Tag Archives: sources

Reading “Dom Juan” (Part One)

06 Tuesday Aug 2019

Posted by in Comedy, Molière

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Max_Slevogt_-_Der_Sänger_Francisco_d'Andrade_als_Don_Giovanni_in_Mozarts_Oper_-_Google_Art_Project (2)

Portrait of Francisco D’Andrade in the title role of Don Giovanni by Max Slevogt, 1912 (Wiki2.org)

Our dramatis personæ is

DON JUAN, son of Don Louis (Don Juan Tenorio)
SGANARELLE, valet of Don Juan
DONNA ELVIRA, wife of Don Juan
GUSMAN, horseman to Elvira
DON CARLOS, brother of Elvira
DON ALONSE, brother of Elvira
DON LOUIS, father of Don Juan
BEGGAR
CHARLOTTE, peasant-girl
MATHURINE, peasant-girl
PIERROT, peasant (in love with Charlotte
THE STATUE OF THE COMMANDER
LA VIOLETTE, a lackey (un laquais) of Don Juan
RAGOTIN, a lackey of Don Juan
M. DIMANCHE, merchant
LA RAMÉE, swordsman (un spadassin)
ENTOURAGE OF DON JUAN
ENTOURAGE OF DON CARLOS AND DON ALONSE
A GHOST (un spectre)

Dom Juan

(Bold characters are mine.)

  • Introduction
  • Dom Juan condemned
  • Sources

Introduction

I keep finding versions of Tirso de Molina’s The Trickster of Seville or the Stone Guest, the first Don Juan. However, this post is about Molière’s Dom Juan, a play in five acts and in prose, first performed on 15 February 1665 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. It was written rapidly and premiered less than a year after Molière’s Tartuffe (May 1664). Tartuffe, was first performed during Les Plaisirs de l’Isle enchantée, but it was condemned by the parti /cabale des dévots, not the once powerful Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement. la Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement had ceased to be active, faux dévots remained. In fact, secret societies were abolished in 1660. 

Dom Juan withdrawn from the stage

Dom Juan ou le Festin de Pierre  was very successful, financially and otherwise, which did not prevent Louis from asking Molière to withdraw his play after 15 performances. Louis XIV may have been advised to ask Molière to withdraw Dom Juan by the archbishop of Paris (24 March  1664 – 1 January 1671) and his Louis XIV’s former tutor, Hardouin de Péréfixe de Beaumont (1606-1671). Hardouin de Péréfixe was a friend of Louis XIV and, to my knowledge, he was not an enemy of Molière.

Sources

Molière‘s Dom Juan is based on the legend of Don Juan, as told by Spanish baroque dramatist Tirso de Molina, the author of  El Burlador de Sevilla y convidado de Piedra (The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest). The Stone Guest is a statue of a Commandeur whom Don Juan killed when he attempted to avenge his dishonoured family. The Commandeur or Governor’s daughter, Doña Ana, was seduced by Don Juan.

It is unlikely that Molière’s was familiar with Tirso de Molina‘s El Burlador de Sevilla y convidado de Piedra (The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest). Molière borrowed from French contemporaries :

  • Dorimon(d)’s Le Festin de pierre ou le Fils criminel [the criminal son] (1559) and the
  • Sieur de Villiers’ plagiarized Le Festin de pierre ou le Fils criminel (1661).

Villiers was known as Philipin. He was an actor at l’Hôtel de Bourgogne, Paris’ finest theatrical venue. Dorimond and Philipin wrote tragi-comédies, a blend of comedic and tragedic elements. Versions of the Don Juan legend are often called a dramma giocoso, an Italian designation for comedies that are not altogether comedic. (See Dramma giocoso, Wiki2.org.)  It seems, in fact that Le Festin de pierre ou le Fils criminel (Dorimond and Villiers) would have Italian sources:

So, Molière’s Dom Juan would be rooted in Italian comedy, which brings to mind Mozart’s Don Giovanni (K. 527), composed on a libretto written by Mozart’s Italian librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte. All versions of the Don Juan myth are rooted in Tirso de Molina’s Trickster of Seville, the Stone Guest (1625), but although these versions constitute a network, they may differ from country to country, and Lorenzo Da Ponte was an Italian librettist.

Dom Juan

  • Leporello’s “catalogo” and “l’épouseur à toutes mains.”
  • Rights and justice: a world upside down
  • Woman and God: a doubling
  • Sganarelle and Dom Juan: reproaches

There are similarities between Dom Juan and Don Giovanni. For instance, Leporello’s “catalogo,” i.e. quantity, is Sganarelle’s “l’épouseur à toutes mains,” (every hand’s groom) Don Giovanni and Dom Juan accumulate seductions, promising marriage. In Act One, Scene 1, when Gusman, Done Elvire’s horseman, speaks with Sganarelle, Molière’s role, Sganarelle says the following:

Tu me dis qu’il a épousé ta maîtresse, crois qu’il aurait plus fait pour sa passion, et qu’avec elle il aurait encore épousé toi, son chien, et son chat. Un mariage ne lui coûte rien à contracter, il ne se sert point d’autres pièges pour attraper les belles, et c’est un épouseur à toutes mains[.]
Sganarelle à Gusman (I. i, p. 3)
[You tell me that he has married your mistress: believe too that he will do much more for his passion than this, and that he would also marry you, your dog and your cat.  A marriage costs him nothing to contract; he uses no other traps for the lovelies, and blithely marries on all sides.]
Sganarelle to Guzman (I. 1, p. 3)

In fact, Molière’s Dom Juan piles up his conquests. He compares himself to Alexander the Great:

