As you know, I wrote posts on every play Molière wrote. Molière is a major writer. In fact, the French language is often referred to as la langue de Molière. Quotations were in both French and English, and each one was followed by a link taking readers to the entire play.
Toutmolière.net / Molière 21 has been removed from the internet. So, links following my quotations no longer lead to the complete play. I believe a few of my posts are entries.
However, I hope sincerely that the toutmolière.net/ Molière 21 site will be reintroduced among necessary entries. I so enjoyed using these toutmolière.net.
English translations of my quotations were taken from an Internet Archive‘s translation of the plays of Molière. I had chosen Henri van Laun. The print is small but it can be enlarged. The full texts of certain plays is available courtesy of the Gutenberg Project, Wikisource, and other sources, but most of my Molière posts no longer have a link to the French text and I fear readers will not “run around.” A teacher’s presentation of a work is a key source of learning. Illustrations are also very important.
Many people are confined to their home or bed. They cannot go to a library or a bookstore, because there is no convenient transportation. Some are blind or have poor eyesight, so audio books are important. Henri van Laun was an excellent moliériste and translator. The print was small, but it could be enlarged.
I hope toutmolière.net /Molière 21 will reinsert Molière’s plays on the internet so people reading my 82 posts will be able to read more than its short quotations.
My doctoral thesis has been published on the internet by the University of British Columbia. However, the copy that was used has many spelling and surface errors. I will correct these.
Messieurs, je vous en prie, rendez-nous toutmolière.net.
We will survive. I was going through my Molière’s plays because I would like to present more fables by Jean de La Fontaine. Molière and Jean de La Fontaine were good friends and the same age. Both were influenced by Rabelais.
In my last post, I noted that Les Amants magnifiques(The Magnificent Lovers) was a comédie-ballet héroïque. We discussed the comedy only. The interludes, I wrote, would be discussed separately. In fact, the video I showed was based on Les Amants magnifiques. Therefore, we saw a very short part of Apollo’s entrée, which follows the end of the “comedy.”
I also mentioned that the interlude separating Act One and Act Two of the comedy was a long interlude featuring a pastorale, shepherds and shepherdesses, as well as a scene of dépit amoureux, “love-tiff.” I wondered whether one could find a translation into English of the interludes. One can. Henri van Laun’s translation of Dramatic Works of Molière (Volume 5) contains the relevant translation. It is an Internet Archive publication and very precious. For Henri van Laun, there are five interludes. In the Pléiade edition, there are six.
According to toutmoliere.net, or members of the Molière 21 research group, Louis XIV did not dance in Molière’s Amants magnifiques. Therefore, if he fell, it could not have been at the very end of Act Five of the Amantsmagnifiques. In the video’s Apollo entrée and the divertissement, Apollo, was played by a person other than Louis XIV. The video I used is very short, but it encapsulates Louis XIV’s rather “inflated” opinion of himself: the Sun King. However, these words could be flattery. A divertissement royal was commissioned by the king and it provided a fine income. But the video’s message is clear. No one is God on this earth.
Les Fâcheux
Molière, with the participation of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Pierre Beauchamp, introduced the comédie-ballet at Vaux-le-Vicomte. Molière’s Les Fâcheux was performed when Nicolas Foucquet, hosted France’s “who’s who,” including a very young Louis XIV. It was a fête no one could match easily and it included Molière’s LesFâcheux. It was performed successfully and Molière had dedicated the play to Louis XIV, a very young Louis. Molière was one of Fouquet’s numerous protégés, as was Jean de La Fontaine, who would be a friend of Molière until the dramatist’s early death from tuberculosis.
Imitating Fouquet
You probably remember that Louis suspected embezzlement on the part of Fouquet and asked a musketeer to arrest him. Foucquet/Fouquet was tried, convicted, and spent the rest of his life, nineteen years, in the prison where the Man in the Iron Mask was also detained.
Louis’ Divertissements
Since Louis would not have a lesser castle than one of his subjects, he hired Foucquet’s architects and their teams, and had Versailles built. The event called for a divertissement royal, Les Plaisirs de l’Île enchantée. The fête occurred at an early point in the building of Versailles. Louis hoped he could outperform Fouquet’s fête, but he didn’t. We have also mentioned another divertissementroyal which occurred after the period of mourning that followed the death of Anne d’Autriche. Isaac de Benserade‘s Ballet des muses included two plays by Molière, but a third was added and performed on 13 or 14 February 1667. It was Le Sicilienou l’Amour peintre or Love makes the painter.
Les Amants magnifiques was also part of a divertissement royal. It was so lavish a divertissement that performing it in Paris would be too expensive. Molière wrote the play and the interludes and did very well. He was a good imitator and I believe he rose to the occasion.
