Dave Schaafsma's Reviews > The Bungler

Just as a kind of break from my current, typical areas of reading, I thought I would listen to a play by Moliere, his first, published in 1665. I have loved reading and seeing productions of his more famous plays over the years, always hilarious, but this was my first experience with this play. It’s inspired by the Italian Comedia dell'arte, and bears some resemblance to some of Shakespeare’s comedies. I listened to as part of The Molière Collection, a digital audiobook by L.A. Theater Works of performances of six plays using Richard Wilbur's translations. The translations involve intricately and delightfully written couplets and the rhyming adds to the farce.

In 17th Century Sicily, a valet named Mascarille tries to help his boss Llie win the girl of his dreams only to find that Llie is a bungler who ruins every one of his intricate schemes. The schemes get more and more elaborate, and fail every time, because of the dimwitted Llie. This is not as good as Moliere’s more mature plays, but it’s still funny. I recommend listening to it and the whole collection I’ll work my way through.