University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2006 The Liar as a Comic Figure in Plays by Ruiz de Alarcon, Corneille and Moliere Robert Matthew Patrick University of Tennessee, Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Modern Languages Commons Recommended Citation Patrick, Robert Matthew, "The Liar as a Comic Figure in Plays by Ruiz de Alarcon, Corneille and Moliere. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2006. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/4292 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Robert Matthew Patrick entitled "The Liar as a Comic Figure in Plays by Ruiz de Alarcon, Corneille and Moliere." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Modern Foreign Languages. Bryant Creel, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Edmund J. Campion, Salvatore Di Maria, Heather Hirschfeld Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Robert Matthew Patrick entitled "The Liar as a Comic Figure in Plays by Ruiz de Alarcon, Corneille and Moliere." I have examined the final paper copy of this dissertation for formand content and recommend that it be accepted in partialfulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Mode oreign Langua es. We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: � h .n �-EdmundJ.Cam7on�� " -----�'[;vatore Di Maria Accepted forthe Council: .9� U�T: ARcHtVf.S The Liar as a Comic Figure in Plays by Ruiz de Alarcon, Corneilleand Moliere A Dissertation Presented forthe Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Robert Matthew Patrick December 2006 Copyright ©2006 by Robert Matthew Patrick All rights reserved. 11 DEDICATION Soli Deo gloria "When the LORDrestored the fortunesof Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filledwith laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, 'The LORD has done great things forthem.' The LORDhas done great things for us, and we rejoiced. Restore our fortunes,0 LORD, like the watercourses in the Negeb. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves." -Psalm 126 lll ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In addition to thanking ProfessorsBryant Creel, Ed Campion, Sal DiMaria, and Heather Hirschfeldfor agreeing to serve on my dissertation committee and fortheir invaluable help in the editing process, I would like to thank ProfessorOscar Rivera­ Rodas, whose invitation to present my paper "La mexicanidad de Juan Ruiz de Alarcon y La verdad sospechosa" at the 2004 Jomadas Intemacionales del Teatro Latinoamericano in Puebla, Mexico, inspired the choice of my dissertation topic. I would also like to thank Tennessee State University foremploying me as an instructor of French and Spanish since August 2005; their financialassistance helped me to see this project through to completion. IV broken promise to marryLucrece has cost him nearly everything. Still, the principal dupes sufferas much or more than the liars in the Corneilleplays, implying that lies may be entertaining, but taking them seriously has potentially dire consequences. Moliere applies this lesson to Tartuffe, where the conspiracy to unmask hypocrisy is more successfulagainst the dupe Orgon than Tartuffe. Fear makes the disillusioned Sganarelleplay the dupe in Dom Juan, and he suffersa comic downfall. The uncomic punishments of Tartuffe (prison) and Dom Juan (Hell) confirmthat they are realistically painted braggarts, who take their place as comic, undignifiedfigures alongside Don Garcia, Eraste, and Dorante. The classic model of ironic comedy is broadened and bent but not broken. VI ABSTRACT This study on the liar as a comic figurecenters on protagonists in five seventeenth-century comic plays: La verdad sospechosa (Ruiz de Alarcon), Melite, Le Menteur (Corneille), Tartuffe and Dom Juan (Moliere). It applies a model combining the concepts of "ironic comedy" (Frye), "the world as stage," metatheater, and theories of laughter. Throughthis model, supplemented by a comparative-literature approach and additional research, the study attempts to demonstrate that in the plays examined an alazon (impostor) is always punished for his contempt foran ideal of truth that is conceived mainly in secular terms, as well as that in the plays examined here gullibility is ridiculed and the alazon is represented as being expelled froma society in which his condemned behavior is actually widespread. In