Jason Furman's Reviews > Molière: The Complete Richard Wilbur Translations

It is impossible not to be happy when reading Richard Wilbur’s translations of Molière (a little like the feeling one has reading , which is probably not an accident because Wodehouse also wrote light comedies including drawing on many of the tropes explored by Molière like the wily servant and bungling master). And it is a testament to the extraordinary translations that the Library of America—known for everything from Alexander Hamilton to Mark Twain—did a two volume set of this French writer along with an excellent introductory essay by Adam Gopnik, an interview with Richard Wilbur, and Wilbur’s prefaces to all the plays. But otherwise no footnotes or scholarly apparatus, which are really not needed. And all published on beautiful paper. It could not be more exciting to have all of these together. (Note, they are basically all of Molière’s verse plays and one play in prose, Don Juan, but Wilbur never translated the other major prose plays including The Miser and The Imaginary Invalid.

I read all of these at least once before, originally tearing through them about thirty years ago and then two more about twenty years ago which were more recent translations. This time I re-read them over the course of about nine months.

Molière is not as sophisticated as Shakespeare. The characters do not have the same depth or complexity. They don’t change. He doesn’t have the range—everything here is a comedy and most of them in a similar note. In fact, they feel more like tales from Boccacio’s The Decameron or Cervantes’ Exemplary Novels in that they have one theme or concept and then draw out as much amusement until the inevitable and not overly suspenseful happy resolution. That concept could be a possessive guardian trying to keep their ward from learning about other men or a Misanthrope who thinks it is important to always say what is on your mind or a religious hypocrite or a family some of whom put highly abstract learning ahead of everything else. There is a lot of farce and satire but they transcend both.

Here are a few brief comments on each of them, which were collected in the volume in the order they were published. And I should say they generally get better and more sophisticated as it goes—if for some reason you only want to read one volume make it the second one.

The Bungler: A classic wily servant with more and more complicated schemes to hook up his master with the woman he loves but all thwarted by the dim-witted bungling master. I believe it was Molière’s first five act play and it is somewhat repetitious without a major foil for its satire like the later ones, still enjoyable in its own right (not just for the sake of completism).

Lovers’ Quarrels: Another story of lovers thwarted but eventually successfully come together, left me with the same feeling as The Bungler.

Sganarelle, or The Imaginary Cuckold: A classic farce, Sganarelle (a recurring name in Molière with some recurring traits) becomes convinced his wife is cheating on him, cue mistaken identities, mistaken assumptions, and more.

The School for Husbands: Two brothers each have wards they plan to marry. One is controlling and one is easygoing, guess which one it works out for?

The School for Wives: This is the best in the first volume and the first that really explores/satirizes a very memorable character type. And also the first to have a strong female character, Agnès who is raised in isolation by her paranoid guardian and aspiring husband Arnolphe but ends up being much more resourceful than he had expected in finding her own love.

Don Juan: A prose play, reasonably similar to the story in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (in fact one of its sources), it is not in verse and has moments of comic relief but is not really comedy. Like other versions, Don Juan is a villain but also one does not completely believe his condemnation.

The Misanthrope: Another classic, so to speak, Alceste believes in telling only the truth and condemns everyone who does otherwise—or at least almost everyone because he is in love with a girl (Célimène) who is the opposite in most everything respect. This play does not just have strong characters (both male and female), it also has a thought provoking set of arguments about the value of radical honesty vs. the need for society to have a greater degree of pragmatism and politeness. In some ways this tension, like the plot, is never resolved.

Amphitryon: The only ancient tragedy, this is the story of Zeus disguising himself, seducing a woman (not that hard when he is disguised as her husband), and fathering the child that ends up being Hercules. It is done with lots of witty banter, gods making amusing asides, and implicit mocking of the official order of things.

Tartuffe: This genuinely is among the best of the plays, about a religious hypocrite who at first captures certain family members through psychological manipulation but then attempts to ensnare them in a legal and blackmail scheme. It is resolved by a deus ex machina, which is a bit of a weakness, and is less ambiguous and thought provoking on issues like honesty and hypocrisy. But it is just perfectly done comedy and an incredibly memorable character (plus the best servant in Molière, which is saying a lot).

The Learned Ladies: In some ways I liked this even more than Molière, it is a similar structure—a family that is victim to a schemer, but here a man who purports to be of learning not of religion. And unlike Tartuffe, it is resolved with a clever ruse instead of a deus ex machina. Lots and lots of memorable characters both the main ones but also several of the minor ones too.

As happy as I was reading these, I’m sad they’re over—and can’t wait to return. (I just wish more of them were in American theaters, I’ve seen Tartuffe twice but have never seen any of the others.)