceux qu'on donne a la tendresse
Ne sont pas les plus heureux. (Scene i)
ClimSne will have many male counterparts in the pastorales
in the persons of the volages, but the faithful and tender lover still

eigns in this genre, and Sylvie's male counterparts will be the true
main characters. Of these, Lisimon is perhaps the most timid and
withdrawn. He has fled all social commerce, escaping to the forest
(in "La Chasse"), not only because he feared to declare himself to
Artenice, but also because she has seemed so pitiless and coquettish.
Despairing of ever winning her, he flees. Fate takes a hand in the
accomplishment of his desires in the form of a monster that he kills,
saving the life of Artenice. Even then he does not dare to approach
287
her, remaining silent when Lisis claims the honor of having killed the
monster, thinking that Artenice prefers Lisis to him. When he finally
reveals that he is the hero, he still doubts that she loves him and
offers to free Artenice from her promise to marry the man who saved
her, for he doesn't want her hand without her heart. This is more an
expression of pride than of timidity, as was his self-imposed exile.
A shepherd in a pastorale is not expected to challenge rivals to a duel,
and if he is too proud to accept the hand of a coquette, then exile is the
only solution.
Leandre, in "La Veuve, " is a charming and attractive lover,
who expresses himself well while pleading his cause, but who is still,
disappointed at the end of the entree. He states his case convincingly,
however, and we feel that he will eventually persuade Isabelle to put
an end to her grieving and marry him:

Votre douleur vous est trop chere,
Vous la devez 5. votre Epoux.
Je ne viens point sage Isabelle
Blamer de sinceres regrets
Si vous ne pleuriez pas un epoux si fidele
Je vous trouverais moins d'attraits. (Scene iv)
288
Daphnis is much simpler and more naive in his love for Sylvie.
He is not so much a man of the world, and is more reminiscent of the
seventeenth-century shepherd of the pastorale--not a realistic, shep­
herd himself, but less elegant in many ways than the typical charac­
ters of the opera-ballet. His language is still polished, but his
reactions are often more direct and natural, as we see in his delight
at hearing Sylvie declare her love for him while she sleeps. He be­
comes more sure of himself after having heard this admission, and,
even though the misunderstanding continues when she awakens,
Daphnis has a new confidence and power that are able to persuade her
of his love.
Dorante, in "Les Jours d'ete, " is a weaker character than
some of the other pastoral heroes, partly because he takes second
place in much of the action to the volage Lisidor, even though Lisidor
loses the love of the heroine. He is also a part of the precious
atmosphere already created by the ruses of his lady love, Cephise,
and his dialogue suffers from a lack of enthusiasm or originality:

Cependant, o douleur mortelle!
Pardonnez ce transport 5. mes sens egarez;
Vous l'aimez ce Volage; et vous desesperez
Un coeur qui vous est si fidele. (Scene v)
Because many of the heroes languish too much, seeming al­
most lazy in their langorous pursuit of love and their protestations of
fidelity, the vigor and charm of the volages becomes dramatically
289
much more interesting. Given more to work with than a sighing lover,
the authors of the pastorale were able to create a much more well-
rounded character. The two volages of the pastorale, Lisis and
Lisidor, have many points in common, but the differences between
them are often more marked than the differences between the lovers.
Being individuals, and not having to fall into place at the end of the
action, taken in by love, they retain more independence and force of
character.
Lisidor is more typical of the volage of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, for his credo is based almost solely on the idea
of variety in love and pleasure in new conquests while Lisis is boast­
ful in more areas than just love, becoming almost comic. In Lisidor
we see the avoidance of any deep passion:
Cherchons quelque route nouvelle:
Trop d'ardeur m'a fait egarer. (Scene ii)
He also expresses the idea that, being attractive to so many women,
he honors any upon whom his passing favors alight;

Quel triomphe pour vous! quelle gloire nouvelle!
Je ne trouve point de cruelle
Dont je n'attendrisse le coeur;
Mais c'est pour vous offrir un plus digne Vainqueur,
Que je vole de Belle en Belle. (Scene ii)
290
His protestations against marrying too soon, and his reaction when he
sees that his rival Dorante is present when Cephise is about to an­
nounce her choice, form some of the best dramatic dialogue of the
entrees of this type, and will be discussed at length in the analysis of
the dialogues.
Lisis not only boasts of his prowess in love, he is so attrac­
tively egocentric that he feels that no noble exploit is beyond him:
Tu vois qu'il y croiit tout ensemble
Et des Mars et des Adonis.
Si du coeur le plus indomptable,
Je scjais triompher aisement,
Je ne suis pas moins redoutable,
Comme Guerrier, que comme Amant:
Parcourez toutes les histoires
Tout cede aux efforts de mon bras:
J'ai remporte plus de victoires,
Que je n'ai livre aux combats.
Je vous ferois trembler si je disois le reste:
Mais en votre faveur je fais graces aux guerriers.
He even stimulates a witty response on the part of the usually timid
and silent Lisimon:
Que j'aime & voir ce front modeste,
Qui se derobe 5. ses lauriers!
C'est &. vous de chanter ses vertus immortelles.

Aux Champs de Mars, aupres des belles,
De triomphe en triomphe il vole tout-a-tour;
Au gre de ses desirs il emprunte les ailes
De la Victoire et de l 1 Amour. (Scene iii)
291
Artenice and her confidante, Cleone, serve also to point up the ridic­
ulousness of many of the assertions of Lisis, thus adding to our
knowledge of his character. His description of the manner in which
he killed the monster is a boastful invention, and when his inspiration
begins to fail him, he uses the device of modesty, quickly noticed by
Artenice, to elicit the story from others, as well as their praises:
LISIS
Vous scjavez qu'a mon bras il n'est rien d'impossible.
A peine ai-je entendu vos cris;
Qu'au monstre sur le champ j'ai defendu de vivre.
ARTENICE
Oubliez-vous qu'il s'est enfui?
LISIS
Je n'ai pas daigne le suivre,
II tralnoit la mort apr£s lui.
Mais vous, qui m'avez vu dans ce peril extreme,
Epargnez-moi le soin de me loiier moi-meme.
ARTENICE
Qui moi? je n'ai rien vu.
LISIS
J'excuse votre effroi,
Vous aviez plus de peur que moi;
Je suis ne sous un Ciel oft jamais on ne tremble. (Scene iii)
The pastorale, in this scene, is coming very close to comedy.
Cleone, the confidante of Artenice, is almost a soubrette often answer­
ing the boasting of Lisis with a cutting remark. She especially points

up his inability to keep silent about his exploits, and disbelieves his
story of the slaying of the monster because he had waited so long to
292
claim the honor, waiting to see if the true hero would declare himself:
Quelle apparence,
Que Lisis si longtems eut garde le silence?
Lisis vainqueur! Lisis discret!
La victoire m'etonne autant que le secret. (Scene iii)
During much of the action, however, she remains the wise but quiet
and gentle advisor of Artenice, becoming witty and acid only when
facing the lies of Lisis.
Iphise, the confidante of Isabelle, the widow, is also a servant
who is almost a soubrette. She is a gay and practical counterweight
to the too-wistful Isabelle, showing her spirit in wise advice about
remarrying. Most of her real wit, however, is summed up in the last
line of the entree (see p. 283) in which she shows her exasperation with
the too-hesitant Isabelle.
Agatine, in "Les Jours d'ete," shows spirit and wit at times,
too, though none of these servants becomes a real soubrette. Her des­
cription, in sarcastic tones, of the honor one owes to the volage
Lisidor, shows her ability to analyze and satirize a situation:
II falloit moins l'accoutCimer
Au plaisir de s' entendre dire
Qu'aussi-t6t qu'on le voit, on se laisse enflamer.
Tandis qu'autour de luy tout languit, tout soupire,
C'est beaucoup qu'il se laisse aimer. (Scene ii)

The fetes, or divertissements of the pastorale are usually
quite naturally brought into the action of the play, the idea of the
shepherd as depicted in the pastorale being not of a working man, but
293
rather of one who spends his time in amorous pursuits, who composes
charming little airs for his lady love, or who organizes fetes cham-
petres at the slightest excuse. These simple divertissements again
express the moral of the action of the entree, calling upon all the
spectators indirectly to worship love, youth,and freedom with the
characters on the stage. In this way, the divertissement is closely
allied to the prologue, for it emphasizes a theme and a call to a cer­
tain mode of life, as does the prologue. The main characters some­
times participate in the divertissement, however, and their attitudes,
prepared before by their characterization in the action itself, lend
more personality and dramatic qualities to the divertissement than we
find in the prologues. The statement of a certain theme, though cer­
tainly not limited at all times to the divertissement, finds its fullest
expression there, and is the part of the entree most obviously directed
at the spectators.
Though the subject of the divertissement is love, it has direct
relation to the kind of love illustrated by the action of the pastoral
entree, varying according to the characters and feelings of the play.
In "La Veuve, " Leandre offers a fete to Isabelle, in a final effort to

win her over, and Iphise, Isabelle's confidante, urges her to seek the
consolations of love:
Aimez, aimez, qu'attendez-vous?
Cedez aux charmes les plus doux,
Sur les atles du Temps la Jeunesse s'envole.
C'est un Amant qui console
De la perte d'un epoux.
Aimez, aimez, qu'attendez-vous?
Cedez aux charmes les plus doux,
Sur les alles du Temps la Jeunesse s'envole. (Scene v)
It is evident that this is not only a call to Isabelle to yield to the
pleasures of love, but that it is also directed to the audience. The
repetition of the first verse in this rondeau ("rondeau" in a musical
sense), also renders this call to love more effective, and this form
294
will be used quite often in the divertissements, as the repetition of the
first stanza emphasizes the sensuality of the verses.
One reason that the musical rondeau is so well suited to the
divertissement, or to any expression of emotion, is that its subject
matter must be of a certain type which lends itself well to the repeti­
tion of the first part of the thought. If a complicated or contradictory
thought is expressed, the repetition of the first thought tends to cancel
the effect of progression. Therefore, a more static emotion, the
theme of which may be expressed in the verse to be repeated and
elaborated on in the middle verse, is perfectly suited to this form.

295
Rousseau, in an article on the rondeau in his Dictionnaire de Musique,
discussed the qualities and limitations of this form:
II faut bien de discernement pour faire un choix de paroles qui
leur soient propres. II est ridicule de mettre en rondeau une
pens£e complete, divisee en deux membres, en reprenant la
premiSre incise et finissant par 13.. II est ridicule de mettre
en rondeau une comparaison dont l'application ne se fait que
dans le second membre, en reprenant le premier et finissant
par 13. Enfin il est ridicule de mettre en rondeau une pensee
generale, limitee par une exception relative 3 l'etat de celui
qui parle, en sorte qu'oubliant derechef 1'exception qui se
rapporte 3 lui, il finisse en reprenant la pensee generale.
Mais toutes les fois qu!un sentiment exprime dans le premier
membre amene une reflexion qui le renforce et l'appuie dans le
second; toutes les fois qu'une affirmation dans le premier
membre contient sa preuve et sa confirmation dans le second;
toutes les fois enfin que le premier membre contient la
proposition de faire une chose, et le second la raison de la
proposition; dans ces divers cas et dans les semblables, le
rondeau est toujours bien place (Rousseau, Dictionnaire, Qeuvres,
III, 795-96).
This proposition will apply well to an expression of the general attrac­
tiveness of love, followed by a more precise example applied to one
of the characters, and followed again by the general proposition. As
a device for propagandizing for love it is unequaled, and as the vehicle
for the expression of awakening feelings in a character, it is poetic
and expressive. The musician enjoyed setting the rondeau to music,
for the device of repeating the melody of the first part at the end of
the air gives it a unity and expressiveness that opera composers
appreciated.

The rondeau will be a favorite form of the composer and
author at the beginning of many entrees, as a good vehicle for intro­
ducing the characters and their emotions to the spectators.
The divertissements were not limited to any one form of ex­
pression, however, and many poetic and rhythmic patterns are found,
many of which conform to the rhythmic rules governing the dances of
the time. The problem of the pronunciation of the mute ^ at the end
of a line,however, confused poets, who tended to write lines whose
296
syllabic rhythm was correct only if the final mute _e of the line was not
pronounced, as in poetry. Since this vowel was sung, the rhythm of
the music often changed that of the poetry. I have found that some
poets in making use of the feminine rhyme tried to count the final
mute _e of each line in the total number of syllables, but all authors
seemed to be confused, and a consistent effort was not made to regu­
larize this practice. We see some of the difficulties as we read many
of the airs already cited. Voltaire and other critics felt that for this
reason, the feminine rhyme should be eliminated from musical com­
position:
La gloire et la victoire, £. la fin d'une tirade, font presque
toujours la gloire-eu, la victoire-eu. Notre modulation exige
trop souvent ces tristes desinences. VoilS. pourquoi Quinault
a grand soin de finir, autant qu'il le peut, ces couplets par des
rimes masculines; et c'est ce que recommandait le grand
musicien Rameau a tous les poetes qui composaient pour lui. *
1. Voltaire, "Lettre &. M. l'Abbe d'Olivet (5 janvier, 1767) in
Oeuvres, XLV, 16.

The couplets of which Voltaire speaks are especially present
297
in the divertissement, and usually fit into the simplicity and rhythmic
grace of the dances. However, the use of rhymed lines of unequal
length often caused a strange effect, no matter how poetic the words
(see below, lines 3-4, 9-10, 11-12);
A quoi sert tant de rigueur?
Tot ou tard, l'on est tendre:
Sous les traits d'un Dieu vainqueur,
T6t ou tard l'on voit tomber son coeur.
Se Dieu charmant sqait nous surprendre:
Mais qu'il est doux,
De sentir ses coups!
On ne peut s'en d£fendre;
Non, non, on a beau s'armer,
Tout doit s'enflamer;
Non, non, sans de si beaux yeux,
Peut-on §tre heureux? ("La Chasse, " Scene iv)
Pellegrin was less successful in this type of writing than other
opera authors, and, as we have noted before, some of his verse, with
its uneven lines and twisted rhythms, causes his opera-ballets to re­
main among the lesser lights of the genre. He does express the theme
of his entree well in his 'divertissements, however, and Sylvie, in
"Les Matinees d'et6, " sings of the sighs and tears of love, which she
has just experienced, but says that they are nothing compared to its
pleasures:
Que 1'Amour est plein de charmes!
Et qu'il flate nos desirs!
II exige des soupirs,
II veut qu'on sente des allarmes;
Mais pour prix de quelques larmes,
Qu'on moissonne de plaisirs! (Scene vii)

Probably Pellegrin's best accomplishment in use of rhymed
298
lines of unequal length is an air describing the "surprise de 1'amour. 11
A young huntress, proud and disdainful of love, suddenly discovers
that she, too, is among those stricken by Cupid's arrow. Here,
though the rhyme scheme, in relation to the line length, is still some­
what awkward, the use of shorter lines to depict the excitement of the
senses is nicely contrasted to the longer lines expressing the huntress 1
hesitations:
Va, fui de nos Forets,
Dieu plein d'allarmes;
Va, porte ailleurs tes armes:
Tes traits
Ont quelques charmes;
Mais, d'un coeur ils banissent la paix,
Fuy loin de nous, et fuy pour jamais.
En vain tu parois tendre,
Malheureux qui s'y laisse prendre!
Tes promesses,
Tes caresses,
En aimant
Tout devient tourment
Mais quoy? qu'osai-je dire ?
Helas! mon coeur soflpire;
Dans un moment ce coeur est change
J'ay fuy l 1 Amour, l'Amour s'est vange ("Les Jours, 11
Scene vi).
Although the poetry of the divertissements of the pastorale is
certainly an improvement over that of the prologues, its general
quality and its expression of a theme rather than a personality or an
action make it a difficult form to render dramatically or poetically
interesting. The dialogues of the pastorale, often precious and full of

maxims and self-conscious turns of phrase, surpass those of the
prologue in dramatic qualities, though they are not as interesting as
the dialogues of the comedy. The conversations of the precieuses,
searching to say something new on the subject of love and turning the
discussion of love into a sort of polemic sparring match, are every­
where transposed to the opera stage in the pastorales:
LISIMON
Est-ce vous que je voi, trop aimable Artenice?
Par la plus cruelle injustice
Vos rigueurs m'ont contraint & chercher ces Forets;
Ah! permettez du moins que mon coeur s'affermisse,
Contre le pouvoir de vos traits.
ARTENICE
Quoi? ma presence est pour vous un suplice?
LISIMON
Je cherche les plus sombres lieux,
Pour ne plus revoir ces beaux yeux,
Oil brillent tant d'apas, oil r&gnent tant de graces;
Vain projet! quel en est le fruit?
Par tout votre image me suit;
• Et mon coeur vole sur vos traces.
ARTENICE
Je ne m'attendois pas 5. voir regner 1' Amour,
Parmi ces sauvages retraites.
299
LISIMON
L'Amour qui dans vos yeux etablit son sejour,
Doit regner par tout oil vous etes;
II vous par la cent fois en faveur de mes feux;
Vous n'avez pas daigne l'entendre ("La Chasse, " Scene ii).
Lisimon, though the disappointed lover, does not forget to use
the words the precieuse Artenice wants to hear, and she never loses
her talent for replying in the right style. Both are touched by emotion,

ut a rather peaceful and unhurried emotion which does not overcome
their love for the amorous games of their society.
ClimSne, in "Les Matinees d'ete, " is a perfect prgcieuse
when discussing love with Sylvie. Her lines are full of maxims and
she is adept at countering Sylvie's protestations. Sylvie declares
vengeance on Daphnis for his imagined unfaithfulness, and Clim&ne
plays the role of the wise mind-reader, seeing through the spiteful
air of Sylvie:
SYLVIE
Je r£ponds de mon coeur, il fera son devoir.
J'ay squ triompher de la flame
Dont j'ay brule jusq'i ce jour:
L'Amour est sorti de mon ame;
L«e Depit y regne a son tour.
CLIMENE
Vous ne respirez que vangeancej
Ce fier Depit doit m'allarmer,
J'aimerois mieux un peu d'indifference.
SYLVIE
Que craignez-vous?
CLIMENE
Peut-on aimer
Sans allarme et sans defiance?
Les faveurs que l 1 Amour dispense
N'ont souvent qu'un eclat trompeur.
Eh! comment m'assurer d'un coeur
Que je ne dois qu'S. l'inconstance ?
Daphnis vous a manque de foy;
Grace 5. son changement, il soupire pour moi;
Mais, si le repentir 5. vos pieds le ramene ... .
300

SYLVIE
Non; je luy jure une eternelle haine.
CLIMENE
Contre un Objet trop charmant
La vangeance n'est pas sure:
En secret le coeur dement
Tout ce que la bouche jure;
Le dlpit fait le serment,
Un regard fait le par jure. (Scene ii)
301
Climfene's replies, full of sound psychology and precious maxims, are
consciously literary and full of the contrasts and opposing thoughts
typical of the genre.
Preciousness is not always respected, however, for, in "La
Veuve, " we feel that the ideal of duty that Isabelle expresses, together
with her hesitations and fears, are almost a parody of the too intellec­
tual games of the precieuses, which, if carried too far, eliminate
one's chances for sensual pleasure. In a way, because of her attitude
toward duty, considered silly by the other characters, she is a parody
of Corneille's heroines, for duty was now considered far inferior to
pleasure. La Font also shows us Isabelle's true interest in Leandre,
as she asks Iphise to repeat what Leandre has said:
LEANDRE
J'interromps vos regrets, mon aspect vous offense,
O Ciel! vous me fuyez, que mon sort est affreux!
Iphise que dit-il?
ISABELLE 5. Iphise £ voix basse.
IPHISE
II dit tout ce qu'il pense
Et tout ce que peut dire un coeur bien amoureux.

