Tartuffe

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Tartuffe

• EN302 European Theatre

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Molières life

• 1622 Born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, to a wealthy
  middle-class family in Paris
• c. 1643 Joined Madeline Béjart and 8 others to
  found the Illustre Théâtre
• 1645-58 Toured France with the Illustre Théâtre
• 1658 Returned to Paris under the protection of
  Monsieur, the brother of Louis XIV performed for
  the King and granted a share of the Petit Bourbon
  theatre
• 1661 Company rehoused in the Palais Royal
• 1664 Tartuffe performed in its 3-act version for
  the King at Versailles, and subsequently banned
• 1667 One performance of LImposteur (revised
  version of Tartuffe), also banned
• 1669 Ban on Tartuffe finally lifted became one
  of Molières most popular plays both during and
  after his life
• 1673 Molières death

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Louis XIV (1638-1715)

• Patron of the arts
• Louis XIV was godfather to Molières son
• Louis ambiguous position on ban
• Although the suppression of this work was a
  severe blow, nevertheless my misfortune was
  softened by your Majestys explanation of this
  matter and I believed, Sire, that you relieved
  me of all grounds for complaint by your kindness
  in saying that your Majesty found nothing to
  criticize in the play that you forbade me to
  present in public. (Molière, First Petition,
  August 1664)
• Molières company became la Troupe du Roi in
  1665 Molière became responsible for court
  entertainments

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The Fronde

• Louis XIV crowned at the age of 4 in 1643 did
  not assume full personal power until 1660
• State ruled in the interim by the queen mother,
  Anne of Austria, and her chief minister, Cardinal
  Mazarin.
• Battles between provincial legislatures and the
  aristocracy, 1648-53
• Victory in these wars established the monarchy as
  absolute and autocratic
• Orgon and the Fronde In the recent
  disturbances, he may have been / Reliable, brave,
  loyal to the Crown, / But now hes fallen for
  Tartuffe (p. 9)

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Theatrical context

• Theatre buildings
• Usually former tennis courts
• Only one purpose-built theatre in all France in
  1640s the Hôtel de Bourgogne, built in 1548 for
  religious drama.
• Molières theatre from 1661 the Palais-Royal

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The Palais-Royal

• Physical features
• parterre
• amphithéâtre
• two galleries of 17 boxes on three sides (third
  gallery constructed in 1671)
• scenic space
• audience on stage (highly priced, prestigious)

• Audience capacity
• 40 on stage
• 136 in first-row boxes
• 120 in amphithéâtre
• 136 in second-row boxes
• 136 in third-row boxes (after 1671)
• 500 in the parterre

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Molières theatre

• Organisation of Molières theatre company
• all shareholders
• largely democratic, though not everyone had an
  equal number of shares
• financial and programming decisions made
  communally
• sexual equality (for the most part)
• older female roles like Mme Pernelle played by
  men
• no director as such, but Molière probably took
  charge

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Molières style

• Alexandrines heightened, artificial
• Stock types
• Intertextual casting
• Molière specialised in the role of Sganarelle, a
  character who is prone to self-delusion and
  often tries to impose his deluded world-view on
  those around him (Howarth 1995 235) he appears
  as
• Arnolphe in LÉcole des femmes (The School for
  Wives, 1662),
• Orgon in Tartuffe (1664),
• Alceste in Le Misanthrope (1666),
• Harpagon in LAvare (The Miser, 1668),
• Monsieur Jordain in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (The
  Would-be Nobleman, 1970),
• Argan in Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary
  Invalid, 1673).

