Moliere, Commedia dell'arte, and the Question of Influence in Early Modern European Theatre by Richard Andrews Although Moliere's

lin s with Italian commedia dell' arte are recogni!ed in general terms, there is still much analysis to be conducted on the le"el of detail# This paper attempts on the one hand to identify some typical units of comic monologue and dialogue which can be seen as influenced by practices of Italian comedy, both scripted and impro"ised# At the same time, it raises $uestions about the criteria which should be adopted in identifying 'sources' and 'influence' in this period of European drama when, within the theatre profession, te%ts and ideas were circulated by oral transmission as often as by written means# The notion that the commedia dell'arte and Moliere ha"e something to do with each other is hardly a new one# As a performer, Moliere was compared more than once in his lifetime to contemporary Italian actors&&sometimes perhaps as a compliment, at other times as an accusation of plagiarism# As a playwright, his regular use of Italian models was perhaps first systematically highlighted by 'uigi Riccoboni, in the early eighteenth century# ()* Riccoboni might ha"e been biased, being himself a practitioner of comedie italienne in +aris, but the sub-ect has ne"er gone away since, and for most commentators it is now -ust a commonplace that Moliere li"ed and wor ed chee by -owl with Italian actors, had Italian playscripts in his personal library, and was sub-ect therefore to a steady stream of influence from Italian dramatic material# It might be supposed, then, that the sub-ect has now been co"ered, and that there is no more to say# In fact, close e%amination of rele"ant material suggests that much remains to be researched and understood# In )... the /wiss scholar Claude 0our$ui published a hugely impressi"e sur"ey of Moliere's sources, (1* which gi"es the impression of being definiti"e, but 0our$ui himself insisted in his own introduction to that "olume that there is more wor still to be done on Italian material in particular# 2e suggests (on p# ).* that sur"i"ing scenarios of Italian impro"ised theatre ha"e not yet been studied as closely as they could be, either in themsel"es or in their implications for other drama# 0our$ui's wor is in"aluable, and it is impossible now to wor without constant reference to it# The present essay ne"ertheless claims to offer some further proposals, in respect of both material and methodology, which it is hoped will complement his approach rather than sub"ert it, and which may also suggest further lines of detailed en$uiry# The proposals relate e$ually to the specific $uestion of Italian influences on Moliere, and to the wider $uestion of what we can regard as a 'source' in early modern European theatre# In the first place we could suggest that, in order to designate the Italian material to which Moliere was responding, the "ery use of the words commedia dell'arte is understandable but has its dangers# The term itself was not nown in Moliere's time3 it is not documented until its use by 4oldoni in )567,# (8* /ince then, a stereotype picture has been created of what commedia dell'arte was (or ought to be, or ought to ha"e been*, on which Italian researches of the last thirty years should now cast considerable doubt# It is a romantici!ed image, clung to especially hard by some 9rench scholars, and indeed it was created first of all in 9rance out of the researches of Maurice /and# :ne of its most obstinate, but in fact most $uestionable, assumptions is formulated by 4usta"e Attinger at the end of his ).67 study of 'the /pirit' of commedia dell'arte in 9rench theatre# ''a commedia dell'arte,' he says, 'c'est une conception plasti$ue du theatre', and a little later 'la commedia dell'arte

subordonne tout au spectacle'# (;* In other words, it is allegedly a non&"erbal form of theatre, in which meaning is regularly entrusted to gesture, slapstic , e"en mime, more often than to words# This premiss can lead to an e%clusi"e, fenced&off picture of the genre, and to attempts to identify 'pure' commedia dell'arte as against more' hybrid' forms (a notion which Attinger himself pursues and supports*# It posits an unbridgeable gulf, at least in terms of theoretical categories and definitions# It places on one side of the fence a professional Italian impro"ised theatre in which language is deemed to play a secondary role, and on the other side all more , literary' forms of drama, including written comic playscripts composed in Italian# In the light of more recent scholarship, this is now a "iew impossible to sustains# (6* In terms of plot material, stereotypes of character, and standard scene patterns, we now tend to see an unbro en continuum in early modern Italy between fully scripted plays and impro"ised scenarios# The impro"ising actors themsel"es relied hea"ily on stylistic models ta en from literature, both dramatic and nondramatic3 the way in which arte professionals 'learnt their part' was to ransac and memori!e large stoc s of material from written and printed sources# The deployment of words (rather than mime or gesture* was the focal point of their craft# 'eading practitioners, such as 4io"an 0attista Andreini ()65<&)<6;*, who brought companies fi"e times to +aris, (<* composed and performed both fully scripted and impro"ised drama, and argued for the legitimacy of both# In terms of genre, their wor included e%periments which could mingle comic, sentimental, and heroic tones in the same play# It is noteworthy that the only three te%ts securely nown to ha"e been performed by Italians in +aris before Moliere's establishment at the +etit&0ourbon were e%tremely mi%ed in tone and style, ma ing use of music and spectacle, and of mythical or romantic stories, as well as some noc about comedy# (5* 9acts li e these should affect our approach to Italian influence on Moliere# 9or e%ample, it is comfortably established that his early comedy ''Etourdi (composed around )<66* is closely based on =iccolo 0arbieri's ''ina""ertito (first printed )<1.*, but more account should be ta en of the fact that the Italian source is a fully scripted play composed by a practitioner of impro"ised theatre, and that 0arbieri has therefore registered, or alluded to, a number of pieces of arte repertoire in his 'non&arte' te%t# Then again, Moliere's early, 'serious' play >om 4arcie de =a"arre ()<<)* is based on Cicognini's 'e gelosie fortunate del prencipe Rodrigo, (?* a play often now categori!ed as a 'heroic comedy'# A source li e this is traditionally put in a separate category from commedia dell'arte In fact it is now easier to see all such material as part of a single promiscuous corpus of Italian drama, and to note that a play li e Cicognini's could easily ha"e been performed by Italian professionals, and used as a basis for impro"ised scenarios# Rather than trying to isolate Moliere's relationship to something specific called 'commedia dell'arte , it is arguably more accurate simply to ac nowledge his continuing relationship with a single broad Italian tradition of dramaturgy and performance# 2a"ing adopted that as an opening premiss, some $ualification is ne"ertheless necessary when spea ing of Italian influence in 9rance# The professional troupes which appealed to 9rench audiences (from the )657s through to Moliere's time* had to o"ercome a language barrier, and they may well ha"e done this initially by accentuating what we now call 'physical theatre' at the e%pense of some of the "erbal humour# @hen Italian companies became permanently established in +aris, they performed what was formally designated as 'Italian comedy', whose e%otic character

