The Dramatic Works of Moliere, Vol. 6 (Classic Reprint) PDF Download

Author: Henri Van Laun
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781330692363
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Excerpt from The Dramatic Works of Moliere, Vol. 6 Whilst the King and the whole Court were in Flanders in 1671, Moliere wished to produce a new play for the theatre of the Palais Royal, then freshly decorated, and he wrote The Rogueries of Scapin, which was performed on the 24th of May of the same year, and met with great success. It has been said that Moliere wrote his farces to please the people: but with the exception of this comedy and The Physician in Spite of Himself, all his farces were written for, and first performed before the Court. This comedy, in three acts, is partly classical, partly Italian, and partly French, and the character of Scapin enlivens the whole. Scapin is a master rogue, who robs, steals, and perjures himself; but all this in the most good-natured way imaginable. He cheats, not to benefit himself, but to be of advantage to Leander and Octave; he makes a fool of Geronte and Argante, merely to keep his hand in, and thrashes the first in revenge for having told a falsehood of him. Such a love for truth is wonderful in a man like Scapin, whose intense roguery, fertile imagination, and gigantic impudence can exist only on the stage, but would soon reap in real life their well-deserved reward. The greater part of this play is taken from Terence's Phormio; or, the Scheming Parasite, of which the following is the subject. Antipho, the son of Demipho, an Athenian, sees by accident Phanium, the unknown daughter of his uncle Chremes, and by the advice of Phormio, a parasite, marries her by trickery. Shortly after, his father and uncle return upon the same day, and are much vexed on hearing of this marriage. Phaedria, the son of Chremes, wishes to raise some money to purchase a music-girl with whom he is in love; and Geta, a servant of Demipho, and Phormio arrange that the former shall pretend to the old man that Phormio has consented to take back the woman whom Antipho has married, if Demipho will give her a portion of thirty minae. The latter gives the money to Phaedria, who buys the girl. At this conjuncture, it becomes known that the wife of Antipho is really the daughter of Chremes; and they wish to get back the money from Phormio, who refuses, and finally betrays to Nausistrata, the Athenian wife of Chremes, the intrigue which the latter had carried on at Lemnos with the mother of Phanium. The details of Moliere's comedy are either from French or Italian origin. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."