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Spectacles of Intimacy:A New Look at the comédie larmoyante

Deborah Steinberger

IN LE PHILOSOPHE MARIÉ (1727), Philippe Néricault Destouchesblends comic and serious scenes in his portrayal of a young man's effortsto keep his marriage secret. The hero, Ariste, wishes both to avoid ridicule

from his bachelor friends and to remain in the good graces of an ornery rela-tive from whom he expects to inherit. The play features comic elements in thetradition of Molière: a lighthearted dépit amoureux, a clever soubrette. But italso shows us a son in tears at his father's knees, begging forgiveness for amarriage contracted without his consent, and a loving husband and wifethreatened with separation at the hands of a tyrannical uncle. These senti-mentally charged situations, featuring pathos built on family ties, are a nov-elty for French comedy of this period: they mark a break with the affectiveatmosphere of the comedy of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth cen-turies, dominated by Molière and Dancourt. This mixture of the serious andthe comic makes Le Philosophe marié one of the first examples of thecomédie larmoyante. Along with Nivelle de La Chaussée, Destouches pio-neered this new type of comedy, devoted to the private sphere, and depictingfamily harmony and marital fidelity as the greatest sources of happiness. Theplays of Destouches and La Chaussée portray the family home with an inno-vative blend of realism and idealism. On the one hand, they show us charac-ters at home engaged in ordinary daily activities: writing and reading for busi-ness and pleasure (Destouches's Le Philosophe marié and Le Glorieux),squabbling with a sister (Le Philosophe marié), organizing entertainment forguests (La Chaussée 's Le Préjugé à la mode). On the other hand, these authorsidealize the domestic space as they celebrate the power of family, which edu-cates and reforms individuals, and transforms a house into a home.

The comédie larmoyante has long been vilified, or at best neglected. Gus-tave Lanson, who wrote in 1887 the only book-length study of this genre, con-demns its "fade sensibilité," and calls the works of La Chaussée "à peu prèsillisibles aujourd'hui."1 This last remark makes immediately clear the short-comings of his critical approach. The plays of Destouches and La Chausséewere obviously created not to be read, but seen: any attempt to analyze theseworks must consider them above all as spectacle. Here, for example, I studythe dramatic space and stage settings of these plays. The comédie larmoyante,

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I believe, represents an advanced stage of a movement I call "the domestica-tion of French comedy": starting in the 1660s, one notes a gradual transfor-mation of stage settings from public square to domestic interior, from publicto private space.2 This "domestication" of the stage is in turn linked to a phe-nomenon which has been documented by Philippe Aries, Roger Charrier andmany others: the evolution of new patterns of social space in early modernFrance, with increased differentiation of the public and private spheres.3

Recognition of the growing allure of the private and domestic may help usto understand the enormous success the comédie larmoyante enjoyed beforecontemporary audiences. Despite their putative literary shortcomings, theseworks held undeniable appeal for the theatergoing public. As the Abbé Des-fontaines wrote in 1737, "Cessons de médire de ces fausses comédies; ellessont goûtées de notre siècle."4 With 20 performances each in their first run,Destouches's Le Philosophe marié and La Chaussée's Le Préjugé à la modequalify by the period's standards as real successes; La Chaussée's La FausseAntipathie and Mélanide were performed over 20 times; and Destouches's LeGlorieux enjoyed a triumphant total of 30 first-run performances, a recordheld by only four other plays produced between 1715 and 1750.5 Their elec-tion to the Académie—Destouches in 1723, La Chaussée in 1736—indicatesthat these authors had earned the respect of their peers. Yet, despite theirimmense popularity and their distinguished standing among their contempo-raries, modern studies of these authors are virtually nonexistent. A réévalua-tion of the theater of Destouches and La Chaussée, one that can account forits success, is long overdue.

