THE COMÉDIE FRANÇAISE.
Its History--The Roman Comique--Under Louis XV.--During the
Revolution--Hernani.
Let us now return to the Palais Royal, and to the theatre which
adjoins it. The Comédie Française, or Théâtre Français, as it is also
called, was never, as the first of these names might suggest, devoted
exclusively to comedy. The word "comedy" was used in France in the early
days of its stage to denote any kind of theatrical entertainment. The
famous "Ballet Comique de la Reine," produced towards the end of the
16th century, was, in fact, a dramatic entertainment with singing and
dancing, strongly resembling what would now be called an opera; and the
author of the work explains, in his preface, that he calls it "ballet
comique," instead of "ballet" alone, because it possesses a dramatic
character. Volumes innumerable have been written on the origin of the
French theatre, which had as humble a beginning as the theatre in all
other European countries; with the exception, however, of opera, which
in the earliest days of the musical drama enjoyed the special patronage
of kings, princes, cardinals, and great noblemen.
In Italy, during the Renaissance period, the musical drama was invented
by popes, cardinals, and other illustrious personages bent on restoring
in modern form the ancient drama of the Greeks. The spoken drama of
France, as of other European countries, had humbler beginnings, and
the first regular troop of the Comédie Française had its origin in a
combination of wandering companies.
At the end of the sixteenth, and during the early part of the
seventeenth century, the English stage, with Marlowe, Shakespeare,
Ben Jonson, and other dramatic poets of the Elizabethan period, was
far superior to the stage of France, which scarcely indeed existed at
the time. But towards the end of the seventeenth century the French
theatre enjoyed the supreme advantage of possessing simultaneously the
three greatest dramatists that France even to this day has produced:
Corneille, Molière, and Racine.
[Illustration: THE PUBLIC FOYER, COMÉDIE FRANÇAISE.]
It is a little more than two centuries ago, in the year 1689, that
the theatre where "the comedians of the king" habitually performed
received the title of Comédie Française; though its constitution dates
from 1680, when, by order of Louis XIV., the company of the Hôtel
de Bourgogne was united to that of the Théâtre Guénégaud in the Rue
Mazarin. The history of the Comédie Française cannot well be separated
from that of Corneille and of Molière, its greatest writers; though
Molière, who died in 1673, and Corneille, who died in 1684, produced
their works long before the Théâtre Français was officially constituted.
Perhaps the most interesting account of the origin of the French
theatre is to be found in the "Roman Comique" of Scarron, in which one
of the leading personages is Madeleine Béjard, elder sister of the
charming but unfaithful Armande Béjard, known to everyone as Molière's
wife. Possibly, as in the case of the "Ballet Comique de la Reine,"
the adjective in the title of Scarron's work is used to signify, not
"comic," but "dramatic," or "theatrical." Scarron in any case shows us
how Molière (introduced under another name) joined a strolling company
when he had just finished his studies as a law student. The incident
might have been borrowed from Cervantes' "Gipsy of Madrid," wherein an
infatuated young man throws in his lot with a troop of gipsies. But it
is beyond doubt that the youth, "not brought up to the profession," who
becomes a member of a wandering troop involved in the adventures and
humours so graphically described by Scarron was no other than Molière
himself, or Poquelin, to give him his proper family designation, as
distinguished from his more euphonious theatrical name.
One of the most interesting members of this celebrated company was
Mdlle. du Parc, for whom is claimed the unique honour of having been
passionately beloved by the three greatest dramatists of France:
Corneille, Molière, and Racine. Having to choose between three writers,
of whom the first was old, the second middle-aged, and the third young,
Mdlle. du Parc was eccentric enough to select the last; a preference
which left Molière silent, but which provoked from Corneille some verses
so admirable that one cannot but forgive the lady who, by her heartless
conduct, called forth such lines. Corneille and Molière had at this time
separate companies, and Mdlle. du Parc appears to have acted in both.
Corneille in any case endeavoured to persuade Mdlle. du Parc to pass
from Molière's company to his own, pointing out to her that the troop
of his friend Molière "was very inferior in tragedy, so that she would
always be sacrificed, since she excelled above all in the tragic style."
Racine employed the same kind of argument as Corneille, and ultimately
succeeded in taking away the much-admired actress from Molière's company
in order to attach her to his theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, where
tragedies from his pen were habitually produced. Mdlle. du Parc, who had
previously caused an estrangement between Corneille and Molière, now
brought about a complete rupture between Molière and Racine.
The story of Mdlle. du Parc, with the intrigues of which she was made
the object, brings out clearly the fact that in the early days of the
French stage there was not one theatre, but three; Corneille, Molière,
and Racine having each his separate company. In the present day the
Théâtre Français comprises in its repertory all the masterpieces of
France's three greatest dramatists; and many imagine that for this
famous establishment may be claimed the honour of having first produced
them. But the finest tragedies and comedies that France possesses were
written for theatres of little or no standing; and not, as just pointed
out, for one, but for three different theatres. An actress celebrated in
her time, Mdlle. Beaupré, made some celebrated remarks on the subject
of French dramatic literature, which give a good idea of the esteem in
which the art of playwriting must have been held in France immediately
before the advent of Molière. "M. de Corneille," she said, "has done the
greatest harm to the dramatic profession. Before his time we had very
good pieces which were written for us in a night for three crowns. Now
M. de Corneille charges large sums for his plays and we earn scarcely
anything."
