The New Eloise, being a novel, escaped the censorship to which the other two works were subject; indeed, of all his books it proved to be the most widely read and the most universally praised in his lifetime. Letter of M. d'Alembert to M. J. J. Rousseau ; "Response to the anonymous letter written by members of the legal profession" ; Letter from Julien-David Leroy to Rousseau ; From Rousseau to Leroy. 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. 14 For example, in Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men, Rousseau takes issue with an illustrious Philosopher, evidently Montesquieu, on the timidity of human beings in the state of nature; see Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Second Discourse, in Collected Writings, III, 21. Those methods involve a noticeable measure of deceit, and although corporal punishment is forbidden, mental cruelty is not. Love from Simone: Epistolarity and the love letter. He first tries to sway Geneva away from the idea of theatre by suggesting that it is not economically feasible, and that the population is too low to support a theatre. Remarkably, in his Letter to d'Alembert, Rousseau himself transmits this same assessment of the women in England, employing the very adjective that Montesquieu applies to them: English women are gentle and timid [timides].Footnote65 Nevertheless, where Montesquieu perceives this as having lamentable consequences for the English, Rousseau finds admirable results. In this different context religion plays a different role. 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. Emphasis added. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's passionate attack on inequalities political, social, and economic, his critique of reigning governments in the name of democracy, and his questioning of the authority of science or philosophy in defense of moral virtue shook the century of Enlightenment and the aftershocks are still felt today. 20% Quotations from d'Alembert's uvres, cited as "D'Al.," refer to the Belin edition (Paris, 1821) in five volumes.The edition of Voltaire's Correspondence is . Registered in England & Wales No. Rousseau's essay critiqued the immorality of the Parisian theater and argued that a theater in Geneva would have a similarly corruptive effect on their society. Baron dtange, Julies father, has indeed promised her to a fellow nobleman named Wolmar. Other scholars, in examining Rousseau's Letter in particular, discern limited indications of Montesquieu's influence. Rousseau worked as a clerk to a notary, and then was apprenticed to an engraver. He felt, moreover, a strong emotional drive toward the worship of God, whose presence he felt most forcefully in nature, especially in mountains and forests untouched by human hands. However, after the death of Louis XIV, new philosophical ideas began to emerge about embracing earthly pleasure, and the theatre found more and more supporters. Rousseau adhered to the belief that restrictions and censorship are often justified to maintain civil order. Although Rousseau offers evaluations of the English and French in opposition to the ones Montesquieu presents, he simultaneously confirms Montesquieu's teachings regarding the powerful effect that women can have on mores and accepts Montesquieu's fundamental tenet regarding the transformative effect of mores on society and government. [1], Rousseau believed that public morals could be created not by laws or punishment, but simply by women, who have access to their senses and largely control the way men think. Through examining Montesquieu's commentary on the theatre in the Persian Letters, as well as his discussion of Phaedra in The Spirit of the Laws, it becomes clear that Montesquieu teaches that the theatrical art can have a positive effect on individuals and thus on society. 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. Rousseaus view that drama might well be abolished marked a final break between the two writers. Rousseau engages the Swiss author, Bat Louis de Muralt, to support his claim: It is an error, said the grave Muralt, to hope that the true relations of things will be faithfully presented in the theater.Footnote48 Rousseau is known to have obtained a copy of Muralt's Lettres sur les Anglais et les Franais in 1756, and was undoubtedly influenced by his accounts of French and English society.Footnote49 Muralt's Lettres were written in the 1690s, and widely circulated before being published in Geneva in 1725,Footnote50 which suggests that the works could be a common source for Rousseau and Montesquieu, though it is uncertain whether Montesquieu had read them.Footnote51 In his Letter, Rousseau largely agrees with Muralt's description of French society in particular, including a brief discussion of the theatre. No way do I wish, they say, to give to him encouragement; see Charles-Louis Secondat de Montesquieu and Iain Stuewart, Montesquieu in England: His Notes on England, with Commentary and Translation, translated by Iain Stewart (Oxford, 2002), http://ouclf.iuscomp.org/articles/montesquieu.shtml [accessed 12 June 2014], note 114. First, Montesquieu describes them as timide, a term which Rousseau adopts. At points in his Letter to d'Alembert Rousseau borrows Montesquieu's images and sometimes his very language, adapting them to his purpose in condemning the establishment of a theatre in small and virtuous Geneva.Footnote45 Thus, Rousseau accepts many of Montesquieu's claims regarding French society and its form of sociability. For the Letter, the French, when cited, is given in parentheses, taken from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, crits sur la musique, la langue, et le thtre, in uvres compltes, edited by Bernard Gagnebin and others, 5 vols (Paris, 19591995), V. 3 D'Alembert, Geneva, in Letter, 246. