SOURCE: Matulka, Barbara. “The Influence of the Grisel y Mirabella in France: Scudéry: Le Prince Déguisé.” In The Novels of Juan de Flores and Their European Diffusion: A Study in Comparative Literature, pp. 203-11. New York: Institute of French Studies, 1931.

[In the excerpt below, Matulka argues that while Le Prince déguisé is indebted to Flores's Historia de Aurelio e Isabella, for its principal themes, the play incorporates elements from a number of other sources as well.]

The principal influence in France of Juan de Flores' Historia de Aurelio e Isabella is found in Scudéry's Le Prince Déguisé.¹ In a general way this connection has been noted by scholars,² but the exact relation of Scudéry's tragi-comedy to its Spanish, as well as to its other sources, has been only lately investigated. For the purposes of the present study, we shall condense here the conclusions at which we arrived in a previous publication.³

Clearque, son of the King of Naples, had wandered over Europe disguised as a knight, to study statecraft. During these travels he fell in love with Argenie, the fair daughter of the King of Sicily, and asked his father's consent to marry her. His father was pleased at his choice and sent an embassy to Argenie's father. But, for some unknown reason, the King of Sicily rejected the suit. In order to avenge himself therefore, Clearque's father declared war on him, won the victory after a long and terrible battle, and took his royal enemy prisoner. The King of Sicily died heart-broken at this defeat, but a rumor spread that Clearque had poisoned him. The widowed Queen then proclaimed that she would not rest until Clearque had been killed, and promised Argenie's hand to any man who brought her the Prince's head.

Clearque could not forget the beautiful Princess. He disguised himself as a gardener's helper, calling himself Policandre, and offered to serve the Queen's gardener, telling him that he was versed in the magic arts, that he knew of some treasures hidden in the royal gardens, and would share these if he would but be allowed the leisure to unearth them. Now, the Princess, who often walked in the royal garden, met the disguised Clearque, was astonished at his courtly bearing, and learned to love him.

In the meanwhile, however, the wife of the gardener, called Melanire, fell in love with Clearque and made advances to him. But when he only spurned her, she decided to avenge her unrequited love, and spied upon him. As soon as she had learned his secret,—his amorous meetings with the Princess,—she betrayed it to the Queen. Here then, for the first time, Scudéry drew upon the Spanish novelette, but in the following scenes he imitated his model closely. The Queen was greatly perplexed, for a severe law of the Kingdom forbad the Princess to love anyone but a prince worthy of her. The law read very much like that of Juan de Flores:

Lors qu'un Roy sera pris de la Parque meurtrière,
S'il ne laisse en mourant qu'une fille heritière,
Nous voulons que la vefve ait tousjours en la main,
Le Sceptre qui luy donne, un pouvoir souverain,
Jusqu'à tant que l'Himen achevant sa tutelle,
Mette dedans le Throsne un Prince digne d'elle.(4)

and continued:⁵

          Des amans, qui le premier aura
Monstré la sale ardeur qu'il nourrissoit en l'ame,
Afin de le punir, qu'il meure dans la flame.

The lovers then engaged in a long combat of generosity, each trying to assume all the blame in order to spare the other's life, just as the faithful lovers had done in Aurelio e Isabella. But here Scudéry departed from his Spanish source, and rather turned to the related episode of Ginevra in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. For, instead of settling this dilemma as to which of the lovers was the more guilty by a debate on the merits and defects of women, he adopted the dénouement of the law theme as found in Ariosto, and settled it by a tourney,—a solution common enough in the plays of the period. The law included this provision:⁶

S'il arrive parfois que la force d'amour,
Oppose aux yeux de tous l'espoisseur d'une nuë,
Et que la verité ne soit pas bien connuë,
Qu'ils soustiennent tous deux avoir premier peché,
Pour connoistre l'autheur de ce crime caché;
Nous voulons en ce cas, que le combat le preuve;
Et leur donnons huict jours, à dessein qu'il se treuve
Suivant le cry public, et faict en chaque endroit,
Un guerrier qui defende, et conserve leur droit;
Afin que le vainqueur descouvrant le coupable,
Rende par sa valeur, nostre arrest equitable.
Que si l'un d'eux en manque, et que l'autre en ait un,
Nous defendons de faire, un chastiment commun,
Voulons que l'assisté s'exempte du supplice,
Mais que n'en ayant point, l'un et l'autre perisse.

