Irony as a category of gallant aesthetics. Background of the issue

Zaótseva Nataliya Vladimirovna PhD in Art History Director General, "Voyager" LLC 194100, Russia, g. Saint Petersburg, ul. Kharchenko, 1, kv. 34 nvzaytseva@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The historical aspect of the aesthetic category of irony is well researched in numerous works, starting with the fundamental book by A.F. Losev. And Shestakova V. P. "The history of aesthetic categories", in which its formation is traced. This book defines ancient irony as "consciousness operating with such expressive techniques that are opposite to the idea being expressed" ^{[1, p. 338]}. However, having considered the formation and development of the category in the period of antiquity, the authors note that neither in the Middle Ages nor in the Renaissance irony is not widespread. And, although in the XVII century irony appears in the vocabulary, in the works of Baroque writers and the first attempt at its historical understanding arises, nevertheless, the authors state that "in all post-romantic aesthetics, irony did not receive any wide development" until the era of Romanticism ^{[1, p. 342]}.

Probably, the great authority of this work influenced subsequent research and, as a result, gallant art and gallant aesthetics of the XVII century were out of the sphere of attention. At the same time, this category, so important for the aesthetics of Modern times, found the widest expression in the French philosophical, artistic and moralistic literature of the XVII century. At this time, all the shades and nuances of this category are formed: subtle irony, mocking irony, self-irony, wit. Moreover, the XVII century became the heyday of the comic genre, one of the forms of which, according to Borev Yu.B., is irony ^{[2, p. 265]}.

Why did the art of the gallant era not attract the attention of researchers of this aesthetic category? The problem lies in terminological confusion, the overflow or substitution of historical or endogenous concepts by later or exogenous ones ^{[3, pp. 11-34]}. In the XIX century, the later concepts of "classicism" and "precision" replaced the historical endogenous term "gallantry". 

Therefore, the complex picture of the art of the XVII century was replaced by the conventional construction of French classicism, understandable and pleasant to the mass consciousness, which was flattered by the idea of the "golden age" or "great century" of French culture. The same thing that did not fit into the framework of classicism, salon or secular literature, court art was referred to as "precision art", without an exact definition of what it is. According to the apt expression of Alain Vial, "classicism was a means of cultivating national feeling. After the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the policy of revenge required the mobilization of minds" ^{[4, p. 131]}. 

In the XX century, a long process of rehabilitation of the historical term "gallant" begins. In the works of leading historians and philologists Alain Vial ^[5], Carole Dornier ^{[6, pp. 5-21]}, Antoine Adam ^[7], Delphinie Denis ^{[8, pp. 17-39]}, gallantry is considered not only as an art style, but also as a socio-cultural phenomenon of the XVII century.

In the report "Precision and gallantry: towards a new cartography" Delphinium Denis sums up the discussion around the term "gallantry", which lasts almost a century and a half. In her opinion, there is no more possible confusion on the part of terminological correspondence. Gallantry is an endogenous concept, corresponding to the vocabulary of contemporaries, who persistently strive to distinguish it from parasynonyms, and try to give an accurate definition of its various manifestations ^{[8, pp. 17-39]}.

Thus, at the end of the XX century, the historical term "gallantry" was rehabilitated. By virtue of which, Antoine Adam asks a reasonable question, is it possible to use familiar old terms? And he answers it, which is certainly possible, but we must remember that the term classicism will lead to a completely different aesthetic ^[7]. A striking example of this is the aesthetic category of irony. Irony cannot fully flourish where rules and laws prevail. However, if we are talking about gallant aesthetics, which is based on the cult of the game, then such an aesthetic category as irony comes to the fore.

This study aims to fill the historical gap that has arisen in the study of the history of the development of this category and to show how its formation took place in the XVII century. Understanding the formation of one of the most important aesthetic categories at the beginning of Modern times helps to understand the development of both the art of this period and contemporary art in general. Without this period of time, it is impossible to understand the modern category of irony, since it goes back not to antiquity, but to the art of Modern times. This is the relevance of this study. 

