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ABSTRACT
On the twenty-third birthday of Queen Kristina, in December 1649, she was also honored as a maker of peace. A court ballet was an important part of the festivities. Its French text, La Naissance de la paix, has been attributed to René Descartes, an attribution which was supported by Adrien Baillet’s biography of the philosopher (1691). The question of the authorship of La Naissance de la paix has been the subject of renewed attention in recent decades and has given rise to conflicting opinions among prominent experts on Descartes. In this article their arguments are presented and critically discussed. The purpose of the article is not merely to illustrate the problem of attribution – making a decision seems impossible at present – but also to contribute to the understanding of Descartes’ stay at the court of Kristina. In the article the question of Descartes’ literary activity in the service of the queen is also discussed with reference to an unfinished pastoral drama which the philosopher wrote during his stay in Stockholm.
Notes
1 Overviews of court ballet in Sweden during the time of Queen Kristina: Kjellberg Citation2005: 531–561; 606 ff.; Dahlberg Citation2007: 106–112.
2 Diana as portrayed by Kristina in the ballet Le Vaincu de Diane (Then fångne Cupido): the courtier Johan Ekeblad in an appendix to a letter to his father 15/1 1651. Ekeblad Citation1911: 73. That the queen portrayed Pallas in the peace ballet is evidenced in a list of costumes which the French artist Nicolas Vallari designed for ballets at Kristina’s court. For La Naissance de la paix he designed, among other things, two harnesses for the queen. Fogelberg Rota Citation2013: 19; Fogelberg Rota Citation2015: 73.
3 Stiernhielm Citation1976 also includes the French and German versions of the text. The latter, accredited to Kristina’s librarian Johannes Freinsheimius, is almost a direct translation of the former. Stiernhielm’s Freds-Afl. appears to be a stand-alone text in comparison to the others and is poetically superior to them. See comments by Bernt Olsson in Stiernhielm Citation1976: 329-333.
4 Thus Descartes revealed that the ballet would be danced “tomorrow night,” 9 December. The performance appeared to have been postponed one day after the queen’s actual birthday; see Bernt Olsson’s comments in Stiernhielm Citation1976: 302 f.
5 The young Swedish courtier Johan Ekeblad mentioned in a letter to his brother Claes dated 23 October 1649 that Kristina had rushed the ballet “för denna fransyska ambassadörens skull, vilken sig hastar till att resa hädan förrän vattnet tillfryser men vill gärna se baletten först” (for the sake of the French ambassador, eager to depart before the waters freeze but who dearly wants to see the ballet before he goes).
6 “La Cour n’étoit occupée que des réjouissances qui s’y faisoient pour la paix de Munster, et la Reine, qui voulut qu’il y joüât son role, voyant qu’elle ne pouvoit obtenir de luy qu’il dansât des balets, sçut l’engager au moins à composer des vers françois pour le bal. [En marge: Ils étoient sur la paix, et il en reste quelques fragmens.]”
7 Which includes copies of marginalia in the university library.
8 An English version exists as chapter 3 in Watson Citation2007: 37–58. Here the title is slightly less categorical: “Did Descartes write La Naissance de la Paix?” Watson’s argument is, however, the same as in the earlier article. See also Watson Citation2002: 295–300.
9 Watson seems to imply here that Baillet’s source was Descartes’ letter to de Brégy: “Baillet jumped to the conclusion that the verses with which Descartes weighted down his package were some he wrote himself.” But Baillet did not in fact make reference to Descartes’ letter, which it is uncertain whether he even knew about.
10 Fogelberg Rota (Citation2015: 76) proposes that the ballets formed part of a program aimed at portraying an image of Kristina as dedicatedly sensible and in charge of her passions: “In fact all the four ballets performed between April 1649 and January 1651 i.e. Les Passions Victorieuses et Vaincues, Le Vaincu de Diane, La Naissance De La Paix, and Le Parnasse Triumphant – are part of a programme aimed at establishing the image of Queen Christina as a superior being devoted to reason and above passions, modelled on the exempla of the goddesses Diana and Pallas Athena.”
