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The Comtesse de Genlis’ Théâtre à l’usage des jeunes personnes (1779–1780): Educating for Order and Prejudice in Pre-revolutionary France

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Abstract

This essay explores the educational contribution of the Comtesse de Genlis’ Théâtre à l'usage des jeunes personnes [Theatre of Education] (1792/1779–1780), a four-volume collection of closet drama, in light of the social, political and cultural shifts occurring in France in the period prior to the French Revolution. In particular, in two plays from Theatre of Education, La Marchande de Modes [The Milliner] and Le Libraire [The Bookseller], Genlis depicts the bourgeoisie’s proper behaviour toward the aristocracy and its natural place in the world. Thus both plays exemplify the educational and the political role of Genlis, who attempts to tame the bourgeoisie through the twofold argument of proper education and effective parenthood, so as to keep alive the social order of the ancien régime.

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Notes

  1. Some of Genlis’ major works are: Adèle et Théodore ou Lettres sur l'éducation (1782); Nouveaux contes moraux, et nouvelles historiques (1802); De l'influence des femmes sur la littérature française, comme protectrices des lettres et comme auteurs (1811); Mémoires inédits sur le dix-huitième siècle et la Révolution française (1825).

  2. Except when indicated otherwise, all the translations of Théatre à L’Usage des Jeunes Personnes are from Theatre of Education. London: T. Cadell, P. Elmsly, and T. Durham, 1781.

  3. Except when indicated otherwise, all the remaining translations from the French are my own.

  4. Mitzi Myers (1982) and Anne Stott (2003) among others highlight the success of Hannah More, an admirer of Genlis’ work, as a writer, calling attention to the wide dissemination of her own educational writing.

  5. As in the plays by Genlis, in the short story The Little Merchants (1825) by Maria Edgeworth, trade merely constitutes a new setting for serving nobility, and within that social and economic landscape the child’s voice is silenced and the juvenile standpoint impaired, contrary to what has been acknowledged as one of the most praised features of Edgeworth’s writing for the youngest children (Myers, 1994, p. 58).

  6. Regarding Jane Austen, Susan Allen Ford (1999) has shown that Emma (1816) rewrites Adèle et Théodore, underlining unprecedented interactions between romance, education and power.

  7. However, this educational effort of Genlis must also be read against a background of instructive works specifically on trade and business that came through during the eighteenth century: Le Parfait Negociant ou Instruction generale pour ce qui regarde le commerce [The Perfect Tradesman, or General Instruction for Those Interested in the Commerce] (republished in 1715, 1721, 1726, 1736 and 1757), Dictionnaire universel de commerce [Universal Dictionary of Commerce], Essai sur la nature du commerce en general [Essay about the Nature of Commerce in General], L’arithmétique de la noblesse commerçante [The Arithmetic of the Trading Nobility], Manuel historique, géographique et politique des négocians [Historical, Geographic and Political Handbook of the Tradesmen], etc. This kind of work was also disseminated throughout Europe, with, for instance, the publishing of Arte verdadeira para homens de negócio, mercadores, artífices, tendeiros, taberneiros, e para toda a qualidade de pessoas que tratam e contratam [Real Art for Tradesmen, Businessmen, Artisans, Vendors, Publicans, and for every kind of people who handle contracts] (1759), by José Maregelo de Osan, in Portugal, and Agriculture and Commerce, a dialogue (1764), by George Andrew Patrick, in England.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology under Grant SFRH/BPD/65068/2009. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Catherine Butler for her insightful comments on previous versions of this article.

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  1. CIDEHUS - Interdisciplinary Centre for History, Culture and Societies, Palácio do Vimioso, Largo do Marquês de Marialva, nº 8, apartado 94, 7000-809, Évora, Portugal

    Isabel Pinto

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Correspondence to Isabel Pinto.

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Isabel Pinto is a postdoctoral research fellow, with a PhD in Theatre Studies from the University of Lisbon. Over the last decade, she has been a member of a team researching several digital projects related to Portuguese Theatre History. At present, one of her main areas of research is how the performing arts endorse or reject certain social and educational constructs, envisioning paths for new intercultural categories and practices.

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Pinto, I. The Comtesse de Genlis’ Théâtre à l’usage des jeunes personnes (1779–1780): Educating for Order and Prejudice in Pre-revolutionary France. Child Lit Educ 48, 214–229 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-016-9277-3

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