(Un)Popular Performances in Early Seventeenth-Century France

Michael Meere • Wesleyan University

February 22nd @ 6 P.M.
Zoom Conference: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/98396636283

In 1607, a young Scotsman named William Drummond of Hawthornden was studying law in Bourges, France, a popular “study abroad destination” for Scottish students as well as an important stopover city on the routes of itinerant professional and amateur actors. Although these performances were often met with hostility from the city’s religious authorities, Drummond attended several plays during his stay and, lucky for us, took rather detailed notes about them. According to Drummond’s manuscript, housed in the National Library of Scotland, these actors performed a variety of different kinds of plays, including tragedies, comedies, tragicomedies, pastorals, and farces. Drummond’s manuscript thus provides a deeper understanding of the ambivalent relationship between ephemeral theatrical performance, the printed text, and the ways in which information is recorded, archived, and transmitted about such performances, while also shining a light on the stakes of spectatorship and (un)popular culture in early seventeenth-century France.

Ephemera
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