was part of its commercial appeal# There was a steady process subse$uently by which comedie italienne adapted itself to +arisian tastes and demands, and this included assimilation to the 9rench language#. 0ut transformations of this sort would ha"e become more apparent after Moliere's death in )<'58# In Moliere's own time, 9rench audiences (as opposed perhaps to more nowledgeable 9rench theatre practitioners* may still ha"e percei"ed 'Italian comedy' as more populist, less "erbally sophisticated, and sometimes more noc about, than 9rench comic theatre# +erhaps we can after all continue to use the retrospecti"e term commedia dell'arte in respect of Italian influences on Moliere, but we should do so with caution, and certainly not try to ma e rigid distinctions or see concepts of 'purity'# @hat certainly did characteri!e Italian theatre in Moliere's time is the fact that professional troupes regularly dispensed with the ser"ices of a dramatist, and constructed their shows by impro"isation# This did not, howe"er, in"ol"e the constant creation of new material# :n the contrary, it usually in"ol"ed a systematic recycling of old material&&of -o es and routines which already e%isted in the repertoire of indi"idual actors, and of plot units (such as the >on Auan story* which had originally been filched from written plays and were now common property for the theatrical profession# This ind of 'actors' theatre', despite later romantici!ed "iews, is actually conser"ati"e rather than inno"ati"e# Impro"ising companies may ha"e had some trouble with political and moral authorities, precisely because their unwritten material could not be pinned down by a censor's reading, but for commercial reasons they could not afford to ma e their shows seriously sub"ersi"e, either in form or in content# In order to o"erride e%isting formats, and create something really new, one needs a coherent "ision from an indi"idual dramatist# The Italians did not ha"e dramatists, and so /aint&E"remond, writing in the )<<7s, characteri!ed them as 'd'e%cellens Comediens, $ui ont de fort mechantes Comedies'# ()7* Their reliance on a common stoc of material, only partially e"er written down, has ma-or implications for our understanding of what 'influence' or 'sources' could mean in practice in the theatre of this period, and that is the sub-ect which we shall address later# 0ut first of all it is worth considering some smaller&scale practical aspects both of con"entional Italian plotting and of the art of impro"isation, and how they can be seen reflected in the detailed dramaturgy of Moliere# ())* An impro"ising actor of this period had his or her own stoc of memori!ed repertoire speeches, ()1* stylistically suitable for the mas or character concerned# /uch speeches could be easily adapted to the rather limited range of circumstances used repeatedly in con"entional plots# According to conte%t, they could be deli"ered as solilo$uies, addressed to other characters, or e"en disguised as dialogue by ha"ing other characters interrupt them# In Moliere's early farce 'a Aalousie du 0arbouille, the figure of the >octeur is an undisguised 9rench "ersion of the commedia dell'arte >ottor 4ra!iano# (The posture which he is described below as adopting, with his gown bundled up behind him, is reflected in a number of sur"i"ing Italian illustrations#* In /cene 1, his ridiculous e%planation of the reasons why he is 'di% fois docteur' is from the actor's point of "iew one continuous memori!ed speech# 0arbouille's attempts to cut in on it ma e no impression, and after a few attempts, the >octeur simply has to be left to finish his thesis# A little later, he performs a nonsensical bra"ura speech on a "ery thin prete%t3

>:CTEBER (troussant sa robe derriere son cul*3 Tu me prends donc pour un homme a $ui l'argent fait tout faire, pour un homme attach a l'interet, pour une ame mercenaireC /ache, mon ami, $ue $uand to me donnerois une bourse pleine de pistoles, et $ue cette bourse seroit dans une riche boite, cette boite dans un etui precieu%, cet etui dans un coffret admirable, ce coffret dans un cabinet curieu%, ce cabinet dans une chambre magnifi$ue, cette chambre dans un appartement agreable, cet appartement dans un chateau pompeu%, ce chateau dans une citadelle incomparable, cette citadelle dans une "ille celebre, cette "ille dans une 2e fertile, cette 2e dans une pro"ince opulente, cette pro"ince dans une monarchie florissante, cette monarchie dans tout le monde, et $ue to me donnerois le monde ou seroit cette monarchie florissante, ou seroit cette pro"ince opulente, ou seroit cette 2e fertile, ou seroit cette "ille celebre, ou seroit cette citadelle incomparable, ou seroit ce chateau pompeu%, ou seroit cet appartement agreable, ou seroit cette chambre magnifi$ue, ou seroit ce cabinet curieu%, ou seroit ce coff ret admirable, ou seroit cet etui precieu%, ou seroit cette riche boite dans la$uelle seroit enfermee la bourse pleine de pistoles, $ue -e me soucierois aussi peu de ton argent et de toi $ue de cela# (Emphasis added* The playful (and totally irrele"ant* e%pansion of focus, from a purse in a small room out to the whole world, is rather li e the cosmic addresses which 0ritish children still tend to write in their elementary&school e%ercise boo s3 'England, Bnited Dingdom, Europe, the @orld, /pace, the Bni"erse', but the >octeur then (starting with 'et $ue to me donnerois', which I ha"e italici!ed abo"e* retraces his steps bac again as a ind of mnemonic tour de force, as though accepting an unspo en challenge from the audience to repeat e"ery step in re"erse order# This also, for an impro"ising actor, would ha"e been a number memori!ed in ad"ance# :ne necessary method of analysing se"enteenth&century drama, in more than one European culture, is to ac nowledge that many single speeches and longer dialogue se$uences possess this character of recyclable repertoire, detachable from one dramatic conte%t and reusable in another# As an inno"ati"e dramatist with his own $uesting agenda, Moliere perhaps uses such material less than some, but it does appear from time to time# It recurs most of all in material used by stage lo"ers, who in the Italian tradition had their own highly formali!ed rhetorical material, poised between sentimental appeal and parody, but always hea"ily based on high&flown literary sources# :n the whole, Moliere refrains from ma ing his lo"ers embar on large&scale speeches of desperation, -ealousy, madness, or triumph, which would be the unadulterated Italian approach3 e%tended sentimentality is not his style, and would hold up his action# =e"ertheless, his sharper and more satirical patterns of dialogue for lo"ers can echo commedia dell'arte# The pointless $uarrel which constitutes the 'title se$uence' of 'e >epit amoureu% (IE# 8*, an idea then recycled by Moliere himself in 'e 0ourgeois gentilhomme (III# )7*, is recogni!ed by 0our$ui (pp# )77&7)* as a standard piece of Italian repertoire&&though the terms in which he recogni!es it, and his reluctance to use the term 'source' for any of its sur"i"ing Italian e%amples, raise methodological problems to which we shall ha"e to return# The same body of repertoire also pro"ided many standard speeches and formulations which belonged to plotting lo"ers, or to o"erbearing fathers, or to -ealous husbands# Moliere draws on such material not only in "ery deri"ati"e farces li e /ganarelle, on le cocu imaginaire, or 'e Mariage force, but e"en in the apparently more ground&brea ing ''Ecole des femmes#

