Humanity in play: Man meets monkey in Ancien Régime France

288 Pages·2016·72.52 MB·English

by  Kathryn Rife Bastin

HUMANITY IN PLAY:
MAN MEETS MONKEY IN ANCIEN RÉGIME FRANCE

Kathryn Rife Bastin

Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy
in the Department of French and Italian,
Indiana University
August 2016
ProQuest Number: 10155602
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Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Doctoral Committee

_______________________________________
Hall Bjørnstad, Ph.D., Co-Chair

_______________________________________
Guillaume Ansart, Ph.D., Co-Chair

_______________________________________
Alison Calhoun, Ph.D.

_______________________________________
Giles Knox, Ph.D.

_______________________________________
Matthew Senior, Ph.D.

August 28, 2016

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To my parents, Tina and Tom,
To my sister, Kelli,
To my partner, Sal,
And to my children, Isadora and Maxwell.

iii
Kathryn Rife Bastin

HUMANITY IN PLAY:
MAN MEETS MONKEY IN ANCIEN RÉGIME FRANCE

In my dissertation, I show that the simian deconstructs notions of humanity and asks
troubling questions about the true nature of the human being and the civilizing mission through
which the black indigenous body becomes othered. Deviant, lustful, imitative and so very
repellent but irresistible, the simian’s status as a borderline creature has a dark resonance during
the French Ancien Régime, as explored here through three case studies of visual and textual
representations. In chapter one, I examine the animal fountains in the Labyrinth of Versailles; my
close analysis shows that the six simian fountains in this hedged maze and their accompanying
Aesopic fables replay expropriation and the dangers of imitation for courtiers of the era.
However, these simian fountains bear particular witness to the imitative feedback loop between
Fouquet’s Vaux and Louis XIV’s Versailles and suggest that Versailles is based on imitation, the
very misdeed against which the Labyrinth warns. In chapter two, I analyze Madame d’Aulnoy’s
fairy tale of the human-born princess-turned-monkey “Babiole” which reveals the inherent
tension between ugliness, refinement and beauty, and moreover unpacks a tale of the
dehumanized colonial black body. My third case study furthers this connection between the
simian and black body by conducting a parallel reading of the simian text and engravings of the
Histoire naturelle Tome XIV, pitting Buffon’s literary text, which seeks divergence with and
superiority over the simian and the non-white body, against the ultimate and uncanny proximity
displayed by Jacques de Sève’s engravings. Through the exploration of this simian corpus, my
work asks not only essential and underexplored questions on the nature of imitation for
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humankind, but also shows the intrinsic violence of the civilizing mission and the white
European’s posturing and positioning over others, whether they be categorized as borderline
creatures, beasts, or black, non-white bodies.

_______________________________________
Hall Bjørnstad, Ph.D., Co-Chair

_______________________________________
Guillaume Ansart, Ph.D., Co-Chair

_______________________________________
Alison Calhoun, Ph.D.

_______________________________________
Giles Knox, Ph.D.

_______________________________________
Matthew Senior, Ph.D.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………………vii

INTRODUCTION: The Question of Animality: Of Monkeys and Mirrors in the Ancien
Régime……………………………………………………………………………………………..1

CHAPTER ONE: Monkey as King in the Labyrinth of Versailles: C’est un vray
singe……………………………………………………………………………………………...21

CHAPTER TWO: The Monkey in the Mirror: Reflections on the Singe as Signe in Marie-
Catherine d’Aulnoy’s “Babiole” ………………………………………………………………108

CHAPTER THREE: Negotiating the Boundary between the Animal and the Human: Tome XIV
of the Histoire naturelle………………………………………………………………………...175

CONCLUSION: Natural Instincts and Humanity: The Monkey in the Middle……………….248

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………259

CURRICULUM VITAE

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LIST OF FIGURES

INTRODUCTION

Fig. 1, Emmanuel Jean de Ghendt after Jean-Michel Moreau le jeune. Illustration for chapter
sixteen of Voltaire, Candide, ou l’Optimisme, in Œuvres complètes. Edited by Pierre-
Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (Kehl: Imprimerie de la Société Littéraire
Typographique, 1784-1789)……………………………………………………………..20

