Médée`s Revenge: Magic and Rhetoric in the French Médée

Médée’s Revenge: Magic and Rhetoric in the French Médée
Tragedies of the 16th and 17th Centuries
Franziska Edler
Abstract
Taking a close look at Jean de la Péruse’s (1553), Pierre Corneille’s (1635) and
Baron de Longepierre’s (1694) tragedies dealing with the ancient witch Médée, the
readers find themselves faced with a woman who is led by the burning desire to
avenge herself on her selfish husband Jason, his new wife Créuse and King Créon,
who is characterized as a coward rather than a king. Firstly, we will show to what
extent Médée’s anger is even justified in the three tragedies: although revenge is
considered a destructive passion, Médée is not the murderous and guilty woman in
the first place, but rather a victim forced to take revenge by Jason, who abandoned
her because he is thirsty for power. The unscrupulous King Creon seeks to banish
her in order to preserve Jason’s honour, which, however, he has already lost.
Focusing on the characterization of Jason and King Créon, this paper will illuminate
strategies of justifying Médée’s anger, who, nonetheless, does not completely
achieve her aims: after the death of her rivals she is ever more an abandoned woman
for whom there is no place where she is welcome. Secondly, this paper discusses
how exactly Médée’s plans of revenge are realized by analyzing specific rhetorical
patterns that create magical effects: by evoking gods and cursing her victims she gets
into contact with mythical monsters of the Underworld whose powers she
concentrates through specific speech acts so that she can abuse them for her cruel
revenge. Thus, Médée makes use of a specific language that is worth analyzing
because it enables her to cause a terrifying scenario of fire and agony in which she
tortures King Créon and Créuse to death.
Key Words: Médée, magic, revenge, speech acts, hyperbole, hypotypose
*****
1. Introduction
In 17th century France, magic was the prominent theme in all the major literary
genres. The Renaissance and classic tragedy was particularly influenced by the
Greek and Latin plays written by Euripides and Seneca, as it is also the case with the
ancient witch Médée. She and Circe were the most popular witches in ancient
literature1 and feared because of their unique magical power and cruelty. Ever since,
2 Médée’s Revenge: Magic and Rhetoric in the French Médée Tragedies of the
16th and 17th Centuries
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Médée has represented an almighty, terrifying witch that is first and foremost
characterized by her violent passions, especially her love for Jason, her hatred and
her insatiable desire for revenge when Jason abandons her to marry Créuse, the
daughter of King Créon. Being unable to control her passions, she does not only kill
her brother, but even kills her sons after torturing her rivals to death, representing
thus the ‘figure inquiétante du crime contre nature’2 par excellence. However,
reading Jean de la Péruse’s, Pierre Corneille’s and Baron de Longepierre’s plays, it
will be noticed that Médée is neither the only guilty person nor the despicable witch
that deserves punishment and pain. Although her violent passions are of course an
abhorrent example of being unable to control oneself and its fatal consequences,
there is a certain doubleness that we find already in Seneca’s play3, because ‘we
cannot avoid feeling the justice of her anger’4, so that we have to admit that her cruel
plan for revenge is somehow justified.
In the first part of this presentation, I will thus examine the reasons which lead
Médée to her fatal revenge. In the second part, I will then focus on the realization of
her plans of revenge by analyzing specific speech acts and rhetorical devices that are
characteristic of Médée.
