(review)

Abstract

816 Reviews Andromede au rocher:fortune thedtrale d'une image en France et en Italie i^8y-iyi2. By Benoit Bolduc. (Teatro studi e testi, 12) Florence: Olschki. 2002. 389 pp., 14 b/w plates. ?40. ISBN 88-222-5067-2. Those dramatists who exploited the Andromeda myth in France and Italy during the long seventeenth century were drawn to it primarily as a source of theatrical spectacle for public and (most often) private entertainments. Benoit Bolduc's study opens, therefore, with a useful survey of the development of stage design in those two countries, dealing primarily with the techniques of perspective scenery and their adoption. He is good at demonstrating the history of familiar special effects,such as the use of cloud or sea machines for the appearance of divinities, or the various means by which Perseus might be made to fly.Of particular interest in this opening section is a chapter examining the various authors' deliberations as to whether or not (preferably not) the Ethiopian princess should be presented as black and/or naked. There follows an almost inevitable return to Aristotle and catharsis, which SaintEvremond , Fontenelle, and Voltaire are refreshinglygiven as not having understood. Indeed, much of what follows is structured according to principles outlined in the Poetics. As this would suggest, Bolduc for the most part eschews the chronological approach, preferring to group the plays according to the manner of their treatment (e.g. with or without music) or salient characteristics (e.g. the lamento). This is pro? bably wise, but has the disadvantage, despite all Bolduc's best efforts,of causing us to lose not only a sense of development through time but also of the specificities of particular productions. Nor was I always entirely convinced by his claims as to those influences exerted by one work upon another, particularly in respect of relatively minor Italian treatments. I also found it somewhat frustrating that better-known versions, such as those of Pierre Corneille or Philippe Quinault, were accorded no more space than any other, although in the case of the former we are treated to a highly illuminating comparison of the author's 'Argument' and 'Examen'. This structure becomes increasingly stretched towards the end, so that later chapters (e.g. those on the lamento, the 'erotique de la delivrance', and 'les implications politiques') are less well integrated into the argument than the earlier ones dealing with the development of spectacle. Such considerations notwithstanding, this book has a great deal to recommend it,not least in terms of its scope, constituting as it does a relatively rare demonstration of how a single myth could act as a fruitful source of dramatic inspiration on both sides of the Alps forwell over a hundred years. University of Durham Jan Clarke L'Amant indiscret ou le maistre estourdi. By Philippe Quinault. Ed. by William Brooks. Liverpool: Liverpool Online Series. Critical Editions of French Texts. 2003. 150 pp. ISBN 0-9533816-6-8. Pausanias, tragedie (1668). By Philippe Quinault. Intro. by William Brooks, ed. by Edmund J. Campion. (Textes litteraires francais, 560) Geneva: Droz. 2004. 144pp. SwF 32.80jC22.19. ISBN 2-600-00882-9. Quinault's LAmant indiscret was created in 1654, when the precocious author was barely nineteen. The play is a verse comedy which illustrates the contemporary trend towards gentle comedy of character, and it seems to have been commercially success? ful. The plotting is lively,the characters complex, and their motivation plausible. The most memorable character is the valet Philipin, a recurring comic creation who, in the 1650s, was almost as popular as Jodelet. More cunning than the latter,Philipin is also a splendid combination of loyalty,optimism, and dishonesty. The play's starting ...