Tag Archives: Comédie-Ballet

Molière’s “Sicilien” or “Love makes the Painter”

14 Tuesday May 2019

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Although Le Sicilien ou l’amour peintre forms part of Isaac de Benserade’s Ballet des Muses, and is a comédie-ballet, written by Molière and composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully, it differs from the third entrée: the incomplete Mélicerte and Comic Pastoral. Mélicerte and the Comic Pastoral were pièces de circonstance or plays written for a momentary event. The mourning period that followed the death of Anne d’Autriche, Louis XIV’s mother, was drawing to a close and would give way to festivities that were to take place at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. In other words, these were pièces de circonstance, momentary plays. Molière never wrote the third act of Mélicerte FR and removed the Comédie pastorale‘s FR theatrical scenes. Le Sicilien ou l’Amour peintre was written and published during Molière’s lifetime.

Moreover, in Le Sicilien, gone are shepherds and shepherdesses. These inhabited the literature of an earlier seventeenth century. The second half of the seventeenth century is often referred to as le Grand Siècle (1661-1715). Louis XIV’s reign began in 1661. The quest for a Golden Age is a permanent feature of literature, and would characterize eighteenth-century fêtes galantes. These would be oniriques, or dream-like. As for Le Sicilien ou l’Amour peintre, its main subject matter would be galanterie and the galant homme. Adraste, disguised as an artist and a Frenchman, is a galant homme. Juxtaposed to Adraste is Dom Pèdre, whose jealous nature keeps him from learning the spellbinding words of galanterie. He loves Isidore, a freed Greek slave, but he so fears losing her that he doesn’t use the words that could endear him to her. We remember l’École des femmes, The School for Wives‘ Arnolphe. 

In fact, one could sum up Le Sicilen ou l’Amour peintre by quoting The School for Wives (L’École des femmes). Arnolphe is too jealous to make himself loved. He admonishes Agnès, innocence personified, but Horace knows the appropriate “deux mots,” couple of words, that make him attractive.

Tenez, tous vos discours ne me touchent point l’âme.
Horace avec deux mots en ferait plus que vous.
Agnès à Arnolphe (V. iv, p. 73)
[All you say does not touch my heart.
Horace could do more with a couple of words.]
Agnès to Arnolphe (V. 4. p. 157)

L'école de femmes par Joullain

Le Sicilien par Ed. Héd.

Le Sicilien attribué à Edmond Hédouin (théâtre.documentation)

Le Sicilien ou l’Amour peintre (The Sicilian; or, Love Makes the Painter)

Le Sicilien ou l’Amour peintre is a one-act pastoral and comédie-ballet. The Ballet des Muses consisted of ballets mainly. Voltaire loved it. He wrote: « C’est la seule petite pièce en un acte où il y ait de la grâce. »[1] ‟It is the only little play in one act that has grace.” Molière had graced his one-act Sicilien and, although it was performed as the last ballet at Saint-Germain, it was also performed in Paris. It fared better at Saint-Germain than in Paris, which does not make it a lesser play. However, finding roots is difficult. One may grope, but Molière’s earlier plays are his main source.

Our dramatis personæ are

DON PEDRO, a Sicilian gentleman
ADRASTE, a French gentleman, in love with Isidore
ISIDORE, a Greek girl, Don Pedro’s slave.
A SENATOR. HALT, a Turk, Adraste’s slave.
ZAIDE, a young slave girl.*
Two SERVANTS. MUSICIANS. A SLAVE, singing. SLAVES, dancing. MOORS OF BOTH SEXES, dancing.
*Zaïde is CLIMÈNE, Adraste’s sister.

Adraste would like to speak to Isidore.

In scene five, he complains that Don Pedre is keeping Isidore out of sight. He has seen her and believes they are in love, but he tells Hali that it seems impossible to speak to Isidore. Lovers need to speak to one another.

Quoi! tous nos soins seront, donc, inutiles? et, toujours, ce fâcheux jaloux se moquera de nos desseins?
Adraste à Hali (Sc. v, p. 6)
[What ! Shall all our trouble be for nothing ? Shall this tiresome, jealous fellow always laugh at our attempts?]
Adraste to Hali (Sc. v, p. 65)

Non, le courroux du point d’honneur me prend; il ne sera pas dit qu’on triomphe de mon adresse; ma qualité de fourbe s’indigne de tous ces obstacles; et je prétends faire éclater les talents que j’ai eus du Ciel.
Hali à Adraste (Sc. v, p. 6)
[No. I get angry, and my honour is at stake; it shall not be said that anyone has outwitted me. My reputation as a rogue disdains all these obstacles ; and I am determined to show the talents that Heaven has given me.]
Hali to Adraste (Sc. 5, p. 66)

A stratagem is planned. Pedro will be fooled into thinking that Adraste is Damon, an artist who is supposed to paint a portrait of Isidore. Don Pedro introduces the artist:

Voici un gentilhomme que Damon nous envoie, qui se veut bien donner la peine de vous peindre.
Dom Pèdre à Isidore (Sc. xi, p. 13)
[This is a gentleman whom Damon sends us, and who will be kind enough to undertake your portrait.]
Don Pedro to Isidore (Sc.12, p. 72)

When he meets Isidore, the artist embraces her, so Don Pedro is miffed. Isidore, however, “accepts this honour:”

Holà, Seigneur Français, cette façon de saluer n’est  point d’usage en ce pays. (Don Pedro)
[Hullo! Sir Frenchman, this way of saluting is not the fashion in this country.]
C’est la manière de France. (Adraste)
[It is the fashion of France.]
La manière de France est bonne pour vos femmes; mais pour les nôtres, elle est, un peu, trop familière. (Don Pedro)
[The fashion of France may suit your ladies; but for ours, it is somewhat too familiar.]
Je reçois cet honneur avec beaucoup de joie; l’aventure me surprend fort; et, pour dire le vrai, je ne m’attendais pas d’avoir un peintre si illustre. (Isidore)
[I accept this honour with much pleasure. The adventure surprises me immensely; and, to tell the truth I did not expect to have such an illustrious painter.]
(Sc. xi, p. 13/Sc.12, p. 72)

Despite the presence of Dom Pèdre, Adraste courts Isidore whom, until then, he has only seen. Isidore doesn’t know whether he is truthful, but Adraste is convincing:

Oui, charmante Isidore, mes regards vous le disent depuis plus de deux mois, et vous les avez entendus: je vous aime plus que tout ce que l’on peut aimer, et je n’ai point d’autre pensée, d’autre but, d’autre passion, que d’être à vous toute ma vie.
Adraste à Isidore (Sc. xii, p. 16)
[Yes, charming Isidore, my looks have told you as much for the last two months, and you have understood them. I love you more than aught else, and have no other thought, no other aim, no other passion, than to be yours all my life.]
Adraste to Isidore (Sc. 8, p. 75)
Je ne sais si vous dites vrai, mais vous persuadez.
Isidore à Adraste (Sc. xii, p. 16)
[I do not know whether you speak the truth ; but you make me believe you.]
Isidore to Adraste (Sc. 8, p.75)
[What are you waiting for?]
Adraste to Isidore (Sc. 14, p. 76)
[To make up my mind.]
Isidore to Adraste (Sc. 14, p. 76)
[Ah ! when people love with all their hearts, they
make up their minds quickly.]
Adraste to Isidore (Sc. 14, p. 76)
[Very well then ! yes, I consent to it.]
Isidore to Adraste (Sc. 14, p. 76)

In Scene XIV, Climène, Adraste’s sister, bursts onto the scene, asking to be protected from a jealous husband. Don Pedro is surprised. He believes Frenchmen are not jealous. But the French, it appears, excell in every way.

Les Français excellent toujours dans toutes les choses qu’ils font[.] 

So, Don Pedro lets Climène/Zaïde enter wearing a veil. He lest her join the artist and Isidore, not knowing that he will be tricked. Climène gives Isidore her veil, which is how Adraste and Isidore leave unnoticed.

Ah! Seigneur cavalier, sauvez-moi, s’il vous plaît, des mains d’un mari furieux dont je suis poursuivie. Sa jalousie est incroyable, et passe dans ses mouvements tout ce qu’on peut imaginer. Il va jusques à vouloir que je sois, toujours, voilée; et pour m’avoir trouvée le visage un peu découvert, il a mis l’épée à la main, et m’a réduite à me jeter chez vous, pour vous demander votre appui contre son injustice. Mais je le vois paraître. De grâce, Seigneur cavalier, sauvez-moi de sa fureur.
Climène/Zaïde à Dom Pèdre (Sc. xiv, p. 18)
[Ah, Sir, save me, I beseech you, from the hands of an enraged husband who is close upon my heels. His jealousy is incredible, and surpasses in its violence every-thing imaginable. He carries it so far as to wish me to be always veiled ; and for having found me with my face a little uncovered he has drawn his sword, and he has compelled me to throw myself upon you, and to ask for your protection against his injustice. But I see him coming ; for heaven’s sake, honoured Sir, save me from his fury.]
Zaïde/Climène to Don Pedro (Sc. 15, p. 77)
Entrez là-dedans, avec elle, et n’appréhendez rien.
Dom Pèdre à Climène/Zaïde (Sc. xiv, p. 18)
[Go in there with her, and fear nothing.]
Don Pedro to Zaïde/Climène (Sc. 15, p. 77)

Comments

“Salons” nurtured both l’honnête homme and le galant homme. Le galant homme is not un homme galant, a womanizer. Le galant homme is refined and knows how to please a woman, as does l’honnête homme. Charles Sorel is the author of Les Lois de la galanterie (1644), and Nicolas Faret wrote L’Honnête homme ou l’Art de plaire à la cour (1630). Molière himself sought to please … an audience.

