Laughing Matters: Farce and the Making of Absolutism in France 9781501732379

Table of contents :
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Farce, Honor, and the Bounds of Satire
2. The Politics of Farcical Performance in Renaissance France
3. The Growing Cost of Laughter: Basoche and Student Performance
4. Farce during the Wars of Religion
5. Professional Farceurs in Paris, I6oo-163o
6. Absolutism and the Marginalization of Festive Societies
7. Jesuit Theater: Christian Civility and Absolutism on the Civic Stage
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

Laughing Matters

Laughing Matters FARCE AND THE MAKING OF ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE

SARA BEAM

Cornell University Press Ithaca

& London

Copyright© 2007 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 2007 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beam, Sara. Laughing matters: farce and the making of absolutism in France I Sara Beam. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-o-8or4-456o-6 (cloth: alk. paper) r. French farces-History and criticism. 2. French drama-16th centuryHistory and criticism. 3· French drama-17th century-History and criticism. 4· Theater-Political aspects-France-History-16th century. 5· TheaterPolitical aspects-France-History-r7th century. I. Title. PQs84.B43 2007 2006101254 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu. Cloth printing

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9 8 7 6 5 4 3

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Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations

Introduction I

VII IX XI

I

Farce, Honor, and the Bounds of Satire

II

2 The Politics of Farcical Performance in Renaissance France

44

3 The Growing Cost of Laughter: Basoche and Student Performance 77 4

Farce during the Wars of Religion

III

5

Professional Farceurs in Paris, I6oo-I63o

6

Absolutism and the Marginalization of Festive Societies

142

7 Jesuit Theater: Christian Civility and Absolutism on the Civic Stage 2IO Conclusion Bibliography Index

259

24I 249

I So

Illustrations

1.

Farceurs on stage, I 54 2

2.

The Co nards of Rouen, ca. I 53 7

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3· King of the Basoche, I 5 20

7 35

62

4·

Basoche coat of arms, I 5 28

5·

Tabarin on stage, I622

6.

Gros Guillaume, I633-34

83

I44 J48

7· Jesuit students performing Adonias, I648 8.

French and Italian Farceurs, I67o

243

229

Acknowledgments

This work could never have been completed without the support-financial, intellectual and emotional-! have received along the way. Many thanks to the Institut Fran~'"·

~j

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Laughing Matters

was able to convince the magistrates, who decreed that as long as "the king of the Basoche rules his subjects with more courtesy" in the future, he and his officials could continue to fine these "subjects" for similar transgressionsY During debate of the "company of women" case, no one questioned the right of the Basochiens to hold their May processions or to perform satirical plays; all this was taken for granted. Indeed, their performance tradition allowed them to confirm other rights normally associated with formal corporations. Poyet and de Thou, still young barristers in I528, would not themselves have marched in the Basoche parades, but they apparently had no qualms defending the clerks at length in the Grand' Chambre. Although parlement magistrates strove for a public demeanor of professional sobriety and seriousness, sixteenth-century Frenchmen accepted that during certain ritual moments of the year, serious behavior could be temporarily thrown off without fundamentally challenging the social order. A note in the margins of the parlement records supports this interpretation. In the Plaidoiries records, the margins of most pages are left wide and blank, but beside the "company of women" case, the registrar drew in ink the Basoche coat of arms: a shield with three bells on sticks for ringing during the clerks' Carnival procession. 18 The existence of this image in the court register makes clear that even sober registrars knew and appreciated Basoche comedy. Despite the fact that the "company of women" case was probably argued tongue in cheek, the clerks frequently referred to the I 528 ruling throughout the sixteenth century to justify imprisoning their members and to uphold the validity of their election procedures. 19 Both the I 5 28 case and the magistrates' willingness to pay for Basoche theatrics attest to the shared culture of laughter that tied the Basochiens and the magistrates together. Yet even during this heyday of the Basoche between I500 and the mid-I530s, a wide gulf of wealth, expertise, and worldliness divided the clerks from their superiors at the court. This distance is illustrated by the nature of the physical space in which the drama of the courtroom unfolded each day. Throughout much of the compound where the parlement held its sessions--collectively known as the Palais de Justice-booksellers, hawkers, and men of court noisily went about their business. All such ruckus was to stop at the entrance to the Grand' Chambre, however. A raised dais at the northwest corner, reserved for the king's occasional visits to the parlement, dominated the courtroom. During a 17. AN xla 8345, fol. 258, 14 July 1528. See also AN xla 1506, fol. 121, 6 May 1501. 18. AN xla 8345, fol. 256, 14 July 1528. Although coats of arms often included bells as an

image, the inclusion of several bells attached to festive batons distinguishes the Basoche coat of arms from others. 19. AN xla 1545, fol. 443, 23 June 1540; AN xla 1557, fols. 206-7, 9 Feb. 1546; AN xla 1558, 2 June 1546; xla 1674, fol. 343, 10 Feb. 1582; Recueil des statuts, 56-64 (20 May 1546).

