I just posted a page listing most of my posts on “Feasts & Liturgy.” It is not a complete list and some posts should be edited. At times, music is removed from YouTube, which makes an update necessary. However, unless posts are listed, they are difficult to access. One needs a list, and it is under construction.
Polyphony
This list reflects knowledge and interest I acquired as a student of the history of music, or musicology. The Greeks developed polyphony or music in “parts,” but polyphony developed during the Middle Ages. At the moment, the main ‘parts’ are Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass (SATB). But, as polyphony developed certain composers divided music into a larger number of parts.
If the development of polyphonic music were to be given a location, one of its best lieux would be the Franco-Flemish lands, the cultural hub of Europe before the Renaissance, which began as of the Fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, on 29 May 1453. Although the Franco-Flemish lands produced fine composers of polyphonic music, it also developed in various European countries such as France, Italian city-states, Spain…
Liturgical and Secular Music
Polyphony developed in medieval Europe, but, as we have seen, it is an invention of the Greek and is called Western Music. Music composed elsewhere had one part and it is called monophonic. The birthplace of polyphony is, for the most part, the Church. Such music is called liturgical (or sacred music) and it encompasses Motets, Masses, Hymns and many other form. The Church needed music, hence the preeminence of liturgical music in the very Christian Middle Ages and its association with the history of music.
Yet, polyphony also has secular roots, the Madrigal, in particular, songs in the mother (madre) tongue.
Monophony
Monophonic music features one part: the melody. Gregorian chant is monophonic and it has its own notation. Troubadours (southern France, trouvères (northern France) and the Minnesang (Germany) composed monophonic secular songs.
Conclusion
I look forward to completing this list and writing more on Feasts, providing some details.
The seasonal antiphon is the Alma Mater Redemptoris. There are four Marian antiphons. The Alma Mater Redemptoris will be sung until 2 February or Candlemas. The best known Alma Mater Redemptoris was composed by Palestrina (c. 1525 – February 1594).
Love to everyone ♥
Palestrina: Alma Redemptoris Mater (Julian Podger, Monteverdi Choir) – YouTube (Julian Podger, Monteverdi Choir)
Working Title/Artist: Stefano Veneziano: Madonna Enthroned (Correr) Department: Islamic Art Culture/Period/Location: HB/TOA Date Code: Working Date: photography supplied by Islamic department – Filename – 018.tif film and media (jnc) 2_26_07
Aleppo was one of the jewels of the Middle East and it is now rubble. However, although it seems impossible, the few Christians left in Aleppo celebrated Christmas in a bombed church. We cannot resurrect those who have perished, but these courageous Syrians gave life to ruins. They celebrated the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
Human institutions are abominably fallible, but would that people remembered that Jesus of Nazareth taught unconditional love. Theologians I have spoken with assure me that love unconditional was Jesus’ only teaching. Yet, an ignorant and cruel world crucified him as it crucified young Armenian women and destroyed Aleppo. However, Aleppo will rise again, like the phœnix.
Although many Christians born in Asia Minor have been killed, some fled their native land several years ago. There is, in Sherbrooke, Quebec, a Syriac Orthodox Church. It is named St. Ephrem’s Syriac Orthodox Church, but it is changing its name to St. Ephrem’s Syrian Church. You may remember that Céline Dion‘s deceased husband, René Angélil, was born to a Syrian father and a Lebanese mother, and raised in Montreal. Members of his family attended the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Céline married René at Notre-Dame Basilica, in Montreal, but there was a second wedding ceremony. (See René Angélil, Wikipedia.)
When I prepared my posts on the Armenian genocide and my Christmas post, I realized that there had been many Christians in the Near East and Middle East. Saint Nicholas was the bishop of Myra, in Anatolia. He saved people who were about to be beheaded. (See Saint Nicholas, Wikipedia.) We have long beheaded people and the practice has intensified in the Middle East. Before the rise of Islamism, beginning in c. 1980, women in the Middle East were not wrapped in clothes and hidden behind a veil. It seems we are returning to the past. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is not a descendant of the last Sultan, Mehmed VI, as though he were. Strange things are happening everywhere, especially in the United States.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve was not as fine as Christmas Day. I remembered my home and work in Antigonish. Why did a woman, a case manager at an Insurance Company, let me sell my house, knowing I would have to return? She had me see an Independent Medical Examiner who asked her to tell me not to sell my house or make serious decisions. I was very sick, but he was convinced I would be able to re-enter the classroom. But my doctor’s note was not taken seriously so I was not replaced. After a very short rest, I returned to work so my students would have a teacher. She thought I was an imaginary invalid. Not relaying her IME’s message was malice on her part, unadulterated malice.
I suffer from ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis), better known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which it isn’t. It hasn’t taken away my intelligence nor has it dimmed all the knowledge I acquired. But, once I had sold my house, my university did not want me to re-enter the classroom. A friend warned me that returning was dangerous, but it may have been less dangerous than not returning.
The episode that began in 2002 was triggered by exertion. I had to prepare two new courses, including Animals in Literature, during a sabbatical (2000-2001) I was devoting to writing my book on Molière. It was my worst ever episode of ME. I fell ill in February 2002.
Alexandria by the Bellini brothers
San Marco, Venice
Back to Aleppo
At any rate, Christians at Aleppo celebrated Christmas in a bombed church. They are courageous individuals. The siege of Aleppo was a calamity. One wonders what happened to unconditional love?
That conflict must end. But I have difficulty making sense of Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin‘s involvement. They seem to be both friends and foes.
—ooo—
We will be celebrating the New Year as we celebrated Christmas. The same friends will join me. It will be the beginning of a new and, hopefully, better year. There is a fine Pâtisserie liégeoise nearby. I will purchase a cake. I am thankful for these small pleasures.
Annonce aux bergers (Announcement to the Shepherds)
Livre d’images de Madame Marie Hainaut, vers 1285-1290.
Paris BnF Naf 16251
I used this beautiful image last year and continue to love it. I like the angel’s little feet and the animals. It is unenuit étoilée: a starry night.
The Internet has several entries on the Livre d’images de MarieHainaut. Facsimiles are also available. One is the work of Alison Stones. It is affordable, but others are more expensive.
“The Announcement to the Shepherds” is classified as a Bestiaire by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) which houses the original Livre d’images. But Le Livre d’images de Madame Marie Hainault is also, and perhaps mainly, a martyrology and it contains a picture of Saint Nicholas given alms.
Saint Nicolas, Livre d’images de Marie Hainault by Maître Henri. XIIIe
Sinterklaas & Santa Claus
la Saint Nicolas, le 6 décembre
Sinterklaas becomes Santa Claus
Born in today’s Turkey, Saint Nicholas (15 March 270 – 6 December 343) is a prominent figure for Christians. He was the Bishop of Myra.
