Comédie larmoyante () was a genre of
French drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
of the 18th century. In this type of
sentimental comedy Sentimental comedy is an 18th-century dramatic genre which sprang up as a reaction to the immoral tone of English Restoration plays. In sentimental comedies, middle-class protagonists triumphantly overcome a series of moral trials. These plays aimed ...
, the impending tragedy was resolved at the end, amid reconciliations and floods of tears. Plays of this genre that ended unhappily nevertheless allowed the audience to see that a "moral triumph" had been earned for the suffering heroes and heroines.
Thomas Heywood's masterpiece, ''A Woman kilde with kindnesse'' (acted 1603; printed 1607), can be considered a forerunner of this genre.
In
Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée's ''Mélanide'', the genre is fully developed. Comedy was no longer to provoke laughter, but tears. The innovation consisted in destroying the sharp distinction then existing between tragedy and comedy in
French literature
French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than F ...
. Indications of this change had been already offered in the work of
Marivaux
Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (4 February 1688 – 12 February 1763), commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French playwright and novelist.
He is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, writing num ...
, and La Chaussée's plays led naturally to the domestic drama of
Diderot and of
Sedaine.
Louis-Sébastien Mercier
Louis-Sébastien Mercier (6 June 1740 – 25 April 1814) was a French dramatist and writer, whose 1771 novel ''L'An 2440'' is an example of proto-science fiction.
Early life and education
He was born in Paris to a humble family: his father was a ...
considered himself a supporter of this genre.
By blurring the distinctions between comedy and tragedy, the ''comédie larmoyante'' formed the basis for the subsequent genre known as ''
Drame Bourgeois'', the form of realistic comedy heralded by
Denis Diderot's ''Le Fils naturel'' (published 1757, performed 1771).
There are many examples of 'comédie larmoyante' in both French and Italian opera where it gave birth to the genre of
opera semiseria Opera semiseria ('semi-serious opera') is an Italian genre of opera, popular in the early and middle 19th century.
Related to the opera buffa, opera semiseria contains elements of comedy but also of pathos, sometimes with a pastoral setting. It can ...
:
André Grétry
André Ernest Modeste Grétry (; baptised 11 February 1741; died 24 September 1813) was a
composer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (present-day Belgium), who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality. He is most famous ...
's ''
Lucile'',
Nicolas Dalayrac
Nicolas-Marie d'Alayrac (; bapt. 13 June 175326 November 1809), nicknamed the Musician poet, more commonly Nicolas Dalayrac, was a French composer of the Classical period. Intended for a military career, he made the acquaintance of many mu ...
's ''
Nina, ou La folle par amour'',
Pasquale Anfossi's ''
La vera costanza
' (''True Constancy''), Hob. 28/8, is an operatic dramma giocoso by Joseph Haydn. The Italian libretto was a shortened version of the one by Francesco Puttini set by Pasquale Anfossi for the opera of the same name given in Rome in 1776. The stor ...
'' (1776) and
Joseph Haydn's
work of the same name (1779).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Comedie Larmoyante
French literature
Larmoyante