Even in these early days Louis XIV. took the greatest interest in
theatrical representations, especially those given by Molière's company.
Perhaps the very best period of the French stage was between the years
1645, when Molière abandoned the law courts to join a troop of wandering
players, and 1680, when the two most important companies of the day
were combined; at which time Molière had been dead seven years, while
Corneille was on the point of dying.
The Comédie Française was formed in the most arbitrary manner. It has
been said that the company which had been in the habit of playing at
the Hôtel de Bourgogne was joined to that of the Théâtre Guénégaud in
the Rue Mazarin. But there was at that day a third theatre in Paris,
the Théâtre du Marais; and in order that everything dramatic might be
concentrated at the one establishment, this unhappy house was simply
suppressed. By Royal decree the number of actors and actresses connected
with the Comédie Française was fixed at twenty-seven. A year later the
establishment received for the first time an annual subvention, to the
amount of 12,000 livres or francs. At the same time the French comedians
were authorised, in lieu of previous arrangements, to deduct the full
expenses of the theatre before paying anything to the authors.
The company had scarcely taken possession of the Théâtre de Guénégaud
when they were obliged to leave it for another and more commodious
building in the Rue des Fossés, Saint-Germain-des-Prés; and it was here
that the name of Comédie Française was first adopted. Hence the name
of the Rue de l'Ancienne Comédie, in which street, newly baptised, the
Comédie Française was for so many years installed.
The Comédie Française had everything to itself until the year 1699,
when much alarm and indignation was caused in the ranks of the company
by the establishment of an opposition theatre, the Comédie Italienne.
The French comedians were ready to do anything in order to keep their
monopoly. In a formal petition they represented to the king that they
were twenty-six in number (the principal actress had died) and capable,
if necessary, of amusing His Majesty at two different theatres. They
thought it hard, however, that after quitting, by His Majesty's orders,
first the Hôtel de Bourgogne, then the Théâtre Guénégaud, they should
now be threatened in their new abode, which had cost them 200,000 francs
to construct.
The king paid no attention to these representations, and the Comédie
Italienne soon became the home of French comic opera, doing a
flourishing business according to the tariff of those days, when a place
in the pit cost five sous, and a seat in the boxes ten.
The Comédie Française did not in the long run suffer from the popularity
of the opposition theatre, and perhaps profited by it. But soon the
Comédie Française was to be subjected to a new inconvenience, and
in the very year which had witnessed the invasion of the Comédie
Italienne a tax was imposed on theatres generally for the benefit of the
poor--"_taxe des pauvres_"--which exists even to the present day. The
members of the Comédie Française endeavoured to meet the difficulty by
raising the prices on the occasion of first representations.
After the death of Louis XIV. the Comédie Française remained, as before,
under the supreme government of the king, his ministers, and the
gentlemen of the chamber. The new sovereign showed himself as munificent
in the matter of the subvention as his predecessor, and the theatre was
once more guaranteed an annual grant of 12,000 francs. A custom was now
for the first time introduced, which has since become universal--that
of playing a first piece in one act before the principal play of the
evening.
Under Louis XV. the Comédie Française was directed, in the matter of
engagements and general administration, by the Duc de Richelieu, to whom
were submitted the petitions intended for the king. The members of the
Comédie Française kept a careful watch over the privileges conferred
upon them, and we find them complaining whenever there are any signs of
these privileges being interfered with by a rival establishment. Every
booth opened at a temporary fair excited the suspicion of the comedians;
and they at last succeeded in procuring an order by which the directors
of the much-hated Comédie Italienne, now known as the Opéra Comique,
were prevented from playing comedies, especially those which had been
written expressly for the Comédie Française.
In 1770 the famous company again changed their domicile, and, by the
king's special permission, took possession of the theatre built in 1671
at the palace of the Tuileries. Here they remained twelve years, until
1782, when they left the palace of the kings of France and installed
themselves in the house afterwards to become known as the Odéon, on
the left bank of the Seine, close to the Luxemburg Palace. According
to Fréron, the daring satirist who was in no way afraid to take even
Voltaire for his mark, the dramatic literature of France had now fallen
to a very low point, by reason of the worldly success of its authors.
