The Misanthrope

✒ Author	Molière
📖 Pages	90
⏰ Reading time	3 hours
💡 Originally published	1666
🌏 Original language	French
📌 Types	Plays , Novels
📌 Genres	Dramaturgy, Сomedy, Realism, Social, Philosophical
📌 Sections	Realistic novel , Social novel , Philosophical novel , Comedy novel

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Content

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Dramatis Personae	1
Act I	1
Scene I	1
Scene II	12
Scene III	21
Act II	22
Scene I	22
Scene II	26
Scene III	27
Scene IV	28
Scene V	29
Scene VI	38
Scene VII	39
Act III	41
Scene I	41
Scene II	45
Scene III	46
Scene IV	47
Scene V	48
Scene VI	53
Scene VII	54
Act IV	58
Scene I	58
Scene II	62
Scene III	65
Scene IV	71
Act V	74
Scene I	74
Scene II	78
Scene III	81
Scene IV	82
Scene V	85
Scene VI	86
Scene VII	87
Scene VIII	89

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Dramatis Personae

Alceste,in love with Célimène.

Philinte,his friend.

Oronte,in love with Célimène.

Célimène,beloved by Alceste.

Eliante,her cousin.

Arsinoé,Célimène’s friend.

Acaste,marquises.

Clitandre,marquises.

Basque,servant to Célimène.

Dubois,servant to Alceste.

An Officer of the Maréchaussée.

Scene. — At Paris, in Célimène’s House

Act I

Scene I

Philinte, Alceste.

Philinte. What is the matter? What ails you?

Alceste (seated). Leave me, I pray.

Philinte. But, once more, tell me what strange whim . . .

Alceste. Leave me, I tell you, and get out of my sight.

Philinte. But you might at least listen to people, without getting angry.

Alceste. I choose to get angry, and I do not choose to listen.

Philinte. I do not understand you in these abrupt moods, and although we are friends, I am the first . . .

Alceste (rising quickly). I, your friend? Lay not that flattering unction to your soul. I have until now professed to be so; but after what I have just seen of you, I tell you candidly that I am such no longer; I have no wish to occupy a place in a corrupt heart.

Philinte. I am then very much to be blamed from your point of view, Alceste?

Alceste. To be blamed? You ought to die from very shame; there is no excuse for such behaviour, and every man of honour must be disgusted at it. I see you almost stifle a man with caresses, show him the most ardent affection, and overwhelm him with protestations, offers, and vows of friendship. Your ebullitions of tenderness know no bounds; and when I ask you who that man is, you can scarcely tell me his name; your feelings for him, the moment you have turned your back, suddenly cool; you speak of him most indifferently to me. Zounds! I call it unworthy, base, and infamous, so far to lower one’s self as to act contrary to one’s own feelings, and if, by some mischance, I had done such a thing, I should hang myself at once out of sheer vexation.

Philinte. I do not see that it is a hanging matter at all; and I beg of you not to think it amiss if I ask you to show me some mercy, for I shall not hung myself, if it be all the same to you.

Alceste. That is a sorry joke.

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