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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).
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