"The gay life of most of our authors helps," wrote Fréron, "to keep
them within the bounds of mediocrity. Love of pleasure, the attractions
of society that luxury which had so long kept them at a respectful
distance, now enervate their souls. They are men of society, men of
fashion, runners after women, and themselves much run after. They are at
every party, every entertainment; no supper is complete without them;
they are sumptuously dressed, and have luxuriously furnished rooms. It
was not by supping out every night in society that the Corneilles, the
Molières, the La Fontaines, and the Boileaus composed those masterpieces
which will constitute for ever their glory and the glory of France. They
were simply lodged and simply clothed; a large flat cap covered the
sublime head of the great Corneille, but all the assembly rose before
him when he made his appearance at the play." Since the days of Fréron
the incomes and the luxury of French dramatic authors have greatly
increased; a result mainly due to the exertions of Beaumarchais, whose
_Marriage of Figaro_ was produced at the Comédie Française two years
after its installation at the Odéon in 1784. It was Beaumarchais who
secured for French dramatic authors a fixed proportion of the receipts,
and caused this equitable arrangement, previously unknown, to be
perpetuated.
Under the Revolution, precisely five years after the production of _The
Marriage of Figaro_, the spirit and tone of which seemed to the king
himself prophetic of the approaching catastrophe, the Comédie Française
assumed the title of "Théâtre de la Nation, Comédiens ordinaires du
Roi," a compromise between loyalty to the old state of things and
adhesion to the new of which the members of the company were afterwards
bitterly to repent. Dissensions now sprang up between the different
members of the company, some royalists, others republicans. On the
whole, however, the actors and actresses showed a certain aptitude for
placing themselves on good terms with the executive power of the moment.
In 1792, on the eve of the Reign of Terror, the players were formally
obliged to replace such words as "Seigneur" and "Monsieur" by "Citoyen,"
even when the piece was written in verse. In the classical tragedies of
Racine the word "Seigneur" constantly occurs, as, for instance, where
Agamemnon addresses Achilles, or Achilles Agamemnon. The heroes of the
Iliad and of the history of Rome had now to be "Citoyens;" which, apart
from the intrinsic absurdity of the thing, could not but spoil the metre.
[Illustration: THE GREEN ROOM OF THE THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS.]
One effect of the Revolution was to deprive the Comédie Française of
the privilege it had so long and so unjustly enjoyed of incorporating
in its company any actor or actress whom it might choose to detach from
some other troop, not only at Paris, but in any other part of France.
It at the same time also lost its monopoly. A split having taken place
in the company, a second Comédie Française was started in the Palais
Royal with the celebrated Talma, and with Grandmesnil, Dugazon, and Mme.
Vestris among its artists. Meanwhile, notwithstanding the loss of Talma,
the Comédie Française kept up against all disadvantages. There was,
however, too much sense of art, of dramatic propriety among the members
to permit the replacement of the word "Seigneur" by "Citoyen," and as
a punishment for neglecting the Governmental order on the subject the
whole of the company of the Comédie Française was arrested one night and
thrown into prison, with the exception only of Molé, who was apparently
looked upon as a good Republican, and some other actor who was away
from the capital. The piece performed on the night of the arrest had
been a dramatic version of Richardson's _Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded_,
which, according to the judgment of the Republican Censors, was "full
of reactionary feeling." Possibly the nameless hero, Mr. B----, was
addressed from time to time not as "Citoyen," but as "Monsieur."
[Illustration: MOLIÈRE.
(_From the bust by Houdon in the Comédie Française_)]
Not only were the actors and actresses of the Comédie Française
imprisoned, but also the dramatists in the habit of writing for the
theatre, with Alexander Duval, author of _Les Héritiers_ and other
amusing comedies, and Laya, who had dramatised "Pamela," among them.
One of the members of the Committee of Public Safety, the ferocious
Collot d'Herbois, is reported to have said that "the head of the
Comédie Française should be guillotined, and the rest sent out of the
country." The famous actor, Fleury, sets forth in his "Memoirs" that
on the margin of the depositions in the case of Mdlle. Raucourt, who
had been arrested with the other members of the company, the said
Collot d'Herbois had written with his own hand, in red, an enormous G.
This was a death sentence without appeal, G standing for guillotine.
"Arrested in 1793 with most of the principal actors and actresses, she
was," says Fleury, "as a first step, imprisoned at Sainte-Pélagie; but
already she was marked down for the scaffold. The Queen had protected
her; she had received numerous benefits from the Royal Family; and she
was suspected of gratitude for so many favours." In common with all
her colleagues of the Comédie Française, who like herself had been
arrested, Fleury among the number, Mdlle. Raucourt owed her life to the
courage and ingenuity of a clerk in the employment of the Committee of
Public Safety, who destroyed the Acts of Accusation drawn up by Collot
d'Herbois for presentation to Fouquier-Tinville. Considerable delay was
thus caused, during which the anger entertained against the theatrical
troop gradually evaporated, though some of the players remained in
prison until the fall of Robespierre. It was understood meanwhile that
no such words as "king" or "queen," "lord" or "lady," were to be used
on the stage, and the members of the Comédie Française had received a
sufficiently severe lesson to render them disinclined for the future to
set at naught the edict on the subject.
As soon as she had regained her liberty, Mdlle. Raucourt tried to form
a company for herself, and, succeeding, took a theatre, which was
soon, however, closed by order of the Government, some allusion to its
severity having been discovered in one of the pieces represented. Mdlle.
