PREFACE

The text of this édition of Le Gendre de M. Poirier îs that of the Calmann-Lévy édition of 1883.

This édition is intended for preparatory schools, as well as for early reading in collèges.

In preparing notes and vocabulary I have profited by previous éditions and translations.

For valuable suggestions I am indebted to Professor C. H. Grandgent, Professor C. H. C. Wright, and Professor A. F. Whittem, of Harvard University.

Br« L* H.

CAMBBmGB, Mass.,

September 1, 1020.

INTRODUCTION

In France, during the century preceding the Révolution, the bourgeoisie (middle class), by its energy, ils application, and its thrift, rose in the social scale, whereas the aristocracy, the chief of the privileged classes, suffered a graduai décline. "On the one

^ Bioçraphy cf Augier and Sandeau. — Émile Augier once said to an inquisitive biographer: ''I was born, sir, in 1820. Since then nothing bas bappened to me.*' His Ufe was indeed uneventful. He was bom at Valence, in southeastern France, on September 17, 1820. When he was eight years old, his parents moved to Paris. He attended the lycée Henri IV, and later studied law. He became a member of the French Academy on March 31, 1857. He died at Croissy on October 25, 1889. He was the grandson of Pîgault-Lebnin, the novelist. His chief Works, ail plays, are as follows: In verse: La Ciguë (1844); L'Aventurière (1848); GabrieUe (1849); PhUiberte (1853); La Jeunesse (1858); Paul Forestier (1868). In prose: UHabit vert (1849), written in collaboration with Alfred de Musset; La Chasse au roman (1851), La Pierre de touche (1853), Le Oendre de M. Poirier (1854), aU three written in collaboration with Jules Sandeau (the plot of Le Gendre de M. Poirier was taken from Sandeau's novel Sacs et Parchemins, 1851); Le Mariage d'Olympe (1855); Ceinture dorée (1856), Les Lionnes pauvres (1858), Un beau mariage (1859), the last three written in collaboration with Êdouard Poussier; Les EjfrorUés (1861); Le Fils de Giboyer (1862); Maître Guénn (1864); La Contagion (1866); Lions et Renards (1869); Jean de Thommeray (1873), written in coUaborar tion with Jules Sandeau; Le Prix Martin (1876), in collaboration with Eugène Labiche; Madame Caverlet (1876); Les Fourckamr havU (1878). Augier's more important plays, ail comédies of «

INTRODUCTION

hand," says Taine, "the nobles drew doser to the bourgeoisie; on the other, the bourgeoisie drew doser to the nobles, and aetual equality preceded légal equality. In the dty the noblemen no longer wore swords; they had laid aside their embroideries and their laces; they walked about in plain frock coats or rode in cabriolets which they drove themselves. The simpUcity of English eustoms and the usages of the third estate seemed to them more convenient for their private life . . . Certainly the symptom was a grave one, and old feudal soûls were right in grumbling."

manners, are usually divided into two classes: domestic comédies and social comédies. In the domestic comédies, Augier treats such questions as the foUowing: the dangers of romanticism, the disastrous effects of ill-matched marriages, adultery, the réhabilitation of the courtesan, divorce. In the social comédies, he satirizes varions vices and persons of his day, such as moneymadness, speculating in stocks, la hlagtie, clérical meddhng in politics, the tricky country lawyer, vénal pamphleteers. Le Gendre de M, Poirier^ Augier's masterpiece, is generally regarded as the best comedy of character and manners since Molière.

Jules Sandeau was born at Aubusson, in central France, on February 19, 1811. He studied law at Paris. In 1853 he was appointed head librarian of the Mazarine Library in Paris, and in 1859 librarian of the palace of Saint-Cloud. In 1858 he was admitted to the French Academy. His first work, a novel entitled Rose et Blanche (1831), was written in collaboration with Aurore Dudevant (George Sand), with whom he had a love affair from 1831 to 1833. He died at Paris on April 24, 1883. Sandeau wrote many novels, the best known of which are Mode' moiseUe de la Seiglière (1848), Sace et Parchemins (1851), and La Maison de Penarvan (1858). The play MademoiseUe de la Seiglière first appeared in 1851. Sandeau excels in portraying the virtues and the weaknesses of the nobility of the nineteenth century.

INTRODUCTION

The Révolution sought to obliterate the old nobility and to create eqnality among ail the classes of French Society. But, after the Révolution, the old nobility persisted, and there sprang up also a new order of nobles, that created by Napoléon, an order which won the utter contempt of the pre-revolutionary aristocracy.

