The Pretentious Young Ladies | Page 2

the places were raised (See Note 7, page xxv.), and
that it ran for four months together. We have referred in our prefatory
memoir of Molière to some of the legendary anecdotes connected with
this play.

It has also been said that our author owed perhaps the first idea of this
play to a scarcely-known work, _le Cercle des Femmes, ou le Secret du
Lit Nuptial; entretiens comiques_, written by a long-forgotten author,
Samuel Chapuzeau, in which a servant, dressed in his master's clothes,
is well received by a certain lady who had rejected the master. But as
the witty dialogue is the principal merit in Molière's play, it is really of
no great consequence who first suggested the primary idea.
The piece, though played in 1659, was only printed on the 29th of
January, 1660, by Guillaume de Luyne, a bookseller in Paris, with a
preface by Molière, which we give here below:
A strange thing it is, that People should be put in print against their
Will. I know nothing so unjust, and should pardon any other Violence
much sooner than that.
Not that I here intend to personate the bashful Author, and out of a
point of Honour undervalue my Comedy. I should very unseasonably
disoblige all the People of Paris, should I accuse them of having
applauded a foolish Thing: as the Public is absolute Judge of such sort
of Works, it would be Impertinence in me to contradict it; and even if I
should have had the worst Opinion in the World of my Pretentious
Young Ladies before they appeared upon the Stage, I must now believe
them of some Value, since so many People agree to speak in their
behalf. But as great part of the Pleasure it gave depends upon the
Action and Tone of the Voice, it behooved me, not to let them be
deprived of those Ornaments; and that success they had in the
representation, was, I thought, sufficiently favorable for me to stop
there. I was, I say, determined, to let them only be seen by Candlelight,
that I might give no room for any one to use the Proverb; [Footnote: In
Molière's time it was proverbially said of a woman, "_Elle est belle a la
chandelle, mais le grand jour gate tout_." She is beautiful by
candle-light, but day-light spoils everything.] nor was I willing they
should leap from the Theatre de Bourbon into the Galerie du Palais.
[Footnote: The Galerie du Palais was the place where Molière's
publisher lived.] Notwithstanding, I have been unable to avoid it, and
am fallen under the Misfortune of seeing a surreptitious Copy of my
Play in the Hands of the Booksellers, together with a Privilege,
knavishly obtained, for printing it. I cried out in vain, O Times! O
Manners! They showed me that there was a Necessity for me to be in

print, or have a Law-suit; and the last evil is even worse than the first.
Fate therefore must be submitted to, and I must consent to a Thing,
which they would not fail to do without me.
Lord, the strange Perplexity of sending a book abroad! and what an
awkward Figure an Author makes the first time he appears in print!
Had they allowed me time, I should have thought it over better, and
have taken all those Precautions which the Gentlemen Authors, who are
now my Brethren, commonly make use of upon the like Occasions.
Besides, some noble Lord, whom I should have chosen, in spite of his
Teeth, to be the Patron of my Work, and whose Generosity I should
have excited by an Epistle Dedicatory very elegantly composed, I
should have endeavoured to make a fine and learned Preface; nor do I
want books which would have supplied me with all that can be said in a
scholarly Manner upon Tragedy and Comedy; the Etymology of them
both, their Origin, their Definition, and so forth. I should likewise have
spoken to my friends, who to recommend my Performance, would not
have refused me Verses, either in French or Latin. I have even some
that would have praised me in Greek, and Nobody is ignorant, that a
Commendation in Greek is of a marvellous efficacy at the Beginning of
a Book. But I am sent Abroad without giving me time to look about me;
and I can't so much as obtain the Liberty of speaking two words, to
justify my Intention, as to the subject of this Comedy. I would willingly
have shewn that it is confined throughout within the Bounds of
allowable and decent Satire, that Things the most excellent are liable to
be mimicked by wretched Apes, who deserve to be ridiculed; that these
absurd Imitations of what is most perfect, have been at all times the
Subject