3 1822 01203 7420 
 
 fHfc UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 DIVERSITY SAN DiEfit 
 
 LA, 
 
 ; iiuh
 
 I

 
 THE FRENCH TRAGI -COMEDY 
 
 Its Origin and Development from 
 1552 to 1628 
 
 DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OP UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS 
 
 UNIVERSITY IN CONFORMITY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE 
 
 OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 HENRY CARRINGTON LANCASTER 
 
 BALTIMORE 
 
 J. H. FURST COMPANY 
 
 1907 
 
 .... . 
 
 • -
 
 TO MY MOTHER. 
 
 r-
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Paue. 
 
 Introduction ix 
 
 Scope of the Dissertation (ix) — Sources of Information (xi) — Critical 
 Opinions of the Tragi-Comedy (xi) — Definition of the Tragi- 
 comedy (xxiv). 
 
 Chapter I — The Sources of the French Tragi-Comedy 1 
 
 Its relation to the Medieval Drama (1) — to the Drama of Greece 
 and Rome (16) — to the Tragi-Comedy of Other European Nations : 
 A. The Earliest Tragi-Comedies (24); B. Non-French Tragi- 
 comedies from 1513 to 15S2 (27) — Conclusions (35). 
 
 Chapter II — The French Tragi-Comedy of the XVI Century... 36 
 
 The Mondite as Tragi-Comedy (37) — the Mystere of Biblical Plot as 
 Tragi-Comedy (48) — the Myslere of Romanesque Plot as Tragi- 
 Comedy (61) — the Farce as Tragi-Comedy (70) — the Pastoral and 
 Foreign Play as Tragi-Comedy (72) — General Characteristics (73). 
 
 Chapter III— The Tragi-Comedy in the XVII Century Before 
 
 Roteou and Corneiele (1600-1628) 84 
 
 The Non-Romanesque Tragi-Comedy: Analyses and Divisions (85); 
 Characterization (94) — The Romanesque Tragi-Comedy: Analyses 
 and Sources (102); Characterization (132). 
 
 Chapter IV — Subsequent History of the Tragi-Comedy 148 
 
 The Period from 1628 to 1636 (148)— Decline of the Tragi-Comedy 
 (151) — Reasons for its extinction (152) — Conclusions. 
 
 Appendix A — Non-French Tragi-ComediEs Written Before 1582. 155 
 
 Appendix B — French Tragi-Comedies from 1552 to 1636 : 
 
 I The Sixteenth Century 163 
 
 ii The Seventeenth Century Before Rotrou (1628) 168 
 
 in From Rotrou's First Tragi-Comedy to the Oid (1628-1636) 178 
 
 Bibliography 182 
 
 Life , 191 
 
 Note : — The few abbreviations used for the titles of books cited in the following 
 pages are explained by reference to their authors, listed in the Bibliography. 
 
 In quoting names, titles, and passages from French authors, I have endeavored 
 as far as possible to reproduce the original orthography, accentuation, etc., rather 
 than to use the system current in contemporary French.
 
 IiNTRODUCTION. 
 
 Toward the middle of the sixteenth century there developed in 
 France a variety of the drame libre that represented, in a classical 
 form, the essential qualities of the medieval drama. Under the 
 term tragi-comedie it included types as various as the medieval 
 genres from which they sprung, united by the common possession 
 of a happy denouement, a classical form and name. After a period 
 of confusion, which lasted throughout the sixteenth century, came 
 the predominance of the romanesque tragi-comedy, which grew to 
 be, not only the leading type of the genre, but the most popular 
 dramatic kind at Paris, so continuing till succeeded in the public 
 favor by the classical tragedy and comedy. The tragi-comedy 
 continued for some years to be written, but toward 1672, after an 
 existence of one hundred and twenty years, came to an end as an 
 independent genre. 
 
 It had been as M. Faguet describes it, " tout un genre, et un 
 genre tres important et precieux." 1 It had formed an integral 
 part in the evolution of the French drama, filling the stage 
 between the sixteenth century dramatists and Pierre Corneille. 
 For forty years the chief expression of the form of dramatic art 
 that is popular in its appeal, it must be studied for any complete 
 history of the French people or their stage. By such study can 
 be seen both how the scholastic drama of the sixteenth century 
 became popularized, and whence Corneille drew his practical 
 knowledge of the stage. The history of the tragi-comedy shows 
 that the French had for a long period cultivated a type of 
 dramatic composition akin to that which reached such perfection 
 in England and Spain, so that their failure to produce a Shakspere, 
 or Lope, is not assignable, as many have intimated, to the repress- 
 ing influence of classical rules. 
 
 The tragi-comedy, furthermore, deserves study as giving an 
 
 1 La Tragedie fran$aise au XVI e si&cle, 233. 
 
 ix
 
 x Introduction. 
 
 excellent example of the Evolution des genres, about which the late 
 M. Brunetiere wrote so suggestively. 1 In its development may be 
 observed the creation of the genre out of other dramatic forms, its 
 early inclusion of a number of rudimentary types, the survival 
 and predominance of the romanesque as the fittest of these, the 
 growth of this successful form in the hands of Hardy and his 
 contemporaries with occasional reversions to the older types, its 
 literary culmination in the Cid, later decline, loss from the 
 depredations of nearly related forms and final extinction. This 
 evidences a whole cycle of literary evolution, which repays in- 
 vestigation, not only for its own sake, but for that of other genres 
 in which the process may be equally true, but less apparent. 
 
 It is my purpose to trace this evolution as far as the year 1628, 
 which marks the end of the development of the tragi-comedy and 
 the beginning of the twenty years in which its greatest sucesses 
 lie. It is the year in which Hardy completed the publication of 
 his extant plays, while Rotrou brought out his first tragi-comedy 
 and a comedy that started the French imitation of the Spanish 
 drama. In the following year, moreover, Corneille began his 
 dramatic career and Scudery composed his first tragi-comedy. 
 Thus 1628 dates, in a way, the end of one generation of tragi- 
 comic authors and the beginning of another. As the first period 
 (1552-1628) includes the beginnings of the genre in France and 
 the development of its various dramatic qualities, so the second 
 period (1628-1672) covers years of popularity, in which the 
 causes of its subsequent decay may be detected, and years of 
 disintegration, which resulted in the absorption of the genre by 
 the tragedy and the comedy. 
 
 At some time I hope to treat the second of these periods, but 
 at present I confine myself to the first. The following pages 
 will therefore be devoted to an investigation of the sources of the 
 tragi-comedy, as they are found in France and other parts of 
 Europe, to the development of the genre in the former country, 
 and to a study of the tragi-comedies written from 1552 to 1628, 
 in order to show their authorship, structure, sources, treatment 
 of subject, character, and incident. 
 
 1 Especially in JJ Evolution des Genres.
 
 Introduction. xi 
 
 In this investigation I have relied chiefly on the plays them- 
 selves, extant at Paris in the Bibliotheque Nationale and the 
 Bibliotheque de 1' Arsenal. I have also used various catalogues 
 of plays, of which the chief are those by La Croix du Maine, du 
 Verdier, Beauchamps, Freres Parfaict, Leris, Allacci, Riccoboni, 
 La Valliere, Soleinne, and Brunet. 1 Of these the last three have 
 been of especial value to rue from the extent and comparative 
 reliability of their information. Other catalogue-writers, those 
 named above as well as those of lesser importance mentioned in 
 my bibliography, have been consulted with caution. 
 
 My indebtedness to other authors, chiefly for general accounts 
 of the period, or the history of other dramatic genres, is indicated 
 in my bibliography. Among the works that have been of greatest 
 assistance to me may be mentioned the enlightening criticisms of 
 M. Brunetiere and M. Lanson, the excellent treatises of M. Rigal 
 on Alexandre Hardy and the contemporary theater, and the valu- 
 able historical researches of MM. Faguet, Petit de Julleville, 
 Creizenach, Marsan, Ebert, Fournel and Chasles. 2 
 
 Not only does no special treatment of the tragi-comedy exist, 
 but literary historians of the period have assigned it only a few 
 pages at most, usually only a few lines. Certain plays, it is true, 
 have received much attention, as those of Hardy, Mairet, Scudery, 
 and Rotrou, the Bradamante of Gamier, and the Tyr et Sidon of 
 Schelandre. 2 But minor authors have been neglected, and no 
 comprehensive account of the whole field has been presented. 
 Criticism, in fact, has been largely reduced to a matter of defini- 
 tion, which in some cases is based on scant acquaintance with 
 extant forms of the genre, though in others it is both apt and 
 suggestive. Before beginning an historical investigation of the 
 plays, I must turn to those definitions that are of importance. 
 
 The Freres Parfaict 3 hold that the tragi-comedy is " une action 
 singuliere qui se passe entre des personnes d'une naissance dis- 
 tinguee, m£nie entre des Rois et des Princes, dans laquelle il n'y a 
 aucun danger pour la vie des principaux Personnages." 3 They 
 
 x For titles of works, dates, etc., see Bibliography. 
 
 2 For references, cf. the Bibliography. 
 
 3 Histoire du Theatre francois, III, 455.
 
 xii Introduction. 
 
 naively add, that this rule has not been observed in the Brada- 
 mante of Gamier. Had they investigated further, they would 
 have found that there are few tragi-cornedies that do not follow 
 the example of the Bradamante. As a matter of fact, it is 
 exceedingly common for the lives of the principal persons to be 
 endangered, so that this definition appears somewhat absurd. It 
 is of interest, however, to note that the Freres Parfaict do not 
 define the genre as a mixing of tragic and comic elements. 
 
 Guizot comes nearer the truth in a purely negative way when 
 he declares that it is difficult to determine the difference between 
 the tragedy and the tragi-comedy, for " elle ne tient ni a la nature 
 du sujet ni au rang des personnages." l 
 
 Fournel describes rather than defines the genre in his statement 
 that " La tragi-comedie fut comme un asile legal ouvert a ceux 
 que genaient les lois naissantes, une sorte de compromis poli- 
 tique avec les actes d'indiscipline qu'on ne pouvait empecher 
 et auxquels on voulait du moins enlever prudemment les appa- 
 rences de la revoke. . . . Elle fut introduite par le besoin de la 
 vari£te, et le desir de tirer parti d'un grand nombre de sujets 
 curieux qui se derobaient aux classifications exclusives." 2 
 
 This view of the freedom that is essential to the tragi-comedy 
 had been expressed at the end of the sixteenth century by Marc 
 de Papillon (1597) in the following quatrain : 
 
 Je n'ensuy en cette ceuvre icy 
 La facon de l'ardeur antique, 
 C'est pourquoi je la nomme aussi 
 La Nouvelle tragi-comique. 3 
 
 Ebert is of the same mind as Papillon, when he assigns to the 
 tragi-comedy " unter andern Freiheiten auch die Einmischung des 
 Komischen," 4 Larroumet implies the freedom of the genre when 
 he writes that it " emprunte ses elements au roman ; dans le 
 roman Pimagination se donne libre carriere." 5 Brunetiere declares 
 that " la liberte, c'est son domaine et aussi son moyen." 6 
 
 1 Corneille et son temps, 135. s Nouvelle tragicomique, preface. 
 
 2 La Literature independante, 12, 13. i Franz: Tragodie, 131. 
 
 5 Revue des cours et conferences, 1897, 35. 
 
 6 Revue des Deux Mondes, 1901, vi, 143.
 
 Introduction. xiii 
 
 The relation between the tragi-comedy and the romance, referred 
 to in the citation just made from Larroumet, is hinted at by 
 Fournel when he speaks of the " cotes romanesques " * of the 
 former genre. It is more clearly indicated by Rigal, who defines 
 the tragi-comedies of Hardy as " nouvelles dramatisees," 2 a 
 formula by which he explains several characteristics of this genre. 
 
 The ordinarily serious nature of the plot has attracted the 
 attention of Desmarests, who mentions " les accidents graves et 
 funestes," 3 and of d'Aubignac when he describes subjects and 
 characters as " heroi'ques." 4 They have been followed by Samuel 
 Chappuzeau, who considers "de nobles advantures" 5 a charac- 
 teristic of the tragi-comedy. Lessing, too, agrees with Desmarests, 
 for he writes: " Tragikom5die hiess die Vorstellung einer toichtigen 
 Handlung unter vornehmen Personen, die einen vergniigten Aus- 
 gang hat." 6 
 
 Critical observation has frequently noted the high rank of the 
 leading personages in the tragi-comedy. Vauquelin mentions 
 " les plus grands et les Rois." 7 Desmarests declares that " les 
 principaux personnages sont Princes." 3 Both d'Aubignac 4 and 
 Chappuzeau 5 refer to the " personnes illustres," who carry on the 
 action. The Freres Parfaict and Lessing, as quoted above, 8 are 
 evidently of the same opinion. This aristocratic feature of the 
 fully developed genre is not to be doubted, but in a number of 
 non-romanesque tragi-comedies the aristocrats are omitted. The 
 freedom from rule that characterizes the tragi-comedy allows it to 
 mingle personages of various social classes at any period of its 
 history. There is a tendency, however, even in the sixteenth 
 century toward placing aristocrats in the leading roles, a usage 
 that becomes the rule in the romanesque tragi-comedy of the 
 seventeenth century, which is at that time the only important 
 type of the genre. It should be noted, however, that the tragi- 
 comedy does not have princes and princesses disguised as shepherds 
 
 1 La lilt, ind., 14. 5 Le Theatre francois, 12. 
 
 2 Alexandre Hardy, 502. 6 Hamburgische Dramaturgic, 234. 
 
 3 Scipion, preface, Paris, 1639. ' Art politique, in, 166. 
 
 * Pratique du Theatre, 189. 8 Pp. xi and xiii.
 
 xiv Introduction. 
 
 and shepherdesses, for, if such persons take part in a play, it is 
 called a pastoral, or tragi-comedie pastorale, genres that differ from 
 the tragi-comedy in style and incident, tracing their origin to 
 another source. 
 
 Little attention has been paid to the non-historic nature of the 
 tragi-comedy, which seems, indeed, to be denied in Faguet's 
 definition of the genre as a "drame historique a denouement 
 heureux." l Unless this is an attempt at differentiating the tragi- 
 comedy from the comedy by pointing out the tendency of the 
 former to historic imitation in the manner of the romance, the 
 definition is certainly incorrect. The tragi-comedy cannot be 
 called truly historic, as Brunetiere has well shown. " Des aven- 
 tures privees sont la matiere propre de la Tragi-comedie," he 
 writes. " Mais des aventures privees ce sont des aventures qui ne 
 sont pas en quelque sorte authentiquees par l'histoire, du moins au 
 su de tous, et des aventures qui n'ont pas d' existence publique, ni 
 certaine. Ce sont aussi des aventures dont l'enchainement n'a 
 rien de ne"cessaire. Et ce sont done encore des aventures que 
 le poete reste maitre d'arranger, de combiner, de compliquer, 
 d'enchevetrer, de developper a son gre." 2 In another place he 
 writes : " Mais le fond de la pensee de Corneille, comme de celle 
 de ses contemporains, comme de celle aussi de Hardy, e'est qu'il 
 n'ya de vrais sujets de tragedie que les sujets historiques, et que 
 par consequent tous les autres appartiennent a Fespece de la 
 tragi-comedie. Seulement, comme les frontieres de l'histoire sont 
 flottantes, et que Corneille lui-m§me, dans ses sujets historiques, 
 dans son Cinna meme, et dans ses Othon ou dans ses Sertoiius, 
 n'a jamais pu prendre sur lui de ne pas les transgresser." 3 
 
 If historic plot is not made the only difference between tragedy 
 and tragi-comedy, this statement may be considered true of the 
 romanesque type of the latter genre, for its members approach 
 the historic plot only in the four plays that are based on 
 
 1 La Tragedie frangaise, 212. 
 
 * Revue des Deux Mondes, 1901, vi, 143. 
 
 3 Ibidem, 1890, CI, 702.
 
 Introduction. xv 
 
 mythology. Now the mythological plot was treated by the 
 French classic dramatists along with subjects held to be matters 
 of history, and, as far as the well-established nature of the myth 
 was concerned, it served equally well the classical end. On the 
 other hand, the facts that mythological plots are non-historic and 
 that certain of them lend themselves to romantic treatment 
 made possible their use in four tragi-comedies, Procris, Ariadne 
 JRauie, Alceste, and Les Travaux rf' Ulysse. But the authors of the 
 non-romanesque tragi-comedies drew upon supposedly historic 
 sources, when they based their plays on the Bible or lives of 
 saints, while even contemporary history is represented in the 
 tragi-comedy called L'union Belgique. The non-historic subject 
 is, therefore, a fixed characteristic of the fully developed tragi- 
 comedy, but not of all its early or subordinate types. 
 
 The two characteristics of the tragi-comedy that have given 
 rise to the most varied opinions among critics are the happy 
 denouement and the mixing of tragic and comic elements. The 
 first of these has been rejected as an essential by several writers. 
 Ebert writes : " Obwohl es im Anfang zugleich stets, und auch 
 spiiterhin meist solche sind, die einen gliicklichen Ausgang haben : 
 dies war aber keine ivesentliche Eigenschaft der Tragi-comedie : 
 und so finden sich auch in Frankreich spater nicht selten Tragi- 
 komodien mit tragischem Schluss." l Rigal is more cautious in 
 his statement : " Ce sont les denouements heureux, element nulle- 
 ment indispensable, au d6but du moins, des tragi-comedies, mais 
 qui s'y rencontre si frequemment." 2 In support of his position 
 he quotes Aristodee and the premiere journee of Tyr et Sidon 
 (1628). Brunetiere goes much further, declaring that the tragi- 
 comedy " n'est pas davantage — en depit du Cid, auquel Corneille 
 a donne d'abord le titre de tragi-comedie, — une tragedie qui finirait 
 bien, dont le denouement, au lieu d'etre sauglant, serait heureux, 
 et, par exemple, une Orestie qui se terminerait par des noces." 3 
 " Et, s'il 6tait vrai que, comme on le r6pete encore, le propre de 
 
 1 Enttoicklungs-Geschichte der Franz : Tragodie, 131. 
 
 ^Alexandre Hardy, 432. 
 
 3 Revue des Deux Mondes, 1901, vi, 143. 
 
 •
 
 XVI 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 la tragi-comSdie flit de se terminer heureusement, Corneille n'en 
 aurait done pas ecrit de plus caracterisee que Cinna, la derniere 
 pourtant de ses pieces a qui l'on disputera jamais le nom de 
 tragedie!" 1 
 
 Other critics have, however, taken a very different view. 
 <'La Tragi-Comedie nous met deuant lesyeux de nobles auantures 
 entre d'lllustres personnes menacees de quelque grande infortune, 
 qui se trouve suiuie oVun heureux euenement" declares Chappuzeau. 2 
 Lessing holds that the tragi-coniedy must have " einen vergniigten 
 Ausgang." 3 Fournel emphasizes " la necessite d'un denoument 
 heureux." 4 Before Ebert (1856), indeed, this fact does not 
 appear to have been questioned. It is especially worthy of note 
 that the critics who knew the plays as contemporary products are 
 unanimous in assigning to them a happy denouement. 
 
 " Quand il y a du meurtre et qu'on voit toutefois 
 Qu'ct la fin sont contens les plus grands et les Rois, 
 Quand du graue et du bas le parler on mendie, 
 On abuse du nom de Trage-comedie." 5 
 
 Here Yauquelin objects to the use of the term, but at the same 
 time testifies to the fact that it was applied in his day to those 
 plays characterized by a happy ending. Mairet states that, " Le 
 meslange est fait de parties Tragiques et Comiques, en telle facon 
 que les unes et les autres faisant ensemble un bon accord, ont en 
 fin une joyeuse et Comique catastrophe." 6 Georges de Scudery 
 holds that " a cause de sa fin " 7 the tragi-comedy leans to comedy 
 rather than to tragedy. "La fin est heureuse," 8 writes Desmarests. 
 Finally the truth of the matter is most clearly stated by d'Au- 
 bignac as follows : " Mais ce que nous avons fait sans fondement, 
 est que nous avons oste le nom de Tragedie aux Pieces de Theatre 
 dont la Catastrophe est heureuse, encore que le Sujet et les 
 personnes soient Tragiques, e'est a dire heroi'ques, pour leur 
 donner celuy de Tragi-Comedies. ... Or ie ne veux pas absolu- 
 
 1 Ibidem, 1890, CI, 702. 5 V Art poetique, in, 165-8. 
 
 2 Le Theatre francois, 12. 6 La Silvanire, preface, Paris, 1631. 
 
 3 Hamburgische Dramaturgie, 234. 7 Observations sur le Oid, 8, Paris, 1637. 
 A Lalitt. ind., 14. s Scipion, preface, Paris, 1639.
 
 Introduction. xvii 
 
 ment combattre ce nom, mais je pretens qu'il est inutile, puisque 
 celuy de Tragedie ne signifie pas moins les Poemes qui finissent 
 par la ioye, quand on y decrit les fortunes des personnes illustres." ' 
 He then proceeds naively to object to the use of the term, as 
 informing the audience of what the conclusion of the play is going 
 to be and consequently destroying the interest that would be 
 excited in the spectator's mind, were he kept in suspense until the 
 end : " Mais des-lors qu'on a dit Tragi-comedies on decouvre 
 quelle en sera la Catastrophe." It is scarcely necessary to point 
 out the fact that this is the most valuable kind of evidence, the 
 testimony of an author to the existence of a practice to which he 
 is theoretically opposed. D'Aubignac admits that plays which 
 he would himself call tragedies are called tragi-comedies merely 
 on account of their happy denouement. There can be no doubt, 
 therefore, that in the tragi-comedies with which he was acquainted 
 this form of ending was an established fact. 
 
 But it is not difficult to come to this conclusion without the aid 
 of critical authority. An examination of the extant plays reveals 
 with sufficient clearness the state of the case. For the period 
 from 1552 to 1636, when, if ever, the tragi-comedy may be 
 considered an independent kind, there are extant eighty-three 
 romanesque tragi-comedies, all of which show a happy denouement. 
 In Philandre et MarisSe, it is true, the leading characters die, but 
 are depicted as arriving in heaven after a most unfortunate life, so 
 that this play is included in the list. An apparent exception is 
 found in Les Amours infortunees de Leandre et d' Heron by le Sieur 
 de la Selve, Avocat de Nimes. The play was published at Mont- 
 pellier. The author asks for critical consideration, as he writes 
 in Languedoc, far from Paris and the knowledge of court manners. 
 His use of the term, tragicomedy, does not appear to indicate 
 contemporary usage, but rather his ignorance of it. Certainly the 
 ideas of an obscure provincial on the meaning of the genre are of 
 no value when they are opposed to those of the leading dramatists 
 of the time. The play should undoubtedly be classed as an 
 irregular tragedy. Nor does Rigal's citation of the premiere 
 
 1 Pratique du Theatre, 189.
 
 xviii Introduction. 
 
 journee of the Tyr et Sidon (1628) indicate that an unhappy 
 denouement may occur in a tragi-comedy, for the premiere journie 
 is not here a complete play, but must be considered in connection 
 with the seconde journee, which brings the story to a happy end. 
 This is true of all such divided plays. Hardy's Theagene et 
 Cariclee and Du Kyer's Argenis et Poliarque, for example, have 
 no raison d'etre if their journees are considered, as far as the plot 
 is concerned, as separate plays. Moreover, the citation of Tyr et 
 Sidon in this connection is especially inapt, as this very premiere 
 journee did actually appear alone in 1608 with its unhappy denoue- 
 ment and was then called a tragedie. The term tragi-comidie is 
 applied only in 1628 when the play was reworked and followed 
 by the seconde journee with a happy denouement. This explana- 
 tion of the change of genre is much more logical than that offered 
 by Rigal, who holds that it was due to the increased popularity 
 of the tragi-comedy, thus hopiug to prove the large extent of 
 Hardy's influence. Now, it is quite possible that the tragi-comic 
 vogue may have influenced the addition of this seconde journee 
 with the happy denouement, but there is no evidence that it could 
 have induced an author to apply the title, tragi-comedie, to a play 
 that ended in sadness — a condition that was opposed to the essence 
 of its meaning. On the other hand, I may cite in support of my 
 view the two plays that appeared in 1646 under the title, Rodogune. 
 For the first four acts the plots are substantially the same, but in 
 the fifth there is a differentiation between the two plots. Corneille 
 ends his play unhappily and calls it a tragedy ; Gabriel Gilbert 
 brings his to a happy conclusion and styles it a tragi-comedy. 
 The case is evidently an exact parallel to that of Tyr et Sidon in 
 its two editions. 
 
 Modern ideas concerning the denouement of the tragi-comedy 
 appear to be largely based on two plays by Hardy, of which the 
 classification is in doubt. 1 The first of these, called Procris ou la 
 Jalousie infortunee, is styled tragi-comedy on the title-page and at 
 the head of the argument, but tragedy at the top of subsequent 
 pages and in the argument itself, where the author writes " catas- 
 
 1 Cf. Kigal, Alexandre Hardy, pp. 401 and 226, note.
 
 Introduction. xix 
 
 trophe qui finit la Tracjedie" Hardy seems to have looked on it 
 from the standpoint of the murdered Procris and consequently 
 styled it a tragedy. The term tragi-comedy, twice found and due, 
 perhaps, to the publisher, can, however, be justified from the point 
 of view of Cephale, the hero, and his friend Aurore, whose loves 
 were greatly expedited by the death of the former's wife. 
 
 But in Arlstoclee, the second piece of uncertain classification, 
 there is no doubt as to the unhappiness of the denouement, which 
 induces Lombard to call it a tragedy. 1 Rigal, who classes it 
 among the tragi-comedies, admits that there is difficulty involved, 
 for " si le sujet a une couleur romanesque, du moins est-il 
 emprunte a Plutarque ; si les personnages en sont bas, du moins 
 le denouement en est-il terrible." 2 He states later 3 that it is the 
 only tragi-comedy that preserves the unity of action, a distinctive 
 trait of the tragedy. The personages can scarcely be called 
 " bas," moreover, for one is noble, as Rigal admits in his analysis 
 of the play, 4 and the others seem to enjoy an honorable, if 
 bourgeois rank in their town. The social position of the charac- 
 ters is, in fact, just the same as in Hardy's Scedase, to which 
 neither Rigal nor any one else has denied the title of tragedy. 
 
 These characteristics show that the play should be classed as a 
 tragedy, whatever title may have been given it, but it is by no 
 means sure that Hardy called it a tragi-comedy. In this connec- 
 tion Rigal writes : " M. Lombard ecrit, au sujet d' Arlstoclee, 
 qu'elle 'n'est marquee ni comme tragedie, ni comme tragi- comedie.' 
 C'est une erreur ; elle est au contraire designee comme tragi- 
 comedie, et sur son titre, et sur son titre courant. Si Hardy parley 
 dans l'argument, de cette ' tragedie conduite a sa perfection,' c'est 
 que la tragi-comedie est une subdivision de la tragedie et on ne lit 
 jamais que ce dernier mot dans les privileges." Now, this expla- 
 nation may be correct, but it is to be observed that Hardy does 
 not use the term, tragedy, in the argument of any play whose 
 denouement is undoubtedly happy. This fact is significant. It is 
 
 1 Zeitschrift fiir neu-franz : Sprache und Liileratur, 1880, 367. 
 2 Alexandre Hardy, 226. 
 3 Ibidem, 502. 
 * Ibidem, 451. 
 
 •
 
 xx Introduction. 
 
 perfectly possible that he considered Aristoclee a tragedy and called 
 it so in his argument. No one would, indeed, doubt this, were it 
 not for the fact that tragi-comidie is written as the title and titre 
 courant, where, however, its presence may be due to the printer. 
 
 The evidence of eighty-three tragi-comedies, of which the 
 denouement is happy, shows clearly that Aristoclee and Leandre et 
 Heron cannot be considered tragi-comedies and that Procris is 
 so called only from the point of view of Cephale and Aurore. A 
 similar regularity in regard to the happy ending is found in the 
 non-romanesque tragi-comedies. There is no doubt that such a 
 termination belongs to the tragi-comedies of biblical plot and to 
 those that resemble the moralite" and farce. It need be remarked 
 only that in those based on saints' lives, the fact that the protago- 
 nist occasionally dies at the close of the play does not constitute 
 an unhappy denouement, for the object of such religious composi- 
 tions is to show the reward of a pious life, a reward that is fully 
 won only with the hero's death, which was, therefore, regarded by 
 the dramatist as a happy event rather than as a disaster. 
 
 As quoted above, 1 however, Brunetiere objects that if a happy 
 denouement is " le propre " of the tragi-comedy, Corneille's Cinna 
 would be an excellent example of this genre. He accordingly 
 argues that the tragi-comedy is differentiated from the tragedy by 
 the non-historic nature of the former. Now this is true, but the 
 two genres are, before the Cid (1636), kept apart as strongly by 
 the nature of the denouement as by the historic truth of the plot. 
 That this was happy in the tragi-comedy has been sufficiently 
 indicated. An unhappy ending, on the other hand, was essential 
 to the definitions of the tragedy given during the Middle Ages 
 and the xvi century. Vauquelin, as quoted above, 2 called attention 
 to the fact that a tragedy may end happily, but his words were 
 unheeded. Dramatists continued to follow Scaliger's precept 
 that there should be an "exitus infelix", 3 until Corneille, 
 realizing that an unhappy denouement was not essential to the 
 Greek tragedy, made the genre chiefly depend on psychological 
 analysis of character and passion with special emphasis on the 
 
 !Page xiv. 2 Page xvi. i Poetices, in, 97, p. 367.
 
 Introduction. xxi 
 
 human will and the struggles in which it is involved. The nature 
 of the denouement, therefore, became unessential. China and 
 Nicom&de could be considered tragedies as well as Rodogune 
 and Polyeucte. 
 
 This usage is supported by the precept of d'Aubignac, quoted 
 above. 1 As the idea that a tragedy might end happily became 
 established in France, the tragi-comedy began to decline, for one 
 of its principal raisons d'itre had lain in the fact that it satisfied a 
 popular craving to see the story finish in happiness, by which 
 means it had succeeded in supplanting the tragedy in spite of the 
 latter' s artistic superiority. Now that the tragedy had acquired 
 this important prerogative of the tragi-comedy, the latter lost its 
 popular hold, began to decline while Corneille was writing, and 
 ceased to exist not long after d'Aubignac had attacked it (1657). 
 From this point of view, therefore, there is no incompatibility 
 between the classification of Cinna as a tragedy and the fact that 
 the happy denouement is an essential characteristic of the tragi- 
 comedy. 
 
 Another point that has evoked critical discussion concerns the 
 mixing of tragic and comic elements that appears to have given 
 rise to the name tragi-comedy. Desmarests holds that such mix- 
 ing is not essential, for the tragi-comedy is "une piece dont les 
 principaux personnages sont Princes, etc., encore qu'il n'y ait rien 
 de oomique qui y soit m&le." 2 " II n'y a rien qui ressente la 
 Com6die," writes d'Aubignac. " Tout y est grave et merveilleux, 
 rien de populaire ny de bouffon." 3 According to Robiou, tragi- 
 comedies "n'ont rien de comique, ou du moins, si le comique 
 s'y rencontre, c'est h l'insu de Fauteur et bien malgre 1 lui." 4 
 BrunetiSre denies that it is " une composition dramatique ou le 
 tragique et le comique, s'aidant l'un l'autre, et se faisant valoir 
 par leur contraste meme alterneraient pour le divertissement du 
 spectateur." 5 
 
 Vauquelin, on the other hand, notes that here "auecques le 
 
 'Page xvii. 2 Scipion, preface, Paris, 1639. 
 
 3 Pratique du Theatre, 189. 
 
 *Essai sur I'histoire de la litter ature, 401. 
 
 5 Revue des Deux Mondes, 1901, vi, 143. 
 
 r
 
 xxii Introduction. 
 
 Tragic le Comic se raporte" and that "du graue et du bas 
 le parler on mendie." ' Mairet's opinion has been already quoted. 2 
 Scudery calls the genre " un compose de la Tragedie et de la 
 Comedie," 3 and declares that " ce beau et divertissant poeme, sans 
 pancher trop vers la severite de la tragedie, ny vers le stile 
 railleur de la comedie, prend les beautez les plus delicates de 
 l'une et de 1' autre : et sans estre ny l'une ny l'autre on peut dire 
 qu'il est toutes les deux ensemble et quelque chose de plus." 4 
 Ebert mentions the " Einmiscliung des Komischen." 5 Fournel 
 calls attention to " la fusion des deux genres opposes en un seul 
 ouvrage." 6 Rigal more specifically points out "le melange dans 
 la meme pi&ce de personnages de conditions sociales differentes ; 
 c'est intervention de personnages mediocres dans une action 
 pathetique, ou de personnages illustres dans une action mediocre." 7 
 
 Now, if a reader confines himself to a limited number of 
 tragi-comedies, he may reach any of these conclusions as to the 
 mixture in style and characters. This fact is well brought out by 
 Fontenelle, who writes : " Dans ce temps la la Tragi-Comedie 
 6toit assez a, la mode, genre mele ou l'on mettoit un assez mauvais 
 tragique, avec du comique, qui ne valoit gueres mieux. Souvent 
 cependant, on donnoit ce non- a de certaines Pieces toutes s6rieuses, 
 a cause que le denouement en etoit heureux." 8 It seems, indeed, 
 that the existence of the familiar and comic in speech and 
 character was not essential, but was frequently admitted. There 
 is apparently no evolution in the matter, as these elements are 
 exceedingly apparent at various periods in such plays as Lucelle 
 in 1576, UEphesienne in 1614, U Innocence Descouverte in 1609 
 and 1628, Les Folies de Cardenio in 1625, and U spited des Fous 
 in 1635. 
 
 But there is a broader sense in which the name tragi-comedy is 
 well chosen, in spite of the fact that familiar and humorous 
 
 1 Art poetique, in, 164 and 167. i Andromire, preface, Paris, 1641. 
 
 2 Seepagexvi. 5 Franz: Trag'ddie, 131. 
 
 3 Observations sur le Cid, 8, Paris, 1637. 6 La Litt. ind. , 14. 
 
 1 Alexandre Hardy, p. 431. 
 
 8 Vie de P. Corneille, in Oeuvres de Fontenelle, IV, 207.
 
 Introduction. xxiii 
 
 elements frequently do not enter into it. Cloetta l and Lanson 2 
 have shown what constituted the medieval and xvi century idea 
 of the difference between tragedy and comedy. The same view 
 was held in the xvn century while the tragi-comedy was develop- 
 ing. During all this time, that difference was based on four 
 characteristics, which were, perhaps, external, but served well 
 enough to guide the pre-Cornelian dramatist. These were : the 
 historic or non-historic subject, the high or low rank of the 
 personages, the terrible or happy denouement, the noble or familiar 
 style. Now it has been shown that in respect to these qualities, 
 the fully developed tragi-comedy occupied middle ground between 
 the older genres. It is non-historic, but imitates history by a 
 plot that savors of the romance rather than of the comedy of 
 manners. The leading personages are of noble birth, but bourgeois 
 and plebeians are allowed. The denouement is never tragic, but 
 frequently threatens to become so, in a manner foreign to the 
 comedy. The style is serious in the main, seldom rising to tragic 
 heights, yet sinking with no great frequency to comic familiarity 
 and humor. From this point of view, it is evident that there is a 
 mixing of tragic and comic elements which justifies the name, 
 tragi-comedy. 
 
 While it approaches both classical genres in its form, where the 
 use of Alexandrines, division into five acts, and subdivision into 
 scenes is the rule, the tragi-comedy is differentiated from them by 
 its looseness of structure, which presents the story ab ovo, with no 
 regard for the unities of action, time, and place, and makes the 
 tragi-comedy essentially a variety of the drame libre. Although 
 the action in the tragi-comedy may spring from the will of the 
 persons, it is more often produced, unlike that of the classical 
 tragedy, by purely external causes. As psychological problems 
 are seldom put, study of character and emotion is replaced by 
 multiplicity of incident, cleverness of intrigue, and variety of 
 personages and verse-forms. Mixing of opposing styles is freely 
 employed, so that concrete are found with abstract statements, 
 
 1 Beitrage zur Litteraturgeschichte des Mittelalters, I, 14-54. 
 
 2 Revue d' Histoire litteraire de la France, xi, 541-85.
 
 xxiv Introduction. 
 
 humorous with grave dialogues, lyrical with narrative verse- 
 forms. Startling stage-effects are obtained by duels, murders, 
 enlevements, and other romantic means, which classicists avoid or 
 keep behind the scenes. Dramatic effort is directed towards 
 arousing the curiosity, rather than the passions of the audience. 
 In the more fully developed type of the genre, love is the main- 
 spring of the action, marriage is the chief end, all that is 
 romanesque the means. 
 
 In defining the tragi-comedy, a distinction must be made 
 between the early conception of the genre and that which was 
 subsequently had of it. During the sixteenth century, the name 
 could be applied to any play of medieval origin which possessed 
 a happy denouement and a form that was at least partially classic. 
 This usage continued sporadically throughout the period of the 
 genre's existence in the seventeenth century. But the more highly 
 developed type of the genre, conveniently termed the romanesque 
 tragi-comedy, which was extensively cultivated at Paris during 
 the seventeenth century and became the only important variety 
 of the tragi-comedy, possessed characteristics that may be summed 
 up as follows : 
 
 1. The structure is that of the drame libre, by which the story 
 is dramatized from its beginnings without regard for any dramatic 
 unity except that of interest. 
 
 2. The events treated are serious, secular, non-historic, and 
 romanesque. 
 
 3. The denouement is happy. 
 
 4. The leading personages are aristocratic, but bourgeois and 
 plebeians may be introduced in subordinate roles. The shepherd 
 of the pastoral is excluded. 
 
 5. The addition of comic passages, though frequent, is not an 
 essential characteristic. 
 
 6. The form is classic in the predominant use of Alexandrines, 
 the division into five acts, and the subdivision into scenes.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE SOURCES OF THE FRENCH TRAGI-COMEDY. 
 
 While the classic tragedy of France is derived directly from 
 that of Greece and Rome, the drame libre, of which the tragi- 
 comedy forms a part, is the secularized and modernized representa- 
 tive of the medieval drama, from which it inherited its stage, its 
 traditions, and its audience. Its existence shows that there is in 
 France a continuous dramatic development from the middle ages 
 to modern times, a fact that has been somewhat obscured by the 
 preponderance of the classic tragedy during the seventeenth 
 century. At the same time, the French drame libre has followed 
 the example of the genre in other countries by uniting with its 
 medieval elements certain subsidiary features of the ancient 
 classic drama. 
 
 It is the purpose of the present chapter to demonstrate the 
 truth of these statements as far as they concern the tragi- 
 comedy, which has been shown l to be that form of the drame 
 libre which, when fully developed, displays a romanesque and non- 
 historic theme, a happy denouement, predominantly classic form, 
 and aristocratic personages in the leading roles. The method of 
 procedure will be to indicate the indebtedness of the tragi-comedy 
 (1) to the French medieval plays in their various genres, (2) to 
 the Greek and Roman stage, (3) to the Renaissance drama of 
 Western Europe that has combined under the title, tragi-comedy, 
 the characteristics of medieval and classic plays. 
 
 I. The Relation of the French Tragi-Comedy to the 
 Medieval Drama. 
 
 Although the medieval prototypes of the tragi-comedy have 
 neither taken on a classical form and name, nor abandoned a
 
 2 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 religious and supernatural spirit that is foreign to later dramas, 
 they exhibit the essential characteristics of the younger genre in 
 an unmistakable fashion. Freedom of construction, romantic 
 elements, happy termination, aristocratic leading personages, and 
 frequent comic additions characterize certain medieval dramas as 
 strougly as they characterize the tragi-comedy. Some of these 
 qualities belong to all non-comic medieval plays, while others are 
 exemplified only by certain varieties. For the full understanding 
 of the influence exerted by the characteristics of the medieval 
 drama on those of the tragi-comedy, it is necessary to take up 
 these characteristics in detail. 
 
 1. That the construction of the medieval play is the same as 
 that of the tragi-comedy is evidenced by the following contrast of 
 the former genre with the French classic tragedy : " Le theatre 
 classique noue une action restreinte, . . . le theatre des mysteres 
 deroule une action etendue. Dans l'un, les scenes s'appellent et 
 pour ainsi dire s'engendrent l'une Pautre. Dans le theatre du 
 moyen age, elles se succedent. Le lien n'est pas dans le style ; il 
 est dans l'evenenient lui-meme, et quelquefois il n'est nulle part." x 
 
 The unity of action, in a classical sense, is absent. The story 
 is acted from its beginnings or as nearly so as possible. Thus, the 
 medieval mystere of Sainte Genevieve 2 opens with the saint's birth, 
 and recounts her various disconnected miracles. In Griselidis 3 the 
 wooing of the heroine is presented, although this forms no neces- 
 sary part of a drama designed to describe her patience under the 
 afflictions imposed by her husband. In U Abbeesse grosse* the 
 heroine's church-going is first acted, although it has nothing to do 
 with the rest of the play. Examples of such lack of unity in 
 dramatic construction may be multiplied indefinitely. 
 
 In a similar manner the unity of action is violated by the 
 tragi-comedy. Details that Racine would put in the mouth of a 
 messenger or confidante are acted on the tragi-comic stage along 
 
 1 Petit de Julleville, Les Mysteres, I, 244. 
 
 2 Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve, Y, f-10, 183-217. 
 
 3 Bibliotheque nationale MS. fr. 2203. 
 
 4 Miracles de Nostre Dame, I, 57-100.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 3 
 
 with circumstances of large dramatic interest. The scenes, also, 
 are not developed one out of another, but occur at random, with 
 little logical sequence. 1 Subordinate plots may be added, or the 
 interest may be divided between two principal plots, which, devel- 
 oped simultaneously, are connected only at the end. 2 
 
 Violation of one of the classic unities is readily associated with 
 infringement of the others in both medieval plays and tragi- 
 comedies. In neither genre is there any attempt at reducing the 
 time of the action to the prescribed twenty-four hours. On the 
 contrary, the greatest liberty is allowed in this respect. Seven 
 years elapse during the progress of the Miracle de Theodore; 3 
 thirty in La nonne qui laissa son abbaie* not to mention the 
 tremendous periods of time involved in the cyclic plays that run 
 from the Creation of the world to the Resurrection of Christ. 5 
 
 In the tragi-comedy, also, considerable periods of time elapse, 
 although they do not ordinarily extend beyond the limits of a 
 natural life. In La Force du Sang of Hardy, a child, begot in the 
 first act, is old enough to converse fluently in the third act. In 
 Philandre et Marisee (1619), the hero weds the heroine at the 
 beginning of the play, and encounters his son, grown to manhood, 
 at the end of it. Other plays are of briefer duration, but none 
 are confined to the limits of a single day. 
 
 A similar freedom is allowed with regard to the unity of place. 
 On the medieval stage " la mere du pape est arrivee en Italie, 
 venant du Sinai*, se tratnant vers la Galice ; " 6 or the scene of a 
 single play may be laid in Scotland, Hungary, and Italy ; as, in La 
 Fille du Roi de HongrieJ Similarly, the tragi-comedy follows 
 Ulysses in his wanderings 8 or brings back the Count of Gleichen 
 
 "■Of. Lisandre et Caliste by Du Ryer, La Sceur valeureuse by Marshal, or Le 
 Prince deguise by Scudery. 
 
 2 Cf. U Orizelle by Chabrol or Ligdamon el Lidias by Scudery. This phenome- 
 non is very common in the tragi-comedie pastorale. 
 
 z Miracles de Nostre Dame, in, 67-133. ibidem, I, 309-351. 
 
 5 Cf. La Creation de V Homme, la Nativite, la Vie, la Passion, la Resurrection de J.- 
 C. Petit de Julleville, Les Mysteres, n, 411. 
 
 6 Petit de Julleville, Les Mysteres, n, 264. 
 
 7 Miracles de Nostre Dame, v, 1-88. 
 
 8 Les Travaux d' Ulysse ( 1631) by Durval.
 
 4 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 from Palestine to Germany by way of Rome. 1 At times the limits 
 of the space are smaller, but they are never reduced to those of the 
 classic stage. 
 
 This freedom in regard to the latitude of space in which the 
 action could be located was, indeed, one reason for the popularity 
 of the tragi-comedy at the beginning of the sixteenth century. M. 
 Rigal 2 has indicated the importance of the medieval mise en scene 
 in delaying the development of the French classic stage and in 
 hindering its popularity during the sixteenth century. Now, M. 
 Lanson has shown that M. Rigal has gone too far in denying 
 popular representation to the tragedies of Jodelle, Gamier, Mont- 
 chrestien, and their followers, 3 yet it is certainly true that the 
 presence of the elaborate apparatus of the medieval stage in the 
 mise en sc&ne of the Confreres de la Passion kept alive the medie- 
 val drama at the end of the sixteenth century and went far to 
 popularize its successor, the tragi-comedy, at the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century. For by the presentation of various places on 
 the stage at one time, the mansions and the complicated medieval 
 decorations associated with them could be utilized by the tragi- 
 comedy in a manner impossible to the classical tragedy. Hence 
 the tragi-comedy obtained favor with the theatrical managers and 
 received large popularity with audiences that demanded striking 
 stage effects rather than the discussion of a psychological problem. 
 
 The broad view taken of the dramatic unities by the authors of 
 the miracles and mysteres induced a prolixity of treatment that 
 extended the presentation of the subject beyond the limits of a 
 single performance, giving rise to the division into journe'es, which 
 procedure forms a familiar characteristic of the medieval stage. 
 One finds, for example, La Passion de Jesu- Crist in twenty jour- 
 n&es, 4 Sainte Barbe 5 in five, and in La Destruction de Troie 6 in 
 three jour nees. Many other plays, showing a varying number of 
 
 1 Elmire ou V Heureuse Bigamie by Hardy. 
 
 2 In Thedtre francais avanl la periode classique. 
 
 3 Cf. Etudes sur les origines de la tragedie classique en France. Revue d'histoire 
 litteraire de la France, x, 177-231 and 413-36. 
 
 4 MS. Bib. Nat. fr. 12536. 
 
 5 Ibidem, 976. 6 Ibidem, 1415. 

 
 Its Origin and Development. 5 
 
 such time divisions as those indicated, can be mentioned, together 
 with those whose performance is limited to a single journee. 
 Now, despite the fact that the tragi-comedy has largely adopted the 
 form of the classical tragedy, this medieval phenomenon persists in 
 five cases : Les chastes et loyales amours de Theagene et Carielee, by 
 Hardy, contains eight jowm&es ; while Les Heureuses Infortunes 
 (1618) by La Brousse, Tyr et Sidon (1628) by Schelandre, La Gene- 
 reuse Allemande (1630) by Mareschal, and Argenis et Poliarque 
 by Du Byer, contain time divisions into two such parts. The tragi- 
 comedy thus betrays its medieval origin even in its form, that part 
 of it which had undergone classical influence to the greatest extent. 
 
 It should be noted here that these phenomena of dramatic con- 
 struction apply to the non-comic medieval drama, to the miracles 
 and mysteres rather than to the more condensed moralite and farce. 
 The tragi-comedy is, indeed, in its mature form the outgrowth of 
 this religious drama rather than of its contemporary genres that 
 tended towards the comedy, although both the moralite and farce 
 are represented by early tragi-comedies. 
 
 2. The second important characteristic of the fully developed 
 tragi-comedy is the non-comic, secular, non-historic, and roma- 
 nesque nature of the subjects treated. 1 In this respect it finds 
 prototypes in certain medieval plays as surely as it finds them in 
 the matter of its dramatic structure. 
 
 It is true that, in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, 
 the name tragi-comedie is applied to a number of plays that are 
 derived from the comic side of the medieval drama. The farce is 
 represented by La Nouvelle tragicomique (1597) of Papillon and 
 by three undated plays published at Rouen toward 1620: the 
 Rebellion des grenouilles contre Jupiter, La Subtilite de Fanfreluche 
 et Gaudichon and the Enfans de Turlupin. The moralite appears 
 in U Homme iustifie 'par Foy (1554), La Gaule (about 1561), 
 Gamier Stqfacher (1584), Le Desespere (1595), Caresmc prenamt 
 (1595), L'union Belgique (1604), Zo'anthropie (1614), besides 
 causing the introduction of allegorical characters into several other 
 tragi-comedies. These, however, are exceptional cases in the 
 
 1 See above, p. xxiv.
 
 6 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 seventeenth century, while in the sixteenth their occurrence is an 
 evidence of the fact that the term, tragi-comedie, could at that time 
 be applied to any representative of the medieval drama that had a 
 happy denouement and at least a partially classical form. The 
 mature romanesque type of tragi-comedy, and its early religious 
 representative that derives its plot from the Bible, grow directly 
 out of the medieval mystery and miracle play, especially from the 
 3Timcles de Nostre Dame and the Mistere du Viel Testament. 
 
 These medieval forms have no connection with the comedy of 
 manners. Presenting a plot of which the interest lies in the events 
 narrated rather than in the problems discussed, or the customs 
 portrayed, they are to be chiefly distinguished from the tragi- 
 comedy by their prevailingly religious spirit, which is largely 
 lacking in the younger genre. This secularization is a matter of 
 historical development that may be readily explained. 
 
 The earliest dramatic monuments of the middle ages, Adam and 
 the Resurrection fragment are essentially religious, but with the 
 Theophile and the Saint Nicolas secular interests are apparent. 
 The tendency to introduce these interests into the plays is espe- 
 cially observable in the fourteenth century Miracles de Nostre 
 Dame, which are at times dramatized romances, with Nostre Dame 
 introduced to accomplish the denouement. Good examples of such 
 dramas are Amis et Amille, 1 Ostes roy d'TJspaingne, 2 and La Fille 
 du Roi de Hongrie. 3 The interest is here in the events, to which 
 the role of Nostre Dame is subordinated. So far, indeed, is the 
 expression of this feeling carried, that plays are developed from 
 which the religious element is entirely lacking, as is the case with 
 Griselidis.* 
 
 In the fifteenth century this secular spirit is less apparent. The 
 Mistere du Viel Testament shows the reappearance of Biblical plots, 
 a number of which are again met with in early tragi-comedies. 
 Jacob's theft of the paternal blessing, his flight, marriage, and 
 return, the finding of Moses by Pharaoh's daughter, the sufferings 
 
 1 Miracles de Nostre Dame, IV, 1-67. 
 
 2 Ibidem, v, 315-88. s Ibidem, v, 1-88. "Cf. page 2 above.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 7 
 
 of Job, the romantic adventures of Tobit l are repeated in the 
 tragi-coniedies of Jacob (1604), Johebed (1597), Job (1572), and 
 Thobie (1579). The story of Abraham, described at length in the 
 MisUre du Viel Testament, 2 reappears in a lost tragi-comedy con- 
 cerning " deux grieves tentations desquelles le patriarche Abraham 
 a 6te exerce." :i In the same century, prototypes of the romanesque 
 form of tragi-comedy can be found in Le Hoi Avenir,* Judith and 
 Esther from the Mistere du Viel Testament? and in La Destruction 
 de Troie. 6 These are continued in the early sixteenth century by 
 Saint Louis 7 and in several of the Douze Mysteres de Nostre Dame de 
 Liesse ; 8 by the lost Roy de CastUle ct la roync sur la mer, Histoire 
 romaine intituUe du Roy de Gascogne, and Le jugement du Roy 
 d'Aragon, played at Bethune, 1506, 1509, and 1526, respect- 
 ively ; 9 by Huon de Bordeaux (1557) and a drama in which un roi 
 Mabriant figured, two pieces known to have been played at Paris 
 by the Confrerie de la Passion. 10 
 
 By a parliamentary act of November 17, 1548, 11 moreover, 
 mysteres sacres were prohibited and only mysteres projphanes 
 allowed, so that dramatic authors were forced to seek secular 
 subjects, or to disguise their religious plays under a classical 
 form. This partly accounts for the two features of the tragi- 
 comedy that chiefly distinguish it from the medieval drama, its 
 secular character and its classical form. The fact that secular 
 miracles and mysthres are occasionally found, while religious tragi- 
 comedies are common in the sixteenth and still persist in the 
 seventeenth century, evidences the result of a literary evolution. 
 
 In the middle ages the miracles and mysteres possessed religious 
 and secular elements, of which the former predominated. The 
 
 1 Mistere du Viel Testament, n, 139-246 ; in, 238-245 ; v, 1-51, 52-129. 
 2 ii, 28-79. 3 See below, page 57. 
 
 * Petit de Julleville, Les Mysteres, II, 474. 
 
 5 v, 271-354 ; vi, 1-179. 
 
 6 Petit de Julleville, Les Mys&res n, 569. 
 
 ''Ibidem, 583. s Ibidem, 608. 
 
 9 Petit de Julleville, Repertoire, 358, 360, 376. 
 
 10 J. A. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile et morale de Paris (Paris, 1821), in, 
 125 and 127 in the edition of Laynadier. 
 
 11 Ibidem, 124.
 
 8 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 Renaissance so promoted the secular dramatic spirit that in the 
 latter half of the sixteenth century both religious and secular 
 plays occurred side by side, descended from the medieval plays, 
 but now bearing the name tragi-comedie. In the seventeenth cen- 
 tury the evolution is completed with the triumph of the secular 
 form, which was then used by all but a few conservatives. 
 
 Another case of development in the character of the subject 
 treated in tragi-comedies is observed in the growth of the idea 
 that an historic plot was to be avoided. Before the Renaissance, 
 historical subjects, like the Bapttme de Clovis 1 or the Siege 
 d' Orleans, 2 were treated side by side with the marvellous legend 
 of Robert le Dyable. 3 These were probably regarded as equally 
 historic by their authors, whose choice of subject was unaffected 
 by such considerations, as the exactness with which they drama- 
 tized their sources depended rather on the poverty of their 
 imagination than on a developed historical sense. In the early 
 tragi-comedies, subjects believed by their authors to be historical 
 were confined to those derived from the Old Testament narrative, 
 alongside of which occur romanesque dramas based on Ariosto 
 and Boccaccio. When the genre was fully developed in the 
 seventeenth century, the non-historical had so replaced the his- 
 torical subject, that treatment of the latter became practically 
 confined to the classical tragedy. 4 
 
 These statements, however, apply only to the conscious choice 
 of a non-historical theme. It is only with the development of a 
 general sense of the difference between the historical and the non- 
 historical that such choice became possible. As a matter of fact, 
 however, the non-historical theme was freely treated in the middle 
 ages and in the seventeenth century, so that the tragi-comedy 
 finds prototypes in this as well as in other respects among the 
 miracles and mysteres. 
 
 Not only are such medieval subjects non-historical, but they 
 possess frequently the romanesque qualities of the tragi-comedy. 
 
 1 Miracles de Nostre Dame, vil, 193-277. 
 
 2 Petit de Julleville, Les Mysteres, n, 576. 
 
 3 Miracles de Nostre Dame, vi, 1-77. 
 
 4 An exception occurs in L' 'union Belgique (1604.) 

 
 Its Origin and Development. 9 
 
 Similar themes are acceptable to authors of medieval plays and 
 of tragi-comedies, as is shown by a comparison of the plots of 
 the Miracle de Nostre Dame de la Marquise de la (iaudine 1 and 
 of La Polyxene Tragicomcedie (1597) by Jean Behourt. In the 
 former, the uncle of the marquise seeks in vain to seduce her 
 during her husband's absence. Desiring revenge for his repulse, 
 he puts a dwarf in her bed while she sleeps, pretends to find him 
 there, murders him, and accuses the marquise of adultery. The 
 husband on his return condemns her to be burned alive. Fortu- 
 nately a knight whom she has formerly befriended arrives at this 
 juncture, proclaims her innocence, and challenges whosoever 
 may deny it. The uncle accepts the challenge, is conquered, and 
 admits the falsity of the accusation. The marquis and marquise 
 are reunited, while the kuight is rewarded with half the former's 
 lands. The role of Nostre Dame is subordinate, as she descends 
 from heaven only to comfort the marquise and assure the knight 
 of her innocence. The same plot is found in La Polyxene, where 
 the knight is made the lover of the lady he rescues, to whom he 
 is united in marriage after her husband's opportune death in 
 battle. The subsidiary religious element introduced by the pres- 
 ence of Nostre Dame is wanting in La Polyxene. 
 
