The Love-Tiff | Page 2

plays, who lived in the reigns of Charles II. and his two successors."
He was descended from the family of the Ravenscrofts, in Flintshire; a
family, as he himself, in a dedication asserts, so ancient that when
William the Conqueror came into England, one of his nobles married
into it.
He was some time a member of the Middle Temple; but, looking on the

dry study of the law as greatly beneath the attention of a man of genius,
quitted it. He was an arrant plagiary. Dryden attacked one of his plays,
_The Citizen turned Gentleman_, an imitation of Molière's
_Bourgeois-Gentilhomme_, in the Prologue to The Assignation.
Ravenscroft wrote "_The Wrangling Lovers, or the Invisible Mistress_.
Acted at the Duke's Theatre, 1677. London, Printed for William Crook,
at the sign of the _Green Dragon_, without _Temple-Bar_, 1677."
Though the plot was partly taken from a Spanish novel, the author has
been inspired by Molière's _Dépit amoureux_. The scene is in Toledo:
Éraste is called Don Diego de Stuniga, Valère Don Gusman de Haro, "a
well-bred cavaliere," Lucile is Octavia de Pimentell, and Ascanio is
Elvira; Gros-René's name is Sanco, "vallet to Gusman, a simple
pleasant fellow," and Mascarille is Ordgano, "a cunning knave;"
Marinette is called Beatrice and Frosine Isabella. The English play is
rather too long. Don Gusman courts Elvira veiled, whilst in the French
play Ascanio, her counterpart, is believed to be a young man. There is
also a brother of Donna Elvira, Don Ruis de Moncade, who is a rival of
Don Diego, whilst in _le Dépit-amoureux_. Valère is not the brother
but the husband of Ascanio and the rival of Éraste (Don Diego) as well.
The arrangement of the English comedy differs greatly from the French.
Though the plot in both plays is nearly identical, yet the words and
scenes in The Wrangling Lovers are totally different, and not so
amusing. Mascarille and Gros-René are but faintly attempted;
Marinette and Frosine only sketched in outline; and in the fifth act the
ladies appear to have nothing else to do but to pop in and out of closets.
The scenes of the French play between Albert and Metaphrastus (ii. 7);
the very comical scene between Albert and Polydore (iii. 4) and the
reconciliation scene between Lucile and Éraste (iv. 3), are also not
rendered in the English comedy. There are very few scenes which can
be compared with those of _le Dépit amoureux_.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.
ÉRASTE, in love with Lucile.
ALBERT, father to Lucile.
[Footnote: This part was played by Moliére himself]
GROS-RENÉ, _servant to Éraste_.
VALÈRE, son to Polydore.

POLYDORE, _father to Valère_.
MASCARILLE, _servant to Valère_.
METAPHRASTUS, a pedant.
LA RAPIÉRE, a bully.
LUCILE, daughter to Albert.
ASCANIO, _Albert's daughter, in man's clothes_.
FROSINE, confidant to Ascanio.
MARINETTE, maid to Lucile.

THE LOVE-TIFF.
(LE DÉPIT AMOUREUX.)
* * * * *

ACT I.

SCENE I.--ÉRASTE, GROS-RENÉ.
ERAS. Shall I declare it to you? A certain secret anxiety never leaves
my mind quite at rest. Yes, whatever remarks you make about my love,
to tell you the truth, I am afraid of being deceived; or that you may be
bribed in order to favour a rival; or, at least, that you may be imposed
upon as well as myself.
GR.-RE. As for me, if you suspect me of any knavish trick, I will say,
and I trust I give no offence to your honour's love, that you wound my
honesty very unjustly, and that you show but small skill in
physiognomy. People of my bulk are not accused, thank Heaven! of
being either rogues or plotters. I scarcely need protest against the
honour paid to us, but am straightforward in every thing.
[Footnote: Du Parc, the actor who played this part, was very stout;
hence the allusion in the original, "et suis homme fort rond de toutes les
manieres." I have, of course, used in the translation the word
"straightforward" ironically, and with an eye to the rotundity of
stomach of the actor. Molière was rather fond of making allusions in
his plays to the infirmities or peculiarities of some of his actors. Thus,
in the Miser (_l'Avare_) Act I, Scene 3, he alludes to the lameness of
the actor Béjart, "_Je ne me plais point a voir ce chien de boiteux-la_."
"I do not like to see that lame dog;" in the Citizen who apes the

Nobleman (_le Bourgeois gentilhomme_), Act iii. sc. 9, he even gives a
portrait of his wife.]
As for my being deceived that may be; there is a better foundation for
that idea; nevertheless, I do not believe it can be easily done. I may be a
fool, but I do not see yet why you vex yourself thus. Lucile, to my
thinking, shows sufficient love for you; she