An enormous number of Italian comic plots, from commedia erudita and then from commedia dell'arte, in"ol"e a father wanting to impose authority on a son or daughter, especially with regard to their prospecti"e marriage# /uch fathers are gi"en speeches full of the commonplace topoi of a patriarchal society, no doubt based partly on what real fathers actually said and thought at the time# After more than a hundred years of such comedies, no stage father could be heard by an audience without a (perhaps comfortable* sense of de-a entendu, so the harangues deli"ered by Moliere's Arnolphe would place themsel"es immediately in the conte%t of speeches used by commedia dell'arte fathers such as +antalone# The e%tent to which they then stand out from such a bac ground perhaps still remains to be analysed3 in this play, sheer banality could function as a dramatic tool -ust as well as an element of originality# E"en Arnolphe's famous use (in ''Ecole des femmes, III# 8* of the long parody document 'es Ma%imes du mariage has an Italian feel to it&&not necessarily in the ma%ims themsel"es, but in the dramaturgical structure that is built around their use# Quotations from, and arguments around, documents read out on stage were easy de"ices for impro"ising actors to use, because the document itself constituted a prepared script and so pro"ided a framewor and a safety&net# The formula is found repeatedly in early se"enteenth&century Italian comedies by 0riccio and Eerucci, which are recogni!ed by scholars (including Claude 0our$ui* as attempts to capture the content and structures of impro"ised drama in fully scripted form# (@e shall be returning to this body of material later on, in relation to ''A"are* Moliere's originality does not lie in his use of such a scene in the first place, and perhaps not e"en in any of its line&by& line content, but rather in his ability to organi!e the material so that it contributes to the single&minded debate about how to 'school' a wife, the issue around which his whole comedy is focused# +laying around with an absurd document is $uintessential 'actors' theatre'3 creating a coherent thematic function for the ideas e%pressed by that document is the contribution of a dramatist# The idea that impro"isation from repertoire should produce recogni!ably repeated chun s of spo en content is relati"ely easy to grasp, though detailed e%amples of it in Moliere's writing still probably remain for scholars to flush out# @hat needs lingering o"er a little more is the fact that Italian impro"isation tended to ma e use of identifiable structures of dialogue, which can be recogni!ed independently of what the actors happen to be saying# The reading out of a document, as a stimulus for -o es, is one of these# There are others which are e"en more fre$uent and fundamental# :ne structure in particular, in pre"ious studies, I ha"e proposed as a benchmar for the influence of commedia dell'arte on the dramaturgy of written plays# Many of the Italian comic&theatre scripts that were composed after the impro"ised theatre had become established and popular show a recurrence of a certain type of dialogue structure or shape which earlier, more 'literary', scripts did not use so often# /cenes can be composed in small units of bac &and&forth e%changes between characters, each section in a sense autonomous, and fre$uently in"ol"ing a strong element of repetition# Each unit may simply in"ol"e a -o e, or it may be a step in mo"ing on the con"ersation, or the plot# My hypothesis has been that these units of dialogue, which I ha"e called both' modular' and' elastic', relate to the methods by which impro"ising actors would put a scene together, nowing in broad terms what it should contain and where it should go, but with no pre&composed written script to refer to# ()8* :nce one has learnt to identify such' elastic' units or gags, it becomes rapidly apparent that Moliere uses them "ery fre$uently, though more often in some plays than in

