Libertine Strategies: Freedom and the Novel in Seventeenth-Century France

Abstract

It has become something of a commonplace to note that Antoine Adam's Romanciers du dix-septieme siecle has sparked a re newed concern with French seventeenth-century fiction.The energy of this revival is far from spent, and the near future will certainly bring new histories of trends in the early novel.The present study both is and is not such a history.It does deal with a group of novels similar enough to be examined under a c o m m o n heading, and it suggests relationships, even relationships of influ ence, among them.Yet it does not aspire to the comprehensive ness of previous volumes on the seventeenth-century novel.S o m e m a y argue that its scope is not vast enough.Certainly there are contemporary novels related in important ways to the novels con sidered here.For example, Scarron's Roman comique could have played an interesting role in the chapter on narrative structures. 1 Such parallelisms do not shatter the unity of m y corpus.The nov els I refer to as libertine profit in a special way from the type of reading proposed here.Ha d I chosen to explore every point of comparison with novels outside this small group, I would have obtained thoroughness at the expense of detail.It is in the domain of what might be termed intimacy that this study differs most clearly from traditional histories of the novel.Categories such as "comic novel" or "realistic novel" produce corpuses too vast for anything but generalized examination.A s long as all the seventeenth-century's non-"heroic" texts are con sidered as a package deal, they will receive only sketchy treat ment.The assumption appears to be that the majority of these texts are not rich enough to sustain more rigorous analysis.A crit ic can easily devote an entire book to a text considered first-rate, ix Preface xiii this study in a context of wider critical interest.I originally de cided against writing such a conclusion because I felt the liber tines should stand on their own.I was concerned that their works might be overshadowed by those of their more illustrious eighteenth-century "heirs."N o w I also kno w that I did not write this conclusion because I sensed that a chapter would not be suffi cient to trace the parallels I wished to explore.I a m currently about to embark on what will be in some sense a sequel to this project, a book on the defensive strategies of Rousseau, Laclos, and Sade.Libertine Strategies was written during the tenure of a fellow ship sponsored by the National Endowmen t for the Humanities.The University of Pennsylvania released m e from m y teaching duties and facilitated m y work in every way.I would like to thank all those w h o helped m e obtain and use this grant, especially Var tan Gregorian.I would also like to thank the colleagues w h o read this manuscript in its early stages: Jean Alter, Clifton Cherpack, and Georges M a y .They argued with m e , criticized m e , even praised me-managed to keep m e both going and on m y toes.Maurice Laugaa provided encouragement in the crucial last phase of its composition.English Showalter's thoughtful and generous criticism of the completed manuscript helped guide m e through its revisions.M y debt to Charlie Bernheimer is impossi ble to measure.He , too, argued with m e , criticized m e , and yes, even praised me-and he also poured over every word of this m a n uscript with more attention than I had ever dreamed it would receive.N e w Haven, Connecticut June, 1980 1. In an appendix, I discuss certain novels with affinities to the libertine tradition.2. Strauss, pp. 24, 25.For most works, complete references are provided in the Bibliography.References that cannot be easily traced in this matter are in cluded in the notes.3. "Tristan" is sometimes considered a surname, but Tristan himself played with it as if it were a given name.LIBERTINE STRATEGIES Euclid's world is very simple and Ein stein's world is very difficult; neverthe less it is n o w impossible to return to Euclid's.N o revolution, no heresy is comfortable and easy.Because it is a leap, it is a rupture of the smooth revo lutionary curve, and a rupture is a wound, a pain.But it is a necessary wound.Most people suffer from he reditary sleeping sickness, and those w h o are sick with this ailment (en tropy) must not be allowed to sleep or they will go to their last sleep, the sleep of death.-EvgenyZamiatin CHAPTER ONE THE OTHER GRAND SIECLE On m'a chasse de la cour, ouje n'avals quefaire; si on mepresse encore a sortir de France, quelque part de VEurope ouje veuille aller, mon nom m'y afait des connoissances.Je me saisfacilement accommoder a toute diversite de vivres et d'habillements; les cli mats et les hommes me sont indifferents.-Theophile(de Viau) Ceci est de I'histoire et ne nous regarde plus, simple biographe litterair e, humble critique cherchant quelques perles dans lefumi er des ecrivains de second ordre.