Raucourt thenceforward made no secret of her hostility to the Directory,
which, now that the Reign of Terror was at an end, could be attacked,
indirectly at least, without too much danger. Fleury tells us that
Mdlle. Raucourt's costume was a constant protest against the existing
order of things; which, from a feeling of gratitude towards the Royal
Family, her constant patrons, and from painful feelings in connection
with that guillotine beneath whose shadow she had passed, she could not
but hate. "She wore on her spenser," says Fleury, "eighteen buttons in
allusion to Louis XVIII., while her fan was one of those weeping-willow
fans, the folds of which formed the face of Marie Antoinette." Fleury
speaks, moreover, of a certain shawl worn by Mdlle. Raucourt, of which
the pattern, once explained, traced to the eyes of the initiated the
portraits of Louis, the Queen, and the Dauphin. One day he accompanied
her to a fortune-teller who had been expected to predict the restoration
of the monarchy, but who foretold instead the revival of the Comédie
Française. "The woman," says Fleury, "had read the cards aright, for in
1799 an order from the First Consul re-assembled in a new association
the remains of the company dispersed at the time of the Revolution." But
now the theatre was burnt down; and though the Comédie Française existed
as an institution, and received in 1802 a special subsidy of 100,000
francs, it was not until 1803 that, in conformity with an order from the
First Consul, it took possession of the building in the Rue Richelieu,
close to the Palais Royal, where it has ever since remained.
As under Louis XIV., so under Napoleon, the Comédie Française followed
the sovereign to his palatial residence wherever it might be; to
Saint-Cloud, to Fontainebleau, to Trianon, to Compiègne, to Malmaison,
and even to Erfurt and Dresden, where Talma is known to have performed
before a "pit of kings." Nor did Napoleon forget the Comédie Française
when he was at Moscow, during the temporary occupation and just before
the fatal retreat; though it may well have been from a feeling of pride,
and a desire to show how capable he was at such a critical moment of
occupying himself with comparatively unimportant things, that he dated
from the Kremlin his celebrated decree regulating the affairs of the
principal theatre in France.
It has been the destiny of the Comédie Française during the past hundred
years to salute a number of different governments and dynasties. That
they conscientiously kicked against the Republic in its most aggravated
form has already been shown. They had no reason for being dissatisfied
with Napoleon; and after the destruction of the Imperial power it was
perfectly natural that they should do homage to that house of Bourbon
under which they had first been established, and which for so long a
period had kept them beneath its peculiar patronage. They now resumed
their ancient title of "Comédiens Ordinaires du Roi," and the direction
of the establishment was handed over to the Intendant of the Royal
Theatres.
The Comédie Française has often been charged with too strict an
adherence to classical ideas. Yet it was at this theatre that a dramatic
work by Victor Hugo, round which rallied the whole of the so-called
romantic school, was first placed before the public.
The two most interesting events in the history of the Comédie Française
are the first production of _The Marriage of Figaro_ in 1784, of which
an account has already been given in connection with Beaumarchais
and his residence on the boulevard bearing his name, and the first
production of _Hernani_ forty-six years afterwards.
_Hernani_ was the third play that Victor Hugo had written, but the first
that was represented. There seems never to have been any intention
of bringing out _Cromwell_, published in 1827, and known to this day
chiefly by its preface. _Marion Delorme_, Victor Hugo's second dramatic
work, was submitted to the Théâtre Français, but rejected, not by the
management, but by the Censorship, and, indeed, by Charles X. himself,
with whom Victor Hugo had a personal interview on the subject. "The
picture of Louis XIII.'s reign," says a writer on this subject, "was not
agreeable to his descendant; and the last of the Bourbon kings is said
to have been particularly annoyed at the omnipotent part assigned in
Victor Hugo's drama to the great Cardinal de Richelieu."
But Victor Hugo had the persistency of genius, and though both his first
efforts had miscarried, he was ready soon after the rejection of _Marion
Delorme_ with another piece--that spirited, poetical work _Hernani_,
which is usually regarded as his finest dramatic effort. _Hernani_,
like _Marion Delorme_, was condemned by the Censorship; being objected
to not on political, but on literary, moral, and general grounds. The
report of the Committee of Censorship, scarcely less ironical than
severe, concluded in these remarkable terms: "However much we might
extend our analysis, it could only give an imperfect idea of _Hernani_,
of the eccentricity of its conception, and the faults of its execution.
It seems to us a tissue of extravagances to which the author has vainly
endeavoured to give a character of elevation, but which are always
trivial and often vulgar. The piece abounds in unbecoming thoughts
of every kind. The king expresses himself like a bandit; the bandit
treats the king like a brigand. The daughter of a grandee of Spain is a
shameless woman without dignity or modesty. Nevertheless, in spite of
so many capital faults, we are of opinion that not only would there be
nothing injudicious in authorising the representation of the piece, but
that it would be wise policy not to cut out a single word. It is well
that the public should see what point of wildness the human mind may
reach when it is freed from all rules of propriety."
