Les Femmes Savantes and Feminism
Identifieur interne : 000091 ( Istex/Corpus ); précédent : 000090; suivant : 000092Les Femmes Savantes and Feminism
Auteurs : David ShawSource :
- Journal of European Studies [ 0047-2441 ] ; 1984-03.
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DOI: 10.1177/004724418401405302
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<pub-date pub-type="ppub"><month>03</month><year>1984</year></pub-date><volume>14</volume><issue>53</issue><fpage>24</fpage><lpage>38</lpage><custom-meta-wrap><custom-meta xlink:type="simple"><meta-name>sagemeta-type</meta-name><meta-value>Journal Article</meta-value></custom-meta><custom-meta xlink:type="simple"><meta-name>search-text</meta-name><meta-value>24 Les Femmes Savantes and Feminism SAGE Publications, Inc.1984DOI: 10.1177/004724418401405302 David Shaw University of Leeds Les Femmes Savantes is a play which, in spite of continuing popularity in the theatre, tends to be treated with critical suspicion because of the allegedly reactionary nature of its theme: On fait encore aujourd'hui bien des reserves sur le fond de la piece, en un siecle o6 irresistiblement s'est developpee l'instruction des femmes, en meme temps qu'en apparaissait la necessite morale et sociale.' One wonders, however, whether critics who accuse the author of Les Femmes Savantes of anti-feminism are not guilty of anachronism. Certainly, the list of such critics is studded with prestigious names. Voltaire, in the dédicace to Alzire ( 1736), criticizes Moll~re for ridiculing the honest efforts of women to improve their status in society. More recently, Antoine Adam has violently attacked what he sees as the reactionary vulgarity of Henriette: ...cette Henriette est une fille haissable: son ironie acide, sa fausse humilite, sa vulgarite de pensee nous exasperent. C'est une petite vipère.2 And Emile Faguet, in an article which purports to demonstrate that Moliere was a fairly radical feminist, sees in Les Femmes Savantes a rather tired expression of a middle-aged invalid's desire to conform with the prevailing bourgeois ethic: ...il ne songe plus qu'a dire aux hommes, "Soyez maitres chez vous, et ne vous laissez pas gouverner par les femmes", et qu'a dire aux femmes: "Soyez de bonnes menageres, n'etudiez point, et surtout n'introduisez pas chez vous de beaux esprit".' \ There is thus a very significant and respectable critical tradition which sees in Les Femmes Savantes merely a development of Les Précieuses Ridicules: an important attempt by seventeenth-century women to free themselves from intellectual and social bondage is allegedly ridiculed by a Moliere in his dotage and now inclined to make easy jokes at the expense 0047-2441/84/1401-0024/$2.50 © 1984 Science History, Publications Ltd 3125 of any departure from male-dominated bourgeois conformism. According to Faguet, the militant attitudes struck in L'Ecole des Femmes, Tartuffe and Don Juan belong exclusively to the "revolutionary" first half of Moliere's career at Paris: the second period, dating roughly from 1667, is allegedly devoid of philosophical interest, being composed of court spectaculars, like Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and predictable moralities, such as L'Avare and Les Femmes Savantes. In the latter play it is apparently suggested that educating women is antisocial as well as pointless, while Henriette, the heroine, despises learning and limits her ambition, in the best Counter-Reformation tradition, to a husband and children. Faguet underlines the fact that Chrysale is the respected friend of a nobleman and that he assesses Clitandre more accurately than the learned Philaminte. And the critic concludes, as indicated in the passage quoted, that Moliere's main point is to encourage husbands to take a firmer line with their wives. The problem with this reading of the play is that there is no contemporary evidence to authorize it. Les Femmes Savantes provoked no protest from the articulate and watchful seventeenth-century apologists of the feminist cause. In 1672, Moliere was vulnerable: he had more-or-less lost the protection of the king, who was being wooed away by the assiduous Lulli. Indeed, Clitandre's fulsome praise of court judgement might be seen as a last ditch attempt by Moliere to win back royal favour. The time was therefore ripe to mount an attack if the play had lent itself to a campaign against him like those that had followed Les Précieuses Ridicules, L'Ecole des Femmes and Tartuffe. He had inevitably made many enemies, some of them ardent feminists whose hostility dated back to Les Précieuses. And yet over fifty years were to pass before the first accusation of anti-feminism was levelled at Les Femmes Savantes. a Moreover, feminism was a subject of burning topicality in the third quarter of the seventeenth century. The grave theological debates of the preceding century on the moral status of women had given way to a more general discussion of the role of women in society. The official austerity of the Counter-Reformation attitude towards women provoked countless works, throughout the seventeenth century, for and against an extension of the accepted social role of women. A full account of the debate is given by Gustave Reynier in La Femme au XVI Ie Siècle. It is sufficient, for our purpose, to say that, by the time of Les Femmes