 The romanesque expression of love that is characteristic of the 
 tragi-comedy is also found in the miracle and mystere. The love 
 of a man and a maiden is recounted in La nonne qui laissa son 
 abbaic, 2 in Tobie, 3 and in the fifth of the Mysteres de Nostre Dame 
 de Liesse* but, as a rule, the heroine of these medieval genres is 
 a married woman, while in the tragi-comedy the removal of 
 obstacles to marriage forms the denouement of the piece. This 
 change is probably brought about by the freer position of unmar- 
 ried women after the middle ages. In both cases, however, love 
 is an important element of many plays, whether it be before or 
 after the marriage of the heroine. 
 
 The favorite medieval theme of a wife unjustly slandered by an 
 unsuccessful aud revengeful lover has already been noted in the 
 
 1 Miracles de Nostre Dame, l, 121-170. 
 
 2 See page 3 above. R See page 7 above.
 
 10 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 case of the Marquise de la Gaudine. It occurs again in Berthe, 1 
 VEmpereris de Rommc, 2 Oste roi d' Espaingne* La Fille du Roi 
 d' Hongrie* and in number seven of the Mysteres de Nostre Dame 
 de Liesse.* With these may be compared numerous tragi-comedies 
 in which the virtue of the heroine has been calumniated ; as, for 
 example, Genevre (1609), Madonte (1631), and La Virginie 
 (1633). 
 
 The woman's innocence is proved by resort to single combat 
 in Oste Roi d' Espaingne, 3 as it was in the Marquise de la Gaudine, 
 and as it is again in the tragi-comedies, Genevre and Madonte. 
 Duels for this and other reasons are, indeed, exceedingly frequent 
 in tragi-comedies and may also be found in the medieval drama. 
 An especially romanesque effect is produced when a woman puts on 
 armor to fight, disguised as a man. La Fille d'un roy 5 illustrates 
 this use for the medieval drama, as do La Saur valeureuse (1634), 
 Omphalic (1630) and L'infideUe Confidente (1631) for the tragi- 
 comedy. Such combats and the deaths that often accompany them 
 are portrayed, moreover, on the stage. In neither tragi-comedy 
 nor medieval drama is there any of the classic shrinking from the 
 melodramatic that places behind the scenes all violent displays of 
 physical force. 
 
 The exposure and subsequent recognition of children, disguises, 
 enlevements, assignations and other adventures furnish elements of 
 the romanesque to miracle, mystere and tragi-comedy. Amis et 
 Amille s is comparable with Scudery's LAgdamon et Lidias in its 
 portrayal of adventures due to a marvellous resemblance, with 
 Hardy's Gesippe in the setting forth of a friendship unto death. 
 The medieval hermit of Le Roi Avenir, 6 Saint Guillaume du 
 desert, 7 and other plays reappears in such tragi-comedies as 
 Madonte (1631) and L'Orizelle (1632). The medieval notion of 
 humor derived from the antics of a deranged 
 
 1 Miracles de Nostre Dame, v, 153-251. 2 Ibidem, iv, 237-313. 
 3 See above, page 6. i Ibidem. 
 
 b Miracles de Nostre Dame, vn, 1-117. 
 
 6 Petit de Julleville, Les Mysteres, ir, 474. 
 
 7 Miracles de Nostre Dame, n, 153.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 11 
 
 notably in Robert Je Dyahle ' and Un Parroissian esconmenie. 2 
 It is preserved in Les Folies de Cardenio (1625) and IJOspital 
 des Fous (1635). 
 
 Although the supernatural elements connected with almost every 
 miracle or mystere largely disappeared with the secularization of 
 the medieval play, they left traces in the tragi-comedy that are by 
 no means rare. The miracle of the fiery furnace, the magic 
 properties of Tobit's fish, the prophecies of the magician in La 
 Nouvelle tragicomique, the appearance of the diablon in Le Desespere 
 occur in plays to which the term, tragi-comedie, is applied in its 
 sixteenth century sense, but similar examples of the use of the 
 supernatural can be cited from seventeenth century plays. La 
 Clotilde (1613) and Richecourt (1628) are belated miracles, as 
 was the Tragi-comtdie de Saint-fitienne (1605). In Philandre et 
 Marisee (1619) the heroine returns from heaven to accompany her 
 husband thither. In V Inconstance punie (1630), the fickle pro- 
 tagonist is punished by a bolt from the skies. A magician appears 
 in Omphalle (1631), in Les Passions esgarees (1632) and in a 
 number of tragi-comMies pastorales. 
 
 These examples are sufficient to prove the persistence of medieval 
 dramatic qualities in the tragi-comedy as far as the subject of the 
 plays is concerned. It has been shown that the romanesque 
 characteristics of the miracle and mystere form an integral part of 
 the tragi-comedy, for not only did similar topics appeal to the 
 authors of each genre, but similar means were employed in the 
 development of the themes. The chief distinction to be made 
 regarding the subject matter of the genres is that the tragi-comedy 
 is largely secular, while the medieval drama is religious. It has 
 been shown, 3 however, that this character of the tragi-comedy is 
 the result of the spirit of its age, expressed by popular approval of 
 the secular, and legal prohibition of the religious drama, but that 
 the change has not been sufficiently complete to prevent survivals 
 of supernatural elements even in the tragi-comedy of the seven- 
 teenth century. 
 
 3. The happy denouement that constitutes a third feature of the 
 
 1 Ibidem, it, 1-77. 2 Ibidem, in, 1-65. s Page 6 seq.
 
 12 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 tragi-comedy occurs very frequently in the miracles and mysteres. 
 It is characteristic of a religious drama that virtue is rewarded 
 therein and vice punished. Even plays in which the holy pro- 
 tagonist is martyred cannot be considered tragic on account of the 
 heavenly consolation held out to the suffering saint. More imme- 
 diate, however, is the hero's reward in the fourteenth century 
 Miracles de Nostre Dame, where Our Lady plays the role of deus 
 ex machind, producing the astonishing results that are brought 
 about in a tragi-comedy by a combination of circumstances often 
 little less miraculous than those depicted in its medieval prototype. 
 
 In the fifteenth century, the plays of the MisUre du Viel Testa- 
 ment show the punishment of vice and reward of virtue that 
 characterize Old Testament narratives. The happy denouement is 
 also found in plays that deal with Christ's Resurrection, but not 
 with those that have to do with the Passion, if they be taken 
 individually. It is less common in the Cycle des Saints, though 
 the termination cannot be considered unhappy in such plays as 
 Saint Clement l or Sainte T>arbe, 2 where the souls of the martyrs are 
 carried to heaven by angels. Even the element of the tragic that is 
 present in a martyrdom is lacking in Sainte Genevieve, 3 U Institution 
 de V Ordre des Freres Prescheurs,* Marie MadeleineJ' Saint Nicolas, 6 
 and Saint Remy. 7 This happy termination is further characteristic 
 of Le Sie~ge d' Orleans,* but is lacking in La destruction de Troie. 9 
 
 While both endings are found in the sixteenth century, the happy 
 denouement predominates, characterizing especially the Douze Mys- 
 teres de Nostre Dame de Liesse. 10 
 
 It is evident, then, that while both forms of denouement existed 
 in the mysteres and miracles, the happy termination is there pre- 
 dominant. This fact is in keeping with the theory of the develop- 
 ment of the drame litre out of the medieval drama, for it contains 
 plays of tragic ending like Pkilanire femme d? Hippolyte (1577) 
 by the side of the tragi-comedy with its happy denouement ; but 
 
 1 Petit de Julleville, Les Mysteres, u, 493. 
 
 2 Ibidem, 486. 3 Ibidem, 515. 4 Ibidem, 522. 
 5 Ibidem, 533. 6 Ibidem, 541. 7 Ibidem, 555. 
 8 Ibidem, 576. » Ibidem, 569. i0 Ibidem, 608.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 13 
 
 just as in the middle ages, the play of happy termination pre- 
 dominated, so in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the tragi- 
 comedy with its happy ending is the leading form of the drame 
 libre. 
 
 4. The rank of the personages in the miracle and mystere is 
 much the same as in the tragi-comedy. Kings and princes, popes 
 and prelates, biblical leaders and members of the heavenly 
 hierarchy play principal roles in the medieval drama, serving as 
 prototypes to the aristocratic protagonists of the tragi-comedy. 
 In both kinds, however, bourgeois and plebeians may be added, 
 if the author so desires. 
 
 In R'Empereur Juliea l figure the emperor, Xostre Dame and 
 angels, the seneschal, two cavaliers, three clerks, three bourgeois 
 and attendants. In Griselidis 2 the marquis is allied to a shep- 
 herdess, daughter of an humble peasant. 27 Incarnation el la 
 Nativite de J.-C: J includes among its dramatis personal Dim 
 le pefre, Octavien empereur de Romme, leaders of the Jews, shep- 
 herds and women of Bethlehem. Besides heavenly personages, 
 the emperor, and prelates, Saint Crespin et Saint Crespinien 4 
 contains le messagier, le geollier, Rogier le bon homme, Pavie 
 bonne fame, le ladre, Vaveugle, le fol, his vallet, etc. In Saint 
 Chridophe b (1527) the three ranks are represented by King 
 Darius, two bourgeoys and Purdoyu, varlet du tavernier. 
 
 Among tragi-comedies that show the same mingling of men 
 of various ranks may be mentioned Rueelle (1576), Hardy's 
 Felismene, Res Heureuses Inforttmes (1618), Risandre et Caliste 
 (1632), in which a physician, a banker, servants, shepherds, 
 fishermen and a butcher are introduced along with leading char- 
 acters of princely rank. Many other examples can be cited to 
 show that in this respect the tragi-comedy shows a freedom of 
 treatment unknown to the classical stage and derived from the 
 usage of the medieval drama. 
 
 5. Another attribute of the tragi-comedy is the addition of 
 
 1 Miracles de Nostre Dame, ir, 171-226. 2 See above, page 2. 
 
 3 Petit de Julleville, Les Mysteres, n, 430. 
 
 4 Ibidem, 498. f> Ibidem, 491.
 
 14 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 comic elements as a frequent, if not an essential characteristic. 
 Similarly " le comique, dans le mystere, 6tait en somme episodique 
 plutot que necessaire ; un accident, non un element integrant du 
 poeme ; une broderie tres prodiguee sur un fond serieux." 1 
 Usually spoken by some special character as the fou, or the diable 
 when he is not tragic, this element was of exceedingly common 
 occurrence, as the reading of almost any miracle or mystb-e will 
 show. 2 
 
 These statements are equally true of the tragi-comedy, though 
 there are probably more plays in this genre that are entirely free 
 from comic elements than there are in its medieval predecessors. 
 Among tragi-comedies in which this feature is particularly evident 
 may be mentioned Lucelle (1576), Bradamante (1582), Ariadne 
 Rauie (about 1606), UEphesienne (1614) Les Folies de Cardenio 
 (1625), Tyr et Sidon (1628), L' Innocence Descouverte (1628), 
 Lisandre et Caliste (1632), and L'Ospital des Fous (1635). In 
 these, as in the myderes, the comic element is introduced to add 
 interest to the play, but is not essential to its existence. It is 
 usually found in the mouths of subordinate personages. 
 
 The many resemblances indicated between the tragi-comedy and 
 the medieval plays show clearly that it derived from them its 
 essential dramatic qualities as well as the stage on which it was 
 acted. There was no break here in the historical development of 
 the French theater, for the tragi-comedy was the chief of the 
 modernized seventeenth century forms of the medieval drama. 
 But all medieval dramatic forms were not represented in it to an 
 equal extent. The farce, as already mentioned, 3 was imitated by 
 only four so-called tragi-comedies besides portions of such plays 
 as Lucelle and U Innocence descouverte. As, moreover, it had already 
 inspired the comic elements in many of the mysteres, the greater 
 part of its influence on the tragi-comedy was probably exerted 
 through that medium. 
 
 The moraliU has been shown 4 to give rise to several tragi- 
 comedies of the sixteenth century. From it, furthermore, the 
 
 1 Petit de Julleville, Les Mysteres, I, 278. 
 
 2 Ibidem, 266-278. 3 See above, page 5. 4 Ibidem.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 15 
 
 younger genre introduced allegorical characters into such plays as 
 Polyxene (1597) and Pasithee (1624). Of greater importance, 
 however, was the influence of the moralite in deepening the study 
 of the moral ideas that prompted the actions of the various per- 
 sonages. The moralite has been called the commentary on the 
 text of the mystere and as such it has influenced the tragi-comedy, 
 which shows an advance beyond the mystere, from a psychological 
 point of view, although it is still greatly inferior in this regard to 
 the classical tragedy. 
 
 The tragi-comedy, however, is concerned more largely with inci- 
 dents than with their cause. When it teaches, it does so by 
 example rather than precept. In this respect it closely resembles 
 the miracle and mystere and shows its lack of essential connection 
 with the moralite. The miracle and mystere, moreover, are the 
 only medieval forms that show fully the construction of the tragi- 
 comedy, its serious fond and joyous denouement, its aristocratic 
 protagonist, its addition of the comic, and especially its choice of 
 the romanesque in subject and detail. There is no doubt that the 
 tragi-comedy originated in them rather than in any other medieval 
 form. 
 
 It is worthy of note that the tragi-comedy in its secular and 
 romanesque subject seems nearer to the fourteenth century Miracles 
 de Nostre Dame than to the Mystfrres of the fifteenth century. It 
 is probable, however, that many representatives of the miracle 
 were known during the fifteenth century, although they have not 
 been preserved, for they reappear in the sixteenth century Miracles 
 de Nostre Dame de Liesse. The fifteenth century mystere shows, 
 furthermore, sufficient resemblance to the tragi-comedy to be 
 regarded as its prototype, even had the miracle failed to survive, 
 for when either genre is secularized and given classical form, the 
 differences between it and the tragi-comedy are such as can be 
 readily explained by the modernity of the younger genre. So it is 
 that medieval mystb'es with biblical plot reappear as tragi-comedies, 
 and that belated miracles occur in the seventeenth century under 
 the title, tragi-comklie. By this time, however, the great majority 
 of tragi-comedies had undergone influences that had changed the 
 appearance, if not the essential qualities of the genre. It is these 
 influences that must now be discussed.
 
 16 The French Tragi- Comedy: 
 
 II. The Relation of the French Tragi-Comedy to 
 the Drama or Greece and Rome. 
 
 1. While the special influence of the drama of Greece and Rome 
 on the tragi-comedy is concerned largely with the form and name 
 adopted by the latter genre, there is a general influence of 
 more far-reaching effect that has been exerted by the ancient 
 stage in company with other Greek and Latin literary kinds. 
 This influence is not concerned in the creation of the tragi-comic 
 genre, but is important in deepening and secularizing its character, 
 in doing away with much medieval crudity and confusion, and in 
 individualizing the author and the personages he treats. These 
 phenomena are noticeable in Renaissance literature as a whole and 
 are due to the ancient stage only as it forms a part of the corpus 
 of classic literature. 
 
 From the individualization of the author results the fact that, 
 while medieval plays were largely anonymous, the authors of all 
 but thirteen tragi-comedies are known to us by name. 1 The per- 
 sonal spirit is shown, also, in the large number of dedications and 
 introductory writings attached to tragi-comedies. This reacts 
 upon the personages of the play, whose characters are more 
 varied, and show the results of more careful thought than do those 
 of the medieval drama. There is visible here and elsewhere a 
 toning down of the medieval exaggerations that indicates a tendency 
 toward realism, causing the disappearance of the miraculous from 
 most tragi-comedies. 
 
 The style has developed from the naive character of the mystere 
 to a degree of subjectivity that becomes preciosite with Scudery 
 and other authors. Classical allusions abound, frequently occurring 
 in the speech of most unsuitable persons. The employment of 
 such terms as Fleuve stygieux, 2 Parques fat-ales, 3 Champs Reliseens* 
 
 1 These are : Jacob ou Anlidolatrie, Purification du temple de Jerusalem, Henry 
 et Kunegonde, Ignace de Loyola, Lambertiade, La Gaule, Rebellion des grenouilles, 
 Fanfreluche et Gaudichon, Enfans de Turlupin, Saint Etienne, Alexandre et Annette, 
 Richecourt, and Agimee. 
 
 2 La Gaule, I. 3 Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher, n. 4 Thobie, II. 

 
 Its Origin and Development. 17 
 
 however, while showing classical influence, is not altogether a 
 departure from medieval usage, for there also classical pedantry at 
 times ran riot. 1 
 
 The tragi-comedy frequently employs classical names for its 
 personages, as, Mercure, 2 Bellone, 3 Hospes, 4 Hamarthie, 5 and 
 many others. Biehecourt (1628) is partly written in Latin, while 
 a quotation in that language closes Philandre et Marisee (1619). 
 These are only a few instances of the enormous influence exerted 
 on the tragi-comedy by classical literature, as a whole. It is 
 evident that changes thus brought about characterize other genres 
 as well as the tragi-comedy. For a more special influence on this 
 new dramatic kind, brought about by the classical drama only, 
 one must look elsewhere. 
 
 2. The influence of Seneca can be detected in a number of 
 tragi-comedies. The violent expressions of emotion, invocations 
 of heavenly powers, elaborate circumlocutions, mythological allu- 
 sions, overworked metaphors, and labored monologues that 
 characterize this author's plays are found in such tragi-comedies as 
 La Gaule, Bradamante, 6 V Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher, Theagene 
 et Cariclee, Genevre, Les Heureuses Infortunes and L'Innocenee 
 Descouverte. The plot of the latter play may be partly drawn from 
 Seneca's Phaedra or Euripides's Hijypolytus, though the happy 
 denouement and addition of extensive comic passages show that the 
 imitation amounts to little more than the repetition of the theme 
 of a woman's incestuous passion and her desire for vengeance on 
 the stepson whom she had failed to seduce. 
 
 A number of tragi-comedies draw their plots from Greek and 
 Latin authors, 7 but only one of them traces its source to a classical 
 play. This is Hardy's Alceste, which, the author states, is derived 
 
 1 Cf. Petit de Julleville, Les Mystcres, n, 261 seq. 
 
 2 La Gaule. 3 Gamier Stoffacher. * La Nouvclle tragicomiquc. 5 Zoanthropie. 
 
 6 For special influence here, cf. H. M. Schmidt- Wartenberg, Seneca' s Influence 
 on Robert Gamier, Darmstadt, 1888. 
 
 7 Two on Theagene et Cariclee ; Arsacomc, Procria, Alceste, Ariadne Rauie, L' Ephe- 
 sienne, Heureuses Infortunes, Gesippe, Phraarte, Aretaphile, Clilophon, Les Travaux 
 d' Ulysse. All but the last are by Hardy or by contemporary authors. Aristoclee 
 and Leandre et Heron, improperly called tragi-comedies, also have classical 
 subjects.
 
 18 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 from the Aleestis of Euripides. He does not understand Euripides's 
 dramatic principles, however, using him as he used Cervantes, 
 merely for the story set forth in his play. A comparison of the 
 two dramas is of interest, as it shows the difference in the con- 
 structions of a classical tragedy and a tragi-comedy. 
 
 Euripides's drama consists of a few important scenes closely 
 connected in interest and played by a small number of persons. 
 The ideas of death and guest-friendship that run throughout the 
 play give unity of action to the plot, which is also one in place and 
 time. The beauty of the play is largely derived from the study 
 of character and the portrayal of the heroine's noble sacrifice. 
 The thread of the narrative, after the preliminary debate between 
 Apollo and Death, is taken up just before the demise of Aleestis, 
 after she has consented to die for her lord. 
 
 Hardy, on the other hand, begins his narrative with the gods, 
 when Juno sends a messenger to bid Hercules go in search of 
 Cerberus. In Act II Admete laments his approaching end, while 
 listening to protestations of affection from his father and mother. 
 Then the message of the oracle is brought that allows one of them 
 to die for him. They refuse and Aleestis offers to sacrifice herself. 
 In Act III Hercules arrives and is told the situation by Admete, 
 whom he promises to aid by descending to the Royaume des morts. 
 This he actually does in the following act, much to the disgust of 
 the infernal powers. Finally he returns to earth with Alceste, 
 whom he reunites to Admete. 
 
 Hardy is far from Euripides, whom he follows but little. He 
 has combined with the Aleestis narrative the account of one of 
 Hercules's labors, iucluding his rescue of Theseus. The violation 
 of the unities is conspicuous. While Euripides selects artistically 
 the scenes of philosophical importance, Hardy puts the story on 
 the stage from beginning to end, hoping to sustain the interest 
 by the succession of surprising events. It is evident from this 
 example that, even where the same plot is dramatized, the tragi- 
 comedy in its essential elements, as a genre, is entirely independent 
 of classical influence. 
 
 3. There is, however, an obvious influence of the classical 
 drama on the tragi-comedy in the matter of the form in which the
 
 Its Origin and Development. 19 
 
 latter genre is written. Like the French classical tragedy, the 
 tragi-comedy is mainly composed in Alexandrine verse, the 
 French equivalent of the iambic hexameter. In five early plays, 
 it is true, the Alexandrine is altogether lacking ; for Lucelle (1576) 
 and Iohebed (1597) are written in prose; L'homme iustifie par 
 Foy (1552) and Les Enfants dans la Fournaise (1561) chiefly in 
 verses of ten syllables, Caresme Prenant (1595) in verses of eight 
 syllables. It must be noted, however, that these plays are all in 
 the sixteenth century, before the tragi-comedy is fully developed. 
 In the following century, the Alexandrine is the verse-form com- 
 monly employed in dialogue and monologue portions of the great 
 majority of tragi-comedies. 
 
 The tragi-comedy, however, shows much greater liberty than the 
 French classical tragedy with respect to its verse forms. While 
 the Alexandrine is the prevailing form employed, verses of eight 
 or six syllables occur in lyric passages, letters, love dialogues and 
 soliloquies. Echo-rimes are found in a number of instances 
 and sonnets are sometimes inserted. The subject of the use of 
 verse-forms in the tragi-comedy will be treated below. 1 For the 
 present it is sufficient to note that, while the classic influence pre- 
 dominates in determining the use of the Alexandrine, shorter verses 
 are employed with considerable freedom. 
 
 The division into five acts is employed in the tragi-comedy after 
 the Horatian precept and the Senecan example. The exceptions 
 that occur are found chiefly in sixteenth century plays. There is 
 no such division, for example, in Trols Enfants dans la Fournaise 
 (1561) or in La Nouvelle tragicomique (1597). La Gaule (about 
 1561) is divided into four acts; L' Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher 
 (1584) into three. The subdivision into scenes is slightly less 
 common ; it is absent not only from the plays that show no act- 
 division, but also from La Gaule, L' Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher, 
 La Polyxene (1597), L'Ephesienne (1614) and L'Ethiopique (1609). 
 Concerning such divisions the author of L'homme iustifie" par Foy 
 writes : " Touchant la disposition et ordre que i'ay tenu en la 
 Tragique Comedie ie Fay disposee par Actes et Scenes, non tant 
 
 'Pages 81, 99, and 146.
 
 20 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 pour limitation de Poetes comiques, que pour la division des propos 
 et des dialogues." Be this as it may, the classical influence is 
 evident where the division is made. The authors of the fully 
 developed tragi-comedy carried it as far as did those of the French 
 classic tragedy, though they did not show the same exactitude in 
 changing the scene with every variation in the number of persons 
 on the stage. 1 
 
 Another example of the classical influence is found in the chorus, 
 which, however, never occupied an important place in the tragi- 
 comedy and soon disappeared from it altogether. Where the 
 chorus occurs, it shows a wide variety of function. In a number 
 of tragi-comedies it plays the purely external role of commenter on 
 the action, without taking any part in it. 2 In others it remains 
 external in reality, but bears something of the spirit of the play by 
 assuming a name appropriate to it. Thus, one finds Choeur de Baby- 
 loniens in Les Enfants dans la Fournaise (1561) ; Choeur des 
 soldats, des anges, and des vaincus in Richecourt (1628). In 
 U Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher (1584) there are three choruses, 
 who debate with one another and with the characters, but who 
 represent lyric elements throughout. Here the chorus plays the 
 double role of personage and commenter. This is true also of the 
 chorus in Tobie (1579). The evolution from the lyric to the 
 dialogue-role is shown at a further developed stage in Agimee 
 (1629), where the Choeur des Luteciens and the Choeur des Bergers 
 dance and play with the actors, so that they are scarcely more 
 lyric than the latter. The last step before its disappearance is 
 taken when the chorus becomes a band of men like the Roman 
 mob in Julius Caesar. This is its function in Hardy's Theagene 
 et Cariclee and Phraarte. In general, however, Hardy has aban- 
 doned the chorus in his tragi-comedies, thereby setting an example 
 that was followed by his successors, except by the monk that 
 wrote Rieheeourt and by the author of Agimee, which is practically 
 a tragi-comedie pastorale. 
 
 1 Ct, for example, Madonte, i, 2 and 3 ; Ligdamon et Lidias, I, 1, and V, 1. 
 Argents et Poliarque, II, 1 and IV, 2. 
 
 2 Cf. La Oaule, Polyxene, Jacob, Geneve, U Ephesicnne, Philandre et Marisee.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 21 
 
 In its length, the tragi-comedy also shows the effect of classical 
 influence ; for, while it is rarely as short as a Greek or Latin 
 tragedy, it is briefer than the usual miracle, or mystere. The idea 
 had now become established, futhermore, that the play must be 
 acted at a single performance, a custom that had not always been 
 adhered to during the middle ages. The few tragi-comedies that 
 violate this rule have been noted above. 1 
 
 In these matters of form, however, as in its style and secular 
 spirit, the tragi-comedy has received from the stage of the Greeks 
 and of the Romans only what came in fuller measure to the French 
 classical tragedy. None of these characteristics serves to mark it 
 as a genre different from contemporary dramatic kinds. In this 
 respect, indeed, the only service rendered to the tragi-comedy by 
 the classical drama is the formation of its genre name, first used, 
 however in an entirely different sense from that in which it was 
 applied in France. 
 
 4. The term, tragi-comedy, first occurs in the Prologue to the 
 Amphitruo of Plautus, where Mercury calls the play a tragi- 
 comcedia 2 because gods and kings are introduced into the comedy 
 along with slaves. The passage runs as follows : 
 
 Quid? contraxistis frontem quia tragcediam 
 
 dixi futuram hanc? deu'sum commutauero. 
 
 eandem hanc, si uoltis, faciam <iaui> ex tragoedia 
 
 comcedia ut sit omnibus isdem uorsibus 
 
 utrum sit an non uoltis ? sed ego stultior, 
 
 quasi nesciam uos velle, qui diuos siem. 
 
 teneo quid animi uostri super hac re siet : 
 
 faciam ut commixta sit, <^sit> tragico[co]moedia ; 
 
 nam me perpetuo facere ut sit comcedia, 
 
 reges quo ueniant et di, non par arbitror 
 
 quid igitur? quoniam hie seruos quoque partis habet, 
 
 faciam sit, proinde ut dixi, tragico[co]mcedia. 3 
 
 1 Page 5. 
 
 2 The versification shows that this is the proper form, rather than tragicocomwdia, 
 which appears in the MS. and has been repeated in a number of plays of an aca- 
 demic type such as the Hypocrisis of Gnaphaeus (1544), the Gedeon of Libertus ab 
 Hauthem (1575), etc. 
 
 3 Amphitruo, prologus, 52-63. T. Macci Plauti Comcedice, edited by W. M. Lind- 
 say, Oxford, 1903, 2 vols.
 
 22 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 This passage has been noted in connection with the French tragi- 
 comedy by Scaliger, 1 and after him by d ; Aubignac, 2 Voltaire, 3 Les- 
 sing, 4 and others. The second of these, after mentioning Plautus, 
 declares that the name is "une raillerie qu'il fait dans son Prologue, 
 en ioignant les noms de ces deux Poemes comme il en avoit mele" les 
 Personnages." Plautus's intent is certainly humorous, but he is at 
 the same time serious in his objection to applying the term, comcedia, 
 to a play in which gods appear. A tragicomoedia is, therefore, a 
 comcedia into which are introduced personages ordinarily confined 
 to the tragoedia. Such a use of the word is approved by Lactantius 
 Placidus, who writes in his Commentaries in Statu Thcbaida, 
 " Tiryntha Deus. Iuppiter mutatus in Amphitryonem concubuisse 
 cum Alcmena Electryonis filia dicitur in urbe Tirynthia . unde 
 natus est Hercules , unde et Tirynthius dicitur. de qua Plautus 
 tragicomcediam dixit." 5 In other words, the mingling of men of 
 different rank gives rise to the tragi-comedy. 
 
 Now, this basis of nomenclature does not apply to the French 
 tragi-comedy, for, although this genre frequently permits similar 
 mixing, it has at times only such personages as would be admitted 
 into a Greek tragedy. 6 Furthermore, if the mingling of rank were 
 the only essential to constitute a tragi-comedy, the Amphitruo 
 would be called a tragi-comedie in France ; yet Rotrou, whose 
 numerous tragi-comedies show that he well understood the nature 
 of the genre, called his Deux Sosies, which is a reworking of the 
 Amphitruo, not a tragi-eomedie, but a comedie. In so many other 
 respects, also, does the Amphitruo fail to meet the requirements of 
 the French genre, that the name tragi-eomedie seems to be practi- 
 cally the only evidence of connection between them. 
 
 No historical objection can be raised against the derivation of the 
 term from Plautus's use of it; for the Amphitruo, never entirely 
 lost during the middle ages, was studied under Pope Paul II 
 
 1 Poetices, 34. 2 Pratique du Theatre, 194. 
 
 3 Eemarques surle Cid, i, 4, verse 75, in Oeuvres Completes {Paris, 1784, 69 vols.) 
 L, 112. 
 
 * Hamburg ische Dramaturgic, 234. 
 
 5 Kicardus Jahnke, P. Papinius Statius, in, 200, Leipzig, 1898, 3 vols. 
 
 6 Cf. Bradamanie (1582), Aretaphile (1618) or V Indienne Amoureuse (1635).
 
 Its Origin and Development. 23 
 
 (1464-71), was played at Rome, and subsequently (1487 and 
 1491) at Ferrara, and was published at Venice in 1472, 1482, 
 1495 and 1499. l It was sufficiently well known in France and 
 Spain to be translated by Meschinot in 1509 and Villalobos in 
 1515; it was acted, moreover, at several German towns during 
 the first half of the sixteenth century. 2 With the spread of the 
 play came the knowledge of the term tragicomoedia, which seems to 
 have been looked upon by the sixteenth century playwright as a 
 classic label for any dramatic production that bore a resemblance, 
 however slight, to both tragedy and comedy. Thus applied to 
 various kinds of plays in France and other European countries, it 
 did not attain a fixed meaning till the beginning of the following 
 century. The influence of the tragi -comedies that sprang up after 
 this fashion in other countries, on the development of the genre in 
 France, must now be discussed. 
 
 III. The Relation of the French Tragi-Comedy to 
 that of Other European Countries. 
 
 The French tragi-comedy has been shown to derive its leading 
 characteristics from the medieval drama, just as it takes its form 
 and name from the classical Latin stage. These elements were 
 united in French plays toward the middle of the sixteenth century 
 after they had given rise to tragi-comedies in other lands. The 
 question whether these older tragi-comedies did not exert an influ- 
 ence on the development of the genre in France may, therefore, 
 be aptly put. For the discussion of the reply to this question, I 
 have prepared a list of all tragi-comedies that I have been able to 
 find, written before 1582, the date of the publication of Gamier' s 
 Bradamante. This play, although the tenth French work called 
 tragi-comedy, has been chosen because it gives a conspicuous early 
 example of the form that the genre ultimately took, and because, 
 with its appearance, the tragi-comedy won for itself so definite an 
 
 x Cf. C. von Reinhardstottner, Plautus, Spcitere Bearbeitungen, 21, 50, 51, 162; and 
 Brunet, Manuel, iv, 705-8. 
 
 2 Cf. Reinhardstottner, ibidem, 138, 174, 35 seq.
 
 24 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 existence that it is idle to look for forces that acted later in the 
 creation of the genre. The tragi-comedies are arranged according 
 to the dates of their first editions ; * with the titles, names of 
 authors, places of publication, and dates of reprints as late as 
 1582. This list of tragi-comedies forms Appendix A. 
 
 As the three earliest tragi-comedies hold a position chronolo- 
 gically detached from other plays of this genre and fall into no 
 group that might be investigated as a whole, they will be first 
 discussed in the order in which they were published. 2 The subse- 
 quent plays will then be treated 3 in four groups, according to the 
 language in which they were composed. The order of treatment 
 will be as nearly chronological as possible, beginning with the 
 Spanish and Portuguese plays, and following them with those 
 written in Italian, in Latin, and in the Teutonic languages. 
 
 A. The Earliest Tragi— Comedies. 
 
 1. Fernandus Servatus (1494), the first tragi-comedy, was 
 written in Latin prose by Carlo Verardi and done into hexameters 
 by his nephew, Marcellino. The historical subject, the attempted 
 assassination of Ferdinand, King of Spain, by a lunatic, has been 
 altered for dramatic and religious purposes. Tisiphone, sent to 
 earth by Pluto, induces Ruifus to attempt the King's murder. 
 After he has succeeded only in wounding him, the Queen prays 
 for the King's recovery and is comforted by Saint James. The 
 King then enters miraculously healed and the chorus commends 
 the example set by the royal pair. 
 
 This slight production is chiefly interesting as showing the con- 
 tinuation of medieval ideas of dramatic composition despite the 
 introduction of certain classical names and traditions. The story 
 is acted from the first inception of the plot. The unity of place 
 is lacking, for the scene is laid in the infernal regions as well as 
 at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. The strong religious 
 spirit that pervades the piece culminates in the appearance of Saint 
 
 1 Unless their existence at an earlier date is well established. 
 
 2 Pages 24-27. 3 Pages 27-34.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 25 
 
 James, and in the King's miraculous recovery. The classical 
 names, Pluto and the Furies, are mere epithets attached to medie- 
 val personages, in whose assembly Creizenach 1 sees the influence 
 of the plots laid by devils in the medieval drama. In these 
 respects it shows resemblances to early French tragi-coniedies, to 
 which it bears further resemblance in its serious subject, aristo- 
 cratic personages, and happy denouement. The chief distinction, 
 indeed, to be made between it and such a play as Les Enfants 
 dans la Fournaise (1561) lies in the fact that its subject is drawn 
 from contemporary rather than from biblical history. This varia- 
 tion indicates that the author was an innovator, as is shown by his 
 composing this play and the Historia baetica in prose. The spirit 
 in which he writes is evident from his prologue to the latter play, 
 where he states his opposition to the writers of classical comedy : 
 
 Apporto non Plauti, aut Naeuii comoedias, 
 Quas esse fictas scitis omnes fabulas, 
 At nouam nobis verarnque fero historian!, 
 Per quam licebit nosse, ut summi principes 
 Ferdinandus & coniunx, domuerunt Bseticam 
 
 Praesertim cum ulta hie tyrannorum scelera 
 Non sitis audituri, aut fastus regios, 
 Intolerandam vel bonis superbiam, 
 Quae ssepe describi solent tragoediis. 
 Neque audientur lenonum hie periuria, 
 Seruorum technse, aut meretricum blanditia?, 
 Auara non usquara lena hie inducitur, 
 Milesue gloriosus, aut sycophanta impudens, 
 Edaxue parasitus, vel matrona impudens, 
 Paterue durus, aut amator cupidus, 
 Et reliqua, quae in Graiis nostrisque comicis. 
 Spectata praebent voluptatem plurimarn. 
 Verum pudica, honestaque hie sunt omnia. 
 
 Requirat autem nullus hie comoedise 
 Leges ut obseruentur, aut tragoedise, 
 Agenda nempe est historia, non fabula. 2 
 
 It was in this reformer's spirit that Verardi rehabilitated the 
 
 1 Geschichtc, n, 9. 
 
 ^Ezpugnatio Begni Granalce.. Caroli Verardi Ccesenatis in Historian. Bwticam. 
 Prologus. Hispanias Illustratai, u, 862 (Frankfort, 1603, 4 vols.)-
 
 26 The French Tragi- Corned y : 
 
 title, tragi-comcedia, and applied it to the Renaissance treatment 
 of a medieval play. As his selection of a plot from contemporary 
 history was not followed in France, he altered nothing in the 
 medieval essentials inherited by the tragi-comedy, simply showing 
 that it was possible to treat them under a more classical form. 
 In this way he introduced the grafting of classical elements on the 
 medieval stem, and though he did not carry far this procedure, 
 not even dividing his play into acts and scenes, he thus rendered 
 an important service to the formation of the genre. That his play 
 was known outside of Italy and could consequently influence the 
 mingling of classic and medieval elements in other countries is 
 evidenced by its reprint at Strasburg in 1513. 
 
 2. Kitzscher's Profectione (1501), the second play to be called 
 a tragi-comedy, was probably influenced by the works of Verardi, 
 as it concerned a contemporary event of some importance and was 
 written by a German who had studied in Italy. Like the Historia 
 baetica, too, it is composed in Latin prose without divisions into 
 acts or scenes, and its author declares in his prologue that it is a 
 true history, neither tragedy nor comedy. The play deals with 
 the departure of the Duke of Pomerania on a pilgrimage and the 
 lamentations of the duchess till she receives good tidings from the 
 messenger, who narrates at length the incidents of the duke's jour- 
 ney. The classic unities of place and of action, if action there be, 
 are here preserved, though the unity of time is violated. Although 
 allied by aristocratic personages, serious subject, and happy denoue- 
 ment with the French tragi-comedy, it is opposed to the latter in 
 the source of its subject, which is derived from contemporary 
 history. The play is too academic in character to have met with 
 great popularity. Its chief service seems to have lain in introdu- 
 cing the term tragicocomedia to the German writers of Latin. 
 
 3. The Celestina was first called a tragi-comedy in 1502. Its 
 plot is too well known to be analyzed here. The play is a comedy 
 of manners with a tragic ending and by no means a tragi-comedy 
 in the French sense. The following explanation has been made 
 of the use of the term tragieomedia : 
 
 " Otros ban litigado sobre el nombre, diciendo que no se habia de llamar comedia, 
 pues acaba en tristeza, sino que se llamase tragedia. El primer autor quiso dar
 
 Its Origin and Development. 27 
 
 denominacion del principio, que fue placer, 6 llamola coraedia : yo viendo estas 
 discordias entre estos estremos, parti agora por medio la porfia, e llamola Iragi- 
 comedia." 1 
 
 As the unhappy ending, which suggests the first part of this 
 compound term, does not occur in the French tragi-comedy, the 
 Celestina does not seem to have aided in the creation of the genre 
 as known in France. On account of its great length, it was 
 probably not considered a dramatic work at all, but a prose romance 
 of daily life. The only service this work rendered the tragi-comedy 
 was that of spreading its name through the various coun tries of 
 Europe in which the euormous popularity of the Celestina caused 
 it to be repeatedly translated or reprinted. 
 
 It is in this spreading of the name of the new genre, indeed, 
 that lies the importance of these early tragi-comedies. They did 
 not affect the matter of the medieval drama, nor did they show the 
 classical form of the fully developed French tragi-comedy. What 
 they brought about was the use of the genre name and the begin- 
 ning of tendencies that resulted in the application of a classical 
 form to the French tragi-comedy. 
 
 B. Non-French Tragi- Comedies from 1513 to 1582. 
 
 A glance at the list of tragi-comedies given in Appendix A 
 shows that: 
 
 1. Eleven were written in Spanish and Portuguese between 
 1513 and 1542. The earliest nine of these were the work of Gil 
 Vicente, one of the first European dramatists to modernize the 
 medieval drama. Most of his tragicomedias are in the nature of 
 Festspiele, courtly productions of an allegorical aud mythological 
 nature, that show a robuster tone in the introduction of well-drawn 
 personages from the lower walks of life. They are mostly slight 
 compositions, a kind of interlude without divisions into acts and 
 scenes. 
 
 Two of them, however, Dom Duardos and Amadis de Gaula, 
 bear striking resemblance to the French tragi-comedy in their 
 
 1 In the author's prologue, Biblioteca de Autores espanoles, in, 12.
 
 28 The French Tragi- Comedy: 
 
 romanesque subjects, derived from chivalric romances, their con- 
 struction, termination, personages, and comic elements. They 
 differ from the French species, indeed, only on the formal side, for 
 the divisions into acts and scenes is not made, and the verse form 
 is much more lyric than that of the French genre. These two 
 plays, written, with the exception of stage directions, entirely in 
 Spanish, seem to be the forerunners of the later comedia. We 
 have no evidence that they exerted any influence in France, as 
 there is no indication of a knowledge of Vicente's work in that 
 country. In a consideration of the French tragi-comedy, however, 
 his drama is of interest, as it exemplifies the fact that similar 
 medieval and classical influences at work in France and Portugal 
 produced plays of much the same kind. 
 
 The two tragi-comedies by Spaniards are of less interest. The 
 Tragicomedia alegorica del Paraiso y del injierno is an allegorical 
 play of medieval spirit imitated from an auto by Gil Vicente ; 
 the Lysandro y Roselia is a prose continuation of the Celestina. 
 Neither of these works appears to have exerted any influence on 
 the French tragi-comedy, nor do they offer examples of parallel 
 development, as was the case with the work of Gil Vicente and 
 as will be found true of the Italian tragi-comedy, to which atten- 
 tion must now be paid. 
 
 2. The first Italian tragicommedia, the Cecaria, is a pastoral 
 drama on the recovery of three men, struck blind by love. The 
 name dialogo, applied to the early editions of it, might well have 
 been retained. It is by no means a tragi-comedy in the French 
 sense of this term, yet this is the only Italian tragi-comedy com- 
 posed before 1582 that was translated into French as a tragi- 
 comedie. It so appeared in 1594 as Les Aveugles. 
 
 La Potenza d'Amore relates an unsuccessful lover's attempt at 
 suicide. The leading personages appear to be bourgeois. Minor 
 roles are played by Pedante, Zani, and Collubrino, a magician. 
 The play is a comedy of manners rather than a tragi-comedy in 
 the French sense. 
 
 The greater number of early Italian tragi-comedies are based 
 on classical narratives. Apollo e Leucotoe, II Ratio d' Helena, and 
 II Giudizio di Paride speak for themselves. La Cangenia may
 
 Its Origin and Development. 29 
 
 be added to these, as in it the author treats the conflict between 
 the Carthaginians and the Romans. Now, had these plays influ- 
 enced the French genre, it is impossible that the classical subject 
 would not have been employed there as well. In reality, however, 
 the first French tragi-comedies that show plots derived from class- 
 ical authors were written by Hardy fifty years later. 1 
 
 The only Italian tragi-comedy, in fact that is similar to the 
 French form of the genre is the Quintilia (1567), a play which is 
 romanesque in its love intrigue and in the discovery by a father of 
 a long lost son ; aristocratic in its personages, who belong to the 
 court of Sicily, where the spectator is introduced by the ghost of 
 the king; serious in the main, but comic in such subordinate 
 characters as Trulla, the court buffoon, and Gallofria with his 
 Bergamasco dialect. The play comes, however, rather late to 
 influence the French tragi-comedy in its origin, for not only had 
 the genre name appeared in France four times before the Quintilia 
 was published, but one of the plays to which the name was applied 
 belongs to the romanesque type of tragi-comedy, typified by the 
 Italian play, and it was acted as early as 1564. There is, more- 
 over, no evidence that the Quintilia was known in France during 
 the formative period of the tragi-comedy. One sees here another 
 example of parallel and independent development already noted in 
 the two dramas of Gil Vicente. 2 
 
 While the Italian tragi-comedy had no influence on the French 
 play of the same genre name, an Italian comedy, the Amor 
 costante (1540) by Alessandro Piccolomini is the source of Lueelle 
 tragi-comedie de Louis Le Jars (1576). The latter play is however, 
 an exceptional variety of tragi-comedy, 3 nearly approaching the 
 comedie bourgeoise, and has small influence on other members of 
 the genre. It shows the qualities that would have belonged to the 
 tragi-comedy, had that form of the drama originated in Italian 
 plays of the Renaissance rather than in the products of the medie- 
 val stage. 
 
 1 Procris and Alceste, for example. 
 
 2 See above, page 27. 
 
 3 See below, page 62.
 
 30 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 Italian influence is exerted on the Bradamante (1582) and the 
 lost Genievre (1564), tragi-comedies that derive their plots from 
 the Orlando Fwrioso. As Gamier is known to have drawn his 
 play directly from Ariosto, and as the author of Genievre seems to 
 have done the same thing, there is no influence of the Italian 
 drama on these plays, which followed their epic source, as the 
 medieval mystere followed the Bible or a roman d'aventure. One 
 sees here the same phenomenon that he observes in regard to the 
 Spanish influence on the French drama. Just as the novelas of 
 Cervantes furnished plots to Hardy in the first years of the seven- 
 teenth century, while the influence of the Spanish drama did not 
 begin before the appearance of Rotrou' s Bague d'Oubli (1628), 1 
 so the Orlando Furioso furnished plots for French tragi-comedies 
 of 1564 and 1582, when the Italian tragi-comedy was unknown 
 in France. 
 
 Italian dramatic influence was of another sort, being exerted on 
 the comedy and the pastoral. The strolling Italian comedians, 
 who played farces and other pieces of a light order, apparently 
 did not indulge in the more serious tragi-comedy. The pastoral 
 and its allied form, the tragi-comedie pastorale, came later in the 
 wake of the Aminta (1580) and the Pastor fido (1590). These 
 forms were too late to influence the formation of the French tragi- 
 comedy, which seems, on the other hand, to have been one of the 
 formative forces in the tragi-comedie pastorale. This latter genre 
 however, is but a variety of the pastoral and consequently lies 
 outside the scope of this dissertation. 2 
 
 The early Italian tragi-comedy, like that of Gil Vicente, offers 
 a parallel to the French, while exerting no influence upon it. All 
 three kinds are medieval products, modernized by a classical 
 influence that is particularly noticeable in Italy. Somewhat differ- 
 ent is the influence of the Latin tragi-comedy, which, as next in 
 chronological order, must now be considered. 
 
 3. One of the chief sixteenth century forms of the French 
 tragi-comedy is that which clothes in a largely classical form a 
 
 1 Cf. Martinenche, La Comedia espagnole, 167. 
 * Cf. Marsan, La Pastorale Dramatique, 402-18.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 31 
 
 plot derived from the biblical narrative. Iu the tragi-coinedies 
 of which the subject is known, are told the stories of the sacrifice 
 of Isaac, the three children in the fiery furnace, Tobit, Jacob, 
 Jokebed, and Job. As these accounts had furnished plots to 
 medieval French dramatists, the sixteenth century writers of 
 tragi-comedies may have reworked them in classical form with- 
 out other influence. As, however, the Latin Renaissance drama, 
 especially of countries to the east of France, exhibits the same 
 or similar biblical plots with classical form and frequently with 
 tragi-comic title, it seems probable that the Latin Renaissance 
 drama exerted an influence on this form of the French tragi- 
 comedy in teaching its authors the application of a classical form 
 to a medieval drama. 
 
 The school of Latin dramas, just referred to, began with the 
 Acolastus of Gnaphaeus in 1529 and spread through much of 
 Western Europe. The plays are called indiscriminately come- 
 dia, tragedia, historia, tragicoeomedia, drama comieotragicum, etc. 
 Comedia is the most usual term employed ; tragedia is ordinarily 
 applied to a play that ends unhappily ; the other terms are used 
 with little discrimination, except that they are commonly char- 
 acterized by a happy denouement. The plays are medieval in 
 their violation of the unities, religious spirit, and comic elements, 
 while in their form, title, and style they show the effects of 
 classical imitation. Written chiefly in the Rhine valley, Bavaria, 
 and Belgium, they were published largely at Bale, Augsburg, 
 Cologne, and Antwerp, whence they inspired productions in 
 France, England, and Portugal. In the first of these countries 
 they were followed by a number of plays called tragedies, tragi- 
 comedies, and, rarely, comedies. A number of examples can be 
 cited to indicate the similarity of subject between the Latin and 
 French plays and their indiscriminate use of genre name. 
 
 The sacrifice of Isaac was dramatized by Ziegler in 1543 
 without name of genre 1 and by Philicinus in 1546 as a Dialogus. 1 
 Beza in 1551 wrote of his Abraham sacrifiant: "Pour venir a 
 1' argument que je traite, il tient de la tragedie et de la comedie, 
 
 1 Goedeke, Grundrisz, n, 137.
 
 32 The French Tragi-Comedy : 
 
 et pour cela ay separe le prologue et divise le tout en pauses a, la 
 facon des actes des comedies, sans toutefois m'y assujettir. . . . 
 Et parce qu'il tient plus de l'un que de l'autre j'ay mieux ainsi 
 l'appeler tragedie." l In 1588 a tragi-comedy was given at 
 Montbeliard " en laquelle figure l'histoire des deux grieves tenta- 
 tions desquelles le patriarche Abraham a ete exerce." 2 
 
 Again, Schoepper called his Monomachia Davidis et Goliae a 
 tragicocomoedia, z Desmazures styled David combattant, which 
 treats the same subject, a tragedie saincte* Judith is the heroine 
 of a drama comicotragicum by Betulius 5 and of a tragedie sacre"e 
 by Pierre Heyns. 6 The latter author tells the story of Moses' 
 rescue from amid the bulrushes in a tragi-come'die, an event 
 which forms part of the Exodus, comcedia tragica by Lauri- 
 manus. 7 Susanna, heroine of a number of Latin plays, will 
 be noted 7 as furnishing the title to Betulius's Comcedia Tragica 
 and to Godran's Susannae Helchiae filiae tragica comcedia. 7 The 
 latter is particularly important, as it was written by a French- 
 man and published at Dijon. Furthermore, Tobie, the tragi- 
 comedy composed by Mile des Roches and Jacques Ouyn, treats 
 the same subject as Tobias, Comcedia sacra by Laurimanus. 8 
 The Tragicomcedia ex Daniele prophetd 7 has the same source 
 as the Tragi-comedie. V Argument pris du troisieme chapitre de 
 Daniel. 9 
 
 These and other examples that can be cited show the indis- 
 criminate method of genre classification and the similarity of 
 subjects treated in Latin and French. The plays are important 
 as giving early examples of the fusion of medieval dramatic 
 material with classical dramatic form, a phenomenon that is 
 characteristic of the French tragi-comedy. Violation of the 
 unities, biblical plot, happy denouement, comic elements, mingling 
 
 1 Lanson, Revue d'hist. litt., xi, 579. 
 
 2 See below, page 57. 3 See Appendix A. 
 
 4 La Valliere, Bibliotheque du Thedtrefrancois, I, 181. 
 
 5 See Appendix A. 
 
 8 Le Miroir des Vefves, Tragedie sacree d'Holoferne et Iudith, Amsterdam, 1596. 
 
 7 See Appendix A. 
 
 8 Goedeke, Grundrisz, 139. 9 See below, page 49.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 33 
 
 of persons of various ranks, classical division into acts and scenes, 
 and classical genre name are found in both cases. The biblical 
 drama is, indeed, practically the same, whether written in Latin 
 or French, except that the latter has a greater popularity by 
 reason of its use of the vernacular. In this respect, therefore, 
 the biblical Latin drama differs from the Italian, Spanish, and 
 Portuguese tragi-comedy, with the exception of Celestina, for, 
 while the latter shows no influence on the French genre, the former 
 has aided in the creation of one branch of it and has given to the 
 whole the name it derived from the works of Verardi, Kitzscher, 
 and, possibly, Rojas. 
 
 This statement cannot, however, be applied to all the Latin 
 dramas of the period, for the Latin biblical tragi-comedies of 
 Portugal and the Latin tragi-comedies of non-biblical plot show 
 no influence upon the French genre. Of the four plays belonging 
 to the latter class that will be mentioned below, 1 the Voluptatis ae 
 virtutis pugna seems an echo of the medieval morality on the war 
 of the virtues and vices, the Hypocrisis and Inelyta Aeneis are 
 classical, in plot, while the Ecdesia Militans is a priestly treatise 
 on the history of the Catholic church. The Portuguese Latin 
 drama seems too remote to have influenced the French stage, with 
 which, furthermore, most of its biblical plays are contemporary. 
 The subjects treated by the Portuguese, Josephus, Prodigus, 
 Sedeeias, Golias, are the same as those already found further north. 
 In Portugal, however, despite the early spontaneous productions 
 of Gil Vicente, the tragicomedia assumes an especially classical 
 meaning, furnishing the chief name to the drama which the Jesuits 
 opposed to the more natural work of Vicente and his followers. 
 Here, perhaps, as in the neighboring University of Salamanca, 
 the term was practically the equivalent of tragedia. 2 At any 
 rate, there is no evidence of its influence in France. 
 
 4. The tragi-comedy written in Teutonic languages appeared 
 
 1 Pages 87, 92, 93. 
 
 2 Vidal y Diaz, Memoria historica de la Universidad de Salamanca, 69 (Salamanca, 
 1869): "Cada afio se representara una comedia de Plauto o Terencio o tragi- 
 ccmiedia . . . . las dichas comedias o tragedias." Cf. Creizenach, Gesckichle, II, 79.
 
 34 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 too late to influence the formation of the genre in France. This 
 is particularly true of the Danish play, Susanna of 1579. 1 Of 
 German plays of the period treated (1513-82), I have found the 
 term only in Valentin Boltz's Tragicomoedia Sant Pauls bekerung 
 (1546) * and in Hederich's David und . . . Absolon (1567). 1 It 
 does not appear to have been in general use till much later, for, 
 even in 1592 it has to be translated by Hoius when he writes, 
 Tragicocomosdia Actapostolica, Das ist: Die Historie der heiligen 
 Aposteln Geschicht. 2 This term, historie, is applied to the German 
 versions of Sixtus Betulius's Susanna and Judith. 3 It is, indeed, 
 only by the Susanna and other Latin reworkings of German plays 
 that any influence came to the French tragi-comedy from plays 
 written in the German language. 4 
 
 Not only do the English tragi-comedies come too late to influ- 
 ence the French, but two of the three examples mentioned below 5 
 are essentially opposed to the French conception of the genre. 6 
 Appius and Virginia is a tragedy, The Glasse of Gouernement a 
 belated morality that inclines toward the bourgeois comedy. 
 Damon and Pithias, on the other hand, resembles closely the French 
 genre, in which Chappuzeau wrote (1656) a Damon et Pythias 
 ou les parfaits amis. There is no further evidence, however, of a 
 knowledge of the English play in France and, as the French play 
 on the same subject appeared a century after the formation of the 
 genre, it must be concluded that there is here, as in the case of 
 Italian and Portuguese plays, merely another interesting example 
 of independent developments, in which like causes have produced 
 like effects. 
 
