La Mesnardibre, as overdue as 1640, is still suggesting the old system which acquired come down from your Middle Ages, to get, as he says, since the stage generally represents a whole town, often a little country, and frequently a house, it should show several scenes since it marks different places. It must not present a garden or a forest for the scene of an action which has happened within a palace, as well as this building, the stage should not present anything going on in the condo of the ruler which should take place in the queens apartment. If the event features happened on the sea-shore, the stage must show a marine picture in one of its fagades in order that the action will not be misunderstood. The whole stage should be arranged as follows:
Si l’Auanture s’est passee moitie dans le marché de le Palais d’vn Roy en pleusieurs appartemens, ainsi que moitie hors de la Maison en beaucoup d’endroits differons, il pourra être utilie de que votre grand du Theastrc, le irpovKrjviov des Grecs, ic veux terrible cette largeur qui forme le macizo serue serve tous les dehors où tous ces choses ont ete faites, et que les Renfondremens soient divisez en diverses Chambres, expertise des diuers Frontispieces, Portaux, Colonnes, ou Couronne.
Such a stage differs never from the setting of the mediaeval stage. It is often believed that scenery halted to be a couple of importance after the production of the Cid, although stage environment is still essential that La Mesnardiere possibly describes just how certain one scenes should be constructed. The prison scene-one which dates back centuries in its use-should end up being mounted so the prisoner could possibly be contained within just and not be permitted to leave the limits. The eyes from the spec- tator should be able to enter its depths, and the night and humble lit up by a sombre light will make the penitentiary more frightening. Mahelot directs that the jail in I Ryers Clitophon be set with a significant, low, banned opening so that three criminals be seen.
Accordin to La Mesnardiere a similar arrangement applies to cave views. Their mouths must wide open on the level like a door, and if the cave should certainly be sealed, the interior has to be made obvious by means of a barred opening. Therefore the darker cavern is going to seem even more cruel in proportion as it is even more closed, darker, and awful. La Mesnardire objects towards the custom of re-using landscapes which was raised on account of the indigence in the comedians. Every play, states, should have its very own scenery, and Rome really should not be turned into Constantinople and Libya into Norwegian. He, too, was against the inexactness of stage decoration, and he admits that it is a problem to represent what happened in the room of the king since taking place picture which is hazy and available on the sides like a open public square. 3 bids the dramatist study the surroundings and the arrangement of the placing. If the actions is what this individual calls pacific, his surroundings will composed of palaces and gardens, but if the action symbolizes tumult, warfare, and the pursue, the dramatist will decide for the place from the action the vastness of fields and forests.
Attention must be taken up see that a cave field is not used for a hunting scene, and one must be sure the beautiful glasses furnished simply by perspectives, souterrain, woods, castles, and other displays are not contrary to reason or perhaps verisimilitude. Hence does he apply the classical evaluation of cause to the construction and agreement of landscape, but in regard to the meaning of the rule of the unanimity of place he is incredibly free. He says that in line with the uniU entre ma scene the action must not be car schilfgürtel to different climates, but it needs to be bounded by the extent of any small region. 1 La Mesnardi6re is interpreting the rule in the unity of place, certainly not in accordance with cause or verisimilitude, but in terms of the contemporary stage decoration.
His expression combine de la scbie is data that he was thinking of stage conventions and conditions, anti not from the theories in the critics. To observe the unity of your energy was less difficult. Time could possibly be indefinite, and the audience could possibly be deceived, good results . the different scones before the sight of the viewer, he easily recognized a violation from the unity of place. The program of stage setting was at direct level of resistance to the regulation, and that is one reason why d’Aubignae could admit he recognized of merely one play which observed the unity of place: Corneille’s Horace. By the time that d’Aubignac is writing his Indispensable du thi&tre, the multiple stage adornment has not been removed, for this individual criticizes the young poets who happen to be inspired to write down a perform and place England at 1 end of the stage, Poultry at the different, and The country of spain in the middle, whilst if anyone should really pass over the sea from Denmark to England, the actions is suggested by the drawing of a scene. He as well points out concentrate on of the poets who put on the stage at the same time a lot of characters supposed to be in Spain and more supposed to be in France.
The simple fact that this individual makes fun of this procedure is definitely evidence the old system is still used. Otherwise he would not have assaulted it. He could be evidently thinking of a level on which a lot of scenes are set at the same time, and, likewise, of a alter of field. DAubignac is far more restricted than La Mesnardidre in his interpretation of the unanimity of place. He asserts that the floor on which the actors walk must not transform, and that the place repre sented by the stage cannot be more than the space where a man can easily see another, although recognition will not be possible.