In short, in Le Sicilien, Molière remembers jealous and possessive men. These men court women speaking the language of accountants. Moreover, they often resort to the law. They have rights. Don Pedro speaks to the Senator who can only think of a mascarade he has written. It’s a dialogue de sourds. Molière remembers Arnolphe. He also remembers Horace who tells each one of his plans to Arnolphe, but defeats Arnolphe.

According to Marcel Gutwirth, Molière main characters are le Jaloux, jealous men, l’Imposteur (le faux dévot) and the zanni, clever servants and fourbes, tricksters.[2] However, among these three types are Argan (The Imaginary Invalid), Harpagon (The Miser) and Arnolphe. These characters are obsessed. Harpagon is quite happy to retrieve his cassette.

Molière did not finish Mélicerte and destroyed La Comédie pastorale, the Comic Pastoral‘s theatrical scenes. As for Le Sicilien ou l’amour peintre, The Sicilian; or, Love Makes the Painter, it was an afterthought, or so it appears. But we have just read three humble, but delightful little plays, as moliéresque as can be.

Would that I had written: “Quand l’hiver a glacé nos guérets, …” (La Pastorale comique)

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources
Le Sicilien ou l’Amour peintre is a toutmolière.net publication
The Sicilian; or, Loves makes the Painter is and Internet Archive publication, translator Henri van Laun
Images belong to théâtre.documentation

_________________________
[1] Maurice Rat, ed., Les Œuvres complètes de Molière (Paris: Gallimard [La Pléiade], 1956), p. 950.
[2] Marcel Gutwirth, Molière ou l’invention comique (Paris: Ménard, 1966), p. 24.

Love to everyone 💕


Le Ballet des Muses — Jean-Baptiste Lully

 

Le Ballet des Muses — The Complete Play FR

© Micheline Walker
14 May 2019
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Molière: Odds and Ends

27 Saturday Apr 2019

Posted by in Comedy, Molière

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Et in Arcadia ego (Les Bergers d’Arcadie), Nicolas Poussin, 1637-1639 (WikiArt.org)

George Dandin and Molière’s Pastorals

We have read all the plays in which Molière satirised doctors and we know why. In  17th century Europe, medicine was not sufficiently advanced for doctors to help patients. However, there were doctors. The sick sought their assistance believing they could be cured. They could not be cured and doctors knew. Yet, doctors collected fees that made many of them wealthy. As well, there were charlatans. I omitted a short scene in which L’Amour médecin’s Sganarelle goes to buy orviétan[1] from a charlatan.

(seul) Me voilà justement un peu plus incertain que je n’étais auparavant. Morbleu, il me vient une fantaisie. Il faut que j’aille acheter de l’orviétan, et que je lui en fasse prendre. L’orviétan est un remède dont beaucoup de gens se sont bien trouvés.
Sganarelle (II. vi, p. 13)
[(the two doctors leave) Here I am now a little more uncertain than I was before. The devil! A fantasy has come to me. I have to go buy some snake oil and make her take it — snake oil is a remedy which many people are very fond of.]
Sganarelle (II. 6, pp. 16-17)

I have also omitted a scene in Le Médecin malgré lui.

Thibaut and his son Perrin consult Sganarelle, who has been made into a doctor. Thibaut tells Sganarelle that Perrin’s mother suffers from hypocrisie (hypocrisy).

Alle est malade d’hypocrisie, Monsieu.
Thibaut to Sganarelle (III. ii, p. 24)
[She’s got the hypocrisy, Sir.]
Thibaut to Sganarelle (III. 2, p. 24)

The use of the word hypocrisie instead of hydropisie is ironic, but consistent with Molière’s satirical portrayal of doctors. Moreover, Sganarelle is not hearing anything because he has yet to be paid. After he is paid deux écus, Sganarelle can hear, which is another satirical element:

Voilà un garçon qui parle clairement, qui s’explique comme il faut. Vous dites que votre mère est malade d’hydropisie, qu’elle est enflée par tout le corps, qu’elle a la fièvre, avec des douleurs dans les jambes : et qu’il lui prend, parfois, des syncopes, et des convulsions, c’est-à-dire des évanouissements ?
Sganarelle to Perrin (III. ii, p. 24)
[Now I understand! Here’s a boy who speaks clearly and explains things as he should. You say your mother is suffering from hydropsia, is swollen everywhere, and has a fever, with pains in the legs, and sometime she is taken with fits and convulsions, that is to say, with fainting?]
Sganarelle to Perrin (III. 2, p. 39)

Sganarelle has learned that doctors collect first. However, he can hear hydropisie, dropsy, instead of hypocrisie and his diagnostic could be accurate.

I will insert these omissions in their appropriate posts.

George Dandin and Pastorals

I wrote one chapter of my thesis on George Dandin. I re-read it during the week-end and I had the feeling I was reading a text written by an author other than myself. I have also written a post on George Dandin. He is an agroikós, a rustic character, featured in Middle Greek comedy. The comedy of Ancient Greece, Attic comedy, is usually divided into three periods and I will associate at least one writer which each period. Greece’s best-known comic playwrights are:

  • Aristophanes (c. 446 – c. 386 BCE) is associated with Old Comedy,
  • Antiphanes (c. 408 to 334 BCE), with Middle Comedy (the agroikos), and
  • Menander (c. 342/41 – c. 290 BCE) with New Comedy.

I should also mention Philemon (c. 362 BCE– c. 262 BCE). He is associated with New Comedy.

But so much is lost of Ancient Greece’ theatre.

Stock Characters

In comedy, stock characters are the

Molière was also familiar with Rome’s Atellan farce and with the comedies of Rome’s Plautus (c. 254 – 184 BCE) and Terence (c. 195/185 – c. 159? BC). As well, he knew the commedia dell’arte‘s stock characters. These may be archetypes and are discussed in Northrop Frye‘s Anatomy of Criticism (1959), which, I believe, is essential reading. We have seen the alazṓn, the blocking character of comedy, and the eirôn, the alazṓn’s opponent. The alazṓn has many names. I have also mentioned the pharmakós. The pharmakós is the scapegoat.

George Dandin is an agroikos. This play was discussed in a post, but the pastorals were not. They are:

RELATED ARTICLES  

Sources and Resources

____________________
[1] L’orviétan était un remède miracle, une sorte de panacée qu’un charlatan italien, Jeronimo Ferranti, prétendait avoir apporté d’Orvieto et qui fut vendu avec beaucoup de succès par lui-même et ses descendants jusqu’au XVIIIe siècle. [Orvietan was a miracle cure, a sort of panacea that an Italian charlatan, Jeronimo Ferranti, claimed he brought from Orvieto, and which he and his descendants sold successfully until the 18th century.]
toutmolière.net

[2] I have used the word agôn. It means struggle and appears in several contexts. (See Agôn, Wiki2.org.)

Love to everyone 💕

Nicolas Poussin

Dance to the Music of Time  (Danse à la musique du Temps), Nicolas Poussin, 1634 (WikiArt.org)

© Micheline Walker
29 April 2019
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Molière’s “L’Amour Médecin”

23 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in Molière

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th (2)

Molière par Pierre Mignard (Wiki2.org)

Dr. Love
 F.  J. Morlock, translator
(I numbered scenes.)

Our dramatis personæ are

Sganarelle (father of Lucinda) (Moliere)
Lucinda
Clitandre (lover to Lucinda)
Lucrece (cousin of Sganarelle)
Lisette (Lucinda’s servant)
Aminte (neighbor of Sganarelle)
Mr. Guillame (a seller of tapestry)
Mr. Josse
Dr. Tomes
Dr. Des Fernandes
Dr. Macroton
Dr. Bahays
Mr. Filerin
A Notary
Champagne (Sganarelle’s valet)

LE BALLET

Frontispice [cover] de l’édition de 1682 drawn and engraved by François Chauveau (BnF)

L’Amour médecin (Dr. Love or Dr. Cupid), is

As a farce, L’Amour médecin was written in prose and contains three acts. Farces allow some physical comedy. As a comedy of manners, it is Molière’s second satire on medicine, the first is Le Médecin volant (The Flying Doctor), written in 1645 and played in 1659. The third and fourth are Le Médecin malgré lui (1666) and Le Malade imaginaire imaginaire (1673). L’Amour médecin is rooted in Le Médecin volant, in Charles Sorel’s Olynthie, a short story, and in earlier farces.

