Dramatic Theory and Eighteenth-Century Gardens

PETER V. CONROY, JR Dramatic Theory and Eighteenth-Century Gardens In one of the more famous poems of the eighteenth century, entitled Les 'ardins; au I'art d'embellir les paysages (1782}, Jacques Delille described the two principal horticultural styles then prevalent: Quand de leur symmetrique et pompeuse ordonnance Les Jardins d']talie eurent charme la France, Tout de eet art brillant fut prompt as'ehlouir: Pas un arbre au cordeau n'osa desobeir; Tout s'aIigna; par-tout en deux rangs etalees S'alongerent sans fin d'etemelles allees. Autre temps, autre gout. Enfin Ie pare anglois D'une beaute plus libre avertit Ie Franc;ois. Des-Iors on ne vit plus que lignes ondoyentes, Que sentiers tortueux, que routes tournoyantes,l The formal or French garden and the English or landscape garden coexisted in England after 1720 and in France after 1750. Even though Le Notre belonged to the epoch ofLouis XIV, his disciples continued to work in the same style throughout the eighteenth century. Moreover, the gardens of Versailles, his masterpiece, were constantly rearranged under Louis xv so that we can almost consider them an eighteenth-century product. In the second half of the century the English garden exerted its attraction on the French, with Rousseau's Elysee its most important literary example. None the less, neither style fully replaced or negated the other. Many landscape gardens had a portion done in the strict formal style while Versailles itself incorporated the Hameau, done in the English manner. As Delille's poem suggests, what lies at the base of this change in garden deSigns is a new perception, a new taste, and consequently a new form. Formal and landscape gardens were designed and planted, I should like to argue, according to the same inspiration as literature and other arts: gardens responded to the same needs and reflected the same preoccupations as literature did. Furthermore, beyond the vague generalities like the 'sentimental English garden' or the 'rational French garden' there are specific details and techniques which connect each of these styles to the different genres we find in UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTBRLYI VOLUME XLIX, NUMBER 3, SPRING 1980 0042-0247/ 80/°500-025.2$0 1 .5°/ 0 © UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS DRAMATIC THEORY AND GARDENS 253 eighteenth-century theatre. I am not claiming any direct influence or conscious inspiration of one by the other; rather I am suggesting that parallel affinities of style, technique, and taste exist at the deepest levels of both eighteenth-century gardens and theatre. That theatre and garden have a special relationship cannot be denied. Under Louis XIV many of Moliere's plays and divertissements were presented in garden settings, either at Versailles or in the chateaux of the Loire. Some even premiered there or were written especially for such a garden setting. One art historian sees this link as very real and very close: [Crees) pour une societe qui se donnait en spectacle a elle-meme ... les jardins pourraient se rattacher al'histoire de la mise en scene. eela se remarque deja a Vaux-le-Vicomte ou les decrochements qui renferment la perspective font penser ades portraits de theatre; il ya aVersailles une si parfaite concordance avec l'optique theatrale que ces alIees servirent maintes fois de decor a des ballets mythologiques.' Lavish royal festivities also took place in the gardens: Fouquet's unfortunate display of magnificence to the young Louis at Vaux-le-Vicomte in 1661 was a theatrical extravaganza played in and by a garden. Celebrating the Dauphin's marriage in 1745, Louis xv appeared at a masked ball disguised with several gentlemen-in-waiting as clipped yew trees, joining at least symbolically the garden outside and the social occasion inside. I The theory of classical tragedy as well as its practice presents unmistakable links with formal garden design. The famous unities, discussed and upheld by Voltaire in his numerous prefaces and commentaries, can be successfully applied to gardens even though they were intended for the theatre. The unity of action, for example, demanded a single, unified, and concentrated plot without any extraneous developments which might divert the spectator's attention. Every scene, personage, and event either on or off stage...