The lovers were imprisoned, but managed, without the other's knowledge, to escape. Each one came armed to champion the other's cause, for thus he found a means of saving his beloved's life. They joined in combat, but of course Clearque, who had come as the champion of Argenie, overcame his adversary, who turned out to be no other than his lady. He thus saved Argenie's life and forfeited his own. But still Agenie refused to yield, insisting that she was the more guilty. Clearque therefore asked the Queen to fulfill her vow of giving Argenie's hand to the man who brought her the head of her enemy. He revealed that he was that “odieux” Clearque, and added that he demanded nothing but the life of Argenie, for he was willing to die even though he was innocent of the crime imputed to him. The Queen was touched by the nobility of these two great souls and pardoned them by condemning the fictitious Policandre (the name Clearque had used while disguised) to die, and permitting the living lover to marry her daughter.

It is evident, from this brief outline of the plot of Le Prince Déguisé, that Scudéry drew freely upon Juan de Flores' novel for his tragi-comedy. At the same time, however, he added many episodes from other works, and resorted to the storehouse of commonplace motives upon which many seventeenth century dramatists drew, so that his work resulted very different in tonality and intent from the tragic novel which had afforded him his point of departure. From the novel of Juan de Flores he derived his principal themes, which he embellished by grafting on them other romanesque incidents. There he found the “Law” with all the provisions Juan de Flores had introduced, and reproduced it with striking similarity,⁷ though modifying the dénouement. In the Prince Déguisé, it decrees, as we have already seen, that whichever of the lovers had been the first to give signs of the base passion which he harbored,—that one was to die in the flames as a punishment for his wickedness.

The Law of the Spanish text is much like it:

Y las leyes de su reyno mandauan que qualquiere que en tal yerro cayesse, el que más causa fuesse al otro de hauer amado, que padeciesse muerte, y el otro destyerro para toda su vida.

THE COMBAT OF GENEROSITY

After the reading of the law, there follows in both Juan de Flores and Scudéry a combat of generosity between the two lovers, each of whom tries to assume the greater guilt in order to spare the other's life. This episode in the play is again remarkably similar to that in the novel, although Scudéry may have borrowed details from the numerous other works in which a similar combat of generosity occurs and which he in all probability knew, since this was one of the most common themes in the literature of Europe and of France.⁸

While Scudéry's debt to Juan de Flores cannot be denied, since from him he took the central situation of his romanesque play, nevertheless this was not his only borrowing. Almost every episode had been used time and again before him, while others, like the “Law” and the “Combat of Generosity”, although more striking and original,—pointing rather to a single source in Juan de Flores,—nevertheless added details from other works. For example, the stock themes that Scudéry employed were numerous: the disguise of the hero and heroine, a prince who wanders incognito from land to land in order to school himself in the art of ruling and who finally falls in love with a beautiful princess, or again, and slightly more unusual, the theme of the declaration of war on the father who refuses to permit his daughter to marry the prince.

THE CID THEME

These literary commonplaces he may have borrowed from any number of sources, for they were the indispensable ingredients of fairy tales, popular stories, and even elegant fiction. But he introduced still more significant changes which transformed the bare and somber plot of Juan de Flores into a pleasing romanesque imbroglio, full of movement, grace and gallantry. The chief modification by which he effected this change was by weaving into the simple groundwork supplied by Juan de Flores, the Cid theme. In this tradition the knight finds himself obliged to kill the father of his beloved; upon the lady, then, falls the duty of avenging her father's death, and therefore she persecutes her enemy; he wins her love by his valor, and finally marries the lady who had sought his death. This simple theme was embellished with certain courtly motives which had already been gathered together in the Florisel de Niquea romance of the Amadís.⁹ the head-motive, in which the heroine promises to give her hand in marriage to the champion who brings her the head of her enemy; the love versus revenge theme, in which the lady continually struggles between the love she bears her enemy, and her duty of revenge; the sword-motive, in which the hero, no longer able to suffer the enmity of his beloved, offers her his sword, begging her to take his life rather than make him suffer longer; and finally the living-head motive, in which the head of the enemy is indeed brought to the heroine but not cut off as she had expected, but living, and on the shoulders of the man whose death she had sought.

In the Prince Déguisé the whole primary story is introduced, somewhat modified, and all the motives added by the current represented by the Florisel de Niquea romance except the sword-motive. Yet in using this elaborated Cid theme, Scudéry was again merely following traditional paths.¹⁰ Indeed, Scudéry's head-motive perhaps follows the Florisel de Niquea more closely than any other work which makes use of this plot. In Le Prince Déguisé, it is the mother, Rosemonde, who offers her daughter's hand in marriage to any man who brings her the head of Clearque, just as Queen Sidonia, in the Florisel de Niquea, offers her daughter's hand to any knight who avenges her honor.¹¹