Savantes, the arguments had resolved themselves into two main issues: the extent to which women should be free to choose their own husbands and whether they should receive the kind of education available to men. That Les Femmes Savantes deals with both these themes is obvious: 3226 precisely how it treats them has perhaps been slightly misrepresented. The Fronde brought about a distinct change in the role of women in society. It was partly a matter of class: before 1648, the prevailing tone at the Hotel de Rambouillet had been distinctly aristocratic. The more refined and discerning nobles tended to frequent the Chambre Bleue in preference to the Louvre. If nobles mingled with commoners in the salons, they never merged with them. Independent commoners like Voiture, Gombauld and Benserade took the precaution of adopting the noble particule,6 while the majority, including figures as eminent as Sarasin, Boisrobert, La Mesnardiere and Vaugelas, were merely secretaries or stewards in aristocratic households. Salon society had been the invention of sensitive aristocratic ladies, like Mme de Rambouillet, and the nobility continued to set the tone, one of refined yet lighthearted urbanity, up to the beginning of the civil war. After the war, things had changed. Voiture was dead and Mme de Rambouillet was no longer entertaining in the grand manner. The aristocracy was no longer so powerful, no longer a force independent of the crown. It had suffered a serious blow to its prestige and, for several years in the 1650s, tended to lick its wounds in private, far away from parisian polite society. The effect of this change on the world of the salons was crucial. The void left by the ladies of the aristocracy was filled by the increasingly prosperous and leisured middle class: a society previously queened over by Mme de Rambouillet and a few noble imitators such as the Princesse de Conde, Mme de Crequi and Mme de Sable was now increasingly dominated by the salons of bourgeoises like Mlle Bocquet, Mme Arragonais and Marion Legendre. Mlle de Scudery herself was not of high birth and her celebrated "samedis de Sapho" were certainly not aristocratic gathering. Inevitably, these post-war salons no longer showed the instinctive good taste of their noble predecessors. Some were simply too ambitious and attempted a degree of refinement which was beyond their real talents: these were the real précieuses ridicules. Speaking of the early 1660s, Livet says: La coterie si nombreuse de ces femmes que l'on designait depuis une dizaine d'annees sous le nom de Precieuses s'etait attire les railleries de tous les hommes de sens par 1'exces ou elles avaient porte les memes merites qui avaient fait la gloire de 1'Hotel de Rambouillet, par leur maladresse a remplacer la pudeur par la pruderie, la pureté du langage par 1'affeterie, le savoir modeste par l'orgueil d'un pedantisme prétentieux. H This grotesque, unworldly degree of refinement is amusingly paralleled in Les Femmes Savantes by the group's explicit rejection of 3327 both bourgeois and courtly values. The term bourgeois had, in court- orientated polite society, come to serve as an expression of contempt. It is in this sense that Belise uses it to define the precise degree of Chrysale's vulgarity: _ Est-il de petits corps un plus lourd assemblage, Un esprit compose d'atomes plus bourgeois? (11. 616-17) And Trissotin reflects the post-war estrangement between the court and the more extreme salons when he pedantically condemns the intellectual level of the courtiers: "La cour, comme l'on sait, ne tient pas pour 1'esprit" (1. 1328). In a society based on class difference, Moliere's savantes, and their real-life equivalents, are thus attempting to live in a kind of limbo between the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. One of the major preoccupations of seventeenth-century salons was naturally literature. Their influence on authors was often immense and works as varied as Polyeucte, La Rochefoucauld's Ma.rimes and La Fontaine's Fables were read, discussed and often modified in the salons before being published. But, in the salons which sprang up in the decade or so after the war, the attitude was much more factional and introspective than before: a work might be received with enthusiasm by a particular group simply because the author was one of its members. One thinks, for example, of Mme Tallemant's fanatical defence of the mediocre dramatist Claude Boyer in his protracted rivalry with the far more accomplished Quinault. The literary tastes of such salons tended to favour exaggerated refinement of sentiment rather than philosophical depth: their heroes were therefore writers like Benserade and Boisrobert. De Pure's Pretieuse and Somaize's Dictionnaire contain many examples of the questionable literary tastes of these ladies. It is therefore no coincidence that, in both Les Précieuses and Les Femmes Savantes, displays of foolish literary criticism occupy central scenes. The précieuses were, like Philaminte and Armande, usually extreme feminists: many of them completed their aura of silliness with strident demands for total equality with men at a time when women had few legal rights at all. Their understandable objection to forced marriages finds an echo in the works of contemporary 'liberal' writers, like Moliere himself: but they themselves tended to take the idea too far, too quickly. Somaize quotes several cases, for example, of entire households being disrupted by their eccentric behaviour. Dirc~ [Mme Descluzel] est une pretieuse qui, pour vivre plus en repos, veut estre separee de son mary; elle est a present chez des vestalles [i.e. lodging in a convent]; sa ruelle est en desordre depuis ces embaras, qui finiront quand ils pourront.