This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 70-6910 WELLS, David John, 1940- COMIC ATMOSPHERE IN SELECTED COMEDIES OF MOLIERE. [Portions of Text in French]. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1969 Theater University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michiga COMIC ATMOSPHERE IN SELECTED COMEDIES OF MOLlfcRE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By David John Wells9 BeA,9 M,A. Th© Ohio State University 1969 Approved by tiki (Adviser Department of Romance Languages ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 v/ish to thank Professor Hugh M. Davidson for his care and patience in the direction of this dissertation, I also thank Professor Eleanor Bulatkin and Professor Charles Carlut for their diligence in reading the manuscript. ii VITA June 9, 1940 .......... Born - Lorain, Ohio 1962 ........ a . B.A. , Baldwin-Wa1lace College, Berea, Ohio 1962-1963 ........ .. o Teacher of French and English, Strongsville H.S. Strongsville, Ohio 1963-1966 „ . e o . Teacher of French and English, Lorain H»S„ Lorain, Ohio 1966 M.A., Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 1966-1969 . ... ....... Graduate Assistant, Department of Romance Languages, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio Fields of Study Major Fields French literature. Minor Fields Italian literature, iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................... ii VITA ......a.... ....... Hi. INTRODUCTION .............. 1 . CHAPTER I - LE DEPIT AMOUREUX . 21 CHAPTER II - L 11ECOLE DES FEMMES . 57 CHAPTER III - LE TARTUFFE ....... 85 CHAPTER IV - LE MISANTHROPE ...... 119 CHAPTER V - LE BOURGEOIS GENTILHOMME . 153 CHAPTER VI - LES FEMMES SAVANTES .... 183 CONCLUSION ............... 216 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........ .......... 252 iv P9SBSS INTRODUCTION No one would dispute Victor Fourns10s statement ft 1 wToute la coma'die anterieure est venue aboutir a Moliere9n although differences may arise as to the importance of the various pre-Moliere comic traditions in shaping his theater. To appreciate the elements that make up a Moliere playp it is necessary to understand the background from which it carae0 Rather than list the possible sources for his playss our purpose will be to describe the evolution of comedy up to Moliere°s time and show how Moliere used past comic tradition to forge a theater which differs widely from that of his predeeensore0 Boileau attempted to sum up the dichotomy in Mo Here °s theater with his M11 a sans honte a Hie' Terence a Tabarin, ” These two figures epitomise the dignified, elegant high comedy of the Roman stag© 9 which Boileau admireds and the farcical tradition,O which ha distainedp (uUBOilMUCULe Misanthrope * III »!>■ — re- presents the Terentian side of Moliere0s work, while J-es Fourberies de Scapin incarnates farcea It is not that easy, however, to categorise any Moliere play, as w© shall see, ^Victor Fournels Le Thefttre a.u I7e sloeles la corr^nie „ (Paris, 1892), p 0 122„ 2 Moliere grew up in a time when the stage offered two levels of comedy? th© plays of Rofrou and Corneille are typical of the high comedy of the daye written in versea five acts in lengthy and free of vulgarity? their theaters existed side by side with the face and the commedia dell0- arte* both of which were considered to be of very limited artistic potential^ if not downright worthless* It was Moliere0s genius to have combined the best qualities of both these theaters in order to create comedies of even a higher tone than CorneilleBs 0 The comedies of Rotrou and Corneille typify the taste of the first half of the seventeenth century* While cour- tiers and men of letters were admiring and writing works in the effeminate vein of d°Urfl' and Sorel8 the same desire for refinement dominated the stage* Hardy0s tragi«*comediess typical of the complicateds heroic theater of the early seventeenth century8 held sway over serious drama? his theater yielded to Cornellie°s tragedies when excessive8 facile sentimentality was shunned* Comedy was neglected until Mo He r e 0s time9 and this genre is considered a minor part of the works of Rotrou and Corneille* These play­ wrights adopted the Spanish theater of Calderon and Lope de Vegar similar in their insouciance to rules as the baroque novels of d°Urfe's retaining the taste for chivalric ac­ tions and romanesque plots? 