The theater and 'beaux endroits.' On conventional aesthetic judgement

Seventeenth-century theatergoers were convinced that beauty was the stuff of "rules" and "principles" that should be followed in stage productions. The widespread use of the expression "les beaux endroits" (beautiful places) attests to this: certain scenes were meant to be "beautiful" in a tangible, objective way, and elicit an aesthetic consensus. This structured the entire reception process, which this article aims to reconstitute based on first-hand accounts of the time.