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Author Gough, Melinda J., 1967- author.

Title Dancing queen : Marie de Médicis' ballets at the court of Henri IV / Melinda J. Gough.

Publication Info. Toronto ; Buffalo ; London : University of Toronto Press, [2019]

Item Status

Description 1 online resource
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary "Under glittering lights in the Louvre palace, the French court ballets danced by Queen Marie de Médicis prior to Henri IV's assassination in 1610 attracted thousands of spectators ranging from pickpockets to ambassadors from across Europe. Drawing on newly discovered primary sources as well as theories and methodologies derived from literary studies, political history, musicology, dance studies, and women's and gender studies, Dancing Queen traces how Marie's ballets authorized her incipient political authority through innovative verbal and visual imagery, avant-garde musical developments, and ceremonial arrangements of objects and bodies in space. Making use of women's "semi-official" status as political agents, Marie's ballets also manipulated the subtle social and cultural codes of international courtly society in order to more deftly navigate rivalries and alliances both at home and abroad. At times the queen's productions could challenge Henri IV's immediate interests, contesting the influence enjoyed by his mistresses or giving space to implied critiques of official foreign policy, for example. Such defenses of Marie's own position, though, took shape as part of a larger governmental program designed to promote the French consort queen's political authority not in its own right but as a means of maintaining power for the new Bourbon monarchy in the event of Henri IV's untimely death."-- Provided by publisher.
Contents Intro; Contents; Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Principles of Transcription and Translation; Introduction; Chapter One-Magnificence, Mistresses, and Marie's Dance of Maternity; Peace, Plenty, and the Pleasures of Courtly Pastimes Restored; Franco-Florentine Neoplatonism and the (Medicean) Magnificence of Bourbon Rule; Marie as (Virgin) Mother; Marie's Primitive Accumulation of (Marian) Cultural Capital; Chapter Two-Royal Women's Ballet and/as Royal Ceremonial; Threats to Dynastic Continuity and Images of Joint Rule, 1603-5
The Occasion, the On-stage Action, and the Ballet's Framing as Royal Ceremonial"Pour faire ranger tout le monde"; Casting Choices: "Those Who Could Make her Queen"; Sovereign yet Subject; Ceremonial Expressions of Political Partnership: Abstract Theory, Embodied Practice; Chapter Three-Alliances and Others; Civility's (Islamic) Others; Restoring "the seat of his [Thracian] empire"; Collaboration ... and Contestation; Chapter Four-Eros and "Absolutism"; Marie's Ballet of Diana and her Nymphs: The On-stage Action and Its "Directrice Absolue."
(Dance) Lessons from a Queen: New Bourbon "Methodologies of Authority"Dance and/vs Song: Angélique Paulet and the Limits of Marie's (Proto)feminism; Eros Channeled to (Sovereign) Virtue: Marie Dances Diana; The April 1609 Ballet de Madame and the Limits of (Patriarchal) Absolutism; Chapter Five-Dances of Diplomacy: London, Valladolid, Paris; Two Queen's Masques, a Sarao, and the Treaty of London, 1604-5; "Hostipitality" at France's 1605 ballet de la reine; A Queen's Ballet, a Queen's Masque, and the Truce of Antwerp, 1609; Conclusion; Appendices; Appendix 1; Appendix 2; Appendix 3; Notes
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Marie de Médicis, Queen, consort of Henry IV, King of France, 1573-1642 -- Relations with courts and courtiers.
Marie de Médicis, Queen, consort of Henry IV, King of France, 1573-1642.
Relations with courts and courtiers.
Marie de Médicis, Queen, consort of Henry IV, King of France, 1573-1642 -- Knowledge and learning -- Ballet.
Ballet.
Ballet -- France -- History -- 17th century.
France.
History.
Chronological Term 17th century
Subject France -- Court and courtiers -- History -- 17th century.
Courts and courtiers.
France -- History -- Henry IV, 1589-1610.
Chronological Term 1589-1699
Genre/Form Electronic books.
History.
Biographies.
Biographies.
Other Form: Print version: Gough, Melinda J., 1967- Dancing queen. Toronto ; Buffalo ; London : University of Toronto Press, 2018 9781487503666 (OCoLC)1080210340
ISBN 9781487518462 (electronic book)
1487518463 (electronic book)
9781487518479 (e-book)
1487518471
9781487503666
1487503660