The Learned Women: Les Femmes Savantes
By Molière and Charles Heron Wall
()
About this ebook
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin is better known to us by his stage name of Molière. He was born in Paris, to a prosperous well-to-do family on 15th January 1622.
In 1631, his father purchased from the court of Louis XIII the posts of "valet of the King's chamber and keeper of carpets and upholstery" which Molière assumed in 1641. The benefits included only three months' work per annum for which he was paid 300 livres and also provided a number of lucrative contracts.
However in June 1643, at 21, Molière abandoned this for his first love; a career on the stage. He partnered with the actress Madeleine Béjart, to found the Illustre Théâtre at a cost of 630 livres.
Unfortunately despite their enthusiasm, effort and ambition the troupe went bankrupt in 1645.
Molière and Madeleine now began again and spent the next dozen years touring the provincial circuit. His journey back to the sacred land of Parisian theatres was slow but by 1658 he performed in front of the King at the Louvre.
From this point Molière both wrote and acted in a large number of productions that caused both outrage and applause. His many attacks on social conventions, the church, hypocrisy and other areas whilst also writing a large number of comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets are the stuff of legend.
‘Tartuffe’, ‘The Misanthrope’, ‘The Miser’ and ‘The School for Wives’ are but some of his classics.
His death was as dramatic as his life. Molière suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis. One evening he collapsed on stage in a fit of coughing and haemorrhaging while performing in the last play he'd written, in which, ironically, he was playing the hypochondriac Argan, in ‘The Imaginary Invalid’.
Molière insisted on completing his performance.
Afterwards he collapsed again with another, larger haemorrhage and was taken home. Priests were sent for to administer the last rites. Two priests refused to visit. A third arrived too late. On 17th February 1673, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, forever to be known as Molière, was pronounced dead in Paris. He was 51.
Molière
Molière was a French playwright, actor, and poet. Widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and universal literature, his extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more.
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The Misanthrope: A Play Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Misanthrope (Translated by Henri Van Laun with an Introduction by Eleanor F. Jourdain) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tartuffe or The Hypocrite Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/521 plays by Molière in English translation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDon Juan: Comedy in Five Acts, 1665 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTartuffe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmphitryon, By Molière Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The School for Husbands Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The School for Wives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTartuffe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Misanthrope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tartuffe and Other Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harvard Classics: All 71 Volumes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe School for Wives: L'École des Femmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Misanthrope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Impostures of Scapin: Les Fourberies de Scapin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Misanthrope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amphitryon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Misanthrope and Other Plays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pretentious Young Ladies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Physican in Spite of Himself aka A Doctor Despite Himself: Le Médecin Malgré Lui Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSganarelle or, The Self-Deceived Husband aka The Imaginary Cuckold: Sganarelle ou Le Cocu Imaginaire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTartuffe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Miser Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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The Learned Women - Molière
The Learned Women by Molière
Les Femmes Savantes
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin is better known to us by his stage name of Molière. He was born in Paris, to a prosperous well-to-do family on 15th January 1622.
In 1631, his father purchased from the court of Louis XIII the posts of valet of the King's chamber and keeper of carpets and upholstery
which Molière assumed in 1641. The benefits included only three months' work per annum for which he was paid 300 livres and also provided a number of lucrative contracts.
However in June 1643, at 21, Molière abandoned this for his first love; a career on the stage. He partnered with the actress Madeleine Béjart, to found the Illustre Théâtre at a cost of 630 livres.
Unfortunately despite their enthusiasm, effort and ambition the troupe went bankrupt in 1645.
Molière and Madeleine now began again and spent the next dozen years touring the provincial circuit. His journey back to the sacred land of Parisian theatres was slow but by 1658 he performed in front of the King at the Louvre.
From this point Molière both wrote and acted in a large number of productions that caused both outrage and applause. His many attacks on social conventions, the church, hypocrisy and other areas whilst also writing a large number of comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets are the stuff of legend.
‘Tartuffe’, ‘The Misanthrope’, ‘The Miser’ and ‘The School for Wives’ are but some of his classics.
His death was as dramatic as his life. Molière suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis. One evening he collapsed on stage in a fit of coughing and haemorrhaging while performing in the last play he'd written, in which, ironically, he was playing the hypochondriac Argan, in ‘The Imaginary Invalid’.