Enfin, il n’est rien de si doux, que de triompher de la résistance d’une belle personne; et j’ai sur ce sujet l’ambition des conquérants, qui volent perpétuellement de victoire en victoire, et ne peuvent se résoudre à borner leurs souhaits. Il n’est rien qui puisse arrêter l’impétuosité de mes désirs, je me sens un cœur à aimer toute la terre; et comme Alexandre, je souhaiterais qu’il y eût d’autres mondes, pour y pouvoir étendre mes conquêtes amoureuses.
Dom Juan à Sganarelle (I. ii, pp. 6-7)
[There is nothing so sweet as to triumph over the resistance of a beautiful woman, and in this matter I have the ambition of conquerors, who march perpetually from victory to victory, and know no limits to their wishes. There is nothing that can halt the impetuosity of my desires: I have a heart to love all the world; and like Alexander, I wish that there were other worlds, so I could march in and make my amorous conquests there as well.]
Dom Juan to Sganarelle (I. 2, p. 6)

For Molière’s Dom Juan, satisfaction is yet another conquest. It is not to be found in genuine love and in sexual gratification, which may also characterize Don Giovanni‘s protagonist, Don Juan. If Dom Juan has left Done Elvire, his wife, it is because he has tired of her. He must seduce other women:

Mais lorsqu’on en est maître une fois, il n’y a plus rien à dire, ni rien à souhaiter, tout le beau de la passion est fini, et nous nous endormons dans la tranquillité d’un tel amour; si quelque objet nouveau ne vient réveiller nos désirs, et présenter à notre cœur les charmes attrayants d’une conquête à faire.
Don Juan à Sganarelle (I. ii, p. 6)
[But let us be master once, nothing more is left to say or to wish; the beautiful part of passion is done, and we would sink into the tranquility of such a love, if some new object did not come to awaken our desires, and present to our heart the alluring charms of another conquest.]
Dom Juan to Sganarelle (I. 2, p. 6)

Rights and justice: a world upside down

Moreover, in Dom Juan’s world, women have a right to be “conquered” by him in the name of justice. In this respect, what Dom Juan calls justice are a series of transgressions at two levels, societal and sacred. When Dom Juan claims women have a right to him, he turns societal norms upside down. Not only does Dom Juan wish to go from victory to victory, but all women have a right to be “conquered,” which is arrogant, but a comedic element. Molière was writing a comedy and comedies are Saturnalian.

… la constance n’est bonne que pour des ridicules, toutes les belles ont droit de nous charmer, et l’avantage d’être rencontrée la première, ne doit point dérober aux autres les justes prétentions qu’elles ont toutes sur nos cœurs.
(…)
[No, no: constancy is only suitable for buffoons: all beautiful women have the right to charm us, and the advantage of being seen first should not steal from the others the just claims they have on our hearts.
(…)
… j’ai beau être engagé, l’amour que j’ai pour une belle, n’engage point mon âme à faire injustice aux autres; je conserve des yeux pour voir le mérite de toutes, et rends à chacune les hommages, et les tributs où la nature nous oblige.
Dom Juan à Sganarelle (I. ii, p. 6)
[I would be bound in vain; and the love I have for one beautiful woman does not oblige my soul to commit an injustice against the rest; I reserve the right of my eyes to see the merit of all, and to render to each the tributes obliged by nature.]
Dom Juan to Sganarelle (I. 2, p. 5)

This is an upside-down view of social norms and conventional morality. It is also sinful, l’oubli du Ciel, and defies reason. Guzman is Done Elvire’s horseman (écuyer). Done Elvire and her brothers, Dom Carlos and Dom Alonse, will never persuade Dom Juan to return home to his wife. At the end of Act Two, La Ramée, a swordsman, tells Dom Juan that:

Douze hommes à cheval vous cherchent, qui doivent arriver ici dans un moment,
je ne sais pas par quel moyen ils peuvent vous avoir suivi, j’ai j’ai appris cette nouvelle d’un paysan qu’ils ont interrogé, et auquel ils vous dépeint. L’affaire presse, et le plus tôt que vous pourrez sortir d’ici, sera le meilleur.
La Ramée à Dom Juan (II. v, pp. 31-32)
[Twelve men on horseback are looking for you and might arrive here at any moment. I don’t know how they have followed you; but I learned of it from a peasant they had questioned. Time presses, and the sooner you leave the better.]
La Ramée to Dom Juan (II. 5, p. 28)

Society and God: a doubling

Twelve horsemen may be seeking Dom Juan, but he will not go back home. Done Elvire’s party, her brothers Dom Carlos, Dom Alonse and his men, may find Dom Juan, but he will defy both the society of the play and God: the “sacred obstacle of a convent,” (“l’obstacle sacré d’un couvent”) (I. i, p. 2). He will feign devotion and speak as though he and God were on a nearly equal footing.

Guzman wonders why Dom Juan would be unfaithful to his wife. He so wanted to marry Done Elvire that she left a convent.

Quoi, ce départ si peu prévu, serait une infidélité de Dom Juan? Il pourrait faire cette injure aux chastes feux de Done Elvire?
Gusman à Sganarelle
Non, c’est qu’il est jeune encore, et qu’il n’a pas le courage.
Sganarelle à Gusman
Un homme de sa qualité ferait une action si lâche?
Gusman à Sganarelle
Eh oui; sa qualité! La raison en est belle, et c’est par là qu’il s’empêcherait des choses
Sganarelle… (I. i, p. 2).

