Absolutist Attachments: Emotion, Media, and Absolutism in Seventeenth-Century France

289 Pages·2019·4.451 MB·English

by  Chloé Hogg

Absolutist
Attachments
Rethinking the Early Modern
Series Editors
Marcus Keller, University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign
Ellen McClure, University of Illinois, Chicago
Feisal Mohamed, CUNY Graduate Center
Absolutist
Attachments
Emotion, Media, and Absolutism
in Seventeenth- Century France
Chloé Hogg
northwestern university press
evanston, illinois
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
Copyright © 2019 by Northwestern University Press.
Published 2019. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Hogg, Chloé, author.
Title: Absolutist attachments : emotion, media, and absolutism in seventeenth-
century France / Chloé Hogg.
Other titles: Rethinking the Early Modern.
Description: Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2019. | Series:
Rethinking the Early Modern
Identifiers: LCCN 2018046655 | ISBN 9780810139411 (alk. paper) | ISBN
9780810139428 (cloth) | ISBN 9780810139435 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: France—History—Louis XIV, 1643–1715. | Despotism—
France—History—17th century. | Monarchy—France—History—17th century. |
France—Politics and government—17th century. | French literature—17th
century—Political aspects. | Mass media—Political aspects—France—History—
17th century.
Classification: LCC DC126 .H64 2019 | DDC 944.033—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018046655
For B. and L.

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Conversation with a King 3
Chapter One
Loving Alexander, or The Emotions of Absolutism 21
Interlude I: Sysigambis’s Desire (Scudéry) 29
Interlude II: Alexander’s Tears (Racine) 42
Chapter Two
Media Wars: Emotion, Information, and the Passage of the Rhine 67
Chapter Three
Feeling Newsy: Donneau de Visé Writes the Sun King’s Wars 97
Chapter Four
Boileau’s Bad Taste and the Sieges of Namur, 1692– 1695 131
Chapter Five
The Surgeon King: Wounding and the Body Politic 165
Conclusion: A Passion without a Name 191
Notes 195
Works Cited 249
Index 269

Illustrations
Figure 1. Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV 6
Figure 2. Charles Le Brun, Les reines de Perse aux pieds
d’Alexandre, dit aussi la Tente de Darius 22
Figure 3. Nicolas de Largillière, Charles Le Brun 23
Figure 4. Charles Le Brun, Les reines de Perse aux pieds
d’Alexandre, dit aussi la Tente de Darius (details) 59
Figure 5. Charles Le Brun, Admiration 63
Figure 6. Charles Le Brun, Entrée d’Alexandre dans
Babylone ou Le triomphe d’Alexandre 65
Figure 7. Frontispiece to François Blondel,
Cours d’architecture 68
Figure 8. Map, Bataille de Fleurus, in Jean Donneau de Visé,
Relation de la bataille donnée auprès de Fleurus . . .
le 1. juillet 1690 116
Figures 9a and 9b. Pages 334 (verso) and 335 (recto) of “Parodie
de l’Ode de Mr. Des Preaux sur la Prise de Namur,” in Recueil
de pièces curieuses et nouvelles Tant en Prose qu’en Vers 156
Figure 10. Frontispiece to Madeleine de Scudéry, Entretiens de morale 162
Figure 11. Portrait of Blaise François, comte de Pagan,
in Charles Perrault, Les hommes illustres 174
Figure 12. Portrait of Claude Berbier du Metz, in Charles Perrault,
Les hommes illustres 175
Figure 13. Frontispiece to Charles Perrault, Les hommes illustres 179
Figure 14. Frontispiece to Le Jeune de Boulencourt, Description
générale de l’Hostel royal des Invalides 186
ix