others# They can be used for a simple range of different comic effects# :ne of the most ob"ious is an argument in which one character repeatedly says 'yes' and the other says 'no', perhaps using different words e"ery time# A simple e%ample would be the argument between 2arpagon and Elise, in ''A"are, I# ;, o"er whether or not she is going to marry Anselme# In that case there is a strong element of "erbal echoing, which ma es the scene much easier for actors who are impro"ising3 I ha"e signalled this below by the use of italic3 E'I/E 3 Ae "ous demande pardon, mon pere# 2AR+AC:=3 Ae "ous demande pardon, ma fille# E'I/E3 Ae suis tres&humble ser"ante au seigneur Anselme, mais a"ec "otre permission, -e ne l'epouserai point# 2AR+A4:=3 Ae suis "otre @s&humble "alet, mais a"ec "otre permission, "ous l'epousere! des ce soir# Fetc#G The pattern can be used in other conte%ts as well as in straight contradictions# In 'e 0ourgeois gentilhomme, III# ., one character&&the master Cleonte&&deli"ers a series of repetiti"e laments, each introduced by a different rhetorical phrase, and the second character&&the ser"ant Co"ielle&&pro"ides his own parodic echo, starting his "ersion in each case with the same phrase# :nce again, this is an easy se$uence to impro"ise3 C'E:=TE3 Apres tant de sacrifices ### C:EIE''E3 Apres tant d' assidus hommages ### C'E:=TE3 Tant de larmes $ue -'ai "ersees ### C:EIE''E3 Tant de seau% d' eau $ue -'ai tires au puits ### Fetc#G Another use of the same format is to build up tension, simply by bac &and&forth repetitions which delay the simple statement, or the simple action, which is an ine"itable outcome# @hat all these patterns ha"e in common is that once they are embar ed upon, the actors will find it easy to prolong them as much as they choose, because the element of repetition ma es things easy, both of them now where the con"ersation is going, and the punchline is waiting as a safety&net# :ne of Moliere's most e%tended successions of such elastic gags ta es up almost the whole of the first act of 'e Medecin malgre lui# A full te%t of the first two scenes appears as an appendi% to this essay, where repetiti"e elastic se$uences are mar ed with arrows, beginning and end# The first in"ol"es husband and wife, /ganarelle and Martine, simply trading insults, with "erbal formulae echoed3 it is easy to imagine it going on for longer# Then Martine launches a series of accusations against her husband, to each of which he finds a more or less witty reply# Then there is a classic suspense se$uence# @e all now that Martine is going to get beaten, but the dialogue prolongs the outcome as long as possible in a totally repetiti"e way&&threat on the one side, scorn and insult on the other&&until the e%plosion comes# E%actly the same pattern of suspenseful repetition applies to the three separately identifiable se$uences in /cene 13 the first two end in "iolence against the intruding character Monsieur Robert, and

the third in apparent reconciliation between the couple# (The introduction of Monsieur Robert is entirely pointless, e%cept in the cause of getting more laughs, and the character ne"er appears again3 this too is a feature of 'modular' comic dramaturgy#* In e"ery case it would be easy for a trained pair of Italian actors -ust to remember the essential content of each se$uence, respond to one another, echo one another, and eep an ear open for the moment when it feels right to mo"e to the punchline&&a moment which could be slightly different for each performance# In his sur"i"ing printed scripts Moliere has simply fro!en for all time, on the page, one possible performance "ersion of each fle%ible unit of dialogue# It is typical of him that his sense of touch and of rhythm is so secure that once you ha"e played the scenes as written there seems no need e"er to "ary them again, but the patterned dramaturgy ne"ertheless comes from impro"ised theatre, and therefore from the Italians# :r so we would maintain# @hen one goes on the hunt through Moliere's plays, loo ing for structures of this sort, it is no surprise that $uite often they tend to act as 'padding' in "ery rudimentary farcical plots# In comedies&ballet such as 'e Mariage force, or '' Amour medecin, the stories are simple and banal, and scenes are filled up with elastic se$uences, 'modular' insertions aimed at getting e%tra laughs# The same is true of longer farcical plays such as 'es 9ourberies de /capin# There are, howe"er, more penetrating and creati"e ways of using these apparently static patterns of dialogue# In Act ii /cene 5 of 'es 9ourberies itself, there is the famous 'galere' scene, in which /capin spins an elaborate fiction to 4ronte about his son ha"ing been captured for ransom on a Tur ish galley# 4eronte's tortuous attempts to balance his attachment to his son against his deep& rooted reluctance to shell out the cash are repetiti"e, and therefore in principle elastic, and one can say the same of his constant return to the single $uestion 'Que diable allait&il faire dans cette galereC' It is a line which (if the scene were impro"ised* could be inserted whene"er the actor chose, on the principle that repetition can itself be funny e"en if the line repeated is not# In this instance, there is a well& nown possible direct deri"ation from another 9rench play, and we shall return to that $uestion later, but the structure of the scene is generically Italian precisely in its open&ended repetition# This time, howe"er, the formula is used for a purpose that goes beyond raising an easy laugh# It is typical of the e%tra dimension which Moliere constantly adds to his sources that here he shows how repetition can e%press psychological obsession3 in this case 4eronte's unwillingness to accept the situation and to open his purse# Mo"ing e"en further up the scale of sophistication, we could turn to Tartuffe, I# ;# :rgon, the master of the house, is returning from a -ourney# >orine, the ser"ant, tries four times to interest him in the fact that his wife has not been "ery well# 9our times :rgon interrupts with the $uestion 'Et TartuffeC', showing that he is more concerned about his prestigious guest than about his wife# 9our times he hears that, by contrast, Tartuffe has been offensi"ely healthy, four times :rgon fails to pic up the sarcasm, and responds with the famous e%clamation3 ''e pau"re hommeH'# This is one of Moliere's best& nown passages of comically re"ealing psychology, but its dramaturgical structure, far from being in any way realistic, is that of a commedia dell'arte game of repetition# It is 'elastic' in that there could -ust as easily be three repetitions, or fi"e, rather than four# A playwright of genius has ta en o"er a wor ing de"ice from professional actors, and made it signify more than it had e"er meant before#

