Alexandrine verse moliere biography

Ronsard completely ignored this rule, which was after his time settled by the authority of Malherbe. Les Parques se disoient : Charles, qui doit venir Au monde. Je veux, s'il est possible, atteindre la louague De celle. Michael Drayton, who was twenty-two years of age when Ronsard died, seemed to think that the Alexandrine might be as pleasing to English as it was to French ears, and in this metre he wrote a long poem in twenty-four books called the Polyolbion.

The metre, however, failed to catch the English ear. Louison : Argan's younger daughter. Monsieur Purgon : Argan's physician. Monsieur Fleurant : Argan's apothecary. Monsieur Diafoirus : Physician of Argan's acquaintance. Thomas Diafoirus : Son of Monsieur Diafoirus. He has just completed studies to become a physician. Polichinelle : French name for a stock character frequently appearing in commedia dell'arte productions, in which he may also be referred to as Punchinello, Pulcinella, and Punch.

Commedia dell'arte is a type of Italian theater in which actors improvise their lines in a loosely outlined plot. Singers and Dancers : Performers in the eclogue, prologue, and interludes in the play. Format: Prose and Verse. In The Imaginary Invalidthe introduction and the three acts are in prose; the eclogue and prologue are in verse; and the interludes are mainly in verse, with some prose.

Examples of his plays in Alexandrine verse are Tartuffe and The Misanthrope. Hobart C. As a poet, he has been surpassed, but never as a writer of concise, vigorous, and truthful prose dialogue,—a dialogue so expressive of human thoughts and human emotions that his characters are still as lifelike as on the day they were drawn" Chatfield-Taylor, Hobart C.

New York: Duffield and Company, Note: All the scenes take place in the Paris home of a hypochondriac named Argan. Argan is a hypochondriac. He regularly takes concoctions provided by his physician, Purgon, and an apothecary named Fleurant. When Argan orders her to mind her own business, Toinette refuses to back down. Argan then tells her that a daughter should be willing to help her father.

Besides, Thomas Diafoirus is the sole heir of his father's estate. Moreover, his uncle, Purgon—who has no wife or child—approves the marriage, and he has an income of eight thousand francs a year. Argan and Toinette argue further, and Argan chases and threatens her. In fact, he says, he is just now making a will to reward her for the love she has shown him.

After the notary—Monsieur de Bonnefoi—enters, he informs Argan that in Paris he cannot will assets to his wife. Another option is to prepare bonds that will eventually end up in her hands. Finally, he can simply give her money. Argan decides first to make a will according to the outlined options, then to make her outright gifts of twenty thousand francs hidden in wainscoting and two bills, one worth four thousand francs and the other worth six thousand francs.

She then takes him to Argan's room. Toinette announces the arrival of Thomas Diafoirus and his father, who is also a physician. It is obvious to the audience that Thomas is a alexandrine verse moliere biography. His father acknowledges that his son lacks wit and even says he was so slow as a child that he did not learn the alphabet until he was nine.

Best of all, he rejects the foolish views of modern physicians—who claim, for example, that blood circulates through the body—in favor of the views of ancient physicians. When Argan asks Thomas whether he plans to seek a position at the king's court, Thomas says he would prefer to practice among ordinary people.

Alexandrine verse moliere biography

How impertinent of them to ask of you doctors to cure them! Harpagon says they need not bother themselves about that subject, for he has already made plans that he says will please everyone. Harpagon insists that she marry him. She again refuses. He does so to avoid provoking Harpagon. The best thing to do, he says, is to play along with Harpagon for the time being.

As for the scheduled wedding in the evening, he tells her to pretend that she is sick. The lender will charge an interest rate of only 5. However, there is another condition: The lender will provide only twelve thousand francs in coins. He will provide the rest in property, including a bed, chairs, wall hangings, a walnut table, a brick furnace, a lute, a table, and a stuffed lizard skin.

The audience learns at this point that Harpagon is the anonymous lender. When Harpagon asks whether the borrower is trustworthy, Simon says the young man comes from a wealthy family whose money he will inherit. His mother is already dead and, says Simon, his father is expected to die within eight months. Simon runs off. The heat of the conversation intensifies.

Obsessive Greed. Harpagon ranks among the most tight-fisted characters in world literature. Famous fictional misers such as Ebenezer Scrooge and Silas Marner reformed. Harpagon never even thinks of doing so. At the end of the play, he is more concerned with his money than he is with the welfare of his children. To sustain her mother, Marianne provides her constant nursing care while enduring poverty.

Don Thomas d'Alburci Anselme provides large sums of money to see that his children are happily married. Luck, coincidence, serendipity—call it what you will—is at work throughout the play to bring people together and resolve conflicts. Don Thomas d'Alburci Anselmebelieving his wife and children were all lost in a shipwreck, begins a new life sixteen years after the sea disaster—and settles in the very town where his wife and children are living.

Harpagon regards his money as his greatest treasure. More valuable by far are love, friendship, family harmony, and common decency. In all of these things, Harpagon is poverty-stricken. The following passage in the fifth scene of Act 3 contains such ridicule. Jacques, the cook and coachman, is conversing with Harpagon. However, even in the 19 th century, the classical Alexandrine dominated the lyrical scene.

It was only with the advent of vers libre free verse that the heterodoxy of Alexandrines began to end. The success of the Alexandrine has been limited mainly to French works.