Critics both contemporary and modern have come down hard on thishybrid genre and its two principal propagators. Voltaire and Grimm bothinform us that the term "comédie larmoyante" was meant as a pejorativelabel.6 But the blending of comic and serious elements which gave thecomédie larmoyante its name seems to have inspired fewer objections thandid the moralizing tone common to the plays of Destouches and La Chaussée,which stress models of virtuous behavior. In the preface to Le Glorieux, afterpaying homage to "l'incomparable Molière," Destouches asserts that with hisown contributions, he has taken "une route nouvelle," has found "un ton nou-veau." He sets out to purge the stage of his predecessors' "frivoles saillies,""débauches d'esprit," "sales équivoques," and, above all, their depiction of"mœurs basses et vicieuses."7 Destouches surely had Dancourt in mind: weneed only recall this author's Diable boiteux comedies, which feature a char-acter who has escaped from her husband to seek a life of pleasure in Paris,accompanied by her saucy (and illegitimate) daughter.

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But this heavy-handed praise of virtuous behavior could become tiresome.The criticism most frequently leveled at the works of Destouches and LaChaussée is, paradoxically, that their sentimental comedy leaves one cold. Inan amusing epigram, the dramatist Piron calls his rival La Chaussée's muse"froide et pincée."8 Though elsewhere Voltaire applauds Destouches and LaChaussée for their ability to touch audiences, he also writes that Destouches'sLe Glorieux is "[une pièce] froide par le fond et par la forme. . . ."' Grimmconcedes that there are scenes in the most successful plays of Destouches andLa Chaussée which are "extrêmement touchantes et qui font un très grandeffet au théâtre." Yet he has harsh words for both authors' shortcomings:Destouches, he writes, is often "froid, ennuyeux, languissant," and LaChaussée "[a] horriblement mal écrit la plupart de ses comédies" (128).

The sparse twentieth-century criticism devoted to the works ofDestouches and La Chaussée has valued them primarily as steppingstones ona path leading from Molière to Diderot and the drame bourgeois. Lansonwrites that the chief value of La Chaussée's theater is that "[il] forma unpublic pour Rousseau et prépara l'avènement des mœurs sentimentales de lafin du siècle (...) c'est la tragédie bourgeoise, c'est le drame, qui naissent"(279, 291). It is undeniable that the theater of Destouches and La Chausséecontributed to Diderot's dramatic vision. Diderot was the first to present for-mally many of the elements of Destouches's and La Chaussée's dramaturgy.But I think it is important, and ultimately more interesting, to look at thecomédie larmoyante not simply as the precursor of the drame, but as an inno-vative genre in its own right.

In the comédie larmoyante, the domestic setting conspires with a new,more serious tone to produce tears and compassion. Henri Bergson writes thatthe production of laughter requires a sense of superiority and emotional dis-tance on the part of the spectator.10 The entrance of comedy into the intimatespace of the home reduces this comic distance and enhances the spectators'identification with the characters. In the opening scenes of Le Philosophemarié, the hero, Ariste, is seated in his cabinet, casually attired in a dressinggown. In their realistic detail, the stage directions convey a feeling of domes-tic intimacy and comfort: "Il se met à lire, le coude appuyé sur la table" (1,1).After reading silently for a few moments, Ariste comments on the text beforehim: "Me voilà justement, c'est la vive peinture/D'un sage désarmé, domptépar la nature" (I, 2). This mise en abyme, in which Ariste "finds himself in aliterary work, subtly reinforces the process of identification that lies at theheart of Destouches' theater. Diderot would later present this same idea as anartistic principle in his Entretiens sur Le Fils naturel, where his spokesman,

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the fictional character Dorval, declares, "[C]e qu'il faut que l'artiste trouve,c'est ce que tout le monde dirait en pareil cas; ce que personne n'entendra,sans le reconnaître aussitôt en soi."11

In order to promote the audience's identification with the onstage action,Diderot advocated a move away from character comedy—the portrayal of anindividual's eccentricities, at which Molière excelled—towards theater wheresocial or family function, or condition, governs a character's portrayal. ForDiderot, the main advantage of the drama of conditions is its universal appeal:"Pour peu que le caractère fût chargé, un spectateur pouvait se dire à lui-même, ce n'est pas moi. Mais il ne peut se cacher que l'état qu'on joue devantlui, ne soit le sien; il ne peut méconnaître ses devoirs. Il faut absolument qu'ils'applique ce qu'il entend" (153).