11 “Il est extrêmement improbable que la Reine Christine ait demandé la rédaction de cette importante déclaration politique – une célébration du rôle de la Suède dans la Paix de Westphalie, et une annonce de l´intention de la reine de maintenir la paix – à un étranger qui n’avait pas fait ses preuves, catholique, et nouveau courtisan, et qui de plus n´était pas connu pour sa poésie.” Watson Citation1990: 397 f.
12 For this ballet see Gustafsson Citation1966: 92 ff. It should be noted that it is uncertain whether Poirier had arrived in Stockholm in time to write the ballet text. A letter he wrote from Amsterdam was dated 17 January 1649.
13 It can be pondered why, if he was the author, Poirier’s name was not on the printed version of La Naissance de la paix, as it had been on printed text of Le Vaincu de Diane. Sigbrit Swahn (Citation2000: 268) posed this question in objection to Watson’s theory. Poirier’s name does not appear on the alternative printing of La Diane victorieuse, as highlighted by Watson Citation1990: 395.
14 The note referred to: UUB, Palmsk. 361: 675. Compare Klemming Citation1863–1879: 34 ff., which states “Denna uppgift synes vara troligare än den om Cartesius; den ursprungliga källan härför (Bibliothèque Universelle 1692) säger endast att han skrifvit en komedi, hälften på vers, hälften på prosa, och andra Franska verser till en fest i Stockholm i anledning af fredsslutet” (This information seems to have more credence than that on Descartes; the original source for this (Bibl. Univ. 1692) only states that he wrote a comedy, half in verse and half in prose, and other French verses for a celebration in Stockholm in connection with the peace-agreement.” Klemming was obviously unaware of Baillet’s information.
15 Poirier wrote in his dedication of the poems to the queen: “En l’exemple de ce grand Prince & Pasteur admirable, V. M. trouvera toutes les instructions importantes & nécessaires, pour fortifier son esprit, en l’amour de son peuple & au dézir de sa conservation.” Poirer 1646: 73. Johannesson Citation1968: 181 f., notes “L’Illustre berger” as a stand-alone text, but the poems form part of the book Les Soupirs salutaires.
16 Beijer refers to a work by the abbé de Pure entitled Traité des ballets de cour, 1658. For Michel de Pure and the theory of the court ballet see Christout Citation1967: 137–142. The view of the ballet verses as “Partie la moins importante et ornement postiche” is cited by Christout Citation1967: 141, from a work by de Pure entitled Idée des spectacles anciens et nouveaux, 1668.
17 The title page of Le Vaincu de Diane says: “Le sujèt invanté & les vers compozés Par HÉLIE POIRIER Parizien.” This ballet did contain a certain dramatic “plot.”
18 Watson notes, without detail, “le style, le schéma des rimes, la nature des caractères et le développement des thèmes” (Watson Citation1990: 394). He summarizes: “En fait, comme je l’ai dit, l’évidence stylistique est que Poirier est l’auteur des trois ballets” (Watson Citation1990: 395).
19 Geneviève Rodis-Lewis and Albert Thibaudet have undertaken some metrical observations in the text of the ballet that they believe rather confirm that Descartes is the author. Rodis-Lewis Citation1997: 215 ff. highlights certain idiosyncrasies regarding rhythm and rhyme, amongst other things, which often render the text ponderous. She believes that one is tempted to connect these features to an amateur who had become a poet in his 50s rather than with a professional versifier (like Poirier). Thibaudet Citation1920: 166 notes, in the introduction to his and Johan Nordström’s edition of La Naissance de la paix, the old-fashioned, even for its time, treatment of verse in the ballet text (the author of which, according to Thibaudet, is Descartes), where hiatus has not been avoided, for example.
20 Nordström bases his work on Baillet’s biography and reissues Descartes’ statutes for the academy from it (Baillet Citation1691: 411 ff.). See also Fogelberg Rota Citation2008: 55 ff.
21 The letter is in Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. For the dating of the letter to November 1649: Horst Citation1938: 60. There is a copy of the letter in Johan Nordström’s collection, UUB, 495f:1, kartong 11.
22 “Cela reste assez général pour qu’on n’y voie pas un éloge explicite de la politique de la reine en ses concessions pour le traité.”
23 “Mais qui d´autre que lui aurait tenu à distinguer de ces multiples divinités mythiques l’unité du seul vrai Dieu?”
