Produced by David Moynihan, D Garcia, Charles Franks and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
1653. (?)
The Blunderer is generally believed to have been first acted atLyons in 1653, whilst Molière and his troupe were in the provinces. Inthe month of November 1658 it was played for the first time in Paris,where it obtained a great and well-deserved success. It is chiefly basedon an Italian comedy, written by Nicolo Barbieri, known as Beltrame, andcalled L'Inavvertito, from which the character of Mascarille, theservant, is taken, but differs in the ending, which is superior in theItalian play. An imitation of the classical boasting soldier, CaptainBellorofonte, Martelione, and a great number of concetti, havealso not been copied by Molière. The fourth scene of the fourth act ofl'Ètourdi contains some passages taken from the Angelica,a comedy by Fabritio de Fornaris, a Neapolitan, who calls himself on thetitle-page of his play "il Capitano Coccodrillo, comico confidente." Afew remarks are borrowed from la Emilia, a comedy by LuigiGrotto, whilst here and there we find a reminiscence from Plautus, andone scene, possibly suggested by the sixteenth of the Contes etDiscours d'Eutrapel, written by Nöel du Fail, Lord of la Hérissaye.Some of the scenes remind us of passages in several Italian Commediadel' arte between Arlecchino and Pantaleone thepersonifications of impudence and ingenuity, as opposed to meekness andstupidity; they rouse the hilarity of the spectators, who laugh at theready invention of the knave as well as at the gullibility of the oldman, Before this comedy appeared the French stage was chiefly filledwith plays full of intrigue, but with scarcely any attempt to delineatecharacter or manners. In this piece the plot is carried on, partly inimitation of the Spanish taste, by a servant, Mascarille, who is thefirst original personage Molière has created; he is not a mere imitationof the valets of the Italian or classical comedy; he has not thecoarseness and base feelings of the servants of his contemporaries, buthe is a lineal descendant of Villon, a free and easy fellow, not overnice in the choice or execution of his plans, but inventing new onesafter each failure, simply to keep in his hand; not too valiant, exceptperhaps when in his cups, rather jovial and chaffy, making fun ofhimself and everybody else besides, no respecter of persons or things,and doomed probably not to die in his bed. Molière must have encounteredmany such a man whilst the wars of the Fronde were raging, during hisperigrinations in the provinces. Even at the present time, a Mascarilleis no impossibility; for, "like master like man." There are also inThe Blunderer too many incidents, which take place successively,without necessarily arising one from another. Some of the characters arenot distinctly brought out, the style has often been found fault with,by Voltaire and other competent judges, [Footnote: Victor Hugo appearsto be of another opinion. M. Paul Stapfer, in his les Artistes jugeset parties (2º Causerie, the Grammarian of Hauteville House, p. 55),states:—"the opinion of Victor Hugo about Molière is very peculiar.According to him, the best written of all the plays of our great comicauthor is his first work, l'Ètourdi. It possesses a brilliancyand freshness of style which still shine