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Molière as actor

• A contemporary spectator describing Molière as
  Sganarelle
• You never heard such a simpleton, or saw such a
  foolish face and one doesnt know whether to
  admire the author more for the way he has written
  the play, or the player for the way he acts it.
  There was never an actor with such control over
  his facial expression
• (La Neufvillenaine, Arguments, quoted in Molière,
  Oeuvres, ed. Despois Mesnard, II, p. 189)

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Commedia dellarte

• Italian commedia dellarte companies performed in
  Paris from 1570s onwards.
• Popular farce at the Hôtel de Bourgogne
• Turlupin, the braggart (Henri Legrand)
• Gros-Guillaume, the fat man (Robert Guerin)
• Gaultier-Garguille, the old man (Hugues Guéru)
• Tiberio Fiorilli (Scaramouche) and his company
  were resident in Paris 1639-48 and then again
  from 1660 (as the Troupe de la Comédie Italienne)
  at the Palais-Royal, which they shared with
  Molière.
• From the commedia dellarte, Molière learned how
  to improvise on stock situations according to the
  nature of each audience like them he often
  performed with a mask or floured face (Maland
  1970 173)

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Abraham Bosse, Comedians at the theatre of Hotel
de Bourgogne, c. 1634 Turlupin,
Gaultier-Garguille Gros-Guillaume
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Italian and French Comedians Playing in Farces,
1670 (detail)
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Neo-classical comedy

• Conventions
• contemporary bourgeois setting
• family focus (rather than historical / heroic)
• young love vs. parental opposition
• Pierre Corneille comedy as a portrait of the
  manners and conversation of persons of good
  breeding
• The exclusion of what we should call genuinely
  comic material from this definition was
  entirely in keeping with the firm distinction
  between comedy and farce established by the
  Renaissance theorists, for whom the imitation of
  life, not the arousing of laughter, was to be the
  comic dramatists goal. (Howarth 1995 233)

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Molière on comedy

• La Critique de LÉcole des femmes (1663)
• URANIE. Tragedy, no doubt, is something grand
  when it is rightly handled but comedy has many
  charms and I think tis no less difficult to
  write than tragedy.
• DORANTE. You are right, madame and as for
  difficulty, you would not be wrong if you should
  add a little to the scale of comedy. I think
  myself tis easier to be grand over grand
  sentiments, brave adverse fortune, challenge
  destiny, and hurl defiance at the gods than to
  exhibit in a proper spirit the absurdities of men
  and show their failings pleasantly upon the
  stage. tis indeed a curious enterprise to make
  the honest public laugh. (Scene VII, p. 340)

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Classical comic theory

• Aristotle
• Comedy, as we have said, is an imitation of
  people who are worse than the average.
• His ideas were expanded upon by the 4th century
  AD philosopher Evanthius
• Comedy is a story treating of various habits and
  customs of public and private affairs, from which
  one may learn what is of use in life, on the one
  hand, and what must be avoided, on the other.
  (quoted in Palmer 1984 30)

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Molière as satirist

• Whereas the duty of comedy is to correct men by
  amusing them, I felt that, being in that
  profession, I could do no better than to attack,
  by ludicrous portrayals, the vices of my age.
  (Molières First Petition, August 1664)
• Some of his satirical targets included
• French literary fashion (Les Précieuses
  ridicules),
• courtiers (Les Fâcheux),
• middle-class patriarchs (Sganarelle, LÉcole des
  maris, LÉcole des femmes),
• scholars (Le Mariage forcé),
• doctors (LAmour médecin)
• even his own audience (La Critique de LÉcole des
  femmes)

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Tartuffe as religious satire

• Depicts an actual social phenomenon the lay
  director
• Religious/sexual double entendres in Act 3 May
  He God grant you all the joy that I, / His
  humble servant, also wish for you. (p. 42)
• Even after he has shown his hand, Tartuffe uses
  language which is both sexually and religiously
  charged. The following is a parody of the Salve
  Regina
• Cant you look kindly on this wretch?
• Cant you find it in your heart
• To pour the balm of consolation
• On your unworthy slave
• Writhing in agony here at your feet?
• Oh, you creature from Heaven,
• Be the temple where I worship! (pp. 45-6)

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Tartuffe as religious satire

• Perhaps this satire was precisely targeted
• Cléante on religious hypocrites Theres a lot
  of them about (p. 17)
• There is a possible reference to the Jesuit
  direction of intention in the following lines
  scruples can be got rid of Theres an
  established way / Of squaring bad actions with
  good intentions. Ill teach you the theology.
  (p. 66)
• More persuasive is Molières loaded use of the
  term cabale, both in the play (There are
  powerful cabals and cliques out there, p. 76)
  and in his Second Petition (August 1667) this
  word was widely used as a derogatory term for the
  Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement

