Thermometer of Social Crises--Interview with M. Thiers--His
intentions with regard to the Théâtre-Français--Our
conventions--_Antony_ comes back to the rue de
Richelieu--_The Constitutionnel_--Its leader against
Romanticism in general, and against my drama in
particular--Morality of the ancient theatre--Parallel
between the Théâtre-Français and that of the
Porte-Saint-Martin--First suspension of _Antony_
The last chapter ended with these words: "And the suspension of
_Antony."_ What suspension? my reader may, perhaps, ask: that ordered
by M. Thiers? or the one confirmed by M. Duchâtel? or that which M. de
Persigny had just ordered? _Antony_, as M. Lesur aptly put it, is an
abnormal being--_un monstre_; it was created in one of those crises
of extravagant emotion which ensue after revolutions, when that moral
institution called the censorship had not yet had time to be settled
and in working order; so that whenever society was being shaken to its
foundations, _Antony_ was played; but directly society was settled,
and stocks went up and morality triumphed, _Antony_ was suppressed. I
had taken advantage of the moment when society was topsy-turvy to get
_Antony_ put on the stage, as I was wise; for, if I had not done so,
the moral government which was crucified between the Cubières trial and
the Praslin assassination would, most certainly, never have allowed the
representation.
But _Antony_ had been played thirty times; _Antony_ had acclimatised
itself; it had made its mark and done its worst, and there did not
seem to be any reason to be anxious, until M. Thiers summoned me one
morning to the Home Office. M. Thiers is a delightful man; I have known
few more agreeable talkers and few listeners as intelligent. We had
seen each other many times, and, furthermore, he and I understood one
another, because "he was he and I was I."
"My dear poet," he said to me, "have you noticed something?"
"What, my dear historian?"
"That the Théâtre-Français is going to the devil?"
"Surely that is no news?"
"No, I mention it merely as a misfortune."
"Pooh!..."
"What do you advise in the case of the Théâtre-Français?"
"What one applies to an old structure--a pontoon."
"Good! Do you believe, then, that it can no longer stand against the
sea?"
"Oh! certainly, with a new keel, new sails and a different gear."
"Exactly my own opinion: it reminds me of the horse which, in his
madness, Roland dragged by the bridle; it had all the attributes of a
horse, only, all these attributes were useless on account of one small
misfortune: it was dead!"
"Precisely the case."
"Well, Hugo and you have been very successful at the
Porte-Saint-Martin; and I want to do at the Théâtre-Français what they
have done at the Musée: to open it on Sunday to enable people to come
there to see and study the works of dead authors, and to reserve all
the rest of the week for living authors and for Hugo and you specially."
"Well, my dear historian, that is the first time I have heard a Home
Minister say anything sensible upon a question of art. Let me note the
time of day and the date of the month, I must keep it by me ... 15
March 1834, at seven a.m."
"Now, what would you want for a comedy, a tragedy, or a drama of five
acts at the Théâtre-Français?"
"I should first of all need actors who can act drama: Madame Dorval,
Bocage, Frédérick."
"You cannot have everything at once. I will allow you Madame Dorval;
the others must come afterwards."
"All right! that is something at all events ... Then I must have some
reparation in respect of _Antony._ Therefore I desire that Madame
Dorval shall resume her rôle of Adèle."
"Granted ... what else?"
"That is all."
"Oh, you must give us a fresh piece."
"In three months' time."
"On what terms?"
"Why on the usual terms."
"There I join issue: they will give you five thousand francs down!"
"Ah! five thousand francs!"
"Well, I will approach Jouslin de la Salle ... and you shall approach
Madame Dorval: only, tell her to be reasonable."
"Oh! never fear! to act at the Français and to play _Antony_ there, she
would make any sacrifices ... Then, it is settled?"
"Yes."
"Let us repeat the terms."
"Very good."
"Hugo and I are to enter the Théâtre-Français by a breach, as did M. de
Richelieu's litter."
