Layer III

Scholarly Journal

Theatrum: A Journal of Baroque Performance and Power — Vol. I.

Article 1

The King as Spectacle: Court Ballet and the Fabrication of Absolutism

Abstract

This essay examines how Louis XIV's appearances in court ballet translated political sovereignty into visible, embodied performance, and how the later withdrawal of the king from dancing marked a shift from participation to pure spectatorship.

Absolutism required an audience. The court ballet, in which aristocrats danced alongside — and beneath — the monarch, rehearsed the hierarchy of the realm in choreographed form.

When the king stopped dancing around 1670, power did not leave the stage; it moved into the royal box, where the king became the spectacle others watched while watching the play.

Further reading

  • — Burke, P. The Fabrication of Louis XIV (1992)
  • — Apostolidès, J.-M. Le Roi-machine (1981)

Article 2

Laughter Under License: Molière, Censorship, and Royal Protection

Abstract

The five-year suppression of Tartuffe illustrates the paradox of satire under absolutism: critique of social institutions was possible only through the patronage of the highest institution of all.

Molière's comedies targeted pretension, piety and medical quackery — but rarely the crown. The happy ending of Tartuffe is delivered by a royal officer, a deus ex machina in the king's livery.

Satire thus functioned as both a safety valve and a reinforcement of order, channelling dissent toward approved targets.

Further reading

  • — Scott, V. Molière: A Theatrical Life (2000)
  • — Bénichou, P. Morales du grand siècle (1948)

Article 3

The Corral and the Crown: Honor, Class, and the Spanish Comedia

Abstract

Spanish Golden Age drama played before socially mixed audiences. This essay considers how plays like Fuenteovejuna and La vida es sueño both staged rebellion and contained it within monarchical legitimacy.

In Fuenteovejuna the villagers kill their tyrannical commander, yet the Catholic Monarchs ultimately pardon them — justice flows from the throne.

Calderón's Segismundo learns restraint and earns his crown, while the rebel soldier who freed him is imprisoned: order is restored, but the question of legitimacy lingers.

Further reading

  • — Maravall, J. A. Teatro y literatura en la sociedad barroca (1972)
  • — McKendrick, M. Theatre in Spain 1490–1700 (1989)

Article 4

Machines of Wonder: Scenography as Political Technology

Abstract

Italian stage machinery, exported across Europe, offered rulers a technology of marvel. Perspective scenery placed the ideal viewpoint at the prince's seat.

Single-point perspective meant only one seat saw the illusion perfectly — the ruler's. The architecture of vision was an architecture of rank.

Further reading

  • — Orgel, S. The Illusion of Power (1975)
  • — Sabbattini, N. Pratica di fabricar scene e machine ne' teatri (1638)