THE KING’S MEN: MOLIÈRE AND LULLY’S COMÉDIES-BALLETS AND THE POLITICS OF PATRONAGE DURING THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV, 1661-1673

This paper examines Louis XIV’s patronage of the arts as a tool to consolidate his absolutist rule through a close study of his patron-client relationship with Jean-Baptiste Pouqelin, more commonly known as Molière, and Jean-Baptiste Lully, and the comédies-ballets the pair produced during the first decade of Louis’ personal rule. By first establishing Louis’ development of an absolutist order through relation-based systems, such venal offices and the intendant system, I show how Louis created and expanded parallel systems of control in the arts, through Académies, patronage, and privileges. I then consider how Louis further used performative rituals and physical representations of his power to reinforce this absolutist agenda. It was in this environment in which the arts were integrated as a critical aspect of Louis’ quest for political control that the comédie-ballet developed. Focusing specifically on two of Molière and Lully’s comedies-ballets, Les Fâcheux and Le Bourgeouis Gentilhomme, this paper proceeds to demonstrate how both the production and the performance of the comédies-ballets served the Sun King’s wider political goals. The artists benefitted from their relationship with the King through patronage and privileges; in return they created these comédies-ballets. By examining the evolution of Louis’ patronage of Molière and Lully beyond the initial comédies-ballets, I demonstrate how Lully adapted to Louis’ shifting political visions and gained enormous power as a result, while Molière deviated from the changing absolutist agenda and thus remained only modestly powerful. Success came from each artist’s ability to frame their works to suit the king’s interests. This paper seeks to show just how the patronage impacted the artists and their artistic output and how nuances in the evolution of these relationships impacted the artists’ power and success, financially and artistically, in a way that ultimately reinforced the king’s own power