Molière

“ Live, live contented, and laugh when you think of me, as well as your worthy husband, of whom you have reason to be proud.
CEL. Yes, traitor, I will live so, and I trust most earnestly that the thought of my happiness may disturb you.
LEL. Why this outbreak of passion?
CEL. You pretend to be surprised, and ask what crimes you have committed?
SCENE XXI.—CELIA, LELIO, SGANARELLE armed cap-a-pié, CELIA'S MAID. SGAN. I wage war, a war of extermination against this robber of my honour, who without mercy has sullied my fair name.
CEL. (To Lelio, pointing to Sganarelle) . ”

“ Lelio is a pretty fellow, but learn that there is nothing that does not give way to money, that gold will make even the most ugly charming, and that without it everything else is but wretchedness. I believe you are not very fond of Valère, but though you do not like him as a lover, you will like him as a husband. The very name of husband endears a man more than is generally supposed, and love is often a consequence of marriage. But what a fool I am to stand arguing when I possess the absolute right to command. ”

“ SCENE XVII.—SGANARELLE, alone. May Heaven keep her for ever out of harm's way! How kind of her to wish to avenge me! Her anger at my dishonour plainly teaches me how to act. Nobody should bear such affronts as these tamely, unless indeed he be a fool. Let us therefore hasten to hunt out this rascal who has insulted me, and let me prove my courage by avenging my dishonour. ”

“ SCENE XVI.—SGANARELLE, CELIA, at her window, seeing Lelio go away. SGAN. (Alone) . This confession is pretty plain. His extraordinary speech surprises me as much as if horns had grown upon my head. (Looking at the side where Lelio went off) . Go your way, you have not acted at all like an honourable man. ”

“ SCENE XII.—SGANARELLE, A RELATIVE OF SGANARELLE'S WIFE. REL. I commend a husband's anxiety in such a case, but you take fright a little too hastily. All that you have told me against her, kinsman, does not prove her guilty. It is a delicate subject, and no one should ever be accused of such a crime unless it can be fully proved.
SGAN. That is to say, unless you see it.
REL. Too much haste leads us to commit mistakes. Who can tell how this picture came into her hands, and, after all, whether she knows the man? ”

“ It seems that this shape, this air, which everybody admires; this face, so fit to inspire love, for which a thousand fair ones sigh both night and day; in a word, my own delightful self, by no manner of means pleases you. Moreover, to satisfy your ravenous appetite you add to the husband the relish of a gallant. ”

“ Many people of rank see their wives cajoled, and do not say a word about it. Why should I then try to pick a quarrel for an affront, which is but a mere trifle? They will call me a fool for not avenging myself, but I should be a much greater fool to rush on my own destruction. (Putting his hand upon his stomach) . I feel, however, my bile is stirred up here; it almost persuades me to do some manly action. Ay, anger gets the better of me; it is rather too much of a good thing to be a coward too! I am resolved to be revenged upon the thief of my honour. ”

“ A truce then, I tell you, to your impertinence; let me have no more of your foolish complaints. This evening Valère intends to visit you, and if you do not receive him well, and look kindly upon him, I shall... but I will say no more on this subject.
SCENE II.—CELIA, CELIA'S MAID. MAID. What, madam! you refuse positively what so many other people would accept with all their heart! You answer with tears a proposal for marriage, and delay for a long time to say a "yes" so agreeable to hear! Alas! why does some one not wish to marry me? ”

“ If Valère has married some one else without your permission, I cannot disguise from you, that I myself long ago, promised my daughter Celia to Lelio, endowed with every virtue, and that his return today prevents me from choosing any other husband for her.
VILL. Such a choice pleases me very much.
LEL. This honest intention will crown my days with eternal bliss.
GORG. Let us go and fix the day for the wedding.
SGAN. (Alone) . Was there ever a man who had more cause to think himself victimized? You perceive that in such matters the strongest probability may create in the mind a wrong belief. ”