Fuyons done ....
ISABELLE
LEANDRE
Quoi faut-il perdre toute esperance,
N'ecouterez-vous point un amant malheureux?
IPHISE cL L^andre
Eteignez, Eteignez un amour temeraire,
Condamner sa douleur e'est aigrir son courroux.
ISABELLE
Je dois gemir de mon sort rigoureux.
LEANDRE
Helas! je ne puis trop vous plaindre;
Qui ne seroit sensible, en voyant ces beaux feux
Que le trepas ne peut eteindre ?
Quoi vous vous eloignez ? vous ne m'ecoutez pas?
Que je suis malheureux, helas!
ISABELLE
Je ne puis que pleurer.
IPHISE
He bien, pleurez ensemble
ISABELLE
Que diroit-on? 6 Ciel! ah je fremis! .. . je tremble ... .
(Scene iv)
Isabelle's resistance and arguments are made to look ridicu­
lous in this scene, as they are in a preceding passage in which the
lively Iphise, whose interjections and pretended solidarity with
Isabelle form a parody of romances in which the hero never gets the
girl, due to her excess of virtue. Iphise shows her good sense and
psychological manipulations of Isabelle in the following scene, as she
302

leads her on by stimulating her curiosity, giving her some good
advice about enjoying life:
IPHISE gayement
Leandre va bien-tdt se rendre 3. vos genoux;
Enfin son tendre coeur espere
Que vous serez sensible 5. cette ardeur sincere
Dont avant votre hymen il a brule pour vous.
ISABELLE fierement
Ah qu'il ne vienne point! ... aux cendres d'un Epoux
Je dois sacrifier le feu qui le devore:
Lies discours seroient superflus,
Iphise, ne m'en parle plus.
IPHISE
Quoi voulez-vous par vos refus
Desesperez qui vous adore ?
ISABELLE d'un ton plus doux
Doit-il bien-tot venir? ... Crois-tu qu'il m'aime encore?
IPHISE
Puisque vous le voulez je n'en parlerai plus.
ISABELLE
Helas! que mon sort est 3. plaindre,
Faut-il que de l 1 Amour j'eprouve les rigueurs?
303
IPHISE
On scjait que votre epoux ne valoit pas vos pleurs
Vous avez tort de vous contraindre.
Pour moi des mes plus jeunes ans
Je perdis un epoux l'objet de ma tendresse;
Mais je n'employai pas mon tems
A perdre en vains regrets ma brillante jeunesse. (Scene iii)
The tricks of Cephise and Agatine (in "Les Jours d'ete"), who
delight in making a fool of the volage Lisidor, provide the basis for
some very good dialogue. When C£phise mentions marriage to

Lisidor, she knows he flees any permanent tie to one woman, but
wishes to see how he will try to extricate himself from the situation.
Agatine begins the dialogue with a commentary on the "beauty" of
Lisidor, sarcastically parodying his claims that he honors whom he
loves:
AGATINE
Que peut-on risquer quand on l'aime?
S'il fait ressentir trop d'amour,
II en est 1'excuse luy-meme.
CEPfflSE
Lisidor, changeons de discours,
Je veux, pour assurer le bonheur de mes jours,
Que votre aveu me determine
Sur le choix d'un aimable Epoux.
LISIDOR
Je connois tout le prix du bien qu'on me destine;
Mais les noeuds de 1' Hymen ....
CEPfflSE
Parlez, expliquez-vous.
LISIDOR
Les noeuds d'un Hymen qu'on differe,
N'en deviennent que plus charmants,
Plus on fait languir les Amants,
Plus on les rend dignes de plaire. (Scene ii)
The self-deception of Lisidor continues, aided by Agatine and
304
Cephise, and when, at the end of the play, Cephise decides to announce
her choice for a husband, Lisidor has become no wiser. The dialogue
aptly illustrates his shock and unbelief at being second best, and the
glee of Agatine, as she has the last word:

CEPHISE
C'est assez, il est tems que mon choix se declare.
LISIDOR
Qu'allez-vous faire? o Ciel! Dorante est en ces lieux!
Du moins epargnez 5. ses yeux
Le Triomphe nouveau qui pour moy se prepare.
CEPHISE, i Lisidor
Je rends justice aux plus beaux feux;
Pourquoy voulez-vous qu'on l'ignore?
Mais ne vous h§.tez pas de triompher encore.
(3. Dorante)
Dorante, c'est vous seul que je veux rendre heureux.
Dorante!
LISIDOR
DORANTE
Quel aveu! Ciel! que viens-je d'entendre?
CEPHISE
Je vous avois promis de nommer mon Vainqueur;
N'ay-je pas choisi le plus tendre ?
LISIDOR
Non, tout ce que je vois n'est qu'un songe trompeur.
AG A TINE
Si vous prenez pour des mensonges
De si facheuses veritez;
On doit prendre aussi pour des songes,
Les faveurs dont vous vous vantez. (Scene vi)
305
One of the most charming of the dialogues of the pastorale, not
a true dialogue at all, since one of the characters speaks while she
sleeps, dreaming of her love, is the scene in which Daphnis discovers
that Sylvie loves him after all, and that his doubts were unfounded.
Though it has its faults, such as the too-prevalent "Ciel!" and "Ah! "

of the opera, it is a gentle expression of the pastoral love of Sylvie
and Daphnis:
DAPHNIS
Ah! faut-il encor que je l'aime!
Je l'apperqois; c'est elle-m&me.
Daphnis!
SYLVIE cl demy gyeillee.
DAPHNIS
Ciel! quel songe imposteur,
D'un nom qui luy fUt cher, entretient la Cruelle!
Non, Daphnis n'est plus dans son coeur.
SYLVIE 5. demy eveillee.
Daphnis, ah! que n'es-tu fidele!
DAPHNIS
Qu'entens-je? Quel regret! cessons d'etre allarme;
On m 1 accuse; je suis aime. (Scene iv)
The airs of the pastorale are often its most poetic moments.
The dialogue, though sometimes spirited or psychologically interest­
ing, is often overly precious and stilted. The air, however, fits the
pastoral setting perfectly, and many gentle songs of awakening love,
credos of the volages, and advice from confidants are not only poeti­
cally interesting, but describe the character and the emotions of the
singer in a manner that is quite sound dramatically.
The use of repetition, which will be more evident in the dial­
ogues of the comedies, is used in "Les Matinees d'ete" to emphasize
the character of Clim&ne, the hard-hearted beauty who disdains love.
She sings her beliefs at the beginning of the entree, in an air with

alternating masculine and feminine lines, giving the poetry the com­
bination of eight-syllable and seven-syllable lines. This alternation
307
aids the musician in expressing the spirit of the air in music, the first
line, which is octosyllabic, providing a continuing rhythm into the
second, which consists of seven syllables. The musical phrases
ended on every seven-syllable line, thus giving a sort of feeling of
pause by elongating the last syllable into a longer musical period.
This alternating form is often found in such airs, and is suited to the
more songlike quality of the fete than to the more noble verse of the
declamations of the tragedy:
L' Amour veut que tout soupire
Dans un si charmant sejour:
Pour moy, je n'y fais que rire
Des Amants et de 1'Amour.
Les beaux jours de la jeunesse
Sont pour les Ris et les Jeux;
Ceux qu'on donne 3. la tendresse
Ne sont pas les plus heureux.
L 1 Amour veut que tout soupire
Dans un si charmant sejour:
Pour moy, je n'y fais que rire
Des Amants et de 1'Amour. (Scene i, Scene v)
This air, expressing Clim&ne's disdain for the sighs of love and her
love for laughter, is perfectly suited to the musical rondeau form, for
the idea expressed in the first stanza is continued and illustrated by
the second, which neither contradicts the first, nor progresses to a

new idea. The repetition of the first verse, then, serves to empha­
size the theme of Clim&ne's life.
When Daphnis and Sylvie discover that they have been true to
each other, and that their suspicions had been caused only by
Clim&ne's games, Daphnis sings of ClimSne's cruelty:
Elle rit de tous les Amants;
H^las! avez-vous pu l'en croire,
Malgre mes plus tendres serments? (Scene v)
At the end of Daphnis' statement, ClimSne enters, singing again her
credo, which now means much more dramatically, for in the interim
308
we have seen her carry out this credo through her tricks played on the
true lovers.
Isabelle, the slightly ridiculous widow who clings too long to
her mourning, expresses her ambiguity of feeling in an air in which
she demands that the clothes she wears aid her in remembering her
duty and forgetting that she is in love. The passage is a true solilo­
quy, consisting of an initial statement of her problem in the first
stanza, then an expression of her emotions in a sort of inverted ron­
deau form (in which the first stanza, consisting of only two lines, is
inverted when it is repeated), and a final outcry against her dilemma:
L'image de Leandre en tous lieux m'environne,
Et celle d'un Epoux ne peut m'en garantir;
Je le voi bien, l'Amour l'ordonne;
Mais le devoir n'y veut pas consentir;
Faut'-il que pour jamais ma gloire m'abandonne?

Sombre appareil, lugubres ornemens,
Reprochez-moi toujours ma flame;
Mon Epoux ne vit plus, je fais mille sermens
De fuir 1'amour et ses engagemens.
Reprochez-moi toujours ma flame
Sombre appareil, lugubres ornemens.
Est-ce un crime d'aimer? helas! que de tourmens
Pour combattre un penchant qui vient flatter mon Amel
(Scene ii)
Although her continued resistance to Leandre's pleas may become
extreme, she appears here as a sympathetic character in a real
309
dilemma. It is not until later, when she has done quite enough to keep
up appearances, that her refusals become ridiculous.
Sylvie, in "Les Matinees," expresses her simplicity and
delicacy, and at the same time her confusion upon learning that
Daphnis is unfaithful to her. Her language and manner in this ear fit
her character, showing her to be more emotional and less
witty than Climfene:
Amour, ne pretend pas que je l'ecoute encore;
Va, fui, trop funeste Vainqueur.
Mais, comment surmonter un penchant si flateur?
Echos, temoins secrets du feu qui me d£vore,
N'allez-pas decouvrir 3. l'Ingrat que j'adore,
Qu'il regne toujours dans mon coeur.
Ah! pltltot, s'il se peut, qu'll jamais il ignore
Et son triomphe et ma langueur;
Amour, ne pretend pas, etc. (Scene 1 ii)
The precieuse Cephise, in "Les Jours d'£t£, " in explaining to
Agatine why she has feigned indifference to Dorante, shows her love

for the games of the Carte de Tendre, as she puts her suitor through
the trials and tests meant to prove his love:
Pour s'assurer de ce qu'on aime
La feinte indifference est d'un puissant secours;
Elle sert mieux que 1' Amour meme;
II fait des ingrats tous les jours. (Scene iii)
310
With these maxims expressing the precious ideal of love, she explains
both her ruse and her character.
The Pastorale-Comique
The pastor ale - comique, as I have chosen to call it, is a form
of entree which falls between the pastorale and the comedy. Its action
usually takes place in a more realistic setting (For example, in Les
FStes venitiennes, "Les Devins de la Place Saint Marc" and "L'Amour
saltinbanque" both take place on the Piazza San Marco, in Venice.),
though this realism is often limited.
Three of the entrees that fall into this category take place in a
setting not far removed from that of the pastorale: the seashore (from
Les F§tes venitiennes, "La Fete des Barquerolles" and "Fete marine;"
and from Les Plaisirs de la campagne, "La Pesche"). This location
is a favorite of the authors of the opera-ballet, and it is symbolic on
several levels. First, the presence of water helped create a realis­
tic framework into which the scenic designer could place elaborate
boats, many of which moved, satisfying the French craving for spec­
tacle without bringing back le merveilleux. Secondly, many of the

311
fetes of the Regency society were held on the seashore or on the banks
of the Seine, and the spectator was familiar with this sort of entertain­
ment. The fetes of the opera-ballet then seemed quite natural in this
setting. The third reason, and the reason why so many entertainments
were held near water, was the sexual symbolism of water and boats.
In the opera-ballet this symbolism will be made apparent, for the boat
is usually an important instrument to the plot; an instrument often on
hand for the old lover of a young girl to abduct her and remove her
from the sight of young and handsome men, but an instrument that
falls instead into the hands of the young suitor, who carries the
woman away in it. The act of the young man's carrying off the willing
woman in a boat represents, in a sense, the accomplishment of all
their desires, an accomplishment that even the Regency society would
have been shocked to see realistically portrayed on the stage.
This sexual meaning of the boat and the water is expressed by
the characters in some of the entrees, confirming that this symbolism
is not imagined. In "La Pesche, " for instance, the fact that Val&re,
pretending to be a sailor, professes to have found Dorim&ne's por­
trait floating on the sea, intensifies the love he seems to feel for the
woman in the portrait, and Zerbin, his friend, describes their dis-
dovery of the portrait in highly symbolic tones:
Dans le fond de la Mer profonde,
Nous avons trouve ce tresor;
Venus edt moins d'attraits sortant du sein de l'Onde. (Scene iv)

312
The comparison with the Goddess of Love rising from the waves com­
pletes the meaning of the sensuality of the sea.
This relationship is elsewhere even more overtly established
than it is in "La Pesche." In this air from "Fete marine," a sailor
parallels the perils and voyages of a boat on the sea with the voyage
of love:
La Mer est sujete £ l'orage;
L'Amour l'est encor davantage,
Mais il sqait charmer nos desirs:
Lorsqu'un Amant sur le rivage
Se voit pousse par ses soupirs,
II se fait de nouveaux plaisirs
De tous les perils du voyage. (Scene v)
In spite of the new realism of the setting and the more overt
sexual symbolism of the pastorales - comiques, they are not yet full-
fledged comedies, remaining in the realm of the fantasy of the pas­
torale. The characters often show much more wit and strength than
those of the pastorale, and some are humorous, but many of them still
avoid the truly comic, even when the occasion is offered them. Des­
pite the lack of a continuous comic intrigue, the pastorale- comique
contains many humorous moments and broader characterizations.
The young women of this genre tend to be slightly stronger,
more spirited and less na'ive than those of the pastorale, and, even
when they are experiencing the emotions of love for the first time,
their wit and polish do not melt, and they are mistresses of them­
selves. One good example of this type of woman is Zelie, in "Les

Devins de la Place Saint Marc. " She suspects the man she loves of
being a volage, and when her investigation in disguise has proved her
suspicions to be true, she leaves him.
L^onore, in "L'Amour saltinbanque, " though she is not even
sure what love is, knows that the carping and advice of her old
surveillante, Nerine, are nothing but the complainings of a disap­
pointed woman who hates men because they do not love her. Her
replies to Nerine are strong and assertive, and she even finds out
from Nlrine that she is loved--information that Nerine had been try­
ing to hide from her.
One young woman differs from Zelie and Leonore, in that her
awakening love, watched over by her jealous old guardian and suitor,
is full of fear. In "F§te marine, " Cephise fears not only the jealousy
of Astolphe, she also fears trying to escape him in his boat, for the
perils of the water are many. Here she is a girl torn between her
feelings of rebellion and her timidity about love. She seems often to
manifest this conflict in expressions of anxiety. When Dorante does
313
not appear immediately to help her, she imagines that he has fallen in
love with someone else:
Que ne profite-t'il de ce jour favorable:
Helas! pour combler mon malheur,
Cet Amant que mes yeux ont trouve trop aimable,
A quelque Objet moins tendre a-t-il donne son coeur ?
(Scene ii)

She also shows strength and spirit, however, once she has resolved
314
to escape from Astolphe, and is not cowed by his ragings. She chides
him for his jealousy in a witty manner:
ASTOLPHE 5 Cephise
Bl&mez-vous les transports dont mon ame est saisie?
Je s

indiscreet. As he steps onto the stage for the first time, he tells of
his desire for constant change:
Amour, favorise mes voeux:
Ne sois point offense, si mon coeur est volage;
Prendre souvent de nouveaux noeuds,
C'est te rendre souvent hommage.
Lorsque j'ai triomphe d'un coeur,
Je m£dite une autre victoire:
BrCller d'une infidelle ardeur,
C'est travailler sans cesse 5. te combler de gloire.
Amour, favorise mes voeux:
Etc. (Scene ii)
The confidants and servants of the pastorale-comique are
often much more comic than those of the pastorale. The soubrette is
much more in evidence, and the realism that will come full force into
the comedy is already shown by the presence of old guardians and
duennas, rather ridiculous and too old for love, who take the place of
the charming companions of the pastorale.
There are some confidantes who retain many of the gentler
aspects of the servants found in the pastorale, and Doris, in "Fete
marine, " is one of them. She is a strong woman, who helps persuade
Cephise to escape from her old suitor and guardian, and does not fear
his wrath. When he accuses her of filling Cephise's head with fanci­
315
ful notions of love, she answers him frankly, telling him her advice is
valuable:
Mon discours peut-il vous deplaire
Que ne profitez-vous de ma sincerite?

