Read Rameau's Nephew and First Satire (Oxford World's Classics) Online
Authors: Denis Diderot
La Morlière
Jacques Rochette, chevalier de La Morlière (1701–85), novelist and author of some poor plays; a boisterous character who attracted and enjoyed scandal.
La Motte
Antoine Houdar de La Motte (1672–1731), a ‘Modern’ whose writings include many opera libretti (notably for Dauvergne, Destouches, and Campra).
La Porte
the Abbé Joseph de La Porte (1718–79), a collaborator of Fréron who went on to found a rival journal,
L’Observateur littéraire
(1758–61).
Le Blanc
Jean-Bernard, Abbé Le Blanc (1707–81), a translator of works from English; a protégé of Mme de Pompadour, he nonetheless failed to win entry to the Académie Française; he was hostile to the philosophes.
Legal
A Breton gentleman and famous chess-player who gave lessons to Philidor.
Lemierre
Marie-Jeanne Lemierre (1733–86), a singer who made her debut at the Opéra in 1750; she was the mistress of the Prince de Conti, and married the singer Larrivée in 1762.
Leo
Leonardo Leo (1694–1746), Neapolitan composer of operas and sacred music, disciple of Scarlatti.
Locatelli
Pietro Locatelli (1695–1764), from Bergamo, a composer of challenging pieces for the violin, and a virtuoso player himself.
Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–87), born in Florence, the most prominent composer at the court of Louis XIV. By the mid-eighteenth century his music seemed too simple in comparison with that of Rameau.
Marcus Aurelius
Roman emperor (
AD
161–80) and author of the
Meditations
.
Marivaux
Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688–1763), novelist, journalist, and prolific dramatist; but the philosophes viewed him as a ‘Modern’ who lacked the higher taste.
Mayot
A chess-player, otherwise unknown.
Metastasio
Pierre Bonaventure Trapassi, known as Metastasio (1698–1782), celebrated poet and librettist. He was innovative in his manner of conceiving the relationship between music and text, and his opera libretti were set by composers including Gluck and Mozart.
Moette
Pierre Moette, manager of the Opéra-Comique.
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known as Molière (1622–73), the greatest French comic playwright, already regarded as a ‘classic’ in the eighteenth century.
Montamy
Didier François d’Arclais de Montamy (1704–65), close to d’Holbach and Diderot, tried in vain to discover the formula for making Chinese porcelain; the Comte de Lauraguais claimed to have discovered this already in 1764.
Monsauge
Denis Philippe Thiroux de Montsauge, remembered for having supported the play
Les Philosophes
which satirized the philosophes. Like Villemorien, he was a son-in-law of Bouret, with whom he was associated.
Montbron
Louis-Charles Fougeret de Montbron, author of minor works, including a pornographic novel and a burlesque verse travesty of Voltaire’s
La Henriade
. He was a famous eccentric.
Montesquieu
Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755), philosophe, author of the
Lettres persanes (Persian Letters
, 1721), the first major satire of the French Enlightenment, and of
De l’esprit des lois (The Spirit of the Laws
, 1748), a major work of political philosophy.
Mouret
Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682–1738), composer and rival of Rameau, prominent during the Regency.
Muret
Marc Antoine Muret (1526–85), humanist and philologist.
Naigeon
Jacques-André Naigeon (1738–1810), a close friend and collaborator of Diderot, who mocked the intransigence of his militantly anticlerical views. He was responsible for the first collected edition of Diderot’s works, published in fifteen volumes (1798).
Noël
Père Noël, a Benedictine from Rheims, sold optical instruments and supplied the royal household.
Noverre
Jean Georges Noverre (1737–1810), ballet master at the Opéra-Comique, 1753–6, and author of
Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets
.
Olivet
Pierre-Joseph Thoulier, Abbé d’Olivet (1682–1768), grammarian and member of the Académie Française, hostile to the philosophes. Diderot thought him a dangerous hypocrite.
