...Edward D. Sullivan THE ACTORS’ ALCESTE: EVOLUTION OF THE MISANTHROPE By EDWARDD. SULLIVAN The enigmatic nature of Alceste in Le Misanthrope of MoliPre has been the subject of endless discussions, and rare indeed is the literary...

...Edward D. Sullivan Copyright © 1948 by Duke University Press 1948 MOLE’S INTERPRETATION OF MOLIERE’S MISANTHROPE By EDWARDD. SULLIVAN Of the many actors who have played Alceste in MoliPre’s Misa?r- thrope Mole is particularly...

... to in Elvire’s rejoinder populate practically all the tragicomedies and novels of the period. Far from taking so direct a hint, the Prince shows a lack of tact that would be unique among seventeenth-century heroes were it not for Alceste’s misan- thropic rantings : J’ai cru que...

... Célimène is a coquette not because she loves or wants to be loved by many persons but because she operates on a principle of discretion. She prefers Alceste but does not want to reject her other suitors, because she believes that it would be impolite to speak “disobliging words” directly...

.... Cli adot te R. Wadswor t Ii 299 des reg!es, et generale loye (Iej loix, que chacun ohser1.e celle du lieu ou il est. . . .83 Alceste, who represents the anti-social man, cannot get along in the world, because his eagerness to have everyone else meet his standards makes him too...

... secondary characters as- sume a personality of their own is often neglected. The main characters, especially Tartuffe, Don Juan, and Alceste, suffer from Gutwirth’s all-inclu- sive categories. Gutwirth has a secondary theme (it may even be his primary theme): the marriage of art...

... century, Racine’s Nitron identifies love with violence; D’Urfit’s Citladon with unremitting worship; Molikre’s Alceste and Arnolphe with property rights; his Don Juan with quickly appeased lust. Pascal reduces the matter to minor physiognomic differences provoking momen tous consequences...

... Juan, and Alceste, suffer from Gutwirth’s all-inclu- sive categories. Gutwirth has a secondary theme (it may even be his primary theme): the marriage of art and reality. This is not an original theme, for Molitre himself stated it in Lu Critique. His plays give the illusion of reality...

...) with the added twist of proving that martyrdom (represented by the unusual addition of Alceste to the classical lovers) has nothing to do with par amours. For Chaucer scholars who know little about the less familiar works of Boc- caccio, Froissart, and Machaut, the value of The Myths of Love lies in part...

..., emotions, and drives. In French literature of the seventeenth century, Racine’s Nitron identifies love with violence; D’Urfit’s Citladon with unremitting worship; Molikre’s Alceste and Arnolphe with property rights; his Don Juan with quickly appeased lust. Pascal reduces the matter to minor...

..., and her dignity lies not only in this recognition : it emanates from the assurance and nobility of her conclusion. Blanche, the Prioress, Alceste, the formel, are different beings, but at one point they resemble each other-their bearing is faultless, and their “gen- tilesse” is not just a matter...

..., Racine avait projeti d’icrire une Alceste et une Iplzige‘nie en Tauride qui venaient tout droit d’Euripide. En effet, si I’on peut admettre que l’idke d’AZceste ait pu lui ttre suggirie par l’opkra qu’en avait fait Quinault en 1674,30le sujet d’lphigknie en Tauride n’avait, en revanche, it6...

.... More- over, the normal protagonist in tragicomedy is a man we laugh at and yet regard with a certain sympathy and even benevolence. We see in Hjalmar Ekdal’s story, as we do, say, in Malvolio’s or Alceste’s (two often-quoted instances of tragicomic appeal), evidence of an all too human...

...,” is likewise to be found in his “Alcest” (I, 235-36), where the reaction to a movingly joyful scene is briefly recounted : Welch freudig Schrecken nimmt mich ein! Ich sehe sie-doch diese Scene Will nur gefiihlt, nicht beschrieben seyn...

..., in the present age, where the arts can regain their virtue. The art of pleasing has corrupted even the divine Moliere, who, for the sake of aesthetic interest, makes a mockery of Alceste’s high moral stand- ards. If display in the city’s theater promotes inequalities in class, sex, talents...

... oii rigne I’hypocrisie du monde. CCli- mene et ses amis, la siche ArsinoC y sont dCmasquCs et exposts au ridicule. I1 n’est pas jusqu’au “franc scClCrat” avec qui Alceste a son proc&s, qui ne reqoive la censure. Mais l’honntte homme y perd ses droits, dira-t-on, et son argent, et ses...

... in his Poetic Mind ( 1922)-Stevenson, Scott, and Curel, besides Dickens in de- tail-; to which I have elsewhere4 added similar disclosures made 3 Nevertheless, Mr. DobrCe himself here finds that Milton’s Satan and Moli6re’s Tartuffe and Alceste all turned out as rtot intended, the critic...