Tag Archives: jealousy

Molière’s “Jalousie du Barbouillé”

20 Monday May 2019

Posted by in Comedy, Commedia dell'arte, Gallantry, Molière

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la jalousie du barbouille

La Jalousie du Barbouillé (documentation.théâtre.com)

I have not found illustrations for La Jalousie du Barbouillé. The image above is a detail from an illustration by Abraham Bosse, showing Turlupin and Gaultier-Garguille, French farceurs at the Hôtel de Bourgogne. The Hôtel de Bourgogne, was the foremost venue for Paris actors and farceurs. Another venue was Le Théâtre du Marais, a jeu de paume, an interior tennis court.

La Jalousie du Barbouillé is a one-act farce, first performed in 1660. It is often associated with Le Médecin volant. Both are early plays. However, Le Barbouillé seems the blueprint for George Dandin, first performed in 1668. George Dandin is a rich peasant who foolishly marries into an impoverished aristocracy. La Jalousie du Barbouillé was staged a few times after it premièred, but the farce was unexpectedly removed from Molière’s répertoire and the text itself vanished. It was found by Jean-Baptiste Rousseau in the eighteenth century, but was not included in the complete works of Molière until the 1819 edition.

Sources

The Molière21 research group warn that ancestors to Molière’s plays are probably too numerous to list. Cuckoldry and jealousy have long been the subject of farces and fabliaux. Cuckoldry also provided canevas, plots, to the commedia dell’arte. However, Wikipedia’s entry on La Jalousie du Barbouillé mentions sources. One is the commedia dell’arte‘s Villano gelosi, another is a tale from Boccacio’s Decameron, Le Jaloux corrigé. Moreover, the angry or disconsolate Barbouillé and Dandin are incarnations of Pedrolino (Pierrot), the rejected and sad clown.

Our dramatis personæ are:

Le Barbouillé, husband to Angélique.
The Doctor.
Angélique.
Valère, lover to Angélique.
Cathau, maid to Angélique.
Gorgibus, father to Angélique.
Villebrequin (accompanies Gorgibus).
La Vallée.

Le Jaloux

La Jalousie du Barbouillé features one of Molière’s main figures: the  jaloux. Le jaloux combines two comedic functions. On the one hand, he is “in love,” but on the other hand, he is the blocking character of comedy, the alazṓn of Greek Old Comedy. If he has yet to marry, he resembles Arnolphe. Reprimands and imprecations are his native and only tongue. We have just read Le Sicilien ou l’Amour peintre. Had Dom Pèdre known the laws of gallantry, Isidore may not have fled with Adraste.

After le Jaloux marries, he remains a jaloux because he fears cuckoldry, which is his fate. The cocu is the laughing-stock of the society of the play. In La Jalousie du Barbouillé, his name suggests that his face is smeared: barbouillé.

Angélique

Yes, Angélique has met Valère and, serving the couple, is Cathau, Angélique’s maid. She is on the lookout. If she sees Gorgibus, Angélique’s father, she warns Valère and Angélique, who stop speaking as lovers do. Valère knows how to change topics:

Mademoiselle, je suis au désespoir de vous apporter de si méchantes nouvelles ; mais aussi bien les auriez-vous apprises de quelque autre ; et, puisque votre frère est fort malade…
Valère à Angélique (Sc. iv, p. 5)
[Mademoiselle, I am very sorry to bring you such bad news, but, you would have heard it from some one else, and since your brother is ill…]
Valère to Angélique (Sc. 4)

The Barbouillé’s Soliloquy

As the curtain lifts, the Barbouillé engages in a soliloquy, as will George Dandin. His soliloquy, or tirade, is a litany of the wrongs he endures, saddled as he is, with a flirtatious wife. He wishes her dead, but would be hanged if he had no proof of adultery:

Il faut avouer que je suis le plus malheureux de tous les hommes ! J’ai une femme qui me fait enrager : au lieu de me donner du soulagement et de faire les choses à mon souhait, elle me fait donner au diable vingt fois le jour ; au lieu de se tenir à la maison, elle aime la promenade, la bonne chère, et fréquente je ne sais quelle sorte de gens. Ah ! pauvre Barbouillé, que tu es misérable ! Il faut pourtant la punir. Si tu la tuais… L’intention ne vaut rien, car tu serais pendu. Si tu la faisais mettre en prison… La carogne en sortirait avec son passe-partout. Que diable faire donc ? Mais voilà monsieur le docteur qui passe par ici, il faut que je lui demande un bon conseil sur ce que je dois faire.
Barbouillé (Sc. I, p. 1)
[Everybody must acknowledge that I am the most unfortunate of men! I have a wife who plagues me to death; and who, instead of bringing me comfort and doing things as I like them to be done, makes me swear at her twenty times a day. Instead of keeping at home, she likes gadding about, eating good dinners, and passing her time with people of I don’t know what description. Ah! poor Barbouillé, how much you are to be pitied! But she must be punished. Suppose you killed her…? It would do no good, for you would be hung afterwards. If you were to have her sent to prison…? The minx would find means of coming out. –What the deuce are you to do?
But here is the doctor coming out this way; suppose I ask his advice on my difficulties.]
Barbouillé (Sc. 1)

The Barbouillé seeks the help of a doctor, a pedant, who is passing by. This doctor cannot give advice. The Barbouillé says a few words, which is all our pedant requires to display his knowledge. Doctors have the reputation of presenting bills. At the end of Scene two, the Doctor therefore indulges in a long tirade aimed at showing that expense is no object. He does’nt take money. The tirade being too long, I will indicate that it is at the very end of Scene ii, p. 4, FR Scene 2, EN.

Gorgibus

In the meantime, Monsieur Gorgibus, Angélique’s father, walks on stage, accompanied by Villebrequin, his entourage. Gorgibus fears cuckoldry as much as the Barbouillé, if not more. Should his daughter commit adultery, which is almost unavoidable, Gorgibus’ reputation would suffer. He is forever visiting his daughter and her husband, begging them to stop quarrelling. They quarrel. (Sc. v, p. 5):

Hé quoi? toujours se quereller! vous n’aurez point la paix dans votre ménage?
Gorgibus au Barbouillé (Sc. v)
[What! will you always be quarrelling! Will you never have peace at home?]
Gorgibus to Barbouillé (Sc. 5)

An incoherent doctor butts in. For instance, he asks the Barbouillé not to use the word enrager: j’enrage [I am bursting with rage.], which is not the correct verb.[1] Whether the Barbouillé uses enrager or an another word is irrelevant. He is a nuisance. As the scene ends, the doctor is dragged away, a cord attached to his foot.

Au milieu de tout ce bruit, le Barbouillé attache le Docteur par le pied, et le fait tomber ; le Docteur se doit laisser sur le dos ; le barbouillé l’entraîne par la corde qu’il lui a attachée au pied, et, pendant qu’il l’entraîne, le Docteur doit toujours parler, et compter par ses doigts toutes ses raisons, comme s’il n’était point à terre.
(Sc. vi, pp. 8-9)
[In the midst of all this, Le Barbouillé ties the Doctor by the legs with a rope, throws him down on his back, and drags him away; the Doctor goes on talking all the time, and counts all his arguments on his fingers, as if he were not on the ground.]
(Sc. 6)

Cuckoldry

In La Jalousie du Barbouillé, Molière rehearses George Dandin ou le Mari confondu, performed in 1668. The two comedies share an episode. The Barbouillé’s Angélique is late returning home and finds herself locked out of the Barbouillé’s house. The Barbouillé will not open the door to let his wife enter. 