"Exactly."
"We are each to write two pieces a year...?"
"Agreed."
"Dorval is engaged? Bocage and Frédérick shall be later?"
"Granted."
"And Dorval shall make her début in _Antony?_"
"She shall have that specified in her agreement."
"Excellent!... Here's to the first night of the revival of that
immoral play!"
"To-day I will engage my box in order to secure a place."
We parted and I ran to Madame Dorval's house to announce this good
news. She had not been re-engaged at the Porte-Saint-Martin; she was,
therefore, free and could go to the Théâtre-Français without delay.
The following day she received a call from Jouslin de la Salle. The
terms did not take long to discuss; for, as I had said, to be engaged
at the Théâtre-Français, and to play _Antony_ there, Dorval would
have engaged herself for nothing. The rehearsals began immediately. I
had signed my contract with the manager, and it was specified in this
contract that, by order of the government, _Antony_ was revived at the
Comédie-Française, and that Dorval was to make her début in that drama.
_Antony_ re-appeared on the bills in the rue de Richelieu; and, this
time, the odds were a hundred to one that it would be performed, since
it was to re-appear under Government commands. The bill announced the
piece and Dorval's appearance for 28 April 1834. But we were reckoning
without _The Constitutionnel._ That paper had an old grudge against me,
concerning which I did not trouble myself much: I thought it could no
longer bite. I was the first who had dared,--in this very _Antony_,--to
attack its omnipotence.
It will be remembered that, in _Antony_, there is a stout gentleman,
who, no matter what was said to him, invariably answered,
"Nevertheless, monsieur, _The Constitutionnel .._" without ever giving
any other reason. Moëssard acted this stout gentleman. That was not
all. A piece called _la Tour de Babel_ had been produced at the
Variétés. The scene that was the cause of scandal in that play was the
one where subscription to _The Constitutionnel_ is discontinued, which
they naturally laid at my door, on account of my well-known dislike of
that journal. I had not denied it, and I was, if not the actual father,
at least the putative sire.
On the morning of 28 April 1834, as I had just done distributing my
tickets for the performance that night, my son, who had just turned
ten, came to me with a number of _The Constitutionnel_ in his hands.
He had been sent to me by Goubaux, with whom he was at school, and who
cried out to me, like Assas, _A vous! c'est l'ennemi!_ "To arms! the
enemy is upon you!" I unfolded the estimable paper and read,--in the
leading article if you please,--the following words. A literary event
was thus considered as important as a political one.
"PARIS, 28 _April_ 1834
"The Théâtre-Français is subsidised by the State Budget
to the amount of two hundred thousand francs. It is a
considerable sum; but, if we reflect upon the influence
which that theatre must exercise, in the interests of
society, in the matter of taste and manners, and its
influence on good dramatic literature, the grant does not
seem too large. The Théâtre-Français, enriched by many
_chefs-d'œuvre_ which have contributed to the progress of
our civilisation is, like the Musée, a national institution
which should neither be neglected nor degraded. It ought
not to descend from the height to which the genius of our
great authors has lifted it, to those grotesque and immoral
exhibitions that are the disgrace of our age, alarming
public modesty and spreading deadly poison through society!
There is no longer any curb put to the depravity of the
stage, on which all morality and all decorum is forgotten;
violation, adultery, incest, crime in their most revolting
forms, are the elements of the poetry of this wretched
dramatic period, which, deserving of all scorn, tries to set
at nought the great masters of art, and takes a fiendish
pleasure in blasting every noble sentiment, in order to
spread corruption among the people, and expose us to the
scorn of other nations!"
This is well written, is it not? True, it is written by an Academician.
