The Bores

The Bores [with accents]

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Title: The Bores
Author: Moliere
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6680] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 12,
2003]
Edition: 10

Language: English
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LES FÂCHEUX.
COMÉDIE.
* * * * *
THE BORES.
A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS.
(THE ORIGINAL IN VERSE.)
AUGUST 17TH, 1661.

INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.
The Bores is a character-comedy; but the peculiarities taken as the text
of the play, instead of being confined to one or two of the leading
personages, are exhibited in different forms by a succession of
characters, introduced one after the other in rapid course, and
disappearing after the brief performance of their rôles. We do not find
an evolution of natural situations, proceeding from the harmonious
conduct of two or three individuals, but rather a disjointed series of
tableaux--little more than a collection of monologues strung together
on a weak thread of explanatory comments, enunciated by an unwilling
listener.
The method is less artistic, if not less natural; less productive of
situations, if capable of greater variety of illustrations. The
circumstances under which Molière undertook to compose the play
explain his resort to the weaker manner of analysis. The
Superintendent-General of finance, [Footnote: In Sir James Stephen's
_Lectures on the History of France_, vol. ii. page 22, I find: "Still

further to centralize the fiscal economy of France, Philippe le Bel
created a new ministry. At the head of it he placed an officer of high
rank, entitled the Superintendent-General of Finance, and, in
subordination to him, he appointed other officers designated as
Treasurers."] Nicolas Fouquet desiring to entertain the King, Queen,
and court at his mansion of Vaux-le-Vicomte, asked for a comedy at
the hands of the Palais-Royal company, who had discovered the secret
of pleasing the Grand Monarque. Molière had but a fortnight's notice;
and he was expected, moreover, to accommodate his muse to various
prescribed styles of entertainment.
Fouquet wanted a cue for a dance by Beauchamp, for a picture by
Lebrun, for stage devices by Torelli. Molière was equal to the
emergency. Never, perhaps, was a literary work written to order so
worthy of being preserved for future generations. Not only were the
intermediate ballets made sufficiently elastic to give scope for the
ingenuity of the poet's auxiliaries, but the written scenes themselves
were admirably contrived to display all the varied talent of his troupe.
The success of the piece on its first representation, which took place on
the 17th of August, 1661, was unequivocal; and the King summoned
the author before him in order personally to express his satisfaction. It
is related that, the Marquis de Soyecourt passing by at the time, the
King said to Molière, "There is an original character which you have
not yet copied." The suggestion was enough. The result was that, at the
next representation, Dorante the hunter, a new bore, took his place in
the comedy.
Louis XIV. thought he had discovered in Molière a convenient
mouthpiece for his dislikes. The selfish king was no lover of the
nobility, and was short-sighted enough not to perceive that the author's
attacks on the nobles paved the way for doubts on the divine right of
kings themselves. Hence he protected Molière, and entrusted to him the
care of writing plays for his entertainments; the public did not, however,
see The Bores until the 4th of November of the same year; and then it
met with great success.
The bore is ubiquitous, on the stage as in everyday life. Horace painted

him in his famous passage commencing _Ibam forte via Sacrâ_, and the
French satirist, Regnier, has depicted him in his eighth satire.
Molière