La Grange (actor)
La Grange, whose real name was Charles Varlet, was a French actor and a member of the troupe of Molière. Charles Varlet was the son of Marie de La Grange; the couple moved to Montpellier soon thereafter. Charles was born in 1635 and baptized at Notre-Dame des Tables, Montpellier, on 8 March 1636, at the age of about 9 months, he had Achille Varlet and sister, Justine-Françoise. After the birth of his sister the family left Montpellier and was in Paris in 1642, but not long after the children lost their parents and became orphans. La Grange joined Molière's company in 1659, soon after they had returned to Paris from touring the provinces. Being young and attractive, he was the jeune premier and played Molière's lovers, roles which as Charles Dickens, Jr. has written are "among the least interesting of his personages." La Grange played more versatile parts such as the title roles in Racine's Alexandre le Grand and Molière's Dom Juan, as well as Acaste in Molière's The Misanthrope. La Grange acted as the company's secretary and historian, creating a register of all plays performed as well as receipts and other commentary on matters affecting the company.
These documents are an important source of information for scholars interested in the period. In 1664 La Grange replaced Molière as the Orator, the company member who addressed the audience and introduced the plays. On 25 April 1672, during the company's Easter break, La Grange married Marie Ragueneau de l'Estang, known as Marotte, after the chambermaid in Moliére's Les Précieuses ridicules. Ragueneau had first become associated with the company in 1660 as the chambermaid of the actress Mademoiselle de Brie, began to play small parts beginning as Marotte, but soon followed by Georgette in Molière's L'École des femmes in 1663, she created the title role in Molière's La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas in 1671. Marie Ragueneau was the daughter of Cyprien Ragueneau, a pastry chef, now chiefly remembered as a character in the 1898 play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Not long after her marriage to La Grange she became an official member of Molière's company, receiving a one-half share and in 1680 was one of the founding members of the Comédie-Française, along with her brother-in-law, an actor, known as Verneuil.
Molière died in 1673 after which La Grange was instrumental in the rebuilding of the company during the transition to its new theatre at the Hôtel de Guénégaud. When the troupe merged with the players of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1680 forming the Comédie-Française, he became the new company's Orator. In 1682 he wrote the preface of the first collected edition of Molière's plays; the theatre historian, Samuel Chappuzeau, writing in 1674, described La Grange as an actor as follows: La Grange is regarded, rightly so, as a good actor in both serious and comic roles. Although of no more than medium build, he is well proportioned, has a jaunty and relaxed manner, which gives a good impression before he speaks, he succeeded Molière not only as orateur, but in the concern he shows for the general well-being of the company, being both intelligent and trustworthy. Banham, Martin; the Cambridge Guide to the Theatre, second edition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-43437-9. Dickens, Charles.
"The Old French Theatre", in two parts. Part II, All the year round. A Weekly Journal. Volume 36, pp. 5 to 11. London: Charles Dickens. View at Google Books. Hartnoll, editor; the Oxford Companion to the Theatre, fourth edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-211546-1. Howarth, William H. editor. French Theatre in the Neo-Classical Era 1550–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mongrédien, Georges. Dictionnaire biographique des comédiens français second edition. Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique. ISBN 9780785948421. Thierry, Édouard, editor. Charles Varlet de la Grange et son registre. Paris: Jules Claye. View at HathiTrust. Young, Bert Edward, editor. Le registre de La Grange: 1659–1685, two volumes. Paris: E. Droz. Catalog record at HathiTrust. La Grange at CÉSAR.org.uk
Paris
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion and the arts; the City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2019 population of 12,213,364, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €681 billion in 2016, accounting for 31 percent of the GDP of France, was the 5th largest region by GDP in the world. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, ahead of Zurich, Hong Kong and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong-Kong, in 2018; the city is a major rail and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly.
Opened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily, is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro. Gare du Nord is the 24th busiest railway station in the world, the first located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015. Paris is known for its museums and architectural landmarks: the Louvre was the most visited art museum in the world in 2018, with 10.2 million visitors. The Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art, the Pompidou Centre Musée National d'Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe; the historical district along the Seine in the city centre is classified as a UNESCO Heritage Site. Popular landmarks in the centre of the city include the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and the Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, both on the Île de la Cité. Paris received 23 million visitors in 2017, measured by hotel stays, with the largest numbers of foreign visitors coming from the United States, the UK, Germany and China.