Destouches maintains in his critique of his play that Le Philosophe mariéis character comedy. But in his depiction of Ariste, Destouches was alreadymoving away from the portrayal of a laughable, eccentric "original" to that ofa model for everyman, a virtuous but otherwise unremarkable husband. LePhilosophe marié is not character comedy, for Ariste has no clear dominantcharacter trait. Instead, his characterization is threefold, fragmented: he is atonce a philosophe, a somewhat ridiculous mari honteux de l'être (this is theplay's subtitle), and yet also a doting, loyal husband. When we first see Aristein Act I, sc. 1, he is revelling in his studious, leisurely solitude. But the hero'slearned pursuits quickly recede into the background: as early as the secondhalf of his opening monologue, he shows that he is wholly preoccupied by hismarriage and the problems it poses.

With Ariste, Destouches introduces a new figure: the domesticated hero, aman who is fulfilled by family life and whose chief concern is to be a respon-sible husband.12 First and foremost, Ariste loves his wife: he immediatelymakes it clear that despite his nostalgia for his bachelor freedom, he is hap-pily married to a virtuous woman whom he adores (I, 1). Furthermore, Aristeviews his home as a pleasant retreat where he can lead a quiet, self-sufficientlife, pursuing his work and study:

Oui, tout m'attache ici. J'y goûte, avec plaisir,Les charmes peu connus d'un innocent loisir.J'y vis tranquille, heureux, à l'abri de l'envie:La folle ambition n'y trouble point ma vie. (I, 1)

As Ariste expresses his fondness for his home he explicitly connects thedomestic space to innocence, virtue and pleasure, and invests the play's stagesetting with moral value.

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There is the promise of a similar transformation from idiosyncratic comictype to less remarkable (but morally superior) family man in Destouches's LeGlorieux (1732). The protagonist is the proud Comte de Tufière, who is court-ing Isabelle, daughter of the wealthy bourgeois Lisimon. Isabelle favors theCount, but is wary of his haughty airs and arrogant behavior: he boasts of hislineage and wealth, and insults her brother Valere, her maid Lisette, andPhilinte, a rival for Isabelle 's hand. As it turns out, Lisette is the Count's sister:their father, a nobleman, had been reduced to exile and poverty after a falseaccusation of murder. While the Count knows his father and is aware of hispresent and former situation, Lisette was raised in a convent, ignorant of hertrue identity and high birth; penniless and believing herself an orphan, she hadbeen obliged to accept work as a servant. Her dignified beauty and goodnature quickly win her the affections of Valere, whom she loves, and of hisfather Lisimon, whose advances she repels.

Having first revealed his identity to Lisette, Lycandre, the long-absentfather, appears before his son in the play's final moments. Although he hasregained his wealth and status, Lycandre dresses shabbily, expressly to humblethe Count. Lycandre demands that his son recognize him before Lisimon, andorders him to abandon his arrogance. The Count kneels before his father to askforgiveness and promise reform; his sister looks on, tears streaming down hercheeks. This sentimental scene serves as an initiation ritual by virtue of whichthe humbled Count, transformed from self-involved salon snob to respectfulson and tender husband, earns his passage into a bourgeois family. Earlier inthe play, Lisimon had advised his prospective son-in-law to leave his noble airsat the door, explaining that in his home there was no room for haughty for-mality, no gap between être and paraître: "Chez moi le dedans gouverne ledehors" (Π, 17). Not only does this phrase sum up Lisimon's personal philos-ophy—he is governed by his physical appetites, his appreciation of food, drink,and pretty young girls—it also describes the value the comédie larmoyanteascribes to Ie dedans: interior space, the domestic sphere, family matters.

In Le Glorieux, the transition from character comedy to the drama of con-dition is articulated in terms of this opposition between Ie dedans and Iedehors. Character is shown to be superficial compared to the claims ofNature—filial affection, conjugal love. The irresistible cri du sang triumphsover social status and social prejudice. Lycandre exults in his son's conver-sion: "Malgré votre orgueil, la nature a parlé" (V, 6). When Isabelle declaresto Tufière at the play's conclusion that, though she loves him, she fears he willreturn to his former arrogance, the proud Count reassures his future wife,"L'amour prendra le soin d'assortir nos humeursVComptez sur son pouvoir;

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que faut-il pour vous plaire?/Vos goûts, vos sentiments feront mon caractère"(V, 6). The Count's personality will henceforth be dictated by his role of com-plaisant husband, his caractère erased by marriage and by his integration intoa family.