Molière insisted on completing his performance.
Afterwards he collapsed again with another, larger haemorrhage and was taken home. Priests were sent for to administer the last rites. Two priests refused to visit. A third arrived too late. On 17th February 1673, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, forever to be known as Molière, was pronounced dead in Paris. He was 51.
Index of Contents
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
THE LEARNED WOMEN (LES FEMMES SAVANTES)
ACT I
SCENE I
SCENE II
SCENE III
SCENE IV
SCENE V
ACT II
SCENE I
SCENE II
SCENE III
SCENE IV
SCENE V
SCENE VI
SCENE VII
SCENE VIII
SCENE IX
ACT III
SCENE I
SCENE II
SCENE III
SCENE IV
SCENE V
SCENE VI
SCENE VII
SCENE VIII
SCENE IX
ACT IV
SCENE I
SCENE II
SCENE III
SCENE IV
SCENE V
SCENE VI
SCENE VII
SCENE VIII
ACT V
SCENE I
SCENE II
SCENE III
SCENE IV
SCENE V
MOLIÈRE – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY
MOLIÈRE – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
CHRYSALE, an honest bourgeois
PHILAMINTE, wife to CHRYSALE
ARMANDE & HENRIETTE, their daughters
ARISTE, brother to CHRYSALE
BÉLISE, his sister
CLITANDRE, lover to HENRIETTE
TRISSOTIN, a wit
VADIUS, a learned man
MARTINE, a kitchen-maid
LÉPINE, servant to CHRYSALE
JULIEN, servant to VADIUS
A NOTARY.
ACT I
SCENE I
ARMANDE, HENRIETTE
ARMANDE
What! Sister, you will give up the sweet and enchanting title of maiden? You can entertain thoughts of marrying! This vulgar wish can enter your head!
HENRIETTE
Yes, sister.
ARMANDE
Ah! Who can bear that yes
? Can anyone hear it without feelings of disgust?
HENRIETTE
What is there in marriage which can oblige you, sister, to....
ARMANDE
Ah! Fie!
HENRIETTE
What?
ARMANDE
Fie! I tell you. Can you not conceive what offence the very mention of such a word presents to the imagination, and what a repulsive image it offers to the thoughts? Do you not shudder before it? And can you bring yourself to accept all the consequences which this word implies?
HENRIETTE
When I consider all the consequences which this word implies, I only have offered to my thoughts a husband, children, and a home; and I see nothing in all this to defile the imagination, or to make one shudder.
ARMANDE
O heavens! Can such ties have charms for you?
HENRIETTE
And what at my age can I do better than take a husband who loves me, and whom I love, and through such a tender union secure the delights of an innocent life? If there be conformity of tastes, do you see no attraction in such a bond?
ARMANDE
Ah! heavens! What a grovelling disposition! What a poor part you act in the world, to confine yourself to family affairs, and to think of no more soul-stirring pleasures than those offered by an idol of a husband and by brats of children! Leave these base pleasures to the low and vulgar. Raise your thoughts to more exalted objects; endeavour to cultivate a taste for nobler pursuits; and treating sense and matter with contempt, give yourself, as we do, wholly to the cultivation of your mind. You have for an example our mother, who is everywhere honoured with the name of learned. Try, as we do, to prove yourself her daughter; aspire to the enlightened intellectuality which is found in our family, and acquire a taste for the rapturous pleasures which the love of study brings to the heart and mind. Instead of being in bondage to the will of a man, marry yourself, sister, to philosophy, for it alone raises you above the rest of mankind, gives sovereign empire to reason, and submits to its laws the animal part, with those grovelling desires which lower us to the level of the brute. These are the gentle flames, the sweet ties, which should fill every moment of life. And the cares to which I see so many women given up, appear to me pitiable frivolities.
HENRIETTE
Heaven, whose will is supreme, forms us at our birth to fill different spheres; and it is not every mind which is composed of materials fit to make a philosopher. If your mind is created to soar to those heights which are attained by the speculations of learned men, mine is fitted, sister, to take a meaner flight and to centre its weakness on the petty cares of the world. Let us not interfere with the just decrees of Heaven; but let each