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normal court session, the chief magistrates, dressed in their ceremonial red robes, and the magistrates, dressed in black, sat on benches that framed the dais. 20 Beyond a barrier that divided the royal and plebeian halves of the chamber sat the barristers who presented verbal pleading. The solicitors, dressed in their caps and long black robes, sat behind the barristers. Finally, behind the solicitors sat their clerks, whom the magistrates enjoined to remain silent, to refrain from sending messages, and to remain seated during the sessions. 21 Within the Grand' Chambre, the social and professional distance between the clerks of the Basoche and the magistrates could not have been more graphically illustrated. Unlike the parlement magistrates, the solicitors and clerks usually worked outside the Grand' Chambre. Their days were spent next door in the Grande Salle, where solicitors and barristers established benches and dealt with clients in a busy, crowded, semipublic environment. Hired by plaintiffs or defendants in cases brought before the parlement, sixteenth-century solicitors worked to keep the paperwork flowing: in civil and criminal cases, solicitors recorded and copied testimonies, registered cases with the court registrar, and submitted documents to the legal representatives of the opposing party. 22 Because many cases brought before the parlement were handled entirely through written pleading, or were appeals of cases in which the client did not live in Paris, a competent solicitor could be crucial to a case's efficient conclusion. Being a solicitor at the parlement was not, however, a position of great prestige. Although barristers often earned little more than solicitors, their role as prosecutors provided some public visibility, and their formal legal training presented wider opportunities for advancement in royal service. Other officers of the king recognized barristers as professionals whose intellectual training marked them as members of an elite. In contrast, the work of solicitors-collecting documents, copying them, and dealing with matters of procedure-was perceived to be mechanical and base. 23 Most of the clerks of the Basoche would become mere solicitors and so were destined to remain in the lower echelons of the parlcments, particularly 20. Sarah Hanley, The "Lit de Justice" of the Kings of France: Constitutional Ideology in Legend, Ritual and Discourse (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 63n28; Edouard Maugis, Histoire du Parlement de Paris de l'avenement des rois Valois a Ia mort d'Henri IV (Paris: A. Picard, 1913-16; reprint, New York: Burt Franklin, 1967), 1:285-86; J.H. Shecnan, The Parlement of Paris (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1968), 101-6. 2 r. Bataillard, Histoire, 1:221; Ferdinand Lot and Robert Fawtier, Histoire des institutions franfaises au moyen-dge (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 19 58), 2:3 94-98. 22. Bataillard, Histoire, I:rq-22, 218-3o; Fontanon, Edicts, 1:57 (r8 Dec. 1537); Timothy Watson, "Friends at Court: The Correspondence of the Lyon City Council, c. 1)25-1575,'' French History 13 (1999): 281-302. 23. La Roche Flavin, in his defense of the procureur profession, confesses that it is at best a "petit art," contrasted to the "grands arts" of the avocats. Bernard de La Roche Flavin, Treze livres des parlemens de France (Bordeaux: Simon Millanges, 1617), 131i. See also David Avrom Bell, Lawyers and Citizens: The Making of a Political Elite in Old- Regime France (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 31-34, 132-34·

