Michel-Jean Sedaine - Biography

Michel-Jean Sedaine (1719 - 1797) was a French dramatist of both comic and historical works. Denis Diderot admired Michel-Jean Sedaine’s librettos and vaudevilles and became a supporter. Denis Diderot went so far as to link Sedaine’s talent with William Shakespeare’s. With Denis Diderot’s support, the Théâtre Français staged Sedaine’s Philosophe sans le savoir and Le gageure impréuve. Although little of his work has the importance of these two plays, Michel-Jean Sedaine can be considered the originator of French domestic drama. Some critics see a direct relation between Sedaine’s drama and Denis Diderot’s theorizing about the theater. In addition, Sedaine’s work is seen as the precursor to the work of Scribe and Dumas.

During the summer of 1719, Michel-Jean Sedaine was born in Paris. His father was an architect who had come to financial hardships. After the elder Sedaine’s death (reportedly by suicide), destitution forced the Sedaine family to relocate to Berry. Michel-Jean Sedaine took a position as a mason to provide for the needs of his mother and brothers. Sedaine demonstrated an aptitude for his trade. His reputation as a mason caught the attention of Jacques-Louis David’s grandfather, Buron. Buron, an architect, used his connections to help Sedaine make entry into the world of art. Later, this social tutelage would be repaid by Michel-Jean Sedaine when he helped guide Jacques-Lous David into the French art world. More than this, Sedaine was to house the young artist. (In his obituary of Sedaine, Ducis would stress the crucial role that Sedain played in David’s development as an artist.) Sedaine drew on a wide connection of writers, philosophers, artists and architects to host influential intellectual gatherings.

Jean-Michel Sedaine educated himself in his spare time. His first attempt at a creative work was poetry. His “Epitre a mon Habit" was put in print in 1745. Five years later, he released Recueil de Pieces Fugitives, a collection of work that showed his vast and varied skill. This early work gave Michel-Jean Sedaine a positive reputation in the literary world. Le Diable a Quatre was Michel-Jean Sedaine’s first play. Through this work Sedaine proved his ability as a librettist. Sedaine’s early stagecraft entertained the audiences. This style of Sedaine’s work remained popular until the French Revolution. His life before the French Revolution represents the struggle of the politically moderate. Being neither a member of the nobility nor a rabid anarchist, Michel-Jean Sedaine lived in a time on the verge of massive and unprecedented upheaval. His work represents the acknowledgment that the world was going to change, but also the desire that ran through most of the strata of French to embrace a new way of life and new modes of thought. Michel-Jean Sedaine and his contemporaries Ducis, Lemierre and Mercier felt that French drama had lost its relevance to the audience. They put their creative energies into finding a way to create contemporary tragedy that was alive.

Performed in 1765, Philosophe sans le savoire was Sedaine’s longest and most influential work at Théâtre Français. Michel-Jean Sedaine’s drama has been criticized from its inception by a wide array of readers in equally diverse contexts. In fact, police censors allegedly forbade the use of the play’s original title Le Duel for fear of its possible interpretation as a tacit approval for dueling. But no audience saw this as the case. Michel-Jean Sedaine, reportedly, chose the new title Philosophe sans le savoire because the term “philosophe" was obscured by its potential application to any literate person. However, it should be noted that some literary critics argue that this event is conjecture. What is certain is that the police censors did change details in the play and the vagueness of the second title did not meet a universally positive relationship.

Although Michel-Jean Sedaine identifies Philosophe sans le savoire as a comedy, Sedaine framed the writing using Denis Diderot’s dramatic principles: 1) the subordination of the character to a situation 2) the subordination of the character’s abstract qualities to his position in life. This conceptual shift helped moved French drama away from plays that stressed the importance of individual characters to plays that were aware of outside conditions that influenced the action on the stage. Using these principles, Michel-Jean Sedaine explored the tensions between social pressures and human instinct.

In addition, there is a further connection in the exploration of the theme of dysfunctional families in Diderot’s Le Fils Naturel and Pere de Famille and Sedaine’s Le Philosophe Sans Le Savoire. These themes were common amongst the group of artists and dramatists that Sedaine’s circle fostered. Sedaine’s play is also seen as representative of the bourgeoisie of the eighteenth century. In fact, one of Michel-Jean Sedaine’s major aims in “Le Philosophe Sans Le Savoir" was to present sets and costumes that depicted the contemporary material reality of the eighteenth century.

In his essay “Sedaine’s ‘Le Philosophe Sans le Savoir,’" Ira Owen Wade observes, “The character of Van Derk is depicted in constant contrast with the portrayal of a Philosophe in Palissot's play, since Sedaine's purpose in writing his play was to furnish a reply to Palissot." Palissot had argued in his play that philosophy was a corruptive force to the cohesion of a family. Mothers would become distant and insensitive to the needs of their children in pursuit of the continuance of philosophic ideals. Sedaine would overturn Palissot’s view even though it was sometimes thwarted by the politics of theater world.

Michel Jean-Sedain developed a close relationship with Denis Diderot that transcended one of mere influence. The two men forged a deep connection after the suicide of Sedain’s father. Michel-Jean Sedain was involved in the defense of Diderot’s reputation when Palissot released Les Philosophes, a play, which Sedaine viewed as an attack on men of letters. Later when Voltaire’s Ecossaise was staged to further undermine Denis Diderot’s reputation, Michel-Jean Sedain spearheaded an attempt to disrupt the performance.

Sedaine still felt as if he had not vindicated Denis Diderot. A year later, Denis Diderot himself would stage Pere de Famille. Voltaire viewed Denis Diderot’s play as a successful retort to Palissot. However, Denis Diderot still did not regain the public’s favor. Informed by the desire to redeem his compatriot’s reputation, inform Michel-Jean Sedaine’s “Le Philosophe Sans le Savoir."

Michel-Jean Sedaine would be granted admission to the French Academy in 1786. However, nine years later Sedaine was deprived of this membership by the changing of the guard. The French Revolution also marked a reversal in Michel-Jean Sedaine’s financial fortunes and social standing. The reversals of Sedaine’s fortunes was an unfortunate pattern throughout his life. However, Sedaine’s reputation has lost its luster in the centuries since his death. Denis Diderot may have been misdirected in claiming Sedaine’s stature approached that of William Shakespeare, yet Sedaine offers us crucial insight into the world in the Age of Enlightenment.

The critic Ira Owen Wade retrospectively chastises Michel-Jean Sedaine for not having the most agile creative mind. Sedaine himself admitted to needing a year to plan for his work. However, whatever slowness he may have had Jean Michel Sedaine was able to produce a respectable catalogue of works: Le Diable a Quatre; Blaise le Savetier; L'Huitre et les Plaideurs; Les Troqueurs Dupes; Le Jardinier et Son Seigneur, On ne s'Avise jamais du Tout, Le Roi et le Fumier; Rose et Colas; Les Sabots; Le Deserteur; Aucassin et Nicolette; Richard Coeur de Lion; Aline, Reine de Golconde; Amphytrion; Guillaume Tell; Raymond V, Comte de Toulouse; Maillard ou Paris Sauve.