Place Royale is a place and a comedy. This was the first name given to the Place des Vosges, in the heart of the Marais district, and the title of one of Corneille’s first plays, performed in Paris at the end of 1633.
Begun in the final years of the reign of Henri IV, and inaugurated in 1612 by Louis XIII, in the presence of 10,000 people, Place Royale is the epicenter of this new district, conquered at the end of the 16th century on marshy land, and which was soon to become the site of an exceptional social life, both aristocratic and bourgeois: writers such as Scarron and Madame de Sévigné lived in the Marais and held salons there.
The entire square is organized in a square of thirty-six pavilions, nine on each side, with a first floor of four arcades and two storeys of high windows topped by French-style slate roofs. All are similar, except for two more important ones: the Queen’s pavilion to the north, and the King’s pavilion to the south, above rue de Birague. The combination of brick and stone, characteristic of the Louis XIII style, gives it a singular unity. In the center of the square, an equestrian statue of the king, dressed in Roman style, was unveiled in 1639. The aim was to remind young men who too often fought duels in the town square that dueling was a crime of lèse-majesté, punishable by death.
The area becomes a fashionable district. In his 1654 Histoire du temps, Abbé d’Aubignac calls the Place Royale “the Place de Coquetterie”, noting that “the most beautiful part of the city is the large square that can be said to be truly royal” and that “it is surrounded by an infinite number of reductions where the most notable assemblies of coquetry are held”. Scarron, in his Adieu au Marais et à la Place Royale, addresses her as follows: ” Adieu ! belle place où n’habite / Que mainte personne d’élite. ”
With the neighborhood attracting so many young people, it’s hardly surprising that the young Corneille chose to call his fifth comedy La Place Royale. In the preface to his Folio edition of the play, Jean Serroy writes: “Dire la Place Royale in the 1630s, as we would say Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the Paris of 1945-1950.” He emphasizes Corneille’s desire to “stage the youth of Parisian good society in the very real setting in which it evolves”, which breaks with the tradition of farce and is part of “the effort to promote the theater that Richelieu was leading at the time”.
What is the subject of La Place Royale? Love, as in the great turn-of-the-century novel L’Astrée. In five parts, and over five thousand pages, published between 1607 and 1627, Honoré d’Urfé recounts, among other things, the thwarted loves of the shepherd Celadon and the shepherdess Astrée: both live in Forez; she believes him to be unfaithful, she drives him away; he throws himself into the waters of the Lignon, and it’s only at the end of a long journey that the two lovers are reunited and reconciled. Multiple side stories are added to the main plot.
In Corneille’s play, there’s no distancing effect: spectators can identify with the young characters – four men, two women – and their language. The subject of love is the same as that which interests readers of L’Astrée; what’s new is the mix of playfulness and cruelty.
Alidor, the extravagant lover, loves Angélique and is loved by her, but he insists on preserving his freedom: “I want one to be free in the midst of one’s fetters,” he declares to his friend Cléandre in the very first scene. He then sets up a complex stratagem – fake letter, kidnapping – to detach himself from her and her from him. Angélique’s friend Philis gets close to Alidor’s friend Cléandre.
Embellishing the city, elevating spirits, enriching language, mores and the art of living all at once: these were the aims of the men of power and artists of the early 17th century. The Place Royale, reinvented as the Place des Vosges, bears witness to the enduring appeal of a place that’s both a place for socializing and a haven of peace, ideal for strolling and daydreaming, taking a trip back in time and making contact with others.
Language point:
urban, urbanity, urbanism