L'Amour est un enfant qui ne cherche qu'S. rire,
II n'aime point un ton grondeur:
Un-Amant enjoue l'attire,
Un Amant jaloux lui fait peur. (Scene iv)
316
Typical of the practical, down to earth confidante, full of wise
advice but not too saucy about it, is Lisette, in "La Pesche." She
chides DorimSne for her faithfulness to Val&re, saying that he has
been away at sea so long that he surely must have drowned. To her,
absence does not make the heart grow fonder, it being much more
practical to accept a lover who is present than one who is away. In
her advice, she resembles Iphise, in "La Veuve." The only difference
is that she is counselling a woman who was truly in love with the man
she lost, and not with the new suitor. Her counsels fall on deaf ears,
but they express an attitude perhaps more common to the Regency than
the faithfulness of Dorimfene:
Ne suivrez-vous jamais l'usage?
La perte d'un Amant destine pour Epoux,
Est un [sic] espece de veuvage;
Pourquoi vous en affligez-vous ?
Ne suivrez-vous jamais l'usage? (Scene iii)
She also compares love to a sea voyage, creating a parallel between
the changing sea and the changes of love:
: Quelquefois le vent emporte,
Le serment avec l'Amant.
Tout devient volage,
Sur un element,
Qui n'a pour partage,
Que le changement;

L'Amour fait naufrage,
Dfes l'embarquement. (Scene iii)
The idea that love founders as soon as it embarks is common to many-
characters of the opera-ballet, especially the volages, who concen­
trate on nothing more than beginning many "voyages" which they then
neglect for new projects of love.
By far the most comic of these characters is Nerine, the
surveillante of Leonore ("L'Amour saltinbanque"). She is an old
woman, no longer attractive to men, who follows the lovely Leonore
everywhere, warning her of the dangers of men in general and of
Frenchmen in particular. Her comic scene with Leonore will be
treated at length when the characteristics of dialogue are discussed,
and it points up her character in a few short lines. Disappointed in
love herself, and now too old to attract men, she is a new kind of
servant that will be common to the comedy. Her age and ugliness,
along with her unheeded advice about men, make her a much more
realistic person than most of the characters of the pastorale and the
pastor ale - comique.
The airs of this genre are often expressions of a more open
sensuality, and as the opera-ballet turns toward comedy, the naive
expression of a simple love will fade, replaced by such urgings to
pleasure and by more comic airs, which add to the characterization
of the lovers, suitors, and old men and women on the stage. C£phise,
317

however, in her fears and in her charming lament (see p. 313), re­
mains a more pastoral type.
The advice of Lisette (see p. 316) brings us much more into
the attitude of realism of the comedy, and the fickle L^andre of "Les
Devins de la Place Saint Marc," in his confidence and pride, brings
318
us to the volage as a true central character in the action of the entree,
as had been Silvandre in "La France. " He proves in another way that
he is a true Regency man, for he at first refuses to have his fortune
told, preferring the surprises life has in store for him to the boring
prospect of knowing what will happen in advance:
Je ne veux point prevoir le plaisir ni la peine,
Pour etre au rang des coeurs contens;
La crainte d'un malheur m'inquiete et me gene,
Et je goute bien moins un bonheur que j'attens. (Scene iii)
The themes of the pastor ales-comiques, many of which are
expressed in the divertissements or in the maxims of confidants giv­
ing advice, are often much the same as those of the pastorale. Some
new themes are added, however, and the openness of the hedonistic
attitude is much more apparent. We have already seen that the sexual
symbolism of the water and the ship is quite openly put, and this
theme will continue throughout the comedy.
The preciousness of the salons does not completely disappear
with the advent of more comic scenes, and Doris, in "F§te marine, "
is full of proverbs, especially about jealousy (see pp. 31,5-316).

She analyses the result of the efforts of a jealous man to seal his
loved one off from the rest of the world, stating that this has the
opposite effect on the woman concerned:
319
Qu'un Jaloux connoit mal l'interet de sa flamme,
En nous for

In two entrees, "Les Devins de la Place Saint Marc" and
320
"L'Amour saltinbanque, " the theme of the fickleness of Frenchmen is
emphasized, and in the former is verified in the person of Leandre, a
volage par excellence. Both entrees resound with warnings about the
dangerous Frenchmen, which must have pleased the men in the
audience. It is specifically stated in the dialogue that these two
characters, one faithful and one fickle, come from France: Zelie
("Devins") speaks of a "jeune Amant parti des rives de la Seine," who
has been following her, fearing he may be inconstant because of his
nationality. Leandre, in defending his inconstancy to her, thinking
she is a fortune-teller, attributes it to his "environment":
Dois-je me piquer de constance,
D&s que d'un tendre objet le coeur paroxt charme?
Ce seroit dementir les lieux de ma naissance,
D'etre toujours Amant, lorsque je suis aime. (Scene iii)
Nerine, in "L'Amour saltinbanque" warns Leonore against
Eraste for the same reason--he is French:
La France l'a vu naltre; il est galant, aimable:
De tous ceux que vous attirez
Je le crois le plus redoutable. (Scene ii)
She later repeats this warning (as she repeats everything), enlarging
upon her original analysis of the qualities of the French:
Vous le croyez constant? Ah! redoutez les feux
Des Amans que produit ce climat dangereux.
Si vous les meprisez, leur amour est extreme,
Rien n'egale l'ardeur de leurs tendres desirs;
Mais quand ils sgavent qu'on les aime
lis sont plus iriconstans que l'Onde et les Zephirs. (Scene iii)

321
Love, and the call for everyone to participate in the pleasures
of love, especially when young, still resounds throughout these
entrees as the main theme, however many may be the variations. The
idea of youth is especially emphasized, perhaps because the action now
involves more old people, who always lose any chance for love. They
are there, in all their realistic unattractiveness, to remind the
audience that the beauty they possess will procure them the pleasures
of love for a limited time, and that they must profit from the time they
have, before they become as ridiculous as the old suitors and surveil-
lantes on the stage. A rondeau on love and youth, sung by the
Bohemienne at the end of "Devins, " is preceded by this call to the
"fibres beautes" in the audience:
Venez, fieres Beautes, ecoutez nos chansons;
Songez a profiter de nos tendres leqons. (Scene iv)
The lesson she wishes to teach, which is the final air of the entree,
and thus its "moral, " is that youth is fleeting and it serves no pur­
pose to fall in love when you are no longer lovable:
L'Amour, qui vole sur vos traces,
Ne regne que dans vos beaux ans;
II va s'enfuir avec les graces
Que vous donne votre printems.
Vous perdez des jours favorables,
Oil vos yeux pourroient tout charmer;
Quand vous ne serez plus aimables,
Que vous servira-t'il d'aimer?
L'Amour, qui vole sur vos traces,
Ne regne que dans vos beaux ans;

II va s'enfuir avec les graces
Que vous donne votre printems. (Scene iv)
One of the most complete and interesting portrayals of love is
in "L'Amour saltinbanque. " The divertissement at the end of the
entree is begun by the entry of a Char, which, when opened, becomes
a little theatre. Inside is discovered L'Amour, "avec tous les orne-
mens d'un Saltinbanque, " and characterized in the classical way only
by the bow he carries in his hand. Les Plaisirs and Les Jeux sur­
322
round him, in comic disguise. Here Love loses all semblance of dig­
nity or seriousness. We know he will be light hearted and joyful, even
joking, for he is dressed for the role. A "saltimbanque" (usually
spelled with an "m" rather than the "n" of Danchet) was an acrobat, a
juggler, or a seller of patent medicines, who jumped onto public
benches (hence the name) to publicize his talents and give his entertain­
ments. Love, in this divertissement, is no god, but a charlatan--a
sort of lovable con man. Not descending from the sky, but entering
the stage on a sort of traveling theatre, he is obviously a human being,
who, by taking a bow into his hand, may represent Love during the
entertainment. Because of this characterization of L'Amour, making
him much more interesting than the majority of the characters that
arrive to present the divertissements, Danchet has made the maxims
of love common to the fete fit the vocabulary of this saltimbanque, and
so become more dramatically sound.

L'Amour begins by showing us the charlatan in him, as he
sells love the way one would sell patent medicines, using medical
words to make the parallel complete:
Venez tous, venez faire emplette
Je vens le secret d'etre heureux:
Je fais dispenser ma recette
Par les Plaisirs, et par les Jeux.
La froide indifference est une maladie
Funeste aux jeunes coeurs,
Je remedie
A ses langueurs. (Scene iii)
The first four lines of this "sales pitch" form a refrain that he will
repeat several times, while he sings of the dangerous maladies of
love in the intervening stanzas:
L'ennui d'une ame insensible
Est un dangereux poison:
Pressez-en la guerison,
Mon secret est infaillible
Dans votre jeune saison. (Scene iii)
Later, however, as a good salesman should, he shortens his
refrain, repeating a new, rhythmic verse that no one will be able to
keep out of his head:
Effet admirable
De mon sqavoir;
Tout devient aimable
Par mon pouvoir. (Scene iii)
He pushes the virtues of his "product" at a faster pace, and the lists
of troubles and maladies of love come more quickly than before:
La Jeunesse en est plus brillante,
• Et la Vieillesse moins pesante,
323

La Laideur se perd par mon fard,
La beaute paroit plus touchante
Avec le secours de mon art. (Scene iii)
Finally, arriving at the usual "punch line" of the charlatan, L 1 Amour
arrives at the statement of the price of this invaluable remedy. He
surprises everyone by stating that it is free. He contrasts this free
324
gift he gives with the love of the past, which cost much in sighs, tears,
sincerity, and discretion, a price too high to pay for a pleasure such
as love. In this last air, then, he contrasts the free and open love of
the Regency with the more noble and difficult love of the centuries
gone by:
Le prix d'un si grand bien, peut-etre, vous etonne;
Je ne le vens plus, je le donne:
Au bon vieux terns des Amadis,
Je le mettois cL trop haut prix.
J'exigeois des soupirs, des pleurs, de la constance,
Un coeur sincere, un coeur discret,
Et qui meme sans recompense,
Fut content de languir, de bruler en secret.
Ce n'est plus la mode
Des Amans constans:
L 1 Amour s'accommode
Au defaut du tems.
Un peu de contrainte,
Un coeur complaisant,
Une flamme feinte
Suffit Si present. (Scene iii)
Even though Eraste is presenting this fete, with this specific
theme, to show the contrast between himself and the kind of easy,
feigned, and indolent love described by L'Amour, we somehow feel

that the maxims of the divertissement, as expressed by the charming
charlatan, are triumphant nonetheless.
325
The dialogue, already illustrated by several passages, is more
lively and comic in some cases than that of the pastorale, although
precious and slow dialogue, full of maxims of love, does not disap­
pear. Even the dialogue between Zelie and the fickle Leandre
("Devins") becomes quite witty and resembles a salon game, as she,
disguised as a fortune-teller, discovers his infidelity. To Leandre's
initial refusal to have his fortune told (see p. 318), she replies that
she wants nothing more than to tell him of his "projets galans. " He
fears nothing about his future in tha.t area,
Sur mes projets d'amour je crains peu l'avenir;
Vous pouvez m'entretenir. (Scene iii)
and lets her read his palm. She cries out that she sees that he speaks
of love, but that he has never fallen in love himself. His reply shows
her his true character and his philosophy of love:
II est vrai, je suis infidele;
Par tout ce qui me plait je me sens arrete:
Le coeur ne fit jamais le tribut d'une Belle,
II est celui de la beaute. (Scene iii)
Zelie goes on to say that two women have already attracted
him in Venice, but that a new woman is now the object of his amorous
advances. She hopes to discover in this way whether his attachement
for her is any different, and finds that it is not:

LEANDRE
Croyez-vous que bientot je puisse l'enflammer?
ZELIE
Elle est fiere, et jamais elle n'eut de foiblesse.
LEANDRE
Non, ne pensez pas m'allarmer.
Je sgai contraindre un coeur rebelle
A m 1 engager sa liberte:
Je voudrois, pour la nouveaute,
Pouvoir trouver une cruelle.
ZELIE
Je prevois que bientot ton coeur sera content:
Elle veut un amour constant.
LEANDRE
Je jure avec transport une vive tendresse,
Je jure que jamais elle ne peut finir:
II m'est toujours aise d'en faire la promesse,
Et mal-aise de la tenir. (Scene iii)
Zelie learns of Leandre's true feelings, through a sort of parlor-
game disguise and a witty conversation, feigning indifference to
Leandre's ideas.
By far the best scene in this genre, from the point of good
dramatic dialogue, characterization and musical illustration, is the
scene in "L'Amour saltinbanque" in which the old syirveillante,
Nerine, counsels Leonore not to trust men. The scene shows a good
sense of the comedy of repetition, for Nerine becomes ridiculous
through her constant harping on the same subject. The musical
themes for these lines are repeated, too, giving the scene even more
dramatic unity. For a moment, in the midst of this futile discussion,
32 6

the themes and repetition seem to have stopped, but the scene ends
with the same dialogue, showing the uselessness of argument with
Nerine, for all discussions with her come full circle and are never
resolved. This makes the scene musically well united, too, for the
repetition of the original music at the end gives the composer the
opportunity to use a closed and finished form to illustrate the action.
The characters of Nerine and Leonore are well described by
327
this dialogue, too, with the constant repetition and unoriginality on the
part of Nerine painting her obsession with a single idea and Leonore's
witty replies showing her impatience with Nerine and her ability to
wrest information from her. I will repeat this scene almost in its
entirety, including even a few lines quoted above, for they gain added
meaning in their context;
NERINE
Songez, songez 3. vous defendre,
Tout Amant est un imposteur
Par l'attrait d'un discours flateur
II ne cherche qu'3. vous surprendre:
Songez, songez §. vous defendre,
Tout Amant est un imposteur.
LEONORE
Me tiendrez-vous toujours cet importun langage?
Vos soupqons eternels doivent me faire outrage:
Sans vous, sans vos conseils, je puis garder mon coeur.
NERINE
Songez, songez §. vous defendre.

LEONORE
Faudra-t-il toujours vous entendre?
NERINE
Tout Amant est un imposteur.
LEONORE
Valere, Octave, en vain pretendent me contraindre
A ressentir l'amour.
NERINE
Venise dans son sein leur a donne le jour,
lis ne sont pas les plus 5. craindre,
Mais ce jeune Etranger ....
LEONORE
Helas!
NERINE
Vous soupirez?
La France l'a vu naitre; il est galant, aimble:
De tous ceux que vous attirez
Je le crois le plus redoutable.
LEONORE
J'ignorois que sans cesse attache sur mes pas
Cet Amant de mon coeur voulut se rendre ma'itre;
Ce que je ne connoissois pas,
Vos soupqons me l'ont fait conno'itre.
Si la constance de sa foi
Me contraint un jour 3. me rendre,
Non, ce n'est plus 5. moi,
C'est 3. vous qu'il faut se plaindre. (Scene ii)
Leonore, not yet adept at speaking and understanding Eraste 1 s lan­
guage of the eyes, is nonetheless adept at making Nerine speak, and
from her she has learned that Eraste is indeed one of her suitors.
Nerine then describes the inconstancy of the French (see p. 320), and
Leonore delights in teasing her by telling her that love is beginning to
328

have some merit in her eyes simply because it helps young girls fool
their duennas:
LEONORE
Par des portraits peu veritables,
On nous trompe dans nos beaux jours:
Pour nous faire peur des amours,
On peint les Amans redoutables.
NERINE
Vous m'en dites assez: cet Amant vous sedu.it!
De mes sages leqons est-ce done le fruit?
LEONORE
Je pourrois bien un jour meriter vos allarmes.
Je crois que les Amours n'ont que de faux brillans,
J'ai toujours meprise leurs armes;
Mais je concjois qu'il est des char mes
A tromper les yeux surveillans.
NERINE
Je le vois, rien ne vous arrete.
Rebelle £. mes conseils . ..
LEONORE
Laissez-moi voir la FSte.
NERINE
Je vous l'ai dit cent fois: Gardez bien votre coeur,
Songez, songez 5. vous defendre.
LEONORE
Faudra-t-il toujours vous entendre?
NERINE
Tout Amant est un imposteur. (Scene ii)
Nerine judges Leonore without evidence, attributing feelings
to her which she has not yet experienced. In her stupidity, Nerine
pushes Leonore inevitably in the direction of love, rather than away
329
from it. Coming full circle in good dramatic fashion, and making use

330
of many comic devices, this scene is truly humorous, and were it not
for the patness of the rather ordinary plot, this entree would be among
the comedies of the opera-ballet.
The pastorale and the pastorale-comique, though changing with
the times and tastes, and gradually adding more realistic characters
to the essentially fantastic world of the opera, expressed the dualism
of the Regency by reflecting its character, but in a magic mirror--one
that eliminated the tawdriness of many aspects of the sensual life and
emphasized its advantages, and one that included the characters they
played in their own masks and games. Perhaps this is the reason that
Cahusac says, in speaking of the entrees of L'Europe galante, that
they were "de jolis Watteau" (Cahusac, Danse, III, 108), a term that
could apply to all the entrees of the pastorale and the pastorale-
comique.

CHAPTER 10
THE COMEDY
The comic entrees of the opera-ballet are in general the best,
dramatically speaking. The characters are interesting and well-
rounded; and the plot, though not complicated due to the brevity of the
form, holds more dramatic interest than that of the more pastoral
entrees. Their plots being more important, the comedies will be
treated in a slightly different manner. Since each is individualistic,
they will be discussed separately, as a synthesis of parallel charac­
teristics found in all of them is impossible. Because there is a
definite trend in the change of theme and material as the comic scenes
develop, they will be treated chronologically here, with the exception
of Les Ages, which will be discussed as a last, degenerate form of the
comedy even though it was followed by another work, Les Plaisirs de
la campagne.
The seeds of comedy are everywhere in the most pastoral of
opera-ballet entrees, being evident even in the first of the opera-
ballets, L'Europe galante. It begins to flower fully in many comic
acts of Les Fetes venitiennes, and in the entire Fetes de Thalie (if
one omits the entree "La Veuve, " replaced by "La Veuve coquette").
331

There are some comic entrees in Les Fetes de l'ete and Les Plaisirs
de la campagne, but the joyful comedy of the happy volages, the
charming young girls, and the Harlequins of former times yields to a
more cynical look at life, the delicate balance of fantasy and comedy
tipping in the direction of the latter at the expense of make-believe.
The realities of life invade little by little the "never-never land" of
332
the opera-ballet, contributing to its demise. The ballet - he r o'ique will
take possession of the opera stage, bringing with it the old myths and
heroes, and never recapturing the joy of the real-life characters of the
earlier opera-ballet: "The divinities. . . returned in force to the opera
and evicted the Don Pedros, the Leonores, the fickle Leandres from
the banks of the Seine, the lively petits-maitres, and the confidants of
the 'first period 1 opera-ballet who were forced to seek refuge in
parodies, vaudevilles, and the opera-comique.
Even the comedies that strike a happy balance between reality
and fantasy add weight to the realistic aspects of the action, revealing
a much more explicitly painted view of the Regency. This is a ques­
tion of a change of emphasis, for sensual and basically amoral ideas
existed in all the works, but were more discreetly masked in the
earlier comedies and pastorales. Pleasure's less pleasing facets
1. James R. Anthony, "The French Opera-ballet in the Early
18th Century: Problems of Definition and Classification, " Journal of
the American Musicological Society, XVIII, no. 2 (1965), pp. 204-
205.

