La Grange (1635 – 1 March 1692), whose real name was Charles Varlet, was a
French actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...
and a member of the
troupe of Molière
Troupe may refer to:
General
*Comedy troupe, a group of comedians
* Dance troupe, a group of dancers
**Fire troupe, a group of fire dancers
*Troupe system, a method of playing role-playing games
*Theatrical troupe, a group of theatrical performers ...
.
Early life
Charles Varlet was the son of Hector Varlet and Marie de La Grange. The couple married in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
on 9 May 1634 and moved to
Montpellier
Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...
soon thereafter. Charles was born in 1635 and baptized at
Notre-Dame des Tables, Montpellier, on 8 March 1636, at the age of about 9 months. He had a younger brother, Achille Varlet (born 17 December 1636) and sister, Justine-Françoise (born 14 May 1638). After the birth of his sister the family left Montpellier and was in Paris in 1642 (Achille and Justine were baptised at the Église de Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs on 12 February 1642), but not long after the children lost their parents and became orphans.
Career with the Molière company
La Grange joined Molière's company in 1659, soon after they had returned to Paris from touring the provinces. Being young and attractive, he was the ''jeune premier'' and generally played Molière's lovers, roles which as
Charles Dickens, Jr., has written are "among the least interesting of his personages." Later La Grange played more versatile parts such as the title roles in Racine's ''
Alexandre le Grand
''Alexandre le Grand'' is a tragedy in 5 acts (of 3, 5, 7, 5 and 3 scenes, respectively) and verse by Jean Racine. It was first produced on 4 December 1665 at the Palais Royal Theater in Paris.Date of the premiere and the venue are listed by Josep ...
'' (1665) and Molière's ''
Dom Juan
''Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre'' ("Don Juan or The Feast of the Stone tatue) is a five-act 1665 comedy by Molière based upon the Spanish legend of Don Juan Tenorio. The aristocrat Dom Juan is a rake who seduces, marries, and abandons Elvir ...
'' (1666), as well as Acaste in Molière's ''
The Misanthrope
''The Misanthrope, or the Cantankerous Lover'' (french: Le Misanthrope ou l'Atrabilaire amoureux; ) is a 17th-century comedy of manners in verse written by Molière. It was first performed on 4 June 1666 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris b ...
'' (1666).
["La Grange" in Hartnoll (1983), p. 470.][Donald Roy, "La Grange" in Banham (1995), p. 623.]
La Grange also acted as the company's secretary and historian, creating a register of all plays performed as well as receipts and other commentary on matters affecting the company. These documents are an important source of information for scholars interested in the period. In 1664
[ (or 1667)][ La Grange replaced Molière as the Orator, the company member who addressed the audience and introduced the plays.
]
Marriage
On 25 April 1672, during the company's Easter break, La Grange married Marie Ragueneau de l'Estang (18 May 1639 – 2 February 1727), known as Marotte (the name of the chambermaid in Moliére's ''Les Précieuses ridicules
''Les Précieuses ridicules'' (, ''The Absurd Précieuses'' or ''The Affected Ladies'') is a one-act satire by Molière in prose. It takes aim at the ''précieuses'', the ultra-witty ladies who indulged in lively conversations, word games and, in ...
''). Ragueneau had apparently first become associated with the company in 1660 as the chambermaid of the actress Mademoiselle de Brie, and later began to play small parts, possibly beginning as Marotte, but soon followed by Georgette in Molière's ''L'École des femmes
''The School for Wives'' (french: L'école des femmes; ) is a theatrical comedy written by the seventeenth century French playwright Molière and considered by some critics to be one of his finest achievements. It was first staged at the Palai ...
'' in 1663. She created the title role in Molière's ''La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas'' in 1671.[ Marie Ragueneau was the daughter of Cyprien Ragueneau, a pastry chef, who is now chiefly remembered as a character in the 1898 play '']Cyrano de Bergerac
Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist.
A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th cen ...
'' by Edmond Rostand.[ Not long after her marriage to La Grange, she became an official member of Molière's company, receiving a one-half share and in 1680 was one of the founding members of the ]Comédie-Française
The Comédie-Française () or Théâtre-Français () is one of the few state theatres in France. Founded in 1680, it is the oldest active theatre company in the world. Established as a French state-controlled entity in 1995, it is the only state ...
, along with her brother-in-law, Achille, who was also an actor, known as Verneuil.
After Molière
Molière died in 1673 after which La Grange was instrumental in the rebuilding of the company during the transition to its new theatre at the Hôtel de Guénégaud. When the troupe merged with the players of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1680 forming the Comédie-Française, he became the new company's Orator. In 1682 he edited and wrote the preface of the first collected edition of Molière's plays.[
]
Assessment
The theatre historian, Samuel Chappuzeau
Samuel Chappuzeau (16 June 1625, Paris – 31 August 1701) was a French scholar, author, poet and playwright whose best-known work today is ''Le Théâtre François'', a description of French Theatre in the seventeenth century.
Chappuzeau's pl ...
, writing in 1674, described La Grange as an actor as follows:
La Grange is generally regarded, and rightly so, as a good actor in both serious and comic roles. Although of no more than medium build, he is well proportioned, and has a jaunty and relaxed manner, which gives a good impression even before he speaks. He succeeded Molière not only as ''orateur'', but also in the concern he shows for the general well-being of the company, being both intelligent and trustworthy.[Chappuzeau, Samuel (1674). ''Le théâtre français'', p. 166, as edited by G. Monval. Paris: Bonnassies, 1875. Passage translated and quoted in Howarth (1997), p. 188.]
References
Sources
* Banham, Martin (1995). ''The Cambridge Guide to the Theatre'', second edition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. .
* Dickens, Charles (1885). "The Old French Theatre", in two parts. Part II, ''All the year round. A Weekly Journal.'', volume 36, pp. 5 to 11. London: Charles Dickens
View
at Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
.
* Hartnoll, Phyllis, editor (1983). ''The Oxford Companion to the Theatre'', fourth edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
* Howarth, William H., editor (1997). ''French Theatre in the Neo-Classical Era 1550–1789''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (2008 digital reprint: .)
* Mongrédien, Georges (1972). ''Dictionnaire biographique des comédiens français du XVIIe siècle'', second edition. Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique. .
* Thierry, Édouard, editor (1876). ''Charles Varlet de la Grange et son registre''. Paris: Jules Claye
View
at HathiTrust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...
.
* Young, Bert Edward, editor; Young, Grace Philputt, editor (1947). ''Le registre de La Grange: 1659–1685'', two volumes. Paris: E. Droz
Catalog record
at HathiTrust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...
. (1977 facsimile edition: Geneva: Slatkine Reprints. .)
External links
La Grange
a
CÉSAR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lagrange
1635 births
1692 deaths
Male actors from Paris
17th-century French male actors
Sociétaires of the Comédie-Française
French male stage actors