The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-20
M.FUNCK.B RENTANO ON RACINE
THE GRAND MONAR0UE'S COURT
LIFE SHOWN UP.
Much Surface Pollteness and Excessive
Refinement Covered Coarseness, Brn-
tally and violent Passions MILD words
Cover Brutal Deeds In the Poets Plays

tnlltA ana Violent bhShion' -luEi9 WoiN'
Cover Brutal Deeds In the Poets Plays
Every seat in the big recitation room
In Schermerhorn Hall at Columbia was
filed, women were sitting on tia rising
steps and on the radiators and occupied
the limited standing room, when Nj. Frantz
Funck- Brentano appeared, twenty minutes
late, yesterday afternoon TO deliver his
second lecture before the university on
Louis XIv.'s Court and Racine's Plays.
The audience was overwhelmingly femi-
nine: there were many Columbia instruc-
tors but the students kept carefully away.
II the lecturer took glance at his au-
dience he must have been impressed by the
good looks Of the American women. There
they sat, elderly and middle aged. all bright
faces, with double ring around the room
OF charming fresh, boarding school girls
led In In detaohments of six or eight by
their French instruotresses.
Prof. Adolphe Cohn OF Columbia, who
introduced VI. Funck- Brentano, explained
the delay by the fact that the lecturer had
been learning American experience with
New York cabman- He was breathless
when he began TO speak and nearly as
much out 9. breath when he got through.
The lecture was q continuation Of M.
Funck- Brentano's thesis exposed last week,
that no poet or artist can create any
work OF art that Is not inspired by his sur
roundings, and that Ia order 70 under
stand in part the writer's OF a bygone age.
which we never can do perfectly, we must
know the history and circumstances OF
their time. After throwing light on Cor
neile's tragedies from the incidents of
Richelieu's rule, Racine and his plays must
be explained by the state of affairs at the
court OF the Grand Monarque. The lect-
ure was rather more literary than the
preceding one. and as he was not on wholly
new ground, the lecturer quoted freely from
rather recent authors. Tame and Cha
teaubriand, as we'll as the seventeenth
century authors.
The distinctive trait OF the time was
politenees. Life centred in the court
which was like town, filed with single
person, Louis XIV. AS Saint-Smon put it
All France filed up the Great Hall at
Versailles, or wherever the King chose TO
be. The nobility had become overrefined.
There were quarrels and jealousies rs before,
for human nature Is the same, but instead
Of settling matters with the sword, polite
phrases and retorts were used which were
just as deadly. E1pbemism and preci-
osity marked the language and will be
noted in the couTteo forms and express
sions used by Racne's heroes when they
quarrel.
Taine's idea was that Racine could only
be properly presented on the stage with
Louis XIV. costumes and Louis XIV
scenery, He showed that Jodb in -Athalie
il merely Archbishop Bossuet, and that
the sent ments Of the classical peraonages
are merely those OF the court The Aehiles
OF Racine is polite gentleman and not
the rather boorlsh prSefghter Of Homer;
Iphipeniu loves him chiefly because be is
OF better family than she, an idea that
belongs to the little courts Of Germany
and France, rather than To ancient Greece.
-Athalie- wos performed for the first time
entirely by couTtiers, and that Is the key
10 Racine.
N. Funck- Brentano's own contribution
TO the question from his study OF the docu-
ments IA that the poiiteness and excessive
refinement OF Louis XIV.'s Versailles was
chiefly superficial, and that below the sur
face there was a great deal OF coarseness,
OF brutality, and OF violent passion. II is
a discovery that foreigners had made before
him, that II you scratch a Frenchman you
find tiger, and the events Of the Commune
showed how shinly this veneer OF civilization
lay on the City Of Light IL lisa good sign
that Frenohman should be able to see the
phenomenon ZOO.
In proving his point he quoted from
contemporary memoirs. That most de-
lightful OF dinrists, Madame Elisabeth
Charlotte, the mother Of the Regent Or
leans, blunt, honest, not overrefined
German. was amazed at the robustness of
the French courtiers in spite OF their flnicky
manners and dress. The number Of ladies
in tho audience probably made M. Funok-
Brentano refrain from quoting Literally
from her. He made more use OF that bril-
liant baokbiter Saint-Simon. He pointed
out that IL was still characteristic OF the
French nobility that IL kept eternally young.
Louis XIV. at 80, and his ministers. in
spite OF court formality. delighted in school
boy pranks The Grand Mona que. who
is pictured by Saint-Simon az the model
of department, the flower OF politeness
never emitting to raise his hat 10 woman
however humble In rank, nevertheless was
in the habit Of rolling bread crumbs into
pellets which he snapped at the ladiea at
his table. On one occasion be threw an
orange at a hot tempered young woman
hitting her in the check. whereupon she
selzed the nearest howl Of fruit and dumped
II on the great Kings head. Nine. de
Montespan. Doulss mistress, and her sister
were singular in liking to eat their food
neatly; the King and his courters used to
watch their chance 10 slip hairs and other
unclean things into their plates.
Husbands were in the habit OF beating
their wives. in spite Of their polite phrases,
apparently. and was perfectly good form
Instances were the highest persons at court.
CASTOR OF Orleans. the Prince Of Condo
and others. Marshal de RoquelauIe had
a dispute, in company with Mime de Lonne,
wife of Louis XIV q Minister. and they
soon came TO blows and we're pulling each
others hair.
INNS. dc Sevigne, the model OF letter
writers, tells her daughter stories, in the
most delicate language, that no mother
would dream now Of writing 10 her daughter
Coarseness and vulgarity Of action and
language, too, appear in Moliere's plays.
which cannot be acted except with con-
cessions to modern taste. The Brinyilliers
trial. the affair Of poisons that implicated
many OF the nobility, show 10 what lengths
passion would 20 and account for characters
like Racine's Neron and Phedre.
NJ. Funok- Brentano further point cd out
how, in spite OF the delicacy and tender
peas Of the language the actions which
engage the attention Of Racine's audiences
are essentially brutal and violent. He
referred particularly To PvrrhHs's brutality
In -Andromaque. Tie concluded by re-
stating his thesis, that 10 understand Cor
nellie and Racine we must reoonstitute so
far as We can the society and coalitions
OF their time.