Oui? Ah! ma foi, tu peux aller coucher d’où tu viens, ou, si tu l’aimes mieux, dans la rue, dans la rue : je n’ouvre point à une coureuse comme toi. Comment, diable! être toute seule à l’heure qu’il est!  Je ne sais si c’est imagination, mais mon front m’en paraît plus rude de moitié.
Barbouillé à Angélique (Sc. xi, p. 10)
[Yes, you catch me! You may go and sleep where you come from; I shall not open to a gad-about like you. What! alone at this time of night! I don’t know if it is fancy, but my forehead seems to me already rougher by half.]
Barbouillé to Angélique (Sc. 11)

The Barbouillé so insists on keeping the door closed that Angélique says she will do something he will regret.

Sais-tu bien que si tu me pousses à bout, et que tu me mettes en colère, je ferai quelque chose dont tu te repentiras?
Angélique au Barbouillé (Sc. xi, p. 11)
[Do you know that if you push me too far, and put me in a passion, I may do something which will make you repent your unkindness.]
Angélique to Barbouillé (Sc. 11)

Tiens, si tu ne m’ouvres, je m’en vais me tuer devant la porte ; mes parents, qui sans doute viendront ici auparavant de se coucher, pour savoir si nous sommes bien ensemble, me trouveront morte, et tu seras pendu.
Angélique au Barbouillé (Sc. xi, p. 11)
[I declare that if you do not open to me, I will kill myself before the door; my parents will no doubt come here before going to bed, to see if we are all right together, and they will find me dead, and you will be hanged.]
Angélique to Barbouillé (Sc. 11)

She then makes believe she’s killed herself. Frightened, he goes out of the house, allowing her to enter. It was a trick which George Dandin will play on his wife, in the hope he will be vindicated. He would have the upper hand from the point of you of the law. (Act III. final scenes)

Comments

Le jaloux is doomed, whether or not he is in the right. Courting, le Jaloux cannot make himself loved. He cannot be loved. Once he marries, Molière’s jaloux is cuckolded, un cocu and barbouillé, smeared. He is the laughing-stock of the play’s society and he shames his in-laws, however vigilant a Gorgibus or a Barbouillé. Gorgibus asks his daughter to kiss her “husband:”

Allons, ma fille, embrassez votre mari, et soyez bons amis.
Gorgibus à Angélique (Sc. xii, p. 12)
[Come, daughter, kiss your husband, and be friends.]
Gorgibus to Angélique (Sc. 13)

One does not ask a woman to kiss her husband, nor does one ask a husband to apologize to his wife (George Dandin, p. 291). Angélique and Valère will become lovers. The Sotenville (George Dandin) are prosperous again, but they have sold a daughter and Dandin regrets marrying into the aristocracy. He blames himself.

As the curtain falls, Villebrequin, who has refused the hear sixty to eighty pages of instruction from a reappearing doctor, suggests all go to supper. 

Allons-nous-en souper ensemble, nous autres.
Villebrequin à tous (Sc. xiii, p. 13)
Let us all go and have some supper together.
Villebrequin to all (Sc. 13)

This invitation is formulaic and The Jealousy of the Barbouillé, an enigmatic comedy. “Nous autres” go to supper, but George Dandin, a second Barbouillé, feels he may as well drown (George Dandin, p. 291).

RELATED ARTICLES

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[1] It is the correct verb.

With kind regards to everyone. 💕
(Apologies for a belated post.)

Four_Commedia_dell’Arte_Figures_claude-gillot

Claude Gillot (1673–1722), Four Commedia dell’arte Figures: Three Gentlemen and Pierrot, c. 1715 (Wiki2.org)

169331 (2)

© Micheline Walker
20 May 2019
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Molière: plots, jealousy & the dénouement

24 Sunday Feb 2019

Posted by in Comedy, Molière, Varia

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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.

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

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(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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Kasyan Yaroslavovitch Golejzovsky’s Harlequin

11 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by in Art, Comedy, Commedia dell'arte

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KASYAN YAROSLAVOVITCH GOLEJZOVSKY 1892 Moscow – 1970  Moscow (Photo credit: Invaluable)

This mixed-media depiction of Harlequin, by Russian artist Kasyan Yaroslavovitch Golejzovsky, was sold at an auction, in Düsseldorf, Germany, on 9 November 2017. I congratulate its owners. I love this work of art for many reasons. For instance, movement is beautifully expressed. Would that I had the money to bid and buy at auctions. However, I visit, if only to see beautiful objects.

Harlequin is a zanno (zanni), a comic servant, who was introduced into the Commedia dell’arte by 17th – century actor – manager Zan Ganassa (c. 1540 – c. 1584): Zan (=zanni) Ganassa. Commedia dell’ arte actors were professionals. They were provided with an outline of the comedy (called a canevas in French), where they played a role, always the same role, which they improvised. The Italians travelled to other countries. Ganassa was in Spain from 1574 to 1584. Paris had its Comédie-Italienne, and Harlequin was in 18th – century London.

In the commedia erudita, however, actors used a script written by a playwright. Ben Johnson, Shakespeare, Molière and dramatists preceding them often drew their material from Plautus (254 BCE [Sarsinia, Umbria, Italy] – BCE 154)[1] and Terence (195 BCE [Carthage, current Tunisia] – 159 BCE [Greece or at sea]).[2] Roman dramatists Plautus and Terence wrote in Latin, but the vernacular, early forms of Italian, was also used by actors. However, Plautus and Terence, found their inspiration in Greek New Comedy (320 BCE to the mid 3rd century BCE), from which they also borrowed. Molière‘s Miser (1668) is rooted in Plautus’ Aulularia.

Harlequin is perhaps the best-known of the commedia dell’arte’s zanni and one of its most celebrated characters. Harlequin always wears a costume. It is part of the mask, but behind the mask there is a man, or a woman. Until the creation of Pierrot, drawn from both pantomimes and the commedia dell’arte, the stock characters of the commedia dell’arte seemed what they appeared.

However, Pierrot, created in late 17th – century France, by the Parisian Comédie-Italienne, is a sad clown, a mask wearing a mask. He entertains an audience, but he loves Columbina who loves Harlequin. This is love’s triangle, an impossible love that may feed on jealousy. As the 17th century drew to a close in France, Madame de la Fayette[3] published La Princesse de Clèves, in which her heroine will not marry Monsieur de Nemours for fear he will stop loving her once his love is reciprocated. Jean Racine‘s Phèdre fails to save Hippolyte, whom she has falsely accused of trying to seduce her, when she learns Hippolyte claims to love Aricie. La Princesse de Clèves was published in 1678, the year after Phèdre was first performed.

