The Litigants
By Jean Racine
()
About this ebook
Jean Racine
Jean Racine, né le 22 décembre 1639 à La Ferté-Milon et mort le 21 avril 1699 à Paris, est un dramaturge et poète français. Issu d'une famille de petits notables de la Ferté-Milon et tôt orphelin, Racine reçoit auprès des « Solitaires » de Port-Royal une éducation littéraire et religieuse rare.
Read more from Jean Racine
Harvard Classics: All 71 Volumes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhaedra Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Plays of Jean Racine: Volume 5: Britannicus Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Esther Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhèdre Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAthaliah A Tragedy, Intended For Reading Only, Translated Into English Blank Verse, From Racine (A. Gombert's Edition, 1825) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAndromache Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Plays of Jean Racine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEsther Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Phèdre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iphigenia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBerenice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Britannicus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bajazet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mithridates Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Thebaid Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Litigants
Related ebooks
Every Man in His Humour Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarford Abbey, a Novel: In a Series of Letters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Case is Altered Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMuch Ado about Nothing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marjorie Daw Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThis is not a Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Staple of News Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMajorie Daw Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art of Being Bored: A Comedy in Three Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI hate to be the one to tell you this Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPetty Troubles of Married Life, Second Part Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Firefly of France Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Sword's My Fortune A Story of Old France Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bad Detective Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarford Abbey, A Novel In A Series Of Letters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Princess of Bagdad a play in three acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Stranger: A Drama, in Five Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries Volume One: Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, and Unnatural Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Game and the Candle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhose Body? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Caxtons: A Family Picture — Volume 09 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Circle A Comedy in Three Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBooker Something That Rhymes: The Johnson Family Saga Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTraditional Nursery Songs of England With Pictures by Eminent Modern Artists Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Memoirs of Detective Vidocq: Convict, Spy and Principal Agent of the French Police Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt Volume 2: To Paris and Prison Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Duenna: A Comic Opera Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Way of All Flesh Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Maker On the Mountain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Performing Arts For You
Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Star Wars: Book of Lists Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lucky Dog Lessons: From Renowned Expert Dog Trainer and Host of Lucky Dog: Reunions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifth Mountain: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unsheltered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Town: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Dolls House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Strange Loop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Agatha Christie Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count Of Monte Cristo (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Woman Is No Man: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Litigants
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Litigants - Jean Racine
THE LITIGANTS
BY JEAN RACINE
TRANSLATED BY ROBERT BRUCE BOSWELL
eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4910-0
ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4909-4
This edition copyright © 2013
Please visit www.digireads.com
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO THE LITIGANTS.
CHARACTERS.
ACT I.
ACT II.
ACT III.
THE LITIGANTS.
A Comedy.
INTRODUCTION TO THE LITIGANTS.
This play, which is neither a comedy nor a farce but has elements in common with each, was first performed in 1668 at Paris, and afterwards at Versailles. Its humour in a great measure depends upon the mock gravity which masks its ridiculous features; the language and style are those of comedy, while the tone of exaggeration and the absurdity of the situations belong more fitly to burlesque. It is a French adaptation of The Wasps
of Aristophanes, to which the wit of Rabelais and of Furetière (author of the Roman Bourgeois
) have contributed not a little. Racine's own experience of law and lawyers was derived from the suit in which he had been involved about the Priory of Epernay, during the course of which he picked up a number of barbarous terms, which,
to quote his own words, neither my judges nor I ever properly understood.
Les Plaideurs,
though it fell rather flat at first, has proved to be by far the most popular of all Racine's plays.
CHARACTERS.
DANDIN, a judge.
LEANDER, son of Dandin,
CHICANEAU, a citizen.
ISABELLE, daughter of Chicaneau.
A Countess.
PETIT-JEAN, a house porter.
L'INTIMÉ, a clerk.
A Prompter.
The scene is laid in a town of Lower Normandy.
THE LITIGANTS.
A COMEDY.
ACT I.
SCENE I.
PETIT-JEAN. [hauling along a big bag full of raw-papers.]
Oh, what a fool is he who trusts the future:
Who laughs at morn will cry before the night.
A judge took me, last year, into his service,—
Fetch'd me from Amiens to be Swiss porter.
These Normans thought to laugh at my expense:
When we're with wolves, one learns to howl, they say.
I played a wily hand, tho' a poor Picard,
And crack'd my whip loudly as any other.
All the fine gentlemen would, hat in hand,
Call me good Mr. Petit-Jean, with flatteries
Long as your arm. But honours without coin
Are naught. I acted like a play-house porter;
In vain they knock'd, and bow'd with heads uncover'd,
Save with the silver key, they might not enter.
No money,—then no Swiss, to unlock the door.
'Tis true my master's pocket took a scantling;
Sometimes there came a reckoning. 'Twas my charge
To purchase