With Le Philosophe marié and Le Glorieux, Destouches ushers in a revo-lution in the theatrical depiction of the family and in the moral valence of thedomestic stage setting: the ménage is shown as a benevolent entity, a refugefrom external evils, the repository of truth, virtue and sincerity. Destouchesand La Chaussée give a new look to the family as they introduce characterswho are positive, appealing models whom one would or should want toresemble: kind, compassionate parents, devoted children, dutiful husbands,patient, sweet-tempered wives. Antagonism between family members isreduced in the comédie larmoyante, where the emphasis is on reconciliationand perfectibility. On the one hand, Destouches and La Chaussée avoid theportrayal of tension between the generations, long a stock feature of comedyand often considered one of its defining features.13 Gone are such pairs asCléante and Harpagon, whose mutual distrust and deceit had furnished mate-rial for laughter in Molière's L'Avare. The selfish, tyrannical father is replacedby the good father, the tender, reasonable père confident. In Le Philosophemarié, Ariste's father, learning of his son's secret marriage, shows compas-sion rather than the indignation his son had feared: "Je reçois cet aveu plus enami qu'en père" (IV, 2). In Le Glorieux, Lisette describes her father as akindly guardian, a "guide salutaire" (I, 8). In La Chaussée's works, where themother becomes an especially important figure, the compassionate, affection-ate mère confidente replaces the narcissistic mère coquette we find in the the-ater of Donneau de Visé, Quinault and Dancourt. These mothers and fathersanticipate the type of parents that Diderot's Dorval declares he would like tosee replace valets and soubrettes onstage: "Que [les soubrettes] restent (...) surla scène jusqu'à ce que notre éducation devienne meilleure, et que les pères etmères soient les confidents de leurs enfants" (84).

The comédie larmoyante also improves relations between husbands andwives. Until this time, married couples in comedy were generally portrayed asopponents. In early domesticated comedies by Molière, Les Femmes savantesand Le Bourgeois gentilhomme—as in George Dandin and Le Médecin malgrélui—the sparring spouses are descendants of the antagonistic couple of con-jugal farce, whose relationship is defined by unresolved (and essentially unre-solvable) conflict. With the domestication of the comic stage, the farce-inspired couple gradually falls out of fashion. This change coincides with thegrowth of what Philippe Aries calls "family feeling." He writes that affective

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bonds between family members were enhanced by the increased privacy ofeighteenth-century homes: "Les progrès du sentiment de la famille suivent lesprogrès de la vie privée, de l'intimité domestique. Le sentiment de la famillene se développe pas lorsque la maison est trop ouverte sur l'extérieur; il exigeun minimum de secret."14 Over the course of the seventeenth century, thefamily becomes "une société fermée où on aime demeurer" (Ariès, L'Enfant309). This enclosed space is eminently suited to the theatrical depiction ofvirtue, for, as Peter Szondi explains, "La vertu est un bien privé, grâce auquelle bourgeois, fuyant les intrigues et la méchanceté du monde, peut se récon-forter entre ses quatre murs."15 The farce couple's futile, noisy struggles fordomination are incompatible with the moral high ground of the comédie lar-moyante and the "refuge of virtue" which is its setting. To borrow a phrasefrom American political debate of the mid-1990s, Destouches and LaChaussée seek to "strengthen the family"; their promotion of "family values"favors a scenario of estrangement followed by reconciliation. Typically, theirfocus is on the relations of an already-married couple: " (...) le mariage n'estpas le dénouement qu'on appelle quand la pièce est finie: c'est la piècemême" (Lanson 179). Destouches's Le Philosophe marié, where the protago-nists have already been married two years when the action begins, is our firstclear illustration of this trend.

