Montesquieu broaches the possibility that drama itself can teach morality in The Spirit of the Laws in Book 25, one of two devoted to the subject of religion. Having already noted that the French nation is distinguished by its commerce with women, Montesquieu declares that in England the women should scarcely live among men and that, as a result, the English women would be modest, that is, timid [timides].Footnote60 Montesquieu proceeds to condemn the effect that this isolation of women has on English society because men there lack gallantry [galanterie] and throw themselves into a debauchery that would leave them their liberty as well as their leisure.Footnote61 The implication is that because English gentlemen do not seek to win the good regard and affection of their female counterparts in a manner that renders society polite, pleasing, and sometimes indiscreet, but instead spend the majority of their time with other men, and then also frequently visit with prostitutes.Footnote62 The interaction of the sexes in France fosters indiscretions, Montesquieu concedes, but he charges that in England their separation leads to debauchery. Rousseau was the least academic of modern philosophers and in many ways was the most influential. Overall, the population of Geneva agreed with the Letter. In 1756, Rousseau left Paris. In his Reveries of a Solitary Walker, he condemns Montesquieu's Le Temple de Gnide as an affront to modesty, perpetuated by an ignoble lie; see Mary L. Bellhouse, Femininity & Commerce in the Eighteenth Century: Rousseau's Criticism of a Literary Ruse by Montesquieu, Polity, 13 (1980), 28599. 13 Maurice Cranston, Jean-Jacques: The Early Life and Work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 17121754 (Chicago, IL, 1991, first published in 1982), 21315. Scholars have pointed to Montesquieu's influence on Rousseau's work generally. [5] To have a prosperous state, Rousseau believed, people needed to work together and harmoniously. In both the Persian Letters and The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu points to the theatre as a locus of sociability that has a transformative effect on its auditors. As a dutiful daughter, Julie marries Wolmar and Saint-Preux goes off on a voyage around the world with an English aristocrat, Bomston, from whom he acquires a certain stoicism. He also wrote Rousseau juge de Jean-Jacques (1780; Rousseau, Judge of Jean-Jacques) to reply to specific charges by his enemies and Les Rveries du promeneur solitaire (1782; Reveries of the Solitary Walker), one of the most moving of his books, in which the intense passion of his earlier writings gives way to a gentle lyricism and serenity. 2 Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert, Geneva, in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Letter to d'Alembert and Writings for the Theater [hereafter Letter], in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, edited by Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly, 13 vols (Hanover, NH, 19902010), X, 241. Although Rousseau in his Letter refers neither to Montesquieu nor to his works by name, he was certainly well versed in his predecessor's teachings. Subscribe now. 3099067 [3] D'Alembert's article in support of the theatre was influenced by Voltaire, who not only was against censorship, but frequently put on theatrical performances at his home outside of Geneva. for a group? Montesquieu on the French Theatre and Sociability in the, 3. [] Look at most of the plays in the French theater; in practically all of them you will find abominable monsters and atrocious actions, useful, if you please, in making the plays interesting and in giving exercise to the virtues; but they are certainly dangerous in that they accustom the eyes of the People to horrors that they ought not even to know and to crimes they ought not to suppose possible []. 20 Montesquieu, Persian Letters, letter 28, 79. Cf. Despite being treated unfairly, Hippolytus adheres to a steadfast set of moral principlesand the playwright makes sure that the audience is aware of this. After naming these passions in particular, Montesquieu immediately observes: Those who write on morality for us and so strongly proscribe the theaters make us feel sufficiently the power of music on our souls.Footnote16 Thus, Montesquieu here testifies to the power that theatre has over the feelings, and hence the actions, of human beings. Il ne veut pas ressembler aux . 45 For Rousseau's association with Geneva both before and after the composition of the Letter, see Richard Whatmore, Against War and Empire: Geneva, Britain and France in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven, CT, 2012), 5497. Contact us 1758 marked a break with many of the Enlightenment philosophers; his Letter to d'Alembert attacked d'Alembert's article in the French Encyclopedia on Geneva. References to the French, when cited, for this and the Persian Letters appear in parentheses and are drawn from Charles-Louis Secondat de Montesquieu, uvres compltes de Montesquieu, edited by Roger Callois, 2 vols (Paris, 19491951). Once again, the morality of Ancient Rome and Greece is frequently referenced as an ideal that should be aspired to. While Montesquieu lavishes distinct praise on a society that permits the formation of taste and promotes the gentleness that comes from commerce, understood both as economic and social exchange, Rousseau resists such influences. However, Rousseau was later to write in his autobiography, Confessions, that "in all of Europe [Discourse on Inequality] found only a few readers who understood it, and of these none who wished to talk of it." He considered women, by virtue of their nature, to be the primary agents of moral reform, and that the success of the state depends on the harmony within private, domestic life. At this time, Rousseau wants to serve that truth that contributes to the "public good," that is to say, to all individuals. If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. 