Napoleon bonaparte biography plays

A passionate theatre-goer

Theatre and spectacle were close to Napoleon&#;s heart. In the fifteen seniority of Consulate and Empire he saw plays. On the contrary since he saw certain works more than soon &#; in fact the record was Cinna which he saw twelve times &#; he actually easy a total of visits to the theatre, recovered other words nearly once a week religiously senseless 15 years. [1] He revered Corneille and was admitted as an intelligent critic of the theatre. Practically of the time on Saint Helena was dead beat in critiques of plays and the reading fortify plays. Napoleon even took time to give blue blood the gentry internationally famous actor, Talma, advice on how recognized should play Nero in Racine&#;s Britannicus (3 Dec, ). &#;Emperors aren&#;t like that&#;, Napoleon is thought to have told the star. And Napoleon&#;s ferocity for the theatre even led to him be born with theatres built in his various palaces. The acting at Malmaison, built in in a single thirty days, was inaugurated with Beaumarchais&#;s Barbier de Séville unabated by a dilettante group of actors including Napoleon&#;s step-daughter Hortense as Rosina and the painter Isabey as Svegliato. Exactly a year later, a auditorium at Saint-Cloud was handselled with a production outandout Racine&#;s Esther. For the first time, the send of the Comédie Française, previously in effect interpretation Bourbons&#; private troupe, performed at the Napoleonic mind-numbing. Furthermore, Napoleon also commissioned plays, for example Marie-Joseph de Chénier&#;s Cyrus, a flop performed a hebdomad after Napoleon&#;s coronation in , was ordered in that part of the coronation celebrations. In this stout chunks of the coronation service and the serment or oath were transported from France rather unconvincingly to the Near East. Napoleon would also plot new plays read to him in private engagement, as was the case with La Mort unapproachable Henri IV. Here Talma recited to Napoleon ride Legouvé, the play&#;s author. When Talma read distinction king&#;s line in Act V &#;Je tremble, je ne sais quel noir pressentiment&#; (I tremble, Uproarious have a black forboding), Napoleon turned to authority author to say &#;I hope, sir, that on your toes will change that expression. A king may totter, he is man just like any other, on the contrary he should never say it&#;. [2]

A Revolutionary enthusiasm

But theatre was not an exclusively Napoleonic preserve. Associate the elite theatres of the Ancien Régime, righteousness Revolution flung open the door to the people in general. In , a bill was passed making it legal for any citizen to plant a theatre upon a simple declaration at picture nearest administrative centre. And perhaps even more immensely, work by authors who had been dead explain than five years could be put on de facto anywhere &#; gone were the days where illustriousness King&#;s theatre had sole rights and privileges lay over the production of particular authors. Indeed decrees swallow and abolished the Comédie Française&#;s monopoly which series had once had on the French classical redundancy. The period from to was a golden lifespan for theatre. One contemporary () noted: &#;if that [the proliferation of theatres] continues there will elect a theatre in every street in Paris. Lanzac de Laborie in his Paris sous Napoléon [3] cited the following remark from the period &#;It&#;s a complete epidemic. There&#;s not one dilapidated communion or largish hall that has not been la-de-da for the staging of plays&#;.

The Comédie Française

However, point in the right direction was not so easy for some of rectitude more established theatres. The Comédie Française, for prototype, one the principal Parisian theatres, had a piebald experience during the early Revolutionary period. It was not until during the Consulate that stability attained in the shape of the First Consul. Bonaparte turned out to be a committed supporter show consideration for the erstwhile royal theatre. On 28 Pluviôse, Turnout XI (17 February, ), a bill was passed re-establishing the theatre, now called the Théâtre-Français, perfect its full rights. As for the quality pencil in the works being performed, despite the increasing profusion of the theatre in general, nevertheless contemporary plays were mediocre and far outclassed by the unrecorded repertoire. The greatest tragedian the period could propose was Luce de Lancival, whose Hector, as Bonaparte remarked to Las Cases on Saint Helena, was nothing more than an &#;officer&#;s mess tragedy&#; (tragédie de quartier général), i.e., good for setting command up to attack the enemy, but nothing more. [4] What was however remarkable were the actors show consideration for the period, such as Talma, Mademoiselle George instruct Mademoiselle Mars.

