Theatre complet. Fasc. 10: Charles VII chez ses grands vassaux (review)

Alexandre Dumas père. Théâtre complet. Fasc. 10: Charles VII chez ses grands vassaux. Introduction and bibliography by Fernande Bassan. Paris-Caen: Lettres Modernes Minard, 1999. Bibliothèque introuvable, 9. Pp. 140. ISBN 2-256-90769-4

The latest installment in the publication of Alexandre Dumas père's Théâtre complet by Professor Fernande Bassan makes Charles VII chez ses grands vassaux readily available to students and scholars in a convenient and reasonably priced volume. The play, a neoclassical verse tragedy first performed at the Théâtre de l'Odéon on 20 October 1831, is relatively unknown outside of specialist circles. Indeed, many will be surprised to learn that Dumas, remembered today primarily for such Romantic dramas as Henri III et sa cour, Antony, La Tour de Nesle, and Kean, did occasionally write in verse and that he chose, at least once, to respect the conventions of French neoclassical drama (the unities of time, place, and action, etc.).

Dumas claims, in his preface to Charles VII, to have sought to "faire une œuvre de style plutôt qu'un drame d'action: je désirais mettre en scène des types plutôt que des hommes. . . ." Thus while borrowing the bare bones of his subject from the Chron-ique du roi Charles VII, by medieval writer Alain Chartier, he drew inspiration from the works of Racine for the form of his play. Still, his drama could never be entirely mistaken for the work of his illustrious predecessor. Setting aside the question of poetic genius, which was not foremost among Dumas's many talents, it was perhaps inevitable that certain Romantic touches would find their way into the nineteenth-century playwright's text. One can little imagine, for example, that Racine would have a character describe a lion hunt across the North African desert or have other characters bring a dead stag or a live falcon onto the stage - things that Dumas does to great effect in Charles VII. Neither would Racine have had any of his characters die in full sight of the audience, as Dumas does.

Professor Bassan's introduction outlines the history of the composition, performance, and reception of Charles VII, which was last staged under the direction of Antoine, at the Odéon, in 1909 and then at Carcassonne, under the direction of Dr. Charry, in 1910. As always, Bassan's essay is thoroughly researched and clearly written. The brief bibliography provides readers with information about the manuscript and French language editions of the play. Footnotes in the essay refer to other primary and secondary sources which, while they do not reappear in the bibliography, are easy to locate at the bottom of the page. With few exceptions, these sources date from the nineteenth century suggesting that scholars, like directors, have shown little interest in Charles VII since the early part of the twentieth century.

Although it is neither the most characteristic nor the most powerful of Dumas's many compositions for the theater, Charles VII is nonetheless worth (re)discovering. In his preface to the piece, Dumas articulates his belief in each author's right to adapt his material in light of his own talents and goals rather than in accord with any aesthetic dogma. This declaration of artistic freedom is not, or not only, a self-interested statement; it is one of the few pronouncements Dumas would make regarding his dramatic ideology. Yacoub, the captured Saracen youth brought back from the Crusades to live in France as a slave, is as hot-blooded a character as other Romantic heroes Dumas creates and is worth comparing to the North African figures in Mérimée's L'Amour africain, for example. Bérengère, the French noblewoman cast aside by her husband because of her sterility, is both victim and victimizer. The pity we feel for her is balanced by the cruelty we witness when she...