Nevertheless , this does not preclude a change of scenery, which may be managed the following:
. des-lons qu’on a choisi un Surfaces pour retenir quelque actions par representation, il le faut supposer immobile dans tout votre reste du Poème, comme il se trouve que il l’est en effet. Elle n’en représente pas sobre même i fond, ain des côtez du Theâtre, car tel ils eine figurent os quais les choses qui environnoient dans lu verite les Personnages agissans, et qui pouvoient recevoir plusieur changement, ils peuvent également changer en la representation, ou c’est en cela os quais consistent des changemens para Scènes, ain ces Decorations dont la variete enthousiasme toujours votre peuple, ainsi que même l’ensemble des habiles quant elles seront bien faites. Ainsi nous avons assisté à sur el Theâtre votre façade de temple ornee d’une superbe architecture, ou puis venant à souvrir, on decouvrait en agencement de point of view des colonnes, un table, et promote le demeure des autres omemens merveilleusement representez, tellement que votre lieu ne changeoit point-, et- toutefois souffrait une belle Decoration.
The Mahelot Memoire records the same change of scene in Benserades Iphis et lante, giving the direction: The temple is definitely closed until the fifth act and unwraps in the middle of the act. Racine employs similar device in Athalie, and Voltaire revives it in the Mahomet as late since 1742.
DAubignac does not quit with this compromise between a strenuous observance of the unity of place and scenic alter, which is so important an element of drama even in his generation. He wishes to preserve at all costs the unity of place, which in turn, he says, today passes because valid, however the old system of stage establishing so attracts him that he tries to reconcile this to the regulation of the oneness of place in the following manner:
. on pourrait feindre el Palais en allant sur le garniture de la Mera abandonne à de pauvres gens de la campagne, Un Prince arrivant, aux côtes par naufrage, qui le ferait orner de wealth tapisseries, feu, bras dorez, tableaux ain autres meubles precieux: Après on sumado a ferait mettre le feu par plusieur avanture, ou le réalisant tomber dans l’embrasement, la Mer paraîtrait derrière, en se promenant sur laquelle upon pourrait encore representer el combat sobre Vaisseaux. Si bien que dnas cinq changemens de Theâtre, lUnite man lieu serait, ingenieusement gardee. Ce n’est pas o qual le Sol ou l’Aire de lAvant-Scenc ne puisse changer aussi bien que le fond et les côtez, et que ce soit seulement en la área, car ce fait se ferait sans manquer lunite i lieu: Notammente, ainsi que des Geants portèrent dans la Fable Pelion sur Osse: Ou dans le cas où par este debordement de quelque fleuve, l’Avant-Scene venoit à être couverte d’eau, ainsi que le Tybre à Rome sous Auguste: Ou enfin si par Magie on faisoit sortir sobre terre des fiâmes et des brasiers ardens, qui tout d’un coup vinssent à napper le Encanto de l’Avant-Scene. En toutes ces rencontres donc le parage recevait man changement, ou même ft notable, without en violer pourtant l’unite.
It ought to be confessed why these scenes smack pretty highly of romantic melodrama to have been created by a classicist, and they show how solid was the traditions of the multiple stage adornment. On the other hand, d’Aubignac objected to the stage representing a complete town and even showing different apartments of a palace, and he gives that his objection may not be answered simply by saying that to mark the various apartments there could be curtains to shut and draw, for these draperies are in shape for nothing but for toss their inventors in. 2 He’d have had difficulty in thus punishing the inventors of this device, for the use of these curtains dates back towards the Middle Ages.
The procedure of changing views had obviously come increasingly more into style, for d’Aubignac advises that all permanent moments to be displayed be currently placed on the stage if the play begins, in order that the surprise and applause which generally attend such views may be above before the stars begin to speak. If it is essential to change the accessories, the switch should be manufactured in the span between the works so that the stage hands may well have the perfect time to get their equipment moving. 5. Thus the scenery has been obscured from view before the enjoy began, otherwise d’Aubignac will not have suggested that the surroundings be collection at the outerture du thedtre, so that the murmurs of the target audience might subside before the stars began. As for the losing of the drape between the serves, Bapst says that this would not happen until the nineteenth century, * yet that statement must be modified somewhat. Probably as a rule the entr’actes were marked simply by violin playing and the picture remained in full view from the spectators. ¢Aubignac warns poets not to suppose that events have taken place involving the acts in the scene proven on the stage, ” which can be open and exposed to the eyes from the spectators throughout the intermissions, to get in that case the group ought to have seen those things which can be supposed to have happened. If a alter had to be produced in the landscape at any time during the performance, the curtain was dropped. This kind of curtain is usually described simply by d’Aubignac as the “toile de devant, qui nenni fait level partie de la decoration, ain qu’on tyre seulement quant on con veut changer quelque chose, afin la cual le persons ne s’apper^oive point i d&ordre qui se fait en ces ajustmens, et quil admettons, plus agreablement surpris en voiant soudainment tine toute derniere face man theatre. 1 Music followed this pulling of a curtain to indicate a change of scene, for d’Aubignac says sarcastically that to pass from France to Denmark “il ne est nécessaire de que 3 coups darchct ou tra?ner Ic ridcau. 1 Among the a perform in which improvements of landscape were made during the intermissions is found in Moliftre’s Joker. Laurent data the placing as follows: first act, a palace, second act, a room and a lot, third act, a wood and a tomb, fourth act, a space, fifth work, the tomb.
