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cause_n	great_a	know_v	part_n	2,878	5	4.1381	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26187	The whole art of the stage containing not only the rules of the drammatick art, but many curious observations about it, which may be of great use to the authors, actors, and spectators of plays : together with much critical learning about the stage and plays of the antients / written in French by the command of Cardinal Richelieu by Monsieur Hedelin, Abbot of Aubignac, and now made English.; Pratique du théâtre. English. 1684.	Aubignac, François-Hédelin, abbé d', 1604-1676.	1684 (1684)	Wing A4185; ESTC R16044	179,268	322

some difference according to which they take more or less Subjects full of Plot and Intrigue are extreme agreeable at first but being once known they do not the second time please us so well because they want the graces of Novelty which made them charm us at first all our delight consisting in being surpriz'd which we cannot be twice The Subjects full of Passions last longer and affect us more because the Soul which receives the impression of them does not keep them so long nor so strongly as our Memory does the Events of things nay often it happens that they please us more at second seeing because that the first time we are employed about the Event and Disposition of the Play and by consequent do less enter into the Sentiments of the Actors but having once no need of applying our thoughts to the Story we busie them about the things that are said and so receive more Impressions of grief of fear But it is out of doubt that the mix'd or compound are the most excellent sort for in them the Incidents grow more pleasing by the Passions which do as it were uphold them and the Passions seem to be renew'd and spring afresh by the variety of the unthought of Incidents so that they are both lasting and require a great time to make them lose their Graces We are not to forget here and I think it one of the best Observations that I have made upon this Subject that if the Subject is not conformable to the Customs and Manners as well as Opinions of the Spectators it will never take what pains soever the Poet himself take and whatsoever Ornaments he employs to set his Play off For all Dramatick Poems must be different according to the People before whom they are represented and from thence often proceeds that the success is different though the Play be still the same Thus the Athenians delighted to see upon their Theatre the Cruelties of Kings and the Misfortunes befalling them the Calamities of Illustrious and Noble Families and the Rebellion of the whole Nation for an ill Action of the Prince because the State in which they liv'd being Popular they lov'd to be perswaded that Monarchy was always Tyrannical hoping thereby to discourage the Noble Men of their own Commonwealth from the attempt of seizing the Soveraignty out of fear of being expos'd to the the fury of a Commonalty who would think it just to murther them Whereas quite contrary among us the respect and love which we have for our Princes cannot endure that we should entertain the Publick with such Spectacles of horrour we are not willing to believe that Kings are wicked nor that their Subjects though with some appearance of ill usage ought to Rebel against their Power or touch their Persons no not in Effigie and I do not believe that upon our Stage a Poet could cause a Tyrant to be murder'd with any applause except he had very cautiously laid the thing As for Example that the Tyrant were an Usurper and the right Heir should appear and be own'd by the People who should take that occasion to revenge the injuries they had suffer'd from the Tyrant but Usurpation alone against the will of the People would not justifie without horrour the death of the Soveraign by the hands of his rebellious Subjects We have seen the tryal of it in a Play call'd Timoleon whom no consideration of State or common Good no love nor generosity towards his Country could hinder from being considered as the Murderer of his Brother and his Prince and for my part I esteem that Author who avoided to have Tarquin kill'd upon the Stage after the violence he had offer'd to Lucretia The cruelty of Alboin inspir'd horrour into the whole French Court though otherwise it were a Tagedy full of noble Incidents and lofty Language We have had upon our Stage the Esther of Mr. Du Ryer adorn'd with great Events fortified with strong Passions and compos'd in the whole with great Art but the success was much unluckier at Paris than at Roüen and when the Players at their teturn to Paris told us the good fortune they had had at Roüen every body wondred at it without being able to guess the cause of it but for my part I think that Roüen being a Town of great Trade is full of a great Number of Jews some known and some conceal'd and that by that reason they making up a good part of the Audience took more delight in a piece which seem'd entirely Jewish by the Conformity it had to their Manners and Customs We may say the same thing of Comedies for the Greeks and Romans with whom the Debauches of young People with Curtizans was but a laughing matter took pleasure to see their Intrigues represented and to hear the discourses of those publick Women with the tricks of those Ministers of their Pleasures countenanc'd by the Laws They were also delighted to see old covetous men over-reach'd and cheated of their