SGANARELLE: Is this the
patient?
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
It was issued in 1671.
No reader with knowledge can avoid
associating the poem in a personal way with Milton, who, like Samson,
was blind, living in the midst of enemies, and to some extent deserted;
and, like him too, did not lose heart on behalf of the life's cause
which, unlike Samson, he had never betrayed. As becomes a drama, it
has more vigorously sustained movement than any of Milton's works. The
familiar story is skilfully developed and relieved, and the formality
of the style does not detract from the pity and beauty, while it adds
to the dignity of the work.
MOLIERE[AD]
The Doctor in Spite of Himself
_Persons in the Play_
SGANARELLE
MARTINE, _Sganarelle's wife_
LUCAS
JACQUELINE, _Lucas's wife, and nurse at M. Geronte's_
GERONTE
LUCINDE, _Geronte's daughter_
LEANDRE, _her lover_
VALERE, _Geronte's attendant_
ACT I
Just when the day has been fixed for the marriage of Lucinde, daughter
of M. Geronte, she suddenly becomes dumb, and no doctors are found
skillful enough to cure her. One day Valere, M. Geronte's attendant,
and Lucas, the nurse, are scouring the country in search of someone
able to restore their young mistress's speech, when they fell in with
Martine, the wife of Sganarelle, a bibulous faggot-binder. Sganarelle,
who has served a famous doctor for ten years, has just been beating
his wife, and she, in revenge, hearing the kind of person they are
looking for, strongly recommends her husband to them as an eccentric
doctor who has performed wonderful and almost incredible cures, but
who always disclaims his profession, and will never practice it until
he has been well cudgelled. Lucas and Valere accordingly go in quest
of Sganarelle, and, having found him, express their desire of availing
themselves of his services as doctor. At first the faggot-binder
vehemently denies that he is a doctor, but at last--thanks to the use
of the persuasion recommended by Martine--he confesses to a knowledge
of the physician's art, is induced to undertake the cure of Mlle.
Lucinde, and, on being introduced at M. Geronte's house, gives proof
of his eccentricity as a doctor by cudgelling the master and embracing
the nurse.
[_Enter_ LUCINDE, VALERE, GERONTE, LUCAS, Sganarelle,
_and_ JACQUELINE.
SGANARELLE: Is this the patient?
GERONTE: Yes. I have but one daughter; I should
feel inexpressible grief were she to die.
SGANARELLE: Don't let her do anything of the kind.
She must not die without a doctor's prescription.
GERONTE: You have made her laugh, monsieur.
SGANARELLE: It is the best symptom in the world
when the doctor makes his patient laugh. What sort
of pain do you feel?
LUCINDE (_replies by signs, putting her hand to her
mouth, to her head, and under her chin_): Ha, hi, ho, ha!
SGANARELLE (_imitating her_): Ha, hi, ho, ha! I don't
understand you.
GERONTE: That is what her complaint is, monsieur.
She became dumb, without our being able to find out the
cause. It is this accident which has made us put off the
marriage. The man she is going to marry wishes to wait
till she gets better.
SGANARELLE: Who is the fool that does not want his
wife to be dumb?
associating the poem in a personal way with Milton, who, like Samson,
was blind, living in the midst of enemies, and to some extent deserted;
and, like him too, did not lose heart on behalf of the life's cause
which, unlike Samson, he had never betrayed. As becomes a drama, it
has more vigorously sustained movement than any of Milton's works. The
familiar story is skilfully developed and relieved, and the formality
of the style does not detract from the pity and beauty, while it adds
to the dignity of the work.
MOLIERE[AD]
The Doctor in Spite of Himself
_Persons in the Play_
SGANARELLE
MARTINE, _Sganarelle's wife_
LUCAS
JACQUELINE, _Lucas's wife, and nurse at M. Geronte's_
GERONTE
LUCINDE, _Geronte's daughter_
LEANDRE, _her lover_
VALERE, _Geronte's attendant_
ACT I
Just when the day has been fixed for the marriage of Lucinde, daughter
of M. Geronte, she suddenly becomes dumb, and no doctors are found
skillful enough to cure her. One day Valere, M. Geronte's attendant,
and Lucas, the nurse, are scouring the country in search of someone
able to restore their young mistress's speech, when they fell in with
Martine, the wife of Sganarelle, a bibulous faggot-binder. Sganarelle,
who has served a famous doctor for ten years, has just been beating
his wife, and she, in revenge, hearing the kind of person they are
looking for, strongly recommends her husband to them as an eccentric
doctor who has performed wonderful and almost incredible cures, but
who always disclaims his profession, and will never practice it until
he has been well cudgelled. Lucas and Valere accordingly go in quest
of Sganarelle, and, having found him, express their desire of availing
themselves of his services as doctor. At first the faggot-binder
vehemently denies that he is a doctor, but at last--thanks to the use
of the persuasion recommended by Martine--he confesses to a knowledge
of the physician's art, is induced to undertake the cure of Mlle.
Lucinde, and, on being introduced at M. Geronte's house, gives proof
of his eccentricity as a doctor by cudgelling the master and embracing
the nurse.
[_Enter_ LUCINDE, VALERE, GERONTE, LUCAS, Sganarelle,
_and_ JACQUELINE.
SGANARELLE: Is this the patient?
GERONTE: Yes. I have but one daughter; I should
feel inexpressible grief were she to die.
SGANARELLE: Don't let her do anything of the kind.
She must not die without a doctor's prescription.
GERONTE: You have made her laugh, monsieur.
SGANARELLE: It is the best symptom in the world
when the doctor makes his patient laugh. What sort
of pain do you feel?
LUCINDE (_replies by signs, putting her hand to her
mouth, to her head, and under her chin_): Ha, hi, ho, ha!
SGANARELLE (_imitating her_): Ha, hi, ho, ha! I don't
understand you.
GERONTE: That is what her complaint is, monsieur.
She became dumb, without our being able to find out the
cause. It is this accident which has made us put off the
marriage. The man she is going to marry wishes to wait
till she gets better.
SGANARELLE: Who is the fool that does not want his
wife to be dumb?
