The miser

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Data
Title: The miser
Original title: L'Avare ou l'École du mensonge
Genus: comedy
Original language: French
Author: Molière
Publishing year: 1682 (in "oeuvres")
Premiere: September 9, 1668
Place of premiere: Paris, Palais Royal
Place and time of the action: Paris, mid 17th century
people
  • Harpagon , father of Cléanthe and Élise, in love with his gold box
  • Cléanthe , his son
  • Elise , his daughter
  • Valère , Elise's lover
  • Mariane , Cléanthe's lover, with whom Harpagon is also in love
  • Anselme , Valères and Mariannen's father
  • Frosine , a casual guy , a matchmaker
  • Simon , a broker, a money broker
  • Jacques , Harpagon's cook and coachman
  • Mrs. Claude , Harpagon's housekeeper
  • La Flèche , Cléante's servant
  • Brindavoine , Harpagon's lackey
  • La Merluche , Harpagon's lackey
  • A police officer and his clerk
Molière, portrait by Charles-Antoine Coypel

The Miser (original title: L'Avare ou l'École du mensonge , formerly translated as The Miser ) is a comedy by Molière in five acts and in prose form, which was premiered on September 9, 1668 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal . For the piece, Molière borrowed from the comedy Aulularia by the Roman poet Plautus .

In L'Avare , the type of citizen who has become rich but has remained narrow-minded and stingy is caricatured, who almost suffocates his cheerful and consumer-loving children.

content

Iffland in the lead role and Franz Labes as La Flèche in Molière's “The Miser”, Act I, 3rd appearance, lithograph by Friedrich Weise after a Berlin performance around 1810

Act I: The story takes place in Paris. The rich and stingy Harpagon has two children: Élise, who is in love with Valère, an honorable Neapolitan who works as artistic director in the service of her father, and Cléanthe, who longs to marry Mariane, a young and dispossessed girl. Harpagon is frightened because he has buried a cash box with 10,000 Goldécus in the garden and this could be discovered and stolen. He suspiciously distrusts everyone, even his children. In the end he reveals his intentions: he wants to marry Mariane, Élise is promised (without dowry) Anselm, an old man, and Cléanthe is destined for a widow. The young girl firmly refuses, but her father demands that Valère convince her. He agrees, but is already thinking of fleeing with his lover if necessary.

Act II: Cléanthe, who can no longer hope for his father, urgently needs 15,000 francs. La Flèche, his servant, does it for him to find a moneylender. A mediator informs him of the conditions that are of an exaggerated usurer. In the end he realizes that this usurer is none other than his father, and the two fight violently. The matchmaker Frosine enters the scene and convinces Harpagon that Mariane would prefer older men and that she is already preparing and looking forward to marrying him. The miser is skeptical because Mariane is not wealthy, but Frosine convinces him that a poor person who does not know about large expenses can only suit him. The matchmaker wants to get paid for her work, but Harpagon excels and just leaves.

Act III: Harpagon invited Mariane to dinner to have the marriage contract signed. He gives a sermon to his servants, especially Maître Jacques, that spending should be very limited. The cook protests, but the manager Valère supports the miser. A heated argument ensues, during which Maître Jacques takes blows with a stick. From that moment on, he thinks of nothing more than to take revenge. Frosine comes and leads Mariane into the house, who is nervous because she is about to get to know her future husband. When he appears, she is disgusted by his whole figure. Now Cléanthe arrives and Mariane recognizes him, the object of her desire. The two lovers chat and, in the presence of Harpagon, confess their mutual feelings in ambiguous words. Cléanthe pulls an expensive ring from his father's finger and offers it in his name to Mariane. Harpagon does not understand what is going on, but becomes suspicious.

Act IV: The two lovers ask Frosine to intervene and tell the stingy man to give up the senseless marriage. Harpagon surprises his son when he kisses Mariane's hand and immediately feels his suspicions confirmed. In order to speak to his son in private and learn his wishes, he claims to have changed his plans and called off the marriage. The simple son tells his father everything about his love for Mariane and his desire to marry her; Harpagon falls into a rage and curses Cléanthe. Maître Jacques intervenes, separates the two and reconciles them by persuading both of them that the other has given up. The reconciliation is short-lived, the dispute virtually explodes after Maître Jacques has left the room. La Flèche then meets Cléanthe and shows him Harpagon's cash box that he has just stolen. Harpagon vows to find the real culprit and to punish him for the offense.

Act V: Harpagon hires a police superintendent to investigate the theft of his cash box. In his madness, Harpagon wants to question all Parisians. Maître Jacques takes revenge on Valère by denouncing him as the thief of the cash box. He is asked to admit and explain his crime. Valère misunderstands the situation, reveals his feelings for Élise and admits that she is secretly his fiancée. Once again, Harpagon understands too late and his anger grips him again. Anselme, who is about to marry Élise, enters the scene while Valère tells his story. The old man realizes that Valère and Mariane are his children. He was convinced that they had perished in a shipwreck long ago. Cléanthe will now marry Mariane and Valère Élise. Harpagon is left alone, but has his money back.

Representation in the film

In 1980, the material was filmed largely authentically with Louis de Funès in the role of Harpagon. In Germany the film was called Louis, the Miser , in France L'Avare . In a scene there are initially individual, then increasingly more advertising posters for the play.

music

In 1799 the German composer Johann Simon Mayr set the material to music in his opera L'avaro .

literature

notes

  1. ^ Short excerpts from Neis, KE 291
  2. ↑ from this is reprinted in Neis, KE 291, pp. 13-17
  3. ^ Lectures at the State University for Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart 1970/1971
  4. ↑ Only “Der Geizige” also printed separately, KE 291, undated (approx. 1984), without ISBN. Currently only available as an e-book from the publisher
  5. ↑ on what both pieces have in common

Web links

Commons : The Miser  - Collection of images, videos and audio files