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Balefire Publishing
The Man Who Married a Dumb WIfe: A Comedy in Two Acts (Illustrated)
The Man Who Married a Dumb WIfe: A Comedy in Two Acts (Illustrated)
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The comedy of "The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife" was written, or at least begun, merely to entertain the members of the "Society of Rabelaisian Studies" at one of their meetings. But it succeeded so well that it was at once taken up by a regular theatre, the Porte-Saint-Martin, in the spring of 1912, and again at the Theatre de la Renaissance in the autumn.
It is founded on a brief passage in the "Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua and His Son Pantagruel," where one of Rabelais' characters tells of a joyous incident in his student days at the University of Montpellier. This can best be given in the rich and racy old English translation by Sir Thomas Urquhart, who, in translating, somewhat enlarges on Rabelais' version:
"Welcome, in good faith, my dear master, welcome! It did me good to hear you talk, the Lord be praised for all. I do not remember to have seen you before now, since the last time that you acted at Montpellier with our ancient friends, Anthony Saporra, Guy Bourguyer, Balthasar Noyer, Tolet, John Quentin, Francis Robinet, John Perdrier and Francis Rabelais, the moral comedy of him who had espoused and married a dumb wife."
In "The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife" his social satire is thoroughly up-to-date, dealing as it does with subjects which are "of all time," such as the high cost of living, the servant problem, the tendency to extravagance, the fashions of today and tomorrow, the wisdom, and the pretensions to wisdom, of the
medical profession, the loquacity of the ladies, and so on and so on; it is remarkable how much he has got in, and how little he has left out. Much of it is done in the broad, mediaeval manner, as when he exhibits the enormous surgical instruments of the doctors who take good care "not to be caught unarmed by a patient," or when he follows with entire faithfulness the simple outlines of the plot as given by Rabelais; but everything is as delicately worked out in detail as Monsieur France's own work cannot help being. He has used the language of today, without any artificial help from the "marry-come-up, 'sblood, 'sdeath, and go-to" style, which our too easily historical novelists and dramatists so blithely resort to; yet he has perfectly reproduced the tone and spirit of mediaeval comedy.
It is founded on a brief passage in the "Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua and His Son Pantagruel," where one of Rabelais' characters tells of a joyous incident in his student days at the University of Montpellier. This can best be given in the rich and racy old English translation by Sir Thomas Urquhart, who, in translating, somewhat enlarges on Rabelais' version:
"Welcome, in good faith, my dear master, welcome! It did me good to hear you talk, the Lord be praised for all. I do not remember to have seen you before now, since the last time that you acted at Montpellier with our ancient friends, Anthony Saporra, Guy Bourguyer, Balthasar Noyer, Tolet, John Quentin, Francis Robinet, John Perdrier and Francis Rabelais, the moral comedy of him who had espoused and married a dumb wife."
In "The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife" his social satire is thoroughly up-to-date, dealing as it does with subjects which are "of all time," such as the high cost of living, the servant problem, the tendency to extravagance, the fashions of today and tomorrow, the wisdom, and the pretensions to wisdom, of the
medical profession, the loquacity of the ladies, and so on and so on; it is remarkable how much he has got in, and how little he has left out. Much of it is done in the broad, mediaeval manner, as when he exhibits the enormous surgical instruments of the doctors who take good care "not to be caught unarmed by a patient," or when he follows with entire faithfulness the simple outlines of the plot as given by Rabelais; but everything is as delicately worked out in detail as Monsieur France's own work cannot help being. He has used the language of today, without any artificial help from the "marry-come-up, 'sblood, 'sdeath, and go-to" style, which our too easily historical novelists and dramatists so blithely resort to; yet he has perfectly reproduced the tone and spirit of mediaeval comedy.
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