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Charlotte Frelinghuysen McLean

1907 Ph.D. Graduate
Dissertation Advisor(s): Felix Emanuel Schelling
"The Nuptials of Peleus and Thetis: Mask and Comedy or Royal Ball"

Charlotte Frelinghuysen McLean was born in Philadelphia, PA.  She received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Bryn Mawr College in 1899, entering the Graduate School of this University in the same year, electing English Literature as her major and Romantics and English Philology as her minors.  She received the Master of Arts degree in 1901.

Apart from her record as a student, Miss McLean has held various teaching positions elsewhere.

The subject of her thesis is : "The Nuptials of Peleus and Thetis: Mask and Comed, or Royal Ball".  Translated from the French of Benserade by James Howell, 1654, London.

The introduction discusses the historical background, biographical points connected with the translation, the author, the players, the auditors, the lady to whom the work was dedicated, the relation of opera, ballet and masque, bibliography, and Howell as a translator.

This dissertation establishes the fact (for the first time to the best knowledge of the writer and without doubt) that Howell's Royal Ball was written by Isaac Benserade and that the work as published in London in 1654 was entirely a translation.

Benserade's "Ballet des Noces de Pelee et Thetis" is interesting because it was presented in Paris on the same day, January 26, 1654, as Cavallio's opera with the same title, the libretto being a French translation from Perriani.  This was the first opera given in Paris in French.