Léandre

( 2 syl. ), son of Géronte ( 2 syl. ). During the absence of his father, he fell in love with Zerbinette, whom he supposed to be a young gypsy, but who was in reality the daughter of Argante ( 2 syl. ), his father’s friend. Some gypsies had stolen the child when only four years old, and required £1500 for her ransom—a sum of money which Scapin contrived to obtain from Léandre’s father under false pretences. When Géronte discovered that his son’s bride was the daughter of his friend Argante, he was quite willing to excuse Scapin for the deceit practiced on him.—Molière, Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671). (In Otway’s version of this comedy, called The Cheats of Scapin , Léandre is Anglicized into “Leander;” Géronte is called “Gripe;” Zerbinette is “Lucia;” Argante is “Thrifty;” and the sum of money £200). Léandre , the lover of Lucinde, daughter of Géronte ( 2 syl. ). Being forbidden the house, Lucinde pretended to be dumb, and Léandre, being introduced in the guise of an apothecary, effects a cure by “pills matrimoniac.”—Molière, Le Médec in Malgré Lui (1666).