The “charming soubrette” of the stage
U 10.1220-2: A charming soubrette, great Marie Kendall, with dauby cheeks and lifted
skirt smiled daubily from her poster upon William Humble, earl of Dudley
Joyce uses the
expression “charming soubrette” five times in Ulysses, with reference to the music-hall star Marie Kendall.
Contemporary documentation does not suggest that Marie Kendall was associated
with this tag, but does suggest that “charming soubrette” was a well-worn
cliché by the end of the nineteenth century.
Soubrettes
The “soubrette” had
originated in French theatre. The OED
defines the principal meaning as:
A maid-servant or
lady's maid as a character in a play or opera, usually one of a pert,
coquettish, or intriguing character; an actress or singer taking such a part.
but also adds the sub-meaning invoked by
Joyce in relation to Marie Kendall:
In extended use, a
woman playing a role or roles in light entertainment, e.g. on television or at
a seaside variety show, with implications of pertness, coquetry, intrigue, etc.
The type dates
from the late seventeenth century in France, and perhaps from the early to mid
eighteenth century in Britain. The OED omits to mention a
secondary meaning for soubrette which
the term enjoyed in operatic circles both in French and in English:
THÉÂTRE LYRIQUE. Soprano à la voix
claire et légère, proche de la soprano lyrique.1
In light opera the
“soubrette” would often sing this soprano part, in a role which demanded
“pertness, coquetry, intrigue, etc.” Marie Kendall began on stage as a male
impersonator, but later she was taking coquettish female roles and singing pert
songs (such as “I’ll be your sweetheart” and “Kiss the girl if you’re going
to”), though she is also remembered for the slow, sad, sentimental, but not
quite light-operatic “Just like the Ivy, I’ll cling to you”.
Charming soubrettes
In recognition of
their pert charm, these actresses were often tagged as “charming soubrettes”,
and Joyce seems well aware of the expression. Examples of the expression from
the nineteenth and early twentieth century are not hard to find:
"Com dis way, sare,"
said the charming soubrette — the
term is, I think, correct — and by the clattering sound which echoed along the
stone passage, I perceived that she wore a species of wooden slippers, called
in the language of the country, sabots.
Colburn's New Monthly Magazine and Humorist (1845), October p.
153
They
need no chronicler to revive their memories of Isabella Andrews, that charming "soubrette"; of Varrey,
whose dry humour would wring laughter from a cynic; of Frank Drew, whose
Triplet was a master-piece of serio-comic acting.
Charles Blake An Historical Account
of the Providence Stage (1868), ch. 12 p. 275
Everybody on this
broad continent, except yourselves, my children, knows her as Aunt Sophy. When
I first knew that lady, sir, she was one of the most charming soubrettes in the profession, and the most
beautiful woman on the English stage.
Henry Cuyler Bunner The Runaway Browns (1892), ch. 4 p. 36
Lawyer – You want a divorce, do you? For what
reason, may I ask? It will have to be stated in the application.
Charming Soubrette – I find I have married
the wrong man. Isn’t that reason enough?
Philadelphia Inquirer (1905), 5 July p. 10
One of the
earliest occurrences of the expression in English perhaps comes from Fanny
Trollope’s Romance of Vienna:
He[...]not
only gave Wagner his own passe-partout for the night, but secretly determined
to invent some reason or other for withdrawing from the charming soubrette an instrument that
gave her so dangerous an advantage over her rival. (vol. 1 ch. 12 p. 229: the problematic instrument is a key))
but in French the “charming soubrette” graced the
Parisian stage as early as 1778:
Mademoiselle Joli, Danseuse
des Français[…] tout annonce un talent agréable dans cette jeune Actrice (elle
n’a pas seize ans). Elle est bien faite pour enricher le Théatre de
Mademoiselle Montensier, qui possède
déjà une Soubrette charmante dans Madame Lecoutre.
Journal des Théâtres (1778), 15 April p. 99
John Simpson
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