[What? Could it be that this unforeseen departure is due to an infidelity on the part of Don Juan? Could he be capable of such an injury to Donna Elvira’s chaste fires?
Guzman to Sganarelle
[No, but he is still young, and does not have the heart ….]
Sganarelle to Guzman
Could a man of his quality commit an action so vile?
Guzman to Sganarelle
Oh, yes, his quality! That’s vain reasoning, for it’s by this quality that he holds himself above all things.]
Sganarelle to Guzman (I. 1, pp. 2-3)

The society of the play cannot convince Dom Juan that there would be safety in living honourably. When Dom Juan puts on the masque of the faux dévot, when he feigns devotion, Done Elvire’s brothers are powerless. Dom Juan is an aristocrat who uses marriage, a sacrament, to sin. As Sganarelle points out:

… il faut que le courroux du Ciel l’accable quelque jour[.]
Sganarelle à Gusman (I. i, p. 4)
[It’s enough that the wrath of Heaven will overtake him some day; …]
Sganarelle to Guzman(I. 1, p. 3)

Sganarelle and Dom Juan: reproaches

Yes, Dom Juan is too young, he uses his rank to seduce women, and he has no obvious love for God. In fact, it has been suggested that the legendary Don Juan waits too long before saying an Act of Contrition. (See Dom Juan, Wiki2.org.) An Act of Contrition will free a sinner of sinfulness. But Molière’s Dom Juan does not repent. However, when Sganarelle tells Juan that he disapproves of his marrying woman after woman. But he invites Sganarelle to express an opinion on his behaviour. Dom Juan, he will not allow reproaches. He is defiant until the very end, but he is pushed into hell. Sganarelle tells him that he is make fun, or mocking Heaven, which bothers Dom Juan. Dom Juan is incorrigibly bombastic. He is truly too young and he doesn’t have a heart.

En ce cas, Monsieur, je vous dirai franchement que je n’approuve point votre méthode, et que je trouve fort vilain d’aimer de tous côtés comme vous faites.
Sganarelle à Dom Juan (I. iii. p. 6)
[In that case, Sir, I would say honestly that I do not approve at all of your habits, and that I find it deplorable to love on all sides as you do.]
Sganarelle to Dom Juan  (I. 3, p. 5)

Ma foi, Monsieur, j’ai toujours ouï dire, que c’est une méchante raillerie, que de se railler du Ciel, et que les libertins ne font jamais une bonne fin.
Sganarelle à Dom Juan (I. iii, p. 8)
Holà, maître sot, vous savez que je vous ai dit que je n’aime pas les faiseurs de remontrances. (I. iii, p. 8)
[My faith! Sir, I’ve always heard it said that it’s an evil mocking to mock Heaven, and that libertines never find a good end.
Sganarelle to Dom Juan (I. 3, p. 7)
Hey! Dr. Dunce Scotus! I’ve made it clear before that I have no love for the makers of reproaches.]
Sganarelle to Dom Juan (I. 3, p. 7)

As Sganarelle points out so aptly: Dom Juan is “jeune encore” (I. i, p. 2), or he is “still young” and he doesn’t have a heart (I. 1, pp. 2-3). He believes his title has bestowed upon himself complete immunity.

La vertu est le premier titre de noblesse.
Dom Louis’ tirade (IV. iv, p.55 ; IV. 5, pp. 49-50)

Sganarelle has listened to Dom Louis, Dom Juan’s father. Dom Louis would like his son to live up to his rank. As soon as his father can no longer hear him, Dom Juan says: 

Eh, mourez le plus tôt que vous pourrez, c’est le mieux que vous puissiez faire. Il faut que chacun ait son tour, et j’enrage de voir des pères qui vivent autant que leurs fils. Il se met dans son fauteuil.
Dom Juan à son père, trop loin pour l’entendre (IV. v, pp. 56-57) 
[And die as quickly as you can, it’s the least you could do. Every dog should have its day, and it fills me with rage to see fathers who live as long as their sons.]
Dom Juan to his father who is out of hearing distance. (IV. 5, p. 50)

Oui, Monsieur, vous avez tort d’avoir souffert ce qu’il vous a dit, et vous le deviez mettre dehors par les épaules. A-t-on jamais rien vu de plus impertinent? Un père venir faire des remontrances à son fils, et lui dire de corriger ses actions, de se ressouvenir de sa naissance, de mener une vie d’honnête homme, et cent autres sottises de pareille nature. Cela se peut-il souffrir à un homme comme vous, qui savez comme il faut vivre? J’admire votre patience, et si j’avais été en votre place, je l’aurais envoyé promener. Ô complaisance maudite, à quoi me réduis-tu?
Sganarelle à Dom Juan (IV. v, pp. 56-57)
[Yes, Sir, you are wrong to have suffered what he said to you and you should have thrown him out on his ear. Has anyone ever seen such impertinence? For a father to come and reproach his son, to tell him to correct his actions, to remember his birth, to lead the life of an honorable man, and a hundred others stupidities of a like nature! That it should be borne by a man like you, who knows how one must live! I marvel at your patience; and if I had been in your place, I would have sent him packing. O evil complicity! To what have you reduced me?]
Sganarelle to Dom Juan (IV. 5, p. 50)

Conclusion

I am publishing this post without a conclusion. I have to stop working for lack of energy. Part of the conclusion has to do with Molière’s use of the truth to lie, or a lie to tell the truth. We will look at the last quotation of this post.

Sources and Resources

Les XVIIe de Roger Duchêne
Don Juan is a translation by Brett B. Bodemer (2010)
Dom Juan is a toutmolière.net publication

Love to everyone 💕

Michel Lambert
“Vos mespris chaque jour” (Your scorn everyday)
Air sérieux
Stephan van Dyck
Musica Favola Ensemble

Don Juan4 (2)

© Micheline Walker
6 August 2019
WordPress

 

 

 

 

 

 

Molière’s “L’École des maris,” “The School for Husbands” (Part One)

18 Thursday Jul 2019

Posted by in Comedy, Molière

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L’École des maris was a great success for Molière, but it is a three-act farce written in verse, the twelve-syllable, or “pieds,” alexandrine verse. The play has ancient roots. It was written by Menander (born c. 342—died c. 292 BCE) and featured two brothers. Menander’s play was entitled (the) Adelphoe (The Brothers). Menander was the foremost dramatist of Greek New Comedy. According to Britannica, Menander’s “Second Adelphoe (Les Adelphes) constitutes perhaps his greatest achievement.” L’École des maris’ Greek roots may explain the use of le vers noble and, therefore the degree of tension characterizing the play. We associate the celebrated Aristophanes (c. 446 – c. 386 BCE) with Old Comedy.

