IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE

The Theater of Jean Rotrou (1609-1650)

By Robert J. Nelson

Ohio State University Press

$8.00

IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE

THE THEATER OF JEAN ROTROU (1609-1650)

By Robert ]. Nelson

Jean Rotrou is France's neglected classic. Generations of critics have recognized his merits but have done so in a tangential manner. He has been called the "mentor of Corneille" and has been celebrated as the precursor of Racine in classical tragedy and of Molière in classical comedy. That Rotrou can be linked to all three of France's great classical dramatists has been responsible in part for the respectful neglect of the thirty-five of his plays that have survived from a production assumed to be many times as great.

Mr. Nelson turns to Rotrou in the dramatist's own setting: the perfervid philosophical and religious atmosphere of the first half of the seventeenth century, a period presumed by some scholars to have prepared the age of Racine, that dramatist of transcendence, in the specifically religious sense, who sees the things of this world as signs of man's dissociation from the Divine Ground of Being.

Yet this current of "Le Dieu Caché" was not dominant in the century; a strong belief in "Le Dieu Visible"—an "immanentist current," so to speak—made itself felt in both formal religious writing and in imaginative literature of the period. Indeed, if Racine was by tendency the dramatist of transcendence, so his great rival, Corneille, might be thought of as the dramatist of immanence.

An elaborate expression of both tendencies is to be found in Rotrou, to whose dramatic example both Corneille and Racine turned at various moments of their careers. Profoundly preoccupied with the relation between the human and the divine, Rotrou's theater of sacrament and sacrilege demonstrates the continuity of, as well as the disparity between, Christianity and the classical heritage.

Robert J. Nelson is professor of French at the University of Illinois, Urbana.

Immanence and Transcendence:

The Theater of Jean Rotrou

1609 -1650

JC eux-tu n'adorer pas ce sexe précieux, Ce charmeur innocent des âmes et des yeux, Ce sexe en qui le ciel admire ses ouvrages, A qui souvent, lui-même, il offre ses hommages, Et qui força jadis tant de divinité A venir dans ses mains rendre leurs libertés? Peux-tu, le cœur libre et plein de tant de glaces, Voir ces trônes vivants des vertus et des grâces? Et vois-tu que le ciel, sur ce bas élément, Se soit fait de soi-même un portrait plus charmant?

CLORINDE ( m . l )

\l n'est si haut crédit que le temps ne consomme, Puisque l'homme est mortel et qu'il provient de l'homme; Ce qui nous vient de Dieu, seul exempt de la mort, Est seul indépendant et du temps et du sort.

BÉLISSAIRE (V.2)

Immanence and Transcendence

The Theater of Jean Rotrou

1609-1650

By Robert J. Nelson

Ohio State University Press

Copyright © 1969 by the Ohio State University Press

All Rights Reserved

Standard Book Number 8142-0009-5 Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 76-79846

For

ANDREW PAUL AND ALEXANDRA

Table of Contents

Preface ix

I Immanence and Transcendence in he Véritable

APPENDIX B. Sacrement and Sacrilège: A Brief

Acknowledgments xiv

INTRODUCTION. Rotrou's Theater: "Dieu Caché, Dieu Visible" 3

Saint Genest 19

II The Temptation to Total Immanence 39

III The Temptation to Total Transcendence 91

IV Nostalgia for Immanence 131

V Last Things . . . First Things . . . 179

APPENDIX A. Rotrou in Legend and Criticism: A Brief Summary of Positions 189

Etymological and Historical Review 191

Notes 199

Bibliography 227

Index 239

Immanence and Transcendence:

The Theater of Jean Rotrou

1609 -1650

INTRODUCTION

Rotrou s Theater:

"Dieu Caché, Dieu Visible"

M ANY scholars of French Literature look on the seven­teenth century as the "Age of Racine." Recently, Racine

himself has come to be regarded as the dramatist of transcend­ence, in a specifically religious sense. According to Lucien Gold­mann, Racine's is the theater of "Le Dieu Caché." In it the things of the world ( physical attributes, a morality preoccupied with human aspirations and passions ) are signs of man's dissoci­ation from the Divine Ground of Being. In theological terms, the world is more sacrilege than sacrament.

