LE TARTUFFE OU L'IMPOSTEUR EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY JOHN E. MATZKE, Ph.D. Professor of Romanic Languages in the Leland Stanford Jr. University Οὐ πολλὰ NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE LIBRARY OF COPYRIGHT, 1906 BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY INTRODUCTION. THE ORIGIN AND SPIRIT OF THE PLAY. To appreciate Molière's Tartuffe it is necessary to understand the genesis of the play, its moral significance and the importance which was attached to it by the men and women who witnessed its first representations. Tartuffe is a hypocrite who under the cover of religious zeal and the interests of heaven serves his own most selfish ends, tries to rob the wife of his benefactor of her honor and brings discord and ruin into the family that had received him. The question is whether hypocrisy and piety have been sufficiently distinguished, or whether true religion has not after all been indirectly held up to scorn. It is possible to outline the causes which induced Molière to select hypocrisy as the subject of a play at this period of his career. The main business of comedy for him was to show men their failings so that they might learn to correct them,1 and after some farces and comedies of the Italian type he had found his true sphere in the Précieuses Ridicules of the year 1659, which was followed in rapid succession by Sganarelle, L'École des Maris, Les Fâcheux and L'École des Femmes, and each new play added to the number of his enemies. was the Précieuses and the Marquis who had thus far 1 Cp. Premier Placet, p. 11. It |