Venue

L’Amour médecin was first performed at Versailles on 15 September 1665. Molière’s troupe was la troupe du Roi and Louis was demanding. L’Amour médecin was written, and roles learned and rehearsed, in five days. After it premièred at Versailles, L’Amour médecin was performed at the théâtre du Palais-Royal, la troupe du Roi‘s main venue.

Sganarelle

In L’Amour médecin, the role of Sganarelle, created in Le Médecin volant, is that of heavy father. Sganarelle was played by Molière during Molière’s life time. In Dom Juan, he is a valet.

Four Doctors

It should be noted that L’Amour médecin‘s doctors were given the names of real doctors. They were not simple miroirs publics. They have identifiable names and are known doctors, but all reflect Molière’s and many of his contemporaries’ view of doctors. Doctors killed, but did so officially, according to established covenants, and wearing the clothes that match the job. In the case of doctors, Molière had Guy Patin in mind, and Les Femmes savantes Trissotin, a pedant, is modeled after l’abbé Charles Cotin, a learned gentleman, but …

At any rate, L’Amour médecin was a very successful comedy and, despite a cast of several doctors, the plot was simple, a characteristic of Molière’s plays. 

A physician holding the hand of a female patient in a scene from Molière’s play L’Amour médecin. Line block by Yves & Barret after L. Leloir (Commons.Wikimedia.org)

ACT ONE

In L’Amour médecin, Lucinde is feigning illness, but her father believes she is very sick. Neighbours and relatives have their opinion to give. Monsieur Guillaume, who sells tapestries, thinks a tapestry showing a forest should adorn her room. Monsieur Josse thinks the gift of “finery and fancy dress,” as well as jewels may save Lucinde’s life. Aminte believes that Lucinde should marry, but Lucrèce objects. Pregnancies would kill Lucinde, given her humeur, the four temperaments.

Et moi, je tiens que votre fille n’est point du tout propre pour le mariage. Elle est d’une complexion [humeur] trop délicate et trop peu saine, et c’est la vouloir envoyer bientôt en l’autre monde, que de l’exposer comme elle est à faire des enfants. Le monde n’est point du tout son fait, et je vous conseille de la mettre dans un couvent, où elle trouvera des divertissements qui seront mieux de son humeur.
Lucrèce à tous (I. i, p. 3)
[And as for me, I hold that your daughter is not at all fit for marriage. She has a very delicate complexion [humor] and not very healthy and it would be a determination to send her soon to the other world by exposing her, the way she is — to having children. The world is not at all her thing — and I advise you to put her in a convent — where she will find diversions more in accord with her humor.]
Lucrèce to all (I, 1, p.7)

Sganarelle feels that, the remedies they propose show that his niece, neighbours and friends have something to gain by following Sganarelle’s advice. He uses the word intéressé.[1]

Tous ces conseils sont admirables assurément: mais je les tiens un peu
intéressés … (.)
Sganarelle à tous
[… you advise me quite well for yourselves …(.)] (I. 1, p.7)
Sganarelle to all

Sganarelle dismisses them all saying that his plan is to keep his daughter.  He and Lucinde have a conversation.

However, after asking Lucinde what could cure her, Lucinda nods when Sganarelle asks:

Aimerais-tu quelqu’un et souhaiterais-tu d’être mariée?
Sganarelle à Lucinde (I. ii, p. 3)
[Might you be in love and wish to be married?]
(my translation)
In 17th-century France and in Molière’s comedies, jealousy transforms a lover’s discourse into imprecations that alienate a young woman, the ingénue. Incestual love is out of the question. Sganarelle loves his daughter as fathers do. So, let us suggest a twist on the reversal all comedies feature. Comedies promotes the marriage of the young lovers. Le blondin berne le barbon. (The young man fools the old man.) In L’Amour médecin, the young man is Clitandre. Lucinde has not told Lisette about Clitandre, which may reveal hopelessness. In comedy, maids, servants, valets, and, at times, siblings are the brilliant minds who ensure that a young woman is not handed over to a man she does not love. 

I re-read a few chapters (préciosité) of one of Georges Mongrédien’s books on the 17th century in France. According to Mongrédien,[2] Molière did not oppose préciosité, despite his Précieuses ridicules. These were affected ladies whom he simply humiliated. Although comedy is rooted in ancient fertility riduals, Molière, does not allow young women to be forced into marrying men they find repulsive. At that time in history, women often died in childbirth or were pregnant year after year, which could lead to a premature death. However, we are alive. So, many women have survived pregnancies and many, if not most have never been subjected to yearly pregnancies.

In short, L’Amour médecin is comedy as usual, which the title of the play suggests. In fact, L’Amour médecin is Molière’s only comedy the contents of which are revealed in the title. Lucinde wishes to live a normal life and, for many women, life has long been considered improbable without the company of a man. L’honnête homme was born in the salons and salons also shaped galanterie. Mademoiselle de Scudéry‘s Carte de Tendre is a product of the salons. However, although our pater familias is the alazṓn of Greek old comedy, he wishes to keep his daughter for himself, which is absurd.

A-t-on jamais rien vu de plus tyrannique que cette coutume où l’on veut assujettir les pères? Rien de plus impertinent, et de plus ridicule, que d’amasser du bien avec de grands travaux, et élever une fille avec beaucoup de soin et de tendresse, pour se dépouiller de l’un et de l’autre entre les mains d’un homme qui ne nous touche de rien? Non, non, je me moque de cet usage, et je veux garder mon bien et ma fille pour moi.
Sganarelle à Lisette et Lucinde (I. v, p. 6)
[Has there ever been seen a greater tyranny than this custom they want to impose on fathers, nothing more impertinent and more ridiculous than to amass wealth with great work and to raise a daughter with great care and tenderness to be despoiled of both by the hands of a man who pays us nothing? No, no — I mock that custom and I intend to keep my wealth and my daughter for myself.]
Sganarelle to Lisette and Lucinde (I. p. 10)

ACT TWO

The Doctors

  • blood-letting
  • an emitic
  • enemas & broths

In Act 2, Lisette fumes when she hears that Sganarelle is calling in a team of doctors.

Ma foi, Monsieur, notre chat est réchappé depuis peu, d’un saut qu’il fit du haut de la maison dans la rue, et il fut trois jours sans manger, et sans pouvoir remuer ni pied ni patte; mais il est bien heureux de ce qu’il n’y a point de chats médecins: car ses affaires étaient faites, et ils n’auraient pas manqué de le purger, et de le saigner.
Lisette à Sganarelle (II. i, p. 8)
[My word, sir, our cat survived a jump from the roof of a house to a street, and it went 3 days without eating and it couldn’t move foot or paw — but it was really lucky there were no cat doctors, for her affair would have been done — and they wouldn’t have failed to purge and bleed her.]
Lisette to Sganarelle (II.1, p.3)

The cure is blood-letting according to Monsieur Tomés. An emetic is required, claims Monsieur De Fonandrés. As for Monsieur Macroton, the remedy at hand are enemas and broths

Il vaut mieux mourir selon les règles, que de réchapper [to recover] contre les règles.
Monsieur Bahys aux médecins et à Sganarelle (II. v, p. 13)
[It’s better to die according to the rules than to escape despite the rules.]
Monsieur Bahys to colleagues (II. 5, p. 16)

As the scene ends, Sganarelle goes to see a charlatan. He doubts the doctors attending to his daughter and goes to purchase Orviétan[3] from a charlatan.

ACT THREE

  • the doctors
  • Clitandre as doctor
  • Sganarelle is fooled

During Act 2, the doctors disagree. So, at the beginning of Act 3, they reflect upon their quarrel and conclude that they are endangering their profession. They could not cure, not in the 17th century, but human beings who fell ill consulted and this is how doctors made a comfortable living. So, to a large extent, doctors preyed on vulnerable human beings and thus constituted a group of impostors, a dramatist’s target. They worked for the money.

Je n’en parle pas pour mon intérêt. Car, Dieu merci, j’ai déjà établi mes petites affaires. Qu’il vente, qu’il pleuve, qu’il grêle, ceux qui sont morts sont morts, et j’ai de quoi me passer des vivants. Mais enfin, toutes ces disputes ne valent rien pour la médecine.
Monsieur Filerin aux autres médecins (III. i, p. 15)
[I’m not speaking only for my interest, for thank God, I’m very well off — let it snow, let it pour, let it hail. Those who are dead are dead and I have somewhat to spend with the livery — but in the end all these disputes are not good for medicine.]
Doctor Filerin other to colleagues (III. 1, p. 19)

Yet, a new doctor is introduced. Lisette and Clitandre have organized a stratagem. Clitandre will make believe he is a doctor and he will be a doctor who has already cured Lucinde. Lisette introduces him and Sganarelle notices that there is not much beard to this doctor. Clitandre tells Sganarelle that he treats both the mind and the body. He has succeeded in curing Lucinde by learning that she wanted to marry. What a silly thought! Sganarelle agrees. A very astute Clitandre takes Sganarelle’s pulse and tells him that his daughter is very sick. Sganarelle is surprised, but Clitandre explains that there is sympathy between a father and a daughter.