CHAPTER ONE
Figures

Fig. 1a, Isaac de Benserade, Fable CXXVII, in Fables d’Ésope en quatrains dont il y a une
partie au labyrinte de Versailles (Paris: Sébastien Mabre-Cramoisy, 1678)…………... 79
Fig. 1b, Charles Perrault, Fable XI, Le Singe & ses Petits, in Labyrinte de Versailles (Paris:
Imprimerie Royale, 1679)………………………………………………………………..80
Fig. 1b, Perrault, Fable XI, Le Singe & ses Petits, in Labyrinte de Versailles ……………………….81
Fig. 1b, Sébastien Le Clerc, Fable XI, Le Singe & ses Petits, engraving, in Labyrinte de
Versailles…………………………………………………………………………………82
Fig. 2a, Benserade, Fable LXXX, Le Singe et le perroquet, in Fables d’Ésope…………..…….83
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Fig. 2b, Perrault, Fable XVII, Le Singe et le perroquet, in Labyrinte de Versailles…………….84
Fig. 2b, Perrault, Fable XVII, Le Singe et le perroquet, in Labyrinte de Versailles…………….85
Fig. 2b, Le Clerc, Fable XVII, Le Singe et le perroquet, in Labyrinte de Versailles………........86
Fig. 3a, Benserade, Fable LXXXI, in Fables d’Ésope…………………………………………..87
Fig. 3b, Perrault, Fable XVIII, Le Singe juge, in Labyrinte de Versailles…………………….....88
Fig. 3b, Perrault, Fable XVIII, Le Singe juge, in Labyrinte de Versailles……………………….89
Fig. 3b, Le Clerc, Fable XVIII, Le Singe juge in Labyrinte de Versailles………………...…….90
Fig. 4a, Benserade, Fable XXXIII, in Fables d’Ésope…………………………………………..91
Fig. 4b, Perrault, Fable XXIII, Le Singe Roy, in Labyrinte de Versailles……………………….92
Fig. 4b, Perrault, Fable XXIII, Le Singe Roy, in Labyrinte de Versailles…………………….....93
Fig. 4b, Perrault, Fable XXIII, Le Singe Roy, in Labyrinte de Versailles……………………....94
Fig. 5a, Benserade, Fable CIX, Le Singe et le chat, in Fables d’Ésope………………………...95
Fig. 5b, Perrault, Fable XXVII, Le Singe et le chat, in Labyrinte de Versailles………………...96
Fig. 5b, Perrault, Fable XXVII, Le Singe et le chat, in Labyrinte de Versailles………………...97
Fig. 5b, Le Clerc, Fable XXVII, Le Singe et le chat, in Labyrinte de Versailles………………..98
Fig. 6a, Benserade, Fable CCXVI, Le Dauphin et le singe, in Fables d’Ésope………………...99
Fig. 6b, Perrault, Fable XXXIV, Le Dauphin et le singe, in Labyrinte de Versailles………….100
Fig. 6b, Perrault, Fable XXXIV, Le Dauphin et le singe, in Labyrinte de Versailles……….....101
Fig. 6b, Le Clerc, Fable XXXIV, Le Dauphin et le singe, in Labyrinte de Versailles………....102
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Appendix 1

Charles Perrault and Sébastien Le Clerc, “Explication du plan du Labyrinthe,” in
Labyrinte de Versailles……….…………………………………………………………..103
Perrault and Le Clerc, “Plan du Labirinthe de Versailles,” in Labyrinte de
Versailles...........................................................................................................................104
Appendix 2
Charles Perrault and Sébastien Le Clerc, “Table des fables,” in Labyrinte de
Versailles.................................................................................................................105 -107

CHAPTER TWO
Figures

Fig. 1, Anonymous German artist, Maddalena (Madeleine) Gonzales (Vienna, Château
d’Ambras, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemalderie, v. 1580)..............................167
Fig. 2, Frontispiece from Suite des contes nouveaux, ou des fées à la mode, tome III (Paris:
Compagnie des Librairies, 1711)……………………………………………………….168
Fig. 3, Engraving from Nouveaux contes des fées, tome II (Amsterdam: Roger in Komm,
1719)……………………………………………………………………………….…...169
Fig. 4a, Christophe Huet, La Petite Singerie, Chantilly, 1735…………………………………170
Fig. 4b, Christophe Huet, La Petite Singerie, Chantilly, 1735. ………………………………..171
Fig. 4c, Christophe Huet, La Petite Singerie, Chantilly, 1735. ………………………………..172
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