'Linguistic' theories in the eighteenth-century are also theories of literature and art, and it is probably better, therefore, to think of them as 'aesthetic' theories. As such, they are answers to the age-old question 'what is beauty?' Edward Nye charts the way in which a wide range of language theorists answer this question, and how their ideas complement contemporary literary debates about poetry, prose, preciosity, style, and artistic representation in general.

1. The last specialised study of Deburau (the most famous and influential mime actor of all time) in French or English was the biography by Tristan Remy in 1954, Jean-Gaspard Deburau. 2. This book is very wide-ranging: starting with Deburau's Pierrot figure, it discusses nineteenth-century theatre, novels, poetry, society, and twentieth-century echoes in cinema and modern mime. 3. Readers who think they know who and what 'Pierrot' is (and was) will be surprised by what they find in this book; for example, his relation to colonialism and race. 4. There are 26 figures in the book, all of them discussed in depth. 5. Deburau is well-known among scholars, and the wider public know his image even if they can't necessarily put a name to it, but he has never been studied through such a wide range of manuscript as well as published sources, many of them identified for the first time.

The 'ballet d'action' was one of the most successful and controversial forms of theatre in the early modern period. A curious hybrid of dance, mime and music, its overall and overriding intention was to create drama. It was danced drama rather than dramatic dance; musical drama rather than dramatic music. Most modern critical studies of the ballet d'action treat it more narrowly as stage dance, and very few view it as part of the history of mime. Little use has previously been made of the most revealing musical evidence. This innovative book does justice to the distinctive hybrid nature of the ballet d'action by taking a comparative approach, using contemporary literature and literary criticism, music, mime and dance from a wide range of English and European sources. Edward Nye presents a fascinating study of this important and influential part of eighteenth-century European theatre.

La danse a inspire la litterature, et la litterature a inspire la danse. Mais comment fonctionne exactement l'articulation entre les deux, et quelles sont les consequences de leur reciprocite ? Cet ouvrage analyse ce lien depuis la Renaissance jusqu'a l'epoque moderne, de d'Aubigne a Francis Ponge, de la danse macabre a la theorie de Laban. La relation entre danse et litterature est variable : parfois elle se fonde sur un principe esthetique, parfois sur un principe thematique, ou bien sociologique. Quelque soit la nature de ce rapport, ce livre demontre qu'il est durable et riche de sens. Les moyens d'expression de la danse et de la litterature sont radicalement differents, aussi eloignes les uns des autres que l'on puisse imaginer. Entre l'abstraction du langage et la materialite du corps, le fosse parait infranchissable. Ceci n'est qu'apparence. Mots et mouvements se completent, les uns aidant a la comprehension des autres. Ce livre relate le desir a travers les siecles d'explorer cette inspiration mutuelle.