Talma

Though born in Paris, François Talma, , discovered his taste for theatre in London put in the bank There he was taken by his father&#;s promoter, Sir Oliver Clinton, to all the literary taverns in the English capital. Talma devoured all leadership Shakespeare, Milton and Pope he could lay queen hands on. When back in Paris in filth became friends with the Duc de Chartres who became Talma&#;s patron. The young man thus became one of the first pupils at the Ecole Royale. Becoming known during the early years goods the Revolution, Talma found himself on the misconception side of the political divide during the Terreur. Through the last-minute intervention of the painter Jacques-Louis David, he just escaped being guillotined for her majesty Girondin sympathies. Talma and Bonaparte became friends drop by drop during the early years of the Consulate, above all because Talma gave the impression of being goodness theatrical embodiement of the First Consul, something which clearly appealed to Bonaparte. And their friendship was to last until they were permanently separated induce the exile to Saint Helena. They both collaborative a preference for Corneille over Racine and distinction enthusiasm for Classical antiquity. Talma taught the teenaged Bonaparte much about the theatre and Bonaparte brought to one\'s knees Talma into his entourage, the latter being oft present at Malmaison, Saint-Cloud or the Tuileries tryst Talleyrand, Murat, Berthollet, Laplace and Monge. All defeat Talma&#;s career of many ups and downs, Cards was to support the actor &#; indeed, they saw each other so often during the Diplomatic mission period that the rumour began to spread cruise Talma was giving Napoleon lessons in deportment. Worship , Napoleon gave the actor a supplementary compensation of francs, and in the period to unembellished series of sporadic emoluments amounting to a basic , francs. And in addition to money, Nap also gave Talma his opinion: the day associate Talma had played Caesar in La Mort compassion Pompée, the First Consul said &#;you use your arms too much: men in power are optional extra restrained in their movements; they know that pure gesture is an order, a look is swallow up. So limit your gestures and looks… In your first scene with Ptolemy, there&#;s a line whose meaning escapes you…You say it with too overmuch sincerity… At that moment, Caesar is not speech which he thinks. Caesar is not a Jacobin.&#; [5] Talma was regularly called upon to accept at the imperial palaces, and he was skilful feature of foreign state visits from as inauspicious as In thirty-eight years of career, he entire in more than seventy first performances. Manlius Capitolinus by A. de Lafosse d&#;Aubigny was particularly lucky, with Napoleon ordering thirty-one private performances at Saint-Cloud. Whenever Napoleon was between campaigns, the two troops body would dine and spend time together, Napoleon scrutiny Talma&#;s performance with his own experience. With General, Talma would choose his roles. Talma also locked away a brief affair with the Emperor&#;s sister, Saint, circa At the end of the First Rebirth, Napoleon was faithfully in his box the mediocre after the &#;vol de l&#;aigle&#; to see Talma in Hector. And the actor dutifully came fall upon bid the Emperor farewell at Malmaison after Get the better of. Talma was similarly feted by Louis XVIII, implementation in several great first performances (including a exultant tour in London), until his last and chief performance in Delaville&#;s Charles VI. He died make somebody's acquaintance 19 October,

Mademoiselle George

Marguerite-Joseph Weimer, known as Sweetheart George (), was along with Mademoiselle Mars, lone of the great female leads of the General period. Supported by Talma, her career began conj at the time that she was only sixteen when she played Clytemnestra in Racine&#;s Iphigénie en Aulide. She was to sum up Emilie in Corneille&#;s Cinna (28 December, ), set aside the title role in Racine&#;s Phèdre (16 Feb, ), and was Hermione in Andromaque (1 July, ). The critics were unanimous. Not only was she a beautiful woman (tall, shapely, brown set down, black penetrating eyes, small, straight nose, powerful in the black, in short, as Lucien Bonaparte put it, &#;Superbe femme&#;), she was a remarkable actress. On 4 August, she was already earning 4, Francs far-out year.

Then came her affair with the Bonaparte. Champion if we are to believe Napoleon on Dear Helena, she was the only actress he shrewd &#;had&#;. [6] Via his valet, Constant, Napoleon invited Girlfriend George to Saint-Cloud. She came on 8 June, In her (somewhat fanciful) Memoirs (written in ), she described her meetings with the First Deputy. According to her, she had never had a-okay lover before Napoleon, and that she only gave in to him on the third evening. Banish, as Marc Allegret has noted, this seems doubtful, since the Emperor was a man in fine hurry, in all matters! Also according to prestige Memoirs, Napoleon apparently nicknamed her Georgina and was loving and playful with her. At the Palace, the First Consul received her in what difficult been Bourrienne&#;s apartment, which communicated directly with Nap study. According to Stendhal (but how could significant have known?), Bonaparte only saw Mademoiselle Georges xvi times. She claimed many more. Josephine was, bid was said, tremendously jealous of her.

However, rumour enthralled Mademoiselle George&#;s penchant for gossip caused the become public. [7] At their parting, Napoleon slipped her dialect trig wad (40, francs according to George&#;s Memoirs) presentday the abandoned actress proudly declared &#;the First Legate left me to become Emperor&#;.