When I was a child growing up in a cold Quebec, my mother kept traditions alive. We celebrated la Saint-Nicolas, food and decorations.
La Saint-Nicolas is celebrated on 6 December. One eats mandarines and drinks hot chocolate. One also eats mannalas (small figures) and schnakalas (escargots). Mandarines and hot chocolate quite satisfied us.
Saint Nicolas came to North America when New York was New Amsterdam. He was called Sinterklaas (Dutch) which became Santa Claus, the English for lepère Noël. (See Saint Nicholas, Wikipedia)
Pictures of St Nicolas
please follow this link and to see more pictures of Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicolas et les trois enfants tués par le charcutier. Psautier cistercien. XIIIe
« La Légende de Saint Nicolas »
Associated with Saint Nicholas is the legend of Saint Nicholas, the story of three children cut into pieces by a butcher (le charcutier), but resurrected seven years later by Saint Nicolas. It appears the legend originates in Alsace-Lorraine. Benjamin Britten composed a cantata entitled Saint Nicholas.
Refrain: Ils étaient trois petits enfants There we three little children Qui s’en allaient glaner aux champs. Who were gathering food [gleaning] in the fields.
1. Tant sont allés, tant sont venus They so went here, they so went there
Que vers le soir se sont perdus. That come evening, they were lost.
S’en sont allés chez un boucher : So they went to a butcher:
Boucher, voudrais-tu nous loger ? Butcher, would you give us lodging?[1]
2. Ils n’étaient pas sitôt entrés But no sooner did they enter
Que le boucher les a tués, Then the butcher killed them,
Les a coupés en p’tits morceaux Cut them up into tiny pieces
Mis au saloir comme un pourceau. Put them in his salting box, like pork.
3. Saint Nicolas au bout d’sept ans Seven years had passed when Saint Nicholas
Vint à passer auprès du champ, Happened to go near that field,
Alla frapper chez le boucher : He went and knocned at the butcher’s:
Boucher, voudrais-tu me loger ? Butcher, would you give me lodging?
4. Entrez, entrez, Saint Nicolas, Come in, come in, Saint Nicholas,
Y’a de la place, n’en manque pas. There’s room, there’s no want of it.
Il n’était pas sitôt entré, No sooner did he enter,
Qu’il a demandé à souper. Then he asked for supper
5. Voulez-vous un morceau d’gâteau ? Do you want a piece of cake?
Je n’en veux pas, il n’est point beau. I don’t want any, it isn’t good.
Voulez-vous un morceau de veau ? Do you want a piece of veal?
Je n’en veux pas, il n’est point beau ! I don’t want any, it doesn’t look nice!
6. Du p’tit salé je veux avoir, I want something from the saloir,
Qu’il y a sept ans qu’est au saloir. That has been there for seven years.
Quand le boucher entendit cela, When the butcher heard that,
Hors de sa porte il s’enfuya. Out of his door he fled.
7. Petits enfants qui dormez là, Little children who sleep there,
Je suis le grand saint Nicolas. I am the great Saint Nicholas.
Sur le saloir posa trois doigts, On the saltoir he put three fingers,
Les p’tits soldats n’entendaient pas. The little sodiers couldn’t hear.
8. Le premier dit: « J’ai bien dormi ! » The first [child] said: “I slept well!’
Le second dit: « Et moi aussi ! » The second said: “Me too!”
Et le troisième, le plus petitt : And the third answered:
« Je croyais être en paradis ! » “I thought I was in paradise!”
(Except for the last stanza, I omitted quotation marks.)
« Ils étaient trois petits enfants. » is believed to date back to the 16th century but the legend is older. There are several versions of the song. Mine is based on the recording and it is translated accordingly.
One version is by Gérard de Nerval, a celebrated 19th-century French poet, essayist and translator. Nerval is a tragic figure. He suffered two mental breakdowns and committed suicide.
_______________ [1] I found a version of La Légende de Saint Nicolas [click], with a translation and a recording. It contains familiar lines: Saint Nicolas tells the butcher not to flee but to repent as Good will forgive him. The words salting-tub and salter are used. I borrowed the better: “give us/me lodging.”
In Saint Nicolas festivities (he visits schools, etc.), the butcher is called Père Fouettard [click].
Following the publication of my last post, I received information from Paul Nicklen, a scientist and a photographer for Sea Legacy and National Geographic magazine. The document Mr Nicklen sent me was on official White House stationary and, I suspect, many individuals were sent a copy. It was signed in the following manner.
Paul Nicklen
Wildlife Photojournalist
Nanoose Bay, British Columbia, Canada.
The document seemed private, which may no longer be the case.
The link below took me to Mr Nicklen’s fascinating but alarming account of the Arctic and the word “yesterday” was the day before yesterday, probably 20 December 2016. The following is a link to the document, but the document inserted itself at the bottom of my post automatically:
I am not a scientist. Therefore I cannot speak personally and accurately about the effects of global warming in the Arctic. I have to rely on the testimonial of experts. All I know is that the Arctic is very rich, but I have now read that:
“The danger of an oil spill would deliver a fatal blow to this pristine and critically important ecosystem.”
Mr Nicklen wrote:
“As a scientist, what I know about the Arctic is terrifying. Currently, it’s warming twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet. As a photographer, I can observe and document these effects first-hand: receding glaciers, struggling wildlife populations, and cities impacted by rising sea levels.
And as the landscape changes, driven by climate change, I am watching the Arctic region become increasingly vulnerable. In particular, we should see the rapid disappearance of sea ice here for what it is: a sign of imminent and catastrophic change. The danger of an oil spill would deliver a fatal blow to this pristine and critically important ecosystem.”
But — with the leadership of President Obama — we’ve taken a step forward.”
I gather that, given the above, Mr Putin cannot come in and drill. The Arctic may be very rich, but it is “off limits” for excellent reasons. We cannot kill the Arctic because we would lose what it has to give. There would be no remedy. In other words, it’s a “Poule aux œufs d’or” (Hen with the Golden Eggs) narrative. (See RELATED ARTICLES.)
Privatization
good and bad
education, an example
healthcare
global warming
The Trump presidency will affect Americans in many ways, but, first and foremost, we must expect privatization. In this regard, citizens of the United States must act. In certain areas, privatization will not be harmful to citizens, but in others, it could wreak havoc.
For instance, limits must be put on the privatization of education. An education cannot be the privilege of the rich. A good education is an extraordinary tool in that it gives everyone more freedom. For instance, it allows informed voting, which was needed on 8 November 2016. The 2016 American Election was so flawed we can call it a disgrace!
However, everything has to be put into perspective and we must then go from plan A to plan B.
Healthcare, for instance, is a “right.” Taxes buy protection and safety. They also buy a good education or job-training, adequate housing and, as we advance, they may also guarantee a universal minimum income.