Roman playwrights Terence (c. 195/185 – c. 159? BC) and Plautus were influenced by Greek comedy, but they wrote comedies which were considered erudite by Renaissance playwrights: the commedia sostenuta. Terence‘s Adelphoe is rooted in Menander’s play and features two brothers. It may have been Molière main source. The play also borrows from Giovanni Boccacio’s Decameron (Book III, 3). Boccacio’s (16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) The Decameron was a main source of stories. These are plague stories devised by individuals who have fled Florence to avoid the plague.

Closer to Molière are Juan Ruiz de Alarcón y Mendoza’s (1581-1639) Le Mari fait la femme (The Husband makes the Wife), Dorimond’s La Femme industrieuse (1661), Larivey’s Les Esprits (1653) and Boisrobert’s Le Comble de l’impossible (The Height of the Impossible), which borrowed from Lope de Vega.

Molière dans Sganarelle de l'école des maris (3)

Sganarelle dans L’École des maris (théâtre-documentation.com)

Our characters are:

  • Sganarelle, 40 years old (Molière)
  • Ariste, 60 years old and Sganarelle’s older brother
  • Valère, in love with Isabella
  • Ergaste, Valère’s valet
  • A Magistrate
  • A Notary
  • Isabella, in ward to Sganarelle
  • Léonor, Isabella’s sister, in ward to Ariste
  • Lisette, Leonor’s maidservant

ACT ONE

  • two brothers & two world views (Weltanshauung)
  • enters Valère, the young lover

In Act One of The School for Husbands, the spectator-reader is introduced to Molière’s two brothers and, whatever the source of the play, the brothers are Molière’s brothers and the comedy altogether Molière’s. Sganarelle will develop into The School for Wives’ Arnolphe, but he is the coarse Arnolphe and altogether selfish and cruel. He is putting  Isabelle into the service of his needs.

Il me semble, et je le dis tout haut,
Que sur un tel sujet, c’est parler comme il faut.
Vous souffrez que la vôtre, aille leste et pimpante,
Je le veux bien: qu’elle ait, et laquais, et suivante,
J’y consens: qu’elle coure, aime l’oisiveté,
Et soit des damoiseaux fleurée en liberté;
J’en suis fort satisfait; mais j’entends que la mienne,
Vive à ma fantaisie, et non pas à la sienne;
Que d’une serge honnête, elle ait son vêtement,
Et ne porte le noir, qu’aux bons jours seulement.
Qu’enfermée au logis en personne bien sage,
Elle s’applique toute aux choses du ménage;
À recoudre mon linge aux heures de loisir,
Ou bien à tricoter quelque bas par plaisir;
Qu’aux discours des muguets, elle ferme l’oreille,
Et ne sorte jamais sans avoir qui la veille.
Enfin la chair est faible, et j’entends tous les bruits,
Je ne veux point porter de cornes, si je puis,
Et comme à m’épouser sa fortune l’appelle,
Je prétends corps pour corps, pouvoir répondre d’elle.
Sganarelle à Ariste (I. ii, pp. 5-6)
[It seems to me, and I say it openly, that is the right way to speak on such a subject. You let your ward go about gaily and stylishly ; I am content. You let her have footmen and a maid; I agree. You let her gad about, love idleness, be freely courted by dandies ; I am quite satisfied. But I intend that mine shall live according to my fancy, and not according to her own ; that she shall be dressed in honest serge, and wear only black on holidays ; that, shut up in the house, prudent in bearing, she shall apply herself entirely to domestic concerns, mend my linen in her leisure hours, or else knit stockings for amusement; that she shall close her ears to the talk of young sparks, and never go out without some one to watch her. In short, flesh is weak; I know what stories are going about. I have no mind to wear horns, if I can help it ; and as her lot requires her to marry me, I mean to be as certain of her as I am of myself.]
Sganarelle to Ariste (I. 2, p. 13)

Isabelle tries to say something, but she is told to keep quiet:

Taisez-vous; Je vous apprendrai bien s’il faut sortir sans nous.
Sganarelle à Isabelle (I. ii, p. 6)
Hold your tongue; I shall teach you how to go out without us.
Sganarelle to Isabelle (I. 2, p. 13)

Moreover, Sganarelle is days away from forcing Isabelle into a marriage she loathes. Ariste and Sganarelle signed a contract that gave them the right not only to bring up their respective ward as they pleased, but also stipulated that they marry their wards. Molière has introduced the contract George Dandin brandishes claiming he has a right to his wife.