The Interludes (Les Intermèdes)
There are six interludes in the 2010 Pléiade edition of Molière’s Œuvres complètes. Henri van Laun’s translation has five interludes.
Les Amants magnifiques
opens to the sound of Lully’s music with lyrics by Molière.
A second intermède occurs at the end of Act One. The dancers were Messieurs Beauchamp, Saint-André and Favier.
The third interlude, the longest, follows Act Two and consists of a Prologue introducing a pastoral featuring Lycaste, Ménandre and Tircis, and a scene of Dépit amoureux, translated as “love-tiff” by Henri van Laun.
A fourth interlude follows Act Three, and
afifth separates Acts Four and Five.
a sixth is the Jeux pythiens where Apollo is Louis XIV. The video at the foot of my last post forms part of the Amants magnifiques. It may be that Molière expected Louis to dance, but he didn’t (see the Notice in toutmolière.com).
At the end of Act Five, most, in not all, the play’s characters are on their way to the Pythian Games. I wrote most, because the two princes threatened vengeance. In fact, Cléonice had told Aristione that Anaxarque abused the princes.
Madame, je viens vous dire qu’Anaxarque a jusqu’ici abusé, l’un et l’autre prince, par l’espérance de ce choix qu’ils poursuivent depuis longtemps, et qu’au bruit qui s’est répandu de votre aventure, ils ont fait éclater tous deux leur ressentiment contre lui, jusque-là que, de paroles en paroles, les choses se sont échauffées, et il en a reçu quelques blessures dont on ne sait pas bien ce qui arrivera. Mais les voici. Cléonice to Aristione (V. i. p. 33)
[Madam, I am come to tell you that Anaxarchus had till now deceived both the princes, with the hope of favouring the choice upon which their souls were bent; and that, hearing what has taken place, they have both given way to their resentment against him, and things growing worse, he has received several wounds, from which it is impossible to say what may happen. But here they are both coming.] Cléonice to Aristione (V. 3)
The following is a quotation from the very last part of Les Amants magnifiques, Apollo’s entrée:
Je suis la source des clartés, Et les astres les plus vantés Dont le beau cercle m’environne, Ne sont brillants et respectés Que par l’éclat que je leur donne. Du char où je me puis asseoir Je vois le désir de me voir Posséder la nature entière, Et le monde n’a son espoir Qu’aux seuls bienfaits de ma lumière. Bienheureuses de toutes parts, Et pleines d’exquises richesses Les terres où de mes regards J’arrête les douces caresses.
(sixth interlude) [I am the source of all delight ; And the most vaunted stars, Whose beauteous circle is around me,/ Are only brilliant and respected,/ By the splendour which I give them,/ From the car on which I sit,/ I see the wish to behold me/ Shared by the whole of nature;/ And the wide world has but its hope/ In the sole blessings of my light./ Very happy everywhere,/ And full of exquisite wealth,/ The lands on which I throw/ The sweet caresses of my glances.]
(Henri van Laun, p. 192)
“Dormez, dormez,” a video inserted at the foot of this post, also quotes Les Amants magnifiques. Tirsis, Lycaste and Ménandre sing together while Caliste sleeps.
Tirsis, Lycaste and Ménandre Dormez, dormez, beaux yeux, adorables vainqueurs, Et goûtez le repos que vous ôtez aux cœurs, Dormez, dormez, beaux yeux.
[Sleep on, sleep on, fair eyes, lovely conquerors; And taste that peace which you wrest from all hearts; Sleep on, sleep on, fair eyes.]
Tirsis
Silence, petits oiseaux, Vents, n’agitez nulle chose, Coulez doucement, ruisseaux, C’est Caliste qui repose. Intermède (III. iv, p. 19)
[Now silence keep, ye little birds; Ye winds, stir nought around ; Ye stream, run sweetly on: For Caliste is slumbering.] Interlude
(Henri van Laun, p. 171)
Reading from Molière by Jean-François de Troy (Paris 1679 – Rome 1752) c. 1728 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I do not think Molière’s plays are now considered either farces or grandes comédies. Such was the case when I was a student. But we also have the divertissements. La Princesse d’Élide is une comédie galante. I may bring up the notion of “galant music.”
We must also discuss love. Ériphile has been asked to choose a spouse. She loses this privilege, but the comedic “will,” ensures she marries the man she loves. It’s a form of destiny. But Anaxarque was plotting her demise and our “princes” knew. However, they did not know which prince Anaxarque, our charlatan “astrologer,” would choose. It was Iphicrate.
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