La Devineresse and the <I>Affaire des Poisons</I>

Abstract

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Problematic Images: Some Pitfalls Associated with the Use of Iconography in Seventeenth-Century French Theatre History

“…69 This production, La Devineresse by Thomas Corneille and Donneau De Visé, was commissioned by the actors to capitalize on the scandal surrounding the arrest and eventual execution of the one of the chief protagonists in the Affair of the Poisons that was rocking French society at that time. 70 Mme Voisin, was a fortune teller, but also an abortionist and poisoner catering to aristocrats and bourgeois alike, who, amongst other unsavory practices, hit on the device of predicting a husband's death and then selling her client a powder that was guaranteed to make it happen. 71 The investigation revealed a network of such people operating in Paris.…”