Mon Dieu, chacun raisonne, et fait comme il lui plaît.
Elles sont sans parents, et notre ami leur père,
Nous commit leur conduite à son heure dernière;
Et nous chargeant tous deux, ou de les épouser,
Ou sur notre refus un jour d’en disposer,
Sur elles par contrat, nous sut dès leur enfance,
Et de père, et d’époux donner pleine puissance;
D’élever celle-là, vous prîtes le souci,
Et moi je me chargeai du soin de celle-ci;
Selon vos volontés vous gouvernez la vôtre,
Laissez-moi, je vous prie, à mon gré régir l’autre.
Sganarelle (I. ii, p. 5)
[By Heaven! each one argues and does as he likes. They are without relatives, They are without relatives, and their father, our friend, entrusted them to us in his last hour, charging us both either to marry them, or, if we declined, to dispose of them hereafter. He gave us, in writing, the full authority of a father and a husband over them, from their infancy. You undertook to bring up that one ; I charged myself with the care of this one. You govern yours at your pleasure. Leave me, I pray, to manage the other as I think best.]
Sganarelle to Ariste (I. 2, p. 13)

Ariste has been a kind and easy-going father and, despite the contract, he is not planning a forced marriage:

Qu’il nous faut en riant instruire la jeunesse,
Reprendre ses défauts avec grande douceur,
Et du nom de vertu ne lui point faire peur;
Mes soins pour Léonor ont suivi ces maximes,
Des moindres libertés je n’ai point fait des crimes,
À ses jeunes désirs j’ai toujours consenti,
Et je ne m’en suis point, grâce au Ciel, repenti;
J’ai souffert qu’elle ait vu les belles compagnies,
Les divertissements, les bals, les comédies;
Ce sont choses, pour moi, que je tiens de tout temps,
Fort propres à former l’esprit des jeunes gens;
Et l’école du monde en l’air dont il faut vivre,
Instruit mieux à mon gré que ne fait aucun livre:
Elle aime à dépenser en habits, linge, et nœuds,
Que voulez-vous, je tâche à contenter ses vœux,
Et ce sont des plaisirs qu’on peut dans nos familles,
Lorsque l’on a du bien, permettre aux jeunes filles.
Un ordre paternel l’oblige à m’épouser;
Mais mon dessein n’est pas de la tyranniser,
Je sais bien que nos ans ne se rapportent guère,
Et je laisse à son choix liberté tout entière,
Si quatre mille écus de rente bien venants,
Une grande tendresse, et des soins
Si quatre mille écus de rente bien venants,
Une grande tendresse, et des soins complaisants,
Peuvent à son avis pour un tel mariage,
Réparer entre nous l’inégalité d’âge;
Elle peut m’épouser, sinon choisir ailleurs,
Je consens que sans moi ses destins soient meilleurs,
Et j’aime mieux la voir sous un autre hyménée,
Que si contre son gré sa main m’était donnée.
Ariste à tous (I. ii, p. 8)
[Have it so; but still I maintain that we should instruct youth pleasantly, chide their faults with great tenderness, and not make them afraid of the name of virtue. Leonor’s education has been based on these maxims. I have not made crimes of the smallest acts of liberty, I have always assented to her youthful wishes, and, thank Heaven, I never repented of it. I have allowed her to see good company, to go to amusements, balls, plays. These are things which, for my part, I think are calculated to form the minds of the young; the world is a school which, in my opinion, teaches them better how to live than any book. Does she like to spend money on clothes, linen, ribands what then? I endeavour to gratify her wishes; these are pleasures which, when we are well-off, we may permit to the girls of our family. Her father’s command requires her to marry me; but it is not my intention to tyrannize over her. I am quite aware that our years hardly suit, and I leave her complete liberty of choice. If a safe income of four thousand crowns a-year, great affection and consideration for her, may, in her opinion, counterbalance in marriage the inequality of our age, she may take me for her husband; if not she may choose elsewhere. If she can be happier without me, I do not object; I prefer to see her with another husband rather than that her hand should be given to me against her will.]
Ariste to all (I. 2, pp. 14-15)

Leonor will marry Ariste.

l'école des maris 4

L’École des maris (théâtre-documentation.com)

Valère

In fact, far from teaching Isabelle obedience, privations and confinement have prepared her to flee at any cost. As for Sganarelle, he has acted much as the School for Wives’ Arnolphe will. He has kept Agnès away from the world believing she would be a loving wife and never turn him into a cuckold.

Agnès will grow into a woman and fall in love when she meets Horace, as does the School for Husband’s Isabelle when she meets Valère. A scientist must be methodical, but we cannot separate reason from instinct, or intuition.

Well, although Isabelle has received very little education and has not been exposed to the world, she uses Sganarelle himself as the means of contacting Valère and escaping. Sganarelle is about to force Isabelle into a marriage with a man she loathes, so she uses the means to justify the end. Both Ariste and Sganarelle have a right to marry their wards, Ariste, however would not coerce Leonor into marrying him.

However, Isabelle will find a way to speak to Valère and, ironically, she will use
Sganarelle to lead her the young man she has seen and is attracted to. Their eyes have spoken for four months.

At the end of Act One, Valère and his valet, Ergaste, return to their home to dream up a stratagem that will liberate Isabelle.

What am I to do to rid myself of this vast difficulty, and to learn whether the fair one has perceived that I love her ? Tell me some means or other.
Valère to Ergaste (I. 6. p. 19)
That is what we have to discover.
Let us go in for a while the better to think over.
Ergaste to Valère (I. 6. p. 19)

I will break here and go through the plot in my next post. Molière’s L’École des maris is considered a comédie d’intrigue: twists and turns. Until now, it has been a comedy of manners (une comédie de mœurs): two conflicting views on how to raise a young woman have been expressed. We will now see how an extremely clever Isabelle frees herself, with a little help for Léonor, and uses Sganarelle to achieve her goal.

