Les Fourberies de Scapin (literally, "Scapin's Deceits") is a three-act comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 by French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 Molière

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

. The title character Scapin is similar to the archetypical Scapino

Scapino

Scapino, Scappino, or Scapin, is a zanni character from the commedia dell'arte. His name is related to the English word "escape" in reference to his tendency to flee from fights, even those he himself begins. He has been dated to the last years of the 16th century, and his creation is sometimes...

 character. The play was first staged in 1671 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

The original play is in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 but, like many of Molière

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

's plays, it has been translated into many different languages. Adaptations in English include Scapino! by Frank Dunlop

Frank Dunlop (director)

Frank Dunlop is a British theatre director.-Early life:Dunlop was born in Leeds, England to Charles Norman Dunlop and Mary Aarons...

 and Jim Dale

Jim Dale

Jim Dale, MBE is an English actor, voice artist, singer and songwriter. He is best known in the United Kingdom for his many appearances in the Carry On series of films and in the US for narrating the Harry Potter audiobook series, for which he received two Grammy Awards, and the ABC series Pushing...

, which has also been further adapted by Noyce Burleson. Bill Irwin

Bill Irwin

William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on...

 and Mark O'Donnell

Mark O'Donnell

Mark O’Donnell is an American writer and humorist. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1976. He was a member of the Harvard Lampoon, where he held the position of Ibis...

 have also adapted the play, as Scapin. Despite a few alterations and modernization of language, the play still retains much of its original structure.

Characters

Scapin : Léandre's valet and "fourbe" (a rough translation of "fourbe" is "a deceitful person")
Léandre : Son of Géronte and lover of Zerbinette
Octave : Son of Argante and lover of Hyacinthe
Géronte : Father of Léandre and of Hyacinthe
Argante : Father of Octave and of Zerbinette
Hyacinthe : Daughter of Géronte and lover of Octave
Zerbinette : Daughter of Argante and lover of Léandre
Silvestre : Octave's valet
Carle : "Fourbe"
Nérine : Hyacinthe's wet nurse
Two porters

Plot

Scapin constantly lies and tricks people to get ahead. He is an arrogant, pompous man who acts as if nothing were impossible for him. However, he is also a diplomatic genius. He manages to play the other characters off of each other very easily, and yet manages to keep his overall goal — to help the young couples — in sight.

In their fathers' absence, Octave has secretly married Hyacinthe and Léandre has secretly fallen in love with Zerbinette. But the fathers return from a trip with marriage plans for their respective sons. Scapin, after hearing many pleas for help, comes to their rescue. Thanks to many tricks and lies, Scapin manages to come up with enough money from the parents to make sure that the young couples get to stay married. But, no one knows who Hyacinthe and Zerbinette really are. It ends in the classic "And they lived happily ever after," and Scapin is even brought to the head of the table at the ending feast (even though he has to fake a fatal wound to make it happen).

Quotes

"À vous dire la vérité, il y a peu de choses qui me soient impossibles, quand je veux m'y mêler."

Scapin, Act 1, Scene 2

"To tell you the truth, there are few things that I find impossible, when I want to do them."

"Il vaut mieux encore d'être marié que mort."

Scapin, Act 1, Scene 4

"It's better to be married than to be dead."

"Mais que diable est-il allé faire dans cette galère?"

Géronte, Act 2, Scene 7

"What the devil was he doing in that galley?"

(This line prompted a new word in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

: "galère" now also has the meaning "a cumbersome, painful business.")