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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Iiifonnation Company 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Aibor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 NOEL LE BRETON DE HÀUTEROCHE: SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY COMIC PLAYWRIGHT AND ACTOR DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Edwin Lewis Isley, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1997 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Charles G.S. Williams, Adviser Professor Karlis Racevskis Adviser Professor John Rule French and Italian Graduate Program UMI Number: 9813280 Copyright 1997 by Isley, Edwin Lewis AH rights reserved. UMI Microform 9813280 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by Edwin Lewis Isley 1997 ABSTRACT Noël Le Breton, known as Hauteroche, had an illustrious career in the theatre as an actor, administrator, and a playwright. It was he who provided, along with Poisson, Brécourt, and Champmeslé, the greatest number of new plays for the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, the theatre that was to become the chief rival of Molière and his company. Hauteroche may also be viewed as an innovator, in his use of one-act plays and in his development of the emerging comedy of manners. Few playwrights have had such contemporary admiration and such a loyal following as Hauteroche. This dissertation, based on primary and secondary bibliographies more comprehensive than any compiled previously, offers a complete synthetic view of Hauteroche's career taking full advantage of the contributions to "Hauterochean” studies made over the last half-century. Attempts to situtate Hauteroche's texts within the total theatrical spectacle in which contemporary audiences of his plays participated is fundamental, the more so as Hauteroche was at one level a pragmatic provider of comédies that would please the specific audiences of the Hôtel de 11 Bourgogne theatre, France's first popular playhouse. Without adopting the technical language of semiotics of the theatre, I have tried to keep present in my presentation of the theatrical situation the spirit of semiotics, which examines theatrical spectacle as a system incorporating multiple encodings. Although by necessity limited for a period now as remote as the 1660s-1690s, and for which only partial documentation remains, I have grounded my analyses when possible in the material circumstances of stage settings, music, lighting, the actors' gestures and props, as well as the audience's distance— physically and mentally from the play of comic types and the ideas they bear as seen in the frame of the stage and in what contemporaries of Molière called "la beauté de la chandelle," that is, the special if not unique experience of theatre. Ill For Kimberly IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my adviser. Professor Charles G.S. Williams, for his support, encouragement, and enthusiasm which made this dissertation possible, and for his patience in correcting my stylistic and factual errors. I thank Professors John C. Rule (The Department of History), Karlis Racevskis (The Department of French and Italian), and Lois A. Rosow (The School of Music) for their careful and discriminating reading of my dissertation. I should also like to thank Dean James Siddens, Ph.D. for his encouragement and understanding. I thank Professor Antonio Scuderi for attempting to locate an article by Georges Mongrédien printed in the 15 September-1 October 1927 journal Chantecler. I am also very grateful to the State University of New York (Stony Brook) for loaning me the three volume 1736 edition of Les OEuvres de Monsieur de Hauteroche. I am pleased that they entrusted me with the actual volumes of such old and rare books. I should also like thank Mr. Thomas P. Ford of The Houghton Library (Harvard University) for providing an accurate transcription of the rare "Au lecteur" to Les Nobles de province. I also wish to thank the Interlibrary Loans Offices at both The Ohio State University and Ohio Dominican College for their efforts in locating obscure texts. I also thank all of the colleges and universities that loaned me secondary sources on Hauteroche. There are so many schools that aided me it is impossible to list them all. I thank Donald W. Gilman, Professor of French at Ball State University, for his encouragement. I should also like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth R. Jones of Chicago, Illinois for aiding me in my research and providing much needed moral support. Miss Maria Y. Stilson deserves my thanks and gratitude. Her singular charm and enthusiam have helped me to persevere. VI VITA February 18, 1962................ Born - Richmond, Indiana 1988 ............................ M.A. French, Ball State University 1989 - 1995......................Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, and Lecturer, The Ohio State University 199 5 - present...................Lecturer, Ohio Dominican College PUBLICATION Edwin L. Isley and Richard Duda, “Semi-autonomy at L'École des Mines." Mélanges pédagogiques. C.R.A.P.E.L.: Nancy, France, March 1986. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: French and Italian Vll TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract i i D e d i c a t i o n .............................................. iv Acknowledgments ......................................... v V i t a ................................................... vii Introduction ........................................... 1 A Man of the Theatre ................................. 1 Hauterochean Scholarship .......................... 58 Notes to Introduction .............................. 69 Part I— Beginning Plays (1668-1671).................... 75 Chapter 1— Amant qui ne flatte point ou "l'aveuglement comique" ................ 75 Notes to Chapter 1 ............................. 117 Chapter 2— One Act and Three Acts: Le Souper mal- apprété and Les Apparences trompeuses . 119 2.1 Le Souper mal-apprêté ou "le festin d ' a i r " ......................... 119 2.2 Les Apparences trompeuses ou "un festin de p i e r r e " ..................... 136 Notes to Chapter 2 ............................. 178 Part II— The Crispin Sequence (1670-1675) 181 Notes to The Crispin Sequence (1670-1675) .... 185 Chapter 3— Three Acts and One Act: Crispin médecin and Le D e u i l ........................... 186 3.1 Crispin médecin ou "un nouveau médecin malgré l u i " ................... 186 3.2 Le D e u i l ....................... 205 Notes to Chapter 3 ............................. 223 Chapter 4— Crispin musicien ou "le musicien malgré l u i " ............................... 224 Notes to Chapter 4 ............................. 251 Vlll Chapter 5— Les Nobles de province ou "le scélérat imaginaire"......................... 252 Notes to Chapter 5 ..................................298 Part III— The Final Plays (1684-1690) ................. 301 Chapter 6— Five Acts and One Act: L'Esprit folet ou la Dame invisible and Le C o c h e r ....... 301 6.1 L'Esprit folet ou la dameinvisible 307 6.2 Le Cocher ou "Sans-Soucy vengé" . 3 29 Notes to Chapter 6 ................................. 344 Chapter 7— Le Feint Polonois ou la veuve impertinente.. ......................... 347 Notes to Chapter 7 ................................. 378 Chapter 8— Les Bourgeoises de qualité .......... 380 Notes to Chapter 8 ............................... 430 Appendix: Chronology ofHauteroche's Life ........... 43 2 Bibliography ........................................... 441 1. Hauteroche's Dramatic Writings ............... 441 2. On Hauteroche .............................. 445 3. General W o r k s .............................. 452 IX INTRODUCTION À MAN OF THE THEATRE Noël Le Breton, known as Hauteroche, had an illustrious career in the theatre as an actor, administrator, and a playwright. It was he who provided, from the company of four actor-playwrights— including Poisson, Brécourt, and Champmeslé— the greatest number of new plays for the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, the theatre that was to become the chief rival of Molière and his company. And Hauteroche may also be viewed as an innovator, in his use

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