72. 18. trébuchantes: louis d'or, French gold coins first struck in 1640; pistoles, Spanish gold coins worth eleven livres. The trébuchet was a small brass balance with a beam, on the same principle as the scales used for letters in British post-offices; a full weight coin therefore 'tilted the beam'; turn trébuchantes by 'full weight.'

73. 17. scandaliser: it is part of Molière's art to put colloquialisms into the mouths of lower-class people (cf. avaricieux, 11. 32); this word here has the sense of 'impute false charges.'

74. 10. honnête: here and 82. 22 in the strict sense of 'honest'; generally honnête homme means, in seventeenth-century literature, a gentleman by education, feeling, manners, and dress (cf. p. xvii).

74. 15. il n'est pas que . . . : 'it must be that you know-you must know.'

77. 26. qui in seventeenth-century French the interrogative qui may be used for things.

78. 5. non ferai=je n'en ferai rien in 1. 16; it is energetic, and the omission of the pronoun subject is archaic.

78. 31. bon ordre: cf. 14. 26.

80. 4. brouilles: 'why are you confusing us by bringing in my daughter?'

80. 11. à nous signer: 'to make her agree to our signing'; cf. 9. II.

80. 19. rengrégement: an obsolete word with the sense of 'aggravation.'

83. I. puisse: the subjunctive could follow verbs of believing used affirmatively in seventeenth-century French, as had also been the case in Old French, provided there was some doubt in the speaker's mind.

84. 6. seize ans : Naples had been sucked dry by the extortions of its Spanish governors; there was a revolt in 1647 in which the Duke of Guise participated, but he was seized and imprisoned in Spain till 1652. Molière's notice may have been turned to Naples, since the Duke collected some ships for another expedition to Naples at Marseilles in 1656, and Molière was in the South at the time. While it is true that shipwrecks, political disorders, and the like are commonplaces of contemporary comedy, yet it is like Molière to refer to contemporary events in order to heighten the realism.

We conclude from the above passage, and the plus de seize ans of

85. 29, plus the sept ans of line 13, that Valère was at least twenty-three years of age.

84. 17. amitié: cf. 8. 12.

84. 21. aventure: the saving of Élise, so gratefully remembered by her (4. 28-33 and 81. 19–22), and so churlishly referred to by Harpagon (81. 23).

85. 7. aussi : this use of aussi with a negative where modern French requires non plus is common in the seventeenth century.

86. 25. en lieu: modern French does not permit a relative clause to depend on a noun not preceded by an article; we should have to say dans un lieu.

87. 25. frais: in the Aulularia, Euclio passes the expenses of the marriage-feast on to Megadorus, and Séverin does the same in Les Esprits.

BIBLIOGRAPHY1

Editions of the Complete Works

The standard edition of Molière's works is that by Eugène Despois and Paul Mesnard, in the series known as the Grands Écrivains de la France, 13 vols. and an album, Hachette, 1873-1893, 105 fr. (7 fr. 50 each). Nine volumes are occupied by the Works; vol. x contains the biography by Mesnard (see below); vol. xi a full bibliography, and vols. xii and xiii a lexicon of the language and versification. The Album contains portraits of Molière and facsimiles of documents relative to him and his company.

Of cheaper editions the best seem to be :

Collection des classiques Garnier. Garnier, 3 vols., at 3 fr. or half bound 4 fr. 50.

Collection des principaux écrivains français. Hachette, 3 vols., at I fr. 25 or half bound 3

fr.

Collection des meilleurs auteurs classiques. Flammarion, 4 vols. at 95 cent. or cloth I fr. 75.

The Oxford Molière. Oxford, The Clarendon Press, on Oxford India paper, 5s. net.

Editions of 'L'Avare'

L'Avare was first published in Paris in 1669, a second (pirated) edition appeared in the same year, and a third in 1670. This small volume of 55 pp. sold at one and a half livres.

French annotated editions are, of course, very numerous; the best appear to be those edited respectively by (i) G. Lanson, Hachette, I fr.; (ii) Pellisson, Delagrave, 1 fr.; (iii) M. et Mme Crouzet, with interesting illustrations, Didier, I fr.

There are two good English editions: (i) by E. G. W. Braunholtz,

1 Unless otherwise stated all books are published in Paris, and at 3 fr. 50.

Cambridge University Press, 1906, 2s. 6d. net, and (ii) by O. H. Fynes-Clinton, Macmillan, 1910, 2s. 6d.

The text of the present edition is mainly that of Despois, except that the edition of 1734 has been drawn upon for some stage-directions which seemed to render certain passages clearer.

Life and Works

The first collected edition of 1682 (cf. p. xlviii) contained a short biography; this was followed in 1705 by La Vie de M. de Molière written by Grimarest. Lengthy researches in the archives of the capital and of the provinces have yielded much evidence which has been carefully sifted by Mesnard for his Notice biographique sur Molière, forming vol. x (1889) of the edition of Despois and Mesnard (see above). Larroumet, G. La Comédie de Molière, l'auteur et le milieu, Hachette, 1886, and numerous later editions.

Durand, G. Molière (in the Classiques populaires, edited by Émile Faguet and published by La Société française d'Imprimerie et de Librairie), no date, 2 fr.

Chatfield-Taylor, H. C. Life of Molière, New York, 1906.

Mantzius, K. Molière, les théâtres, le public et les comédiens de son temps, traduit du danois par Pellisson, Hachette, 1908, 5 fr.

The work of a Danish actor, who, as a student in Paris, made a very close study of Molière: full of good illustrations and written most sympathetically.

Rigal, E. Molière, Hachette, 2 vols., 1908.

No living authority is better qualified to deal with the stage than Professor Rigal; he contributes two chapters on the man, and then examines each separate play in the order of its appearance with a concluding chapter on Molière's literary theories. Brander-Mathews, J. Molière, his Life and Works, London, Longmans, 1910, 12S.

A carefully written estimate of the author and his work by an American professor who is a specialist in dramatic literature.

Lafenestre, G. Molière (in the collection of monographs entitled Les Grands Écrivains français, Hachette, 2 fr., 1909).

This series needs no recommendation and this volume is worthy of the others.

Critical and Literary Studies

Sainte-Beuve, C. A. Molière, in the Portraits littéraires, 1835, completed in the Causeries du Lundi, vol. v, and Nouveaux Lundis, 1864, and an article on Molière and Pascal in Port-Royal, Book iii, ch. xv and xvi.

The first two articles are masterly appreciations of Molière, and the second contains the remarkable rhapsody referred to in our Introduction, p. lxxxi.

Janet, P. La Philosophie de Molière,' Revue des deux Mondes, 1881. Brunetière, F. 'La Philosophie de Molière,' in his Études critiques, vol. iv, Hachette, 1890.

This is the most powerful essay that this famous critic has written on Molière; it is most stimulating and sound.

Brunetière, F. Les Époques du théâtre français (fourth and sixth 'conférences'), Hachette, 1901.

Brunetière, F. Les Époques de la comédie de Molière, in vol. viii of the Études Critiques.

Lemaître, J. Impressions de théâtre, vols. i, ii, iv, v and vi, Lecène, Oudin, 1886-1896.

Faguet, É. Dix-septième siècle, Études littéraires, Lecène, Oudin,

1885 seq.

Probably no critic of the last thirty years has written more acceptably than the late Émile Faguet; his chapter on Molière is an acute piece of literary criticism.

Faguet, É. Propos de théâtre, série I and II, Hachette, 1903-1905. Faguet, É. En lisant Molière, Hachette, 1914.

A series of twelve volumes had been planned to appear, but only those on Corneille and Molière had been published at Faguet's death.