SOURCE: “Two Comedy-Ballets of Salon Life,” in The Triumph of Ballet in Molière's Theatre, The Edwin Mellon Press, 1992, pp. 271-97.

In this excerpt, McBride focuses on La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas and, particularly, on The Learned Ladies as grand aesthetic spectacles. McBride argues that the sheer theatricality of The Learned Ladies becomes more important than either its overt themes or its satire when the play is staged.

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La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas was composed as part of Le Ballet des ballets to celebrate the marriage of Monsieur, widower of Henriette d'Angleterre, with Elisabeth-Charlotte de Bavière, known as La Palatine. The ballet was performed on 2 December 1671 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, with Charpentier in charge of the music and Beauchamps of the ballets. The ballet's livret informs us that ‘Sa Majesté a choisi tous les plus beaux endroits des divertissements qui se sont représentés devant Elle depuis plusieurs...