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in Paris. Since they would never plead cases before the magistrates in the Grand' Chambre, as did the university-trained avocats, the theatrical antics of the Basoche were not practice pleading sessions. Nevertheless, the enactment of mock cases was an important way in which the oral legal traditions of the court were transmitted from generation to generation. 24 As young men in training, the solicitors' clerks spent their time copying manuscripts, carrying heavy bags of documents to barristers' offices, and being scolded by their employer's wife. 25 This life of drudgery, however, would not last forever. In principle, a young man who had served ten years as a solicitor's clerk and was at least twenty-five years old was eligible to become a solicitor. Most clerks were probably between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five; if they had family in the business already, a clerk could hope to secure the post of solicitor before he finished the full ten-year apprenticeship.26 No formal legal training was necessary for this job, though legible handwriting and a practical knowledge of legal procedure were essential. Solicitors' clerks probably were tutored at home or attended a few years of college before going into service in their midteens. They were thus solidly entrenched in the couche moyenne of Paris and of the provincial cities in which Basoche organizations existedY The magistrates, in contrast, represented the pinnacle of the urban elite. Particularly at the prestigious Paris Parlement, but also at the other seven parlements located in provincial capitals throughout France, the magistrates 24. Bouhaik-Girones, "Basoche," 171-75, 206-8; Bell, Lawyers and Citizens; Sarah Maza, Private Lives and Public Affairs: The Causes Celebres of Prerevolutionary France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993). 25. De Tournabons, La misere des clercs des procureurs (Paris: A. Robinot, 1627); Le PontBreton des procureurs, dedie aux clercs du Palais (1624). 26. AN xla 1572, fol. 5, 30 Apr. 1552; AN xla 1540, fol. 46a, 10 Dec. 1537; Bataillard, Histoire, 1:101-15, 208-9. Examples of clerks who became solicitors in Paris after more than ten years of service include AN xla 1631, fol. 29,27 Nov. 1570; AN xla 1554, fol. 532,23 Mar. 1545; AN xla 1611, fol. 326, 30 Jan. 1565. At the Parlement of Bordeaux, clerks were only required to serve at the court for a maximum of seven years. Jean de Metivier, Chronique du Parlement de Bordeaux, I462-I566 (Bordeaux: Arthur de Brezetz et Jules Delpit, 1886-87), 1:287 (16 Nov. 1532), 1:317 (4 Dec. 1534); George Huppert, Public Schools in Renaissance France (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984), 41-44. 27. Robert Descimon, "Paris on the Eve of Saint Bartholomew: Taxation, Privilege, and Social Geography," in Cities and Social Change in Early Modern France, ed. Philip Benedict (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989), 91-98; Sara Beam, "The 'Basoche' and the 'Bourgeoisie Seconde': Careerists at the Parlement of Paris during the League," French History 17 (2004): 372-74; Barbara B. Diefendorf, Paris City Councillors in the Sixteenth Century: The Politics of Patrimony (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 46-47; Robert Descimon, "Le corps de ville et les elections echevinales a Paris aux XVIe et XVIIe siecles," Histoire, Economie, Societe 13 (1994): 507-30. Although it was virtually unheard of for a solicitor to become a parlement magistrate or city councilor in Paris by the mid-sixteenth century, in provincial cities like Dijon promotion to important civic political roles was still possible. Michael P. Breen, "Legal Culture, Municipal Politics and Royal Absolutism in Seventeenth-Century France: The 'Avocats' of Dijon (1595-1715)," Ph.D. diss., Brown University, 2ooo, 142; Robert A. Schneider, "Crown and Capitoulat: Municipal Government in Toulouse, 1500-1789,'' in Benedict, Cities and Social Change, 196.

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brought to their work both the knowledge of the law and the confidence of a ruling elite. The magistrates were from families of the lower nobility or from the retail merchant class, that is, from the urban oligarchy. Unlike most urban officials, however, magistrates had to have attended university. Because civil law could only be studied at a handful of universities in France, some future magistrates would have traveled outside their native region for their studies, even if they ended up returning home to take up office at their local parlement. 28 Magistrates also enjoyed the possibility of geographical and social mobility: a president of a provincial parlement could, if he married into the right Parisian family, acquire or purchase an office at the Parlement of Paris. Many magistrates held other prestigious posts in the city and were descendants of families that had climbed the ranks through royal service during the late fifteenth century: families like those of Poyet and de Thou, the barristers who defended the Basoche in r p8.29 For ambitious royal officials, acquiring the office of parlement magistrate (conseiller) or president was highly desirable because the post not only exempted them from most forms of taxation but also could confer nobility upon them. 30 Consequently, by the mid-sixteenth century, candidates were willing to pay the king considerable sums to acquire a conseiller office. Despite the fact that the post of magistrate was increasingly purchased rather than acquired by election or appointment, the parlements' leading magistrates seem to have been sincerely committed to their professional duties. 31 The parlements had a unique role to play in sixteenth-century France, a role that had judicial, legislative, and executive elements. Founded as law courts to dispense the king's justice, the parlements served as appeal courts for the various regions of France. The largest of these jurisdictions, the Ile-de-France, which covered about one-third of the French monarchy's