~ 3428 One is inevitably reminded both of Armande's rejection of marriage and of the disorder within Philaminte's household which Chrysale finds so tedious. Similarly, Mme de Guedreville reflects Philaminte's passion for undigested knowledge: ...elle a un maistre [de philosophie] qui vient tous les jours luy enseigner, comme aussi pour les mathematiques, pour la chiromancie, la physionomie, le droict et les langues d'Ausonie et d'Hesperie, et pour chaque chose elle a une personne differente qui lui monstre si bien qu'elle donne tous les jours la meilleure partie de son temps a ces differentes etudes.'o And Somaize's description of Mlle de Chataigneres attributes to her a bizarre passion for alchemy and a complete lack of interest in men: Les sciences dont elle fait plus d'estat sont celle de dire la bonne avanture, de connoistre dans la main, de faire 1'horoscope, et sur tout de la chimie (elle a des fourneaux dans sa maison a dessein) et travailler perpetuellement a trouver la pierre philosophale.... Les compagnies qu'elle voit sont des femmes, et rarement elle souffre celle des hommes." Again, one is reminded both of Armande's apparent misogamy and the absurd scientific pretentions of the entire group. One could in fact quote a fairly large number of précieuses whose eccentric behaviour might have been used as a model for that of Philaminte and Armande. The satire in Les Femmes Savantes is clearly aimed at a specific female type: far from expressing contempt for the whole feminist movement, it is intended as a comment on a fairly small group of pretentious but untalented middle-class ladies. It is fairly clear, also, that this group was a considerable embarrassment to more gifted and intelligent feminists, like Madeleine de Scudery : it probably set the feminist movement back several years. Mlle de Scudery herself, in spite of her excellent mind and vast erudition, qualities which tend to inspire resentment, had a happy knack of winning universal admiration and affection: En effet, Sapho [Mlle de Scudery] 1'emporte sur toutes celles de son sexe a 1'egard de 1'esprit, de la facilite d'escrire en vers et en prose, et de toutes les connoissances qui rendent un esprit accomply, et n'en voit point ou peu parmy les hommes les plus habiles qui ne la regardent comme une digne rivale; mais cette vivacité ne luy attire la haine de personne, et cause de l'admiration a plusieurs et de 1'estime a tous, et elle n'a d'ennemis que ceux qui le sont du m~rite et de la vertu.'-' 3529 And the portrait of Damophile, in Cyrus, clearly indicates that Mlle de Scudery disliked the pretentious posturing of the precieuses: she is presented as an insufferable pedant: Premierement elle avait toujours cinq ou six maitres, dont le moins savant luy enseignait, je crois, 1'astrologie, elle écrivait continuellement a des hommes qui faisaient profession de science; elle ne pouvait se resoudre a parler a des gens qui ne sussent rien. On voyait toujours sur sa table quinze ou vingt livres.... Au reste, Damophile ne croyant pas que le savoir put compatir avec les affaires de famille, ne se melait d'aucuns soins domestiques.' ` This portrait clearly anticipates Philaminte's admiration for pure erudition ("Du grec! o ciel! du grec! 11 sait du grec, ma soeur!" (1. 943)), her desire to know everything ("Qu'on y veut reunir ce qu'on s~pare ailleurs" (1. 872)) and her contempt for household matters ("Et l'on sait tout chez moi", says Chrysale, "hors ce qu'il faut savoir" (1. 590)). Like Moliere, Madeleine de Scudery is very critical of women who acquire specialist knowledge in order simply to show off their learning: Mais ce que je pose pour fondement, est qu'encore que les femmes sussent plus de choses qu'elles n'en savent pour l'ordinalre, je ne veux pourtant jamais qu'elles agissent ni qu'elles parlent en savantes. Je veux donc bien qu'on puisse dire d'une personne de mon sexe qu'elle sait cent choses dont elle ne se vante pas ... mais je ne veux pas qu'on puisse dire d'elle: c'est une femme savante." Her contempt for "femmes savantes" is as great as Moliere's, and her novels abound with reminders of the need for women to avoid pedantry: indeed, given that she seems to find female pedants less acceptable than their male counterparts, one might even argue that Mlle de Scudery is more guilty of applying double standards than Moliere, who takes care, through Clitandre, to criticize male pedants in equally scathing terms: Gens qui de leur savoir paraissent toujours ivres, Riches, pour tout merite, en babil iimportun.... (11. 1378-9) The social ideal for women, as defined in Cyrus, is a very reasonable compromise between traditional ignorance and the new trend towards learning for the sake of it: ...je veux qu'elle sache toutes les choses divertissantes; mais a dire la verit~ je voudrais qu'on eut autant de soin d'orner son esprit que son corps: et qu'entre etre savante ou ignorante, on prit un chemin entre les deux extremites, qui empêchât d'etre incommode par une suffisance impertinente, ou par une stupidite ennuyeuse.'" 