SOURCE: "Expansion and Brevity in Molière's Style," in Molière: Stage and Study, edited by W. D. Howarth and Merlin Thomas, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1973, pp. 93-113.

[Wilson is an English educator and critic. In the following essay, he discusses the characteristic comic techniques of Molière 's dialogue.]

Molière's style, long praised for its naturalness and truth to life, possesses a degree of artifice which suggests that its intention is quite different from this. It is the unobtrusive nature of this artifice, however, which both guarantees its success in achieving its aim and explains the fact that critics have been so slow to recognize it. Unlike that of many of his predecessors in seventeenth-century French comedy, the stylistic artifice of Molière is so integrated into the dramatic dialogue that it rarely draws attention to itself.

Although no play can be an exact transcription of real life in dialogue or in any other respect, we must admit that in many ways Molière seems to be attempting in his use of language precisely what so many have praised him for: truth to life. For one thing, his style shows variety. His language adapts itself to the individual character or type; his use of technical jargon and of dialects is wide as well as remarkably accurate; his style is suited to the occasion and to the kind of conversation entailed. Nor do we have the impression of a cerebral, wooden, and unconvincing language deriving not from real life but from the author's mind. Life is very much of the essence of the impression this language makes, for it is animated, fast-moving, and vigorous. In Molière's own day, too, it was for the naturalness of its style of acting that his theatre, unlike the rival Hôtel de Bourgogne, was noted.

There have nevertheless been critics, even as far back as Molière's own time, who have sensed that Molière's comedies offer something different from the simple observation and imitation of human behaviour. The more apparent cases of exaggeration in his plays have not been overlooked, nor has the stylization of the so-called grandes scènes, like that between Célimène and Arsinoé in Le Misanthrope, been ignored. Devices such as repetition and stichomythia have been noted, and the merits and demerits of Molière's versification have been debated. Few critics have begun to realize, however, that a characteristic stylization informs Molière's dramatic style as a whole, that the basic essentials of this stylization are common to the great majority of Molière's works, and that it is the simplicity and appropriateness of the techniques he employs that hide their artificial nature. Molière's style possesses a form and a discipline, and I believe a purposefulness, which are expressed in its thoroughly functional nature; but the style is functional, not in terms of a depiction of real life, but in terms of the interpretation of human experience which the plays present. This form and discipline are expressive of the essential factors in a situation, and the precision and acuteness of their presentation of these factors is of the comic kind.

One way in which control is unobtrusively, but decisively, exercised over this dialogue, at first sight so natural, is in the regulation of the length of individual speeches. This may seem an obvious or unimportant point, but we realize on closer investigation the extent to which this simple factor contributes to the effectiveness of entire scenes and even plays. It is, furthermore, a central way in which Molière's comic style may be distinguished from that of his predecessors. With them verbosity was a stock device, exploited with zest, and usually associated with a certain type of character. In Molière it is hardly ever found as a comic technique in its own right, nor does it often serve to characterize an individual. Indeed, it is only rarely found at all, and certain speeches which show traces of it, and which in some ways hark back to the types of verbose utterance in earlier comedies, derive their effectiveness primarily from other sources. Molière's longer speeches are not detachable pieces of virtuosity, boldly exceeding all limits of credibility in their uncontrolled expansiveness. They are effective, rather, by virtue of the context in which they stand, the way in which they arise in the dialogue, and the form and polish which they exhibit within themselves. Orgon's expansive speech describing the development of Tartuffe's hold over him in Act I, scene v of Le Tartuffe derives much of its comic effectiveness from the rounded regularity of its structure; while the lengthy definition of physics by the Maître de Philosophie in Act II, scene iv of Le Bourgeois gentilhomme occurs at a point of carefully prepared comic climax in the dialogue and is effective chiefly for that reason.

It has been said that Molière's stylistic skill lies in his 'breaking up' of the dialogue of comedy, which makes í of for greater dramatic movement, and it is true that what may be called verbosity frequently occurs in Molière over a series of shorter speeches rather than in the form of a tirade. This is the case in both Act II, scene ix and Act V, scene ii of Les Femmes savantes, where Chrysale's reiteration of his intention to act like a man is the more comic for being spread over a whole series of speeches with interpolated responses from Ariste or Henriette. The art of brevity is another manifestation of the precise control which Molière possesses over his language.

