1. The libretto was by Isaac de Benserade, and the music by Jean de Cambefort, Jean-Baptiste Boesset, Michel Lambert and others.

2. Ballet Royal de la Nuit. Divisés en quatre Parties, ou quatie Veilles. Et dansé par sa Majesté le 23 fevriei 1653. A Paris, Par Robert Bollard (119 illustrations). See Bjurström, Per, Giacomo Torelli and Baroque Stage Design (Stockholm: Alm-qvist & Wiksell, 1961), p. 157ff.Google Scholar

3. See Muchembled, Robert, Sorcières, justice et société aux 16e et 17e siècles (Paris: Imago, 1987).Google Scholar The ballet might recall the process described in general terms by Burke, Peter, in Popular Culture in Early Modem Europe (New York: Harper and Row, 1978), p. 61Google Scholar, referring to court festivals such as Masques, which ‘often took place at the same time as popular festivals, such as Carnival’, and where ‘the mock king or ‘Lord of Misrule’ still played a prominent part’. La Nuit may be related to the Carnival season. Cf., for example, an annotation in the Danish diplomat Christopher Parsberg's journal from the Crown Prince Christian's visit to Louis XIV in 1663, describing the Ballet des arts by Benserade and Lully; he tells us that the ballet which was ‘extremely beautiful’, and in which Louis ‘performed in the first Entrée (…) should be danced twice a week as long as the Carnival lasts’. See ‘Prinsen morer sig’ in Krogh, Torben, Musik og Teater (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1955) p. 48ff.Google Scholar

4. The Grand Carrousel (1662) was published in 1670. Charles Perrault's text was illustrated with engravings by Israel Silvestre and François Chauveau.

5. Such as the Sunrise fountain on the east-west axis, facing the royal apartments.

6. In Burke, Peter, The Fabrication of Louis XIV (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992), ill. 9.Google Scholar

7. There are innumerable examples: Pierre Mignard's painting of Louis at Maastricht, from 1673 (Burke, 1992, ill. 28)Google Scholar, Antoine Coysevox's relief of Louis trampling his enemies, from 1681 (ill. 33), Louis as the Conqueror of Heresy by El. Hainzelmann (ill. 70), François Girardon's colossal statue in Paris (Place Louis-le-Grand, unveiled 1699).

8. See Ferrier-Caverivière, Nicole, L'Image de Louis XIV dans la littératuie française de 1660 à 1715 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1981)Google Scholar and Apostolidès, Jean-Marie, Le Prince saczifié. Théâtre etpotitique au temps de Louis XIV (Paris: Minuit, 1985).Google Scholar According to Apostolidès, ‘Les contem-porains de Racine se sont plu à lire Bérénice, par exemple, comme une illustration des amours de Louis XIV et Marie Mancini’ (p. 9, n. 7). This kind of simplified allusion, however, is secondary to the elaboration of historical/political themes, related to the concept of absolutism, concerning state, power and ruler, which neo-classical drama represents, as analysed in Apostolidès: ‘une connaissance même superficielle du théâtre classique permet de voir que la figure monarchique occupe le centre des drames’ (p. 9). Equally significant is the definition of the mythological ‘Roman’ dimension as the metaphorical area for the more ‘pagan’ or non-ecclesiastical aspects of the figure of the divine King, the latter being the central theme for the promotion of absolutism.

9. The Augustan parallelisms flourished from the 1660s.

10. For the discussion of the identity of the author, ‘Monsieur D***’, see Scott, Virginia, The Commedia dell'arte in Paris 1644–1697 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1990), p. 280ff.Google Scholar

11. These copies of the engravings belong to the Recueil Fossard of the Royal Library of Copenhagen. Fossard cut them out of a giant almanac, engraved by fean-Baptiste Bonnart, and mounted them in his own way.

I have discussed the problem of the graphic genre as significant in itself elsewhere. Almanacs were important means for the regime's self-promotion, especially regarding the figure of the king. His holy person was at the centre of iconographic propaganda. Distortion of the genre a priori signalled parody.

The Bonnart almanacs have a high documentary value, being close to the performances in time, obviously referring to practice, not to texts, and sometimes presenting episodes—or, as in the case of Arlequin grand vizir, a whole performance—which do not figure in Gherardi. See Holm, Bent, ‘King, Carnival and Commedia’, in Nordic Theatre Studies 4 (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1992).Google Scholar

12. Gherardi says Mezzetin, the engravings show Spezzafer. See Scott, , p. 230.Google Scholar Roles were not reserved for specific masks.

13. See Gherardi, Evariste, Le Théâtre Italien, ou le recueil général de toutes les comédies et scènes fiançoises jouées par les comédiens du roy, pendant tout le temps qu'ils ont été au service, I-VI (Paris: Cusson et Witte, 1700).Google ScholarArlequin Protée is published in Volume 1.

14. In a third engraving, reproduced in Holm, Bent, Solkonge og Mànekejser. Ikonografiske studier i Fr. Fossards Cabinet (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1991), p. 204Google Scholar, we see the dealer in the same street scenery desperately looking for Harlequin, who appears in the shape of a laictiere, a milkmaid. The iconography thus provides us with a number of details not found in Gherardi's edition.

15. The institution of the court jester had been abolished. The professional commedia dell'arte emerged at a time when non-professional dramatic genres in various countries were forbidden in mid-sixteenth century, among them the French farces as a consequence of the Counter-Reformation struggles.

16. The description is reported by Thomas-Simon Gueullette in his manuscript, Histoire du Théâtre Italien as told by Angelo Costantini to Mile Riccoboni. According to Scott, p. 27 lff., there is evidence for its authenticity.