Palissot
Charles Palissot de Montenoy (1730–1814), a writer who mocked the philosophes, and Diderot in particular, most notably in his successful play
Les Philosophes
(1760).
Pellegrin
Abbé Simon Joseph Pellegrin (1663–1745), author of opera libretti, including that of
Hippolyte et Aricie
for Rameau.
Pericles
great Athenian statesman (
c
. 495–429
BC
).
Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–36), composer remembered for
La Serva padrona
(1733) and the
Stabat Mater
(1736). When his work was performed in Paris in the early 1750s it became emblematic of the ‘new’ Italian style.
Philidor
François-André Danican Philidor (1726–95) was equally famous as a chess-player and as a composer; his operas include
Le Maréchal-Ferrant
and
Ernelinde
. He probably taught harmony to Diderot’s daughter, Angélique.
Phryne
Greek courtesan of the fourth century
BC
.
Piron
Alexis Piron (1689–1773), a playwright and poet, no favourite of the philosophes.
Poinsinet
Antoine Henri Poinsinet (1735–69), an absurd bohemian Grub Street writer, who aped Palissot in his hostility to the philosophes. His cousin Louis Poinsinet de Sivry (1733–1804) was a translator who also wrote plays mocking the philosophes.
Préville
Pierre-Louis Dubus, known as Préville (1721–99), a Comédie-Française actor famous for his skills at pantomime. He scored a great success in Boursault’s
Le Mercure galant
when it was revived in 1753; he would later play Figaro in Beaumarchais’s
The Barber of Seville
.
Pufendorf
Samuel Pufendorf (1632–94), historian and jurist. He and Grotius (whose disciple he was) were formative influences on Enlightenment legal and political thought.
Quinault
Philippe Quinault (1635–88), author of tragedies, but best remembered as Lully’s’ librettist.
Rabelais
François Rabelais (d. 1553), French humanist and author of comic fictions. Diderot admired his works, which were generally dismissed as obscene in the eighteenth century.
Racine
Jean Racine (1639–99), the great seventeenth-century tragedian, whose reputation in the eighteenth century stood very high. Diderot, no poet and no tragedian himself, was a great admirer.
Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764), pre-eminent French composer of the eighteenth century. His nephew, Jean-François, provides the model for ‘Him’.
Rémond de Saint-Mard
Toussaint Rémond de Saint-Mard (1682–1757), minor author who wrote on, among other things, aesthetics and opera.
Réaumur
René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683–1757), eminent entomologist and physician, and author of
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des insectes
(1734–42). Diderot criticized his work for being overly methodical; Réaumur accused the encyclopedists of plagiarizing him.
Rey
the Abbé Rey, perhaps the author of
Considérations philosophiques sur le christianisme (Philosophical Observations on Christianity
, 1785).
Rinaldo da Capua
Rinaldo da Capua (1717–65), Neapolitan composer whose works were performed in Paris in 1752–3.
Robbé
Robbé de Beauveset (1725–94), an utterly mediocre poet, remembered, if at all, for a poem on smallpox.
Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78), one of the most influential and controversial writers of the French Enlightenment; his emphasis on nature and feeling set him apart from the other philosophes, with whom he was on uneasy terms.
Rulhière
Claude de Rulhière (1734–91), French diplomat, historian, and poet.
Socrates
Athenian philosopher of the fifth century BC, teacher of Plato, and especially remembered for his ‘stoic’ death when he drank hemlock (a scene which David would paint). He was a constant model for Diderot, who translated the
Apology
when in prison at Vincennes.
Stentor
a character in Homer’s
Iliad
whose powerful voice equalled that of fifty men in unison.
Tartini
Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770), composer and virtuoso violinist.
Tencin
Claudine Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin (1685–1749), a successful novelist and the hostess of an important salon which assembled such writers as Fontenelle, Montesquieu, Marivaux, and Helvétius. She was the mother of D’Alembert, whom she abandoned as a baby on the steps of a church. Her brother Pierre Guérin, Cardinal de Tencin (1679–1758), was protected by Fleury. His secretary was the Abbé Trublet.