The well-to-do can also buy safe and effective contraceptives, a vasectomy, tubal ligation, a hysterectomy and an abortion when it constitutes a medical imperative, which is why the Ohio “Heartbeat” Bill is a slap in the face for women belonging the middle-class and poor women. It is the beginning of serious cuts in health-care legislation and must not be voted into law. A five-year old is too young to carry a child. (See Lina Medina, Wikipedia.)
However, if Insurance Companies have a monopoly on healthcare, the United States will be stepping back to an era where cancer was considered a pre-existing condition and the sick were left to die in pain. An insurance company’s first goal is a profit. They are in business. The same is true of pharmaceutical companies.
Mr Trump has stated that he does not “believe in” global warming. Well, global warming is not a matter of faith (I believe in); it is a matter of fact. If the United States does not protect the environment, the world will not survive. This would be the ultimate genocide.
Canada and the United States: an Agreement
On 10 March 2016, Canada signed an agreement with the United States concerning the Arctic and the environment:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Barack Obama hold a joint press conference in Washington, D. C.
Conclusion
As I surfed the Internet yesterday, I saw a comment that caught my attention. Mr Trump likes Russian President Vladimir Putin because he is a good “leader.” What does Mr Trump mean? Mr Trump would have liked to silence the press, a freedom the press will not abandon. Mr Trump may also intimidate a few leaders, but all he does will be screened by the press. Freedom of speech will never have been so free and focused. Moreover, it will still be the government of the people by the people.
Mr Trudeau fils should perhaps remember his father Pierre Trudeau‘s words:
“Living next to you [the US] is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”
« Être votre voisin, c’est comme dormir avec un éléphant; quelque douce et placide que soit la bête, on subit chacun de ses mouvements et de ses grognements. »
Addressing the Press Club in Washington, D.C. (25 March 1969)
The election of Donald Trump into the presidency of the United States stood to elevate Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, it has been determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a cyber attack that increased Mr Trump’s chance of winning the American election. In my opinion, we may never know the precise result of the 2016 election. Russia should not have interfered in the American election.
After meddling was confirmed, I saw a photograph of US President Obama revealing considerable sadness. However, in his final conference of the year, the outgoing President stated that “he would not weigh in on whether Russian hacking actually swayed the election.” “Weighing in” may not be judicious. However, the President promised “methodical” retaliation.
News of the hacking were very disturbing. No nation should interfere in an election taking place in another country. It is a major assault on democracy. There is, of course, an internationally community and supranational legislation. The United Nations is a supranational community and would that every country respected its Declaration of Human Rights. We are also answerable to an international court. But it is for the citizens of the United States to choose their president, without interference from Russia or any other country.
Mr Putin should not have meddled in the American election and Mr Trump cannot say that the “end justified the means.” The wording is Machiavellian, but interfering in an American election, the means, is undemocratic. Mr Trump has stated that he would not accept defeat, but United States residents elect their various representatives. The Electoral College met yesterday, 19 December 2016. Their decision is that Mr Trump will remain President-elect of the United States. Therefore, it may be best to look upon the entire kerfuffle, the campaign, the election and the meddling, with some detachment.
Although Mr Putin meddled in the American election, my neighbours to the south will still buy their groceries where they usually do. Daily life will not change. However, Republicans are not pleased. President-elect Donald J. Trump may be given less elbow room by fellow Republicans.
Mr Trump plans to visit with Mr Putin after his inauguration. As expected The New Yorker‘s satirist, Andy Borowitz, has announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin would sing and Mr. Trump’s inauguration. I wonder if Mr Borowitz knowns that in French chantage (le, noun) means blackmail and faire chanter means to blackmail. The Fox makes the Crow drop the cheese by telling him that he is a good singer and that he would like to hear him sing. The Crow (le corbeau) sings and Reynard catches the cheese. (See RELATED ARTICLES.)
Mr Putin will not change the United States. However, Americans should remember that Vladimir Putin announced that the Canadian Arctic belonged to Russia. Mr Putin may also attempt to claim Alaska. Mr Putin interfered, but did so out of self-interest. He may have viewed Mr Trump as a lesser opponent than Mrs Clinton. Americans should make sure Russia does not start drilling in Alaska. If Mr Trump builds walls, the border he should protect is the American Arctic.
Global Warming
President-elect Donald J. Trump does not “believe in” global warming. Global warming is a fact. No American President has the right to kill the planet.
Endorsements
Mr Trump’s election does not bode well. The President-elect was endorsed by the National Rifle Association, whose members stand in the way of stricter gun-control, and by the Ku Klux Klan, who are white supremacists and nativist. Shame on him! It will be a white United States.
Problematical Areas
Social programmes
The Middle East
My main concern is the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Americans pay their taxes and should be protected.
As for the Middle East, rumour has it that Mr Trump will join Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Putin in their attempt to crush Daesh (Isil). What about the Syrian Civil War? Eleven million Syrians—Muslims, mostly but also Christians, have had to flee Syria not only because of Isil, or terrorism, but also because of President Bashar al-Assad’s autocratic régime. President Assad’s forces have killed thousands of Syrians and have resorted to the use of chemical weapons.
With all due respect to the Electoral College, Mr Trump is unfit to deal with the conflict in the Middle East.
Conclusion
It all began with the Migrant Crisis. The result of the British referendum, Brexit, which took place on 23 June 2016, inaugurated a wave of nativism. It weakened the European Union. Nativism then swept across several countries, including the United States. Mr Trump’s promise to prevent Muslims from entering the United States is nativistic and populist. The President-elect’s decision to build a wall separating the United States is also nativistic and populist. In short, the American election was a Russian-assisted, populist, and undemocratic Republican victory.
I expect to post one or two articles before Christmas, but would like to wish you a very merry Christmas at this time.
Love to everyone♥
—ooo—
A Christmas Special with Luciano Pavarotti (1978)
at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Montréal, joined by a boys choir, Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal, and an adult choir, Les Disciples de Massenet
conductor: Franz-Paul Decker
For instance, Rousseau criticized Molière’s Misanthrope, because the playwright had juxtaposed in one character, Alceste, “l’homme de bien” (the good man) and “l’homme emporté” (the angry man).Professor Jules Brody has described Alceste and Dom Juan as “morally” in the right but “esthetically” in the wrong.[2] Alceste is right when he says about courtiers that they are not necessarily sincere. However, we also know that an angry Alceste criticizes courtiers because he cannot tell whether or not they are sincere when they pay him a compliment. This is the reason why Rousseau called him “unhomme emporté [angry].” Alceste gets angry.