“ I think it must be a charming thing to have such a fine-looking man for a sweetheart; if he should urge his suit very much the temptation would be great. Alas! why have I not a handsome man like this for my husband instead of my booby, my clod-hopper...?
SGAN. (Snatching the portrait from her) . What, hussey! have I caught you in the very act, slandering your honourable and darling husband? According to you, most worthy spouse, and everything well considered, the husband is not as good as the wife? ”

“ This is the common way of husbands; they become indifferent to what is lawful; at the beginning they do wonders, and seem to be very much in love with us, but the wretches soon grow weary of our fondness, and carry elsewhere what is due to us alone. Oh! how it vexes me that the law will not permit us to change our husband as we do our linen! That would be very convenient; and, troth, I know some women whom it would please as much as myself. (Taking up the picture which Celia had let fall) . ”

“ If once you put me in a passion you will have plenty of opportunities for shouting alas! This comes of that eagerness of yours to read novels day and night; your head is so full of all kinds of nonsense about love, that you talk of God much less than of Clélie. Throw into the fire all these mischievous books, which are every day corrupting the minds of so many young people ”

“ Moneylove, who is "what she ought not to be," and the way she tricks her husband, are very racy, perhaps too much so for the taste of the present times. I do not think any dramatist would now bring upon the stage a young lady like Theodocia, daughter of old Moneylove, reading the list about Squire Careless. Tom Essence is a seller of perfumes, a "jealous coxcomb of his wife;" and Courtly is "a sober gentleman, servant to Theodocia;" these are imitations of Sganarelle and Lelio. ”

“ For eight whole days we have been riding long stages, and have not been sparing of whip and spur to urge on confounded screws, whose cursed trot shook us so very much that, for my part, I feel as if every limb was out of joint ”

“ Have we not enough of other accidents that happen to us whether we like them or not? Do not quarrels, lawsuits, hunger, thirst, and sickness sufficiently disturb the even tenour of our lives? and yet we must stupidly get it into our heads to grieve about something which has no foundation. ”

“ You know too well where the shoe pinches me. But conscience and a care for your own soul should remind you that my wife is my wife, and that to make her yours under my very nose is not acting like a good Christian. ”

“ Your brother's tutor was quite right when, as we were talking about worldly affairs, he said, "A woman is like the ivy, which grows luxuriantly whilst it clings closely to the tree, but never thrives if it be separated from it." ”

“ I will teach you, you rogue, to laugh at my expense, and to cuckold people without showing them any respect. (After going three or four steps he comes back again.) But gently, if you please, this man looks as if he were very hot-headed and passionate; he may, perhaps, heaping one insult upon another, ornament my back as well as he has done my brow.
[Footnote: In the original there is a play on words which cannot be rendered in English. Il pourrait bien ... charger de bois mon dos comme, il a fait mort front. Bois means "stick" and "stags' antlers."] ”

“ We are blamed for the actions of other people. If our wives have an intrigue with any man, without our knowledge, all the mischief must fall upon our backs; they commit the crime and we are reckoned guilty. ”

“ My husband, holding in his arms... But I shall go down; he is false to me most certainly; I should be glad to catch him.
SGAN. She must be assisted very quickly; she would certainly be in the wrong to die. A journey to another world is very foolish, so long as a body is able to stay in this. (He carries her in) .
SCENE V.—SGANARELLE'S WIFE, alone. He has suddenly left this spot ”

“ This picture bodes my honour little good. A very ugly feeling of jealousy begins to creep over me.
SGAN.'S WIFE. (Not seeing her husband) . I never saw anything more beautiful in my life! The workmanship is even of greater value than the gold! ”

“ Jade!
[Footnote: The original is truande, which, as well as the masculine truand, meant, in old French, a vagabond, a rascal; it is still retained in the English phrase "to play the truant."]
were you impudent enough to cuckold me in the flower of my age? The wife too of a husband who may be reckoned handsome! and must be a monkey, a cursed addle-pated fellow...
LEL. (Aside, looking still at the portrait in Sganarelle's hand) . ”