3630 This sensible moderation closely parallels the attitude expressed by Clitandre in the opening act of Les Femrnes Savantes: Je consens qu'une femme ait des clartes de tout Mais je ne lui veux point la passion choquante De se rendre savante afin d'etre savante; Et j'aime que souvent, aux questions qu'on fait, Elle sache ignorer les choses qu'elle sait, , De son etude enfin je veux qu'elle se cache, Et qu'elle ait du savoir sans vouloir qu'on le sache....(11. 218-24) If these famous lines sound a little patronizing today, this would not have been the case in 1672: for Moliere, through Clitandre, is actually echoing the sentiments of one of the most gifted and respected feminists of his age. Moreover, it is clear that Moliere's three saz,antes are not ridiculous to the same degree: the portraits are very carefully differentiated. Armande embodies all the aspects of feminism that Moliere seems to have found most repugnant. More stridently than the others, for example, she represents the absurdity of the claims made by the more pretentious salons: . Par nos lois, prose et vers, tout nous sera soumis: Nul n'aura d'esprit hors nous et nos amis, . , Nous chercherons partout a trouver a redire, Et ne verrons que nous qui sache bien ecrire. (11. 923-6) As we have seen, this esprit de coterie was a feature of the jealous rivalry which existed between some of the post-war salons. However, if Armande is portrayed in an unpleasant light, it is emphasized that it is jealousy, rather than learning as such, which makes her so vicious. When she denigrates Clitandre (IV, 1), it is in order to take revenge for the fact that he has turned his attentions to her sister. Her romanesque notions made her unwilling to marry him, but she cannot forgive him for having lost patience and transferred his affection to Henriette. For all her alleged interest in philosophy, Armande's pathetic belief that he still loves her is, in the circumstances, quite irrational: Croyez-vous pour vos yeux sa passion si forte, Et qu'en son coeur pour moi toute flamme soit morte? (11. 111-12) This sounds very much like the beginnings of the madness which afflicts B~lise: as she grows older, Armande will increasingly come to resemble her dotty aunt who believes all men are in love with her and that 3731 protestations to the contrary are merely an elaborate ploy to win her heart. Philaminte is rather more complex than the other two. Certainly, she is pretentious and pedantic: in an age when few servants could read, she dismisses Martine for not being sufficiently familiar with the Rernarques of Vaugelas. And, through such things as her passion for Greek, her homily on equilibrium, gratuitously addressed to another servant, and her hatred of "syllabes sales", she appears almost as ridiculous as Belise. However, by seventeenth-century standards, her thirst for knowledge was only slightly exceptional. It was still possible to know all there was to know about a wide variety of subjects: Christopher Wren, for example, was the leading astronomer of his day before he took up architecture; and the famous Dutch bluestocking Anne-Marie de Schunnan 1h really was more learned than Philaminte even claims to be. It is therefore likely that Philaminte's range of interests - as distinct from her pedantry and aggressiveness - would have seemed less odd in 1672 than it does today. When she claims, for example, to have seen men on the moon (1. 890), she is referring to a debate of great topical interest. Since Cyrano's Histoire comique des etats et empires de la lctne,' ~ the question of whether or not the moon was inhabited had exercised the best minds of the day. The popularity of the issue is shown by the fact that La Fontaine mentions it in "Un animal dans la lune",'~ as does Fontenelle in his Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes. 14 Telescopes were still very primitive, as La Fontaine's anecdote suggests. Philaminte's claim to have seen men on the moon is therefore not quite as ridiculous as it might seem today. It is the dogmatic tone of her claim which is comic, not the idea itself. There is also arguably a degree of difference between Philaminte's men on the moon and Belise's pathetic steeples (1. 892): if Philaminte is referring, albeit pretentiously, to a question of genuine contemporary interest, Belise is patently seeking to outbid her sister-in- law in a ridiculous attempt to earn the admiration of the assembled company. Another sign that Moliere found Philaminte less ridiculous than Belise and Armande is that she is shown to derive real benefit from her erudition. Trissotin's cynicism, for example, is developed in such a way as to underline the beneficial nature of at least part of her learning. His veneer of culture is just a facade which he uses to consolidate his position; to Henriette's warning of the likely consequences of a forced marriage, he replies: "A tous evenements le sage est prepare" (1.1544). Then, three scenes later, Philaminte receives the news of her ruin with a stoicism worthy of the philosophers she claims to admire. On reading the letter which seems to announce his ruin, Chrysale loses his head: "0 ciel! tout a 3832 la fois perdre ainsi tout mon bien!" (1. 