17. It is striking that from the very beginning an element of (Mock) Prince seems to be associated with Harlequin. The first Harlequin in 1585 is called ‘Arlequin le Roi;’ Tristano Martinelli addresses the King as one prince would another. See among others Florescu, Ileana, ‘Harlequin, nom de comédien’ in Biblioteca teatrale 4 (Rome: Bulzoni, 1986)Google Scholar; Holm, , 1991, p. 123ff.Google Scholar; Gambelli, Delia, Arlecchino a Parigi. Dall'infemo alia corte del Re Sole (Rome: Bulzoni, 1993), p. 140ff.Google Scholar; and Ferrone, Siro, Attori mercanti corsari. La commedia delll'arte in Euzopa tia cinque e seicento (Torino: Einaudi, 1993), p. 206ff.Google Scholar

18. The plot was copied in several versions, from Aphra harlequinade, Behn'sThe Emperor of the Moon (1686)Google Scholar to Ioldoni's libretto Il Mondo della luna (1750), which transformed the masks to ‘normal’ types. It was set to music by Baldassare Galuppi, later on by Avondano, Pietro Antonio (1765)Google Scholar, Piccinni, Niccolò (1770)Google Scholar, Paisiello, Giovanni (1774)Google Scholar, Astaritta, Gennaro (1775)Google Scholar, Haydn, Joseph (1777)Google Scholar, and Portugal, Marcos António (1791).Google Scholar

19. As for the dating see Holm 1991, p. 241ff., and Guardenti, Renzo, Gli italiani a Parigi, I-II (Rome: Bulzoni, 1990), I, p. 248f.Google ScholarMoureau, François, Présence d'Arlequin sous Louis XIV (Paris: Klinksieck, 1992), p. 80Google Scholar, mentions the possibility that the drawings may be by Claude Simpol; and he dates the engraving series Douze modes du théâtre italien, to which the Arlequin Empeieur de la Lune belongs, to 1696, p. 141.

20. See Burke, , The Fabrication of Louis XIV, p. 135ff.Google Scholar

21. Ibid., pp. 135, 143, and 147. We also have a Arlequin Phaeton parody in the Gherardi repertoire, in which Harlequin falls as the unlucky Phaeton; in terms of official mythology, this puts Harlequin in the antipodal position so often mentioned.

22. Further examples can be found in Burke, p. 135ff., including the statue on the Place des Victoires with four mistresses replacing the four figures defeated by the king. Four continents, four seasons, and so on, is stock equipment of the universal ruler, like the throne room decoration at Versailles mentioned above.

23. Campardon, Emile, Les Comédiens du Roi de la troupe italienne (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1880), p. XXIIffGoogle Scholar, quotes a royal letter to La Reynie, ‘lieutenant-général de police’, saying that the Italians should be sent back to Italy if they continue ‘de faire quelque posture indécente ou dire des mots équivoques et quelque chose qui soit contre l'honnesteté’. Someone should watch the theatre so that it might be closed at the first violation; this happened the following year.

24. The Italians may have announced a play called La fausse prude. In that case the title refers to an earlier performance, La fausse coquette, from 1694, which in turn refers to Baron, Michel's La Coquette ou la fausse prude from 1686.Google Scholar

25. Minor confrontations with the authorities did occur even before the expulsion.

26. This one is found at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. According to Moureau, p. 88, another copy is atthe Bibliothèque de l'Opera in Paris. The engraving has a counterpart in the Baguette de Vulcain engraving in the Recueil Fossard of Copenhagen, see Holm, , 1991, p. 225.Google Scholar That one, too, seems to be rare. Moureau refers to a copy at the Bibliothèque de l'Opéra.

27. Scott, , p. 374.Google Scholar

28. The kitchen references are found throughout Carnival iconography. For further investigations of these themes in Théâtre Italien, in some cases with explicit reference to Charivari, and Le Prince de Maidy GrasGoogle Scholar, see Holm, 1992Google Scholar, containing analyses of engravings by Nicolas and Jean-Baptiste Bonnart from Le Tiiomphe d'Arlequin Jason, ed. 1685, and Arlequin grand vizir, ed. 1688.

29. The custom is called il segare la Vecchia.

30. See Burke, , 1992, p. 136.Google Scholar

31. See Holm, , 1991, p. 150ff.Google Scholar In my opinion Scott, p. 324ff., and Gambelli, p. 244ff., in their valuable examinations of the expulsion underrate the ecclesiastical point of view. The religious dimension influenced the king's view on theatre at that time.

32. Urbain, Charles and Levesque, Eugène, L'Église et le théâtre (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1930), p. 247.Google Scholar This of course has a general, symbolic value. Caffaro, p. 99ff., referred to the fact that theatre performances were legally announced ‘avec privilège du Roy’, wherefore they could not be illegitimate, as would have been the case if the posters had offered visits to brothels or eating meat during Lent, i.e., to commit a deadly sin, namely Luxuria. Caffaro was right in his demonstration of an incoherence. Bossuet ignores the argument of royal approval and focuses on licentiousness, stressing the obscenities of the (royal) Italian troupe. Bossuet calls for the expulsion: ‘bannir du milieu des Chrétiens les prostitutions et les adultères, dont les comédies italiennes ont été remplies, mesme de nos jours’ (p. 184).

33. Some clergy, playing the pragmatic devil's advocate, argued for the minor male: if young men were stopped from frequenting playhouses, what other ‘houses’ would they flock to?