Fundamentally, however, neither the avoidance of verbose developments for their own sake nor the skill Molière shows in the art of brevity represents his major achievement in the handling of dramatic dialogue. Molière recognizes that the nature of an utterance is of greater significance than its mere length, and he also recognizes that expansion and brevity are qualities of language rather than mere quantities of it. He thus achieves some-thing subtler and more flexible than simple verbosity, as he succeeds in conveying an expansive quality or tone which is more comically incisive than mere numbers of words; while similarly he uses brevity of utterance, not because of any desire to reach the ultimate in succinct pithiness, but only where the tone afforded by such utterances is appropriate to the comic context.

The contrast between expansive and brief verbal elements in this sense is one of the most frequently employed and decisively comic techniques in Molière's dialogue, and is a major source of that animation and variety of which we have spoken. The contrast occurs, however, not in order exactly to represent real life, but in order to convey a comic point and simultaneously to forward the dramatic movement. The artifice of the contrast is effective in relation to the embodying and illuminating of the essential comic clash or conflict which underlies the particular incident or scene. The variety of ways in which expansive and brief elements are thus brought together guards against excessive artifice, however, and prevents the monotonous recurrence of a standard verbal procedure.

The primary comic effect of such contrast between expansive and brief verbal elements, normally exploited in the reply of one speaker to another, is often found in the reciprocal emphasis achieved. This may take the form of a single contrast, as when Cléonte's long tirade on feminine ingratitude in Act III, scene ix of Le Bourgeois gentilhomme ('Je fais voir pour une personne … ') provokes Covielle's terse reply: 'Je dis les mêmes choses que vous'; or of a multiple series, such as that in which Martine's eloquent comments on the relationship between Chrysale and Philaminte in Act V, scene iii of Les Femmes savantes are punctuated by Chrysale's 'Sans doute…. Il est vrai…. C'est parler comme il faut….

Oui…. Fort bien.' The comic stress may, however, fall more appropriately upon one or other of the elements. Anticlimax is thus frequently the basis of the single contrast of expansion and brevity, the stress here falling decisively upon the brief component. It is in this way that illusion and reality, fantasy and truth, theory and practice are often comically opposed; and in the last-mentioned case we find that on occasion it is the theory which is reasonable while the practice appears ridiculous, whereas at other times the theory is the ridiculous term and the practice represents what is reasonable. We recall Sganarelle's brief rejoinder to his master's words on the departure of Done Elvire:

DOM JUAN: Sais-tu bien que j'ai encore senti quelque peu d'émotion pour elle, que j'ai trouvé de l'agrément dans cette nouveauté bizarre, et que son habit négligé, son air languissant et ses larmes ont réveillé en moi quelques petits restes d'un feu éteint?

SGANARELLE: C'est-à-dire que ses paroles n'ont fait aucun effet sur vous.

Henriette's incredulous 'Moi, ma mere?' [in Les Femmes savantes] as the only response to Philaminte's expansive, emphatic, and carefully constructed speech in which she proposes Trissotin as her daughter's husband, provides us with a parallel verse example.

As well as in the relationship of consecutive speeches, effects of the same kind are also to be found within single speeches of individual characters, for instance when Vadius's twelve-line condemnation of authors who seek praise for their works is comically rounded off by the couplet:

Voici de petits vers pour de jeunes amants,
Sur quoi je voudrais bien avoir vos sentiments.

In other cases the same contrast occurs between an entire dialogue and a single remark, as when Monsieur Jourdain finally requests [in Les Bourgeouis gentilhomme], after his investigation of the erudite fields of study successively proposed by the Maître de Philosophie: 'Apprenez-moi l'orthographe.' Elsewhere again, a contrast may be effected between the cumulative expansiveness of the speeches of one character in a scene, and the brevity of some following remark from the same speaker. In Act V, scene ii of Les Femmes savantes, for example, it is only Chrysale's brief imperative 'Secondez-moi bien tous', uttered at the approach of Philaminte, which lends full comic force and significance to the accumulation of his outraged questions and absolute declarations throughout the scene.