 To sum up briefly the matter of the relations between the 
 French tragi-comedy and that of other European nations, the 
 following statements are made : 
 
 1 See Appendix A. 
 
 3 See Geodeke, Grundrisz, n, 385. 3 Ibidem, 345. 
 
 4 It must be remembered, however, that, as in the case of the Judith, the Latin 
 is often the original version. 
 
 5 See Appendix A. 
 
 6 Sir Philip Sidney considers the genre as "mingling Kings and Clownes," in 
 which the authors "match Horn-pypes and Funeralls." Apologiefor Poetrie, 65, 
 Arber's Reprints, n, London, 1868.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 35 
 
 1. The only foreign dramatic influence since classical times 
 that has affected the formation of the French tragi-comedy is that 
 of the Latin biblical drama of Germany, Switzerland and the 
 Netherlands. This influence is directly exerted only on French 
 plays with biblical plots, and is not to be compared in impor- 
 tance with the influence of the medieval or classical drama, as it 
 serves only to unite the elements already existing in them and to 
 transmit these united elements to a part of the French tragi- 
 comedy. 
 
 2. The tragi-comedies of the Spanish Peninsula, Italy, and 
 England differ decidedly from those of France in most cases. 
 Dom Duardos, Amadis de Gaula, Quintilia and Damon and 
 Pithias, however, offer close resemblances to the romanesque type 
 of French tragi-comedy, but there is no evidence that they influ- 
 enced its formation. 
 
 3. The name, tragi-comosdia, taken from the prologue of Plau- 
 tus's Amphitruo and first applied to a play by Verardi, spread to 
 France and other European countries through these two works, 
 Kitzscher's Profectione, and Rojas's Celestina. The Latin drama 
 of Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands aided the introduc- 
 tion of the name into France. 
 
 In the latter country the title tragi-comedie was applied to a 
 number of literary dramatic kinds, of which the origin went back 
 to the medieval, the form to the classical drama. They represented 
 the morality, farce, biblical mystery, and romanesque mystery. 
 These varieties existed side by side until, under Alexandre Hardy, 
 the romanesque tragi-comedy became the definitive form assumed 
 by the genre. It will be the object of the next chapter to trace 
 the history of the tragi-comedy during this period of hesitation, 
 which lasted throughout the latter half of the sixteenth century.
 
 36 The French Tragi- Comedy . 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE FRENCH TRAGI-COMEDY OF THE XVI CENTURY. 
 
 An examination of plays written in France during the latter 
 half of the sixteenth century makes it clear, that the term tragi- 
 comedie could at that time be applied to almost any survival of 
 the medieval stage which showed a happy denouement and a form 
 that was at least partially classic. It indicated the moralite" of 
 social or political tendency, the mystere, represented by plays of 
 biblical or romanesque plot, and occasionally even the farce. 1 Not 
 until the time of Alexandre Hardy (1593-1631) did any one of 
 these forms become sufficiently predominant to be considered the 
 typical tragi-comedy. With him, indeed, the romanesque play 
 attained so large usage that other seventeenth century forms of 
 the genre may be regarded as mere reversions to obsolete types, 
 created by authors unable to keep abreast of the times. But 
 during the half-century before Hardy, the tragi-comedy passed 
 through its formative period, when the various medieval genres 
 represented by it were acquiring a more artistic form and content, 
 and the public was becoming accustomed to the use of the new 
 name. Limited to this period of development, the present chapter 
 deals with plays written between 1552 and 1600, the date of the 
 first French tragi-comedy and the approximate date of Hardy's 
 first extant play. 2 
 
 The list of plays in Appendix B, I (page 108 below) gives the 
 French tragi-comedies in the order of their appearance during the 
 
 1 Examples of the miracle, called tragi-comedy, occur at the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 2 Rigal in Alexandre Hardy, 77, shows that Theagene et Cariclee, Hardy's first 
 extant play, was written after 1593 and before 1601. As the year 1600 falls 
 between these dates, it forms a convenient, if necessarily inexact limit to the 
 formative period of the tragi-comedy. It may be added that none of the plays 
 treated in this chapter evidence influence from Hardy's work.
 
 Its Oi'igin and Development. 37 
 
 sixteenth century. The titles, forms, and authorships of the plays 
 are stated, with the places and dates of their representation and 
 the names of the persons to whom they are dedicated. I have 
 also indicated, in foot-notes, references to them that are found in 
 catalogues of plays and, where such exist, more recent critical 
 opinions concerning them. With the exception of La Valliere's 
 BibliothZque and the works of Brunet and Soleinne, these catalogues 
 are so exceedingly unreliable that they have been consulted with 
 the greatest caution. 
 
 These plays may be conveniently classified according to their 
 resemblance to (1) the moralite, (2) the mystere of biblical plot, 
 (3) the mystere of romanesque plot, (4) the farce, (5) the pastoral 
 and foreign play. The first three groups contain the great 
 majority of the tragi-comedies written during the sixteenth cen- 
 tury ; the fourth is of small importance ; while the fifth, largely 
 composed of translations, has nothing to do with the history of 
 the genre. I shall discuss the five classes in the order given. 
 
 I. The Moralite as Tragi-Comedy. 
 
 The Tragique Comedie Francoise de Vhomme iustifie par Foy is a 
 theological moralite, in which Henry de Barran, a Huguenot pas- 
 tor of B6arn, preaches the Calvinistic dogma of Justification by 
 Faith. In spirit it is like such other Protestant moralites as 
 UAfflige, Aucun, U Homme fragile, and La Maladie de Chrestiente. 1 
 After expressing contempt for those who seek to please an audience 
 by farcical representations, the author explains in his prologue the 
 didactic principles of his own composition. " Ie n'ay fait autre 
 chose que prendre les sentences de la sainte Escriture, sur lesquelles 
 ceste doctrine [Justification by Faith] est fondee, et les mettre par 
 tel ordre en vers francois, sachant que ceste maniere de composer 
 n'est pas indigne de l'Escriture sainte, attendu que quelque partie 
 d'icelle y a este composee. Bien est vray, que ie n'ay eu si grand 
 soucy de la propriety et perfection de ceste Rithme (ce que assez 
 monstre le bas stile de mon escriture) que de la verite de la doc- 
 
 1 Petit de Julleville, Repertoire, 32, 37, 67, 79.
 
 38 Ihe French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 trine laquelle est Crestienne et non poetique, conime aussi ie ne suis 
 point Poete." As might be expected from this declaration, the 
 production is more appropriate to the pulpit than to the stage. 
 
 The personages, La Loy, U esprit de Crainte, Satan, Peche, La 
 Mort, Concupiscence, U Homme, Rabby, Paid, Foy, and Grace, are 
 all abstractions or types. Paul represents the Protestant, Rabby 
 the Catholic preacher, but slightly disguised by their biblical cos- 
 tuming. In the first act L'esprit de Crainte, sent by La Loy, 
 seeks to win H Homme against Concupiscence, Peche, and La Mort, 
 children of Satan. V Homme decides to cast in his lot with the 
 latter, despite the warnings of Rabby and Paul, who here work 
 together, though they use different methods according to their 
 respective adherence to La Loy and Foy. The nature of the 
 struggle is shown in the following lines : 
 
 ' ' Paul parle a 1' Homme : 
 
 Enten, amy, Dieu a soucy 
 
 De toy, et t'aime grandement : 
 
 Cesse done toy pareillement 
 
 D'estre enuers luy mal-gracieux. 
 Satan . O L'heretique ingenieux ! 
 
 Qu' a cent diables soit le merchant : 
 
 De cestuy faut craindre le chant, 
 
 Tant doux et tant melodieux. 
 Concupiscence : Ie luy rendray si odieux, 
 
 Que luy feray abandonner. 
 (A 1' Homme) Si tu te veux plaisir donner 
 
 N' enten a ce fallacieux. 
 L' Homme a Paul : Laissons ce Dieu la-haut es cieux." 1 
 
 The last line is repeated in reply to remarks from the two 
 preachers. The act ends with the victory of Concupiscence. 
 
 Paul and Rabby return, however, in the second act and persuade 
 L' Homme to accompany them. After they have seen him fright- 
 ened by La Loy and IJ esprit de Crainte and beaten into confession 
 by PecM and La Mort, they vie with each other in their efforts to 
 show him the proper method of salvation. The contest results in 
 the victory of Rabby, who leads JJ Homme before La Loy. The 
 consequences of this action are seen in the third act, when U Homme
 
 Its Origin and Development. 39 
 
 is overwhelmed by the difficulties of obeying La Loy till Rabby 
 covers her face, to the satisfaction of IJ Homme and Satan. The 
 former, under the tutelage of Rabby, now becomes a finished 
 
 Pharisee. 
 
 "I'y vueil porter f ranges bien amples, 
 Auec philacteres fort grans." ' 
 
 He secretly receives Concupiscence, while Paul soliloquizes on 
 the evil effects of hypocritical preaching. 
 
 In the fourth act, Paul and Rabby renew their dispute, which 
 is ended by the former's unveiling La Loy and thus forcing 
 L'Homme to confess his sins. Attacked by Peclie and La Mort, 
 I? Homme is now abandoned by Rabby, and rescued by Paul from 
 a meditated suicide. The act closes with a revelation of Foy and 
 Grace. Though the play might well end here, it is continued by 
 a fifth act in which Paul, Grace, and La Loy hold a theological 
 debate, after which L'Homme is assured of his ultimate salvation. 
 A needless conclusion is added to point the moral. 
 
 In the course of this play, five actions, resulting from the efforts 
 of Satan, La Loy, Foy, and their adherents to obtain possession of 
 L'Homme, are successively presented. The first act recounts the 
 preliminary victory of Satan over La Loy and Foy ; the first four 
 scenes of the second set forth the victory of La Loy and Foy over 
 Satan. Concerned in neither of these contests to a large extent, 
 Foy is next defeated in the person of Paul, by La Loy, represented 
 by Rabby. Then comes the ultimate defeat of La Loy by Satan 
 through the hypocrisy of Rabby and the final victory of Foy, which 
 frees L Homme from the infernal powers. There is, therefore, no 
 unity of action in the classical sense. The two other unities also 
 appear to be violated, though there are no definite statements as to 
 the place and time of the action. The play is held together, on 
 the other hand, by a unity of interest in the final salvation of 
 L'Homme. 
 
 The fact that the subject is here taken from the New Testament 
 is kept constantly before the reader, not only by translations of 
 biblical passages, but by marginal references to the chapters and 
 
 1 in, 5.
 
 40 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 verses in which they are to be found. The thoroughly didactic 
 treatment, which finds expression in prosaic monologues or 
 lengthy debates, is lightened by no appeal to the spectator's 
 imagination. The personages are the purest abstractions, repre- 
 senting the powers of good and evil, busy with the fate of 
 L' Homme. The latter, a colorless personality who changes beliefs 
 and desires at every fresh encounter, may please the theologian, 
 but makes no appeal to an audience. It is difficult, indeed, to 
 find anything here in the presentation that is apt to interest the 
 spectator in the fate of the protagonist or the method by which 
 his salvation is accomplished. 
 
 That the writer is not entirely devoid of dramatic talent, how- 
 ever, is shown by his keeping the various details of the plot 
 constantly before the spectator. Thus, Paul is introduced into 
 the first act and is assigned a monologue in the fourth scene of 
 the third, although he has little to do with the contest between 
 La Loy and the agents of Satan, which contest forms the principal 
 motif of these acts. Had he been first presented in the fourth act, 
 his role would have been that of a deus ex machind, instead of 
 forming an integral part of the play. 
 
 The Tragicomedie, La Gaule, is a moralite of another sort, 
 appealing to the spectator's love of country rather than to his 
 hope of salvation. Political subjects had already been treated in 
 moralites, notably in Le Nouveau Monde, Lapaix de Peronne, and 
 Le concile de Basle, 1 of which the last-named introduced France 
 into its plot, just as the play here under discussion concerns La 
 Gaule. The three estates, which take part in the latter play, are 
 found in other moralites ; as, L'Eglise Noblesse et Povrete, Le 
 Ministre de VEglise Noblesse le Laboureur e Commun, and Tout le 
 Monde, 2 besides the Tragedie sur la defaite et occision de la Piaffe et 
 de la Picquoree. 3 La Gaule may be further compared with the 
 fragmentary moralite sur la France, 4 which resembles it in form as 
 well as in subject, for it is written in Alexandrines and divided 
 into acts. 
 
 1 Petit de Julleville, Repertoire, 87, 89, 46. 2 Ibidem, 55, 84, 99. 
 
 3 Paris, 1579. Cf. La Valliere, i, 158. 
 
 4 Bibliotheque Rationale, mss. fr., 25468.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 41 
 
 Although La Gaule was recommended by Paulin Paris to 
 "ceuxqui recherchent les origines du theatre moderne," ' it has 
 been neglected in critical studies of the period to which it belongs. 
 As the first tragi-comedy written in Alexandrines and alternating 
 masculine and feminine rimes, it furnishes an interesting example 
 of the presentation of medieval matter in classical attire. The 
 supposed rescue of La Gaule from her many woes by the prowess 
 of Charles IX constitutes the subject, declared in the author's 
 prologue to be historically true. 
 
 " Si l'histoire qui est et vraye et profictable 
 Doit estre aussy plustost receue que la fable, 
 Mesme lors que l'histoire avec joye finit, 
 Et que la fable est triste et n'aporte profit 
 (O Roy sur tons heureux ), je croy que ceste histoire, 
 Laquelle est veritable et finit par ta gloire, 
 Devrait a tes espritz dormer plus de plaisir, 
 Que fable qu'on eust sceu entre toutes choisir." 
 
 The plot, which had been summarized both in the prologue and 
 in the prose argument, is acted by _L« Gaule, TJ Europe, Le Chceur, 
 Le Temps forgeron, L'cstat de noblesse, celuy de Veglise, Le plehee, 
 Premier, second, troisiesme soldat, and Le jenne Roy fits de la Gaule. 
 The play opens with a long lament by La Gaule, beginning with 
 an invocation worthy of Seneca : 
 
 " Dieux marins et terrains, puissances des haultz cieux 
 Manes, toy gouverneur du fleuve Stigieux. 
 Et du lac A vernal et qui des ombres vaines ..." 
 
 V Europe, hearing her sobs and noting that " elle n'a plus ny teint 
 ny la couleur vermeille, Qui rendoit sa beaute a 1' A wore pareille," 
 comes to her aid with chosen maxims concerning self-control and 
 silent patience. The chorus ends the act with three strophes on 
 comfort in affliction and the importance of turning to " Dieu qui 
 est pardessus tout." 
 
 In the second act IJ Europe and La Gaule, on the former's sug- 
 gestion, start out to ask aid of Le Temps, whom they opportunely 
 encounter. A natural conversation ensues : 
 
 1 Let Mas. f r. , vi, 418.
 
 42 Tlie French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 1 ' Le Temps, forgeron : 
 
 Mesme salut vous soit, rues dames, Dieu vous gard. 
 
 Ou allez vous ainsi seuletes a l'escart? 
 L' Europe : Nous le vous dirons bien ; nous cherchons le repaire 
 
 Du Temps, s'il vous plaisoit nous l'enseigner, mon pere. 
 Le Temps : Dictes moy, qui vous meut de le chercher ainsi 
 
 Et vous saurez de moy ce que cherchez aussi." 
 
 La Gaule now asks his aid, which is promised, subject to 
 Jupiter's will. Into this act Le Temps introduces a pleasing 
 variety by singing a sonnet as he forges the destiny of La Gaule. 
 But in spite of his good intentions, he is forced to admit 
 
 ' ' Que mon art ne pourroit amendre ton martire, 
 Je quite tout, a dieu. Celuy travaille en vain 
 Qui cuide pervertir son destin inhumain." 
 
 La Gaule would now despair, but U Europe persuades her to call 
 on the resources of the three estates. With a comment on Time, 
 the chorus closes the act, which is followed by pause et musique. 
 
 The third act serves to increase the miseries of the heroine, for 
 her estates, after assuring her of their allegiance, excuse themselves 
 on learning that she expects them to aid her. Her distress is 
 increased by the sight of three soldiers, engaged in slaying all 
 persons whom they meet, one of whom cries, 
 
 " Je veux Je veux soldats ceste espe"e baignee 
 Au pur sang des humains sans aucun espargner." 
 
 The chorus repeats the strophes sung at the end of the second act 
 with the addition of six lines at the beginning. One of the 
 repeated strophes runs as follows : 
 
 On sait comme le Temps courant 
 
 Toujours en empirant 
 
 Eemplit de sang les champs humides 
 
 II abat bien les pyramides 
 
 Et faict a la pleine egaler 
 
 Les tours qui percoient Pair. 
 
 In the fourth act, all the gloom of the preceding acts has disap- 
 peared. La Gaule rejoices over a message delivered to her by 
 Mercury, which shows her how to escape from all her woes : 
 
 "II te fault seulemeut chercher en ta maison 
 De ton mal douloureux s'entirer guerison 
 Elle gist en ton filz que Jupiter tant ayme 
 Qu'il luy a sur le chef pose le diademe."
 
 Its Origin and Development. 43 
 
 La Gaule, accompanied by V Europe, now meets the king, who 
 promises to cherish and protect her. She replies with praise of 
 him and his mother, a sentiment that shows the sycophantic 
 spirit of the author in putting the queen mother above the country. 
 
 "Tu as bien une mere plus excel! ente 
 Que je ne suis (O Roy) car son port est divin 
 Son renom hurte au ciel, elle est sage et prudente 
 Ainsi vivra son los e"ternel et sans fin." 
 
 Praise is also accorded to the other princes " qui te sont plus pro- 
 chains," to Monseigneur le Connestable, and to Monseigneur le 
 Chancelier. The play ends in general rejoicing, L 'Europe crying : 
 
 "Qu'on rompe tout soucy, qu'on le face enfuyr 
 Et qu'on crie par tout Vive Charles sans cesse," 
 
 and La Gaule: 
 
 "Qu'on chante i'o trois fois, qu'on le chante a grand presse 
 Que l'on claque des mains en signe d'alegresse 
 Qu'on n'oublie le los de Charles mon enfant 
 Et qu'encor on le nomme en tous lieux triumphant." 
 
 From these passages it is possible to approximate the date of 
 the play. Allusions to King Charles show that it was written 
 after the accession of that monarch, December 5, 1560. Paulin 
 Paris declared that it dates " des premieres annees du regne de 
 Charles IX," x evidently basing his conclusion on references to 
 the king's youth. As, however, Charles was only twenty-four 
 years old when he died (1574), he might have been called le jeune 
 roy any year of his reign, while a courtier might at any time over- 
 look the troubles brought by his reign in order to refer to him as 
 the savior of his country. On the other hand, a definite lower 
 date can be assigned to the play through the mention of the cove- 
 stable just cited. The description of him as " Nestor mesme et sa 
 barbe chenue " fits exactly Anne, due de Montmorency, sixty-eight 
 years old and conestable when Charles IX came to the throne. 
 As he was killed in battle on November 10, 1567, and as no 
 successor to his office was appointed during the reign of Charles, 
 
 1 Les MSS. fr., vx, 417.
 
 44 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 the time of his death is the latest possible date that can be assigned 
 to the play. 
 
 The structure of this tragi-comedy is exceedingly loose. The 
 preliminary discourses between La Gaule and L } Europe, the 
 unsuccessful visit to Le Temps, and the equally unavailing sum- 
 mons of the estates have so little connection with one another that 
 the omission of any one of them would not affect the rest. All of 
 the classical unities are obviously violated. The solution of the 
 problem given in the fourth act is dramatically illogical, as one 
 cannot understand why La Gaule did not turn to this wonderful 
 son in the first instance. As the play stands, the denouement is 
 too readily attained after all the woes depicted. The anti-climax 
 could be pardoned only by Charles IX. The key-note of the play 
 lies, indeed, in this praise of monarchical rule by an author who 
 esteems Catherine de Medici more highly than France and presents 
 her son as the savior of his land, when nobility, clergy, and people 
 had failed to help it. Once, it is true, the author's sympathy is 
 extended to the people, when U 'Europe predicts that " Toujours le 
 laboureur an travail ne se tue," 1 but his feeling is ordinarily for 
 the country as a whole in the fixed order of class distinctions. 
 
 The personages actively concerned in the play are few in num- 
 ber. They are mainly abstractions that show no great variety in 
 expression. EEurope is a consistent adviser and friend. La 
 Gaule appropriately, if unintentionally, personifies the fundamental 
 egoism still characteristic of countries in their political relations. 
 The weakness of her character is shown by the fact that all her 
 actions are based on the advice of JO Europe or Mercury. The 
 other personages play subordinate roles, appearing never more than 
 once on the stage. In alluding to the Supreme Being the author 
 forgets his classical mention of Jupiter and Mercury. By the 
 substitution in the roles of emotion for didacticism, the play 
 shows a marked advance over L'homme iustihe par Foy. That it 
 was intended for representation* is shown by the direction for 
 " pause et musique " at the end of the second act. 
 
 E Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher, Suisse, by Josephe Du Chesne, 
 physician to Francois de France, brother of Henri III, is a
 
 Its Origin and Development. 45 
 
 moralite of the same type as La Gaule that shows still weaker 
 dramatic qualities thau those exhibited in the latter play. It 
 celebrates the perpetual alliance between Geneva, Zurich, and 
 Berne by recounting the manner in which the timely arrival of 
 Stoffacher's shade averted a civil war. The personages arc 
 JBeUone, Le Choeur des soldcds, J] Ombre de Gamier, Le Choeur des 
 Cantons, Discorde, La Paix, Le Choeur des trois miles, Le Messager. 
 Bellone begins the play by a four-page monologue expressing her 
 fury on account of peace and her desire for war among the Swiss 
 allies. Her terms, though crude, are not lacking in vigor. 
 
 ' ' Qu' ores la solde soit le f ruict de vos nioissons, 
 Vos coutres soyent changez en estocs, et en lances 
 Vos esguillons point us, que pour toutes semen ces 
 Vous iettiez a ce coup sur vos sillons voustez 
 Des sacagez meurtris les corps ensanglantez." 
 
 The chorus of soldiers ends the act, which has scarcely begun, 
 expressing in eleven strophes their hope for peace and dread of war. 
 
 The second act is, in construction, the counterpart of the first, 
 with the substitution of L' Ombre de Gamier for Bellone and the 
 Chorus of Cantons for the Chorus of Soldiers. Gamier cries : 
 
 "le romps, i'ouure, a present de ma prison la porte, 
 Bien que du noir tombeau iamais aucun ne sorte, 
 De mes cris, de mes vceuz, de mes larmes 1' effort 
 Eut esmeu a pitie l'impitoyable mort 
 Contre sa dure loy m'ayant donne licence 
 De visiter encor le lieu de ma naissance." 
 
 He invokes peace, reminding the Swiss of the noble deeds of their 
 heroes. Particularly interesting is his simple account of Tell's 
 notable deed, when the tyrant 
 
 " mit sur la teste du fils 
 De Telh pour butte las ! une pomme iadis, 
 Que l'abatre contrainct d'une flesche legere, 
 Fut a peine de mort le miserable pere ; 
 La face lui pallist, et de crainte et de peur, 
 II ne pouuoit guigner ayant l'oeil plein de pleur, 
 L'arc trembloit en sa main, ainsi mal asseuree, 
 N'esperoit guider droit sa sagette aceree : 
 Mais a la fin force hardiment la lascha, 
 Et sans nuire a son fils de son chef l'arracha."
 
 46 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 After a five-page exhortation, Gamier returns to the Champs 
 Elisiens, leaving the Chceur des Cantons to banish Bellone and wel- 
 come La Palx. Bellone and Discorde wrath fully retire to I'enfer, 
 a departure that should end the play. The author, however, sees 
 fit to add another act, in which La Paix laments her misfortunes, 
 is interrogated by three friendly choruses, and finally rejoices on 
 hearing that Bellone has been put to flight by Gamier. This 
 information is brought by a messenger, who begins his speech 
 happily enough : 
 
 " Quel Echo auiourd'hui r'enforcera ma voix ? 
 Calme done tous tes flots, 6 beau lac Geneuois, 
 Car a) r ant aborde si pres de ton riuage 
 Ie te veux faire part de mon heureux message." 
 
 The vows of the chorus at the end of the play are naively 
 expressed as follows : 
 
 "Que tout le bestail porte-laine, 
 Qui paist en ceste heureuse plaine, 
 Plustost s' accorde auec les loups, 
 Plustost sans Ours soyent nos montagnes, 
 Et sans fonteines nos campagnes 
 Que la paix s'esloigne de nous." 
 
 No play can be much less dramatic than this. The actors speak 
 almost entirely in choruses or lengthy monologues. There is no 
 intrigue, no action, not even a debate, for the chorus decides at 
 once in favor of Gamier' s advice and against that of Bellone. 
 Expressions of feeling are crudely attempted when Bellone shrieks 
 her fury and Gamier expatiates on the nobility of patriotism. 
 The weak character of La Paix recalls that of La Gaule. 
 Classical influence is evident in the language, the introduction of 
 the Ombre and the Messager, and the large use of monologue and 
 chorus. 
 
 The two remaining tragi-comedies of this class show a return 
 in character to L' 'Homme iustijii par Foy. Le Desespere preaches 
 the reward of virtue and the punishment of vice by the example of 
 two brothers. The personages are Le Prologue, le Pere, Charles, 
 Thomas, la Sagesse, la Vertu, la VoupU, VAbus, VAnge, le Laquay, 
 le Serviteur, la Mort, le Diablon, Lucifer, VEpilogue. Charles
 
 Its Origin and Development. 47 
 
 avoids Abus and VolwpU to follow Vertu and Sagesse, while 
 Thomas pursues the opposite course, resulting in brigandage and 
 suicide, which delivers his soul to Lucifer and Diablon. From 
 grief over this catastrophe, the father also meditates suicide, but 
 is prevented from taking his life by an angel, who bids him 
 rather arrange the marriage of his remaining son. Virtue is 
 thus rewarded amid general rejoicing. 
 
 Morality is also taught in Caresme prenant, as acted by Le 
 Prologue, la Concupiscence, le Mespris de religion, le Remords de 
 conscience, la Temperance, le Monde, le Voluptueux, la Continence, 
 Caresme-Prenant, le Dimanche gras, le Lundy gras, le Mardy gras, 
 le Mercredy gras, le Jeudy gras, Ceres, Bacchus, la Gloutonie, 
 Cupidon, Venus, le Mignon de Caresme-Prenant, Morplxee, Caresme, 
 Than, Jaumet, Arlequin, Guillot, le Mercredy des cendres, Peni- 
 tence, V Epilogue. The following analysis of this play is given by 
 Petit de Julleville : l " Cest l'histoire de Careme-prenant (c'est- 
 a-dire Carnaval) battu par Careme. Le Voluptueux s'abandonne 
 a tous les vices, puis il se convertit a la voix de Religion. La 
 fin est edifiante ; les details ne le sont pas tous, quoique le Pro- 
 logue annonce une piece ' plus grave que grasse.' La piece, en 
 vers de huit syllabes, est, a la mode nouvelle, divisee en cinq 
 actes ; entre le quatri&rne et le cinquieme, quatre personnages, qui 
 ne sont pas meles au reste de Faction, Tivan Savoyard, Jaumet 
 Provencal, Guillot Francais, et Arlequin Italien, forment un 
 intermede ou se trouvent les allusions promises par le titre 
 ' touchant quelques abus de ce temps.' " 
 
 It is evident that neither Le Desesper6 nor Caresme prenant 
 is similar to the tragi-comedy of the seventeenth century. The 
 first tends to become a drame bourgeois, where the interest is 
 centered in the affairs of a simple family and the moral lesson 
 derived therefrom. The second has elements of the farce that 
 show resemblance to the fourth class of sixteenth century tragi- 
 comedies. 2 Written by Claude Bonnet, an obscure " docteur en 
 droit civil et canon " of Dauphine, and published at Aix-en- 
 
 1 Repertoire, 43 seq. 2 See below, page 69.
 
 48 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 Provence, these tragi-comedies probably exerted little influence 
 on the genre now becoming known at Paris. 
 
 In general, it may be said that the moralite tends to develop 
 into the comedy rather than into the tragi-comedy, and conse- 
 quently affects the latter genre not as a whole, but only in isolated 
 plays. Of these the political moralites, La Gaule and IS Ombre 
 de Gamier Stojf'aeher, show the closest resemblance to other tragi- 
 comedies, but even in their case the term is used with the broad 
 sixteenth century sense, which made possible its application to 
 any medieval play of happy denouement that shows in its form 
 some effect of classical imitation. 
 
 II. The Mystere of Biblical Plot as Tragi-Comedy. 
 
 The Old Testament subjects that furnished material for medieval 
 plays and Latin dramas of the Renaissance were repeated in a 
 number of French plays, written during the latter half of the 
 sixteenth century. Six of these were called tragi-comedies and 
 nearly all the rest tragedies. There seems to be no definite system 
 of nomenclature in them, except that the tragi-comedies end 
 happily, while the tragedies usually contain personages who meet 
 with loss of life or fortune. Exceptions are found before the term, 
 tragi-comedie, has come into general use ; as, in the case of Beza's 
 Abraham saerifiant, Tragedie Francoise (1550) and Des Mazures's 
 David Triomphant and David Fugitif (1566). Reprints of Beza's 
 work continue the term tragedie, but a play on the same subject 
 is called a tragi-comedy in 1588. 1 The rare application to 
 biblical plays of the term comklie is probably due to the fact that 
 light pieces, based on Italian models, were usually so called. Its 
 use at Antwerp in 1589 to designate a play concerning the 
 Patriarche Abrcdiam et sa servante Agar seems to show the 
 influence of the numerous Latin plays on biblical subjects, written 
 in the Netherlands and called comosdice. 
 
 The first of the six biblical plays that are to be discussed here 
 is Tragicomedie. L' Argument pris du troisieme ehapitre de Daniel: 
 
 1 See below, page 57.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 49 
 
 avec le cantique des trois enfans, chante en la fornaise, dedicated to 
 the Queen of Navarre, in the service of whose husband the author 
 professes to be. Lauson, 1 mentioning this with other plays that 
 speak of an audience or theater in their prologue, shows that this 
 evidence is not sufficient to prove the representation of the piece, 
 as such remarks constitute an ordinary, introductory formula. He 
 has not noticed that in this case, however, there is the additional, 
 if not conclusive, evidence of a Sonnet da S. D. S. to the author, 
 in which S. D. S. seems to have a definite performance in mind, 
 as he writes : " Quand je voy sur son dos ta Tragi-comedie 
 Relever," and "On les [the three children] voit renaistre en ce 
 Theatre." 
 
 The subject of the play is an old one on the French stage, as at 
 the end of Adam, the first medieval play extant, Nebuchadnezzar 
 told of the three children : " Chi jo fis mettre en foe ardant." 2 
 Strangely enough, no play on this subject has been preserved in 
 the Mistere du Viel Testament. An Histoire Tragedienne tirie de 
 la Fureur et Tyrannie de Nabuchodonosor is mentioned by La 
 Valliere 3 as published at Rouen, without date, but probably at 
 the beginning of the seventeenth century. The subject is the same 
 as that of the play here under discussion, except that after the 
 furnace incident the King goes mad, the ending thus coinciding 
 with the term, tragedienne, according to the standards of the time. 
 
 The personages of the tragi-comedy are Nabuchodonosor, Boy 
 de Babylone ; Son lieutenant ; Asphene, gouverneur de ses Eunuques ; 
 troupe de Babyloniens, scavoir, Demie bande et Demie bande ; Gen- 
 darmes et Satellites premiers et secondes ; Les Conseillers ; Le herault ; 
 La suyte du Boy ; Sydraeh ; Misach ; Abdenago. ' The prologue, 
 written in Alexandrines, after enjoining silence on the audience, 
 promises to be instructive in presenting a subject that is familiar 
 to all. The play is begun with a tirade by the King : 
 
 " Quand nia grandeur s'abbaisse a con tempter 
 Ce qui fut faict pour la terre peupler, 
 Tous animaux quels qu'ils soyent, ayant vie, 
 
 1 Revue d' hist, litt., x, 415. 
 
 2 Das Adamsspiel, 930-43, Romanische Bibliuthek, vi, Halle, 1891. 
 8 1, 463.
 
 50 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 Pay (a bon droict) de m'estonner enuie 
 Du grand honneur deu a ma granite" 
 De chascun peuple a perpetuite. ' ' 
 
 Faguet declares that this speech, " revele bien le voisinage de 
 la tragedie classique de 1560," and adds, " II n'y a pour parler si 
 longtemps sur ce ton que les Charles-Quint de 1830 ou les 
 Nabuchodonosor de 1560." l The same kind of introductory 
 verbiage may, however, be found in the medieval drama, De 
 Nabugodonosor et Holofernes. 2 
 
 Asphene now echoes his master's self-praise by calling him a 
 god. The King tells him of the image that has been made and 
 orders him to set it up. The crudity of the piece is shown in this 
 scene, for the King shows no hesitation in assuming a divine role, 
 while Asphene is made to receive information which he must 
 already have known. Now follows a Cantique d'une petite bande 
 de Babyloniens on the greatness and folly of their lord : 
 
 " Apres tout flechit et ploye 
 Sous nostre Eoy d'auiourd'huy, 
 II n' ha nul pareil a luy, 
 L'ennemi luy est en proye 
 Les astres roulans e"s cieux, 
 Tous pour en heurer son mieux 
 Luy vien[nen]t auec fortune ; 
 le croy qu'en enfer profond 
 Ses forces effrayer vont 
 Le Roy frere de Neptune." 
 
 The King reappears, to boast again and to learn that the people 
 are coming to worship the image. He threatens to punish with 
 the fiery furnace all that will refuse to do so, while Asphene 
 advises him to prepare for his appearance at the theatre. The 
 Babylonian bands end this division of the play by a song on the 
 evil influence of flatterers. 
 
 The three children, next introduced, discuss " ceste ordure 
 d' image." Some variety is infused into the piece by the r6le of 
 Sidrach, who hesitates to disobey the order of the King. As he 
 is speedily convinced by Abdenago, however, that the divine 
 
 1 Tragedie jr., 103. 2 Mistere du Viel Testament, V, 231.
 
 Its Origin and Development 51 
 
 command alone must be followed, all three unite in refusing to 
 worship the image. After the music has sounded, all the people 
 bow down except the three children, whose disobedience is reported 
 by Satellites, to the King. Brought before the King, they are 
 offered pardon, if they will now consent to worship, but when they 
 refuse they are ordered to the furnace seven times heated. The 
 Babylonian bands express their sympathy in a chorus. 
 
 Nabuchodonosor, roused to vigorous, if unkingly language by the 
 obstinacy of the children, cries to his attendants : 
 
 "O malheureux ! 
 
 Ne me depescherez-vous d'eux, 
 
 Les laisserez vous sermonner 
 
 Encor' long temps, et estonner 
 
 Ce poure peuple, grosses bestes, 
 
 Ie vous rompray a tous les testes, 
 
 Si plus longuement vous songez. 
 Satellites : Nous sommes prestz. 
 
 Le Roy : Qu'ils soient plongez 
 
 En la fornaise, au beau milieu, 
 
 Et puis on verra si leur Dieu 
 
 Tant puissant, les retirera 
 
 De la dedans. 
 Abdenago : II le fera 
 
 S'il luy plaist : car vrayement il peult 
 
 Tost nous en retirer, s'il veult. 
 Satellites: S'il peult, s'il veult, qu'il vous en tire." 
 
 To the King's amazement the excutioners are burnt, while the 
 children sing a canticque in the midst of the flames. They follow 
 this with a metrical translation of the Apocryphal Song of the 
 Three Children. The King now bids them leave the flames, ex- 
 presses sorrow for his past conduct, and promises to protect them 
 in the future. The children rejoice, while the Babyloniens point 
 the moral in a final chorus. An epilogue in Alexandrines ends 
 the play. 
 
 Although no division into acts is indicated in this tragi-comedy, 
 the five parts of it are clearly marked out after the Senecan model 
 by the insertion into the midst of the action of songs sung by the 
 Babyloniens and the three children. The fact that the unity of 
 action is preserved in the play seems due to the nature of the subject,
 
 52 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 rather than to the skill of the author, for the biblical narrative is 
 followed with slavish exactitude. This unity would appear more 
 clearly, if the first scene had been omitted. The unity of place is 
 violated, as the action is located before the palace, in the fields, and 
 around the fiery furnace. The unity of time seems also unobserved, 
 as, more than one day was probably required for the erection of the 
 image and the incidents that follow in the drama. 
 
 Some attempt at character-drawing is shown in the speeches of 
 the important persons. Nabuchodonosor is the first of a long line 
 of blustering, tragi-comic kings, whose overbearing manner is 
 accompanied by a feeble intellectual endowment. The leader of 
 the eunuchs is an humble sycophant. The happy attempt to dis- 
 criminate the characters of the three children is visible only at 
 first. They subsequently become merely three names, attached to 
 a single character, thus losing in dramatic interest what they gain 
 in fidelity to their biblical prototypes. 
 
 The spirit of the play, as well as its crude style and uneven 
 versification, shows it to be essentially medieval, despite the fact 
 that the choruses and the Prologue and Epilogue are in classical 
 Alexandrines. It is of importance as the first French tragi-comedy 
 in which the events are of dramatic significance, as well as the 
 moral lesson taught by it. This play thus begins a tendency that 
 results in the typical tragi-comedy which neglects psychological 
 study and moral teaching for the interest aroused by the dramatic 
 event. 
 
 The story of Job's sufferings and restoration to health and 
 wealth furnished the plot of many plays written during the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries. It is found in the MisUre du Viel Testa- 
 ment (36536-37848) and in the Patience de lob of which eight 
 redactions can be indicated between 1478 and 1 600. A Jeu de la 
 Patience de Job was given at Metz in 1513, and a Moralitas 
 Patientie Job at Draguignan in 1534. A Latin play on the same 
 subject was published at Marburg in 1543, and at Bale in 1547, 
 while another was represented at Prague in 1550. 1 It was, there- 
 
 1 Mistere du Viel Testament, v, pages iii-x. Petit de Julleville, Repertoire, 391, 
 mentions a Vie de Job, played at Rouen, 1556.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 53 
 
 fore, no unfamiliar theme that was acted in the Histoire or Tragi- 
 comedie de lob at Poitiers, July 27, 28, and 29, 1572, "en mag- 
 nifiques habits et theatres, toutesfois mal representee." 
 
 Now, parts of this play have been preserved in the Oeuvres de 
 Scevofe de Sainte Marine under the title, Pour le Prologue de la 
 Tragicomedie de lob and Cantiques de lob. These fragments, which 
 are all that is left of the play, show a decided advance in stylistic 
 excellence over contemporary tragi-comedies. After summoning 
 the muses and praising the use of verse, the author professes adher- 
 ence to the tenets of the medieval stage: 
 
 " Les vers, qui sont le fruit des estudes de ceux 
 Que le vulgaire lourd estime paresseux, 
 Ny eux mesmes iaruais sous la mort ne perissent, 
 Ny ne souffrent perir ceux-la, qui les cherissent. 
 
 Or les Poetes vieux, et ceux dont la pensee 
 
 De payennes erreurs est encore insensee, 
 
 Ont rendu iusqu' ici les Theatres tons pleins 
 
 Des miseres de Troye et des malheurs Thebains : 
 
 Mais nous qui du vray Dieu connoissons mieux la gloire 
 
 Auons voulu changer les fables a 1' histoire, 
 
 A fin de contenter le Chrestien auditeur 
 
 D'un poeme Chrestien, et non pas d'un menteur : 
 
 Vous proposant ici, auec vostre silence, 
 
 D'un des enfans de Dieu la loiiable Constance." 
 
 The plot outlined in the prologue adheres closely to the biblical 
 account, exaggerating somewhat, however, Job's unhappiness by 
 placing him on a dung-heap "pleine de fascheuse odeur, et groiiil- 
 lant de vermine." The prologue is followed by a discours sur le 
 mesme sujet, which appears to have found no part in the play. 
 Later in the volume, however, the author adds the Cantique de 
 lob, which includes the following pleasing strophes with their 
 happily chosen simile : 
 
 " Quand sus la campagne humide, 
 Par Forage courrouce 
 Le nocher palle et timide 
 Voit son nauire froisse, 
 Quelle attente luy demeure 
 Sinon que bien tost il meure ? 
 Toutesfois souuent un aiz
 
 54 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 Le porte sur le riuage : 
 
 Et la sauue du naufrage 
 
 II rend les voeux qu'il a faits. 
 
 Ainsi quand l'aspre tourmente 
 Du malheur qui s'irritoit, 
 Ceste maison florissante 
 De fond en comble abbatoit, 
 Qu'est-ce qu'on pouuoit attendre 
 D'un si euident esclandre 
 Qu' une ruine a iamais ? 
 Et toulesfois ce bon pere, 
 Du fond de telle misere 
 Se voit tire desormais." 
 
 The poetic feeling shown in these lines makes the reader regret 
 that this tragi-comedy has survived in only fragmentary form. 
 
 As the Tobie (1579) of Mile des Koches may best be discussed 
 in connection with Ouyn's Thobie (1597) *, the next play to be 
 considered is lokebed, written by Pierre Heyns, a schoolmaster of 
 Antwerp. This play is bound with two others by the same 
 author under the title, 
 
 r lokebed ^| f Meres 
 
 La < Susanue V miroirs des < Mesnageres 
 
 ( Iudith J ( Vefves 
 
 As the heroine of the second of these plays is not the Apocryphal 
 Susannah, but a Dutch bourgeoise, the title comidie is appropriately 
 employed here. Iudith, involving the slaying of Holophernes, is 
 called a tragedie ; while lokebed is a Tragi- Comedie de Moyse. 
 
 The plot of the latter play includes the accounts of the mid- 
 wives, who saved the new-born Hebrews in Egypt, of the birth of 
 Moses, and of his finding by Pharaoh's daughter, events that I 
 find dramatized in no earlier French plays except the Mistere du 
 Viel Testament, 2 which shows no closer connection with Heyns's 
 work than that which is necessitated by the fact that the two 
 compositions have a common source. Unlike the author of this 
 portion of the Viel Testament, Heyns crowds into his play a 
 number of allegorical personages, who hold lengthy scholastic 
 arguments crowded with platitudes. The play thus resembles the 
 
 1 See below, page 57. 2 Lines 22067-22829.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 55 
 
 medieval moralite as well as the mysttre. By its division into acts 
 it shows classical influence ; by its use of prose, an approach to con- 
 temporary comic productions. Its didactic nature is obvious from 
 the following list of dramatis personam: Audience and Operation, 
 who speak in dialogue the prologue and conclusion ; Disposition- 
 Divine ; Gent-Israelite ; Affliction, sa servante ; Sagesse-humaine, 
 concubine de Phar'aon ; Cruaute, sa chambriere ; Iokebed, mere de 
 Moyse ; Marie, sa file; Foy ; Esperance; Sciphra and Puha, 
 sages-femmes ; Thermuth, princesse : Compassion, file oVhonneur ; 
 deux oa trois muettes ; Abda and Bersa, nourrices Egyptiennes. 
 All of these roles, it may be noted, are suited to the sex of 
 Heyns's female pupils. 
 
 The play opens with a heavy dialogue between Audience and 
 Operation as to whether hearing or action is more efficacious in 
 matters of salvation and election. This tragi-comedy, they state, 
 purposes to teach God's providence, the subject of a disquisition 
 by Disposition- Divine in the first scene. This virtue, finding 
 Gent-Israelite in tears, demonstrates her lack of resignation by a 
 theological catechism. Meanwhile Sag esse- Humaine and Cruaute 
 determine to destroy the Hebrews. In the second act Gent- 
 Israelite, when lamenting again, is advised by Iokebed to rejoice 
 with her in time of trouble. Affliction now weeps with Gent- 
 Israelite, till Foy comforts them by means of a dream, predicting 
 the Exodus. Iokebed adds that she has been assured of salvation, 
 to be won for her people by the child in her womb. 
 
 The allegorical figures continue to discourse in the next act, 
 when Sagesse-Humaine plans the massacre of the innocents. 
 Disposition-Divine gives Cruaute power to accomplish this, but 
 sends Compassion to win over the midwives. After considerable 
 argumentation, the latter agree to save the children, despite their 
 scruples over the prevarication involved. In the fourth act 
 Cruaute takes from Compassion a dead infant, which the latter 
 had intended to substitute for Moses. Iokebed laments this 
 misfortune, till she is comforted by Disposition-Divine with the 
 suggestion to hide the infant in the bulrushes. A crude attempt 
 at displaying Iokebed's emotion on parting with Moses may be 
 distinguished amid the pedantic utterances of the actors. The
 
 56 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 rest of the play is taken up with the finding of Moses by Ther- 
 niuth, an event that inspires the only part of the play in any 
 degree dramatic. The discovery of the infant is the occasion of 
 the following dialogue : 
 
 " Thermuth: O quelle douce harmonie y rend aussi le gasoiiillement et ramage 
 d'un million d'oiselets organisans, qui font resonner melodieusement leurs voix 
 musicales, parmi ces arbres branchus ! Vrayment, je ne vei oncques saison plus 
 plaisante, ne place plus commode pour se refraichir. 
 
 " Compassion: le n'y ay este qu'une seule fois, Madame, mais elle m'a tant 
 pleu, que j'ay estime vostre excellence y devoir aussi trouver du plaisir comme 
 elle fait maintenant, dont je suis bien joyeuse. Mais voyez, Madame, que peut 
 estre cela, que je voy-la descendre sur la riviere ? 
 
 " Thermuth: II semble que ce soit un cofi'ret, il n'est guere loing de la rive, on 
 y pourroit bien nvenir de ceste branche coupee, prenez-la et essayez a l'attirer a 
 nous, e me l'apportez, que je voye ce qu'il y a dedans, mais gardez vous du faux 
 Crocodile. 
 
 " Compassion: le le feray, Madame : le Pay. Le voicy, Madame. 
 
 "Thermuth: Qu'est ceci? un coffre vivant? il y a de la vie dedans, ce me 
 semble. Helas, c'est un enfant pleurant ! O quelle mere desconfortee peut avoir 
 perdu ce povret trouve. Ha ce sera un des enfans Hebrieux. 
 
 " Compassion: II pourroit bien estre, Madame." * 
 
 The intensely pedantic nature of this tragi-comedy is evident 
 from the preceding analysis. Unity is absent from the plot, for 
 the first two acts are concerned with the woes of Gent-Israelite, 
 the third with kindly actions of the midwives, the fourth and 
 fifth with the birth and rescue of Moses. The scene is laid in the 
 house of Iokebed, on the banks of the Nile, and elsewhere. The 
 time involved is probably several months. The inconsistency of 
 the allegorical characters is obvious in the case of Sagesse- 
 Humaine and Gent-Israelite, of whom the former is both an 
 allegorical figure and Pharaoh's concubine, while the latter repre- 
 sents the Hebrews as a whole and also one of Iokebed' s neigh- 
 bors. Affliction is a useless echo of Gent-Israelite, as Esperance 
 is of Foy, and Cruaute of Sagessc-IIumaine. No distinction is 
 made between the two midwives. Disposition-Divine is a heart- 
 less pedant, whose ideas of sympathy are contracted to the limits 
 of a catechism. The role of Iokebed does not appeal to the 
 reader, for her lack of personality is not compensated by the 
 
 V, 2.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 57 
 
 didactic sentiments that she voices. The only part of the play, 
 indeed, that is fairly true to life is that concerned with the finding 
 of Moses, from which a citation has just been made. 
 
 The Tragi-comedie en laquelle figure Vhistoire des deux grieves 
 tentations desquelles le patriarche Abraham a e"te exerce" has been 
 mentioned above. 1 The subject of the sacrifice of Isaac, probably 
 indicated by this title, had been treated in several plays of the 
 sixteenth century, notably in that of Theodore Beza, published at 
 Geneva five times 2 before 1588, the year in which the play under 
 discussion was represented at Montbeliard. As this town is not 
 very far from Geneva, it is probable that the latter play was 
 influenced by Beza's work, if it was not a direct imitation of it. 
 As the tragi-comedy is lost, however, no definite conclusions can 
 be reached regarding it. 
 
 The Apocryphal story of Tobit is found in the Mistere du Viel 
 Testament, 3 after which it is first dramatized in the Acte de la 
 Tragi-comedie de Tobie of Mile des Roches. From statements made 
 in the prologue of the latter play it seems that the author outlined 
 a dramatization of the whole story, but versified only the one act 
 and fragmentary passages, all of which have been incorporated 
 by Iacques Ouyn into his own play, published in 1606, but 
 written as early as 1597, the date of the privilege. 4 Ouyn does 
 not hesitate to acknowledge what he has borrowed from Mile 
 des Roches, " laquelle dicte Acte iay apropriee en son rang 
 quatriesme, qui m'a a la verite beaucoup ou plus couste a entrer, 
 que si ie ne l'eusse iamais veue." 5 In the final form of the play 
 the story is dramatized in full, with the following personages as 
 interlocutors : Thobie, le pere ; Anne, sa femme ; Thobie, leur fils ; 
 Raphael, Aug e dit Azarie; Raguel; Anne, sa femme; Sarra ; Le 
 voisin; La servante ; le chocur ; Gab el ; voisins. 
 
 1 Page 32. 
 
 2 In 1550, -53, -61, -65, and -76. Cf. Mistere du Viel Testament, n, page 
 xlix seq. 
 
 3 Lines 38585-39688. 
 
 4 A play on this subject called the Ystoire de Tobie was played at Amiens in 
 1581. Cf. Mistere du Viel Testament, V, page xviii. 
 
 5 'Thobie, Argument.
 
 58 The French Tragi- Comedy: 
 
 Thobie le pere, having decided to dwell at home after the death 
 of Sennacherib, has sent his son to invite friends to dinner. The 
 young man returns from his errand with the news that " un corps 
 mort sur la terre gisait." His father wishes to bury the body, 
 but remembers that he has a relative visiting him, whom he 
 ought not to leave. The arrival of this relative occasions a 
 natural and prosaic conversation : 
 
 ' ' Soyez bien revenu mon Compere Thobie 
 Vrayment ie ne pensois iamais vous voir en vie, 
 Dieu S9ait combien de fois ie vous ay regrette, 
 Et combien vostre fils chez moy ay souhaitte. 
 Thobie le pere : Ne parlons de cela, quittons la facherie 
 Mon fils, donne a laver, etc." 
 
 They proceed to dinner, in the midst of which the host excuses 
 himself to bury the dead body, much to the dissatisfaction of his 
 guest and his wife. The former says : 
 
 ' ' Inviter ses amis, pour ainsi les quitter, 
 A proprement parler, c' est, c' est les despiter, ' ' 
 
 while Anne declares : 
 
 " Mais c'est un vitupere 
 D'aller iournellement dans cbasque Cymetiere 
 Enfouir tant de corps, cela ne m' agree point." 
 
 Her husband now returns blinded, and explains how he became 
 
 so. Anne does not lose the opportunity of pointing out her 
 
 foresight : 
 
 ' ' Ne disois-ie pas bien, voyez, comme il endure. 
 Tu scauras maintenant si ton Dieu aura cure 
 De ton affliction." 
 
 Though rebuked by her son, she laments the loss of income, sure 
 to follow her husbaud's affliction. 
 
 In the second act Anne describes to her son the family of their 
 relative, Raguel, the beauty of his daughter, Sarra, and the fate 
 of her seven unfortunate husbands, " tous estranglez et en terre 
 estendus" by Asmodeus. She then distresses her husband by 
 telling him of Sarra's misfortunes. This act forms a digression 
 that violates the unity of the play and serves merely to inform the 
 audience of the state of affairs in the house of Raguel.
 
 Its Origin and Development 59 
 
 Thobie le pere now sends his son en Ragez to collect money 
 owed him by Gabel. Azarie, the disguised angel, accompanies 
 him as guide. On the way, young Thobie is bitten by " un 
 animal ou bien quelque poisson," certain parts of which Azarie 
 advises him to preserve. This brings the reader to the fourth act, 
 written by Mile des Roches in a style superior to that of Ouyn. 
 After explaining the magic properties of the fish's parts, Azarie 
 bids Thobie ask for shelter at the house of Raguel hard by and 
 seek to win the hand of his daughter. Thobie hesitates for fear 
 of sharing the fate of Sarra's seven husbands, observing naively : 
 
 " Les homines ont sou vent des femmes deux ou trois 
 Mais la vie iamais ils ne l'ont qu'une fois." 
 
 But Azarie explains how he can escape by a proper use of the 
 fish's parts. A Choeur des Femmes indicates the way to the house, 
 where the two are well received and Thobie explains the object 
 of his journey. When alone with Azarie, he admits that he has 
 fallen in love with Sarra, who is presented in the next scene 
 conversing with la servante. The latter accuses her of having 
 murdered her husbands, whereupon Sarra replies : 
 
 "On vous prend seulement pour faire le menage 
 Et non pour babiller et causer a chascun." 
 
 Shortly after, she soliloquizes concerning her love for Thobie, 
 whom she fears to marry, lest he suffer the fate of the other 
 victims of Asmodeus. When she has been convinced, however, 
 that Thobie will escape, the marriage is quickly arranged. 
 
 Ouyn resumes the dramatization in the fifth act with a con- 
 versation between Azarie and Gabel, the debtor of Thobie le pere. 
 As the latter consents to pay his debt, Thobie prepares to return 
 home with the money. The scene in which Thobie and his wife 
 take leave of the latter's parents is from the pen of Mile des 
 Roches, as is also a lamentation from Thobie le pere and Anne 
 over the absence of their son. Their grief is turned into joy by 
 the arrival of the young people, who bring the fish-gall by which 
 the father's eyesight is restored. The identity of Azarie is now 
 disclosed and the play ends with a thanksgiving from young 
 Thobie.
 
 60 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 This tragi-comedy may with equal propriety be called a drame 
 bourgeois, if one considers the rank of the personages represented 
 in it and the sentiments they express. The character of Anne, a 
 typical housewife swayed by small practical considerations, is very 
 well drawn. Thobie le pere is too austere, his son too timid and 
 sanctimonious to obtain sympathetic appreciation. The delinea- 
 tion of Sarra's character does credit to Mile des Roches, especially 
 when she expresses the conflicting emotions induced by her love 
 of Thobie and her fear that he may suffer the fate of her former 
 husbands : 
 
 " Dois-ie brusler touiours sans descouvrir ma flamme? 
 Dois-ie faire mourir celui qui tient mon ame ? 
 Faut-il done tant souffrir et ne le dire pas ? 
 Faut-il mener aussi mon ami au trespas ? 
 Ah ! mon Dieu ! meurs plutost, Sarra, que d'estre cause 
 De la mort de celui ou ta vie est enclose." x 
 
 Faguet 2 has pointed out that this tragi-comedy shows dramatic 
 unity only in the part written by Mile des Roches, who concerns 
 herself chiefly with the love of Thobie and Sarra. Her single 
 act, however, forms a small part of the play published by Ouyn. 
 The latter author has dramatized freely the whole Apocryphal 
 story in accordance with the principles of the drame litre. Two 
 distinct plots, one concerned with the welfare of Thobie le pere, 
 his blindness and recovery, the other with the affairs of young 
 Thobie and Sarra, are crudely connected in order to fill five acts. 
 The unities of place and time are obviously violated, as the action 
 takes place in different countries during the space of several 
 months, at the least. There is, however, a unity of interest in 
 the affairs of young Thobie, while the lesson of divine providence 
 is taught throughout. 
 