It was ranked as the third most visited travel destination in the world in 2017, after Bangkok and London. The football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris; the 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. Paris will host the 2024 Summer Olympics; the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup, the 1960, 1984, 2016 UEFA European Championships were held in the city and, every July, the Tour de France bicycle race finishes there. The name "Paris" is derived from the Celtic Parisii tribe; the city's name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. Paris is referred to as the City of Light, both because of its leading role during the Age of Enlightenment and more because Paris was one of the first large European cities to use gas street lighting on a grand scale on its boulevards and monuments.
Gas lights were installed on the Place du Carousel, Rue de Rivoli and Place Vendome in 1829. By 1857, the Grand boulevards were lit. By the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps. Since the late 19th century, Paris has been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in French as Parisiens, they are pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the area's major north–south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité; the Parisii minted their own coins for that purpose. The Romans began their settlement on Paris' Left Bank; the Roman town was called Lutetia. It became a prosperous city with a forum, temples, an amphitheatre. By the end of the Western Roman Empire, the town was known as Parisius, a Latin name that would become Paris in French. Christianity was introduced in the middle of the 3rd century AD by Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris: according to legend, when he refused to renounce his faith before the Roman occupiers, he was beheaded on the hill which became known as Mons Martyrum "Montmartre", from where he walked headless to the north of the city.
Clovis the Frank, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty, made the city his capital from 508. As the Frankish domination of Gaul began, there was a gradual immigration by the Franks to Paris and the Parisian Francien dialects were born. Fortification of the Île-de-la-Citie failed to avert sacking by Vikings in 845, but Paris' strategic importance—with its bridges prevent
Michel Baron
Michel Baron was a French actor and playwright. His family name was Boyron, his father and mother were leading players. He was born in Paris, he was orphaned at age 9, joined the child company Petits Comédiens Dauphins at age 12, becoming its brightest star. He came to the notice of Molière, joined his troupe, became his protégé, he left the troupe after a conflict with Molière's wife, Armande Béjart, but rejoined in 1670. He played the role of Domitien in Pierre Corneille's Tite et Bérénice and played in Corneille's Psyché, he stayed with the troupe until Molière's death in 1673, when he joined the troupe at the Hotel de Bourgogne. This troupe merged with another in 1680 to become the Comédie-Française. With Comédie-Française, Baron was the undisputed master of the French stage until his retirement in 1691, he created many of the leading roles in Racine's plays, in his own L'Homme à bonnes fortunes, his most popular play, La Coquette. He wrote Les Enlèvements and Le Debauche, translated and acted in two plays by Terence.
After retiring in 1691, Baron re-appeared in 1720 at the Palais Royal, was active. During his last years on stage, he performed with Adrienne Lecouvreur, he died on December 22, 1729. Barons's son Étienne Michel Baron was an actor. Etienne's son and two daughters all acted with the Comédie-Française. Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Baron, Michel". Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press. Works by Michel Baron at Project Gutenberg The Lucky Man by Michel Baron at Project Gutenberg - a translation of L'homme à bonne fortune Works by or about Michel Baron in libraries
Salle de la Bouteille
The Salle de la Bouteille or Salle du Jeu de Paume de la Bouteille known as the Hôtel Guénégaud or Guénégaud Theatre, was a 1671 theatre located in Paris, between the rue de Seine and the rue des Fossés de Nesle across from the rue Guénégaud. It was the first home of the Paris Opera and in 1680 became the first theatre of the Comédie-Française. A former tennis court converted into a theatre, it was inaugurated in 1671 as the first home of Pierre Perrin's Académie d'Opéra; the first French opera, Robert Cambert's Pomone with a libretto by Perrin, premiered there on 3 March of that year. A second lyric work, Les peines et les plaisirs de l'amour, with a libretto by Gabriel Gilbert and music by Cambert, was performed in 1672. On 13 March 1672 the surintendant of the king's music, Jean-Baptiste Lully, acquired Perrin's rights to perform opera and named his company the Académie Royale de Musique, although it continued to be called the Opéra; because of legal difficulties Lully could not use the Salle de la Bouteille, moved the Opéra to a theatre built by Carlo Vigarani in the Bel-Air tennis court on the Rue de Vaugirard.