333
will be evident, and fantasy will fade somewhat before the cynicism of
the later opera-ballet.
The comedies of Les Fetes venitiennes are perhaps the most
perfect of the opera-ballet in that they are expressions of the reality
of the times without sacrificing the magic that was the essence of
opera. In the atmosphere of masque and carnival at Venice, Danchet
created believable characters in obviously realistic situations, but in
such unreal surroundings that there could not possibly be any unhappi-
ness or harshness to spoil the games of the characters. The soft
smile of Watteau still hides the satiety and cynicism of the ladies and
gentlemen playing at games of love.
Perhaps the entree most indicative of the delicateness of
Danchet's comedy is the last one added to Les Fetes venitiennes, "Le
Triomphe de la Folie, Comedie. " The main character is a delightful
Arlequin, who could have stepped from a Watteau painting. He is
dressed in a philosopher's robe, however, and, lantern in hand, is in
search not of an honest man but a wise one. Because he is Arlequin,
we know from the beginning that his search will be fruitless, the
ridiculousness of his efforts and of his new found love for wisdom
being symbolized by the contrast between his typical costume and the
robes he wears over it. Disguising Arlequin as a wise man makes
wisdom laughable, as the disguise of the saltimbanque had ridiculed
deep love.

After singing the praises of reason, Arlequin meets La Folie,
334
again probably more a carnival character than an allegorical one. She
complains that he is deserting her, protesting that she loves him above
all others. Arlequin, even in this atmosphere of complete fantasy,
comments on the penchant all men have for La Folie and the pains they
take to hide their love for her by wearing the mask of wisdom:
Ne craignez pas que je publie
Cette felicite.
On ne tire point vanite
D'&tre bien avec la Folie.
Chacun, en suivant vos attraits,
Cache avec soin son esclavage:
Seule vous goutez l'avantage
D'avoir des Favoris discrets. (Scene ii)
The dialogue that follows contains not only an explanation of the
severity and boredom of wisdom and a praise of the merits of folly,
who can make the minutes fly quickly, it also shows comic aspects of
Arlequin's character. He is impressed by the descriptions of La
Folie, and, regretting a little his decision, he says that he will love
La Folie but only as second to wisdom:
LA FOLIE
Celle que tu veux suivre est farouche, sauvage;
La tristesse, 1'ennui l'accompagnent toujours:
Son air, son severe langage
En des jours languissans changent les plus beaux jours.
Tu connois quel est mon Empire,
On n'y songe jamais qu'a chanter et qu'a rire.

Les Amours, les Plaisirs, les Jeux les plus charmans
Volent oft ma voix les appelle;
Par les aimables enjoumens
De leur Troupe qui m'est fidelle,
Les jours coulent sans peine et semblent des mo mens.
ARLEQUIN
C'est 3. regret, je le confesse,
Que je quitte une Cour qui plaisoit S. mes yeux:
Vous serez, aprfes la Sagesse,
Ce que j'aimerai le mieux. (Scene ii)
335
Arlequin begins his search, and finds a doctor pining away for
love. The Doctor expresses himself comically, using all his learning
to sing of his feelings:
Amour, connois-tu ta victoire,
Lorsque tu me mets sous ta loi?
Oh! combien de Sgavans en moi
Relevent 1'eclat de ta gloire!
Le sublime Platon,
L'eloquent DemosthSne,
Le severe Caton,
En revivant en moi, sont charges de ta chalne.
(Scene iii)
Arlequin laughs at the Doctor's foolishness, saying that an old man
who falls in love is crazy enough, but that he is completely ruled by
folly if he expects to please the young object of his affections. Sadly,
he continues to search for a wise man.
In the following scene, Arlequin encounters a Spaniard, again
in love, but in a manner completely incomprehensible to Arlequin.
The Spaniard, willing to worship from afar without hope of reciproca­
tion, and carrying devotion too far in the eyes of the practical

Frenchman, is again ridiculed as he had been in L 1 Europe galante.
The Spaniard enters speaking words alien to the French attitudes
toward love:
Mon coeur, cachez toujours le feu qui vous devore;
Ma bouche, taisez-vous; mes yeux, soyez discrets;
Devant la Beaute que j'adore,
Gardez-vous de trahir mes amoureux secrets. (Scene iv)
336
A sentiment incomprehensible to the indiscreet Frenchman as pictured
in the opera-ballet, who is quick to fall in love, to press his lady for
reciprocation, and to talk of his love to everyone else. Arlequin's
reaction is typically French:
ARLEQUIN
Quelle fausse delicatesse
Vous fait cacher votre tourment?
L'ESPAGNOL
Celle qui me captive est un Objet charmant! ... .
Que dis-je c'est une Deesse!
Puis-je esperer quelque retour ?
Non, je dois m'epargner des efforts inutiles.
ARLEQUIN
Lies Deesses en amour
Ne sont pas les plus difficiles
L'ESPAGNOL
Je cacherai toujours mes feux.
ARLEQUIN
Vous n'§tes pas ce que je veux. (Scene iv)
The Spaniard, foolish in his belief in the standards women set,
despite Arlequin's advice that "goddesses" are perhaps less difficult
to please in matters of love, does not pass the test, and Arlequin next

337
encounters a Frenchman who must brag of his amorous exploits, even
to a complete stranger:
LE FRANCOIS
Parmi les transports de mon ame,
Je prens un inutile soin:
Je ne puis trouver un temoin
Du bonheur de ma flamme.
(Appercevant ARLEQUIN)
Je vois un Inconnu . . . N'importe, expliquons-nous:
Un plaisir renferme perd ce qu'il a de doux.
ARLEQUIN
Je vois dans vos regards une joie eclatante!
LE FRANCOIS
Je vous crois prudent et discret:
Je vais vous dire le secret,
Qui rend mon ame si contente. (Scene v)
Having observed the niceties by declaring that he is sure of the pru­
dence and discretion of Arlequin, whom he does not know, he reveals
that a cruel beauty has avowed her love to him, and shows Arlequin
her palace. When Arlequin protests ("Ne peut-on etre heureux sans
que l'on publie?"), the Frenchman sings of the pleasure of revealing
secrets to others, and runs off to tell his rivals of his triumph.
But Arlequin 1 s sneering attitude towards these foolish men is
hard to maintain when the lovely Colombine enters the stage.
Arlequin fears that all his "raisonnement" may not save him, and
tries not to look at her. She is a practiced coquette, however, and,
in a delicately comic scene of flirtation, causes him to forsake La
Sagesse for La Folie:

COLOMBINE
Pourquoi detournes-tu les yeux?
Pour toi les miens sont-ils §. craindre ?
ARLEQUIN
Je forme un projet glorieux,
Mais S. l'abandonner tu pourrois me contraindre.
COLOMBINE
Ecoute un moment ...
ARLEQUIN
Non.
COLOMBINE
Regarde.
ARLEQUIN
COLOMBINE
Autrefois je t'ai vu soumis & ma loi.
Laisse-moi.
338
ARLEQUIN
Tandis que je t'aimois, mille rigueurs cruelles
En ont ete le fruit:
Quand je change, tu me rapelles;
C'est ainsi que souvent les Belles
Meprisent qui les aime, et cherchent qui les fuit. (Scene vi)
Arlequin looks at her, and yielding to love, cries out in regret
at having forgotten his projects. Colombine consoles him with advice
which could apply to all the Regency period:
Dans la jeune saison
Ecoutons la tendresse:
Que le penchant du coeur nous serve de sagesse,
Et notre plaisir de raison. (Scene vi)
The fete that ends the entree not only emphasizes the ideas
Colombine has sung, but also includes a pantomime in the Italian

style in which the Doctor woos Colombine and Arlequin wins her from
him.
"Les Serenades et les joueurs" takes us from Arlequin's
world of sweet fantasy, tinged only slightly by realistic commentary,
to the world of the volage, this time tricked by three women. In a
setting in which we see the ridotti, or the gaming circles of Venice,
two disappointed women, Isabelle and Lucile, argue over the fickle
Leandre. Although the action is comic, it is not the most interesting
entree from the point of view of the dramatic action. The strong
points in this act are the good delineation of the characters involved
and the often subtle dialogue between the two women.
From the time they enter the stage, the two women, both sus­
339
pecting Leandre of infidelity, show different character traits. Isabelle
is the first to appear, seeming more angry and rebellious than lan­
guishing and pitiful. Lucile provides a contrast, as her na'ive reaction
shows her to be more inexperienced than Isabelle. She is determined
to discover the truth about Leandre, but repeats the plaintive cry
"Amour, rend ma recherche vaine" (Scene ii). Upon meeting each
other, they begin their dialogue by sly insinuations about each other,
sprinkled with subtle insults:
ISABELLE
L'Amour conduit ici vos pas,
Quelque Amant cheri doit s'y rendre:
Mais avec de si doux appas,
Est-ce vous qui devez attendre?

LUCILE
Vous avez icy devance
Le cher Ob jet qui vous engage:
D'un coeur plus vif, plus empresse,
Vos attraits meritoient l'hommage. (Scene iii)
340
After having compared notes about Leandre, they discover that
it must be a third woman that he is coming to meet, for he has for­
saken both Isabelle and Lucile. They decide to join forces in
punishing Leandre, but still keep some hope of winning him. This is
evidenced by the wise "advice" each gives the other, proposing that
the best way to punish a lover is to be indifferent to him. Each hopes
the other, in so doing, will leave her free to try to win him again:
ISABELLE
Vengez-vous par 1'indifference
D'un coeur que vos liens ne peuvent retenir;
C'est trop honorer l'inconstance
Que de chercher 5. la punir.
LUCILE
Ne cherchez point d'autre vengeance
Que celle de vous degager:
On aime plus que l'on ne pense,
Quand on prend so in de se venger.
ISABELLE
Croirai-je votre avis fiddle?
Votre propre interet ne l'a-t-il point dicte?
LUCILE
Lorsque vous m'animer a fuir un infid&le,
Ne menagez-vous point votre felicite? (Scene iii)
These two rivals find it hard to trust one another, making it
difficult to form any strategy for exposing Leandre's trickery. They

do decide on a sort of armed truce in order to find out the identity of
his new love.
The serenade of Leandre to Irfene, his new love, is one of the
most poetic of all the airs of the opera-ballet. Full of contrasting
341
moods and rhythms, corresponding often to new methods of persuasion
on the part of Leandre, it is not lacking in poetic imagery in some
places, despite the fact that too subtle imagery and thought in poetry
render it unfit for music. He begins by singing of sleep, which holds
Ir&ne in its arms, and of his jealousy of this happy position:
Irene, digne objet d'une flame eternelle,
Le sommeil dans ses bras vous- charme, vous retient,
Helas! le bonheur qu'il obtient
Devroit etre le prix d'un coeur tendre et fidelle.
Jaloux de regner seul sur des yeux si charmants,
Des Songes attentifs §L ses commandements
II suspend la Troupe volage;
II ne leur permet pas de vous tracer l'image
De mes feux, et de mes tourments.
After this calm, insinuating beginning, softly arousing Ir&ne
from sleep, Leandre begins to try to lure her from her chamber:
Ecoutez, par ma voix, 1'Amour qui vous appelle,
Le sommeil en peut-il egaler les douceurs ?
Eprouvez les plaisirs qu'une ardeur mutuelle
Fait ressentir aux tendres coeurs.
Irene, paroissez; malgre les voiles sombres
Dont la nuit a couvert ces lieux:
Paroissez: 1'eclat de vos yeux
De cette obscurite dissipera les ombres,
Mieux que l'astre brillant des cieux.

The lines in the preceding passage have become shorter, as the pulse
of his persuasive voice brings him to the rondeau which ends the air
and expresses more openly and rhythmically his declaration of love--
a declaration we know to be false:
Rassfirez votre coeur timide,
Derobez-vous aux yeux jaloux:
Le Dieu qui me soumet 3. vous,
Est prgt £. vous servir de guide.
J'osois mepriser les Amours,
Vous me forcer 3. les connoltre:
Les feux, que vos yeux ont fait naitre,
Ne s'eteindront qu'avec mes jours.
Rasstirez votre coeur timide, etc. (Scene iv)
It is hard to believe that any woman could resist such an
eloquent plea for love, but as the vain Leandre sends the musicians
342
away upon seeing Irfene appear on her balcony, she shows herself to be
more discerning than Isabelle and Lucile. Singing a charming air in
Italian which compares the love of Leandre to a butterfly going from
flower to flower, she declares that she will wait for a faithful lover,
and disappears. As Leandre continues to try his persuasive powers,
he speaks of Isabelle and Lucile, declaring that he never loved them,
and that their charms fade before those of Ir£ne. The two women
surprise him, revealing that they know of his duplicity, and leave him
in the hands of Fortune, who is as fickle as he.
The dramatic action of both "Le Triomphe de la folie" and
"Les Serenades et les joueurs" is quite simple, lending little to the

343
interest of the entree, and it is the theme expressed by the characters
that is foremost. In "Le Bal" and "L'Opera, " however, the action is
truly dramatic; and these two entrees might well be considered little
one-act comedies.
"Le Bal" has the more conventional plot, involving a Prince
(Alamir) disguised as a courtier in order to test the love of Iphise.
His friend, Themir, poses as the Prince, and pays court to Iphise, to
determine whether she will choose love above rank. All goes well
with the main action, though Themir foresees dire consequences:
THEMIR
II est rare de reussir
Par cette epreuve dangereuse.
Le desir d'un rang glorieux
Eteint les ardeurs les plus belles:
II est bien moins de coeurs fideles,
Qu'il n'est de coeurs ambitieux. (Scene i)
Iphise, however, wants only the glory of pleasing Alamir, and even
persists in seeing in him only a lover; being not at all impressed by
the revelation of his identity.
The scene that makes this entree notable is the second, in
which Themir and two Frenchmen, Le Maistre de Musique and Le
Maistre de Danse, discuss plans for the ball at which the Prince is to
reveal his identity. They are excessively polite to each other, as
they try to outdo themselves in praising each other's talents. As
Themir asks if it is a French custom to heap extravagant praises

upon each other, the two cannot hold back their buffoonish pride and
boastfulness. In a scene that is not only comic but which expresses
faith in the marvels of opera, the sole true combination of the arts,
they sing of the feats they can accomplish. The composer, Campra,
used each boastful line describing the powers of dance and music as
an occasion to "quote" well-known scenes from the operas of other
composers:
LE MAISTRE de Musique
Grace au Ciel, de mon Art je connois le sublime;
Tout cede & mes divins transports:
Je puis, dans le feu qui m'anime,
Du Chantre de la Thrace effacer les accords.
LE MAISTRE de Danse
Mes pas sont autant de merveilles;
lis sont brillans et gracieux:
Je s

stage a memorable one heightened by their delight at the orchestral
illustrations. Both combine comic qualities with a credo of the joy of
music.
The entree which is the most comic is "L'Opera, " with its
realistic setting (the Grimani palace, an opera house), well defined
345
characters, and less episodic plot. This entree is enhanced by realis­
tic comments on the opera as a place with a rather shady reputation,
and by the comic character of the Maistre de Chant.
The theme of the reputation of the opera and its singers is con­
stantly repeated by almost all the characters, and all are surprised
that a true and faithful love could happen between a beautiful opera
singer and her handsome suitor. As soon as the young lover, Damire,
tells his friend Adolphe that he loves an opera singer, the reaction is
immediate: "Vous aimez dans ce lieu?" Adolphe cannot believe that
such a thing has struck his valorous friend, and tries to remind him
of his exploits on the battlefield, but all is in vain:
Par un enchantement je vous vois arrete;
Ce Theatre pour vous est I'agreable azyle,
Oil le pouvoir de la beaute
Rend votre valeur inutile. (Scene i)
Leontine, the singer loved by Damire, is also filled with a
sincere and faithful love: a strange phenomenon at the opera, where
lovely stars are meant to inspire the love of the male spectators but
never to reciprocate:

LEONTINE
L'amour, que dans mes chants je feindrai pour Zephire
N'egale point celui que je sens dans mon coeur.
346
LUCIE [Leontine's friend and a singer]
Si vous avez un coeur si sincere et si tendre,
Vous ne fCltes jamais faite pour ce sejour:
Notre usage n'est point de prendre de l'amour,
Notre soin est d'en faire prendre.
Pour y mieux reussir, on y s

in her role. This leads us easily into the opera within an opera,
Z^phire et Flore, for Leontine sings snatches of the airs she will
sing as Flore later in the entree. She also uses the lines from the
airs to show indifference to the secret the Singing Master does not
wish to reveal to her, thus causing him to tell her everything:
LE MAISTRE entrant en colere.
Quelle audace! souffrez qu'un moment je respire . . .
Je venois de mon Art vous donner les leqons . ..
Mais dans le courroux qui m 1 inspire . ..
Ma voix ne peut former ses sons.
Quel courroux! ...
LEONTINE
LE MAISTRE
On me fait une offense mortelle.
(En allant au fond du Theatre.)
Apprenez, apprenez a connoitre mon coeur.
LEONTINE
Ne pourrai-je sqavoir ? ...
LE MAISTRE
Je sens une fureur! ...
Mais il faut m'acquitter du devoir qui m'appelle.
C'est vous qui commencez: Voici votre Chanson.
Ecoutez ... prenez bien le ton.
"Vole dans ma brillante Cour ... . "
LEONTINE
"Vole dans ma brillante. Cour,
Cher Zephire, reviens, c'est Flore qui t'appelle. "
LE MAISTRE
Ecoutez ... de ce Chant faites briller le tour . . .
Sofltenez la cadence . . . elle en devient plus belle .. .
347

LEONTINE
"C'est Flore qui t'appelle."
LE MAISTRE
Je ne puis revenir de mon etonnement!
LEONTINE
Apprenez-moi du moins quel sujet vous irrite. (Scene ii)
This first part of the scene, a quite realistic portrayal of a
music lesson and reminiscent again of Le Bourgeois gehtilhomme,
cannot continue for long. The Singing Master, still incensed by his
mysterious experience, must speak of it, though he professes a
desire to forget it. The sympathetic Leontine asks hith to tell her.
In the following passage, when he reveals that a Venitian noble,
undoubtedly rich, has asked the Singing Master to tell Leontine of
348
his love (or rather his desire), her reaction is not that of the typical
opera singer. Rather than acting pleased at her good fortune, she
cuts off the discussion, returning to the rehearsal of her music. The
lines of the opera and the words the noble Venetian asked the Master
to express to Leontine are similar, however, and the end of the
scene is a mixture of both opera text and the words of the suitor:
LE MAISTRE
En entrant dans ces lieux un temeraire Amant,
Orgueilleux de son rang et stir de son merite,
Me confioit pour vous son amoureux tourment!
Pour moi!
LEONTINE

