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by Jean Baptiste Molière English verse by Timothy Mooney Comedy: Full Length. Five Acts; Estimated Running Time 80 minutes (without intermission). Cast: 7 Male, 2 Female, 9 Total. Setting: Single Exterior Setting. |
|
by Jean Baptiste Molière English verse by Timothy Mooney Comedy: Full Length. Five Acts; Estimated Running Time 80 minutes (without intermission). Cast: 7 Male, 2 Female, 9 Total. Setting: Single Exterior Setting. |
CAST:
7 Male, 2 Female, 9 Total
DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
ARNOLPHE, otherwise known as Monsieur de la Souche
AGNES, brought up as ward to Arnolphe
HORACE, in love with Agnes
CHRYSALDE, friend to Arnolphe
ENRIQUE, brother-in-law to Chrysalde
ORONTE, Horace’s father, and friend to Arnolphe
NOTARY
ALAIN, a peasant, servant to Arnolphe
GEORGETTE, peasant woman, servant to Arnolphe
SCENE:
Single Exterior Setting: A house and garden in a small square in Paris.
The School For Wives (1662), finds a prospective husband who thinks he has come upon the perfect solution for keeping a wife chaste and devoted. In almost all of these plays, by the way, the unwanted husband was a much older figure, with the wife a blossoming young woman, desperately in love with another man. (This fact was to cause much speculation on the nature of the relationship that Moliere maintained with the 19-year-old girl who married him when he was forty.) In this instance, the older man chooses an orphan girl to marry, putting her in the convent at the age of four, so that she will emerge, years later, completely dumb. In this case, it is her very ignorance that foils her patron, as she doesn't know any better than to fall in love with someone who is not her fiancee.
The School For Wives
Act II, Scene 5
ARNOLPHE, AGNES
AGNES
What’s wrong? You seem to be a bit unsteady.
Did you find my compassion so amiss?
Have I performed improperly in this?
ARNOLPHE
Oh, no! But tell, this audience you gave,
Concluded ... how? How did the man behave?
AGNES
Oh, my! I have to say he was transported
How quickly he recovered and cavorted,
The gifts he tendered leave me speechless yet,
As well as things for Alain and Georgette.
Had you observed his thoughtfulness, his fuss,
You would be as in love with him as us.
ARNOLPHE
Ah! Tell me what he did with you alone.
AGNES
He spoke his love with sighs and such a moan,
With language so agreeable and fine,
That I was captivated with each line.
I hardly can describe unprecedented
Upheavals which I could not have prevented.
I can’t describe the unfamiliar notions
Which seemed to set off indiscreet explosions …
All I can say is I was quite disarmed
And found myself both overwhelmed and charmed.
ARNOLPHE (Aside.)
Oh cursed inquest of an artless brain,
In which inquisitor feels all the pain!
(Aloud.) Besides these pretty things he said to you,
Did he bestow some kisses on you too?
AGNES
Ah, sir! He took my arms, my hands, each finger,
And kissed as though he’d never tire to linger.
ARNOLPHE
And was that all he took from you, Agnes? (Pause.)
Hah?
AGNES
Why, he did --
ARNOLPHE
What?
AGNES
Take --
ARNOLPHE
Oh?!
AGNES
The --
ARNOLPHE
And? Yes?!
AGNES
I cannot say. You would be angry when ...
ARNOLPHE
Oh, no.
AGNES
I think.
ARNOLPHE
I’d not.
AGNES
Swear to it then.
ARNOLPHE
I swear.
AGNES
He took -- I’m sure you will be mad.
ARNOLPHE
No.
AGNES
Yes.
ARNOLPHE
No, no, no, no! What is so bad?
What could he take that’s so mysterious?
AGNES
He took ...
ARNOLPHE (Aside.)
I’m mad. I am delirious.
AGNES
He took from me the ribbon that you gave me,
Forgive me. I could not stop him to save me.
ARNOLPHE
Forget the ribbon. What I want to know
Is if that’s quite as far as he would go.
To kiss your arms, and hands, and fingers too.
AGNES
What? Are there other things that people do?
ARNOLPHE
Oh, no. ... Unless some ... remedy had pleased him,
To cure the dread disorder which had seized him.
AGNES
No, but you may imagine, if he’d asked,
I’d gladly done whatever job he’d tasked.
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