Havergal College - Magazine Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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Havergal College Magazine But, whatever may be our judgment of his views on woman ' s education, we owe Moliere a deep debt of gratitude for the character studies in his two plays on the subject, Les Precieuses Ridicules, 1659, and Les Femmes Savantes, 1672. Of the two, Les Femmes Savantes is by far the riper, richer production, and he seems at the end of his career to have wished to produce a work of rare artistic merit. Not only is the play wonderful as a comedy, but the style is admirable. By Les Precieuses Moliere had succeeded in banishing from the ruelles and the alcoves the ridiculous affectation of the false Precieuses. In Les Femmes Savants he attacked the pedantry of women, and showed the evil effects of the pedantic spirit in the family. Instead of attending to her house- hold duties, Philaminte thinks only of letters and science, and chases from her house her servant Marline for not speaking vaugelas. She is imperious as well as pedantic, and rules over her family wi th an iron hand. Chrysale, her husband, is a rich bourgeois, a man of good sense, but weak. In his wife ' s absence he speaks boldly and says that his will must be law; but as soon as she appears he dare not oppose her, and yields meekly to her wishes. Philaminte ' s daughter, Armande, is not only pedan- tic like her mother, but she is selfish and jealous. She has re- jected Clitandre ' s suit, because marriage is not sufficiently ethereal ; and when Clitandre courts Henriette, her sister, she ondeavours to prevent their marriage by favouring Trissatin, another suitor of Henriette ' s. The latter is the most graceful creation of Moliere ' s ; she does not know Greek, but is a charm- ing young girl, gentle, modest and sensible. She seems to per- sonify Moliere ' s idea of the perfect woman, and is in every respect an admirable character. Her lover Clitandre is a man of honour and good judgment, and it is he who expresses the author ' s opinion about the education of women. Belise, Philaminte ' s sister, is the most ridiculous of the three femmes savantes. She believes that all men are in love with her, and carries this idea to such an extreme that her folly is not credible. Ariste, the reasonable man, is not the one that speaks the most sensibly, it is Clitandre, whom we admire above all. Ariste, however, is necessary to the plot, as it is he who exposes Trisso- tin ' s mercenary motives, and makes Philaminte consent to Henriette ' s marriage to Clitandre, a conclusion which Chrysale orders. To Moliere alone is due the praise for having stamped out from French society and French literature the affectation and bad taste which were so prevalent during the seventeenth cen- tury. But in rooting up the bad, he left unharm ed the good that had been accomplished by the ladies of the Hotel de Ram- bouillet — Les Precieuses. DOROTHY McDOUGALL. Form Upper VI. i 39

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Havergal College Magazine and literary taste. To prevent this degeneration of their lan- guage, certain learned ladies of the Court formed a society, whose chief aim was to preserve the niceties and refinements of the French tongue. They were polished and extremely witty, and succeeded in refining both literature and manners. They met regularly at the house of the Marquise de Rambouillet and discussed literature and most of the leading questions of the day. It was their custom to receive in their boudoirs, in little alcoves surrounded by a ruelle or a railing, but naturally the manners of the ruelles and the alcoves were very artificial. The real Precieuses were soon imitated by a number of ladies of the bourgeoisie, and the false Precieuses arose. However, the real Precieuses were partly successful in their aim, and they certainly helped to raise the standard of French manners and French speech. But naturally, when these provincial fine ladies, less intellectual and often highly ridiculous, drew attention to themselves, the good work of the real Precieuses was soon over- shadowed by the affectation and stupidity of the false ones. Already literature was being infected with the style of the Precieuses, and we see in the greatest authors, such as Corneille, and even in Moliere himself, traces of their influence. Moliere, realizing the humour and absurdity of it all, and that the influence of the Precieuses was unfavourable to a healthy development of French literature, rendered his country a great service when at one blow he absolutely killed the progress of the movement in his famous play, Les Precieuses Ridicules. In this play he has unmercifully pilloried all the Precieuses of the seventeenth century. He no doubt did not intend to satirize the Hotel de Rambouillet and its society, but the affectation and bad taste of the false Precieuses, the ridiculous imitators of the real ones. We have, too, in this play, Moliere ' s views on the educa- tion of women — his ideal woman was, like all other ideal women, capable of looking after her home and her children, of speaking correctly and with elegance, and with a fair ap- preciation of literature. But, the study of philosophy, poetic composition and the inauguration of learned societies did not enter into his view of woman ' s realm. Moliere, I think, is not wholly justified in these views. Why, if a woman is capable of writing, of learning philosophy, of opening large schools and societies, should she not do so, provided her home is not neglected? The history of education in the last hundred years shows us how much can be safely undertaken by women. Why, then, should a woman tie herself down to her home alone, when she is capable of doing some- thing big, which not only helps herself and her family, but goes to help the whole nation? 88

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Havergal College Magazine BABY ' S GARDEN. Baby ' s eyes build a wonderful garden, Wherein she may walk with her pink chubby feet — Fairy spot, bright as the Forest of Arden, And touched with the breath of the Jessamine sweet; Pathways that wind where a child loves to wander, Rose walks that bend to the little one ' s quest, Then to the gate and the loving hearts yonder, And back to the nursery, mother, and rest. MARGARET HARRISON, Form Lower V. A BRITISH COLUMBIA SAW-MILL. Hullo Harry! harness up Flossie, for Jack says we need more provisions, and I ' ll ride along to town with you, called my chum Frank. Our little party of live considered a British Columbia forest the best place for a holiday, and so not two days previous we had pitched our camp near a beautiful little fall, there to spend the summer. I was on the alert and ready to explore the neighborhood and especially to have a look at the town, so it was not long before Frank and myself were off on our way through the forest. Tall trees of spruce, fir, cedar, pine and tamarac arched over our heads, while every now and then the bend in the road brought us in full view of the river valley below. We had not travelled far when we met a party of lumberjacks, chopping 40