Produced by David Moynihan, D Garcia, Charles Franks and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
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The School for Husbands was the first play in the title of whichthe word "School" was employed, to imply that, over and above theintention of amusing, the author designed to convey a special lesson tohis hearers. Perhaps Molière wished not only that the general publicshould be prepared to find instructions and warnings for married men,but also that they who were wont to regard the theatre as injurious, orat best trivial, should know that he professed to educate, as well as toentertain. We must count the adoption of similar titles by Sheridan andothers 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 wasacted at Vaux, the country seat of Fouquet, before the whole court,Monsieur, the brother of the King, and the Queen of England; and by themalso was much approved. Some commentators say that Molière was partlyinspired by a comedy of Lope de Vega. La Discreta enamorada, TheCunning Sweetheart; also by a remodelling of the same play by Moreto,No puede ser guardar una muger, One cannot guard a woman; butthis has lately been disproved. It appears, however, that he borrowedthe primary idea of his comedy from the Adelphi of Terence; andfrom 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 forherself and her lover. In the Adelphi there are two old men ofdissimilar character, who give a different education to the childrenthey bring up. One of them is a dotard, who, after having for sixtyyears 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 thedramatist's literary progress. As a critic has well observed, itsubstitutes for situations produced by the mechanism of plot, characterswhich give rise to situations in accordance with the ordinary operationsof human nature. Molière's method—the simple and only true one, and,consequently, the one which incontestably establishes the originaltalent of its employer—is this: At the beginning of a play, heintroduces his principal personages: sets them talking; suffers them tobetray their characters, as men and women do in every-daylife,—expecting from his hearers that same discernment which he hashimself displayed in detecting their peculiarities: imports the germ ofa plot in some slight misunderstanding or equivocal act; and leaves allthe rest to be effected by the action and reaction of the characterswhich he began by bringing out in bold relief. His plots are thus theplots of nature; and it is impossible that they should not be bothinteresting and instructive. That his comedies, thus composed, arebesides amusing, results from the shrewdness with which he has selectedand combined his characters, and the art with which he arranges thesituations produced.
The character-comedies of Molière exhibit, more than any others, theforce of his natural genius, and the comparative weakness of hisartistic talent. In the exhibition and the evolution of character, he issupreme. In the unravelling