The School for Husbands

The School for Husbands

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Title: The School for Husbands
Author: Moliere
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L'ÉCOLE DES MARIS.
COMÉDIE.
* * * * *
THE SCHOOL FOR HUSBANDS.
A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS.
(THE ORIGINAL IN VERSE.)

INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.
The School for Husbands was the first play in the title of which the
word "School" was employed, to imply that, over and above the
intention of amusing, the author designed to convey a special lesson to
his hearers. Perhaps Molière wished not only that the general public
should be prepared to find instructions and warnings for married men,
but also that they who were wont to regard the theatre as injurious, or at
best trivial, should know that he professed to educate, as well as to
entertain. We must count the adoption of similar titles by Sheridan and
others amongst the tributes, by imitation, to Molière's genius.
This comedy was played for the first time at Paris, on the 24th of June,
1661, and met with great success. On the 12th of July following it was
acted at Vaux, the country seat of Fouquet, before the whole court,
Monsieur, the brother of the King, and the Queen of England; and by
them also was much approved. Some commentators say that Molière
was partly inspired by a comedy of Lope de Vega. _La Discreta
enamorada_, The Cunning Sweetheart; also by a remodelling of the
same play by Moreto, _No puede ser guardar una muger_, One cannot

guard a woman; but this has lately been disproved. It appears, however,
that he borrowed the primary idea of his comedy from the Adelphi of
Terence; and from a tale, the third of the third day, in the Decameron of
Boccaccio, where a young woman uses her father-confessor as a
go-between for herself and her lover. In the Adelphi there are two old
men of dissimilar character, who give a different education to the
children they bring up. One of them is a dotard, who, after having for
sixty years been sullen, grumpy and avaricious, becomes suddenly
lively, polite, and prodigal; this Molière had too much common sense
to imitate.
The School for Husbands marks a distinct departure in the dramatist's
literary progress. As a critic has well observed, it substitutes for
situations produced by the mechanism of plot, characters which give
rise to situations in accordance with the ordinary operations of human
nature. Molière's method--the simple and only true one, and,
consequently, the one which incontestably establishes the original
talent of its employer--is this: At the beginning of a play, he introduces
his principal personages: sets them talking; suffers them to betray their
characters, as men and women do in every-day life,--expecting from his
hearers that same discernment which he has himself displayed in
detecting their peculiarities: imports the germ of a plot in some slight
misunderstanding or equivocal act; and leaves all the rest to be effected
by the action and reaction of the characters which he began by bringing
out in bold relief. His plots are thus the plots of nature; and it is
impossible that they should not be both interesting and instructive. That
his comedies, thus composed, are besides amusing, results from the
shrewdness with which he has selected and combined his characters,
and the art with which he arranges the situations produced.
The character-comedies of Molière exhibit, more than any others, the
force of his natural genius, and the comparative weakness of his artistic
talent. In the exhibition