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Sources and Resources

_________________________
[1] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Menander
Encyclopædia Britannica (last edited February 05, 2019)
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Menander-Greek-dramatist
(accessed July 17, 2019)

Love to everyone 💕

J’avois crû qu’en vous aymant. Brunete (Paris, 1703)
Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien (dir. François Lazarevitch)
Claire Lefilliâtre (soprano)

l'école des maris par Desenne (3)

L’École des maris, Gravure Desenne (théâtre-documentation.com) BnF

© Micheline Walker
19 July 2019
WordPress

 

 

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by in Art, Fables, Literature

≈ 4 Comments

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Town_Mouse_and_the_Country_Mouse_2 
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, by Milo Winter, from
The Æsop for Children
(Photo credit: The Gutenberg Project [EBook #19994])
 
Classification  
Texts 
8,1
The Town and Country Mouse, by John Rae
Fables in Rhyme for Little Folks
(Photo credit: The Project Gutenberg [EBook #24108])
 

The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse

Style, rather than Subject Matter

There are folk tellings of this fable (the oral tradition), but when Jean de La Fontaine (8 July 1621 – 13 April 1695) wrote Le Rat de ville et le rat des champs (The City Rat and the Country Rat), The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse entered the learned tradition. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, La Fontaine’s Fables “rank among the greatest masterpieces of French literature.”[i]

However, the mostly Aesopic Town Mouse and Country Mouse entered literature long before La Fontaine was introduced to Aesop’s Fables. Horace (8 December 65 BCE – 27 November 8 BCE) could be credited with giving this folktale its literary status. It is one of his Satires (book 2, number 6, lines 77-115) and it resembles La Fontaine’s City Rat and Country Rat. Interestingly, La Fontaine’s fable features two rats rather than mice. It would be my opinion that he chose to feature rats to embellish his fable. The word “rat” is shorter (one syllable or pied) than the word “sou-ris” (two syllables). Be that as it may, in both retellings of the narrative, the rustic mouse or rat decides to return to his humble but peaceful country life, when “a sudden banging of the doors” (Horace) forces our fellows to hide. Horace’s country mouse does not want to live in fear.

Then says the rustic: “It may do for you,
This life, but I don’t like it; so adieu:
Give me my hole, secure from all alarms,
I’ll prove that tares and vetches still have charms.”  
Horace (scroll down to “One day…)
 

Sources and Dissemination

There have been many retellings of Aesop’s Fables, beginning with Roman fabulist Phaedrus (c. 15 BCE – c. 50 CE).[ii] Aesop was also retold in Greek, by Babrius. As for The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse in particular, it appears we owe its dissemination throughout Europe to 12th-century Anglo-Norman writer Walter of England‘s translation of the fable into Latin.[iii] Fabulist Odo of Cheriton [iv] (c. 1185 – 1246/47, Kent) also contributed to the spread of the fable to various European countries.Spanish author Juan Ruiz inserted a Town Mouse and Country Mouse in his Libro de Buen Amor or Book of Good Love. Walter of England may also have inspired several manuscript collections of Aesop’s fables in Italian, including the Esopi fabulas by Accio Zucca. (See The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, Wikipedia)

La Fontaine’s Sources

La Fontaine, however, seems to have drawn his material from Swiss writer Névelet whose Mythologia Aesopica Isaaci Nicolai Neveleti was published in Frankfurt in 1610.  Névelet was La Fontaine’s usual source. Moreover, given his knowledge of Latin and resemblances between the two texts, we can assume La Fontaine was familiar with Horace’s The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. In both fables, our two country fellows, a rat and a mouse, flee when they hear “fearful knocking” at the door (La Fontaine).

La Fontaine: Twelve Books of Fables in three Collections (recueils)  

Le rat de ville et le rat des champs is the ninth fable of La Fontaine’s first book of fables (1.I.9) La Fontaine wrote twelve short books of fables which he published in three collections (recueils): 1668 (six books), 1678 (five books), 1694 (twelfth book). His first recueil, or collection, contains mainly Aesopic fables transmitted from generation to generation in an oral tradition until, as mentioned above, Latin author Phaedrus translated Aesop’s fables into Latin and author Babrius, into Greek. Phaedrus’ book of fables is a Project Gutenberg publication [EBook #25512].

D. L. Alishman gives us a list of retellings of the Aesopic Town Mouse and Country Mouse:

141
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, by Arthur Rackham, 1902
(Photo credit: The Project Gutenberg [EBook #11339])
 

La Fontaine’s The City Rat and The Country Rat

A city rat, one night,
Did, with a civil stoop,
A country rat invite
To end a turtle soup.
 
On a Turkey carpet
They found the table spread,
And sure I need not harp it
How well the fellows fed.
 
The entertainment was
A truly noble one;
But some unlucky cause
Disturbed it when begun.
 
It was a slight rat-tat,
That put their joys to rout;
Out ran the city rat;
His guest, too, scampered out.
 
Our rats but fairly quit,
The fearful knocking ceased.
“Return we,” cried the city,
To finish there our feast.
 
“No,” said the rustic rat;
“Tomorrow dine with me.
I’m not offended at
Your feast so grand and free,
 
“For I have no fare resembling;
But then I eat at leisure,
And would not swap, for pleasure
So mixed with fear and trembling.”
La Fontaine (I.ix) or (I.9)
 

Horace’s version can be read by clicking on The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. La Fontaine’s version and translation can also be read by clicking on the appropriate title: Le Rat de ville et le rat des champs, or The City Rat and the Country Rat (1.I.9).

Other Versions

Variants listed above by D. L. Alishman differ from one another. For instance, in some retellings of the Town Mouse and Country Mouse, a cat, rather than dogs or a noise at the door, scares the mice away. But the moral of the fable is almost the same in all its retellings, that moral being that it is best to eat more frugally if the cost of eating finer and more abundant meals is a source of endangerment. Neither the country mouse nor the country rat want to eat watching their back. I like the wording Odo of Cheriton has given the moral of his Town Mouse and Country Mouse:

“I’d rather gnaw a bean than be gnawed by emotional fear.”