I will proceed--
"Public money is not intended for the encouragement of a
pernicious system. The sum of two hundred thousand francs
is only granted to the Théâtre-Français on condition that
it shall keep itself pure from all defilement, that the
artistes connected with that theatre, who are still the
best in Europe, shall not debase themselves by lending the
support of their talent to those works which are unworthy to
be put on the national stage, works the disastrous tendency
of which should arouse the anxiety of the Government, for
it is responsible for public morality as well as for the
carrying out of laws. Well, who would believe it? At this
very moment the principal actors of the Porte-Saint-Martin
are being transferred to the Théâtre-Français, and silly
and dirty melodramas are to be naturalised there, in
order to replace the dramatic master-pieces which form an
important part of our glorious literature. A plague of
blindness appears to have afflicted this unhappy theatre.
The production of _Antony_ is officially announced by _The
Moniteur_ for to-morrow, Monday: _Antony_, the most brazenly
obscene play which has appeared in these obscene times!
_Antony_, at the first appearance of which respectable
fathers of families exclaimed, 'For a long time we have
not been able to take our daughters to the theatre; now,
we can no longer take our wives!' So we are going to see
at the theatre of Corneille, Racine, Molière and Voltaire,
a woman flung into an alcove with her mouth gagged; we are
to witness violation itself on the national stage: the day
of this representation is fixed. What a school of morality
to open to the public; what a spectacle to which to invite
the youth of the country; you boast that you are elevating
them, but they will soon recognise neither rule nor control!
It is not its own fault; but that of superior powers,
which take no steps to stem this outbreak of immorality.
There is no country in the world, however free, where it
is permissible to poison the wells of public morality. In
ancient republics, the presentation of a dramatic work was
the business of the State; it forbade all that could change
the national character, undermine the honour of its laws and
outrage public modesty."
Witness the _Lysistrata_ of Aristophanes, of which we wish to say a few
words to our readers, taking care, however, to translate into Latin
those parts which cannot be reproduced in French.
"Le latin dans les mots brave l'honnêteté!"
It will be seen I quote Boileau when he serves my purpose. Poor
Boileau! What a shame for him to be forced to come to the rescue of the
author of _Henri III._ and _Antony!_
We are at Athens. The Athenians are at war with the Lacedæmonians; the
women are complaining of that interminable Peloponnesian War, which
keeps their husbands away from them and prevents them from fulfilling
their conjugal duties. The loudest in her complaints is Lysistrata,
wife of one of the principal citizens of Athens; so she calls together
all the matrons not only of Athens, but also from Lacedæmon, Anagyrus
and Corinth. She has a suggestion to make to them. We will let her
speak. She is addressing one of the wives convoked by her, who has come
to the place of meeting.[1]
"LISISTRATA.--Salut, Lampito! Lacédémonienne chérie, que
tu es belle! Ma douce amie, quel teint frais! quel air de
santé! Tu étranglerais un taureau!
"LAMPITO.--Par Castor et Pollux, je le crois bien: je
m'exerce au gymnase, et je me frappe du talon dans le
derrière."
The dance to which Lampito alludes, with a _naïveté_ in keeping with
the Doric dialect natural to her, was called _Cibasis._ Let us proceed:
"LISISTRATA, _lui prenant la gorge._--Que tu as une belle
gorge!
"LAMPITO.--Vous me tâtez comme une victime.
"LISISTRATA.--Et cette autre jeune fille, de quel pays
est-elle?
"LAMPITO.--C'est une Béotienne des plus nobles qui nous
arrive.
"LISISTRATA.--Ah! oui, c'est une Béotienne?.. Elle a un joli
jardin!"
That reminds me, I forgot to say--and it was the word _jardin_ which
reminded me of that omission--that Lampito and Kalonike, the Bœotian,
play their parts in the costume Eve wore in the earthly paradise before
she sinned.
"CALONICE.--Et parfaitement soigné! on eu a arraché le
pouliot."
Here the learned translator informs us that the _pouliot_ was a plant
which grew in abundance in Bœotia. Then he adds: _Sed intelligit
hortum muliebrem undè pilos educere aut evellere solebant._ Lysistrata
continues, and lays before the meeting her reason for convening it.