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (UK: / r u s o /, US: / r u s o / French: [ ak uso]; 28 June 1712 - 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher (), writer, and composer.His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic, and educational thought. Youve successfully purchased a group discount. [3], Rousseau generally opposed the Enlightenment thrust that was occurring during his lifetime. It was the first of Rousseau's writings to be translated into Russian. That minimal creed put Rousseau at odds with the orthodox adherents of the churches and with the openly atheistic philosophes of Paris, so that despite the enthusiasm that some of his writings, and especially The New Eloise, excited in the reading public, he felt himself increasingly isolated, tormented, and pursued. In the early 1750s, Rousseau had a string of successes. He also attached great importance to conscience, the divine voice of the soul in man, opposing this both to the bloodless categories of rationalistic ethics and to the cold tablets of biblical authority. 52 Rousseau may be elaborating on Muralt's only description of tragedy in his Lettres: Elle convertit le Bon en Beau, sa maniere, en le faisant servir des Representations, des Peintures dont il n'est question que de savoir si elles sont bien faites; see Muralt, Lettres, 245. Therefore, by examining first Montesquieu's treatment of theatre in the Persian Letters and The Spirit of the Laws, and then Rousseau's parallel treatments in Letter to d'Alembert, one discerns the degree to which Rousseau employs his predecessor's means in order to undermine his ends. 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. On Rousseau's awareness of these apparent paradoxes, see Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "Letter to D'Alembert on the Theatre," in Politics and the Arts, trans. 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. Dont have an account? In Paris, as in Geneva, they ordered the book to be burned and the author arrested; all the Marchal de Luxembourg could do was to provide a carriage for Rousseau to escape from France. In the Letter, Rousseau rejected the traditional notion of male politicians being responsible for moral reform, and thought it was women's responsibility. Rousseau, if not such a one whom Montesquieu envisions would endeavour to constrain the women of France or correct the French mores, is certainly one who attempts to prohibit the importation of such mores to other polities such as Geneva, and hence to circumscribe their influence.Footnote47 Rousseau concedes, however, that theatre may serve to halt an already corrupt society, such as that of the French, from collapsing into even deeper corruption. The legislator's task is to make sure a society's women are in order. Scholars now refer to Rousseau's use of Montesquieu's depiction of the ancient republics and the virtue which they inculcated. See also Coleman, who discerns the same influence, but who maintains that Rousseau's view of what Montesquieu calls l'esprit general is [] much less accommodating than that of the constitutional jurist; see Coleman, Rousseau's Political Imagination, 4445, note 6. Rousseau endeavours quite extensively in the Letter to counter the appeal of commerceboth economic and socialas Montesquieu depicts its pleasing character and salutary effects in The Spirit of the Laws. We are also grateful to Robert Devigne, Dennis Rasmussen, and the anonymous reviewers of History of European Ideas for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. 3 Rousseau, Correspondance gnrale, ed. Here, he began to write his famous autobiography, Confessions, and formally renounced his Genevan citizenship. [1] Rousseau relates the issue of a theatre in Geneva to the broader social context, warning of the potential the theatre has to corrupt the morality in society. Recommended translation: Politics and the Arts:Letter to M. D'Alembert on the Theatre(Agora Paperback Edition);trans. Ultimately, Rousseau seeks this engagement with Montesquieu's images, claims, and teachings as a result of his political goal of preserving the mores and customs of Geneva. 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". In this context, he declares: Men, rascals when taken one by one, are very honest as a whole; they love morality; and if I were not considering such a serious subject, I would say that this is remarkably clear in the theaters; one is sure to please people by the feelings that morality professes, and one is sure to offend them by those that it disapproves.Footnote29. We use cookies to improve your website experience. Radica's article does not treat the Letter. In it Rousseau speaks to . Rousseau's word choice here is borrowed from Montesquieu, not Muralt. The novel was clearly inspired by Rousseaus own curious relationshipat once passionate and platonicwith Sophie dHoudetot, a noblewoman who lived near him at Montmorency. Aspects of Rousseau's ideas from Discourse on Inequality, particularly his idea of a system of increasing needs that govern modern society are found in Hegel's account of civil society, and perhaps in Marx's idea of alienated labour. [4], The Letter starts off with a more grim and urgent tone, then shifting at the end to a brighter and optimistic one when the community oriented solution to the problem of the theatre is discussed. We're sorry, SparkNotes Plus isn't available in your country. 8 Letter, 254. But sometimes human beings forget themselves and their natural feelings. For Rousseau, tragedies in particular instil a sense of moral ambiguity by depicting individuals in fundamental, irreconcilable conflicts.Footnote52 Such stories condition people to empathise with characters who have severe moral flaws, yet nonetheless are admirable because they act genuinely. Geneva, which already has a large degree of inequality, does not need any more. Rousseau worked as a clerk to a notary, and then was apprenticed to an engraver. 