This change in the protagonists' situation affects the plot structure of thecomédie larmoyante. All creators of domesticated comedy were faced withthe task of furnishing the commonplace and circumscribed space of the familyhome with dramatic interest. One of Molière's favored solutions is to intro-

duce a character who jeopardizes family harmony and must be eliminated(Tartuffe, Trissotin). Destouches adopts the ancient devices of mistaken iden-tities and scenes of recognition: in Le Glorieux, for example, the cri du sangbrings together Lisette, her brother the Count, and their father Lycandre. Tear-ful family reunions also provide climactic moments in La Chaussée'sMélanide (1741), L'Ecole des mères (1744) and La Gouvernante (1747).16 Ofcourse, we have already seen such scenes of recognition in Molière's L'Ecoledes femmes and L'Avare. Whereas in Molière, however, the long-lost parentarrives at the very end of the play, Destouches and La Chaussée exploit the cridu sang not as a deus ex machina but as a central element of their drama: theirplays dwell on the developing relationship between the unwitting familymembers. This contrivance provides emotionally charged situations while itportrays the family as an irresistible and timeless force.

One final way the comédie larmoyante adds drama to the ménage is byintroducing a new pair of characters, the betrayed wife and the unfaithful hus-

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band. In Le Glorieux we witness an early version of this domestic drama ofinfidelity. M. Lisimon and Mme Lisimon are at odds over the choice of a hus-band for their daughter. Their dispute recalls the quarrels of Philaminte andChrysale in Les Femmes savantes. But an element of pathos is introduced byLisimon's philandering, which is taken seriously as a threat to Lisette and anaffront to his wife. Valere deplores his father's weakness for Lisette anddescribes the effect his conduct has had on his mother, whom he depicts notas a Philaminte-like tyrant, but rather as the defenseless, sorrowful wife of afaithless husband:

(...) Oui, je voiA quel ignoble excès veut se porter mon père.Quel exemple pour moi! Quel chagrin pour ma mère!Je ne m'étonne plus si sa faible santéL'oblige à renoncer à Ia société,Et si toujours livrée à sa mélancolie,Dans son appartement elle passe sa vie. (I, 8)

Indeed, Mme Lisimon never appears onstage; such a melancholy presencewould have disturbed the prevailing light comic atmosphere.

Like Mme Lisimon, Constance, the neglected wife in La Chaussée's LePréjugé à la mode (1735), is an exile in her own home. In Destouches's play,Mme Lisimon's invisibility reduces our potential compassion for her suffer-ing. In La Chaussée's Préjugé, however, the abandoned wife emerges fromher solitary confinement to win our entire sympathy. We hear firsthand of herwoes, even as she seeks to hide her disgrace. In his theater, La Chaussée com-pletes the move away from the influential comic model of Philaminte andChrysale: the wife is no longer an outrageous tyrant but an outraged victim.La Chaussée shows us misunderstanding between husband and wife, physicalor emotional separation: we see shame and sorrow, never anger.17

Constance, the betrayed but loyal wife in Le Préjugé, has patientlyendured her beloved husband Durval's infidelities. In Act II, sc. 1, however,Durval confides to Damon that he now loves Constance and desires a recon-ciliation. He hesitates, though: like Ariste in Le Philosophe marié, Durvalfears ridicule if his secret is discovered, for a fashionable prejudice hasdeclared conjugal love a droll bourgeois sentiment. This wayward husbandspends most of the play's five acts agonizing over where and how to make hishumbling declaration. By the end of the play, Durval is in tears at his wife'sfeet. As in Le Philosophe marié, the play's conclusion shows us Ie dedansdefeating Ie dehors, as Durval's love for Constance conquers the préjugé à la

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mode, and he declares before all assembled his passion and the plenitude ofhis conjugal happiness: "Oui, je ne prétends plus que personne l'ignore;/Cestma femme, en un mot, c'est elle que j'adoreVQue l'on m'approuve ou non,mon bonheur me suffit" (V, 6).18 With this public declaration of independencefrom public opinion, Durval recapitulates the methods of domesticatedcomedy: he creates a spectacle of intimacy.

