Moliere--Four Plays: Bourgeois Gentleman, Doctor In Spite of Himself, The Affected Damsels, The Miser

259 Pages·2009·1.54 MB·English

by  Moliere

MOLIERE--FOUR PLAYS:
(Jean-Baptiste Poquelin)
1. The Bourgeois Gentleman
(Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme)
2. The Doctor In Spite of Himself
(Le Médecin malgré lui)
3. The Affected Damsels
(Les Précieuses Ridicules)
4. The Miser (L'Avare)
(Regular Edition)
4a. The Miser (L'Avare)
(Short Edition)
Translated by CARL MILO PERGOLIZZI
Prologue by Claire Nicholas White

International Pocket Library, Branden Books, Boston
© Copyright 1999
by Carl Milo Pergolizzi

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Molière, 1622-1673.
[Selections. English. 1999]
Molière, four plays / translated by Carl Milo Pergolizzi :
prologue by Claire Nicholas White.
p. cm.
Contents: The bourgeois gentleman -- The doctor in spite of himself -- The
affected damsels -- The miser (regular edition) -- The miser (short
edition).
ISBN 0-8283-2038-1 (alk. paper)
1. Molière, 1622-1673--Translations into English.
I. Pergolizzi, Carlo Milo.
II. Title.
III. Title: Four plays.
IV. Title: 4 plays.
PQ1825.E5P47 1999
842'.4--DC21 99-18379
CIP
INTERNATIONAL POCKET LIBRARY
Branden Books PO Box 812094 Wellesley MA 02482
Contents

Prologue 4

Introduction 7

The Bourgeois Gentleman 13
(Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme)

The Doctor In Spite of Himself 105
(Le Médecin malgré lui)

The Affected Damsels 157
(Les Précieuses Ridicules)

The Miser (Regular Edition) 191
(L'Avare)

The Miser (Short Edition) 273
(L'Avare)

Melody for a Serenade 335
Jeannie's Song 336
Dialogue to Music 337
Dancing Master's Minuet 338
Soprano Solo for Banquet 339
Drinking song 340
Minuet for the Oboes of Poitiers 341
PROLOGUE

My name is Jean Baptise Poquelin.
My dad, upholsterer of class, has
made chairs on which the King
of France put down his royal ass.
Acting is my dubious profession,
a blemish on dad's reputation
So, not to cause him any shame,
I'm called Moliere. It's a good name.
I lived three hundred years ago,
but nothing's changed I'll have you know.
The foibles I made fun of then
are popular today again.
Take my Tartuffe, the holy man;
his hair was long, his virtue sham.
You who are fond of eastern sages
that meditate, and pay them wages,
Why are these saints such sudden rages?
As for Alceste, my Misanthrope,
who with corruption could not cope,
look at your young idealists
who fought the system
but missed the boat
and fell in the lists.
Then look at my two precious girls
who so loved literary pearls
they scorned their suitors.
Now I see girls storm the university,
and claim they want their liberty!
As for my doctors' strange proceedings,
their enemas and copious bleedings,
You have your share of quackery,
your drugs and your psychology,
your snake oil fads of the counter culture!
Not a sou would I a doctor pay,
And since we all must die some day,
better let nature have her way.
Let's use, dear friends,
our common sense.
Let laughter be our self-defense
against extreme, deluded men.
I, too, alas, was one of them.
Married a girl twenty years younger,
a shrew who claimed that I had wronged her.
That girl has led me such a life,
I wish I'd never taken wife!
Today our play is just a farce.
I'm told my humor is too coarse
and yet it won favor in court.
The King, you see, was not above such sport.
I wrote the play; I act the fool.
You, fellow man, my only school.
I died on stage playing
The Imaginary Invalid.
Ironic? Not if you consider
the play the thing and life the fibber,
For since I'm here with you tonight,
It's that Moliere has never died!