Yet, this "sacrilegious current" is not unique or dominant in the century. Between the Edict of Nantes in 1598 and its revo­cation in 1685, a strong belief in "Le Dieu Visible"—an "im­manentist current," so to speak—makes itself felt both in formal religious writing and in imaginative literature. Theologically, this literature views the world as a sacrament. To recall a famous literary dichotomy, it will undoubtedly occur to many that, as Racine is by tendency the dramatist of transcendence, so Cor­neille might be thought of as the dramatist of immanence.

An elaborate expression of both tendencies is to be found in a playwright to whom both Corneille and Racine turned at various moments of their careers: Jean Rotrou (1609-1650).1

In comedies adapting models in Plautus, semi-pastoral plays adapting VAstrée, philosophical dramas adapting models in Euripides and Sophocles and Seneca, political dramas adapting a wide variety of historical sources—in all these Rotrou develops

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THE THEATER OF JEAN ROT R OU

ism, L'Oratoire, and the "cabale des dévots." Within the church itself, writes Alfred Rébelliau, several prelates, "doctes et beaux esprits, fils de la Renaissance, séduits par les succès de Pierre Charron et de Saint François de Sales, s'ingéniaient à 'human­iser' la théologie, l'apologétique et la controverse, ou bien, à l'exemple de l'oratorien Baronius et des jésuites Bellarmin et Sirmond, s'enforçaient dans l'érudition ecclésiastique."13

Throughout the century others protest the ready reconcilia­tion of the natural order and its Author. Nor are the protesters all Protestants. True, like many of his Catholic contemporaries, the dramatist himself often defines Sacrement in the limited sense reported by Furetière in his famous dictionary toward the end of the century: "Sacrement, se prend quelquefois absolu­ment pour le mariage."14 But in the very years that Rotrou's company of fictional characters were compromising the divine and human orders by limiting "le sacrement" in this sense, La Compagnie du Saint Sacrement was applying its own uncom­promising spirituality to the human order. As Rébelliau has shown, this secret society of both lay and ecclesiastical member­ship, active from 1627 to 1666, devoted itself to acts of "amour et charité" in the name of sacramental faith. For this "company" le sacrement was the Holy Eucharist, and the Society's spiritual sacramentalism can be grasped in the very fact of its secrecy.15

Under certain conditions not even the Eucharist itself was to be visible, according to one of its precepts.16 Whether from piety or caution, the stamp of such devout thought left its mark on the classical writers of the second half of the century. Pointing to Racine's pious renunciation of Bérénice, Bossuet comes close to proscribing the theater itself. And though at some remove from the "dévots," Boileau found himself at quite a remove in his Art poétique from the conciliatory proposals of Vauquelin three-quarters of a century earlier: "[Et] fabuleux Chrestiens, n'allons point dans nos songes/ Du Dieu de vérité, faire un Dieu de mensonges."17

We continue to be affected by this classical bias. Even philo­sophical critics who protest the separation of art and life have been ready to accept the post-Reformational separation of art

[10]

CHAPTER ONE

Immanence and Transcendence in

LE VERITABLE SAINT GENEST

U NTIL he begins rehearsing his role, the pagan actor Genest is very much the professional man of the theater.1R His

masters are a more pious lot. Valérie gives lessons in religious doctrine to her maid, Camille. The latter reproaches her mistress for believing in dreams, as if such belief were unworthy of one in whom Heaven had put "un si digne esprit dans un si digne corps" (I .I) . Here is a pagan sacramentalism in which the beauty of Valérie shows the equilibrium of spirit and matter. But Camille's is also only a perfunctory piety, for dreams do not contradict Heaven's will. Valérie tells Camille: if Heaven wishes, "la voix d'un songe est celle d'un oracle." Yet, in the dream, Heaven's will contradicts the way things ought to be: how can she, a princess, be wed to a shepherd? Valérie finds an affront to herself and to Heaven's purposes in this alliance, so she will not be reassured by her maid's confidence in her father. He may raise people to dignity, as he had Valerie's mother; but he is himself subject to fate, "ce monarque insolent, à qui toute la terre/ Et tous ses souverains sont des jouets de verre." The world seems ruled by a force independent of the heavens, and the connections between the two ominously promise a highborn princess to a lowborn shepherd.

In her misgivings Valérie anticipates some of the terms with which Genest will forsake the world. I stress some of the terms, for Rotrou cannot fully surrender to the temptation to total transcendence here. Some of this ambivalence is apparent in the motif that now appears in this richly analogical first act.