In order for this particular aesthetic category to come to the fore in art, a certain confluence of historical conditions and circumstances was necessary. The first half of the XVII century is the time of the formation of a new gallant ethos, the change of the heroic aesthetic ideal to the gallant, the transformation of the knightly estate into a courtier, the emergence of a new socio-cultural space - salons, gender revolution and active penetration into the ruling elites of the third estate. All these factors together and individually influenced the widespread use of the category of irony. And we propose to consider various aspects of this process.

The first aspect is social. In order for irony to find a response, it is necessary to have a new ethos that would be united by a certain hidden aesthetic ideal ^{[9, p. 55]}. Irony does not exist outside of a society united by an implicit ideal. A person is ironic in order to hide something from others, but to be understandable to a certain circle of people.

The establishment of the classical model of monarchy in the first half of the XVII century led to the social transformation of the ruling elites. A strong royal power unites socially heterogeneous groups at the throne - the ancestral nobility, the minor nobility, the knights. Norbert Elias called these processes the process of transformation of the knightly estate into the court ^{[10, p. 103]}. A new gallant aesthetic ideal is emerging, which was a kind of cement consolidating a heterogeneous court society. The meeting of the estates took place not only in the courtyard space, but also in a new social space - in secular and literary salons. 

In the first half of the XVII century, the formation of a gallant ethos takes place. By the gallant ethos we mean a different degree of correlation of intellectual and affective consciousnesses and their practical manifestation than in the previous era. The heroic ideal of the Renaissance is replaced by the ideal of a secular gallant man, whose distinctive feature is lightness and gaiety, facilitating social communication. 

On the one hand, this ideal is formed under the influence of Cartesian philosophy, with its ideas of subjugation of passions and the ability to control oneself. On the other hand, this model is based on psychologism, an empirical understanding that a certain temperament is liked in communication - people who bring joy and laughter with them, charm everyone and like everyone. And since the art of liking becomes the main thing in secular society, then cheerfulness is perceived as an important quality of a gallant person. 

The first books on etiquette and the art of liking proclaim this. A cheerful disposition, according to Nicolas Fare, is something that is always liked: "Soft irony enlivens a conversation and what provokes laughter is liked by everyone"^{[10, p. 95]}. Play and gaiety, according to Kontiere, are the main sign of secular communication and distinguish it from an official ceremony ^{[11, p. 79]}. Madeleine Scuderi writes in Conversations that the most important thing in social communication is gaiety, which is combined with diversity, the absence of boredom and that there is nothing more terrible than boring and boring people ^{[12, p. 33]}. Therefore, in order to be liked in society, one should "be the master of one's moods and one's emotions, excluding the movements of the soul, which the mind cannot regulate," writes moralist Francois de Calli?re ^{[13, pp. 8-9]}.

The same thing is repeated by the writer Samuel Shapuzo in a book addressed to young people: "The art of liking in conversation consists of two rules. The first is to have some gaiety that does not turn into ridicule, which avoids bad words" ^{[14, p. 130]}.

These new attitudes penetrate into the court environment in the 50s of the XVII century, when the king's perception of gallant aesthetics occurred. Danjo, describing the immediate atmosphere of the Gauze, emphasizes that "the king wants everything to be easy and convenient in the Gauze" ^{[15, p. 11]}. In his diaries, he often emphasizes the atmosphere of royal dinners and holidays as "cheerful", "very cheerful". 

Thus, in etiquette books, memoirs, correspondence of this time, gaiety, joke, irony acquire a positive connotation and become a prerequisite for ideal social communication. In all books on the art of liking, the rules of good manners and etiquette, jokes and irony are devoted to separate chapters, an attempt is made to analyze and historical approach to this category. The recognized moralist Vomorier in the book "The Art of Liking in Conversation" formulates a new law of communication: "I adhere to irony and hyperbole, these are my favorites. Hundreds of times I have watched a conversation freeze if it was not revived by these two things" ^{[16, p. 39]}. He explains how it is possible to understand irony: "It is possible to understand irony by the tone that makes it clear that we are having fun instead of talking seriously.  Or the tone is the opposite of what is contained about the subject of conversation in the words"^{[16, p. 39]}. Thus, in the works of French writers and moralists, we see a philosophical and aesthetic understanding of irony.