Sg. Vous connaissez cela ici?
Cl. Oui, par la sympathie qu’il y a entre le père et la fille.
Sganarelle et la réponse de Clitandre (III. v, p. 18)
[Cl. (taking Sganarelle’s pulse) Your daughter is really sick]
Clitandre to Sganarelle (III. 5, p. 21)

The plan is to make Lucinde believe she is getting married. As you know, in Molière, one plays along with a patient’s fancy, which is what Toinette and Béralde will do in Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), to help the young lovers and Argan. She will enable Clitandre to speak with Lucinde, Lisette tells Sganarelle that Clitandre must speak to his patient alone. 

The cure is a marriage. It will not be a real marriage, in Sganarelle’s eyes, but he will be made to sign the documents, as will Lucinde. Clitandre has arrived, ring in hand and a notary waiting outside. Sganarelle is going: “folle, folle, folle” as he himself marries off his daughter, endowing her generously.

Sg. Oh! la folle! Oh! la folle! Oh! la folle! (III. vi, p. 20)
[Sg. Oh — madwoman — madwoman!] (III. 5, p. 23)
The spectator can hear Lisette’s “un mari, un mari, un mari.” L’Amour médecin is a comédie-ballet so Clitandre invites Sganarelle to be entertained.

Li. Un mari, un mari, un mari. (I. iii, p. 5)
[Li. A husband, a husband, a husband.] (I. 3, p. 9)

Sganarelle has been fooled into allowing his daughter to marry. Illusion was reality. A play rescued Lucinde.

Sg. Voilà une plaisante façon de guérir. Où est donc ma fille et le médecin?
Li. Ils sont allés achever le reste du mariage.
Sganarette et Lisette (III. Scène dernière, pp. 21-22)

[Sg. Here’s a pleasant way of curing! Where are the doctor and my daughter?
Li. They want to consummate the marriage.]
Sganarelle and Lisette (III. Last scene, p. 24)

Conclusion

Molière’s L’Amour médecin is one of the finest illustrations of the comic scenario. The blocking-character is “hoisted by his own petard.” A maid helps the young lovers.  Clitandre is a psychologist. The father is fooled, but he will no doubt recover. So, basically, “all’s well that ends well.”

Among friends and colleagues, La Mothe Le Vayer, in particular, Molière accepted that nature was both good and bad, but that it couldn’t be changed. La Mothe le Vayer wrote a letter defending Molière’s Tartuffe.

____________________
[1] In 17th-century France, La Rochefoucauld is associated with the discourse on self-interest (intérêt).
[2] Georges Mongrédien, La Vie littéraire au XVIIe Siècle (Paris : Taillandier, 1956), pp. 187-253.
[3] L’orviétan était un remède miracle, une sorte de panacée qu’un charlatan italien, Jeronimo Ferranti, prétendait avoir apporté d’Orvieto et qui fut vendu avec beaucoup de succès par lui-même et ses descendants jusqu’au XVIIIe siècle. [Orvietan was a miracle cure, a sort of panacea that an Italian charlatan, Jeronimo Ferranti, claimed he brought from Orvieto, and which he and his descendants sold successfully until the 18th century.]
toutmolière.net

—ooo—

Love to every one 💕

Jean Rondeau records “Vertigo” (Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer [et Rameau])

François de La Mothe Le Vayer (Wiki2.org)

© Micheline Walker
23 April 2019
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“Le Malade imaginaire,” an anagnorisis

09 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in Comédie-Ballet, Molière

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NETHERLANDS – CIRCA 2002: Angelica and Cleanthes’ duet, scene from the second act of The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere (1622-1673), 1673, by Cornelis Troost (1696-1750) oil. The Netherlands, 18th century. Berlin, Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum Für Gestaltung (Bauhaus Museum) (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

During the weekend, I reread parts of W. G. Moore’s Molière, a New Criticism and I added this sentence to my article: “[t]he plot of Le Malade Imaginaire is … little more than the various gullibilities of a hypochondriac.”[1] This sentence and the image at the top of this post simplify Le Malade Imaginaire. Argan needs help and finds a doctor in the young man his daughter wishes to marry, not to mention that he may help himself …

Early in the play, I. i & ii, Argan is counting his money and then rings for help. He is alone and he is gullible and vulnerable. When Toinette enters his room, she says to Argan that he is being milked, which explains why he needs a doctor as a relative.

In the image placed above, Angélique and Cléante are singing in order to communicate their feelings. This is is not a play-within-a-play. It is a ploy, but Argan and the doctors are watching. Argan does not want a young man, including a singing teacher, to be alone with Angélique. Argan wants Angélique to marry a doctor. Idée fixe.

An Anagnorisis

Therefore, we could look at the third and final act as a form of anagnorisis, effected through a play-within-a-play and serving Argan’s needs first, and, second, the young couple’s needs.

First, the doctors leave because they have been insulted. Argan is desperate, but in comes Toinette playing doctor. These scenes are theatrical, but Argan’s fancy will not go away. He is a hypochondriac, which is a real illness, so he needs a doctor (V. viii). By helping her master, Toinette also helps Angélique and Cléante. 

Toinette as doctor leaves and re-enters as Toinette.

Second, Argan agrees to feign death twice, although it scares him.

  • Argan’s wife is seen as a fortune hunter
  • Argan recognizes his own blood in Angélique’s grief.

Argan lifts obstacles to the marriage of the young lovers. Cléante may marry Angélique, if he agrees to become a doctor, which he does.

But Béralde also suggests that Argan could be his own doctor. Brilliant! The inference is that problems can be solved from within: 

Mais, mon frère, il me vient une pensée. Faites-vous médecin vous-même. La commodité sera encore plus grande, d’avoir en vous tout ce qu’il vous faut.
Béralde à Argan (V. scène dernière, p. 68)

[But, brother, it just strikes me; why don’t you turn doctor yourself? It would be much more convenient to have all you want within yourself.]
Béralde to Argan (V. last scene)

However, Argan needs doctors, and Cléante says he is ready to do anything.

En tout cas, je suis prêt à tout.
Cléante à tous (V. scène dernière, p. 68)

[Anyhow, I am ready for everything.]
Cléante to all (V. 5. Last scene)

The rest is an interlude during which Argan is turned into a doctor. So, all’s well that ends well.

—ooo—

Viewed as an agnanorisis, the spectacles of the final act boil down to

  • delivering Argan of parasites (not doctors), and
  • ensuring the young couple marries.

But most importantly, it is suggested that we can find help within ourselves, or within our household. Toinette and Béralde do not mistreat Argan. He is a beloved father and although comedy leads to the marriage of young lovers, which means overcoming a father’s, the pater familias, resistance, the final society of the play includes the father. Everyone accepts Argan’s fancy. We all have petites lubies, whims.

When I was a student, professors used the terms play-within-a-play and théâtre dans le théâtre interchangeably. The main example was Pierre Corneille‘s L’Illusion comique (1636), which was also considered a mise en abyme. Additionally we read Jean Rotrou‘s Le Véritable Saint-Genest (1647). In fact, Rotrou wrote a play entitled L’Hypochondriaque (1631), but it is not a forerunner of Le Malade imaginaire. 

Antecedents to The Imaginary Invalid are Molière’s plays on doctors:

However, Le Médecin malgré lui is rooted in a thirteenth-century fabliau entitled Le Vilain Mire (Wikisource FR). Mire meant médecin in medieval French. Le Médecin malgré lui will be discussed in my next post which will also include a few words on Le Médecin volant and L’Amour médecin. These are very short farces.  

I did not mention Élomire hypocondre ou les Médecins vengés (1670, according to Maurice Rat [2]). It is a comedy published by Le Boulanger de Chalussay. The text is available through Amazon and other booksellers. Élomire is an anagram of Molière. Molière was not a hypochondriac. He suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis. The comedy was never performed.

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Sources and Resources

____________________
[1] Will G. Moore, Molière a New Criticism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1949), p. 72.
[2] Maurice Rat, ed., Les Œuvres complètes de Molière (Gallimard: Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1956). p. 998.

—ooo—

I thank you most sincerely for helping me write my book.

Love to everyone 💕

Jean-Baptiste Lully

© Micheline Walker
9 April 2019
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Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, part two

17 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by in Comédie-Ballet, Comedy, Molière

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Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme by Edmond Geffroy (Wiki2.org)

Our dramatis personæ is:

Monsieur Jourdain, bourgeois.
Madame Jourdain, his wife.
Lucile, their daughter.
Nicole, maid.
Cléonte, suitor of Lucile.
Covielle, Cléonte’s valet.
Dorante, Count, suitor of Dorimène.
Dorimène, Marchioness.
Music Master.
Pupil of the Music Master.
Dancing Master.
Fencing Master.
Master of Philosophy.
Tailor.
Tailor’s apprentice.
Two lackeys.
Many male and female musicians, instrumentalists, dancers, cooks,
tailor’s apprentices, and others necessary for the interludes.