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Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement

• Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement (Company of the
  Blessed Sacrament)
• founded 1627
• Catholic secret society
• missionary
• charitable
• religious police
• nicknamed la cabale des dévôts
• very powerful in 1664, declined by 1669
• The Président de Lamoignon, who banned Tartuffe
  in 1664, was a member.
• It was also he who had given the order to burn
  alive the heretical writer Simon Morin, along
  with all his books, in 1663.

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Lost versions of the play

• First performance at Versailles on May 12,1664
• only three acts (possibly the current Acts I, III
  and IV)
• Mariane and Valères plot may not have been so
  developed (or even present) in this version of
  the play
• well-received by Louis XIV
• Second version performed in Paris on August 5,
  1667
• five acts
• renamed Panulphe, or LImposteur
• impostor no longer dressed as a religious man
• banned after just one performance
• Final version performed 5 February 1669

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Tartuffe as satire

• Molières Preface to Tartuffe (23 March 1669)
  describes the play as a skilful poem which, by
  agreeable lessons, reprimands mens defects
• If the mission of comedy is to correct mens
  vices, I fail to see why some should be
  privileged. In the State, this one is of an
  importance much more dangerous than all the
  others and we have seen that the theatre is a
  great force for correction.
• It is a great blow to vice to expose it to
  everyones laughter. We can easily stand being
  reprehended, but we cannot stand being mocked. We
  are willing to be wicked, but we will not be
  ridiculous.

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Henri Bergson

• French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941)
  published his influential essay Laughter in
  1900.
• In it, he argued that humour arises from
  automatism and inelasticity in characters.
• In laughter we always find an unavowed intention
  to humiliate, and consequently correct our
  neighbour. (Sypher 1956 148)

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Orgons inelasticity

• ORGON. my own brother, children, mother, wife,
• Could die, I wouldnt lose a moments sleep.
• CLÉANTE. How very human. (p. 14)
• Orgon as machine
• And Tartuffe? Poor man!
• Dorines asides and Orgons mechanical response
  to them in Act 2
• Orgons alternated lines to Damis and Tartuffe in
  Act 3
• His response upon discovering the truth
• Damis is similarly mechanical he ruins Elmires
  plan, and almost gets into serious trouble at the
  end
• Mme. Pernelle (significant that she was played by
  a male actor?)

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Tartuffe as farce

• Structure and kinaesthetics
• Careful building of hints
• Careful signposting of key plot elements (e.g.
  hiding place, Marianes engagement)
• Building of pace
• Physical image of the besieged family
• Act 5s entrances and exits

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Tartuffes structure

• Constant raising of the stakes
• Orgon orders Mariane to marry Tartuffe (Act 2)
• Orgon brings forward Marianes proposed marriage
  to today (Act 3)
• Orgon disinherits Damis (Act 3)
• Orgon resolves to put the deeds to the house in
  Tartuffes name today (end of Act 3)
• As Orgon realises Tartuffes true nature,
  Tartuffe orders him out of the house and
  threatens reprisal (Act 4)
• The play confirms the existence and contents of
  Orgons strong-box (Act 5)
• M. Loyal arrives to evict the family (Act 5)
• Valère arrives with news that Orgon is in mortal
  danger and urges him to flee (Act 5)
• Tartuffe arrives to arrest Orgon (Act 5)

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The ending

• Given that the play is so brilliantly structured
  in terms of set-up and pay-off in many other
  respects, why is no mention made of the
  crucially-important strong-box before Act 5?
• Is the final act implausible?
• (Do each of the last three acts play with
  implausible climaxes?)
• How do we read the plays deus (or rex) ex
  machina?
• We live in an enlightened age. Our King,
• Who reads us like a book, hates any fraud
• To make sure that his judgements really fair,
• He gathers in the facts till theyre complete.
  
