The Misanthrope E-Book

Moliere

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: NHB Drama Classi
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 131

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Molière's most-admired comedy of manners, about a man whose quickness to criticise the flaws in others, and in himself, leads him into deep trouble. Alceste, the 'misanthrope', hates all mankind, and despairs of its hypocrisy and falseness. He believes that the world could be perfected if people were more honest with each other. But when his honesty starts to make him enemies, and the target of malicious gossips, it is his world and his life which suffer. The Misanthrope, or the Cantankerous Lover (Le Misanthrope ou l'Atrabilaire amoureux) was first performed in 1666 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris. This English version, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Stephen Mulrine.

Leseprobe

DRAMA CLASSICS

THE MISANTHROPE

by

Molière

translated and introduced by

Stephen Mulrine

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Introduction

For Further Reading

Molière: Key Dates

The Misanthrope

Characters

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Act Five

Pronunciation Guide

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introduction

Molière (1622-1673)

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, later to adopt the stage name Molière, was born in Paris on 15 January 1622, the eldest son of a successful upholstery merchant. In 1631, Molière’s father was able to purchase the Court office of valet de chambre and upholsterer to the King, Louis XIII, and the young Molière was initially destined to follow in his father’s footsteps. Before that, he was given a first-class education in philosophy and the humanities at the Jesuit Collège de Clermont in Paris, and went on to study law at the University of Orléans, receiving his licence to practise in 1642. Molière may have done so very briefly, but within a year he had renounced the succession to his father’s upholstery business, in favour of his younger brother, retaining only the ceremonial office of valet de chambre, for its valuable entry to Court circles.

Molière’s sudden change of direction was brought about by his involvement with the theatrical Béjart family, in particular Madeleine Béjart, some four years older than Molière, and who later became his mistress. Madeleine Béjart, regarded as one of the finest actresses of her day, was the moving spirit of a small troupe of actors; and in June 1643, Molière, with financial support from his remarkably indulgent father, signed a contract with the Béjart family establishing a company, the Illustre-Théâtre, to be based in a former tennis court. It was around this time that the budding actor and playwright changed his name to Molière, and he soon also took over the direction of the company. Following their debut in Rouen, the Illustre-Théâtre opened in Paris on New Year’s Day and were at first successful enough to plan adding comedy to their repertoire of tragedies. But by the end of 1645 the company was bankrupt, and Molière himself had to be bailed out of debtors’ prison by his father. Molière and the Béjarts then joined another company, under the protection of the Duc d’Épernon, and headed by Charles Dufresne, to tour the provinces, and for the next twelve years or so, they played all over south and west France. In 1653, the company acquired a new patron, the Prince de Conti, and Molière assumed the role of director.

Molière’s talents as a comic actor were already widely acknowledged, and his earliest ventures as a playwright date from this period, including a number of farces and two comedies, The Scatterbrain (L’Étourdi), and Loving Spite (Le Dépit amoureux). Unfortunately, the company’s aristocratic protector proved to be an untrustworthy ally. A notorious libertine, who might well have served as a model for Molière’s own Don Juan, the Prince of Conti underwent a spectacular religious conversion in 1657, joining the fanatical Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, an influential semi-secret society of Catholic laity, and promptly withdrew his support for the company. Molière and his actors were accordingly driven to try their luck once more in the metropolis.

At their debut in Paris at the Louvre Palace on 24 October 1658, the company gave a performance of a Corneille tragedy, Nicomède, followed by a Molière farce, now lost, The Amorous Doctor (Le Docteur amoureux), which sufficiently impressed the Court to win the protection of Monsieur Frère du Roi, as Louis XIV’s eighteen-year-old brother was officially titled. Although the handsome pension promised to the actors never materialised, the company were granted permission to use the Petit-Bourbon theatre, close by the Louvre, in which they alternated for a time with a popular troupe of Italian commedia dell’arte players, led by Fiorelli, the famous ‘Scaramouche’, whom Molière greatly admired. At the age of thirty-six, Molière had the opportunity to perform at the centre of French theatrical life, and seized it with both hands.

The company’s first Paris season is notable for the staging of his early comedies, The Scatterbrain and Loving Spite, but Molière’s fame as a playwright was established the next season, in November 1659, with The Pretentious Ladies (Les Précieuses ridicules), a satire on the affectations of certain pseudo-intellectual ladies, whose Paris salons, though in decline by Molière’s day, are now regarded as a nascent feminist movement. Molière shared many of their opinions, on the status of women especially, but their mannered expression made them an irresistible target. Another one-act farce, Sganarelle, in the following spring, introduced what was to become a favourite Molière comic butt, the imagined cuckold, and proved hugely successful, placing the company on a sound financial footing.

