The Oriental(ist) Encounter: The Politics of turquerie in Molière

The Oriental(ist) Encounter: The Politics of turquerie in Molière1 Ali Behdad I N NOVEMBER 1669, less than a year before Louis XIV ordered Molière and Lully to compose Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, the Turkish ambassador, Soliman Aga was received at the court. The Sun King, concerned about France’s deteriorating commercial and diplo­ matic relations with the ever-expanding Ottoman empire,2was evidently excited about the encounter with the “ exotic” other, for he went out of his way to impress the man of the Seraglio—no doubt, he also wished to underscore his power by outshining the imagined Oriental splendor of the Grand Sultan. A lavish feast was prepared in the ambassador’s honor, at which the Court displayed its own glory, while hoping to see for itself the representative of the Orient. There was something of a mas­ querade in this fascinating ceremony as some members of the Court fashioned themselves in unusually elaborate garments. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hugues de Lionne, for example, wore a long robe embroidered with a silver Saint-Esprit cross. Although the King did not dress up as a “ Grand Seigneur” —a title he certainly would not have minded, given his appropriation of the names Caesar, Alexander, and Augustus—he did make a spectacle of himself by dressing in all of his diamonds and wearing an exotic crown decorated with splendid feathers: le Roi y [on a silver throne] paraissait dans toute sa majesté, revêtu d’un brocart d’or, mais tellement couvert de diamants, qu’il semblait qu’il fût environné de lumière, en ayant aussi un chapeau tout brillant, avec un bouquet de plumes des plus magnifiques.3 Less impressive, however, was the “ exotic” other himself, for not only did he not satisfy the curiosity of the Court as an Oriental “ speci­ men,” having appeared in a less elaborate costume than the Court had imagined, but he also seems to have been a lower rank officer with a bad “ attitude.” The official seems to have clearly perceived the importance of the game of appearances in mid-seventeenth-century France, and at least on the level of the verbal to have joined in. According to one account, the whining ambassador utterly deflated the King by claiming that the Grand Sultan’s horse was more elaborately adorned on his ride Vol. XXXII, No. 3 37 L ’E sprit C réateur to Friday prayer than the King at the reception. This greatly disappoint­ ing encounter—a kind of theatrical representation staged according to the Court’s Orientalist desires and expectations—lent itself to mockery and ridicule long after the ambassador left the Court. But the theatricali­ ty of the event nonetheless amplified the public’s desire for Orientalist exoticism. Having heard or read enough descriptions from travelers to the Orient, such as Chevalier d’Arvieux, the Court was certainly amused to have seen the so-called Oriental in person. It was precisely this kind of Orientalist interest that made, for example, the publishers of the Gazette devote the entire December issue to Soliman Aga’s visit, which in turn contributed to the emerging vogue of turquerie in France. The visit further inspired the King to order Chevalier d’Arvieux and the Court artists to organize a “ divertissement oriental” in which “ on pût faire entrer quelque chose des habillements et des manières des Turcs.” 4The Court’s desire for a theatrical representation of Oriental exoticism is a fascinating instance of the circularity of social energy in mid-seventeenth-century France. Before the ambassadorial visit, the King had already invited d’Arvieux—whose trips to the Levant, Con­ stantinople, and North Africa, and whose mastery of Oriental languages, had already established him as an Orientalist—to Saint-Germain to give some informal lectures on Turkish culture. D’Arvieux’s representation of the Orient clearly contributed to the Court’s expectation of its encoun­ ter with the Turkish ambassador, which in turn led to the production of an Orientalist play by the Court’s artists. Interestingly enough, the King made sure that d’Arvieux contributed his knowledge of the Orient to the production of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and with...