1705). Whereas Philaminte, even though her loss, in the form of a failed lawsuit, is apparently just as grave, remains completely calm: . Ah! quel honteux transport. Fi! tout cela n'est rien. Il n'est pour le vrai sage aucun revers funeste. (11. 1706-7) Her words are almost exactly those used by Trissotin, but this time sincerely meant. Our final memory of Philaminte is thus of a woman whose learning at least equips her to deal with an apparently distressing situation. She is also one of Moliere's more flexible comic characters. It is something of a commonplace to say that there are no conversions in Moliere's theatre. Harpagon remains a miser to the last and Jourdain insists on his daughter marrying a man who he thinks is the son of the Grand Turk. Philaminte is something of an exception to this trend. Certainly, she remains a pedant to the end: even as she reads the letter announcing her ruin, she pauses to criticize the style of the legal jargon it contains. But, if she cannot change all her spots, she is at least capable of admitting that she has been taken in by Trissotin and of recognizing Clitandre's merit. Again, one has the impression that Philaminte is not a wholly ridiculous figure. Moreover, if Philaminte is in some ways a sympathetic character, Chrysale constantly justifies her contempt for him. He is frightened of his wife, dominated by her and thus fails to exert the moderating influence required to temper her cultural enthusiasm. His intentions are always excellent: he wants his daughter to be happy and he would like to defend Martine. But he prefers a quiet life: "J'aime fort le repos, la paix et la douceur" (1. 665). This moral lethargy helps to explain both Philaminte's contempt for her husband and her own extravagance. Whenever he seeks to impose his authority, he does it from behind a woman's skirts. In Act II Scene 7, his angry tirade about Philaminte's slovenly running of the household is prudently framed between assertions that he is really addressing Belise. In Act V Scene 3, his resolve evaporates completely, in the face of Philaminte's wrath, and he is reduced to allowing Martine to speak for him: MARTINE: Ce n'est point a la femme a proscrire, et je sommes Pour coder le dessus en toute chose aux hommes. CHRYSALE: C'est bien dit. MARTINE: Mon conge cent fois me fut-il hoc, La poule ne doit point chanter devant le coq. CHRYSALE: Sans doute. (11. 1641-5) 3933 Given that Martine's homely proverbs are designed to impress upon Philaminte the notion of male superiority, Chrysale's inarticulacy is highly amusing. To a seventeenth-century audience, the spectacle of a master hiding behind his servant would have conveyed an image of total humiliation. It is unthinkable that Chrysale should be speaking for Moliere: he is a buffoon whose reactionary views are meant to complete a predominently comic portrait. On the other hand, neither Chrysale nor Philaminte are merely ciphers designed to illustrate a theory. They are rounded, quirky characters who interact and strike comic sparks off each other. Chrysale is at his most vulgar when he tries to stand up to Philaminte: it is an angry and frustrated little man, trying to assert himself, who describes at such length, in Act II Scene 7, the importance he attaches to his stomach. Conversely, the ridiculous side of Chrysale's nature helps to provoke much of Philaminte's outrageous behaviour: her extravagance, her contempt for men, even her taste for refinement can, to some extent, be attributed to Chrysale's weakness and vulgarity. The way these characters complement each other is significant: Moliere's prefaces and polemical plays reveal that he was always mindful of the need to entertain .2 The comic interaction of two such starkly contrasting natures would probably have been as important to him as the projection of his views on feminism. The agreeable Henriette and Clitandre arguably give a more precise indication of the author's attitude, while at the same time remaining interesting and important participants in the play's action. Through their wit and irony they are the source of much humour: they are certainly more sympathetic and memorable than the pallid lovers of plays like Tartuffe. Antoine Adam's dislike of Henriette is therefore difficult to understand: his remarks, quoted above, seem to reflect precisely the point of view of Armande herself. Marriage was not totally condemned by the more moderate feminists of the day. Apart from a few extremists, who attempted to improve on the romanesque courtship of Julie d'Angennes, 21 most précieuses who had the choice ended up by getting married. Somaize is very positive on this point: Qu'on ne me vienne donc pas conter toutes ces chimeres: que les pretieuses sont des filles qui ne se veulent point marier....