-Theophile(Gautier) 1. THETWOTHEOPHILES Avant d'avoir lu un seul de ses vers je lui portais deja un tendre interet a cause de son n o m de Theophile, qui est le mien. . . .C'est peut-etre une puerilite, mais je vous avoue que tout le mal que Ton disait de Theophile de Viau m e semblait adresse a moi, Theo phile Gautier.Theophile est un n o m c o m m e un autre, . . .mais ce n o m obscur, . . .je l'aime dans moi et dans les autres. . . .Voyez come la marraine de Theophile a eu une idee triomphante de l'appeler ainsi et pas autrement!Car il est certain que, si elle lui eut donne pour n o m Christophe ou Barthelemy, je ne m'en serais pas occupe le moins du monde. 1 T w o m e n n a m e d Theophile were leaders of what could be consi dered parallel intellectual and artistic revolutions.A little over two centuries passed after one Theophile w a s hanged in effigy and imprisoned before the first individual outside his immediate circle of friends took u p his defense: the other Theophile.A s Gautier admits, he originally noticed his kindred spirit only because of the 4 Libertine Strategies first nam e they share, a nam e otherwise rare in the French literary tradition.Nevertheless, this curious onomastic recurrence is not nearly so interesting as the onomastic difference that sets these writers apart.Their baptismal certificates show that they began life with both a Christian and a family name , yet while history has chosen to employ this double name when speaking of the nineteenth-century French author, an exceptional practice has become current in the case of his predecessor.Gautier was the first to remark that the seventeenth-century m a n of letters has traditionally been referred to simply as "Theophile.""Sur le titre de ses oeuvres, Theophile, je ne sais pourquoi, n'est designe que par son prenom."The question should not be dropped with Gaut ier's casual "je ne sais pourquoi."The proper name is the only sign with a unique referent."The ophile de Viau" designates the individual Theophile de Viau and no one but Theophile de Viau.The first name, however, presents special problems within the category of the proper name. 2 W h e n unmarked by deictics, "Theophile" is merely a Christian name with an infinite number of possible referents, referents that be come clear only with the addition of a family name: Theophile de Viau, Theophile Gautier, Theophile U n Tel.T o suppress "de Viau" and leave only "Theophile" is to destroy the specificity of the functioning of this proper name .W h e n referred to simply as "Theophile," Theophile de Viau loses his identity, becomes one Theophile amon g countless others.This nam e fails to fulfill prop erly its basic function of marking off his personal territory.Wer e his case unique in the history of seventeenth-century French liter ature, it would be less significant.There are, however, two other contemporary writers w h o share Theophile's fate and are know n in literary history by their first names alone: Cyrano and Tristan.Such appellations cause obvious confusion.For example, the in dividual w h o announces his intention of reading the works of one of these authors may encounter the same eminently logical ques tion: "Which Theophile?""Which Tristan?"-even, "Which Cy rano?" O n a more practical level, the critic trying to track down scholarly references can never be certain of their place in alpha betical classifications.Will Cyrano be listed under " C " for "Cyra no" or " B " for "Bergerac?" 3 The twentieth-century scholar's bibliographic dilemma is only The Other Grand Siecle 5 a largely inconsequential by-product of a phenomenon with much larger implications.The suppression of family names not only produces inconsistencies a m o n g indexes, it also reflects a loss of status in literary history.Whereas the inconsistencies are accidental, the loss of status is not.It is the result of a desire to obliterate, along with their names, the values represented by these writers and by many of the works they produced.In their day, Theophile de Viau, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Tristan L'Hermite, to return their full names to them for once, were known as liber tines, freethinkers whose flamboyant life styles, dangerous ideas, and attacks on the ruling order(s) threw suspicion on their literary productions.They created daring, unusual novels at a time when partisans of literary codification were beginning their attempts to destroy all that did not conform to their carefully laid out rules.Using three essential strategies, the grand siecle eliminated the blemish of the libertine writer from the otherwise flawless surface it was contriving even then to leave for posterity.First, it created a climate hostile to the publication and the distribution of works by authors of unorthodox philosophical stance.Although the re pressive conditions for publication in the seventeenth century often have been exaggerated, certain facts give testimony to the difficulties encountered by the novelists under consideration here.A mere three copies of the first edition of Theophile's Frag ments d'une histoire comique have

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