Tracing the Madness

Victoria Oftestad

As a tourist in London during the late 17th century, it was mandatory to visit the House of Bedlam, the biggest mental institution in the city. The patients, being considered completely unreasonable, were attributed animalic characteristics, which was reflected in the brutal treatment behind the bars. The ultimate mirroring of the culture of exposing madness could be found in the theatre. Composers for the theatre, in wanting to explore the inability of reason in humanity, wrote The Mad Songs, where the madness is reflected in quick shifts in emotions. These songs have been my tool to gain access to a broader palette of expression in singing. I have developed a handbook of historically informed techniques and documented my process of embodying them, using sources such as Le Brun's "Conférence (...)" (1698); Walter Charleton's "Natural History of the Passions" (1701); Aaron Hill's "The Art of Acting" (1753); and George Vandenhoff's "The Art of Elocution" (1846). My quest for madness has also become a quest for genuinity. When Charles Le Brun conveyed his theory of expression on canvas, he strongly distinguished the difference between painting tense muscles and painting genuine expression. This has become a guideline for my research: in order to gain genuinity, one has to channel a reaction and produce an impulse. This study is an attempt to bridge the gap between now and then, allowing for a deeper understanding of the Mad Songs, as well as encouraging others to dive into theatrical repertoire on its own premises.

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V.IX Desire

"...my fluttering soul is all on fire"

Walter Charleton:

"Article 20,

Desire, always a Consequent of Love.

From what hath here been said concerning Love, (...) it may easily be collected that from Love ariseth Cupidity or Desire, whereby the Soul disposed to covet for the time to come, those things which she represent’s to herself as convenient and likely to afford her pleasure. Thus we desire not only the presence of an absent good, but also the Conservation of the good that is present: (...) For in Cupidity or Desire of any thing whatsoever, which the Soul judges to be wanting to herself; she always looketh forward to the time to come."¹

Charles Le Brun

"If one wishes to represent Desire, this can be done by showing the eyebrows pressed forward over the eyes, which are more than usually open; the pupil will be situated in the middle of the eye, and full of fire, and the nostrils more pinched than usual and slightly drawn up towards the eyes; the mouth is also more open than in the preceding action, the corners drawn further back, and the tongue may appear on the edge of the lips; the complexion is more enlfamed than in Love. All these movements show the agitation of the soul, caused by the spirits which dispose it to want what is represented as beneficial to itself."²

Here we neither have any Aaron Hill directions, nor Vandenhoff.

A SHORT REFLECTION ON EMBODYING DESIRE

This must be the passion I am most afraid of performing in public. As the Mad Songs often play with female sexuality, I decided to add an element of this when embodying Desire. (It is after all a song that describes being in love!) Even if I found it easy to channel a sense of Lust, it was definitely not easy to combine it with Le Brun's illustration. My body often mistook the facial pose for a negative one, which didn't go well with the fluttering lyrics. However, since painting is a static art form, and acting is not, I allowed myself some freedom, and since neither Vandenhoff, nor Hill offers any clear instructions, I decided to use my imagination, and most of all, nature. The Mazy Round of combining body and mind, was particularly usefull here.

Footnotes:

1: Charleton 1701, p. 106

2: LeBrun 1698, translated in: Montagu 1994, p. 135

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Victoria Oftestad - Tracing the Madness - 2025