money by the circumvention of their Slaves in favonr of their young Masters they were sensible to all these things because they were subject to them one time or another but amongst us all this would be ill received for as Christian Modesty does not permit persons of Quality to approve of those Examples of Vice so neither do the Rules by which we govern our Families allow of those slights of our Servants nor do we need to defend our selves against them 'T is for the same Reason that wee see in the French Court Tragedies take a great deal better than Comedies and that on the contrary the People are more affected with the latter and particularly with the Farces and Buffooneries of the Stage for in this Kingdom the persons of good Quality and Education have generous thoughts and designs to which they are carried either by the Motives of Vertue or Ambition so that their life has a great Conformity with the Characters of Tragedy but the people meanly born and durtily bred have low Sentiments and are thereby dispos'd to approve of the meaness and filthiness represented in Farces as being the Image of those things which they both use to say and do and this ought to be taken notice of not only in the principal part of the Poem but in all its parts and particularly in the Passions as we shall say more amply in a Chapter about them for if there be any Act or Scene that has not that conformity of manners to the Spectators you will suddenly see the applause cease and in it's place a discontent succeed though they themselves do not know the cause of it For the Stage and Eloquence are alike in this that their Perfections and Faults are equally perceiv'd by the Ignorant and by the Learned though the cause is not equally known to them CHAP. II. Of Probability and Decency HEre is the bottom and ground work of all Dramatick Poems many talk of it but few understand it

this depends upon the Poets Invention who according to his Subject chuses the place the most convenient for all that he has a mind to represent and adorns it with some agreeable Appearance One may judge from all this how ridiculous was the Wall in the Thisbe of Poet Theophile it being plac'd upon the Stage and Pyramus and She whispering through it and when they went out the Wall sunk that the other Actors might see one another For besides that the two places on each side of the Wall represented the two Chambers of Pyramus and Thisbe and that it was contrary to all appearance of Reason that in the same place the King should come and talk with his Confidents and much less that a Lion should come and fright Thisbe there I would fain know by what suppos'd means in the action it self this Wall could become visible and invisible and by what enchantment it was sometimes in being and then ceas'd quite to be again The fault is not less in those who suppose things done upon the Stage which have not been seen by the Spectators it not being probable they could have been done without being seen or else things must be suppos'd to have been invisible in the reality of the action upon which I think one of our Modern Poets fell into a great Errour of this kind having plac'd a Bastion upon the Stage and having afterwards caus'd the Town to be taken by that Bastion which was never seen to be either attack'd or defended As for the Extent which the Poet may allow to the Scene he chuses when it is not in a House but open I believe it may be as far as a man can see another Walk and yet not know perfectly that 't is he for to take a larger space would be ridiculous it being improbable that two people being each of them at one end of the Stage without any Object between should look at one another and yet not see one another whereas this distance which we allow often contributes to the working of the Play by the mistakes and doubts which a man may make by seeing another at a distance to which the Theatres of the Ancients do very well agree for being as they were threescore yards in front among the Romans and little less among the Graecians it was pretty near the proportion we allow them I desire the Reader besides to consider that if the Poet did represent by his Stage all the Places and Rooms of a Palace or all the Streets of a Town he should make the Spectators see not onely all that happened in his Story but all that was done besides in that Palace or in the Town for there is no Reason to hinder the Spectators from seeing all that nor why they should see one thing sooner than another particularly considering that since they can see at the same time into the Garden of the Palace and into the Kings Cabinet according to the Subject of the Play they must likewise hear and see all that is done there besides the Theatral Action except there were an Enchantment to shew onely that which the Poet had a mind to and to hide all that was not of his Subject besides the Stage would never be empty of any of the Actors except they went out of the Palace or Town for since the place represents the Palace with its Garden Court and other Appartments one cannot forbear seeing any one who should go from any of those Appartments into the Court or Garden and by consequent as long as any of the Actors were in the Extent represented by the Stage they cannot avoid being seen To which it cannot be answer'd that to mark the different Appartments there may be Curtains to shut and draw for these Curtains are fit for nothing but to toss their Inventors in them like Dogs in a