Antoine Baudeau de Somaize

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Antoine Baudeau, sieur de Somaize (* around 1630; † unknown ) was a French author. He is known to this day for his works on the so-called preciousness in France during the 17th century. Somaize attacked Molière violently regarding its artistic originality and made serious allegations of plagiarism.

life and work

Little is known about Antoine Baudeau de Somaize's life. He served as secretary to Maria Mancini , the niece of Cardinal Mazarin, and in 1657 wrote a pamphlet against the writer François le Métel de Boisrobert . He gained some attention in connection with Molière's play Les précieuses ridicules from 1659, in which this very successfully made "the precious" a social issue. Ways of life, feelings and expressions of extreme or exaggerated sophistication were considered to be precious ; these were previously ascribed to the Parisian salon culture , and the terminology was used in particular for a female audience, which is said to have stood out in the aforementioned manner in a most conspicuous manner.

Somaize took advantage of the attention that the precious people had received since Molière's one-act farce, and exploited it through several literary works published in quick succession: Les véritables précieuses (1660), Les précieuses ridicules mises en vers (1660), Le grand dictionnaire ou la clef de la langue des ruelles (1660), Le procès des précieuses en vers burlesques (1660), Le grand dictionnaire des précieuses (1661). While Les Véritables Précieuses was still an independent text, Les précieuses ridicules mises en vers Molière's prose into rhyming stage language without changing the plot. In order not to be considered a real plagiarist, Somaize accused Molière - demonstrably wrongly - of being the auteur prétendu ("alleged author") of the Précieuses ridicules and of having copied both from the novel La précieuse, ou le mystère des ruelles (1656-1658) by Abbé Michel de Pure as well as from several stage pieces that Italian theater companies such as the famous Tiberio Fiorelli (also known by the name of the stage character Scaramouche, who was influenced by him ) would have performed. In general, he insinuated Molière in reputable but unpunished words that his entire art was alien, especially that of the actor Guillot-Gorju , who died in 1648 .

“It is a certainty that he [Molière] is an imitator in everything he does and that he has not only copied the Abbé de Pure's Précieuses , which were played by the Italians; but that he also imitated the Médecin volant in a mockery of which he alone is capable , as well as other plays by the same Italians, which he imitates not only in what is played in their theater, but even in the way they play, so that he incessantly copying both Trivelin and Scaramouche. But what else can one expect from someone who owes all his fame to Guillot-Gorgeus memoirs, which he bought from his widow and which he has reworked into his works? "

- Antoine Baudeau de Somaize : Foreword to Les véritables précieuses , Paris 1660.

It is presumed that behind Somaize's serious allegations were the playwrights and theater troupes already established in Paris (such as the Troupe royale and the Comédie-Italienne in the Hôtel de Bourgogne  ); they probably wanted to do this to eliminate Molière, who had only arrived from the province a few months earlier, as a competitor. The mention of Scaramouche by Somaize was particularly spicy, as Fiorelli was actually considered a friend of Molière and King Louis XIV had allowed him to perform his pieces in the hall of the Petit Bourbon bordering the Louvre , where the Italian appeared on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday .

Somaize's works are of no artistic importance, but are of literary and cultural history. The Dictionnaire , which is written in the manner of a popular lexicon, designated around four hundred French personalities as agents of preciosity and declared them to be a mass phenomenon. In the clef, on the other hand, there are many of the expressions and phrases that are described as typically precious because of their tightness and puffiness , linguistic artistry and bizarre metaphor . Somaize's Dictionnaire has a literary character and his clef is quoted from Molière's satirical stage prose (as well as by many other authors); Nevertheless, these publications became reference works for the image of an aesthetically effective preciousness in Paris and the French provincial cities, which the more recent literary critics recognized as a travesting creation.

literature

  • Roger Duchêne: Les Précieuses ou comment l'esprit vint aux femmes . Fayard, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-213-60702-8 . The texts Les Véritables Précieuses (1660), Les Précieuses Ridicules mises en vers (1660) and Le Grand Dictionnaire ou La Clef de la Lanque des Ruelles (1660) are reprinted in the appendix.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ «… il est certain, qu'il [Molière] est singe en tout ce qu'il fait, et que non seulement il a copié les Précieuses de Monsieur l'abbé de Pure, jouées par les Italiens; mais encore qu'il a imité par une singerie dont il est seul capable Le Médecin volant , et plusieurs autres pièces des mêmes Italy qu'il n'imite pas seulement en ce qu'ils ont joué sur leur théâtre, mais encore en leurs postures , contrefaisant sans cesse sur le sien et Trivelin et Scaramouche. Mais qu'attendre d'un homme qui tire tout sa gloire des Mémoires de Guillot-Gorgeu, qu'il a achetés de sa veuve, et dont il s'adapte tout ses ouvrages? » Quoted from: Roger Duchêne: Les Précieuses ou comment l'esprit vint aux femmes . Fayard, Paris 2001, p. 349.
personal data
SURNAME Somaize, Antoine Baudeau de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Somaize, Antoine Baudeau sieur de; Baudeau de Somaize, Antoine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French author
DATE OF BIRTH around 1630
DATE OF DEATH after 1660