 This is the last fifteenth-century tragi-comedy of biblical plot. 
 While its religious and bourgeois spirit distinguishes it from tragi- 
 comedies of the following century, it anticipates them in the 
 important place assigned a love-affair, an element lacking in 
 
 1 iv, 6. The entire scene is a happy addition to the Apocryphal account. 
 
 2 For reference see Appendix B, I.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 61 
 
 preceding biblical members of the genre. In this respect it 
 resembles the tragi-comedies of romanesque plot that are now to 
 be discussed. 
 
 III. The Mystere of Romanesque Plot as 
 Tragi-Comedy. 
 
 Especial importance is attached to this group of secular and 
 romanesque plays, which furnished to the genre its best known six- 
 teenth century examples and formed the type that became, in the 
 hands of Hardy, the tragi-comedy par-excellence. First among 
 them chronologically is the lost play on Ariosto's story of 
 Ginevra, 1 performed at Fontainebleau in 1564. The fullest account 
 of the presentation tells of a " tragi-comedie que la Royne, mere du 
 Roy fit iouer en son festin, la plus belle, et aussi bien et artistement 
 representee que l'on pourroit imaginer, et de laquelle le due 
 d'Aniou, a present roy, voulut estre, et auec luy, Marguerite de 
 France sa soeur a present royne de Navarre, et plusieurs princes 
 et princesses, comme le prince de Cond6, Henry de Lorraine due 
 de Guise, la duchesse de Nevers, la duchesse d'Uzes, le due de 
 Rets auiourd'huy mareschal de France, Villequier et quelques 
 autres seigneurs de la cour. Et apres la comedie qui fut admiree 
 d'un chacun . . ." 2 
 
 The other writers cited by Madeleine in his admirable study of 
 the play make certain the subject of the piece, but do not give the 
 name. It has been called Genievre on account of this subject. 
 The evidence that it was considered a tragi-comedy comes from 
 Castelnau, who, however, also calls it a comedie. As the other 
 authors refer to it by the latter appellation, it seems probable that 
 it was known as a comedy, but the character of its subject classes 
 it among tragi-comedies, a conclusion supported by the usage of 
 Claude Billard, who published in 1610 a Genevrc tragecomedie. 
 The loss of the play is unfortunate, as it would furnish an early 
 
 1 Orlando Furioso, IV, 56-72, V, vr, 2-16. 
 
 2 Castelnau, Memoires, in Memoires relatifs <2 V Histoire de France (Michaud et 
 Poujoulat, Paris, 1857), x, 499.
 
 62 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 example of a modern romanesque play, the appearance of which in 
 France is due to no foreign dramatic influence. The subject 
 treated is thoroughly in keeping with those employed in tragi- 
 comedies of the seventeenth century. 
 
 The Lucelle of Louis Le Jars displays romanesque qualities that 
 make appropriate its classification here. In many respects it is 
 rather a comedie bourgeoise, not in keeping with the later traditions 
 of the tragi-comedy. As the work has been fully analyzed by 
 Faguet, Toldo, and Schlensog, 1 I shall give only a brief outline 
 of the plot. 
 
 The personages are le Baron de Sainct-amour, le sieur de Bel- 
 acueil, Bonaduenture, le sieur Carpony, Lucelle sajille, Marguerite, 
 Philippin faltere", Ascagne, le Capitaine Baustruld, le sire Claude. 
 The baron seeks to win the hand of Lucelle, daughter of Carpony, 
 a banker of Lyon. He obtains the father's consent, but has no 
 success with Lucelle, who loves Ascagne, her father's clerk. As 
 the latter realizes his humble position too fully to speak his love, 
 Lucelle makes known her passion, finds it reciprocated, and accom- 
 plishes a secret marriage. Carpony, finding the lovers together, 
 is so deeply offended that he sends for poison, which he forces 
 them to drink. When they have become unconscious, Baustruld 
 arrives with the surprising information that Ascagne is the dis- 
 guised Chastelain de Posnanie, son of the Prince Palatin de Vuala- 
 chie en Pologne. Carponi falls into great distress over the murder 
 he has committed, but Claude apoticaire suddenly enters with the 
 pleasing intelligence that the poison was only a sleeping draught. 
 The lovers, restored to consciousness, arrange a marriage amid 
 general rejoicing. Even the baron seems to be satisfied, as he dis- 
 covers that he is some relation of the new-found prince. 
 
 To this romanesque plot are added numerous farcical discourses 
 from the valet, Philippin, and lengthy generalizations from the 
 baron. The unity of action is violated by these digressions, by the 
 large part of the first three acts devoted to the baron's courtship, 
 and by the denouement, which, instead of developing from the pre- 
 ceding action, is accomplished by the arrival of a deus ex machind. 
 
 1 For references see Appendix B, i.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 63 
 
 The violation of the unities of time and place are shown by 
 Schlensog. 1 
 
 The fact that the play is thoroughly bourgeois in spirit is not 
 disguised by the lofty rank assigned the hero at the end of it. 
 Ascagne's conversation and bearing place him in the middle class 
 of society along with Carpony and Lucelle. The baron, whose 
 role is subordinate, is the only aristocrat in the work-. This fact, 
 taken in connection with the large comic element introduced into 
 it by the valet, the author's use of prose, and the derivation of the 
 plot from an Italian comedy, 2 makes of the play a comedie bourgeoise 
 rather than a tragi-comedy. A play of somewhat similar type is 
 Ouyn's Thobie, 3 which lacks, however, the farcical elements of 
 iAicelle. 
 
 The decided difference that exists between Lucelle and other 
 plays of this romanesque group seems due to its Italian dramatic 
 origin. Had other sixteenth century tragi-comedies been derived 
 from Italian plays, the term would soon have become the equiva- 
 lent of comedy. As it was, Lucelle stood largely alone, finding 
 no follower in the genre before L' Innocence Descouverte (1609), 
 where, however, though the comic element was equally large, the 
 principal personages were aristocrats. 4 
 
 Undoubtedly the best known tragi-comedy of the sixteenth 
 century is the Bradamante of Robert Gamier, long considered the 
 first example of the genre in France. It is the most thoroughly 
 romanesque tragi-comedy before Hardy's Theagene et Cartel ee. 
 As it has been exhaustively analyzed by Ebert, Faguet, and 
 others, 5 I shall give merely a brief account of the plot. The 
 personages are Charlemagne, Nymes (due de Bauieres), Aymon, 
 Beatrix, Renaud, La Roque, Bradamante, Leon, Roger, Hippalque, 
 La Montague, Marphise, Basile (due d'Athenes), Ambassadeurs de 
 Bulgarie and Melisse. The plot, derived from cantos 44, 45, 46 
 
 1 Lucelle, 13-14. 
 
 2 L 1 Amor costante by Alessandro Piccolomini (1540). 
 
 3 See above, page 57 seq. 
 
 4 For an excellent criticism of the composition of Lucelle. and the characters of 
 its personages, cf. Faguet as cited in Appendix B, n. 
 
 5 Cf. Appendix B, i.
 
 64 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 of the Orlando Furioso, concerns the marriage of Roger and 
 Bradamante. The latter' s parents insist on her marrying Leon, 
 son of the Emperor of Constantinople, although she is in love 
 with Roger. Charlemagne, however, has decreed that she shall 
 marry him only who can conquer her in a duel. Leon, who has 
 saved Roger's life, but does not know his name, now appears with 
 this warrior,, who has promised to fight Leon's battles for him. 
 Roger, disguised under Leon's armor, is thus forced to fight against 
 his beloved Bradamante, knowing that if he is victorious, she 
 will be married to Leon. Despite his anguish at this state of 
 things, he fights so skillfully against Bradamante that he is 
 declared victorious and she is awarded to Leon. The lovers are 
 both in despair, but their friends, by reminding Charlemagne that 
 he has promised Bradamante to Roger, persuade him to let the 
 matter be decided by a duel between that knight and Leon. To 
 this the latter agrees, trusting that his friend Roger, whose iden- 
 tity he does not know, will fight for him against the Roger with 
 whom he is unacquainted. Now, however, he finds Roger lament- 
 ing in the woods the loss of Bradamante, discovers who he is, aud 
 generously yields her to him. Meantime the consent of Brada- 
 mante's parents to her marriage with Roger is obtained through 
 the timely arrival of ambassadors from Bulgaria, come to offer 
 Roger the crown of their country. The marriage is arranged amid 
 general satisfaction, while Leon is solaced by the promise of 
 Charlemagne's daughter — a double denouement that recurs fre- 
 quently in the tragi-comedy of the seventeenth century. 
 
 The romanesque elements of this non-historic plot, based on 
 love, developed by a duel between two lovers, and concluded by 
 the offer of a throne to the hero ; the lofty rank of the personages, 
 who include Charlemagne and the son of the Emperor of Con- 
 stantinople ; the serious subject and happy denouement ; the comic 
 elements that appear, especially in the character of Aymon ; the 
 violation of the unities ; the use of Alexandrines, division into 
 acts and scenes, and absence of the chorus : — these qualities make 
 this the tragi-comedy of the sixteenth century that most nearly 
 approaches the type established for the genre by Hardy and his 
 contemporaries. It differs, however, from subsequent tragi-come-
 
 Its Origin and Development. 65 
 
 dies by the evidences of classic influence in the structure of the 
 piece, for though it violates the unity of action by the arrival of 
 the ambassadors, an event unconnected with the rest of the play, 
 yet there is an obvious attempt at selecting for dramatization only 
 those parts of Ariosto's tale that closely concern the love intrigue. 
 Earlier incidents, such as Roger's display of prowess in Bulgaria, 
 his capture by the Greeks and rescue by Leon are recited, not 
 acted. The duel between Roger and Bradamante takes place 
 behind the scenes, according to classical rule and contrary to the 
 usage of later tragi-comedies. Classical again is the subordinate 
 r6le of Hippalque, a typical confidante. Such elements were, 
 indeed, to be expected from the pen of Gamier, whose other plays 
 were essentially classical. It is surprising that, despite the influ- 
 ence of his tragedies, he created the tragi-comedy that in many 
 respects most closely resembles the type established in the seven- 
 teenth century. 1 
 
 The resemblance in plot existing between La Polyxene and the 
 medieval Miracle de la marquise de la Gaudine has been indicated 
 above. 2 As the former play has been neglected by critics of the 
 French stage, it demands a somewhat detailed analysis. The 
 author states that the plot is taken from " le docte Boisteau au 
 premier livre des histoires Tragiques 3 histoire 6." The latter 
 writer translated it from the novella of Bandello called Amove 
 di don Giovanni di Mendozza e delta duchessa di Savoia. 4 Though 
 thus based directly on a collection of tales, the story goes back to 
 the Marquise de la Gaudine, the plot of which is derived, according 
 to Petit de Julleville, 5 from " une ancienne chanson de geste qui 
 nous est parvenue dans une redaction francaise italienisee, que M. 
 Guessard a publiee sous le titre de Macaire." 6 
 
 1 1 do not discuss this play at greater length, as it has been admirably criticized 
 by Ebert and Faguet. For references see Appendix B, I. 
 
 2 Page 9. 
 
 3 Cf. Pierre Bouestuau, Histoires tragiques, Paris, 1559. 
 
 4 Novelle di Matteo Bandello, novella 44, Florence, 1832. 
 
 b Les Mysteres, n, 253. 
 
 6 Cf. Macaire Chanson de Geste, in Anciens Poeles de la France, ix, Francois 
 Guessard, Paris, 1859-70. 10 vols.
 
 66 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 The personages of the drama are : Irenophile, Gentilhomme, 
 V amateur depaix ; Irene, Princesse, paix ; Megalprepie, Damoiselle, 
 la magnijique ; Dromon, le Courrier ; Opade, Gentilhomme de la 
 suite ; Polyxene, Duchesse, ayant plusieurs hostes; Evandre, Due de 
 Savoye, homme genereux ; Le fol amour ; Philomache, Page, aymant 
 a se battre ; Philippe, Page, aymant les chevaux ; Eubolie, Damoi- 
 selle, donnant bon conseil ; Eulalie, Damoiselle, la bien disante ; Le 
 Saint amour ; Mysogyne, Marquis, haineux desfemmes; Mandosse} 
 Chevalier ; Panealier, Conte ; Appian, Medecin ; Dicandre, Premier 
 juge, homme iuste ; Semnandre, second juge, homme severe ; Les cinq 
 chceurs, dont le second seul est de filles. The play begins with a 
 four-page prayer for peace, spoken by Irenophile. Megalprepie 
 and Irene converse on the same topic till a courier announces to 
 the latter the victory of her brother, Mandosse, over the enemy. 
 Irene resolves to go to Rome to return thanks. The chorus ends 
 the act by invoking peace iu the following dull lines : 
 
 " Lors cesseront les assassins 
 Les bruslemens et les ruines 
 Les violemens et larcins 
 Les outrages et les rapines. 
 Tost reprendra Justice en main 
 Sa iuste balance et espee 
 Alors sera du genre humain 
 Tout extortion extirpee." 
 
 On her pilgrimage Irene visits Polyxene, to whom she so 
 eloquently describes her brother's prowess, that this duchess falls 
 in love with him, although she has never seen him. At first she 
 struggles against this love, while the chorus praises chastity, but 
 in the third act she is forced by Le fol amour to leave home with 
 Irene, under pretence of paying her vows to Saint Jacques, but 
 resolved in reality to abandon herself to Mandosse. The chorus 
 now deplores unchastity. The two women are cordially received 
 by Mandosse, but Polyxene, fearing that he does not love her, 
 determines to continue on her way. This resolution forces him 
 to declare his love and beg her to return quickly, which she 
 promises to do. But, meanwhile, Le Saint amour stirs up Poly- 
 xene's husband to follow her, although he does not doubt her
 
 Its Origin and Development. 67 
 
 chastity. The announcement of his approach awakens her dor- 
 mant virtue, so that she resolves to give up Mandosse and return 
 home with the duke. Not long after this, Le fol amour takes 
 revenge for this action by inciting Pancalier, a despairing lover 
 of Polyxene, to put his nephew under her bed, while the duke is 
 away from home, to pretend to find him there, to kill the nephew 
 and accuse Polyxene of adultery. The latter is sentenced to be 
 burnt unless some champion can be found to defend her innocence. 
 Her friends send for Mandosse while the chorus ends the fourth 
 act by commenting on Fortune's sudden changes. 
 
 Disguised by his armor, Mandosse now comes to the rescue, 
 conquers Pancalier and forces him to confess his guilt and the 
 innocence of Polyxene. The latter sends for her unknown pro- 
 tector, only to find that he has disappeared. Shortly afterward 
 she learns of her husband's death in battle, an event that moves 
 her to cry, 
 
 ' ' O gouverneur du monde, 6 Monarque eternel 
 Pourquoy tiens mon ame en cest enclos charnel ? ' ' 
 
 But she recovers from her grief as soon as Mandosse, hearing of 
 the duke's death, returns to prove his identity as her champion. 
 She falls into his arms exclaiming : 
 
 " Pauure ame des tourmens tant de fois agitee, 
 Et lasse des assaux de fortune irritee, 
 Prens maintenant courage en te voyant au port, 
 En voyant pres de toy ton aide et ton support : 
 
 Mais un poinct seulement me chagrine et soucie, 
 
 De pouuoir satisfaire a ceste grand' bonte\ 
 Mandosse : Pestimeray, Madame, estre en tout sumionte' 
 
 Par vous en courtoisie, en grace en gentillesse, 
 
 Si vous vous baissez tant enuers ma petitesse 
 
 De me prendre a Espoux. 
 Polyxene : Vrayment, mon bon Seigneur, 
 
 le reeoy plus icy de faueur et d' honneur 
 
 Que ie n'en pourrois rendre, et bien froide et petite 
 
 Est ceste recompense." 
 
 The structure of this piece is decidedly faulty, for the main plot 
 is dramatized almost exclusively in the fourth and fifth acts, while
 
 68 The French Tragi- Comedy: 
 
 the first three, following Bandello's narrative, are full of extraneous 
 matter that serves merely to give the play sufficient length. The 
 action takes place in both Spain and Italy during several months, 
 at least. The story is told ab ovo, beginning with the causes of 
 Irene's journey, which was itself the cause of the love-affair 
 between Polyxene and Mandosse. The preliminary discourses 
 are delivered at great length, while the important parts of the 
 plot are too quickly narrated, characteristics worthy of the 
 didactic author, a schoolmaster of Rouen, known by his Petit- 
 Behourt, an abridgment of Despauteres's Rudiment. His pedantry 
 is further shown by his use of such names as, Ireuophile and 
 Megalprepie. Classical influence is seen in the courrier and con- 
 fidantes, as well as in the use of the five choruses and the recitation 
 of certain events that should have been acted. On the other hand, 
 the abstract personages show the influence of the morality. This 
 play is in one respect more dramatic than Bradamante, inasmuch 
 as the duel is here acted on the stage, whereas in Garnier's play 
 the contest between Roger and Bradamante is described to the 
 audience by a third person. 
 
 The tragi-comedy has an unnecessarily large number of person- 
 ages, of whom many are altogether useless and few possess indi- 
 viduality. Irene, a colorless personality, appears in the first two 
 acts to be the heroine of the piece, but is insignificant in the rest 
 of it. The characterization of Polyxene is inconsistent, for she is 
 first represented as a woman of easy virtue, but later held up 
 as a model of irreproachable chastity. One is not moved by the 
 portrayal of slandered innocence when one knows that the inno- 
 cence has been preserved through forced separation from the 
 desired lover. Mandosse is a knightly character of few words 
 and mighty deeds, an agreeable contrast to the prolix abstractions, 
 who concern themselves with peace and different kinds of love. 
 Despite the addition of these personages from the moralite', the 
 play is, however, essentially romanesque, as the plot is based on 
 love, the heroine becomes enamored of a hero whom she has never 
 seen, she is saved from the stake by a duel, and she recognizes her 
 disguised rescuer by means of a ring she has given him before the
 
 Its Origin and Development. 69 
 
 contest. Such elements make this play, like others of its class, 
 the prototype of the tragi-comedies written by Alexandre Hardy. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of tragi-comedies that have a roma- 
 nesque plot, mention should be made of two sixteenth-century plays 
 that have the characteristics of such tragi-comedies, though classi- 
 fied as belonging in other genres. The first of them is the Comedie 
 des Amours de Theseus et de Dianira (5 acts, prose) by Gerard de 
 Vivre of Ghent, published at Paris, 1577, and republished in 
 Trois Comedies frangoises de Gerard de Vivre, Gantois at Rotterdam 
 and Antwerp, 1589, and again at Antwerp, 1602. 1 Theseus and 
 Dianira elope to Egypt, where they are captured by Tyrrhene, 
 who falls in love with Dianira, believing her to be the sister of 
 Theseus. Informed by a letter from her father that this is not 
 the case, Tyrrhene is about to put the lovers to death, when 
 Anchises, supposed father of Theseus, shows that the young man 
 is the son of Tyrrhene. This discovery appeases the ruler's 
 wrath, so that the piece ends in the marriage of the lovers. 
 
 Equally romantic in plot is La Sophronie Tragidie (5 acts, 
 verse) by Aymard de Veins, published at Rouen, 1599, and at 
 Troyes, 1619. 2 Aladin, king of Jerusalem, seeks to save his city 
 from capture by getting possession of an image of the Virgin, 
 which suddenly disappears. When he condemns all the Christians 
 in his power to be put to death for the theft, Sophronie accuses 
 herself of having stolen the image, in order to save her co-religion- 
 ists. Olinde, her lover, endeavors to save her by implicating 
 himself. Aladin orders both to be killed, but frees them at the 
 last moment on the intercession of Clorinde, the famous female 
 warrior. The lovers are then happily united. 
 
 Despite changes of names and incidents, the plot of the first of 
 these plays is evidently derived from the romance of Heliodorus 
 on which Hardy based his Theagene et Caridee; :i that of the 
 second comes from Tasso's Geriisalemme Liberata (n, strophes 
 
 *La Valliere, I, 214-5 ; Brunet, v, 1356-7 ; Mktere du Viel Testament, I, p. xc. 
 
 2 La Valliere, I, 325-6; Brunet, v, 114. 
 
 3 See below, page 120. Stiefel is evidently mistaken in deriving this play from 
 Cleitophon and Leucippe of Achilleus Tatius, for its plot is much nearer that of 
 Theagenes and Chariclea. Cf. A. L. Stiefel, Nachahmung italienischer Dramen, 258.
 
 70 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 1-53). These romantic plots of love unto death, rescue at the 
 last moment, oriental surroundings, aristocratic personages, and 
 happy denouement, make the plays true tragi-comedies. The fact 
 that they were called comedie and tragedie shows that the term 
 tragi-comedie was not fully established even at the end of the 
 sixteenth century. 
 
 IV. The Farce as Tragi-Comedy. 
 
 The farcical elements that have been shown to play an important 
 part in Lucelle and Caresme prenant 1 constitute practically the 
 whole of La NouveUe tragicomique, a late example of the medieval 
 farce. The piece is so constructed that the reader cannot be 
 certain whether it was written as a play or a nouvelle. Sainte-Beuve 
 analyzed it as a drame satirique. 2 The greater part of it is dia- 
 logued after the manner of medieval plays, in which the change 
 of scene, though unmarked, is sufficiently indicated by the context. 
 Towards the end, however, events are related by different person- 
 ages of the play, not in dramatic monologues, but in synopses that 
 tell of what occurs between the dialogues, interior speeches corre- 
 sponding to the prologue and epilogue. The system is the same 
 as that employed in Pericles Prince of Tyre, where Gower relates 
 the undramatized events of the story. However subject to objec- 
 tion such a system may be, it does not prevent the piece in which 
 it is used from being looked upon as a dramatic production. 
 
 The personages of the play are : Ambrelin, laquais ; Dominicq 
 le seigneur ; Vouly ; Griffon advocat ; Arcquigue ; Bergers ; Magis 
 le sgavant ; Candelin le portier de la ville ; Hospes, maistre hosteller ; 
 Chicanoux ; Gonophage, femme de V advocat; Furcifer le brigand. 
 Dominicq, apprized of the loss of " deux mille escus " and the 
 death of the servant in charge of them, seeks aid from Griffon, 
 whom he persuades to consult Magis. Griffon is at first unwilling 
 to do so, calling the sooth-sayer : 
 
 1 See above, pages 62 and 47. 
 
 2 Tableau, 235.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 71 
 
 ' ' une grosse teste, 
 Un homme mal forme qui n'est rien qu'une beste." 
 
 Yielding at last, Griffon seeks out Magis, whose dwelling is shown 
 to him by shepherds. When Griffon tells of the lost treasure, 
 the sage replies : 
 
 "Vous changez de discours et n'ay change de teste ; 
 Suis-je pas mal forme ? Suis-je pas une beste ? 
 Griffon, vous l'avez diet. 
 Griffon : Magis, pardonnez-moy." 
 
 But Magis is resolved on vengeance and, after telling Griffon 
 where to look for the thief, assures him that he will remember the 
 insult when he finds the man. 
 
 Soon the lawyer reaches Paris, secures guards, and proceeds to 
 hunt for the robber in a house of ill-repute, kept by Hospes. 
 After considerable parleying, they proceed to the room where 
 Furcifer le brigand is lodged, break open the door, and find him 
 in company with no other than the wife of Griffon. The dialogue 
 stops temporarily while Hospes relates the scene, beginning : 
 
 "Si jamais on a veu une ame perturbee 
 II falloit voir Griffon, sans combat combatu, 
 Voyant sa f emme, etc. ' ' 
 
 He is so greatly surprised that he makes no effort to arrest 
 Furcifer, merely asking him to explain his presence in such com- 
 pany. Furcifer assures him that he objects to no woman whom 
 he can buy. Then Candelin, taking up Hospes's recitation, tells 
 how Furcifer quietly left the house and sent the guard to arrest 
 Griffon on the ground that he " luy retenoit sa femme et beaucoup 
 de son bien." The lawyer submits to the arrest for fear of scandal. 
 A brief dialogue follows between him and Dominicq, who deplores 
 the loss of his money, reminding Griffon that he has failed to 
 recover it because of his scepticism regarding magic. Hospes 
 continues the story by telling how Griffon was let out of prison 
 after apologizing to his wife's family, who then allowed him to be 
 reunited to her, celebrating the recouciliation by " un beau festin," 
 which brings the play to a happy termination. 
 
 This badly dramatized tragi-comedy contains two nearly distinct
 
 72 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 actions, of which one is concerned with an attempt to recover stolen 
 property, the other with the betrayal of an advocate by his wife. 
 A weak attempt to unite the two is made by introducing the role 
 of Magis into the play, Griffon's light opinion of him and its 
 subsequent punishment. Unnecessary personages are introduced 
 into the piece ; as, Vouly, an adviser, Arcquigue, who merely 
 comments on the play without mingling in the action, the shep- 
 herds, whose introduction into the action may be due to the rising 
 popularity of the pastoral. The piece is thoroughly bourgeois in 
 its subject and in the rank and conversation of its personages. 
 The dialogue is full of vulgar humor. Dominicq's grief over the 
 loss of his gold and his servants is largely burlesqued. The 
 scene at the inn is full of jests at the expense of Griffon, the 
 butt of the play. 
 
 The spirit of the piece is, indeed, that of the farce rather than 
 the tragi-comedy. The fact that the author calls it a nouvelle 
 tragi-comique rather than a tragi-comedy seems to indicate his 
 realization that it did not fulfill the conception of the genre 
 already developed in the public mind. At the time when it was 
 written, however, it could be called a tragi-comedy, as it con- 
 tinued the traditions of certain medieval plays, ended happily, 
 and showed by the use of Alexandrines the effect of classical 
 influence upon its form. A few examples of similar farcical 
 tragi-comedies will be noted in the discussion of seventeenth 
 century plays. 1 
 
 V. The Pastoral and Foreign Play as Tragi-Comedy. 
 
 This group, of no importance in the history of the genre, is 
 limited to three plays, to which the term, tragi-comedie, has 
 been loosely applied. In 1527 two translations of the Celestina 
 appeared at Paris and a third at Lyons. Reprints were made at 
 the former city in 1529 and 1542. The name, tragi-comedie, 
 appears in the titles of none of these. In 1578, however, was 
 published La Celestine . . . tragi-comedie jadis espagnole, 2 indicat- 
 
 1 See below, page 94. 2 See Appendix B, i.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 73 
 
 ing the increased popularity of the tragi-comedy, although the 
 term is here a translation and is not used in the French sense, 
 for the Celestina is not a tragi-comedy according to French ideas, 
 but, if it be considered a dramatic production, it is a comedy of 
 manners with tragic denouement. Its influence is not exerted on 
 the tragi-comedy, but on the comedy through the Contents of 
 Odet de Toumebu. 1 
 
 Les Aveugles, as a translation of the Ceearia, retains the title, 
 tragi-comedie, though it is in reality a pastoral. To the latter 
 genre belongs also Tragi-comedie pastorale ou Mylas, an adaptation 
 of the Aminta, with the new genre-name taken from the Pastor 
 jido. This is the first occurrence of this term in France, where 
 it is used a number of times in the sixteenth century to indicate a 
 variety of pastoral that has been influenced by the tragi-comedy. 
 
 Another example of the pastoral is found in Amour Vaincu, 
 tragecomedie, in which Amour seeks to bring all the gods under 
 his sway, but falls in love himself with a nymph who laughs at 
 him. After conquering a number of divinities, he is captured 
 when asleep and deprived of his weapons, so that the play ends 
 in the usual pastoral fashion with the return of all the lovers to 
 their former mistresses. 
 
 These plays have no connection with other tragi-comedies of 
 the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. The application of the 
 term, tragi-comedy, to them is due either to a translation of it 
 from the foreign original, or to a confusion that existed at this 
 time between the tragi-comedy and the pastoral, owing to 
 Guarini's denomination of the Pastor jido as a tragicommedia 
 pastorale. 
 
 The preceding investigation of tragi-comedies written during the 
 sixteenth century shows that the name was at that time applied 
 to a number of dramatic kinds, derived from the medieval stage. 
 Distinctions among the classes of tragi-comedies, thus formed, 
 must not be rigorously made, as certain plays can be put into more 
 than one class. Thus, Iokebed resembles the moralite and the 
 biblical mystdre ; Polyxene, the moralite and mystPre of romanesque 
 
 1 Paris, 1584.
 
 74 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 plot ; Thobie is both biblical and romanesque. Since the tragi- 
 comedy in the sixteenth century might include any play of happy 
 denouement, which was derived from the medieval drama and 
 showed in its form evidence of classical influence, there is no 
 reason for calling the lost Genievre, Lucelle, or Bradamante the 
 first tragi-comedy. 1 Accordiug to the conception of the genre in 
 vogue at that time, V Homme iustijie par Foy or Les Enfants dans 
 la Fournaise were not only considered tragi-comedies, but belonged 
 to divisions of the genre that left a larger number of examples 
 than did the romanesque type, which later became the only form 
 of tragi-comedy. To deny this fact is to attempt to foist upon 
 the tragi-comedy of the sixteenth century the meaning attached 
 to it at a subsequent period. 
 
 But, although tragi-comedies of the sixteenth century vary 
 more widely than they subsequently did, they have in common 
 many characteristics which influenced the later composition of the 
 genre. Their failure to observe the unities has beeu discussed 
 after the analysis of each play. Many of the scenes of this genre 
 do not grow logically out of those that precede, but follow one 
 another largely by chance. Plays like H Homme iustifie par Foy, 
 La Gaule, Iokebed, Thobie, Caresme prenant include more than 
 one important action. The denouement is accomplished by a 
 deus ex machind in La Gaule, Lucelle and Bradamante. 
 
 The time of the action is not always clearly indicated, but 
 appears to vary from a period of more than a year in lob, 
 Lucelle, Le Desespere' and Polyxene to one of a few days in Brada- 
 mante and Les Enfants dans la Fournaise. 
 
 Though the scene is laid ordinarily within a limited locality, 
 as, in a city ; it may represent places at some distance from one 
 another. In La Nouvelle tragicomique the action takes place 
 within Paris and outside of it, while in Polyxene and Thobie it is 
 found in more than one country. Instead of the classical unities, 
 however, these tragi-comedies display a unity of interest in a 
 
 1 Madeleine, Revue de la Renaissance, iv (1903), 30, and Tilly, French Renais- 
 sance, ii, 99, claim this title for Genievre; Schlensog, Lucelle, 5, bestows it upon 
 Lucelle by Le Jars ; Freres Parfaict, in, 454, and La Valliere, I, 189, select 
 Bradamante as the original tragi-comedy.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 75 
 
 single personage like Iokebcd or Thobie, or in the accomplish- 
 ment of some object, as is the case in V Homme iustijie par Foy, 
 La Gaule, Bradamante, Polyxene, IS Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher. 
 
 The choice of subject is influenced by the author's purpose of 
 instructing or amusing; his audience. In the moralites the end is 
 so essentially didactic that the events are largely neglected ; the 
 biblical plays, while pointing a moral, introduce into the piece 
 action that is frequently dramatic ; the tragi-comedies of roma- 
 nesque, or farcical plot, reach the audience through the emotions 
 without attempting instruction of any sort. So the plots are 
 religious or historical in the didactic tragi-comedies and fictitious 
 in the rest. The Bible is the source of U Homme iustijie par Foy, 
 Les EnfanU dans la Fournaise, lob, Thobie, Iokebed, Le patriarche 
 Abraham ; la Gaule and Gamier Stoffacher are declared by their 
 authors to be historical, although the history with which they are 
 concerned is treated allcgorically. On the other hand, the roma- 
 nesque tragi-comedies are based on obviously fictitious narratives, 
 the Orlando Furioso, Amor Costante, a novella of Bandello, and 
 the Jerusalemme Liberata. 1 The slight plot of La Nouvelle tragi- 
 comique is probably an invention of its author. 
 
 In the last-named play, the mainspring of the action is avarice, 
 which appears subordinately in Lueelle, Bradamante, and Thobie. 
 It is love in the romanesque plays, and religion in the biblical 
 tragi-comedies and in the majority of moralites. Love enters 
 subordinately into Thobie, as does religion into Polyxene. Religion 
 struggles against pride in Les EnfanU dans la Fournaise, hypoc- 
 risy in U Homme iastijie par Foy, and Satan and his assistants in 
 the latter play, lob, Thobie, Iokebed, and Gamier Stoffacher. Patri- 
 otism, which dominates religion, though working in unison witli it, 
 in La Gaule and Gamier Stoffacher, is seen in the intermPde of 
 Caresme prenant " touchant quelques abus de ce temps," in the 
 frequent expression of desires for peace by personages in Polyxene, 
 and in the prologue of lob, where the author speaks of his theme, 
 as a 
 
 1 If Sophronie be included here ; see above, page 69.
 
 76 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 " Sujet bien conuenable a la saison passee, 
 Qui depuis quelques ans a la France oppressee : 
 Et dont ie prie a Dieu que le temps a venir 
 Par contraires effets oste le souuenir." 
 
 Particularly worthy of note are the expressions of patriotism, and 
 of admiration of France found in Bradamante, as, when the 
 heroine of the play declares, 
 
 "Mais le pais natal ha ne spay quelle force, 
 Et ne spay quel appas qui les homines amorce 
 Et les attire a soy." * 
 
 Nymes says of the Saracens, 
 
 "lis sont assez puissans pour leurs terres defendre, 
 Mais non pas pour oser contre vous entreprendre, 
 Pour la France assaillir, mere des Cheualiers, 
 Mere des bons soudars, qu'elle enfante a milliers." 2 
 
 Leon adds a foreigner's praise by speaking of " vostre France, en 
 Cheualiers feconde, Et feconde en vertus." 3 
 
 The tragi-comedy was, indeed, able to appeal to the patriotism 
 of the audience to an extent denied the classical tragedy, by reason 
 of the fact that the scene in plays of the former genre could be 
 laid in the country in which they were represented. In the 
 biblical plays, it is true, the Orient is naturally chosen for the 
 scene of action, but in La Gaule, Lucelle, Bradamante, Le Desespere" 
 Caresme prenant, and La Nouvelle tragicomique the scene is laid in 
 France, just as the action of L' Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher takes 
 place in Switzerland, and that of Polyxene in Savoy and neighbor- 
 ing lands. That the audience responded to this feature of the 
 tragi-comedy, along with its other popular characteristics, is shown 
 by the number of recorded representations of tragi-comedies, by the 
 extensive geographical distribution of the genre in France, and by 
 the variety of professions represented by its authors. 
 
 It is well established that Geni&vre, lob, Lokebed, Bradamante,* 
 Gamier Stoffacher, Le patriarche Abraham, Polyxene, Le Desespere, 
 Caresme prenant, Amour Vaincu, and Aymee were actually repre- 
 
 l n, 3, lines 584-86. *i, 2, lines 141-4. s ni, 3, lines 860-1. 
 
 4 Recorded representations of this play took place in the seventeenth century.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 77 
 
 sented. IS Homme iustifie par Foy, Les Enfants dans la Fournaise, 
 La Gaxde, and Lucelle, evidently written for representation, were 
 also probably produced on the boards. We know that perform- 
 ances took place in the sixteenth century at Fontainebleau, Poitiers, 
 Antwerp, Geneva, Montbeliard, Rouen, Bordeaux, and Aix-en- 
 Provence. The plays were published at Paris, Geneva, Poitiers, 
 Antwerp, Rouen, Tours, Lyon, Harlem, Toulouse, and Niort. If 
 Les Enfants dans la Fournaise was acted, the event probably took 
 place in Beam, for the author lived there and dedicated his play 
 to Jeanne d'Albret. The tragi-cornedy was, therefore, known in 
 nearly all parts of France. That it appealed to various classes is 
 shown by the fact that its authors included Barran, a preacher ; 
 Behourt, Heyns, and Jean-Georges, schoolmasters ; Du Chesne, a 
 physician ; Bonet and La Fons, lawyers ; Le Jars, the King's 
 Secretary of the Chamber ; Papillon, a retired captain ; Gamier, 
 Sainte-Marthe, and Mile des Roches, who occupied themselves 
 largely with literary pursuits. 
 
 Another characteristic of the tragi-comedy that gave it wide 
 appeal was the varied rank of its characters. Contrary to subse- 
 quent usage, tragi-comedies might now be altogether bourgeois, as 
 are le Desespere, Caresme prenant, La Nouvelle tragicomique, and 
 Thobie. The principal personages are bourgeois in Lucelle and 
 Iokebed, but persons of high rank are found in subordinate roles. 
 Les Enfants dans la Fournaise, La Gaule, Bradamante, and Polyxene 
 are primarily aristocratic, though La Gaule admits the tiers etat 
 and soldiers, and the three other plays present attendants of 
 inferior rank, as do classical tragedies. 
 
 As the dramatic art in France was not yet sufficiently developed 
 to create roles thoroughly consistent with life, the study of char- 
 acter in these plays is, as a rule, crudely done. The personage 
 often embodies only a single quality, after the manner of the 
 abstractions that enter into many of these plays. He thus lacks 
 a sufficient number of emotions to rouse a psychological struggle 
 within himself. The audience sees in him the personification of 
 a single virtue or vice, rather than the complex composition of 
 the individual. Occasionally, however, a personage is found in 
 such a situation that his action is dependent, not on external forces,
 
 78 Tlie French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 but on the conflict of emotions that takes place within him. An 
 eminent example of such a psychological struggle is seen in 
 Roger's debate as to whether he should fight against Bradamante, 1 
 where the hero hesitates between his love and his oath. In the 
 same play, 2 Beatrix displays in conversation with Bradamante a 
 hesitation between the maternal love that prompts her to allow 
 her daughter to marry Roger and her ambition that makes her 
 prefer Leon as son-in-law. Similarly, Sarra struggles against her 
 love of Thobie 3 for fear of causing his death, Polyxene wavers 
 between yielding to Mandosse and remaining faithful to her 
 husband, 4 and the midwives in Iokebed 5 debate the question of 
 saving the young Hebrews at the cost of disobedience and 
 deception. These passages, however, take up but a small portion 
 of plays that are more largely concerned with the events them- 
 selves, than with the mental processes that bring them about. 
 There is nothing to compare with the heroic struggle in the mind 
 of Chimene. On the other hand, opportunities of expressing 
 psychological study are neglected ; as, when Nabochodonosor 
 shows no hesitation in declaring himself divine, Carpony in 
 directing his daughter's murder, or Polyxene's husband in 
 condemning her to be burnt. 6 The struggle in Sidrach's mind 
 between human and divine guidance is ended almost as soon as 
 it begins. 7 
 
 A number of types are found in these plays. The protagonists 
 of La Gaule and L* Homme iustifie" par Foy have utterly weak 
 characters, swayed by all those with whom they come into contact. 
 With them may be compared Gent-Israelite in Iokebed and La 
 Paix in L' Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher. The worthy hero, whose 
 virtues are bourgeois rather than warlike, is represented by 
 Ascagne in Lucelle, Charles in Le Desespere, and Thobie in the 
 play that bears his name. The invincible warrior is exemplified 
 by Roger in Bradamante, Mandosse in Polyxene, and Gamier in 
 IJ Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher. To these two varieties of hero 
 
 1 Bradamante, m, 5. 2 Ibidem, II, 3. 3 Thobie, IV, 6. 
 
 4 Polyxene, n and III. 6 Iokebed, IV, 5. 
 
 6 See above, pages 50, 62, 67. 7 See above, page 50.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 79 
 
 correspond the bourgeois class of heroines that includes Sarra, 
 Lucelle, and Iokebed, and the aristocratic, represented by Brada- 
 mante and Polyxene. The villain is a rare type, except in such 
 abstractions as Concupiscence, Volupte, Gloutonie, Cruaute, Lefol 
 amour, or such personages as -Rabby and Bellone, abstractions 
 under another name. Nabochodonosor is scarcely a villain, as he 
 offers to pardon the three children for their first offense, and 
 honors them at the end of the piece. Carpony is hardly a serious 
 character. The only true villains are Pancalier in Polyxene and 
 Furcifer in La Nouvelle tragicomique, who are seen little on the 
 stage. 
 
 Nabochodonosor has been mentioned l as the first representative of 
 the tragi-comic type of king that will be frequently met in the 
 seventeenth century. Charlemagne presents a somewhat similar 
 character, with less pride and greater weakness of purpose. All his 
 actions are suggested by others. Charles plays too small a part in 
 La Gaule to be criticized. Thermuth in Iokebed is an amiably un- 
 interesting princess. Leon, with his timidity, generosity, and 
 frank admiration for Bradamante is a more sympathetic character 
 than men of sterner virtues. The fact that he is not made ridicu- 
 lous by the contrast of his character with that of Roger is an 
 indication of the dramatic skill of the author of Bradamante. 
 
 The bourgeois and his wife are usually well drawn. Carpony 
 and Thobie le pere are typical of their class, to which, on account of 
 his love of money and desire for high rank, may be added Aymon, 
 father of Bradamante. Similarly Beatrix, however aristocratic in 
 origin, shows the family affection and lack of high ideal that 
 characterizes the bourgeoise. Still more appropriately depicted is 
 the character of Anne, the simple housewife, unmoved by the un- 
 practical altruism of her husband and son. Among other person- 
 ages are to be noted Griffon, the lawyer, akin to Pathelin and 
 Sganarelle ; Magis, the magician, who belongs to a type especially 
 frequent in the tragi-comedie pastorale ; Claude, the apothecary, 
 restorer of Lucelle and Ascagne ; Raguel, the divine agent, who 
 may be compared to the abstract virtues. Attendants and mes- 
 
 1 See above, page 52.
 
 80 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 sengers are also introduced into these plays. The latter type is 
 found evidencing classical imitation in Lucelle, Bradamante and 
 E Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher ; the former occurs in the first two 
 of these plays, in Les Enfants dans la Fournaise, Lokebed, Polyxene, 
 Le Desespere, Thobie, and La Nouvelle tragicomique. Of especial 
 importance among such personages are Philippin, the irrepressible 
 wag, in Lucelle, who plays the part of the valet after Italian ex- 
 ample ; the scolding maid in Thobie ; and the role of confidante 
 that shows classical influence, exemplified by Hippalque in Brada- 
 mante, Eubolie in Polyxene, and Marguerite in Lucelle. Other 
 minor personages are added in many of the plays, so that the total 
 number of characters is large in comparison with the usage of the 
 classical stage. Thus, Polyxene has nineteen persons besides the 
 chorus, while Caresme prenant has twenty-nine in all. Usually, 
 however, the number is smaller, amounting in Gamier Stoffacher 
 to only four, in addition to the three choruses. 
 
 There seems to have been no restriction as to the number of 
 personages that appeared on the stage at a time, or that took part 
 in the conversation. The dialogue is used more extensively than 
 in contemporary classical plays, a fact that has been noted by 
 Faguet in comparing Bradamante with tragedies written by the 
 same author. 1 Monologues are occasionally employed to excess 
 in tragi-comedies, however; as, in Polyxene, Lokebed, and espe- 
 cially Gamier Stoffacher. 
 
 While the subject of most of these tragi-comedies is essentially 
 serious, comic elements are admitted into certain plays. The 
 character of Aymon in Bradamante is distinctly humorous. 
 The Satellites introduce a grim humor into Les Enfants dans la 
 Fournaise. Caresme prenant includes a farce. Several personages 
 in Lucelle, particularly Philippin, show decided humor. In all 
 of these, however, such passages are subordinate to the serious 
 portions of the play. The only extant tragi-comedy that is an 
 exception to this is La Nouvelle tragicomique. 
 
 The denouement in all these plays is happy for the persons 
 principally concerned. E Homme and Le Voluptueux in E Homme 
 
 1 Tragediefrangaise, 215.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 81 
 
 iustifie and Oaresme prenant finally attain salvation ; the three 
 children escape from the furnace ; La Gaule, lob, and Iokebed 
 are freed from their troubles ; peace is brought by Gamier 
 Stoffacher ; Lucelle, Bradamante, Thobie, Polyxene, and Charles 
 of Le Desespere are fortunately married. Even in La Nouvelle 
 tragieomique the lawyer and his wife are reunited at the end. 
 
 In form the tragi-comedies show some variation from classical 
 usage. A marked division iuto five acts, with subdivisions into 
 scenes, is the rule, to which the following exceptions are found : 
 the division into acts in Lex Enfants clans la Fournaise is indi- 
 cated only by the presence of the choruses ; in La Nouvelle 
 tragieomique no such division is made ; in La Gaule there are 
 only four acts ; in Gamier Stoffacher only three ; in none of these 
 four plays are there subdivisions into scenes. The Alexandrine 
 is the meter employed in Bradamante, Le Desespere and La 
 Nouvelle tragieomique, and in all but lyric portions of lob, 
 La Gaule, Thobie, and Polyxene. In L'Homme iustifie and Les 
 Enfante dans la Fournaise verses of ten and eight syllables are 
 employed instead of Alexandrines, except in the prologue and 
 epilogue of the latter play. No apparent distinction is made in 
 the use of the two kinds of verse. The former play shows verses 
 of six syllables, furthermore, in the ninth scene of the first act, 
 perhaps in order that the lightness of the meter may correspond 
 to the pleasures that L' 'Homme anticipates in yielding to Concupi- 
 scence. Verses of eight syllables are used in Caresme prenant. 
 Lucelle and Iokebed employ prose. Lyric passages in these plays 
 occur in the choruses and in cantiques, which are written in verses 
 of six, seven, and eight syllables, showing considerable variety in 
 rime order. The choruses in Les Enfants dans la Fournaise 
 employ all three meters, using the six-syllable verses only in 
 connection with others of greater length. The same usage is seen 
 in La Gaule, except that no verses of seven syllables are found. 
 In lob and the Thobie of Mile des Roches the lyric portions are 
 written in verses of seven syllables; L' Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher 
 has choruses in eight-syllable verse, Iokebed a cantique in six, 
 while Polyxene uses both these meters. 
 
 The style of these verses, both lyric and dramatic, has been
 
 82 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 shown by citations made in this chapter to be frequently puerile 
 and rarely imbued with poetic qualities. This fact, coupled with 
 weakness of dramatic conception, has prevented the tragi-comedy 
 of the sixteenth century from furnishing more than two plays of 
 literary pretensions. These are the Lucelle and Bradamante, plays 
 that compare favorably with the classical tragedies produced in 
 France during this century, however inferior they are to those of a 
 later date. The genre as a whole, furthermore, is shown to have 
 appealed to the people by the comparatively large number of plays 
 known to have been represented and by the fact that it was adopted 
 by Alexandre Hardy, whose work was written primarily for repre- 
 sentation before a popular audience. 
 
 It is, indeed, as the link between the non-comic theater of the 
 middle-ages and this work of Hardy that the tragi-comedy of the 
 sixteenth century is historically important. The stages of the dra- 
 matic development are readily traced. In the looseness of structure 
 that violates the classical unities and shows a frequently illogical 
 succession of scenes, united by some general interest, these theaters 
 of the middle ages, the sixteenth, and early seventeenth century, 
 are largely the same. So are they also in the seriousness of the 
 subject and the possible, but not necessary, addition of the comic. 
 In other respects, there is a noticeable development. The medie- 
 val subject is almost always religious and frequently historical ; the 
 sixteenth century tragi-comedy is often religious and historical, but 
 shows plays that have neither of these qualities ; in the theater of 
 Hardy and his contemporaries the predominant variety of subject 
 is neither religious nor historical. Again, personages of various 
 social classes appear in the three theaters, but in the first and second 
 the aristocrat can be entirely omitted from a play, while in the 
 third his presence is the rule. The denouement in the Middle Ages, 
 while usually happy, may be the reverse ; in the tragi-comedies 
 it is always happy. In form, the medieval theater shows no 
 classical influence, while the tragi-comedies of the sixteenth century, 
 by their use of Alexandrines, chorus, or division into acts, 1 follow 
 
 1 1 do not include in this statement Les Aveugles, a mere prose translation of a 
 foreign original.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 83 
 
 classical models; in the seventeenth century the division into acts 
 and the use of Alexandrines is extended to almost all cases, though 
 by the usual omission of the chorus there is a reversion to the 
 medieval position. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that by means of the tragi-comedy of 
 the sixteenth century, the medieval plays, especially the myderes 
 and miracles, developed into Hardy's popular dramas. With him 
 the romanesque form of tragi-comedy triumphed definitively over 
 other types of the genre that continued to be written sporadically. 
 It will be shown in the next chapter how this was accomplished, 
 with the resulting predominance of the tragi-comedy on the 
 French stage, a position lost to it only by the advent of the 
 classical tragedy of Pierre Corneille.
 
 84 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE TRAGI-COMEDY OF THE SEVENTEENTH 
 
 CENTURY BEFORE ROTROU AND 
 
 CORNEILLE (1600 TO 1628). 
 
 While all the types of tragi-comedy written in France during 
 the sixteenth century are continued in the period from 1600 to 
 1628, 1 they show a great change in their relative importance. 
 During the sixteenth century five tragi-comedies are known which 
 resemble the moralite, and six the mystere of biblical plot, but 
 only four can be called romanesque. From the following period, 
 as far as Rotrou, twenty-eight romanesque tragi-comedies are 
 known, but only eighteen of all other classes of tragi-comedy, 
 including those based on lives of saints, of which no examples 
 are preserved from the sixteenth century. Furthermore, the 
 romanesque tragi-comedy of Hardy and his contemporaries was 
 attracting the Parisian public to the Hotel de Bourgogne, while 
 the other forms of the tragi-comedy were being acted by school- 
 children at provincial colleges, and, since the coming of Hardy 
 to Paris (1593), exerted little influence upon the development 
 of the French drama. Thus it is that the religious and farcical 
 tragi-comedies were published altogether in the provinces, while 
 the romanesque tragi-comedies appeared chiefly at Paris. 
 
 Considering the decided preponderance of the romanesque over 
 other forms of the tragi-comedy, I have divided the plays treated 
 in this chapter 2 into two classes, according to the absence or 
 presence in them of romanesque elements. As the plays that 
 
 1 This date marks the end of Hardy's career as far as his extant works are 
 concerned, the beginning of Kotrou's work and of the influence of the Spanish 
 drama upon the French. In the following year appeared Corneille's first play 
 and Scudery's first tragi-comedy. 
 
 2 For a list of these plays, their authorships, dates, bibliography, etc., see 
 Appendix B, n, below.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 85 
 
 possess such qualities are more numerous aud of greater import- 
 ance than those that do not have them, they will be more fully 
 discussed than the comparatively unimportant tragi-coruedies, 
 classified as non-romanesque. 
 
 I. The Non-Romanesque Tragi-Comedy. 
 
 A. Analyses. 
 
 As the plays belonging to this class resemble closely the 
 religious and farcical tragi-comedies of the sixteenth century, 
 they may, like their prototypes, be divided for analysis according 
 to their resemblance to medieval genres. The moralite, mystb'e, 
 miracle, and farce, as tragi-comedy, will consequently be discussed 
 in succession. 
 
 1. The Moralite as Tragi-Comedy. 
 
 Of the three extant plays belonging to this division U Amour 
 divin (1601) and Zo J anthropic (1614) express religious views after 
 the manner of U Homme iustifie par Foy, 1 while U union Belgique 
 (1604) inclines to the political moralite, of which types have been 
 found in La Gaule and Gamier Stoffaeher. 2 As the first two have 
 been analyzed by Sainte-Beuve and La Valli&re, 3 respectively, a 
 brief account of their plots will suffice. 
 
 U Amour divin presents in allegorical form the fall and salva- 
 tion of the human race. Le Roy places his daughter, Physique, 
 in a garden under Lucerin's guard. She is much pleased until 
 she is told by her guardian : 
 
 ' ' Vous ne pouuez en somme 
 Vous guarantir du mal si ne cueillez la pomme 
 Qui est sur le pommier, dont le fruit deffendu 
 Ne peut pas par vos mains ia estre despendu, 
 Iouissez done du bien qui ore se presente." 
 
 But when she has eaten the apple, she is exiled and Lucerin 
 
 1 See above, p. 37. 2 See above, pp. 40 and 44. 
 
 3 For references, see Appendix B, n.
 
 86 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 cursed. Her brother, Amour Divin, however, aided by Eleone 
 and opposed by L'Astree and Verite, consents to suffer and die 
 for her, thus restoring her to the royal favor. Even L'Astree 
 and Verite' are won over at the end. 
 
 Zo'anthropie, a longer composition than the preceding, is appro- 
 priately called by La Valliere "la plus ennuyeuse que j'aye 
 encore lue." Like the preceding play it is concerned with man's 
 salvation, even introducing Amour Divin and Verite, but it is 
 still more abstrusely allegorical. Nineteen abstractions, provided 
 with Greek names, take part in the play. The virtues and vices 
 strive to win Anthrope (Vhomme) by fighting against one another. 
 Anthrope is induced by Cupidon to love Zoe (La Vie humaine), 
 who gladly bestows her favors on him. A digression is made to 
 describe the courtship of Pseude (Fausse Religion) by Oecomene 
 (le monde). Asthenee (D infirmite, vieux sorcier) now attacks 
 Anthrope and his friend, Andrie (la virilite), leaving them nearly 
 dead. When Anthrope has been rescued by Metanoee (la Peni- 
 tence), he is saved by the virtues and married to Ai'die (la Vie 
 eternelle). Zoe is left lamenting the loss of her lover, while the 
 vices quarrel and the virtues discuss immortality. 
 
 The Miroir de L 'union Belgique furnishes an allegorical treat- 
 ment of contemporary history in a polemical spirit, of which the 
 fanatical protestantism may be detected in the list of personages : 
 U union Belgique; U Homme Partial; La Religion; Le Iesuite ; 
 L'Espagnol, Fleau du Monde; La Feinte Paix ; Soul-de lard, 
 moine ; Satan en habit de Iacobin ; Le bon Patriot; Le Due 
 Albert; L' Historiographe ; Message r; Pere-Pillart, Prestre; L' In- 
 fante, Femme du Due Albret; Le Conte Maurice de Nassau. 
 
 Satan, rejoicing at the woes of 1! union, cries : 
 
 " Quoi, elle veut des-ja sus mes faits disputer 
 Et inaintenir les Loix d'un Calvin et Luther 
 Faisant milles ergos jusqu'a blamer en somme 
 Les plus rusez abus du Pontife de Home." 1 
 
 He adds an interesting anachronism in 
 
 " De nostre grand Dieu Mars, il la faut ruiner." 
 
 1 i,2.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 87 
 
 After an argument between Partial and bon Patriot against and 
 for " les povres huguenaux," a council is held by Satan, Iesuite, 
 and Albert, lately arrived from Spain, to devise means for 
 subduing Vunion. Next, Historiog raphe describes the defeat of 
 the Armada. The news of Spanish reverses afflicts Iesuite and 
 Satan, who console themselves by reflecting that, 
 
 "Tel n'est mort qui combat, ou bien qui est inalade. 
 L' issue d'un bancquet n'est point a la salade," l 
 
 but they exclaim : 
 
 ' ' Que ses goeux se riront de nos croix et reliques, 
 Dont avions cbarniez nos soldats Catholiques ! " 1 
 
 A feigned peace, proposed by Iesuite and approved by Albert, 
 is offered in vain to the shrewd union. The war breaks out again, 
 but is ended by the victory of Maurice de Nassau over Albert 
 and his Spaniards. 2 
 
 2. The Biblical Mystere as Tragi-Comedy. 
 
 This division contains two plays on the story of Jacob (1604 
 and 1609) ; one concerned with the Purification du temple de 
 Jerusalem apices la profanation faite par Antiochus (1613) ; 3 
 Daphnis, ce'lebrant I' 'ascension du Christ (1618) ; and Sephoe 
 (1626), if Mugnier is correct in his conjecture that the name 
 of this play refers to Siphora, wife of Moses. 4 The last three 
 plays have been lost. The subject of Jacob ou Antidolatrie, an 
 unimportant play, six folios in length, is taken from the Bible and 
 church fathers. Its object is to show "par quelz moyens, s'est 
 augmente le culte et le service d'un seul Dieu du tout l'univers, 
 par la seule famille de Jacob, et d' Abraham, le Diable y resistant 
 par tous les Roys Idolatres de ce temps la." 
 