Blanket I have spoken so clearly of this in my Terence Justified that I have nothing more to say against this gross Piece of Ignorance If it be said besides that the Poet has the liberty of shewing and hiding what he pleases I grant it provided there be a probability that one thing be seen and another not but there would need a singular Invention to contrive that ever and anon the same Persons acting and speaking in a Palace should be seen and not be seen for that would be making of the Walls to sink and rise go backwards and forwards every moment This may be enough to shew the error of those who upon the same Scene represent Spain and France making their Stage not onely almost as big as the Earth but likewise causing the same Floor to represent at the same time things so far distant from one another and that without any apparent cause of so prodigious a change We may likewise observe how they are mistaken that suppose in one side of the Stage one part of the Town as for example the Louvre and on the other side another part as the Place Royal thinking by this fine Invention to preserve the unity of Place Indeed if two Parts or Quarters of a Town thus suppos'd were not far from one another and the space between were really empty of Houses such a thing were not improper but if between the two places there are many Houses and solid bodies I would then ask how it comes to pass that those Houses do not fill up the empty place of the Stage and how if they do an Actor can see another Place at the other end of the Stage beyond all these Houses and in a word how this Stage which is but an Image represents a thing of which it has no resemblance Let it then be setled for a constant Maxim That the Proscenium or floor of the Stage can represent nothing but some open place of an ordinary extent where those that are represented by the Actors might naturally be in the truth of the Action and when we see it written The Scene is at Aulis Eleusis or Argos 't is not that the place where the Actors appear is all that Town or Province but onely that all the Intrigues of the Play as well what passes out of the sight of the Spectators as what they see are treated in that Town of which the Stage takes up but the least part Thus in the Prologue of the last Comedy of Plautus the Poet explaining the Place of the Scene says that he begs of the Romans a little space in the middle of their noble Buildings to transport thither the Town of Athens without the help of Architects upon which Samuel Petit observes that we ought not to imagine that Plautus pretends to place all the City of Athens in that of Rome but onely a small part of it where the things represented in the Play did come to pass to wit the Quarter of the Plotaeans and of all that Quarter only the place where Phronesion liv'd and he confirms this by the mending of two Greek

that Minerva alone could know and then he makes Tecmessa tell the remainder of what he had done when he was in his Tent. This division produces two different effects upon the Stage the first a Sentiment of Admiration for the care that Minerva takes of Vlysses but with surprize for so great a misfortune in the Person of Ajax The other is a Sentiment of Pitty when the Spectatours see a Lady beautiful and well beloved sitting near a Mad-man her Husband We must not neither let slip the Narration which Tecmessa makes summarily of the ruine of her Family and the death of her Parents her Captivity and then happy Marriage with Ajax nor that of Teucer about the exchange that Ajax made of a Belt with Hector for a Sword which he received from him the first having serv'd to fasten the Body of Hector to the Chariot of Achilles and the other having been the Instrument of Ajax's Death for though both these Narrations are inserted in the most lively passions of the persons that make them yet are they touched with so much Art that they do not at all weaken the Passions but quite contrary heighten them by giving an Image of some new misfortunes besides that all the story of Ajax's Country his Family and his Warlike Exploits are industriously told in different places without any affectation and only for a more perfect understanding of the Subject I do not knew whether the Contestation of Ajax's Sepulture would be agreeable and pathetick in our age but I make no question but that in Sophocles's time it must have taken extreamly for then it was a mark of the highest Infamy and the extreamest misfortune that could befal any body to be forbid burial and without doubt the Spectatours were moved with great compassion seeing the body of so great a Prince ready to receive such unworthy usage by the effect of Minervas's anger and as the Discourses of the two Princes Agamemnon and Menelaus seem well grounded upon reasons of State to deprive him of the honour of Sepulture and on the other side the reasons of Teucer have Piety and Generosity on their side I believe that this debate which was conformable to the manners and customs of the Ancients must needs have been very agreeable to them particularly considering that Euripides has founded the Tragedy of the Suppliants in honour of the Athenians upon that sole consideration and that it is not probable that so great a Poet would have taken a weak Subject to establish the glory of his Country As for the shew or spectacle he might have made Ajax appear in all his Madness but besides that it is a Passion below a Hero except some great cause excite it