"LISISTRATA.--Ne regrettez-vous pas que les pères de vos
enfants soient retenus loin de vous par la guerre? Car je
sais que nous avons toutes nos maris absents.
"CALONICE.--Le mien est en Thrace depuis cinq mois.
"LISISTRATA.--Le mien est depuis sept mois à Pylos.
"LAMPITO.--Le mien revient à peine de l'armée, qu'il reprend
son bouclier, et repart.
"LISISTRATA.--_Sed nec mœchi relicta est scintilla! ex quo
enim nos prodiderunt Milesi ne olisbum quidem vidi octo
digitos longum, qui nobis esset conâceum auxilium._"
Poor Lysistrata! One can well understand how a wife in such trouble
would put herself at the head of a conspiracy. Now, the conspiracy
which Lysistrata proposed to her companions was as follows:
"LISISTRATA.--Il faut nous abstenir des hommes!... Pourquoi
détournez-vous les yeux? où allez-vous?... Pourquoi vous
mordre les lèvres, et secouer la tête? Le ferez-vous ou ne
le ferez-vous pas?... Que décidez-vous?
"MIRRHINE.--Je ne le ferai pas! Que la guerre continue.
"LAMPITO.--Ni moi non plus! Que la guerre continue.
"LISISTRATA.--O sexe dissolu! Je ne m'étonne plus que nous
fournissions des sujets de tragédie: nous ne sommes bonnes
qu'à une seule chose!... O ma chère Lacédémonienne,--car tu
peux encore tout sauver en t'unissant à moi,--je tien prie,
seconde mes projets!
"LAMPITO.--C'est qu'il est bien difficile pour des femmes de
dormir _sine mentula!_ Il faut cependant s'y résoudre, car
la paix doit passer avant tout.
"LISISTRATA.--La paix, assurément! Si nous nous tenions chez
nous bien fardées, et sans autre vêtement qu'une tunique
fine et transparente, _incenderemus glabro cunno, arrigerent
viri, et coïre cuperent!_"
The wives consent. They decide to bind themselves by an oath. This is
the oath:
"LISISTRATA.--Mettez toutes la main sur la coupe, et qu'une
seuls répète, en votre nom à toutes, ce que je vais vous
dire: Aucun amant ni aucun époux....
"MIRRHINE.--Aucun amant ni aucun époux....
"LISISTRATA.--Ne pourra m'approcher _rigente
nervo!_--Répète."
Myrrine repeats.
"LISISTRATA.--Et, s'il emploie la violence....
"MIRRHINE.--Oui, s'il emploie la violence....
"LISISTRATA._--Motus non addam!_"
One can imagine the result of such an oath, which is scrupulously kept.
My readers will remember M. de Pourceaugnac's flight followed by the
apothecaries? Well, that will give you some idea of the _mise en
scène_ of the rest of the piece. The wives play the rôle of M. de
Pourceaugnac, and the husbands that of the apothecaries. And that is
one of the plays which, according to the author of _Joconde_, gave such
a high tone to ancient society! It is very extraordinary that people
know Aristophanes so little when they are so well acquainted with
Conaxa!
"In the ancient republics," our censor continues with
assurance, "spectacular games were intended to excite noble
passions, not to excite the vicious leanings of human
nature; their object was to correct vice by ridicule, and,
by recalling glorious memories, energetically to rouse
souls to the emulation of virtue, enthusiasm for liberty
and love of their country! Well, we, proud of our equivocal
civilisation, have no such exalted thoughts; all we demand
is to have at least one single theatre to which we can take
our children and wives without their imaginations being
contaminated, a theatre which shall be really a school of
good taste and manners."
Was it at this theatre that _Joconde_ was to be played?