When at last the play was produced there was such a scene in the Comédie
Française as has never been witnessed before or since. At two o'clock,
when the doors were opened, a band of romanticists entered the theatre
and forthwith searched it in view of any hostile classicists who might
be lying hid in dark corners, ready to rise and hiss as soon as the
curtain should go up. No classicists, however, were discovered; the band
of romanticists was under the direction of Gérard de Nerval, author of
the delightful "Voyage en Orient," translator of "Faust" in the early
days when he called himself simply Gérard, and Heine's collaborator
in the French prose translation of the "Buch der Lieder." On the eve
of the battle, Gérard de Nerval, as Théophile Gautier has told us in
one of many accounts he wrote of the famous representation, visited
the officers who were to act under him; their number, according to one
account, including Balzac, first of French novelists, if not first
novelist of the world; that Wagner of the past, Hector Berlioz; Auguste
Maquet, the dramatist; and Joseph Bouchardy, the melodramatist, together
with Alexander Dumas, historian (in his "Memoirs") of the rehearsals of
_Hernani_, and Théophile Gautier, chronicler in more than one place of
its first representation.
Victor Hugo had originally intended to call his play _Three to One_;
which to the modern mind would have suggested a sporting drama.
_Castilian Honour_--excellent title!--had also been suggested; but the
general opinion of Victor Hugo's friends was in favour of _Hernani_, the
musical and sonorous name of the hero; and under that title the piece
was produced.
It has been said that the supporters of Victor Hugo took possession of
a certain portion of the theatre as early as two in the afternoon. They
had brought with them hams, tongues, and bottles of wine; and they had
what the Americans call a "good time" during the interval that passed
before the public was admitted--eating, drinking, singing songs, and
discussing the beauties of the piece they had come to applaud. "As soon
as the doors of the theatre were opened the band of romanticists," says
Théophile Gautier, "turned their eyes towards the incomers, and if among
them a pretty woman appeared her arrival was greeted with a burst of
applause. These marks of approbation were not bestowed on rich toilettes
and dazzling jewellery, they were reserved for beauty in its simplest
manifestations. Thus no one was received with so much enthusiasm as
Mdlle. Delphine Gay, afterwards Mme. de Girardin, who, in a white muslin
dress relieved by a blue scarf, wore no ornaments whatever. Mdlle. Gay
assured the Duke de Montmorency the morning after the representation,
that she had not spent on her dress more than twenty-eight francs."
[Illustration: CORNEILLE.
(_From the bust in the Comédie Française_)]
The Hugoites did not form a compact body, but occupied different parts
of the pit and stalls in groups. They are said to have been easily
recognisable by their sometimes picturesque, sometimes grotesque
costumes, and by their defiant air. The combatants on either side
applauded and counter-applauded, cried "Bravo!" and hissed without much
reference to the merits of the piece, and often in attack or defence of
supposed words which the piece did not contain. Thus (to quote once more
from Théophile Gautier) in the scene where Ruy Gomez, on the point of
marrying Doña Sol, entrusts her to Don Carlos, Hernani exclaims to the
former, "_Vieillard stupide! il l'aime_." M. Parseval de Grandmaison,
a rigid classicist, but rather hard of hearing, thought Hernani had
said, "_Vieil as de pique! il l'aime_." "This is too much," groaned M.
Parseval de Grandmaison. "What do you say?" replied Lassailly, who was
sitting next him in the stalls, and who had only heard his neighbour's
interruption. "I say, sir, that it is not permissible to call a
venerable old man like Ruy Gomez de Silva 'old ace of spades.'" "He has
a perfect right to do so," replied Lassailly. "Cards were invented under
Charles VI. Bravo for _'Vieil as de pique!' Bravo, Hugo!_"
Théophile Gautier declares that Mdlle. Mars could only lend to the
proud and passionate Doña Sol a "sober and refined talent," as she was
pre-occupied with considerations of propriety more suited to comedy than
to drama. Victor Hugo himself was, on the other hand, delighted with the
performance of the principal actress; and one cannot but accept him as
the best judge in the case. It would be impossible, in Victor Hugo's own
words, without having seen her, to form an idea of the effect produced
by the great actress in the part of Doña Sol, to which she gave "an
immense development," going in a few minutes through the whole gamut of
her talent, from the graceful to the pathetic, and from the pathetic to
the sublime.
The success of _Hernani_ corresponded closely enough with the triumph
of the Revolution of July, which brought Louis Philippe to the throne;
and under the new and more liberal form of monarchy it seemed as though
the rising poet and dramatist, who was soon to establish an undisputed
supremacy, would have his own way at the Comédie Française as elsewhere.
But his next work, _Le Roi s'amuse_, found no more favour in the eyes
of M. Thiers than _Marion Delorme_ had done in those of Charles X.'s
ministers, and of Charles himself. _Le Roi s'amuse_ (of which the
subject is better known in England by Verdi's opera of _Rigoletto_ than
by the drama on which _Rigoletto_ is based) was played but once, and
was not revived until some forty years afterwards, when it was produced
under the Government of the Third Republic without much success. Victor
Hugo's dramas have not, except to the reading public, displaced the
tragedies of Corneille and Racine. Rachel as Chimène, Sarah Bernhardt
as Phèdre are to this day better remembered by the old habitués of the
Comédie Française than any actors in any of Victor Hugo's parts. That
Victor Hugo is one of the greatest poets of the century can scarcely be
denied; but his genius is more lyrical than dramatic.
