La vie privée des femmes de théâtre d'après Les Causes célèbres

Towards 1900, monographs on 18th-century actress were all the rage : Mlle Dumesnil, Mile Raucourt, Sophie Arnould, Mlle Duthé or Mile Flore. These were naturally 'scandalous5 biographies which titillated the public's imagination whilst nourishing the libertine legend of the 1 8th century and consolidating the image of a corrupt theatre generating high flying prostitutes. Legal archives and the Causes célèbres series reveal a far more complex reality. In trials or legal wrangles involving theatrical women, private life overshadows public life. Every¬ day difficulties replace the illusion of opera sets and often sordid personal dramas send the grandeur of classical tragedy into oblivion. Far from spangles and shining lights, unknown women appear, victims rather than queens. Can one equate theatrical women with Enlightenment women ? Yes, probably, if one considers the Causes we propose to study. Paradoxically at first by their personal dramas since their defenders call for the equality of both sexes in the name of the philosophical ideal of emancipation on their behalf. And, quite logically thereafter, by their art itself : if, as their lawyers claim, following Voltaire and d'Alembert, the stage is a school of morality and civilisation, they are the best propagandists of the ideas of progress and stand in the forefront of Enlightenment warriors.Vissière Isabelle. La vie privée des femmes de théâtre d'après Les Causes célèbres. In: Dix-huitième Siècle, n°36, 2004. Femmes des Lumières. pp. 55-69