"We do not look for it in the direction of the Beaux-Arts; a
romantic coterie, the sworn enemy of our great literature,
reigns supreme in that quarter; a coterie which only
recognises its own specialists and flatterers and only
bestows its favours upon them; an undesigning artiste is
forgotten by it. It wants to carry out its own absurd
theories: it hunts up from the boulevards its director, its
manager, its actors and its plays, which are a disgrace to
the French stage: that is its chief object; and those are
the methods it employs. We are addressing these remarks
to M. Thiers, Minister for Home Affairs, a distinguished
man of letters and admirer of those sublime geniuses which
are the glory of our country; it is to him, the guardian
of a power which should watch over the safety of this
noble inheritance, that we appeal to prevent it falling
into hostile hands, and to oppose that outburst of evil
morals which is invading the theatre, perverting the youth
in our colleges, throwing it out upon the world eager for
precocious pleasures, impatient of any kind of restraint,
and making it soon tired of life. This disgust with life
almost at the beginning of it, this terrible phenomenon
hitherto unprecedented, is largely owing to the baneful
influence of those dangerous spectacles where the most
unbridled passions are exhibited in all their nakedness, and
to that new school of literature where everything worthy of
respect is scoffed at. To permit this corruption of youth,
or rather to foster its corruption, is to prepare a stormy
and a troubled future; it is to compromise the cause of
Liberty, to poison our growing institutions in the bud;
it is, at the same time, the most justifiable and deadly
reproach that can be made against a government...."
Poor _Antony_! it only needed now to be accused of having violated the
Charter of 1830!
"And we are here stating the whole truth: it is not
Republican pamphlets which have lent their support to this
odious system of demoralisation; whatever else we may
blame them for, we must admit that they have repulsed this
Satanic literature and immoral drama with indignation, and
have remained faithful to the creed of national honour. It
is the journals of the Restoration, it is the despicable
management of the Beaux-Arts, which, under the eyes of the
Ministry, causes such great scandal to the civilised world:
the scandal of contributing to the publicity and success of
these monstrous productions, which take us back to barbarous
times and which will end, if they are not stopped, in making
us blush that we are Frenchmen ..."
Can you imagine the author of _Joconde_ blushing for being a Frenchman
because M. Hugo wrote _Marion Delorme_, and M. Dumas, _Antony_, and
compelled to look at _la Colonne_ to restore his pride in his own
nationality?
"But why put a premium upon depravity? Why encumber the
state budget with the sum of 200,000 francs for the
encouragement of bad taste and immorality? Why not, at
least, divide the sum between the Théâtre-Français and the
Porte-Saint-Martin? There would be some justice in that, for
their rights are equal; very soon, even the former of these
theatres will be but a branch of the other, and this last
will indeed deserve all the sympathies of the directors of
the _Beaux-Arts._ It would, then, be shocking negligence on
their part to leave it out in the cold."
You are right this time, Monsieur l'Académicien. A subsidy ought to
be granted to the theatre which produces literary works which are
remembered in following years and remain in the repertory. Now, let us
see what pieces were running at the Théâtre Français concurrently with
those of the Porte-Saint-Martin, and then tell me which were the pieces
during this period of four years which you remember and which remain on
its repertory?
