The School for Husbands | Page 2

and the evolution of character, he is supreme.
In the unravelling of his plots and the _dénouement_ of his situations,
he is driven too willingly to the deus ex machina.
The School for Husbands was directed against one of the special and

prominent defects of society in the age and country in which Molière
lived. Domestic tyranny was not only rife, but it was manifested in one
of its coarsest forms. Sganarelle, though twenty years younger than
Ariste, and not quite forty years old, could not govern by moral force;
he relied solely on bolts and bars. Physical restraint was the safeguard
in which husbands and parents had the greatest confidence, not
perceiving that the brain and the heart are always able to prevail against
it. This truth Molière took upon himself to preach, and herein he
surpasses all his rivals; in nothing more than in the artistic device by
which he introduces the contrast of the wise and trustful Ariste,
raisonneur as he is called in French, rewarded in the end by the
triumph of his more humane mode of treatment. Molière probably
expresses his own feelings by the mouth of Ariste: for The School for
Husbands was performed on the 24th of June, 1661, and about eight
months later, on the 20th of February, 1662, he married Armande
Béjart, being then about double her age. As to Sganarelle in this play,
he ceases to be a mere buffoon, as in some of Molière's farces, and
becomes the personification of an idea or of a folly which has to be
ridiculed.
Molière dedicated The School for Husbands to the Duke of Orleans, the
King's only brother, in the following words:--
MY LORD,
I here shew France things that are but little consistent. Nothing can be
so great and superb as the name I place in front of this book; and
nothing more mean than what it contains. Every one will think this a
strange mixture; and some, to express its inequality, may say that it is
like setting a crown of pearls and diamonds on an earthen statue, and
making magnificent porticos and lofty triumphal arches to a mean
cottage. But, my Lord, my excuse is, that in this case I had no choice to
make, and that the honour I have of belonging to your Royal Highness,
[Footnote: Molière was the chief of the troupe of actors belonging to
the Duke of Orleans, who had only lately married, and was not yet
twenty-one years old.] absolutely obliged me to dedicate to you the first
work that I myself published. [Footnote: Sganarelle had been borrowed

by Neufvillenaine; The Pretentious Ladies was only printed by Molière,
because the copy of the play was stolen from him; Don Garcia of
Navarre was not published till after his death, in 1682.] It is not a
present I make you, it is a duty I discharge; and homages are never
looked upon by the things they bring. I presumed, therefore, to dedicate
a trifle to your Royal Highness, because I could not help it; but if I omit
enlarging upon the glorious truths I might tell of you, it is through a
just fear that those great ideas would make my offering the more
inconsiderable. I have imposed silence on myself, meaning to wait for
an opportunity better suited for introducing such fine things; all I
intended in this epistle was to justify my action to France, and to have
the glory of telling you yourself, my Lord, with all possible submission,
that I am your Royal Highness' very humble, very obedient, and very
faithful servant,
MOLIÈRE.
In the fourth volume of the "Select Comedies of M. de Molière,
London, 1732," the translation of The School for Husbands is dedicated
to the Right Honourable the Lady Harriot Campbell, in the following
words:--
MADAM,
A Comedy which came abroad in its Native Language, under the
Patronage of the Duke of ORLEANS, Brother to the King of FRANCE,
attempts now to speak English, and begs the Honour of Your
LADYSHIP'S Favour and Acceptance. That distinguishing good Sense,
that nice Discernment, that refined Taste of Reading and Politeness for
which Your LADYSHIP is so deservedly admir'd, must, I'm persuaded,
make You esteem _Molière_; whose way of expression is easy and
elegant, his Sentiments just and delicate, and his morals untainted: who
constantly combats Vice and Folly with strong Reason and well turn'd
Ridicule; in short, whose Plays are all instructive, and tend to some
useful Purpose:--An Excellence sufficient to recommend them to your
LADYSHIP.
As for this Translation, which endeavours to preserve the Spirit as well

as Meaning of the Original, I shall only say, that if it can be so happy as
to please Your LADYSHIP, all the Pains it cost me will be over-paid.
I beg Pardon