However, the irony of the gallant ethos is permeated with ethics and morality.  The main rule of communication is that irony and a joke should be laid-back, spoken by the way and soft, so as not to offend anyone.  So Saint-Simon writes as a role model about the atmosphere prevailing in the salon of Ninon de Lanclos: "There was no game, no loud laughter, no quarrels, no gossip about religion or government, but a lot of brilliant wit, a lot of news old and new, events of gallant life, but everything is completely without slander. Everything was refined, easy, balanced in conversation, which she was able to maintain with her mind" ^{[17, p. 207]}. 

According to the moralist Chevalier de Mer, "the wisdom of a secular person is not the wisdom of a loner. She is playful and graceful. This is the virtue of the heart, which sometimes leaves the mind the opportunity to hide. She jokes, but in a subtle and delicate manner that even those she attacks like, which does not cling to empty things, or which does not look like weakness, which is part of dignity, feels more flattery than resentment" ^{[18, p. 316]}.

Thus, it is in irony that the gallant aesthetic is opposed to the Baroque one. The humility and irony of gallantry are the antithesis of Baroque bombast and grandiloquence. Irony and self-irony are the main qualities of a secular person, since they are the enemies of everything exaggerated, the enemies of affectation. The writer Andre Marechal is aware of the novelty of this: "Time dictates other means and other ways to achieve a verisimilitude that meets the spirit of the French, a modern manner that gives our poems a more cheerful and more accurate appearance" ^[19]. 

Irony in 1620-1630 was not the result of disillusionment, but rather a discursive strategy, "the means, perhaps, the only one that an individual aspires to be free from norms" ^{[20, p.6]}, the last bastion of individual freedom. We are talking about the irony of the galaxy of Libertine writers - Theophile de Vio, Francois La Motte la Voyer, Charles Sorel, who expressed philosophical freethinking and freedom of morals. It is no accident that Francois La Motte la Voyer proclaims: "Irony is one of the sweets of life" ^{[21, p. 75]}.

Since the beginning of the XVII century, there has been an active penetration into the ruling elites of the third estate. Relying on the third estate, Louis XIV continues the policy of his predecessors and clearly formulates it in a decree of 1696, when he grants 500 letters patent for nobility: "a title that is bestowed by a sovereign who wishes to reward his choice for the devoted service of his subjects" ^{[22, p. 92]}. Energetic and ambitious representatives of the third estate in the reign of Louis XIV rush to the court, penetrate the ruling elites, become rulers of minds. Irony helps them to fight against an outdated and dying system of values, to debunk old ideals, to create a different value perspective. The new world, full of irony, opposes the hierarchized real world.

The meeting of the estates took place not only at the court, but also in a new social space - the space of salons. Perhaps one of the most striking examples of this can be the literary and secular salon of the Marquise de Rambouillet, whose fame falls on the years 1630-1661. There was a meeting of the ancestral aristocracy (Duke of Enghien, Cardinal Richelieu, Duchess de Longueville, Princess de Bourbon), passionate about literature and art with representatives of the third estate philosophers, writers and poets such as Guez de Balzac, Malherbe, Vincent Voiture, Corneille. The atmosphere of jokes, irony, and fun that arises in this select circle becomes a role model in the salons of Ninon de Lanclos, Madeleine de Scuderi.

The cult of the game reigns here, all participants of communication receive new names. The Marquise herself was nicknamed Artenis, Vincent Voiture was named Valeur, Madeleine de Scuderi - Sappho, Duchess de Longueville - Sylvie, etc. The atmosphere of the game, funny pranks and hoaxes becomes the soil on which irony blooms. Many researchers note the playful nature of irony, interpreting it as a kind of gaming activity, when irony, relying on the game mechanism, helps to resolve contradictions ^{[23, p. 12]}. 