2. Médée as the abandoned and betrayed woman
From the beginning of Jean de la Péruse’s La Médée the readers and spectators
are affected by Médée’s violent pain and suffering when she calls the ‘Dieus, qui
avés le soin des loix de mariage’5, ‘Dieu vangeur des forféts’6, the Sun God, the
Goddess of the Underworld Proserpina and finally
Vous, ô Dieus, que jura le perjure Jason,
Par moi, méchante hélas! seigneur de la Toison:
Je vous atéste tous, tous, tous, je vous appele
Au spectacle piteus de ma juste querele.7
The triple repetition of ‘tous’ and the fact that Médée needs the support of each
of the Gods show that the witch has fallen victim to an appalling injustice whose
author is her husband Jason. The latter is always described as treacherous and
unfaithful by the epithets ‘perjure’ and ‘déloïal’, which disparages him from the
beginning. That is why Médée has the right to invoke the Gods, in order to avenge
herself, and why this revenge seems justified. Jason becomes even more guilty when
Médée’s servant names her mistress’s crimes she committed because of her love to
Jason in a passionate exclamation: Médée killed her brother and left her father to
follow him, but Jason left her and their sons for Glauke, the daughter of Créon, the
King of Corinth. This technique is highly effective to stir pity for Médée and to
establish her plan of revenge as a consequence of her demand for justice. In fact, the
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servant’s speech encourages Médée to avenge herself on Jason and on the other
Greek heroes whom she helped by magic to get the Golden Fleece:
Voici, voici la main, main forte et vangeresse,
Main qui nous vangera des Heröes de Grece.8
Médée’s position as a betrayed woman is even intensified in the meeting with
King Créon, presented as a selfish coward, who thinks all problems are solved and
all crimes forgotten, if only he banishes Médée from Corinth. Doing so, he denies
that Jason is guilty, too, and that the Argonauts would not have survived their trip
without Médée’s help:
Tous les Heröes Grécs, que la Toison dorée,
De tant d’hommes hardis à l’envi desirée,
Fit mettre sur la Mer, ne fussent retournés,
Sans mon secours, au lieu auquel ils estoient nés.9
However, Créon does not have pity on Médée at all and his cruelty is emphasized
when he banishes her from Corinth and announces that he will keep her sons. At this
point, the witch is ‘pauvre, seulle, éplorée’ (v. 714), the poor, abandoned and lonely
woman par excellence, which is a central leitmotif intrinsic to Péruse’s play that
makes the reader sympathize with her. In a passionate exclamation she bemoans her
cruel fate, which presents her as the victim of Jason and Créon and thus forces her to
take revenge:
Ô riche Toison d’or, du Dragon mal gardée,
Ô Fortune, ô Amour, ô Jason, ô Médée,
Ô Junon, ô Himen, ô promesses, ô foi!10
Especially Jason is accused of having betrayed Médée despite their marriage,
which finally leads her to plan her cruel revenge:
Non, je m’en vangerai, je ferai que la Grece
Connoitra combien peut Médée vangeresse.11
In Baron de Longepierre’s play Jason is presented as affected by a violent love
for King Créon’s daughter Créuse who enchants him with her beauty which he
cannot resist and which makes him completely forget himself, his duties and his wife
Médée:
Il est vrai que Médée a tout osé pour moi.
Je m’accuse et rougis de ce que je lui doy.
4 Médée’s Revenge: Magic and Rhetoric in the French Médée Tragedies of the
16th and 17th Centuries
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Mais transporté d’amour en voyant ce que j’aime,
J’oublie et mon devoir, et Médée, et moi-même.12
His love for Créuse is so intensive that he even plays down the witch’s terrible
power and establishes Créuse as mightier, which is a fatal mistake:
Je mourrois, s’il falloit m’éloigner de ses yeux;
Et qu’enfin leur éclat m’enchante dans ces lieux.
Ces beaux yeux plus puissans que Médée et ses charmes,
Si-tôt que les vis, m’arracherent les armes.13
The words referring to the lexical field magic emphasize Jason’s violent love and
– from Médée’s view – the reason why she has the right to take revenge. His love
even makes him suffer from megalomania, although his servant explicitely warned
him of Médée’s dark magic that makes her rule over the world, the underworld,
nature and the gods of the world and underworld. However, Jason is not impressed
and claims that he will defy all of Médée’s chants in order to live with Créuse.
Je défie à la fois les Mortels et les Dieux:
Et tout l’art de Médée, et l’Enfer et les Cieux.14
The adverbial qualification ‘à la fois’ at the same time and the asyndetic trikolon
‘Médée, et l’Enfer et les Cieux’ emphasize this megalomania that makes him even
more guilty, as he completely forgets about Médée’s help without which he would
neither have got the Golden Fleece nor survived. That is why he is constantly called
‘l’ingrat’ by Médée who provokes pity by desperately claming:
Pour toi je déployai tout l’effort de mes charmes.
J’immolai les Guerriers, et par leurs propres armes.
Je domptai les Taureaux; j’assoupis le Dragon.
Enfin, je te livrai la fatale Toison.