The faults Alceste found in courtiers were frequently very real, but a superficial reading of the Misanthrope or limited exposure to the play do not allow the reader or spectator to realize that Alceste himself needs to be validated to such an extent that genuine praise and compliments are as important to him as a seemingly devout Tartuffe is to Orgon (Tartuffe). Alceste threatens to leave Paris and live in a desert, a location outside Paris, and will not marry Célimène unless she follows him, which she cannot and will not do. After he has settled in a desert, Alceste will probably forever return to court, or, metaphorically, to Célimène. At the end of the Misanthrope, the curtain falls on an empty stage. Philinte, Le Misanthrope‘s raisonneur, and Éliante, a woman Alceste could have married but will marry Philinte, are leaving so they to can help Alceste.
François Boucher (dessins ) & Laurent Cars (gravures) Le Tartuffe; L’Avare L’École des femmes; La Critique de l’École des femmes
Le Tartuffe by François Boucher
L’Avare by François Boucher & Laurent Cars
L’École des femmes
La Critique de l’École des femmes
Children wishing their father were dead
In L’Avare, Molière also created characters wishing the death of Harpagon, a tyrannical miser. In the best of all possible worlds, children love their parents and parents love their children. Harpagon, however, loves his money more than he loves his children, Cléante and Élise. Before the anagnorisis, Mariane, who loves Cléante, Harpagon’s son, tells Frosine, a matchmaker, that she wishes Harpagon were dead, which she says is strange. Cléante also wishes his father were dead and tells his valet La Flèche. Yet, despite his cruelty, Harpagon remains a father and his children resent finding fault with him.
Mon Dieu, Frosine, c’est une étrange affaire, lorsque pour être heureuse, il faut souhaiter ou attendre le trépas de quelqu’un, et la mort ne suit pas tous les projets que nous faisons. (Mariane à Frosine, III. iv)
[Oh, Frosine! What a strange state of things that, in order to be happy, we must look forward to the death of another. Yet death will not fall in with all the projects we make.] [Mariane to Frosine, III. 8]
Que veux-tu que j’y fasse ? Voilà où les jeunes gens sont réduits par la maudite avarice des pères ; et on s’étonne après cela que les fils souhaitent qu’ils meurent. (Cléante à La Flèche, II. i)
[What would you have me do? It is to this that young men are reduced by the accursed avarice of their fathers; and people are astonished after that, that sons long for their death.] [Cléante to La Flèche, II. 1] [eBook #6923]
Rousseau is indignant:[3]
« C’est un grand vice assurément d’être avare et de prêter à usure, mais n’en est-ce pas un plus grand encore à un fils de voler son père, de lui manquer de respect, de lui faire les plus insultants reproches, et quand ce père irrité lui donne sa malédiction, de répondre d’un air goguenard, qu’il n’a que faire de ses dons ? Si la plaisanterie est excellente en est-elle moins punissable ? Et la pièce où l’on fait aimer le fils insolent qui l’a faite, en est-elle moins une école de mauvaises mœurs ? »
[It is no doubt a fault to be a miser and a usurer, but isn’t it a greater fault for a son to rob his father and to be disrespectful towards him, to heap upon him insulting blame and, when this irritated father curses him, to answer mockingly that he has no use for his gifts? If the joke is witty, is it less punishable? And is the play where the father is depicted as a loving father, any less a school for vice?]
Yet, after it is revealed that Anselme is Dom Thomas d’Alburcy, Valère and Mariane’s wealthy father, the miser is so happy to learn that his cassette will be returned to him that he abandons his project to remarry. His son Cléante will marry Mariane, Dom Thomas d’Alburcy’s daughter and the woman Harpagon wished to take as a wife.
Dom Juan: le Grand Seigneur méchant homme
Dom Juan is a Grand Seigneur méchant homme, a great lord and a bad man who is felled by heaven itself. In his duality, Dom Juan resembles Le Misanthrope‘s Alceste, homme de bien and homme emporté (Rousseau). In fact, in Dom Juan, a masterful Molière created a dark version of his apparently virtuous Alceste, the misanthrope. Célimène, whom Alceste wishes to marry, belongs not to a corrupt as much as a frivolous court. Molière will not condemn court altogether. The courtiers Célimène’s portraits amuse have read Charles Sorel‘s Lois de la galanterie. Moreover, she knows that when age has tarnished her charm, she may well be a prude, a role, or function, played by the Misanthrope‘s Arsinoé. The world Arsinoé criticizes is the very world that had been sustenance to her in earlier and better years.
Il est une saison pour la galanterie, Il en est une, aussi, propre à la pruderie ; On peut, par politique, en prendre le parti, Quand de nos jeunes ans, l’éclat est amorti ; Cela sert à couvrir de fâcheuses disgrâces. (Célimène à Arsinoé, III. iii, 975 – 79)
[There is an age for love-affairs, methinks,
And there’s an age that’s fit for prudery.
It may be policy to choose the second
When youth is gone and all its glamour faded,
For that may serve to hide a sorry downfall.] [Célimène to Arsinoé, III. 3]
As for Dom Juan himself, he has redeeming features. He is not the demonic figure his valet Sganarelle describes to Dom Gusman, Elvira’s horseman, in the first act of Dom Juan:
[m]ais par précaution, je t’apprends (inter nos,) que tu vois en Dom Juan, mon maître, le plus grand scélérat que la terre ait jamais porté, un enragé, un chien, un diable, un Turc, un hérétique, qui ne croit ni Ciel, ni Enfer, ni loup-garou, qui passe cette vie en véritable bête brute, en pourceau d’Epicure,en vrai Sardanapale, qui ferme l’oreille à toutes les remontrances qu’on lui peut faire, et traite de billevesées tout ce que nous croyons. (Sganarelle à Don Gusman, I. i)
[Still, as a warning, inter nos, I would teach you that you will find in Don Juan, my master, the greatest renegade that the earth has ever endured, a wild man, a dog, a devil, a Turk, a heretic, who does not believe in Heaven, Hell, or the Wolf-man, who disports in this life as a thoroughly brute beast, a pig of Epicurus, a true Sardanapalus, who closes his ears to all Christian remonstrances that one could make to him, and treats all that we believe as empty words.] [Sganarelle to Don Gusman, I. 1, p. 3]
However when Dom Juan enters, he asks Sganarelle if perhaps the person who was speaking to him could have been Done Elvire’s “good” Gusman:
Quel homme te parlait là, Il a bien de l’air ce me semble du bon Gusman de Done Elvire ? (I. ii)
Who were you just speaking to? He looked a little like the good Gusman of Donna Elvira. [Dom Juan to Sganarelle, I. 2, p. 4]
According to Jules Brody, Molière’s Dom Juan has committed a “single crime,” so all is not lost:
His single crime, after all, consists not in having lured Done Elvire out of her convent, but, rather, in having married and abandoned her. (Brody, p. 568)
The difficulty would lie in the fact that Dom Juan cannot love a person who loves him.[4] He must feel jealous. If he does not fear losing a woman he loves, he cannot love. Molière’s Dom Juan is more of a jaloux than he is a seducer.