It may be mentioned here that the fact that Molière, despite his art of brevity, is not at all a 'quotable' dramatist is attributable to the way in which his memorable individual lines are integrated into, or rather appear to arise naturally from, the surrounding dialogue. In this connection it is often from their contrast with the expansive buildup from which they emerge that the occasional single lines which seem to sum up whole aspects of the comic situation gain much of their force and effectiveness. This is the case, for example, with Alceste's pregnant line in Act V, scene i of Le Misanthrope: 'J'ai pour moi la justice, et je perds mon proces'; with Chrysale's paradoxical complaints concerning his household in Les Femmes savantes (II. vii): 'Et le raisonnement en bannit la raison' and 'Et j'ai des serviteurs, et ne suis point servi'; and with Argan's revealing declaration, which emerges at the climax of a whole expansive dialogue in Le Malade imaginaire (I. V): 'Je ne suis point bon, et je suis méchant quand je veux.'

Particularly within single speeches the contrast of expansion and brevity can well convey an effect of surprise, as when the final line of a speech suddenly contradicts the lines leading up to it. Philaminte's words to the valet Julien show this:

Reportez tout cela sur l'heure à votre maître,
Et lui dites qu'afin de lui faire connaître
Quel grand état je fais de ses nobles avis
Et comme je les crois dignes d'être suivis,
Dès ce soir à Monsieur je marierai ma fille.

Contrasts of expansion and brevity occurring in a multiple series, although clearly not appropriate to the conveying of surprise or to achieving the once-for-all effect of anticlimax, are valuable means of providing added dramatic impetus for a scene, as we see from Act I, scene iv of Le Malade imaginaire, where the insertion of a brief reply from Toinette after each question of Angélique not only comically stresses the degree of Angélique's expansiveness by isolating each individual question, but also contributes to the dramatic animation and speed through the repeated contrast in length and by keeping us constantly in touch with both speakers. There are, finally, multiple contrasts of expansion and brevity where the primary comic effect derives not from the simple emphasis of one element by the other, but from the repetition itself and from the way in which this expresses the total situation of the moment. The pattern of the dialogue is here directly expressive of a basic relationship or conflict which underlies the scene. The pattern in Le Tartuffe (I. V), Dom Juan (III. i), and Le Misanthrope (III. i), for example, is that of verbal pursuit and withdrawal. Orgon will make no definite answer to Cléante's inquiries regarding his plans for Mariane's marriage; Dom Juan responds with meaningless brevity to Sganarelle's questions about his beliefs; and Acaste replies to Clitandre's series of questions with brief ironical declarations. In Dom Juan's interview with Monsieur Dimanche (Dom Juan, IV. iii) and Argan's with Monsieur Purgon (Le Malade imaginaire, III. V), on the other hand, the comic pattern formed by the contrast of expansion and brevity is that of one character's loquacity and the other's inability to speak.

Wherever we look at this technique of contrast between expansive and brief verbal elements in Molière's style, we find a combination of comic purposefulness and formal stylization. Let us now consider in greater detail, however, two special uses of the contrast to which we have not so far referred: verbal expansion following restraint, and the interruption of expansive language.

