Some New Light on 'L'Écossaise' of Antoine de Montchrétien

Abstract

SOME NEW LIGHT ON 'L'ECOSSAISE' OF ANTOINE DE MONTCHRETIEN In spite of the researches of modern scholars a good deal of obscurity still surrounds the work and the lives of that group of men wlio were the pioneers of classical tragedy in France. In particular the career of Antoine de Montchretien contains elements of mystery which have never been satisfactorily cleared up. Since so little is known of the man and of his work, the following small discoveries in connexion with L'Ecossaise, Montchretien's most celebrated play, may be of interest to students of that mysterious poet and economist. Able critics have dealt with the literary and aesthetic aspects of Uficossaise, pointing out its importance as one of the finest examples of the sixteenth-century type of classical tragedy and its value as lyric poetry. Attention has also been drawn to the interesting fact that the subject of the play, the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, was drawn from modern, almost contemporary, history, instead of dealing with the usual classical or biblical themes, and this is the point which it is the purpose of the present article to develop. It was not a new idea to use contemporary events as the subject of a play; to quote only two examples, Pierre Matthieu dramatised the assassination of the Guises in 1589, and in 1612 Claude Billard put the murder of Henri IV on the stage. In fact the dramatisation of contem? porary events seems to have been used as a kind of political journalism in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Montchretien's play on the death of Mary Stuart, although immeasurably superior in execution to the general run of these political plays, is not unlike them in subject and design and the question arises whether or not UEcossaise was intended by the author to carry a political implication. There are in effect two references among English diplomatic records of the period, which have, I believe. hitherto escaped the notice of students of Mont? chretien, and which would seem to prove beyond all doubt that this play was considered by some contemporaries to have a dangerous political significance. In Sir Ralph Winwood's Memorials. there is a letter from Winwood at Paris to Cecil, dated 17 March 1601, O.S., in which the following passage occurs: Sinee the beginning of Lent, eertaine base Comedians have puhlicklie plaied in this Towne the Tragedy of the Jate Queen of Scottes. The King being then at [62] 286 New Light on ' U ficossaise'* of Antoine de Montchretien Vernueil, I had no other recourse but to the Chancellor; who upon my complaint was very sensible of that so lewde an Indiscretion, and in my hearing gave an especiall Charge to the Lieutenant Civill, (to whose Duty the Provisions for such Disorder doth appertaine,) to have a care, both that this Folly should be punished, and that the like hereafter should not be committed. Since, Monsieur de Villeroy (upon the Notice which I gave him) doth promise that he will give order both for the Punishment of that which is past, and for future Remedy1. It might be argued that as the author is not here mentioned by name and as the title is given in English, we have no certain proof that Winwood is indeed speaking of Montchretien's play on the death of the Queen of Scots. There may, of course, have been other plays on the same subject extant. But the precise way in which this information of Winwood's fits in with a letter found by L. Auvray, which has hitherto constituted the only known mention of a performance of UEcossaise, proves, in my opinion at least, that the English ambassador is indeed referring to Montchretien's play and to no other. I beg leave to quote in full the letter found by M. Auvray among the correspondence of Pompone de Bellievre in order that it may be com? pared with Winwood's: Lettre de M. de Beauharnais, lieutenant general a Orleans, au ehancelier Pompone de Bellievre. Monseigneur, Pour obeir a voz commandemens, je me suis tres soigneusement enquis quelz estoient ces comediens qui avoient joue en cete...