Hunchback of Notre Dame
Dramaturgical Background Information
Victor Hugo, arguably France's greatest literary figure, wrote poetry, plays, and novels with equal facility, and while his novels (including Notre Dame de Paris [aka The Hunchback of Notre Dame] and Les Misérables) are his most influential works today, his works in all three genres have inspired composers of not just classical, but popular music. During the Romantic era, there was hardly a single French composer who didn't set at least one of Hugo's works, few Italian opera composers who didn't at least consider one of his plays, and while his influence was strongest in those two countries, it was also felt worldwide. His writing also had a profound impact on other writers, calling for an end to the neo-Classicism that had dominated French literature, particularly its deliberate elegance and restraint in expression and choice of subjects, introducing "orientalist" influences, and insisting on juxtaposing humor and tragedy, as well as the ugly and the beautiful. (This emphasis on freedom found particular resonance in Giuseppe Verdi and sparked several of his wars with censorship in Italy, particularly over Rigoletto, based on Le roi s'amuse.) Though his later writing in particular, he tended to be sentimental and moralizing, his trailblazing spread Romanticism throughout Europe, and his humanism inspired Tolstoy. Despite his populism, he was well aware of his fame and influence and not modest about it; for example, he declared that the city should be renamed Hugo in his honor. His writing brought him early fame, earning him membership in the Legion of Honor at the age of 23 and membership in the prestigious Academie Française at 39. He was also controversial from an early age; the premiere of his play Hernani in 1830 actually sparked brawls and riots. Like Beethoven, Hugo was first deeply inspired by Napoleon and later, deeply disillusioned; he was even exiled from France in 1851 for his highly vocal criticism of and opposition to Napoleon III. In 1870, he returned to Paris, where he was lionized by both political and literary circles. ~ Ann Feeney, All Music Guide
Quasimodo= courageous heart beneath a grotesque exterior
Hugo's choice of 1482 as the setting for the novel is highly significant. Louis XI, a character in the novel, helped to dismantle feudalism and bring the Middle Ages to an end. The transitional period that followed the Middle Ages gave rise to civil unrest and generated all sorts of new ideas, making it similar to the Romantic Period in which Hugo lived and wrote. This period of transition at the end of the fifteenth century was a compelling time in which to set an epic novel, especially when the novel challenged traditional, classical literature.
Hugo was born at the beginning of the Napoleonic Empire in 1802- his father was a general
1789- The French Revolution; society was split- opposed the Republic
support the Republic
Hugo celebrated the resurgence of the ideas of political liberty, democracy and universal sufferage
Hugo presents Paris that will soon disappear
Napoleon III and Baron von Haussmann- rebuilt Paris within 20yrs of the book
Hugo self-imposed exile
Hugo boldly suggests that Romantic themes could taken the recent past of Paris
Hugo's major goal with Hunchback was to prove that French history offers a rich variety of subjects to represent Romantic ideals and themes.
France 1482 Valais Dynasty
The extinction of the main Capetain Line(1328) brought to the throne the related house of Valois, but as Philippe IV's grandson, Edward III of England claimed the French crown for himself, inaugurating, the succession of conflicts known collectively as the Hundred Years' War. The following century was to see devastating warfare, peasant revolts in both England (Wat Tyler's revolt of 1381) and France (the Jacquerie of 1358) and the growth of nationhood in both countries. French losses in the first phase of the conflict (1337-1360) were partly reversed in the second (1369-1396); but Henry V of England's shattering victory at the battle of Agincourt in 1415 against a France now bitterly divided between rival Armagnac and Burgundian factions of the royal house was to lead to his son Henry VI's recognition as king in Paris seven years later under the 1420 Treaty of Troyes, reducing Valois rule to the lands south of the Loire River.
France's humiliation was abruptly reversed in 1429 by the appearance of a restorationist movement symbolised by the Lorraine peasant maid Joan of Arc, who claimed the guidance of divine voices for the campaign which rapidly ended the English siege of Orlens and ended in Charles VII's coronation in the historic city of Reims. Subsequently captured by the Burgundians and sold to their English allies, her execution for heresy in 1431 redoubled her value as the embodiment of France's cause.
Reconciliation between the king and Philippe of Burgundy (1435) removed the greatest obstacle to French recovery, leading to the recapture of Paris (1436), Normandy (1450) and Guienne (1453), reducing England's foothold to a small area around Calais (lost also in 1558). After the war, France's emergence as a powerful national monarchy was crowned by the incorporation of the duchy of Burgundy (1477) and Brittany (1491).
The losses of the century of war were enormous, particularly owing to the plague (the Black Death, usually considered an outbreak of bubonic plague), which arrived from Italy in 1348, spreading rapidly up the Rhone valley and thence across most of the country: it is estimated that a population of some 18-20 million in modern-day France at the time of the 1328 hearth-tax returns had been reduced 150 years later by 40% or more.
Despite the beginnings of rapid demographic and economic recovery, the gains of the previous half-century were to be jeopardised by a further protracted series of conflicts, this time in Italy (1494-1559), where French efforts to gain dominance ended in the increased power of the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperors of Germany.
