Marriage Games or Power Plays
Midcoast Senior College  
 
                Therefore they thought it good you hear a play
                And frame your mind to mirth and merriment
                Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.
                                    --Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew


                        MARRIAGE GAMES OR POWER PLAYS
                              THURSDAYS 12:30 – 2:30


September 11:  Chaucer, ‘The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale’

September 18: Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew
                               Skip the two scenes of the Induction before Act I

September 25:  Molière, School for Wives 
                                Acts I, II, III up to Scene IV

October 2: Molière, School for Wives, Scenes III, IV, V

October 9: Congreve,  The Way of the World
             Acts I, II, III

October 16: Congreve,  The Way of the World
                        Acts  IV  ( Proviso scene, p. 378-381) , V

October 23: Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro
                          Acts I, II, III

October 30:  Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro
  Acts IV, V
                    



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                            Sources  of passages  in the Prologue
                            (as noted in Jill Mann Penguin edition)

Le Roman de la rose
     Guillaume de Lorris  1230-1235
     Jean de Meung  1275-1280
     Chaucer's translation : The Romaunt of Rose  1359
The Bible
John
Matthew
Genesis
Ephesians
Corinthians—St. Paul
Proverbs
Timothy
Job
Ecclesiastes
        Kings
Saint Jerome: Against Jovinian  393
    Jovinian as represented in St. Jerome’s Against Jovinian
    Theophrastus as represented in St. Jerome’s Against Jovinian
Ptolemy: Almagest  2nd century AD
Eustache Deschamps 1340-1404 : Miroir de Mariage
Ovid: Art of Love  1st century BC and AD
Matheulus: Lamentations as translated by Jehan le Fèvre in 1371
Valerius Maximus: Memorable Doings and Sayings  1st century AD
Walter Map: Dissuasio Valerii  1180-1183


Authors cited in the Tale

Tertullian
Crissippus
Ovid
Dante
Boethius
Seneca
Juvenal

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L’ECOLE DES FEMMES


Sources for the plot

Boccaccio, Decameron,  III, iii—story of Griselda, also used in Canterbury Tales 1351

Giovanni Straparola, Les Nuits Facétieuses  1555

Author? , L’Ecole des filles,  erotic manual, , secret publication in 1655

Scarron, La Précaution inutile, by Maria de Zayas Sotomayor,  translated from Spanish  1655-1657

Dorimond,  L’Ecole des cocus ou La Précaution inutile, 1661

Molière, L’Ecole des maris, 1661  ( Molière was accused of plagiarizing his own play!)


Theatrical influences

Classical authors: Ménandre, Terence, Plautus, Aristophanes

French medieval farces

Commedia dell’arte  with stock characters ( Pantalone—the old man, servants, young lovers),  canevas ( set plots or scenarios),  lazzi ( improvisations, gags, gestures, and grimaces)

La Comédie italienne à Paris  led by Tiberio Fiorelli playing behind  a mask
    and known as Scaramouche

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Wives and Lovers in Beaumarchais’ Life

1756 – first marriage , B is 24 years old

     Madeleine-Catherine Aubertin  --34 years old
          Widow of Pierre Augustin Franquet—49 years old
                 He had sold his “office” to Beaumarchais
          B’s family objected—he pleaded passion
          B is unfaithful, she is jealous
          Death 1757
                 Beaumarchais in debt, does not inherit her property
                 Beaumarchais changes name to de Beaumarchais—name
                     of an estate that once belonged to Franquet

1763—considers engagement,   B is 31

Pauline le Breton
Creole beauty and singer ( model for Rosine)
                   Breaks off engagement on pretext of her infidelity
                        Real reason – questionable access to property in
                                Santo Domingo
  “Any woman is worth an hommage, very few are worth
                      a regret.”

1768— second marriage, B is 36

Genvieve Madeleine Wattlebled—37 years old
Wealthy widow who loves him passionately
Aware of his reputation, she makes him promise not to
                    leave her crying in an empty bed
Birth of son  Augustin in1768
Death of tuberculosis in 1770
(B remains by her side for 8 months of her illness)

1773—liaison with Mlle Ménard, actress,
       mistress of the Duc De Chaulnes
      scene with De Chaulnes at B;s house
       B sent to prison by LouiX XV, lettre de cachet


1774  -- liaison leading to eventual  third marriage * in  1786, B is 42

Marie- Thérèse de Willer-Mawlas,  22 years old
Had read his memoranda
Asked to borrow his harp
Educated, in spirit of philosophes, talented writer
Love at first sight for both according to a friend
         “a sweet affinity” –B
Birth of Eugénie

1777-1779—liaison ,  B is 45

Madame de Godeville
Famous for her affairs and her swindles
One of the most seductive women B had known
“I am fickle by principle in order to be as happy
as possible.”
She wanted a child and was  jealous.

1780’s – liaison, B is in 40’s

Camille Korman
Married at 15 to a banker
Pregnant and incarcerated for adultery with Daudet
B defends her in court against her husband’s
accusations of adultery

1786— *third marriage, B is 44

Marie-Thérèse de Willer-Mawlas

1787— last liaison, B is 45  -  55

Amélie Houret de la Morinaie
Married against her will , divorce in 1796
Torrid affaire, erotic letters
Housed in own apartment under B’s roof
Relationship degenerates over 10 years

1794—divorce, B is 62
 
Forced divorce with Marie-Thérèse because B has been
deemed an émigré during the Revolution

1797—Remarriage, B is 65   ( B dies in 1799 at the age of 67)







                 



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