Charlataner on the Pont Neuf

Abstract

In 1780, Louis-Sébastien Mercier published *Le Charlatan ou le Docteur Sacroton* , a satirical comedy. In it, an empiricist trains his son-in-law, teaching him how to harangue the public and extolling the virtues of the fine profession of charlatanism. This play serves as our guiding thread. It invites us to revisit the Pont Neuf, that Mecca of Parisian charlatanism, and in particular the case of the Grand Thomas, the famous tooth-puller who was one of the leading figures of working-class Paris in the first half of the 18^th century – a burlesque and carnivalesque mirror of sovereignty. We then examine the portrayal of doctors and empiricists in the theatre, particularly in the works of Molière.

Mercier’s *Le Charlatan* draws on this theatrical tradition, but modifies it by placing the mechanisms of Sacroton’s seduction at the heart of the plot. The audience is an intimidating collective for the novice charlatan, but one that is easily demystified once it is reduced to the individuals who make it up. They can be deceived and manipulated by the charlatan’s eloquence. Mercier’s play is striking for its ambiguity: is Sacroton a satire of the writer-philosopher, who fancies himself the heir to the orators of antiquity, or an empathetic portrayal of the doctor to the poor?

This ambivalence is found in many texts written by Mercier in the years that followed and during the Revolution, devoted to the public, charlatans and false soothsayers. Mercier wavers between a pessimistic condemnation of popular credulity and a rejection of the arrogance of the elites. With irony, he mocks the disdain shown towards charlatans: ‘To practise charlatanism at the end of the Pont-Neuf is vile; but to practise charlatanism amongst the great learned societies becomes almost respectable; at least, it is tolerated.’

What is at stake is the very possibility of transforming the masses into an audience capable of educating and enlightening themselves. For Mercier, the figure of the charlatan enables us to reflect on the ambitions and limitations of the writer who seeks to fraternise with the people, to address them without condescension, but also to lift them out of their condition, to open their eyes in the name of a higher calling: the critique of prejudice and the progress of science.

Bibliography

• Dancourt, L’Opérateur Barry , Gwénola Ernest and Paul Fièvre (eds.), 2015 [1702].
• *Le Charlatan ou le Docteur Sacroton* , in Louis-Sébastien Mercier, *Théâtre complet (1769–1809) *, edited by Martine de Rougemont, vol. II, Paris, Champion, 2004 [1780].

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