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Harlequin by George Barbier (Photo credit: Tumbler)

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The Duel after the Masquerade by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In this respect, he is perhaps the most enigmatic character of the commedia dell’arte, and the most human. Jealous love finds its best expression in a novel by Madame de La Fayette, La Princesse de Clèves (1678). But Molière’s Arnolphe, the blocking-character in The School for Wives, L’École des femmes, is jealous. The Gelosi (jealous) were also a commedia dell’ arte troupe, but jealous love is not associated with the Gelosi. In Britannica, we read that:

“The name was derived from the troupe’s motto, Virtù, fama ed honor ne fèr gelosi. (“We are jealous of attaining virtue, fame and honour”).[4]

11552-050-3B1C1E8D.jpg

Commedia dell’arte troupe, probably depicting Isabella Andreini and the Compagnia dei Gelosi, oil … CFL—Giraudon/Art Resource, New York (Photo credit: Britannica)

Conclusion

I will close by reminding my readers of the British John Rich’s harlequinades: tom-foolery and pandemonium. Unlike the clever, nimble and clownish British zanno  Harlequin, Pierrot is mime‘s sad clown performed by Jean-Gaspard Deburau (Battiste), Jean-Louis Barrault (Baptiste), and less-acclaimed mimes.  Jean-Louis Barrault is the star of director Michel Carné‘s 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis (The Children of Paradise), one of cinema’s classics, written by Jacques Prévert. But is Picasso‘s family Harlequin “funny?” (See Arlecchino, Arlequin, Harlequin and Leo Rauth’s “fin de siècle” Pierrot in RELATED ARTICLES).

Stock characters must not deviate from their role, nor can actors. But masks tend to invite a response not intended in the manner a role is played.

Love to everyone ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

Denis Diderot, Paradoxe sur le comédien (c. 1773-1777), published in 1830. (Google) FR
Denis Diderot, Paradoxe sur le comédien, Wikipedia FR

____________________

[1] Plautus, Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plautus)
[2] W. Geoffrey Arnott, Terrence, Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Terence)
[3] In 1655, at the age of 21, already a salonnière, she married 38-year-old François Motier, comte de La Fayette, an ancestor to Gilbert Motier, marquis de Lafayette. She bore him two sons.
[4] Gelosi, Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Compagnia-dei-Gelosi

Claude Debussy : Clair de Lune, for Piano (Suite Bergamasque No. 3), L. 75/3

Pierrot et Harlequin Mardi Gras by Cézanne

© Micheline Walker
10 November 2017
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Molière’s “George Dandin”

24 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by in Comedy, Molière

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George Dandin, Alexandre-Joseph Desenne (Photo credit: Internet Archive)

George Dandin ou le Mari confondu (George Dandin or the Abashed Husband) is one of Molière‘s enigmatic plays. It was first performed on 18 July 1668,[1] at Versailles, and it was part of a Grand Divertissement Royal, a celebration of the French victory at Aix-la-Chapelle. It consisted of the play itself and a pastoral, a conversation between shepherdesses mainly.

Background

  • Henri van Laun (the translator)
  • a comédie-ballet
  • a pastoral
  • sources: Guarini’s (Il Pastor Fido) and, perhaps, Boccacio (The Decameron)
  • the Dolopatos (the tale of a woman locked into a tower)
  • a mésalliance

George Dandin (1668) is a comédie-ballet and a farce, accompanied by a pastorale. My copy (Pléiade, 1956) does include the pastoral. It is in the endnotes, beginning p. 955). It is mentioned in Molière21 eText. However, ironically, the pastoral is included in the Internet Archive translation we are using. It is Henri van Laun‘s (1820-1896) six-volume Dramatic Works of Molière with eleven ilustrations by Horace Vernet, Alexandre-Joseph Desenne, Tony Johannot and Louis Hersent. George Dandin appears in volume IV of Van Laun’s collection and it is complete. Henri van Laun has separated the acts into a larger number of scenes.

However, our Molière21 e-text contains the precious Notice and I should think the new Pléiade edition (2010) of Molière’s complete works also includes the pastoral, written by Molière and set to music by Lully. However, the pastoral can be read online in Henri van Laun‘s English translation of Molière, whose translation of George Dandin, I am using.

Pastorals – the Dolopatos

Pastorals find their origin in Guarini‘s (1538-1612) Pastor Fido (1590), The Faithful Shepherd. As for George Dandin, a farce, it may also be rooted in Giovanni Boccacio‘s (1313-1375) Decameron, 4th, 7th, and 8th days. The Decameron contains 100 tales told by young men and women hiding from the plague. These were very influential. Chaucer may have read the Decameron when he was on a mission to Italy in 1372. The structure of his Canterbury Tales resembles that of the Decameron.

Molière has written other pastorals, Mélicerte (December 1666), La Pastorale comique (January 1667), Le Sicilien ou l’Amour peintre (February 1667). He did so just before writing George Dandin. Molière was extremely sick when he wrote most of the above-mentioned pastorals. He had to take time off and was reported to be dying. It was a lung ailment. (See Molière, Wikipedia.) Molière died in February 1673.

George Dandin is also associated with an Indian work, the Dolopatos, written before the Common Era, before Christ, and translated into Arabic and Hebrew (see Salon littéraire). It was also translated into Latin and then French. As well, this farce is rooted in Molière’s own Jalousie du Barbouillé, which may have been written before Molière’s return to Paris.

The Agroikos – Impoverished Nobility

In Greek literature, George Dandin, would be called an agroikos (rustic), a stock character. He is a peasant who has married into the upper classes and wishes to be separated from his wife when he realizes that he has simply bought a title: de la Dandinière. Such incidents were frequent in 17th-century France because aristocrats wanted to be ‘seen’ at court, which costs a fortune. They could not afford dowries for all their daughters. Often only one was endowed.

Angélique’s parents are also impoverished nobility, but they do not live in Paris. Angélique, however, was literally sold to Dandin and, even after the marriage, the Sotenvilles (sot=stupid) continue to see him as a peasant and so does their daughter.  The Sotenvilles did have not consult their daughter when arrangements for her marriage were made. It is a mésalliance.

A Mésalliance – Cuckoldry

In Act III, Scene 5, Clitandre points to the incongruous aspect of Angélique’s marriage to Dandin:

(…) et que c’est une étrange chose que l’assemblage qu’on a fait d’une personne comme vous avec un homme comme lui !
[(…) and that the union of a woman like you to a man like him is somewhat strange.(III, 5)]

I sense here a wish on the part of Clitandre to give order to the disorderly. The marriage has not been consummated (Act III, Scene V ), but there is a contract.

Typically, in Molière, a mésalliance (marrying into a different class) and a forced marriage (un mariage forcé) both lead to cuckoldry, the fate so feared by Arnolphe (L’École des femmes, 1662). Dandin was foolish and the Sotenvilles, sots, as their name suggest. When her parents will not allow her to be separated from Dandin, Claudine, Angélique’s maid, says:

“It is a pity to see a poor young wife treated in such a fashion; it cries to Heaven for vengeance.” (Claudine, III, 12) However, Dandin is treated neither as a husband nor as a nobleman.

