Lire entre les lignes: le Discours au vray du Ballet danse par le roi et l'habit de flames de Louis XIII

A revisionist interpretation of the part danced by King Louis XIII in this 1617 court ballet.

This paper explores the different meanings of the king’s performance as a fire demon in the Ballet de la Délivrance de Renaud, which was danced at court on January 29, 1617, on the eve of the coup d’état of April 24. A symbol both of love and purification, anger and punitive justice, the fiery costume worn by Louis XIII seemed to suggest an absolutist and voluntarist program of government based on a personal ethics of moderation more than it heralded the imminent execution of the maréchal d’Ancre.