The establishing for the other act”a place and a sea”is practically a sychronizeds setting. The decoration pertaining to Andromaque, presented as “apalace with articles and a sea with boats, also the placing for Iphigbiic, given because tents and a sea with ships, correspond in a modified way to the sychronizeds scenes of the old system. In these kinds of scenes as the chest area, the unanimity of place is not destroyed by scenery, which system is much better suited to maintain the unanimity of place than the procedure of changing views between the acts or any kind of time other time during the efficiency. This point was brought out very plainly by simply Cailhava at the conclusion of the eighteenth century. This individual called awareness of the fact that the first act of Dimocrite amoureux happens in a wooden and the other acts are at the court. Thus, although these two plares are not significantly distant, yet the changes in design destroy the illusion. The author of Isabelle et Gertrude, however , in making the actions take place at night time, part of the amount of time in a dark garden and part of the amount of time in a lit room, got the theater represent a garden embellished with a boudoir, but located so that the viewer saw almost everything which occurred on the whole breadth of the stage. Thus, he claims, the false impression was increased instead of being destroyed, since it is when walls and metropolitan areas disappear at the sound in the stage manager’s whistle. Considering that the changing of scenery was out to stay with the unanimity of place, either the somewhat altered multiple stage setting and also the single everlasting scene was required to come into use when the regulation became capturing. It was Corneille who identified a way out of the difficulty in the vague and inexact configurations which was so belittled until 1660, the particular date of his Discours. He advocated an indefinite scene” a lieu thidtral”which would not end up being the house of any one char- acter, but into which most apartments will open and in which the personas would speak, as if these were in their individual rooms. Hence the actors on the level, instead of going to the apartments of some other characters, may remain on the stage and be sought by the latter. In this way the continuity of views would be stored and the unanimity of place would be observed.
The level setting with the Cid referred to by Laurent as votre chambre m qualre introductions corresponds precisely to this structure of a voisinage thedlral, and maybe was introduced at Corneilles request. Corneille also recommended naming only the general put in place which the action was designed to happen, while Paris or Rome, as well as if two places had been necessary to the action, this individual recommended that they can be not really marked simply by different scenery and that they continue to be unnamed. This expedient, he admits that, will help to deceive the viewer, who, not really seeing different places noticeable, will not understand the transform of field except simply by critical and malicious reflexion, while in the Menteur the different accessories made the change of place just too visible. He confesses in the Examcn of the Place royalc that he features violated the unity of place by introducing the scene in Anglique’s room, but this is necessary as the heroine would not lament on the street. He had employed the old system in his early on plays, although he had given up the liberty of placing Rome and Constantinople on the stage at the same time. However he merely reduced his unity of place to an entire city during these early takes on, and allowed the field to ehac^. He wm pxdni through this, not by simply reason, bat by theatrical oomtkB of his period. In the rumcn of A fro- rome, moreover. Corneille dctadl his ribUtioo of the function on the ground that ewh trick, for rucceiss on their landscape. require the action to get placed in distinct localitiro. In reality he deelnm that a eity hardly tmffiPM. Thus the rule in the unity of place to harr brii Leave darth, by ax fur ax (fntnl practice is definitely eon-, up to IttfQ. The critic* may tbcoriae ax much ua they, nevertheless the only limit impoaod after the rale by the playwrights use Ibt UxniU of your city. It u after this datv which the vague ynbti a on the lookout for. the- even more aerac, yet ovftt it ia by only one. Experienced It recently been the regular sating before that period, Corneille could hardly have taken the trouble to advocate the MSA To be able to preserve the illusaon in the unity of plaec. The fact that the Inter plays of Corneille plus the plays of Racine had been produced with one scene, coupled with the grrot reputation of these men. can be likciy to get one to the conclusion that in the latter half of the wventeenth 100 years the stage was nlways set with one vague nnd unchangeable scene, yet such had not been the row. as is proven by the weund part of the Jftawcrr.
On tfc contrary. there are several strategies which grew out of the diffrrent ways of com- bining this simultaneous wtting with the present system of changing sconce. The single xtvne can In* customized in 2 different ways, as continues to be slKiwn: (l) by following dAublgnacs ruggmtkm of ojHning up a btaple, a pwodurv which was carried out by Racine in AlMu, or (2) by simply mokiag the main one how large enough to show* tuo pliuvx not far dlxtant, ax la wiring of diufnuwtyiu, which showg a pedaor with columns ami. la the turirgnxiad, awith ship. Eutrur and Don Juan, the Utter Ixdng recorded after August 25, ltMO, arc example* of plays in which changi* of scene wvrc markthe acta. In 107$, Corneille’s Li amusing 1* pmtntod With a alter of stem* in the next act wide the pron appears. Jwiiiit prince, by Soarroa, and a. Of uncertain authorship, recorded by Laurent of ter 167$, also change the scenery bctwirn the acts. La fille jnge voir party, where the th<re and so forth, deux mnions sur votre dernnt ainsi que le level une ebnmbre, is usually an example of the old simultaneous placing still in use at this time, the retting staying thus