By the regulated use of verbal expansion following restraint Molière can succeed in conveying a comic situation and in ensuring constant movement. This restraint on the part of a character, although expressing itself occasionally in complete silence, consists normally of brief utterances, which lead at a particular point to an expansive outburst. This is a technique used to advantage in the opening scenes of both Le Tartuffe and Le Misanthrope. Madame Pernelle and Alceste are each brought, after the first few lines of the play in question, to an expansive outburst which develops into a chief comic resource of the whole opening scene. It is Elmire's insistence on pursuing the departing Madame Pernelle and on requesting an explanation of her departure which causes the old woman to delay leaving and to express in full the reasons for her dissatisfaction. It is, likewise, Philinte's insistence in addressing the uncommunicative Alceste and, in particular, his incidental use of the word amis [in Le Misan thrope] which prompt the flood of exaggerated language from Alceste. If an opening scene is to be based on the expansive expression of strong feelings, it is clearly much more dramatically engaging that this expansion should emerge before us, as the direct consequence of a situation and a dialogue with which we are made acquainted, than that it should begin with an unprepared tirade immediately the curtain rises. Both by virtue of its fragmentation and integration in the dialogue and by its emergence from the initial brief exchange in each case, the expansiveness escapes any likeness to a static recitation. Comically, it is the one who at first had to be persuaded into speaking whose subsequent expansiveness predominates in the scene. The example from Le Misanthrope is perhaps the more striking of the two, as it is also the more directly related to the presentation of the central character; and here the outburst of Alceste is reinforced by means of interruption and of seizure upon a word quite incidentally uttered:

As long as Philinte's questions and remarks were brief and direct, Alceste's responses remained curt and uninformative; but once Philinte seems to have given up trying to elicit an answer and seems about to launch into a full-length speech, he is made to say something which causes Alceste actually to cut him short. Molière's simple technique here prepares us for what will be a recurring source of comedy in the presentation of Alceste: the alternation of restraint, be it surly or polite, and exaggerated outburst.

Expansion following restraint is often employed to convey the comic effect of indirect expression giving way to more direct utterance. In Les Femmes savantes (II. iii) the main source of comedy in the first part of the scene is the suspense in which Bélise keeps Chrysale and Ariste by asserting that it is not Henriette whom Clitandre loves, without, however, revealing straight away her belief that it is really she herself. Despite Ariste's repeated objections Bélise refuses either to withdraw or to substantiate her assertion. Her responses are brief and lack content, and even when she speaks for five consecutive lines she still reveals nothing new. Indeed, her greater fullness here is comic in that it simply restates at greater length what she has already said, whereas what is wanted is an explanation. The techniques of delay and of seizure upon an insignificant word (in this case the exclamation 'Hay!') are again used here in order to prompt the expansive flood of direct language.

It is especially clear in this instance that the essential comic contrast is not so much between brevity and length as between restraint and outburst, the former affording a build-up to the latter: it is the nature of the language rather than its mere quantity which is significant. A further point to be made on the basis of this example is that the switch from indirect to direct language marks, as it frequently does, the turning-point of the whole scene. Not only is Bélise's direct outburst the culmination of the sustained indirect build-up and, more immediately, a response to Ariste's expression of surprise; but her speech also contains within it the elements of which the rest of the scene is composed, in that the names of her supposed lovers are used individually by Molière later in the scene as the basis for a rising sequence of single-line exchanges which prompts Chrysale's use of the word chimères and the end of the scene.

Indirect language gives way to direct, again with similar technique and effect, in two well-known scenes: Alceste's outburst concerning Oronte's sonnet, and the point in the same play at which Célimène finally turns to a direct attack upon Arsinoé. In both cases we sense that the moment for direct expression has come: either Alceste's indirect responses to Oronte's questions have come as close to directness as they can without crossing the borderline, or the insinuations of Célimène and Arsinoé have become as patent as may be conceived while still retaining the verbal overlay of objective politeness. There may be greater apparent form in the words with which Célimène scornfully attacks her rival, but in fact the outburst of Alceste (beginning at line 376: 'Franchement, il est bon à mettre au cabinet'), for all its comparative lack of poise, is just as skilfully formed—in this case to translate the comedy of the man who, having previously refused to make any statement, now speaks in such a way that the normal gaps and pauses left for others to reply simply do not appear. Not until some forty lines later, when Alceste has said all he has to say, does Oronte make any reaction at all, and then his brief rejoinder 'Et moi, je vous soutiens que mes vers sont fort bons' only re-emphasizes the expansiveness of Alceste. In this scene and in that referred to between Célimène and Arsinoé (III. iv) we again see how the turn from indirect to direct expression marks a kind of watershed in the scene and hastens on its conclusion. Alceste's outburst of direct criticism of Oronte is both the culmination of the indirect speeches which precede and the basis for the increasingly insulting sequence of brief répliques which forces the interview to a close. Célimène's direct attack on Arsinoé, beginning 'Et moi, je ne sais pas, Madame, aussi pourquoi', gains in effectiveness by virtue of her foregoing ironical restraint, but it also serves to prompt, particularly by its stinging final couplet, the long speech of Arsinoé which leads by a persuasive logic, which is of the language only, to the ridiculous concluding assertion: 'Que l'on a des amants quand on en veut avoir.' Célimène's rejoinder to this claim ('Ayez-en donc, Madame, et voyons cette affaire') forces Arsinoé to capitulate, thus bringing the scene to an end.

