Failed seductions and the female spectator : pleasure and polemic in the Lettre sur la comédie de l’Imposteur

Abstract

The anonymous author of the Lettre Lettre sur la comédie de l’Imposteur (1667) makes the extraordinary claim that Molière’s Tartuffe, ou l’hypocrite, now renamed Panulphe, ou l’Imposteur, offers a powerful attack on, and a reliable inoculation against galanterie solide. The argument turns on an intriguing theory of ridicule whereby the effect of seeing in performance Panulphe-Tartuffe’s attempted seduction of La Dame-Elmire is so powerful that the extreme sense of ridicule it engenders among the theatre audience is indelible and will inevitably be called to mind in any similar off-stage encounters. The play, it is argued, is thus endowed with a significant moral function that can only benefit the French nation currently in the sway of a tide of sexual immorality. The argument put forward is intriguing, yet slippery in its moral ambiguity and sometimes obfuscatory logic. Here I unpick these claims, paying particular attention to the emphasis placed on the response of the female spectator. I also speculate on the author’s purpose in writing this portion of a letter in which different types of pleasure--rhetorical, aesthetic and moral, as well as the very pleasure of polemic--are put into the service of a polemic that extends far beyond the immediate concerns of the Tartuffe controversy