Barely were the Italian Wars over than France was plunged into a domestic crisis with far-reaching consequences. Despite the conclusion of a Concordat between France and the Papacy (1516), granting the crown unrivalled power in senior ecclesiastical appointments, France was deeply affected by the Protestant Reformation's attempt to break the unity of Roman Catholic Europe.
A growing urban-based Protestant minority (later dubbed Huguenots) faced ever harsher repression under the rule of King Henri II. Renewed Catholic reaction headed by the powerful dukes of Guise culminated in a massacre of Huguenots (1562), starting the first of the French Wars of Religion during which English, (Scottish?), German and Spanish forces intervened on the side of rival Protestant and Catholic forces.
The conflict was ended by assassination of both Henri of Guise (1588) and King Henri III (1589).
Louis XI (1423-1483)- The Prudent, the Universal Spider, the Spider King
England invaded 1475 (Treaty of Picquiqny)
King-Church-Nobility-Towns
1348- The Black Death had killed an estimated one-third of France's the Hundred Years War didn't help-(1337- 1453)
11 Million in 1400 20 Million in 1600s 28 Million in 1789
The invention of the Printing Press
“The German Pest”
In 1440,German inventor Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press process that, with refinements and increased mechanization, remained the principal means of printing until the late 20th century. The inventor's method of printing from movable type, including the use of metal molds and alloys, a special press, and oil-based inks, allowed for the first time the mass production of printed books.
1480- 9 French town had printing presses
1500- 75 printing presses in Paris alone
The impact of Gutenberg's printing press in Europe was comparable to the development of writing, the invention of the alphabet or the Internet, as far as its effects on society. Just as writing did not replace speaking, printing did not achieve a position of total dominance. Handwritten manuscripts continued to be produced, and the different graphic modes of communication continued to influence each other.
The printing press was also a factor in the establishment of a community of scientists who could easily communicate their discoveries through the establishment of widely disseminated scholarly journals, helping to bring on the scientific revolution. Because of the printing press, authorship became more meaningful and profitable. It was suddenly important who had said or written what, and what the precise formulation and time of composition was. This allowed the exact citing of references, producing the rule, "One Author, one work (title), one piece of information" (Giesecke, 1989; 325). Before, the author was less important, since a copy of Aristotle made in Paris would not be exactly identical to one made in Bologna. For many works prior to the printing press, the name of the author was entirely lost.
Because the printing process ensured that the same information fell on the same pages, page numbering, tables of contents, and indices became common, though they previously had not been unknown. The process of reading was also changed, gradually changing over several centuries from oral readings to silent, private reading. The wider availability of printed materials also led to a drastic rise in the adult literacy rate throughout Europe.
Within fifty or sixty years of the invention of the printing press, the entire classical canon had been reprinted and widely promulgated throughout Europe (Eisenstein, 1969; 52). Now that more people had access to knowledge both new and old, more people could discuss these works. Furthermore, now that book production was a more commercial enterprise, the first copyright laws were passed to protect what we now would call intellectual property rights. A second outgrowth of this popularization of knowledge was the decline of Latin as the language of most published works, to be replaced by the vernacular language of each area, increasing the variety of published works. Paradoxically, the printing word also helped to unify and standardize the spelling and syntax of these vernaculars, in effect 'decreasing' their variability. This rise in importance of national languages as opposed to pan-European Latin is cited as one of the causes of the rise of nationalism in Europe.
Joan of Arc[1] (c. 1412[2] – 30 May 1431) also known as "the Maid of Orleans," was a 15th century Catholic Saint, and national heroine of France. A peasant girl born in Eastern France, Joan led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, claiming divine guidance, and was indirectly responsible for the coronation of King Charles VII. She was captured by the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court and burned at the stake when she was nineteen years old.
In France, the Capetain dynasty had lost the blessing of longevity which had favored its members for more than three centuries. In the early fourteenth century the last four Capetain kings died, all within a space of twelve years; it was easy to imagine that they had succumbed to bewitchment. Suspicions of this kind had arisen earlier, as when the nephew of the bishop of Bayeux went to his death in 1278 for allegedly attempting sorcery against Philip III. In the early years of the fourteenth century, however, the charge became virtually habitual as an explanation for deaths within the royal family, or as a credible excuse for prosecution among political rivals. The trail of the Templars no doubt helped to heighten fear of witchcraft, though the Templars were accused of diabolism rather than sorcery. I t was during the course of their famous trial,in any event, that the bishop of Troyes stood trail for image magic and invocation on the Devil- practices which had supposedly succeeded in bringing the demise of the queen, though they had failed in their further objective of killing other members of the French court. Sorcery was by far the most common charge; invocation was not so frequent, but was known; diabolism,though, was extremely rare, and even when alleged it was usually not described in great detail.
1324 Kilkenny, Ireland Alice Kyteler- The first woman on record to die of being a witch.
1437 Pope Eugenius IV