Not infrequently Molière draws our attention to verbal expansion by an explicit reference to it, as we see in Philaminte's line, referring to Trissotin [in Les Femmes savantes]: 'Si nous parlons toujours, il ne pourra rien dire', or in Sganarelle's words to Gusman in Act I, scene i of Dom Juan: 'Écoute, au moins: je t'ai fait cette confidence avec franchise, et cela m'est sorti un peu bien vite de la bouche.' It is not that we need to have the expansiveness pointed out to us, but rather that these comments are themselves comic in the mouths of their respective speakers. In the first case Philaminte's recognition and stating of the obvious is a form of the comedy of the over-explicit, at which Molière excels; and in the case of Sganarelle realization of the frankness and spontaneity of his own outburst concerning his master comically underlines the forced duality of his own character and language.

In this last speech of Dom Juan (I. i) we see again verbal expansion following upon restraint for comic ends. All Sganarelle's previous speeches concerning the reasons for Dom Juan's departure from Done Elvire have been either brief and undeveloped or expressed in indirect or guarded terms. Again it is a turn of phrase from his interlocutor which prompts Sganarelle to abandon his indirect language: Gusman's 'je ne comprends pas' prompts Sganarelle's 'Je n'ai pas grande peine à le comprendre, moi.' Yet even now the full outburst is withheld until Sganarelle has safeguarded himself by a series of attenuating clauses and phrases ('Je ne dis pas que … tu sais que … par précaution … inter nos … '), although rather than attenuate, they comically stress by delay the outburst when it occurs (' … que tu vois en Dom Juan, mon maître, le plus grand scélérat que la terre ait jamais porté … '). The length of Sganarelle's preamble only adds to the comedy of the contrast with what follows, for instead of the preamble foreshadowing an equally restrained description of Dom Juan's failings, all caution is left behind in the preamble, in order to allow full verbal indulgence in the body of the speech. As elsewhere in Sganarelle's role, the extremes of reticence and frankness are boldly juxtaposed. Even within the expansive speech once launched, however, there is a form and clear use of certain characteristic devices. Accumulation is regulated, as usual, to achieve but not to overshoot the comic point in view, and thus we find here the technique, frequent in Molière, of pursuing a line of thought just a little further than it would be pursued in reality. Dom Juan 'ne croit ni Ciel, ni Enfer, ni loupgarou'; together with Done Elvire 'il aurait encore épousé toi [Gusman], son chien et son chat'; he treats marriage lightly 'et c'est un épouseur à toutes mains'. We note too how the accumulated form of the three clauses in the sentence beginning 'Suffit qu'il faut … ' gives them a comic lack of emphasis, considering the extreme nature of their contents:

Suffit qu'il faut que le courroux du Ciel l'accable quelque jour; qu'il me vaudrait bien mieux d'être au diable que d'être à lui, et qu'il me fait voir tant d'horreurs, que je souhaiterais qu'il fût déjà je ne sais où.

The construction of this sentence also fulfils a formal purpose with regard to the speech as a whole, for its summarizing and concluding tone, especially when taken within the context of the sentences immediately preceding and following, makes for the greatest comic effectiveness in the prompt appearance of Dom Juan himself, who has just been so decisively summed up. It is most satisfying that Dom Juan should appear, thus, at the very moment when Sganarelle's expansive speech seems to have reached a definitive conclusion. We see by this, as we have seen in the other instances discussed, how Molière does not lose dramatic impetus by overplaying his effects, any more than he seeks to maintain it at the cost of stylistic form. He does not indulge in a situation which has been, so to speak, 'achieved': once these expansive outbursts have been released, Molière, while deriving comic effect within them from expansive verbal means, uses such expansion only in order to precipitate a further stage in the dramatic development.