and that the effects of it are Illustrious I believe he avoided doing of it because it would have been hard to represent him making a great slaughter among the Sheep and Goats without making him ridiculous and so deprive the Hero of that compassion due to so great a Calamity therefore to shew the deplorable condition of so great a Prince and yet not to rob the Stage of any thing of ornament he makes him appear in his frenzy indeed but something abated by the presence of Minerva which is a Figure of the rage of Great Men which ought not to be quite abandoned by prudence as the madness of the vulgar is and so shews him sitting in his Tent in the first abatement of his fury having those slaughter'd Animals all about him with his Wife his little Son and his Friends in a mournful posture near him all which does in my opinion afford a well invented spectacle apt to raise compassion when Ajax comes alittle to himself and that all his looks words and actions have the character of shame courage and fury painted in them the better to manifest the excess of his misery add to this the tears and complaints of his Wife the presence of a little Infant who cannot speak it self but whose presence gives occasion to many tender expressions and lastly the heavy consolations of his Friends I say that it is hard but all this must produce a very pathetick and moving shew After this the Poet brings him to his Senses entirely but then the prophetick words of Calchas which threaten him that day particularly with death bring new terrour upon the Stage and that so much the stronger because the Spectatours thought him safe by being returned to his Senses After this he dies by his own hand and his very Sepulture becomes a Subject of contestation all these are new Objects of Compassion which shew us the mastery of the Poet in supplying his Stage with variety by changing continually the Face of things A Project for Re-establishing the French Theater THe Causes which hinder the French Theater from continuing the Progress it had made some years ago in Cardinal Richelieu's time may be reduced to six 1. The common belief that to frequent Plays is a sin against the Rules of Christianity 2. The Infamy with which the Laws have noted those who make an open profession of being Players 3. The failings and errours committed in the representation of Plays 4. The Ill Plays which are indifferently acted with the good 5. Ill Decorations 6. Disorders committed by the Spectatours To begin by that Generally received Opinion 'T is true that the Ancient Fathers of the Church always forbid Christians to frequent the Theaters for two reasons The first which few have taken notice of was because that the representation of Plays was Anciently an Act of Religion making a part of the Cult and Worship performed to the Gods of the Heathens this is out of dispute and may be easily proved if need were by a thousand Testimonies of the Ancient Writers of Antiquity the First Fathers of the Church condemned therefore the Christians that assisted at those Spectacles as being participant of Idolatry which they had renounc'd by their Baptism as we may see in the writings of Minutius Felix Tertullian St. Cyprian St. Austin Lactantius and others The second Reason was founded upon the Indecencies and obscenities said and committed there by the Mimes Pantomimes Dancers and others who acted their Dyth●rambes Phales Itiphales Priapeas and other impure representations which were proper to the Cult of Bacchus to whom the Theater was Consecrated as to its Author and to Venus as the companion of Bacchus As to the first Reason then of the Pagan Religion that ceases now since Plays are no longer a piece of Worship but rather an Innocent Recreation without any Impious Ceremonies in honour of the Idols but the Publick must be well informed of this As for the second Reason though in Cardinal Richelieu's time all Obscenity was banished from the Stage in his presence yet the Publick Theaters do retain something of those Indecencies in Farces and other Poems where the Authors endeavouring to please the rabble represent Impudent Stories and set them out with filthy jests which is a thing that

of the Decorations the Players contributing nothing towards it and by that means those Ornaments were not only magnificent but perfectly answer'd the Poets Intentions But now that our Players though not very well in their Affairs nevertheless must undergo all the charge they cannot be blam'd if they endeavour to do it as cheap as may be but then the Decorations must be imperfect and altogether below the dignity of the Poets Invention As for the Disorders of the Spectators we may consider that nothing was more safe and quiet than the Antient Theatres the Magistrates being always present and every thing done by their orders but amongst us there is no order at all but any sorts of people wear Swords in the Pit and other places and therewith attack very often many peaceable Spectators who have no other defence than the Authority of the Laws Among the Greeks and Romans the Women were so safe in the publick Theatres that they often brought their Children with them but with us a company of young Debauchees come in and commit a hundred Insolencies frighting the Women and often killing those who take their protection We may add to that that the Seats of the Spectators were so conveniently plac'd among the Antients that every one was plac'd conveniently and there could be no