Claire Nicholas White
for Carl Milo Pergolizzi
as Jean Baptiste Poquelin
(aka Moliere)
INTRODUCTION

If you are fortunate enough to have written a play deemed the best of the year by
French critics, you would be awarded a Moliere. This fact, in itself, attests to the
extraordinarily high esteem in which Moliere is held by the French. Indeed, the
French language itself is often referred to by the French as the language of
Moliere. What was unfortunate for Moliere, however, was that his highly
merited acclaim was painfully long in coming.
When he established his Illustre Theatre in 1643, the prevailing theatrical vogue
was essentially neo-classical. Works by the early Greek and Roman tragedians
and by Corneille, the French playwright who was the rage at that time, were
almost the exclusive fare at the two major and long since established theaters of
the day--the Hotel de Bourgogne and the Marais.
Competition with these two groups proved very difficult for Moliere. He
despised their haughtiness and railed against their format that catered exclusively
to the elite. He was a man of the people who loved to laugh and was ill-equipped
to confront the predominantly tragical theatrical fare of that decade. His finances
went from bad to worse and there were times when he couldn't pay for the
candles needed to illuminate the stage. Therefore, his decision to leave the
Parisian scene and to seek fortune for his theater in the provinces of France is
readily understandable.
"Qui m'aime, me suive!" (Let those who love me follow me!) he exclaimed to
his troupe; and follow him they did.
It turned out to be a fortuitous decision for it was during his sojourn in the
provinces that he encountered the Commedia dell'Arte, a type of improvisational
theatre specializing in irreverent farce. It originated in Italy and had been touring
the provinces of France, Spain, and England since the middle of the 16th
century. In contrast with the Parisian concept of theater, the Commedia dell'Arte
catered to all strata of society and dealt with real-life character types that were
usually satirical of the upper classes. Some of the major characters were
Scapino, a master-duping servant (the precursor of Figaro); Columbina, a
commonsensical maidservant; Dottore, a comical would-be scholar or doctor;
Pantalone, a bumbling, easily deceived husband or father; and Capitano, a
bragging soldier.
The influence of the Commedia dell'Arte on Moliere must have been indeed
profound for, upon his return to Paris in 1658, he totally discarded the neo-
classical vogue and set about writing farces satirical of the upper classes using
many of the Commedia dell'Arte stock character types. His plays caused a
sensation in Paris and Louis XIV himself afforded him the privilege of allowing
his troupe to perform in the prestigious theatre of the Palais-Royal much to the
jealousy and consternation of the Hotel de Bourgogne and the Marais.
In the four plays in this volume, several of the Commedia's stock character types
are to be noted. For example, in The Doctor in Spite of Himself, there is
Sganarelle, the comical, would-be doctor and scholar; Jacqueline, the common-
sensical maidservant, and Geronte, the deceived father. In The Affected Damsels
there is Jodelet, the boastful soldier, and finally in The Miser, you have Valere, a
sophisticated version of the master-duping servant.
Care must be exercised, however, not to overemphasize the Commedia
dell'Arte's influence on Moliere. Although he lifted some its character, there are
many others in his writings that were of his origination and that had far more
depth and sophistication such as the miser, the misanthrope, the religious bigot
and the hypochondriac. What the Commedia dell'Arte did, essentially, was to
cause him to set a new course for his literature that was eminently more
consistent with his particular genius and social orientation--one that dealt with
the common man and poked fun at the pretentiousness of the elite.
Although Moliere wrote of life in 17th century France, his instinct for comedy,
his insight into the vagaries of human nature and his incisiveness of style serve
to explain the durability of his popularity, particularly in the French-speaking
world. However, it has been difficult for me to understand why more actors and
theater-lovers from all over the world do not embrace him as true, universal
champion of the theater for, aside from his genius as a playwright, he was a man
who abided by the highest principles of the acting profession and this at a time
when actors were subject to much of persecution and social banishment.
But it was his death, perhaps, that best illustrates his devotion to the theater. A
performance of one of his major works, The Imaginary Invalid, was scheduled in
which Moliere was to play the lead. Despite being desperately ill, he went on in
true, show biz fashion only to collapse on stage during the final act. A few hours
later, he was dead. On his death bed, he chose to be buried in unhallowed rather
than renounce the theatrical profession to his confessor. Quel beau geste!
About ten years ago, the theater troupe to which I belonged called upon me to
direct The Doctor in Spite of Himself, and I immediately set about reading
translations. However, in my opinion, none that I read succeeded in conveying
the full ironic and comic impact of Moliere's lines and so, being a teacher of
French, I decided to do my own.
I had hardly completed the first page when I began to develop an appreciation of