The soul of this salon was Vincent Voiture. Even in the description of his appearance made by his contemporary writer Talleman de Rio, we see a Socratic type: "He had a simple-minded expression on his face, not to say stupid, and it seemed that when talking to people, he was laughing at them. I found him not too polite, and it seemed to me that he was trying to show his superiority in everything" ^{[24, p. 277]}.  This is the very contradiction of form and idea that is inherent in irony. Voiture was known in the salon Rambouillet as an inimitable joker, creating an atmosphere of fun and games, whose antics were legendary in Paris. But his letters reveal the inner drama of a plebeian who has fallen into the circle of aristocrats. Surpassing them with talent and education, he puts on an ironic mask, well aware of the truth - his superiority.

Irony and a joke in secular communication blurred class boundaries, creating an atmosphere of freedom and ease. On this occasion, Voiture himself wrote to Cardinal De La Valette: "Do you know that during the triumphs the soldiers had a habit of joking with the emperor and that victory and gaiety gave the very freedom without which they would never have dared to do it" ^{[25, p. 252]}. 

Irony and a joke made it possible to say serious things in a relaxed manner: "When we joke and mock, we have the right to say everything," writes moralist Dominique Buur ^{[26, p. 37]}. And Charles Sorel, who took place as a writer in the comic genre, confirms this idea: "It happened that one free word, said in jest, was more dangerous than what was said seriously"^{[27, p. 221]}. 

The next aspect is psychological, related to the crisis phenomena in the feudal estate: lower incomes, state fiscal policy, indirect tax increases. A hierarchized society with very strong remnants of the feudal past is gradually transformed under the influence of the coming monarchy, painfully experiencing the consequences of this transformation.

Therefore, a joke, irony helped to survive the breaking of habitual ideals, since they carry out criticism of the phenomena of reality "without violating the existing moral and psychological atmosphere, protecting people from psychological trauma" ^{[28, p. 60]}. The highest aristocracy catches this playful intonation and play, adopts an ironic manner of communication, and the Duke of Enghien tolerates the playful attacks of Vincent Voiture, only defending himself with his position: "If you belonged to our class, you would be obnoxious." In this case, irony fulfilled its adaptive role.

In the space of salons, there was not only a meeting of estates, but also radical changes in gender relations, an increase in the social role of women, the formation of a modern view of the relationship between the sexes. A different concept of love arises, the intonation towards a woman changes, high pathos is replaced by irony. Once again, we see how irony helps to mitigate the rapid transformation of gender relations.

Cheerful disposition, wit and irony become the most valued female quality. Jacques du Bos in the book "A Noble Woman" considers the first, and therefore the most important quality of a woman to be a cheerful disposition, "in which there is more grace, more freedom" ^{[29, p. 87]}. In his opinion, a cheerful disposition is a royal quality. It is this temperament that "nature has chosen to create kings and philosophers, which grace herself always uses to give the world unusual people" ^{[29, p.85]}.

A new feminine ideal is being born: a woman "who combines the amiable appearance of soft relationships, with a cheerful disposition, a taste for the pleasures of society with light whims, charming flaws that make up the charm of gallant communication" ^{[30, p.12]}. Because men, according to the anonymous author of the letters Ninon de Lanclos, need not feminine virtues, but feminine gaiety and weakness. 

This is how Saint-Simon sees the famous Marquise de Sevigne: "This woman, with her lightness, her natural grace, the softness of her mind, conveyed these qualities through her conversation to those who did not have them" ^{[31, p. 26]}. The new feminine ideal leads to a different ideal of relationships - fickle, easy, playful, because "liking and giving pleasure is the basis of new relationships"^{[30, p. 14]}.

Gallantry voluntarily renounces suffering love, but retains all its reverence for the power of love. The new salon poetry and literature has scattered the stilted Petrarkism to the dust. J.-M. Pelu in the book "Love is precious, Love is gallant (1650-1675)" explores the description of love in literary works in the early years of the reign of Louis XIV. The gallant spirit that has dominated literature since the 1650s brings the fashion for the representation of love with some mockery, leaning towards the ironic depiction of values. Not content with irony over the habits of "tender love", gallant aesthetics offers a counter-love morality. Her ideal is embodied by a gallant man – fickle, playful, exalted, skeptical, who is sometimes close to the "noble" man of the Louis XIV era, and finds his place at the young court ^[32]. 

