MOLIÈRE'S LE MISANTHROPE EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTes BY CHARLES A. EGGERT, Ph. D. FORMERLY PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA BOSTON, U. S. A. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 1902 PREFACE FRANÇOIS COPPÉE has called Molière le plus grand Français, and the consensus of modern critical opinion points to the Misanthrope as Molière's greatest and most original work. The higher institutions of learning in this country have long since recognized the Misanthrope as one of the indispensable texts in every curriculum which offers a chance for the higher study of French. The present editor of the work may, therefore, hope to be pardoned for adding this edition to those already in use. His endeavor has been to meet the wants of advanced students of French. He has accordingly omitted ordinary grammatical and other notes not needed by such students; but he has been careful to supply all necessary help, in the case of obscure or incorrect constructions of words and phrases more or less obsolete, and, in general, in all cases which seemed to call for comment and elucidation, in the interest of a critical and scholarly interpretation and appreciation. Great care has been taken that the facts stated in the Introduction should fairly present the latest phases in the study of the subject, and no pains have been spared, in the Introduction and Notes, to aid as far as possible the cause of intelligent study and sound scholarship. With but a slight deviation which usage seemed to demand, the text of the play conforms to the edition of 1666, as produced by E. Despois in the fifth volume of the Euvres de Molière, in the series of the Grands Écrivains. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, March 21st, 1899. CHARLES A. EGGERT. |