Turcaret

* Cf. Bourgeois Gentilhomme, IV, i, ii, iii ; and Turcaret, V. x, xi, xii, xiii. 'V. La Bruyère: Les Caractères, Biens de la Fortune, 15, 17, 18.

* Cf. E. Lintilhac : Lesage, p. 64, for an extension of this list.

INTRODUCTION Vil

erature. Turcaret is the excellent use to which Lesage put a sprendîa opportunity.

The early part of the reign of the Grand Monarque had been outwardly a period of great glory for France. She was easily the first country in Europe. \ But the continuous wars, the maintenance of a large standing armylLnd a magnificent court, and the king's vast building opérations, had so drained the national resources that recourse had to be ha'd to gigantic loans, at ruinous rates of interest, to meet current expenditure. .^

In 1708 the report of Desmarest, the new comptroller of the finances, revealed a terrible state of affairs.^ In 171 5, on the death of Louis XIV, the national debt was 2 billion 400 million; the estimâtes called for 147 million, and of a revenue of 169 million only 69 million, owing to the costs of collection, reached the treasury. Moreover, the greater part of the income of the foUowing year was already spent.2

Since the beginning of the eighteenth century things had been going from bad to worse. In 1704 and 1706 France had been crushingly defeated by Marlborough at Blenheim and Ramillies, and in 1 708, the date of the composition of Turcaret, came the disaster at Oudenarde. /in this same year millions of paper money were redeemable, but payment was deferred, and the traitants, the " blood-suckers of the people," as they were called, discounted the govemment's notes at enormous rates.^^ In both a military and financial sensé France was prosfràte. The usurious loans of \kv^ financiers were the Qnlyjhelp,! and le roi soleil was forced to condescend to intimacy with men like Samuel Bernard.

Never perhaps in the history of France was the golden god so worshipped as during thèse first years of the eighteenth

^ Cf . E. Lintilhac, p. 51.

'V. Duruy: Histoire de France, Vol, IL p. 353.

* V. E. Lintilhac: Lesage, pp. 5:4, 55.

vin INTRODUCTION

century.i Louis had outlived his time. Molière, La Bruyère, Racine, and Bossuet were gone. The moral lights of the great âge were eclipsed. The coming "illumination " of the eighteenth century did not yet show above the horizon. The Regency was an interregnum quite as much intellectual and spiritual as it was political.

Turcaret was read to the committee of the Comédie Française on May i5th,'i7o8, and, while it was evidently accepted, was not played till the following year.

The delay in the production of the comedy has caused a good "/ deal of comment, j M. Lintjlhac makes it pretty clear that it was a moment of ""spécial unpopularity for 'Cc^ç^ financiers?' Violent pamphlets and broadsides were being printed against them. I Lesage was vainly ofïered a heavy bribe to withdraw his plây, but perhaps the comedians were more open to the gilded arguments of the partisans. Whatever the reason for the delay, it was at length ended by an order from the court, dated October I3th, 1708: " Monseigneur étant informé que Messieurs les Comédiens du Roi font difficulté de jouer une petite pièce intitulée Turcaret ou le Financier ordonne auxdits comédiens de l'apprendre et de la jouer incessamment."

The resuit of this command was that Turcaret was produced at the Français on February I4th, 1709. It was played for seven days — at that time considered a very good run. It is significant, however, as M. Lintilhac points out,^ that the comedy was withdrawn before the receipts fell below the minimum — 500 livres. This indicates that the influence of ÛiÇ^ financiers was again probably at work, and this time effectually.

His expérience with the staging of his great play in ail likelihood disgusted Lesage, and, abandoning the literary drama, he

^Cf. F. Brunetière: Époques du Théâtre Français, p. 32. "^ Cf. Lintilhac : Lesage, p. 56 ff.

^ E. Lintilhac : Lesage, p. 74.