THE CHARLATAN-NOBLEMAN THEME

The disguise of a prince into a gardener and the situations which this brought about were derived from still another source. Such a gardener or other humble laborer was certainly no novelty on the early seventeenth century stage, but when Scudéry combined Clearque's disguise with a feigned knowledge of the magic arts, he intimated that he had followed a more specific example. This theme had won great popularity through a play of Ariosto, Il Negromante, first staged in 1530, in which the hero is also a “Charlatan” who pretends to be initiated in black magic.¹²

But while Scudéry may have known Ariosto's comedy, his work offers a closer parallel to several episodes of the Francion of Sorel.¹³ This novel contains two episodes which Scudéry may have welded together in order to evolve his gardener Policandre incident: the episode of a charlatan called upon to render service by means of his magic arts, and that of a nobleman who disguises himself as a lowly shepherd in order to win the favor of a lady, and does succeed, in spite of his supposedly humble station, by his courtly graces. There are several other episodes in Le Prince Déguisé which are duplicated in the novel. Thus the comic fright of the gullible gardener on hearing invocations of the devil, etc., is strikingly similar to the scene of the necromancer in the Francion. Moreover, just as Francion unwittingly inflamed the passion of his employer's wife, so Clearque aroused the love of Melanire, the wife of the Queen's gardener. Both women became suspicious when their advances were rejected, for they could not understand why their favor should not be deemed an honor by such humble servants. Scudéry combined the resulting jealousy with the rôle of the serving maid in Juan de Flores, and had her betray the Princess' secret to the Queen.¹⁴

THE TOURNAMENT

After the combat of generosity, Scudéry switched from Juan de Flores in order to give a different dénouement to the law theme. Instead of introducing a long debate on the relative merits and defects of men and women, Scudéry adopted a solution similar to that of the Ginevra episode of the Orlando Furioso, and settled his law by a tournament, one of the most popular literary themes of his day. A provision had been prepared, granting each of the lovers a week in which to find a champion to fight in his behalf. This law reads in the Orlando Furioso:

L'aspra legge di Scozia, empia e severa,
Vuol ch'ogni donna, e di ciascuna sorte,
Ch'ad uom si giunga e non gli sia mogliera,
S'accusata ne viene, abbia la morte
Ne riparar si puo ch'ella non pera,
Quando per lei non venga un guerrier forte
Che tolga la difesa, e che sostegna
Che sia innocente e di morire indegna.

Similarly in Scudéry:

Nous voulons en ce cas, que le combat le preuve;
Et leur donnons huict jours, a dessein qu'il se treuve
Suivant le cry public, et faict en chaque endroit,
Un guerrier qui defende, et conserve leur droit;
Afin que le vainqueur descouvrant le coupable,
Rende par sa valeur, nostre arrest equitable …

If only one finds a champion, he will be pardoned and the other put to death; but if neither, both will lose their lives. Here, however, Scudéry embellished still further the combat which takes place in the Ginevra story. Whereas in the epic Ariodante, the lover, comes in disguise to champion his lady's cause, he does not fight Ginevra herself, while Scudéry, on the other hand, used the tourney as a continuation of the combat of generosity, having the lovers fight each other in disguise. Each succeeded in escaping from prison without the other's knowledge, and offered to champion the other's cause, hoping thus to be able to spare the life of his beloved.¹⁵

The conclusion is scarcely more original than the themes already discussed. Scudéry had but to join neatly each of the threads he had left unravelled. Clearque made a last effort to save Argenie's life,—he reminded the Queen of her promise to grant Argenie's hand to the man who brought her the head of Clearque, and then confessed that he was the “hateful though innocent” prince whose death she had been seeking. He begged as a reward,—not the hand of Argenie, but her life. This motive of the living-head, as pointed out above, was an embellishment of the Cid tradition by the Florisel de Niquea romance. From the same tradition was suggested Argenie's attempt to kill herself when she heard that the man she loved was no other than the reputed murderer of her father. The Queen, touched by their nobility and faithfulness, absolved the guilty lovers with the merciful gesture so often bestowed upon sovereigns. She kept the vow she had made to her husband's shade by condemning to death the fictitious Policandre (the name Clearque had used while disguised as a gardener) and granting Clearque his lady, thus through the marriage of Argenie to the prince, uniting the two warring countries in a perpetual peace.

It is evident, therefore, that from Juan de Flores, Scudéry derived: the characters of the faithful lovers, the suggestion of their betrayal, their imprisonment, the law theme, and the combat of generosity. To these fundamental themes he added various episodes that reproduce scenes found in innumerable plays: the swift change of scene, the quick succession of incidents, the disguise of a prince and princess, a tourney between lovers, etc. Other contributions were drawn from the tradition of the Cid theme as embellished in the Florisel de Niquea romance: the offering of the lady's hand to any man who brings her the head of her enemy as vengeance; the love of the heroine for this supposed enemy, the romanesque turn by which this very man offers his own living head as a price for the displeasure he has caused his beloved, and finally the reconciliation of the steadfast lovers. The comic elements, which readily suggest the favorite farcical scenes of the Italian theatre: the credulous and avaricious gardener, the treasure-digging, humorous invocations of spirits, etc.,—are strongly reminiscent of the Francion. Moreover his dénouement switches to the Ariosto development, for the law is solved by a tournament, instead of a suicide of the lovers as in Juan de Flores.