Mais lorsqu’on en est maître une fois, il n’y a plus rien à dire ni rien à souhaiter ; tout le beau de la passion est fini, et nous nous endormons dans la tranquillité d’un tel amour, si quelque objet nouveau ne vient réveiller nos désirs, et présenter à notre cœur les charmes. (I. ii) [But let us be master once, nothing more is left to say or to wish; the beautiful part of passion is done, and we would sink into the tranquility of such a love, if some new object did not come to awaken our desires, and present to our heart the alluring charms of another conquest.] [I. 2, p. 6]
However, Dom Juan has also trivialized God himself, which is not a mere detail. He will not repent.
Non, non, il ne sera pas dit, quoi qu’il arrive, que je sois capable de me repentir,
allons, suis-moi. (V. v)
[No, no, it will never be said, whatever happens, that I repented. Now, follow me.]
Dom Juan. [V.v, p. 61]
Conclusion
Rousseau questioned the morality of theatre and in particular Molière’s Misanthrope and Miser, L’Avare (1668). Rousseau wrote to d’Alembert when a theatre was under construction in Geneva. It was a private letter, but d’Alembert published it. As noted above, a first or superficial reading of Molière’s plays, Le Misanthrope in particular, may bring confusion as to the morality of his comedies. So could attending one performance of both Dom Juan (1665) and Le Misanthrope (1666). The rapidity inherent to performances may condition a text.
Reading plays and examining such elements as their structure is more likely tolead to a better grasp of their meaning. The doubling of functions,the intervention of a deus ex machina, ananagnorisis, the use of a pharmakos(a scapegoat), incongruities, and other factors may be extremely revealing.A title, such as Dom Juan, may also condition a play. Dom Juan is a reputed seducer, but Molière’s Dom Juan is unconvincing in this regard (see II. 1-5, pp. 12-28). He is not as Sganarelle depicts him. Returning home to his wife could rehabilitate him. However, he has killed the commandeur and his name is Dom Juan. He is therefore invited to a festin de pierre, a feast of stones. Led by the Statue, he is engulfed into an abyss.
In short, Molière’s plays may skirt what is deemed unacceptable. He did have to rewrite his Tartuffe twice because it was considered an attack on devotion, rather than an attack on hypocrisy. However, hypocrisy was attacked and the hypocrite, Tartuffe, used casuistry shortly after the publication of Blaise Pascal‘s Lettres provinciales, written in 1656-1657.
As for L’Avare, Harpagon is forcing his daughter Élise to marry Anselme while he, the miser, marries Mariane, who loves Cléante, Harpagon’s son. Were it not for an anagnorisis and the kindness of Dom Thomas d’Alburcy, Valère and Mariane’s reportedly lost father, Élise and Mariane may have had to enter a forced marriage.
Yet, Rousseau’s critique of Molière is not to be trivialized. It had the benefit of introducing a very long discussion on an enigmatic Molière. In Dom Juan, the jeune premier, the young man who wishes to marry, Dom Juan himself, marries and leaves his wife before the play begins. He will not give money to the poor unless he swears (III. ii) [III. 2, p. 34] and he challenges God Himself. He will settle his dues with God.
Va, va, c’est une affaire entre le Ciel et moi, et nous la démêlerons bien ensemble, sans que tu t’en mettes en peine. (Dom Juan à Sganarelle, I. ii)
[That’s enough. It’s an issue between Heaven and me, and we get along just fine without bothering yourself about it.] [Dom Juan to Sganarelle. I. 2, p. 7]
In remote antiquity, the old king may have been put to death leaving room for a new generation, a younger society. This happened on the day of the longest night, the winter Solstice. French 17th-century comedies kept alive the spirit of the Kōmos, a “drunken procession” and the Saturnalia, an equinoctial reversal of roles. (See Wikipedia.)
____________________ [1] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Lettre à M. d’Alembert, in Du Contrat social (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 1962), p. 154. [2] Jules Brody, “Don Juan” and “Le Misanthrope,” or The Esthetics of Individualism in Molière, PMLA 84 (1969), pp. 559 -576. [3] See Jean-Jacques Rousseau, op. cit. [4]Madame de La Fayette‘s La Princesse de Clèves (1678), a novel, is the finest French 17th- century portrayal of jealous love. [5] Anne Ubersfeld, Lire le théâtre (Paris : Éditions sociales, 1978).
Allow me comment briefly on the Ohio “heartbeat” bill, anti-abortion legislation.
First, I would like to note that opposing abortion seems to have become a requisite for would-be Republican representatives. There comes a point when moral correctness must be ascertained and the test is opposition to abortion. This anti-abortion statement has been effective in areas where intolerance to everything, including “classical” music, is widespread.
I hope no Republican political candidate ever has to approve the Ohio “heartbeat” test.
The Ohio “heartbeat” bill
For instance, the Ohio ‘heartbeat’ bill (Wikipedia) seems a disguised anti-abortion bill. If a heartbeat can be detected at six or seven weeks during a pregnancy, it may be detected at nearly the same time a woman learns that she is pregnant or very soon thereafter. It may therefore preclude an abortion on any grounds. At such an early stage in a pregnancy it may be difficult to determine that a woman is fit to carry a baby and give birth. It may also be difficult to determine the condition of the fetus. In fact, at that stage in pregnancy, a woman may not have had the time to see a doctor. The bill is therefore unrealistic.
But, let us first clear the deck. The author of this post has never had an abortion and would not encourage a woman to undergo an abortion unless circumstances dictated such a procedure. For the record, the author’s mother lost a large number of babies to a congenital blood disease. These babies were born after a normal pregnancy, but died a few days or a few weeks after birth. The author’s mother was forbidden the use of contraceptives under pain of excommunication. She was a devout Roman Catholic. (See Religion and birth control, Wikipedia.)
Opposing abortion can earn a Republican candidate many votes and has done so. But are we about to coerce women into a pregnancy? Not only is the “heartbeat” bill unrealistic, but it does not accommodate most of the conditions that justify or dictate an abortion. Many factors militate against a pregnancy. Age is a factor. A woman may be too old or she may still be a child. Moreover, if at the time of conception the woman was medicated, that medication may have seriously jeopardized the health of the fetus. There are pregnancies that must be terminated, which most politicians know little about.
If the “heartbeat” bill is voted into law and a pregnancy proves inadvisable, a doctor may no longer be able to intervene, in which case a woman would have no recourse. Despair may lead her to commit suicide. If a desperate woman commits suicide, I should think she was not fit to be pregnant to begin with and two lives would be lost. Having no safe medical recourse may also lead women to seek the services of backstreet abortionists who do not know what they are doing and may cause irreparable harm. Moreover, in the case of a life-threatening pregnancy, a woman could die and a pregnancy would have caused her death.
