John Cumberland’s 1830 edition of Animal Magnetism suggests the costume directions based on 1788 and 1826 performances at Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.
ACT ONE.
The setting is in Paris, inside the Doctor’s private suite. Lady Constance swoons to her maid Lisette about how often Marquis De Lancy visits her windows despite their situation of being locked inside. These women aspire to be physically and socially freed from the Doctor and his apothecary, Jeffrey, who detains them. Constance reports seeing a stranger talking with her beloved Marquis. The stranger attempted to but failed to give Constance a letter at her window. Lisette deduces that the disguised man is none other than the Marquis’ valet, La Fleur, attempting to deliver a letter of his master’s declarations of love to Constance and explaining his scheme to free her from her greedy, guardian Doctor.
Wasting no time, Lisette writes a letter on behalf of Constance and brings it with her outside to the locked garden gates, which is guarded by Jeffrey. Jeffrey has had unnecessary surgery done on him by the Doctor, suggesting that the Doctor isn’t kind nor smart. His leg is infected from a dog bite, which, in being unable to cure his apothecary, the Doctor ordered the dog to be killed under the pretense that it was mad with disease. Feigning pity for him, Lisette flirts with Jeffrey to convince him to give her the key to open the garden gate but fails to do so. Jeffrey exits teasingly, and Lisette remains angrily. Constance guesses that if the Marquis fails to save them, she will be forced into marrying the Doctor as he wishes and Lisette to Jeffrey.
Constance: My dear Lisette, If our two lovers, the Marquis and his Servant, prove no more fortunate in their schemes, than we have been in ours, I fear, I must according to his desire, marry the Doctor—and you Jeffrey.
Inchbald 9, I
The Doctor arrives home and complains to the ladies about how the Faculty of registered doctors refused to grant him a diploma, stating that his uneducated practices have harmed lives instead of improving them. The Doctor boasts that his talent will get him into the cult of Magnetists, whom he believes that their powers will be of much use to giving him credibility.
La Fleur arrives disguised as Doctor Mystery, leader of the Magnetists to invite him into their group. The Doctor entreats La Fleur to explain how animal magnetism works.
La Fleur: This fluid is like a river […] it overflows the country round—throws down villages, hamlets, houses, trees, cows and lambs; but remove obstacles which obstruct its course, and it begins again, softly and sweetly to flow—thus—thus— thus—the fields are again adorned, and every thing goes on, as well as it can go on.—Thus it is with the Animal Fluid, which fluid obeys the command of my art.
12, I
The Doctor asks La Fleur to demonstrate his powers to change illnesses in a person but doesn’t want to be on the receiving end. So, he agrees to have La Fleur’s patient brought to his home. The ladies engage La Fleur in more conversation so as to prompt him to create a distraction for their letter exchanging. La Fleur describes a play about a group of young people stopping an elderly man from marrying his female ward, which reflects Constance’s difficult situation.
The valet in this play, just as La Fleur does, hugs the Doctor and then secretly exchanges letters with a serving maid, just as Lisette does.
LA FLEUR. An honest Gentleman of about 70 years age was before the audience in love with a young [Page 15 ] lady of 18 whom he had brought up from her infancy, and whom he meant make his wife.
15, I
DOC. Very natural.
LA FLEUR. A young Gentleman of the neighbourhood because he was young, rich, and handsome, imagined he would suit the lady better.
DOC. Just like them all.
LA FLEUR. He therefore disguised his Valet, who under the mask of friendship introduced himself to this good man the guardian.
DOC. A villain, he deserv’d to be hang’d.
LA FLEUR. And seiz’d the moment when he embraced him as I now embrace you—to stretch out his hand, while it was behind him, and convey a letter to the Lady’s waiting maid.
(La Fleur embraces the Doctor, and exchanges Letters with Lisette, Lisette gives the the letter she receives to Constance, La Fleur puts the other into his pocket.)
LIS. And she gave him another—I have seen the play myself—and it was very well acted.
LA FLEUR. And is it not scandalous to put such examples before young people?
The women exit to read the letter. La Fleur pretends to sympathize with the Doctor on Constance’s indifference, by entrusting to him a wand that he claims, through the practice of animal magnetism, will make the woman in range fall in love with him.
ACT TWO
Constance and Lisette pretend to be in love with the Doctor, and then Jeffrey, who each take turns waving the wand over the women. Lisette pretends to adore the Doctor to annoy him, as she knows he only wants Constance. La Fleur returns to the house with the Marquis, disguised as a patient. While the Doctor is busy complaining to La Fleur to remove Lisette from his influence, the Marquis and Constance whisper their declarations of love to each other. La Fleur takes the wand to remove the supposed spell on Lisette, and they too, whisper their declarations of love to each other. Then La Fleur asks the Doctor to direct the Marquis to change his state from madness to lust. The Doctor does so, and the Marquis openly woos Constance, who reciprocates his words with enthusiasm, much to the Doctor’s jealousy. Taking Constance as his muse, the Marquis sings of pastoral elements that whisk the characters into a dance and off the stage.