Head_of_a_Young_Girl_c_1745_4128

Head of a Young Girl, François Boucher, c. 1745

The Dramatis Personæ is as follows:

  • Georges Dandin (George Dandin), husband of Angelica
  • Angelica (Angélique), Georges Dandin’s wife
  • Sir Sotenville (Monsieur de Sotenville), Angelica’s father
  • Mrs Sotenville (Madame de Sotenville), Sir Sotenville’s wife
  • Clitander (Clitandre), in love with Angelica
  • Claudine, Angelica’s servant
  • Lubin, Clitandre’s servant
  • Colin, Dandin’s servant

Act One

The play is a three-act farce and the overall dramatic action, the deceiver deceived, or trompeur trompé, is reflected in each act. The action is triggered in the same manner as in L’École des femmes. Dandin is told that he has a rival, Clitandre, by the rival’s valet, Lubin. Like Arnolphe, Dandin believes this intelligence will help him. He wishes to prove to his in-laws that he has a wicked wife from whom he should be separated, which her parents would never allow. However, Clitandre or Angélique always talk their way out of every ploy used by the ill-fated Dandin.

In Act One, Clitandre, who happens to be with Angélique, suggests that Angélique betrayed him.

Est-ce donc vous, Madame, qui avez dit à votre mari que je suis amoureux de vous ? (Clitandre, I. v)
[Is it you then, Madam, who have told your husband that I am in love with you?] (Clitandre, I, 6)

She defends herself by making believe she is accusing him, but if reversed her words are an invitation to Clitandre to continue the galanterie. It’s a brilliant double entendre. Dandin is then asked to apologize to Clitandre who is a genuine gentilhomme. (I. 8)

Act Two

In Act Two, once again Lubin tells George everything. Angélique’s parents are brought to see their daughter breaking the terms of the contract, her marriage contract. Act Two, Scene 3 resembles L’École des femmes (III, 2). Dandin tries to impress upon his wife that, given the marriage contract, she has duties, but she is very quick to state that George married her parents. She was not consulted. Angélique denies that she has obligations towards George. When Clitandre dispatches une ambassade, a letter, she invokes the importance of pleasure, as does Agnès in L’École des femmes. She will not chase galants away.

Moi, les [men courting her] chasser ! et par quelle raison ? Je ne me scandalise point qu’on me trouve bien faite, et cela me fait du plaisir. (Scene ii)
[I drive them away! and for what reason? I am not scandalised at being thought handsome, and it affords me pleasure.] (Scene 4)

Angélique is caught speaking with Clitandre, but she feigns anger at Clitandre. (Scene 10) Once again, Dandin is punished. It seems Clitandre is being hit with a stick, but George Dandin is the victim. 

Act Three

In Act Three, Angélique thinks George is sleeping. She is outside with Clitandre. It’s night time and very dark. Believing he is speaking with Claudine, Lubin tells George Dandin everything. But matters are as in the School for Wives, he is speaking to the young couple’s barbon, Dandin. He asks Colin, his valet, to seek his in-laws.

In Scene 5, Clitandre is worried. Husbands have privileges. Angélique tells him that she does not make love with Dandin.

Serez-vous assez fou pour avoir cette inquiétude, et pensez-vous qu’on soit capable d’aimer de certains maris qu’il y a ? (Scène v)
[Are you weak enough to have such anxiety, and do you think it is possible to love a certain sort of husbands?] (Scene 5)

The Dolopatos

In Scene VI, Angélique and Claudine, her maid, cannot re-enter the house. George Dandin has bolted the door. She tells him she has wronged him and, in desperation, she makes believe she has killed herself. When he opens the door to see if she is dead, she and Claudine lock him out. The Sotenvilles arrive and Angélique accuses George Dandin of having spent the evening drinking.

Angélique wants to end the marriage and so does Dandin, but Angélique’s father will not let her leave her husband. Monsieur de Sotenville gives himself the puissance absolue,  the absolute power (Scène 7), of a pater familias. Angélique is asked by her father to apologize to Dandin, a husband from whom she wants to be separated.

Moi ? lui pardonner tout ce qu’il m’a dit ? Non, non, mon père, il m’est impossible de m’y résoudre, et je vous prie de me séparer d’un mari avec lequel je ne saurais plus vivre. (Scène 7)
[I! pardon him after all that he has said to me? No, no, father I cannot possibly make up my mind to it; and I beg of you to separate me from a husband with whom I can no longer live.] (Scene 14)

As for Dandin, the Sotenvilles force him to kneel down and apologize to Angélique. Therefore, George says to himself that all he can do is go and drown himself, which is indeed all the he can do:

Ah ! je le quitte maintenant, et je n’y vois plus de remède, lorsqu’on a comme moi épousé une méchante femme, le meilleur parti qu’on puisse prendre, c’est de s’aller jeter dans l’eau la tête la première. (Scène 8)
[Ah! I give it up altogether, and I can see no help for it. When one has married, as I have done, a wicked wife, the best step on can take is to go and throw one’s self into the water, head foremost.] (Scene 15)

As noted above, in Molière, mésalliance and forced marriages lead to cuckoldry. All Dandin has gained by marrying Angélique is a title: de la Dandinière, a hollow and ridiculous title. “Se dandiner” means to waddle.

A Problematic comedy

  • the contract
  • the parasites
  • Monsieur de Sotenville: a pater familias – fear

Marriage being a contract and a sacrament, Molière’s George Dandin is a problematical farce. In L’École des femmes, Arnolphe and Agnès were not married. But the Sotenvilles are George Dandin’s in-laws and parasites.[2] They married Angélique to him because of the money he could provide.

Initially, George Dandin was also a parasite. He wanted a title. But the curtain rises on a desperate husband who wishes to see the marriage terminated. We know that the marriage has not been consummated. (Scene V)

Monsieur de Sotenville is the archetypal pater familias. Claudine obeys because she is afraid of him. Fear is very much a factor in Molière. The Sotenvilles may still need Dandin’s money, but more importantly, a separation could be a scandal.

Ma fille, de semblables séparations ne se font point sans grand scandale, et vous devez vous montrer plus sage que lui, et patienter encore cette fois. (Scène vii)
[Such separations, daughter, are not brought about without a great deal of scandal; and you should show yourself wiser than he, and be patient once more.] (Scene 14)

Honour is invoked, but far more severe an element is the authority Monsieur de Sotenville has given himself. He possesses his daughter.

You must, daughter; I command you. (Monsieur de Sotenville, Scene 14)
This word stops my mouth. You have absolute authority over me. (Angélique, Scene 14)

“Poor lamb,” says Claudine, Angélique’s maid.

As Angélique bemoans, it will happen again and again. The structure of farces allows constant reversals. They are like the Saturnalia of ancient Rome.

Tout ce que vous me faites faire ne servira de rien, et vous verrez que ce sera dès demain à recommencer. (Angélique, Scène 7)
[Whatever you make me do will be of no use; we shall have to recommence to-morrow, you will see. (Scene 14)]

In the world of comedy, there are no rules of marriage. The genre promotes the marriage of the young lovers. In this play, however, the dramatic structure, i.e. the reversals, dominate. However, while militating in favour of the real young lovers, the farce is unkind to Angélique and Clitandre. They cannot marry because Angélique’s parents will not allow their daughter to come home.

Conclusion

George Dandin is filled with comical scenes, such as the double entendre. The manner in which the Sotenvilles deal with George is also comical. (I. 4)  So is the way in which Monsieur de Sotenville introduces himself to Clitandre. He mentions his lineage. (I. 5) In fact, the Sotenvilles are ridiculous. In George Dandin, lineage is mocked as it has never been. Madame de Sotenville’s maiden name is de la Prudoterie.