Philosophical Fables

La Fontaine’s City Rat and Country Rat could be considered as “philosophical,” or meditative, which the word “philosophical” meant in 17th-century France. For example, this fable could describe the fate of aristocrats under absolutism. After the Fronde (1648-1653), Court was no longer a “natural” environment for aristocrats who nevertheless spent a great deal of money to keep a house and carriage near Versailles. They hoped to be noticed and, consequently, be invited to attend the king’s lever (getting out of bed) and coucher (getting into bed). But Louis XIV feared aristocrats and would not give them power.  Therefore, their best option was to return to their home away from Versailles and its intrigues, which they seldom did.

However, as told by La Fontaine, the fable does not reflect in any direct way the circumstances of French aristocrats after the Fronde (1648 and 1653).

But his chief and most comprehensive theme remains that of the traditional fable: the fundamental, everyday moral experience of mankind throughout the ages, exhibited in a profusion of typical characters, emotions, attitudes, and situations.[v]

Horace: a Carpe Diem

Horace’s telling of The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse is more overtly “philosophical” than La Fontaine’s City Rat and Country Rat. For instance, Horace, who coined the term carpe diem, has included a “gather ye roses while ye may” in his Town Mouse and Country Mouse:

Come down, go home with me: remember, all
Who live on earth are mortal, great or small:
Then take, good sir, your pleasure while you may;
With life so short, ’twere wrong to lose a day.
Horace, Satires, book 2, no. 6, pp. 84-86            
 

Conclusion

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse can be read at several levels.It is a palimpsest.  Surprisingly, fables often possess an unsuspected depth, especially if they have an Eastern origin, which is the case with many of Aesop’s fables and fables published in La Fontaine’s second collection of fables (1678). According to Wikipedia’s entry on The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, it resembles a fable by Bidpai entitled The Lean Cat and the Fat Cat (The Baldwin Project). La Fontaine’s second collection of fables (1678) was written after he had read the Fables of Bidpai, published in France as the Livre des lumières ou la Conduite des roys, 1644). La Fontaine’s second collection, five short books, therefore reflects an Eastern source.

However, La Fontaine’s one wish was to create little comedies.

But the predominant note is that of la gaieté, which, as he says in the preface to the first collection, he deliberately sought to introduce into his Fables. “Gaiety,” he explains, is not that which provokes laughter but is “a certain charm . . . that can be given to any kind of subject, even the most serious.”[vi]

La Fontaine was a loyal friend, but he was not a crusader. He knew from experience that “might is right.” He had been a protégé of disgraced Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661. Consequently, although La Fontaine’s fables have depth, the language he uses is light-hearted.

To the grace, ease, and delicate perfection of the best of the Fables, even close textual commentary cannot hope to do full justice. They represent the quintessence of a century of experiments in prosody and poetic diction in France.[vii]

Tiny Gallery

Gustave Doré (6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Milo Winter  (7 August 1888 – 15 August 1956) 
(The Project Gutenberg [EBook #19994])
 
476px-Rat-ville-champs-2 zpage018
zpage058zpage060
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
(Photo credit: The Baldwin Project)  
 

Sources

The Baldwin Project (excellent) 
Gutenberg (EBook #11339], Æsop’s Fables, translated by V. S. Vernon Jones, introduction by G. K. Chesterton, illustrations by Arthur Rackham  
Gutenberg [EBook #19994], The Æsop for Children, adapted by W. T. (William Trowbridge) Larned, illustrated by Milo Winter
Gutenberg [EBook #24108] Fables in Rhyme for Little Folks, adapted by W.T. (William Trowbridge) Larned, illustrated by John Rae 
Joseph Jacob‘s translation
Névelet: Isaaci Nicolai Neveleti’s (Frankfurt, 1610)
Townsend, George Fyler: (Gutenberg [EBook #21]), 2013 [2007]
Victoria and Albert Museum, “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse”
 
_________________________
[i] “Jean de La Fontaine“. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 16 Aug. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/326307/Jean-de-La-Fontaine>.
[ii] The Fables of Phaedrus are a Project Gutenberg publication [EBook #25512] (2008)
[iii] Gualterus Anglicus is Walter of England’s Latin name.  
[iv] Odo of Cheriton‘s fables are an online publication.  The “House Mouse and the Field Mouse” is number 26, p. 87.
[v] “Jean de La Fontaine“. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 17 Aug. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/326307/Jean-de-La-Fontaine>.
[vi] Britannica, loc. cit.
[vii] Britannica, loc. cit.
 
8,6
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, by John Rae
(Photo credit: The Project Gutenberg [EBook #24108])
 
Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880)
Jacqueline’s Tears
Jacqueline Dupré OBE (26 January 1945 – 19 October 1987), cello
 
8,4The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, by John Rae
(Photo credit: The Project Gutenberg [EBook #24108])
 
© Micheline Walker
17 August 2013 
WordPress
 
 
 
 

A Reading of Perrault’s “Cinderella”

10 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in Art, Fairy Tales, Folklore, Illustrations

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—  Cinderella by William Morris

For the English text of Charles Perrault‘s (12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) fairy tales, beautifully illustrated by Gustave Doré, click on fairy tales.  For information on William Morris, click on Arts and Crafts or on William Morris. But if you click on this Cinderella, you will see that there are many retellings of Cinderella or Cendrillon.  The Brothers Grimm’s Cinderella does not feature a fairy godmother, but Cinderella prays on her mother’s tomb and is helped by all the animals, birds in particular.  They bring her the beautiful gowns she wears while dancing with the Prince.  However, she does lose a shoe because the prince has put pitch on the steps.  On the same website, you may also read that the story of Cinderella is almost as old as the world.

A Fairy tale

Cinderella is a fairy tale, so it belongs to a literary genre and genres share, to a lesser or greater extent, the same narrative structure.  With fairy tales, the “hero” goes from rags to riches and does so through the timely intervention of a fairy godmother, or a clever cat.  Therefore, the protagonist or hero, is at times rather passive, as is, for instance, Puss in Boots‘ disappointed master.  As I pointed out in an earlier post, were it not for his cat, the third son of the miller might not have become a prince.  It is the cat who takes him from rags to riches.