The Plot

  • l’ingénue (the young woman)
  • le jeune premier (the young man)
  • valets, maids, etc. (helpers)

We know the plot of the Would-be Gentleman. Monsieur Jourdain, who is attempting to elevate himself from bourgeoisie to gentilhommerie, wants his daughter to marry an aristocrat. Therefore, Monsieur Jourdain is a threat to Lucile and Cléonte, his daughter and the young man she wishes to marry, a bourgeois.

Helping Lucile, l’ingénue, is Nicole, a saucy servant. Helping Cléonte, the jeune premier, is Covielle, a valet. In some comedies, the young lovers are helpless and would never marry, were it not for the stratagems or their valets and servants. In the commedia dell’arte, zanni are very clever. They are tricksters. Covielle may not be a Brighella, but he devises the turquerie that fools our would-be gentleman, Monsieur Jourdain. Cléonte plays along.

The Maîtres

  • music
  • dance
  • fencing
  • philosophy

Monsieur Jourdain believes one can learn gentilhommerie and hires a group of maîtres. The music and dance masters are the first to arrive at the bourgeois‘ house and mention that Monsieur Jourdain’ wish to be an aristocrat, provides them with a good income. The music master says:

This is a nice source of income for us — this Monsieur Jourdain, with the visions of nobility and gallantry that he has gotten into his head. You and I should hope that everyone resembled him. (I. 1)
[Il est vrai. Nous avons trouvé ici un homme comme il nous le faut à tous deux. Ce nous est une douce rente que ce Monsieur Jourdain, avec les visions de noblesse et de galanterie qu’il est allé se mettre en tête. Et votre danse, et ma musique, auraient à souhaiter que tout le monde lui ressemblât.]  (I. i, p. 2)

However, the music master says that applause and praise do not necessarily bring money and that Monsieur Jourdain is in fact quite clever.

J’en demeure d’accord, et je les goûte comme vous. Il n’y a rien assurément qui chatouille [tickles] davantage que les applaudissements que vous dites; mais cet encens ne fait pas vivre. (I. i, p. 2)
[ I agree, and I enjoy them as you do. There is surely nothing more agreeable than the applause you speak of; but that incense does not provide a living.] (I. 1)
Il a du discernement dans sa bourse. (I. i, p. 2)
[He has discernment in his purse. His praises are in cash, and this ignorant bourgeois is worth more to us, as you see, than the educated nobleman who introduced us here.] (I. 1)

In scene two, a musician sings a new song:

I languish night and day, my suffering is extreme Since to your control your lovely eyes subjected me; If you thus treat, fair Iris, those you love, Alas, how would you treat an enemy? (I. 2)

Monsieur Jourdain finds the song a “little mournful” (lugubre) He proposes a song that has a sheep in it: “Il y a du mouton dedans.” 

I thought my Jeanneton As beautiful as sweet; I thought my Janneton Far sweeter than a sheep. Alas! Alas! She is a hundred times, A thousand times, more cruel Than tigers in the woods! (Monsieur Jourdain sings, I. 2) (I. ii, p. 4 FR)

His masters praise him, so he says that he knew “sans avoir appris la musique” (I. ii, p. 4) (“It’s without having learned music.” I. 2). It is always without his having learned, or because he does not want the lesson.

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme by Charles Robert Leslie (R.A.), c. 1841 (Victoria and Albert Museum)

 

The next master is the fencing master (le maître d’armes). The fencing master is delighted with Monsieur Jourdain’s progress: You did marvelously! (II. 2); Vous faites des merveilles! (II. ii, p. 10).

As I have told you, the entire secret of fencing lies in two things: to give and not to receive; and as I demonstrated to you the other day, it is impossible for you to receive, if you know how to turn your opponent’s sword from the line of your body. This depends solely on a slight movement of the wrist, either inward or outward.
(Fencing Master to Monsieur Jourdain, II. 2)

In this way then, a man, without courage, is sure to kill his man and not be killed himself?
(Monsieur Jourdain to Fencing Master, II. 2)

I believe the image featured above shows a degree incompetence on the part of Monsieur Jourdain. One of his legs should be behind him, so he can pull himself away, and one ahead, so he can attack. That is how he will “kill his man and not be killed.”

Philosophy Master

  • morale
  • prose/verse
  • the marchioness: “Marquise, vos beaux yeux… ”

His philosophy master wants to know whether Monsieur Jourdain wishes to learn morale, among other subjects. Monsieur Jourdain enquires: “Qu’est-ce qu’elle dit cette morale?” (What does this morale say?) When the philosophy master tells him that it “teaches men to moderate their passions,” he stops the master: “No, let’s leave that. I’m as choleric as all the devils and there’s no morality that sticks, I want to be as full of anger as I want whenever I like.” (“Non, laissons cela. Je suis bilieux comme tous les diables; et il n’y a morale qui tienne, je me veux mettre en colère tout mon soûl, quand il m’en prend envie.” (II. iv, p. 14 FR ; II. 4 EN)

First, Monsieur Jourdain’s philosophy master teaches Monsieur Jourdain the difference between prose and verse. He learns that he has spoken prose his entire life and was never told. But he knew prose. He knew it without instruction.

Par ma foi, il y a plus de quarante ans que je dis de la prose, sans que j’en susse rien; et je  vous suis le plus obligé du monde, de m’avoir appris cela.
(Monsieur Jourdain au maître de philosophie, II. iv, p. 16)

[By my faith! For more than forty years I have been speaking prose without knowing anything about it, and I am much obliged to you for having taught me that.]
(Monsieur Jourdain to his philosopher master, II. 4)

Monsieur Jourdain has been mentioning a Marchioness. So he asks his maître de philosophie to teach him how to phrase: “Beautiful marchioness, your lovely eyes make me die of love.” (“Marquise, vos beaux yeux me font mourir d’amour.”) Monsieur Jourdain’s philosophy master moves the words around: 

“Of love to die make me, beautiful marchioness, your beautiful eyes.”
“Your lovely eyes, of love make me, beautiful marchioness, die.”
“Die, your lovely eyes, beautiful marchioness, of love make me.”
Or else: “Me make your lovely eyes die, beautiful marchioness, of love.”
(The philosophy master, II. 4 EN; II. iv, p. 16 FR)

When asked by Monsieur Jourdain which of the above is the best tournure, phrase, the maître de philosophie replies that it would be: “Beautiful marchioness, your lovely eyes make me die of love.” (“Marquise, vos beaux yeux me font mourir d’amour.”) Monsieur Jourdain is delighted to learn that he had said it correctly without instruction. In fact, he does things without instruction and refuses instruction if the topic does not suit him: morale. However, he has learned that he phrase a compliment, without instruction.

Madame Jourdain, Lucile, Nicole (maid), and Covielle (valet)

Before the arrival of the fencing master, the maîtres quarrel. All believe that their skill is the superior skill. A tailor has also visited. Monsieur Jourdain is “decked out.” He says, however, that his shoes hurt him but he is told, peremptorily, that they don’t.

As of Act Three, the maîtres have left. The rest of the play is devoted to the lovers[1] and a possible second couple. Madame Jourdain has heard that her husband might be planning to court a marchioness: Dorimène. In fact, Dorante is courting Dorimène at Monsieur Jourdain’s expense. Dorimène has a beautiful diamond ring. He has borrowed money from Monsieur Jourdain, promising to pay his debts. Dorante takes Dorimène to Monsieur Jourdain’s house where they dine sumptuously: music and all… (at Monsieur Jourdain’s expense).

Nicole, the maid, and Madame Jourdain, our bourgeois’ “sensible” wife, make fun of Monsieur Jourdain’s craze for aristocracy… Madame Jourdain wants a faithful husband, Nicole will not have these people mess up the house. Finally, Cléonte is angry at Lucile because she ignored him when he bumped into her. Cléonte is resentful, and will not let Covielle talk him out of dépit amoureux (III. ix, p. 31 ; III. 9), until Covielle starts mentioning imperfections in Lucile. Cléonte disagrees. He loves Lucile and would die for her. A lover is as The Misanthrope‘s Éliante says in her tirade. He loves “even the faults of her whom he admires.” (II. iv, 711-730, pp. 30-31; II. 5)

Madame Jourdain wants Lucile to marry a bourgeois, Cléonte, not Dorante. Bourgeois have money, but Dorante is borrowing money…  Under Louis XIV, aristocrats had to be seen. So they maintained homes, carriages, etc. in Paris. They sought the privilege of seeing Louis rise and Louis go to bed: le grand lever, le petit lever, le grand coucher, le petit coucher. (See Levée [ceremony], Wiki2. org.) Few could sit on a bench, usually an ottoman, the only seats available. Moreover, Madame Jourdain will not be humiliated. George Dandin is humiliated. When she learns Lucile is marrying the Grand Turc‘s son, Madame Jourdain is alarmed, but Covielle reassures her.