It could be said therefore that Molière rescues the comedic by pushing the farce to an extreme. Everything is a joke. When the curtain falls, the play will not have taken place. It will have been a joke.

The most famous line of the play is:

“J’enrage de bon cœur d’avoir tort, lorsque j’ai raison.” (Dandin, I. i)
[It makes me mad to be put in the wrong when I am in the right.] (I. 7)

In fact, Dandin is both in the wrong and in the right. According to Will G. Moore, “Dandin is essentially in the right, but he is in all actual cases made to appear in the wrong.”[3]

Love to everyone ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

_________________________
[1] There is disagreement concerning the date.
[2] Michel Serres, Le Parasite (Paris : Hachette littératures, coll. Pluriel, 1997 [1980]), p. 361-373.
[3] See W. G. Moore, Molière: a New Criticism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968 [1949]), p. 118.  

 —ooo—

François Boucher
P. I. Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35

young-woman-with-flowers-in-her-hair-wrongly-called-portrait-of-madame-boucher_jpg!PinterestSmall

Young Woman with Flowers in her Hair, François Boucher, Photo credit: Wikiart.org)

© Micheline Walker
24 June 2016
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L’École des femmes, part two

02 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by in Comedy, Gallantry, Molière

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L’École des femmes, François Boucher (dessin) & Laurent Cars (gravure)

Our dramatis personæ is:

Arnolphe, or Monsieur de la Souche
Agnès, une ingénue, raised by Arnolphe
Horace, the jeune premier whose father is Oronte
Oronte, Horace’s father and a friend of Arnolphe
Chrysalde, the raisonneur and Arnolphe’s friend
Enrique, Chrysalde’s brother-in-law

The dramatis personæ also includes a notary, a maid (Georgette), and a valet (Alain).

Arnolphe & Monsieur de la Souche

  • a fortuitous victory
  • two names

In L’École des femmes (1662), the victory of the young couple, Horace and Agnès, is mostly fortuitous and irony is the main literary device used by Molière. Ironically, Horace tells Arnolphe, the blocking character, or senex iratus, everything he and Agnès have done and everything they plan to do.

Molière has made this possible by creating a barbon who has just changed his name. Young Horace, our jeune premier, thinks his rival is Monsieur de la Souche, not Arnolphe. Our pedant, Arnolphe, is a friend of his father as well as Chrysalde’s friend. Horace does not hesitate to ask him for money no more than Arnolphe hesitates to loan him the amount he needs. He also gives him the wallet. Arnolphe knows he will be repaid. Ironically, Horace has no reason to think that Arnolphe is not supportive of him in every way. On the contrary.

In fact, after he and Agnès have fled the house in which she was kept by Monsieur de la Souche, a jealous man, Horace asks Arnolphe, his rival, to look after Agnès while he makes preparations for what we suspect is a wedding. Horace wishes to protect Agnès’ reputation and he must speak to his father’s regarding his marriage. He therefore asks Arnolphe to be Agnès’ temporary guardian. Irony suffuses the comedy and, at this point, reaches its climax.

C’est à vous seul [Arnolphe] aussi, comme ami généreux,
Que je puis confier ce dépôt amoureux. (Horace, V. ii, 1430-5.)
[(…) and as I have trusted the whole secret of my passion to you, being assured of your prudence, so to you only, as a generous friend, can I confide this beloved treasure.]
The School for Wives, p. 24.

ECOLEDEF

Octave Uzanne, Le Livre, Paris, A. Quantin, 1880 [1719 edition]. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Éloignement fatal ! Voyage malheureux !

Irony also stems from Agnès’ ignorance. Arnolphe has Agnès raised in a convent, asking that she learn as little as possible about the ways of the world. That, he believes, is his very best precaution. He doesn’t want to cuckolded.

As you know, before leaving for about ten days, Arnolphe directs Georgette, Agnès’ maid, and Alain, her manservant, not to let anyone into Agnès’ house. He also directs Agnès not to see anyone. However, Arnolphe has learned from Horace that he has seen a lovely woman and that he is in love, which is why he needs the money he has just borrowed. Arnolphe is afraid and decides to speak with Agnès. He tells her that he has he has been told than an unknown young man came to her house. These people, he says, are méchantes langues, slandering tongues. He claims he is ready to bet they are not telling the truth.

Mon Dieu, ne gagez pas : vous perdriez vraiment. (Agnès, II. v, 473.)
[Oh, Heaven, do not bet; you would assuredly lose.]
The School for Wives, p. 10.

Quoi! c’est la vérité qu’un homme… (Arnolphe II. v,  474.)
[What! It is true that a man… ]
(…) Chose sûre.
Il n’a presque bougé de chez nous, je vous jure. (Agnès II. v, 475-6.)
[Quite true. I declare to you that he was scarcely ever out of the house.]
The School for Wives, p. 10-11.

She has given him a ribbon, and he has kissed her arms, Arnolphe wants to know more.

Passe pour le ruban. Mais je voudrais apprendre,
S’il ne vous a rien fait que vous baiser les bras. (Arnolphe, II. v, 580-1.)
[Oh! let the ribbon go. But I want to know if he did nothing to you but kiss your arms.]
The School for Wives, p. 12.

Comment. Est-ce qu’on fait d’autres choses ? (Agnès, II. v, 582.)
[Why! do people do other things?]
The School for Wives, p. 12.

(…) Non pas.
Mais pour guérir du mal qu’il dit qui le possède,
N’a-t-il point exigé de vous d’autre remède ? (Arnolphe, II. v, 583-4.)
[Not at all. But, to cure the disorder which he said had seized him, did he not ask you for any other remedy?]
The School for Wives, p. 12.

Non. Vous pouvez juger, s’il en eût demandé,
Que pour le secourir j’aurais tout accordé. (Agnès, II. v, 585-6.)
[No. You may judge that I would have granted him anything to do him good, if he had asked for it.]
The School for Wives, p. 12.

Chrysalde was right. Virtue is not enough:

(…) L’honnêteté suffit. (Arnolphe, I. i, 106.)
Mais comment voulez-vous, après tout, qu’une bête
Puisse jamais savoir ce que c’est qu’être honnête. (Chrysalde, I. i, 107-8.)
(…) Virtue is quite enough.
But how can you expect, after, all, that a mere simpleton can ever know what it is to be virtuous?]
The School for Wives,  p. 4.

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I Gelosi performing, by Hieronymous Francken I, ca. 1590

Destiny

The School for Wives combines several comic texts: the farce, the comedy of manners, and the comedy of intrigue. It is also rooted in the commedia dell’arte. Arnolphe resembles Il Dottore, an inflated character who ends up deflated.

Arnolphe has the audacity to think he can fool destiny and destiny undoes him. In LÉcole des femmes, destiny reigns supreme and Arnophe will be the trompeur trompé of farces:

(…) Oui ; mais qui rit d’autrui
Doit craindre qu’en revanche on rie aussi de lui. (Chrysalde, I. i, 45-6.)
[Yes; but he who laughs at another must beware, lest he in turn be laughed at himself.]
The School for Wives, p. 3.