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. The Confessions used is the Gamier edition (Paris, n.d.). [2], Rousseau believed that the theatre took people away from the community, and replaced any patriotic, unifying spirit with artificial emotions. In the early 1750s, Rousseau had a string of successes. As David Marshall points out, Rousseau explores throughout his works, and most explicitly in the Letter, theatrical relations enacted outside as well as inside the playhouse by people who face each other as actors and spectators. 5 D'Alembert, Geneva, in Letter, 243. The years at Montmorency had been the most productive of his literary career; The Social Contract, mile, and Julie; ou, la nouvelle Hlose (1761; Julie; or, The New Eloise) came out within 12 months, all three works of seminal importance. As Kelly points out, scholars have noted that Rousseau on several occasions in that work paraphrases without attribution the language of Montesquieu's Spirit; see Kelly, Rousseau and the Illustrious Montesquieu, in The Challenge of Rousseau, edited by Grace and Kelly, 21, notes 8 and 9; Leo Strauss, On the Intention of Rousseau, Social Research, 14 (1947), 45587 (45860); Antoine Adam, De quelques sources de Rousseau dans la littrature philosophique (17001750), in Jean-Jacques Rousseau et son oeuvre, problmes et recherches (Paris, 1964), 12533 (127); Michel Launay, Jean-Jacques Rousseau et son temps (Paris, 1969), 93103. Rousseau continues to say that actors coming to the town of Geneva will be indifferent to the town's morality, and will quickly corrupt it. Register a free Taylor & Francis Online account today to boost your research and gain these benefits: Spectacles and Sociability: Rousseau's Response in His, Department of Political Science, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA and New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA, USA. He continues that a European spirit of gallantry that one can say was little known to the ancients grew out of this desire to please women. The work is famous for displaying Rousseau's charismatic rhetoric and digressive tendencies, all with his personal experience woven into the text. 4. He had no formal education, but read widely in ancient and modern authors, inspired initially by his father's collection of books. He also responds to some comments D'Alembert makes praising the tolerance of the Geneva clergy while criticizing the intolerance of French Roman Catholicism. Description. Rousseau proceeds to explore the effect of theatre when decency is lost. Emphasis added. See also Radica, Rousseau, in Dictionnaire lectronique Montesquieu, September 2013 edition, 7. At the same time the book sets out to explore the possibilities of an education for republican citizenship. If it did not exempt him from persecution, at least it ensured that his persecution was observed, and admiring femmes du monde intervened from time to time to help him so that Rousseau was never, unlike Voltaire and Diderot, actually imprisoned. April 18, 2023, SNPLUSROCKS20 We thank Matthew Mendham who, as commentator, offered insightful remarks on that occasion. Dans le Commerce continuel qu'il y a entre les deux Sexes, il se fait comme un change de Caractre, qui les fait un peu droger l'un & l'autre; see Muralt, Lettres, 229. creating and saving your own notes as you read. In addition, the very foundation of Rousseau's concern for Geneva has a basis in Montesquieu's thought. The volume also contains Rousseau's own writings for the theater, including plays and libretti for operas, most of which have never been translated into English. Their exchange, collected in volume ten of this acclaimed series, offers a classic debate over the political importance of the arts. It offered a critique of d'Alembert's article on Geneva in the Encyclopdie. For a discussion of those who opposed the theatre in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, see Jonas Barish, The Antitheatrical Prejudice (Berkeley, CA, 1981), 191220. In subjecting the type of sociability that a theatre engenders to finely-grained analysis, Rousseau offers examples and language remarkably akin to those that Montesquieu employs in The Spirit of the Laws, yet he uses Montesquieu's teaching in order to oppose some of the very assertions his predecessor makes. In Emile, Rousseau refers to the illustrious Montesquieu, but criticises him for being content to discuss the positive right of established governments, and not treating, therefore, the principles of political right. THINKERS. Il cite ce pour quoi il crit. Among them, Le Devin du village was the most popular French opera of the eighteenth . For example, Rousseau in his Letter both adopts and adapts salient elements of Montesquieu's juxtaposition of French and English societies in Book 19. Thus, [i]n the theater we congratulate ourselves for our moral sensitivity while remaining isolated from irksome involvement with our fellows; see Christopher Kelly, Rousseau and the Case for (and Against) Censorship, in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Critical Assessments of Leading Political Philosophers, edited by John T. Scott, 4 vols (New York, NY, 2006, first published in 1997), IV, 20122 (209). 48 Letter, 270. Many scholars have identified the decisive influence of Montesquieu's treatment of the ancient city in Rousseau's thought more generally, but have not yet fully explored the role that Montesquieu's treatment of the theatre plays in Rousseau's Letter. Women naturally have power over men via resistance in the area of relationships and this power can be extended to the play, where women can have the same control over the audience. But after quoting a passage from D'Alembert's letter, Rousseau writes that it is imperative to discuss the potential disasters that a theatre could bring. 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