Moliere and the physician / by Max Kahn.

  • Kahn, Max.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Moliere and the physician / by Max Kahn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    11/20
    ridiculed. Le Barbouille is plagued by a shrewish wife, who, [347] as fate would have it, always gets the upper hand of him. The unfortunate husband seeks advice from a doctor, and like a good business man, accosts the physician and immediately comes to the point: Le B: “I desire to beg for an opinion on a question of great importance to me.^’’ The doctor, ever wakeful to the danger of losing his dignity, replies in what he endeavors to make a very reproving state- ment : You must be very ill bred, very loutish and very badly taught, to speak to me in that fashion, without first taking off your hat, without observing rationem loci, temporis et personce. What! You begin by an abrupt speech, instead of saying Salve, vel salvus sis, doctor doctorum eruditissime. What do you take me for, eh? iSTo apologies will help. In endeavoring to excuse himself, poor Le Barbouille gets more entangled. What astounds him most is that the doctor does not care for money. “ Well, I made a mistake,” he soliloquizes puzzled. “ Seeing him dressed as a doctor, I felt that of necessity I must speak of money to him, but since he does not want any, nothing can be more easy than to satisfy him.” The doctor is a very verbose indi- vidual who is continually advising his hearers to be brief. The stage direction in the seventh scene is interesting: All wish to explain the cause of the quarrel: The doctor ex- plains that peace is a fine thing. They all talk together, and make a dreadful noise. In the midst of all this Le Barbouilld ties the doctor by the legs with a rope, throws him down on his hack, and drags him away. The doctor goes on talking all the time, and counts all his arguments on his fingers, as if he were not on the ground. Moliere took a general interest in the educational affairs of France. In Le Marriage Force he throws a shaft at the University of Paris, which was endeavoring to persuade Par- liament to confirm a sentence dated Sept. 4, 1624, which condemned to death all those who would dare to attack the Aristotelian doctrine. Sganarelle meets two philosophers discussing and quarrel- ling. He accosts one, and is met with gibberish that he does not understand. “ Devil take the scholars,” he exclaims. [848]