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NIEMEYER, G. Charles, 1913-
THE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE THEATRE IN
FRANCE: THE PLAYHOUSES AND THE MISE EN
SC&NE (1550-1700).
Yale University, Ph.D., 1942
Speech-Theater
University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan
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@ Copyright by
G . CHARLES NIEMEYER
1967
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THE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE THEATRE IN FRANCE:
THE PLAYHOUSES AND THE MISE EN SCENE (1550-1700)
BY
<S. CHARLES NIEMEYER
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE
SCHOOL OF YALE UNIVERSITY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
JUNE, 1942
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DIGEST
The present study traces the evolution of French theater
design from 1550 to 1700; reconstructs, as fully as possible, the
major French theaters existing in this period, both popular and
courtly; and outlines the theatrical history of each. In addition,
this work traces the development of French scenic art and stage
machinery during the same period in the production of the drama,
the ballet, and the opera; and considers the styles and contri
butions of the major scenic artists. Considerable prominence is
given to a study of renaissance and baroque theater art and archi
tecture in Italy; and the influence of the Italian precedent on
the French practice has been indicated throughout.
NOTE
The text of the present work ideally should be accompanied
by at least 143 illustrations from the Yale Theater Collection,
many of which the author has catalogued while pursuing his research.
However, inasmuch as this is impossible, the writer has selected
and included 14 illustrations which he considers most vital to
this study. The author also wishes to explain that although he
has departed from the usual practice in placing the originals of
all passages cited in an appendix, this form has been followed to
prevent an overburdening of the footnotes.
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PREFACE
In Prench theatrical history the seventeenth century stands
as the golden age of Corneille, Racine, and Molifere an age of
majestic achievement in dramaturgy, comparable to the Elizabethan
period in England. Historians and scholars of the theatre in the
"Great Century," although having exhaustively examined the drama,
have made only a superficial study of the theatres wherein the
plays of these great masters were first produced, and have only
attempted a .cursory investigation of the scenic art with which the
plays, operas, and ballets were given their theatrical illusion of
reality. Many writers have suggested that the Preach theatre of
this era was heavily indebted to Italian renaissance and baroque
developments in the theatre arts; but the true extent of this debt
has never been examined.
The present study thus attempts to trace the evolution of
playhouse design in Prance from the medieval period to the end of
the seventeenth century, indicating both native and Italian in
fluences in the development of theatre planning. In addition, the
work attempts to reconstruct as fully as possible all of the major
theatres employed in the century and to chronicle the most important
events of their individual histories.
The rise of Prench scenic art from the medieval period to the
end of the "Great Century" has long been a subject for scholarly
controversy, largely because the technical and mechanical elements
of the mise en sckne have never been carefully investigated. The
present work, therefore, endeavors to summarize briefly medieval
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methods of staging, as they have "been discerned by specialists of
this period, and to trace the evolution of renaissance and baroque
scenic art from both a technical and artistic viewpoint, thereby
making clear the gradual process by which foreign achievements
were introduced into France by the Italians themselves. Such an
investigation throws a considerable amount of new light on extant
critical writings and theatrical documents of the period which
relate to the mise en scene.
In this study the major emphasis is placed upon the telling
significance of primary evidence: extant ground plans, drawings,
engravings, descriptions of productions, critical writings, and
the texts of the dramatic and operatic works themselves. An
attempt has been made to correlate the abundant evidence presented
by this variety of source material so that a well-rounded and
continuous history of the French theatre arts from 1550 to 1700
results.