28. Jonathan Dewald, The Formation of a Provincial Nobility: The Magistrates of the Parlement of Rauen, 1499-r6ro (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), 24-28; Nancy Lyman Roelker, One King, One Faith: The Parlement of Paris and the Religious Reformations of the Sixteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 96-98. 29. Autrand, Naissance, w8-32; Diefendorf, Paris City Councillors, 44-45, 52-56; Maugis, Histoire, 1:176, 3:159-76; Robert Descimon, "The 'Bourgeoisie Seconde': Social Differentiation in the Parisian Municipal Oligarchy in the Sixteenth Century, 15oo-r61o," French History 17 (2004): 388-424; Diefendorf, Paris City Councillors, 83-111. 30. For parlement magistrates, nobility was conferred only in the third generation. Robert Descimon, "The Birth of the Nobility of the Robe," in Changing Identities in Early Modern France, ed. Michael Wolfe (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1997), 95-121. 3 r. Christopher Stocker, "Public and Private Enterprise in the Administration of a Renaissance Monarchy," Sixteenth Century Journal 9 (1978): 4-25; Dewald, Formation, 28-30, 57-64; Roelker, One King, 134-37; Maugis, Histoire, 1:214-23; Christopher Stocker, "Office as Maintenance in Renaissance France," Canadian Journal of History 6 (1971): 38-41; Elie Barna vi and Robert Descimon, La Sainte Ligue, le juge et Ia potence: L'assassinat du President Brisson: IS novembre I59I (Paris: Hachette, 1985), 128-77; Mark Cummings, "The Social Impact of the 'Paulette': The Case of the Parlement of Paris," Canadian Journal of History r 5 (r98o): 329-54·

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territory, was the responsibility of the Parlement of Paris. The fact that in their executive capacity the eight French parlements were responsible for maintaining the peace made the magistrates acutely aware of the dangers of scandal and of the need to protect the common people from religious and political sedition. As we have seen, the magistrates' sense of dignity and self-importance did not prevent them from laughing at the antics of the Basoche, but it certainly inhibited them from participating in farcical performance themselves. Finally, the parlements had a crucial legislative role to play: royal edicts could become law only when the parlements registered them. Although the magistrates were under an obligation to register the king's will, they had the right to delay registration and to present written complaints (remonstrances) concerning royal edicts they thought undermined traditional liberties. Magistrates often asserted this privilege during the turbulent early years of Francis I's reign. In this period the parlement clashed on a number of interrelated matters, including the interference of the king's council in judicial cases, the new religious settlement between the monarchy and the papacy called the Concordat of Bologna, and the persecution of heretics. Although it would be misleading to represent the parlement as fundamentally at odds with the monarchy during the first half of the sixteenth century, the magistrates were convinced that rule by law-specifically justice dispensed by the parlement-was a fundamental cornerstone of the French monarch's authority. 32 By appearing at court or by sending lettres de jussion, the king was usually able to impose his will on the parlement, but the magistrates had a number of lawful and effective means for bringing their concerns to the king's attention. 33 The parlements, though very much royal institutions, were by no means putty in the hands of the monarchy. Intense negotiation, persuasion, and sometimes a show of force were necessary to ensure the obedience of parlement magistrates, who often had their own agenda distinct from the king's. 34 The magistrates clearly saw themselves as a limb in a political body that was not solely directed by the monarchy. Their support for the Basochiens, whose jokes and audacity they appreciated, reflects this institutional confidence. 32. Ralph E. Giesey, "The Presidents of the Parlement at the Royal Funeral," Sixteenth Cen· tury journal 7 (1976): 27-28; Robert J. Knecht, "Francis I and Paris," History 66 (r98r): 21-27; Christopher W. Stocker, "The Politics of the Parlement of Paris in r 525," French Historical Studies 8 (1973): 199-200. 33· Hanley, Lit de justice, rr-13, 48-85; Elizabeth A.R. Brown and Richard C. Famiglietti, The "Lit de justice": Semantics, Ceremonial and the Parlement of Paris, 1300-r6oo (Sigmaringen: Thorbeckee, 1994), n-r8, 61-74; Mack P. Holt, "The King in Parlement: The Problem of the 'Lit de Justice' in Sixteenth-Century France," Historical journal 3I (1988): 507-23; Robert J. Knecht, "France I and the 'Lit de Justice': A Legend Defended," French History 7 (1993): 53-83. 34· Lawrence M. Bryant, "Parlementaire Political Theory in the Parisian Royal Entry Ceremony," Sixteenth Century journal 7 (1976): 15-24; Roger Doucet, Les institutions de Ia France au XVIe siixle (Paris: Picard, 1948), 1:220-23; Giesey, "Presidents," 27-28; Sheenan, Parlement, r88-22r.