In 1673, after the death of Molière, the Salle de la Bouteille became the home of the Guénégaud Theatre, a company formed from the remnants of the troupe of Molière and players from the Théâtre du Marais. In 1680, after merging with the troupe from the Hôtel de Bourgogne, the company became known as the Comédie-Française and continued to perform in the Guénégaud until 1689, when it moved to the Jeu de Paume de l'Étoile on the rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Bashford, Christina. "Cambert, Robert", vol. 4, pp. 696–698, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, 4 volumes, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan. ISBN 9781561592289. Chappuzeau, Samuel. Le théâtre français, edited by G. Monval. Paris: Bonnassies, 1875. Clarke, Jan; the Guénégaud Theatre in Paris. Volume One: Founding and Production. Lewiston, New York: The Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 9780773483927. Forman, Edward. Historical Dictionary of French Theater. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810849396. Harris-Warrick, Rebecca. "Paris. 2. 1669–1725", vol.
3, pp. 856–858, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, 4 volumes, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan. ISBN 9781561592289. Howarth, William D. ed.. French Theatre in the Neo-Classical Era 1550–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521100878. La Salle, Albert de. Les Treize Salles de l'Opéra. Paris: Librairie Sartorius. Copy at Google Books. Notice bibliographique at the BnF. Lecomte, Louis-Henry. Histoire des théâtres 1402–1904. Notice préliminaire. Paris: Daragon. View at Google Books. Nuitter, Charles. Les Origines de l'Opéra français. Paris: E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie. Copies 1 and 2 at Google Books. Powell, John S.. Music and Theatre in France 1600–1680. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198165996. Sadler, Graham. "Robert Cambert", p. 150, in The New Penguin Opera Guide, edited by Amanda Holden. New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 9780140514759. Wiley, W. L.. The Early Public Theatre in France. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. OCLC 331219. Greenwood Press reprint: ISBN 9780837164496
1st arrondissement of Paris
The 1st arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is colloquially referred to as premier. Known as Louvre, the arrondissement is situated principally on the right bank of the River Seine, it includes the west end of the Île de la Cité. The arrondissement is one of the oldest in Paris, the Île de la Cité having been the heart of the city of Lutetia, conquered by the Romans in 52 BC, while some parts on the right bank date back to the early Middle Ages, it is the least populated of the city's arrondissements and one of the smallest by area, a significant part of, occupied by the Louvre Museum and the Tuileries Gardens. The Forum des Halles is the largest shopping mall in Paris. Much of the remainder of the arrondissement is dedicated to administration; the 1st arrondissement is small, with a land area of only 1.83 km2. The area now occupied by the first arrondissement attained its peak population in the period preceding the re-organization of Paris in 1860.
In 1999, the population was 16,888, while the arrondissement hosted 63,056 jobs, making it one of the most active for business after the 2nd, 8th, 9th. ¹The peak of population occurred before 1861, but thearrondissement was created in 1860, so there are no figures before 1861. Each of the 20 Paris arrondissements is divided into four quarters; the table below lists the four quarters of the 1st arrondissement: figures from 1999 French census Korean Air's France office is in the 1st arrondissement. At one time Air Inter's head office was located in the first arrondissement; when Minerve, an airline, its head office was in the first arrondissement. In terms of state-operated schools, the first arrondissement has two nursery schools, two primary schools, one école polyvalente, one high school, one sixth form college; the state-operated nursery schools are École Maternelle Sourdiere. The state-operated primary schools are École Élémentaire Arbre Sec and École Élémentaire D'Argenteuil; the arrondissement has École Polyvalente Cambon.
Collège Jean-Baptiste Poquelin is the sole state-operated high school in the arrondissement. Lycée Professionnel Commercial Pierre Lescot is the sole state-operated sixth form college in the first arrondissement. Private primary and secondary institutions in the arrondissement include École Élémentaire Privée Notre-Dame-Saint-Roch, École du 2nd Degré Professionnel Privée Pigier, École Technologique Privée de Dessin Technique et Artistique Sornas. Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, at the eastern end of the Axe historique Banque de France headquarters Comédie-Française Crédit Foncier de France historical headquarters The Louvre Galerie Véro-Dodat Les Halles Musée des Arts Décoratifs Musée de la Mode et du Textile Musée de la Publicité Musée du Barreau de Paris Musée Grévin - Forum des Halles Musée des Lunettes et Lorgnettes Pierre Marly Palais Royal Hôtel de Rambouillet Hôtel Ritz Paris La Sainte-Chapelle La Samaritaine Tuileries Garden Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume Musée de l'Orangerie Pont Neuf Pont des Arts Avenue de l'Opéra Rue de Rivoli Place Vendôme and the Vendôme Column Street Names of Paris, 1er arrondissement 1st arrondissement travel guide from Wikivoyage
Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety, created in April 1793 by the National Convention and restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror, a stage of the French Revolution. The Committee of Public Safety succeeded the previous Committee of General Defence and assumed its role of protecting the newly established republic against foreign attacks and internal rebellion; as a wartime measure, the Committee—composed at first of nine and of twelve members—was given broad supervisory powers over military and legislative efforts. It was formed as an administrative body to supervise and expedite the work of the executive bodies of the Convention and of the government ministers appointed by the Convention; as the Committee tried to meet the dangers of a coalition of European nations and counter-revolutionary forces within the country, it became more and more powerful. Following the defeat at the Convention of the Girondins in June 1793, a prominent Jacobin identified as a radical, Maximilien Robespierre, was added to the Committee.
