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Reviewed by:
  • Les Costeaux, ou, Les marquis frians by Jean Donneau de Visé
  • Paul Scott
Jean Donneau de Visé, Les Costeaux, ou, Les marquis frians. Édition par Peter William Shoemaker. (MHRA Critical Texts, 31.) Londres: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2013. ix + 82 pp.

In 1666, a one-act comedy was published within a climate of a radical gastronomic shift in taste in the mid seventeenth century marked by the publication of cookbooks and by more sophisticated cooking methods, both of which can be seen as the forerunners of what we would now associate with French cuisine. At the same time, simplicity underpinned this refinement, with one critic going so far as to opine that elaborate culinary preparation was a result of our fallen nature. In his thoroughly researched critical edition of this succinct comic drama that pulled no punches, Peter William Shoemaker convincingly links this trend to the ‘emerging aesthetic of classicism’ (p. 6), drawing out some surprising parallels in gastronomic and ideological discourse. The Costeaux of the title refers to a fine-dining society, reputed by some (notably Boileau) to exist, but almost certainly apocryphal. As Shoemaker notes, it is more likely that the term was used indiscriminately to denote anyone with exacting gastronomic habits. The comedy captures a particular moment in French history during which battles were being played out about the notion of taste, and good taste in particular. In a sense this debate haunts every civilization and every age, for it delves into the notion of humanity itself. The editor discusses the many ways in which the play owes a tangible debt to Molière, not least of which is in the character Orante, who remonstrates with the coteaux for their parasitical excess, therefore fulfilling the role of raisonneur. Although this comedy is short (divided into nineteen scenes with 586 lines in total), Shoemaker points out the many ‘hints of Molière’s famed comic naturalism’ (p. 18), demonstrating not only his debt to the author but also the indelible mark he had already made on comedy by the mid 1660s. Shoemaker discusses the various contenders for the authorship of the anonymous work, opting for the choice of Jean Donneau de Visé, following Samuel Chappuzeau but pace most eighteenth-century critics who attributed the play to Claude Villiers. As Shoemaker points out, the very topicality of the play as well as its intended audience are strong arguments against the more traditional Villiers being responsible for its production. The question of performance is also dealt with and the editor provides ample evidence from the text of the play, including precise stage directions, to suggest that, at the very least, it was conceived for the stage. This welcome and erudite edition of an often overlooked comedy underscores the relevance of food studies in understanding the past, for, as Shoemaker observes, ‘the coteaux themselves seem strikingly modern. We recognize not only their snobbery, but more importantly the way they seek self-definition and self-fulfilment in consumption’ (p. 26). Complemented with a plethora of detailed endnotes providing much detail about areas such as culinary practice (from wild-duck recipes to the oenophilic topography of France), this edition has much to offer scholars of, and all those interested in, the early modern period.

Paul Scott
University of Kansas
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