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The growing assertiveness of the Parlement of Paris intensified during the rising tide of religious reform. News of theological debates, papal bills, and the religious agitation in Germany reached French magistrates' ears as early as the late I 5 I os and registered even more strongly after Martin Luther was excommunicated in late I 5 20. Reform of course did not begin with Luther. Erasmus had been urging a return to a simpler Catholic practice and emphasizing the authority of the Bible for almost a decade before Luther began publishing, and an indigenous reform movement had existed within the borders of France for several decades. 35 Convinced that true Christianity necessitated a direct engagement with the original Christian texts, humanists such as Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples translated the Bible into French. Clergy such as Guillaume Bri~onnet, bishop of Meaux, undertook a reform program in his diocese near Paris with the support of the king's sister, Marguerite of Angouleme, later of Navarre, a noblewoman known to be sympathetic to religious reform. By the early I 5 2os, Bri~onnet and several young clerics began preaching the Bible directly to the people in a way that attracted the suspicions of both the parlement and the Sorbonne, the Faculty of Theology at the University of Paris. In I523, an obscure hermit from Normandy was the first French subject to be executed for "Lutheran" heresy. Not long afterward, the Parlement of Paris forced Bri~onnet and his followers to abjure their reformist beliefs or flee the country. Other executions followed, most notably that of Louis de Berquin, a noble member of the parlement who was executed for possessing Lutheran tracts in I 5 29. Although Francis I was concerned about heresy, during the I 5 2os he remained reluctant to condemn evangelical Catholics like Berquin to the stake. Indeed on a number of occasions, Francis attempted to block or mitigate the sentences rendered by the parlement. Instead, it was the Sorbonne and the parlement that led the initial wave of prosecutions against "Lutheran" beliefs in France. 36 Not surprisingly then, the magistrates of the parlement rather than the king were those who first became concerned about the possibility of actors spreading heresy among the people. 37 The magistrates' wariness of theater, and religious theater in particular, came to a head in June I 54 I, when they objected to a theatrical performance already approved by Parisian authorities and by Francis I. The play in question was called the Mystery of the 3 5. Augustin Renaudet, Prereforme et humanisme a Paris pendant les premieres guerres d'Italie: I494-I5I7 (Paris: d'Argences, I953). 36. Roelker, One King, I89-205; E. William Monter, judging the French Reformation: Heresy Trials by Sixteenth-Century Parlements (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, I999), 5 5-84; Linda L. Taber, "Religious Dissent within the Parlement of Paris in the Mid-Sixteenth Century: A Reassessment," French Historical Studies I6 (I990): 684-99. 37· AN xla I5I6, fols. I48a-49, 27 Apr. I5I4; AN xla I52I, fol. 3I4, 2 Sept. I5I9; AN xla I522, fol. 44, II Jan. I520; Alfred Soman, "The Theatre, Diplomacy and Censorship in the Reign of Henry IV," Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 3 5 (I973): 276.

