Proverbes dramatiques de Madame de Maintenon (review)

This edition is a significant and welcome addition to recent critical interest in the much-neglected pedagogical writings of Mme de Maintenon. Inspired by the proverbes dramatiques and devinettes, popular pastimes in society circles, these forty playlets were written for the girls at Saint-Cyr, Maintenon's school for the daughters of the impoverished nobility, to alert them to the demands, hazards, and abuses of life in the outside world. The performance of these pieces both entertained and instructed the girls, encouraging confidence in conversation and allowing them to rehearse in safety different responses to problems they might encounter in future life. In harnessing a jeu de salon to a pedagogical purpose, Maintenon invented the théâtre d'éducation, which became a dynamic educational tool for the socialization of the young in the eighteenth century. This edition draws on Maintenon's letters and other pedagogical writings, as well as letters of her contemporaries, to present an informative picture of her aims, the outcomes, and the consequent changes in the school's ethos in response to outside pressures. Emphasis is quite rightly placed on the radical undertaking of employing drama to examine aspects of women's position in society, and fully acknowledges Maintenon's achievement in challenging the status quo while remaining essentially conservative in her outlook. The detailed survey of the themes of the proverbes reveals that Maintenon's approach was a pragmatic one, urging the cultivation of the mind so that her pupils might play a more dynamic role within the constraints of a patriarchal society. The vicissitudes of the marriage market, relationships between employers and servants, and financial ruin are shown to be replayed in different social contexts, and to transgress notions of bienséance by portraying the threats to the honour of naïve young women through abduction, seduction, and other forms of betrayal by unscrupulous men. The analysis of Maintenon's 'dramaturgie révolutionnaire' (p. 43) is particularly enlightening, highlighting her willingness to contravene the traditional dramatic unities of time, place, and action to foreground the moral content of the piece. The suggestion that her techniques, such as the rapid changes of scene, character, and location, anticipate the strategies of cinema is particularly insightful and provocative. The occasional lack of verisimilitude and the manipulation of extraordinary coincidences are not seen to detract from the highly innovative nature of Maintenon's project. The critique of decisions taken by earlier editors (Monmerqué, 1829, and Lavallée, 1857) in respect of the order of the proverbes and the insertion of names is a useful addition, while those of the current editors are dutifully signalled in footnotes. One wonders, however, why the bibliography does not include the journal articles cited in the introductory sections together with full-length studies. Nonetheless, this edition succeeds admirably in establishing the importance of Maintenon's work, both in its original context and as an influence on the development of educational plays by later writers such as Mme de Genlis, Mme Campan, Moissy, and Berquin.