National Values and Theatrical Values. The Battle of the Siege de Calais (1765)

This article underscores the complex relationship between national concerns and dramatic criticism by interrogating the role of theatre in the creation of a 'national culture' during the last few decades of the Ancien regime. The author focuses more specifically on the forms of patriotism proposed by Pierre-Laurent De Belloy, author of Le Siege de Calais, France's "first tragedy in which the nation is given the pleasure to take an interest in itself," as well as by his adversaries and his allies. The version of patriotism proffered by De Belloy - a 'fatherland' that he defines as both bourgeois and monarchical - renders problematic several aesthetic and political norms in place in 1765. The author thus responds modestly to one of the most essential questions posed by research on eighteenth-century political and cultural history: how did patriotism operate before the French Revolution?

View in the nave of Westminster Abbey, during the Commemoration of Handel

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George Frederick Handel : Handel's Monument in Westminster Abbey

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Westminster Abbey Commemoration of Handel

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View of the Orchestra and Performers in Westminster Abbey, during the Commemoration of Handel.

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View of the Gallery prepared for the reception of their Majesties, the Royal Family, Directors, & principal Personage in the Kingdom, at the Commemoration of Handel in Westminster Abbey

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View of the Orchesta Organ in Westminster Abbey under the Direction of Mr. James Wyatt, for the Commemoration of Handel

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