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Acts of the Apostles and was produced by a well-established confraternity known as the Confrerie de Ia Passion. This pious association had been performing religious plays in Paris since its foundation in 1402, and there was no obvious reason to doubt the orthodoxy of the organizers' religious sentiments. Indeed, the procedures by which the confrerie had gone about organizing the 1541 performance had been entirely above board. In December 1540, having received approval from the local Parisian police at the Chatelet and from the king, the organizers of the mystery play arranged a procession to announce the performance and to encourage inhabitants of Paris to participate. 38 Such a public announcement was common practice in French cities, where mystery plays recounting the life of Christ often continued for several weeks, involved hundreds of performers, and employed the services of local trades' people, who made the costumes, floats, and banners. In this case, the performance of The Acts of the Apostles was to take place during thirty-five separate performances between May and October 1541. Almost a month after its beginning, the parlement magistrates suddenly expressed misgivings about the project. Soon after, however, they relented, and the play went ahead as planned. 39 The magistrates' reasons for objecting to such performances became clearer the following year when they blocked plans for another play, this time the Mystery of the Old Testament. They were concerned about several aspects of the proposed production. Parlement lawyers, who advocated that the play be suppressed, complained that the organizers were charging too much for admission and that the plays would distract the people of Paris from pious Corpus Christi celebrations. More importantly, they argued that the event's organizers are "ignorant men, and not learned ... that they don't understand what they are doing. " 4° Citing earlier plays organized by the Confrerie de la Passion, the lawyers accused the members of not being well versed in the Bible stories they proposed to reenact and alleged that they would add "mockeries" and inventions to the sacred text in order to prolong their performance. These included "farces and other impudent and divisive games, which are performed at the end or at the beginning" as well as statements that contradicted Catholic doctrine, such as the claim "that the Holy Spirit had not at all wanted to descend to earth. " 41 Although none of the lawyers arguing the case mentions Lutheran heresy specifically, they are clearly concerned about possible irregularities in the theological content 38. Bibliotheque Historique de Ia Ville de Paris, MS C.P. 4338, Le cry et proclamation publicque: Pour jouer le mistere des Actes des Apostres en Ia ville de Paris: Faict le jeudy seiziesme jour de decembre !'an mil cinq cens quarante (Paris, 1541). 39· AN xla 1547, fol. r2a, 23 May I54I; AN xla I547, fol. 47a, ro June I54I; AN xla r547, fol. 68a, 21 June 1541; Graham A. Runnalls, "Theatre in Paris in the Late Middle Ages," in Etudes sur les mysteres (Paris: Champion, 1998), 97-99. 40. AN xla 4914, fol. 8o, 9 Dec. 1541. 41. Ibid., fols. 8o-8 r.

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9r

of the production. 42 Interestingly, all these concerns could be read as the fears of orthodox Catholics about dangerous reformist ideas or as the wariness of humanist Christians about the traditional beliefs of uninstructed laymen. The repeated references to the importance of the confraternity members knowing the texts of the Bible well seems an argument shaped by Renaissance humanism and an Erasmian concern for the return to authentic texts. Whatever the lawyers' motivations, their argument met with deaf ears outside of the parlement. Despite the parlement's misgivings, the Confrerie de la Passion sought and received renewed support from both the Chatelet and Francis I, thereby ensuring that the planned production took place. This incident was one of many in which the Paris Parlement magistrates revealed themselves to be more cautious than the king about the impact of the theater on public order. 43 Far from always following the lead of the monarch, the parlement initiated censorship of farce and theater more generally, a new attitude that even affected its relationship with the Basoche. As early as the mid-r52os, the magistrates in Paris began to have misgivings about the Basochiens' behavior at court. Even though they approved of the Basoche's performances in principle, often helping to pay for them through the r 5 50s, they were sometimes dismayed by the clerks' lack of civility and respect for decorum. Clerks were often reprimanded for entering the court wearing inappropriate clothes such as long Spanish-style capes, for carrying swords, or for sporting beards, all behaviors considered to be flamboyant and attention seeking in a way that was inappropriate to their station. 44 Occasionally the magistrates punished clerks who had been caught fighting on the courtyard grounds or behaving with disrespect toward their superiors. In the spring of r 55 3, the magistrates also protested while the clerks began playing tambourines in the courtyard of the Palais du Justice while the court was in session. 45 These rulings do not point to a complete rejection of Basoche high spirits, but they suggest a new sensitivity about courtroom civility. Whereas a hundred years earlier, the magistrates seemed content when the Basochiens were not actually fighting in the city streets, by the mid-sixteenth century their standards for public deportment had become more restrictive.

42. James K. Farge, "Early Censorship in Paris: A New Look at the Roles of the Parlement of Paris and of King Francis 1," Renaissance and Reformation 13 (1989): 178-82; Roelker, One King, 189, 204, 213. 43· Michel Felibien, Histoire de Ia ville de Paris (Paris: G. Desprez et]. Desessartz, 1725), 4:702b (27 Jan. I 541), 3:623b (12 Nov. 1543), 4:rr4b (rr Mar. 1544). 44· AN xla r527, fol. 87, 11 Mar. 1525; AN xla 1565, fol. 4, 27 April r 549; AN xla 16r6, fol. 188, 8 Mar. 1566; AN xla r69o, fol. p8, 20 Mar. 1585; AN U''222o, Le Nain, "Registres du Parlemcnt," fol. 40 (6 Feb. 1540); AN U*2r94, Le Nain, fols. 98-roo (r9 Nov. 1542). In r 53 5 Francis I outlawed the wearing of beards by anyone but the nobility. See Bataillard, Histoire, I :I I 6m; Edouard-Hippolyte Gosselin, Des usages et moeurs de MM. du Parlement de Normandie au palais de justice de Rauen (Rouen: Cagniard, 1868), 24; Maugis, Histoire, 1:364-66. 45· AN xla 4953, fol. 36a, 13 April 1553.