We should perhaps look at genocidal rape. This discussion began primarily as a result of the Armenian Genocide. Several studies conducted following massive genocidal rape have led to the recognition that forced pregnancies are “crimes against humanityif part of a widespread or systematic practice.” (See Forced pregnancy, Wikipedia.)
“Rape, sexual slavery, and related actions including forced pregnancy and sexual slavery, are now recognized under the Geneva Convention ascrimes against humanityandwar crimes;in particular from 1949, Article 27 of theFourth Geneva Convention, and later also the 1977 Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, explicitly prohibit wartime rape and enforced prostitution. TheRome StatuteExplanatory Memorandum, which defines the jurisdiction of theInternational Criminal Court, recognises rape,sexual slavery,forced prostitution, and forced pregnancy ascrimes against humanityif part of a widespread or systematic practice.” (See Forced pregnancy, Wikipedia.)
Coercion
In the case of the Ohio “heartbeat” bill, forced pregnancies would not be “part of a widespread or systematic practice,” but forced pregnancies would remain forced pregnancies. Several years ago, an eminent professor of psychiatry and the author of several books told me that most women never recover from rape. If such is the case, can we expect rape victims to recover from the forced pregnancy that ensues.
It would be my opinion that, in the area of sexuality, coercion is particularly unacceptable. For all practical purposes, the Ohio heartbeat bill is an anti-abortion bill and, as such, coercive. No condition would warrant an abortion. A woman would therefore be subjected to a forced pregnancy and that forced pregnancy may harm and perhaps destroy her.
We do not know precisely when life begins, but we do know that the “heartbeat” of a pregnant woman, or female child, is detectable, that her brain is fully developed, and that she is conscious.
Ironically, people who oppose abortion are also advocates of the death penalty and may have no respect for the environment. There seems to be a profile to these individuals. For one thing, they would be punitive but they also sorely lack any form of compassion.
I doubt very much that respect for life guided Ohio lawmakers. The welfare of women was not taken into consideration, which is disrespect for the life of a woman. In an earlier post, I wrote that we could not let women suffer and die because of a pregnancy. Savita Halappanavar had the right to live.
In Ireland abortion is banned upon implantation. Savita Halappanavar was denied an abortion while the hospital could still detect a heartbeat, leading to her eventual death. (Fetal hearbeat bill, Wikipedia.)
Vice President-elect Mike Pence asserted Tuesday night that the Trump administration will have an aggressive first 100 days in office that includes rebuilding the military, repealing Obamacare, and naming a justice to the Supreme Court.
The Indiana governor and former U.S. House member said he has visited Capitol Hill about the agenda and issued a warning to GOP lawmakers.
“I told my former colleagues to buckle up, vacation is over,” Pence said to laughter from the audience.
“I told my former colleagues to buckle up, vacation is over,” Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a former Indiana congressman, said at a Heritage Foundation event Tuesday. (Photo: Max Becherer/Polaris/Newscom)
Pence spoke Tuesday night at The Heritage Foundation’s President’s Club Meeting, held at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., in front of about 700 people in the large ballroom. His speech came just 44 days before Donald Trump is…
FILE – In this Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016 file photo, President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump shake hands following their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. As president-elect, Trump is calling for unity in words that draw attention precisely because they sound so unlike Trump, the candidate. But many question whether it is possible to reverse the campaign’s damage to political discourse and its ripples out to the way Americans speak to and about each other. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
I am finishing a slightly longer post, on Molière, but glanced at the New Yorker which contained a short article written by journalist Andy Borowitz who publishes humorous material.
Obama Politely Asks Trump to Wait Until Inauguration Before Destroying World
A few weeks ago, the unthinkable was electing Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States.
It appears that Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and US President Donald Trump will join forces to fight Daesh (ISIL).
In the words of an academic…
On 26 November, I read an alarming article published in a Sherbrooke, Quebec’s local newspaper. Its author is University of Sherbrooke Applied Political Science Professor Emeritus Gilles Vandal. According to Professor Vandal, in the 1980s, Mr Trump studied Adolf Hitler‘s Mein Kampf (My Struggle).He then hired Roy Cohn as his lawyer who taught him how to cheat the system, how to destroy evidence to avoid lawsuits, to refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing and not to hesitate to lie, if necessary.
… dans les années 1980, Donald Trump trouvait son inspiration dans Mein Kampf et les discours de Hitler d’avant 1939. De plus, il a été à l’école de Roy Cohn, le principal adjoint de Joe McCarthy. Trump s’est adjoint Cohn comme principal avocat. Ce dernier lui a enseigné comme tricher avec le système, comment détruire des preuves pour éviter de se faire poursuivre, l’importance en toute chose de refuser de reconnaître ses torts et de ne pas hésiter à mentir si c’était nécessaire. Gilles Vandal, « L’Univers raciste de Trump », La Tribune, le 26 novembre 2016, p. 17.
As indicated in a previous post, Molière‘s L’Avare, The Miser, was first performed on 9 September 1668 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. It is a five-act play, in prose, inspired by Roman dramatist Plautus‘ (254 – 148 BCE) Aulularia, the Pot of Gold. As we have seen, it is also rooted in the commedia dell’arte as well as Italian comedies and tales, and in France’s own medieval farces and the largely scatologicalfabliaux.
However, Molière also drew his material from La Belle Plaideuse (1655), by François le Métel de Boisrobert, which features a father-as-usurer, and Jean Donneau de Visé‘s La Mère coquette (1665), where a father and son are in love with the same woman.[1]
L’Avare is one of Molière’s better-known comedies and it was translated into English by Thomas Shadwell (1772) and Henry Fielding, the author of Tom Jones. However, it was not a huge success in Molière’s own days. It has been speculated that Molière’s audience expected a play written in verse, the nobler alexandrine verse (12 feet or syllables), first used in the twelfth-century Roman d’Alexandre.
Harpagon, father toCléante, in love withMariane. Cléante, Harpagon’sson, lover toMarianne. Valère, son toAnselme, lover toÉlise, and “intendant” to Harpagon Anselme / Dom Thomas d’Alburcy, father toValèreandMariane, and Master Simon, broker. Master Jacques, cook and coachman toHarpagon. La Flèche, valet toCléante. Brindavoine, andLa Merluche, lackeys toHarpagon. A Magistrateand hisClerk. Élise, daughter toHarpagon. Mariane, daughter toAnselme. Frosine, an intriguing woman. Mistress Claude, servant toHarpagon.
The scene is at Paris, in Harpagon’s house.
Act One
We will be focusing on the manner in which the young couples featured in the Miser, L’Avare, manage to overcome the obstacle to their marriage. Short of a miracle, they are condemned to do as their father’s greed dictates. All the elements of L’Avare’s plot are introduced in the first act of the play, which reflects the Græco-Roman origins of comedy and tragedy. As a five-act play, Molière’s L’Avare is a ‘grande comédie,’ not a farce (Molière wrote both), and its plot is the archetypal struggle, also called the agôn, between, on the one hand, the alazṓn of Greek comedy, or the blocking character, and, on the other hand, the eirôn, the young couple and their supporters: valets, maids, zanni. In other words, it is a traditional blondin-berne-barbon plot. The young couples will succeed in marrying.