24 For a comparison of Stiernhielm’s poetry and Descartes’ see Räftegård Citation1968: 49–54.
25 He who sees us dancing must think we do so out of passion and desire. / But he who knows that [our] houses and homes are alight, / Destroyed to our complete impoverishment, / That our cows and sows and everything has been lost, / Neither dog nor cock can be heard in the village, / He would think thus: When the peasant has nothing / To plough, sow or harvest; has nothing / Which he can bring to market or to the square, / He must at last go mad. (Transl. L.G.)
26 Brasck’s school drama, which bears certain similarities to the German poet Johann Rist’s Das friedewünschende Teutschland, first performed by students in Hamburg in 1647, is treated by Ljunggren Citation1864: 490–496. The allegorical form of Brasck’s play had, according to Ljunggren, “genom hofbaletterna fått en officiell karaktär” (taken on an official nature due to the court ballet) (p. 490). Compare Gustafsson Citation1956: 163 ff.
27 A small indicator that Baillet was perhaps not so well informed as regards court ballet is that he claims that the queen allowed Descartes to write texts for the “ball” (see above), a ball which followed the ballet.
28 “Il s´en acquita d´une manière assez enjoüée pour plaire à une Cour qui se picquoit déja de vouloir imiter la politesse de celle de France. Mais ces vers ne dérogeoient point à la sagesse d´un Philosophe de son rang. Ils furent trouvez trop beaux pour être les fruits d´un âge si avancé, et pour venir d´une imagination, dont il sembloit depuis prés de quarante ans avoir étouffé le génie poëtique sous les épines de l´Algébre et des autres sciences les plus sombres. Ce qui nous en est resté sert encore à nous faire juger que M. Descartes auroit été plus heureux, que n´ont été [en marge: qu´on en juge par les fragmens recueillis par H. Est.] Thalés, Xénophane, Empédocle, Epicure, Cléanthe, parmi les Grecs, Lucréce, Varron et Boéce, parmi les Latins, à mettre la Philosophie en vers.”
29 Descartes’ role in Kristina’s religious development and conversion, debated since the end of the 1600s, has been asserted by Weibull Citation1966: 76–84, and Cassirer Citation1940. Marie-Louise Rodén, in her biography of the queen, presents their argument with her view that it “överensstämmer väl med det relativt knappa källmaterial som bevarats i frågan” (it fits well with the relatively sparse surviving source material regarding the issue); she also notes that there “dock självfallet [måste] ha funnits andra faktorer som påverkade Christina än den betydelsefulla men ändå korta bekantskapen med Descartes” (however must have been factors influencing Christina other than the meaningful but nevertheless brief acquaintanceship with Descartes). Rodén Citation2008: 121 ff. Entitled “Cartesius och drottning Kristinas omvändelse” (Cartesius and Queen Kristina’s conversion), Nordström Citation1941: 248–290, with reference to Cassirer’s book, presents a detailed critical discussion of the subject that resulted in a certain hesitancy. Rodis-Lewis Citation1998: 195, points out that Descartes’ influence on Kristina’s conversion is debatable. Nordin Citation2012: 145–153, presents an overview of the discussion and believes that “Chanut och Descartes har fört [Kristina] in i en fransk och katolsk bildningsvärld som starkt attraherar henne och för henne en bit på vägen mot den nya trosuppfattningen och därmed mot Rom” (Chanut and Descartes introduced [Kristina] to a cultural world that was both French and Catholic, which appealed strongly to her and helped lead her on the way to a new faith and thereby to Rome) (p. 152 ff.).
30 The letter also reveals that Descartes seems to have had little scope for his morning philosophical discussions with the queen.
31 Richard Watson puts forward the possibility, albeit poorly supported, that Descartes may have already composed the comedy in his youth. Watson Citation2007: 46 ff.
32 The order of Amarantha emphasized Kristina’s ideal of chastity and was, just like the court ballets, a political statement. Fogelberg Rota Citation2008: 190 ff. Susanna Åkerman Citation1991: 144–154 asserts that the queen’s intention in establishing this order was to create a diplomatic network in advance of her abdication.
33 “Malgré son admiration pour la force d’âme du ‘Roi’ de Suède, Descartes laisse ici percer une sourde rancœur contre ses exigences; et il n’aurait sûrement pas montré son manuscrit à Christine.”