FRANCIS TARVER, M.A., Oxon, FRENCH MASTER AT ETON COLLEGE. NEW EDITION. LIBRAIRIE HACHETTE ET CIE. LONDON: 18, KING WILLIAM STREET, CHARING CROSS, W.C. 1885. All rights reserved.] LE BOURGEOIS GENTILHOMME.* INTRODUCTION. THIS play was first represented at Chambord on the 14th of October, 1670, and at Paris on the 29th of November. It met with a bad reception at Court. Louis XIV. did not say a word about it at supper, and this silence was construed into disapprobation. "Molière is no longer himself," said a certain Duke. "Whom does he take us for, to think to amuse us with such poor stuff?” "What's the meaning of his ‘halaba balachou'?" said another. Five days elapsed before the play was acted a second time. Molière was very nervous and anxious, but his anxiety was agreeably dispelled when, after the second representation, the King told him that "he (Molière) had never written anything that had amused him so much." Of course the courtiers all took their cue from the King, and lauded Molière to the skies. Paris followed the example of the Court, and the piece had a complete success. Some people say that Molière intended to represent a certain hatter, by name "Gandoir," by M. Jourdain. Molière and his daughter played the parts of M. Jourdain and Lucile, and the famous "Lulli" that of the Grand Muphti. * Observe that the word Gentilhomme means "nobleman," not "gentleman." The title of the play, therefore, means, "the citizen who apes the nobleman." GENERAL NOTES. THE notes and explanations will be found at the end of each play. They are arranged in accordance with the acts and scenes, with references to the lines in each page, not reckoning the names of the dramatis personæ, the running title, or the stage directions. In the seventeenth century the two letters ai preceding the consonants s and in the infinitives, present and imperfect tenses, and conditional mood of some verbs, used invariably to be written oi, as The Editors have preferred pointing this out in a note to altering the text. |