THE STORY: LOVERS' QUARRELS (1656) was Molire's second full-length play in verse, and it is a complex comedy animated by deception and misunderstanding. A young woman (Ascagne) has worn masculine disguise since childhood, for the sake of an inheritance that would otherwise go to the household of young Valre. Ascagne loves Valre, who is a suitor of her sister Lucile, and cleverly manages to marry him in a midnight ceremony, Valre believing that his veiled and unseen bride is Lucile. Valre's manservant Mascarille is similarly deceived and, under pressure, conveys his misinformation to raste, a young man who jealously loves Lucile and is loved in turn by her. The ensuing quarrel between raste and Lucile lasts until the fourth act, and is paralleled by the quarreling and reconciliation of Gros-Ren (raste's valet) and Marinette (Lucile's maid). George Saintsbury wrote of LOVERS' QUARRELS that "Nothing so good had yet been seen on the French stage as the quarrels and reconciliations of master, mistress, valet, and soubrette." It goes without saying that the final act sees Ascagne's true sex revealed, and that Valre's response to that is "love and wonder."

Publisher

Dramatists Play Service Inc.

Format

Play

Binding

Softcover

ISBN

9780822221593

Stock code

9780822221593

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