Bonheur in La Chaussée and Destouches is always synonymous withreciprocal conjugal love. To promote this bonheur, the theater of Destouchesand La Chaussée formulates new "Maxims of marriage," prescriptions forconjugal happiness that replace the misogynistic precepts Arnolphe sought toimpose on Agnès in Molière's L'Ecole des femmes (III, 2). These new maximsconnect marriage with pleasure. Ariste, the philosophe marié, lives by thisprinciple: "Plus amant que mari, je possède son cœur [de Mélite];/Elle fait sonplaisir de faire mon bonheur" (I, 1). In an uncharacteristically expansivemoment, Durval explains that the married state is ideal because duty andpleasure are one:

S'il est un sort heureux, c'est celui d'un épouxQui rencontre à la fois dans l'objet qui l'enchanteUne épouse chérie, une amie, une amante.Quel moyen de n'y pas fixer tous ses désirs!Il trouve son devoir dans le sein des plaisirs. (II, 3)

In the new moral order which the comédie larmoyante proposes, conjugallove takes the place of social standing and confers a new nobility: Constance'scousin Sophie declares, "(...) sans l'amour d'un époux nous sommes sanséclat./Son cœur fait notre titre, et nous donne un état" (III, 2). This "neworder" advocates treating wives not as opponents or subjects but as allies, andreplacing relations of power with bonds of affection. Its maxims challengethose of the patriarchal order. When Ariste, the philosophe marié, declares ina rare stern moment that "Le devoir d'une femme est d'être complaisante," hiswife Mélite playfully counters, "Tranchez le mot, mon cher, dites obéis-santeVVous n'aimez d'un mari que son autorité" (I, 6). The unreformedDurval is another representative of the old order: he sees the relations betweenthe sexes as a struggle for domination.19 His distrust of "ce sexe impérieux[qui] veut maîtriser ce qu'il aime" extends even to his meek, angelic wife,who he imagines will glory in her victory if he returns to her. His friendDamon challenges him: "Pourquoi voulons-nous que fleur sexe] soit soumisau nôtre?" (II, 1).

Constance submits to the old order, sacrificing her happiness to her sense

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of duty: she proclaims, "Le devoir d'une épouse est de paraître heureuse" (I,2). But her young cousin Sophie argues that it is not enough to appear happy.Her faith in marriage shaken by Constance's predicament, she threatens tobreak her engagement to Damon, although she loves him:

Quoi! parce qu'un perfide aura le nom d'époux,Il pourra me porter les plus sensibles coups,Violer tous les jours le serment qui nous lie,M'ôter impunément le bonheur de ma vie,Sans qu'il me soit permis de réclamer des droitsQui devraient être égaux... ! Mais ils ont fait les lois.Il faut que je ménage un cruel qui me brave!Sa femme est sa compagne, et non pas son esclave. (I, 5)

But Sophie has chosen her future husband well: Damon is sensitive to the vul-nerability of married women. He reminds Durval that " (...) une femme n'apour soutenir ses droits/Que sa fidélité, sa faiblesse et ses larmes" (II, 1). TheDamon of Le Philosophe marié is similarly attuned to the feminine condition:when Ariste complains, "Le mariage est un rude esclavage!" his friend cor-rects him: "Pour les femmes" (I, 2).

Passages like these indicate that the comédie larmoyante must have beenparticularly appealing to women: it drew attention to their sufferings as wivesand mothers, and advocated more equitable conditions for married women—if only in matters of the heart. The eighteenth-century critic Titon du Tilletattributes La Chaussée's success with female audiences to his ability to por-tray sentimental situations from their point of view: "Plaute, Terence etMolière ont écrit pour les hommes, et pour les instruire; La Chaussée a pris laplume des mains des Grâces pour plaire aux femmes par la peinture des pas-sions qu'elles éprouvent et qu'elles font sentir" (La Chaussée 8). Similarly,Félix Gaiffe contrasts the "rire mâle" of Molière with Destouches's more del-icate wit.20 Mme de Pompadour was so fond of Le Préjugé that she insisted onplaying Constance in the numerous court productions of the comedy.

While the popular comedy that immediately preceded it portrayed femalefolly, the comédie larmoyante offers examples of female virtue. The rolesDestouches and La Chaussée introduce counteract the ridiculous, egotisticaland extravagant wives and widows that abound in the theater of Baron andDancourt. Female characters acquire new dignity as the mère coquettebecomes a selfless mère confidente, and the younger coquette is replaced byfigures whose names often announce their virtues: Constance, Sophie.