Je fis plus ; je quittai ma patrie, et mon pere;
J’étouffai la Nature, et déchirai mon frère;
J’affrontai le naufrage et la mort pour Jason.
J’immolai ton Tyran, je rajeunis Æson.
Ta vie est un tissu des bien-faits de Médée.
Créüse, ingrat, peut-elle en effacer l’idée?15
She accuses Jason because she lost everything in order to help him and is now
left by him, so that again she presents herself as the abandoned woman par
excellence. Her situation grows even worse, as the selfish and power-thirsty Créon
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glorifies Jason and defends him against Médée’s accusation. He makes it too easy
for himself to solve the problem by banishing Médée. Doing so he even compares
her to a plague and dirt:
Va, sors de mes Etats, sors barbare Etrangere.
[…]
Cesse d’infecter l’air qu’en ces lieux on respire;
De ton horrible aspect ne soüille plus mes yeux;
Et n’empoisonne plus la lumière des Cieux.16
This treatment is especially cruel, because by describing her as barbarian, plague
and dirt he completely denies that she is a woman, even a goddess with human
feelings and a sense of justice. Thus, Médée’s motivation for revenge seems
justified.
However, Jason appears most unpleasant in Pierre Corneille’s Médée, where he
is presented as a power-obsessed, unscrupulous and selfish man who intends to
marry Créuse because this marriage offers him more advantages and power than the
one with Médée. Without any sense of shame he explains to his friend Pollux that he
therefore chooses his wives according to the political advantages that they bring him:
J’accomode ma flamme au bien de mes affaires,
Et sous quelque climat que le sort me jetât
Je serais amoureux par maxime d’État.17
Thus, Médée feels abused and abandoned by the man for whom she gave up
everything. Her loyalty to him is betrayed by Jason’s extremely selfish behavior
since he only considers his own power. Médée’s meeting with Créon stirs her up
even more, as he presents himself as a coward who does not even dare to approach
her and neglects Jason’s guilt in all the murders committed during the Argonauts’
trip. He thinks he can establish peace and freedom and clear Jason of his deeds by
banishing Médée:
Rends-lui son innocence en t’éloignant d’ici,
Emporte avecque toi son crime et mon souci,
Tes herbes, tes poisons, ton cœur impitoyable,
Tout ce qui me fait craindre, et rend Jason coupable.18
Forced to leave her children and hearing the wedding bells, Médée is determined
to realize her cruel revenge by using dark magic which will be discussed in the next
chapter. In fact, it is Médée’s fate to perform her magic, even against her will, but
she is forced to act like she does due to the injustice that happens to her.19
6 Médée’s Revenge: Magic and Rhetoric in the French Médée Tragedies of the
16th and 17th Centuries
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We will now analyse which speech acts and rhetorical devices she uses to create
magical effects and thus to realize her revenge upon Créon and Créuse who die in a
sea of inextinguishable flames caused by Médée’s dark magic.
2. The realization of Médée’s revenge
While Médée is a ‘magicienne sans magie’20 in Jean de la Péruse’s play and
nearly only laments her own fate, her magical power is emphasized in Longepierre’s
and Cormeille’s play. I will take some important extracts from the latter one and
explain how her revenge is done by analyzing different rhetorical devices and speech
acts she uses.
Médée is related to the Sun God and to Hecate, so that she is able not only to
communicate with the Gods of the World, but also with the Underworld21, whose
forces she abuses for her revenge. The speech act she mainly uses is the evocation,
e.g. when she calls the Furies and monsters of the Underworld:
Et vous, troupe savante en mille barbaries,
Filles de l’Achéron, Pestes, Larves, Furies,
Noires Sœurs, si jamais notre commerce étroit
Sur vous et vos serpents me donna quelque droit,
Sortez de vos cachots avec les mêmes flammes
Et les mêmes tourments dont vous gênez les âmes.22
These evocations usually contain the names of the deities and monsters she
addresses in the first place, followed by an imperative form in the second person
plural. The power and efficiency of Médée’s evocations and orders and thus the
inferiority of Nature are emphasized, as she is proud to present a crowd of the most
venomous snakes from the Underworld who came only one moment after Médée had
called them. The hyperbolic expressions of time and the fact that she gives concrete
examples of the snakes, like Hydra and Python, are not only typical rhetorical
devices, but also promise to elicit a terrible scenario of pain and death for Créon and
Créuse. Although one vial of poison could kill them, Médée claims in her own
hyperbolic way that she needs thousand of poisons, which shows her unrestrained
behavior, her hybris, and her desire for revenge.
