Molière; a producing director's approach to Tartuffe Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Keyworth, Robert Allen, 1918- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 24/09/2021 13:21:48 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/551398 .MOLIERE: A PRODUGIHG DIRECTOR'S APPROACH TO TARTUPEE ■ ' "by . Robert A » Keyworth A Thesis Submitted Do- the Faculty of the ' : ' . / DEPARTMENT, vpF. :■ DRAMA Ih Partial.Fulfillment of the Requirements , r v: For , the .Degree of . : MASTER OF ARTS . ■ In the Graduate College STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial ful­ fillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate ac­ knowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in their judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: / Z APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: / .3', /_ 9 ? PETER R. MARRONEY Professor of Dramatics Head of the Department of Dramatic Arts TABLE' OF CONTENTS . PAGE " t . Sources f or ; . b o „ a ©'* © © . Ax ’Tv Til© DireGtor’s Approach to the Play .o o e ,© ® ■ 8 An. Analysis of the Plot and. caiaraQters. of Tartnff © = „A ...... =,».,,. ; T9" . ; ■: The Prompt Book for Tartuffe . •© » © e o 37 Summary of the Rehearsal Period .„. V ; >. 110 The Director's Orltloal:Motes on. the Completed Production ................v 123 Illustrations ©; © © 0 ' O & & O 6 © © O © ® © © © . 127 Bihiiograpiiy .. v v.. a > ® ® © © © © & ©©©o © © © «133 CHAPTER I ' V t • Sources for Mo 11ere s Tartuffe The sources of:the plot.elements and character types .us<^3 "by. Jean :Baptiste ; Poquelin^- In Tartuffe have ^•Ramon. Fernandez , Moll&re , ^ The Man Seen Through the Plays (Hlil and Wang, lew York, 1958TT”P» been dealt with at length by many scholars. Henry C. Lancaster has this to say on the -subject of Tartuf fe: As far as the plot is concerned» the essential elements are these; 1./the establishment of a hypocrite in a family where he. wins the husband's excessive admiration by his piety; 2. his attempt to seduce his benefactor's wife; 3. the trick by . which she convinces her husband of his hypocrisy. Minor elements are: 4.ithe interposition of his mother; 5« the father s plan to marry his daugh4 ter to the intruder; 6. the lover's quarrel; T. the peripetie brought about by the hypocrite's tell­ ing the truth in order to disprove an accusation; 8 the break between father and son; 9« the in- - tervention of the king and the events that mad e it necessary.2 . ' ' ■ 2Henry C . Laneaster, A History of French Dramatic Literature in the Seventeenth Century, Part III, Vol. 2 (The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1936), p . 624. Lancaster further draws our attention to a 1929 note by M. Magendie that a novel published in 1624, Amours d' Aristandre et de Cleonice, by d 8 Audlguier, is the source for the first two plot elements noted above. The novel tells , . • ■ . ' • ■ ' I . :V‘v : ' '■ • ’■ the 'story of a preacher named. Htparque.y f amed: f or his- 'holiness, hut who called himself a poof' sinner. This , hypocrite was ^entertained hy.va - certain Licidas and.' fell : in . Io t b ' with.Llcldas” wife, Eurigehe; Hipafque,praised . :her beauty and called.f idelity Van .invention of husbands. The/wife remains silent when her•husband comes in prais­ ing' the holy m a n , f ather than-/disturb, him with a ;report : Of .'the. affair.. She - is; later forced/ to. tell her husband whose disbelief leads.Eurigene to Offer to prove the /hypoorite'h’ guilt. ' She sends- .f or Blparoue who-: ask's that ; hia desires be. .gratlfiedi at .once,„ ;• .The wife puts him .off 1 : by . persuading' him to-wait untll night. When Hlparque appe ar s? she - Oalls f o r , help's - but her husband , p u t . to sleep by a magic .charm; fails to appear. The wife is then forced to stab Hiparone » -’; ... y»y- y: "Lahcaster, p . /;-6S4, .The. writer of this paper' would point out that /. ,M6laSre s ; ih taking, over the1 plot element's of diAudiguier1 s .story, subs. 11 tut ed,. /for the:, simple trick of the magic charm the more-powerful' cbmedic. deyice of/ delaying the husband5 s , /appearance/ at"'the moment of the attempted seduction, even /though, he 1 # present' /in the' room and has overheard/ all' that has passed between the' t w o ;Thus: Ifo 1 i'eres Orgori demon- . strates, by ht0 refusal to come from .under the table/ where his. wife has hidden h i m , his blind -devotion to Tartuffe ; 'v.I": ■ V;1- .. and his tmwlllingness to believe ^ ■$ihat1,, he has heard . ih:. ; ■■ is slgnlfleant’ that Orgon emerges at last only :after':5ar-' , tuffe;,says; of ^bim'i-:v ih;'V l; - What sense is. there in.worrying about him? He is the type that you can lead by the nose, ' The type td^glbry in e Intimacies. ■ ■i He . can' she ■ anything, now and., not believe i t " v moliere , Tartuffe, Translated by Morris Bishop (The ' Modern Library., h e w Yorky: 1957) V P / 2 0 6 :. • \ : ■ ■ ■ U p . to the 'stabbing of - Hiparque 9 in d 8 Audiguier8 s . 