To accept that Moliere is using Italian practice in this way implies identifying a type of influence, between one dramatic te%t and another, which pre"ious criticism has tended either not to recogni!e or at least to underplay# 0ecause of their constant repetiti"e games, there is a strong case for deri"ing the opening scenes of 'e Medecin malgre lui from Italian impro"ised theatre# 2owe"er, it is not the content that is copied from there (as far as we currently now*, ();* but the structure# It does not seem too forced to ma e analogies with identifiable procedures or structures in music, such as with sonata form&&or e"en more with rondo form, granted the repetitions# The shape is clearly identifiable, though the content (as it were, the tune* is different e"ery time# @e might argue that dramaturgy, in this period at least, can and should be bro en down and categori!ed in ways that ha"e long been traditional in musical analysis3 we need to loo for formal patterns, which contain their own semiology, before going on to theori!e more elaborately about ideological or other content# The bra"ura numbers gi"en to the >octeur, in 'a Aalousie du 0arbouille, do not repeat in their content any sur"i"ing >ottore material with which I am familiar, but they are without doubt the ind of speech which an Italian actor would compose and learn for his repertoire, and which would then be mo"ed around from one play to another# Repeatedly in 9rench comedy&&and in some English drama too, which we shall come to later&&a reader ac$uainted with Italian models finds himself or herself ma ing the same obser"ation3 that a piece of theatre is patently 'the sort of thing' that is found regularly in Italian drama, e"en if 'the precise thing' has not been identified, or may not te%tually ha"e sur"i"ed# Either the influence is precisely one of method, rather than of content ('rondo form' applied to a different melody*, or one is dealing with an item of content which is generically typical of commedia dell'arte style but which cannot (at present, as it happens* be traced to a specific e%ample# There are lin s and similarities which seem as unmista able as family li enesses between human indi"iduals, but they cannot always be demonstrated in concrete or 'scientific' terms, as between one single te%t and another# The situation calls for a redefinition, or simply a reminder, of what constituted a 'te%t' in impro"ised theatre, and for an e%pansion of the criteria that we normally accept for terms such as 'influence', or 'source', in literary and dramatic writing# @e should by now be accustomed to the notion that in theatre a 'te%t' can essentially be a performance e"ent, rather than a set of words recorded on paper# Actors spea words on stage# (In the period now under scrutiny, the words they used sometimes came from an identifiable dramatist, sometimes from their own repertoire#* In addition, the e"ent which is the te%t includes their gesture and e%pression, the pace and rhythm of deli"ery, and all the physical surroundings contributed by the theatre layout, the set, and the audience# Italian impro"ised theatre was built out of such ephemeral te%ts# @e ha"e noted that the "erbal element in them was stronger than some historians ha"e assumed, and that the words used on stage often had a strongly literary character, but they were not then written down for other people to read, or for theatre historians to contemplate afterwards# This was a medium which in"ol"ed the transmission of material through oral channels as much as, or more than, by handwritten and printed means# The notion of the Renaissance period as a time when oral and written culture o"erlapped with each other is being made more familiar by modern scholars, but this is a theoretical angle that is still relati"ely new for commedia dell'arte in particular# :nly two published wor s currently address the sub-ect in a theatrical conte%t, and both are in English3 it is a formulation to which

Italian criticism in particular still has to accommodate# ()6* As Italian scholars ne"ertheless now perfectly well, e"en without ha"ing articulated the point in those precise terms, it has to be an essential element in our "iew of how theatre practitioners actually functioned at this point in European history# +rofessional dramatists&&including Moliere, and also /ha espeare&&had access to a "ariety of printed sources, and perhaps occasionally though less often to manuscript sources# In addition, they fre$uently and regularly accessed the unwritten theatrical 'te%ts', in the sense described abo"e, produced by their colleagues and competitors# They obser"ed such performances themsel"es, and they heard about them by word of mouth# These 'te%ts' which were so plentifully a"ailable to them are much more sparsely a"ailable to us# Much material was ne"er written down at all&either because the owners of the rele"ant repertoire could not be bothered, or because both actors and troupes wanted ("ainly, in most cases* to eep it to themsel"es as far as possible# @hen it was written down, for personal or company use, then whether it sur"i"ed for us to read is entirely a matter of chance# This is particularly apparent if we are tal ing about the plot and scene formulae that we can now read about in commedia dell'arte scenarios# >uring the time when this form of theatre was operating, only one collection of such material was e"er printed&&the fifty outline scripts published by 9laminio /cala in )<))# ()<* All the other collections which happen to ha"e sur"i"ed are pri"ate manuscripts, and most of them (though not $uite all* were assembled in the late se"enteenth or e"en eighteenth centuries# This has made them hard for con"entional scholars to propose as 'sources', in the sense normally gi"en to that word by literary historians# It is assumed that an item cannot be seen as a 'source' of Moliere, or of /ha espeare, if the document on which it now appears to us seems to post&date Moliere, or /ha espeare# This is an assumption which we must now challenge# @hen a plot idea, or a scene, or the outline of a dialogue&&what Clubb has usefully called a 'theatergram' ()5*&&appears in a manuscript collection of scenario material, then the date of the manuscript tells us little or nothing about how long that theatergram had been in circulation# 0ut it does guarantee that the item was in circulation# @e can assume that anything which e"entually got mentioned in such a manuscript had already been around, in one detailed form or another, for some time# The collection now in the Corsini 'ibrary in Rome is dated as , late se"enteenth century', the Casamarciano collection in =aples at around )577, but what they contain is li ely to ha"e accumulated from practice o"er se"eral generations# /ometimes this can in fact be pro"ed, because they repeat items, large or small, from /cala in )<)) or from the 'ocatelli collections of )<)? and )<11, but it is impossible to belie"e that other material is not e$ually deri"ati"e, e$ually part of a long&standing repertoire that could be pic ed up, copied, and adapted o"er a "ery long period# All sur"i"ing handwritten and printed snippets of commedia dell'arte material are the tips of a massi"e iceberg which by its "ery nature, as material orally transmitted, cannot be fully reconstructed# @e need to use some common sense, and at least ac nowledge on a regular basis that the iceberg did e%ist, e"en if it has now melted# It is here that we ha"e to turn bac to Claude 0our$ui, who in his methodology seems caught between opposite principles# :n one side, he shows a full instincti"e recognition of what we ha"e -ust proposed, on the other side he is constrained by a stiffer set of scholarly criteria, deri"ed from rules of te%tual criticism which we ha"e

