Pourceaugnac and Dreynar: Tribulations of a Newcomer

Patryk Kencki

Abstract

An introduction to edition of Franciszek Bohomolec comedy Dziedzic chytry [A Wily Heir], Polish version of Molière’s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac. Bohomolec wrote his comedies first for theater shows put on by Jesuit schools and then for the national stage founded by King Stanislaw August Poniatowski. In the first of these phases, the Jesuit poet often adapted works by playwrights who are now classics. One of the authors particularly favoured by him was Molière. Since the Society of Jesus did not allow female characters on stage (the actors performing in the shows were the boys studying in the Jesuit schools), Bohomolec was forced to remodel some motifs, characters and their motivations. Taking Molière’s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac for adaptation, he decided to replace the reason why the title character arrived in the capital. Pourceaugnac travelled from Limoges to Paris to marry a woman who was in love with another man, whereas his Polish counterpart, Dreynar, comes from Wrocław to Warsaw to accept an inheritance from his uncle. In Molière’s play, the misfortunes that befell the good-natured newcomer were concocted by the couple rightfully defending their love. In Bohomolec’s case, the culprit is a relative who is anxious not to lose claim to the inheritance. Dziedzic chytry [A Wily Heir] is thus provided with a message quite different from Molière’s original. The Polish version conveys avarice, hostility towards the stranger, and not a small dose of cynicism. The undeserved indignities and grievances visited upon the newcomer situate the play among the literary works which present an overabundance of human misery, the most emblematic of them being Justine by Marquis de Sade.