After the downfall of Napoléon (1815), the elder branch of the Bourbon family was restored to the throne in the person of Louis XVIII. The new govemment had a diflSicult task to perform. The Legitimists — the partisans of the elder branch of the Bourbons — hoped that the king would reëstablish what the Révolution had destroyed and would destroy what it had established. In opposition to the Legitimists, the Libérais, strongly inclined towards more démocratie forms of govemment, were resolved to défend the great principles of the Révolution — that is, liberty and equality of ail before the law. Louis XVIII, although forced to violent measures by his ultra-royalist partisans, was nevertheless more libéral than his successor, Charles X, whose many acts of despotism and repression brought on the Révolution of July (July 28, 29, and 30, 1830). The insurrection was successful. Charles X abdicated in favor of his grandson, the Duke of Bordeaux. The Chamber of Peers and the Chamber of Deputies, however, proclaimed Louis-Philippe king of the French, and so the younger branch of the Bourbon dynasty ascended the throne.

INTRODUCTION

During the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, the bourgeois had continued to gain power and wealth in spite of thdr conâicts with the royalists. Howerver, it was imder the commercial and bourgeois ruie of Louis-Philippe (1830-1848) that the middle class came forward as a powerful influence in French life. Its members were growing rich in agriculture, industry, and commerce; conscious of their own worth, they were becoming ambitions, they were seeking office; they were the principal upholders of liberalism. But the bourgeoisie^ strong as it was, had not yet rid itself of îts ancient rival, the nobiUty. One of the most important questions of the reign of Louis-Philippe was the conflict between the old aristocracy and the new \ democracy. In Le Gendre de M. Poirier, Augier and Sandeau placed upon the stage a flesh and blood représentation of this struggle between the old and the new order of things. Mi P oirier represents the pa ryenu mid^ Gaston, marq uis de PresI eg,Jbhe

aHcientj3LpJtnli^

M. Poirier is an energetic, self-made man, a retired cloth merchant, a millionaire. He is honest according to his lights, but he does not hesitate to take advantage of those with whom he has business dealings. He lacks delicacy; he cares nothing for art or learning. He is narrow, shrewd, witty, vain, and vulgar. He loves his daughter, but in a selfish manner. He refuses to allow his patrician son-in-law to regard idleness as a f amily inheritance, and desires him to eut a figure in the world otherwise than by his scandalous conduct

INTRODUCTION

He substitutes one privUege for another, that of money for that of birth. He is ambitious, — he wishes to be a Feer of France. As a etepping-stone to the peerage, he marries his daughter to a penniless scion of an aristocratie family. The conséquences of this transaction f orm the basis of the comedy.

Gaston de Fresles, M. Poirier's dapper and impo- . cunions sonnuoi-law, is brave, élégant, witty, capricious, and haughty. He is given to what the French call ^WagM€j:::3.go^^ He has an

artistic tempérament; he is a spendthrift. Indiffèrent at first to his plebeian wife, in the end he recognizes her worth and exhibits true repentance. Toward M. Poirier he has the scomfui, patronizing attitude of the narrow aristocrat toward the narrow bourgeois. In their clashes, now the one, now the other is victorious.

M. Poirier's daughter, Antoinette, is the innocent victim of the struggle between the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. She is an unaffected girl, with a noble, generous nature. Although somewhat jealous, she loves her frivolous husband to such a degree that she forgives his indiscrétions. Throughout the play she is dignified and charming.

The other chief characters, the duc de Montmeyran and Verdelet, are the raisonneurs of the pièce — characters who talk good common sensé, give wholesome advice, and serve as mediators in gênerai. The Duke, like Gaston, is an impoverished aristocrat, but, imlike his f riend, he is not satisfied to contract a rich marriage in order that he may lead a lif e of idleness and luxury.

INTRODUCTION

Verdelet, Antoinette's godfather, is, like Poirier, a bourgeois and a retired merchant, but he is less narrow, less rash, more far-seeing, more tactful. His traits explain why he was not so successful in business as his former partner, the shrewd M. Poirier.

Such are the principal characters of Le Gendre de M. Poirier, Three of them are wholly sympathetic — Antoinette, the Duke, and Verdelet. The other two, M. Poirier and Gaston, are bound to win the affection of the audience, since they possess sufficient merits to offset the defects caused in them by class narrowness.

In the conjflict between the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, as shown in Le Gendre de M. Poirier y Augier and Sandeau did not give the victory to either side. They merely sought, as careful observers, to call the attention of the public to the misunderstandings and the dangers that were sure to resuit from the commingling of two classes of society with contrary traditions and ideals. Perhaps the best lessons to be derived from the play are that money is not everything in life, that marriages between the nobility and the bourgeoisie are injudicious, and, finally, that the family and love in the family must be kept inviolate.