Le Méchant
Encyclopedia
Le Méchant is a 1747 play by Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset
. It is considered the best verse comedy of the eighteenth-century French stage.
Like Tartuffe
(and Destouches
's Ingrat and Médisant), the title character, Сléon, schemes to gain his provincial host's money and marry his female relatives - here, Géronte's sister and niece rather than his daughter. Сléon, who thinks the height of pleasure is to be both feared and desired, persuades Valère not to marry Сhloé and promises to marry Florise, but is eventually exposed by the wise Ariste and the clever Lisette, who enlist his manservant Frontin in support of their cause.
Madame de Pompadour
, having promised Gresset that she would put on the play at her theatre, did so on February 6, 1748. She played Lisette, while the Duc de Chartres played Géronte and the Duc de Nivernais played Valère.
Several lines in Les Liaisons dangereuses
refer or allude to Le Méchant: Madame de Merteuil quotes Cléon's "Les sots sont ici-bas pour nos menus plaisirs" (II.I) in letter 63, citing the play, and Valmont alludes to the same character's "Ma foi, quand je parcours tout ce qui le compose [le monde]/Je ne trouve que nous qui valions quelque chose" (II.III) in letter 100, when he says "En vérité, plus je vais, et plus je suis tenté de croire qu'il n'y a que vous et moi dans le monde, qui valions quelque chose." In 1792, Elizabeth Inchbald
adapted the play into the farce Young Men and Old Women.
Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset
Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset was a French poet and dramatist, best known for his poem Vert-Vert....
. It is considered the best verse comedy of the eighteenth-century French stage.
Like Tartuffe
Tartuffe
Tartuffe is a comedy by Molière. It is one of his most famous plays.-History:Molière wrote Tartuffe in 1664...
(and Destouches
Philippe Néricault Destouches
Philippe Néricault Destouches was a French dramatist.-Biography:Destouches was born at Tours, in the today's department of Indre-et-Loire....
's Ingrat and Médisant), the title character, Сléon, schemes to gain his provincial host's money and marry his female relatives - here, Géronte's sister and niece rather than his daughter. Сléon, who thinks the height of pleasure is to be both feared and desired, persuades Valère not to marry Сhloé and promises to marry Florise, but is eventually exposed by the wise Ariste and the clever Lisette, who enlist his manservant Frontin in support of their cause.
Madame de Pompadour
Madame de Pompadour
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...
, having promised Gresset that she would put on the play at her theatre, did so on February 6, 1748. She played Lisette, while the Duc de Chartres played Géronte and the Duc de Nivernais played Valère.
Several lines in Les Liaisons dangereuses
Les Liaisons dangereuses
Les Liaisons dangereuses is a French epistolary novel by Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu from March 23, 1782....
refer or allude to Le Méchant: Madame de Merteuil quotes Cléon's "Les sots sont ici-bas pour nos menus plaisirs" (II.I) in letter 63, citing the play, and Valmont alludes to the same character's "Ma foi, quand je parcours tout ce qui le compose [le monde]/Je ne trouve que nous qui valions quelque chose" (II.III) in letter 100, when he says "En vérité, plus je vais, et plus je suis tenté de croire qu'il n'y a que vous et moi dans le monde, qui valions quelque chose." In 1792, Elizabeth Inchbald
Elizabeth Inchbald
Elizabeth Inchbald was an English novelist, actress, and dramatist.- Life :Born on 15 October 1753 at Standingfield, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Elizabeth was the eighth of the nine children of John Simpson , a farmer, and his wife Mary, née Rushbrook. The family, like several others in the...
adapted the play into the farce Young Men and Old Women.