La Scène en contrechamp: anecdotes françaises et traditions de jeu au siècle des Lumières (review)

This anthology consists mainly of a selection of extracts that can be described as theatrical anecdotes from two works: the Observations sur l'art du comédien (1772) by D'Hannetaire (the stage name of Jean-Nicolas Servandoni, although we are not told this in the text) in its second edition of 1774, and the Anecdotes dramatiques (1775) of Joseph de La Porte and Jean-Marie Clément. Also included, as an appendix and feeling rather like an afterthought, is the short Essai sur la tradition théâtrale (1798) by Jean-François Cailhava de L'Estandoux. The title is intended to suggest that in these anecdotes the perspective moves from the stage, to concentrate on the audience, most particularly the parterre — a nice idea, even if it does not hold good for all of them. The introduction suggests that these tales have much to tell us about the theatre of the time, and, indeed, the styles of acting, the relationship between audience and stage, the attitudes and skills of the actors and the atmosphere in the theatres are all covered here. Sabine Chaouche outlines the themes in her introduction, although the section was perhaps rather too much a simple summary of what was going to be found in the anecdotes themselves (with rather too many exclamation marks and points de suspension for the taste of this particular reader). The introduction also outlines some of the basic literary techniques used in the anecdotes — footnotes that pursue this theme are less successful, since they tend to look rather like stating the obvious. Generally the text is very copiously annotated, with lengthy notes giving us background on the actors and alternative versions of the anecdotes from different sources, although, in cases where they are virtually identical, perhaps a simple reference would have sufficed. Still, there are a number of errors and anomalies that suggest the details could have been more thoroughly checked: note 39, for instance, apparently contradicts the main text by telling us baldly that the play identified there as being by Richelieu is by Desmarets (i.e. Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin) — surely the fact that there may or may not have been some collaboration between the two needed raising; note 230 dates Pradon's Statira to 1680, whereas note 231 has 1679, with no explanation that the latter refers to the first performance and the former to the publication; given the detailed notes devoted to other figures, why does the mention of 'Le Sr. Hogarts, fameux Peintre Anglais' (p. 54) not even merit the explanation that we are dealing with William Hogarth?

Reading too many of these anecdotes in a single sitting is rather like eating a meal consisting of lollipops, but it is a good book for dipping into. As a research tool, a more exhaustive collection that did not confine itself to these two main sources would be more useful, but this is a start, and, although the rather picturesque titles the anthologist has given the anecdotes are not particularly useful for pinpointing specific tales, the thematic indexes are more helpful.