Introduction by Michel Bitot, English Translation by Richard Hillman
Publié le 11/01/2011 - Scène européenne, « Traductions introuvables »
The Visionaries achieved enormous popularity with Parisian audiences during its author’s (long) lifetime (1595-1676), before tastes changed with the advent of neo-classicisism. The irony is that the comedy itself is concerned with the vanity of literary fashions, as well as with forms of what has come to be known as “self-fashioning” but which the author groups under the heading of self-deluding folly (the primary meaning of the title).
Introduction and English Translation by Richard Hillman
Publié le 11/01/2017 - Scène européenne, « Traductions introuvables »
Although published in Protestant Geneva and disparaging the Roman Catholic church on the grounds of both doctrine and practice, this moral allegory privileges instruction over polemic. It employs the traditional morality-play device of a figure representing Mankind, who, however, finds himself torn less between virtue and vice (the usual situation) than between alternative solutions to his inevitably sinful state. A representative of the Old Law (“Rabbi”), who at first prevails, advocates outward conformity and good works; he is opposed by Paul, who preaches the New Law’s (and Luther’s) message of salvation through faith alone.