disorder in changing of place whereas now the Pit and Boxes are equally inconvenient the Pit having no rising nor no Seat and the Boxes being too far off and ill situated so that what with the disorders of the Pit and inconvenience of the Boxes the Theatres are much forsaken by the better sort of people To remedy all these Disorders it will be necessary first that the King be pleas'd to set forth a Declaration which shall shew on one hand how that Plays being no longer an Act of Religion and Idolatry as they were formerly but only a publick diversion and on the other hand that the Representations being now perform'd with decency and the Players themselves living sober and not of debauch'd lives as they were when the Edicts were made by which they are declar'd infamous His Majesty doth upon these considerations make void all those former Laws forbidding them still nevertheless to do or say any thing upon the Stage against decency or good manners under such and such penalties as of being driven from the Stage and reputed infamous again And to preserve that Modesty which is necessary it shall be likewise ordered that no single Woman shall act if they have not their Father or Mother in the Company and that all Widdows shall be oblig'd to marry within six months after their year is out for mourning and in that year shall not act except they are married again And for the Execution of these orders his Majesty may be pleas'd to settle a person of probity and capacity to be as it were an Overseer Intendant or great Master of the Theatres and other publick Entertainments in France who shall take care that the Stage be free from all Scandal and shall likewise give an Account of the life and actions of the Players By this means the two first causes which hinder the Re-establishment of the Stage must cease for all scandal and obscenities being banished there will be no scruple of Conscience in assisting at Plays and the Players will besides be in so good a reputation as not to fear any reproaches from the sober sort of people It was by such a declaration as this that the Roman Emperours re-establish'd the Theater when it was fallen into Corruption The third cause must likewise cease for the profession of Actor being once made reputable all those who have any Inclination that way will the easilyer take to it and besides the Overseer may himself select out of the Schools and the Companys of Country Players such as shall be fitting and oblige them to study the representation of spectacles as well as the Recitals and Expressions of the Poet that so the whole action may be perfect and to this end none shall be admitted but by the Kings Letters Patents delivered to the Actor by the Intendant General of the Theatres who shall give a certificate of his capacity and probity after having tryed him in many ways By this means there will always be excellent Actors and the Representations will no longer be defective The 4th cause which regards the Poets themselves does require some distinction for those of them who have already the approbation of the publick by the Excellency and number of their works shall be obliged onely to shew their Plays to the Overseer General to see that there be no Obscenities nor any thing against decency in them all the rest to remain untouched at the hazard of the reputation they have already acquired But as for the new Poets their plays shall be throughly Examin'd by the Overseer and reformed according to his orders by which means the Stage will not be loaded with ill Dramma's nor the Players burdened with rewarding such as afterwards can be of no use to them As for the Decorations they shall be perform'd by the care of the same Overseer who shall employ understanding and able Workmen at the publick charge and not at the Players costs who shall have no Expence to bear but that of their clothes and the reward they shall give the Authors As for the sixth Cause which concerns the conveniency and safety of the Spectators the King shall forbid all Pages and Footmen to enter the Play-house upon pain of death and prohibit likewise all other persons of what quality soever to wear their Swords there nor any offensive Arms upon the same penalty it being reasonable that that safety which cannot be had here out of respect to the place as it is in Churches and Pallaces be obtain'd by the equality of the Assistants and for this reason some of the Kings Guards shall be plac'd at the doors of the Play-house to take notice of any that shall go about to contravene this Order And for the greater conveniency of the Spectators the Pit shall be rais'd and fill'd with Seats that shall overlook the Stage which will hinder the quarrelling of the Hectors there being not room for them to fight But to perfect the magnificence of the Stage the Overseer shall look out a spot of ground spacious and convenient to build one according to the Model of the Antients so that it be capable of the noblest Representations and the Seats so distinguish'd as that the common people need not mingle with those of the best fashion and round about which shall be built houses to lodg two Troups or Companies of Players gratis which I suppose may be enough for the City of Paris And for the buying of the place construction of the Theatre lodging the Players charge of the Decorations and the Pensions of the two Houses as the King now gives them with a Sallary For the Overseer and other such charges there will a Fund