STUDENTS' SERIES OF CLASSIC FRENCH PLAYS-III. M7mi 1848 LE MISANTHROPE (85) A COMEDY BY MOLIÈRE EDITED With Explanatory Notes for the Use of Students BY EDWARD S. JOYNES, M.A., Professor in South Carolina College SECOND EDITION REVISED 感 NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY F. W. CHRISTERN BOSTON CARL SCHOENHOF 9-30-1930 = add.Ed. PREFACE. LE MISANTHROPE, the masterpiece of Molière, the greatest of French dramatists, is also, perhaps, the universal masterpiece of the comedy of refined society, and of that comedy which deals not in incident but in character. Its claim, as a work of highest genius, is attested by its universal truthfulness. Its characterizations, with only changed surroundings, apply to-day, and among ourselves, almost as exactly as in the seventeenth century, and in the Paris of Louis Quatorze. One almost feels, in reading these inimitable pictures of life, "mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur.” For this reason, happily, the interest of the play is independent of such historical or literary introduction as might be out of place in this edition, intended only for schools. Attempts, more or less successful, have been made to refer the characters and allusions of the play to the personages of that day, and especially to Molière himself, in the character of Alceste, and to his wife, in that of Célimène; but these are questionable, and, at any rate, need not be discussed here. For a very satisfactory reader may be referred introduction and commentary the to Pylodet's Littérature Française Classique, also published by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. For the study of the language of this "classic" period no better work could be chosen. Molière's style here reaches its perfection. Le Misanthrope, with its companion-pieces in this series of "Classic French Plays," will suffice to show the best types of this great period in the develop ment of the French language and literature, and will be fairly introductory, as intended, to the further study of the literature of either earlier or later date. In this revised edition the notes have been simplified and reduced in bulk. Especially, purely grammatical notes, not found necessary for the advanced student, have been omitted, and greater relative attention has been paid to peculiarities of idiom, characteristic of the author and of his age. These changes are made in deference to experience, and to the judgment of competent teachers. Error has been corrected wherever discovered; and, while retaining the main features of the earlier work, as a textbook of instruction, the editor has attempted, within brief limits, to increase its value for both student and teacher. SOUTH CAROLINA COLLEGE, |