Playing at Monarchy: Sport as Metaphor in Nineteenth-Century France

272 Pages·2008·3.06 MB·English

by  Corry Cropper

playing at monarchy

Corry Cropper
Playing at
Monarchy
Sport as Metaphor in Nineteenth-Century France
university of nebraska press | lincoln and london
Publication of this volume was assisted by a grant from the
Brigham Young University College of Humanities.
Portions of chapter 1 were originally published as “Playing at
Monarchy: Le jeu de paume in Literature of Nineteenth-Century
France,” French Review 70, no. 4 (2002): 720–29.
Portions of chapter 4 were originally published as “Prosper
Mérimée and the Subversive ‘Historical’ Short Story,” Nineteenth-
Century French Studies 33, nos. 1 & 2 (2004–5): 57–74.
© 2008 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska.
All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America.
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cropper, Corry.
Playing at monarchy: sport as metaphor in nineteenth-century
France / Corry Cropper.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8032-1773-7 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Sports—France—History—19th century. 2. Sports—Political
aspects—France. 3. Sports—Social aspects—France—History—
19th century. 4. Sports and state—France. I. Title.
gv609.c76 2008
796'.094409034 —dc22
2008024056
Set in Fournier MT.
Designed by Joel Gehringer.
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: xi
Mountain Stages and How-to Manuals
1. Paume Anyone? 1
Representing Real Tennis after the Tennis Court Oath
2. The Spanish Bullfi ght in France: 23
Goya, Gautier, and Mérimée
3. Trictrac and Chess as Models of Historical Discourse: 45
Chance in the Works of Balzac and Mérimée
4. Of Rabbits and Kings: 85
Hunting and Upward Mobility
5. Fencing and Aristocratic Resistance during the Third Republic 119
6. Olympic Restoration: 155
Coubertin and the European Monarchy
Conclusion: 181
Imitation and Resistance
Notes 189
Bibliography 223
Index 235
Illustrations
1.Serment du jeu de paume (The Tennis Court Oath) 6
2.“Con razón ó sin ella” (Rightly or Wrongly) 24
3.Pepe Hillo 25
4.Tauromaquia 25
5.Seigneurs jouant au tric-trac (Lords Playing Trictrac) 48
6.Engraving by Régamey in L’escrime et le duel 142
Acknowledgments
Combien je vous remercie de mon adresse.
Charles Baudelaire, Le spleen de Paris
I owe the original idea for this book to friends in my racquetball
group. After getting yet another bruise in the back from an er-
rant ball, I decided it would be better for me to spend more time
researching sports than actually playing them. The bruises also
led me to approach Prosper Mérimée’s tale “La Vénus d’Ille” in a
new way. The narrative’s main character is an accomplished ten-
nis player, a star of the court. Following a particularly important
match (on the day of his wedding), he ends up dead. I had worked
on Mérimée’s literature as a graduate student, in this story study-
ing the construction of the supernatural. But I now came to his
text with a new understanding of the connection between racquet
sports and pain. So instead of looking for the cause of death in the
details surrounding his marriage or in the testimony of his bride,
who claimed that a moving statue killed him, I decided to look
for reasons in the way he approached the game itself. Can playing
tennis actually kill you? The answer, as you will see in the pages
that follow, is yes. And so I begin by thanking Allen, Michael,
Lee, Lanny, Enoc, Juan, Todd, Brett, and Kerry, whose errant
“kill shots” put me on the path that led to this book.
viii| Acknowledgments
I am deeply grateful to the many people who have given me
feedback on the manuscript as it was in various stages of prepa-
ration. Thanks to my colleagues at Brigham Young University:
Ed Cutler, Yvon LeBras, Daryl Lee, Marc Olivier, and Matthew
Wickman. A special thank you goes to my friend and colleague
Scott Sprenger, who read so much of the fi rst draft. Thanks
also to colleagues at other universities who provided invaluable
feedback and support along the way: Scott Carpenter (Carleton
College), Antonia Fonyi (cnrs⁄item), Kathryn Grossman (Penn
State University), Dorothy Kelly (Boston University), Armine
Mortimer and Emile Talbot (University of Illinois), and Allan H.
Pasco (University of Kansas).
I must also thank the numerous friendly people I met in the
world of trictrac (a now nearly forgotten board game) and paume
(also called “real tennis”): Thierry Depaulis, David Levy, and
Philippe Lalanne of the trictrac research group; Joe Wells, who
graciously agreed to play several games of trictrac with me;
Anthony Scratchley and Angus Williams, the former and current
head pros at the paume court in Fontainebleau, who offered me a
warm welcome; and Richard Travers, who translated an 1862 work
about paume written by Eugène Chapus and Edouard Fournier.
I also wish to thank Cordell Cropper and Susan Cropper
for their encouragement throughout my entire career; Marvin
Gardner and his assistants at the byu Faculty Editing Service;
Elizabeth Moesser and Glen Young for their help in proofreading
and source checking; and Debbie Van Ausdal and Kathleen Allen
for their generous logistical support.
The Brigham Young University College of Humanities,
Department of French and Italian, Center for the Study of Europe,
Acknowledgments | ix
and the Kennedy Center for International Studies have funded re-
search trips and granted me release time to complete the project. I
thank them for working with me.
Thanks are also due to the entire team at the University of
Nebraska Press, which has effi ciently and politely guided me
through the last stages of revision and publication. I am also
grateful to the employees of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France
in Paris, who kindly helped me locate many obscure articles and
books necessary for the completion of this project.
Finally, I express my love to my wife, April, and to our chil-
dren, for their many years of patience and support.