 1 in, 4. 
 
 2 The battle referred to took place at Nieuport, July 2, 1G00, only four years 
 before the play was printed. 
 
 3 Cf. Apocrypha, First Maccabees, IV. 
 
 4 For the bibliography of these plays, see Appendix B, n.
 
 88 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 A more important play on the same subject is Jacob by 
 Anthoine de la Puiade (1604), written at the command of "la 
 Royne Marguerite, Duchesse de Valois," the only one of these 
 pieces that can claim a more than scholastic vogue. The author 
 believes that he attains in the tragi-comedy a religious mean 
 between the tragedy and the comedy, for, after declaring in his 
 prologue that his work has nothing of " seuere enfle, comme en 
 la Tragedie," nor " d'un Plaute gaudisseur l'outrageuse insolence. 
 . . . Les tours de passe-passe et ruses d'un Terence," he states 
 his position as follows : 
 
 "Au vulgaire ignorant nous ne desirons plaire, 
 Son humeur nous desplait, et nous luy desplaisons. 
 Nous ne mendyons pas d'un rude populaire 
 Une vaine loiiange aux mots que nous disons. 
 Mais c'est pour esgayer nostre grande Princesse." 
 
 The author has provided careful stage directions, choruses, and 
 a " Musicien ioiiant du luth et chantant." The first part of the 
 tragi-comedy, written in a pleasingly natural style, shows decided 
 dramatic qualities, in spite of its close adherence to the biblical 
 narrative. In the fourth and fifth acts, on the other hand, the 
 number of incidents in the story becomes too large for the author's 
 dramatic skill, so that the play degenerates into a rapid succession 
 of loosely connected scenes. 
 
 At the beginning of the play, Isaac enters with a staff in his 
 hand, supported by Esau and Rebecca. When his wife has 
 retired to the other end of the stage, Isaac promises to bless 
 Esau, if he will bring him venison. The men retire, leaving 
 Rebecca to soliloquize upon her desire to aid Jacob, who now 
 enters, to be told his mother's plans. When he has been per- 
 suaded to deceive his father, he leaves the stage with his mother, 
 whereupon Esau enters to inform the audience of his skill in the 
 chase, which enables him to kill even the elephant. The chorus 
 concludes the act by explaining that this is an allegory, in which 
 Esau represents the Hebrews, Jacob the Church and Christ. 
 
 The second act follows closely the biblical account of the 
 blessing of Jacob and his escape. The author has wisely intro-
 
 Its Origin and Development. 89 
 
 duced into his play the pathetic words of Esau, when he hears 
 of his brother's trickery : 
 
 " Mon pere donnas m'en une toute semblable 
 Benisses vostre AysneV' 
 
 Isaac replies with characteristic weakness : 
 
 "Ie ne puis autrement. 
 Ton frere est ja benit, mais bien que finement 
 C'est une grand prudence a luy d'auoir soustraite, 
 La benediction que i'auoy toute preste, 
 Pour en benir celuy qui s'ofiriroit a moy 
 Et que ce soit Jacob, Dieu le veut, ie croy." 1 
 
 Esau now curses his brother, but the chorus defends hirn sophisti- 
 cally, " pour auoir mis de Dieu le vouloir en effect." 
 
 The third act forms a digression in the play, as it is entirely 
 concerned with the marriage of Esau to the daughter of Nabajot. 
 In the fourth act Jacob enters, to lie down and sleep while the 
 musician sings his vision as follows : 
 
 "Iacob voit par une eschelle 
 D'anges une troupe belle, 
 Et descendre et remonter, 
 Eschelle dont le mystere, 
 Luy presage que son frere, 
 Ne le pourra surrnonter." 2 
 
 The " Musique " now prophesies the blessings in store for Jacob, 
 who awakes and tells what he has seen in the vision. 
 
 A second digression is made by a brief scene between shepherds 
 and shepherdesses, which shows pastoral influence. In the next 
 scene they point out Rachel to Jacob, who is well received by his 
 relatives. The courtship follows, seven years pass by, and the 
 marriage is arranged in a single scene. The shepherds celebrate 
 the wedding in musical stanzas : 
 
 Chantons en ce iour bien-heureux, 
 Iacob le Pasteur amoureux 
 De Rachel belle Pastourelle, 
 O belle Pastourelle belle. 3 
 
 l n, 1. 2 m, 1. s m, 3.
 
 90 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 The ease with which periods of time could be passed over in 
 such a drama as this, is shown in the fourth act, when Rachel 
 gives Bala to Iacob, exeunt omnes, Iacob returns to be presented 
 with Zylpha by Lya, whereupon Rachel enters with Bala's two 
 children, followed by Lya with those of Zylpha, so that Jacob 
 now finds himself the father of four children, who were not yet 
 begot at the beginning of the scene. The rest of the play drama- 
 tizes faithfully the remainder of the biblical narrative down to 
 the return of Jacob to his own land. The inartistic succession 
 of disappearances and reappearances of the actors continues to 
 mar the representation. 
 
 This play is particularly interesting from the light it throws 
 upon the stage decoration used at this time in southern 
 France. A to'ile covered the back of the stage, for Esau and 
 Jacob are directed to retire behind it and Isaac to enter from 
 behind it. 1 These passages indicate, furthermore, that one end 
 of the toile represented a forest, toward which Esau and Jacob 
 retire. As there is no mention of the presence of mansions, and 
 as the chorus is obliged to inform the audience of Jacob's arrival 
 at Bethel, it is likely that this feature of the medieval mise en 
 scene was absent here. The actor progresses from one place to 
 another by leaving the stage and returning, instead of walking 
 from mansion to mansion, as was done on the older stage. 
 Further attention is paid to the decoration by the stick, chair, 
 and bed for Isaac, 2 and the aigneaux et brebis that follow Rachel 
 on the stage. 3 
 
 3. The Mieacle as Teagi-Comedy. 
 
 The miracle, which draws its plot from the life of a saint, 
 rather than from the Bible, is represented in this period by the 
 following seven plays : Saint Etienne (1605), treating of the first 
 king and christianizer of Hungary; La Clotilde (1613), concern- 
 ing a miracle wrought by Saint Leonard de Limousin, friend of 
 Clovis and Clotilde; Henry et Kunegonde (1616), based on the 
 
 I n, 1 ; in, 1 ; i. 2 i and n, 1. 3 iii, 2.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 91 
 
 deeds of Henry II, Emperor of Germany, and his wife Kuni- 
 gunde; Sainte Aldegonde (1622), which takes its name from the 
 Abbess of Maubenge, who lived in the seventh century ; Ignace 
 de Lo'iola (1622), in honor of the canonization of the founder of 
 the Jesuits; La vie et mort du glorieux Saint Lambert (1628), 
 which has to do with the seventh century bishop of Maestricht, 
 who converted a part of the Netherlands and was said to have 
 been murdered by emissaries of Pepin's second wife, whose 
 marriage he had opposed ; Eiehecourt (1628), in which the denoue- 
 ment is accomplished by Saint Nicholas. 1 
 
 With the exception of La Clotilde these plays were all written 
 and printed in Belgium, Luxemburg, and neighboring towns of 
 France. They were brief, priestly compositions, played by school- 
 children and without influence on the tragi-comedies of Paris. I 
 shall analyze two of them, thus, I hope, sufficiently showing the 
 nature of the plays that belong to this class. 
 
 La Clotilde presents little of interest in subject, structure, or 
 style. Clovis tells of his conversion by his wife Clotilde and the 
 divine aid received in battle. Having defeated his enemies, he 
 meditates pursuit of the Visigoths, against which Sigibert advises 
 him, remarking with political sagacity worthy of the French 
 classical tragedy : 
 
 "Le salut des vaincus qu'un desespoir possede 
 Est de n'esperer plus ne salut ne reruede : 
 On a veu tant de fois le vaincu prendre cceur 
 Quand on le desespere, et vaincre son vainqueur." 2 
 
 Clovis, however, convinced that God's will coincides with his 
 own, decides to pursue the enemy, commanding that his determi- 
 nation be kept from Clotilde, as she is " enceinte de huict mois." 
 In the next act, however, Clotilde persuades Clovis to take her 
 with him on the expedition. When the king goes hunting, 
 Clotilde fears that he has abandoned her and faints into the arms 
 of her nourrice. A page, going to inform the king of his wife's 
 
 1 For the bibliography of these plays see Appendix B, II. 
 2 1, 2.
 
 92 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 condition, makes known the whole matter to Saint Leonard, who 
 lives in the wood where the king hunts. When Clovis returns 
 home, he finds that the physician has despaired of Clotilde's life 
 and advises an operation to save the child. Clovis wishes to 
 pray to Pluto and Proserpine. Clotilde laments : 
 
 " Ie voy le vaisseau prest, et le noclier Charon 
 Qui tient la perche en main pour passer 1' Acheron. 
 I'entends comme il m'appelle, et comme des la riue 
 II me tance, et me diet que ie suis trop tardive. ' ' x 
 
 Saint Leonard, arriving opportunely, rebukes them for their 
 heathen expressions, makes them repent, and teaches them how 
 to pray. In the fifth act the physician informs the audience of 
 the miracle wrought by Saint Leonard in so praying for Clotilde, 
 that she was not only cured, but happily delivered of a son. 
 Clovis and Clotilde thank God and offer a bishopric to Saint 
 Leonard, who declines the honor, but accepts as much land as 
 " i'en eutourneray durant la nuict obscure," which shall be to 
 him and his, untaxed forever. The play ends with preparations 
 for the foundation of a monastery upon this tract of land. 
 
 Still more scholastic in character is Richecourt, represented and 
 printed in 1628. The argument states that the play celebrates 
 events that took place toward the year 1240, when the Duke of 
 Lorraine led an army to Palestine, where he was defeated and 
 his follower, Richecourt, captured. The latter's miraculous escape 
 from prison by the aid of Saint Nicholas forms the denouement 
 of the play. In the first act a Chrestien de Iudee and a Trouppe 
 chrestienne de Iudee mourn over the unhappy condition of the 
 Holy Land, while awaiting aid from France. The chorus com- 
 forts them with the hope of victory. A Maistre de camp Turc 
 expresses his hatred of the Christians, whom he calls upon his 
 followers to attack, while the chorus bids Sion lament. 
 
 In the second act Richecourt enters with his men, crying : 
 
 "Que fais-tu, mon trenchant, 
 Qui le prophane sang ne vas point espanchant 
 En enyurant le pre" ? Encor le More encore 
 
 1 IV, 3.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 93 
 
 Va bravant nostre nom, 1' Otomannique More 
 Se panade de nous. Or ce glaive d' acier 
 I'empourpreray du sang de cest Othoman fier, 
 Et le verray tranchant distiller de ses veines." 
 
 The act is continued by the threats of Nemesis, Alecto, and 
 Mors, who, with the exception of Mors, employ Latin exclu- 
 sively. After a chorus of soldiers have expressed their martial 
 ardor, a battle is fought, which ends in the defeat of the Christians 
 and the capture of Richecourt. The Pachas decide to imprison 
 him, while the chorus of angels welcome the souls of the dead 
 Christians and the furies carry off the Turks, slain in battle. 
 
 After a digression in which Mors takes away an old man who 
 wishes to live and neglects one who wishes to die, Richecourt is 
 represented, calling on Saint Nicholas for aid, despite the taunts 
 of his captors. By a series of cleverly constructed echo rimes 
 the saint promises his aid to Richecourt, when he begs to be freed 
 from captivity : 
 
 "Pour revoir de Nancy la belle et ricbe cour. 
 
 Echo : Richecour. 
 
 Richecourt : Entend-je pas le son de quelque voix humaine ? 
 Ou si mon geolier par icy se pourmeine, 
 Qui se gabe de moy? 6 Dieu ! ou si c'est toy, 
 Ou bien si l'echo vient consoler mon esmoy ? 
 
 Echo : moy. 
 
 Richecourt : Chere voix, que veux tu ? helas ceste esclavage 
 
 Me sera de la mort 1' inf ortund passage. 
 Echo: tu n'es pas sage." 
 
 This dialogue continues till the hero learns that he will soon be 
 rescued from prison. The next act finds him, accordingly, before 
 the Chappelle du Prieure au Bourg de S. Nicolas de Port, of which 
 the doors are miraculously opened for him, to the astonishment 
 of the sacristan and prior. A third miracle is performed when 
 the iron chains of his prison drop from him. It is these chains, 
 which " se voyent encores en l'Eglise du diet Sainct," that furnish 
 the pious proof of the authenticity of the miracle.
 
 94 The Flinch Iragi- Comedy : 
 
 4. The Farce as Tragi-Comedy. 
 
 This class of tragi-comedy is the farthest removed from the 
 romanesque type of the genre. The few plays that belong to it 
 may be called tragi-comedies as they are survivals of the medieval 
 stage with happy denouement and a partially classical form, shown 
 by the use of Alexandrines or the division into acts. There are 
 only four of them in both sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, of 
 which one, La nouvelle tragieomique, has already been discussed. 1 
 
 The Tragi-Comedie de la rebellion ou meseontentement des Gre- 
 nouilles contre Jupiter is based on the fable of the frogs who asked 
 a king of Jupiter. La Valliere 2 remarks that " il devoit- etre 
 cependant assez plaisant de voir des Acteurs, croassant dans un 
 marais, en sortir pour monter a l'Olimpe, et en habit de grenouilles, 
 plaider leur cause devant Jupiter et toute sa Cour." The moral 
 of the piece inculcates the patient acceptance of monarchical rule : 
 
 " Et tels que sont les Kois que l'Eternel nous donne, 
 II leur faut obe"ir et cherir leur personne." 
 
 In- still lighter vein are the Tragi- Comedie plaisante etfacecieuse 
 intitulee La SubtiliU de Fanfreluche et Gaudichon et comme il Jut 
 emporte par le Liable, a pure farce based on the Italian models, 
 in which Fanfreluche plays the role of Pulcinella ; and the Tragi- 
 Comedie des enfans de Turlupin, ou Von void les fortunes dudit 
 Turlupin, le mariage d'entre luy et la Boulonnoise, et autres mille 
 plaisantes ioyeusetez qui trompent la morne Oisivete, a play that is 
 chiefly interesting on account of the introduction of Henri Legrand, 
 the famous actor, under his sobriquet of Turlupin. 
 
 B. Characterization. 
 
 The small reputation gained by the non-romanesque tragi- 
 comedies written between 1600 and 1628 is shown by the fact 
 that out of eighteen plays, nine are anonymous and the others were 
 
 1 See above, p. 70. For the bibliography of the other three plays see Appen- 
 dix B, ii. 
 2 1, 453.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 95 
 
 written by men of whom little more than the name is known. 
 Anthoine de la Puiade " Conseiller et Secretaire des finances " of 
 Marguerite de Valois, is known as the author of La Christiade, 
 La Mariade, 1 and other religious poems. Frangois Auffray, 
 Gentilhomme Breton, may be the same as Auffray, Chanoine de 
 Saint Brieuc, who translated Ilymnes ou cantiques sacrez a la gloire 
 de Dieu. 2 Anthoine Lancel, Aniedee, and Candide were school- 
 masters, lean Prevost, a lawyer of Basse-Marche, wrote Le 
 Bocage, U Apoikeose de Henri IV, and several tragedies. Denis 
 Coppee and lean Gaulche are known to have been born toward 
 1570 at Huy 3 and Vitry-le-Croise, 4 respectively. Simplicien 
 Gody, the probable author of Richecourt, was a monk of the 
 Congregation de Saint -Vanne, who wrote Odes sacr&es (1629), a 
 Latin tragedy called Humbertus (1633), and other poems. 5 
 
 The plays were published at Bordeaux, Poitiers, Rouen, Troyes, 
 and several towns in Belgium. Most of them were acted by 
 children at schools of the Jesuits, Barnabites, or Benedictines, 
 situated in Savoy, Belgium, and northeastern France. 
 
 La Clotilde appears to have been acted by a confrerie from the 
 author's introductory statement, "Je l'entrepris et dressay a la 
 solicitation du sieur Chalart, bourgeois de Saint-Leonard." 6 The 
 Jacob of La Puiade, written for Marguerite de Valois, and 
 probably acted before her, shows no connection with a school. 
 The occurrence of the name, Turlupin, indicates that the Enfans 
 de Turlupin was acted. Zo'arUhropie is shown to have been acted 
 by mention of the audience and by the printing with the play of 
 " vers presentes a quelques Messieurs de 1' assistance." 6 The only 
 remaining plays are L' Amour divin and I? union Belgique, of 
 which there is nothing to show that the first was acted, but the 
 second is provided with a prologue and epilogue addressed to 
 the audience, which do not, however, prove that the play was 
 
 1 Paris, 1604, and Paris, 1605. 
 
 2 Saint-Brieux, 1623. 3 Faber, iv, 267. 
 
 4 Louis Morin, Thedtre d, Troyes, Bulletin lmtorique et philologique, 1901, p. 25. 
 5 Beaupr6, Richecourt, Tragi- Comedie, note at the end of the reprint, Saint- 
 Nicolas-de-Port, 1860. 
 
 6 Cf. Lanson, Revue d'hist. lilt., x, 224-25.
 
 96 The French Trag i- Comedy : 
 
 acted, as they may be the result of literary imitation. In any 
 case, it is evident that nearly all, if not all the tragi-comedies of 
 this non-romanesque group were acted, a fact that shows the popu- 
 larity of the genre even in forms that must have seemed antiquated 
 in the seventeenth century. 
 
 In all these plays, except the farces, appears a religious spirit 
 which unites them to the tragi-comedies of the sixteenth rather 
 than to others of the seventeenth century. The primary object 
 of the plays is, accordingly, instruction instead of amusement, the 
 usual goal of the tragi-comic author. In accordance with their 
 religious and didactic spirit, the sources of the plays are taken 
 from the Bible, including the Apocrypha, dramatized directly or 
 allegorically ; from medieval history, distorted for pious ends 
 when saints are concerned ; and from contemporary history, alle- 
 gorically treated. 1 
 
 The strong feeling of patriotism pervading L'union Belgique 
 becomes local pride in La Clotilde, Saincte Aldegonde, Lambertiade, 
 and Riehecourt, the subjects of which concern the deeds of the 
 authors' saintly compatriots. The author of Riehecourt puts into 
 the mouths of the Turks praise of the " Gaulois trioniphans," for 
 
 " lis s'estendent puissans par tous les champs du monde 
 A guise d'un torrent, qui ravisseux inonde 
 Sur les guerets voisins." 2 
 
 The plays show little merit in construction, violating not only 
 the unity of action, but by digressions even the unity of interest. 
 In the fifth act of Z' Amour divin digressions occur in conversa- 
 tions between the protagonist and two of his sisters ; in Jacob, 
 the third act is given up to Esau's courtship, with which Jacob 
 has nothing to do ; in Riehecourt a scene that has no connection 
 with the plot of the play is acted by Death and two old men. 
 The lack of restriction as to place and time is best shown by 
 Jacob, where the action lasts over twenty years, and by Riehecourt, 
 the scene of which is laid in Palestine and Lorraine. 
 
 1 L'union Belgique, the only play based on contemporary history, may be com- 
 pared with Gamier Stoffacher, La Gaule, and Fernandas Servatus.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 97 
 
 The treatment of character is slight in most of these plays and 
 can scarcely be said to exist in the farces. The abstractions, most 
 fully represented in L' Amour divin and Zo'anthropie, are in L'union 
 Belgique largely replaced by types that approach them closely ; as, 
 Le Iesuite, UEspagnol, Le bon Patriot, L'Historiographe. The 
 personages in these moralites are still near the medieval vices 
 and virtues, with the weak protagonist, here seen in Physique and 
 Anthrope. The consistent character of these personages is lacking 
 in the treatment of Richecourt, who suddenly changes from a 
 blustering warrior to a pious monk. Some skill is shown in the 
 impetuous character of Clotilde in the play that bears her name. 
 Perhaps the best scenes are those at the beginning of Jacob, where 
 the patriarchal family is well described after the biblical model. 
 The rank of the personages is allowed the variation characteristic 
 of tragi-comedies. Kings appear in V Amour divin, Saint Etienne, 
 La Clotilde, Henry et Kunegonde; a physician in La Clotilde; 
 shepherds in Jacob. Besides the personages that fall into the 
 three social classes thus represented, are found the abstractions, 
 which defy such classification. 
 
 The style of the plays has as little to recommend it as the 
 treatment of character found in them. Prosaic and platitudinous 
 in 1? Amour divin and La Clotilde, it becomes inflated in Zo'an- 
 thropie and Richecourt. In Jacob it is less pretentious and 
 consequently more agreeable, displaying at times a pleasing 
 naivete. A shepherdess declares : 
 
 " Non Berger ce n'est pas toy 
 Que i'ayme et que ie prise : 
 Cesse ton entreprise, 
 Tu es trop laid pour moy : 
 Car i'ayme un beau Pasteur, 
 De qui ie suis entreprise, 
 Qui m'a rauy le cceur." l 
 
 In contrast with these lines stand the following : 
 
 "Tel est digne dit-on (pie celui porte trompe 
 Qui trompe le trompeur lequel un autre trompe." 2 
 
 i in 2. 1 U union Belgique, II, 1.
 
 98 Ihe French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 " Kichecourt ! bien plustost pauvre-court, qui ne peux 
 Esgaller a tes maux ton discours souspireux." * 
 
 The precieux spirit of these lines is further evidenced by the 
 large amount of Latin used in Hichecourt and by the ponderous 
 compound adjectives of such expressions as " Mores porte- 
 carquois," " bras gaigne-lauriers," " tranche-fer acier," " coeur 
 souffle-feux," " l'astre guide-nef." 2 
 
 Despite the didactic spirit of many of the plays, there seems to 
 have been a desire for variety in the minds of some of the authors, 
 which is manifested by the occasional use of lyric verse-forms 
 and comic passages. Thus, the chorus in Jacob recites verses of 
 eight syllables, alternating lines of twelve and six syllables, and 
 a strophe composed of lines of eight, six, and twelve syllables. 
 In Hichecourt the chorus of Christians uses six-syllable verse ; 
 that of angels and vaineus eight-syllable verse ; that of bourgeois, 
 twelve- and eight-syllable verse ; that of soldiers the following 
 complicated measure : 
 
 "Le Monarque d' Orient 
 Se riant 
 
 De nostre Mars, est en calme ; 
 A lions, courons, foudroyons, 
 Et noyons 
 
 Au sang ce voleur de palme, 
 Don, don, don, don, don, a l'assaut; 
 Pour le ciel mourir il nous faut. 
 
 Qa, ca, soldats 
 
 Armez vos bras, etc." 3 
 
 The chorus in La Clotilde is only a band of men, who first 
 appear in the last act, when they speak in Alexandrines. Zo'an- 
 thropie has no chorus, but shows metrical variety in an eight- 
 syllable dialogue between Le bon Genie and Philothee 4 and in 
 Zoe's lamentation after she has lost Anthrope. 5 Jacob, besides 
 frequent prose passages, departs from the Alexandrine in the 
 seven-syllable speech of the musician and in the shepherds' use 
 of six- and eight-syllable lines. 6 The latter form recurs with 
 
 1 Richecourt, iv. 2 Ibidem, I and IV. 
 
 3 n. 4 iv, 2, 5 iv, 4. 6 iandin, 1.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 99 
 
 musical accompaniment upon the patriarch's return to Bethel. 1 
 In Richeeourt a further metrical variety is shown by Mors, who 
 recites couplets of twelve-, ten-, eight-, six-syllable verses. The 
 echo rimes of this play have been quoted. 2 They are found again 
 in Zo'anthropie. 5 
 
 Such metrical variety is in keeping with the usage of the 
 romanesque tragi-comedy and probably added to the popularity 
 of the genre. Short verse forms are freely employed for musical 
 passages, represented by a chorus, a lamentation, or a communi- 
 cation from angels or Death. The usual meter of the plays, 
 however, is the Alexandrine, but verses of ten syllables are 
 employed in Enfans de Turlupin. This play and the Rebellion 
 des Grenouilles show further irregularity by a division into four 
 acts instead of the usual five acts. Purification du temple de 
 Jerusalem has only three acts. 
 
 The denouements of these plays are happy, as the stories are 
 brought to a successful termination, as far as the happiness of the 
 protagonist is concerned. Even the Lambertiade forms no excep- 
 tion to this, for the saint's death cannot be considered an unhappy 
 event, as the author's object is to show the heavenly reward won 
 for the saint by his holy life and pious death. 
 
 Comic scenes are not confined to the farcical tragi-comedies, 
 but appear also in L'union Belgique, Z6 > anthropie, and Richeeourt. 
 In the first of these occurs the following dialogue between two 
 priests : 
 
 " Pere Pillart : Ha Salve Dornine frere en Dieu soul de lard. 
 Soul-de-lard : Gratia Domine Pasteur Pere-pillart. 
 P. P.: Soul-de-lard qu'ave"s vous? 
 
 S.-d.-l. : Ie pantelle de joye, 
 
 D'autant que 1' Arched uc pour nostre bien s' employe. 
 
 Allons faire bouillir nostre Marmite grasse. 
 
 Sus resjouissons nous malgre les roupieux, 
 
 Car d'ici a, cent ans nous serons morts ou vieux." 4 
 
 The comic elements in Zo'anthropie appear in a coarse dialogue 
 1 v, 1. 2 See above, p. 93. 3 v, Sdne derntire. 4 iv, 6.
 
 100 
 
 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 between Phronime and Idoneon, 1 and in the account of the rescue 
 of Oecornene from the water, whence he comes up " charge de 
 pots de terre et d'argent." 2 A grim humor is shown in the 
 dialogue between Death and two old men in Bichecourt, which 
 furnishes a good example of the mingling of the serious and 
 the comic : 
 
 "La Mort: 
 Deuxiesme 
 
 L. M. : 
 
 D. V. : 
 
 L. M. 
 D. V. 
 
 L. M. 
 
 D 
 
 V 
 
 L. 
 
 M 
 
 I) 
 
 V. 
 
 L 
 
 M 
 
 D. 
 
 V. 
 
 L. 
 
 M 
 
 D 
 
 V 
 
 L 
 
 M 
 
 Dea ! i'ay cy rencontre un vieillard en desbauche. 
 Vieillard : Ie ne suis pas si vieil, n'estant point soustenu 
 
 D'aucun noiieux baston. 
 
 Te voy-ie pas chenu, 
 Et le poil imitant la blanchissante laine 
 Et la neige qui cbet en hyuer sur la plaine ? 
 C'est mon, si tu avois des lunettes au ne 
 Tu verrois bien que i'ay le poil enfarine 
 Du moulin, non de l'aage : et pourtant tire arriere. 
 Non, non, il faut passer, et boucler ta carriere. 
 Ou il m'en coustera la vie, ou ie verray 
 Plus de trente soleils, et a mon saoul boiray. 
 O ! que ie ne suis pas encor prest de te suivre, 
 Tandis que ce flacon me fera ioyeux viure. 
 Tu as beau reculer, et esperer du temps, 
 Le moment est venu qui bornera tes ans. 
 A bon ieu ? 
 
 C est bon ieu, et mon ieu quand ie frappe. 
 C'est trop tergiuerse ; pa, 9a que ie t'attrape. 
 Si tost. 
 
 Tout de pas allons. 
 
 Si brusquement ? 
 Auray-ie pas pour boire au moins quelque moment? 
 Autant que i' en mettray a faire ma faulchee. 
 Ie meurs, ie meurs, ie meurs. 
 
 Ainsi va ta fusee." 3 
 
 This review of the non-romanesque tragi-comedy indicates that 
 it existed between the years 1600 and 1628 as a belated survival 
 of the sixteenth-century tragi-comedy, of which it retains the 
 sources, construction, and form. While the sixteenth-century 
 plays are of value as furnishing the link between the medieval 
 play and the romanesque tragi-comedy of the seventeenth century, 
 these late, non-romanesque plays exert no such influence and are 
 
 l n, 2. 
 
 2 v, Scene dernifr -e. 
 
 'in.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 101 
 
 consequently of interest only as showing the persistence of a 
 dramatic form that had been the true expression of an earlier age, 
 but made small appeal to an audience of the seventeenth century. 
 The recurrence of such plays decreases with the progress of the 
 century, for the last moralite called a tragi-comedy appeared in 
 1614, the last mystere in 1609. The miracle flourished through- 
 out the period, but only as a school composition, absolutely without 
 influence in Paris. Very different is the history of the romanesque 
 tragi-comedy, which is now to be considered. 
 
 II. The Romanesque Teagi-Comedy. 
 
 Between the years 1600 and 1628, the romanesque type of 
 tragi-comedy not only became the predominant form of the genre, 
 but was raised by Hardy and his contemporaries to the position 
 of the most popular and extensively written form of dramatic 
 production in France. As Hardy wrote some seven hundred 
 plays and about half his extant plays are called tragi-comedies, 1 
 it is probable that between three and four hundred tragi-comedies 
 came from his pen alone. He was followed by several writers, 
 Du Ryer, Mairet, Schelandre, Pichou, and others, who, while not 
 equalling his fertility, surpassed him in the excellence of indi- 
 vidual plays and prepared the way for the notable success won 
 by the genre between 1628 and the middle of the century. 
 
 In the following pages the tragi-comedies written by these 
 authors 2 will be analyzed, their sources given, and their structure 
 discussed. As Hardy's plays have been fully treated by Rigal, 3 
 their discussion here will be brief. After the analyses of his works 
 will have been given in the order of their publication, those of 
 the tragi-comedies written by his contemporaries will follow chro- 
 nologically. The characterization of the more general qualities 
 
 1 Hardy places the number at six hundred some years before his death. Kigal 
 estimates the total at seven hundred. If Aristoclee be classed as a tragedy and the 
 eight journees of Theagene et Cariclee as eight plays, the number of his extant 
 tragi-comedies is twenty-one, out of a total of forty-one extant plays. 
 
 2 For the bibliography of these plays see Appendix B, n. 
 
 3 In Alexandre Hardy.
 
 102 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 possessed in common by several or all of the tragi-comedies will 
 not be taken up until all of the individual plays have been 
 analyzed. 
 
 A. Analyses and Sources. 
 
 Theagenes and Chariclea, the Greek romance of Heliodorus, is 
 the source 1 of eight plays of five acts by Alexandre Hardy, 
 which, together, form the eight journees of his Theagene et 
 Cariclee. In the first journee the Egyptian, Calasire, aids the 
 lovers, after whom the play is named, to fly from Delphi and its 
 high-priest, Charicle, who wishes to marry his supposed daughter, 
 Cariclee, to another than Theagene. Shipwrecked on an island, 
 Calasire and the lovers are captured by pirates, whose chief 
 prepares to wed Cariclee. Another pirate, however, persuaded by 
 Calasire of CaricleVs love, seeks to take her from the leader. In 
 the fight that ensues all the pirates are slain except one, who is 
 promptly despatched by Theagene. 
 
 A second band of pirates, arriving in the next journee, capture 
 the lovers, who represent themselves as brother and sister. 
 Thiamis, leader of the band, gives them to Gnemon for safe 
 keeping until he can find a temple in which to marry Cariclee. 
 When he is defeated in battle, he seeks to kill Cariclee, but 
 mistakes another woman for her, so that she escapes. In the 
 third journee Theagene is captured by the soldiers of Orondate, a 
 governor under the king of Egypt, while Cariclee escapes with 
 the aid of Gnemon to Nausicle, a friend of Calasire. In the 
 fourth journee Calasire is reunited to Cariclee, but Theagene is 
 recaptured by Thiamis, now seeking to regain the priesthood of 
 Memphis. But Calasire shows that he is the father of Thiamis, 
 resumes his position as priest, and reunites Theagene and Cariclee. 
 
 In the fifth journee Arsace, wife of Orondate, falls in love with 
 Theagene and imprisons him for refusing to yield to her demands. 
 In the following jo urnee she seeks to have Cariclee burnt, but the 
 
 'Through Amyot's translation, Hisloire Aeihiopique de Heliodorus (Paris, 1547). 
 Cf. Rigal, Alexandre Hardy, 435. In the same work the sources of Hardy's other 
 tragi-comedies are also established. For references see Appendix B, n.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 103 
 
 flames flee from her. The lovers, led away to Orondate, are 
 captured by soldiers of Hydaspes, king of Ethiopia. This 
 monarch conquers Orondate in the next journee and decides to 
 sacrifice Theagene and Cariclee to the gods. In the eighth 
 journee, however, Cariclee proves by tokens in her possession that 
 she is the daughter of Hydaspes, exposed in infancy because her 
 white skin offered so great a contrast to her father's Ethiopian 
 hue that her mother had feared to acknowledge her as her 
 daughter. Now she is welcomed by her parents, but Hydaspe 
 still wishes to sacrifice Theagene. After various persons have 
 protested against this barbarity, ambassadors arrive opportunely 
 from Thessaly, seeking their lost prince. Theagene, thus proved 
 to be of royal blood, is set free and married to Cariclee. 
 
 This play, or series of plays, furnishes an excellent example 
 of the system employed in tragi-comedies, in which a story is 
 dramatized ab ovo, without unity of action and consisting of a 
 series of episodes, united by interest in the welfare of the lovers. 
 The time that elapses during the progress of the story is about 
 two years, of which individual journees are assigned from a few 
 days to several months. The scene is laid at Delphi, in Egypt, 
 and on an island between these two localities. In the individual 
 journees it is less extensive, but is never confined within classical 
 limits. 
 
 Hardy's first three tragi-comedies after Theagene et Cariclee 
 hold, by reason of their mythological and half-tragic subjects, 
 a mid-position between his tragedies and other tragi-comedies. 
 Their author seems to have realized that they might be placed in 
 either genre, for in Procris he writes tragedie at the top of the 
 alternate pages and in the argument, though in the heading of 
 the play and of the argument he writes tragi-comedie. Similarly, 
 Alceste and Ariadne Rauie are called tragedies at the tops of the 
 pages and in the headings of the arguments, but tragi-comedies 
 in the titles. The chief objection to considering them tragi- 
 comedies is furnished by their mythological plots, which occur in 
 no other tragi-comedies except the Travaux cV Ulysse (1631). 
 Rigal cannot be criticized for classifying them apart from both 
 tragedies and tragi-comedies.
 
 104 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 The plot of Aleeste has been given above, 1 where it was com- 
 pared with the play of Euripides which treats the same subject. 
 In Prociis Aurore seeks to induce Cephale, the hunter, to forsake 
 for her charms his wife, Procris, daughter of the King of Athens. 
 He agrees to do so, provided his wife is proved unfaithful. Dis- 
 guised as a traveller, he visits Procris, whom he finds indignant 
 at the neglect she is receiving from her husband. He wooes her 
 and, after succeeding in making her waver in her fidelity, reveals 
 his identity, only to heap reproaches upon her. He now indulges 
 Aurore's desire, but is seen by an ox-herd, who informs Procris 
 and brings her to the place where Cephale awaits the goddess. 
 Seeing a movement in the bushes, Cephale shoots an arrow and 
 hits Procris, who dies in his arms, insisting that he is not to 
 blame. Full of remorse, he is prevented from suicide by Aurore, 
 whose love will comfort him now that the only obstacle to its 
 gratification has been removed. 
 
 Ariadne Rauie begins with a council, held by Minos to take 
 measures for the pursuit of his daughters and Thesee. The scene 
 is changed to the island of Naxos, where Phalare persuades Thesee 
 to transfer his affections from Ariadne to her sister, Phoedre. 
 Thesee and his new love then leave the island, on which Ariadne 
 laments her abandonment and attempts suicide. She is comforted 
 by Bacchus, however, who marries her upon his return with Pan 
 and Silene from the conquest of the East. 
 
 The sources of these three plays are found in Euripides's 
 Alcestis and in Ovid's Ars Amatoria, Metamorphoses, and Heroides. 2 
 The double plot and consequent violation of the unities in Aleeste 
 have been noted above. 3 The action in Procris is also double, as 
 it is concerned with the fate of Procris for her own sake, as well 
 as with the accomplishment of the desires of Aurore and Cephale. 
 The second scene of the first act, furthermore, violates the unity 
 of action, for it consists of a dialogue between Thiton and Pritame, 
 which plays no part in the development of the plot. In Ariadne 
 Rauie there are three independent actions, concerned, respectively, 
 
 X P. 18. 
 
 'For references see Rigal, Alexandre Hardy, 401, 410. S P. 18.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 105 
 
 with the council of Minos, the desertion of Ariadne by Thesee 
 and Phcedre, and the rescue of Ariadne by Bacchus. The unities 
 of place and time are similarly violated, for the time of Procris 
 and Ariadne Rauie is several days, of Alceste several months, at 
 least ; the place of Procris is the house of Cephale and several 
 localities in a forest ; of Ariadne Rauie, Crete and Naxos ; of 
 Alceste, Sparta, Thessaly, and Hades. 
 
 From Lucian's Toxaris Hardy drew the plot of Arsacome, in 
 which Leucanor, roy du Bosphore, chooses a husband for his 
 daughter, Masee, from among princes of the neighboring countries. 
 To promote their suits, Adimache and Tigrapate boast of their 
 wealth, valor, and renown, but Arsacome, who is loved by Masee, 
 only of his two trusty friends. Adimache is chosen by the king, 
 who laughs Arsacome to scorn. When the latter, however, retires 
 to Scythia and tells his two friends of his humiliation, they prove 
 that they are more valuable than the possessions of Arsacome's 
 rivals, for one slays Leucanor, while the other aids Masee to 
 escape from her father's palace to the arms of Arsacome, to whom 
 she is quickly married. The time of the action is several months ; 
 the scene is laid in Bosphore, Scythie, and the land of the 
 Malliens ; the unity of action is violated chiefly in the manner 
 in which the play follows the story, dramatizing the king's choice 
 of Adimache as well as the deeds of Arsacome's friends. The 
 unity of the play suffers through the absence of a protagonist, a 
 title that cannot well be applied either to Arsacome, or to his two 
 friends, who, more than he, bring about the denouement. 
 
 Cornelie is based on Cervantes's Novela de la Senora Cornelia. 1 
 The heroine, from whom the play takes its name, has been 
 seduced by Alphonse, Duke of Ferrara, who intends to marry 
 her, but hesitates till after a child is born. By her maid's mis- 
 take the infant is given one night to Dom Iuan de Galboa, whose 
 friend, Dom Anthoine Isunca rescues Cornelie, wandering from 
 home for fear of her cousin, Bentivole. The mother and child 
 are reunited at the home of the two friends. Meanwhile Dom 
 Iuan rescues Alphonse from the vengeance of Bentivole and learns 
 
 1 Novelas exemplares, IV.
 
 106 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 from Cornelie the story of her love for Alphonse. Visiting the 
 latter, he finds him anxious to marry Cornelie and easily makes 
 peace between him and Bentivole. The happiness of the lovers 
 is delayed, however, by the flight of Cornelie, who still fears 
 Bentivole, to a hermitage, where she is subsequently discovered 
 and married to Alphonse. The unity of action is violated by the 
 double nature of the plot, concerned with the separation and 
 reunion of mother and child as well as of the two lovers, by a 
 digression in the fourth scene of the fourth act, and by the fresh 
 complications introduced toward the end of the play by the flight 
 of Cornelie. The duration of time is at least a number of days ; 
 the scene is laid in various localities in and near Bologna. 
 
 Hardy again made use of Cervantes in La Force du Sang, 
 derived from the Novela de la Fuerza de la Sangre. 1 Alphonse, a 
 Spanish hidalgo, carries off and ravishes Leocadie. He is shortly 
 afterward sent by his father, Doni Inigue, to travel in Italy and 
 France, where he feels remorse for his crime and would atone for 
 it. Meanwhile Leocadie gives birth to a boy, who, seven years 
 later, is knocked down in a crowd and rescued by Dom Inigue. 
 The latter sees the family likeness in his newly found grandson 
 and subsequently establishes his identity, when the boy's mother 
 recognizes the room in which she has been ravished. Dom Inigue 
 and Leocadie's parents arrange a marriage between her and 
 Alphonse, who now returns from his travels to consent gladly to 
 the union. Two actions are dramatized in this play : the first 
 concerned with the commission of Alphonse's crime, the second 
 with its atonement. The scene is laid in both Spain and Italy. 
 The time is about eight years. 
 
 In Felismene, a tragi-comedy based on the Diana of Montemayor, 
 Dom Felix, sent by his father from Spain to Germany in order 
 that he may not marry the beautiful, but humbly born Felismene, 
 with whom he is in love, is followed by this young woman, who 
 disguises herself as a page and enters into the service of her lover. 
 She is employed by him to arrange an interview with Celie, a 
 German Princess, whom Dom Felix now loves. Celie rejects 
 
 1 Novelas ezemplares, II.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 107 
 
 Felix's proposals, but falls in love with Felismene in her disguise 
 as a page and dies of grief when she finds that the latter does not 
 return her passion. Felix is accused of murdering Celie, while 
 Felismene is unable to explain the true situation to him, for fear 
 that he may suspect her of having murdered her rival. She 
 accordingly becomes a shepherdess, and has the good fortune to 
 rescue Dom Felix from his enemies by means of her darts. He 
 at once arranges to marry his rescuer. The numerous episodic 
 adventures that occur in this play destroy the unity of its action. 
 The time is several months. The scene is laid in Spain and 
 Germany. 
 
 Dorise is based on the Histoires des Amants volages 1 of Francois 
 de Rosset. Salmacis and Licanor, Persian nobles, love Dorise, 
 beautiful, but poor. She and the wealthy Sydere love Salmacis, 
 who is obliged to go on a journey. Licanor and Sydere take 
 advantage of his absence by telling Dorise that he has boasted of 
 having possessed her. Convinced that Salmacis has thus slandered 
 her, Dorise tears up his letter, an action that, when told him, 
 makes him retire to a hemitage. Licanor now succeeds in winning 
 the hand of Dorise, while Sydere, by the aid of a magicienne 
 obtains that of Salmacis. The unity of action, as well as that of 
 interest, is here violated by the double nature of the plot, which 
 relates the fortunes of four lovers instead of two, and by the 
 introduction of the magicienne, a deus ex machind. The scene is 
 laid in the houses of the lovers and in a hermitage some distance 
 away. The time is a number of days, at least. 
 
 Fregonde is derived from Diego Agreda's Doce Novelas morales 
 y ejemplares. 2 The marquis de Cotron, after an unsuccessful 
 attempt at seducing Fregonde, wife of Dom Yuan, conquers his 
 passion and secures the husband a military command. Moved by 
 Dom Yuan's praise of the marquis, Fregonde regrets her coldness 
 toward the latter and intimates to him her change of heart. The 
 marquis, however, resists her advances, but shortly afterward, 
 when Dom Yuan is killed in battle by the Turks, he renews his 
 
 1 Paris, 1619. 
 
 2 Valencia, 1620. Translated into French by J. Baudoin, Paris, 1621.
 
 108 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 suit and readily wins Fregonde, moved by her own inclination and 
 the command of her husband's ghost. The action is divided into 
 three parts, the marquis's courtship of Fregonde, the latter's court- 
 ship of the marquis, and the incidents following the death of her 
 husband, an event similar to the action of a deus ex machind. 
 Furthermore, a digression is made in the third scene of the third 
 act, which does not advance the action. The scene is laid at 
 Naples and on the coast of Calabria. The time is a month or 
 more. 
 
 Hardy drew upon Boccaccio 1 for the plot of Gesippe ou les 
 Deux Amis, which concerns the friendship of the Athenian Gesippe 
 and the Roman Tite. The former, about to be married to Sophro- 
 nie, insists on yielding the girl to his friend, when he finds that 
 the latter loves her. Tite, after some remonstrance, consents to 
 pass the night with her in Gesippe's stead. In the morning 
 Sophronie is horrified to discover the imposture, but Gesippe 
 continues his demonstrations of friendship by arranging a marriage 
 between Tite and Sophronie, who leave Athens for Rome. After 
 some time Gesippe, greatly reduced in fortune, seeks aid from 
 Tite, who fails to recognize him when they meet at Rome. 
 Gesippe, thinking that Tite despises him, retires to a cave to die. 
 In the cave two robbers quarrel over stolen property and one of 
 them slays the other. Gesippe, arrested for the crime, declares 
 himself guilty, but, when brought before the senate, he is recog- 
 nized by Tite, become senator, who seeks to rescue him by declar- 
 ing the murder to be his own deed. The ensuing contest in generos- 
 ity is ended by the guilty robber, who confesses his crime before the 
 senate. Gesippe is released, enriched by Tite, and married to the 
 latter's sister. That all may be happy, the robber is pardoned by 
 virtue of his voluntary confession. The action of this play is 
 evidently double, as it is concerned, first, with Gesippe's sacrifice 
 and Tite's marriage, then, with the adventures of Gesippe at Rome. 
 The time must extend over some years, the place includes Athens 
 and Rome. 
 
 1 Decameron, x, 8.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 109 
 
 Giraldi Cinthio l furnished the source of Phraarte, in which the 
 son of the King of Macedon loves Philagnie, daughter of Cotys, 
 King of Thrace. War is declared between these two countries 
 because of an attempt made by two women, agents of Cotys, to 
 poison Philippe of Macedon. His son Phraarte, by freeing the 
 women from prison, secures their influence with Philagnie, who 
 now allows him to possess her. Philippe, victorious over Cotys, 
 takes from him all but one city, in which the latter is besieged by 
 Phraarte, captured, and imprisoned for the supposed murder of 
 Philagnie. She, however, with her new-born infant has taken 
 refuge at a peasant's house. On hearing of the Macedonian victory, 
 she hastens to Phraarte, who receives her joyfully, frees her father, 
 and gives him back his kingdom. The lovers are married and 
 Phraarte is acknowledged heir to the throne of Thrace. The events 
 in this play are ordered as in a novel, with the story told from the 
 beginning. The action is double, concerned with the courtship of 
 Philagnie and her restoration to Phraarte. The time is a year or 
 more. The scene is laid at various localities in Thrace and 
 Macedon. 
 
 The plot of Elmire is drawn from the Deuxiesme volume des 
 Meditations historiques de 31. Philippe Camerarius, translated from 
 Latin into French by Simon Goulart. 2 The Comte de Gleichen, 
 imprisoned in Egypt, refuses to accept his liberty at the price of 
 turning Mahometan, but consents to escape with Elmire, daughter 
 of the Sultan, who loves him and whom he agrees to marry, if the 
 Pope will grant him an indulgence to have two wives. Meanwhile 
 the comtesse, left in Germany, resists the solicitations of the 
 marquis de Bade and remains faithful to her husband. When 
 Gleichen reaches Rome, he has no difficulty in obtaining his 
 indulgence, and marries Elmire. On his return to Germany the 
 two wives become devoted friends, each insisting on yielding 
 Gleichen to the other. He arranges, however, to divide his time 
 
 1 Cent excellentes nouvelles de M. Jean Baptiste Giraldy Cynthien . . . Mis d' Italien 
 en Francois par Gabriel Chappuys Tourangeau. Paris, 1584. 
 
 2 Lyon, 1610. Rigal ^Alexandre Hardy, 239, has shown that the story is not told 
 by Camerarius, but added by the translator, who got it from Andre Ilonsdorf, 
 Thedtre d' exemples.
 
 110 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 equally between them. In this story two plots are interwoven 
 concerning the bigamy of Gleichen and his wife's resistance of the 
 marquis de Bade. The time is about a year. The scene is laid in 
 Egypt, Italy, and Germany. 
 
 Hardy returned to Cervantes in La Belle LJgyptienne, which is 
 derived from the Novela de la Gitanilla} Dom lean de Carcame 
 joins the gipsies in order to marry Precieuse, one of their number. 
 He easily surpasses his rival Clement, but is troubled by Carduche, 
 a wealthy bourgeoise, who wishes to marry him. When he refuses 
 her on the ground that a gipsy cannot marry a woman of another 
 race, she accuses him of theft and pretends to find jewels in his 
 wallet. In the disturbance that follows, lean kills a soldier who 
 has struck him, is arrested and taken before a judge, who fortu- 
 nately turns out to be the father of Precieuse, stolen by the gipsies 
 when a child and now recognized by marks on her body. lean 
 reveals his identity, finds that the judge is a friend of his father, 
 is released and married to Precieuse after a mock-sentence of death 
 has been passed upon him. There is little dramatic unity in this 
 play, as the incidents of the story are narrated one after another 
 with small regard to a central action. The incident of Clement's 
 rivalry has nothing to do with the development of the plot. The 
 scene is laid near Madrid and Seville and in Estramadura. The 
 time is several months. 
 
 The first romanesque tragi-comedy of the seventeenth century 
 extant from another pen than Hardy's is L'Aymee, jeu tragecomique 
 (1601), a slight composition, written to be played after a banquet, 
 if one may draw any conclusions from the opening lines : 
 
 - ' Apres ceste table levee 
 Oil les tiens ont beu a. qui mieux." 
 
 The lack of incidents and total absence of intrigue make this 
 play a very exceptional tragi-comedy, which shows in its lyric 
 measures and the character of its personages the influence of the 
 pastoral, although no shepherds are introduced into it. The plot 
 is probably due to the author's invention. 
 
 1 Novelas exemplares, I.
 
 Its Origin and Development. Ill 
 
 The author states in his dedication that his aim is to contrast 
 P amour sainct with V amour charnel, an object that is scarcely 
 obvious from a reading of the play. Content is assured by a 
 dream and by an echo that his love for Ayrnee, Diane's nymph, 
 will be successful. Le Desespere, on the other hand, laments 
 extravagantly his unsuccessful love of this nymph. After Antoine, 
 Content's valet, has humorously complained of his task of announc- 
 ing to Aymee his master's visit, the lovers discuss philosophically 
 the true nature of love aud Content sings the praises of Aymee. 
 Le Desesper§, rejected by Aymee, stabs himself, crying : 
 
 " Sus done, qu'un poignard m'ouvre au besoin la poitrine, 
 La Parque me domine, 
 Malheureux. je me jette aux ondes d' Acheron, 
 Mais heureux, je verray et Styx et Phlegeton." ' 
 
 Antoine discovers the suicide and buries the body. Diane fears 
 
 that ill luck may come from this death, but Aymee reminds her 
 
 that 
 
 " Kien de mauvais n' arrive a ceux qui vivent bien 
 Et ceux qui craignent Dieu d'ailleurs ne craignent rien." a 
 
 Songs by nymphs and the paranymphe follow in praise of love and 
 marriage, accompanied by Antoine' s more practical observations 
 on the same subjects. After Content and Aymee have celebrated 
 the power of love, an epithalamium is recited, and Ayrnee declares : 
 
 " Par un baiser je t'ai donne mon ame : 
 Par un baiser ta levre me le rend." 3 
 
 The play is ended by Antoine " fort de ce qu'il a veu et ouy a la 
 porte." 
 
 Although there is scarcely any plot to this play, the unity of 
 action is violated by the incident of Le Desespere, which does not 
 influence the love-affair of Content and Aymee. The statements 
 regarding the location aud duration of the action are not clear, but 
 it seems to take place in several neighboring localities and to last 
 for several days, at least. 
 
 1 m, 3. 2 iv, 1. 3 v, 3.
 
 112 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 The next tragi-comedy is the Lucelle (1607) of Jacques Duha- 
 mel, a versified reprint of the Lucelle of Louis Le Jars. 1 As it 
 follows its model closely, occasionally curtailing or expanding 
 scenes, but not materially altering the plot or treatment, it is 
 unnecessary to give its analysis here. 
 
 Two years later appeared L'Ethiopique by Octave-Cesar Genetay, 
 a play that is, like Hardy's Theagene et CaricUe, 2 based on the 
 romance of Heliodorus. The play does not show the direct influ- 
 ence of Hardy's drama. 3 It is much more classical than this, for 
 it has a chorus, a prologue, only five acts, a scene laid in a single 
 town, and an action that covers a short space of time. The play 
 begins with the meeting of Sisimetre, who had given Chariclee, 
 when an infant, to Charicles at the command of her mother, 
 Persine, Queen of Ethiopia, and Charicles, come to Egypt in 
 pursuit of the same Chariclee, who has grown to womanhood and 
 eloped with Theagene, Prince of Thessaly. Charicles relates the 
 story of her flight, w T hich here inspired the first journee of Hardy's 
 drama. Sisimetre replies with the information that she and her 
 lover have been condemned by Hydaspe, King of Ethiopia, to be 
 sacrificed to the gods. Sisimetre now informs Chariclee that she 
 is the daughter of Hydaspe and that her mother had wished her 
 exposed lest her white complexion should cause her legitimacy to 
 be suspected. He promises to save her with her lover. The third 
 act is taken up with preparations for a combat between Theagene 
 and a giant. Persine, informed that Chariclee is her daughter, 
 rescues her from prison and learns of her wanderings, which had 
 furnished the plot of six journees in Hardy's drama. The chorus, 
 which ends each act, here discourses on the difference between 
 
 1 See above, p. 62. 2 See above, page 102. 
 
 3 That it is not based on Hardy' s work is shown by the transliteration of the 
 heroine' s name, which is Cariclee in one and Chariclee in the other, both of which 
 are due to the Greek writing with the letter chi; also by episodes that appear in 
 Heliodorus and Genetay, but not in Hardy : as, for example, when Charicle'e is 
 offered in marriage to Mercebe in Heliodorus and Genetay, while that prince does 
 not appear in Hardy ; or when the giant, presented by ambassadors and barely 
 mentioned in Hardy, is presented by Meroebe and treated at some length in Helio- 
 dorus and Genetay.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 113 
 
 white and black races, promulgating the law of reversion to pre- 
 vious types : 
 
 " Et si quelqu'un vient a naistre 
 De teint qui soit different 
 II le tient de quelque ancestre 
 Qui l'a eu tel apparent." * 
 
 Hydaspe, greatly pleased at the discovery of his daughter's 
 identity, wishes to marry her to his nephew Mercebe, but he is 
 determined to sacrifice Theagene, who has just overthrown the 
 giant and a bull. He regrets that the sacrifice is necessary, add- 
 ing : 
 
 " Mais quoy ? la loy le veut et mon vceu solennel, 
 Et faut que vous soyez immole' sur l'autel : 
 Prenez pourtant bon coeur ; vostre mort honorable 
 Sera de temps en temps entre nous memorable." 2 
 
 Charicles now arrives, demanding vengeance on Theagene for 
 carrying off Chariclee. He is well received and assured of 
 Theagene's approaching end. Chariclee begs for his life and, 
 when Hydaspe continues inexorable, follows her lover into the 
 fire, which has been prepared to test his chastity. The flames 
 flee from the virtuous couple, an event which so startles Hydaspe 
 that after learning from Sisimetre that human sacrifice is a super- 
 stitious practice, he frees Theagene. When told that he is of 
 royal blood, he marries him to Chariclee, satisfying his nephew 
 with another spouse. 
 
 This play is more compact and more smoothly written than 
 Hardy's long drama, but it is less dramatic, consisting of recita- 
 tions and a hurried denouement. The unity of action is violated 
 by the digressions concerned with the giant and Meroebe and by 
 the long narrations of previous events in the story of the lovers. 
 The action does not last more than a few days and is confined to 
 the city of Meroe. 
 