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The parlement magistrates were also becoming more concerned about the content of the Basoche's plays. In May I 53 6, the Paris Basoche was prohibited from performing because the magistrates had not yet seen what the clerks wanted to perform; only after a private viewing would they allow a public performance to take place. 46 Two years later, in January I 53 8, the Basoche was allowed to perform during the upcoming Carnival season only on condition that the performers adhere to the written text and omit "the things that had been crossed out," a statement clearly indicating that a magistrate had read through the play with pen in handY Similar rulings can be found through the I540S. Because in none of these cases do we know which plays the Basochiens sought to perform, we cannot know what was censored, yet context provides clues. Certainly, as an institution now very much concerned about religious heresy, the parlement would not have tolerated open discussion of religious reform. The parlement magistrates' new policy of direct censorship seems to have been effective and to have been sustained more or less consistently after the mid-I530s. By the I5 5os, the magistrates repeatedly warned the clerks to keep their performances "modest" and lacking in "scandal. " 48 Whereas previously regulation of the Basoche had been reactive and episodic, it seems that the magistrates were increasingly keeping a close eye on all Basoche activity, including its theatrical performances. Parlement censorship did not, however, suppress all Basoche satire. In May of I 53 8, the Basoche performed a play that some members of the court thought should have been censored more aggressively. Later that summer, two solicitors working at the parlement filed a complaint against the Basochiens for slander. They accused eight young clerks-Anthoine Baulm, Louis Clochet, Guillaume Cappitaine, Armand Petit, Guillaume Le Gauffre, Anne Charenton, Florent Le Grand, and Estienne Descroux-of having shamed them during a performance. The solicitors claimed that they had tried to discipline the clerks themselves but had failed and so had to take their complaint to the magistrates. The accused clerks adamantly denied their 46. AN xla 1539, fol. 28r, 17 May 1536; AN U*2033, Le Nain, fol. 30, 24 Jan. 1536. 47· AN xla 1540, fol. r2r, 23 Jan. 1538. Other examples ofthe magistrates' censorship of the Basoche include AN xla 1539, fol. 284, 20 May 1536; AN xla 1545, fol. 336,7 May 1540; AN xla 1552, fol. 321, 19 Mar. 1544; AN xla 1599, fol. 348a, 5 Jan. 1562; AN xla r6o4, fol. I36, 4 Jan. I563; ADSM I B 534, 5 May 1550; BM Bordeaux MS 369, Savignac, "Extraits," r:207 (30 Dec. 1533), r:26o (27 Feb. 1538), 1:365 (r6 Jan. 1545), 1:556 (8 Aug. 1553). 48. Arrets that refer to the need of the Basoche to avoid scandal include AN xla 1547, fol. I2a, 23 June 1540; AN xla I582, fol. 7, 8 Jan I558; AN xla I604, fol. II8, 3I Dec. I562. During the I 540s and I 5 50s, the magistrates prohibited the Basochiens from performing more often than previously. See AN xla 1545, fol. 336, 7 May I54o; AN xla I552, fol. 32I, I9 Mar. I544; AN xla 1554, IO Mar. 1545; AN xla 4947, fol. 413, I2Jan. I552; AN xla 1572, fol. I4 7, 2 June r 55 2. Nevertheless, most years, they continued to pay for their plays and processions. See AN xla 1549,6 June 1542; AN xla 1551, fol. 85a, 6 June 1543; AN xla 1554, fol. 289a, 29 Jan. 1545; AN xla I557, fol. po, I8 Mar. I546; AN xla I565, fol. I8, 9 May 1549; AN xla I569, fol. 308, 2 July 15 sr; AN xla 1582, fol. 7, 8 Jan I5 56.