LE MAISTRE
C'est pour vous qu'il soupire;
Par les discours les plus touchans
II me pressoit de vous le dire:
Mais en vain ... .
LEONTINE
Poursuivons nos Chants.
"Lorsque je sens pour toi le plus parfait amour ..."
LE MAISTRE
C'est ainsi que pour vous il exprime sa flamme.
Quel seroit son bonheur de pouvoir a son tour
Vous inspirer les feux qui devorent son ame!
Cessez .. .
LEONTINE
LE MAISTRE
"Je sens pour toi le plus parfait amour ..."
LEONTINE
"Lorsque je sens pour toi le plus parfait amour,
Ne seroi-tu point infidele?"
LE MAISTRE
Un coeur charme de vos appas
Ne peut jamais briser ses chalnes.
(On prelude)
LEONTINE
Le Spectacle commence, et je n'ecoute pas
Des louanges si vaines. (Scene iii)
This mixture of opera text and the pleadings of a suitor (so
much alike that only the quotation marks show us which is which), not
only add to the comedy of the scene, but show, through the confusion
on the part of the Singing Master, the close relationship between the
language of courtship at the time and the language of the opera.
349

350
It is in Les Fetes de Thalie that the comedy comes into its own.
Formerly removed into a world of fantasy, the characters of the
opera-ballet will be dressed in French clothing. Formerly peopled
with sympathetic confidantes or lightly comic soubrettes, the opera-
ballet will now include more ridiculous older characters, one of whom
is a flirtatious old woman played by a man. This is also the first
opera-ballet in which all the entrees are comic (if one excepts "La
Veuve" and includes its replacement, "La Veuve coquette"). Only one
other opera-ballet of this first period will be totally composed of
comic entrees, and in it (Les Ages) may be found the germs of the
death of the opera-ballet--principally a too-cynical realism tending to
kill the atmosphere of fantasy.
For all its comedy, however, Les F§tes de Thalie succeeds in
retaining enough magic and charm to be still delicate and often even
na'ive. Although the characters are more realistic and sometimes
ridicule the customs of the Regency, they do not show the cynicism of
the later opera-ballets. Even the financier in "La Veuve coquette" is
nothing more than a name. Money problems, too real for the delicacy
of the opera, will not be central until the entree "La Vandange" in Les
Plaisirs de la campagne shows us an intrigue in which money causes
conflict and jealousy among the characters.
The arrangement of the acts of Les Fetes de Thalie is interest­
ing, going from the fears of a young girl, afraid to fall in love ("La

Fille") to the silly games of a coquette ("La Veuve coquette"), to the
mature and even cynical ruses of a husband and wife ("La Femme").
This progression, though changed somewhat by the addition of "La
Proven9ale" to the opera-ballet, goes from the na'ive and playful to
351
the satiated and lazy. Even though the new entree, "La Provengale, "
depicts a young girl completely ignorant of love, it also carries the
progression to the follies of old age in the persons of the old guardian
and the surveillante who are both made to look foolish in their fanr
tasies.
"La Fille, " the first entree, shows a wise young man who, in
order to make Leonore realize that she loves him, courts her mother,
Belise (who is played by a man). This tactic resembles that of
Euryale in La Princesse d'Elide, differing only in that the use of
Belise to cause jealousy in Leonore was not present in the more gen­
eral strategy of Euryale. Belise is of course disappointed at the end,
and is made to look ridiculous throughout the act. She is more buf-
foonish than comic in a biting, ridiculous sense, however, and the
laughter directed at her is not malicious. • She does not jar, then, in
the light atmosphere of the opera-ballet.
The use of old men and women as the butts of comic jokes in
the opera-ballet, as exemplified by Belise and many others, has
already been evident in some pastorales and pastorales-comiques. It
is in the comedy, however, that these characters will become at times

more central to the interest of the entree (though not actually central
to the plot, which always involves the young lovers) because of their
352
more deeply defined and humorous character. This is not only because
it is difficult to put the lovers into the position of being ridiculous, but
also because it was a theme of the Regency that one must profit from
one's younger years, old age being a time when pleasures no longer
come easily and when one offers no beauty to cause the pleasure of
others.
Belise, then, still clinging to illusions of beauty and attractive­
ness, but at first a friend to Leonore, tries to persuade the cruel
beauty to pay attention to the suit of Acaste. Her advice, sprinkled
with allusions to her own beauty, has little effect on Leonore, who is
worldly wise, though she has never fallen in love. Her comments on
the boredom and restrictions of marriage are not the remarks of a
frightened girl, but of a Regency woman touched by cynicism:
LEONORE une Guittare a la main.
Rire, danser, chanter est mon partage,
Sans soins, sans amour, sans desirs,
Je ne m" engage
Qu'aux seuls plaisirs.
BELISE
Acaste est de retour, apres un long voyage,
Donnez-lui votre main, couronnez ses soupirs.
LEONORE
Des plus tendres soupirs l'hymen bannit l'usage,
Rire, danser, chanter est mon partage.

BELISE
Depuis que mon epoux a quitte ce rivage
Dans les pleurs j'ai passe dix ans.
Sans doute il ne vit plus, votre seul avantage
Me fait refuser mille Amans
Voulez-vous perdre ainsi le printerns de votre §.ge?
LEONORE
L'Hymen cause des soins, ces soins trop importans
Nous font vieillir des le Printems. (Scene iii)
Acaste, the suitor, has just arrived at the port of Marseille,
where the action takes place, and his friend, Cleon (believed to be
lost at sea), is Belise's husband. As Belise begins to believe in her
daughter's disdain for Acaste, she insinuates that a wife in "l'age de
353
la raison" is better. Her efforts to win Acaste are made all the more
ridiculous by the presence of her husband, unknown to her but obvious
to the audience. The following scene, beginning with Leonore's con­
tinuing witty replies to the sentimental expressions of love around her,
and including the gradual insinuations of Belise, the feigned interest
of Acaste in the older woman, and the dismay of Leonore, is one
whose dramatic action brings out all the characteristics of its three
participants:
ACASTE
Vos mepris, Leonore, ont-ils fini leurs cours ?
Daignez-vous consentir a mon bonheur supreme
Et ver-Fai-je bien-tot commencer mes beaux jours?
LEONORE
De l'Amant voilS. les discours
Ceux de l'Epoux sont-ils de me me ?

ACASTE
L'Hymen ne servira jamais qu'a m'enflamer.
LEONORE
Non, I'on ne s'aime plus, des que l'on doit s'aimer.
BELISE a Acaste
Ne lui faites point violence,
Portez ailleurs des voeux qu'elle n'ecoute pas.
ACASTE
Que ne puis-je arracher mon coeur a sa puissance!
LEONORE St Acaste
Vous trouverez ailleurs de plus charmans appas.
ACASTE
O Ciel! §. tant d'amour faire tant d'injustice!
BELISE
Sa legere humeur, ses caprices,
Sur les douceurs d'hymen repandroient le poison:
Si vous voulez gouter d'eternelles delices,
Prenez femme qui soit dans l'age de la raison.
ACASTE £ Belise
Je goute vos conseils, ils finiront ma peine.
LEONORE 5. part
Quelle honte pour moi s'il sortit de ma chaine!
Que dites-vous!
.ACASTE
LEONORE
Suivez des conseils genereux.
ACASTE 2t part le premier vers
Le seul depit jaloux peut la rendre 3. mes feux.
Vous me conseillez done une chaine nouvelle ?
LEONORE
Cherchez quelque objet moins rebelle.
354

BELISE 5. Acaste
Je sgais la beaute qu'il vous faut,
Elle veut vous charmer, ses yeux brillent encore
Du meme feu dont brille Leonore
Elle n'a pas un defaut.
ACASTE
Montrez-moi sans tarder l'objet qu'il faut que j'aime.
BELISE se montrant
Vous la voyez, c'est une autre elle-meme. (Scene iv)
355
Announcing that she is "another Leonore," Belise then declares
herself, singing a joyful air when Acaste decides to go along with her
wishes in order to make Leonore jealous, revealing her humility and
surprise at being accepted by Acaste:
Mon amour sur tes pas conduira les plaisirs,
C'est assez qu'avec eux, tu me souffres moi-meme.
(Scene v)
Cleon, interrupting Acaste and Belise, accuses her of infidel­
ity, and Leonore makes the mistake of showing her satisfaction at the
fact that Acaste cannot marry her mother. Belise is forgotten as the
two friends, Acaste and Cleon, arrange the marriage of Acaste to
Leonore, who finds no more objections to offer.
"La Veuve coquette, " though more comic in nature than "La
Veuve, " which it was written to replace, remains the weakest entree
of the F§tes de Thalie. It moves a step closer to the open expression
of many of the more cynical aspects of the search for sensual
pleasures, especially in the characterization of the widow, Isabelle.
She, in her "demi-deuil galant, " takes delight in the attentions of her

many suitors, finding that being a widow has many advantages in the
games of love:
Douce liberte de veuvage,
Non, je ne vous perdrai jamais;
Je connais trop votre avantage
Pour renoncer a vos attraits.
Mille Amans viennent rendre hommage
A 1' eclat de nos yeux, au pouvoir de nos traits;
Mon Coeur avec plaisir ecoute leur langage,
Et n'en goute pas moins une profonde Paix. (Scene i)
Isabelle differs greatly from the Isabelle of "La Veuve," for the for­
mer uses her mourning as a sort of disguise instrumental to her
conquering of the hearts of all the men around her. The latter,
younger and stricken by pangs of conscience, hoped fervently that the
mourning she wore would remind her of her duty.
In this entree the presence of money also makes itself felt,
though very slightly. One of Isabelle 1 s suitors is a financier, and
remarks that he has spared no expense in the preparation of a fete for
her. This mention of money and the power it wields is somewhat jar­
ring in the pastoral setting of "La Veuve coquette, " but again shows
the trend toward realism in the comedies of the opera-ballet.
The absence of any emotion in the characters is also quite
important to this trend. Isabelle pretends grief only to play games,
Tant d'empressement me desole;
Veuve a peine depuis deux ans,
Croyez-vous qu'en si peu de tems
Un coeur afflige se console? (Scene iv)
356

and none of her suitors seems to be inconsolable when she announces
that she loves neither of them. With the jaded attitude of the Regency
man, they leave the stage, singing:
On n'en est pas plus miserable
Pour une Maitresse de moins. (Scene vi)
357
This same characteristic prevails in the husband and wife por­
trayed in the entree "La Femme. " Both are mature, and both realize
that marriage, being too permanent a state, leads to the boredom so
feared by the hedonists of the time. When Dorine, the confidante of
Caliste, enters full of anger to announce that Caliste's husband is
preparing a fete for another woman, Caliste reacts quite calmly. She
explains that she is the woman Dorante loves, having met her at a
masked ball and not recognizing her. Dorine, a down-to-earth sou-
brette, cannot feel calmabout the situation, her emotions and reactions
being more sincere:
Voila les hommes.
D'un bien que l'on possede oublier les appas,
C'est la mode au siecle oft nous sommes;
On veut un bien qu'on n'a pas,
VoilS. les hommes. (Scene ii)
The same relationship exists between Dorante and his confi­
dant, Zerbin. Zerbin cannot understand why Dorante is unfaithful to
the lovely Caliste, just as Dorine finds it difficult to accept Caliste's
calmness. Dorante makes an explanation of his feelings, an explana­
tion devastating to any woman who desires love rather than respect:

358
Caliste merite mes soins,
A regret mon coeur est volage;
Je sens que je ne puis l'estimer davantage;
Mais je sens malgre moi que je l'aime moins. (Scene iii)
Zerbin, another good comic character, tries in vain to calm
his master's ardor by warning him that he will not like the mysterious
woman once she is unmasked, and that Dorante is in love only with the
unknown. When Caliste appears, masked, Dorante cries out, "La
vois-tu? quels attraits! .. . Caliste est moins aimable"; but Zerbin,
trying his best, answers: "Je crois a ses appas le masque favorable"
(Scene iii).
As the masked ball begins, Dorante dances with Caliste, and
Dorine suddenly realizes that Zerbin, her husband, does not recognize
her in her disguise. She decides to try the same trick on Zerbin, to
learn if he is faithful to her. In this comic parody of the situation
between Caliste and Dorante lies the true humor of this entree. We
soon learn that Zerbin is quite different from Dorante. He is not
attracted to the mysterious lady who questions him, but states that
life with his wife is so unbearable that the thought of another woman
who might be the same disgusts him. This slow revelation, as Dorine
questions him, is comic in itself, and just as Zerbin reveals his feel­
ings about his wife, the attention of the audience shifts to the conver­
sation between Caliste and Dorante, leaving us in suspense as to the
fate that will befall poor Zerbin:

DORINE
Vous semblez eviter mes pas.
ZERBIN
Qui moi? j'ai d'autres soins en tete.
DORINE
Peut-etre cherchez-vous ici quelque Conquete.
ZERBIN
Vous ne vous y connoissez pas.
DORINE
Et dans un Bal que venez-vous done faire?
ZERBIN
J'accompagne mon maitre amoureux.
DORINE
Et vous ? Rien ne peut vous y plaire ?
ZERBIN
Le Sexe des long-tems me rend trop malheureux.
DORINE
Aimeriez-vous quelque inhumaine?
ZERBIN
Quoi? suis-je fait pour les rigueurs ?
DORINE
Est-il rien de plus doux que 1'Amour et ses faveurs
ZERBIN
Est-il rien de plus dur que I'Hymen et sa Chalne?
DORINE
Et pourquoi de I'Hymen detestez-vous les loix?
ZERBIN
De ses fers je sens tout le poids.
DORINE
Quels defauts a done votre Epouse?

ZERBIN
Elle est prude, bizarre, incommode, jalouse;
Elle m'a degoute de son sexe trompeur,
Peut-etre seriez-vous comrae elle?
Je la deteste . .. et grace 3. sa mauvaise humeur
Je lui serai toujours fidele. (Scene iv)
In addition to its comic nature, this dialogue is important be­
cause it cuts the divertissement, already in progress, into separated
parts. The divertissement being a ball, the characters alternately
dance and speak, integrating the dance into the dramatic action much
more completely.
In a way, Caliste fares no better than Dorine; but Caliste is
360
truly playing another character, satisfying her ego by making this new
conquest of her husband, even by forcing him to swear he does not love
his wife. In the following dialogue, it is evident that Caliste is not
totally immersed in her role as the mystery woman, for in many of
her lines we see that she is hoping that he will declare his love for his
wife. Even though she wins him in her new disguise, which is a vic­
tory of sorts, she would have preferred to have been a momentary
attraction in his life:
DORANTE
Vous etes de mon coeur maitresse souveraine.
CALISTE
D'autres que moi peut-etre ont SQU vous enflamer.
DORANTE
Quel autre objet que vous pourroit jamais me plaire?

CALISTE
Mais quoi? n'avez-vous point de reproche 5. vous faire?
DORANTE a part.
Dieux! s9auroit-elle mes liens?
CALISTE
Vous vous troublez . . . Qu'elle est une Caliste
Dont les attraits, peut-etre effacent tous les miens?
Caliste dites-vous?
DORANTE un peu deconcerte.
CALISTE
Quoi ce nom vous attriste?
Vous semblez interdit! . . . vous l'aimez ... je le voi.
DORANTE
Non, je n'aime que vous, je m'en fais une loi.
CALISTE
Vous me trompez . . . Elle regne en votre ame.
DORANTE
II est vrai, je l'aime, je ne m'en defends pas;
Mais ne m'accusez point d'avoir eteint ma flame,
C'est un crime de vos appas.
CALISTE
Mais aupres d'elle enfin si 1'Amour vous rappelle?
DORANTE
L'Amour vous fait triompher d'elle.
CALISTE
Pourrez-vous l'oublier?
CALISTE
Vous ne 1'aimerez plus?
DORANTE
Oiii, je vous le promets.
DORANTE
Non.
361

CALISTE
Quoi jamais ?
DORANTE
Jamais. (Scene iv)
362
Caliste has forced Dorante into the position of swearing to for­
get his wife, and now is the time that both women choose to unmask.
The reactions of the two husbands, one horrified and one calm and
urbane, show again the contrast between their attitudes. Dorante and
Caliste, sophisticated and worldly, accept the revelations that have
come from the ruse quite calmly, taking consolation from the fact that
this game has renewed their interest in each other:
Caliste et Dorine se demasquent.
ZERBIN
Juste Ciel! quel trouble est le notre!
DORANTE d'un air riant sans se
troubler.
Caliste je suis trop heureux,
L'Amour nous contente tous deux.
Rivalle de vous^-meme et sans en craindre d'autre,
L'Amour apres 1'Hymen veut resserrer nos noeuds.
CALISTE
Votre caprice est digne qu'on l 1 admire,
Et je pourrois m'en irriter:
Mais je dois vous imiter,
Et comme vous j'en veux rire. (Scene iv)
"La Provengale, 11 the last entree of the opera-ballet, is one of
the best, dramatically. Crisante, an old man, and Nerine, the sur-
veillante of his ward, Florine, have bastioned themselves off on the
shores of the Mediterranean. Crisante plans to marry Florine,

hoping to win her by removing her from communication with others at
363
a very young age, enclosing her in a castle surrounded on three sides
by a high wall and on the fourth by the sea, and teaching this young
beauty that she is ugly and that her old surveillante is beautiful.
Crisante trusts that Florine will then believe that he is doing her a
favor by marrying her. The characters of Crisante and Nerine are
well defined and comic, but even the young Florine is full of wit and
life, not accepting the tales she is told by her jailers.
The entree begins in the early morning. Crisante is discov­
ered by Nerine staring out to sea. He has become so jealous that he
can no longer sleep, and guards Florine night and day. He has be­
come even more frightened of late by the appearance of "une Barque
galante" on the sea, from which lovely music floats in the air to
charm the ears of Florine. The old man rightly mistrusts this arri­
val on the sea (in keeping with the prevalent water and boat symbolism
often found in the opera-ballet), and contemplates building a wall on
the seashore. Nerine, though aiding him in his plans, is wiser in
analyzing the ways of young women, and is full of warnings about the
futility of Crisante's plans, spouting maxims to contradict his every
idea. When he wonders at Florine 1 s attraction to the music coming
from the boat, she warns that the pleasure Florine may take in it will

e all the greater because of the essential boredom of her life in the
bastion:
Dfes que le plaisir se presente
La jeunesse vole apr&s lui,
Plus elle a ressenti d'ennui
Plus sa joye est vive et piquante. (Scene i)
Nerine also prepares the audience for Florine's defiance of
364
Crisante's insistence that she is ugly, explaining that no woman really
believes she is unattractive:
Notre sexe n'est pas credule
Quand on 1'accuse de laideur;
Et l'objet le plus ridicule
Se croit aimable au fond du Coeur. (Scene i)
Florine's entrance follows closely the warnings of Nerine, and
it is evident that Nerine was right from the fact that Florine enters
gazing at her reflection in the water. She enjoys this occupation in
spite of the fact that she has been taught that she is ugly: "Malgre
tous mes defauts je me plais a m'y voir" (Scene ii).
Not only is Florine wise enough to know by instinct that she is
attractive, she is quick-witted, knowing how to turn the criticisms
and warnings of Crisante and Nerine back upon themselves:
NERINE
Je vous l'ai deja dit 1'image de vos traits
Doit vous faire une horreur extreme.
FLORINE
Cet avis vous convient, profites-en vous meme,
II semble pour vous fait expres.