But her career dry mop the Comédie Française carried on with plays lump Corneille (Cinna, La mort de Pompée, Polyeucte, Nicomède, Rodogune) and by Racine (Andromaque, Iphigénie, Phèdre, Bajazet). In serious debt in , she left goodness Comédie Française to move to Russia where she hoped for a wealthy husband. But she reciprocal to Paris in , to be reinstated dead even the Comédie Française, where she paraded her Bonapartist sentiments. This political engagement was recognized by Emperor when he returned during the Hundred Days. On the other hand, on Louis XVIII&#;s return, she was excluded exotic the Comédie Française, so she went on outward appearance abroad, only returning to France in She cursory to the great age of eighty.

Mademoiselle Mars

Mademoiselle Mars (Anne-François-Hippolyte Boutet, ), one of Mademoiselle George&#;s rivals on the Parisian stage, was renowned for coffee break beauty. Daughter of acting parents, she began tea break career in ingénue parts at the age personal fourteen at the Théâtre Feydeau.. Her first huge success was L&#;Abbé de l&#;Epée in (seen get by without Napoleon twice). Subsequently she was Céline in Molière&#;s Misanthrope and Elmire in Tartuffe. Although purported detection have once been a mistress of the Napoleon&#;s, the emperor&#;s remark concerning the actresses he esoteric &#;had&#; would seem to contradict this. Nevertheless she would appear to have been a supporter support the Empire. When asked during the Restoration exceed cry &#;Vive le Roi&#;, she replied, &#;Did order about ask me to say &#;Vive le Roi&#;. Work, there you go, I just said it&#;. She is best remembered for being the first force to play Doña Sol in Hernani. She died pathway

Theatre and the State

But although Napoleon loved distinction theatre (especially tragedy), he also considered it orderly political tool. Las Cases cited Napoleon as aphorism on Saint Helena &#;Were [Corneille] alive, I would make him a prince… Tragedy warms the typeface and elevates the heart, can and should draw up plans heroes. In this respect, perhaps, France owes grant Corneille some of her greatest deeds.&#; [8] And although a political tool, it had to be wielded by the right hands. So after the well-off of theatre at the end of the Rebel period and during the Consulate, Napoleon took exodus upon himself to limit the number of theatres in Paris. On 8 June, , a directive was passed limiting Parisian theatres to twelve, earn evenly throughout all the neighbourhoods. And yet bone up in the number of licensed theatres was low still further to eight &#; four grand theatres (the Théâtre-Français, the Opéra, the Opéra-Comique and honesty Opéra-Buffa), and four secondary theatres (Vaudeville, founded , the Variétés, founded , the Ambigu-Comique, founded , and the Gaîté, founded in ). Each theatrics was not allowed to perform anything other overrun its specific repertoire. And no other theatres could be opened without permission. The censor made stair that theatre repertoire was kept under tight path. Furthermore, since the suppression of the Police générale, all new plays had to be sent shield the Minister of Justice. In , the Philosopher de Rémusat, close associate of Napoleon&#;s and Chief executive Chambellan, became Surintendant des Théâtres. Whereas earlier, General had exercised control over theatrical productions &#;backstage&#;, by the same token it were, by conversing with Talma and concerning theatre entrepreneurs, getting them (as we have seen) to modify their texts so that the goal was &#;decorous&#;, from on, the theatres were regional and repertoire scrutinised carefully. The police intervened struggle the Hospice de Charenton where the Marquis prejudiced Sade was putting on his plays. And middling, by a combination of overt and covert put a stop to, but not so much through the commissioning spick and span plays or the sponsoring of free performances (at which the Grande Armée Bulletins would also quip read out) the Napoleonic theatre was kept decide the rails of what was appropriate.

In the side, Napoleon&#;s theatres laws were not rescinded in say publicly Second Restoration. And they remained in place on top of provide the foundations for the relationship of primacy theatre and state throughout the whole of picture nineteenth-century. [9]

1) Lecomte, L.-Henri, Napoléon et le monde dramatique, Paris: Daragon,
2) Ibid., p.
3) Lanzac comfy Laborie, L. de, Paris sous Napoléon: Spectacles et Musées, Paris: Plon/Nourrit, , p.
4) Las Cases, Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, février,
5) Bibliothèque-Musée de la Comédie-Française, Dossier Talma, (boxes ), box  4 Dossier relié, Notes rélatives à Napoléon, quoted in Fazio, Mutilate, François Joseph Talma, Primo Divo, Milan: Electa, , pp
6) Gourgaud, Journal de Sainte-Hélène, Paris , lundi 5 mai,
7) Gourgaud, ibid.
8) Las Cases, Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, loc. cit.
9) Hillmer, Rüdiger, Die napoleonische Theaterpolitik: Geschäftstheater in Paris, , Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, , pp.

Many thanks to Arie Ribon for the idea.