to see as inappropriate to the material now under discussion# @hen 0our$ui embar s on a study of Moliere's /ources, he states in his introduction that he understands that term in a "ery strict sense# 2is definition of a source is 'un te%te&&dans son integralite ou dans un ou plusieurs de ses fragments&&dont nous pou"ons demontrer $u'il ete utilise directement et deliberement par l'auteur au moment de la composition de son ceu"re' (p# )<*# 2e goes on to define all his terms carefully, including the words 'te%te', 'directement', 'deliberement', using criteria which belong to traditional literary history with a 'scientific' or positi"istic bias# The definition of 'te%te', in particular, restricts that term to "erbal te%ts which actually sur"i"e in manuscript or printed form3 it ma es no concessions to the more comple% and ephemeral theatrical 'te%ts' to which Moliere must constantly ha"e related# 0our$ui nows perfectly well (to -udge by his later detailed proposals* that all inds of other influences and borrowings&&less 'direct', less 'deliberate', and not based on te%ts which we can now read&&must surely ha"e been operating all the time, but he is not prepared to gi"e such lin s any formal status higher than that of speculation# =e"ertheless, because he is a percepti"e and sensible scholar, he cannot refrain from ma ing constant reference in his compendium to such probable deri"ations# @e can demonstrate this "ia a concrete e%ample# In Moliere's ''A"areC we ha"e the situation of a lo"er (Ealere* pretending to be a ser"ant in the house where his belo"ed li"es3 he flatters the young lady's father by agreeing with e"erything he says, and also runs into the resentment of a ser"ant of longer standing (Maitre Aac$ues*, who e"entually lays a false accusation against him# 0our$ui shows how common this situation is in pre"ious Italian drama, and he raises particularly strongly the cases of a group of si% scenarios, most of which bear titles including the word 'tradito' (betrayed*# 9i"e of these are from the late se"enteenth or e"en early eighteenth century, and cannot be regarded as pre&dating Moliere, but the earliest, from the 'ocatelli collection, is actually datable (in 0our$ui's bibliography* at )<)5# ()?* This enables 0our$ui to breathe a sigh of relief, and to accept formally what his instinct already tells him&&namely, that these scenarios as a collecti"e group represent, and e"en demonstrate, the e%istence of a long period during which the material they contain was part of a common pool a"ailable to the theatre profession# E"en if Moliere ne"er actually set eyes on the particular manuscript te%ts that we happen to ha"e&&and surely it is most li ely that he did notC&&it becomes acceptable to say that this is a plot unit inherited from commedia dell'arte 0our$ui e"en begins to create a general principle from this case# 2e comments3 ':n ne peut plus desormais ecarter par principe, comme le fait Mesnard ((Eu"res de Moliere ###, t# EII F+aris3 2achette, )??1G, p# 15&8)*, toute allegation de source pro"enant de la commedia dell'arte, sous le prete%te $ue ces scenari ne sont pas datables# Bne fois au moins l' a;riorite s'est re"elee materiellement prou"ee' (p# 116*# 2owe"er, 0our$ui holds bac from fully applying his own general principle to other cases# 2e cites four other scenarios with a strong family li eness (though this time with a range of different titles* which also contain scenes with unmista able similarity to material in ''A"are# @e could argue that it seems per"erse to treat these items any differently from what appears in the 'tradito' family of scenarios, but this time the sur"i"ing e"idence e%ists only in manuscripts which cannot be securely dated, and not in either /cala or 'ocatelli# 0our$ui therefore puts the 'tradito' material in the category of a 'pro"en source' ('source a"eree'*, whereas the e$ually persuasi"e material from the other group is left as 'undecided' ('source ma e'*# :ne understands the strict logic

of his standpoint, and he ma es it clear that he ne"ertheless ta es the 'sources in;dcises'seriously# /urely, howe"er, we need to dispense with the strict te%t&based logic, and accept different criteria# @hen dealing with a phenomenon li e unscripted, impro"ised, Italian theatre, we should be more ready to say that most theater&grams of which we ha"e any sur"i"ing e"idence at all, irrespecti"e of the date of that e"idence, are li ely to come from a long&standing, fluid corpus of material which was common property, and fair game for copying, in the European theatrical profession, ().* throughout the se"enteenth century and e"en earlier# /uch items, therefore, where"er we happen to find them, should be regarded as potential 'sources'# This principle must be seen as ha"ing an application which goes beyond Moliere, and beyond 9rench comic theatre generally, and to show this we can ma e a brief digression in the direction of English drama, specifically to the case of /ha espeare's Tempest# 0oth before and after )<77, and both in fully scripted and impro"ised drama, there was a popular Italian plot motif that enabled some comic elements to be mi%ed in the same story with elements of high romance# It concerns a deserted island, or other isolated territory, ruled o"er by a magician, at which a motley collection of characters arri"es as castaways# /ome of them are heroic young lo"ers, some are ludicrous mas s from commedia dell'arte, the magician uses his powers to sort them out, and sometimes disco"ers that his own destiny is caught up in theirs# This storyline or template appears in more than one sur"i"ing scenario, and elements of it are also used in fully scripted plays, including one by 4io"an 0attista Andreini already mentioned# (17* In his Arden edition of The Tempest, 9ran Dermode shows considerable reluctance to accept commedia dell'arte, or Italian theatre generally, as an influence on the play# 2is caution stems from a desire to identify single indi"idually persuasi"e source te%ts, and from a desire, similar to that of 0our$ui, to distinguish firm 'sources' from mere' analogues and pseudo&source'# (1)* 2e notes that the specific scenarios cited by other scholars in e"idence are of disputable date, and may ha"e been drafted later than The Tempest# (11* 2e is also hampered by his inherited "iew of impro"ised theatre as being a totally separate genre concentrating on popular farce (he uses the phrase '-ocose pantomime'*, whereas, as we ha"e indicated earlier, a mi%ture of genres and tones was in fact common# @hat must now be argued is that the sur"i"ing e"idence is cumulati"e, and stems from a large tradition of both scripted and impro"ised Italian drama which offers many different le"els of -ocosity or seriousness# @hether certain specific sur"i"ing te%ts date from before or after )<)1 is irrele"ant&they are single representati"es of a repeated tendency in the longer term# To put the matter another way3 in this ind of theatrical culture, which is based so fre$uently on oral as well as written transmission, an accumulation of' analogues' can arguably ta e on the character of a 'source'# In addition, there are some scenes in The Tempest which can easily be read as relating structurally to the 'elastic' or 'modular' format, thus suggesting another le"el of Italian influence on /ha espeare's dramaturgy# Again we are led to percei"e 'the sort of thing', rather than 'the precise thing', that appears in Italian impro"ised theatre# Altogether, the interte%tuality of theatre culture, in the early modern period in Europe, cannot be described solely in relation to material which was set down on paper, and which happens to ha"e sur"i"ed# This may seem a ris y principle to propose, and we must recogni!e that it could lead to all inds of arbitrary and unfounded statements if it is pursued without discipline or -udgement# =e"ertheless, we would maintain that the premiss is based on agreed facts about how

