Passing Judgement

"Bilis writes with admirable clarity as she traces a fine line of research and thinking about dramatic history and court culture during this period. She makes a valuable contribution to seventeenth-century French studies and to theatre history." -- Harriet Stone, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Washington University in St Louis "In Passing Judgment, H l ne Bilis proposes a new study on the evolution of French tragedy. She eloquently shows how the tragic genre is permeable to various aesthetics and does not necessarily bind to a set of rigid rules." -- H l ne Visentin, Department of French, Smith College

In Passing Judgement, Hélène Bilis examines how an overlooked character-type—the royal judge—remained a constant of the tragic genre throughout the 17th century.

The royal judge was an archetypal character in French tragedy during the 17^th century. This figure impersonated the king by asserting his judicial authority and bringing order to an otherwise chaotic world.

In Passing Judgement, Hélène Bilis examines how an overlooked character-type—the royal judge—remained a constant of the tragic genre throughout the 17th century, although the specifics of his role and position fluctuated as playwrights experimented with changing models of sovereignty onstage. Her readings analyze how this royal decision-maker stood at the intersection of political and theatrical debates, and evolved through a process of trial and error in which certain portrayals of kingship were deemed obsolete and were discarded, while others were promoted as culturally allowable and resonant. In tracing the royal judge’s persistent presence and transformation, Bilis argues that we can better grasp the weighty political stakes of theatrical representations under the ancien régime.