The interruption of expansive language is a second characteristic form which Molière's exploitation of the contrast between expansion and brevity assumes. A more striking impression of a character's expansive tendency may often be conveyed by cutting short an expansion which we might have expected to continue, than by allowing it to proceed to a conclusion. The dramatist's control of his characters' expansiveness by this means serves a well-defined comic purpose and, indeed, enhances the effect of the expansive language which is suppressed.

It is often the expansiveness of convention which is interrupted. Thomas Diafoirus is introduced in Act II, scene V of Le Malade imaginaire by means of the long set speeches, over-flowing with conceit and metaphor, which he addresses to Argan and Angélique. Their length and superficial erudition contrast with the obvious empty-headed stupidity of the speaker, and their lack of spontaneity contrasts with the supposed feelings they are intended to convey. Thomas's repeated questions aside to his father make this lack of spontaneity ridiculously obvious. But we also recall the false start made by Thomas to Angélique and his interruption by Argan:

THOMAS DIAFOIRUS à Angélique: Madame, c'est avec justice que le Ciel vous a concédé le nom de bellemère, puisque l'on …

ARGAN: Ce n'est pas ma femme, c'est ma fille à qui vous parlez.

The false start is interpolated between two fully developed expansive addresses, and as well as providing variety in the dialogue, it sheds comic light on the nature of the completed compliments. We note, first, how the interruption serves to emphasize the superficial and conventional nature of the speeches: they bear no relation to the actual person addressed. Secondly, the interruption gives comic expression to the complete lack of adaptability of the speaker, stopped unexpectedly and unable to proceed in any way other than that which he has learned. Thirdly, the speech thus curtailed foreshadows the situation in II. 6, when Thomas, finally confronted with Béline, is still unable, as a result of the latter's untimely interruption, to conclude the same ill-starred compliment. The interruption of Thomas's incipient expansiveness thus both comically stresses the conventional nature of that expansiveness and assists the dramatic construction and impetus of the scene and the play.

When such interruption is employed in the verse plays, the verse form can give added force through the rhyme. High-flown expansive developments are halted before they have got under way, and the direct rejoinder, reducing the situation once more to the terms of reality, gains in force by the way in which it is made to rhyme with the last full line of the interrupted speech. Two examples from Les Femmes savantes show how the element of surprise is particularly strong in verse interruptions:

and:

The close combination of often insincere expansiveness and trenchant brevity within one rhyming couplet stresses the true situation and destroys the apparent finality of tone of the interrupted utterance. Once again, also, such interruption is used to speed the scene onward, sometimes by means of provoking a highly stylized verbal exchange as in the second example quoted, and sometimes, as with the first example, by precipitating the rapid conclusion of the scene as a whole.

Interruption is also appropriately employed in relation to the expansive language of enthusiasm. Eagerness to convey some vital piece of information can result, as with Nicole at the beginning of Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (III. viii), in an enthusiastic expansiveness which is interrupted, comically, before the actual information is conveyed, and thus misunderstanding is credibly introduced. Enthusiasm for one's own merits also expresses itself in verbal facility. In both individual speeches and patterned sequences a constant ready flow of words characterizes, for instance, Trissotin and Vadius in Les Femmes savantes. A single word may serve as the basis for the interruption of the one by the other, as does the noun vers in Act III, scene iii. Vadius's speech which ends with the offer of a recitation of love poetry provokes a response from Trissotin, arising from the word vers, which is comic as an interruption of Vadius's intention. The interruption occurs, however, at precisely the point where the stark comic contrast—already referred to—between Vadius's theory and practice is clearest. It also has the function of deflecting any reading of Vadius's poetry (we have already heard Trissotin's), and of combining comic delay in this connection with an increase of tempo in the to and fro of brief replies thus unleashed. It is in the interest of the comic structure of the scene that here and twice more (at lines 988 and 1006) the incipient expansiveness of Vadius is curtailed, but its curtailment on three successive occasions increases rather than reduces the impression one receives of his expansiveness. The suggestion of the latter may be much more effective, dramatically and comically, than its full development.