CRISANTE £ Florine.
Nerine est aimable, elle est belle
Je voudrois qu'en beaute vous puissies l'egaler
Quelle grace!
FLORINE
Tant mieux pour elle.
J'aime mieux ma laideur que de lui ressembler.
5. Crisante
Mais enfin dans mes traits qu'ai-je done qui vous blesse?
CRISANTE a Florine.
lis sont trop delicats, ils ont trop de finesse,
Et vos yeux pleins d'un certain feu
Sont trop ouverts ... Et la bouche trop peu.
Vous aves contre vous encor votre jeunesse
Ce vice ne peut s'excuser
Connoisses cependant jusqu'oii va ma foiblesse
Malgre tant de defauts je veux vous epouser. (Scene ii)
Crisante 1 s comical explanation of Florine 1 s "ugliness" indicates her
beauty, and far from feeling grateful at his proposal, Florine prays
for a way to escape him.
As Crisante goes off to order a wall built on the seashore,
leaving Nerine to guard Florine, the boat lands, and Leandre and a
group of "Matelots et Matelottes" appear. There being no women
sailors at the time, we know that again, these are disguises for a
fgte galante. Nerine tries to leave for Crisante's help, but Leandre
prevents her from going. As he compliments Florine on her charms,
she protests that she has always been told the contrary, partly from
sincerity and partly from a desire to hear the compliments repeated
(we already know that she has never completely believed the stories
365

of her ugliness). In the scene with Leandre, she is charming and
frank, even asking him to repeat his praises of her:
LEANDRE
Tout cede au pouvoir de vos yeux
Vous aves plus d 1 eclat que la naissante aurore,
Vous etes 1' image des Dieux
C'est peu de vous aimer, il faut qu'on vous adore.
FLORIN E
Quel langage flateur . . . Recommences encore. (Scene iv)
Following the fete, Leandre proposes to marry Florine, car­
rying her away from her imprisonment. When Nerine and Crisante
try to follow the lovers, the dancers form a ring around them, pre­
366
venting them from pursuing Florine. As Crisante, full of fury, shows
his despair at the loss of the beautiful Florine, Florine turns his
teachings on him, singing from the boat that he should choose a real
beauty rather than her:
D'ofl vient cette fureur nouvelle?
Vous perdes peu, vous le saves;
Je suis laide, Nerine est belle,
Epouses-la, si vous pouves. (Scene v)
The opera-ballet approaches realism even more in two entrees
of Les Fetes de l'ete: "Les Soirees de l'ete" and "Les Nuits de l'ete."
The author specifically states that the action takes place near Paris,
and the entrees abound with references to the pastimes of the Parisian
society. Although there is perhaps too much specific reference to
these pastimes without enough illustration of these themes in the
action, both entrees are entertaining and comic.

"Les Soirees de l'ete" closely parallels "La Provemjale" in
367
plot, but lacks its fullness of characterization, putting the ideas of the
old guardian (or tutor in this case) into his words rather than into his
actions. This does not mean that old Crisante's words did not reveal
his character. They did, but subtly--he was unaware of the fact that
he was indicating more than he intended. Argante, the tutor of "Les
Soirees, " tends to preach his character more than to illustrate it.
On the banks of the Seine, Argante prepares a boat in which he
intends to carry off his pupil, Hortense, desiring to remove her from
the temptation of so many handsome young men. Argante 1 s servant,
Zerbin, in love with Hortense's confidante, Doris, warns Argante
that removing Hortense will not make her love him, in a devastating
description of old age:
Croyez-vous qu'on daigne 3. son tour
Repondre 3, l'ardeur qui vous presse?
Vous avez vecu plus d'un jour.
On peut chez la froide vieillesse
Prendre des leqons de sagesse;
Mais jamais des letjons d 1 amour. (Scene i)
Hortense, who has never before been able to leave the side of
her tutor, and who is being allowed to join the festivities of the fete
galante only to facilitate his plans, asks Doris naively why so many
people flock to the banks of the Seine. In their dialogue, we see that
the real life of the Parisian nobility and the life of the opera charac­
ters are not at all different:

HORTENSE
Je regarde partout, et ne fais qu'admirer;
Mais, en foule en ces lieux pourquoi vient-on se rendre?
DORIS
C'est pour voir et pour se montrer.
HORTENSE
Pour se montrer? C'est S. vous de m'instruire;
He! pourquoy se montrer ?
DORIS
Pour donner de 1'amour.
(Scene ii)
This scene not only shows us a view of the society of Paris, it also
368
reveals the innocence of Hortense, who wonders why anyone should want
to fall in love. Hortense resembles, in many ways, the young women
of the pastorale, who scorn love because they are afraid of this un­
known passion. Hortense differs from Florine, for she has taken to
heart the lessons of her old tutor, who has taught her not that she is
ugly, but that love is an unhappy and dangerous emotion. Her naive
conversation with Doris on this subject is humorous in a sympathetic
way. Hortense is not made to look ridiculous, but her innocence
stimulates indulgent laughter:
HORTENSE
Et cet amour, Doris, quel bien peut-il produire?
DORIS
Vous l'eprouverez quelque jour;
Lisis a vos yeux va paroitre .. .
Vous n'interrogez plus?

HORTENSE
Je ne veux rien scavoir.
DORIS
Quoy? d£ja. ses regards vous ont-ils fait connoitre
Qu'il est dangereux de le voir?
HORTENSE
Ah! qu'il laisse regner le calme dans mon ame:
Je le veux fuir.
DORIS
Rassurez-vous:
L'Aveu de vos Parents autorise sa flame:
II veut devenir votre Epoux.
HORTENSE
Argante y consent-il?
DORIS
N'osez-vous de vous-meme
Faire un choix qui flatte vos voeux ?
HORTENSE
Pour faire un choix, on dit qu'il faut qu'on aime,
Et qu'on ne peut aimer sans etre malheureux.
DORIS
A ces lecons je reconnois Argante.
HORTENSE
L'Amour, si je l'en crois, est un fatal poison,
Qui trouble le repos, et seduit la raison. (Scene ii)
Lisis, however, paints the joys of love to Hortense when he
arrives, surprising the timid Hortense and confusing her even more.
Her confusion was evident already in the scene with Doris, for her
refusal to speak of Lisis showed that she felt some new emotion of
which she was afraid. At first, she happily accepts Lisis' explana­
tions of love, saying that her heart tells her he must be right:
369

Au seul nom de l 1 Amour, d'oii vient qu'on m'effarouche ?
Et pourquoy me l'offrir sous des traits odieux?
Est-il toujours riant, aimable, gracieux?
Tel que l'annonce votre bouche,
Et tel qu'il paroit dans vos yeux. (Scene iii)
Her fear returns, however, and she tries to flee in confusion. Doris
detains her, explaining that she believes that Argante will try to take
her away. Doris tells them to leave, while she finds Zerbin to learn
of Argante 1 s plans.
Zerbin is the comic character in this entree. He does not
believe his master's plans will be successful, yet he tries (in vain) to
keep Argante's secret, having been offered a large reward for doing
so. He loves Doris, however, and cannot resist her pleadings. She
is a wise woman, and uses Zerbin 1 s love for her to learn Argante's
plans; but her calculating is not intended only to obtain information
from Zerbin, for she promises to marry him. At first, because of
the cruelty she has shown him in the past, he does not believe she
loves him, and his petulance is humorous:
Non, non, je ne m'y trompe pas:
La vanite flatte les Belles,
Et l'on pique les plus cruelles
D&s qu'on neglige leurs appas:
Quand je te fuis, tu me rappelles,
Si je reviens, tu me fuiras. (Scene v)
Doris has ways of drawing secrets out of him, though, and
even though she has not obtained the information she wants as she
370

follows Zerbin off the stage, one knows that she will return having
learned everything:
DORIS
Non, je veux tout sqavoir, sans tarder d'avantage;
Parle, de ton secret, ma main sera le prix;
Cher Zerbin.
ZERBIN
Ah! je m'attendris:
Je crains qu'lL trop parler mon amour ne s'engage;
Fuyons . . .
DORIS
Demeure.
ZERBIN
Adieu, Doris.
371
DORIS
II fuit, suivons ses pas, achevons mon ouvrage,
Et ne le quittons point qu'il ne m'ait tout appris. (Scene v)
Zerbin and Doris return to Hortense and Lisis. Hortense
fears losing Lisis now, and cannot bear the thought of being abducted
by Argante. The four embark in the boat prepared by Argante, and
as he appears on the shore, furious, Hortense and Lisis sing of free­
dom.
The f§te of this entree is important to the student of the opera-
ballet and of the society of the times. It is a long series of airs and
choruses, interspersed throughout the action, praising the Seine and
its banks as the temple of love:

Que le calme le plus heureux
Regne sur les eaux de la Seine;
Qu'on ne respire icy que la plus douce haleine
Des Zephirs amoureux. (Scene vi)
Doris participates in the fete, and her airs are explicit and
sensual expressions of the symbolism of gathering on these banks,
ready for a new voyage to Cythera:
L'Onde murmure doucement,
Et semble plaindre son tourment:
Tout desire,
Tout soupire,
Tout s'exprime tendrement. (Scene vi)
The gentle waves of water also serve to remind us of the pas­
372
sing of time, and of the impermanence of youth and its pleasures. The
very presence of the river, then, will urge all the participants in the
fete to seize the pleasures of their young days before they slip away:
Suy les Jeux
Tendre Jeunesse;
Suy les Jeux,
Quand tu le peux;
Voy ces flots qui s'ecoulent sans cesse,
Les beaux jours vont passer comrae eux. (Scene vi)
"Les Nuits de l'ete, " the most comic entree of Les Fetes de
l'ete, is dramatically well organized. Including two plots and the
constant comings and goings of the celebrants of a "fete nocturne, "
the action is more complicated than that of many opera-ballet entrees,
yet it is clearly and simply exposed (in contrast to the too-complicated
plot of "La Vandange" in Pellegrin's later opera-ballet, Les Plaisirs
de la campagne).

373
Both couples in this entree are dissatisfied with their relation­
ship: Valfere and Belise because he is jealous and she cannot sacrifice
the pleasure she takes in making new conquests, Octave and Lucinde
because Octave often ignores Lucinde in favor of his friendship for
Val&re. All four characters are well-defined individuals, Octave and
Lucinde being more comic than Belise and Val&re.
Belise is quite representative of the Regency spirit. Never
really unfaithful to Val&re, she nevertheless torments him by the
amorous games she plays with other men. Her reasoning, as she
justifies herself, draws a fine line of distinction between causing
other men to love her and falling in love with them herself:
Non, je n'aime que vous, et vous devez m'en croire,
Quand je puis d'un regard vainqueur,
Faire naltre quelqu'autre ardeur,
Sans ressentir d'amour, je jouis de ma gloire:
Mais je neglige la victoire. (Scene ii)
t
She loves to triumph over the hearts of men, then, but does not har­
vest the fruits of her victories. ValSre is not urbane enough to laugh
at her games, complaining bitterly of her lack of love, and refusing to
stay and witness her new conquests. As he leaves, the psychology of
the relationship between Lucinde and Octave becomes apparent.
Octave, full of pity for ValSre, tries to follow him to console him,
and Lucinde cannot bear to be deserted again for friendship's sake.
Both relationships are established at the outset, and as the
women swear to punish their lovers by finding more attentive (for

Lucinde) or indulgent (for Belise) suitors, Valfere and Octave decide
to disguise themselves in order to test the strength of the love of
Belise and Lucinde. This familiar stratagem will again serve both to
satisfy and to embroil the relationships of the two couples, as in "La
Femme. "
As Val&re and Octave go off to disguise themselves, a chorus
of masques enters, singing a theme that will be repeated as it enters
later in the entree. This fragmentation of the divertissement serves
not only to make the fete nocturne an integral part of the action but to
insinuate its sensuous, hedonistic lines throughout the act, giving the
theme an almost hypnotic quality:
Accourez brillante Jeunesse,
L'Amour vous appelle en ces lieux;
Suivez le plus charmant des Dieux,
Dans vos plaisirs il s'interesse;
Accourez, brillante Jeunesse,
L'Amour vous appelle en ces lieux. (Scene iv)
Val&re in disguise, in a precious and sophisticated conversa­
tion, entices Belise to love in everyway; though she is flattered by his
attentions, she remains faithful to Valere. Valfere in disguise, in a
final effort, states that he would never be jealous and would leave her
374
the complete liberty to do as she wished. She answers that she wishes
he were ValSre, for without his jealousy, he would be the perfect
lover. The dialogue is well constructed, leading to this final wish of

Belise, and Valfere chooses this point to unmask, declaring that he
has learned his lesson.
Val£re fears that his friend, Octave, will not fare so well in
his attempted disguise, and the two rush to his aid. Octave and
375
Lucinde, in their dialogue, provide a comic counterweight to the salon
conversation of Belise and Valfere. Lucinde, forewarned of Octave's
disguise, finds a way to make him jealous. She yields to the mysteri­
ous stranger who shows such attentiveness, making it very difficult
for Octave, who must express gratification in his role as a stranger,
but who is seething with jealousy as Octave:
OCTAVE [in disguise]
Jamais ardeur ne fut plus belle.
LUCINDE
He bien, vous meritez qu'elle soit mutuelle.
OCTAVE
Quoy? sans me voir . . . mon bonheur est si grand,
Que je n'ose encor y pretendre. (Scene vii)
As Octave removes his mask, burning with anger, Lucinde is
filled with pleasure--his jealousy shows the depth of his love. She
even demands that he not forgive her too soon, for she wishes to en­
joy this new feeling as long as possible:
OCTAVE
Ingrate, rougissez
De 1'Amour et de l'Inconstance.
LUCINDE
II est vray, je vous fais une mortelle offense;
Mais pour la bien sentir, vous n'aimez pas assez.

OCTAVE
Je n'aime pas assez? Cruelle!
LUCINDE
J'etois prete S. bruler d'une flame nouvelle;
Pourquoy vous plaignez-vous d'un si juste retour
Vous n'aviez pas assez d'amour
Pour meriter un coeur fidele.
OCTAVE
Ah! ce nouvel outrage augmente mon couroux.
LUCINDE
Que cet emportement m'est doux!
OCTAVE
Recevoir d'autres voeux!
LUCINDE
Mon bonheur est extreme,
Vous etes devenu jaloux;
Je vois que vous m'aimez, autant que je vous aime.
(Scene vii)
Valfere explains to Octave that Lucinde knew it was he behind
the mask, and all is resolved. The characters all join the f§te
nocturne, repeating its sensuous theme:
Tout repond & notre attente:
L'Amour qui nous suit, nous dit tout bas:
Du plaisir qui se presente,
Malheureux qui ne profite pas! (Scene ix)
In Les Fetes de l'ete lie the seeds of the "degeneration" of
the opera-ballet. The plot turns almost too much toward the comedy
of Regnard and Dancourt. The atmosphere of fantasy, though present
376
in the disguises and decor, is more decoration than an integral part of
the action, and the characters become more cynical and sated with the

sensual life. From the light, delicate comedy of Danchet, with its
many Italian comedy characters and pleasant laughter, a clear pro­
gression towards realism may be seen. The costumes and settings
bring the action closer to the real life of Paris, and the characters
and actions turn in this direction, too. In upsetting the close bal­
ance between a certain amount of realism and fantasy, the authors of
377
the opera-ballet were perhaps moving into an area more properly that
of the theatre, losing that special quality of fantasy that the addition of
music and dance could lend to the musical form.
In the opera-ballets of Pellegrin (Les F§tes de l'ete and Les
Plaisirs de la campagne), this realism enters even more, along with
a certain awkardness in the composition of lyrics and a tendency to
rely on a sort of preaching technique rather than on dramatic action.
Because I feel his work is inferior to that of Fuzelier (Les Ages), I
will treat the only comic entree from Les Plaisirs de la campagne
before treating Les Ages, though the latter precedes the former
chronologically. Analyzing Les Ages as a final manifestation of the
degeneration of fantasy is quite justifiable, as it is the last work in
which all the entrees are comic.
"La Vandange," from Les Plaisirs de la campagne, shows the
comedy in a truly realistic form, using the pastoral accessories of
the opera almost solely because of tradition rather than for the crea­
tion of an atmosphere of fantasy. Many of the characters are less

than admirable, including young people. The rules of the hedonistic
opera-ballet, meant to indulge a youthful audience but not to criticize
or satirize it, had limited the creation of characters subject to ridi­
cule. These were to be old and undesirable, removed from the life
of the audience. Thus the scorn directed at them did not reach the
spectators. The cruel beauties and the volages were sometimes
comical, but in an indulgent, loveable way, comparable to the indul­
gent laughter expressed at the Harlequins and Pierrots of the Italian
comedies. The action was to express reality only in part: that is to
say that the reality it represented was the reality of the dreams and
ideals of the audience, not the reality of its daily life. Thus, finan­
cial worries, unhappy marriages, cruel parents, and deep emotions
were banned from this entertainment.
378
"La Vandange" breaks almost every one of these rules. Money
is the dominating factor in the intrigue, and love becomes almost sub­
ordinate to it. The plot is too complicated to remain clear in such a
short form, involving Agathine's disguise as Clarice's servant in order
to discover her plans to marry Dorante for his money; the love be­
tween Dorante and Agathine's sister, Angelique; Agathine's sacrifice
for her sister, marrying the old father of Dorante, Oronte, thus
becoming his heir and taking the temptation of money from Clarice;
and the conflict between Agathine and Angelique, who feels that
Agathine also has monetary motives in marrying Oronte.