Thus, while the Aurelio e Isabella was no doubt the starting point of his “belle intrigue”, Scudéry combined it with so many other themes, and so modified its tragic, sombre solemnity in his efforts to make a charming playlet, that the influence of Juan de Flores recedes into the background leaving Le Prince Déguisé but another of those pleasing romanesque tragi-comedies that delighted the gentle ladies of the court, and taught the gallant gentlemen the rôle to play in pursuing their amatory quests.

Notes

1. This play was granted a Privilège on August 11, 1635, and bears an achevé d'imprimer of September 1st of the same year. The Catalogue Soleinne (V, Suppl., p. 42) also refers to an edition of 1635. However, it was reissued at Paris, by Augustin Courbé, with a title page bearing the date of 1636.

2. Puibusque in his Histoire comparée des littératures espagnole et française (Paris, 1843, p. 420), vaguely suggested a Spanish source, while A. Batereau in his Georges de Scudéry als Dramatiker (Leipzig-Plagwitz, 1902, p. 74), said that he had been unable to find any source. Among those who indicated Juan de Flores as Scudéry's model are Menéndez y Pelayo, Orígenes de la Novela, I, pp. CCCXXXII-CCCXXXVIII; Reynier, Le Roman Sentimental avant l'Astrée, p. 85, etc.

3. See B. Matulka, Georges de Scudéry, Le Prince Déguisé, Republished with an Introduction, N.Y., Institute of French Studies, Columbia University, 1929.

4. See the republication, op. cit., p. 80.

5. Idem, p. 81.

6. Idem, p. 83.

7. The betrayal of the lovers was also, quite probably, suggested by Juan de Flores' novel, although for its details Scudéry borrowed from another source, as we shall indicate further on.

8. The work which made this theme most popular in Europe is, perhaps, Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, where it occurs in Book Two. This episode was dramatized in France in 1599 by Aymard de Veins in his tragedy, La Sophronie, and furnished the plot of a story, Hierusalem assiégée, by de Nervèze first published in 1599. Moreover, several plays before Scudéry had made use of the combat of generosity: Celinde of Balthazar Baro (1629); La Dorimène by the Sieur de Comte (1632); Pyrandre et Lisimène by Boisrobert (1633) and others.

9. See B. Matulka, The Cid as a Courtly Hero: From the Amadís to Corneille, N. Y., Institute of French Studies, Columbia University, 1928.

10. The Cid theme had been used in France several times before Scudéry, as, for example in Du Perier's La Hayne et d'Amour d'Arnoul et de Clairemonde, published three times between 1600 and 1627. (See G. L. van Roosbroeck, The Cid Theme in France in 1600, Minneapolis, Pioneer Printers, 1920). Moreover, Scudéry may have read the Florisel de Niquea romance either in the original, or in a French translation, for it had won popularity in France. (See Hughes Vaganay, Amadis en français, Firenze, 1906, p. 81 ff.)

11. Moreover, Scudéry may have known some intermediate adaptations of the novel, for Gougenot had dramatized this part of the Amadís as early as 1633, in his La Fidelle tromperie.

12. This theme had been used before Ariosto in the twentieth novel of Masuccio's Novellino. Ariosto's play was translated into French in 1572 by Jean de la Taille under the title of Le Négromant.

13. La Vraye Histoire Comique de Francion, composée par Nicolas de Moulinet, sieur Du Parc, Gentilhomme Lorrain.

14. H. C. Lancaster, A History of French Dramatic Literature, II, p. 482, suggests the episodes of Chryséide and of Lidias in the Astrée as additional sources of certain incidents of Scudéry's play: “… He could find parallels [in the Astrée] for the fact that the hero is a Gaulois, for the snoring gouvernante (III, 5), the bribing of the jailer, the heroine's escape from prison by the help of an attendant who takes her place, and the claiming of a reward for offering up one's self as a criminal.”

15. However, such a tourney of disguised lovers fighting each other, finally to learn each other's identity, occurs in other French plays before Scudéry, and may have suggested details which he added to the combat. Such plays were, for example, Agimée, ou l'Amour extravagant (1629) and Les Aventures Amoureuses d'Omphale by Grandchamp (1630), etc.