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TABLE OP COlfi'ENTS
Chapter Page
Preface i
I Tjie Evolution of Henaissance and Baroque Theatre
Design in Italy ................................. 1
II The HStel de Bourgogne and the Else of the Prench
Professional Theatre in the Sixteenth Century . . 24
III Public Theatres of the Early Seventeenth Century!
the H$tel de Bourgogne and the The&tre duM arais . 40
IV The Tennis Court Playhouses . „ ................. 59
V The Theatres at Court.............................. 76
VI The Development of Scenic Art in Italy . . . . 127
VII The Prench Mise en Scene of the Sixteenth Century
and the Italian Innovations . . . . . . . . 162
VIII The Establishment of the Perspective Stage in
Prance! Tomaso Prancini, G-. B. Andreini, Georges
Buffequin, and Laurent Mahelot . . . . . . . 190
IX The Operatic Mise en Scene! Giacomo Torelli, the
Vigarani Pamily, the Marquis de Sourdeac, and Jean
Berain I .........................................245
X The Popular Playhouses in the Last Half of the
Century! Scenic Art and Theatre Design . . . . 315
XI The Theatres and the Mise en Scene in the "Great
Century": Summary and Conclusion................. 339
Selective Bibliography............................ 344
Appendix: Original passages translated in the
t e x t ............................................. 363
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure Page
1 A Ground Plan of the Hotel de Bourgogne Showing a
Projected Pumping System for the Allaying of Fires
(1773)............................................. 45
2 A Ground Plan Reconstructing the Hotel de Bourgogne
According to the Remodeling of 1647 47
3 A Temporary Outdoor Theatre Erected in the Gardens at
Versailles by Carlo Vigarani for MoliSre's Ballet .ds JL&
Princesse Elide (1664) 95
4 A Ground Plan of the Theatre in the Palais-Royal after
the Remodeling by MoliSre.............................. 105
5 A Ground Plan of the Salle des Machines in the Tuileries
Palace (1752) 119
6 The Interior of the Petit-Bourbon Showing the Mise .sn
Schne Designed by Jacques Patin for the Balet Oomiaue
de la Rovne (l58l)............................. * 182
7 A Cavern Setting Designed by Tomaso Francini for the
Ballet La Dfelivrance de Renault Danced at the Louvre in
1 6 1 7 ................................................... 194
8 A Street Scene Designed by Laurent Mahelot for a .
Production of Rotrou's Les M^nechmes at the Hfttel de
Bourgogne (1633-4) 212
9 The Setting for Durval’s L1 Agarite Designed by Laurent
Mahelot (1633-4) 217
10 A Ground Plan of the Stage of the Palais-Royal Opera-
house (1770)....................................... 264
11 A Cross Section of the Stage of the Palais-Royal Opera-
house showing the Mechanism for Shifting Scenery (1770) 265
12 A Diagrammatic Sketch Explaining the Operation of the
Chariot system of Scene Shifting 267 .
13 An Elevation of a Seventeenth Century Venetian Stage
Showing the Mechanism for Shifting Scenes.............. 272
14 A Ground Plan of the Com^die Fran^aise (1752) . . . 328
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CHAPTER I
THE EVOLUTION OP RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE THEATRE
DESIGN IN ITALY
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Until early in the seventeenth century, theatre design in
Prance, England, and Germany evolved haphazardly and almost un
consciously along with the popular, professional drama. The play
houses, often only temporary structures or makeshift adaptations
of already existing buildings, were largely erected by ordinary
carpenters and their workmen. Even when a new and permanent
theatre was raised from the ground, the plan was dictated by the
professional or amateur actors themselves; and this was usually
based on other buildings which had afforded occasional shelter to
the acted drama. Thus, a clearly defined conception of an ideal,
planned, theatre structure was lacking; theatre form emerged mainly
through trial and error.
But in Italy the earliest and, for a while, the strongest
influence on theatre art was the revived classic drama; and the
academies which first produced the plays of antiquity sought to
present them in improvised theatres approximating classic models.
When this acted drama then became a vital part of courtly life in
the last decades of the fifteenth century, theatre design was at
once placed in the hands of the foremost renaissance artists and
architects. Already obsessed with an overwhelming passion to re
capture the art and architecture of ancient Borne, these designers
turned naturally to the theatre form of antiquity which they
deemed ideal.
The art of the theatre, however, from early in the sixteenth
century began to develop in new directions; and, as a result,
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