What is commonly referred to as comedy of character arises at times from the incipient expansive utterance which is interrupted. The irascible aspect of Orgon is shown up in this way when, after attempting to silence Dorine during his conversation with Mariane, he finally breaks forth in expansive exasperation:

ORGON: Te tairas-tu, serpent, dont les traits effrontés …

DORINE: Ah! vous êtes dévot, et vous vous emportez!

The effectiveness of breaking off Orgon's metaphor, rather than allowing it to develop unhindered, is apparent, for Dorine's unanswerable interruption at the point of climax of Orgon's anger gives the most pointed comic expression to the situation. Again here rhyme assists the effect, and the speed of the scene is maintained.

It is not by any means always the case that expansive language is interrupted by Molière shortly after it has begun: the dramatist's discipline and skill are also seen in his choosing the best moment at which to interrupt a speech which he has seen fit to develop at some length. Not infrequently self-interruption, having an intrinsic comic potential, is how this manifests itself. This self-interruption often derives its comic power from the absolute contradiction between what precedes and what follows; and this comic contrast would be impossible, were there not a considerable degree of expansion before the interruption takes place. It is the fact that Lucile in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (V. v) gets as far as she does in her declaration to her father that she is unwilling to marry anyone but Cléonte which makes her sudden and complete swing to obedient submission (and her father's acceptance of this) so pointedly comic. The same comic effect of stark juxtaposition is produced by Sganarelle's self-interruption on catching sight of Dom Juan while talking to the peasant girls at the end of Act II, scene iv of Dom Juan. The effectiveness of the contradiction here again depends upon the amount Molière has allowed Sganarelle to say before he notices Dom Juan, as the second part of Sganarelle's speech beginning 'Mon maître est un fourbe' consists of an exact and explicit negation of the four declarations of the first part. Whether or not Sganarelle is in control of his verbal flow, Molière certainly is.

It is not always some outward cause such as sudden recognition or the appearance of another character that prompts self-interruption in Molière. It can also arise from inability, real or feigned, to say more on a certain subject. It is fitting, in the well-known line of Orgon in Act I, scene v of Le Tartuffe: 'C'est un homme … qui … ha! un homme … un homme enfin', that Orgon should be unable to proceed beyond the very first element in his attempt to give a full and adequate description of Tartuffe. However, in the case of Toinette, ironically and calculatedly extolling Béline in Act III, scene xi of Le Malade imaginaire, the best effect is to be derived from allowing a fuller expansive description first. The comic impact increases with each patently untrue declaration of Toinette's, and the same effect could not have been obtained had Argan himself replied to Béralde's accusation concerning Béline; but Toinette's pretended inability to express to the full Béline's devotion to Argan emphasizes her ironical words better than any further attempt at description could have done.

Frequently, advanced expansiveness in a speaker is interrupted by another speaker. Dorine and Mariane both interrupt each other in the midst of expansive speeches in Act II, scene iii of Le Tartuffe, and in both cases it is at a crucial point for the comic progress of the scene. The first occasion is at the point where Dorine assumes an ironical attitude towards Mariane, in order to spur her to positive opposition to her father's plans; the second is thirty lines later, at the point where Mariane can stand no more of Dorine's ironical expansiveness. In the first instance the degree of expansion which Molière has allowed to Mariane in the speech which is interrupted and which forms a climax to all she has said before makes the impact of the interruption more comically effective. The pattern established in the interrupted speech itself leads us to expect and anticipate the completion of at least her third rhetorical question.

