E-text prepared by Delphine Lettau, Lee Chew Hung, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) THE MAGNIFICENT LOVERS (LES AMANTS MAGNIFIQUES) by MOLIÈRE Translated into English Prose. With Short Introductions and Explanatory Notes. by CHARLES HERON WALL The subject of this play was given by Louis XIV. It was acted before him at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, on February 4, 1670, but was never represented in Paris, and was only printed after Molière's death. It is one of the weakest plays of Molière, upon whom unfortunately now rested the whole responsibility of the court entertainments. His attack upon astrology is the most interesting part. Molière acted the part of Clitidas. PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR. The King, who will have nothing but what is magnificent in all he undertakes, wished to give his court an entertainment which should comprise all that the stage can furnish. To facilitate the execution of so vast an idea, and to link together so many different things, his Majesty chose for the subject two rival princes, who, in the lovely vale of Tempe, where the Pythian Games were to be celebrated, vie with each other in fêting a young princess and her mother with all imaginable gallantries. PERSONS REPRESENTED. IPHICRATES & TIMOCLES, _princes in love with_ ERIPHYLE. SOSTRATUS, _a general, also in love with_ ERIPHYLE. ANAXARCHUS, _an astrologer_. CLEON, _his son_. CHOROEBUS, _in the suit of_ ARISTIONE. CLITIDAS, _a court jester, one of the attendants of_ ERIPHYLE. ARISTIONE, _a princess, mother to_ ERIPHYLE. ERIPHYLE, _a princess, daughter to_ ARISTIONE. CLEONICE, _confidante to_ ERIPHYLE. _A sham_ VENUS, _acting in concert with_ ANAXARCHUS. THE MAGNIFICENT LOVERS. FIRST INTERLUDE. _The scene opens with the pleasant sound of a great many instruments, and represents a vast sea, bordered on each side by four large rocks. On the summit of each is a river god, leaning on the insignia usual to those deities. At the foot of these rocks are twelve Tritons on each side, and in the middle of the sea four Cupids on dolphins; behind them the god AEOLUS floating on a small cloud above the waves. AEOLUS commands the winds to withdraw; and whilst four Cupids, twelve Tritons, and eight river gods answer him, the sea becomes calm, and an island rises from the waves. Eight fishermen come out of the sea with mother-of-pearl and branches of coral in their hands, and after a charming dance seat themselves each on a rock above one of the river gods. The music announces the advent of NEPTUNE, and while this god is dancing with his suite, the fishermen, Tritons, and river gods accompany his steps with various movements and the clattering of the pearl shells. The spectacle is a magnificent compliment paid by one of the princes to the princesses during their maritime excursion._