Leslie's Reviews > The Bungler

listening as part of "The Moliere Collection"

I've been looking through all my books, many in boxes, and have now given so many away that all are now in bookcases, even if double-banked. I have come across atwo-volume set of Moliere's Comedies, and I think I'll have a go at them soon. The first one is 'The Blunderer' or 'The Counterplots', which is your The Bungler, I suppose.

My volumes are from Everyman's Library in 1929, and the short critique of this play says (I mention only a third of the criticisms!):

We find but some indifferent characters in it, scenes but ill connected, and expressions not very correct; there is no great verisimilitude in the character of Lelius, and the unravelling is not very happy ....
But these defects are covered by a variety and vivacity, which keeps the spectator employed, and hinders him from reflecting too much upon what might give him offence.

John wrote: "I've been looking through all my books, many in boxes, and have now given so many away that all are now in bookcases, even if double-banked. I have come across a two-volume set of Moliere's Comedies..."

I have seen the title translated as 'Blunderer' and 'Bungler' - both terms are apt for the romantic male lead Lelius (who isn't the main character - that is his valet!).

I think that part of the charm of this for me was Wilbur's rhyming couplets so I can see that in a different translation it would be less enjoyable. But even so, as your critic says, there is a vivacity which keeps the spectator happy - but probably less so in reading than in seeing a performance.

Having come back from seeing Manchester City play Arsenal (association football), I've looked at my volumes in more detail. It's the first English translation, from 1739, all in prose (à la Bourgeois Gentilhomme?), and the critiques are from then too!

So, it may read fairly like a short novel. I'll give it a go.