George Dandin ou le Mari confondu

George Dandin ou le Mari confondu (Georges Dandin or the Confounded Husband) is a French comedy-ballet in three acts by Molière, with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully. It premiered at the Palace of Versailles, seen by Louis XIV and his court, on 18 July 1668, during the Le Grand divertissement royal (Grand Royal Entertainment) celebrating the Treaty of Aachen, then given to the public at the theatre of the Palais-Royal beginning on 9 November 1668.

Court historian André Félibien summarized the play in the official brochure (1668) this way: "The subject is that a wealthy peasant, who has married the daughter of a country gentleman, receives nothing but contempt from his wife as well as his handsome father and mother-in-law, who only accepted him as their son-in-law because of his possessions and wealth". [1]

Concerning Dandin's pretensions as a nouveau-riche gentleman, specifically his costume (as played by the playwright), Roger Chartier wrote, "Such a costume, which has nothing peasant about it, could immediately be recognized as an outrageous, forced, old-fashioned imitation of the aristocratic outfit." (Chartier 1994, p. 302) [2]

Contemporary scholar Roland Racevskis summarized it this way: "The action centers on the woes of [George Dandin], a wealthy peasant who has entered into a misalliance by marrying Angélique, the daughter of a pair of caricatural provincial nobles, Monsieur and Madame de Sotenville [the latter played in female cross-dress] ... Dandin must repeatedly endure the humiliation of recognizing the social superiority of the Sotenvilles and of apologizing to the wife who is cuckolding him all the while."[3]