Adaptations of the plays of Moliere for the English stage 1660-1700

Abstract

Intelligent English men of the theatre, resident in France during the years which saw Moliere's triumph, discerned in his plays new material for diversion and instruction. The taste of the audience, the spirit of the age, and Moliere's comic theory, all influenced the nature of the English adaptations of Moliere's plays for home-consumption. To gratify a frenchified audience, suggestions from Moliere were welcome to the playwrights. The tendency towards rationalism, and the dissolution of old standards, account for the prevailing cynicism, so different from Moliere. Finally, Moliere's theory that comedy, reflecting contemporary Life, brings about social purgation through ridicule and laughter, determined the nature of English comedy. The latter, however, retained much of its native English quality. A Restoration Comedy is often considered as nothing but an orgy of sensuality, to be distinguished from the refined comic spirit of Moliere. But a close study shows that it is not really devoid of a sound, social and moral context. It is, indeed, implicit in the comic cathartic theory. The moral attitude of a comedian does not manifest itself in direct sententiousness or open ethical .judgment. It finds expression in acute observation and psychological analysis, used as a social corrective. The absence of open moral censure is indicative, not so much of any moral irresponsibility as of an awareness of the decomposition of morality itself. Much of the vulgarity is but a bold cynical exposure of contemporary life in the comic mirror. Moliere's comic theory has thus defined the social role of the comedian. His influence is pronounced in the comedian's intellectual perception of the follies of life, finding an artistic expression through comedy. The Restoration Age was much too brief, and crowded with internal problems, to affect complete assimilation. The process continued till Sheridan produced the English counterpart of Moliere's comic temper.