• His expert eyes werent fooled they straightaway
  
• Saw the hideous face behind the mask. (p. 84)

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Interpreting behaviour

• Other characters are impostors of sorts
• Elmire and Dorine feign attitudes which are not
  their own for strategic reasons
• M. Loyals discourse is radically at odds with
  his purpose
• Mariane and Valère waste time and emotional
  energy masking their true feelings for one
  another in Act 2 (while Dorine watches with
  incredulous amusement)
• Even Cléante advises deception (You were rash to
  tackle him head on / More roundabout methods
  were needed p. 72)
• Valère is the one character in the play to prove
  his sincerity by his actions (this is emphasised
  by the plays final line).

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Interpreting behaviour

• Tartuffe tells the truth in order to deceive
• Yes, brother, I am evil, guilty, / A miserable
  sinner, full of iniquity, / The vilest wretch
  that ever trod this earth / Every second of my
  criminal life is steeped in filth (p. 49)
• Ah, the pain I suffer / When people try to
  blacken my name (p. 52)
• They want you to doubt me (p. 53)

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Interpreting behaviour

• Cléante as raisonneur
• I can tell truth from make-believe (p. 16)
• The very language of Cléantes assertion that he
  can du faux avec le vrai faire la différence
  (354) recalls one of the most influential books
  of the century, Descartes Discours de la Méthode
  (1637) In the first paragraph of his Discours
  Descartes assumes that men are all equally
  endowed by nature with a common sense which
  enables them to distinguer le vrai davec le
  faux. (Gaston Hall 1976 21)
• Cléante advises Orgon to See the real face
  behind the mask (p. 16) and to Learn to
  distinguish between virtue, / Real and feigned
  (p. 72).
• How easy is this?

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Interpreting behaviour

• Dorine speaks scathingly of professional
  prudery (p. 8)
• Those who live in the most fragile glass-houses
• Always cast the first stone
• They paint people as black as they can
• To camouflage their own activities,
• Put up smoke-screens, play the innocent,
• Hoping to deflect the criticism
• Coming their way. (p. 7)
• Molière accuses his own audience of this in La
  Critique de LÉcole des femmes
• URANIE. I know nothing so ridiculous as this
  super-sensitive virtue which finds evil
  everywhere, supposes criminal meaning in the most
  innocent words, and takes offence at shadows.
  (Scene III, p. 313)

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Interpreting behaviour

• Elsewhere in La Critique, Molières raisonneur
  Dorante praises audience members who judge a play
  by its effect on them, not by blind prejudice,
  or silly complaisance, or foolish prudery.
  (Scene VI, p. 323-4)
• La Critique goes on
• URANIE. All those ridiculous pictures which the
  stage presents should be regarded without
  prejudice by every one. They are public mirrors,
  in which we never ought to show we see ourselves
  to be so scandalized at such reproofs is openly
  confessing our defects. (Scene VII, p. 335)

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References

• Bergson, H. (1900) Laughter, in Sypher, W.
  (1956) Comedy, New York Doubleday Anchor,
  59-190.
• Gaston Hall, H. (1976) Molière Tartuffe, Studies
  in French Literature, London Edward Arnold.
• Howarth, William D. (1995) French Renaissance
  and Neo-Classical Theatre in John Russell Brown
  ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of the
  Theatre, Oxford OUP, pp. 220-51.
• Maland, David (1970) Culture Society in
  Seventeenth-Century France, New York Charles
  Scribners Sons.
• Molière (1663) La Critique de LÉcole des Femmes
  in Molière, trans. Katharine Prescott Wormeley,
  Boston Roberts Brothers, 1897, Vol. VI pp.
  299-357.
• Norman, Larry F. (2006) Molière as satirist in
  David Bradby Andrew Calder eds The Cambridge
  Companion to Molière, Cambridge CUP, pp. 57-70.
• Palmer, D. J ed. (1984) Comedy Developments in
  Criticism, London Macmillan.
• Williford, Christa (2006) Playhouses of
  17th-Century Paris, http//people.brynmawr.edu/cwi
  llifo/pscp/index.htm