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CHAPTER TWO

The Temptation to Total Immanence

T HE hero of Le Véritable Saint Genest finds ultimate satis­faction in the afterlife—that is, in the life that begins after

the death of what is religiously called "this life." Rotrou's early heroes find ultimate satisfaction more in this life than in the afterlife. Nevertheless, as in the transcendental play about the converted actor, in the immanentist plays of the early theater we find an A-B-A pattern of dramatic and ethical experience. There is a movement from a kind of sacramental reality into a virtually sacrilegious period and then a return to the first reality.

This broad frame of action is apparent, for example, in Rotrou's second play, La Bague de Y oubli, Comédie (1629).1R

Yet, there is an interesting variation here: within the broad framework of the play there are several briefer examples of the same pattern. The framing play deals with Léonor and Léandre: the action of LI deals with these lovers in relation to the king, Léonor's brother, and the play ends with the resolution of the relation between the young lovers and the king. These are the A parts of the A-B-A structure. Within the B part ( the story of the king's relation with Liliane) there are six points at which, through the effect of the ring on various characters, the action moves from reality to illusion to reality to illusion, etc. From LI till II.6, when Léandre manages to trick the king into putting on the ring for the first time, we are in reality. The rapid shifting between the two planes then occurs until the king throws the ring to the floor in IV.4; from this point on, except for a brief

[39]

Indtex

This Index is based on proper names: titles and characters of creative works; authors' names without titles for secondary references; movements (usually under the name of the personal founder); etc. Initial definite and indefinite ar­ticles in titles have been suppressed for ease of reference. Characters from crea­tive works (including those of Rotrou) are listed throughout the Index. References to Rotrou's sources have been cross-indexed, with the works in question appear­ing both separately and under the name of author. References to Rotrou's plays as plays have been placed under his name, with italics indicating continuous dis­cussion of a work.

Achille, 113-17, 119, 216 n. 20R

Adam, 197, 204, 217 n. 27 Adraste, 215 n. 9E

Adrianus, 26, 29 Adrian, 26 Adrien, 20-38, 100, 124, 143, 167, 180,

186, 202 n. 1R

Agamemnon, 111-17, 216 n. 20B

Agis, 70, 209 n. 27R

Alcandre (Bague de l'oubli), 41, 46, 49, 205 n. P

Alcandre (Illusion comique), 41 Alcide, 50 Alcmène (Molière), 84 Alcmène (Hercule mourant), 68, 80,

113, 209 n. 27K

Alcmène (Sosies), 80-89, 211 n. 39" Alexandre (Bague de l'oubli), 42, 205

n. 1R

Alexandre (Venceslas), 139-57, 164, 219 n. 3K

Alexandre (Véritable Saint Genest),44

Alfonce, 41-47, 73, 139, 205 n. 1K

Aliaste, 203 n. 5 Alphrède, 127 Amintas, 216 n. 20R

Amores del alma, 196 Amphitryon (Molière), 78, 82-83 Amphitryon (Molière), 82-84 Amphitryon (Plautus), 77 Amphitryon (Sosies), 80-85, 89, 211

n. 39R

Andreas; see Cappellanus Andromaque, 101, 158 Angélique, 49, 51, 206 n. 7R

Anselme (Clarice), 218 n. 32 Anselme (Sœur), 133, 135, 136, 218

n. 1R

Anthisme, 30 Antigone (Sophocles), 215 n. 10 Antigone (Sophocles), 106 Antigone (Antigone), 103-11, 153,

186, 214 n. 9K

Antioche, 92-101, 213 n. 1R

Antiochus, 140, 159 Antonie (Bélissaire), 120-22, 127, 217

n. 26R

Aquinas, St. Thomas, 14, 119, 193, 207 n. 11, 214 n. 8, 219 n. 2

Araucana, 197 Areas, 7, 65, 69, 72, 87, 153, 209 n.

27R

Argie, 215 n. 9R

Aricie, 171-72 Aristotle, 11, 21, 152, 221 Arnauld, 13 Artanasde, 162, 222 n. 21R

Art poétique, 8, 10, 201 n. 17 Astrée, 3, 56, 58 Athalie, 11, 183, 223 n.6 Auerbach, Erich, 86, 88, 193-95 Auguste, 98, 99 Augustine, St., 6, 13, 38, 86, 88, 182,

185, 193, 194, 199 n. 1, 225 n. 3 Aurélie, 133-37, 218 n. 1R

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