'novel, we have the - first part of the main outline of Tartuffe. At this point Moliere takes up another tale, ,. Arblranv by d - Ou v l l l e ^ v :■ In • this' story a wife is. concerned ^Lancaster, p. 625. " . ■ • to save her husband, from th e 'accusations of a hypocrite who has tried to seduce;her,She persuades a King to- hide: sends for the hypocriteexcuses her seeming anger on the . occasion of their last' meetingand. induces him to speak . of killing - the' King, who at once appears to confound: the : guilty man. Putt ing these 'two; accounts' together, Mo He r e ’: created the main outline of his' plot ,- 1 \ v ■ " . a -: ;.:V: - ; 4 Lancaster "believes that the opening scene of Tartuffe with Madame Pernelle, seems to have been suggested by Sorel’s Polvandre, and the quarrel between Mariane and Valere by N / n / Mollere s own Depit amoreaux. The:Depit amoreaux itself ^-Lancaster , p.. 625. had an Italian main source, but the scene of the quarrel of the young lovers, Eraste and Lucile, in the Depit appears ^ ' p to have been a happy addition by Mollere to his source. K« Turgeon and A. C„ Gilligan, The Principal Comedies of Mollere (The Macmillan Company, Hew York, 19B5)# p= 18. The suggestion has been made by M. Martinenche that Dorine s intervention between the lovers in Tartuffe may have come from Lope”s Perro del hortelanO;3 and the famous scene in ^Lancaster, p. 625., which Tartuffe admits to being a sinner and begs .Orgon to forgive his son, Damls, is thought to have been suggested , 4 . by Scarron s Hypocrites, with the addition of the double ' ^Ibid. ;.. : - ■ ' ;•' ' ^ y ' ' ' , .■ ■ kneeling already used by Mollere in le Depit amoreaux. : ■ v -■ ' ■ : ■", ■ ■ ■ ^ ■ ■ : . Mollere utilized; other borrowings from himself: ' ■ ' '■ - • ■ -Z’ ' Orgon s brusque manners came from Boole des.Maris; his consulting of Mariane bn the subject of her marriage to 5 Tartuffe although he had already made up his mind from ...^ le'Marlage force; the Introduction of M m e . Pernelle at the • ' ■ ' ' / beginning and end of the play from Boole des femmes (the ' . ' V \ : .character of Chrysalde); Valere's suspicions of Marian© from Sganarelle;■ and the contrast between.the manner of Loyal and what he says from the character of Aleantor y 1 in le Marlage force. ■ i •. ■ .. Lancaster9 p= 626V . Orgon1s repetition Of wLe pauvre hommel”2 was *A. R,.Waller, The Plays of Mo Here (John Grant, Edin­ burgh, 1907), Pc 16. declared by Tallement des Reaux^ to have come from an anec- ^Laneaster, p. 626. dote' told of one Father Joseph. Lancaster states that the abbe Roquette and other persons are said to have served, ■ ^ ■ ' ' ■ 4 . ' ■ V ' ' ' as the original for TartuffeHe discusses only one, 4 . ;V : ■:■ ■■.' ' ; Ibid. : .■ / . however, Charpy de Sainte-Groix, who ha,d been a secret agent of Mazarin,^ later a priest. This convert encountered ^Jacques Boulanger, The Seventeenth Century (G. P. Putnam" Sons, New York, n.d.), pp. 138-139» a charitable lady;' in::;Ohwch:v from her' an apart-' ment in her /hohser-‘-.haar'•,which^ -’inoidentally1, Mo 11 ere llved-- fell In love with her daughter, • was on friendly terms all . the while with the daughter's husband, and at last was ' ■' - ■' '' ' - . - : ' -V , ' ' ' ’ • ' -" - - v ' expelled from the honse .■ This may have suggested to Mollere Orgon1 s meeting of-. 3?artuffe in, church . Other authorities1 i . 1-‘•Turgeon andv GElli'gan, \p.. 236. suggest Spanish;sources'for Tartuffa, notably Aretlno® s 1 ' ■. i , ; ' f'1 - /. Vi - 1 • ' ' „ ..... " ■ - Lo Inocrito. ' v 1 . ; : '! ; , ' V: V ■ , , V /. ■ ' • ' ' • ■■ , \ V l It Is possible to extend the search for Mollere s Borrowings'; in - the; works . of' Rabelais, Corneille.,. and Rotrou, among others but ■.it is the writer' s', view that , Important "Lane ast Or V »v.: as; these ilterary sdur<ies' are, ;the ..true source for the play we know as Tartuffe lay In.the comic genius of.theplay- Wright himself.