Queens of the French Stage

Queens of the French Stage

Armande Grsinde Claire Elisabeth Bjart, for that was the bride's name, is described in the marriage deed as the daughter of the late Joseph Bjart, cuyer, sieur de Belleville, and of his widow, Marie Herv. Joseph Bjart, it should be stated, had died shortly before, or shortly after, Armande's birth. The Bjarts were very poor, for the only means which Joseph seems to have possessed wherewith to maintain his pretensions to nobility were derived from a small government appointment (huissier ordinaire du roy s eaux et forts de France), and his wife had presented him with "at least eleven children." They lived in the Marais, then the theatrical quarter of Paris. On its northern outskirts, near the Halles, in the Rue Mauconseil, stood the old Htel de Bourgogne, the first home of the regular drama; in the centre, in the Rue Vieille-du-Temple, was the theatre which took its name from the quarter, the Thtre du Marais, where Corneille's Cid was first performed; while nearer the Seine, the playgoer could make choice between the Italian troupes, the Trois Farceurs, Gaultier-Garguille, Gros-Guillaume, and Turlupin,[1] and open-air entertainments on the Pont-au-Change, the Pont-Neuf, and the Place Dauphine. It is, therefore, not surprising that the little Bjarts should have been in the habit of varying the monotony of their poverty-stricken lives by occasional visits to one or other of these spectacles, or that, dazzled by those well-known attractions, which were doubtless as potent in the seventeenth century as they are to-day, the two eldest, Joseph and Madeleine, should have decided, while still very young, to make the stage their profession. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 37618
Author: Williams, H. Noel (Hugh Noel)
Release Date: Oct 4, 2011
Format: eBook
Language: English