Molière, página 2 de 22

ARM. What! Sister, you will give up the sweet and enchanting title of maiden? You can entertain thoughts of marrying! This vulgar wish can enter your head!HEN. Yes, sister.ARM. Ah! Who can bear that "yes"? Can anyone hear it without feelings of disgust?HEN. What is there in marriage which can oblige you, sister, to.ARM. Ah! Fie!HEN. What?ARM. Fie! I tell you. Can you not conceive what offence the very mention of such a word presents to the imagination, and what a repulsive image it offers to the thoughts? Do you not shudder before it? And can you bring yourself to accept all the consequences which this word implies?HEN. When I consider all the consequences which this word implies, I only have offered to my thoughts a husband, children, and a home; and I see nothing in all this to defile the imagination, or to make one shudder.ARM. O heavens! Can such ties have charms for you?

Octave et Léandre cherchent à déjouer l'autorité de leurs vieux pères, Argante et Géronte, pour pouvoir épouser les élues de leur coeur. Ils font appel au malicieux Scapin, valet rusé et inventif, et

Amphitryon was played for the first time in Paris, at the Theatre du Palais-Royal, January 13, 1668. It was successfully received, holding the boards until the 18th of March, when Easter intervened. After the re-opening of the theatre, it was played half a dozen times more the same year, and continued to please.The first edition was published in 1668.Note: It is perhaps hardly necessary to refer the reader to Amphitryon, by Plautus, the comedy upon which Molieres charming play was, in the main, based. The rendering attempted here can give but a faint reflection of the original, for hardly any comedy of Molieres loses more in the process of translation.Le Medecin Volant seems to have been acted for the first time in Paris, on the 18th of April, 1659. Parts of it were reproduced in LAmour Medecin, and Le Medecin malgre lui.Moliere acted the part of Sganarelle.

This play was acted for the first time on September 9, 1668. In it, Moliere has borrowed from Plautus, and has imitated several other authors, but he far surpasses them in the treatment of his subject. The picture of the miser, in whom love of money takes the place of all natural affections, who not only withdraws from family intercourse, but considers his children as natural enemies, is finely drawn, and renders Molieres Miser altogether more dramatic and moral than those of his predecessors.Moliere acted the part of Harpagon.

Cinco años, desde su llegada a París en 1658, necesitó Molière para imponerse, primero, como autor de éxito y, luego, como comediante del rey: el estreno de "La escuela de las mujeres" (1662) lo cons

Monsieur Jourdain, drapier enrichi, prétend faire figure dans le monde en singeant les manières de la noblesse. Il engage maître de musique, maître à danser, maître d''armes et maître de philosophie.

Un barbon, Arnolphe, a élevé dans l''ignorance Agnès, une jeune paysanne, cela afin de l''épouser. De retour de voyage, il rencontre le jeune Horace qui le prend pour confident et lui révèle son amou

D om Juan vient de quitter sa femme pour tenter d''enlever à son futur époux une jeune fiancée trop éprise de son prétendant pour que l''idée ne lui vienne pas de troubler leur bonheur. Puis il jette

Texte intégral de cette farce, satire de la médecine, qui s''inspire de la commedia dell''arte.

M. FILERIN : N'avez-vous point de honte, Messieurs, de montrer si peu de prudence oe... Je n'en parle pas pour mon intérêt ; car, Dieu merci, j'ai déjà établi mes petites affaires. Qu'il vente, qu'il pleuve, qu'il grêle, ceux qui sont morts sont morts, et j'ai de quoi me passer des vivants ; mais enfin toutes ces disputes ne valent rien pour la médecine. Puisque le Ciel nous fait la grâce que, depuis tant de siècles, on demeure infatué de nous, ne désabusons point les hommes, profitons de leur sottise le plus doucement que nous pourrons et soyons de concert auprès des malades pour nous attribuer les heureux succès de la maladie, et rejeter sur la nature toutes les bévues de notre art. (L'Amour médecin, acte III, scène première.)

Drama Classics: The Worlds Great Plays at a Great Little PriceMolieres comic masterpiece about an irreclaimable hypocrite - one of the most famous French plays of all time.The pious Tartuffe is lodging with Orgon and his family, ingratiating himself with both his host and his hosts mother to such a degree that both are blinded to his true rather less virtuous designs. Like marrying Orgons daughter Mariane, whilst seducing his wife, Elmire.This English version of Tartuffe, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Martin Sorrell.

Drama Classics: The Worlds Great Plays at a Great Little PriceMolieres most-admired comedy of manners, about a man whose quickness to criticise the flaws in others, and in himself, leads him into deep trouble.Alceste, the misanthrope, hates all mankind, and despairs of its hypocrisy and falseness. He believes that the world could be perfected if people were more honest with each other.But when his honesty starts to make him enemies, and the target of malicious gossips, it is his world and his life which suffer.The Misanthrope, or the Cantankerous Lover (Le Misanthrope ou lAtrabilaire amoureux) was first performed in 1666 at the Theatre du Palais-Royal, Paris.This English version, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Stephen Mulrine.

Drama Classics: The Worlds Great Plays at a Great Little PriceMolieres classic farce, Le Malade Imaginaire, in a fresh and performable translation.The imaginary invalid Argan is so obsessed with his health that he fails to notice what is happening around him in his own family. His scheming wife and loving daughter are finally revealed to him in their true light by Argans brother, who poses as a quack doctor and suggests he feigns death to test their loyalty.This English version of Molieres The Hypochondriac, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Martin Sorrell.

Drama Classics: The Worlds Great Plays at a Great Little PriceMolieres story of a covetous old miser, obsessively protecting his hoard of gold and neglecting his long-suffering children.Harpagon is obsessed with the wealth he has amassed and always ready to save expenses. Now a widower, he has a son, Cleante, and a daughter, Elise. Although he is over sixty, he is attempting to marry his sons own sweetheart, Mariane.But it seems that Harpagons pinchpenny paranoia is finally catching up with him his gold is missing, and this time it might really have disappeared for good...The Miser was first performed in 1668, at the theatre of the Palais-Royal, Paris.This English version, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classic series, is translated and introduced by Martin Sorrell.