Culturethèque
Shakespeare vs. Molière
In the boxing ring this week: Shakespeare vs. Molière
Grab your moleskine notebooks and jump inside the time machine - c'est parti!
Pseudonyms, cross-dressing and a literary revolution…the three ultimatums for our dear saviours of culture. In the tricolore corner, we have Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673), from the deep and dark depths of a prosperous bourgeois family. What have here, mes amis, is the wonder of la Comédie-Française, from the criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church in Tartuffe to a quasi-class critique in _ L’Ecole des Femmes_. What’s that, I hear you cry? Hypocrisy? I know, I know, but wouldn’t a bourgeoisie/Jesuit upbringing cause just that? Molière, upright, shouting at his opponent, "Castigat ridendo mores" - ‘criticism through humour’ - and as we know, latin comes first.
In the Doc Martens' corner, William Shakespeare (1564-1616). He's talking about witches, death and poison; all in the name of love. Shakespeare, the true historian of the two, delivers his first blow, daringly writing about the James I succession in England 1603 (Macbeth, duh!).
What do we have here, they are fighting like playmates, like brothers even. Linking arms on the same tragi-comedy theme: for someone to “look like th’innocent flower/But be the serpent under’t”, is comical, don’t you think? Molière is cheating on his Comédie invention with the Tragédie mistress, too. Molière has started shouting, "Jean-Guillaume Shakespeare" - perhaps he, like us, is secretly wishing that Shakespeare was French; the femme fatale Juliette has "l’amour scandale" written all over it.
Yet, as your humble referee, anything is possible. I have actually retrieved video evidence of this happening in a small Oxford school re-production of the wondrous match: please do email me for exclusive access to the proof… melissalaurethehistaurian@hotmail.co.uk.
I leave you with a mini clip: have you ever mounted a pur-sang Français or an English blue blood? You naughty people, I’m talking about equitation:
Merci for now Mesdames et Messieurs, tune in next week for RÉBELLION: Guy Fawkes vs. Les Soixante-huitards (different eras, same message. What can I say, the English were always far more forward looking than the French. Oh wait, I forgot Jeanne d’Arc…)
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