 A second tragi-comedy was published in 1609, called Marjilie 
 or, in the edition of 1G28, V Innocence Descouverte, the plot of 
 
 IV.
 
 114 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 which seems remotely connected with the story of Hippolytus and 
 Phsedra, with the vindication and escape of the former, conforma- 
 bly with the usage of the tragi-comedy. The use made of a drug, 
 supposed to be a poison, and the prominent role of the valet 
 suggest the influence of Lucelle. 1 In the first act Marfilie, wife of 
 Phocus, a Roman knight, confesses to her nonrrice her love for 
 her stepson, Fabrice. To the remonstrances of the nourrice she 
 replies that " l'amour n'a point de loy," citing the classic examples 
 of Myrrha, Phsedra, Biblis, and others. Seeing that her passion 
 cannot be conquered, the nourrice arranges a meeting between 
 Fabrice and her mistress by pretending that the latter is sick. A 
 physician declares that she suffers from " une humeur bilieuse " 
 and prescribes as follows : 
 
 ' ' Vous prendrez tout premier ce petit apozeme, 
 Puis dessus vostre cceur sera cet epitheme, 
 Usez de ce iulep altemativement, 
 Ces sirops esteindront vostre feu vehement, etc." 2 
 
 The valet, Thomas, parodies these lines with others of insistant 
 vulgarity. Fabrice now receives a declaration of love from 
 Marfilie, which he rejects with horror. Immediately after, however, 
 he pretends to be willing to comply with her requests, in order to 
 cure her. The situation is relieved by the timely arrival of 
 Phocus. Fabrice soliloquizes on the wickedness of women, citing 
 historical examples, when Marfilie enters, lamenting her sufferings 
 with great priciosite : 
 
 1 ' Playe, non, ains un feu brusle incessamment, 
 Un feu non, un vautour me livre ce tourment, 
 Un vautour, non, ie faux, une rage amoureuse, 
 Rage, non, ains plustost une vie ennuyeuse, 
 Vie, non, ains plustost une cruelle mort, 
 Mort, non, elle ne peut, son dard n'est assez fort 
 Pour faire tant de mal, ou bien c'est ce me semble 
 Playe, vautour, feu, rage, et vie, et mort ensemble." 3 
 
 When Fabrice rejects her proposals, she cries 
 
 " Lares, larues, lutins, lemures et demons," 
 1 See above, p. 62. 2 n. s rxt.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 115 
 
 which Thomas parodies with, 
 
 "O iambons, cervelas, bouteilles et flacons." 
 
 Resolved to revenge her rejection by poisoning Fabrice, she 
 sends Thomas to the physician for " la froide cigue, le caustique 
 arcenic, ou le prompt sublime." The valet, arrived at the physi- 
 cian's house, gives a long account of the " cul musicien " in a pass- 
 age that seems to have obtained some celebrity. 1 After bantering 
 the physician for some time, he obtains a drug, which, he is told, 
 is the required poison. When this is put into wine to destroy 
 Fabrice, it is drunk by Anthoine, Marfilie's son, who at once 
 becomes unconscious. Marfilie, now in great distress, is advised 
 by the nourrice to accuse Fabrice of murdering his half-brother. 
 
 A court scene is next represented, in which two conseillers 
 generalize at length on justice, while Thomas suggests : 
 
 " Disons tant seulement que tout ainsi qu'on voit 
 L' aiguille du Nocher tendre tousiours vers l'ourse, 
 La main d'un aduocat tend tousiours vers la bourse." 2 
 
 Phocus demands vengeance for Anthoine's murder. Against 
 Fabrice's protest of innocence, the nourrice offers a detailed testi- 
 mony of the poisoning. The judge, convinced of his guilt, is 
 about to sentence him to death, when the physician arrives with 
 information regarding the purchase of the drug. Anthoine is now 
 revived. Marfilie, after confessing her crime, is banished with 
 Thomas and the nourrice ; Fabrice is released and reunited to his 
 father. 
 
 The unity of action is here violated by the comic elements 
 introduced chiefly in the role of Thomas. The place is limited to 
 a single city, of which several localities are represented. The time 
 is probably not longer than a few days. 
 
 In the following year appeared Genevre, an undramatic play, 
 based on the Orlando Furioso, 3 that has been fully analyzed by 
 Th. Roth. 4 Ariodan declares his determination to kill himself 
 
 1 Cf. Soleinne, i, No. 941. 2 v. s iv, stanzas 56-72 ; v ; vi, stanzas 2-16. 
 * For references, see appendix B, n.
 
 116 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 from despair at the infidelity of Genevre, daughter of the King of 
 Scotland. His brother, Lurquain, accuses Genevre of licentious 
 conduct and the King reluctantly agrees to put her to death, if 
 she be proved guilty. The question is to be decided by a duel 
 between Lurquain and Genevre's champion, who presents himself 
 in armor, so that he is unrecognized. In the midst of the combat 
 Renaut de Montauban arrives, separates the two men, and proves 
 Genevre's innocence and the guilt of Polynesse and Dalyde, 
 whom Ariodan had thought to be Genevre when she received 
 Polynesse into her chamber. Polynesse is condemned to be burnt. 
 Genevre's champion, removing his armor, shows that he is no 
 other than Ariodan, escaped from the sea, in which he had sought 
 death. The marriage of the reunited lovers is at once arranged. 
 The unity of action is here violated by the interposition of 
 Renaut, who has taken no part in the first four acts of the play 
 and consequently serves as a deus ex machind. The time is at 
 least a month. The scene is laid in several localities near the 
 court of the King of Scotland. 
 
 The story of the Widow of Ephesus, which has furnished a 
 popular theme in fable literature since Phsedrus x was dramatized 
 in 1614 by Pierre Brinon under the title of VEphesienne, tragi- 
 comedie. In the argument the author states that his source is 
 found in the Satires of Petronius Arbiter, 2 whose brief narrative 
 is greatly elaborated in the play. Astasie la Vefve laments her 
 husband's death and resolves to follow him to the grave, replying 
 to the remonstrances of her friends : 
 
 "II ne sera point dit que iamais Astasie 
 Non, qui luy donneroit le Sceptre de 1' Asie, 
 Ait oublie celuy qu'elle avoit en si cher ; 
 Pour luy ie veux fuir et le monde et la chair, 
 Et sa triste demeure a mes plaisirs eleue 
 Sera le lieu fatal de ma mort resolue. ' ' 3 
 
 1 For references to various versions, see A. C. M. Robert, Fables Inedites, n, 
 430, Paris, 1825 ; 2 vols. 
 
 8 Cf. Petronii Satirae et Liber Priapeorum, 77-79, edited by Franciscus Bueche- 
 ler, Berlin, 1882.
 
 Its Origin and Development 117 
 
 Teleme, the servante, commends this resolution and agrees to 
 follow her mistress. The magistrate, Dicaste, unable to turn 
 Astasie from her purpose, leaves her bidding adieu to her city, her 
 friends, and her life. A chorus of Ephesian virgins praises her 
 constancy. In the next act Frontin leads before Calepe, governor 
 of the city, a detachment of soldiers in charge of a captured pirate 
 captain. After describing the capture, he is ordered to hang the 
 pirate and guard his body, exposed on the gallows. The next act 
 shows Frontin guarding the body and complaining of this unwel- 
 come duty in a passage that seems to express the true feeling of 
 the author and the soldier : 
 
 " Et puis suyvez la Cour ! faites service aux grands ! 
 Donnez a leurs plaisirs vostre force et vos ans ! 
 Embrassez leurs desseins d'un zele tout extresme ! 
 Meprisez vos amys ! meprisez-vous vous-mesme ! 
 Courez mille hazards pour leur ambition ! 
 A la premiere liumeur, la moindre impression 
 Qu'ils prendront contre vous, vous voila hors de grace, 
 Et cela seulement tous vos bien-faits efface. ' ' 
 
 Seeing a light in a tomb hard by, he approaches it and finds 
 Astasie and Teleme, who tell him the reason of their presence 
 there. He argues against the widow's resolution, convincing 
 Teleme that life is worth living and making an agreeable impres- 
 sion on Astasie, although she does not change her purpose. As 
 day approaches, Frontin retires, but returns the next night with 
 food and drink and declares his love to Astasie. Urged by him 
 and Teleme, she says : 
 
 "Bailie done que ie mange afin de te complaire. 
 
 Ha, que c' est chose douce a, un corps aflame - 
 
 D' avoir dequoy manger ! 
 Frontin : Plus douce d'estre aime" 
 
 A un coeur qui languit recuit de mille flames ! 
 Astasie : Mais est-il vray Frontin qu'on aime tant les femmes?" * 
 
 After further argument, Frontin swears to marry her and she 
 replies :
 
 118 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 " Ie ne peux refuser ce"t honneur desirable 
 De plus dignes que moy l'auroient bien agreable : 
 Le bon-heur m'a voulu que perdant mon tresor, 
 Un autre m'est offert plus precieux encor." 1 
 
 While Astasie and Frontin are enjoying in advance the marital 
 privileges, pirates carry off the body of their leader from the 
 gallows. Frontin, upon leaving the tomb to arrange his marriage, 
 discovers the loss of the body and laments his fate, for he will be 
 put to death as soon as his negligence becomes known. But the 
 widow comforts him, advising that the body of her dead husband 
 be substituted for that of the pirate : 
 
 "Car puisque mon Destin veut cette extremite" 
 Que de deux corps aimez ie perde l'un ou 1' autre, 
 Celuy de mon mari ia deffunct, ou le vostre, 
 Pour ne perdre le vif que le Ciel m'a rendu 
 Ie bailleray le mort qui m'est desia perdu." 
 
 They accordingly place the body on the gallows, thus saving 
 Frontin and removing all obstacles to their marriage. 
 
 The unity of action is here nearly observed except for the 
 second act, which, concerned with the account of the pirate's 
 capture and the command to hang him, might have been omitted 
 from the play without affecting the progress of the principal 
 action. The scene is laid in and around Ephesus. The time is 
 about a week. 
 
 The story of Apollonius of Tyre, known in various versions, 
 was drawn from the Gesta Romanorum cum applicationibus, chapter 
 153, to be dramatized as Les Heureuses Infortunes, a tragi-comedy 
 by Bernier de la Brousse (1617). 2 The details of the story are 
 largely followed with accuracy, though some are omitted and 
 others expanded for dramatic purposes. The long narrative, from 
 the incest of Antiochus to the reunion of Apollonius's family is 
 dramatized in two joumees of five acts each. Little delicacy is 
 
 1 iv. 
 
 2 For the text of the Gesta Romanorum and a study of the versions of the story, 
 see S. Singer, Apollonius von Tyrus, Halle, 1895. Several French versions are 
 mentioned by A. H. Smith, Shakespeare's Pericles and Apollonius of Tyre, 41-3, 
 Philadelphia, 1898. Neither of these authors mentions Les Heureuses Infortunes.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 119 
 
 shown in the treatment of Antioque and his daughter in the 
 opening act. The king glories in his crime, defying the gods : 
 
 "De leur feu, de leur fer, ruon cceur n'a nul soucy 
 Qu'ils commandent au ciel, moy ie commande icy." x 
 
 His daughter laments her unfortunate position. At the end of the 
 act the due d'Apamee presents himself before the king, only to 
 die for failing to guess the riddle, which gives to the man who 
 solves it the hand of Antioque's daughter. But Apollonie guesses 
 this riddle, as Antioque tells his attendant : 
 
 " II a leu dans mon ame, et tire - de mon coeur 
 Le doux amour, qui fait que ie ne vis qu'en peur. 
 Quels dieux l'ont inspired qui prompt a ma ruine 
 Luy auroit descouvert le fonds de ma poictrine?" a 
 
 He seeks to kill Apollonie, but the latter escapes, only to be 
 shipwrecked and rescued by a fisherman. No attempt is made at 
 introducing the humorous and realistic conversation of the fisher- 
 men, found in the corresponding part of Pericles Prince of Tyre. 
 Arrived at the court of Altistrate, King of Pentapolis, Apollonie 
 gains his favor and the love of his daughter, Lucine, whose music- 
 teacher he becomes. She rejects noble suitors and insists upon 
 marrying Apollonie, finally winning her father's consent. The 
 subsequent news of Antioque's death and the accession of Apollonie 
 to his throne is celebrated by the lovers in lyric measures : 
 
 ' ' Soit que tu sois dans les Cieux 
 
 Dieu des dieux 
 Ou en ta Crete ennoblie 
 Entens de nostre chanson 
 
 Le doux son 
 Et iamais ne nous oublie, etc." 3 
 
 The couple now take ship for their new kingdom. A last scene is 
 added to this first part of the drama to show that the fisherman, 
 who had saved Apollonie and been forgotten by him, is finally 
 rewarded. 
 
 ii, 1. 2 n, 1. 3 v, 1.
 
 120 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 Fifteen years elapse between the first and second parts, a depar- 
 ture, the author declares in his preface, from the " forme absolue 
 de la Tragedie." The story is recommenced at the point where 
 Dorade expresses to her husband her envy of Tharsie, the daughter 
 whom Apollonie has left in their charge with much treasure, and 
 her desire to do away with her in order that their daughter may 
 inherit this wealth. The husband's objections are silenced by his 
 crafty wife, who engages a slave, Theophile, to kill the girl. The 
 attempted murder of Tharsie and her rescue by pirates are not 
 acted, as they are in Pericles, but are related by Theophile in a 
 lengthy monologue. He tells Dorade that he has slain the girl 
 and asks for his liberty, the reward that she has promised him. 
 She replies : 
 
 " Quoy ? meschant, liberty pour un meurtre commis 
 II n'en faut point parler ; et si tu m'en accuse, 
 I' ay assez de moyens pour me servir d'excuse. 
 Fay comme auparavant, si ie t'oy plus prescher 
 Hault ie te feray pendre, ou tout vif escorcher." 1 
 
 Meantime Tharsie, sold to the keeper of a brothel in Metelin, is 
 told that she must help in the business. By the aid of Athanagore, 
 Prince of Lesbos, whom she wins over to a virtuous life when he 
 visits her for other purposes, she succeeds in making a living by 
 music, astrology, and mathematics, till her father Apollonie, 
 informed by Dorade that she is dead, arrives in despair off the 
 coast of Lesbos. Athanagore sends Tharsie to divert him, but, 
 after guessing her riddles, Apollonie orders her out of his presence, 
 whereupon she laments, calling herself by her name. This leads 
 to her recognition and restoration to her father. After marrying 
 her to Athanagore, Apollonie proceeds to Ephesus in obedience to a 
 dream, and is reunited to Lucine, who had been living in a convent 
 there since the birth of Tharsie. Another scene shows Dorade 
 hearing through her husband's dream of the punishment in store 
 for her crimes. 
 
 The violation of the unities in this play is too obvious to need 
 notice. The play includes four stories : the incestuous relations of 
 
 1 Part ii, n, 1.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 121 
 
 Antioque and his daughter ; the marriage of Apollonie and Luciue ; 
 the story of Tharsie ; the reunion of Apollonie and Luciue. Each 
 part takes up several months at least, while a period of fifteen 
 years elapses between them. The scene of the first part is laid at 
 Antioch and in Pentapolis, that of the second at Tarsus, Mitylene, 
 and Ephesus. 
 
 In 1618 appeared Aretaphile, the first play of Pierre Du Kyer. 
 The manuscript in which the work has been preserved states that 
 it was received with much applause and called sa pilce by the due 
 d'Orleans. A further proof that it was acted is that it appears in 
 the Memoire 1 of Mahelot, which gives the decoration that it 
 needed when acted at the Hotel de Bourgogne : 
 
 "II faut, au milieu du theatre, un palais cache ou il ayt un 
 tombeau et des armes, de la bougie, des larmes, du soucy, deux 
 piramides ardantes. Au devant de ce palais, un autre palais pour 
 un roy. A un des costez du theatre, une grande tour, et de l'autre 
 coste, une chambre fermee, des tablaux, une table, des flambeaux 
 dedans la chambre. Au troisiesme acte, il se faict une nuit. II 
 faut deux menottes ou chaisnes, deux fiolles, un chapeau de fleurs, 
 une ficelle ou l'on attache une lettre." 
 
 The plot of the play is taken from Plutarch's Virtues of Women 2 
 with changes in personages and incidents. It has been incom- 
 pletely analyzed by La Valliere, and by his follower, K. Philipp, 
 in a recent dissertation. 3 The scene is laid in Libya, where 
 Aretaphile is wooed by Philarque, son of the king, and his cousin, 
 Nicocrate. She dismisses the latter and goes with the former into 
 the garden to hear the birds sing. The king arranges a marriage 
 between his son and Aretaphile, reflecting that, 
 
 " Malgr6 la tombe, ou le destin nous livre 
 Notre posterity nous peut faire revivre." 4 
 
 Nicocrate, however, determines to prevent this union and soon 
 informs the audience of his succession to the hand of Aretaphile 
 and the throne of her father : 
 
 1 Fol. 35 Vo and 36. 
 
 * No. xix. Cf. Plutarchi Scripta Moralia, I, 315, Paris, 1868. 
 
 3 For references, see Appendix B, u. * i, 7.
 
 122 The French Tragi-Comedy : 
 
 " Les Dieux sont Kois au Ciel, je le suis ici bas, 
 Qu'ils gouvernent la haut la pluye et le tonnerre, 
 Pour moy j'aurai le soin de gouverner la terre" * 
 
 He rejoices in his cruelty and punishes a sacrijicateur who warns 
 him against it. When his mother informs him that Aretaphile has 
 attempted to give him poison, he shows his cruelty by forcing a 
 captive to drink the liquid in question and thus proving its deadly 
 effect. 
 
 Aretaphile, imprisoned while awaiting trial for this attempt, is 
 visited by her lover, Philarque, who passes her a letter by means of a 
 cord, when he is obliged to retire by the approach of soldiers. Sum- 
 moned before her husband, Aretaphile replies to his reproaches, 
 " l'innocence et l'amour meprisent le danger," explaining that the 
 poison was a love potion, which she gave him for fear that he 
 loved another. As soon as she is released, she plots again to 
 destroy Nicocrate, who, she discovers, has fallen in love with her 
 sister, Belise, who loves and is loved by his brother, Cleandre. 
 By showing Cleandre a letter from Nicocrate, Belise incites him to 
 have the latter murdered, when he comes to visit her that night. 
 After this has been accomplished, Clearque succeeds to the throne, 
 proving to be as cruel as his brother. But Philarque now arrives 
 with an army to demand his father's kingdom. Clearque surren- 
 ders and begs for mercy. Philarque pardons him and marries 
 Aretaphile. 
 
 In this plot, Du Eyer has departed from his model in the interest 
 of romanesque elements and a happier denouement. In Plutarch, 
 Philarque, called Phaedimus, is married to Aretaphile before the 
 usurpation of Nicocrate and is slain by the latter. The army 
 which he leads against the tyrant is led, in Plutarch, by Anabus, a 
 neighboring prince. Belise is, in the original version, the daughter, 
 and not the sister of Aretaphile. The latter, after the overthrow 
 of the tyrants, retires to private life, in Plutarch, instead of 
 remarrying, as she does in Du Ryer. The play lacks unity of 
 action, for the acts succeed one another without close connection, 
 while the incident of the poisoning does not advance the action. 
 
 in, 1.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 123 
 
 The time is some months, possibly years. The scene is laid in 
 several localities of a city aDd on a battle-field. 
 
 Les Amours du Seigneur Alexandre et a" Annette (1619) may be 
 compared with L' Innocence Descouverte " in the vulgarity of the 
 language and the prominent comic role of the valet. Alexandre? 
 a young aristocrat, loves and is loved by Annette, who introduces 
 him into her room at night. His servant, Lambert, left at the 
 door, hears the wife of a shoemaker complaining of the blows she 
 has received from her husband and comforts her by leading her 
 away to his room. Meanwhile Annette's father breaks into his 
 daughter's room to take vengeance on the lover, who escapes in 
 spite of him. Furious at missing Alexandre, the father bids a 
 valet kill Annette, but instead of executing this barbarous order, 
 the valet provides her with men's clothes, disguised in which 
 she escapes to her uncle's house, which she enters as a servant. 
 Her father, however, dies of disappointment, so that she is enabled 
 to reveal her identity to her uncle and to marry Alexandre. The 
 unities are violated in this play by the digression concerning the 
 valet and the shoemaker's wife, by the number of days that elapse 
 during the progress of the play, and by the various parts of the 
 town in which it takes place. The source of the play is unknown. 
 
 The author of Les Amours de Philandre et Marisee (1619) seems 
 to have called it both tragedy and tragi-comedy, for the latter term 
 is used in the title, the privilege, and at the tops of the pages, 
 while the author writes in his dedication to Honore d'Urfe con- 
 cerning " ce ieu tragique " and refers to the play in his au lecteur 
 as " ceste Tragedie." The subject is, indeed, eminently tragic, but 
 the representation of the reunion in Heaven of the separated 
 family gives the play a happy denouement, so that it is possible to 
 look upon it as a tragi-comedy. 
 
 Philandre, lamenting his ill success in love, is sent by Destin to 
 Avignon, where a bride is promised him. The chorus deplores 
 Destin' s power. Philandre wins the affection of Marisee, but is 
 obliged to leave her to succeed to an inheritance at Nimes. Mari- 
 see's uncle is seeking in the th'ird act to arrange a marriage 
 
 1 See above, page 103 seq.
 
 124 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 between her and Prince Rectival, when the news comes that the 
 girl has eloped with Philandre, whereupon the uncle exclaims : 
 
 ' ' O Priamide cceur ! 6 traistre ! 6 inhumain ! 
 As-tu soubs mots pipeurs enleue" de ta main 
 L'Helenine beauts de ma niepce tant chere?" 1 
 
 Pursuit is vain. The uncle hears, after ten years, that the 
 lovers have married, fled to Scotland, and are now the parents of 
 four children. Philandre complains to his wife of their poverty, 
 which he resolves to remedy by returning to Provence for their 
 fortune. He takes with him his oldest son, Fleury, leaving the 
 rest of the family behind. 
 
 In the fifth act Marisee learns from her uncle that Philandre 
 has abandoned her for another woman. She decides to kill her- 
 self and her children, whom she convinces that death is prefer- 
 able to life. Meanwhile Philandre has determined to rid himself 
 of his oldest son, but, when on the point of killing him, is pre- 
 vented by hunters, who come upon him in the forest. He escapes, 
 but is condemned in his absence to be hanged and burnt, while 
 Fleury is told to go on a pilgrimage to thank Marie d Lorette for 
 his preservation. Twenty years later he starts on this journey and 
 meets his father, turned hermit. He forgives him and they 
 embrace. Not long after, Philandre falls sick and is visited by 
 the spirits of his wife and dead children, who announce his 
 approaching death and assure him that he has been saved by their 
 prayers. They are thus happily reunited after a curious speech of 
 Philandre upon his death-bed, a speech so constructed as to form 
 with the initial letters an anagram on the name of the author of 
 the play. 
 
 This artificial ending is in keeping with the exaggerated style in 
 which other parts of the work are written. The unities are 
 violated in many ways. Three plots can be seen in the marriage 
 of Philandre and Marisee, his desertion of her, and their reconcil- 
 iation. The action lasts over thirty years and takes place in 
 Scotland and several localities in southern France.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 125 
 
 The second play by Du Ryer is Clitophon (1622), known to 
 have been acted from its occurrence in V Ouverture des jours gras ' 
 (1634), which mentions it among pieces to be seen at the Hotel de 
 Bourgogne, and from the elaborate account of its raise en scdne 
 given by Mahelot, 2 which includes a handsomely decorated temple 
 to Diana, two prisons, a garden, a mountain with a tomb on it, a 
 cave, a sea, half a ship, blood, sponges, a skin, flowers, turbans 
 for Turks, a dark lantern, trumpets, chains, etc. The source of 
 the play, Cleitophon and Leucippe, 3 the Greek romance of Achilleus 
 Tatius, has been followed with only a few changes. The play 
 begins at Tyre, where Lucippe is dwelling with her mother and 
 has fallen in love with Clitophon. The latter's father is opposed 
 to his marriage to Lucippe, as he wishes him to wed Calligonne, 
 but a former lover of Lucippe now comes from Byzantium and 
 carries off Calligonne, mistaking her for Lucippe. Alarmed by 
 the news of this catastrophe, Lucippe's mother determines to leave 
 the city with her daughter, whereupon Clitophon persuades the 
 latter to elope with him to Alexandria, after some hesitation on 
 her part : 
 
 " Lucippe : L' amour doit aprouver une telle entreprise 
 
 Mais l'honneur me deffend ce qu' amour autorise. 
 Clitophon : Si tu veux toutesfois notre commun bonheur 
 
 Tu dois te rendre sourde aux conseils de l'honneur." 4 
 
 Shipwrecked on the coast of Egypt, the lovers are captured by the 
 soldiers of a tyrant, Busire, who orders them to be sacrificed to the 
 gods. Clitophon, separated from Lucippe, succeeds in escaping 
 to Charmide, King of Alexandria, now at war with Busire, but 
 only to see Lucippe sacrificed on a mountain out of reach of 
 his aid. His lamentations over this disaster are interrupted by 
 Satyre, Lucippe's servant, who leads him to the mountain, opens 
 the tomb, and shows his mistress alive and unhurt. They explain 
 that the sacrificer was Menelas, father of Satire, and that he had 
 saved Lucippe by fixing a skin, full of blood, on her breast, which 
 
 1 See E. Fournier, Varietes historiques, n, 345-55. 
 
 2 Memoire, fol. 47 vo. and 48. 
 
 3 See Erotici Scriptores, 27 seq., edited by G. A. Hirseling, Paris, 1856. 
 *i, 9.
 
 126 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 he opened with his knife in the sight of the soldiers, making them 
 believe that the flowing blood was Lucippe's. The deception was 
 not difficult, as no one came nearer than the foot of the mountain 
 during the supposed sacrifice. After this event Lucippe had been 
 placed in the tomb, whence she is now taken. 
 
 The lovers take refuge with Charmide, declaring that they are 
 brother and sister. He receives them only too well, desiring to 
 add Lucippe " au nombre de mes femmes." She escapes this fate 
 by an opportune duel between Charmide and Busire, in which both 
 are killed, but she is shortly afterwards carried oif by pirates and is 
 believed dead by Clitophon and Satyre. They pursue the pirates 
 as far as Ephesus, where they meet a wealthy widow, called 
 Melite, who at once falls in love with Clitophon. At her house 
 they find Lucippe, so changed in appearance that her lover fails to 
 recognize her. Brought there by the pirates, who perished in a 
 dispute over her, she has succeeded in escaping to the woods, and is 
 living as a shepherdess on one of Melite's farms. 
 
 The lovers are about to be reunited when Tersandre, Melite's 
 husband, appears, having escaped from a shipwreck in which he 
 has been supposed dead. Hearing of his wife's passion for Clito- 
 phon, he has him imprisoned and seeks to win Lucippe for himself. 
 Clitophon, informed of her assassination, wishes so strongly to 
 die that he accuses himself of her murder, but, before he is 
 executed, Lucippe reappears after her third supposed death to tell 
 of her taking refuge in a temple, in order to escape the importu- 
 nities of Tersandre. Then she is finally united to Clitophon, 
 while Tersandre is pardoned on his wife's interposition. 
 
 Besides shortening many of the philosophical discussions and 
 explanations of his prose source, Du Kyer has made certain 
 changes to suit the views of his audience and to heighten the 
 romamsque qualities of the piece. Thus, Calligonne is made the 
 cousin instead of the half-sister of Clitophon ; Lucippe is sacri- 
 ficed, and not ripped open ; Clitophon meets Melite in Ephesus 
 instead of Alexandria and does not marry her ; the oracular test 
 of Lucippe's virtue is omitted. As it stands, however, the play 
 has as little unity as the romance. Five distinct actions are 
 evident, which end in the heroine's escape from her mother at
 
 Its Origin and Development. 127 
 
 Tyre, from the sacrificial block, the King of Alexandria, the 
 pirates, and Tersandre. The scene is laid in Tyre, Egypt and 
 Ephesus. The time must cover a year or more. 
 
 A striking contrast to this play is furnished by Troterel's 
 Pasithee (1624), a tragi-comedy of few incidents and only eight 
 personages, of whom four are allegorical. Cleostene, returning from 
 a journey to wed Pasithee, is informed by his friend, Ceraminte, that 
 his suit is supported by her confidante, Philoxene, but that she 
 appears favorably inclined to another suitor. On his arrival, how- 
 ever, Pasithee receives him well and the marriage is arranged. But 
 Fortune, learning that Cleostene has defied her, proves her power 
 by pursuading Pasithee to renounce the world and enter a convent. 
 Cleostene, in great distress, arranges an interview with Pasithee, 
 but is unable to alter her purpose. 
 
 ' ' Pasithee : Ie vous serviray plus estant dans ce lieu saint, 
 
 Que si ie demeurois dedans le monde feint. 
 Cleostene : Si chacun s'enfermoit dedans un monastere, 
 
 Le monde deviendroit un desert solitaire : 
 I'estime grandement le vceu de chastete", 
 Mais le saint mariage a plus d'utilite." ' 
 
 But Destin, taking pity on Cleostene, sends Cupidon to shoot 
 Pasithee with his darts, which he does during Cleostene' s second 
 visit to the convent, thus inducing Pasithee to agree to marry her 
 lover. When Fortune opposes this union, she is captured by 
 Mercure and Cupidon, brought before Destin, and condemned to 
 be imprisoned till after the wedding of the lovers, which soon 
 takes place. 
 
 The absence of intrigue indicates that the play has no source, 
 but is due to the author's invention. Despite its lack of incident, 
 the piece violates the unity of action, for the incident of Pasithee' s 
 second lover, mentioned in the first act, has nothing to do with the 
 plot, and the solution of the drama is made by the introduction of 
 a deus ex machind. The time extends over a number of days. 
 The scene is laid at the home of Pasithee, in the parlor of the 
 convent, at a place some distance from these localities in which the 
 action begins, and in the places inhabited by Destin and Fortune. 
 
 I m f 2.
 
 128 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 The plot of Chriseide et Arimand (1625), the first play of Jean 
 Mairet, is taken from the third book of Honore d'Urfe's Astree 
 (1610). According to Bizos, 1 the play has undergone the influence 
 of Theophile's Pyrame et Thisbe (1617). Mairet himself called 
 it a pecM de sajeunesse and was not responsible for its publication. 
 That it was acted is shown by its appearance in Mahelot's 
 Memoire? As Bizos has given a full analysis of the play, I shall 
 be brief in discussing it. At the beginning the lovers are in 
 prison some distance apart, Arimand as a prisoner of war, Chri- 
 seide because she refuses to forsake Arimand and love King 
 Gondebaut. Their servant, Bellaris, succeeds in helping Chriseide 
 to escape at night from a window by means of a rope and in 
 conducting her to an inn, where he leaves her to return to 
 Arimand, changes clothes with him, and takes his place in prison. 
 Arimand finds Chriseide and is soon rejoined by the faithful 
 Bellaris, who has succeeded in escaping from prison. They set out 
 for Vienne, but chance upon King Gondebaut, who recaptures 
 Chriseide. She refuses to marry the king, and, when he endeavors 
 to force the marriage, seizes a knife and swears on the Tombeau 
 des Amans her fidelity to Arimand : 
 
 " Ie ne puis receuoir un autre feu dans l'ame, 
 Ferme iusqu'a la mort dans ce premier dessein, 
 Et preste a me porter ce coutau dans le sein, 
 Si l'on me veut tirer du Tombeau que i'embrasse." 3 
 
 Arimand now arrives, surrendering himself and demanding, 
 
 " De me donner le don promis au delateur 
 Du chef de 1' attentat dont ie suis seul Pauteur." i 
 
 The reward demanded is the liberty of Chriseide, to which the 
 king is forced to consent, assuring Arimand that he shall be put 
 to death at once. Chriseide promises to die with him, but Bellaris 
 takes the guilt of Chriseide's escape upon himself and demands 
 Arimand's liberty as his reward for giving himself up. The king 
 is again forced by his oath to agree, but is resolved to revenge 
 
 1 For referenee see Appendix B, n. 
 
 2 54 yo. and 55. 3 v, 3. 4 54 vo. and 55.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 129 
 
 himself on Bellaris. But the priest pleads for him and so moves 
 the king by pointing out these examples of self-sacrifice that his 
 heart is softened, he pardons them all, and unites the lovers in 
 marriage. 
 
 While this play is, like other tragi-comedies of the period, full 
 of incidents that are introduced for their own sake rather than to 
 advance the action, there is, nevertheless, an unusually logical 
 arrangement of material, so that the scenes grow out of each other 
 and nearly produce unity of action. The denouement Ls reached 
 by the pity excited in the king's breast by the self-sacrifice dis- 
 played by the lovers and Bellaris, which was made possible by the 
 king's offer of a reward to the man who would bring hrim wiio- 
 ever accomplished Chriseide's escape. This circumstance gives 
 the escape of the lovers an integral part in the development of the 
 play. It does not have the episodic nature of incidents that 
 occurred, for example, in Clitophon. This tendency fro unity is to 
 be looked for in Mairet, who by his Silvanire and Sophonisbe, did 
 as much as anyone else to establish the unities in France. The 
 unities of time and place, however, are here violated, for the scene 
 is laid in several distinct localities of France, in two prisons, a 
 palace, and a forest, while the time must have covered a number 
 of days. 
 
 In 1625 Pichou obtained the privilege to print his Folies de 
 Cardenio, a tragi-comedy drawn from Don Quixote. 1 Dorothee, 
 finding that Fernant has transferred his affections from her to 
 Luscinde, retires to the forest to lament, while Fernant persuades 
 Luscinde's father to grant her to him, although she loves Cardenio 
 and is loved by him. Her father forces Luscinde to come before a 
 Sacrificateur 2 to be married to Fernant, who promises to marry 
 her, after which the following scene occurs : 
 
 "Sacrificateur : Puisque vous connaissez sa fidele amitie, 
 Ne desirez-vous pas le nom de sa moitie ? 
 
 (Cardenio paraist derriere la tapisserie) 
 
 1 Part i, chaps, xxiv and xxvn-xxx. 
 
 2 Fournier, Thedtre, 263, notes that the laws against the representation of priests 
 on the stage forced Pichou to use this term, although the scene of the play is laid 
 in modern Spain and a monastery is alluded to in the same scene.
 
 130 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 Luscinde : Ouy. 
 
 Cardenio : Ha ! desloyaute qui trahis rues services 
 
 Qu'un seul mot me condamne a, d' estranges supplices 
 (II sort du theatre)." ' 
 
 Luscinde faints and is found to have a knife concealed in her bosom 
 with a paper stating that she intends to kill herself rather than be 
 unfaithful to Cardenio. When revived, she refuses to wed Fernant 
 and soon after escapes to a monastery to mourn the loss of her 
 lover. Cardenio, believing that she has ceased to love him, retires 
 to the desert and goes mad from grief. 
 
 In this state he is met by Don Quixote and Sancho, who try to 
 protect him from his imaginary enemies. But Cardenio pays little 
 attention to Don Quixote, beats his follower, as the " rival inju- 
 rieux a l'honneur de mon sort," and disappears in the forest. He 
 next encounters the curate and the barber seeking Don Quixote 
 and mistakes the second of these for Luscinde : 
 
 ' ' Ne m' oste pas le bien de te parler icy, 
 Et rend d' un seul regard mon martyre adoucy. 
 Permets que ie te baise. 
 Le Barbier : O ! la folle cervelle, 
 
 Monsieur ie suis Barbier, et non pas Damoiselle." 2 
 
 After a number of pleasantries, Cardenio leaves them and soon 
 returns to his senses. He meets Dorothee, who informs him of 
 Luscinde's fidelity. Meanwhile Fernant with two companions 
 captures Luscinde, whom Don Quixote tries in vain to rescue, 
 crying : 
 
 " O Dieux ! c'est Sagripant qui ravit Angelique, 
 Quitte infidelle Roy, ce dessein tyrarinique, 
 Ie suis l'appuy des bons, et l'effroy des peruers, 
 Dom Quichot de la manche, honneur de l'univers." 3 
 
 Shortly afterwards, Cardenio meets them at an inn and is reunited 
 to Luscinde. Fernant and he are on the point of coming to blows, 
 when Dorothee intervenes, pursuading Fernant to return to his 
 former love for her, so that both couples are content. 
 
 This double intrigue with a corresponding denouement destroys 
 the unity of action, which is further prevented by several scenes 
 
 ^i, 4. 2 iv, 2. 3 iv, 7.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 131 
 
 concerned with Don Quixote that form amusing digressions from 
 the principal plot. The scene is laid in the forest, :it a monastery, 
 a tavern, the home of Lnscinde and apparently at that of Dorothea. 
 The time is probably a month or more. That the play was acted 
 is evident from its appearance in the Memoire ' of Mahelot. 
 
 In 1C08 Jean de Schelandre had written, under the anagram 
 Daniel d'Ancheres, Tyr ct Sidon Tragedie on lex Funestes Amours 
 de Belcar et Meliane, a romanesque tragedy in which the heroine is 
 executed by her father's orders. Twenty years later he rewrote 
 the play in two journe'es with a happy denouement, a subordinate 
 plot, and comic scenes, calling it Tyr et Sidon, tragi-comedie. 
 Leonte, Prince of Tyre, and Belcar, Prince of Sidon, are captured 
 by their enemies in a war between these cities. Leonte, allowed 
 on parole the freedom of Tyre, succeeds in winning the love of 
 Philoline, the young wife of Zorote, a jealous bourgeois. By the 
 aid of his page, disguised as a girl, he seduces Philoline, but 
 Zorote, learning his wife's dishonor, hires ruffians, who kill the 
 prince. The wounded Belcar, whose virtuous conduct is con- 
 trasted with Leonte's libertinage, is restored to health at Tyre by 
 the daughters of the king, who fall in love with him. Since he 
 prefers Meliane, her older sister, Cassandre, plans with her nourrice, 
 Almodice, to make him transfer his affections to herself. 
 
 Now, when the king of Tyre hears of his son's death at Sidon, 
 he determines to revenge him by executing Belcar ; but that prince 
 is released from prison by the influence of Meliane, in order that 
 she may fly with him by boat to Sidon. Almodice, however, 
 introduces into the boat with him Cassandre instead of Meliane. 
 When Belcar discovers this treachery, he will have none of Cassan- 
 dre, who in despair stabs herself and leaps into the sea. Her body 
 is carried ashore, where it is found by Meliane, come to the beach 
 to drown herself, when she thinks that Belcar has deserted her. 
 Suspected of murdering her sister, she is rescued by the timely 
 arrival of Almodice, captured by the Tyrian admiral and forced to 
 tell how Cassandre met her fate. Meanwhile it has been proved 
 that Zorote is alone guilty of Leonte's murder, so that, as he is 
 
 1 Fols. 55 vo. and 56,
 
 132 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 handed over to the King of Tyre, the latter has nothing against 
 Belcar. Urged by his advisers, by Belcar and Meliane, he con- 
 sents to the marriage of these lovers. 
 
 M. Rigal, 1 following M. Fxlouard Droz, posits Ronsard's 
 Franciade as the source of this play, showing the resemblance 
 between the love affair of Belcar and that of Francus, loved by 
 two princesses, one of whom is aided by her nourrice and kills 
 herself from jealousy of the other. As there is no suggestion, 
 however, in the Franclade of Leonte's adventures and as the 
 setting and many of the incidents are different from those of Tyr et 
 Sidon, it seems that Schelandre did not derive from the Franciade 
 more than a general suggestion as to the conduct of his plot. 
 Two distinct actions are seen in this play, the unhappy adventures 
 of Leonte and Philoline and the happy fortunes of Belcar and 
 Meliane. Digressions are added concerning the war and the 
 household of Zorote. The scene of the action is laid in various 
 localities in Tyr and Sidon and in the territory between the cities. 
 The time is some months. 
 
 Agimee ou V Amour extrauagant, Tragi-Comedie (1628), with 
 its shepherds and shepherdesses, its princes and princesses dis- 
 guised as such, its kisses, mild duels, and double denouement, is a 
 tragi-comedie pastorale, despite its title, and is consequently not to 
 be treated here. Rotrou's Hypocondriaque, published in 1631 
 and probably written in 1 628, does not come within the scope of 
 this chapter, which is concerned only with the tragi-comedies 
 written by predecessors of that author. 
 
 La Tragedie des Amours de Zerbin et d'Isabelle, Princesse fugi- 
 tive 2 is a romanesque play, based on the Orlando Furioso, the 
 qualities of which are those of the tragi-comedy, although it is 
 called a tragedy. It has been analyzed at length by LaValliere. 3 
 
 B. Characterization. 
 
 It is probable that nearly all the romanesque tragi-comedies 
 treated in this chapter were acted ; as, with the exception of 
 
 1 In Petit de Julleville's Langue et Litterature, iv, 227. 
 2 Troyes, 1621, anon. 3 Bibliotheque, i, 536-38.
 
 Its Origin a/nd Development. 133 
 
 Genevre and Pasithee, they are essentially dramatic in compo- 
 sition. Hardy's plays were certainly acted, for he was the 
 professional playwright of the Hotel de Bourgogne. His Felis- 
 mene, Gornelie, and Belle Egyptienne, furthermore, arc mentioned in 
 the Memoire of Mahelot, who seems to have been the mecanieien 
 of that theater. The presence in this Memoire of Aretaphile, 
 ( 'litophon, Chriseide et Arimand, and Folies de Cardenio, shows 
 that they also were acted. Aymee is shown by its preface to have 
 been acted after a banquet, probably in a chateau. All these 
 plays were published at Paris or Rouen, except Aymee, Les 
 Heureuses Infortunes, Alexandre et Annette, and Philandre et 
 Marisee, which appeared at Poitiers, Troyes, and Lyons, and 
 Du Ryer's two plays, which exist only in manuscript. 
 
 The authors of these tragi-comedies are, with the exception of 
 Hardy, Du Ryer, and Mairet, almost unknown. Hardy, who 
 may be considered in some respects the founder of the modern 
 French stage, is remembered as the badly paid playwright of 
 Valleran Lecomte's troupe, during its provincial travels and 
 when it was established at the Hotel de Bourgogne. He is the 
 first professional dramatic author who turned his attention to 
 the tragi-comedy, and the first author to give this genre a position 
 of popular equality with the tragedy of classical imitation. He 
 was followed by Pierre Du Ryer and Jean Mairet, of whom the 
 former, supposed to have been the son of the poet, Isaac Du 
 Ryer, obtained the positions of secretaire du roy and historiographe 
 de France, was twice married, was admitted to the Academy, and 
 died in 1658. His cheerfully endured poverty forced him to 
 continuous literary labors, which produced twenty-one plays and 
 a larw number of classical translations. 1 Mairet, born at Besanyon 
 in 1004, protected at Paris by the due de Montmorency and the 
 comte de Belin, won fame by his Sylvie (1626) and Sylvanire 
 (1630), and was largely responsible for the introduction of the 
 unities into the French theater by his use of them in Saphonisbe 
 (1634). His correspondence with Corneille on the question of 
 the ('id made him notorious. He died in 1680. 2 
 
 1 For a list of these, see K. Philipp, Du Eyers Leben, 14. 
 
 2 See Bizos, Etude, and Danuheisser, Studien.
 
 134 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 A few details have survived regarding other authors of 
 romanesque tragi-comedies. Andr6 Mage, sieur de Fiefmelin, 
 wrote various poems beside his Aymee, which were collected in a 
 Polymnie. 1 Jacques Duhamel was an advocate of Normandy. 2 
 Claude Billard, seigneur de Courgenay, Bourbonnois, brought up 
 in the household of the duchesse de Retz, was conseitter et secretaire 
 des command ements de la reine Marguerite de Valois. Besides eight 
 plays, he wrote an epic, UEglise triomphante, and other poems. 3 
 Jean Auvray (cir. 1590-1633), an advocate in the parliament of 
 Rouen, besides plays, wrote Oeuvres saintes (1628) and a collection 
 of poems of various kinds, called the Banquet des Muses (1623 
 and 1627). 4 Pierre Brinon translated Buchanan's Baptiste and 
 Jephte. Bernier de la Brousse of Poitou wrote poems and three 
 plays in addition to his tragi-comedy. 5 Gilbert Giboin declares 
 himself to be harpeur, arithmetiden, et maistre escrwain at Molins in 
 Bourbonnois. Pierre Troterel, sieur d'Aves, ecuyer, was the 
 author of ten dramatic works in various gewes. 6 Pichou came to 
 Paris from Dijon, was protected by the prince de Conde, brought 
 out three tragi-comedies and a pastoral, which met with much 
 success, and was assassinated in 1631, when about thirty-five 
 years old. 7 Jean de Schelandre (cir. 1585-1635) from the 
 neighborhood of Verdun, fought as a captain under Turenne and 
 wrote La Stuartide (1611) and other poems besides his tragi- 
 comedy. 8 These facts show that the authors came from various 
 parts of France and that tragi-comedies, though still composed by 
 men of affairs, were coming to be more extensively written by 
 professional playwrights like Hardy, Mairet, or Pichou. 
 
 The sources of the plays treated have been stated with their 
 analyses, as far as they are known. Euripides furnishes the 
 principal plot of Alceste and perhaps the subject of L' 'Innocence 
 Descouverte, but it is upon the later and more romantic writers of 
 
 J See Appendix B, II. 2 La Valliere, I, 279. 
 
 3 Freres Parfaict, iv, 109 seq. ; La Valliere, i, 391. 
 
 4 La Valliere, i, 424 ; Brunet, I, 575. 
 
 5 Freres Parfaict, iv, 171 ; La Valliere, i, 477. 6 La Valliere, i, 372. 
 
 7 Isnard, preface to Pichou's Filis de Scire, Paris, 1632. 
 
 8 Bibliotheque elzemrienne. Ancien Thedtre, vill, 6.
 
 Its Origin and Development. L35 
 
 Greek and Latin that the tragi-comedies are chiefly based. 
 Plutarch, Lucian, Ovid, and Petronius are followed in five tragi- 
 comedies, while the erotic Alexandrian writers, fleliodorus, 
 Aehilleus Tatius, and the author of the Apollonius legend furnish 
 the theme of twelve journees of five acts each, which are printed 
 as four plays. Italian sources are found in the works of Boccaccio, 
 Ariosto, and Giraldi Cinthio ; Portuguese in the Diana of Monte- 
 mayor; Spanish in the tales of Agreda and Cervantes, from the 
 latter of whom four tragi-comedies are derived ; French in Honors' 
 d'Urfi§'s Astree, Ronsard's Franciade, Rosset's Amants Volages, and 
 Goulart's version of Honsdorf's Thedtre d'exemples. 
 
 The dramatic unity of the plays varies greatly. In Dorise, 
 Alexandre et Annette, Aretaphile, Folies de Cardenio, and Tyr et 
 Sidon, the interest is divided between two couples instead of being 
 concentrated upon one. Similarly, there are two closely connected 
 plots in Procris and Elmire. Numerous digressions occur ; as, for 
 example, the episodes of Clement in La Belle Egyptierme, the 
 giant in JJ Ethiopique, Don Quixote in the Folies de Cardenio. 
 In addition to plays in which a subordinate is woven in with a 
 principal plot, are found tragi-comedies in which one plot succeeds 
 another; as, for instance, in Les Fleureuses Infortunes, Gesippe, or 
 Phi land re et Marisee. The unity of action may be further 
 violated by the introduction of a deus ex maehina, which con- 
 stitutes a new element in the play, not produced by what 
 has preceded. This undramatic device has been avoided by 
 Hardy in all his tragi-comedies except Theagene et Cariclee, 
 Ariadne, 1 and Dorise, where the role is played by Thessalian 
 ambassadors, Bacchus, and a viagicienne, respectively. The 
 ambassadors of Hardy's Theagene et Cariclee do not reappear in 
 Genetay's dramatization of the same theme, but there is a deus ex 
 iitacliiiid in the role of Remind in Genevre and of Destin in 
 Pasithee. Greater unity of action is shown in La Force du Sang 
 and Arsacome, but both of these plays depart from classical usage 
 by dramatizing the story ab ovo. The most serious effort towards 
 unity of action is seen in Chriseide et Arimand. 
 
 1 The role of Hercule in Alceste forms too integral a part of the play to be con- 
 sidered that of a deus ex mackind.
 
 136 The French Tragi- Comedy: 
 
 The scene of these tragi-comedies may be laid in a single town 
 or in pla-oes that are long distances apart. It may include Sparta, 
 Thessaly, and the infernal regions, as does Alceste, or Syria, Libya, 
 and Asia Minor, as does Les Heureuses Infortunes ; a single coun- 
 try may contain it, as in Fregonde or Pasithee ; or a single town, 
 as in UEthiopique ; but the scenic dimensions are never those of 
 the classical stage. Similarly, the time varies from thirty years in 
 Philandre et Marisee to a few days in Ariadne and L' Innocence 
 Descouverte. 
 
 In this disregard for the classical unities there is no appreciable 
 difference between the usage of Hardy and that of his contem- 
 poraries. The greatest freedom is evident in the tragi-comedies. 
 Even the approach to unity that is at times visible is due rather to 
 the nature of the source than to the dramatic theories of the author. 
 To compensate this lack of classical unity, there is ordinarily a 
 unity of interest in the fortunes of the protagonists, though this is 
 at times obscured by digressions or subsidiary plots. 
 
 The love of a man and a womau is the emotion upon which the 
 action is based in these tragi-comedies. Even Gesippe, whose 
 friendship conquers his love, is moved to his sacrifice by Tite's 
 love of the woman. The passion is varied, including the " chastes 
 amours " of Theagene and Cariclee or of Clitophon and Lucippe, 
 the marital affection of Admete for Alceste, the legitimatized 
 bigamy of the comte de Gleichen, the unsatisfied love of the marcmis 
 for the married Fregonde, the passion that leads to the seduction 
 of Cornelie, to the adultery in Procris and the first journee of 
 Tyr et Sidon, and to the incest, desired in IJ Innocence Descouverte 
 and accomplished in Les Heureuses Infortunes. 
 
 Friendship is as important as love in Gedppe, Arsacome, and 
 Alceste. It is to be noted, also, in Fregonde, Chriseide et Arimand, 
 and Cornelie. A religious motif is obvious in Philandre et Marisee. 
 Instead of attempting innovations in the accepted philosophy and 
 social conventions, the authors change past conditions to fit the 
 state of French society, as when Clitophon's fiancee is changed 
 from his half-sister to his cousin. The bigamy allowed in Elmire 
 does not evidence a revolt from European custom, for it is 
 permitted by the Pope.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 137 
 
 Another symptom of social conservatism is found in the aristo- 
 cratic expressions that are in keeping with the high rank of the 
 leading personages. The reader learns that " un Prince bien-ne 
 a tousiours le dessus encontre un terre-ne." l In Genevre the 
 father of the heroine refuses to believe that she has been seduced, 
 for " elle est trop bien nee." 2 Noblesse oblige inspires Lucine, 
 when she says : 
 
 " Les filles des grands Roys, patrons d' honneur tres amples, 
 Anx lilies de bas lieu doivent servir d' exemples. " 3 
 
 Further aristocratic and monarchical sentiments are seen in : 
 
 " Les Rois ne nieurent point, puisque ce sont des Dieux 
 Que le vouloir du Ciel £tablit en ces lieux." * 
 
 " En un esprit bien ne" la charite - doit luire." 5 
 
 " Par la race des rois les peuples sont en paix." 8 
 
 A further conservatism is shown in patriotic allusions : 
 
 " Ces Paladins, que la Gaule feconde 
 Feit jadis renommer aux quatre coins du monde." T 
 
 " La Gaule se presente en peuples plus feconde 
 Que P Espagne beaucoup : qui semble un autre monde, 
 Peuples ciuilisez, conuersables, courtois 
 Qui n'ont rien d' arrogant comme nos Iberois." 8 
 
 Chrkeide et Arimand and Philandre et Marisee furnish patriotic 
 elements by the location of their scenes in France, but, as a 
 foreign country lends romantic interest to a play, one more 
 frequently fiuds the scene placed in such countries as Scotland, 
 Spain, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Syria, or Persia. 
 
 Other romanesque elements are furnished by dreams, ghosts, 
 disguises, recognitions, duels, shipwrecks, captures by pirates, 
 human sacrifices. Such elemei Is are at times introduced, when 
 unnecessary to the development >f the plot, merely to appeal to 
 the imagination of the audience Thus, the ghost of Fregonde's 
 
 l Ethiopique, in. 2 n, 2. 3 Heureuses Inforlunes, Part I, IV, 1. 
 
 *Aretaphik, V, 1. b Tyr et Sidon, J. I, II, 1 . r 'Ibidem, J. II, IV, 6. 
 
 7 Cornelie, n, 1. 8 La Fore* du Sang, n, 3.
 
 138 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 husband bids her wed her lover, 1 though she has not sought her 
 husband's advice during his life in regard to her relations with 
 the other man. When Clitophon arrives in Egypt, it is after a 
 shipwreck, though he was bound for that country and could have 
 arrived there without such a catastrophe. Two brothers are 
 induced to fight a duel in Genevre, though the denouement is not 
 brought about by this event, but by the arrival of Renaud. 
 
 The happy ending is characteristic of these plays. In Procris 
 the happiness consists in the removal of obstacles to the love of 
 Aurore and Cephale, in Philandre et Marisee to the salvation 
 of the protagonist, in IJ Innocence Descouverte to the vindication 
 of the hero, in Alceste to the restoration of a wife to her husband. 
 In the other plays it is produced by the removal of all obstacles 
 to the marriage of the hero and heroine, to which is added a 
 family reunion in Elmire and Les Heureuses Infortunes. In 
 Gesippe, though a marriage occurs at the end, the chief happiness 
 lies in the restoration of Gesippe to his fortune and the friend- 
 ship of Tite. A double denouement occurs in Dorise and the 
 Folies de Cardenio. In Tyr et Sidon the subordinate plot, which 
 concerns the love of Leonte and Philoline, ends tragically, but 
 the principal plot results in the marriage of Belcar and Meliane. 
 
 In most of these plays the comic element is of slight importance. 
 Hardy neglects it altogether in seven tragi-comedies and gives it 
 a subordinate place in the others. In his Theagene et Car idee the 
 heroine jests about her disguise. 2 A humorous situation is found 
 in Alceste, 3 where Admete's parents, after extravagant protestations 
 of their love for him, decline to die for him when the opportunity 
 is offered. The last act of Ariadne is enlivened by Pan's broad 
 jokes. Into Cornelie 4 a courtisane is introduced with farcical 
 effect. A witty page appears in Felismene. In La Belle Egyptienne 
 a humorous situation is made by the mock condemnation of the 
 hero 5 and in the reception of gratuities by the gar con egyptien 6 
 and the vieille egyptienne'': 
 
 ' ' Clement : Helas ! quelles douleurs incroyables i' endure 
 Vieille : Ouy, mais tu ne dis mot quant au principal point, 
 
 Que plus que tes douleurs la pauurete" me point." 
 
