… Quin could not fall suddenly on the ground, as it were in a fit, without greatly hurting himself, and, perhaps, raising laughter in the Audience; but that he, with his infignificant person, could do it without the risque of either; and, …
… French theatre, suffused with this spirit, underwent a profound transformation that affected comedy in particular. Laughter was no longer the preordained response to a theatrical performance: the fate of the exemplary characters was …
… oubliée (Paris: Champion, 2015), p. 519. What mattered most was the idea of community: the sharing of tears and laughter where, for the length of a performance, all social differences were abolished. The duchess du Maine, the duc …
Aesthetics | Community | Entertainement | Taste | Theatre
… repartee, and light-hearted pleasantries do not strike the same note in every climate… What might cause open-hearted laughter in France might be jeered in London or in Vienna. In all places, a jest is judged on nothing at all, and this …
Anglomania | Correspondence | France | Friendship | Theatre
… boxes and names of that year’s occupants. 9 . For more on women’s reactions in the theatre, see A. Rousseau, ‘Offstage Laughter: Restoration Comedies and the Female Audience’, Revue de la Société d’Etudes Anglo-Américaines des XVIIe et …