Lost in translation? Tracing Lullian tunes in Edward Ravenscroft’s The Citizen Turn’d Gentleman (1672)

Abstract

In late 17th- and early 18th-century London, English versions of the comédies-ballets by Molière and Lully were received with great applause. Yet translators had necessarily converted the rhythm, rhyme and song of the French plays, which is why most of Lully’s tunes seem to have been lost in translation, replaced by newly composed songs. Focusing on Edward Ravenscroft’s The Citizen Turn’d Gentleman (1672), this article examines source evidence suggesting that in this case some of Lully’s vocal and instrumental movements may well have survived crossing the Channel—and it also reveals that Ravenscroft must have been able to draw on eyewitness accounts of Lully as an on-stage performer in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670). An Appendix briefly considers 18th-century revivals of Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and its ‘Turkish Ceremony’ in London.