-'-' If Mlle de Scudery, for reasons outlined by Sapho in Cvrus, personally chose not to marry, she was far from being a crusading misogamist. She simply took the view, a rather unusual one for her time, that life has much to offer a woman whether she is married or single. Most of the principal 4034 female characters in her novels finally marry the partner of their choice. Perhaps her final novel, Mathilde d'Aguilar (1667), best illustrates her impartiality on the subject of marriage: the book is concerned with the adventures of two pairs of lovers, Petrarque and Laure, who finally opt for an unmarried - and therefore platonic! - relationship; and Mathilde and Alphonse, who end up happily married. The basic feminist position seems to have been that marriage was a quite respectable state as long as it was entered into freely, with the choice of partner left entirely to the couple concerned. All feminists were opposed to the then prevalent arranged marriage imposed by parents more concerned with financial advantage than the feelings of their children. Far from condemning the institution of marriage in general, Mlle de Scudery claims the right for girls to remain single if they so wish, or, if they prefer marriage, to choose / their own husband. In the seventeenth century this was a fairly radical attitude. It is also the attitude with which Moliere seems to have had most sympathy in Les Femmes Savantes. Armande's desire to remain unmarried, unthinkable before the Fronde, except for a girl intending to become a nun, is questioned by no-one, not even Chrysale. In the opening scene, moreover, we are invited to compare Armande's angry intolerance with Henriette's smiling - and usually unsung - liberalism. Whereas Armande seeks to impose on her sister her own hostility towards marriage: "Ce vulgaire dessein vous peut monter en tete?" (1. 4), Henriette recognizes Armande's right to remain single: Le ciel, dont nous voyons que 1'ordre est tout-puissant, Pour differents emplois nous fabrique en naissant. (11. 53-54) The delicate allusion to a familiar passage in the New Testament 23 would have been appreciated by a seventeenth-century audience and would have added weight to her argument. Armande's interest in science is narrow- minded and inflexible, whereas Henriette, equally paradoxically, rejects esoteric knowledge with wit and intelligence. Indeed, Henriette's "Quelque petit savant qui veut venir au monde" (1. 84) not only makes a telling point in her argument with Armande, but is also one of the most memorably charming lines in the whole of Moliere. Examples abound of this gentle irony which makes Henriette more than a match for her sister's furious bluster: He doucement, ma soeur. Ou donc est la morale Qui sait si bien regir la partie animale Et retenir la bride aux efforts du courroux? (11. 159-61) And, when Chrysale supports her wish to marry Clitandre, she reminds 4135 her sister of the daughter's traditional duty: "I1 nous f aut obeir, ma scour, a nos parents" (I. 1104), a teasing remark which echoes Armande's earlier taunt concerning the proposed marriage with Trissotin: "Nous devons obeir, ma soeur, a 1 nos parents" (1. 1094). Admittedly, Henriette's intellectual aspirations do sound modest: Je me trouve fort bien, ma mere, d'etre bete. Et j'aime mieux n'avoir que de communs propos Que de me tourmenter pour dire de beaux mots.(ll. 1058-60) But one should clearly assess these remarks in the context of the grotesque gathering at which Henriette has just been an unwilling spectator. In a world where science apparently consists of praising indifferent ballads and ponderously sustained metaphors, to seek to remain ignorant is a sign of taste. She is not interested in the acquisition of knowledge for the sake of it but, as we have seen, she does have enough philosophy to get the better of both Armande and Trissotin in prolonged arguments. She also manages to remain mistress of her own destiny. Her energetic refusal of the Trissotin marriage shows her to be capable of probing the limits of propriety in the interests of preserving her independence. Although surrounded by enemies, she stands up for herself with courage and vigour: < Tout beau, monsieur! il [l'hymen] n'est pas fait encore; Ne vous pressez pas tant. (11. 1082-3) And, at the beginning of the final act, she tells Trissotin, in quite unambiguous terms, that, if he insists on marrying her against her will, she will cuckold him. Such frankness in a sympathetic middle class Moliere heroine shows how manners had evolved. Eight years earlier, in T,¿rtuffe, it was the servant Dorine who evoked the risk of cuckoldf)' implicit in the marriage of convenience. But Henriette no longer needs to hide behind the plebeian frankness of a servant. She is sufficiently emancipated to be able to secure her own happiness, whereas Philaminte, for all her talk of female equality, attempts to inflict her personal prejudice on her daughter in the manner of Orgon or Argan. Moreover, Henriette's mature appreciation of her father's weakness is shown as much by the affectionate way she talks about him in his absence as by the masterly tact she - rather than Clitandre - shows in encouraging him to stand up to Philaminte. Even at the end of the play, after Trissotin has retired in disgrace, Henriette's practical intelligence still prevents her from agreeing to marry Clitandre as long as she thinks her family is now penniless: 4236 Je vous cheris assez, dans cette extremite, . Pour ne vous charger point de notre adversite.... Rien n'use tant 1'ardeur de ce noeud qui nous lie Que les facheux besoins des choses de la vie.