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involvement in the slanderous skit. Although the magistrates were not convinced by the Basochiens' protestations of innocence, they nevertheless concluded that the accused clerks had "done this out of thoughtlessness rather than malice." 49 As a result, the magistrates merely chastised the wrongdoers, warning the young clerks that if they engaged in similar behavior in the future, they would forfeit the opportunity of ever being promoted to the solicitor's bench. This case was exceptional not because the clerks slandered someone during a farcical performance but because they were referred to by name. In most sixteenth-century rulings concerning the Paris Basoche, the association's members were not named individually but were referred to en masse or according to their Basoche rank. This absence of individual names was not accidental. In fact, one of the threats the magistrates regularly used to discipline recalcitrant Basoche performers was to warn them that if they disobeyed the court's rulings, their "very own private names" would be exposed. 50 Public disclosure of the clerks' names and those of their employers was clearly undesirable. As a result, the slandered solicitors in the I 53 8 incident may have felt avenged by the magistrates' ruling, even though the clerks suffered no punishment other than public exposure. Notary records confirm that most of these young men did in fact go on to become solicitors at the parlement, so their satirical Maytime performances did not in the end compromise their careers at court. 51 Despite rising religious tensions, the I 53 8 case suggests that traditional concerns about honor and dishonor still predominated in the Basochiens' performance. Mere mockery of one's employer, which often took the form of sexual slander, was still considered an acceptable part of the Basoche repertoire. During the last decades of the French Renaissance, the magistrates were still willing to patronize Basoche theater as long as its satire remained social rather than religious or political in nature. It is one thing to understand why the magistrates wanted to contain the satire of the Basochiens' festivities, but quite another to comprehend why the Basochiens complied with their demands. Of course the magistrates did have financial power over the clerks: the Basochiens were accustomed to receiving cash disbursements from the parlement to help pay for their lavish 49· AN xla 4906, fol. 589b, 6 Aug. I538. 50. AN xla I632, fol. 57, 8 May I57I. Similar warnings can be found in AN xla I539, fol. 284,20 May I536; AN xla I599, fol. 348a, 5 Jan. I562; AN xla I628, fol. 249a, II Jan. 1570. 51. Anne Charenton, Archives Nationales Minutier Central (AN MC) Ylll:73, 18 June 1546; Guillaume Le Gauffre, AN MC VIII:68, fol. 210, 13 Dec. I54o; AN MC YIII:7o, fol. 497v, 13 Mar. 1543; Guillaume Cappitaine and Florent le Grand, in Inventaire des registres des insinuations du Chatelet de Paris, regnes de Franfois I et Henri II, ed. Emile Campardon and Alexandre Tuetey (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1906), 115nro63, II7ni094, I32lli23I, 2 34n207 r. Other examples of Basoche leaders being promoted to the post of parlement solicitor include AN xla r6II, fol. I85a, 5 Jan. 1565; AN xla I613, fol. ua, 4 May 1565.

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processions and performances. Merely threatening to deprive them of their annual pension might have been sufficient incentive to encourage them to self-censor their plays. But the clerks had an additional reason for wanting to obey the magistrates: by the I 540s, they were increasingly dependent on the parlement magistrates for securing their jobs. Much more was at stake than a few laughs each January and May. As the sixteenth century continued, clerks at the parlements, not only in Paris but also in the provinces, found it more and more difficult to graduate from their long apprenticeship and to a secure post at the court. In Bordeaux, individual clerks tried to parlay their service as king of the Basoche into a permanent post as a solicitor; similarly, in Rouen, the Basochiens were willing to curb their traditional festivities in order to be able to secure the shrinking numbers of solicitor posts. 52 The Basochiens faced a job squeeze created by the regulatory assertiveness of the monarchy. Beginning with Francis I, French kings sought to transform the profession of solicitor into a venal office-holding class, and the Basochiens paid the price. The profession of solicitor, like that of barrister, had traditionally been a liberal profession in France: these legal officials were self-employed entrepreneurs who sold their services to clients and received no wage from the courts in which they argued cases or prepared legal paperwork. As a result, unlike the parlement magistrates, who increasingly had to pay the king of France for the privilege of sitting as a judge on one of his benches, solicitors had not been making regular contributions to the king's coffers. Francis I and his successors decided to rectify this situation by regulating how many solicitors served at the parlements and demanding that each pay the king a sum of money to secure a permanent post. Although the king was moderately successful in imposing limits on the number of solicitors practicing at the various parlements, his broader aim-to make all solicitor posts venal offices-was not fully achieved until the middle of the seventeenth century. In the meantime, clerks who hoped to become solicitors found themselves in a difficult situation. The number of solicitors was now restricted to 2 50 at the Paris Parlement and to much smaller numbers at the provincial courts, for example to 50 at the Parlement of Bordeaux. 53 Technically, the magistrates of the parlement were now prohibited from accepting new solicitors until the older ones died or retired. In practice, however, the magistrates,

52· ADSM I B 619, 23 Feb. IS7I; ADSM r B 663, 23 Dec. I58o; ADG T B 8I, fol. T