Seventeenth-Century French Research Articles

Review: Mannerism and Baroque in Seventeenth-Century French Poetry: The Example of Tristan L'Hermite

1National University of Ireland, Galway Mannerism and Baroque in Seventeenth‐Century French Poetry: The Example of Tristan L'Hermite James C. Shepard Chapel Hill (North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, 269). University of North Carolina Press 2001 188 Paperback$30.00

Seventeenth-Century French Theatre and its Illustrations: Five Types of Discontinuity

Seventeenth-Century French Theatre and its Illustrations: Five Types of Discontinuity

Bayle and Moréri: British Geographical Entries in Two Seventeenth-Century French Dictionaries

Bayle and Moréri: British Geographical Entries in Two Seventeenth-Century French Dictionaries

Bayle and Moréri: British Geographical Entries in Two Seventeenth-Century French Dictionaries

Bayle and Moréri: British Geographical Entries in Two Seventeenth-Century French Dictionaries

In the Beginning Was the Image: Feminist Iconography and the Frontispiece in the 1640s

(2002). In the Beginning Was the Image: Feminist Iconography and the Frontispiece in the 1640s. Seventeenth-Century French Studies: Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 277-292.

Seventeenth-Century French Theatre and its Illustrations: Five Types of Discontinuity

Seventeenth-Century French Theatre and its Illustrations: Five Types of Discontinuity

The Seventeenth-Century French Emblem: A Study in Diversity (review)

The Seventeenth-Century French Emblem: A Study in Diversity (review)

The Seventeenth-Century French Emblem: A Study in Diversity

The Seventeenth-Century French Emblem: A Study in Diversity

‘Fathers, Leaders, Kings’: Episcopacy and Episcopal Reform in the Seventeenth-Century French School

In their drive to `sanctify' the clergy, seventeenth-century French clerical reformers developed highly sophisticated and influential theologies of both priesthood and episcopacy. This article traces the development of the French School's theology of episcopacy by exploring the thought of two of its leading representatives, Pierre de Berulle and Jean-Jacques Olier. These provided the most original contributions on episcopacy, and their ideas were transmitted through the work of other leading clergy, such as Vincent de Paul and Louis Tronson. The article also summarises the efforts of all of these reformers to implement their vision of episcopacy. Through instructive correspondence and publications as well as through interventions in appointments, all sought, with some success, to mould bishops that personified their episcopal ideal.

Tragedy and Timon of Athens

One of the most vexed terms in literary criticism is tragedy. As critics we often denounce the popular use of the term when the death of the family pet is called a terrible yet we would be hard put to give a precise explanation of a more exact sense that would cover all the uses in our critical writing. The model of Greek tragedy, the ideas in Aristotle's treatise, the examples of Early Modern English and seventeenth-century French plays, the theories of Hegel and Nietzsche, and countless modern texts and critical analyses: all these come together to offer a wide span of mutually contradictory senses. Is tragedy a subgenre of drama, defined by a set of formal elements? Is it a vision of the world that is represented in different genres? Does it entail a philosophical or theological stance? Is it dependent on a specific set of social conditions? Has it died, or is it always with us? Is the term neutrally descriptive or honorific, so that to be a tragedy is to be great literature? One might well argue that there is no essential definition of the term, that a critic's only task is to make clear what he or she means when using it and then to adhere to that definition. There is much to be said for that view, but there are perils in a laissez-faire approach to terminology. First, it is easy for both reader and writer to slide between different senses, generating confusion and false arguments. Thus, because a play incorporates a set of formal criteria that constitute tragedy, it may be assumed to embody a distinctive tragic vision. Second, some definitions of tragedy incorporate dubious assumptions: since Christian tragedy is defined (by some) as impossible, no play written by a presumed Christian can be a tragedy. Third, finding one's way among writings with a wide spread of contradictory meanings of tragedy is confusing; broad agreement on the general sense of key terms is important for a critical conversation to ensue. I should like to offer some principles for regulating the free market in definitions of tragedy, not quite a definition proposal for one preferred sense, since I believe in the value of critics' experimenting with the term, but some guides that should help to clarify the conversation. I shall use Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, that most problematic of plays, as a test of the principles offered. It is a play that pushes the limits of tragedy, that may even have got into the section of the First Folio as an afterthought, (1) and that has inspired much controversy about its generic location. (2) In what ways is it sensible and useful to talk about Timon as a tragedy? My governing assumption is that the most valuable function of the generic term tragedy is clarification of the individual play, not the other way around. Timon offers a good test of how the principles I offer can make the idea of tragedy helpful in understanding a difficult play. Perhaps the main peril in critical ideas of tragedy is what might be called generic enthusiasm. Because many great works of literature from Aeschylus to Racine and beyond are tragedies, the genre itself is often sanctified: to be a tragedy is to earn a place in the pantheon, and not to be a tragedy is to fail of deification. Tragedy and epic are especially subject to this attitude, unlike the sonnet, for example. No one thinks that writing a sonnet is equivalent to writing a great poem. At most doing so demonstrates a certain technical competence. But in the same way, if one's definition of tragedy is formal, there seems to be no justification for making it also honorific: there can be and are many bad, boring, and insipid tragedies. Judgments of quality do not follow necessarily from the fact that a text matches a set of formal criteria. Rather it is tragedy defined as a distinctive vision that is the usual source of the honorific weight: tragedy is great because it asserts the truth of a profound view of the world or portrays the world as embodying that truth. …