Meanwhile, the Louvre Palace was to be extended, which entailed the demolition of a number of buildings nearby, including the Petit-Bourbon, and Molière’s company moved into the much larger Palais-Royal theatre early in 1661. Shortly after the move, Molière tried his hand at a more serious comedy, in the form of Don Garcia of Navarre (Dom Garcie de Navarre), but the play failed and was soon withdrawn from the company repertoire. In June of that same year, Molière staged The School for Husbands (L’École des maris), a three-act verse comedy in which he returned to the vexed question of women’s education, and which enjoyed great success. And his standing with Louis XIV was immeasurably enhanced by the comedy-ballet The Nuisances (Les Fâcheux), which Molière is said to have written in five days, shrewdly exploiting the young King’s well-known enthusiasm for dance.

Early in 1662, Molière married Armande, the younger sister of his former mistress Madeleine Béjart. Armande was twenty years old, less than half Molière’s age, and a scurrilous rumour even suggested that she was Molière’s own daughter by Madeleine. However, the King’s confidence in Molière was not easily shaken, and it is significant that Louis later consented to act as godfather to Molière’s first son, who died not long after his birth in 1664. Molière’s company meanwhile was increasingly in demand, performing regularly at the Palais-Royal, and by Royal invitation at the Louvre and Saint-Germain, as well as at a number of great noble houses. This could not fail to excite the envy of other troupes, notably the tragedians at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and the matter came to a head after the triumph of The School for Wives (L’École des femmes), which Molière first presented on 26 December 1662.

After The School for Wives, a five-act verse comedy in classical form, Molière’s critics could no longer dismiss him as a mere farceur, but the play attracted fierce opposition from the devout establishment, particularly for a scene in which Molière parodies the Ten Commandments, and which was denounced as blasphemous. Molière quickly responded with two polemical dialogues, the Critique of The School for Wives, and the Impromptu of Versailles, staged with Louis XIV’s approval, in which he defended his own practice and wittily satirised that of his rivals at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, who had incidentally petitioned the Queen Mother against him. Not for the first or last time, the King’s support was invaluable to Molière, and Louis further incensed the playwright’s detractors by awarding him a substantial pension.

Molière next locked horns with his devout critics in the course of a week-long festival at Versailles in May 1664. The Pleasures of the Enchanted Island (Les Plaisirs de l’île enchantée), as it was known, began with an innocuous comedy-ballet, The Princess of Elis (La Princesse d’Élide), but Molière chose the occasion, later in the week, to première three acts of his unfinished satire on religious hypocrisy, Tartuffe. The Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, the fanatical Cabale des Dévots, still exercised enough influence to make life difficult for Molière, and Louis XIV, under pressure from not only the Archbishop of Paris and the President of the Parlement, but also the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria, reluctantly acceded to demands to have the play banned. Even to read the play was decreed a sin worthy of excommunication, and not until February 1669, some three years after the Queen Mother’s death, was Molière able to present his completed five-act Tartuffe in public.

Meanwhile, Molière again fell foul of the devout with his next major offering, Don Juan, premièred on 15 February 1665, and taken off after only fifteen performances, despite attracting large audiences. The King’s private sentiments may be gauged from the fact that, a few months later, he granted Molière’s company the official title of Troupe du Roi, but this very public accolade did little to protect Don Juan, whose unrepentantly immoral hero was never seen again on stage during Molière’s lifetime. Molière’s new comedy-ballet, Doctor Love (L’Amour médecin), which was premièred at Versailles in September 1665, fared rather better, and entered the company’s permanent repertoire. At the end of that same year, Molière himself became gravely ill, with the tuberculosis which would eventually kill him.

The Misanthrope, premièred at the Palais-Royal on 4 June 1666, achieved a first run of only twenty-one performances, though it was widely praised by the more discerning theatregoers. In truth, its status as comedy is still open to debate, and the character of Alceste, the embittered misanthropist fated to love a flighty coquette, invites a range of interpretation, bordering at one extreme on the tragic, given what is known of Molière’s own situation around this time, having to deal with persistent sniping from rivals and enemies, and the rumoured infidelity of his young wife. However, the company’s next production, Doctor in Spite of Himself (Le Médecin malgré lui), a return to the more familiar genre of farce, and a favourite topic of Molière’s, was an outstanding triumph.

Molière’s output was prodigious in these years. With the company frequently commanded to perform at Louis XIV’s various courts, at Versailles, Saint-Germain and Chambord, in addition to other noble houses, and public commitments at the Palais-Royal, Molière nonetheless managed to produce three new plays, Amphitryon, George Dandin, and The Miser (L’Avare), between January and September 1668. In the latter, Molière himself took the role of Harpagon, the miser, and the ambiguity of the character, at once self-destructive and ridiculous, in some ways recalls Alceste in The Misanthrope, and admits of various interpretations.