He, Chrysalde, believes he cannot control destiny. He therefore refrains from mocking others so others do not mock him. According to the laws of comedy, lashing out leads to a backlash. The deceiver is deceived.

In Act I, scene 4, Arnolphe tells Horace that watching cocus is like watching a comedy. But he is now on the same stage, as the cocus he ridiculed, thinking he could shape destiny and boasting about it.

C’est un plaisir de prince, et des tours que je voi
Je me donne souvent la comédie à moi. (Arnolphe, I. iv, 295-6.)
[It is a pleasure fit for a King; to me it is a mere comedy to
see the pranks I do.]
The School for Wives, p. 7.

In this scene, we see to what extent Arnolphe himself has caused his demise. Agnès is so innocent she “would have granted him [Horace] anything to do him good, if he had asked.” Would that she had known more! Chrysalde was right. Virtue is not enough.

(…) L’honnêteté suffit. (Arnolphe, I. i, 104.)
[Mais comment voulez-vous, après tout, qu’une bête
Puisse jamais savoir ce que c’est qu’être honnête.] (Chrysalde, I. ii, 105-6.)

(…) Virtue is quite enough.
[But how can you expect, after, all, that a mere simpleton can ever know what it is.]
The School for Wives, p. 4.

Arnolphe is fully undone. However, he is included in the final society, imperfect as it may be.

Allons dans la maison débrouiller ces mystères,
Payer à notre ami ces soins officieux,
Et rendre grâce au Ciel qui fait tout pour le mieux.  (Chrysalde, V. scène dernière, 1775-7.)
[Let us go inside, and clear up these mysteries. Let us shew our friend some return for his great pains, and thank Heaven, which orders all for the best.]
The School for Wives, p. 29.

087-3

Molière as Arnolphe (detail)

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Les Farceurs français et italiens depuis soixante ans et plus, 1670

Anagnorisis 

When Horace first meets Arnolphe, in Act one, he is carrying two letters addressed to Arnolphe. These indicate that Oronte, Horace’s father, will be visiting with a person Horace does not know.

We know, therefore, that there may be unexpected changes, a discovery: anagnorisis.

It so happens that the guest who will accompany Oronte, Horace’s father is Enrique, Chrysalde’s brother-in-law. It was a private marriage and a daughter was born to Henrique and Angélique. Enrique had to leave France unexpectedly, so the child was left in the custody of a woman who grew too poor to look after Agnès. This woman had to entrust her charge to a person who could afford to raise Agnès. Agnès was 4 years old. These are the circumstances under which Arnolphe became Agnès’ ward. She is now 17.

In Act V, when Enrique arrives, Agnès ceases to be Arnolphe’s ward. Suddenly, after 13 years, Arnolphe no longer has any authority over Agnès. In fact, Agnès can talk. She is not “bête.” Arnolphe therefore leaves devastated and unable to speak: “tout transporté et ne pouvant parler.”

Scholar Bernard Magné has noted that in the final discovery scene (reconnaissance) scene, Arnolphe loses the ability to speak:

(…) Dans la scène de reconnaissance finale,
Arnolphe perd réellement l’usage de la parole.[1]

Earlier, when he was pulling a reluctant Agnès away, Arnolphe called her causeuse (a talker):

Allons, causeuse, allons. (Arnolphe, V. ix, 1726.)
[Come along, chatterbox.]
L’École des femmes, p. 29.

Agnès has indeed gained the ability to speak :

Oui : mais pour femme, moi, je prétendais vous prendre,
Et je vous l’avais fait, me semble, assez entendre. (Arnolphe, V. iv, 1510-11.)
[Yes; but I meant to take you to wife myself; I think I gave you to understand it clearly enough.]
The School for Wives, p. 26.

Oui : mais à vous parler franchement entre nous,
Il est plus pour cela selon mon goût que vous. (Agnès, V. ix, 1512-13.)
[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.]
The School for Wives, p. 26.

Vraiment, il en sait donc là-dessus plus que vous ;
Car à se faire aimer il n’a point eu de peine. (Agnès, V. iv, 1539-40.)
[Of a truth then he knows more about it than you; for he had no difficulty in making himself loved.] The School for Wives, p. 26.

Le moyen de chasser ce qui fait du plaisir (Agnès, V. iv, 1527.)
[How can we drive away what gives us pleasure?]
The School for Wives, p. 26.

According to the laws of comedy, lashing out at someone leads to a backlash: trompeur trompé, deceiver deceived.

Honour is fragile

In Act I, Arnolphe expresses a view of marriage according to which a wife is dependent on her husband. He is glad that Agnès will owe him everything.

Je me vois riche assez, pour pouvoir, que je croi,
Choisir une moitié, qui tienne tout de moi,
Et de qui la soumise, et pleine dépendance,
N’ait à me reprocher aucun bien, ni naissance. (Arnolphe, I. i, 123-6.)
[I think I am rich enough to take a partner who shall owe all to me, and whose humble station and complete dependence cannot reproach me either with her poverty or her birth.]
The School for Wives, p. 4.

However, after realizing that he nearly lost Agnès, Arnolphe tells Agnès that he has difficulty making himself loved and that his honour is fragile. Horace knows how to make himself love:

Que ne vous êtes-vous comme lui fait aimer ? (Agnès, V. iv, 1535.)
[Why did you not make yourself loved, as he has done?]
The School for Wives, p. 26.

Car à se faire aimer il n’a point eu de peine. Agnès. (Agnès, V. iv, 1540.) 
[For he had no difficulty in making himself loved.]
The School for Wives, p. 26.

In Act III, Arnolphe says:

Songez qu’en vous faisant moitié de ma personne ;
C’est mon honneur, Agnès, que je vous abandonne :
Que cet honneur est tendre, et se blesse de peu ;
Et qu’il est aux enfers des chaudières bouillantes,
On l’on plonge à jamais les femmes mal vivantes.
Ce que je vous dis là ne sont pas des chansons :
Et vous devez du cœur ces leçons. (Arnolphe III. i, v, 721-28.)
[Remember, Agnès, that, in making you part of myself, I give my honour into your hands, which honour is fragile, and easily damaged; that it will not do to trifle in such a matter, and that there are boiling cauldrons in hell, into which wives who live wickedly are thrown for evermore.]
The School for Wives, p. 14.

In short, Arnolphe is like Orgon who needs Tartuffe to be a tyrant. He also resembles Alceste who preaches truthfulness so he can believe those who praise him. If Arnolphe’s honour depends on marital fidelity, it is best he remain unmarried in a world that is at the complete mercy of destiny.

The problem with this play is the overwhelming power of destiny. The reconnaissance scene he is recourse no one should have to use. But Arnolphe’s précaution was useless. In fact, knowing everything Agnès and Horace were doing, Arnolphe loses Agnès. However, he does not lose her because he asks Arnolphe to look after her, he loses her because a real father arrives after a very long absence. Enrique suddenly replaces Arnolphe and does so fortuitously. Arnolphe loses his ability to speak, which, in the eyes of most people, is a privilege given human beings only.

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Paul Scarron, La Précaution inutile (Source : Molière 21)

Something borrowed

Molière borrowed his École des femmes from Paul Scarron (c. 1 July 1610 in Paris – 6 October 1660 in Paris), the author of the Roman comique (1651-1657) who also translated Spanish stories, one of which was La Précaution inutile.