“ Whether Sganarelle is a servant, a husband, the father of Lucinde, the brother of Ariste, a guardian, a faggot-maker, a doctor, he always represents the ugly side of human nature, an antiquated, grumpy, sullen, egotistical, jealous, grovelling, frightened character, ever and anon raising a laugh on account of his boasting, mean, morose, odd qualities. Molière was, at the time he wrote Sganarelle, more than thirty years old, and could therefore no longer successfully represent Mascarille as the rollicking servant of the Blunderer.
This farce was published by a certain Mr. ”

“ The primary idea of the play is common to many commedia dell' arte, whilst Molière has also been inspired by such old authors as Noël Du Fail, Rabelais, those of the Quinze joyes de Mariage, of the Cent nouvelles Nouvelles, and perhaps others.
The plot of Sganarelle is ingenious and plausible; every trifle becomes circumstantial evidence, and is received as conclusive proof both by the husband and wife. ”

“ This play is written partly in blank verse, partly in prose; though very coarse, it is, on the whole, clever and witty. Old Moneylove, a credulous fool, who has a young wife (Act ii., Scene I) , reminds one at times of the senator Antonio in Otway's Venice Preserved, and is, of course, deceived by the gallant Stanley ”

“ Footnote: Pierre Matthieu (1563—1621) , a French historian and poet wrote, among other works, his Tablettes de la vie et de la mort, quatrains de la Vanité du Monde, a collection of 274 moral quatrains, divided in three parts, each part of which was published separately in an oblong shape, like a memorandum book ”

“ If from dealings too large, we plunge deeply in debt,
And Whereas issue out in the Muses Gazette;
We'll on you our assigns for Certificates call;
Though insolvent, we're honest, and give up our all."
Otway in his very indecent play, The Soldier's Fortune, performed at Dorset Garden, 1681, has borrowed freely from Molière; namely: one scene from Sganarelle, four scenes from The School for Husbands, and a hint from The School for Wives. ”

“ Most of you have more cause to be severe.
We yield you are the truest Character."
Nearly all the scenes imitated in this play from Molière's Sganarelle contain nothing which merits to be reproduced.
The Perplexed Couple, or Mistake upon Mistake, as it is acted at the New Theatre in Lincolns-Inn-Fields, by the Company of Comedians, acting under Letters Patent granted by King Charles the Second. London, Printed for W. Meares at the Lamb, and F. Brown, at the Black Swan without Temple Bar, 1715, is the third imitation of Molière's Sganarelle. ”

“ There was also a ballad opera played at Drury Lane April 11, 1733, called the Imaginary Cuckold, which is an imitation of Sganarelle.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ GORGIBUS, a citizen of Paris.
LELIO, in love with Celia.
SGANARELLE, a citizen of Paris and the self-deceived husband.
[Footnote: Molière acted this part himself. In the inventory of his dresses taken after his death, and given by M. Eudore Soulié in his Recherches sur Molière, 1863. we find: "a ... dress for the Cocu imaginaire, consisting of knee-breeches, doublet, cloak, collar, and shoes, all in crimson red satin."] ”

“ The Picture, or the Cuckold in Conceit, a Comedy in one act, by Js. Miller, is founded on Molière, and is the fourth imitation of Sganarelle. London, MDCCXLV. This play is, on the whole, a free translation of Molière's, interspersed with some songs set to music by Dr. Arne. Sganarelle is called Mr. Timothy Dotterel, grocer and common councilman; Gorgibus, Mr. Per-cent; Lelio, Mr. Heartly; Gros-René, John Broad, whilst Celia's maid is called Phillis. The Prologue, spoken by Mr. Havard, ends thus:
"...To-night we serve
A Cuckold, that the Laugh does well deserve ”