The Plays of Molière in French

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: V, . .--. / PREFACE The translation here printed was begun some seven years agO. It was in a sufficiently advanced stage in 1902 to justify the publication of a volume or two, and, by 1905, four volumes had been published. Further work upon the edition was then interrupted, and a change of publisher was rendered necessary. I resumed the copyright of what had already been published, and, when Mr. John Grant asked me to allow him to complete the edition, I agreed. The reception given to the four volumes by the press and by those who bought them encouraged me to believe that there were many who found the edition to their liking, and it seemed a pity that, in some form or other, the complete work should not be available. The edition was designed to meet the requirements of those who wished to have an inexpensive and well printed text of Moliere in French; for those who, not knowing French, wished to have a rendering that should give them the letter of Moliere and as much of the spirit as might be consistent with the difference of language and the failings of the translator; and, further, for those who, having some slight knowledge of French, might find a rendering in simple modern English, side by side with the French text, not unacceptable as a helpful companion in case of need. Moliere in English blank verse is impossible; in rhymed couplets he reads more like the ' book' of a pantomime; I experimented a little in both before I came to the conclusion that the only possible way, so far as I was concerned, to render his verse comedies into English, was to render them in prose. The French text is based upon the edition of MM. Eugene Despois and Paul Mesnard, and for leave to follow their text I am indebted to Messrs. Hachette and Company. Sooner or later, all student...