(1l. 1745-6, 1751-2) The coherence of her attitude is remarkable: as she has rejected the slavery of the imposed marriage to Trissotin, so she rejects the equally real slavery of marriage in poverty, even to Clitandre. The realism implicit in this refusal is a rejection both of traditional female submission and of Armande's sterile pedantry. Capable of wit, tact, discernment and independence, Henriette comes close to the true feminist ideal of the age. Neither pedant nor dullard, she is as charming and sociable as Sapho, the embodiment of feminine honnêteté. For what Moliere, like Mlle de Scudery, seems to have expected from women was evidently the very combination of qualities required of the honnête hommes She will undoubtedly make a very good wife for Clitandre, who is a courtier and the very epitome of honnetete: like her, as we have seen, he objects to pedantry in all its forms, in men just as much as in women. The spirit of Mme de Rambouillet was still present at the brilliant court of Louis XIV, where pedants were despised at least as much as they were by Madeleine de Scudery and her circle. Madame de Lafayette, perhaps the most cultured woman at court, and certainly one of the most modest, was sufficiently concerned to avoid the aura of pedantry which tended to accompany the title of author, that she had La Princesse de Cleves published anonymously. Clitandre's defence of court taste and wit is perhaps indicative of the underlying perspective of all Moliere's plays: Qu'elle a du sens commun pour se connaitre a tout, Que chez elle on se peut former quelque bon gout, Et que 1'esprit du monde y vaut, sans flatterie, Tout le savoir obscur de la pedanterie. (11. 1343-6) We have already noted that, as Lulli's star continued to rise, Moliere, in 1672, had a personal reason for wanting to flatter the court. But the prevailing outlook of his plays had always been closer to that of the court than to that of the middle class: his victims are always either bourgeois monomaniacs or the kind of aristocrat whose discomfiture would amuse the king. His bluestockings are, after all, bourgeois ladies of limited talent giving poor imitations of a social phenomenon perfected by ladies of the aristocracy. In claiming for women the right to choose their husbands and the duty to avoid pedantry, Moliere is identifying himself both with leading feminists and with the more sensitive members of the aristocracy, with Madeleine de Scudery and with Madame de Lafayette. 4337 Far from constituting an attack on the idea of female emancipation, Les Femmes Savantes, like Cyrus and like La Princesse de Clèves, makes a convincing case for the most urbane kind of feminism. REFERENCES 1. Jean Lecomte, Introduction to Nouveaux Classiques Larousse edition of Les Femmes Savantes (Paris, 1971), 12. 2. Antoine Adam, Histoire de la Litterature Française au XVIIe Siècle (5 vols, Paris, 1962), iii, 392. 3. Emile Faguet, "Molière féministe", Revue Bleue, 1 (1912), 449-54, p. 453. 4. See Anne-Thérèse de Mouguenat de Courcelles, Marquise de Lambert, Réflexions nouvelles sur les femmes (Paris, 1727). 5. Gustave Reynier, La Femme au XVIIe Siècle (Paris, 1933). Excellent account of the querelle des femmes, making extensive use of seventeenth-century moralists, such as Olivier, Faret, du Boscq, Lesclache, Grenaille and Poulain de la Barre. Includes an interesting, if questionable, analysis of Molière's position. See also Francis Baumal, Le féminisme au temps de Molière (Paris, 1923), which keeps more to well- known sources, such as Mlle de Scudéry, Bourdaloue and Saint-Evremond; and Ian Maclean's Woman Triumphant (Oxford, 1977), which traces the connection between feminism and the baroque. 6. See Auguste Bourgoin, Un Bourgeois de Paris lettré au XVIIe Siècle ... Valentin Conrart (Paris, 1883), 7. See also Roger Lathuillère, La Préciosité (2 vols, Paris, 1966), i, 551. 7. Her family belonged to the more obscure reaches of the "noblesse de robe": rather than rank or wealth, it was her personality and the reputation of her works that drew the attention of her contemporaries to her salon. See Georges Mongrédien, Mlle de Scudéry et son Salon (Paris, 1946). 8. Antoine Baudeau, Sieur de Somaize, Grand dictionnaire des pretieuses ou la clef de la langue des ruelles (Paris, 1660), republished by Ch.-L. Livet (Pans, 1856), i, p. xv. 9. Ibid., i, 71. 10. Ibid., i, 103. 11. Ibid., i, 59. 12. Ibid., i, 214. 13. Madeleine de Scudéry, Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus (Paris, 1649-53, 1656 edn) x, 350. 14. Ibid., x, 401. 15. Ibid., x, 400. 16. The accomplishments of this remarkable lady included most known languages, philosophy, theology, music, painting, engraving and sculpture. Many male scholars, including Descartes, took the trouble to visit her. Ménage (Vadius) speaks of her with admiration. She argued with dignity that women should have access to learning. See Question célèbre. S'il est nécessaire ou non que les filles soient scavantes (Paris, 1646). This was a translation of Mlle Schurman's correspondence — in excellent latin — with André Rivet, a leading theologian. For an appreciation of Mlle Schurman's talents, see Reynier, op. cit. (ref. 5), 107- 12. 17. Bowdlerised edition published by Lebret, Pans, 1657. Complete critical edition in Cyrano de Bergerac, L'Autre Monde, ed. by Henri Weber (Paris, 1975). 4438 18. La Fontaine, Fables, VII, 18. 19. Fontenelle, Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (Paris, 1686). 20. Molière, La Critique de L'Ecole des Femmes, Scene 6: "...la grande règle ... est de plaire". 21. For a brief account of the 15-year courtship of Mme de Rambouillet's daughter by the marquis de Montausier, see Roger Picard, Les Salons Littéraires et la Société Française 1610-79 (New York, 1943), 54-57. 