All’s well that ends well. Lucile and Cléonte marry and so do Dorimène and Dorante. Monsieur Jourdain is perfectly happy as a mamamouchi. I doubt that Dorante will pay his debt. He needed money to court the Marchioness, and Monsieur Jourdain loaned him the money he required. Dorante did not intend to marry Lucile.

Conclusion

No one can change Monsieur Jourdain, so a mere disguise allows the young lovers, Lucile and Cléonte to marry, with Madame Jourdain’s blessing. Besides, although his masters are at times ridiculous, the questions are asked by Monsieur Jourdain and Monsieur Jourdain is the person who answers. The philosophy master is not ridiculed. In fact, Monsieur Jourdain has been generous with his masters and it appears that as a veuve, a widow, Dorimène is quite capable of looking after Dorante, who seems an impoverished gentleman.

Attending a good performance of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme will delight an audience, but one can also read Molière. There is a sense in which Molière is in the words and in the dialogues. For instance, the masters quarrel, but it is among themselves, which is revealing. Monsieur Jourdain does not participate in the quarrel. He says little more than: Doucement (softly), Tout beau (all’s well), De grâce (for pity’s sake) and Je vous en prie (I beg you), but the maître de philosophie arrives “just in time” to relieve Monsieur Jourdain :

Holà, Monsieur le philosophe, vous arrivez tout à propos avec votre philosophie. Venez un peu mettre la paix entre ces personnes-ci.
[Aha! Monsieur Philosopher, you come just in time with your philosophy. Come, make a little peace among these people.]
(Monsieur Jourdain, II. iii, p. 11; II. 3)

It’s been a long day. We now make dinner.

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____________________
[1] People who are in love. In 17th century French, the word lover had no sexual connotation.

 

Love to everyone 💕 

Lully‘s Overture to Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme

162276393

A Collaboration, Molière and Pierre Corneille by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Getty Images)

© Micheline Walker
17 March 2019
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Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, part one

15 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by in Comédie-Ballet, Molière

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Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme by Edmond Geffroy (Wiki2.org)

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, 1670 

  • comédie-ballet
  • prose & five acts
  • the plot: blondin-berne-barbon  
  • bourgeoisie
  • turqueries

Molière‘s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme premièred at Chambord, a Loire château, on 14 October 1670. It was performed as a divertissement du Roi, entertainment for the King.  On 23 November it was performed in Paris, at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal.

A Comédie-Ballet

Le Bourgeois gentilhomme is a five-act comédie-ballet written in prose rather than the twelve-syllable or pieds l’alexandrin, the ‘vers noble.’’ As we have seen, Dom Juan (1665) is also a comedy in five acts, a criterion for grandes comédies, but it is written in prose. So doubt lingers as to Dom Juan‘s status as a comedy. Is it or is it not a grande comédie? Doubt also lingers about L’Avare, The Miser. It could be argued that the use of prose in a five-act play is a dramatic device. Dom Juan is a serious play in need of comic relief. Incongruity and ambiquity are hallmarks of Molière’s comedies.

Molière’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme is a comédie-ballet consisting of five acts. However, as in Dom Juan, Molière uses prose rather than the “vers noble,” the twelve-syllable French alexandrine. Prose is associated with farces. As a comédie-ballet, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme is a mixed genre and perhaps best described as a genre of its own. Molière’s first comédie-ballet was Les Fâcheux, a three-act verse play by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, dit Molière, words/lyrics, Giambattista Lulli, dit Jean-Baptiste Lully, choreography, and composer Pierre Beauchamp. It was performed in 1861 at Vaux-le-Vicomte, Nicolas Fouquet‘s castle. The Bourgeois Gentilhomme was written by Molière, its music composed Jean-Baptiste Lully. Its choreographer was Pierre Beauchamp, the sets were by Carlo Vigarani and the costumes were done by the chevalier d’Arvieux. (See Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Wiki2.org)

The Plot & Bourgeoisie

The Bourgeois Gentilhomme‘s plot is the usual blondin-berne-barbon (the young lover fools the old man), which is the Shakespearean “all’s well that ends well.” The young lovers are Cléonte and Lucile, Monsieur Jourdain’s daughter. Monsieur Jourdain is a blocking-character in that he is attempting to elevate himself from bourgeoisie to aristocratie and wants his daughter to marry an aristocrat. He is a domestic tyrant.

As you may recall, in 17th-century France, offices could be bought. In 1631, under Louis XIII, Molière’s father, Jean Poquelin, bought an office, “valet de chambre ordinaire et tapissier du roi” (valet of the King’s chamber and keeper of carpets and upholstery). It could have provided Molière with a comfortable living, had he not wanted to be a playwright and an actor. In other words, the sale of offices allowed members of the Third Estate to rise to prominence. Bourgeois, rich and powerful, were at court.

Monsieur Jourdain, our barbon, is not a gentilhomme; he is an enriched bourgeois attempting to become a gentilhomme. The title of Molière’s play is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, which differs little from grand seigneur méchant homme, in Dom Juan and, in The Misanthrope, the atrabilaire amoureux,[1] Alceste’s contrariness. Monsieur Jourdain could be described as a senex iratus, an alazṓn. The alazṓn, whether a miles gloriosus or a senex iratus is defined as “an impostor that sees himself as greater than he actually is.” Monsieur Jourdain is not a faux dévôt. He is a social climber.

A Turquerie

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme opposes the young lovers, Lucile and Cléonte, and Monsieur Jourdain, the alazṓn. Monsieur Jourdain wants his daughter to marry an aristocrat, but Covielle, Cléonte’s laquais, and Cléonte devise une comédie, a play within a play,[2] featuring fashionable Turks, une turquerie,[3] during which Lucile accepts to marry Cléonte, disguised as the son of the Grand Turc. Lucile realizes that the son of the Grand Turc is Cléonte in disguise, but mere appearances easily fool Monsieur Jourdain who has been made a Mamamouchi.

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___________________

[1] Atrabilious (See Four Temperaments, Wiki2.org)

[2] Georges Forestier has proposed a new term: théâtre dans le théâtre. See Georges Forestier, Le Théâtre dans le Théâtre (Genève: Droz, 1996), pp. 9- 10.

[3] In 1536, an alliance was established between Francis I of France and Suleiman the Magnificent. (See Franco-Ottoman Alliance, Wiki2.org).
Montesquieu wrote his Persian Letters (Lettres persanes) in 1721.
Rameau composed his Indes galantes, an Opéra-Ballet in 1735. One of its entrées is Le Turc généreux.

Our dramatis personæ is:

Monsieur Jourdain, bourgeois.
Madame Jourdain, his wife.
Lucile, their daughter.
Nicole, maid.
Cléonte, suitor of Lucile.
Covielle, Cléonte’s valet.
Dorante, Count, suitor of Dorimène.
Dorimène, Marchioness.
Music Master.
Pupil of the Music Master.
Dancing Master.
Fencing Master.
Master of Philosophy.
Tailor.
Tailor’s apprentice.
Two lackeys.
Many male and female musicians, instrumentalists, dancers, cooks,
tailor’s apprentices, and others necessary for the interludes.

The scene is Monsieur Jourdain’s house in Paris.

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
Molière-Lully
Le Poème Harmonique

Pierre_Mignard_-_Portrait_de_Jean-Baptiste_Poquelin_dit_Molière_(1622-1673)_-_Google_Art_Project_(cropped) (2)

Portrait of Molière by Pierre Mignard (ca. 1658) (Wiki2.org)

© Micheline Walker
15 March 2019
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Molière: plots, jealousy & the dénouement

24 Sunday Feb 2019

Posted by in Comedy, Molière, Varia

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François_Boucher_-_Young_Country_Girl_Dancing_-_Google_Art_Project

Young Country Girl Dancing by François Boucher (Photo credit: Wiki2.org.)

I reread chapters of my thesis on Molière‘s (1622 – 1673), a study of the pharmakós in six of Molière‘ comedies, and my article on L’École des femmes.[1] The article is fine. As for my thesis, its chapter on Le Misanthrope requires a few quotations and should be linked to “Le Misanthrope, ou la comédie éclatée,”[2] a paper I read at an international conference on the Age of Theatre in France. It was held at the University of Toronto, on 14-16 May 1987.

Following are a few comments on the plot of comedies and farces, on jealousy and the dénouement.

The Plot

  • All’s well that ends well
  • Le Blondin berne le barbon
  • Le Trompeur trompé (the deceiver deceived)
  • Hoist with his own petard

All’s well that ends well is a play by Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616),  which describes comedy in general. The French use the following formula: Le blondin berne le barbon, or The Young Man fools the Old Man. However, there are times when Molière blends the two formulas. One could say that the School for Wives‘ Arnolphe is “hoisted with his own petard” (Shakespeare’s Hamlet) or that he is le trompeur trompé (the deceiver deceived). He raises his future wife, but she marries a young man.

