Silencing the Supernatural: La Devineresse and the Affair of the Poisons
Department of French
Yale University
PO Box 208251
New Haven, CT 06520–8251
USA
julia.prest{at}yale.edu
| Abstract |
|---|
Thomas Corneille and Jean Donneau de Visé's comedy La Devineresse ou les faux enchantements occupies a paradoxical position within the wider story of the Affair of the Poisons, for it sought simultaneously to draw on the anxieties of the Parisian public and to reassure them. While the play demystifies the occult, its lessons cannot neatly be transferred to the real events that were its inspiration, and the question of the supernatural is left uncomfortably open.
Key Words: Corneille, Thomas Donneau de Visé, Jean supernatural Devineresse, La Affair of the Poisons La Voisin Louis XIV Sevigné, Mme de Mercure galant