[Illustration: VOLTAIRE.
(_From the statue by Houdon in the Comédie Française._)]
To show by yet another example that the Comédie Française has not been
so much opposed as is often asserted to novelty in the dramatic art,
it may be mentioned that at this theatre the wildly melodramatic and
strikingly original _Antony_ of Alexander Dumas was first produced.
This work, written, not, like Victor Hugo's plays, in verse, but in
vigorous prose, has been no more fortunate than other masterpieces of
the romantic drama in keeping the stage. The great success it met with
at the time of its first production was due in a great measure to the
powerful acting of Mme. Dorval. The basis of _Antony_, and, as Alexander
Dumas tells us himself in his "Memoirs," its very germ, is a deeply
compromising situation in which the hero finds himself with the heroine.
They are on the point of being discovered when, to save the honour of
his mistress, Antony (without consulting her on the subject) takes her
life. Having stabbed her he exclaims to the persons who now enter the
room, "That woman was resisting me; I have assassinated her." This
outrageous piece had the same fate as Victor Hugo's admirably written
and truly dramatic play, _Le Roi s'amuse_, in so far that it was, after
a very few representations, forbidden by the Censorship.
In the year 1833 a private person was for the first time named Director
of the Comédie Française. Jouslin de La Salle was his name, and he
was succeeded, first by M. Vedel, in 1837, and afterwards by M.
Buloz, Director of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_. In 1852 the affairs
of the theatre were entrusted to a committee of six members of the
Comédie Française under the direction of an "administrator"; the first
administrator being M. Arsène Houssaye, the well-known author and
journalist. M. Houssaye was replaced in 1856 by M. Empis, and M. Empis
in 1860 by M. Édouard Thierry, a dramatist. The present director is M.
Perrin. The subvention paid by the Government to the Comédie Française
was fixed definitively in 1856 at 240,000 francs a year. Among the
actors and actresses who have appeared at this famous establishment,
often pleasantly described as La Maison de Molière (though Molière,
as already seen, never set foot in it), may be mentioned Adrienne
Lecouvreur, Mdlle. Mars, Mdlle. Clairon, Mdlle. Contat, Mdlle. Raucourt,
Talma, Rachel, Sarah Bernhardt, not to name many excellent comedians who
in the present day are almost as well known in London as in Paris.
In the immediate neighbourhood of the Comédie Française was born
Adrienne Lecouvreur. Less perhaps from the influence of the _genius
loci_ than from a desire to imitate the actors and actresses whom,
from day to day, she must have seen passing her door, little Adrienne
accustomed herself at an early age to act plays and scenes from plays
with her young companions. Adrienne's talent was soon noticed by an
inferior actor named Legrand, who, after teaching her some of the
tricks of his trade, procured an engagement for her somewhere in
Alsace. It was in the provinces that she formed her style; and for so
long a time did she wander about from theatre to theatre that she was
already twenty-seven years of age when an engagement was offered her at
the Comédie Française. Here she was equally successful in tragedy and
in comedy, though in the latter line her impersonations seem to have
been chiefly confined to high comedy. Thus one of her best parts was
that of Célimène in the _Misanthrope_. Adrienne was well acquainted
with Voltaire when Count Maurice de Saxe, one of the innumerable
natural children of Augustus II., King of Poland--Carlyle's Augustus
the Strong--came to try his fortune in Paris. This was in the year
1720. In the first instance he met with no luck; and he had to wait
a considerable time before he could get a simple regiment together.
"Although he was scarcely twenty-four years of age," says a remarkable
writer of the time, "Maurice had already made eleven campaigns and
repudiated one wife. He joined," continues this unconscious humourist,
"to the strength of his father the uncultured youth and fiery
disposition of a sort of nomad, somewhat like our Du Guesclin, whom
ladies used to call the wild boar. Under the guise of a Sarmatian,
Adrienne discovered the hero, and undertook to polish the soldier. She
was then thirty years of age, and had gained the experience and the
passion which render a woman alike skilful to please and prompt to love."
Adrienne Lecouvreur was carried off, after a short and somewhat
mysterious illness, on the 20th of March, 1730. So sudden was her death
that the public, who adored her, would not believe that it arose from
natural causes; and the Duchess de Bouillon, known to be her rival and
her implacable enemy, was declared by everyone to be her murderess.
According to the story current at the time she owed her death to a box
of poisoned sweetmeats, treacherously presented to her, though Scribe
and Legouvé, in their well-known play, make her die from the effect of a
poisoned bouquet given to her by the duchess, in feigned admiration of
her genius. All that is really known on the subject is to be found in
the "Memoirs" of the Abbé Annillon, the "Letters" of Mdlle. Aïssé, and a
note appended to one of these letters by Voltaire himself.
