The Miser E-Book

Moliere

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

Seitenzahl: 117

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Molière's story of a covetous old miser, obsessively protecting his hoard of gold and neglecting his long-suffering children. Harpagon is obsessed with the wealth he has amassed and always ready to save expenses. Now a widower, he has a son, Cléante, and a daughter, Élise. Although he is over sixty, he is attempting to marry his son's own sweetheart, Mariane. But it seems that Harpagon's pinchpenny paranoia is finally catching up with him – his gold is missing, and this time it might really have disappeared for good... The Miser was first performed in 1668, at the theatre of the Palais-Royal, Paris. This English version, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classic series, is translated and introduced by Martin Sorrell.

Leseprobe

DRAMA CLASSICS

THE MISER

by

Molière

translated and introduced by Martin Sorrell

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Title Page

Introduction

For Further Reading

Molière: Key Dates

Characters

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

Act Five

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introduction

Molière (1622-1673)

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (later known as Molière) was baptised in the St Eustache Church, Paris, on 15 January 1622, but the precise date of his birth is not known. Both his parents were in the upholstery business, enjoying considerable success and wealth. Between 1633 and 1639 Molière was educated at the Jesuit Collège de Clermont, now the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. In 1642, he was a law student in Orléans, and in the following year he renounced his succession to his father as tapissier du Roi (upholsterer-royal), preferring instead to join the newly-formed Illustre Théâtre company in Paris. In 1644, he adopted the name Molière, and this marks the beginning of his celebrated career as actor-manager-playwright. His first full-length play, The Scatterbrain, was put on in 1655.

The company at first toured the provinces, then returned to Paris in 1658 and shared the Petit-Bourbon theatre with the Italian commedia dell’arte players. Molière also received the patronage of the King’s brother, Philippe d’Orléans. 1659 saw the great success of The Pretentious Ladies. In 1661, the company was forced to move to a different theatre, the Palais-Royal. In 1662, Molière married Armande Béjart, then aged around 20. She was either the daughter or the sister of Madeleine Béjart, with whom Molière had set up the Illustre Théâtre some twenty years before. Molière’s acutely pertinent and highly successful The School for Wives was given later in 1662. The next year, he was granted a royal pension of 1,000 livres, and in February 1664 the King himself acted as godfather to his first child, Louis. In May of the same year, the first version of Tartuffe was given privately before the King, but was immediately banned for public performance.

In 1665, Molière’s company became the Troupe du Roi, and his annual royal pension was raised to 6,000 livres. In the early part of 1666, Molière became seriously ill with pneumonia and had to give up acting for many months. The summer of that year saw The Misanthrope and Doctor in Spite of Himself. Then, in 1667, Tartuffe, renamed The Impostor, was given a public performance. 1668 saw first productions of Amphytrion, George Dandin, The Miser, 1669 Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, 1670 The Would-be Gentleman, 1671 Scapin’s Tricks, 1672 The Learned Ladies. Molière’s last play, The Hypochondriac, opened on 10 February 1673, but, by its fourth performance, on 17 February, Molière’s illness, probably tuberculosis, had become critical. He was performing the title role of Argan, the hypochondriac, and by all accounts doing so with great energy and gusto. Then, near the end of the performance, in the third interlude, he was taken violently and suddenly ill, but he managed to struggle through to the end of the performance. He was rushed back to his house in the Rue de Richelieu, where he died shortly after. He was buried on the 21st, in the St Joseph cemetery, during the night – the penalty for not having made, in the presence of a priest, a death-bed denunciation of his actor’s life.

The Miser: What Happens in the Play

Act 1. The action takes place in Paris, at the house of Harpagon, a rich bourgeois, a widower with two children, Cléante and Élise. Élise has just become secretly and unofficially engaged to Valère, a young Neopolitan of good birth, who, years earlier, had saved her life. He has found a way of attaching himself to the household by becoming Harpagon’s steward. As for Cléante, he is in love with a penniless young woman, Mariane, and wishes to marry her. The brother and sister fear that their marriage plans will be blocked by their father, Harpagon, whose obsessive avarice has turned him into the family tyrant. But he is prey to a huge anxiety of his own. His fear is that the ten thousand gold coins he has buried in his garden will be discovered by thieves. His fear is all-consuming. He accuses La Flèche, his son’s valet, of a theft that has not even occurred, searches him, and throws him out. Then he meets his two children, and reveals his intention to marry Mariane, and to give Élise in marriage to an old man, Anselme, who happens to be a friend of his. As for Cléante, he must marry ‘a certain widow’. Élise energetically opposes her father’s plan for her, prompting Harpagon to ask Valère to win her round, an irony which puts the steward in an invidious position.