9 Letter, 27174, 35960. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. Politics and the Arts: Letter to M. D'Alembert on the Theatre (Agora Editions) Paperback - October 31, 1968 by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Author), Allan Bloom (Translator) 11 ratings See all formats and editions Hardcover $45.00 Other used and collectible from $45.00 Paperback $18.95 Other new, used and collectible from $2.22 Jean-Jacques Rousseau - 2009 - In Rousseau on Women, Love, and Family. Summary. Dont have an account? Register to receive personalised research and resources by email. He argues that the presence and authority of women in public spaces corrupts the male youth, turning them effeminate and void of patriotic passion. Voltaire's propensity to organise theatrical performances at his residence in Les Dlices, just outside the city but within Geneva's territory, had occasioned concern among the pastors and the Consistory in 1755; see Graham Gargett, Jacob Vernet, Geneva, and the Philosophes (Oxford, 1994), 11520. He concludes that as a result of his new reflections, he embraces a conclusion directly opposed to the one I drew from the first, namely, that when the people is corrupted, the theater is good for it, and bad for it when it is itself good.Footnote81 Rousseau reaches this conclusion immediately after he transmits, without naming his source, Montesquieu's description of French society: Rousseau allows the point that in certain places [the theatre] will be useful for attracting foreigners [utiles pour attirer les trangers],Footnote82 just as Montesquieu argues that the politeness of a society attracts foreigners to it [une politesse qui attire chez elle les trangers].Footnote83 Moreover, whereas Montesquieu declares that the society of women spoils mores and forms taste [la socit des femmes gte les murs, et forme le got],Footnote84 Rousseau admits that the theatre, where women are made the preceptors of the public,Footnote85 is useful for maintaining and perfecting taste [pour maintenir et perfectionner le got] when decency is lost.Footnote86 Rousseau yet again deploys Montesquieu's ideas when he says that a theatre can be useful for increasing the circulation of money [pour augmenter la circulation des espces], just as Montesquieu says that the prominent place of women and their tastes in society constantly increases the branches of commerce [on augmente sans cesse les branches de son commerce].Footnote87 Rousseau borrows and transmits all of these points of Montesquieu. 66 For example: The English people think it is free. 49 Bla Kapossy, Iselin contra Rousseau: Sociable Patriotism and the History of Mankind (Basel, 2006), 68. The Enlightenment was a diverse movement, represented in France by writers such as Voltaire, Diderot and the authors of the Encyclopdie. 2023 The Foundation for Constitutional Government Inc. All rights reserved. In the next book of The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu specifically illustrates how the theatre appeals to our natural morality: In our theaters we watch with pleasure when a young hero shows as much horror on discovering his step-mother's crime as he had for the crime itself; in his surprise, accused, judged, condemned, banished, and covered with infamy, he scarcely dares do more than make a few reflections on the abominable blood from which Phaedra is descended; he abandons what he holds most dear [] to give himself up to the vengeance of the gods, a vengeance he has not deserved. How she smirched their marriage-tie?/ How could I, by disclosing everything,/ Humiliate my father and my king?Footnote37 Later, Theseus expresses regret for the hasty and ill-considered judgement and punishment when, learning of the true worth of the son he had so recently reviled, he laments: O bring me back my son, and let him clear/ His name! Il ne peut pas se taire aprs ce qu'il a dj fait, il faut parler au public. His First Discourse, on the Arts and Sciences, won first prize in a competition run by the Dijon Academy, and he had an opera and a play performed to great acclaim. Rousseau's letter can help to understand the distinction between lived-in culture and theoretical political order. His Government of Poland and Constitutional Project for Corsica offer practical proposals for political reform in his time. (one code per order). Of course, Rousseau is willing to harness female society in such a manner only in the already corrupt society of France. Indeed, Rousseau, who elsewhere can be quite critical of England's political life,Footnote66 in this particular instance undertakes to defend the English by arguing