Traditionally, the protagonist of fairy tales, i.e. the third son or a Cinderella has a fairy godmother who appears at the opportune moment, i.e. kairos, to transform a Cinderella or some other character, into a beautiful person to whom the opportunity is given to be seen at his or her best.  This could suggest a lack of resourcefulness in the central character of a fairy tale, a point we will discuss after writing a summary of the plot.

Cendrillon by  Gustave Doré

The Plot: rejected girl needs a fairy godmother, but the shoe fits

This is how the rags-to-riches narrative of Cinderella unfolds.

A widower who has one daughter marries a widow who has two daughters.  In Charles Perrault’s version of the fairy tale, the widow’s two daughters are less attractive than Cinderella, so Cinderella is reduced to removing the ashes from chimneys and wears soiled clothes.

There is a ball to which the young women of the land are invited.  In fact, in some versions of Cinderella (the Brothers Grimm), there are three balls, or three days of festivities, the number three being the most important number in fairy tales.

When Cinderella arrives in the carriage her fairy godmother has magically fashioned out of a pumpkin, just as she has magically fashioned the horses, the coach, and the magnificent gown Cinderella wears, she is stunning, not to mention the beauty and uniqueness of the slippers she wears, translated as glass but perhaps otherwise crafted: “vair,” a  material, is pronounced the same way as “verre,” glass.  This matter is one scholars have studied without reaching a consensus.

During the last ball, Cinderella is so enjoying herself that she forgets that midnight is approaching and that, at midnight, she will return to her station as the girl who cleans the ashes out of chimneys.  She is running away so fast that she loses one of the slippers or shoes.

Cendrillon by Gustave Doré

So Cinderella may be Cinderella again, but the prince has picked up the shoe and wants all the young women of the land to try it on.  Whom will it fit?  In Perrault’s version, when her sisters try on the shoe, Cinderella is her shabby self, but the prince has noticed her and he suspects beauty behind deceptive appearances.  Cinderella is therefore asked to try on the shoe and the shoe fits.  Cinderella is once again transformed into the beautiful young woman she was at the balls and will be the prince’s bride.  Matters end the same way in the Brothers Grimm’s Cinderella except that birds blind her two sisters permanently, which is somewhat gruesome.

Origins of “Cinderella”

I will note later that Cinderella is rooted Rhodopis, 700 BCE, in which a slave girl marries the kind of Egypt, but tales often originate in India.  However, as we know, the five stories that make up the Pañcatantra, were written in Sanskrit, by Vishnu Sharma and then, in 750 CE, they were translated into Arabic, as Kalīlah wa Dimnah, by Persian scholar Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa’.  However there were other translations of the Pañcatantra, and other tales, before it was translated by Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa’. Furthermore, Vishnu Sharma may have taken his content, or subject matter, from an oral tradition. I will therefore be cautious as there may be a more ancient Cinderella, than Rhodopis.

Immediate sources

But Perrault did not draw his material directly from an ancient source.  Cinderella was part of the tales of Giambattista Basile (c. 1575 –  23 February 1632), the author of the Neapolitan Lo cunto de li cunti overo lo trattenemiento de peccerille, later entitled Il Pentamerone.  Giovanni Francesco “Gianfrancesco” Straparola (c. 1480 – c. 1557) also wrote fairy tales, but he did not write a Cinderella. 

Resourcefulness on Cinderella’s part

As stated above, the point that needs examination is the extent to which Cinderella participates in her transformation.  The short answer is that she needs help but is not as passive as she might seem.  She has gone to her father to ask for his help but her father, who loves his new wife, has refused to intervene on behalf of his daughter, which is not very fatherly.  However, had he intervened, he might have made matters more difficult for his daughter.  Cinderella’s stepmother has two daughters whose looks could jeopardize their ability to find a spouse and her daughters come first.

Other factors may be at play.  For instance, this is a fairy tale, not a comedy. Unlike the characters of comedies, Cinderella does not have a gentleman friend who can help her fight a heavy father, pater familias.  Nor does she have clever servants who would assist her and her gentleman friend. That happens in comedies, not in fairy tales. Perrault’s Cinderella truly needs a fairy godmother and she is fortunate that the prince happens to see beauty beneath deceptive appearances.  Despite their lovely gowns, the stepmother’s daughters have not been noticed by the prince who can see beauty in an unadorned Cinderella.

So I wonder whether Cinderella can do much for herself other than assist her fairy godmother by fetching a large pumpkin and helping her empty it of its contents so that it can be transformed into a princely carriage.  But, by an large, other than fetching the pumpkin and performing little task, Cinderella is very much in need of a fairy godmother, not to say a miracle.

The Perfect Candidate

However, destiny, the fates, have given Cinderella a fairy godmother.  But more importantly, destiny has given her beauty and grace.  Other than an opportunity to be seen by the prince, an opportunity which a fairy godmother orchestrates, it could be that Cinderella has all that is required of her.  Moreover, only she can wear the shoes, which is very much to her advantage. So the long answer may be that she cannot do much for herself, but that she has been so blessed by Lady Fortune that she really does not need to do much for herself.  In other words, although she needs and has a fairy godmother who arranges for her to meet the prince, her beauty and grace make her the perfect candidate for victory.  Besides, the prince notices her and the shoe fits.

So Cinderella does not rise from her own ashes, but she rises from ashes.

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Mozart: 12 Variations sur ‘Ah ! vous dirai-je Maman’ en Ut Majeur, K.265, Aldo Ciccolini, piano (please click on title to hear the music