The “Scouts of Scapin” by Moliere in brief
From the experience of her own youth, knowing well that her eyes and eyes need eyes for sons, Argant and Geront, when they left Naples on business, were assigned to the care of their servants: Octave, the son of Argant, was left under the supervision of Sylvester, and the son of Gerond Leandre – Scapen. However, in the role of mentors and supervisors, servants did not painfully zealous, so that young people were free to use the time of parental leave entirely at their discretion.
Leander immediately started a romance with a pretty gypsy Zerbinetta, with whom he spent all his days. One day, Octave was escorting Leandra, and on the way to the place where the gypsy lived, friends heard that from one house there were crying and moaning. For the sake of curiosity, they looked inward and saw the dead old woman, over which a young girl shed tears. Leander thought that she was very good-looking, Octave also fell in love with her without a memory. From that day he only thought that
After the marriage, only three days passed when, from the letter of a relative, Octave learned the terrible news for him: Argant and Geront are not returning tomorrow, and the father has a firm intention to marry Octave to the daughter of Geront, whom no one has ever seen before, since she still lived with his mother in Tarenta. Octave did not want to part with his young wife, and hyacinth begged him not to leave her. Promising her to settle everything with her father, Octave nevertheless had no idea how to do it. One thought of the anger that his father would bring upon him at the meeting, terrified him.
But not without reason Leandra’s servant Scapen was known as a rare scoundrel and a rogue. He willingly undertook to help the grief of Octave – for him it was easy. When Argant attacked Sylvester with a scolding because, due
Argant was beside himself. He regretted that Octave was his only offspring-he had not lost his baby daughter years ago, she could have inherited all her paternal fortune. But also not deprived of the legacy of Octave, there was definitely not enough money, he was pursued by creditors. Skapen promised to help him and in this difficulty, and shake out a couple of hundred pistols from Argant.
Geront, when he learned about the marriage of Octave, was offended by Argant for the fact that he did not keep his word to marry his son to his daughter. He began to reproach Argant with the bad education of Octave, Argant, in polemic fervor, took and said that Leander could do something worse than what Octave had done; while he referred to Scapen, it is clear that the meeting between Geront and his son after that was unpleasant for Leander.
Leander, although his father did not accuse him of anything specific, wished to settle accounts with the traitor Scapen. Scapen, fearing severe brutality, did not admit to anything: he tied a barrel of master’s wine with a friend, then he fell on the maid, and the watch sent by Leander to Zerbinette was pocketed, and he himself broke one night, pretending to be a werewolf, was to chase the servants at night on trifling errands. But the denunciation of him was never listed.
From the continuation of the massacre of Scapin, the man who informed Leandro that the gypsies are leaving the city and taking with them the Zerbinetta saved a man-if Leandre does not make a five-hundred-dollar redemption payment for him in two hours, he will never see her again. The young man had no such money, and he turned to Scapin for help. Servant for decency pogopiralsya, but then agreed to help, especially since it was easier to extract money from the nearer Geronta than from Argant, who was not inferior to him in stinginess.
For Scorpion, Scapen prepared an entire presentation for Argant. He told him that he had been with his brother Hyacintha, a notorious cutthroat and a dashing man, and had agreed to agree to dissolve the marriage for a certain amount. Argant was quickened, but when Skapen said that he needed only two hundred pistoles, he said that it would be better to seek a divorce through the court. Then Skapen set out in the description of the delights of judicial red tape, which, incidentally, is also worth the money-lending; Argant stood on his own.
But there appeared Sylvester, disguised as a thug, and, scattering terrible curses, demanded from Scapin to show him the scoundrel and villainous Argant who wants to sue him in order to obtain the divorce of Octave with his sister. He rushed with a sword to Argantha, but Skapen convinced the supposed thug that it was not Argant, but his worst enemy. Sylvester nevertheless continued to vigorously swing his sword, demonstrating how he will deal with Father Octave. Argant, looking at him, decided at last that it would be cheaper to part with two hundred pistoles.
To lure money from Geront, Scapen came up with the following story: in the harbor a Turkish merchant enticed Leandra to his galley – supposedly wanting to show that different curiosities – and then he left and demanded a ransom of five hundred crowns for the young man; otherwise he intended to sell Leandra to slavery to the Algerians. Believe something, Geront immediately believed, but he really felt sorry for the money. First he said that he would report to the police – and that’s the Turk in the sea! – then he invited Skapen to go hostage instead of Leander, but in the end still parted with the purse.
Octave and Leander were at the top of happiness, having received from Scapin parental money, to which one could buy from the Roma beloved, and another – humanly healed with a young wife. Scapen also intended to reckon with Geront, who had agreed to him before Leander.
Leander and Octave decided that until everything was settled, both Zerbinetta and Hyacinth would be better placed together under the supervision of faithful servants. The girls immediately became friends, only they did not agree in whose position is more difficult: the Hyacinths, who wanted to take away their beloved husband, or Zerbinetta, who, unlike her friend, could never hope to find out who her parents were. To girls not too discouraged, Skapen entertained them with a story about how he deceived the money from the fathers of Octave and Leander. The friends of the story of Scapin amused themselves, but he himself hardly came later.
Meanwhile Skapen got the time to take revenge on Geronta for libel. He frightened Geronta to death with a tale of his brother Hyacinth, who swore to punish him for allegedly intending to divorce Octave through the court, and then marry the young man to his daughter; soldiers from the company of this very brother, according to Scapen, have already blocked all approaches to the house of Geront. Convinced that the story had an expected impact on Geront, Skapen offered his help-he would put the master in a sack and carry it past the ambush. Geralt quickly agreed.
It was worth him to get into the bag, as Skapen, talking to two voices, played a dialogue with a Gascony soldier, a burning hatred for Geront; the servant defended the master, for which he was allegedly severely beaten-in fact, he only lamented, and himself with all his heart thumped a sack with a stick. When the imaginary danger was over and the battered Geront leaned out, Scapen began to complain that most of the blows had nevertheless fallen on his poor back.
Scapen threw out the same number when another soldier allegedly approached him and Geront, but on the third – Skapen was just starting to play the appearance of the whole detachment – Geront leaned slightly out of the bag and understood everything. Scapen was saved by force, and then, as luck would have it, Zerbinetta was walking along the street, which could not calm down at all-Scapen told such a funny story to her. In the face, she did not know Zheronta and willingly shared with him the story of how a young man servant puffed up two greedy old men.
Argant and Geront complained to each other at Scapen when suddenly a woman called out to Geronta – it was the old nurse of his daughter. She told Geront that his second wife – whose existence he was hiding – had long since moved with his daughter from Tarento to Naples and died here. Left without any means and not knowing how to find Geront, the nurse gave Hyacinth married to the young man Octave, for which she now apologized.
Immediately after the father’s Hyacintha, Zerbinetta also found herself: the gypsies whom Leander attributed to her for ransom, told that they had abducted her four-year-old from noble parents; they also gave the young man a bracelet with which his family could identify Zerbinetta. A single glance at this bracelet was enough for Argant to make sure that Zerbinetta was his daughter. All were unspeakably happy, and only the scoundrel-Scapin was expecting a brutal reprisal.
But then a friend of Scapen came running with the news of the accident: Poor Skapen walked by the construction site and a hammer fell on his head, breaking through the skull. When the bound Scapin was brought in, he diligently writhed out the dying and begged Argant and Geront to forgive all the harm caused to them before his death. Of course, he was forgiven. However, hardly anyone was called to the table, Scapen changed his mind and died and joined the festive meal.
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