The third version of Tartuffe, finally passed for public presentation, was premièred on 5 February 1669, to instant acclaim, though the playwright’s triumph would have been rather muted, with the death of his beloved father a few weeks later. Tartuffe rapidly became the company’s outstanding money-spinner, however, and it remains Molière’s most frequently performed play to this day, ahead of The Miser and Doctor in Spite of Himself. The relatively new genre of comedy-ballet occupied much of Molière’s time in the succeeding two years, with the premières of Monsieur de Pourceaugnac at Chambord in October 1669, and The Magnificent Lovers (Les Amants magnifiques) at Saint-Germain in February 1670.

Spectacles of this kind were popular not only with the King, but also Molière’s Palais-Royal audiences, and The Would-be Gentleman (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme), for example, which was premièred at the royal hunting lodge at Chambord in October 1670, enjoyed an outstanding success at the Palais-Royal, where it was presented the next month, and played without interruption until the following Easter. Molière also attempted to extend the range of the genre into tragicomedy, with Psyche, to be premièred at the Tuileries in January 1671. Pressure of time, however, forced him to delegate much of the writing to two collaborators, Philippe Quinault and Thomas Corneille. Again, transferred to the Palais-Royal in July, Psyche proved extremely successful, more so than the three-act farce, The Tricks of Scapin (Les Fourberies de Scapin), which had preceded it, and which so disappointed Molière’s more demanding critics, such as the poet Boileau, who thought it vastly inferior to The Misanthrope, and a betrayal of Molière’s talents.

Comedy-ballets and farces account for at least half of Molière’s output, and although they are less highly regarded nowadays, there is no reason to believe that Molière himself undervalued them. His audiences certainly did not, and in fact the Psyche collaboration was the company’s most popular production, achieving eighty-two performances at the Palais-Royal between July 1671 and January 1673. Molière’s success in this field was undoubtedly due in large part to the contribution of Jean-Baptiste Lully, who provided the music for ten of his plays, including, most notably, The Would-be Gentleman. The partnership turned sour, however, when the Italian managed to secure a virtual monopoly over the provision of music for the Paris theatres, which severely restricted Molière’s freedom of action.

On 11 March 1672, a few weeks after the death of his first theatrical mentor, Madeleine Béjart, Molière premièred The Learned Ladies (Les Femmes savantes) at the Palais-Royal. With this play, Molière revisited his old stamping-ground of women’s education, and Parisian salon culture, and also the form of five-act verse comedy. Though it fared indifferently at the box-office, it is now generally regarded as one of his finest works, and proof that his talent was very far from declining, despite his failing health. Molière had to contend with more than his share of incompetent physicians throughout his later life, and the medical profession is a frequent target of his satire. It is ironic, in a sense, that he took his final bow in the guise of an abused victim of such charlatans, Argan in The Hypochondriac (Le Malade imaginaire), premièred at the Palais-Royal on 10 February 1673. Molière, coughing up blood, had to be carried home in a sedan-chair after the fourth performance, and died later that same night. Antagonistic to the end, the church authorities at first refused to grant him a Christian burial, and it took a direct appeal by Armande to the King before the grieving widow was allowed to bury him, without pomp and under cover of darkness, in the parish cemetery of Saint-Eustache, on 17 February 1673.

Molière’s Theatre

The sheer range of Molière’s comedy is impressive – from farces of varying degrees of sophistication, such as Doctor in Spite of Himself, to sublime comedies of character and manners, such as Tartuffe, The Misanthrope and The Miser, and the comedy-ballets, fifteen in number, of which the best, The Hypochondriac and The Would-be Gentleman, could as easily be described as comedies of manners with danced interludes. Molière’s originality, indeed, lies in his talent for mixing genres, and breaking out of the rigid formulae which he inherited, partly from the indigenous French traditions of farce, going back to the medieval period, and classicism, with its restrictive unities of time, place and action, whereby the entire action of the play should unfold within twenty-four hours, in one place only, and be focused on one single action. While the example of the great Racine shows how skilfully these rules could be exploited, the unity of time requirement tended to encourage bizarre plot twists, while unity of place, slavishly observed, often resulted in monotonous stage pictures of palace ante-chambers or salons, as indeed is the case with The Misanthrope – where, however, Célimène’s role as hostess makes it dramatically appropriate.

Molière’s experience of sharing theatres with Fiorelli’s Italian troupe also left its mark on his work. The commedia dell’arte players specialised in improvisation based on familiar stereotyped characters, identified by masks: for example, the gullible old man, the Pantalone; the pedantic Dottore, often a lawyer; the braggart Capitano; the crafty and indolent servant characters, the zanni, going under the names of Arlecchino, Brighella, Pulcinella, etc. Molière in particular admired the performing skills of the commedia players, all accomplished mime artists, regularly displayed in high-speed set-piece episodes known as lazzi