All the gallant poetry of the XVII century can serve as an example of expressing such a view of love. Even in the titles of the poems "To the Beauty whose sleeves were rolled up and dirty" or "Stanzas about a lady whose skirt was pulled up when the carriage fell" by Vincent Voiture, we see verbal irony and mockery - a poetic appeal to a woman who assumes a sublime image and a comic situation of the described. 

Or the poetry of Jean Francois Sarazin, a contemporary of Voiture, another frequenter of the salons of the Marquise Rambouillet, Ninon de Lanclos, Madeleine de Scudery, which shows us the flow of the platonic ideal of love into the gallant and radical change of the register of suffering to the ironic and light. Love is no longer perceived as suffering, but rather as a game. For example, his stanzas "To the Lady who is nicknamed the mouse" or "To the lady who is nicknamed the lioness", in which soft irony turns into burlesque.

Now let's consider the functional aspect, when irony becomes the dominant not only of secular or gender communication, but of artistic life in general. The flourishing of literary salons causes the transition of ethical norms into aesthetic ones. From the sphere of secular and gender communication, gaiety and irony flow into art. This happens in salons where gallant literature and poetry flourish, the purpose of which was to entertain. For the poets Vincent Voiture or Jean-Francois Sarazin, literature was a game, an aristocratic entertainment, as well as a way to get away from baroque bombast and grandiloquence: "Voiture [...] switches to a mocking tone as soon as he starts talking about something exaggerated," wrote his contemporary moralist Dominique Buur ^{[26, p. 37]}. 

Voiture introduces the fashion for the Old French language, making ironic parodies of chivalrous novels or poems, on the old poetic forms of rondos or stanzas, which, with their heroic-comic tone, dissonate with the new gallant content.

Voiture's letters to the Marquise Rambouillet and her circle, not published during his lifetime, were copied by hand, dispersed throughout Paris, becoming a role model. In letters to his mistress, Voiture, as if inspired by the poetry of Petrarch, will fall into an elegiac tone, the pathos of the letters gradually increases and reaches such an absurdity that these texts acquire a pronounced comic and ironic tone. In letters to learned friends, for example, to the Campfire, he also slips into irony and even burlesque, lowering the high-sounding academic intonation ^[25].

These letters demonstrate a brilliant example of gentle gallant irony, which allows you to say what was seriously impermissible to say, whether it concerned women or the powerful of this world. An example is his famous "Letter of Carp to Pike" ^{[33, p. 240]}, which he addresses to the Prince of Enghien, congratulating him on crossing the Rhine with his army and the victory at Rocroy. This is no longer good-natured banter or childishness, this is a game, a metamorphosis, where he presents the world as the world of pisces. The form of the traditional high-flown congratulations of this letter is full of irony due to the fact that he represents the duke as a pike and himself as a carp. How could he. In real life, to call the hero of the Duke of Enghien "my kumanek", as he calls him in a letter. 

This ironic intonation is becoming the norm in the epistolary genre. It continues in the extant letters of the Marquise de Sevigne, Count Bussy-Rabutin, Ninon de Lanclos.  The Duchess of Orleans constantly speaks in letters to relatives about her cheerful disposition, which pleased her husband and especially the king, ironically describes the collision of her German habits with the sophistication of the French court ^[34]. Fontanel uses the same ironic tone in his "Gallant Letters" ^[35]. 

Throughout the XVII century, the Voiture style will be considered a role model. Chevalier de Mer, who considered lightness to be fundamental qualities in social life and art, constantly cites Vincent Voiture's style as an example of "natural style", without exaltation and exaggeration ^{[36, p. 10]}.

This is how La Fontaine wrote about Voiture:
Sing to us, 

But not seriously, neither sad nor sweet

So, as in French we would call "jokingly"

A joke in which I would choose Voiture as a model

He's great at this art, Meter Clement and him.

They did it much better than today's people ^{[37, p. 235]}.