As we have already seen in this example, orders and commandments that occur
within the evocations are the second important type of speech acts Médée uses to
perform her revenge. In fact, her commandments are presented to be almighty, as
neither deities nor Nature dare to refuse their duties because they fear her. Referring
to this power, her speeches and thus Médée herself are even considered manly in
some works.23 Taking a close look at Médée’s argument with Créon this becomes
clear because he who is the King and should be powerful is afraid of even meeting
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her and his words are not powerful at all. Depending on the play, the latter and even
Jason do not consider her as a woman, but rather as a barabarian and monster. In
Corneille’s play, Médée’s servant Nérine explains the power of her mistress’s
commandments by using imagery and a detailed description of Nature’s servility:
Sa vengeance à la main, elle n’a qu’à résoudre,
Un mot du haut des Cieux fait descendre le foudre,
Les mers pour noyer tout n’attendent que sa loi,
La terre offre à s’ouvrir sous le Palais du Roi,
L’air tient les vents tous prêts à suivre sa colère,
Tant la nature esclave a peur de lui déplaire:
Et si ce n’est assez de tous les éléments,
Les Enfers vont sortir à ses commandements.24
These verses show how mighty Médée’s commandments are, how immeasurable
her desire for revenge is and evoke the impression of immediate danger, as Nérine
emphasizes the simplicity with which Médée can destroy Créon’s kingdom: she only
needs one ‘mot’, her ‘loi’ and her ‘commandements’ to make all of the elements
obey her. Médée’s motivation, the ‘vengeance’, is named at the beginning and often
repeated in Corneille’s play as it is the central leitmotif intrinsic to it like ‘colère’
and ‘fureur’. The vivid images that characterize the rhetorical device of the
hypotypose are also typical of Médée and the characters who describe her actions.
They are efficient because they involve the readers and spectators intensively and
show Médée’s desire for revenge impressively. The latter thus appears immeasurable
and reflects Médée’s unrestrained behavior, her hybris.
However, Médée is not an almighty witch from the beginning. In order to realize
her revenge, she depends on the support of other deities and needs the Sun God’s
help. Therefore she uses a third type of speech act, namely begging:
Soleil, qui vois l’affront qu’on va faire à ta race,
Donne-moi tes chevaux à conduire en ta place,
Accorde cette grâce à mon désir bouillant.
Je veux choir sur Corinthe avec ton char brûlant.25
In this speech act we find again the naming of the God at the beginning, followed
by two imperatives in the second person singular. In order to justify her revenge and
to present her request as urgent, Médée involves the Sun God himself by claiming
that Créon, Créuse and Jason did an injustice to his race. Therefore, he is forced to
help his daughter. Furthermore, this example discusses once more Médée’s hybris
because she often uses words belonging to the lexical field ‘fire’, as we can see with
her ‘burning desire’ and the Sun God’s ‘burning chariot’. Such words explain to
what extent the witch is obsessed by emotions like hatred and revenge and suggest a
8 Médée’s Revenge: Magic and Rhetoric in the French Médée Tragedies of the
16th and 17th Centuries
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terrible scenario of agony for Créon and Créuse: their deaths are already anticipated
when speaking of fire and flames because in the end they will die in a sea of
inextinguishable flames caused by Médée’s poison.
6. Conclusion
In the first part of this paper we have seen that the justice of Médée’s anger is
emphasized by Jason’s and Créon’s thirst for power and egoism that make both of
them forget their duties, their own guilt and loyality. Thus, Médée does not appear as
the one and only murderer, but the presentation of the witch rather focuses on her
status as a betrayed and abandoned woman and mother. In fact, all of the characters
presented in the three plays are possessed and blinded by violent emotions and
passions that take control over them and determine their fate. In fact, Jean de la
Péruse, Pierre Corneille and Baron de Longepierre confront the readers and
spectators with the fatal consequences of a humans’ inability to control their
emotions and Médée is by far not the only one led by a burning desire. However,
even if the reasons for her anger and thus the motivation for revenge are justified,
her cruel revenge as such is not, as it is an abhorrent example of a terrible affect that
leads to destruction and death.