any case, the avenging agents are laughter and eirons (self-deprecators ), thus emphasizing the liar's comic character. La verdad sospechosa conformsmost closely to Frye's definitionof a classic ironic comedy, combining the Plautine motifs of mistaken identity and lying. The ending is comic because Don Garcia's expulsion as a pharmakos (scapegoat) is not carried out--he keeps his promise to marry Lucrecia, even though she is not whom Don Garcia thought she was. Le Menteur, an adaptation of La verdad sospechosa, deviates fromthis pattern. In the end, Dorante's only punishment for lying seems to consist of laughter and reprimands, but in La Suite du Menteur his V Table of Contents Introduction The Liar as a Comic Figure: Affectation, Lying and Hypocrisy 1 The Authors and Plays to Be Considered in This Study 19 Chapter One: Theatrum Mundi,Metatheater, Irony and Theories of Laughter 39 Theatrum Mundi, or the World as a Stage 39 The World as a Stage in Calderon's El granteatro del mundo 41 Metatheater 52 Irony: the Eiron and the Alazon 59 Theories of Laughter 65 Chapter Two: Juan Ruiz de Alarc6n's La verdad sospechosa and the Unity of Its Elements 74 Like Father, Like Son? The Metatheatrical Awareness of Don Beltran as Playwright and Director 76 Prophecies of Hamartia and Downfall: the Warningsof Don Beltran and Tristan 82 "El indiano liberal," or "The Generous Colonial" 94 "La fiesta en el rio," or "The Party on the River" 105 "Las bodas de Salamanca," or "The Marriage of Salamanca" 114 "Don Garcia y 'Lucrecia"' 118 vu Chapter Three: Corneille: Le Menteur and Melite 134 The Underlying Romantic Comedy in Le Menteur 135 "Le guerrierd'Allemagne" 137 "La fete sur l'eau" 149 "Le mariage de Poitiers" 156 For Laughs or to SatisfyCuriosity? Clarice and Lucrece Meet Dorante. 158 Geronte: The Fall of the Dupe 161 I Dare You to Lie Again-The Threats and Mockery of Geronte 162 From "Lucrece" to Lucrece: Is the Liar Still Lying? 166 Le Menteur in La Suite du Menteur 169 Melite 175 An Atmosphere of Mutual Suspicion 176 The Liar as a Comic Figure According to Characters in Melite 180 Eraste, the Author of Confusion 181 Tirsis, Philandre, and the Duel That Wasn't 186 The Clash of the Dupes: Cloris vs. Melite 189 The Victory Cry and Sudden Fall ofEraste 191 Philandre: The Fall of the Dup�.),' 201 Eraste and Dorante: Is There Any Real Condemnation of Lying? 204 Chapter Four: Le Menteur and Moliere's Tartuffe 209 Tartuffe, Juan de Zabaleta, and the Hypocrite as a Comic Figure 211 vm Chapter Four: Le Menteur and Moliere's Tartuffe, continued Tartuffeas Dramatist and Actor 217 AnArmy of Eirons 223 Elmire, Cleante, and the Liar as a Comic Figure 229 Tartuffe the Braggart 235 Chapter Five: Le Menteur and Moliere's Dom Juan 249 Is Anyone Laughingat Dom Juan? 250 Dom Juan the Mocker 257 Dom Juan, A Mighty Talker Beforethe Lord 264 Dom Juan's Downfall,Hell, and the Comicity of the Play 281 Conclusions 294 Works Cited 306 Vita 327 IX Introduction The Liar as a Comic Figure: Affectation,Lying and Hypocrisy When PierreCorneille firstwrote Le Menteur, he believed that the play on which he based it, La Verdad sospechosa, was by Lope de Vega, and did not learnof the identity of its trueauthor, the Mexican-bornJuan Ruiz de Alarcon, until somewhat later. Mexican poet and literary critic Octavio Paz, in El laberinto de la soledad, does not believe that anyone who knew the work of both authors would be likely to make the same mistake. Paz makes much of the contrast between the exuberance of Lope and the more measured tone foundin most of Ruiz de Alarcon's plays. Corneille's sequel to Le Menteur, simply called La Suite du Menteur, is based on a play actually written by Lope, Amar sin saber a quien ( ed. Maurens 601), while carrying over the names of characters in the first play, such as Dorante, "theliar," and his servant Cliton. The opinion of The Concise OxfordDictionary of French Literature is that "there is no real relation" between them (404). Thus, the French language and Corneille'salterations did not sufficeto hide the differencesbetween the adaptation of a play by Lope de Vega and one by Alarcon. If the purpose of the study were simply to address the iss�e of the relationship of Le Menteur and La Suite du Menteur to their Spanish originals and of Corneilleto Lope de Vega and Ruiz de Alarcon, the resulting perspective would be at once too narrow and too broad.