By keeping Agnès inside his house, Arnoldphe believes he is raising a wife who will not be unfaithful. When Arnolphe learns Agnès loves Horace, he does not speak like a lover. He speaks like an accountant. He brought her up, so she owes him. The matter of her debt is discussed. Arnolphe, the blocking character or alazṓn, senex iratus, Miles gloriosus, etc. alienates Agnès. After meeting Horace, she tells Arnolphe that the young man she loves knows how say what pleases her, which is not the case with Arnolphe, the embodiment of jealousy. The School for Wives was first performed at the Palais Royal theatre on 26 December 1662. Comedies promote marriage and pleasure.

Front page of L’École des femmes—engraving from the 1719 edition (Wiki2.org.)

Jealousy

AGNÈS

Lui, mais à vous parler franchement entre nous,
Il est plus pour cela, selon mon goût, que vous ;
Chez vous le mariage est fâcheux et pénible,
Et vos discours en font une image terrible :
Mais las ! il le fait lui si rempli de plaisirs,
Que de se marier il donne des désirs.
(Agnès à Arnolphe, 5.iv)

[You did. But, to be frank with you, he is more to my taste for a husband than you. With you, marriage is a trouble and a pain, and your descriptions give a terrible picture of it; but there−he makes it seem so full of joy that I long to marry.]
(Agnès to Arnolphe, V.5, p. 26)

ARNOLPHE
But you ought to have driven away that amorous desire.
(Arnolphe to Agnès, V.5, p. 26)

AGNÈS
Le moyen de chasser ce qui fait du plaisir ?
(Agnès à Arnolphe, 5.iv)

[How can we drive away what gives us pleasure?]
(Agnès to Arnolphe, V.5, p. 26)

AGNÈS
Vraiment il en sait donc là-dessus plus que vous ;
Car à se faire aimer il n’a point eu de peine.
(Agnès à Arnolphe, 5.iv)

[Of a truth then he knows more about it than you; for he had no difficulty in making himself loved.]
(Agnès to Arnolphe, V.5, p. 26)

AGNÈS
Que ne vous êtes-vous comme lui fait aimer ?
(Agnès à Arnolphe, 5.iv)

[Heaven! you ought not to blame me. Why did you not make yourself loved, as he has done? I did not prevent you, I fancy.
(Agnès à Arnolphe, V.5, p. 26)

ALCESTE

Le Misanthrope’s Alceste is also jealous. Yet Célimène tells him that she loves him:

Mais, moi, que vous blâmez de trop de jalousie,
Qu’ai-je de plus qu’eux tous, Madame, je vous prie ?
(Alceste to Célimène, 2.iv)

[But, madam,
What have I more than all of them, I pray you?
—I, whom you blame for too much jealousy!]
(Alceste to Célimène, II.1)

Le bonheur de savoir que vous êtes aimé.
Célimène à Alceste, 2.i)
[The happiness of knowing you are loved.]
(Célimène to Alceste, II.1)

Célimène is ready to marry Alceste, but he refuses…  He hates what he loves. (5, scène dernière) (V .7)

Molière and Pierre Corneille (Getty images)

The Dénouement

The role Philinte plays has often been described as that of the raisonneur. When I studied Molière as an undergraduate, Philinte was the raisonneur. More recent scholarship opposes the alazṓn to the eirôn (as in ironic) in a form of contest called agôn (as in protagonist, antagonist, and agony). Normally, the alazṓn is defeated, but not necessarily ousted. In The Misanthrope (1665), no one is ousted, but all characters leave the stage. I am reading Gabriel Conesa’s Le Dialogue moliéresque, seeking information on the dialogue between Philinte and Alceste (1.i), in Le Misanthrope.[3]

We have a raisonneur[4] in The Misanthrope: Philinte. When Alceste reveals that civility does not allow him to know whether what praise he hears is mere flattery the truth, a mask falls. He is vain and not a raisonneur. The dialogue between Alceste and Philinte allows us to know the real Alceste (I.i.). As for his dialogue with Célimène, (II.1) it reveals insecurity, inquiétude. As we have seen in Portraits of the Misanthrope, Philinte’s flegme (his calmness) allows him to enjoy the world, however flawed. He is the eirôn, but also, a raisonneur. Alceste, as lover, is conflicted. The agôn, the contest opposing the alazṓn and the eirôn, takes place within him. How can there be a dénouement?

The plot of this comedy is circular. I have therefore suggested that although there is a dramatis personæ, comedic functions have been fused, blurring distribution: blocking character, alazṓn, senex iratus (crazy old man) the young lovers and the eirôn (Philinte as raisonneur). This would suggest the total absence in Molière’s Misanthrope of tragedy’s catharsis. No one can be removed.

However, Molière’s Tartuffe (1664-1669), features a pharmakós (as in pharmacy). Tartuffe, the hypocrite, is led to prison by an officer: l’Exempt. (Tartuffe.pdf) He is saved by “un Prince ennemi de la fraude.” (V, Scène dernière), (“Our prince is not a friend to double-dealing[.]” Tartuffe). Yet, Tartuffe was empowered by Orgon who was empowered by Tartuffe.[6] Orgon adopts Tartuffe so he, Orgon, can be a family tyrant with impunity or sin without sinning (casuistry).[7] The dénouement is not a genuine cleansing. Therefore, Tartuffe is a pharmakós, a scapegoat.

Comedies where the young lovers fool the blocking character and marry suggest a healthier society, the society of the play. Famous examples are The Would-be Genleman, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), and Le Malade imaginaire (1673), The Imaginary Invalid. These are classified as comédies-ballets. The music for The Imaginary Invalid was composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

You may know that Le Malade imaginaire was first performed on 10 February 1673. Molière suffered from tuberculosis. He collapsed on the stage on 17 February 1673, during the fourth performance of Le Malade imaginaire. He fainted when he was removed from the stage. He was hemorraging. He died a few hours later.

However, let us return to Tartuffe where “all’s well that ends well.”  Mariane will marry Valère.

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Sources and Resources

_________________________
(Notes 1 & 2 refer to material that should be included in a longer text.)

[1] Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, “L’Échec d’Arnolphe: lois du genre, ou faille intérieure?,”Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, 11, nº 20 (1984), 79-92.
[2] Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, “Le Misanthrope ou la comédie éclatée,” in David Trott & Nicole Boursier, eds, L’Âge du théâtre en France/The Age of Theatre in France (Edmonton: Academic Printing and Publishing, 1988), 53-63. ISBN 0-920980-30-9
[3] Gabriel Conesa, Le Dialogue moliéresque (Paris: CEDES, 1992) (narratives)
[4] Harold Knutson, “Yet another last word on Molière raisonneur,” Theatre Survey, 22, nº1 (1981), 125-140.
[5] Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, “Le Misanthrope ou la comédie éclatée.”
[6] Casuistry, or how to sin without sinning (michelinewalker.com)

Love to everyone  💕

—ooo—

Claire Lefilliâtre chante Plaisir d’amour — Le Poème harmonique

Portrait of Molière by Pierre Mignard, ca. 1658 (Google Art Project)

© Micheline Walker
24 February 2019
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From “Ballet de Cour” to “Comédie-Ballet”

10 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in Ballet, France, Grotesque, Italy, Theatre, Wars of Religion

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Wedding_ball_of_the_Duc_de_Joyeuse,_1581Wedding of Anne de Joyeuse with Marguerite de Vaudémont, 24 September 1581 in Le Louvre. On the left under the dai are Henri III, Catherine de Médicis, and Queen Louise. French school 1581-1582. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

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Le Ballet comique de la Reine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Molière (15 January 1622 – 17 February 1673), born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, spent several years performing outside Paris. His first troupe, l’Illustre Théâtre, established in 1643, went bankrupt and, in 1645, Molière was imprisoned. He had to leave for the provinces.

Les Précieuses ridicules, a one-act play which premièred on 18 November 1659, was Molière’s first Parisian success and he would produce several other plays, about thirty-four, eleven of which were comédies-ballets, ten with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and one, with music by Charpentier. However, preceding the comédie-ballet, was the ballet de cour.

The Ballet de Cour

Circé ou le Balet comique de la Royne (1581)

The first ballet, a ballet de cour, was Circé ou le Balet comique de la Royne (1581). It was commissioned by Catherine de’ Medici, and choreographed by Balthasar Beaujoyeulx, or Baldassarre da Belgioioso. As we have seen frequently, the Renaissance began in Italy and, consequently, many ‘French’ institutions find their origin in Italy. Dissemination was often due to marriages.

The Ballet comique de la Reine was performed on 15 October 1581 at the court of Catherine de’ Medici. It was part of the wedding celebration of the Duc de Joyeuse‘s, a court ‘mignon,’ a dandy, marriage to Queen Louise’s sister, Marguerite of Lorraine). The text of the ballet was written by Nicolas Filleul de la Chesnayne. Girard de Beaulieu wrote the music.

The Ballet comique de la Reine was created for the wedding celebration of Queen Louise’s sister, who married le Duc de Joyeuse (1561 – 1687), a court ‘mignon,’ a dandy. The text was by Nicolas Filleul de la Chesnayne. Girard de Beaulieu wrote the music. And, as noted above, Beaujoyeux, or Belgioioso, was its choreographer.

