Magic Of The Sorcerer Molière.
Posting #18.
“Here comes trouble on
my head, driven to Paris by oxen.”
Philippe d’Orleans about Molière’s arrival in Paris
in M. Bulgakov’s novel Molière.
Bulgakov
also draws the attention of the beginning writers to the importance of the
voice of the one who is being described, especially if this man plays a leading
role in the novel.
Thus,
for instance, “Philippe concluded that [Molière] had
an unpleasant voice. But after a few words of the guest, he, for some reason
[probably on account of flattery], seemed to start liking [Molière’s] voice.”
Bulgakov
is clearly using here Philippe of France in order to draw attention not only to
human eyes, which are the most expressive part of the face, but also to the
human voice.
Like,
for instance, in a short paragraph, Bulgakov goes out of his way to change Molière’s
voice. To Philippe’s amazement, Molière starts talking in a totally different
voice – a harsh chest voice – and then goes back to his previous voice, then a
brusque voice again… Then a third voice, a voice exceptionally stringent and
impressive. Molière addresses Philippe, expressing hope that His Majesty [King
Louis XIV] is in good health.
And
then after a fiasco with Corneille’s tragedy Nicomede, Molière has to resort to flattery again. While Philippe
d’Orleans “could not raise his eyes, but was sitting sunk into his armchair,
retracting his head into his shoulders.” It was Philippe’s privilege to invite Molière
and his troupe to the Old Louvre for the performance.
“And again, he, the cursed
one, starts talking in that same [flattering] voice. Here comes trouble on my
head, driven to Paris by oxen.”
Apparently,
Bulgakov has learned a lot by reading Molière, and especially, his slyness. He
tricks the researcher in his description of Louis XIV “with a capriciously
protruding lip,” like Niza’s in Pontius
Pilate. And also by presenting the reader with not just one but two actors’
troupes: one of them Molière’s on the stage, and the other one, known to all
Paris, the troupe of Royal Bourgogne
Actors, among the audience. –
“Only one of the Bourgogne actors was laughing his heart out with
genuine sincerity. This hook-nosed man with delicate facial features was a
great tragedian, the best in France performer of the role of Nicomede.”
Here
apparently, same as with the King Louis XIV, the sly Bulgakov acts in
character, drawing a parallel between the hook-nosed French actor and Judas in Pontius Pilate, while doing the same in
comparing Niza to the French King on account of a capricious lip.
Therefore
all of them must be actors. In a sense, it must be so, because M. Bulgakov was
writing plays and very much wanted all his works to be staged or adapted for
the cinema screen. But the main way that he leads the researcher off the right
track is by showing the heroes of Master
and Margarita as “foreigners.”
As
for the actors of the Royal Bourgogne Theatre, having been stunned by Molière’s
comedy and by the actors’ performance, they decided that Molière was the devil,
and his actors were demons.
“Thanks to [Philippe] d’Orleans! Thank you for
bringing [to Paris] from the provinces -- demons! The devil! The devil! What
actor-comedian?”
That’s
what the sly Bulgakov writes, reminding us of the appearance of a “foreigner”
on Patriarch Ponds. It is for a reason that Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy renounces
his official title as Chairman of the Housing Committee:
“You are Nikanor Ivanovich
Bosoy, Chairman of the Housing Committee?
On hearing his, Nikanor Ivanovich burst into a horrible laughter,
and responded literally with the following:
Yes, I am Nikanor, surely,
Nikanor. But what-the-joker Chairman am I?! Had I been Chairman, I would have
instantly established that he [Koroviev] was a demonic creature! If he wasn’t,
what would that be? A cracked pince-nez, dressed in rags… What kind of
interpreter to a foreigner could he possibly be?
God True, God Almighty... He
sees all! And as for me – it serves me right: The Lord punisheth me for my
filth... But foreign currency – I never took it! If you wish, I’ll eat earth
that I didn’t... And Koroviev – he is the devil!”
What
is the sly Bulgakov trying to say by this? That Satan really invades human
bodies? Or that talented people possess superior powers from God? What do you
think, my reader?
Only
in the 12th chapter of the novel Molière
does Bulgakov explain:
“Had there been no such famous book – Register – handwritten by a young man who called himself Charles
Varlais sieur de Lagrange, former actor in the lead role – we would have known
even less about our hero [Molière], meaning that we would have known next to
nothing about him.
From the very first day of having been admitted into the troupe,
sieur de Lagrange equipped himself with a thick notebook in which he entered
daily everything that was going on in Molière’s troupe.”
I
cannot help being reminded of Yeshua’s words in the 2nd chapter of Master and Margarita: Pontius Pilate:
“So it was you who were going
to destroy the Temple building and incited the people to do so?.. It is clearly
written here: incitement to destroy the Temple. This is what people are testifying
to.
These good people have
learned nothing and got totally mixed up over what I had told them. Generally
speaking, I am beginning to worry that this mix-up is going to last for a very
long time. And all because he was writing down after me incorrectly.”
Yeshua
is talking about Matthew Levi here, whose prototype in Bulgakov is the Russian
poet and writer Andrei Bely. (See my Chapter The Garden.)
Two
more scenes in the novel Molière are
connected to Yeshua in the subnovel Pontius
Pilate. In the 17th chapter
After the Death of a Jealous Prince, M. Bulgakov very cautiously but surely
deals with the arrest of Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finance of
France.
As
the researcher knows, the 17th chapter of Master and Margarita is titled A
Troublesome Day. In this chapter virtually out of nowhere we are confronted
with the arrest of the Accountant of the Variety Theater Vasili Stepanovich
Lastochkin.
Bulgakov
took a big risk with the numbering of both chapters (#17) and also with the
occupation of the two arrestees in these chapters. Pointing to Judas in N. S.
Gumilev’s case, where Gumilev is the prototype of the accountant Lastochkin,
Bulgakov switches to a mystical tone. From this short excerpt, if we paraphrase
it, it becomes clear that a woman was a participant in the slandering of Gumilev.
Bulgakov shows it through Fouquet’s letter – which was found by someone – to a
certain Mlle De Lavaliere, who happened to be the King’s mistress.
To
be continued…
***
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