The Moral Universe of Alexandre Hardy's Tragedies
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THE MORAL UNIVERSE OF ALEXANDRE HARDY'S TRAGEDIES by JAMES PANTER M.A., University of Nottingham, 1962 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of FRENCH We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April, 1970 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree tha permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of /^Iz/YfH The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada ABSTRACT The object of the present study is to analyse and interpret Hardy's achievement in the field of tragedy. Critics have generally recognised the importance of his vast output of plays in the development of French drama in the seventeenth century, while denigrating the literary merit of his works. The only full-scale study of this dramatist, Rigal's Alexandre Hardy et le theatre francais a la fin du XVIe siecle et au commencement Q du XVIIe siecle, is devoted largely to a consideration of his life and of theatrical conditions at this time, to a comparison of his plays with those of his precursors and followers, and to an examination of source material. The present study compares the plays one with another to determine what features they have in common, attempting to arrive thereby at Hardy's conception of the structure and function of tragedy. The text followed is that of Stengel's re-edition. The plays are analysed under the headings of plot and action, theme, and character. The first chapter studies Hardy's use of stage spectacle, presented action and reported action, and shows that, contrary to popular misconception, he does not indulge in gratuitous or excessive horror and violence on the stage. Rather he presents a situation in which the tragic" hero is offered a choice of courses of action, the outcome of which will be fortunate or unfortunate according to the course chosen. The typical pattern of the action of a tragedy by Hardy is, therefore, a rising and falling, or falling and rising motion about a central ii scene of conflict. Sometimes this pattern is seen in the life of a single hero, sometimes the contrasting fortunes of two characters are presented. In the second chapter the moral principles of the prota• gonists are examined to determine the basic theme of the tragedies, which is found to be broadly political. Hardy presents a number of types of king, ranging from the tyrant to the perfect monarch, and renders this traditional ideological contrast in a series of discussions of the problems of kingship arising from a particular dramatic situation. Justice, clemency, the rule of law and service to the state are the guiding principles of the good king. A second, and more original aspect of this political theme, that of legitimacy and the right of conquest, is found in some of the tragedies. The third chapter shows that Hardy presents dynamic heroes who strive to attain an ideal of personal gloire. Some heroes fail to arrive at this ideal because they succumb to their passions at a crucial moment; others acquire personal fulfilment only to become aware of a greater sense of service to others. A moral dilemma arises from the conflict between the ideal of personal honour and that of the king's duty to the state. The latter is achieved only by self-abnegation, and one may establish a hierarchy of heroes, ranging from Herode, in whom subjection to the passions leads to destruction of the personality, to Cirus, the embodiment of self-sufficiency. In the conclusion to this study the moral framework of Hardy's tragedies is shown to lie in the self-sufficiency and will to perfection of the hero who recognises only honour and justice as immutable principles external to himself. It is a conception of tragedy which includes not only degradation and despair, but also optimism and the exaltation of the human spirit. Plot summaries of Hardy's ten tragedies are given in an appendix. iv TABLE OP.CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE Dramatic Technique 22 CHAPTER TWO Theme: Kingship 60 CHAPTER THREE Character: The Hierarchy of Heroes 112 CONCLUSION 151 BIBLIOGRAPHY 172 APPENDIX 181 INTRODUCTION The name of Alexandre Hardy is known to every student of French drama in the early seventeenth century. Critics usually refer to his prolific output of tragedies, comedies, tragi• comedies and pastorals, the forms which, during the second half of the sixteenth century and the first decades of the seventeenth, gradually established themselves as the major genres, and which were modelled on what the