Dorine's interruption, however, gives a new turn to the dialogue, thus guarding against monotony and sluggishness. The same device of interruption is used, on the second occasion mentioned, in order to curb the excessive development of Dorine's ironical words. Each of the accumulated strokes in Dorine's picture of provincial life with Tartuffe overcomes Mariane with greater horror, and Dorine's picturesque speech clearly seems capable of expanding still further. The 'Si pourtant votre époux … ' at the close would lead us to expect a further development of several lines, presenting a full alternative to the pastimes described in the previous lines. Again Molière chooses the most appropriate moment at which to curtail Dorine: she is interrupted in mid-line, suggesting that her inventiveness is inexhaustible, and at just that point where we feel that Mariane can contain herself no longer. The interruption also allows a switch to shorter speeches which both affords variety and hastens on the climax of the exchange in Dorine's resolute 'Non, vous serez, ma foi! tartuffiée.'

Tartuffe's bold approaches to Elmire in Act III, scene iii of the same play are rendered comic by a repeated use of this interruption of partially developed expansive language. Three times Elmire interrupts the expansive Tartuffe, and all three interrupted speeches are cut short half a line after an expansive use of the conjunction et. Elmire's interruptions have the effect not only of breaking up the speech of Tartuffe into briefer elements, thus assisting the dramatic movement, but also of comically deflating each of Tartuffe's attempts to express his lustful feelings. The structure of the dialogue thus renders comic, rather than distasteful or crude, Tartuffe's first advances towards Elmire; and the emphasis is placed, through the judicious use of interruption, on the quickness of Elmire in rebuffing Tartuffe rather than on Tartuffe's action itself.

We should note lastly, in connection with the interruption of expansive language, that Molière exploits the possibilities of combining verbal with active interruption. The entry of a character frequently serves to interrupt the dialogue to comic effect, as when Arsinoé appears during Célimène's denunciation of her in Le Misanthrope (III. iii-iv). The carefully patterned expansion of Célimène's speech beginning 'Oui, oui, franche grimace' is used to prepare effectively for Arsinoé's appearance. The speech is long enough to establish a verbal pattern which we expect to continue, but the pattern also suggests that Célimène's diatribe is approaching its emphatic completion: interruption occurs at exactly the point where it produces the strongest impact and the most comically pointed effect.

Physical action other than the entry of a character sometimes causes the comic interruption of expansive language, and one last example may suffice. Sganarelle's speech in Dom Juan (III. i) beginning 'Mon raisonnement est qu'il y a quelque chose d'admirable dans l'homme' strikes us and remains in our memory principally because it is comically interrupted by his falling to the ground. This interruption stresses with comic intensity the recurring succession in Sganarelle of expansive indignation and resigned brevity before his master's conduct and beliefs. Had the speech been a completed whole, such a comically pointed contrast would not have been achieved. Further, the whole expansive build-up of Sganarelle's argument is instantly deflated and emptied of all power to convince by the abruptly physical nature of the interruption. Sganarelle thus, comically, destroys his own argument; and since the nature of the interruption is intimately related to the content of the argument, our attention is drawn not simply to a farcical incident which makes us forget whatever serious content the foregoing speech might have possessed, but to a practical negation of the words so persuasively built up. Had the speech not been as expansive as it is, the deflating effect could not have been so pointed.

The interruption, at an early or advanced stage, of expansive language reveals especially clearly Molière's attitude to the degree of verbal fullness in comedy. It may be true, as we said at the outset, that the mere number of words used is less significant than the quality or tone of the utterance; but it is equally true that Molière's regulation of the length of his speeches is a vital means towards the conveying of the tone intended and the obtaining of the comic effect. The great marks of Molière's style are, it seems to me, its correspondence to the underlying situation of the scene or play, and its constant movement. Verbal expansion is only the outward expression of an element in a situation—if we may use the term, the 'conservative' element, that which tends towards continuance and unhindered development on the basis of the foregoing. It is in the opposition it meets that this verbal expansion betrays its comedy, and the opposition which combines brevity with interruption is especially pointed and vivid. The precision evident in Molière's use of the technique demonstrates that his object is not to indulge in verbosity, but to give fitting expression to a comic situation. It is to be noted, however, that it is a comic situation in the dramatic sense of the word, for the opposition or conflict which Molière's language embodies originates not in the real world, but in the mind and imagination of the artist, which is capable of perceiving le ridicule.