Martine sends them to
the place where her husband is at work, telling them that they will find
him an able doctor. She adds that he has one peculiarity, namely, that
he will not own to his profession unless he is soundly thrashed. Under
the convincing arguments of the two men, Sganarelle admits that he is a
doctor, and follows them to their master's house. Leandre, Lucinde's
lover, persuades Sganarelle to smuggle him into the house as an
apothecary. The two young people with Sganarelle's help contrive an
elopement, but when the marriage is discovered, Geronte visits his wrath
upon the mock doctor, and is only pacified by the news that Leandre has
just inherited a fortune.
The year 1859 saw the production of 'Faust,' the opera with which
Gounod's name is principally associated. The libretto, by MM. Barbier
and Carre does not of course claim to represent Goethe's play in any
way. The authors had little pretension to literary skill, but they knew
their business thoroughly. They fastened upon the episode of Gretchen,
and threw all the rest overboard. The result was a well-constructed and
thoroughly comprehensible libretto, with plenty of love-making and
floods of cheap sentiment, but as different in atmosphere and suggestion
from Goethe's mighty drama as could well be imagined.
The first act shows us Faust as an old man, sitting in his study weary
and disappointed.
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