Gaiety and irony, as an aesthetic principle of the era, was formulated by Lafontaine himself in the preface to the first edition of the fables in 1668: "What is required today: everyone wants novelty and gaiety. I do not call that which excites laughter hilarity, but a certain charm, a magnificent atmosphere that needs to be given to all kinds of plots, even the most serious ones"^{[38, p. XXIJ]}.

La Fontaine speaks enthusiastically in his December 1687 letter about Dominique Buur's article on the modern literary style and expresses admiration for this article by one of the most famous housewives of literary salons, Madame de Sabliere ^{[39, p. 402]}. Buur's views on lightness, irony and joke are close to Lafontaine, these are his own aesthetic views: "So, after numerous experiments, it seems to me that this taste tends to gallantry and joke: not that passion is despised here, not at all; when we do not find them in novels, poems, theatrical plays, then we complain about their absence; but in stories like this, which are full of the fabulous in the manner of the real, but fabulous, accompanied by jokes, like children's fun, one should laugh from beginning to end, one should look for gallantry and jokes"^{[40, p. XI]}.  

In the ironic novels of the XVII century, contemporaries perfectly read allusions to chivalric or Renaissance novels. An example of such irony or even an anti-novel can be Charles Sorel's "Extravagant Shepherd Boy", which is a parody of the Renaissance novel. There are several layers of irony in it - dramatic, romantic, "Socratic". 

Charles Sorel, as a publicist, in his literary reviews, also ironizes both chivalric novels and bucolic poetry, analyzing the weaknesses of these genres: the banality of the plot, its unreality and the conventionality of the events taking place, as well as the language of the characters ^{[27, p. 350]}. However, his passion for burlesque annoys him: "It seems that the whole of France is sick of burlesque." 

The irony of Charles Sorel extends to himself as a representative of the gallant ethos. His "Laws of Gallantry" is an ironic description of modern requirements for language, manner of dress, in which the seriousness of tone contradicts the absurdity of these requirements and their exaggeration. This is an ironic view of modern literature, to which Sorel refers himself, therefore, it is a form of self-irony^[41].

From poetry and the epistolary genre, irony turns into drama, which was associated with the legitimization of the comedy genre, which in the XVII century became the favorite entertainment of the king and the entire French aristocracy. Based on Yu. B. Borev's definition that irony is an aesthetic modification of the comic, irony in Moliere's comedies should be noted. 

It consists in a double meaning, ambiguity, in a complex reading of the characters. You never know who Moliere is making fun of. Over the hapless Mr. Jourdain, who is trying to become an aristocrat, and this is an obvious comic that his contemporaries understood. Or over the pomposity of the manners and outfits of representatives of the court and secular society, which was not obvious. Here the irony lies in the possibility of double reading. 

In addition, we should not forget that Moliere and Lully did not compose comedies, but comedies-ballets in which dramatic action was accompanied by ballet. This second line of action set off the first and was also filled with irony, since the basis of the ballets is the carnival element. 

There is a three-dimensional expression of the laughing principle, about which Yu. B. Borev writes, an ironic contrast, when the comic denial-statement is complicated by a high-sounding musical intonation, that is, a new statement. However, to understand the irony of a certain historical period, it is important to restore a specific historical and social context that is lost and leveled over time. A classic example is the "Turkish Ceremony" in the fourth act of Moliere's ballet-comedy "A Philistine in the Nobility". The comic situation around the philistine, who is ordained "mammamushi", had a historical background - the official visit of the Turkish envoy Suleiman agha in 1669, whom King Louis XIV receives with all possible honors, in all the splendor of his court. However, the ambassador was not impressed by this, against the background of difficult international relations with Turkey, he considered it a provocation. This coldness wounded Louis XIV and in this scene, invented by Moliere, commissioned by his patron, as a revenge and in Lully's music, you can see all kinds of irony - wit, mockery and even shades of mockery. 

Thus, we see that the category of irony, which has a long history, manifests itself in all the variety of shades in the gallant era, becomes a distinctive feature of the new gallant ethos, gender relations. From secular salons, the ironic intonation passes into poetry, the epistolary genre and literature in general, influences dramatic art and music, finds expression in theoretical works, is comprehended philosophically and aesthetically.