Quote of the Day (Moliere, With Don Juan on How ‘To Do Anything I Want With Impunity’)

“If it happens that I am discovered, without my lifting a finger I’ll see the whole cabal espouse my interests and defend me in spite of and against anyone. In short, this is the real way to do anything I want with impunity. I shall set myself up as a censor of the actions of others, judge everyone harshly, and have a good opinion of no one but myself. If once anyone has offended me the least little bit, I shall never forgive, and shall very quietly retain an irreconcilable hatred. I shall play the avenger of Heaven’s interests, and, on that convenient pretext, harass my enemies, accuse them of impiety, and contrive to turn loose against them some undiscerning zealots who, without knowing what it’s all about, will raise a public outcry against them, load them with insults, and d—n them loudly by their own private authority. That’s the way to take advantage of men’s weaknesses, and for an intelligent mind to adapt itself to the vices of his day.” —French playwright, actor, and theater manager Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, aka Moliere (1622-1673), Don Juan, or, The Stone Guest (1665), translated by Donald Frame, in Tartuffe and Other Plays (1967)

In writing a play for his time, Moliere ended up creating a seriocomic parable for all times—but one that seems especially prescient for this troubled season in American history.

I couldn’t help sharing the astonishment of the spineless but sensible servant Sganarelle, who, after warning his master about a fearsome moving and talking statue that represents doom, hears Don Juan blithely reply, “hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtues.”

Every line in the above quote feels as if it could have been said now about a national figure who, whatever his other qualities, surely knows how to “take advantage of men’s weaknesses.”

(The image accompanying this post shows Andrew Weems as Sganarelle and Adam Stein as Don Juan in a production of Don Juan, which played in The Old Globe Theatre of San Diego from May 8 to June 13, 2004. It was directed by Stephen Wadsworth.)

Quote of the Day (Lord Byron, on Love and Marriage)

“’Tis melancholy, and a fearful sign
Of human frailty, folly, also crime,
That love and marriage rarely can combine,
Although they both are born in the same clime;
Marriage from love, like vinegar from wine—
A sad, sour, sober beverage — by time
Is sharpen’d from its high celestial flavor
Down to a very homely household savour.” — English Romantic poet George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824), Don Juan (1819-1823)
 
In the most popular month for weddings, it really does go against the grain to post such a cynical view of marriage. And these verses were written by a man spectacularly unfit for this institution—a walking advertisement for scandal who was once famously described by a future lover, Lady Caroline Lamb, as “mad, bad and dangerous to know.”
 
No matter. Whatever interest might derive from the romantic escapades of Lord Byron, that curiosity would likely fade if these adventures were ranked next to those of history’s other great lotharios. 
 
There’s a far better, more lasting reason to be fascinated by this poet: his work. And nothing in the rest of his career can quite prepare you for his great, rollicking, mock-epic of the last stage of his short life, Don Juan. 

Erect whatever defenses you want against Byron's irreverence, but by the time you finish stanzas such as this, it seems to me impossible not to put this poem down without one’s sides shaking with laughter.
 
(For an interesting blog post on the satirical knock-offs inspired by this poem—which itself was a satirical knock-off—see this post, centered around the work of early 19th-century editor-publisher William Hone, from nine years ago.)

Quote of the Day (Lord Byron, on Being Caught Between the Present and the Future)

“Between two worlds life hovers like a star,
  'Twixt night and morn, upon the horizon's verge.
How little do we know that which we are!
  How less what we may be! The eternal surge
Of time and tide rolls on, and bears afar
  Our bubbles; as the old burst, new emerge,
Lash'd from the foam of ages; while the graves
Of empires heave but like some passing waves.”—English Romantic poet George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824), Don Juan (1819-1823), Canto XVI