Some Seventeenth-Century French Painted Enamel Watchcases

Some Seventeenth-Century French Painted Enamel Watchcases

Armand de Bourbon, Marquis de Miremont, and his Relations in France and England

(2001). Armand de Bourbon, Marquis de Miremont, and his Relations in France and England. Seventeenth-Century French Studies: Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 187-205.

Corneille as Self-Critic

(2001). Corneille as Self-Critic. Seventeenth-Century French Studies: Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 101-110.

Reading Racine: Punctuation and Capitalisation in the First Editions of His Plays

(2000). Reading Racine: Punctuation and Capitalisation in the First Editions of His Plays. Seventeenth-Century French Studies: Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 35-50.

Classics Incorporated: Cultural Studies and Seventeenth-Century French Literature

Classics Incorporated: Cultural Studies and Seventeenth-Century French Literature

Contrition, Casuistry and Phèdre's Sense of Sin

(1999). Contrition, Casuistry and Phedre's Sense of Sin. Seventeenth-Century French Studies: Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 113-122.

Retz and his Memoirs: The Question of Orthodoxy and Subversion

(1999). Retz and his Memoirs: The Question of Orthodoxy and Subversion. Seventeenth-Century French Studies: Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 145-155.

Creative Tensions: An Introduction to Seventeenth-Century French Literature

Creative Tensions: An Introduction to Seventeenth-Century French Literature

Marriage season, promptness of successful pregnancy and first-born sex ratio in a historical natural fertility population--evidence for sex-dependent early pregnancy loss?

We investigated population-based vital records of the seventeenth and eighteenth century French Canadian population to assess the effects of marriage season on the outcome of the first births under natural fertility conditions (n = 21,698 marriages). Promptness of the first successful conception after marriage differed according to marriage season; the proportion of marriages with a marriage-first birth interval of 8.0-10.0 months was lowest (34%) for marriages in August-October (P = 0.001). Although the male/female sex ratio of the babies born with an interval of 8.0-10.0 months was generally higher (1.10) than those with an interval of 10.0-24.0 months (1.05), the marriages in August-October resulted in a significantly reduced sex ratio (0.96) among only the prompt conceptions (P = 0.026). We discuss whether this seasonal reduction of the sex ratio could be partly explained by a clustered pregnancy loss of male zygotes in early pregnancy.

Pistoles/Paroles: Money and Language in Seventeenth-Century French Comedy

Pistoles/Paroles: Money and Language in Seventeenth-Century French Comedy