3 During the three decades preceding the establishment of Moliere in Paris, there was dev©loped , thus, a type of comedy which was distinctive of the period in which it was produced,, It owed little to the Xt&l- ian comedy, beside which it grew up, and still less to classic modeis0 It did not grow out of farce9 but supplanted it, 0 0 0 It ifas produced on response to a more re- fined public taste which no longer took delight in the crude offerings of the farceurs0 . , . It goes back to e e . the novels of a d°Urfe'„ . ^ Moli&r© told Boileau that he owed much to Corneille’s Le Menteur„ which has been chosen as typical of pre- Moliere comedies, in addition to being a significant step in the development of comedyg Je dois bsaucoup au Menteur« loro- qu’il pan’t j’avals bien i’envie d ’e'crires mais j ’Jtais incertain de ce qu© j ’e'crirais o o o lo dialogue me fit voir comment causaient les honnQtes gens 0 0 . sans le Menteura j *aurals sans doute fait quelques pieces d 8 intrigue, I’Etourdi. le Da'plt* mats peut-6 tre n°aurais-je pas fait Le Misanthrope,, 0 0 . C,aui.n.ftr.n n m mi,i a j i i m . How much he owed to the comedies and heroic tragi-comedies of this period cannot be overstated* this comedy was an important step in the history of French comedy between Moliere and medieval French farce. This period showed little interest in the creation of original comedy, and playwrights were content to copy the ^Colbert Searles, "The First Six Decades of French 17th Century Comedy," MF . XXIII (1925), 155. Spanish models that were then in vogue. Saint-Evremond describes the taste of his contemporaries for Spanish drama in his Sur nos comedies except© eelles do Molieres Gorame tout© la galanterie des Espagnols est venue des Matures 9 il y reste que j© ne sals quel go&t d°Afriqu© trop extraordi- naire pour s 9accornmoder a la justess© des regies. Ajoutez qu°une vieille impression de chevaleric errante9 commune a toute l°Espagno t o u m e les ©sprits des cavaliers aux aventures bizarres. Les filles, de leur c8 t<§9 gottent cet air°la . aussi les deux sexes reraplisoent leur ©sprit des mQmes idies. 0 .3 Moliere was not disinterested in this style9 and his two plot comedies9 although imitations of Italian plays9 have much of the taste for the romanesqu© in them. Pom Garele de Navarre comes closest in his theater to Spanish drama and it was Moliere®s good fortune that his audiences did not appreciate him in the serious role of Dom Garele. These plays show some of the worst faults of imitating Spanish dramas poorly motivated actions„ lack of realism and conventional devices that need little poetic imagina- tion. Moliere was fortunately not at home in the theater of another land. He learned from this theater9 however9 as the writing of heroic verse was to be very useful to him in later plays. ^Quoted from V. Fourne1 9 p. 5. 5 At a moment when audiences were tiring of Cornelian drama, Moli&re took heroic lines and put* them in the mouths of ridiculous, extravagant, personages0 He took Arnolphe®s famous t3Je suis maitre, je paries allez, obJisces0 ” from Cornel11©°s Sertorlusn Le Manteur also represents two aspects of ancient comedy that had an influence on every comic playwright who had ambitions towards the creation of high comedy5 charac- ter and plote FouraeL calls Le Mentcur a "eome'die de A m m —*-m - i —riTi — "111 -"t-Trr—™ caractSre,M although most critics today are not prepared to go that far0 It is a question her© of emphasis„ as Corneille®s liar is much too chivalrous % his mendacity is © sort of nuisance which he is cured of at the playBs end 8 although it is the source of much of the play®s action,. To arrive at "caracterec* in the usual sense of the word 9 Moliere exaggerated his hsro®s behavior to the extent that his mania governs the entire movement of the piay0 This ic not to say that Moliere copied faithfully the ancient writers of comedies of character„ The influence of Aristophanes8 Menander, Terence, and Plautus on French com­ edy is very difficult to estimate0 Menander and Terence , who were appreciated for their elegance, lack of crudeness , and realistic personages, are oftext contrasted with the crude, and frequently obscene, Aristophanes and Plautus0 DeIcourt situates Moliere thus t "C®est a Menandre et a 6 Terence que l®on compare Moliere, alors quo Moliere imite precque esccluslvement Plaute, et ltd emprunte trois fois son sujefcoc’^ Terence was regarded as the best of the an­ cients and serious comic authors preferred to be likened to him? Plautus was more widely known, however9 and hio types were adapted repeatedly from the MCapitan9M to the valet, to the parasite and pedant0 Plautus® plots were more concise and easy to follow, which mad© his comedies better suited to the ‘’classical unities,," Rotrou directly adapted Plautus three times g Les Meneclmes^ Amphitryon„ and Les Captif8 a He further complicated the original plots, as he preferred the unreal side of Plautus® theater, which is in truth realistic and often bitter0 Moliere°s imita- tions of the ancients are so different from the originals that we can say that his true sources were not classical*, L BAvare is only a loose copy of Plautus® Anlularia