All these complications sometimes obscure the line of the
action, but also illustrate the new orientation towards realism in the
late opera-ballet, which seemed to flower soon after the death of
Louis XIV. No longer pretending even to a veneer of delicacy, the
opera-ballet became the cynical mirror of a debauched society now
completely free of restraint. No young woman of the early opera-
ballet would have married only for money, and no woman would have
been put into the position of Agathine, having to sacrifice her own
happiness for the sake of her sister. The very first scene of the
entree illustrates this. Agathine questions Clarice concerning her
feelings towards Dorante:
AGATHINE
II est jeune, charmant, il vous donne sa foi.
CLARICE
A te parler sans artifice,
II est riche, et c'est tout pour moi. (Scene i)
The relationship between Agathine and her sister, Angelique,
becomes strained when Agathine announces her intention to marry
Oronte in order to discourage Clarice from the hope of inheriting his
money. Angelique complains that her sister is conspiring to take
379
Dorante 1 s birthright from him, rather than feeling grateful. Agathine
describes vividly the sacrifice of pleasure that she makes for her
ungrateful sister--a sacrifice foreign to the light air of fantasy form­
erly present in the opera-ballet:

Ma Soeur se plaint de son partage,
Et je reflechis sur le mien
Quoi? dans un age ou 1'Amour seul nous flatte,
Immoler son plus cher bonheur?
Je le devrois pour une Soeur,
Mais le dois-je pour une ingratte?
Non, ne contraignons plus, le panchant de mon coeur.
Pour vous faire d'aimables chaines,
Dois-je contraindre mes desirs?
Vos plaisirs naitroient de mes peines,
Et mes peines de vos plaisirs. (Scene iv)
The comic scene of the entree is that in which Agathine per­
suades Oronte to marry her, at the same time subtly maligning
Clarice. Her insinuations about age, reminding the old man that he
380
can no longer be the volage of his youth, his only attraction now being
the offer of a good marriage, all bring him to the point of accepting
her, after which she reveals her true rank to him. This type of scene,
in which a servant (here a noblewoman in disguise) persuades her
master to marry her, will contribute to the later success in France of
Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona:
Clarice ...
ORONTE
AGATHINE
Poursuivez; le nom seul m'epouvante;
Au nom de nos tendres liens.
ORONTE
Elle veut qu'a mon fils j'assure tous mes biens.
AGATHINE
Ah! j'en suis la cause innocente;
C'est 5. moi de quitter ce malheureux sejour.

ORONTE
Tu quitterois ces lieux? et! qui peut t'ycontraindre ?
Moi, t'epouser!
AGA THINE
Clarice aura un autre amour,
Elle craint . , .
AGA THINE
Que vous m'epousiez un jour.
ORONTE
Que peut-elle craindre?
ORONTE
AGATHINE
Pourquoi non ?
ORONTE
Sans colere
Je t'ai dit cent fois, ma liberte m'est chere.
Ne peut-on etre Amant sans devenir epoux?
Tous les jours l'Hymen empoisonne,
Ce que 1'Amour a de plus doux:
C'est assez que le coeur se donne;
Ne peut-on etre Amant sans devenir epoux?
AGATHINE
D'un jeune coeur le tendre hommage,
N'est pas un offre k refuser;
Mais quand on veut plaire 5. votre age,
Ce n'est pas trop que d'epouser.
ORONTE
Tu remportes la victoire,
Malgre la glace des ans.
Tes yeux auroient moins de gloire,
Si j'etois dans mon printems. (Scene v)
As Clarice departs, enraged at these new developments, the
lovers sing of the autumn and the wine harvest, urging the spectators
381

to profit from the springtime of their youth, which does not return
each year. This theme unites the common topic of many divertisse­
382
ments, the seizing of pleasure while one is young, with a commentary
on the character of Oronte, who, in the autumn of his years, may no
longer play at the games of love:
Bachus nous donne
Ses biens en Automne;
Mais l 1 automne revient tous les ans.
Quand on aime
Ce n'est pas de m§me,
Profitons de nos plus doux instants:
La saison presse;
L'Amour ne blesse
Que la Jeunesse:
II n'a qu'un printems. (Scene vi)
The fete in this realistic comedy seems to be gratuitous, the fantasy
that made it believable having been removed.
It is in Les Ages by Fuzelier that we find the best example of
this degeneration of the opera-ballet. A libretto far superior to those
of Pellegrin, the text of this work shows good mastery of the comic
form. Because of its good qualities it is easier to compare to
L'Europe galante, Les FStes venitiennes, and Les F§tes de Thalie.
Applying the word "degenerate" to this opera-ballet does not indicate
a lack of craftsmanship or dramatic ability. It describes the em­
phasis on cynicism and reality at the expense of fantasy that exists in
the work, making it more a play than an opera (in the sense that the
element that distinguished opera-ballet from comedy was the

contribution of music and dance that created a special and delicate
world impossible to create in any other theatre). Les Ages is an
383
excellent series of one-act comedies into which enter many dances and
fetes, but these divertissements are often extraneous to the comic
intrigue, contributing nothing to the main body of the action.
From a literary point of view, eliminating many of the extra­
neous diversions, this opera has perhaps more value as drama than
as opera. Even in appreciating the often trenchant comedy of the text,
however, we are filled with a nostalgia for the delicate dream world
of the earlier opera-ballet and its more idealistic and joyous visage.
James R. Anthony, in a study of Les Ages, describes this essentially
realistic aspect of the work:
Of all the opera-ballets by Campra, Les Ages draws most
closely upon the social milieu and culture of its day. The
assorted collection of country seigneurs, petits-maltres,
and amorous ladies might have stepped from the pages of
Gustave Desnoiresterres's study, Les Cours galantes. It
is significant that although "La Folie" appears in other
opera-ballets (see, for example, the Prologue to Les Fetes
venitiennes), it is only in Les Ages that she is virtually
deified and placed above even love in the hierarchy of pleasure.
The fete galante of Les Ages bears approximately the
same relationship to L'Europe galante as does the grimace
of Lancret to the smile of Watteau. ^
Elements of the ingenuousness in the pastorale still remain in
the first entree, "La Jeunesse ou L'Amour ingenu, " for the age of
2. James R. Anthony, "Thematic Repetition in the Operaballets
of Andre Campra, " Musical Quarterly, 52 (April, 1966),
p. 218.

satiety and langor has not yet descended upon Florise, the main
character. Her suitor, Leandre, and his valet, Zerbin have a more
cynical view of life, however. Even at the beginning of the entree,
when Leandre reveals his love for Florise, Zerbin reacts by saying
that young girls are so oblivious of love that they play games, ignor­
ing the sensual pleasures. Leandre's answer to Zerbin defends the
384
conquest of a youthful beauty, for causing the pains and pleasures of a
first love is highly rewarding:
ZERBIN
D'une Beaute naissante
Les jeux occupent seuls les soins et les desirs;
Elle rit sans pitie des plus tendres soupirs,
Lorsque l'on s'en plaint, elle chante:
N'attendez pas de vrais plaisirs
D'une Beaute naissante.
LEANDRE
D'une Beaute naissante
Heureux qui peut causer les timides desirs,
Elle seule nous peut donner de vrais plaisirs:
Quelle douceur charmante
D'entendre les premiers soupirs
D'une Beaute naissante. (Scene i)
Because his "Beaute naissante" is easily frightened, Leandre
has taken a disguise no self-respecting lover from the fantasy would
have worn: that of Florise's governess, Artemise. He hopes thus to
speak for himself in the guise of a familiar figure, and to learn if
Florise loves him. He will also find it necessary to paint love in all
its most pleasant aspects, for the real Artemise, old, ugly, and fear­
ful of men, has described all its dangers to her.

385
Artemise is a comic character ridiculed throughout the entree,
as she preaches the dangers of love, then is taken in by the proposal
of Zerbin, who wants only to use her to help Leandre. She has come
to this fete champetre on the banks of the Seine (at the Foire de
Bezons) with trepidation, knowing the threats that lurk all around her.
As she warns Florise of these dangers, we see that Florise is not a
fool, and that she understands Artemise quite well. She sees that
Artemise despises men because she is unattractive to them, almost
foretelling the fate that will befall Artemise when Zerbin becomes
attentive to her. The Mercure de France, in an extensive review of
this opera-ballet, describes the ridiculous warnings of Artemise,
saying that she is "suivant l'usage des Prudes qui ne manquent jamais
de meler dans la Satyre qu'ils font des autres, une petite digression
3
sur leur propre merite. 11 The following dialogue illustrates well
both the dire warnings of Artemise (which are not without a grain of
truth), her self-satisfaction, and Florise's pert replies:
ARTEMISE
Ne nous ecartons pas sur cette aimable rive,
Je crains que malgre nous quelqu'Amant ne nous suive;
Nous sommes sur ces bords toutes deux sans secours.
On ne trouve pas toujours
Des Eossignols sous l'ombrage:
Mais il n'est point de bocage
3. "Spectacles" (Review of Les Ages), Mercure de France
(Octobre, 1718), p. 105.

Oil ne volent les Amours.
Plaignons un coeur qui s'engage,
Les Amans jusqu'au village
"Aujourd'hui manquent de foi.
FLORISE
Vous les connoissez mieux que moi,
On doit tout scavoir a votre age.
ARTEMISE
A mon i.ge? est-ce a moi que l'on tient ce langage?
Je suis encore dans ma belle saison,
C'est ce qui fait le prix de mon indifference:
Sgachez que ma prudence
Est un beau fruit de ma raison
Et non de mon experience.
De cent perils divers songez & vous garder:
Croyez-en ma sagesse,
Les hommes sont mechans . . .
FLORISE
C'est done pour les gronder
Qu'on vous voit les chercher sans cesse. (Scene ii)
As the scene ends, the warnings of Artemise continue, but the words
of the ridiculous old woman speak the truth about the inconstancy of
the lovers found at these fetes and about the masks they wear to hide
their hearts:
lis vous cachent toujours le venin sous les fleurs:
Je vous amene au Bal, voyez ma complaisance,
Mais evitez les soupirs imposteurs
Des Amans qu'en ces lieux promene l'inconstance;
Songez que sur ces bords on masque aussi les coeurs.
(Scene ii)
As Artemise leaves the stage, Florise follows reluctantly.
Seeing this, Leandre sends Zerbin off to court Artemise (Zerbin: "O
l'agreable emploi!") while Leandre takes her place. The following
386

scene is remarkably well constructed. Leandre, disguised as the old
387
woman, cannot really prevent himself from speaking as Leandre. He
is therefore quite complimentary to the beauty of Florise, finally
arriving at the question of love by asking if Florise loves him (her?).
This must have amused the audience, understanding every double
meaning of the "old woman's" dialogue and laughing at the gullibility
of Florise. It is seldom in a scene this delicate, in which a young
girl discovers feelings of love for the first time, that an author can
successfully include comic elements without destroying the tenderness
of the love scene. In this passage, Fuzelier has accomplished the
combination of comedy and love:
FLORISE
O! Ciel la severe Artemise
Sous le masque cache ses traits.
LEANDRE, deguise comme Artemise.
On ne doit laisser voir ici que vos traits.
FLORISE
Vous changez bien-tot de langage.
LEANDRE
Profitons du plaisir qui vient s'offrir 3. nous.
FLORISE
Que devient votre humeur sauvage ?
Vos Conseils .. .
LEANDRE
Oubliez-les tous.
FLORISE
Ah! qu'aujourd'hui votre entretien m'enchante!

LEANDRE
Florise m'aimez-vous .. .
FLORISE
Oh! je m'en garde bien;
Vous m'ordonnez de n'aimer rien.
Et je suis fort obeissante.
388
LEANDRE
N'aimez rien, j'y consens, observez cette loi
N'en exceptez que moi.
Mais peut-etre deja quelque flame naissante
De votre jeune coeur occupe tous les voeux;
Ne vous contraignez plus, avouez-moi vos feux. (Scene iv)
As Leandre describes all the beauties of love and all the forms
it may take, she murmurs his name. Encouraged by the fact that she
has obviously noticed him, he asks her how she feels when she thinks
of Leandre. Her answer is a delicate painting of innocence in love:
Je ne puis le comprendre.
Mon coeur n'est plus maltre de lui,
II suit de douces loix qu'il ne s

expressed in "La Fille. " The mature woman of this action, coquet­
tish and knowledgable, could be a Florise transformed by her milieu.
Her lovers are more blase than was Leandre: one being so tired of
games that he drinks too much, another a volage without the charm of
the earlier versions of this type of character, and the other a rich
man spending his wealth on fetes for Lucinde.
389
Again the Mercure shows that these characters were the sated
people of the Regency by its description of them. Eraste, the drinker
who loves Lucinde, is described as an "homme de plaisir"; Damon
(the volage) as a "petit-maltre"; and Lucinde as a coquettish widow who
entertains her lover, Eraste, in her chateau in Champagne. The
action of the first scene bears out this analysis of the two men.
Eraste meets his friend, Damon, near the chateau. Damon, who is
traveling, asks why Eraste is there, and Eraste explains the advan­
tages of living where one may profit from the favors of both love and
Bacchus. His explanation of the way that Bacchus aids love is far
removed from the joyous masquerades and games that had created
variety in the preceding operas. One has the impression that, having
tried every mask and variation/ Eraste must turn to drink as the last
resort of a mature man who has no more original ideas To inventing
new games and disguises:
ERASTE
Tout mon tems se partage
Entre les Amours et Bacchus.

J'aime, lorsque je voi la beaute qui m'engage,
Je boi, quand je ne la voi plus:
Tout mon tems se partage
Entre les Amours et Bacchus.
DAMON
Peux-tu dans ces lieux separer ton hommage!
La treille y fait couler son plus aimable jus:
L'Amour se doit ici d£fier du partage
Que tu lui fais avec Bacchus.
ERASTE
Je sers egalement leur gloire.
Qui veut aimer doit scavoir boire,
L 1 Amour fait les Amans et Bacchus les instruit.
Lie vin sqait animer par sa flame liquide
Les coeurs qu'un fier objet au silence reduit;
L'Amour est moins timide
Quand Bacchus le conduit. (Scene i)
Damon then expresses his pride in his prowess at subjugating
390
beautiful women, again repeating the credo of the volage. Even in this
first scene, however, he seems more sensual and less joyous in his
pursuit of women. The mask of charm and light comedy worn by
many of his predecessors during the pre-Regency period is now com­
pletely off. When he explains that a young beauty who had interested
him lives in the area, and that he has decided to deign to give her the
pleasure of his company for the rest of the day, his egotism and lack
of the more endearing qualities of his predecessors are evident. He
begins by showing that he is typically indiscreet, and Eraste is well
aware of this quality in him:
DAMON
Ecoute . .. Mais es-tu discret?

ERASTE
Finis un vain mystere.
Tu serois bien fache que je squsse me taire;
Va, parle, ne crains rien,
Je dirai tout.
DAMON
Et bien,
Une beaute charmante S. qui j'ai trop sgu plaire
Habite dans ces lieux:
Je croi que loin de moi tout lui semble enneyeux . . .
ERASTE
Vous venez dissiper le chagrin qui la presse?
DAMON
Otti, je viens en passant la voir dans ce sejour,
Je pourrai bien a sa tendresse
Donner le reste de ce jour. (Scene i)
391
Damon's characteristic ego comes even more to the fore when
he learns that Eraste's fiancee is the woman he had come to see. To
keep his self esteem and to feign indifference at his defeat, he replies
in an offhand manner that he is glad Eraste took her off his hands:
Que je te scjai bon gre d'avoir pu l'enflamer,
C'est me tirer d'un embarras extreme. (Scene i)
As the Mercure article so aptly puts it, here "Damon se tire d'affaire
en vray petit-maltre" (Mercure, p. 108).
Lucinde shows herself to be well schooled in masking her
feelings of surprise. Seeing that Eraste has told Damon of their
relationship, she acts quite indifferent to Damon. Damon's pride and
vanity are so injured that he claims to have come to see another
woman, having forgotten Lucinde. He must even point out that he was

the first to desert Lucinde, it being unthinkable that a woman would
cut off an affair with him before he did:
LUCINDE S. part.
Deguisons mon inquietude.
cL Damon
Quoi vous venez, Damon, chercher ma solitude?
DAMON
Lucinde, je le voi, vous la peuplez d'amours,
Et vous empruntez leur secours
Contre 1'ennui de vos retraites.
ERASTE £ Damon.
Regrettez-vous son coeur? mais, quoi,
Vous qui sqavez corriger les coquettes
Travaillez, voilSL de l'emploi.
DAMON 5. Lucinde.
Dans le hameau prochain je vais voir Celimene,
C'est elle seulement qui dans ces lieux m'amene;
Vous n'avez change qu'aprfes moi. (Scene ii)
Eraste pretends, here and in the following scene, that he is
affected very little by jealousy, showing his spite by making cynical
jokes rather than by expressing a deep emotional jealousy. He is no
longer the idealist who does not hide his passions, and his jealousy is
392
quite different than that of the younger lovers of the opera-ballet. The
author of the article in the Mercure again shows himself to be quite
perceptive about the reactions of Eraste: "Eraste feint de ne sentir
que de ces depits railleurs, qui prennent la place de la colere et du
desespoir, dans les coeurs revenus des passions romanesques"
(Mercure, p. 109).

Lucinde and Eraste, as they reproach each other, participate
in a game involving wit rather than love. It is a rather discouraging
argument, for one feels that it will be resolved only by a temporary
truce, soon to broken by her coquetry or by his drinking. In this
case, just as Eraste is about to break off their relationship, the con­
flict is resolved not by promises of change in either character but by
the coquetry of Lucinde, which is not only the reason for Eraste's
jealousy but also the instrument by which Lucinde controls him.
The fete offered by the rich man, Cleon, serves not to aid
393
Cleon's suit for Lucinde, but as a vehicle for the reunion of the couple:
"Ces Cleons 13. sont sujets 3. donner des Bals qui servent de rendez­
vous 3. leurs Rivaux" (Mercure, p. 110).
The last entree treats the theme of the ridiculous old man in
love with a young girl. "La Vieillesse, ou l'Amour jou£, " takes place
in a garden near Padua prepared for a fete galante in honor of the
lovely young woman, Silvanire. Her difficulty is that her father and
old Argant have agreed that she will marry the old man, and this fete
is to celebrate their agreement. This is only one of two entrees in
all the opera-ballets of this genre in which a parent is part of the
action. In the atmosphere of fantasy of the earlier works the pres­
ence of parents, who would most certainly have disapproved of many
of the actions of their children, would have created obstacles too
close to those of real life. Had they been present as ridiculous

characters, the satire of their old age would have been dangerous in
a family context. Thus, the old gouvernants and surveillantes of the
opera-ballet took the place of parental figures. They were more
easily fooled and ridiculed without offending a perhaps weak but still
present respect for the family and for the authority of parents. This
society, when it reacted against the precepts of the preceding genera­
tion, did so not through open rebellion but by removing themselves
from the eyes of their parents, whose presence in the fetes on stage
would then have seemed strange.
Entering a more real world of comedy, however, we find that
more obstacles are put in the way of the easy accomplishment of love,
obstacles that the earlier fantasy had erased for a few hours from the
minds of the spectators. The father of Silvanire is not a main charac­
ter, however real his agreement with Argant may be, and he yields
to the inevitable when Silvanire's ruse works. Still, the stamp of
parental approval on the suit of Argant changes the atmosphere of the
entree.
Though the actions take place near Padua, Silvanire and her
father are of a noble Venitian family, Argant is a "gentilhomme de
campagne Franqois, 11 and the lover of Silvanire, Val£re, is a Polish
cavalier. Silvanire is the main character of the action, taking it upon
herself to foil the plans of Argant. She dresses as a Polish cavalier
herself, and enters the gardens with her father's valet, Merlin. He

is sympathetic to her love for Val§re, and sings a very biting con­
395
demnation of old men who hope to arouse feelings of love in the young.
This condemnation and ridicule of the folly of old age will become the
true theme of the entree, subordinating the story of love between
ValSre and Silvanire. Merlin speaks of him thus:
Un Amant plus rempli de glaces que de feux
Peut-il attendre un destin agreable?
Devroit-on se meler d'etre encore amoureux
Lorsqu'on n'est plus aimable? (Scene i)
The theme of folly, now become more important than that of
love because of the central importance of the old man, is described as
Silvanire explains that though she did not try to please Argant, he fell
in love with her. The arrows shot by Cupid often go astray, and are
sometimes guided only by folly and unreason:
Lorsque l 1 Amour lance ses traits
Rarement la raison l'eclaire,
La plus foible conquete a pour lui des attraits:
Lorsque l'Amour lance ses traits
Pourvu qu'il blesse un coeur il ne le choisit guere. (Scene i)
One of the more realistic qualities of this entree is its open­
ness. Often expressed through the use of the double entendre, the
meaning of the themes and disguises is quite clear. When Merlin
speaks of what a horror it would be for Silvanire to marry an old man
who never speaks of his love, he says that this "silence" might even
continue after they were married, implying a lack of sexual attraction
and prowess:

Quel seroit le triste entretien,
D'un Amant aussi vieux que l'Epoux de l'Aurore?
Avec tranquility croyes qu'il vous adore;
Avant 1'hymen il ne vous dira rien,
Peut-etre apres l'hymen se taira-t-il encore. (Scene i)
This style continues in the scene in which Silvanire, dressed
in her cavalier's clothing, poses as a rival for the hand of Silvanire.
396
Her speeches are full of threats and anger, which are weapons Val&re
could have used, but which are useless against the will of a father.
Her real ruse is the ruining of her own reputation in the eyes of
Argant, something her lover would never have dared do, even in jest.
Her implications of intimacy with Silvanire are rendered less harsh
by the fact that all she says is true. She and herself are of one heart,
says she, and hearing a "man" say this of Silvanire, Argant begins to
be anxious. Silvanire finally caps the scene with the statement that
she is with Silvanire night and day. Argant is convinced of her lack
of purity, but does not really yield until the arrival of Valfere, who
threatens him in his turn. Argant points out Silvanire in disguise as
the true rival and withdraws from the field, beaten. The scene of
gradual revelation and increasing suspicion is well composed, bring­
ing out the possibilities of double meaning in Silvanire's speeches,
and showing Argant to be quite comic in his disappointment and in his
fear of violence from Valfere:
SILVANIRE, en Cavalier.
Non, Silvanire et moi nous n'avons pas deux coeurs.