The popular version of the incidents of Adrienne's death was as
follows. One night, when she was playing the part of Phèdre, she saw in
a box close to the stage the Duchess de Bouillon, who, she knew, was
endeavouring to replace her in the affections of Count de Saxe; and
the sight of this woman made her deliver with exceptional energy these
indignant lines:--
"Je sais mes perfidies,
OEnone, et ne suis pas de ces femmes hardies
Qui, goûtant dans le crime une tranquille paix,
Ont su se faire un front qui ne rougit jamais."
As the Duchess de Bouillon, according to Mdlle. Aïssé, was capricious,
violent, impulsive, and much addicted to love affairs, she might well be
considered one of those "brazen women who, finding an untroubled calm in
crime, succeed in acquiring a brow that knows no blush." It may readily
be believed, too, that Adrienne made every point tell, so that the
duchess, brazen-faced as she might be, would feel wounded to the quick.
So appropriate were the verses and so clear was the intention of the
much-loved actress in applying them, that the audience, in full sympathy
with her, applauded to the point of wild enthusiasm.
Voltaire, on the other hand, wrote in a manuscript note appended to
Mdlle. Aïssé's narrative: "She died in my arms of inflammation of the
bowels, and it was I who caused the body to be opened. All that Mdlle.
Aïssé says on the subject is mere popular rumour without any foundation."
If the French clergy objected usually to bury actors and actresses with
religious rites, they were scarcely likely to make an exception in
favour of an actress who had died in the arms of Voltaire. Her body,
then, was thrown "à la voirie," as the author of _Candide_ puts it,
or, to be exact, was buried somewhere on the banks of the Seine, in
the neighbourhood of a wharf, the interment being made secretly and at
midnight, as though poor Adrienne had been a criminal. The Abbé Languet,
Curé of Saint-Sulpice, the parish to which Adrienne Lecouvreur belonged,
after taking the orders of the Archbishop, had refused to admit her body
to the cemetery, and all hope of a Christian burial was then abandoned.
The intolerance of the archbishop and of the priest provoked from
Voltaire some indignant verses, beginning as follows:--
"Ah, verrai-je toujours ma faible nation,
Incertaine en ses voeux, flétrir ce qu'elle admire;
Nos moeurs avec nos lois toujours se contredire;
Et le Français volage endormi sous l'empire
De la superstition?"[D]
[D] Voltaire's lines do not lend themselves easily to translation:--"Ah,
must I ever see my weakly nation, inconstant in its loves, degrade that
which it admires;--our morals ever at variance with our laws;--the
quick-witted Frenchman drugged by superstition?"
Voltaire, in writing the poem from which the above stanza is quoted, had
simply obeyed his own natural impulse. His verses were not intended for
publication, for he knew that if they were seen by the clergy they might
get him into trouble. He simply sent a copy of the poem to his friend
Thiériot, and perhaps to others, with a strong recommendation to keep
it secret. The first thing, however, that Thiériot seems to have done
was to take Voltaire's verses with him into society, where he was always
received in the character of "Voltaire's friend." The poet had probably
exaggerated the danger. The clergy could have no wish to re-awaken the
scandal caused by the circumstances of Adrienne Lecouvreur's burial, and
though Voltaire left Paris when he found that his poem on the death of
Adrienne was being circulated everywhere in manuscript, there does not
seem to have been any necessity for this species of flight. The place
of Adrienne's burial, which long remained unknown, was discovered years
afterwards, during some work of excavation and demolition. Voltaire
and Maurice de Saxe were both dead; but an old friend of hers, named
D'Argental, was still living, and he hastened to mark the spot by a
tablet to her memory.
The Comédie Française, beneath whose shadow Adrienne Lecouvreur was
brought up, is not the only theatre connected with the Palais Royal.
The Théâtre du Palais Royal forms part of the spacious construction
from which it derives its name, and is entered from the Palais Royal
itself. Standing at the northern extremity of the Galerie de Beaujolais,
it was constructed in 1783 by Louis, architect to the Duke of Orleans.
Its original name was Théâtre Beaujolais, and its original occupant
the manager of a company of marionettes. The marionettes were replaced
by children playing exclusively in pantomimes. But in 1790 Mdlle.
Montansier, who had formerly directed the Royal Theatre of Versailles,
and who had followed the king and queen, took possession of the little
theatre in the Palais Royal, and opened it under the title of Théâtre
des Variétés. Every kind of play was presented, and it was here that the
directress brought out as a child the afterwards famous Mdlle. Mars.
In time, under the Empire, the company of the Palais Royal left it to
take possession of the theatre on the Boulevard Montmartre, to which
the name of Théâtre des Variétés was thereupon transferred. The Palais
Royal Theatre now passed into the hands of a succession of managers, who
relied, one on tight-rope dancers, another on marionettes, and a third
on learned dogs. "These animals," says Brazier in his "Petits Théâtres
de Paris," "played their parts with an intelligence not often met with
among bipeds. The company was completed with its light and low comedian,
its walking gentleman, its heavy father, its chambermaid, its leading
actor and actress, and so on. For the four-footed artists was arranged
a melodrama which was scarcely worse than many others I have seen. Many
private persons took their dogs to this theatre to act as 'supers.'