A Comedy of Manners and A Comedy of Intrigue
doublings: two young couples and two fathers
Harpagon is the father of Élise and Cléante
Anselme is Valère and Mariane’s father, which we do not know until the fifth act (V. v) of the comedy
L’Avare is both a comedy of manners, a form we inherited mostly from Greek dramatist Menander, and a comédie d’intrigue, a comedy where the plot prevails. As the portrayal of a miser, L’Avare is a comedy of manners (see the full text in Wikisource and eBook #6923). Harpagon’s greed constitutes the obstacle to the marriage of Cléante (Harpagon) and Mariane as well as the marriage of Valère and Élise (Harpagon).
Cléante gambles and wins, which allows him to buy elegant clothes and court Mariane, but he does not have sufficient money to marry and must therefore go to a moneylender. Ironically, the moneylender happens to be Harpagon himself who demands no less than the now metaphorical “pound of flesh” (Shylock) as repayment. The moneylender episode—act two, scene two (II. i) [II. 2]—shows to what extent Harpagon’s greed is an obstacle to the marriage of our young couples. The plot advances in that Cléante cannot obtain a loan that might enable his marriage. Another “trick” must be devised. However, plot and manners (greed) are inextricably woven.
Obstacles to Two Marriages
“genre” art
a family tyrant
The action takes place in Harpagon’s house in Paris and can be described as genre art, a depiction of ordinary people engaged in ordinary activities. Will G Moore has remarked that Molière’s characters
“[a]re concerned with everyday life; the stuff of which it was made was by tradition the doings of ordinary people in ordinary surroundings.”[2]
L’Avare is a five-act comedy, but it is written in prose, not verse, and Harpagon, our blocking character, is an enriched bourgeois. Although he does not feed his horse properly, he owns a carriage and he has servants. As depicted by François Boucher, the interior of his house is rather elegant. However, he is extremely greedy and he behaves as though he owned his children. He is a domestic tyrant. In act one, Harpagon states that he has arranged for his children to marry, but has not consulted them. Cléante will marry a “certain widow,” our tyrant has just heard of, and Élise will be “given” to Mr. Anselme, a gentleman who will not request the customary dowry, or “sans dot”
Quant à ton frère, je lui destine une certaine veuve dont ce matin on m’est venu parler; et, pour toi, je te donne au seigneur Anselme. (Harpagon to Élise, [I. iv])
[As to your brother, I have thought for him of a certain widow, of whom I heard this morning; and you I shall give to Mr. Anselme. [1. 6] [eBook #6923]
Élise does not know Mr Anselme and refuses to marry him, threatening to commit suicide. As for Harpagon, he plans to marry Mariane, who loves his son (Cléante). For Harpagon, Mr Anselme is a perfect choice because Élise will marry at no cost to the miser: “sans dot.” (I. iv FR) (I. 6 EN)
Harpagon’s Rigidity
Valère will attempt to save Élise from a marriage to a person other than himself. Valère, Harpagon’s “intendant,” begs Harpagon to free Élise. However, the objections he presents are followed by Harpagon’s “sans dot” (without a dowry). Molière’s blocking characters are inflexible or rigid. This rigidity is the feature Henri Bergson (18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) attached to the comical or comedic in his Laughter. Valère’s objections having been rebuked by a litany of “sans dot,” he is literally speechless. He simply repeats what the Harpagon, the miser, has told him:
Lorsqu’on s’offre de prendre une fille sans dot, on ne doit point regarder plus avant. Tout est renfermé là-dedans, et sans dot tient lieu de beauté, de jeunesse, de naissance, d’honneur, de sagesse, et de probité. (Valère à Harpagon, I. v)
[When a man offers to marry a girl without a dowry, we ought to look no farther. Everything is comprised in that, and “without dowry” compensates for want of beauty, youth, birth, honour, wisdom, and probity.] (I. 10) [eBook #6923]
But there is some hope. As the story goes, Valère’s father, Dom Thomas d’Alburcy, is believed to have drowned when he and his family (his wife, Valère and Mariane) were fleeing Naples. It appears, however, that Dom Thomas has survived and that he is a man of means. Valère was looking for him when he met Élise. At her request, he decided to stay near her and made himself Harpagon’s “intendant,” but someone else is looking for Valère’s father.
Mais enfin, si je puis, comme je l’espère, retrouver mes parents, nous n’aurons pas beaucoup de peine à nous le rendre favorable. J’en attends des nouvelles avec impatience, et j’en irai chercher moi-même, si elles tardent à venir. (I. i)
[However, if I can find my parents, as I fully hope I shall, they will soon be favourable to us. I am expecting news of them with great impatience; but if none comes I will go in search of them myself.] [I.1]
The curtain will then fall on an anagnorisis (V. v) [V. 5], a recognition scene. However, when Anselme enters Harpagon’s house and hears that there is opposition to the contract he has come to sign, he tells Harpagon that he will not coerce a woman into a mariage, which frees Élise. He also remarks that he will not “lay claim to a heart which has already bestowed itself,” thereby allowing Mariane, his daughter, to marry Cléante, Harpagon’s son, rather than Harpagon.
Ce n’est pas mon dessein de me faire épouser par force, et de rien prétendre à un cœur qui se serait donné ; mais pour vos intérêts, je suis prêt à les embrasser ainsi que les miens propres. (Anselme to Harpagon [V. v])
[It is not my intention to force anybody to marry me, and to lay claim to a heart which has already bestowed itself; but as far as your interests are concerned, I am ready to espouse them as if they were my own.] (V. 5) [eBook #6923]
Anselme seems a fine gentleman whom the anagnorisis(V. v) [V. 5], the dénouement (see Dramatic Structure, Wikipedia), will identify as Valère and Mariane’s father. A greedy Harpagon has chosen Anselme as the perfect groom because Anselme would marry Élise without requesting the customary dowry, or at no cost to the miser: “sans dot.” (I. v) [I. 5]
Qu’il faut manger pour vivre, et non pas vivre pour manger. (III. i)
Harpagon’s greed is enormous, so students are taught that Molière concentrates on manners rather than the plot. He does, but in L’Avare, although the plot is mainly episodic, manners and plot (intrigue) are inextricably linked. For instance, when Harpagon is having a meal prepared to celebrate the marriage(s) that are to take place that very day, Harpagon hears Valère say that il faut manger pour vivre and not vivre pour manger, that one should eat to live and not live to eat, Harpagon so loves Valère’s witty chiasmus, that he wants these words engraved in gold and placed above his fireplace. (III. i) [III. 1] It is unlikely that Harpagon would use gold to celebrate greed, but it is true to character and comical. The meal he is planning often ends comedies and may solemnize a wedding.