ARGANT 3. part.
Je dois entendre ce langage;
Voila pour mon hymen un fort heureux presage.
5. Silvanire
Ainsi I'espoir d'Argant . . .
SILVANIRE
Peut-il en concevoir?
Est-ce done de l'amour que son aspect inspire?
Non, j'ose m'en flatter, non j'ose vous le dire
II ne scjaura jamais quel que soit son espoir
Me separer de Silvanire.
ARGANT
Elle pourra changer . . .
SILVANIRE
Non, non, n'en croyez rien,
Je connais dfes long-tems son coeur comme le mien.
ARGANT
Silvanire vous jure une ardeur immortelle . . .
SILVANIRE
Tous ses voeux, tous ses pas sont guides par l'Amour.
ARGANT
Vous passes, je le voi, peu de momens sans elle.
SILVANIRE
Je l'accompagne nuit et jour.
ARGANT 5. part.
Nuit et jour! juste Ciel! iln'a plus rien &taire. (Scene iii)
The comedy of Argant's situation increases with the entrance
of Val&re, determined to prevent the marriage even if he is forced to
kill Argant. As he threatens him, Silvanire intervenes to save poor
old Argant, not revealing her own identity, however. Argant's fright
and lack of honor come to the fore as he tells Val&re that disguised
397

Silvanire is the man the real Silvanire loves. Val&re, being a true
lover, recognizes Silvanire instantly, and they continue the ruse to
the confoundment of Argant:
VALERE voulant mettre l'epee 5. la
main.
Ah! je vous trouve enfin, Argant, defendes-vous .. .
Arretes.
ARGANT et SILVANIRE en Cavalier.
VALERE £ Argant.
Non, il faut expirer sous mes coups.
SILVANIRE le re tenant.
Et! de grace, arretes Valere.
ARGANT montrant Silvanire en
Cavalier a Valere.
C'est sur lui seul que doit tomber votre colere,
On trouve nuit et jour Silvanire avec lui:
II me l'a dit lui-meme. (Scene iv)
398
As Fabio, the father of Silvanire, approaches with the partici­
pants in the fete, Argant, petulant and childlike, refuses to marry
Silvanire:
FABIO
De ces lieux enchantez gofrtons bien les appas,
Que 1'hymen y prepare une agreable Fete.
ARGANT
Je sgai les faveurs qu'il m'aprete.
L'ORDONATEUR de la Fete entrant,
3. Argant.
Seigneur, les Jeux sont prets . . .
ARGANT brusquement.
Moi je ne le suis pas.

FABIO
Quel est ce noir chagrin et que voulez-vous dire?
ARGANT brusquement.
Que je ne veux plus etre Epoux.
FABIO
Expliquez-moi du moins qui cause ce couroux.
399
ARGANT montrant 5. Fabio Valere et
Silvanire en Cavalier.
Pour vous en informer, l'un des deux peut suffire.
Adieu je les laisse avec vous;
Tous deux bien mieux que moi connoissent Silvanire. (Scene v)
As the stage is transformed into a marvelous garden for the
fete, which is now to celebrate Fabio's approval of Valfere's marriage
to Silvanire, the spectators see a beautiful amphitheatre decorated
with flowers and garlands. The throne of La Folie is placed in the
center of the amphitheatre, and she is surrounded by characters from
the Italian comedy, many of whom dance during the divertissement.
As Anthony had stated, the fete of this entree, extolling folly,
is much less charming and delicate than the fetes of the earlier opera-
ballet. Combined with the praise of Bacchus in the divertissement of
"L'Age viril, " it presents a picture of debauchery on the verge of
losing its charm and lightness. Thus, in Les Ages even the fetes lose
their aura of fantasy, showing clearly the desires of a society inevi­
tably bored through satiety:
O Puissante Folie, acceptez nos hommages,
Votre Empire est egal & celui de l'Amour:
Vous sqavez comme lui regner sur tous les Ages,
Comme lui vous avez une nombreuse Cour.

Triomphez charmante Folie,
Chez vous tous les plaisirs sont toujours de saison;
Triomphez charmante Folie,
Les momens qu'on derobe & la triste raison
Sont les plus doux de notre vie. (Scene vii)
The combined effect of Les Ages and of the entree "La
400
Vandange" from Les Plaisirs de la campagne is that of a realistic cur­
rent gone too far. The end of the reign of Louis XIV removed all need
for masking the sensual appetites of the society, and these last two
opera-ballets show this dropping of pretense.
It is precisely that need for some pretense that had forced the
author of earlier opera-ballets to couch his sometimes questionable
moral themes in an atmosphere of unreality, a combination of reality
and fantasy that had both an innocent and a sensual attraction. This
combination was the basis for the opera-ballet and its uniqueness. The
magic gone, the characters could depart for the non-musical theatre,
no longer needing the help of music to create an Island of Cythera for
the imaginations of the audience.

CHAPTER 11
CONCLUSION
Although the pastorales and comedies of the opera-ballet can­
not claim to have the depth of meaning and sustained action of the
works of Moli&re, nor the profound emotions of Racine, it is evident
from their analysis that they possess many literary qualities. In some
instances these qualities are of an inferior order to what is called
"great" literature; nonetheless, I believe that many of the features
found in these works have a lasting value beyond their importance in a
historical context.
Because of the need to present these texts for the first time to
a literary audience, this thesis was of a limited scope: that is to say
that the presentation and analysis of the texts themselves was of
necessity so extensive that many other considerations were set aside,
despite their value for further study. The influence of the Theatre
des Italiens on the opera in France is of great importance, and though
it was touched upon here, much more study is needed in this area. In
fact, the interaction of the comic theatre, the theatres of the Foire,
the opera, and the Italian theatre is a subject in need of much more
consideration. The place of the opera in the rising "courant de la
401

sensibilite" in France, which led to the Romantic period, is of no
small moment, and until recently has been neglected. Masson, in
L 1 Opera de Rameau, saw the need for such a study: "L'opera semble
bien avoir determine un enrichissement de la sensibilite francjaise,
qui meriterait d'etre mieux mis en lumi&re" (Masson, Rameau, p.
11).
Another fascinating subject, merely touched upon here, is the
influence of dance rhythms and musical forms on the poetic syllabifi­
cation and forms of the livrets. These musical influences led often
to simplification and clarity, qualities necessary to the grace and
elegance of the opera-ballet.
The literary quarrels on opera which had begun in the seven­
teenth century and which continued throughout the Regency did not end
with the demise of the opera-ballet. Becoming more and more
vehement, and involving almost all of the eighteenth-century philo-
402
sophes, these quarrels continued during the whole of the century. The
Encyclopedie was the battleground for many of the adversaries, and I
have omitted some of the encyclopedists because their criticism is
concentrated more on music that follows that of the Regency period.
Since so many important literary figures were involved in these dis­
cussions, a study of these controversies is necessary to the formation
of a more complete picture of the activities and works of the
philosophes.

The close relationship of the theatre (especially the opera) to
Regency society did make of the opera-ballet a very special expres­
sion of an era in history; an era in many ways like our own. The
quest for pleasure, the need for variety, the elimination of the belief
in supernatural control over human life, and the sensuality of the
403
times were all central qualities of the opera-ballet and of the Regency.
These ideas are never absent from the mind of man, however--they
appear in a more or less masked form according to his beliefs, his
will, and his era. In a way, these operas are the dreams of almost
any human: to search for sensual rather than intellectual pleasure,
feeding one's own self-esteem, free from the fear of unhappy con­
sequences. Because of this quality of wish fulfillment in the opera-
ballet, the balance between reality and fantasy is another of its more
lasting and important qualities. For this reason, even the comedies
respond to this need for dream fulfillment, limiting their scope to a
sort of comedy that inspires indulgent and contented laughter rather
than scorn and ridicule. It is when these two latter qualities entered
the later comedies, destroying the careful balance between reality and
dream, that the opera-ballet came to an end, transforming itself
again into a form filled with gods and goddesses, heroic actions, and
superhuman rather than human psychology.
The closeness of the opera-ballet to the Regency society
offers us a glimpse at the aesthetics of this often neglected period.

The Regency man believed in this relationship between the opera and
his more private amusements, as Remond de Saint-Mard indicated in
speaking of L'Europe galante, Les Fetes venitiennes, and Les Fetes
de Thalie;
Vous y trouverez encore la peinture de nos moeurs, elles sont
5. la verite assez vilaines, mais ce sont les notres ... . Rien
n'est plus fait pour notre legerete: rien ne s'accommode
mieux 3. notre caract&re, et entre-nous de la maniere dont
nous sommes aujourd'hui montez, le serieux et le pathetique
de l'Opera nous va beaucoup moins bien que le Ballet. *
Nothing could offer us a better glimpse at this society than the genre
its members believed responded to their essential character.
Because this society was, as Remond de Saint-Mard has said,
light, sensual, and preferring the comic to the serious; the opera-
ballet became lightly comic, reflecting this new orientation. In this
transformation, we see the preoccupation of Regency nobles with
human psychology rather than with le merveilleux. Thus, the opera-
ballet was not only the first comic opera in France, but the first to
have more natural human psychology, creating more believable
characters. Doumic, in complaining about divine intervention in the
action of the tragedie lyrique, posed, two centuries after the birth of
the opera-ballet, the question that must have aided in its creation.
He, as well as the Regency man, felt that gods and goddesses had
1. Toussaint de Remond de Saint-Mard, Reflexions sur
l'opera (The Hague: J. Neaulme, 1741), p. 95.
404

nothing to do with his qualities as a human being: "Comment parler
encore de caracteres et de sentiments &. propos de personnages qui
n'ont aucun rapport avec notre humanite?" (Doumic, I, 126). The
author of the opera-ballet, in his ability to emphasize and underline
basic human characteristics, made of the short entree a "sketch"
more dramatically sound than the longer action of the lyric tragedy.
The governing and motivating passion of all the opera-ballets
of this period was love--a langorous and voluptuous love, polished by
the good manners of the Regency but not governed by the older rules
of morality. Variety and entertainment were the virtues of love,
405
boredom the only vice of this society. All the entrees served to illus­
trate the infinite variations of sensual love, responding to the mores
of the times. Gustave Lanson points out this aesthetic style which
expressed so well the Regency society:
On recherche toutes les nuances de l 1 amour du si&cle, ses
applications diverses, les ombres de passion dont il s'accompagne,
la jalousie, point meurtri&re, occasion de piques
legferes et de mines gracieuses, l'indiscretion, les caprices,
l'eveil des sens chez les adolescents, leur reveil chez les
vieillards. ^
Lanson's description emphasizes the lightness of passion in this
period, and in the opera-ballet. The emotions must never be too
deep or carry one too far, causing one to appear ridiculous and
2. Gustave Lanson, Hommes et Livres (Paris: Lecfene,
Oudin, 1895), p. 229.

406
single-minded--unable to change as passions change. For this reason,
the opera-ballet does not lend itself to an analysis of deep inner emo­
tions. Its psychology is sensual and exterior, masking quite well
what deeper feelings might exist.
The ideal of inconstancy became one of the highest values of
the opera-ballet because of the shallowness of the liaisons between
the lovers and because of the need for constant change. One of the
reasons that the society and the opera-ballet were so closely linked
was that the artful inconstancy of the Regency man was not unlike an
artistic creation. He invented new disguises, searched for an infinite
number of variations for his theme, and thus was closely related to
the author of the entertainments he preferred. As Mauzi stated,
realizing this relationship between theatre and life in the early
eighteenth century: "L'inconstance est a l'amour ce que l'improvisa-
tion est a l'invention litteraire" (Mauzi, p. 467). Thus, the meaning
of the opera-ballet became closely allied with the form of the plot--a
series of encounters, or variations on a theme, emphasizing the
ability of the lover to invent and improvise words and situations to
impress the lady he desired.
Not only the outer form of the opera-ballet, but also the basic
action of each entree express this belief in variety. The plots are
often a series of encounters, many of which give a feeling of endless­
ness (as in the entrees of L'Europe galante, which do not resolve the

action at the end), as if the plot could be continued forever. The
characters encounter conflicting emotions, scorn, love, and jealousy
in a sort of chain of attractions and repulsions, often symbolized by
407
the metaphor of heat and cold. Many characters express the idea that
one flees from those who love him and pursues those who scorn him;
others oppose the coldness of old age to the warmth and passion of
youth; still others play games with the heat and cold of passion and
disdain, manipulating lovers through jealousy and mistrust. This
endless series, these "chaines d'amours en cascades, " as Rousset
describes them (p. 40 ), make the plots of the opera-ballet an open
rather than a closed, finished form. The constant changes in and
additions to Les Fetes venitiennes and the possibility of combining its
many entrees in innumerable ways illustrate perfectly the attitude of
the authors and of the society towards the action of these short
pastorales and comedies.
This spirit of invention, both in society and opera, emphasized
the unreal in many ways. Fantasy was necessary to the improvisation
of infinite encounters, the invention of a magic, imaginary land pro­
viding more opportunities to vary upon the theme c* love than did real
life. Since the fantasy created by the Regency man and by the author
of the opera-ballet was for the specific purpose of a sensuous, volup­
tuous conquest, however, the realism of sexual attraction came
through the fantasy surrounding it, forming a balanced combination of

oth. The accompaniment of music and dance, for this reason, was
more than just an accompaniment. It served the cause of love and
created the atmosphere desired as a background to the variation of
sensual encounters. Without music, the fantastic atmosphere would
408
be nothing more than costumes, masks, and decorations. With music,
these accessories had a meaning, provided by the context of song and
dance.
Through this balance of fantasy and reality, the opera-ballet
succeeded in expressing the hedonistic morality of its period in an
open manner, readily understandable, but rendered light, simple,
and joyous by the happy atmosphere and charming characters of its
entrees. In this way, the tawdriness usually present in a society bent
upon the pursuit of sensuous pleasure to the detriment of a more
philosophical happiness was absent, or covered over with a veil of
fantasy. This balance between the real and the fantastic caused even
the realistic aspects of the opera-ballet to be happy, eliminating any
unhappy side effects of such a morality. Marmontel, in a study of the
opera, felt that all was untruth and fantasy, but that it was the ensem­
ble of music, dance, and words, creating a whole, that expressed a
truth. The reality of this dream is that it was the dream of every
Regency man, whose disguises and games could not last forever, and
who was forced, from time to time, to return to the real world. The
opera-ballet, then, was the world of his dreams: "Dans ce compose

tout est mensonge, mais tout est d'accord; et cet accord en fait la
* •+

disapproval, seldom ridiculed or criticized certain practices of
society. Meant to place the stamp of innocence and approval on the
410
activities of the Regency, the opera-ballet made use of the more indul­
gent or buffoonish forms of comedy, inspiring sympathetic laughter in
the audience. The more ridiculous characters, still not bitingly
criticized, were the older ones whose age prevented them from enjoy­
ing the delights of Regency sensuality, and who were scorned by the
society of youthful men and women crowding their lives with sensual
experiences before they were too old to profit from this new morality.
Due to the emphasis on fantasy and comedy, the style of the
opera-ballet is, in many ways, an improvement over that of the
tragedie lyrique. Now completely a fete, each entree does not suffer
from the shock that accompanies the insertion of a ballet divertisse­
ment in the midst of a tragic action. The action has become the fete,
so much a part of the Regency society, and the dance and music fit
much more naturally. The exterior quality of the emotions is suited
to the f§te, in which light airs and witty dialogues are the reigning
forms of expression. Again, the "encounters" lend themselves to the
variations of the dance, the plot itself being dancelike in its endless
movement of attractions and repulsions; and the airs, influenced by
the dance, fit this movement.
This lighthearted, innocent expression of a way of life that was
often cynical and sensual, giving the audience a picture of their times

without painting the often terrible consequences of their actions,
began to die when cynicism and sensuality broke through the veil of
innocence in the opera-ballet, thus destroying the air of fantasy and
na'ivete that was its greatest attraction. In Les Ages and in Les
Plaisirs de la campagne, the reality of Regency life became over­
whelming, the fetes having become only added diversions rather than
an integral part of the whole. This degeneration of the opera-ballet
paralleled the end of many aspects of the Regency. The play-acting,
fantasy, and games could not last. The Regency man was forced to
unmask and to be himself, and the games he played became more and
more forced as the power of invention failed him.
411

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