Lanson declares that

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La Chaussée commença l'œuvre que devait achever Rousseau: à la femme du XVIIIe siècle, dontle cœur était sec, les sens fatigués, spirituelle, indifférente, ennuyée, il révéla Ie sérieux de la vie;il lui rendit l'énergie par l'amour, et la dignité par le devoir. De la femme du monde, il en fit lafemme." (153-54)

It seems unlikely, however, that La Chaussée's portrayals changed women byrevealing to them the unfamiliar joys of family life. It seems much more prob-able that women changed theater by giving their approval to a new genre thatcelebrated their sex as the guardians of bonheur, wise and forgiving, agents ofthe family's power to educate and elevate the individual and tarn the houseinto a home.

University of Delaware

Notes

1. Gustave Lanson, Nivelle de La Chaussée et la comédie larmoyante (1887; reprint, NewYork: Burt Franklin, 1971), 301.

2. For more on this subject, see my article, "Molière and the Domestication of FrenchComedy: Public and Private Space in L'Ecole des femmes," Cahiers du Dix-Septième 6, no.2(1996): 131-39.

3. Philippe Ariès and Georges Duby, eds., Histoire de la vie privée, vol. 3 (Paris: Seuil, 1986),16, 618-19. See also Jean-Louis Flandrin, Familles: Parenté, maison, sexualité dans l'an-cienne société (Paris: Seuil, 1984), 92-94, and Fernand Braudel, Les Structures du quoti-dien: Le Possible et l'impossible (Paris: Armand Colin, 1979), 269.

4. Pierre François Guyot Desfontaines, Observations sur les écrits modernes, vol. 1 (Geneva:Slatkine Reprints, 1967), 696.

5. Henri Lagrave, Le Théâtre et le public à Paris de 1715 à 1750 (Paris: Klincksieck, 1972),585.

6. See Voltaire, "Préface à Nanine," in Théâtre du XVIIIe siècle, éd. Jacques Truchet (Paris:Gallimard, 1972), 871, and Friedrich Melchior Grimm, Correspondance littéraire,philosophique et critique, vol. 1 (Paris: Fume, 1829), 127.

7. Philippe Néricault Destouches, Œuvres choisies de Destouches, vol. 1 (Paris: Didot, 1810),135. All quotes from Destouches's works are drawn from this edition and this volume.

8. Alexis Piron, Œuvres choisies de Pirón (Paris: Gamier, 1921), 560.9. Cited in Jean Hankiss, Philippe Néricault Destouches: L'Homme et l'œuvre (Debreczen:

Hegedus and Sandor, 1920), 154.10. Henri Bergson, Le Rire (Paris: PUF, 1940), III.11. Denis Diderot, Œuvres esthétiques (Paris: Garnier, 1965), 99.12. Terry Eagleton demonstrates a comparable "domestication of heroism" in eighteenth-cen-

tury English literature and society in The Rape of Clarissa (Minneapolis: U of MinnesotaP), 14-15.

13. See for example Northrop Frye, The Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957),163-71.

14 Philippe Ariès, L'Enfant et la vie familiale sous l'Ancien Régime (Paris: Seuil, 1973), 267.15. Peter Szondi, "Denis Diderot: Théorie et pratique dramatique," in Diderot et le théâtre

(Paris: Comédie Française, 1984), 60.16. The conduct of Mélanide and the Governess—their deliberate concealment of their identity

from their children from the time of their birth—seems calculated to bring about suchscenes.

17. In La Chaussée's L'Ecole des mères (1744), Monsieur Argant objects to his wife's blinddevotion to their son and her neglect of their daughter, but his love for an "épouse adorable"(III, 1, 977), rather than any fear of an irascible or tyrannical wife, keeps him from chal-lenging her.

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18. Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, Œuvres de Nivelle de La Chaussée (1777; Geneva:Slatkine Reprints, 1970). All quotations from La Chaussée's works are drawn from this edi-tion.

19. For a discussion of the evolution of ideas about marital relations in seventeenth- and eigh-teenth-century England and France, and the rise of the "companionate marriage," seeLawrence Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800 (New York: Harperand Row, 1977), esp. 325-404.

20. Félix Gaiffe, Le Drame en France au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Armand Colin, 1910), 29-30.

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