Antoine Le Métel d’Ouville also wrote a Précaution inutile. (See Molière 21.) Moreover, the full title of Beaumarchais’ Barbier de Séville is Le Barbier de Séville ou la Précaution inutile. The useless precaution is an archetypal mythos (story). It has affinities with Spanish and Italian comedies and the sketches of the commedia dell’arte. It seems Molière had read L’Astuta simplicitá di Angiolo.[2]

Conclusion

To conclude, I will quote Britannica:

The delicate portrayal in Agnès of an awakening temperament, all the stronger for its absence of convention, is a marvel of comedy, as are Arnolphe’s clumsy attempts at lover’s talk. Meanwhile, a young man, Horace, falls in love with Agnès at first sight.[3]

RELATED ARTICLE

Sources and Resources


Love to everyone ♥

____________________
[1] Bernard Magné, “L’École des femmes” ou la conquête de la parole,  Revue des Sciences humaines, 145 (1972), p. 140.

[2) Molière, Maurice Rat ed, Œuvres complètes (Paris : Gallimard, coll. La Pléiade, 1956), p. 866.

[3] “The School for Wives”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 31 mai. 2016
<http://www.britannica.com/topic/The-School-for-Wives-play-by-Moliere>.

“J’avois cru qu’en vous aymant”
Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien

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© Micheline Walker
2 June 2016
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L’École des femmes, part one

29 Sunday May 2016

Posted by in Comedy, French Literature, Molière

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L’École des femmes, François Boucher (dessin) & Laurent Cars (gravure)

Jealousy

In Molière’s comedies, the one fault that dooms a marriage or a possible marriage is jealousy. In this regard, Molière’s École des femmes is our most celebrated example. It was first performed on 26 December 1662 at the Palais-Royal. Molière’s troupe was at the time la Troupe de Monsieur, frère unique du Roi, the company of the Duke of Orleans, the only brother of Louis XIV. It is une grande comédie and it created a controversy. Molière response was in the form of a short play entitled: La Critique de l’École des femmes.

In Molière’s theatre, jealousy affects most barbons, because its stems from the same flaw in character that blinds Orgon and allows Tartuffe to dispossess Orgon’s family. French scholar Paul Bénichou has labelled this flaw a vanité inquiète, vanity combined with insecurity.[1] Were it not for Tartuffe, it would be difficult for Orgon to force his daughter Mariane to marry Tartuffe. Yet, Orgon would not take Tartuffe into his home if he did not wish to be a tyrant with impunity.

In the case of Arnolphe, fear of being cuckolded is an obsession and, as Chrysalde—the plays raisonneur—tells him, he should not laugh at those whose wives are not faithful because humans are at the mercy of destiny. Molière lived in the century that opposed casuistes and Jansenists. In the eyes of Jansenists, humans could not ensure their salvation.

Another French scholar, René Bray[2] entitled one of the chapters of his Molière, homme de théâtre (1954) Molière pense-t-il ? Molière theatre is rooted, first and foremost, in comedy, including farces and his own comedies. In earlier days, biography was used to “explain” Molière’s plays.

We cannot dismiss Zeitgeist, but it is important to study Molière using other criteria such as the dramatic structure of his plays, its “types,” and other organizing principles. According to Northrop Frye, one should study a work of literature using a “conceptual framework.”[3] Moreover, there was a time when Molière’s plays were not read as plays but as texts. Molière thinks, but he does so within a genre, comedy, that constitutes, in and of itself, a “conceptual framework.”

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The commedia dell’arte troupe of the Gelosi in a late 16th-century Flemish painting (Musée Carnavalet, Paris). The woman is usually identified as Isabella, after Isabella Andreini  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The dramatist personæ is:

Arnolphe, or Monsieur de la Souche
Agnès, une ingénue, raised by Arnolphe
Horace, the jeune premier whose father is Oronte
Oronte, Horace’s father and a friend of Arnophe
Chrysalde, the raisonneur and Arnolphe’s friend
Enrique, Chrysalde’s brother-in-law

The dramatis personæ also includes a notary, a maid (Georgette), and a valet (Alain).

The Plot

At one level, the plot is that of farces: the trompeur trompé. But, combined with the trompeur trompé, the plot of L’École des femmes is also the archetypal struggle between the eirôn (the young lovers) and the alazṓn (the blocking character or personnage-obstacle). Le blondin berne le barbon.

In this post, I am telling the plot of the School for Wives, l’École des femmes and write an analysis in a second post. The plot itself is significant. Genre is the starting-point.

Act I

Arnolphe adopted Agnès when she was four years old. He wants to marry her, but fearing he might be cuckolded, he had his ward raised in a convent where she was taught as little as possible about the ways of the world. He thinks that a wife who is sotte and bête, stupid or a beast, will be faithful. He is 42 years old and Agnès, 17.

As the curtain rises, Chrysalde is warning Arnolphe not to boast. Despite his precautions, he may be cocu and people would laugh at him outloud. A cocu is a man whose wife is unfaithful. It is best, expains Chrysalde not to make fun of others. If one does not laugh at others, their laughter will be hushed if destiny strikes a blow, which it often does (I. i)(I.1)

Arnophe returns from a trip (I. i)(I. 1). He tries to enter his house, but Georgette and Alain do not seem to know that they should open the door (I. ii).

Arnolphe talks to Agnès who has been sewing (I. iii). Arnolphe also meets Horace, the jeune premier, who tells Arnophe that his father will soon have a visitor, Enrique, and he asks for money which Arnolphe provides (I. iii)(I. 3).

Horace tells Arnolphe that he has met a lovely woman who is being kept in a house by some sort of senex iratus who is very jealous, Arnolphe is 42 (I. iv)(I. 4).

Horace does not know that Arnophe has changed his name to Monsieur de la Souche.

Act II

Arnolphe expresses his feelings. He is in pain (II. i)(II. 1). He talks with his valet and maid who let a man enter the house (II. ii). Alain explains that Arnolphe is jealous and that Georgette would also be jealous if someone took the soup she is eating (II. iii)(II. 3).

Arnolphe is thinking (II. iv)(II. 4).

Our senex iratus confronts Agnès, thinking she can deny what Horace has said. She cannot. On the contrary, she has been polite, obedient and truthful, as she was taught. Horace waved at her and she waved back, not to be impolite. He waved again, and she waved back again. Agnès had been told not to see anyone, but she had also been taught civility. She did as she was taught.

Arnolphe is alarmed. He was to know if Horace touched Agnès. Again she tells the truth. He did. He caressed her hands and arms. Arnolphe wanders if he has caressed anything else. She hesitates, but says that she gave Horace the ribbon Arnolphe had given her (II. iii)(II.3).

Arnolphe says she will marry that very evening. She thinks her spouse will be Horace, but Arnolphe’s intentions are different. He will be the spouse.

Act II ends with a famous verse, borrowed from Corneille’s Sertorius (V. 1867-1868):

Je suis maître, je parle : allez obéissez.  [I am the Master, I speak : go obey.]

Act III

In Act III, Arnolphe instructs Agnès on how to be a good wife: she must be docile because the husband is in charge, etc. L’une est moitié suprême, et l’autre subalterne[.] (III. ii; III. 2)
[The one half is supreme, and the other subordinate.] (The School for Wives) He describes the boiling cauldrons of hell.]