Act 2. Cléante, who needs to borrow fifteen thousand francs, learns not only that the proposed lender wants to charge an extortionate rate of interest, but also that he intends to lend less than the full amount and make up the shortfall with items of worthless junk. On top of the anger which this situation provokes in Cléante, he discovers that the lender is none other than his own father, Harpagon. Father and son trade abuse and insults. Frosine, a go-between whom Harpagon has engaged to negotiate his marriage to Mariane, tells him that Mariane’s mother has consented to the union. Frosine also lies to Harpagon that Mariane has a predilection for old men like him. The money-obsessed Harpagon, however, is tortured by the prospect that the impoverished Mariane will come without a dowry. Frosine tries to demonstrate that his bride’s well-known frugality will save Harpagon enough to make up for the lost income. Harpagon is deaf both to this argument and to Frosine’s own request for a personal loan.

Act 3. Convention obliges Harpagon to give a celebratory dinner at the signing of his wedding contract. He lectures his servants on ways in which they can keep down costs. Valère lends his insincere support by preaching austerity to Maître Jacques, the cook-cum-coachman, advice which soon provokes a fight. Maître Jacques is roundly beaten by Valère, and swears to get revenge. Full of apprehension, Mariane arrives and is taken aback by the outlandish appearance of Harpagon. Matters get worse when Cléante enters, for Mariane recognises him as the young man who has been paying court to her. Using language with a hidden meaning lost on Harpagon, the two young lovers manage to communicate their true feelings to each other. Harpagon is neatly outsmarted by his son, who insists that Harpagon’s expensive ring is intended by the old man as a present to Mariane. When the arrival is announced of someone bringing money for Harpagon, he forgets all else and leaves the scene in eager anticipation.

Act 4. Frosine is in the middle of explaining to Cléante and Mariane her strategy to make Harpagon renounce his marriage plan when the old miser suddenly appears, surprising his son in the act of kissing Mariane’s hand. Suspecting a plot, Harpagon pretends to have renounced Mariane. He hopes to make Cléante come clean about his feelings for her. Cléante falls into the trap, confessing his love for Mariane. Harpagon flies into a rage and threatens his son with violence. Maître Jacques arrives and, acting as intermediary between father and son, succeeds only in making matters worse. Finally, Harpagon disinherits Cléante, curses him, and sends him packing. La Flèche enters carrying Harpagon’s strongbox, which he has unearthed in the garden. But the miser quickly discovers the theft, bursts in and delivers himself of a delirious monologue composed of rage and despair.

Act 5. Harpagon has summoned a police officer, who interrogates Maître Jacques. The latter, spotting his chance for revenge, accuses Valère of the theft of Harpagon’s money. Valère arrives, and when Harpagon presses him to confess his crime, the steward thinks the old man means his secret engagement to his daughter Élise. The cross-purposes get more embroiled, but eventually are disentangled. The furious Harpagon threatens to send his daughter to a convent, and to have Valère hanged. Seigneur Anselme arrives. Light is rapidly shed on a number of mysteries, and a dénouement full of coincidences is reached. Valère reveals his true identity and recounts his life story. It emerges that he is none other than the son of Seigneur Anselme who, in his turn, is revealed as the father not just of Valère, but of Mariane as well. Sixteen years earlier, a shipwreck had broken up this aristocratic Neapolitan family, scattering them in various directions. Thanks to these amazing revelations, everything falls satisfactorily into place. A double marriage will unite Valère with Élise, and Cléante with Mariane. Anselme is only too happy to set up both couples financially, and to cover the costs of their marriages. Harpagon, however, has the last word – he will go off to be reunited with his beloved box of money.

The Miser: Original Staging

The Miser was given its first production on Sunday 9 September 1668 in the theatre of the Palais Royal, Paris, home of Molière’s troupe at that time. Harpagon was played by Molière himself, and details of the costume he was wearing have come down to us – black velvet cloak, doublet and breeches trimmed with black silk, wig, hat, shoes. The role of La Flèche was given to Louis Béjart, the uncle of Molière’s wife. Beyond these two, the cast list is unknown.