 ^Fregonde, v, 1. 2 J. iv, iv, 4. 3 n. *iv, 4. 5 V, 5. 6 n, 2. 7 in, 2.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 139 
 
 The small number of comic passages found in Hardy shows 
 that such elements, spoken chiefly by subordinate personages, 
 formed no integral part of his work. His example was followed 
 by the majority of his contemporaries. L } JEthiopique, Gmevre, 
 Les Heuremes Infortunes, and Pasithee show no humorous passages. 
 In L'Ephesienne^ the widow's servant exhibits a coarse wit in 
 comparing Frontin to a skilled anatomist. A witticism is intended 
 when, after Aretaphile has cried to her lover : 
 
 he replies 
 
 " J'entends quelques soldats qui font la ronde ici. 
 Mon ame sauvez vous," 
 
 Et si ie suis votre ame 
 
 Puis-je sans vous tuer, sortir d'ici raadame." 2 
 
 Melite, the supposed widow, is humorously discussed in Clitophon." 
 Soldiers, joking over their drinks, are introduced into Philandre 
 et Marisee. 4 The host of the tavern in Ch/riseide et Arimand 5 
 adds some humor to the play. The second jo ur nee of Tyr et Sidon, 
 which represents the form of the play that appeared in 1608, is 
 entirely serious except for a soldier's jest at the close. 
 
 These plays follow Hardy's usage, but in six others the humor 
 occupies a larger, though always a subordinate place. Aymee 
 introduces a humorous valet, a role already seen in Le Jars's 
 Lucefle 6 and repeated in Duhamel's play on the same subject. 
 Innocence Descouverle is also full of a valet's jokes, which arc 
 usually coarse and often obscene. A similar vein of humorous 
 vulgarity is seen in Alexandre et Annette. In Folies de Cardenio 
 much fun is made out of the encounter between Cardenio, the 
 curate, and the barber, and the sayings of Don Quixote and 
 Sancho. The first journee of Tyr et Sidon contains amusing 
 scenes between the jealous Zorote, an early Sganarelle, and his 
 sister, a supposed prude ; also between his wife's lover and 
 attendants. 
 
 1 iv. 2 m, 3. 3 iv, 5. *n. 
 
 5 in, 1 and iv, 3. 6 See above, p. 62.
 
 140 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 The coarse humor of such passages is in keeping with the 
 freedom of speech used by lovers to express their desires and 
 the scabrous scenes that occur iu some of the plays. 1 Some 
 of the later tragi -comedies show such elements in a much smaller 
 degree than those written towards the beginning of the century. 
 Pasithee and Chriseide et Arimand are free from vulgarity. 
 
 The events in the tragi-comedies are commonly the result of 
 entirely exterior circumstances, or of the action of an individual, 
 moved by love, parental affection, friendship, hatred, or other 
 passion. A conflict of passions in the mind of a single personage 
 is rare, but occurs in the following cases : Procris wavers between 
 fidelity to her husband and the solicitations of a supposed 
 stranger ; 2 Felismene soliloquizes as to whether or not, in her 
 disguise as page, she should aid the love of Felix for Celie ; 3 
 after a struggle Tite yields to Gesippe's offer of his place in 
 Sophronie's bed ; 4 Lucippe hesitates to elope with Clitophon. 5 
 In the last two cases, the passion conquers the sense of honor, 
 a moral laxity that is still more apparent in the conduct of 
 Arimand in allowing his faithful servitor to take his place in 
 prison, believing that it will probably mean the man's death : 
 
 " Arimand : Dieux ! que mon ame icy souffre de violence, 
 L' amour et le deuoir me tiennent en balance, 
 Si ie m'en vay sans luy c'est une lachete, 
 Si ie demeure aussi, c'est une cruaute\ 
 Amour, pitie, deuoir, Bellaris, ma Maistresse 
 Voyez un peu comment vostre respect me presse." ° 
 
 Had such situations been artistically elaborated and given more 
 prominent positions in the tragi-comedies, Corneille's psychology 
 might have been anticipated. As it is, the personages in these 
 plays are commonly swayed by simple emotions, the treatment of 
 which makes no great demand on the author's dramatic ability. 
 
 The hero is usually a brave and handsome youth, endowed 
 with most desirable manly attributes ; as, Theagene, Apollonie, 
 
 1 Cf., for example, Procris, in, 2; Ariadne, in ; Felismene, TV, 2 ; Dorise, in, 2 ; 
 Gesippe, in, 1 ; Heureuses Infortunes, i, I, 1 ; Innocence Descouverte, i ; Tyr et Sidon, 
 J. I, IV, 9. 2 Procris, n, 2. 3 Felismene, ill. 
 
 *Gesippe, n, 2. °Clitophon, i, 8. e Chriseide et Arimand, ui,l .
 
 Its Origin and Development. 141 
 
 Ariodan, Clitophon, or Belcar. The moral weakness of Arimand, 
 just noted, is visible in the heedless love of Alphonse d'Este and 
 Phraarte, which becomes brutality with the hero of L<i Force du 
 Sang, and inconstancy with Cephale in JProcris, Thesee in Ariadne, 
 and Felix in Felismme. The Comte de Gleichen in Elmire and 
 Admete in Aheste are already married when the play begins. It 
 is to be noted that Hardy has made the character of Admete more 
 sympathetic than it is in Euripides by causing Alceste's sacrifice 
 to take place without his knowledge or consent. 
 
 AVhile the hero's wisdom equals his other virtues in the case 
 of Apollonie or the Comte de Gleichen, it frequently needs to be 
 supplemented by the advice or assistance of a friend. Calasire 
 and Gnemon play this role in Theagene rf Cariclie, Hercule in 
 Aheste, Loncate and Macente in Arsctcome, Dom Juan and Dom 
 Anthoine in Cornelie, Ceraminte in PasUhie, Ariste in Aretaphile. 
 The aid comes from a go-between, Phalare in Ariadne, and 
 Timadon in Tyr et Sidon; a page in Felismene; a faithful servant 
 in Chriseide et Arimant and Clitophon. 
 
 Among the heroines, Alceste shows exalted altruism, Cariclee 
 and Tharsie a high degree of chastity, Chriseide and Luscinde 
 of fidelity, Marisee of forgiveness. Felismene exhibits much 
 ingenuity in overcoming obstacles to her love. Other heroines do 
 not work out their problems, but are carried along by the course 
 of events ; as, in the case of Leocadie, Elmire, and Lucippe. 
 Procris is a sympathetic character, made by an unworthy husband 
 to waver in her fidelity to him and receiving an unmerited fate. 
 She has no rebuke for her husband when he has shot her, but 
 submits with pitiful weakness, saying : 
 
 "Mon cceur ie te voye auant que trepasser, 
 Que i'aye encor vn coup eel heur de t'embrasser. 
 
 Cephale : M'embrasser scelerat, m'erubrasser homicide, 
 
 O cruaute du sort ! 6 Deite perfide ! 
 
 Procris : Ma ialousie est cause, et non toy du malheur, 
 
 Ne rengrege done point de plaintes ma douleur." ' 
 
 Cornelie, Philognie, and Dorothee are further examples of heroines 
 whose fidelity is not altered by their lover's neglect.
 
 142 The French Trag i- Comedy : 
 
 A low estimate of woman's position is shown in Gesippe, when 
 the protagonist substitutes his friend for himself as Sophronie's 
 betrothed and as her husband. Gesippe is evidently actuated by 
 a lofty spirit of self-sacrifice, but he does not seem to realize that 
 Sophronie should be consulted in the matter. Along with the 
 heroine are found women unsuccessful in their love, as Cassandre 
 in Tyr et Sidon and Celie in Felismene; and women who aid the 
 heroine in her love, as the nourrice and suivante that occur in 
 many of the tragi-comedies, playing the roles of mere adviser or 
 of efficient go-between. Especially noticeable in the last capacity 
 are Almodice and Tharside in Tyr et Sidon. 
 
 Other prominent personages are kings, often proud and pompous, 
 with no keen perception of what the future has in store. Pharna- 
 baze in Tyr et Sidon, Philippe in Phraarte, Gondebaut in Chriseide 
 et Arimand are good examples of this type. A milder sovereign 
 is the virtuous Abdolomin of Tyr et Sidon, sincerely distressed by 
 the evils brought upon his country in time of war. When a king 
 is captured, he does not forget himself. Cotys yields nothing to 
 Phraarte, when threatened with death. Orondate replies proudly 
 to Hydaspe's reproaches : 
 
 "Un peril affranchy defie un grand courage 
 D'en affranchir un autre et oser davantage. 
 Hydaspe : Un peril affranchy doit tout homme prudent 
 
 Garder qu'il ne retombe en un pire accident. 
 
 Tu te scavois pour nous de nombre incompetant. 
 Orondate : Ouy, mais ie m'estimoy de courage bastant." l 
 
 The lovers are opposed by various persons, as Arsace, the 
 passionate w T ife of Orondate in Theagene et Cariel^e, or a calcu- 
 lating villain, as Dorade in Les Heureuses Infortunes. A rival 
 appears in Nicocrate in Aretaphile, Phcedre in Ariadne, Adimache 
 in Arsacome, the marquis de Bade in Elmire. A stern parent 
 interferes to send away the hero on a journey or refuse the 
 heroine to a lover who is not considered her equal, cases that 
 occur in Felismene, Dorise, Theagene et CaricUe, and Philandre et 
 
 1 Theagene et Cariclee, J. vn, in, 1.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 143 
 
 Marisee. On the other hand, paternal affection is displayed in 
 Force du Sang and Tyr et Sidon. 
 
 Minor personages are added from various social classes, a 
 courtesan in Theagene et CaricUe and Oornelie, slaves in Tyr et 
 Sidon and Les Heureuses Infortu/nes, a barber in Folies de Cardenio, 
 a jailer in Phraarte, a box rgcoi.se in La Belle Egyptienne and Tyr 
 et Sidon, shepherds in Felismene, archer* in Gesippe, a physician 
 in Force du Sang, judges in Innocence Descouverte, Clitophon, and 
 elsewhere. It is thus evident that all social classes may be 
 represented in these plays from kings to peasants. The leading 
 personages, however, belong to the aristocratic, 1 leisure classes, 
 and are at times of royal blood; as, in Phraarte, Les Heureuses 
 Infortu/nes, Aretaphile, Tyr et Sidon. 
 
 The stylistic qualities of these plays are of a low order. 
 Hardy's work, written hurriedly to meet a popular demand, is 
 involved, exaggerated, and frequently obscure. There is a lack 
 of taste in the speeches of his personages, whose emotions are 
 rarely expressed with accuracy. Although his contemporaries 
 wrote with greater care, their style is rarely fluent. Lines are 
 padded, sentiments concealed by a wealth of classical allusions, or 
 refined under the influence of the rising pr&yieux. Of numerous 
 examples that may be cited, the following suffice to show the bad 
 taste of the authors : 
 
 " Le bouton degoutant des larmes de l'Aurore 
 Plus auide n'attend le Soleil a s'eclorre, 
 Les petits Oisillons dans le nid affamez, 
 Vn repas incertain de leurs parents aymez, 
 La Tourtre sa moitie par le bois £cartee, 
 Le Pilote vn bon vent a sa Nef arrestee, 
 Que fievreuse d' amour i'attens ce beau pourtrait, 
 Cet aymable voleur qui mon amp soustrait." 2 
 
 "Terreurs d'Acberon, geines epouventables 
 Du Cocyte fumeus, aux ombres lamentables : 
 Embrazements cruels du nuiteus Phlegeton, 
 Foudres, rage?, effrois de la fiere Alecton, etc." ; 
 
 ^he only exception seems to be found in V Ephesicnnc, where the rank of the 
 widow is not stated. The governor of the province is, however, introduced. 
 
 2 Felismene, I, 2. 
 
 3 From Ariodan's invocation, Genevre, l.
 
 144 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 A nourrice thus reminds her mistress of her age : 
 
 '"Madame, le flambeau de ce grand Univers 
 Trace 1' oblique enceint de ses globes diuers 
 Pour la fois quarantiesme, et Cer6s la feconde 
 Par quatre fois dix ans panche sa tresse blonde, 
 Depuis qu'a l'oeil du Ciel vos yeux ont emprunte' 
 Les esclairs foudroyant de leur viue Clarte, 
 Et qu'avez attire de vos leures iumelles 
 Le nectar nourricier de mes ieunes mamelles." ! 
 
 Clitophon, finding Lucippe alive in a coffin, exclaims : 
 
 ' ' Ha que ie suis ravie 
 De trouver au cercueil une seconde vie." 2 
 
 Meliane, lamenting the loss of her lover, cries : 
 
 ' ' O mer ! amere mere a la mere d' Amour. ' ' 3 
 
 Yet by the side of such absurd preciosite, graceful lines occur. 
 
 The same Meliane, when about to be killed, says to the 
 
 executioner : 
 
 ' ' Pauvre homme, pleures-tu ? te desplaist-il a toy 
 De suivre mon desir et le plaisir du roy?" 4 
 
 In Ariadne Phcedre recites the following lines, which, though 
 commonplace, offer a pleasing contrast to Hardy's usual style : 
 
 " Le soldat ne scauroit parler que de la guerre, 
 Le pasteur des troupeaux, le rustre de la terre, 
 Des vents le marinier, et les amans touiours, 
 De voix, oil de penser parlent de leurs amours." 5 
 
 A higher degree of excellence is reached by Du Ryer and Pichou : 
 
 " Que la plus belle loy que l'amour puisse avoir 
 C'est de n'en avoir point, et de n'en point sea voir." 6 
 
 "Si je suis Roy d'un peuple, elle est Reine sur moy." 7 
 ' ' Le plus rude trepas 
 Sous un Prince cruel a toujours des apas." T 
 
 "La femme est un roseau qui branle au premier vent, 
 L' image d'une mer et d'un sable mouvant." 8 
 
 1 Innocence Descouverle, I. 2 Clitophon, ill, 2. 
 
 s Tyr et Sidon, J. n, IV, 3. * Ibidem, V, 2. 
 
 5 in. 6 Aretaphile, i, 10. 
 
 1 1bidem, n, 1. 8 Folies de Cardenio, II, 2.
 
 lis Origin and Development. 145 
 
 Such speeches, however, tend to become platitudes, which are of 
 common occurrence in these plays, furnishing, perhaps, one reason 
 of their popularity, if one may judge by the applause that greets the 
 trite on the contemporary stage. A dialogue is sometimes carried 
 on by a series of platitudes ; as, 
 
 " Sisimetre: Donter sa passion c'est chose vertueuse. 
 
 Charicles : II faut en cause iuste une ame courageuse. 
 
 S. : La colere sied raal a l'homnie malheureux. 
 
 C. : La fortune n'a rien sur un cceur genereux. 
 
 S. : L'afflige doit en tout user de patience. 
 
 C. : A l'afflige ne faut user de violence, etc." ' 
 
 However artificial such a dialogue may be, it shows a dramatic 
 advance from the ponderous monologues that had been the banc 
 of the French sixteenth-century tragedy, and were imitated by 
 early tragi-comedies. Hardy uses the monologue especially in 
 Procris and Ariadne, writing the fourth act of the latter in one 
 long soliloquy. AVhen he wrote his later plays, he seems to have 
 realized the superior dramatic qualities of the dialogue. The 
 plays of his contemporaries show corresponding changes, from 
 the lengthy monologues of Genevre to the rapid dialogues of 
 Du Ryer. 
 
 The classical influence, which is partly responsible for the 
 excessive use of the monologue, predominates in the divisions of 
 the play. All of these tragi-comedies are divided into five acts. 
 The subdivision into scenes is the rule, but exceptions occur in 
 acts of Procris, Ariadne, Alcestc, JJ Mhiopique, Genevre, L'Ephe- 
 sienne, Philandre et Marisee. Du Ryer, on the other hand, is 
 prodigal of scenes, dividing both Aretaphile and Clitophon into no 
 less than fifty-eight. 
 
 Another advance is in the suppression of the chorus, which 
 survives only in V fithio pique, I? Ephesienne, Genevre, and Phi- 
 landre et Marisee. In the last two plays it occurs after all the 
 acts except the fifth ; in the others, after all the acts. It serves 
 in these cases to comment upon the action without mingling in it. 
 Hardy's tragi-comedies show a lyric chorus in the third act of 
 
 1 V Ethiopique, I.
 
 146 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 Arsacome, where soldiers recite seven strophes on the insecurity 
 of kings, while Loncate is murdering Leucanor, and in Theagene 
 et Cariclee, 1 where inhabitants of Memphis offer a hymn to Isis 
 and pirates sing at the nuptials of their leader. Elsewhere 
 Hardy's chorus has become a non-lyric troupe, comparable to the 
 Roman mob. 
 
 Apart from Alexandre et Annette, which is written in eight- 
 syllable verse, and Aymee, composed in verses of six, eight, ten, 
 and twelve syllables, the tragi-comedies are written in Alexan- 
 drines, except in the case of certain lyric passages that occur in 
 nine of them. Hardy uses shorter verse forms only in the 
 choral passage just mentioned. In Genevre the choruses are 
 written in verses of seven and eight syllables, and Ariodan's 
 long final speech is in eight-syllable verses. The choruses in 
 IS Ethiopique are in verses of six, seven, and eight syllables ; 
 in IJ Ephesienne and Philandre et Marisee in verses of eight 
 syllables. In the first part of Les Heureuses Infortunes are three 
 erotic songs, the first two in eight-syllable, the third in six- and 
 three-syllable verse. 2 Clitophon, when imprisoned for the supposed 
 murder of Lucippe, laments in strophes of alternating lines of 
 twelve and six syllables, the lines riming with the next of the same 
 length. 3 In the Folies de Cardenio a love letter is written in 
 eight-syllable verses, and two erotic soliloquies 4 in verses of eight 
 and twelve syllables, of which the first has almost the same 
 atrophic form as the Stances in Polyeucte, while the second shows 
 nine verses of eight syllables, followed by a single Alexandrine. 
 Finally, in Tyr et Sidon a page sings a song, in verses of eight 
 syllables with a refrain, praising peace and love as opposed to 
 war. The possibility of using these lighter measures shows a 
 stylistic improvement upon Hardy's classical monotony of form. 
 But this classical influence is still predominant in the tragi- 
 comedy, for the lyric measure, outside of the choruses, is used 
 only in occasional letters or songs of an erotic nature and in 
 soliloquies expressing sadness or joy. 
 
 1 J. v, i, 2 and J. I, v, 3. 2 Cf. above, p. 119. 
 
 3 Clitophon, v, 2. * n, 1 ; in, 2 ; iv, 6.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 147 
 
 The qualities discussed in the preceding pages are those of 
 the tragi-comedy when definitively established in France. A 
 structural freedom which violates all unities but that of interest 
 in the fate of the leading personages, a romanesqvie and non-historic 
 plot, a happy denouement, personages of mixed rank, of whom the 
 principal individuals are aristocrats, classical division into acts, and 
 use of Alexandrines in the main parts of the plays, are the 
 dominant characteristics of the genre. The religious tragi-comedy 
 has now been relegated to provincial schools and monasteries, 
 while the romanesque has become the most popular dramatic genre 
 on the French stage. The rising generation of playwrights turn 
 their attention largely to it. Du Ryer, Mairet, Rotrou, Scudery, 
 Boisrobert, Quinault, and others write many tragi-comedies 
 during the following thirty years, which carry on the principles 
 established for the genre by Hardy and his contemporaries. 
 With the last publication of Hardy's plays (1628) the history of 
 the tragi-comedy in France during its time of development is 
 complete. To show the extent of the influence exerted by these 
 plays, I shall, however, give in a final chapter a brief account of 
 the subsequent history of the genre.
 
 148 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE TRAGI-COMEDY. 
 
 To show the influence exerted by the tragi-comedies of Hardy 
 and his contemporaries on those that followed in the next period 
 (1628-1636), a list of tragi-comedies, beginning with Rotrou's 
 first play (1628) and ending with Corneille's did (1636) has been 
 added as Appendix B, in. From the eight years that lie between 
 the representations of these two plays, fifty-three tragi-comedies 
 are extant, a larger number than that of the extant tragi-comedies 
 of the preceding twenty-eight years. 1 That this genre had now 
 become the most popular in France is shown by an examination 
 of the Memoire of Mahelot, a document that gives a list of plays 
 acted at the Hotel de Bourgogue from about 1633 2 to 1636, some 
 of which were written during this period, others in the preceding 
 decade, or even earlier. Of the seventy-one plays listed, twenty- 
 two, 3 including twelve assigned to Hardy are lost, so that it is not 
 
 1 It does not follow that a larger number of tragi-comedies were written in the 
 later than in the earlier period, for the bulk of Hardy's work was produced between 
 1600 and 1628, including without doubt numerous tragi-comedies that have been 
 lost. 
 
 2 Rigal {Alexandre Hardy, 682) posits 1631 instead of 1633, basing his conclu- 
 sion on the dates of the second, fourth, and sixth plays mentioned in the Memoire. 
 Since he wrote, however, Stiefel (ZFSL, xvi, 22-3) has shown that the first of the 
 three plays, Rotrou's Occasions perdues, was written in 1633 instead of 1631, as 
 the Freres Parfaict state. As this is the first play in the list of which the date is 
 known, the Memoire cannot have been begun before 1633. 
 
 3 I include among these Auvray's Madonte, mentioned, without name of author, 
 in the Memo ire, folios 17 vo. and 18. Rigal (Alexandre Hardy, 687) is in doubt as 
 to whether this play is meant, or one by Pierre Cottignon, mentioned by Beau- 
 champs, ii, 96 ; while Dacier (Memoire de Lauren/ Mahelot, discussion of folios 17 
 vo. and 18), blindly following the statement of the Freres Parfaict (iv, 494) that 
 Auvray's play was not acted, declares that " il s'agit de Pierre Cottignon." No 
 one who reads Auvray's Madonte, however, can doubt that this is the play indicated 
 by Mahelot, for not only do the general details of the mise en scene described by 
 the latter fit this play, but there are special correspondences, as when Mahelot
 
 Its Origin and Development. 149 
 
 known to what genre they belonged. Of the remaining forty-nine, 
 two are tragedies, eleven comedies, five pastorals, lour tragi-com&- 
 dirs pastorales, and twenty-seven tragi-comedies. It seems, 
 therefore, that at the Hotel de Bonrgogne, the leading French 
 theater, more tragi-comedies were acted from 1633 to 1636 than 
 plays belonging to all the other dramatic genres put together. 
 
 The tragi-comedy was now written by the leading dramatists, 
 Rotron, Du Ryer, Mairet, and Scudery. Corneille contributed 
 ( 'litandre (1632) to the genre and called his Cid a tragi-comedy in 
 its early editions, though its classical elements subsequently 
 induced him to publish it as a tragedy. All but three of the 
 extant tragi-comedies were published at Paris, where the great 
 majority of them must have been acted. Their sources were much 
 the same as those used by Hardy and his contemporaries. The 
 Odyssey, source of Les Travaux d' Ulysse, is the only classical 
 work followed, but the Orlando Furioso, the Amadis, Cervantes' s 
 Novelas Exemplares, Gomberville's Polexandre, Barclay's Argenis, 
 and, especially, the Astree of Honors d'Urfe, supplied the plots of 
 many tragi-comedies. Rotrou's Occasions Perdues (1633) is the 
 first tragi-comedy to show the influence of the Spanish drama, 
 from which source he had drawn the plot of his comedy, La 
 Hague de VOubly, in 1628. 
 
 As may be supposed from such sources, the plays are thoroughly 
 romanesque, based on love and employing in detail disguises, 
 resemblances, duels, poisonings, suicides, and other measures, with 
 which the reader of earlier tragi-comedies is thoroughly familiar. 
 Further interest is added by a spirit of adventure, particularly 
 visible in the Travaux d } Ulysse, by a delineation of loyalty to a 
 monarch in the Vassal Genereux, by appeals to patriotism, shown 
 in the frequent location of the scene in France, and by such 
 occasional passages as that found in Argenis et Poliarque, V, 2: 
 
 " La valeur se nourrit dans le sein de la France, 
 Elle a tousiours faict voir que ses moindres guerriers 
 Arracheroient a Mars ses plus riches lauriers." 
 
 writes, "l'acte deuxiesme, un mouchoir ensanglante", une bague," both of which 
 articles are used in Auvray's Madonte, in the third scene of the second act; and 
 " il faut un rondache ou il y ayt un tigre peint," referring to the hero of this [day 
 "qui porte pour sa marque un tigre en son bouclier," (v, 3).
 
 150 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 The only non-romanesque tragi-comedies written during these 
 years are two school plays, of which one, the lost Triomphe 
 d' Octave Cisar (1631), is historical, the other, S. Sebastien Martyr 
 (1635), is religious. In these the purpose is the instruction of 
 the audience, as it is again in L' Inconstance Punie. The main 
 purpose elsewhere is to arouse the curiosity of the audience by a 
 series of romantic adventures and exaggerated expressions of 
 emotion, although morality may be inculcated subordinately ; as, 
 in Madonte or the Trompeur puny. 
 
 So little regard is paid in these pieces to the unities that many 
 of the plays have nearly the structural looseness of the romances 
 from which they are derived. Distinct plots are dramatized 
 successively in one play ; as, for example, in the Travaux d' Ulysse 
 and the Trompeur puny. They may be interwoven with one 
 another, as they are in La Soeur Valeureusc, IAgdamon et Lidias, 
 or UOrizelle. Rotrou is especially given to the latter usage, 
 which leads him to a triple denouement in Les Occasions perdues 
 and L'Heureuse Constance. The unity of place is similarly vio- 
 lated, so that, for example, the scene of Argenis et Poliarque is 
 laid in France and Sicily ; that of TJIndienne Amoureuse in 
 Florida and Peru. The time in which the action takes place 
 is usually several months. 
 
 The personages represent various social ranks, with aristocrats 
 in the leading roles. Kings are frequently introduced, as in 
 Argenis and Orizelle ; bourgeois, as in La Bourgeoise ; the lower 
 classes, as the butcher in Lisandre et Caliste, or the coachman 
 in Agarite. The denouement is happy, even in JJ Lnconstavce 
 Punie, where the heroine's sisters perish, but she escapes death 
 and is united to the hero. The comic elements are purely sub- 
 sidiary and usually take up a small part of the play, 1 but in 
 UOspital des Fous they are of frequent occurrence, though sub- 
 ordinate to the main plot. The division into five acts and 
 subdivision into scenes continue throughout the period. The use 
 of Alexandrines is the rule, to which exceptions occur, especially 
 in L' Lnconstance Punie, where the verse forms of the dialogues are 
 
 1 Cf ., for example, Madonte, I, 3 or Argenis, n, 2.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 151 
 
 repeatedly varied. In other plays short verse forms are used, 
 especially for love letters, soliloquies, and hymns. 1 
 
 Similar dramatic qualities are found in the tragi-comedies that 
 continued to appear, still in large numbers, after the representation 
 of the Cid, at the end of 1636. It was by means of a tragi- 
 comedy, V Amour tyrannique (1638, printed 1639), that Scudery 
 sought to rival the did. It was in tragi-comedies that Richelieu 
 tried to show that his genius was dramatic as well as political. 
 Under his direction a tragi-comedy, L'Aveugk de Srrvyrne, was 
 written by the collaboration of Corneille, Rotrou, Boisrobert, 
 L'Etoile, and Colletet ; and another tragi-comedy, Mirame, was 
 composed by Desmarests for the opening of the " grande salle du 
 Palais Cardinal." Such authors as Rotrou, Mairet, Du Ryer, 
 Mareschal, Scndery, and Boisrobert, who had written tragi-come- 
 dies before 1636, continued to write them after that date. Their 
 example was followed by a number of younger authors, among 
 whom the most prominent were Desfontaines, La Calprenede, 
 Desmarests, Chevreau, Gillet de la Tessonuerie, Baro, Colletet, 
 Gabriel Gilbert, d'Ouville, Scarron, and Quinault. By the side 
 of the romanesque dramas of these authors, the religious tragi- 
 comedies of the school continued sporadically the medieval 
 tradition, for one finds in Savoy a Sainfe-Barbe, vierge et 
 ehrestienne of 1654, 2 and in Belgium La Bonne et Mauvaise Croix, 
 ou Saint Andre of 1665. 3 
 
 Toward 1650, however, the number of tragi-comedies that 
 appeared each year was decreasing and by 1660 had become very 
 small, if one may judge by those of which the names have been 
 preserved. With the Psyche of Corneille, Moliere, and Quinault 
 (1671) and the Parfaits Amis of Chappuzeau (1672) the genre 
 practically ceases to exist, although sporadic examples of the use 
 of its name recur during the following centuries. 4 The causes of 
 this decay are not far to seek. 
 
 1 Compare, for example, Pyrundre et Lisime'ne, I, 4 ; L' Infidelle Confidente, IV, 4 ; 
 Omphalic, v, 3. 
 
 2 See Mugnier, Thedtre en Savoie, 97. 3 See Faber, iv, 340- 
 4 The following plays may be cited in illustration of this recurrence : 
 Monsieur le marechal de Luxembourg au lid de la mort, tragicomedie en cinq octet 
 
 . . . MDCC. Bibliotheque Nationaie, MS. Jr. 2957, fol. 232.
 
 152 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 In the first place the popular taste had reacted from the spirit 
 of* the early seventeenth century, which had found expression in 
 the romanesque tragi-comedy, as well as in the preeieux Hotel de 
 Rambouillet and in the romances of Honore d'Urfe and Madeleine 
 de Scudery. The Parisian public, grown weary of the multiplicity 
 of incident and exaggerated portrayal of character, found in the 
 tragi-comedy, turned from that genre to the truer representations 
 of life that they found on the classical stage. It is after the 
 appearance of Horace and Polyeucte that the tragi-comedy begins 
 to decline, not long after the successes of Moliere and Racine that 
 it ceases to exist. 
 
 But in addition to the change in the taste of the Parisian public 
 and the increasing popularity of the classical stage, the tragi- 
 comedy suffered from certain changes in its own composition and 
 in the use of the terms, tragedy and comedy, which brought 
 about its confusion with these genre*. As early as Mairet's 
 Ckriseide et Arimand (1625) tendencies toward unity of plot 
 existed in tragi-comedies. In his Silvanire, a tragi-comedie pasto- 
 rale, and his Virgin ie, a tragi-comedy, Mairet continued these 
 tendencies, which were carried further by Desmarests in Mirame, 
 a tragi-comedy which preserves the classical unities. At the same 
 time psychological struggles, which had formerly held a distinctly 
 subordinate place in tragi-comedies, became important iu the 
 denouements of La Fidelle Tromperie and Agesilan de Colchos and 
 formed the essence of the plot of Rayssiguier's Celidee. Thus it 
 is that the unity and psychology of the CM did not prevent 
 its being called a tragi-comedy, a title that fitted well its roma- 
 nesque plot and happy denouement. 
 
 Le Berger d'Amphise tragi-comedie (1727) by Delisie de la Drevetiere, Bibliothe- 
 que Nationale, MS.fr. 9311. 
 
 L'Ambitieux et I' Indiscrelte tragi-comedie (1737) by Nencault Destouches, Oeuvres 
 dramatiques, vol. VI (Paris, 1758). 
 
 Le Nottaire extravaguant, tragi-comedie ( undated, but probably latter half of the 
 eighteenth century). Bibliotheque Rationale, MS. Jr. 9248. 
 
 Les Conslipes d'Asnieres ou la Deeouverte de Pemetioue, parade t ray i- com i que 
 (1840), by T. Thibaut, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. fr. 9248. 
 
 Scarron, comedie tragique, by Catulle Mendes, Paris, 1905.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 153 
 
 While the tragi-cornedy was thus approaching the tragedy by a 
 greater unity of plot and a more careful study of the emotions, 
 another barrier that had separated the two genres in France, the 
 nature of the denouement, was removed by Corneille, when, follow- 
 ing the example of Euripides, he showed in China, and partially 
 in Horace, that a tragedy could have a happy denouement, a usage 
 approved by d'Aubignac, as already noted. 1 Thus, the more 
 serious tragi-comedies, which showed an approach to classical 
 unity and psychology, came to be called tragedies, in spite of 
 their happy denouement. The Old, first known as a tragi-comedy, 
 was called a tragedy along with Polyeucte and Rodogune. 
 
 On the other hand, certain tragi-comedies, as L'Ospital den 
 Fans, approached the comedy by an iucrease in the comic element, 
 as did others by a bourgeois spirit that enters more especially into 
 La Bourgeoise and UEsperance Glorieuse. The term comedie, 
 moreover, was now applied to translations of the Spanish comedia 
 and related plays, which differed little in their essential qualities 
 from the lighter forms of the tragi-comedy. Thus some tragi- 
 comedies were confused with comedies, as others were with 
 tragedies. The two terms that had the sanction of Greek and 
 Latin usao-e were gradually extended to occupy the intermediate 
 ground formerly held by the tragi-comedy. Thus French drama- 
 tists, answering the demands of their age, either ceased to write 
 tragi-comedies, or called them by another name. As an inde- 
 pendent genre, the tragi-comedy ceased to exist. 
 
 Such is the history of the French tragi-comedy. Drawing its 
 substance from the medieval drama and its form from the Greek 
 and Roman stage, it united these elements after the example of the 
 genre in other European countries and came into existence in 1552. 
 During the sixteenth century it represented a number of medieval 
 genres, connected by their partially classical form and happy 
 denouement. One variety, the romanesque, showed its superior 
 qualities, becoming with Hardy in the seventeenth century the 
 only active form of the tragi-comedy. Before the establishment of 
 the classical tragedy this romanesque tragi-comedy became the most 
 
 1 See above, p. xvii.
 
 154 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 popular and extensively written dramatic genre in France. But 
 its preeminence was brief, for, encroached upon by the closely 
 related tragedy and comedy, and out of harmony with the classical 
 spirit of the time, it fell into disuse and, toward 1672, ceased to 
 have a more than sporadic existence. 
 
 Unless the Cid be considered a tragi-cornedy, the genre left 
 behind no great literary monument, since it neglected the study of 
 character and passion for the romanesque and the melodramatic, 
 thus attaining a large popularity, but making no permanent or 
 universal appeal. But the tragi-comedy holds an important position 
 in the history of the French stage, serving as a connecting link 
 between the theater of the middle ages and that of the classical 
 period, and by its influence making it possible for Corneille's 
 tragedy to succeed where Jodelle's had failed. It preserved the 
 popular qualities of the medieval drama, modernized them, and 
 passed them to the classicists, thus establishing itself as an integral 
 part of the most continuously excellent of national theaters.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 155 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 NON-FRENCH TRAGICOMEDIES WRITTEN 
 BEFORE 1582. 1 
 
 1494. — Fernandas Servatus. Tragicomoedia by Carlo and 
 Marcel] ino Verardi. Acted and printed at Rome. Reprinted 
 at Strasburg in 1513. 2 The dedicatory epistle to Cardinal 
 Mendoza refers to a representation of the play in his presence. 3 
 
 1501. — Tragicoco media de iherosolomitana profectione illus- 
 trissimi principis pomeriani by Johann von Kitzscher. Leip- 
 zig. 4 
 
 1 See above, page 24 seq. 
 
 2 The reprints mentioned by Creizenach (Oeschichte, II, 10, n. ) were 
 of the Historia Baetica only and not of both dramas, as he incorrectly 
 states. 
 
 3 Hain, Repertorium Bibliographicum, No. 15943, Stuttgart, 1826-38. 
 4 vols.; Gingueng, Histoire litteraire d'ltalie, VI, 16-17; Soleinne, Dic- 
 tionnaire, I, no. 172; Chassang, Essais dramatiques, 140-1; Brunet, Ma- 
 nuel, V, 1128; D'Ancona, Hoc. Rap. II, 155-6; Creizenach, Oeschichte, II, 
 9. The edition dated Aug. 16, 1494, is cited by Hain, Repertorium, II, 
 474. Another edition, without place or date, is bound with the Historia 
 Baetica of Carlo Verardi, which was acted in 1492 and printed in 1493. 
 On this account these dates have been incorrectly assigned to Fernandus 
 Servatus. Now, this play commemorates the attempted assassination of 
 King Ferdinand of Spain and his lecovery from the wound received at 
 the time. As the attempt was made on Dec. 7, 1492, and as the king 
 was not restored to health until three weeks later, it is impossible that 
 the play could have been written and produced at Rome before 1493. 
 Furthermore, as it is dedicated to Pedro Mendoza, who died Jan. 11, 
 1495, it must have been written before 1495. As the year 1493 has noth- 
 ing in support of it except the fact that the Historia Baetica was pub- 
 lished that year, while 1494 is endorsed by Hain, the latter date must be 
 assigned to the play. 
 
 4 Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, no. 275; Brunet, Manuel, III, 671; Creizen- 
 ach, Oeschichte, II, 34.
 
 156 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 1502. — Celestina. Tragicomedia de Cdlisto y Melibea. Au- 
 thorship unknown, but assigned to Fernando de Rojas. Prob- 
 ably written about 1483 ; first extant edition published at 
 Burgos, 1499 ; first called tragicomedia in the edition of Se- 
 ville, 1502. Numerous reprints before 1582 at various towns 
 of Spain, at Venice, Milan, Genoa, and Antwerp. 1 
 
 1513-1533. — Nine tragicomedias in Portuguese and Spanish 
 by Gil Vicente: Exhovtagab da Guerra, Cortes de Jupiter, Dom 
 Duardos, Fragoa de Amor, Templo de Apollo, Nao de amoves, 
 Tviumpho do Inverno, Romagem de Aggravados, Amadis de 
 Gaula. Collection published at Lisbon, 1562. 2 
 
 1530. 3 — Tragicomedia del Epicuro napoletano. intitulata la 
 Cecavia, nuovamente aggiuntovi un bellissimo lamento del 
 Geloso. Con la Luminaria non piu posta in luce. Antonio 
 Marsi is the author's name. Venice. It had been printed at 
 Venice in 1525, 1526, and 1528 as Dialogo di tre Ciechi with- 
 out being called tragicomedia. It was reprinted seventeen 
 times at Venice once at Milan and once at Naples by the year 
 1575.4 
 
 1 Gallardo, Ensayo, TV, 241; Brunei, Manuel, I, 1715 and Supp., T. 
 229; Barrera, Catdlogo, 298; Biblioteca de Autores espanoles, III, 12; 
 R. Foulche-Delbosc, Revue Hispanique, VII, 28-80 and IX, 171-99; Konrad 
 Haebler, ibidem, IX, 137-70. 
 
 2 Gil Vicente, Obias, II, 181-532 (edited by J. V. Barreto Feio and 
 J. G. Monteiro, Hamburg. 1834, 3 vols.); Braga, Historia da Litteratura. 
 Theatro no Sec. XVI, 10-207; Creizenaeh, Oeschichte, III, 191 seq. Of 
 these plays Exhortarao is in Portuguese; Aggravados and Cortes de 
 Jupiter (also called Al parto de la Reina) are in Portuguese, with the 
 exception of some thirty lines of Spanish in each; Duardos and Amadis 
 in Spanish ; the four others in both languages. 
 
 3 D'Ancona would place here a Comedia overo Tragedia by Bartholomeo 
 Ugoni, "che sarebbe il primo saggio di Tragicomedia." Published without 
 date or place, it is found bound with a work dated 1521. D'Ancona, 
 Origini del Teatro in Italia, II, 217. Cf. Salvioli, Bibliografia, 811. With 
 this may be compared the beginning of La Rapresentione [sic] di 8. Theo- 
 dora, published 1554, where "incomincia la commedia o vero tragedia." 
 Cf. D'Ancona, Hacre Rappresentazioni, II, 324. 
 
 4 Salvioli, Bibliografia, 701-2; Scelta di curiositd letterarie, I Drammi 
 Pastorali di Antonio Marsi, Vol. II {Bologna, 1888) ; De Gubernatis, 
 Storia universale della letteratura, I, 384; Brunet, Manuel, II, 1016; 
 Soleinne, Dictionnaire, III, Nos. 4130 and 4131 ; Riccoboni, Histoire du 
 Theatre italien, 148; Crescimbeni, Comentarj, II, 185.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 157 
 
 1535. — Tragicomoedia ex Daniele propheta contra idolatriam 
 by Joannes Carbonirosa Kirchoviensis or by Xystus Betulius of 
 Augsburg. Bale. 1 
 
 1537. — Susanna Comoedia Tragica by Xystus Betulius 
 (Sixt Birk). Augsburg. Reprinted at Cologne and Zurich 
 1538; Cologne 1539; Augsburg about 1540 and 15G4; Zurich 
 1541 ; Bale 1541, 1547, and 1564. Reprinted recently by Jo- 
 hannes Bolte in Lateinische Litteraturdenkmaler, VIII, Berlin, 
 1893. 2 
 
 1539. — Tragicomedia alcgorica del Paraiso y del infierno. 
 Burgos. 3 4 
 
 1540 ( ?). — ludith. Drama comicotragicum. Exemplum rei- 
 publicae recte institutae: unde discitur, quomodo arma contra 
 Turcam sint capienda, by Xystus Betulius. Augsburg. Re- 
 printed at Cologne 1544, and at Bale 1547 5 
 
 1 Epitome Bibliothecae Conradi Gesneri, I, 60 vo. ; Mistere du Viel Tes- 
 tament, V, p. LIII. Soleinne in his Dictionnaire, I, page S3, follows the 
 Epitome in referring this play to Carbonirosa. Now. Betulius is known 
 to have presented a play on this subject at Bale in 1535, while there is 
 Ein herrliche Tragedi wider die Abgbtterey, which was acted at Bale, 
 May 9, 1535, and is a condensed form of Betulius's Beel Ain Herrliche 
 Tragedi wider die Abgbtterey, Augsburg, 1539. Betulius, then, seems to 
 have written a German play at Bale in 1535 that has practically the 
 same title as the Latin play assigned to Carbonirosa and published at 
 Bale in the same year. Hence it is probable that Betulius, rather than 
 Carbonirosa, was the author of the play. Coedeke, Grundrisz, II, 345; 
 Creizenach, Geschichte, III, 325. 
 
 2 Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, Nos. 502 and 503; Brunet, Manuel, I, 834 
 and II, 835; Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 134; Creizenach, Geschichte, II, 120 
 and III, 320; Baechtold, Geschichte, 301; Pilger in Zeischrift f. D. Phil- 
 ologie, 1880, 129-217. 
 
 3 Moratin, Tesoro, I, 78; Brunet, Manuel, V, 912. Paz y M6lia, Catalogo 
 de las Piezas de Teatro, 388. The latter refers to MS 2501 of the Biblio- 
 teca Nacional at Madrid, which contains this piece. Barrera, Catalogo. 
 ATiH and 587; Gallardo, Ensai/o I, 980 seq. 
 
 4 The Anabion, sive Lazarus Redivivus. Comoedia nora et sacre by 
 Joannes Sapidus, Cologne. 1539, might be cited here, as its author de- 
 clares that it can be called tragicomoedia. Goedeke. Grundrisz, II. 135; 
 Creizenach, Geschichte des X. Dramas, II, 104; Brunet. Manuel, V, 137. 
 
 5 Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, nos. 291 and 502; Brunet, Manuel. I, 834 and 
 II, 835; Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 134; Creizenach, Geschichte. III. 322. 
 Bolte, in Lateinische Litteraturdenlmaler, VIII, Einleitung, page V, dates 
 this play 1536, but he cites no authority for the date.
 
 158 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 1542. — Tragicomedia de Lysandro y Roselia llamada Elicia 
 y por otro nombre quarta obra y tercera Celestina. Madrid. 1 
 
 1543. — Christus redivivus, comoedia tragica sacra et nova by 
 Nicholas Grimald. Cologne. Acted in Merton College, Ox- 
 ford, probably in 1540. 2 
 
 1544. — Comoedia Tragica, quae inscribitur Magdalena 
 Evangelica by Petrus Philicinns of Arras. Antwerp. Re- 
 printed there 1546. 3 
 
 1544. — Hypocrisis. Tragicocomoedia by Guilielmus Gna- 
 phaeus ( Willem van de Voldersgroft) of Gravenhage. Bale. 4 
 
 1546. — Voluptatis ac Virtutis Pugna. Comoedia tragica et 
 nova et pia, by Jacobus Schoepper of Dortmund. Cologne. 
 Reprinted there 1563. 5 
 
 1546. — Tragicomoedia Sant Pauls bekerung. Gespilt von 
 einer Burgerschafft der wytberiimpten frysiatt Basel, im jor 
 M. D. XLVI, by Valentin Boltz of Rufach. Bale, 1551. 6 
 
 1547. — Sapientia Solomonis, Drama comicotragicum by 
 Xystus Betulius. Published in Dramata sacra ex Veteri Testa- 
 mento desumpta, Bale 1547. 7 
 
 1547. — Protoplastus. Drama comicotragicum by Hierony- 
 mus Ziegler of Rotenburg. Published in Dramata sacra just 
 noted. 8 
 
 1547. — Nomothesia. Drama tragicomicum by Hieronymus 
 Ziegler. Published in Dramata sacra just noted. 
 
 1 Brunet, Manuel, III, 1257 ; Barrera, Catdlogo, 560. 
 
 2 J. M. Hart in Publications of Mod. Language Ass., XIV, 3; Creizenach, 
 Geschichte, II, 138; Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, II, 450. 
 
 3 Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 137; Brunet, Manuel, IV, 607; Soleinne, 
 Dictionnaire, I, no. 409; Creizenach, Geschichte, II, 138. 
 
 4 Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 133; Brunet, Manuel, II, 1630; Soleinne, Diction- 
 naire, I, no. 389. 
 
 'Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 138; Brunet, Manuel, V, 215; Soleinne, Diction- 
 naire, I, no. 311. 
 
 "Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 348. 
 
 'Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, no. 502; Brunet, Manuel, I, 834 and II, 835. 
 Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 134. 
 
 8 Gesner, Epitome, I, 52 Vo. Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, no. 502 ; Brunet, 
 Manuel, II, 835; Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 137. For Protoplastus, cf. also 
 Creizenach, Geschichte, II, 109.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 159 
 
 1549. — Ophiletes. Drama Comicotragicum argumento ex 
 P. Matthaei Euangelio sumpto by H. Ziegler. Ingolstadt ( ?). 1 
 
 First half of the sixteenth century ( ?). — Apollo e Leucotoe. 
 Tragicommedia by Francesco Sallustio Buonguglielmi of 
 Florence. Florence. 2 
 
 1551. — Gollias. Latin Tragicomedy given b) students at 
 the University of Coimbra (Portugal). 3 
 
 1551. — Monomachia Davidis et Goliae Tragicicomoedia nova 
 simul et sacra by Jacobus Schoepper. Antwerp. 4 
 
 1552. — Tragicomedia Ohiammata Potentia d'amore by Gero- 
 theo di Magri di Mantoa. Ferrara. 8 
 
 1553. — Regales nuptiae drama comicotragicum ex Matth. 22. 
 capite argumento sumpto by Hieronymus Ziegler. Augsburg. 6 
 
 1555. — Parabola Christi de decern Virginibus in drama comi- 
 cotragicum redacta by Hieronymus Ziegler. Ingolstadt. Re- 
 printed at Antwerp in 1556. 7 
 
 1556. — Adelphopolae. Drama comicotragicum historiam 
 Josephi, Jacobi filii, complectens by Martinus Balticus of 
 Munich. Augsburg. 8 
 
 1558. — Drama Comico-tragicum, DanieUs prophetae leoni- 
 bus objecti et ab angelis Dei rursus liberati historiam com- 
 plectens by Martinus Balticus. Augsburg. 9 
 
 1 Gesner, Epitome, I, 52 vo. Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, No. 305 ; Goedeke, 
 Grundrisz, II, 137. 
 
 2 Salvioli, Bibliografia, 326; Allacoi, Drammaturgia, 97; Crescimbeni, 
 Comentarj della Poesia italiana, II, 165. 
 
 3 Braga, Historia da Universidade de Coimbra, I, 559 (Lisbon, 1892) and 
 Curso de historia, 239; Creizenach, Geschichte, II, 80. 
 
 4 Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, no. 313; Brunot, Manuel, V, 215; Goedeke, 
 Grundrisz, II, 138. Spengler in Zeitschrift fur die osterreichischen Gym- 
 nasien, XL, 442 seq. 
 
 5 There is a copy in the Biblioteoa Nazionale at Venice. Allacci in his 
 Drammaturgia, 640, writes Venice for Ferrara. 
 
 8 Gesner, Appendix, I, 52 vo. ; Goedeke, Grundrisz, II. 137, does not gi\r 
 the genre. 
 
 7 Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, no. 308; Goedeke, Grundrisz. 11, 137. 
 8 Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 141; Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, no 320; Crei- 
 zenach, Geschichte, II, 115. 
 
 9 Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 141
 
 160 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 1561. — La Cangenia. Tragicomedia by Beltramo Poggi of 
 Florence. Florence. 1 2 
 
 1562. — Finis Saulis et Coronatio Davidis, tragi-comoedia. 
 Represented at Prague. 3 
 
 1563. — Exodus sive transitus maris rubri comoedia tragica 
 by Cornelius Laurimanus of Utrecht. Louvain. 
 
 1566. — II Giudizio di Paride. Tragicommedia by Gio. 
 Maria Scotto. Naples. 5 
 
 1566. — II Ratto d'Helena, tragicommedia by Anello Pau- 
 lilli. 6 
 
 1567. — Tragococomoedia. Von dem frommen Konige Dauid, 
 und seinem auffrurischen Sohn Absolon by Bernhard Hederich. 
 Represented at Schwerin, Sept. 1. Represented there again in 
 1569. Published at Liibeck in 1569. 7 
 
 1567. — Damon and Pithias by Richard Edwardes, who calls 
 it in his prologue a "tragical comedy." It was "entered on the 
 registers of the Stationers' Company in 1567 as 'a boke inti- 
 tuled the tragicall comodye of Damonde and Pethyas.' " It was 
 printed in 1571 and in 1582. 8 
 
 1567. — Quintilia. Tragicomedia by Diomisso Guazzoni of 
 Cremona. Mantua. Reprinted there in 1579. 9 
 
 1 Allacci, Drammaturgia, 161; Salvioli, Bibliografia, 624; Soleinne, 
 Dictionnaire, III, no. 4258 ; Riceoboni, Eistoire, 144. 
 
 2 L'Invenzione della Croce di Gesu Cristo descritta in versi sciolti e in 
 stile comico e tragico (1561) by Beltramo Poggi may be cited here. Cf. 
 Soleinne, Dictionnaire, III, no. 4291; Allacci, Drammaturgia, 466; Riceo- 
 boni, Eistoire, 165. 
 
 3 Mistere du Viel Testament, IV, p. xxv. 
 4 Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 139. 
 
 5 Allacci, Drammaturgia, 414; Riceoboni, Eistoire, 120 and 160. 
 
 6 Soleinne, Dictionnaire, III, No. 4388; Riceoboni, Eistoire, 120; Allacci, 
 Drammaturgia, 629. The latter does not indicate the genre. 
 
 7 Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 402. 
 
 8 Dodsley, Old Plays, IV, 1-104; Halliwell, Dictionary of Old English 
 Plays, 70; Greg, List of English Plays, 36; Collier, Eistory of English 
 Dramatic Poetry, III, 3 seq. 
 
 9 Allacci, Drammaturgia, 654; Soleinne, Dictionnaire, III, No. 4623; 
 Brunet, Manuel, II, 1782. There are copies of the second edition at the 
 Biblioteca Nazionale at Venice and the Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 161 
 
 1570. — Sedecias by Padre Luiz da Cruz. Represented by 
 the Jesuits at Coimbra, Portugal. 1 
 
 1570. — Josephus. Tragicomedia by Padre Luiz da Cruz. 2 
 
 1558-1578. — Prodigus. Tragicomedia by Padre Luiz da 
 Cruz. 2 
 
 1571. — Naboth. Tragicocomoedia sacra by Cornelius 
 Laurimanus of Utrecht. Utrecht. 3 
 
 1571. — Susannae Helchiae filiae tragica comoedia heroicit 
 versibus expressa by Carolus Godranius of Dijon. Dijon. 4 
 
 1573. — Ecclesia Militans. Tragicocomoedia bipartita, Chris- 
 tianae ejusdem Catholicae fidei incrimentum, persecutiones, 
 haereses et alias ad supremum usque iudicii diem vicissitudines 
 varias comprehendens by Michael Hiltprand, a Jesuit. Dillin- 
 gen, Bavaria. 5 
 
 1575. — Gedeon. Tragicocomoedia sacra by Libertus ab 
 Hauthem of Tongern. Liege. 6 
 
 1575. — A new Tragicall Comedie of Apius and, Virginia by 
 R. B. London. Collier says this was probably acted in 1563. ' 
 
 1575. — The Glasse of Gouernement. A tragicall Comedie 
 by George Gascoigne. 8 
 
 1576. — Inclyta Aeneis: P. Virgilii Maronis, .poetarum 
 optimi, in regiam tragicocomoediam . . . redacta by Joannes 
 Lucienbergius. Frankf ort-on-the-Main. 9 
 
 1 This is called a tragicomedia by Braga, Cur so de historia de Utteratura, 
 282. 
 
 2 Braga, Historia da Litteratura portugucza. Theatro no Secolo XVII, 
 360. 
 
 3 Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, 83, suggests Philippus Moras of Utrecht as 
 the author of this piece. Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 139, assigns the play to 
 Laurimannus, but he gives neither place nor date of its publication. 
 
 ♦Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, page 83, Brunet, II, 1640; P. Papillon, Biblio- 
 theque des auteurs de Bourgogne, I, 258. Dijon, 1745, two vols, in one. 
 
 5 Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 140; P. Bahlmann, Jeswiten-Dramm der nieder- 
 rheinischen Ordensprovinz, 2, Leipzig, 1896. 
 
 6 Goedeke, Grundrisz, II, 140 
 
 7 Page 107 of introduction to reprint of tins play in Dodsley, Old Plays, 
 IV, 105-155. Cf. Greg, English Plays, 123; Ilalliwell, Dictionary, 20. 
 
 8 Greg, English Plays, 40; Halliwell, Dictionary, 109; Collier, English 
 Dramatic Poetry, III, 7. 
 
 9 Soleinne, Dictionnaire, I, No. 329; Brunet, Manuel, III, 1216.
 
 162 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 1578. — Susanna. Comicotragoedia by Peder Ienssbn Hege- 
 limd. Copenhagen. 1 Translation of Betulius's play (see above 
 under the year 1537). 
 
 1581. — Susanna, comedia tragica. Written in Portugal. 
 
 2 3 
 
 JBrunet, Manuel, VI, 920; Mistere du Viel Testament, V, p. LXIX. 
 
 • Braga, Historia da Litteratura. Theatro no Secolo XVII, 360. 
 
 3 According to Mistere du Viel Testament (IV, p. xl) another tragi- 
 comedy is found in La Coronazione del re Saul by Giovanmaria Cecchi of 
 Florence, represented "vers le milieu du XVI siecle." D'Ancona, Sac, Rap. 
 Ill, 1, mentions the piece, but does not give its genre.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 163 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 FRENCH TRAGI-COMEDIES FROM 1552 TO 1636. 
 I. — The Sixteenth Century. 1 
 
 1552. — Tragique Comedie Frangoise de Vhomme iustifie par 
 Foy. Galat III. Avez-vous receu VEsprit par Irs oeuvres de la 
 Loy, ou par la predication de la Foy? (verses of 10 and 8 
 syllables; 5 acts) by Henry de Barran. Geneva ( ?). Pub- 
 lished 1554, two years after it was written, as the author states 
 in his prologue. Reprinted 1561, according to La Croix du 
 Maine. 2 
 
 1561. — Tragi-comedie. L 'Argument pri's du iroisieme 
 chapitre de Daniel: avec le cantique des trois enfans, chante en 
 la fornaise. Mattli. 10. Ne craignez point crux qui lucid les 
 corps, etc. (verses of 12, 10 and 8 syllables without division 
 into acts and scenes; chorus) by A. D. L. C. [Antoine de La 
 Croix.] Paris. Dedicated to the Queen of Navarre. Called 
 for brevity Les Enfants dans la Fournaise. 3 
 
 1 See above, page 36 seq. 
 
 2 ha Croix du Maine, Bibliotheque, 363; Beauchamps, Recherches, II, 26; 
 Leris, Dictionnaire portatif, 177; La Vnlliere, Bibliotheque. I. 142; Mouhy, 
 Journal, 135 and 137; C16ment, Anecdotes dramatiques, I, 433; Soleinne, 
 Dictionnaire, I, Nos. 736-37; Brunet, Manuel, I, 666; Ebert, Franz: Tra- 
 gbdie, 131; Petit de Julleville, Repertoire du Theatre comique, 69; E. Picot, 
 Bulletin du protestant francais, 1892, 626 seq.; Lanson Revue d'hist. lilt.. 
 X, 414. 
 