Terradeglias
Dominique Michel Barnabé Terradeglias (or Terradellas) (1713–51), Spanish composer of operas and sacred music, working in Rome.
Theophrastus
Greek classical author of the fourth century BC, remembered for his
Characters
, a collection of sketches depicting character types. Translated and imitated by La Bruyère in the seventeenth century.
Thierry
François Thierry (or Thiéry) (1718–92), a doctor in the Faculty of Paris from 1750, who attended on the King.
Thomas
Antoine Léonard Thomas (1732–85), member of the Académie Française, famous for his academic ‘éloges’. Diderot was an admirer of his belief that ethics should be based on natural principles.
Traetta
Tommaso Traetta (or Trajetta) (1727–79), Italian opera composer attached to various European courts.
Trublet
the Abbé Nicolas Joseph Charles Trublet (1697–1770), a writer and defender of the ‘Moderns’, who was at one time secretary to Cardinal de Tencin.
Turenne
Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne (1611–75), Marshal of France and outstanding general in Louis XIV’s early campaigns.
Vauban
Sébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban (1633–1707), celebrated military strategist in the reign of Louis XIV.
Villemorien
Philippe Charles Le Gendre de Villemorien, a tax farmer (
fermier général
) and
administrateur général
of the post office; son-in-law of Bouret.
Vinci
Leonardo Vinci (1696–1730), opera composer, succeeded Scarlatti as director of the royal chapel at Naples.
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire (1694–1778), the most celebrated philosophe of the French Enlightenment; in religious matters he was a deist, and less radical than Diderot, who admired the older man while being wary of him.
1
The Spectator
, ed. D. F Bond (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), i. 39.
2
See Jules Janin,
La Fin d’un monde et du Neveu de Rameau
, ed. Joseph-Marc Bailbé (Paris: Klincksieck, 1977).
3
See
L’Avant-Scène
, 303 (15 Jan. 1964), and the recording described on p. xxx.
4
Robert Darnton,
The Literary Underground of the Old Régime
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982).
5
Jürgen Habermas,
The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere
, trans. T. Burger (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1989); for a discussion of the notion of the public sphere, see Craig Calhoun (ed.),
Habermas and the Public Sphere
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992).
6
Rabelais,
Le Tiers Livre
, ch. 37; see also chs. 46 and 47, in which Triboulet plays the fool in order to show the truth about Panurge’s marriage plans.
7
Mikhail Bakhtin,
Rabelais and His World
, trans. H. Iswolsky (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984), 34.
8
See Huguette Cohen, ‘La Tradition gauloise et le carnavalesque dans
Les Bijoux indiscrets, Le Neveu de Rameau
et
Jacques le fataliste’
, in
Colloque international Diderot
, ed. A.-M. Chouillet (Paris: Aux Amateurs de Livres, 1985), 229–37.
9
See e.g. Lucian’s
The Dependent Scholar, The Parasite
, and
Saturnalian Letters;
the same theme is broached in the Latin playwright Terence’s
The Eunuch
. Lucian’s
Of Pantomime
may also have caught Diderot’s attention.
10
See Nicholas Cronk,
‘Jacques le fataliste
et le renouveau du roman carnavalesque’,
Dix-Huitième Siècle
, 32 (2000), 33–49.
11
See Jean Pommier, ‘Comment Balzac relaie Diderot’,
Revue des Sciences Humaines
(Apr.–Sept. 1951), 161–6.
12
See Sanford Pinsker, ‘Rameau’s Nephew and Saul Bellow’s
Dangling Man’, Notes on Modern American Literature
, 4 (1980), item 22; and Jo Brans, ‘The Dialectic of Hero and Anti-Hero in Rameau’s Nephew and
Dangling Man’, Studies in the Novel
, 16: 4 (1984), 435–47.
13
Lester G. Crocker,
Diderot’s Chaotic Order: Approach to Synthesis
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974), 92.