“One never sees monsters without experiencing emotion”. Le merveilleux and the Sublime in Theories on French Performing Arts (1650–1750)

Abstract

One never sees mOnsters withOut experiencing emOtiOn"Le merveiLLeux and the sublime in theOries On French perFOrming arts (1650-1750) stijn bussels and bram van Oostveldt i note with sadness that one of the beauties of the lyric theatre is neglected and is falling steadily into a highly regrettable decline.this is, quite frankly, a shameful thing for an enlightened century like ours.dear me! when monsters are used in a tragédie [lyrique], they are so puny, so clumsy that they simply make you feel sorry for them (. ..) i was at a performance of Persée at the court theatre.it has to be admitted (. ..) that the persées have improved themselves beyond recognition, and yet, by an incredible contrast, the monsters no longer arouse any interest.they have nothing to characterize them, nothing which in former times used to cause that delicious tingly feeling we call goose flesh.people will reply, perhaps, that this decline to which i take exception is quite immaterial, that monsters no longer attract the attention of the public, who regard them as mere sleight out of hand.Yet i maintainand several ladies of this province agree with me -that one never sees monsters without experiencing emotion.what potential to stir up violent feelings in the spectator's heart if the monsters were as they should be! but what kind of a monster is it which, with two paws about the size of my fan, tries to terrify andromeda who is prepared to laugh in its face.(. ..) to be honest, it seems high time that several rules, several fixed principles on the deployment of monsters, were added to the system of poetics.every sea monster, for example, should be at least 18 feet long by 6 feet wide with an aperture in its head that could gobble up a twenty year-old; how ridiculous a monster seems if it is reduced to snapping like a common guard dog.that is truly ignoble!1 this is a letter from 1747 to the mercure de France of an alleged burgundian lady of qualities.her complaint against the deplorable state of the monsters in the tragédie lyrique or tragédie en musique -an opera genre introduced by lully and Quinault in 1673 -is most probably ironical.in the enlightened century, this pretended lady from a provincial salon worries about the deteriorating theatrical representation of monsters.she

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