The second part of this paper has focused on the realization of Médée’s revenge
by analyzing typical speech acts and rhetorical devices with which she practises her
dark magic and thus takes revenge. Using evocations, commandments and begging
she gets into contact with the Gods of the World and the Underworld as well as with
monsters and snakes. Within these speech acts, we find rhetorical devices like
examples, hyperboles, hypotypose and specific terms related to fire. The speech acts
and rhetorical devices we analyzed are not only typical of Médée, but also for other
witches in magical plays like Circe. In fact, rhetoric is of the utmost importance for
the French theatre of the 16th and 17th centuries, as it is a precondition for causing
and evoking emotions as well as for causing magical effects.
1
N
Notes
Marianne Closson, L’Imaginaire démoniaque en France (1550-1650) (Genève: DROZ, 2000), 83.
Ibid., 83.
3
Martha C. Nussbaum, ‘Serpents in the soul. A reading of Seneca’s Medea’, Medea. Essays on Medea in myth, literature,
philosophy and art’. James J. Clauss, Sarah Iles Johnston (editors). Princeton, New Jersey: University Press, 1997, 223.
4
Ibid., 223.
5
Jean de la Péruse, La Médée, v.1.
6
Jean de la Péruse, La Médée, v. 5.
7
Jean de la Péruse, La Médée, v. 11-14.
8
Jean de la Péruse, La Médée, v. 145-146.
9
Jean de la Péruse, La Médée, v. 661-664.
10
Jean de la Péruse, La Médée, v. 717-719.
11
Jean de la Péruse, La Médée, v. 741-742.
12
Baron de Longepierre, Médée, v. 83-86.
13
Baron de Longepierre, Médée, v. 95-98.
14
Baron de Longepierre, Médée, v. 195-196.
15
Baron de Longepierre, Médée, v. 541-550.
16
Baron de Longepierre, Médée, v. 466-472.
17
Pierre Corneille, Médée, v. 26-28.
18
Pierre Corneille, Médée, v. 463-466.
19
Helga Zsak, ‘La Médée de Corneille, première furie vindicative’, Revue
d’Études Françaises 7 (2002): 191.
20
Noémie Courtès, L’Écriture de l’enchantement. Magie et magiciennes dans la littérature française du XVIIe siècle
(Paris: Honoré Champion, 2004), 160-161.
21
Aurore Guitierrez-Laffond, ‘Théâtre et magie dans la littérature dramatique du XVIIe siècle en France’ (PhD diss.,
Université de Toulouse Le Mirail, 1998), 94.
22
Pierre Corneille, Médée, v. 205-210.
23
Noémie Courtès, L’Écriture de l’enchantement. Magie et magiciens dans la littérature française du XVIIe siècle (Paris:
Éditions Champion, 2004), 162.
24
Pierre Corneille, Médée, v. 713-720.
25
Pierre Corneille, Médée, v. 257-260.
2
Bibliography
Marianne Closson. L’Imaginaire démoniaque en France (1550-1650). Genève: DROZ, 2000.
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Éditions Champion, 2004.
Marc Fumaroli. Héros et orateurs. Rhétorique et dramaturgie cornéliennes. Genève: DROZ, 1990.
Aurore Guitierrez-Laffond. ‘Théâtre et magie dans la littérature dramatique du XVIIe siècle en France’. PhD diss.,
Université de Toulouse Le Mirail, 1998. Longepierre. Médée. Texte établi et présenté par T. Tobari. Paris: Editions A.-G.
Nizet, 1967.
Martha C. Nussbaum, ‘Serpents in the soul. A reading of Seneca’s Medea’, Medea. Essays on Medea in myth, literature,
philosophy and art’. James J. Clauss, Sarah Iles Johnston (editors). Princeton, New Jersey: University Press, 1997, 223.
Jean de la Péruse. La Médée. Edition critique par James A. Coleman. University of Exeter, 1985.
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Franziska Edler is a PhD student at the Justus-Liebig-University of Gießen (Germany). Her research focuses on the
French Médée tragedies of the 16th and 17th centuries with regard to the production of magical events via specific
rhetorical patterns.
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