Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2021
In a Tunisian production of L'Ecole des Femmes, Arnolphe wore a red tarboosh with a green band around it. The green band meant he had made a pilgrimage to Mecca. Arnolphe was full of dignity and refinement, rarely flew into a rage, and only on one or two occasions leveled at his servants a long black stick with a bent silver handle. For the most part he was smiling, ironical, had an air of superiority, was certain of his absolute rights. He was a merchant—an honest and experienced merchant. Agnes was his property: he had bought her as a child, was maintaining her and bringing her up to be his wife. She should be obedient. She must not know too much.
The quotations from La Bruyere's Characters have been given in the translation by Henri van Laun, Oxford University Press, 1963, pp. 36, 132, 257-260. The quotation from Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus has been given in the translation by Justin O'Brien, Hamish Hamilton, 1955, p. 64. Other quotations have been rendered by the present translator. Copyright for this English translation reserved by: B. Taborski, 66 Esmond Road, Bedford Park, London W. 4, England.