writers of the period understood to be the classical forms of drama. The critics speak of Hardy's dramatic sense, of his ability to present spectacle on stage, and of his archaic language and awkward style. At this point they generally abandon consideration of his plays. Indeed, when one learns that Hardy "was without genius, taste, or style""1", 2 or that he was an "auteur tres fecond, mais illisible" , one is inclined not to read any further. Yet his nineteenth-century 3 editor, Stengel, saw in him a direct precursor of Corneille , Sir Paul Harvey and J. E. Hesseltine, eds., The Oxford Companion to French Literature. (Oxford, 1959), p. 332. p Robert G-arapon, "Hardy." In: Dictionnaire des lettres francaises: le dix-septieme siecle. pub. sous la direction du Cardinal Georges Grente. (Paris, 1954), p. 489. ^ "Unmittelbare VorlSufer"; see title page of Stengel's re-edition: Le Theatre d1Alexandre Hardy. 5 vols. (Marburg, 1884). This is the edition cited in the following pages. In quoting from Hardy's plays, I shall follow the example set by Rigal of modernising and standardising the spelling as far as this is possible. The text of Stengel's re-edition reproduces the errors present in the original edition, and Rigal takes him to task for this procedure. "C'est la le seul point sur lequel nous aurions envie de chicaner le savant et consciencieux eMiteur. Pourquoi reproduire jusqu'aux fautes memes du texte 2 while Rigal, the most important critic of Hardy's work, claims that: "Hardy est le point de depart unique de tout le mouvement qui a suivi. Le theatre du moyen age e"tant oubli£, la trag^die savante du XVIe siecle ne 1'£tant guere moins, c'est de Hardy qu'ont paru partir les deux courants — classique et irrdgulier - entre lesquels allait se diviser la litt^raturee dramatique. Certes, lui-meme est inexplicable pour qui ne connait pas l'histoire anteVieure de notre theatre; mais enfin lui-meme £tant donne, il suffit a en expliquer l'histoire post£rieuren^. Clearly, if Hardy played such an important role in the evolution of French drama as Stengel and Rigal imply, he should have received more critical attention than he has. In fact not one major study of Hardy's theatre has been published in the last eighty years. One possible explanation is that Rigal's thesis is sufficiently definitive as to discourage further examination de Hardy? Ce texte est-il si prdcieux? Et croit-on Hardy si agre"able a lire qu'on puisse impunement soumettre a d'inutiles ^preuves les curieux qui en entreprennent la lecture?" ("Le theatre d'Alexandre Hardy. Corrections a la reimpression Stengel et au texte original," Zeitschrift fur franzdsische Sprache und Literatur 13 fl89l} , 204.) Hardy himself had some remarks to make on this subject. The first three volumes of hisilEMatage were published in Paris by Jacques Quesnel, but he committed the preparation of the fourth volume to David du Petit Val in Rouen, "vu que les prdcddents me font rougir de la honte des imprimeurs, auxquels 1'avarice fit traair ma reputation, etant si pleins de fautes, tant a 1'orthographie qu'aux vers, que je voudrais de bon coeur effacer jlisques a la memoire" CTheatre, IV, 4). ^ Eugene Rigal, Alexandre Hardy et le theatre francais h la fin du XVIe et au commencement du XVIIe siecle" (Paris, 1889), p. 679. 3 of the plays of an admittedly minor dramatist. Modern theories of criticism advise us to beware, however, of the term definitive, and indeed, when we consider the aim and scope of Rigal's study, we realise that it presents more a personal theory of the development of the French drama in the early years of the seventeenth century and Hardy's place in this movement, than an examination of the plays themselves. To say that is not in any way to denigrate Rigal's work. It remains the essential study of Hardy's theatre, and has not been superseded. In an indirect sense it was .epoch-making, for it was largely in an attempt to refute Rigal's exaggerated claims on Hardy's behalf that Lanson pursued his own research into the history of Renaissance and early seventeenth-century drama which enabled him to establish that Hardy was by no means trhs only active dramatist at this period. In fact, Hardy "n'est pas celui qui fait de la trag^die un spectacle populaire. ... Hardy n'eut de ce cote" aucune initiative a. prendre. II fit, — plus brillamment, si l'on veut, — ce que I*on faisait avant lui" . It is tempting to speculate that Lanson's efforts to counter Rigal's thesis led the great critic to formulate his own masterly Esquisse d'une histoire de la tragddie francaise (New York, 1920).