Sixteenth-century theatre

Abstract

The most striking innovation in French dramatic literature in the sixteenth century is the humanist theatre: tragedies and comedies drawing on classical (mainly Latin) and Italian models, allied to the Pléiade enterprise, and appealing to an educated audience or readership. These plays (particularly the tragedies) are the best-known dramatic works of the period. However, other more popular forms preceded and to some extent coexisted with this learned output. Mystery plays, for example, continued to be performed in Paris until banned by the Parlement in 1548, and in the provinces for some time thereafter. The morality plays, farces, and soties of the medieval period also survived well into the sixteenth century, but need no separate account here. A link or hybrid between the older type of play and the humanist theatre may be seen in some Protestant plays, which are given the designation of ‘tragédie’ but do not fully adopt the humanist model. Théodore de Bèze was an eminent Calvinist theologian and pastor. His play Abraham sacrifiant was performed in Lausanne in 1550 and published in Geneva the same year. The title page identifies the play as a Tragedie Françoise and in an introductory note to readers Bèze discusses his use of this word, but only in terms of whether it should be called ‘Comedy’ or ‘Tragedy’ (as it has elements of both), not whether it could have been called a ‘Mystery’.

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