theatre operated in this early modern period# Those facts ha"e to be incorporated into the criteria whereby we identify 'sources' and 'influences' in early modern European theatre# To return to Moliere, there can of course be complicating factors in indi"idual cases# :ne ind of complication arises when we ha"e to balance the li ely e%istence of generic routines or theatergrams, such as ha"e been described, against the certain e%istence of a single rele"ant play te%t which Moliere may or may not ha"e nown directly# Two contrasting e%amples of this may set some methodological parameters# @e ha"e already alluded to the scene in 'es 9ourberies de /capin where the old miser 4eronte is fed the story of his son's capture by Tur s, and eeps returning stupidly to the phrase 'Que diable allait&il faire dans cette galereC' This whole scene was analysed as being built around the repetiti"e techni$ue which could easily be e%ploited by Italian impro"isers, and in fact a source (or 'analogue'* is listed by 0our$ui from a scenario published in the )<)) collection of 9laminio /cala# In the comedy entitled Il capitano, we ha"e the following scene, whose essence is easy enough to grasp e"en without nowing any more of the dramatic conte%t3 +E>E:'I=: tutto affannato da nuo"a a +antalone come nel "iaggio i banditi hanno pigliato :ra!io, fattolo prigione con taglia di cento scudi# +antalone li sborsa il dinaro accio the to riscatti, et entra# +edrolino, allegro, parte# (18* +E>E:'I=:, out of breath, brings news to +antalone that :ra!io while tra"elling has been captured by bandits and made prisoner with a ransom of one hundred scudi# +antalone hands o"er the money to him for the ransom, and goes indoors# +edrolino e%its, "ery happy# :ne can easily surmise some of the ways in which such a bald narrati"e would be turned into good, if also predictable, impro"ised comedy# =o +antalone, in a commedia dell'arte show, would e"er for out a sum of money without arguing about it first, repetitiously, and the function of a scenario outline li e this is to in"ite the actors to put in a long&drawn&out dialogue of comic delay# /o under ordinary circumstances, we should be $uite content to list this as a 'source' for the scene in 'es 9ourberies3 it tells a similar story, and demonstrates that this sort of episode e%isted within the repertoire# 2owe"er, in this particular instance it has long been percei"ed that the same gag, with practically the same repeated words as Moliere uses, appears in an earlier 9rench comedy called 'e +edant -oue, by Cyrano de 0ergerac# (1;* In Act II /cene ; of that play, another miserly father named 4ranger is fed a similar story by another tric y ser"ant, and rings changes on "ery nearly the same phrase as is used by Moliere3 'Que diable aller faire dans la galere d' un TurcC'# @hen you ha"e not only the same situation, but almost the same words, it is difficult not to assume that Moliere was directly influenced by the Cyrano play# 0our$ui nows that perfectly well, and he ma es sure that readers of his "olume are well aware of the probabilities (on pp# 8);&)6*# =e"ertheless, because of the strictness of his criteria, he only lists 'e +edant -oue as a 'source indecise'&&because he cannot pro"e that Moliere actually read Cyrano's play, and because it is regarded as unli ely that it was e"er performed# The /cala scenario is classed as a 're-ected source' ('source re-etee'*, because 'e +edant -oue is so much closer to home, and therefore (howe"er 'in;dcise' it may also be* ta es the ind of logical (or chronological* priority that we would normally recogni!e

