Malade Imaginaire

( Le ), Mons. Argan, who took seven mixtures and twelve lavements in one month instead of twelve mixtures with twenty lavements, as he had hitherto done. “No wonder,” he says, “he is not so well.” He fancies his wife loves him dearly, and that his daughter is undutiful, because she declines to marry a young medical prig instead of Cléante ( 2 syl. ) whom she loves. His brother persuades “the malade” to counterfeit death, in order to test the sincerity of his wife and daughter. The wife rejoices greatly at his death, and proceeds to filch his property, when Argan starts up and puts an end to her pillage. Next comes the daughter’s turn. When she hears of her father’s death, she bewails him with great grief, says she has lost her best friend, and that she will devote her whole life in prayer for the repose of his soul. Argan is delighted, starts up in a frenzy of joy, declares she is a darling, and shall marry the man of her choice freely, and receive a father’s ble ing.—Molière, Le Malade Imaginaire (1673).