Louise was married to Henri III of France, a son a Henri II and Catherine de’ Medici, who was assassinated by Jacques Clément, a Catholic fanatic. As for Anne de Joyeuse (1561 – 1687),  he perished at the hands of French Calvinist Protestants, called Huguenots, 800 of whom he had slaughtered. In fact, the French wars of religion are the backdrop to the creation of the ballet de cour.

sans-titre

“Les Fées de la forêt de Saint-Germain” (First performed in February 1625)
“Entrée des Esperlucates ”
“Grand Ballet de la douairière de Billebahaut” (First performed in February 1626)

Daniel Rabel: the “grotesque” in the ballet de cour

  • Daniel Rabel
  • the grotesque

Daniel Rabel (1578 – 3 January 1637) was a man of many talents. Wikipedia describes Rabel as “a Renaissance French painter, engraver, miniaturist, botanist and natural history illustrator.” As a painter, Rabel produced grotesque depictions of ballet, but beginning in 1617 until his death in 1637, Rabel was a set designer for theatres and for ballets de cour.

In our context the term grotesque (from grotto) is not pejorative. The ‘grotesque’ is an aesthetics as is the ‘baroque.’ Medieval gargoyles and misericords are acceptably ‘grotesques.’ Beverly Minster, a 12th-century cathedral, has a fine collection of grotesque misericords. In the 19th century, Hugo would revive the grotesque. His 1831 novel, Notre-Dame de Paris features Quasimodo, a hunchback. The “grotesque” is associated with the Middle Ages and the 19th century.

Le Roi danse

“Les Fées de la forêt de Saint-Germain” was danced at the Louvre in February 1625, with Louis XIII himself in the role of a “valiant fighter.” (See Daniel Rabel, Wikipedia.) Louis XIII also danced in the ballet he composed, the Ballet de la Merlaison.

Louis XIII and his brother, Gaston d’Orléans, danced in the Ballet du Sérieux et du Grotesque. Louis XIV was also a dancer. On 23 February 1653, Louis XIV danced in the Ballet de la Nuit, at the Petit-Bourbon, a theater.

Louis XIV
Louis XIV

Louis XIII’s Le Ballet de la Merlaison

You may remember that Louis XIII, the Sun-King’s father, wrote the Ballet de la Merlaison. Louis XIII was a composer and he composed a ballet. Consequently, the creation of ballet is associated with both Louis XIII and his son, Louis XIV. However, Louis XIII’s Ballet de la Merlaison is a ballet de cour as had been Circé ou le Balet Comique de la Royne. As noted above, Louis XIII performed in the ballet he composed.

Other ballets de cour were performed before 1661, when Molière created Les Fâcheux, (the Bores), to music by Lully. King Louis XIII, the Sun-King’s father (Louis XIV), was a composer and, as noted above, he played a role in “Les Fées de la forêt de Saint-Germain.” Louis XIII composed the Ballet de la Merlaison, a ballet de cour.

Maurice_Leloir_-_Le_ballet_de_la_Merlaison

Le Ballet de la Merlaison by Maurice Leloir, in Dumas père’s The Three Musketeers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Comédie-ballet

  • Le Bourgeois gentilhomme: comédie ballet and “play-within-a-play”
  • Jean-Baptiste Lully
  • Molière

For a long time, little attention was given Molière’s contribution to ballet, and my book, if ever it is published, will not improve matters as I will discuss only one comédie-ballet: George Dandin (1668). However, one cannot ignore Le Bourgeois gentihomme (14 November 1670), where the ballet is both entertainment and a play-within-a play. Monsieur Jourdain is deceived into marrying his daughter Lucile to Cléonte who has disguised himself into the son of the Mufti, le grand Turc. This is a case of comedy rescuing comedy.

Molière wrote the text of his comédies-ballets, and the text may be read independently of the divertissements, for which he also wrote the text. However, these ballets inject laughter into Molière’s comedies several of which are somber works. The ballets are, to a large extent, part of the comic text.

Except for The Imaginary Invalid (1673), the music of Molière’s comédies-ballets was composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully, born Giovanni Battista Lulli. Pierre Beauchamp (30 October 1631 – February 1705) was Molière’s choreographer.

All three, Molière (playwright), Lully (composer and dancer) and Pierre Beauchamp (choreographer), are major figures in their respective profession and Molière’s comédie-ballet a significant step in the creation of ballet. Lully was named director of Académie Royale de Musique in 1669 and worked with Philippe Quinault, his librettist. The Académie Royale de Musique developed into the Paris Opéra and the smaller Opéra Garnier. Since 1989, performances have been held at the 2700-seat theatre Opéra Bastille.

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L’Opéra Garnier

 

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L’Opéra Garnier, Le Grand Foyer

Comédie-ballet and le style galant

Several ballets de cour and the related comédies-ballets were staged. It would seem that Voltaire La Princesse de Navarre (1745) is that last comédie-ballet. It was performed to music by Jean-Philippe Rameau (25 September 1683 – 12 September 1764). (See Comédie-ballet, Wikipedia.)

A few years earlier, Rameau had composed Les Indes galantes with libretto by Louis Fuzelier. It was performed by the Académie Royale de Musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal, in Paris, on 23 August 1735. The ‘style galant’ had entered comédie-ballet heralded by André Campra‘s L’Europe galante, written to a text by Antoine Houdar de la Motte on 24 October 1697. It was an opéra-ballet, which we are not discussing, not a comédie-ballet.

We close with Rameau’s Les Indes galantes, which was not an opera but a turning-point in the history of ballet in the galant style. Specialists were now developing ballet.  

Conclusion

  • Les Fâcheux (The Bores) the first comédie-ballet (1661)
  • Vaux-le-Vicomte

Molière wrote eleven comédies-ballets, the first of which was Les Fâcheux (The Bores), created by Molière and Lully and performed at Vaux-le-Vicomte, Nicolas Fouquet’s magnificent castle. Fouquet invited a newly-crowned king Louis XIV to a lavish feast at Vaux, which took place on 17 August 1661, but Louis grew jealous. We have read that story. Louis XIV used ballets to cultivate the image of the Sun-King. Therefore, to a certain extent, ballet was put into the service of absolutism.

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With kind regards to everyone. ♥

Below are scenes from Belgian filmmaker Gérard Corbiau‘s Le Roi danse (2000)

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Grotesque Musician from the Ballet du Sérieux et du Grotesque, 1627
(Art Gallery of Ontario)

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© Micheline Walker
10 April 2016
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The British Royal Collection’s Portrait of Pietro Bembo

07 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by in Art, Ballet, Italy, Renaissance

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Portrait of Pietro Bembo by Giovanni Bellini (British Royal Collection)

I explored the British Royal Collection and learned that in 1940, it was suggested that the above portrait, by Giovanni Bellini, was a portrait of Pietro Bembo (20 May 1470 – 11 or 18 January 1547). It is a suggestion, which means that there is an element of doubt. The facial features of the Royal Collection’s Pietro Bembo bear a resemblance to Raphael’s portrait, but Raphael’s portrait of Pietro Bembo (c. 1506), shows a dark-haired Pietro Bembo.

The Madrigal

I know of Pietro Bembo from my days as a student of musicology. He is associated with the development of polyphony (many voices) through the madrigal (songs in the mother tongue, as in the Spanish madre), secular songs. However, Pietro Bembo was a writer, not a musician.

As the popularity of madrigals waned, Louis XIV, who loved to dance and was a dancer, hired Italian-born  Jean-Baptiste Lully, or Giovanni Battista Lulli, a composer and dancer. When Molière returned to Paris after spending several years touring France, his Précieuses ridicules (18 November 1659) impressed the court.

I have yet to order my new computer, but when it arrives, we will again be in Italy briefly. Molière created the comédie-ballet. Les Fâcheux was performed at Vaux-le-Vicomte.  Molière wrote the text and Lulli, the music. The ballet accompanying Les Fâcheux (The Bores) was choreographed was Pierre Beauchamp.

A few years ago, I  wrote a post on Vaux-le-Vicomte and, in partiular the feast hosted by Nicolas Fouquet on 17 August 1661, perhaps the most lavish fête in the history of France. Louis XIV had just become king of France. Louis was so impressed that during the fête itself, he decided to destroy Fouquet, or Foucquet. The video I used has been removed and I have yet to find a video that matches the former video.

le-roi-danse

Le Roi danse (Photo credit: Google Images)

Conclusion

Would that Giovanni Bellini had given a name to the persons whose portrait he painted. He entitled many of his portraits as Portrait of a Young Man or Portrait of a Man.

I have a new post, I hope to publish today. It is about ballet. Molière created the comédie-ballet in 1661. He created a total of 11.

With kind regards to all of you. ♥

The video shown below is an excerpt from a film entitled Le Roi danse.

07cardin

Portrait of a Cardinal by Jacopo Bassano (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
7 April 2016
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