LA MORT DE MITRIDATE - University of Liverpool

Introduction
of the 1630s on La Pinelière’s Parnassus. Dividing their time between the Hôtel
de Bourgogne and the Marais, they importune actors and hope that a famous
dramatist will notice them. Seeing the latest plays, exchanging the latest gossip,
they vie with each other to mention the names of Corneille, Du Ryer, Mairet and
Rotrou, and boast of what secrets they have overheard concerning new plays. 13 To
this, in La Calprenède’s case, must be added his military duties and meetings at
Théophraste Renaudot’s bureau d’adresses, of which Tallemant calls La
Calprenède ‘un des arcs-boutans’ (p. 584).
By 1635 La Calprenède had already been in Paris for two or three years.
During this time he had undoubtedly witnessed the triple success of Rotrou’s
Hercule mourant (1634), Mairet’s Sophonisbe (1634) and Corneille’s Médée
(1635), and been encouraged by that success and by the excitement of the revived
tragic theatre to write a tragedy of his own. Mairet’s Sophonisbe was followed by
his Marc-Antoine; ou, La Cléopâtre, with Benserade’s Cléopâtre hard upon its
heels. 14 Seen by La Calprenède, in the Au Lecteur to La Mort de Mitridate he
mentions both of these recent tragedies as precedents for the denouement of his
first play, which was probably composed, as Lancaster thinks, during the spring
and summer of 1635 and performed during the latter half of the year. 15
In 1635 Charles IV of Lorraine made an attempt to reconquer his estates, and
in counter-attack Richelieu formed the Armée de la Sarre, composed amongst
other troops, of twelve companies of Gardes françaises. 16 From Mainz they
marched towards Frankfurt in September. Outmanœuvred by the Spanish and ‘en
grande disette de vivres’, 17 the French and their allies retreated to Saverne, the
rearguard harassed all the way by the enemy, losing cannon, baggage, and, as
Bassompierre writes: ‘ainsi que ceux qui ne purent suivre pendant les trente-six
heures que dura la retraite, sans loger ni repaître, avec mille peines et
incommodités’. 18 Winter quarters were found in the north-east of France, bringing
the year’s campaigns to an end. This could well have been a campaign in which
La Calprenède saw service, for in the dedication of Le Comte d’Essex La
Calprenède thanks the princesse de Guéméné for her support when he was ‘un
jeune Cadet sortant des Gardes encore chancelant et foible de sa famine
13
14
15
16
17
18
Guérin de la Pinelière, Le Parnasse; ou, Le Critique des Poetes (Paris: Toussaint
Quinet, 1635), pp. 55-63.
Both of them had been performed at about the same time in 1635, Benserade’s version
being published in 1636 and Mairet’s in 1637. A printed copy of either play would
thus not have been available to La Calprenède during the composition of his play.
History, II, 60. It was certainly performed before 4 January 1636, the date of Mairet’s
Épître to his Galanteries du duc d’Ossonne, in which La Mort de Mitridate is referred
to.
[Marie Joseph] Hardy de Périni, Batailles françaises, 6 vols (Paris: Flammarion, 1894-
1906), III (1897), 192.
Hardy de Périni, III, 195.
Quoted by Hardy de Périni, III, 195.
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