Moreover, it is a quiproquo, a comical misunderstanding which, in L’Avare, leads to the anagnorisis. When Harpagon realizes his cassette has disappeared and may have been stolen, he loses his composure and accuses Valère, at the instigation of Maître Jacques. Maître Jacques resents the trust Harpagon has placed in Valère. If he could, Harpagon would have Valère drawn and quartered. Valère has not stolen Harpagon’s cassette, but he and Élise have signed a promise to marry another. Valère has ‘robbed’ Harpagon, but it is Élise he has taken, not a cassette. (V. iii & iv) [V. 3 & 4] [eBook #6923]
Anselme first steps foot on the stage as the battle rages. Given Élise’s promise, he cannot and would not marry her. However, Valère stands accused of a theft and wants to tell his story. The anagnorisis has now begun. To give himself credibility, Valère says that he is the son of Dom Thomas d’Alburcy, which Anselme hesitates to believe because he is a friend of Dom Those and, to his knowledge, all members of Dom Thomas’ family drowned as they were trying to flee Naples, which is not the case.Valère says that he was rescued by Pedro, a servant, and later adopted by the captain of the ship he and Pedro were allowed to board. He can prove his identity. As he speaks, Mariane realizes that Valère is her brother.
For their part, Mariane and her mother were also saved, but their helpers were corsaires, pirates, who enslaved them. Following ten years of enslavement, they were released and they returned to Naples where they could not find Dom Thomas d’Alburcy. They therefore picked up a small inheritance in Genoa and moved to Paris. Mariane’s mother is Valère’s mother and Dom Thomas d’Alburcy’s wife. As he watches this scene, Dom Thomas learns that no member of his family died leaving Naples. He has just found his children and his wife. He would not stand in the way of Valère and Mariane’s marriage who wish to marry Harpagon’s children. Le sieur Anselme knows le sieur Harpagon.
Le Ciel, mes enfants, ne me redonne point à vous, pour être contraire à vos vœux. Seigneur Harpagon, vous jugez bien que le choix d’une jeune personne tombera sur le fils plutôt que sur le père. Allons, ne vous faites point dire ce qu’il n’est point nécessaire d’entendre, et consentez ainsi que moi à ce double hyménée. (V. v)
[Heaven, my dear children, has not restored you to me that I might oppose your wishes. Mr. Harpagon, you must be aware that the choice of a young girl is more likely to fall upon the son than upon the father. Come, now, do not force people to say to you what is unnecessary, and consent, as I do, to this double marriage.] [V. 5] [eBook #6923]
Doublings
Molière’s L’Avare has an intrigue which resembles the intrigue of most comedies. A young couple wishes to marry, but a blocking character, or alazṓn, prevents their marriage. However, Molière has doubled the young couple who are a brother and sister wishing to marry a brother and a sister, so Molière has therefore doubled the father figure which happens during the anagnorisis. As Dom Thomas d’Alburcy, Anselme is the eirôn who allows the young couples to marry.
The anagnorisis, the recognition scene, does not take place unannounced. As mentioned earlier, as he despairs,Valère tells Élise that he hopes to find his father who may still be alive. Act one (I. i) [I. 1] has prepared the reader or spectator:
Mais enfin, si je puis comme je l’espère, retrouver mes parents, nous n’aurons pas beaucoup de peine à nous le rendre favorable. (Valère à Élise, I. i)
[However, if I can find my parents, as I fully hope I shall, they will soon be favourable to us.] [I. 1] [eBook #6923]
Der Geizigue, Harpagon & La Flèche by August Wilhelm Iffland, 1810 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Comments
In L’Avare, Molière does not use a deus ex machina. He simply introduces a second father figure who will allow the young couples to marry and will pay all costs. L’Avare‘s young couple are in fact very resourceful, but one cannot marry without money. Mariane (Dom Thomas) recoils at wishing Harpagon’s death, feelings that are reciprocated by Cléante (Harpagon).
Mon Dieu, Frosine, c’est une étrange affaire, lorsque pour être heureuse, il faut souhaiter ou attendre le trépas de quelqu’un, et la mort ne suit pas tous les projets que nous faisons. (Mariane à Frosine, III. iv)
[Oh, Frosine! What a strange state of things that, in order to be happy, we must look forward to the death of another. Yet death will not fall in with all the projects we make.] [III. 8] [eBook #6923]
Que veux-tu que j’y fasse ? Voilà où les jeunes gens sont réduits par la maudite avarice des pères ; et on s’étonne après cela que les fils souhaitent qu’ils meurent. (II. i)
[What would you have me do? It is to this that young men are reduced by the accursed avarice of their fathers; and people are astonished after that, that sons long for their death.] [II. 1] [eBook #6923]
When his father falls, accidentally, Cléante is worried:
Qu’est-ce, mon père, vous êtes-vous fait mal ? (III. ix)
[What’s the matter, father? Have you hurt yourself?] [III. 14] [eBook #6923]
Critic Northrop Frye states that “[t]he tendency of comedy is to include as many people as possible in its final society: the blocking characters are more often reconciled or converted than simply repudiated.”[3]
As for Harpagon, although he may he has been tyrannical, when Dom Thomas and the young couples leave to bring good news to Dom Thomas’ wife, Harpagon is off to see his dear cassette. His cassette, a casket, his vital to Harpagon.
Et moi, voir ma chère cassette. (I. vi)
And I to see my dear casket. [1. 6] [eBook #6923]
Conclusion
I have already suggested that Molière uses doubling and fusion of functions.[4] Harpagon is a miser and will remain a miser ready to sacrifice his children. It is a sad reflection on humanity but perhaps less sad than the intervention of a deus ex machina. Dom Thomas d’Alburcy is a major member of the play’s society, the intervention of a second father figure allows the happy ending the play demands. An anagnorisis may not be as dazzling a dénouement as the intervention of a deus ex machina, the prince in Tartuffe and a godlike figure inDom Juan, but all’s well that ends well.
____________________ [1]L’Avare in Maurice Rat, Œuvres complètes de Molière (Paris : Éditions Gallimard, coll. La Pléiade, 1956), p. 968. [2]Will G. Moore, Molière, a New Criticism (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1968 [1949], pp. 69-70. [3] Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973 [1957]), p. 165. [4]Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, « Le Misanthrope,oula comédie éclatée, » in David Trott & Nicole Boursier, eds. L’Âge du théâtre en France (Edmonton, Alberta: Academic Printing and Publishing, 1988 ), 53 – 63. (papers from a conference held in Toronto, May 14 – 16, 1987) ISBN 0-920980-30-9 — PQ527.A33 1988
Saint Nicholas, 
© Micheline Walker
By Fred Lucas ~