 3 Du Verdier, Bibliotheque, III, 111; Maupoint, Bibliotheque, 308; Beau- 
 champs, II, 30-1; Lens, 127; La Valliere, I, 159; Mouhy, 160; Clement, I. 
 306; Soleinne, I, 156; Brunet, IV, 1; Faguet, Trag4die frangaise, 102 s< •/. . 
 Creizenach, Geschichte, II, 459; Lanson, Revue d'hist. litt., X, 415.
 
 164 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 December, 1560 — November, 1567. — Tragicomedie La 
 Gaule (Alexandrines; 4 acts; chorus.) Dedicated to the King 
 of France. 1 
 
 1564. — Genievre ( ?). Played at Fontainebleau, February 
 13, by members of the court. 2 
 
 1572. — Tragicomedie de lob (a prologue in Alexandrines 
 and a cantique de lob in seven-syllable verse are the only ex- 
 tant portions of the play) by Charles Tiraqueau and Scevole de 
 Sainte-Marthe. Kepresented July 28 and 29, au moustiemeuf, 
 at Poitiers. Printed at Paris 1579 and at Poitiers 1(100/ 
 
 1576. — Lucelle. Tragi-comedie en prose frangoise (prose; 
 5 acts) by Louis Le Jars. Paris. Represented at Rouen in 
 1600 and 1606. Dedicated to M. Anibal de Saint Mesmyn 
 Seigneur du Brueil. 4 
 
 1 It was written between Dec. 5, 1560, the date of the accession of Charles 
 IX and Nov. 10, 1567, the date of the death of Anne, due de Montmorency, 
 conestable. See above, page 43. MS in Bibliotheque Nationale, fonds fr. 
 838; P. Paris, Les MSS fr. de la Bibliotheque du Roy, VI, 416-418; Abbe 
 Migne, Dictionnaire des Mysteres, 1394. Other writers on the French stage 
 have overlooked this play. 
 
 2 The play is lost. Jacques Madeleine in Quelques Poetes Francois des 
 XVIe et XVIIe siecles, 5, 14 19, 359 seq. (Fontainebleau. 1900) cites Castel- 
 nau, Ronsard, Pere Dan, Marcassus, Abel -Touan, Brantome, and Vauquelin 
 to establish the fact of its representation. Lanson in Revue d'hist. lit'., 
 X, 200 and 423, after quoting Madeleine at length, writes "cette represen- 
 tation eclatante etait demeuree inconnue des historiens du theatre, jusqu'a 
 ce que M. Jacques Madeleine en reveillat le souvenir." He appears to have 
 forgot Ebert, Franz: Tragodie, 140, where Castelnau's reference to the 
 play is mentioned, as recently noted by H. Schlensog, Lucelle, 2. Strange 
 to say, all these authors have failed to observe that Beauchamps, Recher- 
 ches, III, 5, refers to the same play as a comedie. after the representation 
 of which Castelnau recited verses before the King. 
 
 3 Les Oeuvres de Scevole de Rainte Marthe, ff. I, 41b-43a and 144a-145b, 
 Paris, 1579, 2 vols; reprinted at Poitiers, 1600. Cf. H. Clouzot, L'Anden 
 Theatre en Poitou, 81-2; Lanson, Revue d'hist. litt., 202; Morf. ZFSL. 
 XIX, 46; Journal historique de Denis Generoux, notaire a Parthenon (1566- 
 1576), published by M. B. Ledain, Niort. 1865; Le Mistere du Viel Testa- 
 ment, V, page VIII; Petit de Julleville. Les Mysteres, I, 447; 
 
 4 La Croix du Maine, II, 49; Du Verdier, II, 600; Maupoint, 90; Beau- 
 champs, II, 45; Freres Parfaict, III, 377; Leris, 204; La Valliere, I, 213; 
 Mouhy, 207; Pont-de-Vesle, Catalogue, 21; Clement, I, 498; Soleinne, I. No. 
 795; Brunet, III, 952; Morf, ZFSL, XIX, 50; Faguet, Tragedie francaise,
 
 lis Origin and Development. 165 
 
 1578. — La Celestine fidellement repurgee . . . par Jacq. 
 de Lavardin, sieur du Plessis Bourrot, tragi-comedie jadis 
 espagnole, composee in reprehension des fols amoureux, etc. 
 Paris. Reprinted there without date, and at Rouen, L598. This 
 was probably not considered a dramatic work. 1 
 
 1579. — Un Acte de la Tragicomedie de Tobie, ou sonl repre- 
 sentees les Amours et les Noces du Ieune Tobie et de Sarra Fille 
 <ln Raguel (Alexandrines; one act and fragments; chorus) by 
 Catherine Fradonet, Mile des Roches. Paris. Reprinted at 
 Poitiers 1583 £.nd Rouen 1604. Incorporated into the tragi- 
 comedy on the same subject by Iacqnes Ouyn (1597). Dedi- 
 cated " a ma mere." 2 
 
 1580. — Iokebed miroir des meres. Tragi-C omedie de Moyse, 
 en son enfance expose par sa mere au fleuve du Nil (prose 
 except the cantique de Iokebed in 6-syllable verse; 5 acts) by 
 Pierre Heyns. Represented at Antwerp by the disciples of 
 Heyns's school. Printed in 1597 at Harlem. Dedicated to 
 Mile Malapart, femme de M. Andre van der Meulen, jadis 
 Depute de Messeigneurs les Estats de Brabant. 3 
 
 373-81 ; Pierre Toldo, Revue d'hist. lift., V, 579-84; Hugo Schlensog, 
 Lucelle. The latter compares the first and third editions with the rework- 
 ing in verse by Duhamel (1007.) Though he knows that Toldo (p. 579) 
 refers to the second edition (Rouen. 1000; catalogued Y Fh, 10300, in 
 Bibliotheque Nationale), "der aber wolil mit dem von 1000 identisch sein 
 diirfte" (Schlensog. Lucelle, 0), he does not seem to have examined it. 
 
 ' Brunet, I, 1721 and Supp. I, 230. Magnin, Journal des Savants, 
 April, 1843, p. 200. 
 
 2 Les oeuvres de Mes-dam.es des Roches de Poictiers mar ,i /ill,- seconde 
 Edition corrigee et augmentce de la Tragi-come'die de Tobie et autres 
 oeuvres poetiques. The dedication indicates that the play is the work of 
 the daughter, a fact that has been overlooked by La Valliere. Beauchamps, 
 II, 42; Lens, 325; Mouhy, 224 and 34; Soleinne, T, Nos. 787 and 789; 
 Brunet, IV, 1342; Faguet, Trag4die francaA&e, 323-25; L< MisteWe <ht Viel 
 Testament, V, page xviii. 
 
 ^Comedies et Tragedies du Laurier, Earlem, 1597; Beauchamps, II, 66; 
 Leris, 226; La Valliere, I, 243 aeq.; Mouhy, 316, 320; Pont-de-Vesle, 24; 
 Clement, IT, 410; Soleinne, 1, No. 817; Brunet, III, 151-52; Lanson. 
 Revue d'hist. litt., X, 206. Brunet shows, as cited, that La Valliere and 
 those who have followed him are mistaken in stating that the work was 
 published at Amsterdam.
 
 166 The Freneh Tragi- Comedy: 
 
 1582. — Bradamante. Tragecomedie (Alexandrines; 5 acts) 
 by Robert Gamier. Paris. Reprinted there 1585 and three 
 times in 1599 ; in 1588 and 1589 at Toulouse; 1592, 1595, 1597 
 and 1600 at Lyons ; 1592 at Antwerp ; 1596 and 1599 at Rouen ; 
 1598 at Niort. Thirty-two editions in the seventeenth century. 
 Reprinted by V\ T . Foerster, Heilbronn, 1883. 1 
 
 1584. — L'Ombre de Gamier Stoffacher, Suisse. Tragico- 
 medie. Sur V alliance perpetuelle de la Cite de Geneue auec les 
 deux premiers et puissans Cantons Zurich et Berne (Alexan- 
 drines ; 3 acts ; chorus) by Jos. Du Ch. S. de la Viol. ( Josephe 
 Du Chesne, Sienr de la Violette.) Geneva. Dedicated to 
 Charles Raron de Zerotin, Seigneur de Namescht, etc. Repre- 
 sented at Geneva, Oct, 18, 1584. 2 
 
 1858. — Tragi -comedie en laquelle figure I'histoire des deux 
 grieves tentations desquelles le patriarche Abraham a He exerce 
 by Jean Georges maitre d'ecole de Saint Julien. Represented 
 by school children at Montbeliard sur la place des Halles. Given 
 again in 1609. 3 
 
 1592. 4 — Les Arengles. Trigicomoedie d'Epicure Napolitain 
 d'ltalienne faicte frangoise . . . avec une tres-belle plaincte du 
 
 ^laupoint, 59; Beauchamps, II, 40; Freres Parfaict, III, 454 seq.; Lei-is. 
 65; La Valliere. I, 189 and 199; Mouhy, 255; Soleinne, I, No. 772 seq.; 
 Brunet, II, 1490; Ebert, Franz: Tragodie, 169-78; Faguet, Tragedie fran- 
 caise, 212-36; Rigal in P. de Julleville's Histoire de la langue et de la litt. 
 fr., Ill, 312-15. F. Pasini, La Bradamante di Roberto Gamier e la sua 
 fonte ariostesca, Annuario degli studenti trentini, 1901, 122 seq. ; Th. Roth. 
 Der Einfluss von Ariost's Orlando Furioso, 104-131. For the represent.! 
 tion in 1611 and at other times, cf. Rigal, Alexandre Hardy, 93. Foer- 
 ster's edition appeared in Sammlung Fromzosiseher \eudi ucke, VI, Heil- 
 bronn, 1882-83, published by Karl Vollmoller; cf. also ibidem. III, pp. 
 xiv-xviii. 
 
 2 La Valliere, I, 255; Pont-de-Vesle. 22; Soleinne. T. Xo. 823; Brunet, 
 TI. 855; Lanson, Revue d'hist. litt., X, 209. 
 
 3 Lanson, Revue d'hist. litt.. X. 211 and 222. 
 
 4 This year at Bordeaux : "Valleran joue <l<'s tragedies, tragicomedies et 
 farces. II y a line femme dans la troupe; elle ne joue pas la farce." Chron- 
 de J. de Gaufreteau, I, 306, cited by Lanson, Revue d'hist. litt., X, 211. 
 Thist note indicates that even in the sixteenth century the tragi comedy 
 was more closely allied to the tragedy than to the farce.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 167 
 
 jaloux et de plus le recouvrement de leur veiie (prose, without 
 division into acts or scenes) by II. D. J. (Roland <lu Jardin.) 
 Tours. 1 2 
 
 1595. — Le Desespere, tragicomedie pour exemplaire d'obeis- 
 sauce, poeme ties remarquable aux peres et enfans de famille 
 (Alexandrines, divided into acts) by Benoet Du Lac (anagram 
 for Claude Bonet). Represented at Aix-en-Provence. Printed 
 there, 1615. 3 
 
 1595. — Caresme prenani, tragicomedie facetieuse en laquelle 
 il y a un coq a Vasne a quatre langues touchant plusieurs (thus 
 de ce temps (eight-syllable verses; 5 acts) by Benoet Du Lac. 
 Represented at Aix-en-Provence. Printed there, 1615. 3 
 
 1597. — T/tobie. Tragi-Comedie nouuelle. Tiree de la 8. 
 Bible (Alexandrines; 5 acts) by Iacques Ouyn Louerien ex- 
 cept the fourth act and four pages of the fifth, which were com- 
 posed by Mile des Roches. Dedicated to Mine du Roulet. 
 Privilege, Feb. 4, 1597. Printed at Rouen, 1606. 4 
 
 1597. — La Polyxene. Tragicomoedie nouvellement repre- 
 sentee au College des Bons Enfans, le Dimanche 7 de seplcm- 
 bre, 1597. (Alexandrines; five acts; chorus) by lean Behourt. 
 Printed at Rouen, 1598. Dedicated to Madame de Montpen- 
 
 JBeauehamps, II, 62; Leris, II, 3i.<); Clement, II, 319; Soleinne, IIT. No. 
 4132. 
 
 2 The first example of an allied genre occurs (1594) in Tragecomedie 
 pastoralle ou Mylas by Claude de Bassecourt, an imitation of Tasso's 
 Aminta. See Claude de Bassecourt, Trage-eomedie pastorale et autres 
 pieces, Antwerp, 1594. 
 
 3 A. Joly, Note sur Benoet Du Lac, Lyon, 1862; Petit de Julleville, 
 Repertoire, 43, 53, and 400-01. 
 
 4 Direrses tragedies sainctes de plusieurs auteurs de ce temps. Recueillies 
 par Raphael du Petit Val, Rouen, 1606; Maupoint, 303; Beaucliamps. 11. 
 75; Freres Parfaict, III, 533; Leris. 325; La Valliere, T, 315-16; Mouliy. 
 320; Pont-de-Vesle, 26; Soleinne, T. Nos. 863 and 879; Brunet, IV, 302; 
 Faguet, Tragedie fr., 323-25; Mistcre du Viel Testament, V, page x\. 
 
 5 Beauchamps, II, 69; Freres Parfaict, III, 530; Leris, 269; La N'alli.r.v 
 I, 317-18; Mouhy, 321; Pont-de-Vesle, 24; Clement. II, 87; Soleinne. 1, 
 864; Brunet, I, 736.
 
 168 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 1597. — La Nouvelle tragicomique (Alexandrines, without 
 divisions into acts or scenes) by Captain Lasphrise, [Marc de 
 Papillon.] Paris. Reprinted there in 1599 and in 1855. l 
 
 1599. — Amour Vaincu, tragecomedie. Representee deuant 
 tres-illustre Prince Henry de Bourbon, due de Montpensier, etc. 
 Et tres-excellente Princesse Catherine de Joyeuse, le 10, Sep- 
 tembre, 1599, en leur chasteau de Myrebeau et dediee a leurs 
 Grandeurs par Jacques de la fons natif dudit Myrebeau Aduocat 
 en Parlement, (verse; 5 acts.). Poitiers. 2 
 
 II. The Seventeenth Century to Rotrou (1628). 
 
 1593-1601. — Les Chastes et Loyales Amours de Theagene et 
 Cariclee. Eeduites du Grec de VHistoire d'Heliodore, en huit 
 Poemes Dramatiques, ou [sicl] de Theatre consecutifs (Alex- 
 andrines; eight journees of 5 acts each) by Alexandre Hardy. 
 Published at Paris in 1623 and 1628. Dedicated to monsieur 
 Payen, Sieur de Landes. Called tragi-comedie in the title of 
 the individual journees. 3 
 
 1593-1624. — Procris, ou La Jalousie Infortunee. Tragi-co- 
 medie (Alexandrines; 5 acts) by Alexandre Hardy. Published 
 at Paris in 1624 and 1626 ; at Frankfort in 1625 ; at Paris and 
 Marburg in 1884. Dedicated with other plays to the due de 
 Montmorancy [sic]. 4 
 
 1593-1624. — Alceste ou La Fidelite, Tragi-comedie (Alexan- 
 
 l Les premieres oeuvres poetiques du Capitaine Lasphrise, Paris, 1597 
 and 1599; Beauchamps, II, 70; Leris, 241; La Valliere. I, 322; Mouhy, 
 319; Pont-de-Vesle, 24; Clement, II, 438; Soleinne, I, No. 870; Brunet, 
 III, 863 and Supp., I, 790 seq.; Sainte-Beuve ; Tableau, 234; Viollet Le Due 
 in Bibliotheque Elze'virienne, Ancien Theatre francois, VII, 463-91. Paris, 
 1855. 
 
 2 Mouhy, 331; Soleinne, I, No. 869; Brunet, III, 746; Clouzot, Ancien 
 theatre en Poitou, 90. 
 
 3 For a full account of Hardy, his works and their dates, see Rigal. 
 Alexandre Hardy, a treatise that lias superseded all previous works on 
 the subject, for this play ibidem, 435-42; Lombard, ZFXL I, 395-97; 
 La Valliere, I, 334-37. 
 
 *La Valliere, I, 338-39; Stengel, Theatre d' Alexandre Hardy. I, 172-203; 
 Lombard, I, 348; Rigal, Alexandre Hardy, 401-04.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 169 
 
 drines ; 5 acts) by Alexandre Hardy. Published and dedicated 
 with the preceding. 1 
 
 1593-1624. — Ariadne Rauie, Tragi-comedie (Alexandrines; 
 5 acts) by Alexandre Hardy. Published and dedicated with 
 the preceding. 2 
 
 1593-1625. — Arsacome, Tragi-comedie (Alexandrines; 5 
 acts) by Alexandre Hardy. Published at Paris in 1625 and 
 1632 ; at Paris and Marburg in 1884.3 
 
 1601. — L'Aymee, jeu tragecomique (verses of 6, 8, 10 and 12 
 syllables; 5 acts) by Andre Mage, Sieur de Fiefmelin. Repre- 
 sented after a banquet. Published at Poitiers. Republished 
 without place or date. Dedicated to Anne de Pons, comtesse de 
 Marennes et baronne d'Oleron. 4 
 
 1601. — L 'Amour Divin tragecomedie. Contenant un href 
 discours des Saincts et sacres mysteres de la Redemption de 
 Vhumaine nature (Alexandrines; 5 acts) by lean Gaulche. 
 Troves. Dedicated to Jean Angenoust, seigneur d' Auan. 5 
 
 1604.- — Le Miror de L'union Belgique . . . en forme de 
 Tragi-comedie (Alexandrines; 5 acts) by Anthoine Lancel. 
 Place not given. Dedicated to the Estats generaux des Pro- 
 vinces Unies du Pays Bas. 6 
 
 1604. — Iacoh. Histoire Sacree en forme de Tragi-comedie 
 retiree des sacres feuillets de la Bible, du commaudement de la 
 
 *La Valliere, I, 339-40; Stengel, I, 204-238; Lombard, I, 349; Rigal, 
 Alexandre Hardy, 404-07. 
 
 2 La Valliere, I, 340; Stengel, I, 239-70; Lombard, I, 350; Rigal, 408-11. 
 
 3 La Valliere, I, 342; Stengel, II, 141-84; Lombard, I, 353; Rigal, 445-51. 
 
 4 Les oeuvres du sieur de Fiefmelin, Poitiers, 1601; La Polymnie or 
 diverse poesie d' A. M. >S'. de F. Poitiers; Pont-de-Vesle 25; Soleinne, I, nos. 
 886 and 887; Brunet, II, 1247; Clouzot, Ancien theatre en Poitou, 94; 
 Lanson, Revue d' hist, litt., X, 215-16. For a careful analysis of this play, 
 I am indebted to the kindness and erudition of M. E. Ginot, librarian of 
 Poitiers. 
 
 5 Also in Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. jr. 9306. Beauchamps, II, 72; 
 Lens, 224; La Valliere, I, 358; Mouhy, 354; ('lenient, II, 298; Soleinne. 1. 
 p. 227; Sainte-Beuve, Tableaux, 245-40; Brunet, II, 1503. 
 
 6 Also in Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. fr. 9305. Beauchamps, II, 73; 
 Lens, 225; La Valliere, I, 364; Clement, II, 432; Soleinne, I, p, 227; 
 Brunet, III, 805.
 
 170 The French Tragi- Comedy: 
 
 Royne Marguerite Duchesse de Valois (Alexandrines and prose ; 
 5 acts; chorus) by Anthoine de la Puiade. Bordeaux. Dedi- 
 cated to M. Dusault, conseiller du Roy. 1 
 
 1605. — Tragi-comedie de 8. Etienne, premier roy chrestien 
 de Hongrie, estoc paternal de la tres-noble et ancienne maison 
 de Croy. Represented by students of the Jesuit college a Mons 
 en Henault, Dec. 20. Published at Mons, 1605. 2 
 
 1607. — Lucelle, tragicomedie, mise en vers frangois (Alex- 
 andrines; 5 acts) by Jacques Duhamel. Rouen. This is a re- 
 working of Lucelle by Louis Le Jars. 3 
 
 1609. — L'Ethiopique. Tragi-comedie des Chastes Amours 
 de Theagene et Chariclee (Alexandrines; 5 acts; chorus) by 
 Octave-Cesar Genetay, sieur de la Gilleberdiere. Rouen. 4 
 
 1609. — L'Innocence Descouverte, Tragi-comedie (Alexan- 
 drines; 5 acts) by lean Auvray. Rouen. Reprinted there 
 in 1628. First published as Marfilie or Marfille. 5 
 
 1 La Mariade, d' Anthoine de la Puiade, 85-221, Bordeaux, 1605. Soleinne, 
 I, No. 896; Brunet, III, 838; Mistere du Viel Testament II p. xxxiii; 
 Lanson, Revue d'hist. litt., X, 220. 
 
 2 Faber, Theatre franQdis en Belgique, I, 40 and IV, 340. 
 
 a Freres Parfaict, IV, 63; Leris, 204; La Valliere, I, 280; Mouhy, 358; 
 Pont-de-Vesle, 21; Clement, I, 498; Soleinne I, No. 844; Brunet, III, 952; 
 Schlensog, Lucelle. 
 
 ^Beauchamps, II, 77; Freres Parfaict, IV, 124; Leris, 133; Mouhy, 385; 
 Pont-de-Vesle, 28; Clement, I, 326; Soleinne, I, No. 925; Brunet, II, 1532. 
 
 b Le Banquet des Muses . . . du Sieur Auvray, Rouen, 1628; Maupoint, 
 176; Beauchamps, II 82; Freres Parfaict, IV, 414; Leris, 190; La Valliere. 
 I, 425; Mouhy. 391; Clement, I, 450; Soleinne, I, No. 941; Brunet, I, 575-76; 
 Beauchamps and La Valliere state that this play was first published in 
 1609, without place. Brunet posits the edition of 1609 as brought out at 
 Rouen, Chez J. Petit ml 2. Now, Soleinne mentions a play by the same 
 author, published at Paris, 1609, 12mo, and called Marfille. It seems strange 
 that Auvray, at the age of nineteen, would publish two plays in the same 
 year. Moreover the heroine of L'Innocence Descouverte is named Mar- 
 filie, and it is a very common practice to name a tragi-comedy after the 
 heroine. It seems, therefore, that the two plays are the same and that 
 Marfille should be written Marfilie. This explains why Marfilie is known 
 to no other Bibliographer than Soleinne. The early date of the play also 
 explains its vulgarity, which is absent from the author's later tragi-come- 
 dies. As the author was a native of Rouen, it is probable that Brunet 
 is correct in stating that the play was published there.
 
 Its Origin and Development 171 
 
 1609. — Tragicomedie intittulee Jacob ou Antidolatrie. Tiree 
 de la Saincte Escripture et des escriptz de Sainctz Peres. Rep- 
 resented at Brussels, Sept. 14, by la Jeunesse du College of the 
 Jesuits. Published at Brussels in 1609. * 
 
 1610. — Genevre tragecomedie (Alexandrines; 5 acts; cho- 
 rus) by Claude Billard, Seigneur de Courgenay, Bourbonnois. 
 Paris. Republished there in 1612. 2 
 
 1610-1628. — Elmire ou L' 1 1 cure use Bigamie, Tragi- comedie 
 (Alexandrines; 5 acts) by Alexandre Hardy. Published at 
 Paris in 1628; at Paris and Marburg in 1884. Dedicated to 
 Monseigneur de Liancourt, marquis de Montford, etc. 3 
 
 1610 ( ?)-1622 ( ?). — T ragi-C omedie de la rebellion ou mes- 
 contentment des Grenouilles contre Jupiter (Alexandrines; 4 
 acts). Rouen. 4 
 
 1610 ( ?)-1622 ( ?). — Tragi-comedie plaisante et facecieuse 
 intitulee La Subtilite de Fanfreluche et Gaudiclwn et comme 
 il jut emporte par le Diable (verse; 5 acts.) Rouen. Repub- 
 lished at Paris, 1829-30. 4 
 
 1610 ( ?)-1622 ( ?). — Tragi-comedie des Enfans de Turlupin 
 malheureux de nature, ou Von void les fortunes dudit Turlupin, 
 le mariage d'entre lay et la Boulonnoise, et autres mille plats- 
 antes ioyeusetez qui trompent la morne Oisivete (verses of ten 
 syllables; 4 acts.) Rouen. Republished at Paris, 1829-30. 4 
 
 1 Faber, IV, 337. 
 
 2 Trag6dies frangoises de Claude Rilhnd, 163, seq., Paris, 1610; ibidem, 
 1612; Maupoint, 151; Beauchamps, U, 84; Frferes Parfaict, IV, 129; Lgris, 
 164; Mouhy, 396; Clement, II, 405; Soleinne, I, Nos. 917 and 918; Brunet, 
 I, 945; Th. Roth, Einfluss von Ariost's Orlando Furioso, 206-11, giving a 
 detailed analysis. Brunet dates this play 1609, which is incorrect, as the 
 published copy gives Feb. 27, 1610 and March 9, 1610 as the respective 
 dates of the privilege and the completion of the printing. 
 
 3 La Valliere, 1. 348; Stengel. V, 66-109; Lombard, 1, 362; Rigal, 
 Alexandre Hardy, 488-94. 
 
 4 The three plays were published, without date or name of author, at 
 Rouen, chez Abraham Cousturier, from whose press works were printed as 
 early as Diseours faeetieux, 1558 (cf. Soleinne, I, p. 88) and as late as 
 Tragedie de Suzanne, 1614 (Cf. Soleinne, I, p. 227.) Beauchamps, II, 92-3,
 
 172 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 1613. — Tragicomoedie en trois actes dans laquelle on traitait 
 de la Purification du temple de Jerusalem apres la profanation 
 faite par Antiochus. Represented Sept. 22, at Valenciennes by 
 les Ecoliers des Jesuites. 1 
 
 1613. — Clotilde trage-comedie (Alexandrines; 5 acts; a non- 
 lyric chorus) by lean Preuost. Poitiers. Probably acted at 
 Saint-Leonard de Limousin. Dedicated to Leonard de Chaste- 
 nel, baron de Murat. 2 
 
 lQ14:.—Z6anthropie, ou Vie de V Homme, Tragico-medie 
 [sic] morale (Alexandrines; 5 acts) by Francois Auffray, Gen- 
 tilhomme Breton. Paris. Reprinted at Paris and Rouen, 
 1615. Dedicated to France. 3 
 
 dates the three plays about 1622; Leris, 328, dates the first about 1622, the 
 third about 1620, assigning the authorship of the latter to Ville-Toustin; 
 La Valliere, I, 453, mentions the first play without date, treating it with 
 plays of the year 1613; Mouhy, 497-98, dates the first two 1622; Clement, 
 II, 458, dates the first 1622, and the others 1620, following Leris in assign- 
 ing the last to Ville-Toustin ; Soleinne, I, Nos. 960, 996, and 519, and Brunet, 
 V, 912, do not date; Migne, Dictionnaire des Mysteres, 1347, 1387, 1453, 
 1555, assigns the last two to the sixteenth century. The last two were 
 republished by Montaran, Recueil de livrets singuliers et rares, Paris, 1829- 
 30. The En fans de Turlupin, at least, could scarcely have been written 
 earlier than 1610, and probably has a later date, for Turlupin was the sobri- 
 quet of Henri Legrand (1587-1636, cf. A. Jal. Dictionnaire, article on Le- 
 grand), who was too young before about 1610 to have a play named for 
 him. His name is found in the title of Hardy's Folies de Turlupin, a lost 
 play of unknown date, and in the dramatis personae of Farce plaisatite et 
 recreative, a piece attached to a tragedy of 1617 (La Valliere, I, 473.) 
 From these considerations the dates 1610-1622 have been assigned to all 
 three plays, as they are associated by their common publisher and by their 
 bibliographers. 
 
 'The play is lost. Heeart, Kecherches sur les Theatres de Valenciennes, 
 5, Paris, 1816. 
 
 2 Les Tragedies et autres oeuvres poetiques de lean Preuost, Poitiers, 
 1614; Beauchamps, II, 88; Leris, 83; Pont-de-Vesle, 29; Clement I, 211; 
 Soleinne, I, No. 963; Brunet, IV, 867 and Supp, II, 296; Lanson Revue 
 d'hist. lift., X, 224. 
 
 3 Beauchamps, II, 88; Leris, 348; La Valliere, I, 458; Mouhy, 435; Pont- 
 de-Vesle, 29; Clement, II, 486; Soleinne, I, No. 966 and I Supp., 173; 
 Brunet, I, 553-4; Lanson, Revue d'hist. litt., X, 225.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 173 
 
 1614. — L'Ephesienne, Tragi-C omedie (Alexandrines; 5 acts; 
 chorus) by Pierre Brinon. Rouen. 1 
 
 1614-1625. — Cornelie, Tragi-comedie (Alexandrines; 5 
 acts) by Alexandre Hardy. Published at Paris in 1625 and 
 1632; Paris and Marburg in 1884. 2 
 
 1615-1625. — La Force du Sang, Tragi-comedie (Alexan- 
 drines; 5 acts) by Alexandre Hardy. Published at Paris in 
 1625 ; Paris and Marburg in 1884. Dedicated with other plays 
 to Monseigneur le Premier.'' 
 
 1615 ( ?)-1625. — Felismene, Tragi-comedie (Alexandrines; 
 5 acts) by Alexandre Hardy. Published and dedicated with 
 the preceding. 4 
 
 1615-1628. — La Belle Egyptienne, Tragi-comedie (Alexan- 
 drines ; 5 acts) by Alexandre Hardy. Published and dedicated 
 with Elmire. 3 
 
 1616. — Tragicomedie de VEmpereur Henry et Kunegonde, 
 representee par les estudians de la Compagnie de Jesus a 
 Malines, July 15. Published at Antwerp, 1616. 6 
 
 1617. — Les Heureuses Infortunes, Trage-comedie (Alexan- 
 drines; two parts of 5 acts each) by Bernier de la Brousse. 
 Poitiers. Privilege, Oct. 16. Printed 1618. 7 
 
 1 Beauchamps, II, 86; Freres Parfaict, IV, 188; Lens, 128; Mouhy, 436; 
 Pont-de-Vesle, 29; Clement, I, 308; Soleinne, I, No. 962; Brunei, I, 1261. 
 The privilege of July 1, 1614, speaks of "deux Tragedies, Tune intitule> 
 Baptiste, ou la Calomnie traduite de Buchanan et l'autre l'Ephesienne." 
 From a careless reading of this passage, L'Ephesienne has been listed in 
 the new catalogue of the Bibliotheque Nationale as a translation from the 
 Latin of Buchanan, although Buchanan never wrote a work on this subject 
 and although Brinon gives Petronius as his source. 
 
 2 La Valliere, I, 342; Stengel, II, 92-140; Lombard, I, 352; Rigal, 
 Alexandre Hardy, 474-77. 
 
 3 La Valliere, I, 344; Stengel, III, 63-106; Lombard, I, 359-61; Rigal, 
 Alexandre Hardy. 474-77. 
 
 *La Valliere, I. 345-46; Sainte-Beuve, Tableau, 240-42; Stengei III. 
 143-87; Lombard, I. 361-62; Rigal. Alexandre Hardy. 477-81. 
 
 5 See above, under the year 1610. La Valliere, I, 348; Stengel, V, 110-59; 
 Lombard, I, 363; Rigal, Alexandre Hardy, 494-98. 
 
 fi Faber, I, 40 and IV, 340. 
 
 ''Les Oeuvres Poetiques du Sieur Bernier de la Brousse, Poitiers, 1618; 
 Maupoint, 161; Beauchamps, II, 89; Freres Parfaict, IV, 171; Lens, 174;
 
 174 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 1618. — Daphnis, celebrant V Ascension du Christ, tragi- 
 comedie du professeur de rhetorique D. Candide Postrolumna. 
 Played, with musical accompaniment, before Saint Francois 
 de Sales, May 27. ! 
 
 1618. — Aretaphile, Tragi-comedie (Alexandrines; 5 acts) by 
 Pierre Du Ryer. Acted at the Hotel de Bourgogne, but not 
 printed. 2 
 
 1619. — Tragi-Comedie tres celebre des inimitablcs amours du 
 Seigneur Alexandre et d' Annette (verses of 8 syllables; 5 acts.) 
 Troyes, 1619 and 1628. Soleinne states that there was an earl- 
 ier edition of unknown date. 3 
 
 1619. — Tragecomedie sur Les Amours de Philandre et de 
 Marisee Alexandrines ; 5 acts ; chorus) by Gilbert Giboin. 
 Lyon. Dedicated to Honore d'Urfe. 4 
 
 1619-1625. — Dorise. Tragi-comedie (Alexandrines; 5 acts) 
 by Alexandre Hardy. Published and dedicated with La Force 
 du Sang. 5 
 
 1621-1626. — Fregonde ou Le Chaste Amour, Tragi-comedie 
 (Alexandrines; 5 acts) by Alexandre Hardy. Published at 
 Rouen, 1626. Dedicated to Monseigneur le Prince? 
 
 1621 ( ?)-1626. — Gesippe ou Les Deux Amis, Tragi-comedie 
 
 La Valliere, I, 477; Mouhy, 471; Pont-de-Vesle, 29; Clement, I, 427; 
 Soleinne, I, No. 1001 and I, Supp., No. 184; Brunet, I 802; Clouzot, 
 Ancien Theatre, 130. 
 
 x Fr. Mugnier, Theatre en Savoie, 85. 
 
 2 Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. fr., 25496; Mahelot, Memoire, fols. 35 vo 
 and 36; Maupoint, 32; Beauchamps, II, 109; Leris, 36; La Valliere, I, 495 
 and 497; Mouhy, 473; Clement, I, 87; Soleinne, I, 1003; Philipp, Pierre 
 Du Ryers Leben, 18. The last writer merely translates La Valliere's analy- 
 sis of the play. 
 
 3 Beauchamps, II, 91; La Valliere, I, 525-26; Clement, V, 303; Soleinne, I, 
 No. 1009; Brunet, V, 913. 
 
 4 Beauchamps, II, 91; Leris, 28; La Valliere, I, 524; Mouhy, 475; 
 Clement, I, 68; Soleinne, I, No. 1008; Brunet, II, 1587. 
 
 5 See above, year 1615; La Valliere, I, 346; Stengel, III, 188-226; 
 Lombard, I, 362; Rigal, Alexandre Hardy, 481-83. 
 
 fi La Valliere, I, 351; Stengel, IV, 126-64; Lombard, I, 363-64; Rigal, 
 Alexandre Hardy, 483-88.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 175 
 
 (Alexandrines; 5 acts) by Alexandre Hardy. Published and 
 dedicated with the preceding. 1 
 
 1621 ( ?)-1626. — Phraarte on Le Triomphe des Vrays 
 Amans, Tragi-comedie (Alexandrines; 5 acts) by Alexandre 
 Hardy. Published and dedicated with the preceding. 2 
 
 1622.-T— La tres-saincte et admirable vie de Madame Saincte 
 Aldegonde, patronne de Maubenge, tragicomedie, by Denis 
 Copp"ee. Liege. 3 
 
 1622. — Tragicomedie. Sainct Ignace de Lo'iola, premier 
 Auiheur et fondateur de la Compagnie de Jesus. Faicte a I'hon- 
 neur de sa glorieuse canonization. Laquelle sera representee 
 par les E scolders du College de la Societe de Jesus a Cassel le 27 
 de Mai. Published at Ipre, 1622. 4 
 
 1622. — Clitophon, Tragi-comedie (Alexandrines; 5 acts) by 
 Pierre Du Ryer. Acted at the Hotel de Bourgogne, but not 
 printed. 5 
 
 *La Valliere, I, 351-52; Stengel, IV, 165-207; Lombard, I, 364; Rigal, 
 Alexandre Hardy, 458-66. 
 
 2 La Valliere, I, 352-53; Stengel. IV, 208-5S; Lombard, I, 364-66; Rigal, 
 Alexandre Hardy, 467-72. 
 
 3 Faber, IV, 267. 
 'Faber, IV, 338. 
 
 6 Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. fr. 25, 496; Mahelot, Memoire, fols. 47 Vo 
 and 48; Ouverture des jours gras, published by Ed. Fournier, Varietes his- 
 toriques, II, 345-55; Maupoint, 75; Beauchamps, II, 109; Leris, 82; La Val- 
 liere, I, 498-501; Mouhy, 494; Pont-de-Vesle, 36; Clement, I, 210; Soleinne, 
 I, No. 1003; Philipp, Pierre Du Ryers Leben, 18; Stiefel, Nachahmung ital- 
 ienischer Dramen, I, 259-60. All of these authors but Soleinne call the play 
 Clitophon et Leucippe, the title of the Greek source of the play, but not of 
 the play itself, which is called Clitophon in the manuscript and in seven- 
 teentl -century documents that refer to it. Du Ryer, furthermore, wrote the 
 heroine's name Lucippe, indicating the letter u both by the ordinary symbol 
 and by an unusual symbol, which he certainly means for u, for he employs 
 it in words where there can be no doubt of its meaning, but which has been 
 read eu by dramatic bibliographers under the influence of the Greek name, 
 ordinarily transliterated, Leucippe. The date of the play is uncertain, as 
 the manuscript gives 1632 and, at the same time, calls it the "seconde piece 
 de M. Du Ryer," who published Argents et Poliarque in 1030 and Argents 
 in 1631. One of the statements in the manuscript is, therefore, incorrect. 
 The facts, that Du Ryer published another play in 1632; that no play of 
 his, unless it be Clitophon, appeared between 1618 and 1630; and that Cli-
 
 176 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 1624. — Pasithee. Tragicomedie (Alexandrines ; 5 acts) by P. 
 Troterel sieur d'Aves. Rouen. Dedicated to Marie Cath- 
 erine de Mouchy, Dame de Medany. 1 
 
 1625. — Chriseide et Arimand, tragi-comedie (Alexandrines; 
 5 acts) by Jean Mairet. Published at Paris, 1630. Acted at 
 the Hotel de Bourgogne. 3 
 
 1625. — Les Folies de Cardenio. Tragi-comedie (Alexan- 
 drines; 5 acts) by Pichou. Privilege Aug. 20, 1625. Pub- 
 lished at Paris, 1629, 1633 and 1871. Dedicated to Monsieur 
 de Sainct Simon. Acted at the Hotel de Bourgogne. 3 
 
 1626. — Sephce, tragedie-comique du P. D. Amedee, chance- 
 lier du college a Annecy. Represented Sept. 9. 4 
 
 1628. — Lambertiade, tragicomedie en laquelle seront mis sur 
 le theatre les plus beaux traits de la vie et mort du glorieux 8. 
 Lambert, eveque de Mastricht et de Liege. Represented by the 
 escolliers du college de la compagnie de Jesus a Lux [embourg,] 
 en la salle dudit college, Sept 12. Published at Luxembourg, 
 1628. 5 
 
 1628. — Richecourt, Trage-comedie (Alexandrines; 5 acts; 
 chorus ; partly in Latin) by Dom Simplicien Gody ( ?). Played 
 
 tophon and his first play, Aretaphile, are his only unpublished plays, 
 make it probable that Clitophon was his second play and was, therefore, 
 published before 1630, perhaps in 1622, which is the date assigned to the 
 piece by all the bibliographers except Soleinne and Pont-de-Vesle, who 
 follow the date given in the manuscript. 
 
 1 Maupoint, 238; Beauchamps, II, 85; Freres Parfaict, IV, 375; Lens, 
 253; La Valliere, I, 373; Mouhy, 502; Pont-de-Vesle, 29; Clement, I, 40; 
 Soleinne, I, No. 909 ; Brunet, V, 969. 
 
 2 Mahelot, Memoir e, fols. 54 vo and 55; Maupoint, 71; Beauchamps, 
 II, 112; Freres Parfaict, IV, 337; Leris, 79; La Valliere, II, 88; Mouhy, 
 484; Pont-de-Vesle, 37; Soleinne, I, No. 1056; Brunet, III. 1323; Rigal in 
 Petit de Julleville's Histoire de la Langue, etc., IV, 233; Bizos, Etude, 103 
 seq.; Dannheisser in Rom. Forschungen, V, 39-40. 
 
 3 Mahelot, fols. 55 vo and 56; Maupoint, 144; Beauchamps, II, 103; 
 Freres Parfaict, IV, 419; Leris, 157; La Valliere, II, 37; Mouhy, 545; 
 Pont-de-Vesle, 34; Clement, I, 387; Soleinne, I, Nos. 1036-37; Brunet, 
 IV, 633; Fournier, Theatre; Rigal in Petit de Julleville's Histoire de la 
 Langue, etc., 224 and 226. 
 
 4 The play is lost. Mugnier, Theatre en Savoie, 86. 
 5 Faber, IV, 340.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 177 
 
 by the Pensionnaires des Rr. Peres Benedictins de 8. Nicolas. 
 Published at Saint-JSTicolas-de-Port in Lorraine. 1628 and 
 1860. Dedicated to Anthoine de Lenoncourt, primate of Lor- 
 raine. 1 
 
 1628. — Tyr ei Sidon. Tragi-comedie (Alexandrines; two 
 journees of five acts each) by Jean de Schelandre. Paris. Re- 
 printed there, 1856. Preceded by a preface au lecteur in which 
 Francois Ogier defends the drame libre. 2 
 
 To this list may be added the following lost plays by Hardy, 
 the plots of which, skilfully worked out by Rigal from refer- 
 ences to them in Mahelot's Memoire, show that they were tragi- 
 comedies. 
 
 1593-1632.— L'Inceste suppose. 
 
 1600-1632. — Ozmin. 
 
 1615-1632. — Pandoste (two journees). 
 
 1612-1632. — Le Frere indiscret 3 
 
 From the list have been omitted Hardy's Aristoclee, which 
 is called both tragedy and tragi-comedy, but is undoubtedly a 
 tragedy; his Ravissement de Proserpine par Pluton and Gigan- 
 tomachie, which are not called tragi-comedies, and differ from 
 them by their mythological plots, in which practically all the 
 personages are divine, a usage unknown to French tragi-come- 
 dies; the Ravissement de Cephale (1608), a translation of an 
 Italian musical melodrama and not a tragi-comedy, as it is called 
 by Beauchamps, II, 78, and Clement, II, 119 ; and the unpub- 
 lised Isolite, ou VAmante courageuse, Po'eme tragi-comique, the 
 date of which is unknown. 4 
 
 1 Beaupr6, Recherches sur I'imprimerie en Lorraine. 390-97, Saint- 
 Nicolas-de-Port, 1845; Beauprg, Richecourt, Tragi-Comedie, ibidem, I860; 
 Soleinne, I, No. 1031; Brunet, II, 1641. 
 
 'Maupoint, 310; Beauchamps II, 78 and 100; Lens, 335; La Valli&re, 
 I, 408 and II, 1; Mouhy, 524; Pont-de-Vesle, 33; Clement, II. 481; Soleinne. 
 I, No. 1030; Brunet, V, 195; Bibliotheque Elzevirienne. Ancien Th6&tre, 
 VIII, 5-225; Robiou, Essai, I, 406 seq. ; F. A. Aulard, Schelandre. Un 
 romantique en 1608, Poitiers, 1883; Rigal in Petit de Julleville's Histoire 
 de la Langue, etc., IV, 226 seq. . 
 
 3 Rigal, Alexandre Hardy, 542-56; Mahelot, Fols. 20 vo, 21 vo, 22 vo, 36 
 vo, 58 vo. 
 
 4Cf. La Valliere, I, 528.
 
 178 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 Tragi-comedies pastorales are pastoral, rather than tragi- 
 comedies. As, however, they show the effects of influence from 
 the latter genre, those which appeared between 1600 and 1628 
 are here listed. 
 
 1613. — L'Heureux desespere. Tragi-comedie Pastorelle by 
 C. A. Seigneur de C. Paris. 
 
 1623. — he Pasteur fidelle, tragi-comedie pastoralle de Jean 
 Baptists Guarini, translated by Anthoine de Liraud, Lyonnois. 
 
 1626. — La Sylvie, Tragi-comedie pastorale by Jean Mairet. 
 Published at Paris, 1630. 
 
 1626. — Carite, Tragi-comedie Pastorale. Privilege, June 2. 
 Published at Paris, 1627. 
 
 1627. — Endymion ou le Bavissement, Tragicomedie pasto- 
 ralle by de La Morelle. Paris. 
 
 1627. — Endymion ou le Bavissement, Tragicomedie Pasto- 
 ralle by de La Morelle. Paris. 
 
 1628. — La Climene, Tragi-comedie Pastorale by C. S. de la 
 Croix. Privilege, Nov 24. Published at Paris, 1629. 
 
 1628. — Agimee ou L 'Amour Extrauagant, Tragi-comedie. 
 by S. B. [Sieur Bridard.] Privilege, Dec. 3. Published at 
 Paris, 1629. 1 
 
 III. From Rotrou's First Tragi-Comedy to the Cid 
 (1628-1636). 
 
 1628. — L'Hypocondriaque ou le Mort amour eux by Jean 
 Rotrou. Published at Paris 1631. 2 
 
 1629. — Ligdamon et Lidias ou La Bessemblance by Georges 
 de Scudery. Published at Paris, 1631. 3 
 
 1630. — Ulnconstance Punie by C. S. Sieur de la Croix. 
 Paris. 
 
 1630. — La Belinde by N. de Rampale. Lyon. 
 
 1 See above, page 132. For the author's name, see Soleinne, I, No. 1033. 
 
 2 For the dates of Rotrou's plays, see Stiefel, ZF8L, XVI 1-49. 
 
 3 For the dates of Scudgry's plays, see Batereau, Georges de ScudSry.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 179 
 
 1630. — La Genereuse Allemande ou Le Triomphe a" Amour 
 by Antoine Mareschal. Of its two journees, the first was pub- 
 lished in 1631, the second in 1630, but the privilege for both 
 is dated Sept. 1 of the latter year. Paris. 
 
 1630. — Les Advantures Amoureuses d' Omphalle by Grand- 
 champ. Paris. 
 
 1630. — Argents et Poliarque ou Theocrine by Pierre Du 
 Ryer. Paris. 
 
 1631. — Argenis, the second journee of the preceding. Paris. 
 
 1631. — La Madonte by Jean Auvray. Paris. 1 
 
 1631. — La Dorinde by Jean Auvray. Paris. 
 
 1631. — Le Triomphe d'Octave Cesar by Pere D. Charles- 
 Jerome Rosario, played at Annecy, Aug 16 and 17. 2 
 
 1631.— If I nfidelle Conftdente by Pichou. Paris- 
 
 1631. — Les Travaux d'TJlysse by I. G. Durval. Paris. 
 
 1631. — L'Indienne Amoureuse ou L'Heureux Naufrage by 
 Du Rocher. Privilege, June 14. Published at Paris, 1635. 
 
 1631. — Le Trompeur puny ou YHistoire septentrionale by 
 Georges de Scudery. Published at Paris, 1633. 
 
 1632. — Les Passions esgarees ou Le Roman du Temps by de 
 Richemont Banchereau. Paris. 
 
 1632. — L'Esperance Glorieuse by de Richemont Banchereau. 
 Paris. 
 
 1632. — L'Orizelle ou Les Extremes Monuuements d' Amour 
 by C. Chabrol. Paris. 
 
 1632. — Lisandre et Caliste by Pierre Du Ryer. Paris. 
 
 1632. — Clitandre ov L'lnnocence delivree by Pierre Cor- 
 neille. Paris. 
 
 1632-1633. — Le Vassal Genereux by Georges de Scudery. 
 Published at Paris, 1635. 
 
 J The Freres Parfaict, IV, 494, date this play 1630 because Auvray 
 alludes to it in the dedication of his Dorinde. As the privilege of the latter 
 play, however, is dated May 30, 1631, this allusion is no proof that Madonte 
 was not written in the early months of 1631. Its privilege is dated March 
 7, 1631. 
 
 2 See Mugnier, Theatre en Savoie, 87. The play is not extant. 
 
 3 Privilege, March 8, before which date the author had been assassinated.
 
 180 The French Tragi- Comedy : 
 
 1632-1633. — La Celiane by Jean Kotrou. Published at Paris, 
 1637. 
 
 1633. — Le Ravissement de Florisse ou VHeureux Evenement 
 des Oracles by de Corrneille. Paris. 
 
 1633. — Pyrandre et Lisimene ou L'Heureuse Tromperie by 
 Francois Le Metel de Boisrobert. Paris. 
 
 1633. — La Virginie by Jean Mairet. Published at Paris, 
 1635. 1 
 
 1633. — La Bourgeoise ou La Promenade de S. Cloud by de 
 Rayssiguier. Paris. 
 
 1633. — La Comedie des Comediens by Gougenot. Paris. 
 
 1633. — La Fidelle Tromperie by Gougenot. Paris. 
 
 1633. — Les Heureuses avantures by le Hayer du Perron. 
 Paris. 
 
 1633. — Les Occasions perdues by Jean Rotrou. Published 
 at Paris, 1635. 
 
 1633. — L'Heureux Naufrage by Jean Rotrou. Published 
 at Paris, 1637. 
 
 1633-1634. — La Pelerine Amoureuse by Jean Rotrou. Pub- 
 lished at Paris, 1637. 
 
 1634. — Cleagenor et Doristee by Jean Rotrou. Paris. 
 
 1634. — L'Innocente Infidelite by Jean Rotrou. Published al 
 Paris, 1637. 
 
 1634. — La Soeur Valeureuse ou UAveugle Amante by An- 
 toine Mareschal. Paris. 
 
 1634. — Alcimedon by Pierre Du Ryer. Paris. 
 
 1634. — Les Amours de Palinice, Circeine et Florice by de 
 Rayssiguier. Paris. 
 
 1635. — La Celidee sous le nom de Calirie ou de la Generosite 
 d' Amour by de Rayssiguier. Paris. 
 
 1635. — Les Thuilleries by de Rayssiguier. Privilege, Dec. 
 31. Published at Paris, 1636. 
 
 1635. — 8. Sebastien Marytr by Ivodevs de Croock. Repre- 
 sented at Audenarde, Sept. 21. Published at Ghent, 1635. 3 
 
 1635. — Orante by Georges de Scudery. Paris. 
 
 1 Cf. Dannheisser, Romanische Forschungen, V, 47. 
 2 Faber, IV, 337.
 
 lis Origin and Development. 181 
 
 1635. — Le Prince deguise by Georges de Scudery. Paris. 
 
 1Q35.—Agarite by I. G. Durval. Privilege, March 13. Pub- 
 lished at Paris, 1636. 
 
 1635. — Le Jaloux sans Suiet by Charles Beys. Paris. 
 
 1635. — L'Ospital des Fous by Charles Beys. Privilege, Nov. 
 21. Published at Paris, 1637. 
 
 1635. — L'Heureuse Constance by Jean Rotrou. Paris. 
 
 1636. — Amelie by Jean Rotrou. Published at Paris, 1637. 
 
 1636. — Agesilan de Colchos by Jean Rotrou. Published at 
 Paris, 1637. 
 
 1636. — La Belle Alphrede by Jean Rotrou. Published at 
 Paris, 1639. 
 
 1636. — Les Deux Pucelles by Jean Rotrou. Published at 
 Paris, 1639. 
 
 1636. — L'Amant liberal by Georges de Scudery. Published 
 at Paris, 1638. 
 
 1636. — Le Duelliste malheureux. Rouen. 
 
 1636. — Cleomedon by Pierre Du Ryer. Published at Paris, 
 1637. 1 
 
 1636. — Le Cid by Pierre Corneille. Published at Paris, 
 1637. 2 
 
 'As the privilege is dated le dernier Decembre, 1636 the achev6 d' im- 
 printer, Feb. 21, 1636; and the title page, 1637, there is evidently an error 
 somewhere. Beauchamps, II, 110, changes the privilege to Dec. 31, 1635, 
 thus necessitating a second alteration, as the date of the title-page should 
 be 1636 to coincide with that of the acheve - d'imprimer. If, on the other 
 hand, the error be located in the acheve d'imprimer and its date changed 
 to 1637, the two other dates may be allowed to stand. An error, moreover, 
 was more likely to occur in the acheve d'imprimer than in the privilege, 
 a document in which the date was of particular importance. For these 
 reasons it seems probable that the privilege was given Dec. 31, 1636, and 
 that the publication was completed, Feb. 21, 1637. 
 
 2 From this list have been omitted L'Amphytrite by Monleon, Paris, 1630, 
 called a tragicomedy by Leris, 31, but apparently not a dramatic composi- 
 tion; Les amours infortune'es de Ltandre et d' He'ron, by de la Selve, Mont- 
 pellier, 1633, on account of its unhappy denouement ; L'Amour Bangui- 
 naire, 1633, the classification of which as a tragi-comedy is due to the 
 unreliable testimony of Beauchamps, II, 131; and Cloreste cited by Beau- 
 champs, II, 5, as a tragi-comedy by Baro, played in 1636, but evidently the 
 same as that author's Clorise, a pastoral played before the queen in 1636.
 
 182 The French Tragi-Comedy : 
 
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 La Litterature frangaise des origines a la fin du XV I e 
 
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 Its Origin and Development. 183 
 
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 XLVII, 1-24.
 
 Its Origin and Development. 185 
 
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 LIFE. 
 
 Born at Richmond, Virginia, November 10, 18S2, 1 was 
 educated at private schools, including that conducted by Captain 
 W. Gordon McCabe, and at the University of Virginia, where 
 I was a student from September, 1900, to June, 1903, grad- 
 uating with the degrees of A. B. and A. M. After spending 
 a year as instructor at the University School of Montgomery, 
 Alabama, I entered the Johns Hopkins University in the fall 
 of 1904, taking French as a principal subject, Spanish and 
 Italian as first and second subordinate subjects, and following 
 courses offered by Professors Elliott, Ogden, Armstrong, Mar- 
 den, Shaw, Keidel, Warren, Vos, and Bloomfield. Since com- 
 ing to the University, it has been my good fortune to hold 
 two Virginia Scholarships and the Fellowship in the Romance 
 Department for the current year. The summers of 1905 and 
 1906 were passed in Europe, principally at Paris, where I was 
 occupied, during the second summer, with the collection of ma- 
 terial for my dissertation. 
 
 It gives me much pleasure to thank Professor R. W. Wilson 
 of the University of Virginia for early instruction in Romance 
 languages, and the professors whose lectures I have attended at 
 the Johns Hopkins for the information and inspiration that they 
 have afforded me. I would express to Professor Armstrong my 
 appreciation of his careful and comprehensive courses on the 
 French language ; I would acknowledge the benefit received from 
 Professor Ogden's expression of enlightened literary views, his 
 suggestion of the subject of my dissertation, and the assistance 
 that he has rendered me during its progress. To Professor Elliott 
 I am particularly indebted for a most careful criticism of my 
 dissertation and for wise and sympathetic guidance in various 
 fields of literary and philological research. 
 
 HENRY CARRINGTON LANCASTER. 
 
 Baltimore, April 21, 1907.
 
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