THÉÂTRE-FRANÇAIS
_Charlotte Corday--Camille Desmoulins, le Clerc et le
Théologien--Pierre III.--Le Prince et la Grisette--Le
Sophiste--Guido Reni--Le Presbytère--Caïus Gracchus, ou le
Sénat et le Peuple--La Conspiration de Cellamare--La Mort
de Figaro--Le Marquis de Rieux--Les Dernières Scènes de la
Fronde--Mademoiselle de Montmorency._
THÉÂTRE DE LA PORTE-SAINT-MARTIN
_Antony--Marion Delorme--Richard Darlington--La Tour de
Nesle--Perrinet Leclerc--Lucrèce Borgia--Angèle--Marie
Tudor--Catherine Howard._
True, we find, without reckoning _les Enfants d'Édouard_ and _Louis
XI._ by Casimir Delavigne, _Bertrand et Raton_ and _la Passion
secrète_ by Scribe, who had just protested against that harvest of
unknown, forgotten and buried works, flung into the common grave
without epitaph to mark their resting-places,--it is true, I say,
that we find four or five pieces more at the Théâtre-Français than
at the Porte-Saint-Martin; but that does not prove that they played
those pieces at the Théâtre-Français for a longer period than those
of the Porte-Saint-Martin, especially when we carefully reflect
that the Théâtre-Français only plays its new pieces for two nights
at a time, and gives each year a hundred and fifty representations
of its old standing repertory! You are therefore perfectly correct,
_Monsieur l'acadèmicien_: it was to the Porte-Saint-Martin and not
to the Théâtre-Français that the subsidy ought to have been granted,
seeing that, with the exception of two or three works, it was at the
Porte-Saint-Martin that genuine literature was produced. We will
proceed, or, rather, the author of _Joconde_ shall proceed:
"If the Chamber of Deputies is not so eager to vote for
laws dealing with financial matters, we must hope, that in
so serious a matter as this one, so intimately connected
with good order and the existence of civilisation, some
courageous voice will be raised to protest against such an
abusive use of public funds, and to recall the Minister to
the duties with which he is charged. The deputy who would
thus speak would be sure of a favourable hearing from an
assembly, whose members every day testify against the
unprecedented license of the theatres, destructive of all
morality, and who are perfectly cognisant of all the dangers
attached thereto."
But you were a member of the Chamber, illustrious author of _Joconde!_
Why did you not take up the matter yourself? Were you afraid,
perchance, that they might think you still held, under the sway of the
younger branch of the Bourbon family, the position of dramatic critic
which you exercised so agreeably under Napoléon?
"We shall return to this subject," continues the ex-dramatic
censor, "which seems to us of the highest importance for the
peace of mind of private families and of society in general.
We have on our side every man of taste, all true friends
of our national institutions and, in fact, all respectable
persons in all classes of society!"
"Well! That is a polite thing, indeed, to say to the spectators who
followed the one hundred and thirty performances of _Antony_, the
eighty representations of _Marion Delorme_, the ninety of _Richard
Darlington_, the six hundred of _la Tour de Nesle_, the ninety
productions of _Perrinet-Leclerc_, the one hundred and twenty of
_Lucrèce Borgia_, one hundred of _Angèle_, seventy of _Marie Tudor_ and
fifty of _Catherine Howard!_ What were these people, if your particular
specimens are "men of taste," the "true friends of our national
institutions," and "respectable persons"? They must be blackguards,
subverters of government, thieves and gallows-birds? The deuce! Take
care! For I warn you that the great majority of these people were not
only from Paris, but from the provinces. This is how the moralist of
the _Constitutionnel_ ends:
"We are convinced that even the artistes of the
Théâtre-Français, who see with satisfaction the enlightened
portion of the public rallying to their side, will decide in
favour of the successful efforts of our protests. It will
depend on the Chamber and on the Home Minister. Political
preoccupations, as is well known, turned his attention
from the false and ignoble influences at work at the
Théâtre-Français; there is no longer any excuse for him, now
that he knows the truth."
ÉTIENNE ["A. JAY"][2]
Perhaps you thought, when you began to read this denunciation, that it
was anonymous or signed only with an initial or by a masonic sign, or
by two, three or four asterisks? No indeed! It was signed by the name
of a man, of a deputy, of a dramatic author, or, thereabouts, of an
académicien, M. Étienne! [M. Jay]. Now, the same day that this article
appeared, about two in the afternoon, M. Jouslin de Lasalle, director
of the Théâtre-Français, received this little note, short but clear.
"The Théâtre-Français is forbidden to play _Antony_ to-night.
"THIERS"
I took a cab and gave orders to the driver to take me to the Home
Minister.
[1] We have borrowed the following quotations from M. Arland's
excellent translation. If we had translated it ourselves, in the first
place the translation would be bad, then people might have accused us
of straining the Greek to say more than it meant.
[2] TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.--The Brussels edition gives Étienne; the current
Paris edition, A. Jay.