22. Somaize, op. cit. (ref. 8), i, 23. 23. Romans, XII, 5-8. 24. HONNETF HOMME: "Homme d'honneur, homme de probité, comprend encore toutes les qualités agréables qu'un homme peut avoir dans la vie civile ... galant homme, homme de bonne conversation, de bonne compagnie" (Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française, 1694). HONNETE: "Civil, plein d'honneur, galant, qui marque de la conduite; qui est raisonnable, qui est fait avec jugement" (Richelet, Dictionnaire Français, 1680). For a succinct analysis of the complex notion of honnêteté, see J.-C. Tournand, Introduction à la vie littéraire au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1970), 137-43.</meta-value></custom-meta></custom-meta-wrap></article-meta></front><back><notes>
<p>1. Jean Lecomte, Introduction to Nouveaux Classiques Larousse edition of <italic>Les Femmes Savantes</italic> (Paris, 1971), 12.</p>
<p>2. Antoine Adam, <italic>Histoire de la Litterature Française au XVIIe Siècle</italic> (5 vols, Paris, 1962), iii, 392.</p>
<p>3. Emile Faguet, "Molière féministe", <italic>Revue Bleue,</italic> 1 (1912), 449-54, p. 453.</p>
<p>4. See Anne-Thérèse de Mouguenat de Courcelles, Marquise de Lambert, <italic>Réflexions nouvelles sur les femmes</italic> (Paris, 1727).</p>
<p>5. Gustave Reynier, <italic> La Femme au XVIIe Siècle</italic> (Paris, 1933). Excellent account of the <italic> querelle des femmes,</italic> making extensive use of seventeenth-century moralists, such as Olivier, Faret, du Boscq, Lesclache, Grenaille and Poulain de la Barre. Includes an interesting, if questionable, analysis of Molière's position. See also Francis Baumal, <italic>Le féminisme au temps de Molière</italic> (Paris, 1923), which keeps more to well- known sources, such as Mlle de Scudéry, Bourdaloue and Saint-Evremond; and Ian Maclean's <italic>Woman Triumphant</italic> (Oxford, 1977), which traces the connection between feminism and the baroque.</p>
<p>6. See Auguste Bourgoin, <italic> Un Bourgeois de Paris lettré au XVIIe Siècle ... Valentin Conrart</italic> (Paris, 1883), 7. See also Roger Lathuillère, <italic>La Préciosité</italic> (2 vols, Paris, 1966), i, 551.</p>
<p>7. Her family belonged to the more obscure reaches of the "noblesse de robe": rather than rank or wealth, it was her personality and the reputation of her works that drew the attention of her contemporaries to her salon. See Georges Mongrédien, <italic>Mlle de Scudéry et son Salon</italic> (Paris, 1946).</p>
<p>8. Antoine Baudeau, Sieur de Somaize, <italic>Grand dictionnaire des pretieuses ou la clef de la langue des ruelles</italic> (Paris, 1660), republished by Ch.-L. Livet (Pans, 1856), i, p. xv.</p>
<p>9. <italic>Ibid.,</italic> i, 71.</p>
<p>10. <italic>Ibid.,</italic> i, 103.</p>
<p>11. <italic>Ibid.,</italic> i, 59.</p>
<p>12. <italic>Ibid.,</italic> i, 214.</p>
<p>13. Madeleine de Scudéry, <italic> Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus</italic> (Paris, 1649-53, 1656 edn) x, 350.</p>
<p>14. <italic>Ibid.,</italic> x, 401.</p>
<p>15. <italic>Ibid.,</italic> x, 400.</p>
<p>16. The accomplishments of this remarkable lady included most known languages, philosophy, theology, music, painting, engraving and sculpture. Many male scholars, including Descartes, took the trouble to visit her. Ménage (Vadius) speaks of her with admiration. She argued with dignity that women should have access to learning. See <italic> Question célèbre. S'il est nécessaire ou non que les filles soient scavantes</italic> (Paris, 1646). This was a translation of Mlle Schurman's correspondence — in excellent latin — with André Rivet, a leading theologian. For an appreciation of Mlle Schurman's talents, see Reynier, op. <italic>cit.</italic> (ref. 5), 107- 12.</p>
<p>17. Bowdlerised edition published by Lebret, Pans, 1657. Complete critical edition in Cyrano de Bergerac, <italic> L'Autre Monde,</italic> ed. by Henri Weber (Paris, 1975).</p>
<p>18. La Fontaine, <italic>Fables,</italic> VII, 18.</p>
<p>19. Fontenelle, <italic>Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes</italic> (Paris, 1686).</p>
<p>20. Molière, <italic>La Critique de L'Ecole des Femmes,</italic> Scene 6: "...la grande règle ... est de plaire".</p>
<p>21. For a brief account of the 15-year courtship of Mme de Rambouillet's daughter by the marquis de Montausier, see Roger Picard, <italic>Les Salons Littéraires et la Société Française 1610-79</italic> (New York, 1943), 54-57.</p>
<p>22. Somaize, <italic>op. cit.</italic> (ref. 8), i, 23.</p>
<p>23. <italic>Romans,</italic> XII, 5-8.</p>
<p>24. HONNETF HOMME: "Homme d'honneur, homme de probité, comprend encore toutes les qualités agréables qu'un homme peut avoir dans la vie civile ... galant homme, homme de bonne conversation, de bonne compagnie" <italic>(Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française,</italic> 1694). HONNETE: "Civil, plein d'honneur, galant, qui marque de la conduite; qui est raisonnable, qui est fait avec jugement" (Richelet, <italic>Dictionnaire Français,</italic> 1680). For a succinct analysis of the complex notion of <italic> honnêteté,</italic> see J.-C. Tournand, <italic>Introduction à la vie littéraire au XVIIe siècle</italic> (Paris, 1970), 137-43.</p>
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