Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Chronology
- Introduction
- PART I THE AUDIENCES
- PART II THE ACTING PROFESSION
- 9 A pariah profession
- 10 Social origins
- 11 Training for the stage
- 12 Salaries and contracts
- 13 The difficult life of the actress
- 14 Acting standards
- PART III THE PROFESSION OF PLAYWRIGHT
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Guide to further reading
- Index
12 - Salaries and contracts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Chronology
- Introduction
- PART I THE AUDIENCES
- PART II THE ACTING PROFESSION
- 9 A pariah profession
- 10 Social origins
- 11 Training for the stage
- 12 Salaries and contracts
- 13 The difficult life of the actress
- 14 Acting standards
- PART III THE PROFESSION OF PLAYWRIGHT
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Guide to further reading
- Index
Summary
Among the special advantages of becoming a full-time member (sociétaire) of the Comédie-Française was that, in theory at least, one had no further financial worries, thanks to the royal subvention paid to the company since the days of Louis XIV. Before the Revolution, this subvention was divided up into a fixed number of shares on which each sociétaire had a claim, though only the most senior drew a full share, the younger and less experienced starting with a fraction, a quarter or half share: hence the saying that over the thirty years of an actor's career at the Comédie-Française, the first ten were spent accumulating debts, the second in paying them off, and the third in amassing a fortune. Any profits the Society made in addition, from receipts at the door and subscriptions to boxes, were added to the royal subvention and distributed among the sociétaires in the same proportions. This meant that during the eighteenth century the Comédie-Française, as well as the Comédie-Italienne which in the following century mutated into the Opéra-Comique, was in a position to pay its principal actors extremely well, with fluctuations of course in periods when the theatres were less well attended. The Revolution put an end to this happy state of affairs, but when the Comédie-Française was re-established in 1799 with full state support, the leading actors were once more in a position to feather their nests.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Theatre Industry in Nineteenth-Century France , pp. 183 - 198Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993