I have spent the past two days looking at books at the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal. I am somewhat annoyed with myself that I didn't start doing this sooner. It's lots of fun. It reminds me of when I had a seminar at the Newberry Library. There are penciled in names of authors of dirty plays.

I discovered three new plays this week. They may or may not work their way into my dissertation. One is called La Chauve-Souris de Sentiment, and it's like a stupid dirty joke I learned in seventh grade. You know the one about the guy who decides to get a venereal disease and give it to his girlfriend as revenge for her cheating on him? Well, in this play it's the girlfriend's servant who volunteers to give him the venereal disease. But it's unclear whether she actually has one or not.

Another play is called Les Femmes a la mode, which sadly does not mean "Women with Ice Cream," but rather, "Stylish Women." It's ostensibly an adaptation of the seventeenth-century libertine dialogue L'Ecole des filles. I find it hard to believe that it was ever performed.

Those two plays are in an anthology of libertine plays that was published in 1773. The third play is called Le Danger des liaisons and seems like it would be related to the novel Dangerous Liaisons. There is a character who is similar to Madame de Merteuil, but far less sophisticated. And the young girl is named Cecile, but she's smarter and of better moral stock than Cecile de Volanges. The play was done in 1783, and Laclos' novel was published in 1784, so it may have been an influence. I'll have to ruminate on whether that is a useful argument for my dissertation or not.

V.S. is back in town for a week, to see Ariane Mnouchkine's new show on Sunday. I'm going to call tomorrow to see if they have tickets available for Sunday, because it would be quite an experience to go see the Theatre du Soleil with her.