that the social separation of the sexes in England does not, in fact, diminish individual happiness but rather deepens the profundity of society and therefore fosters a truer pleasure: Thus both [sexes], withdrawn more into themselves, give themselves less to frivolous imitations, get more of a taste for the true pleasures of life, and think less of appearing happy than of being so.Footnote67 Rousseau thus maintains that with the exception of family life, the two sexes ought to come together sometimes and to live separated ordinarily.Footnote68 But this separation is certainly not observed in France: The society of the two sexes, having become too usual and too easy, has harmed both men and women in his view, as the general spirit of gallantry [galanterie] stifles both genius and love.Footnote69 Men, he says, are affected as much as, and more than, women by a commerce [commerce] that is too intimate; they lose only their morals, but we lose our morals and our constitution [constitution].Footnote70 He urges sardonically: Imagine what can be the temper of the soul of a man who is uniquely occupied with the important business of amusing women.Footnote71 Finally, he elaborates on the harm that such frequent social interactions have on women: They are flattered without being loved; they are served without being honored; they are surrounded by agreeable persons but they no longer have lovers; and the worst is that the former, without having the sentiments of the latter, usurp nonetheless all the rights.Footnote72. By placing this particular discussion of Phaedra and what occurs in our theaters in the second of two successive chapters devoted to the topic of civil laws that are contrary to natural law, Montesquieu underscores the moral importance of the theatre for a society. But despite such an endorsement of the social order, the novel was revolutionary; its very free expression of emotions and its extreme sensibility deeply moved its large readership and profoundly influenced literary developments. 63 See Spirit, 28.22, 56162, where Montesquieu declares that men's connection to women is related, in part, to the fact that women are quite enlightened judges of a part of the things that constitute personal merit. Lettre d'Alembert de Rousseau. He accepted the Scottish philosopher Hume's offer to take refuge in Britain, only to quarrel with Hume as well and soon return to France. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. It develops the Romanticism that had already informed his writings on music and perhaps did more than any other single work of literature to influence the spirit of its age. Towards the end of the afternoon, everyone assembles and goes to perform in a sort of show [une espce de scne], called, so I have heard, a play [comdie]. In addition, the very foundation of Rousseau's concern for Geneva has a basis in Montesquieu's thought. However, Muralt's focus is on the inverted character of each sex, which results in a society that replaces good sense and simplicity (masculine characteristics) with wit and beauty (feminine characteristics); see Muralt, Lettres, 246, 260. The main letter is divided into three general areas: "A) The Theatre in Relation to What Is Performed in It"; "B) The Theatre Considered in Relation to the Stage and Actors"; and "C) The Establishment of a Theatre in Geneva". From 174041, he worked as a private tutor for Monsieur de Mably, brother of the famous writer, the Abbe de Mably. Rousseau initially declares at the beginning of the Letter that theatre only serves to intensify rather than change established morals, positing that drama would be good for the good and bad for the vicious.Footnote73 He ultimately revises his position, however, as he embraces Montesquieu's views both of the fundamental importance of mores in a given society and of the fact that different societies require different mores as well as different laws and institutions.Footnote74 This change of orientation occurs when Rousseau seems to adopt verbatim Montesquieu's formulation that mores and manners can be effectively changed not through direct legislation but less obtrusively through the introduction of other mores and manners, or via public opinion: matters of morals and universal justice are not arranged, as are those of private justice and strict right, by edicts and laws.Footnote75 This is nearly identical to Montesquieu's advice to the legislator in 19.14: when one wants to change the mores and manners, one must not change them by the laws [] it would be better to change them by other mores and other manners.Footnote76 Rousseau's discussion of the possible elimination of duels in France through the force of public opinion provides his readers with an example of spectacle appealing to amour-propre in such a way as to mitigate vice.Footnote77 Indeed, Rousseau declares in this context: I am convinced that we will never succeed in working these changes without bringing about the intervention of women, on whom men's way of thinking in large measure depends.Footnote78 Thus, not only does Rousseau confirm Montesquieu's teaching regarding the importance of mores, but he also expressly adopts Montesquieu's very conclusion regarding the importance of female society in effecting their change. 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