This first production was relatively unsuccessful, and the play was withdrawn after a mere nine performances. On the first night, the takings were a little over one thousand livres. By the last three nights of the short first run, however, they were down to a mere three hundred livres. Molière was surprised at this discouraging debut – he had read the play beforehand to some people whose judgment he trusted, and the response had been most favourable, so clearly he had anticipated a good reception. Nonetheless, by the end of 1668, when The Miser was put on again for a slightly longer run as part of a double bill, its fortunes had improved. Between 1669 and 1673, the year of Molière’s death, it was given a further twenty-six performances – a respectable figure. Subsequently, between 1680, the year in which the Comédie Française was founded, and 1900, the records show that The Miser was performed over 1,500 times, making it more successful than any other 17th-century play other than two by Molière himself – Tartuffe and The Doctor in Spite of Himself. Now regularly performed at the Comédie Française, elsewhere in France and throughout the world, The Miser is regarded as one of Molière’s finest achievements, and a classic of French comic theatre.

Why The Miser was not an instant success remains inexplicable, given its great and enduring popularity. The only helpful contemporary comment to come down to us suggests that the public was not happy with the format of a five-act play in prose. Certainly, the vogue in 17th-century Paris was for drama in verse of twelve-syllable lines organised in rhyming couplets, well exemplified by Molière’s own Tartuffe and The Misanthrope.

The Miser: Sources and Origins

More possible sources have been found for The Miser than for any other play by Molière. First, there is the incomplete comedy by the Roman playwright Plautus (second century BC), in whose Aulularia (The Little Pot) the central character discovers a cooking-pot full of gold lodged in a chimney in his house. From then on, he becomes haunted by the prospect of being robbed. Other aspects of Plautus’s plot and characterisation, to do with love, children, dowries and recognition, have a considerable affinity with The Miser. But, even if Molière began with Aulularia’s basic plot, the range and depth of his characterisation clearly separate him from the earlier play. Molière’s other suggested sources include: in the 16th century, comedies by Ariosto, I Suppositi (The False Ones), and by Larivey, Les Esprits (Wits); in the 17th century, one by Molière’s near-contemporary Boisrobert, La Belle Plaideuse (The Beautiful Litigant); and another by Chappuzeau, Dame d’Intrigue (Scheming Lady). The influence of these sources, however, is variable, even questionable.

The consensus is that the most important source for The Miser was the society Molière himself lived in and knew well. Indeed, in a broad sense, avarice was a distinctive feature of the 17th century. The word avare crops up frequently in various memoirs of that time, and contemporary literature contains numerous portraits of misers. The term meant something wider then than it does now. At the extreme, it denoted an ugly and damaging vice, bordering on mental illness; more moderately, however, it was used to indicate ill-judged thriftiness, an excessive anxiety to avoid wasteful expenditure. From wealthy bourgeois to nobility, and even to royalty, there are many attested examples of avare-like actions and behaviour, many of which would have been known to Molière. King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, to name two of the most highly-placed, on occasion acted in an inappropriately parsimonious way. Then there is the colourful account of a rich Parisian bourgeois called Faure who saved on his heating expenses by re-cycling in his fireplace a few logs kept permanently soaked so that only the few small sticks placed with them would burn, the intact logs later being recovered. Thrift and stinginess were perhaps most apparent in situations involving hospitality and entertaining, numbers of servants, horses and coaches, range and style of wardrobe – all of which are, of course, aspects of The Miser’s comic effect.

Harpagon and His World

As to why 17th-century France should have produced such a culture of avarice, the critic P.J. Yarrow (see ‘For Further Reading’) offers three reasons. First, before the introduction of a banking system, and therefore of paper banknotes, it would have been tempting to hoard solid coins, often of gold, and to look on them as objects to be cherished in their own right. Second, the 17th century was marked by economic instability, the first half in particular dogged by inflation and rising prices. Those living on fixed incomes, which included many nobles and officials, would have been forced to cut their expenses. From thriftiness to outright avarice was an easy progression. Third, the 17th century was an era of pronounced social inequality. At one end of the scale, a nobleman might have over one million livres