Nothing droller can be imagined than these performances."
From 1814 to 1818 the theatre was changed into a café-concert,
inappropriately entitled Café de la Paix. This establishment became
famous during the Hundred Days. Men of different periods met there as on
some appointed fighting-ground; and as a result of many violent scenes
the house had to be closed.
After the Revolution of 1830 the theatre, still associated with the name
of Mdlle. Montansier, was restored to its original purpose. Entirely
reconstructed, it was opened to the public in June, 1831, under the
title of Théâtre du Palais Royal. A company of excellent comedians had
been engaged, many of whom, such as Alcide, Tousez, Achard, Levassor
(who loved to impersonate eccentric Englishmen), Grassot, Ravel, and
the fascinating Virginie Déjazet, were to attain European fame. Here
were produced a number of highly diverting pieces, several of which
have become known in translated or adapted form at our London theatres;
for example, _Indiana et Charlemagne_ (_Antony and Cleopatra_); _Le
Chapeau de Paille d'Italie_ (_A Wedding March_); _La Chambre aux deux
Lits_ (_The Double-Bedded Room_); _Grassot embêté par Ravel_ (_Seeing
Wright_); _Un Garçon de chez Véry_ (_Whitebait at Greenwich_); with many
others.
The liveliest and most risky pieces of the French stage have for the
most part seen the light at the Palais Royal Theatre. These productions
were, not without reason, considered in a general way unfit for the
ears of young girls; and it became one of the recognised privileges of
the married woman to be able in her new state to witness a Palais Royal
farce. Even wives, however, in many cases thought it as well, while
seeing, not to be seen at the Palais Royal; and for the benefit of such
ladies were provided an extra number of _loges grillées_--those _loges
grillées_, otherwise _petites loges_, one of which a certain abbé wished
to have for the first performance of _The Marriage of Figaro_, when
the author declined, declaring with indignant satire that he had "no
sympathy with those who wished to unite the honours of virtue with the
pleasures of vice."
The _petite loge_ of France, like the private box of England, is
comparatively a modern invention. In neither country were such things
known till the end of the last century; and it is probable that, like
most other theatrical novelties, they were imported, not from England
into France, but from France into England. Even thirty or forty years
ago private boxes were much less numerous at our English theatres than
they have since become. They have increased in proportion as the pit has
diminished, and, in some theatres, entirely disappeared. On their first
introduction they were unpopular in both countries.
"This is a modern refinement," writes Mercier, just before the
Revolution of 1789, "or rather a public and very indecent nuisance
introduced to please the humour of a few hundreds of our women of
fashion. These boxes are held by subscription from year to year; nay,
from mother to daughter, as part of her inheritance. Nothing could
ever be devised better calculated to favour the impertinent pride and
idleness of a first-rate actor, who, being paid handsomely by his share
of the subscription, even before the beginning of the season, takes no
trouble about getting up new parts, but solicits, under some pretence or
another, leave of absence, and receives annually some 18,000 livres from
the inhabitants of the capital, whilst he is holding forth at Brussels.
Another objection against these hired boxes is that the comedians have
constantly refused to admit the authors of new plays to a share in the
subscription money; and they are so sensible to this advantage that
they are daily improving it by throwing part of the pit into this kind
of boxes. Whilst the public complain loudly of such encroachments on
the liberty of the playhouses, hear the apology set up by our _belles_:
'What! will you, then, to oblige the _canaille_, compel me to hear
out a whole play, when I am rich enough to see only the last scene?
This is a downright tyranny! I protest! There is no police in France
nowadays. Since I cannot have the comedians come to my own house, I will
have the liberty to come in my plain deshabille, enjoy my arm-chair,
receive the homage of my humble suitors, and leave the place before I
am tired. It would be monstrous to deprive me of all these indulgences,
and positively encroach upon the prerogatives of wealth and _bon ton_.'
A lady therefore, to be in fashion, must have her _petite loge_, her
lap-dog, etc.; but above all, a man-puppy who stands, glass in hand,
to tell her ladyship who comes in and goes out, name the actors and
so forth, whilst the lady herself displays a fan, which, by a modern
contrivance, answers all the purpose of an opera-glass, with this
advantage, that she may see without being seen. Meanwhile the honest
citizen, who, like a tasteless plebeian, imagines that play-houses are
opened for entertainment, cannot get in for his money, because part of
the house is let by the year, though empty for the best part of it, so
that he is obliged to put up, instead of rational amusement, with the
low, indecent farces acted on the booth of the boulevards."
[Illustration: THE COMMITTEE ROOM OF THE COMÉDIE FRANÇAISE: ALEXANDRE
DUMAS (THE YOUNGER) READING A PLAY.
(_From the painting of Laissement in the Comédie Française._)]
[Illustration: BEHIND THE SCENES: COMÉDIE FRANÇAISE.]