Et qu’il est aux enfers des chaudières bouillantes
Où l’on plonge à jamais les femmes mal vivantes. (III. ii, 725. 3; III.2)
[There are boiling cauldrons in hell, into which wives who live wickedly are thrown for evermore.]

He then has her repeat:

« Les Maximes du Mariage ou les devoirs de la femme mariée, avec son exercice journalier. »
[The Maxims of Marriage ; or the Duties of a Wife ; together with her Daily Exercise.] (III. ii; III. 2).

Arnolphe speaks alone, a soliloquy (III. iii; III. 3). Soliloquies are frequent in L’École des femmes.

Horace tells Arnolphe that Agnès has managed to attach a message to a rock she was to thrown at him. (III. iv; III, 4).

Arnolphe speaks alone (III. iv,[III. 4] a soliloquy).

Act IV

Arnolphe cannot believe that Horace should be confiding in him. Horace is doing very well. He tells Arnolphe that Agnès has seen him and let him into her room. When she heard Arnolphe, she put Horace in a closet. They will be meeting that evening (IV. vii).

Chrysalde visits. There will be no supper, i.e. no wedding (IV. viii; IV. 7).

Act V

In Act V, Arnolphe thinks that Georgette and Alain have killed Horace, but they haven’t. In fact, Horace is quite well and Agnès is with him. To protect her reputation, he wishes for Arnolphe to look after her. Agnès thinks he loves her less than she loves him (dépit amoureux). Ironically she is being returned to Arnolphe.  

Anagnorisis

Enrique is Agnès’ father. Her real name is Angélique. He has made arrangements to marry her to Oronte’s son. Oronte’s reaction is the following:

(…) Si son cœur a quelque répugnance,
Je tiens qu’on ne doit pas lui faire résistance. (V. vii, 1684-85; V. 7)
[If it is repugnant to him, I think we ought not to force him. I think my brother will be of my mind.]

Horace learns that Arnolphe is now called Monsieur de la Souche, which is why he told him about Agnès. It turns out, however, that Enrique would like Oronte’s son Horace to marry Agnès. Arnolphe leaves.

Nature claimed its “rights.” Horace intended to marry the woman who happens to be Enrique’s daughter. So, all’s well that ends well.

Conclusion

I will break here, without a conclusion. It is too long to be posted with the plot. Moreover, this play was controversial.

Love to everyone. ♥

Sources and Resources 

____________________

[1] Paul Bénichou, Morales du Grand Siècle (Paris : Gallimard, 1948), p. 295-296.
[2] René Bray is the author of La Formation de la doctrine classique en France.
[3] Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1971 [1957]), p. 6.

Francois Boucher étude pour la critique

Étude pour La Critique de l’École des femmes by François Boucher, sanguine

“Tendre Amour” (Jean-Philippe Rameau) – YouTube

320px-Rameau_Carmontelle

Jean-Philippe Rameau by Carmontelle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
29 May 2016
(updated: 30 May 2016)
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Carlo Gesualdo: the tormented self

25 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by in Music

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Gesualdo di Venosa or Gesualdo da Venosa (March 8, 1566 – September 8, 1613) was a fine musician: a virtuoso lutenist and a composer.  However, he is an example of what I would call the tormented self.

The Murders

On October 16, 1590, Carlo murdered or had servants murder his wife, Donna Maria d’Avalos, the daughter of the Marquis of Pescara, and her lover, Fabrizio Carafa, the Duke of Andria.  He also murdered or had servants murder his second son because he suspected the little boy was the son of the Duke of Andria.  Moreover, to avoid revenge, he murdered or had servants murder his father-in-law, the Marquis of Pescara.

Gesualdo had married Donna Maria d’Avalos in 1586 and, although others knew about the affair, he did not.  When he was apprised of the relationship, he made believe he was going on a hunting trip, had keys made, and caught his unfaithful wife and her lover in the act.  The murders took place at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples.

As an aristocrat, Gesualdo was immune from prosecution, but, for his own protection, he nevertheless settled in Ferrara for a few years to escape vengeful relatives.  Moreover, in 1594, Carlo married Leonora d’Este, the niece of Duke Alfonso II.

The Human Condition

We have discussed “l’humaine condition,” or the duality of human beings.  Remember that Pascal thought humans were both grands and misérables.  We are mortals, which belittles us, but we know that we are mortals, which gives us nobility.  Each one of us is a “roseau pensant” (a thinking reed).  Michel de Montaigne (February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592) described humanity in similar fashion.  So did Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650).

However, although these writers spoke of humankind’s duality, that duality was not the juxtaposition in one individual of a good human being and a bad, or beastly, human being.

The Werewolf: lycanthropy

No, the concept of duality does not point to the kind of division that is the fate of fictional werewolves or the loup garou, humans by day, wolves by night.  However, Robert Louis Stevenson‘s (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, first published in 1886, is a mostly human (as opposed to Beast Literature’s lycanthropy) version of a loup garou story.  Moreover, there is a mental disorder called clinical lycanthropy and all of us have heard of split personalities.

But what of Gesualdo…

As for Carlo Gesualdo, I do not see in him a split personality but I do see insane jealousy and uncontrolled anger: rage.  In other words, we may be looking at a non-fictional “tragic flaw” that has fascinated generations.  It does not seem possible that Gesualdo, an artist, would kill or order servants to kill on his behalf.

  • First, Gesualdo was Principe da Venosa, a prince, as well as a count, the Count of Conza.  Unspeakable crimes have been committed by aristocrats, but we tend to believe that, as aristocrats, these persons are or should be morally equal to their rank.  There was, however, a Marquis de Sade (2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814).  He was an aristocrat, but he was not immune to prosecution.
  • Second, the Principe de Venosa and count of Conza was a musician.  He was a virtuoso lutenist and an excellent composer.  It is difficult to reconcile musicianship and cruelty.

In fact, Gesualdo’s second marriage was not a happy marriage.  It appears he was an abusive husband, but despite her family’s entreaties, Eleanore would not divorce of husband.  She tried to help him, but some believe that she ended up murdering the murderer.  It all seems a mystery.

But the deeper mystery lies in Gesualdo’s ability to continue playing and composing music after the murders.  How could he write and play music after committing horrible crimes?  Music requires sensitivity, not to mention serenity.  So we will never know what happened to Gesualdo.  Again, it all seems a mystery.

Could it be, for instance, that his music reflects a tormented and guilt-ridden soul?  We will listen to some of his compositions.  His music is very ornamented and chromatic (he used semitones, the smallest space or interval between two notes).  As well, he composed complicated polyphonic works, using up to seven voices.

Gesualdo wrote six books of madrigals, some of which were settings of the poetry of Torquato Tasso (11 March 1544 – 25 April 1595), another tormented self.  He also wrote galliards (the gagliarda), a court dance, and sacred music:

  • Sacrarum cantionum liber primus (5 voix). Naples 1603;
  • Sacrarum cantionum liber primus (6, 7 voix). Naples 1603);
  • Responsoria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae spectantia (6 voix). Gesualdo 1611.

The Coat of Arms of Venosa

Coat of Arms of Venosa

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November 25, 2011