The power of the Committee peaked between August 1793 and July 1794. In December 1793, the Convention formally conferred executive power upon the Committee; the execution of Robespierre in July 1794 represented a reactionary period against the Committee of Public Safety. This became known as the Thermidorian Reaction, as Robespierre's fall from power occurred during the month of Thermidor in the French Republican calendar; the Committee's influence diminished and it was abolished in 1795. On 5 April 1793, the French military commander and former minister of war General Charles François Dumouriez defected to Austria following the publication of an incendiary letter in which he threatened to march his army on the city of Paris if the National Convention did not accede to his leadership. News of his defection caused alarm in Paris, where imminent defeat by the Austrians and their allies was feared. A widespread belief held that revolutionary France was in immediate peril, threatened not only by foreign armies and by recent anti-revolutionary revolts in the Vendée, but by foreign agents who plotted the destruction of the nation from within.
The betrayal of the revolutionary government by Dumouriez lent greater credence to this belief. In light of this threat, the Girondin leader Maximin Isnard proposed the creation of a nine-member Committee of Public Safety. Isnard was supported in this effort by Georges Danton, who declared: "This Committee is what we want, a hand to grasp the weapon of the Revolutionary Tribunal"; the Committee was formally created on 6 April 1793. Associated with the leadership of Danton, it was known as the Danton Committee. Danton steered the Committee through the 31 May and 2 June 1793 journées that resulted in the fall of the Girondins and through the intensifying war in the Vendée; when the Committee was recomposed on 10 July 1793, Danton was not included. He continued to support the centralization of power by the Committee. On 27 July 1793, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the Committee. At this time, the Committee was entering a more powerful and active phase, which would see it become a de facto dictatorship alongside its powerful partner, the Committee of General Security.
The role of the Committee of Public Safety included the governance of the war, the appointing of judges and juries for the Revolutionary Tribunal, the provisioning of the armies and the public, the maintenance of public order and oversight of the state bureaucracy. The Committee was responsible for interpreting and applying the decrees of the National Convention and thus for implementing some of the most stringent policies of the Terror—for instance, the levée en masse passed on 23 August 1793, the Law of Suspects passed on 17 September 1793 and the Law of the Maximum passed on 29 September 1793; the broad and centralized powers of the Committee were codified by the Law of 14 Frimaire on 4 December 1793. On 5 December 1793, journalist Camille Desmoulins began publishing Le Vieux Cordelier, a newspaper aimed at the ultrarevolutionary Hébertist faction, whose extremist demands, anti-religious fervor and propensity for sudden insurrections were problematic for the Committee. However, Desmoulins turned his pen against the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security, comparing their reign to that of the Roman tyrants chronicled by Tacitus and expounding the indulgent views of the Dantonist faction.
Though the Hébertists were arrested and executed in March 1794, the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security ensured that Desmoulins and Danton were arrested. Hérault de Séchelles—a friend and ally of Danton—was expelled from the Committee of Public Safety and tried alongside them. On 5 April 1794, the Dantonists went to the guillotine; the elimination of the Hébertists and the Dantonists made evident the strength of the committees as had their ability to control and silence opposition. The creation in March 1794 of a General Police Bureau—reporting nominally to the Committee of Public Safety, but more directly to Robespierre and his closest ally, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just—served to increase the power of the Committee of Public Safety and of Robespierre himself; the Law of 22 Prairial, proposed by the Committee of Public Safety and enacted on 10 June 1794, went further in establishing the iron control of the Revolutionary Tribunal and above it the Committees of Public Safety and General Security.
The law enumerated various forms of p
Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). . Encyclopedia Americana.
Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). 