The Margins of the Rational Man: Fluid Identities in Eighteenth-Century Biography

It is not the violent man unable to control himself who moves us; that is an advantage reserved for the man in full possession of himself.(Diderot, Paradox on Acting 320).Reason beyond the MarginAs a new class of self-made celebrities, many stage actors eagerly endorsed the notion of education for improvement through reason and sought to offer public instruction, despite their perceived marginality and lingering doubts about their own moral respectability among the same public. Actor biographies and essays, both new genres, introduced the notion of the celebrity performer as archetype of the rational man.1 This study will explore the Enlightenment conception of the individual of reason, its attempted formulations in actor biographies, and its ultimate denial by the reality of human identity as multiple, fluid, and dialogical. Such fluidity sought to overcome the marginal status of the stage player through the embodiment of rational models of personality.When Enlightenment notions posited knowledge as the means to improve the human condition, they furnished the grounding for nothing less than a science of living. The new rationality rejected many of the traditional notions of religious obedience to reified laws and directives in favor of human-based standards for progressive change. Bracketed by Locke and Hegel, the age prioritized "reason" as the universal method for individual betterment, requiring "rational self-responsibility."2 Reason in this way became the supreme unifier of the energies of the mind. "Variety and diversity of shapes are simply the full unfolding of a . . . homogeneous formative power." This dynamic but coherent power was characterized with the single word "reason." This task Montesquieu expressed succinctly and eloquently: to bring "nature under the intense light of reason" (Cassirer 5-6; 47-48).3 In Herbert Marcuse's words, "From now on, the struggle with nature and with social organization was to be guided by [the individual's] own progress in knowledge. The world was to be an order of reason" (3- 4). Much of the new thought in the eighteenth century concerned egalitarian goals that posited a social leveling, or at least balancing. These democratic aims, brought about in part through a greater appreciation of truth by scientific reasoning and broader educational visions, remained largely unrealized throughout the century. Still, the British middle class moved to the epicenter of consciousness, inspiring and defining movements for change.4 Conspicuous among these were certain theatre celebrities, who began to offer public instruction for personal improvement, albeit aware of their own problematic acceptance among elements of the general public.In an age when reasoning, individual deportment, articulate speech, appropriate clothing, contained emotionality, knowledge of social etiquette, and amateur scientific experimentation marked the identity of the gentleman, and to an extent that of the lady, famous theatre performers were increasingly valued as educators and-specific to the new science of living-as advocates of "nature" in the theatre.5 Figures such as Charles Macklin and David Garrick, two of the most revered, in Great Britain, actors and actor-managers (stage directors), began to accept aristocrats and the new bourgeoisie alike as students of acting, deportment, manners, moral behavior, and most vitally, of the new science of living. Instruction was offered in the homes of the actors and their customers, while oratories and coffee houses became the sites of public and semi-public demonstrations of such behavioral standards. Also, dramatic productions did double duty as entertainment for mixed audiences of the aristocracy and the middle class while offering opportunities for spectator/learners to observe the class-coded details of behavior, interaction, and moral sensibility presented by the characters on stage.6 Extending this interest, actor biographies and essays furnished models of the individual for a rational age, a discourse that could overcome the marginal status of the theatre profession. …