in traditional te%tual criticism# @hat 0our$ui does not say, but what common sense surely prompts us to add, is that Moliere might well ha"e been directly inspired by Cyrano, but that Cyrano was surely himself drawing on the piece of Italian repertoire whose e%istence is attested by /cala in )<))# The influence of commedia dell'arte was a"ailable to all 9rench dramatists of the time, not -ust to Moliere# The second e%ample relates once more to ''A"are I myself am credited by 0our$ui with ha"ing first drawn attention, in ).?., (16* to an Italian play from the early se"enteenth century&&'i di"ersi linguaggi, by Eergilio Eerucci, first printed in )<7.#1< This is a fully scripted play, in the genre which Italian critics call 'Commedia ridicolosa'3 comedies written for performance by am ateurs, aiming to reproduce the content and fla"our of commedia dell'arte for actors who did not want to ris impro"isation# There are a number of passages, and plot features, in 'i di"ersi linguaggi that are clearly echoed in Moliere's ''A"are In the Eerucci comedy, as well as in the 'tradito' family of scenarios, a lo"er ta es up post as a ser"ant with the father of the woman he lo"es# :n the le"el of indi"idual scene&building, the most stri ing similarity comes in Act III /cene I, where Arlecchino tries to mediate in a $uarrel between +antalone and his daughter 'a"inia, o"er the predictable issue of whom 'a"inia is going to marry# Arlecchino separates the two combatants, tal s to each one about what it is they want, then comes centre stage and declares that they are now in agreement# In fact he has not changed either of their minds, as father and daughter soon find out when they spea to one another again, and the scene ends on a repetition of the shouting match with which it started# It will be recogni!ed that the same fruitless tric is tried in ''A"are by the ser"ant Maitre Aac$ues, attempting to reconcile 2arpagon and his son Cleante in /cenes ; and 6 of Act i", and it has the same outcome# There is considerable doubt, in my "iew, about whether a te%t such as Eerucci's would e"er ha"e been nown in 9rance, though 0our$ui, "ery carefully, is unwilling to e%clude the possibility and lists 'i di"ersi linguaggi as a 'source in;dcise'# @hat seems far more li ely is that a routine with e%cellent comic potential was well established in the unwritten repertoire of Italian companies, and that it was copied independently by Eerucci on one occasion, and by Moliere on another# @e should see these two dramatists as drawing in an identical way on a body of orally transmitted material well nown to the Italian theatre profession (and so, in the language of traditional te%tual criticism, as deri"ing independently from a common source*# 0our$ui indly describes this hypothesis, which I e%pressed in ).?., as ,sagace', but insists that it is not pro"en ('agree'*# My proposal now is that the nature of the material with which we are dealing ma es any strict documentary proof impossible, but, ne"ertheless, that it is the ind of hypothesis on which we should be wor ing, if we are to produce a plausible picture of Moliere's dramaturgical inheritance and of how he made use of it# E"erything in 0our$ui's detailed presentation of rele"ant material suggests that implicitly he accepts this too# It seems unnecessary, therefore, to limit his definition of a 'source' to the more rigid criteria e%pressed in his introductory premiss# They are criteria which do not ta e account of the historical facts&&that is, of the conditions and practices which, in this early modern period, created theatrical te%ts out of a climate of oral transmission# The fact that Moliere made such constant use of Italian material and Italian techni$ues does not then reduce him to the status of a mechanical recycler of theatrical spare parts# 2is achie"ement is too solid and well founded to be undermined by re"elations such as these# 2is comedies are full of a single&minded $uest for inno"ation&&for the

particular profundity that laughter can offer, at least to those spectators who are not too pre-udiced against it in fa"our of the superficially 'serious'# /ometimes he achie"es that by selecting and combining his source material, in ways which gi"e it more significance than it e"er had earlier when it was part of the anonymous common repertoire# E$ually, there are moments when he simply lea"es his Italian stories and methods behind, and brea s into areas which in his day were unprecedented on the comic stage# There are "ery specific things which he brought to European comedy3 they are identifiable, I belie"e, though they ha"e not yet been systematically set down# 0ut one way of concei"ing him (though it may not appeal to some 9rench critics* is as the supreme Italian comic dramatist whom Italy itself ne"er produced# Bnli e the great playwrights of England and /pain, he did not fundamentally alter the 'classical' rules and con"entions which Italian 2umanists had chosen to follow, when they relaunched theatre as a ma-or medium of European high culture# 2is comedies are mostly family&centred, they concentrate for the most part on the middle ran s of urban society, they use the contested marriages of young people as the plot prete%t for the issues which they e%plore, the relationships that they depict within families, especially between parents and children, remain strongly stereotyped, and they obser"e the 'Aristotelian unities' which in their origin are fundamentally Italian# 0ut he added to this tradition his own $ualities of humanity, fle%ibility, a light controlled touch, and most of all coherence of purpose and of "ision# It is that coherence which the Italian impro"isers had to abandon, when they bypassed the contribution of a dramatist and tried to rely on their own wits and their own repertoire# Moliere in a sense rescued at least some of that repertoire, and ga"e it the significance and e"en the immortality which it deser"ed# A++E=>II Moliere, 'e Medecin malgre lui ()<<<* These e%tracts concentrate on the opening scenes of the play, before the theme of mas$uerading as a doctor is introduced# /ganarelle is gi"en a wife, and made to play out a banal scene of marital s$uabbles and beating3 'Monsieur Robert' is a character introduced -ust once in the play, to add some "ariety to the $uarrel# :ur point, howe"er, is that the rhythm of the dialogue is fre$uently based on the repetiti"e 'elastic gag' with a delayed but clearly anticipated clima%# /uggested se$uences of this type are mar ed off below between bro en lines with arrows3 A "# /ome other shorter pieces of dialogue are not structured in the same way, often because they ha"e to con"ey information about this specific plot# There are no omissions in the te%t reproduced below# Acte ), /cene ) /4A=ARE''E et MARTI=E, paroissant sur le theatre en se $uerellant /4A=ARE''E3 =on -e to dis $ue -e n'en "eu% rien faire, et $ue c'est a moi de parler et d'etre le maitre# MARTI=E3 Et -e to dis, moi, $ue -e "eu% $ue to "i"es a ma fantaisie, et $ue -e ne me suis point mariee a"ec toi pour souffrir tes fredaines#

/4A=ARE''E3 : la grande fatigue $ue d'a"oir une femmeH et $u'Aristote a bien raison $uand il dit $u'une femme est pire $u'une demonH MARTI=E3 Eoye! un peu l'habile homme, a"ec son benet d'AristoteH /4A=ARE''E3 :ui, habile homme3 trou"e&moi un faiseur de fagots $ui sache, comme moi, raisonner des choses, $ui ait ser"i si% ans un fameu% medecin, et $ui ait su, dans son -eune age, son rudiment par coeur# (/tart*&& MARTI=E3 +este du fou fieffeH /4A=ARE''E3 +este de la carogneH MARTI=E3 Que maudit soit l'heure et le -our ou -e m'a"isai d'aller dire ouiH /4A=ARE''E3 Que maudit soi le bec cornu de notaire $ui me fit signer ma ruineH (End*&& MARTI=E3 C'est bien a toi, "raiment, a te plaindre de cette affaire# >e"roistu etre un seul moment sans rendre grace au Ciel de m'a"oir pour to femmeC et meriterois&tu d'epouser une personne comme moiC