MARQUIS. What thrilling transport rushes to my heart; all nature appears to my ravished eyes more beautiful than poets ever formed! Aurora dawns– the feather’d songsters chant their most melodious strains, the gentle zephyrs breath their choicest perfumes, and the inspiring scene intoxicates my very soul.
25-26, II
DOC. Come change this sit into another.
MAR..And you who listen to me partake my joy, come and dwell with me under the shady branches of the riverside, come lovely shepherdess
(takes hold of Constance )
come young shepheard,
(takes hold of the Doctor )
mingle in the dance.
LIS. Come young shepherd,
(takes hold of the Doctor with one hand, then La Fleur with the other.)
DOC. I can’t dance.
MAR. In vain you’re refuse, press with gentle steps the mossy banks, and join in the rural pastime
(takes [page 26] them round the stage and exit, the Doctor awkward and unwillingly.)
ACT THREE.
Lisette “But when is this farce to end!”
26, III
Lisette and La Fleur persuade the Doctor that his loyal apothecary is infected and mad from the dog bite he received earlier.
LIS. And I’ll give you the true proof immediately
28, III
(takes a glass of water and throws it on him.)
JEF. What’s that for, how dare you use me thus.
(in great passion.)
LIS. There, you see what a dislike has to water.
LA FLEUR. That is a symptom, which confirms our suspicious.
DOC. (wich an air of skill)
An evident sign of the Hydrophobia.
LA FLEUR. Yes! of the Hydrophobia.
La Fleur declares magnetism cannot cure Jeffrey’s supposed madness so they must kill him, which the Doctor assents to. Lisette whispers to Jeffrey to flee for his own life, which he does. La Fleur uses this chance to exit after Jeffrey and make sure he doesn’t return. Constance brings in the Marquis, claiming that his illness has worsened, and she urges the Doctor to use magnetism to cure him. The Doctor desperately waves the wand around as the Marquis pretends to worsen in his symptoms, and then die.
Concerned if he should be criminally prosecuted with a corpse in his house, the Doctor exits to find his own concoctions in attempt to revive his dead patient. La Fleur returns and the Marquis orders that they switch roles as the Dead Patient.
MAR. Ask no questions, but lie down on that couch and counterfeit being dead.
31, III
Lis. Your master has been doing it this half hour.
LA FLEUR.
(dressing himself)
It is very strange, but since you command it—
MAR. Dare not stir, or breath,—all depends on your acting well, you must have your face powder’d, (Lisette powders his face) that he may not know you
LA FLEUR. Now I am in character.
La Fleur dons the costume of the Dead Patient while his master, Marquis, runs out to get his actors dressed as Faculty Doctors. The Doctor returns and fails to revive the Dead Patient with his own medicine, so he exits to get torturous instruments. Breaking out of his role, La Fleur protests to Lisette about being tortured, so she coaxes him to endure his role several more times.
The Doctor returns and is interrupted in his experiments by the Marquis, who, dressed as himself, leads into the room Piccard and Francois, actors who pretend to be from the Faculty of Doctors. They claim to prosecute the Doctor for his unlawful experiments and tragedies. The Doctor pleads for the Marquis to pardon him; the Marquis agrees he will if the Doctor signs over his guardianship of Constance to him. Constance pretends to stay magnetized and committed to the Doctor, so he relinquishes the wand to the Marquis. Both Constance and the Doctor sign the Marquis’ contract. La Fleur rises and resumes being openly alive again, much to the Doctor’s astonishment.
DOC. I am cheated, defrauded,—what, ho, neighbours,—here are thieves, murderers.
36, III
(calling.)
MAR. Nay, Doctor, reflect upon the arts you made use of, to keep my Constance yours, even in spite of her inclination, then do not comdemn the artifice I employed to obtain her, with her own consent. A reward like this urged me to encounter every hazard and every danger. For believe me doctor there is no Magnetism, like the powerful Magnetism of Love.
The Doctor realizes that he has been tricked and protests at their trickery, but the Marquis reasons to him that he got what he deserved, as he detained Constance with his own trickery through Jeffrey too. The Marquis ends the play by declaring himself a hero for fighting for his love.
FINIS
Final Thoughts
I enjoyed reading Lisette and Le Fleur’s provocations at Jeffrey and the Doctor, which characterizes them as clever and daring, despite their seemingly inferior social position as servants. They work well together, and they obtain temporary authority by tricking the elder men. The Marquis’ melodramatic acting as the Patient was also entertaining, as was Constance’s incessant worrying. The young people are presented as the rightful heroes who overthrow the wills of the elder Doctor and Jeffrey. This theme echoes the pro-revolutionary attitudes at the time.
Works Cited
Inchbald, Elizabeth. “Animal Magnetism: a Farce, in Three Acts.” Edited by Cumberland John, HathiTrust Digital Library, University of California, catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012434520/Home.
Inchbald, Elizabeth. “Animal magnetism, a farce: in three acts, as performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent-garden.” Eighteenth Century Collections Online Text Creation Partnership, University of Oxford Text Archive. 2003. http://ota.ox.ac.uk/tcp/headers/K05/K050375.000.html
Animal Magnetism, a farce in three acts (1789) 