THE WRITER AND SOCIAL STRATEGY
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Instructions were issued that the recipients must call and collect their
pensions from the King's paymaster.
The system lasted from 1663-the year in which Chapelain's
first list was made public- until 1690. It reached its peak in 1671.
Mter that, the sums allocated to the purpose began to decline as Louis
found other ways of spending his money- notably on the construction
of the Palace of Versailles. In 1690 the whole scheme was jettisoned
and deserving writers were privately rewarded.
What conclusions emerge? In the first place, the writers have
already begun to form a class apart. They are decidedly hostile to that
section of society into which they were born and like Moliere do not
hesitate to deliver violent attacks on it when the occasion arises. There
is as yet nothing that can be called a genuine
declassement.
The nobil–
ity refuse to admit for a moment that the writer or the artist is on
the same social level as themselves; and though they find a place for
him in their households, that place is essentially the position of a
servant.
In the second place, the system of royal pensions can be said
to consecrate the position of the writer in society, to stamp him as a
useful and, indeed, an important member of the community. Now it
must be emphasized that the system was in no sense charitable and
that though Louis was a cultivated man, this alone would not have
induced him to payout substantial sums to writers. There was a solid
business side to the transaction. The King and his ministers realized
that the endowment of writers was very good publicity and contributed
to the glory of the reign. Their function was perfectly clear. They
were of course expected to introduce flattering references to His
Majesty in their writings, and they did so; but-and this is the best
side of the picture- they also performed this function simply by being
very good writers, and the steadiness with which Racine's pension
increased as his genius developed is highly creditable to everybody
concerned.
In view of what I shall have to say about the nineteenth century,
I want to emphasize particularly that in the main the writer was at
one and not at odds with society. When, in the final scene of
Tartuffe.•
Moliere makes one of his characters say:
aNous vivons sous un prince
ennemi de La jraude,"
he meant what he said, and it seems to me that
the whole of the play is behind this single line. Moliere believed that
