Dealing still with the Eugenie translation. I technically have finished it, in that the 'primary' translation is done -- it's all polishing from here. Unfortunately, I can see why this play didn't have the staying power of Figaro -- the ending is kind of dated.
The story of Eugenie, first performed in 1767, concerns a girl of noble birth (Eugenie) who has secretly married an Earl, little suspecting that the marriage was a ruse staged by the Earl, whose family has their own plans about whom he should be marrying. His plan was basically to trick Eugenie into thinking she'd married him so that he could enjoy all the benefits of marriage, then keep her hidden so that she'd never find out about his other marriage and his family would never find out about her. At the start of the pay Eugenie is already pregnant and unaware that her marriage wasn't genuine. Most of the play concerns the process of finding this out and the reactions of Eugenie and her family to this.
Unfortunately, the ending goes as so: Eugenie's shock and horror at the events have caused her to come down with some kind of consumption, and she's dying of grief. However, the Earl has seen the error of his ways, has admitted his deeds to his family and called off his other wedding, and comes to tell this to Eugenie. After everything he's done, however, this apology isn't adequate for her. So then the Earl just tells her that since she's already pregnant she has no choice, and that it would be wrong to deprive the baby of his noble rank, and then Eugenie's father agrees. So Eugenie follows her father's instructions and weakly agrees to forgive the Earl, and this is presented as a happy ending.
Thing is the ending is supposed to present it, firstly, as a triumph that her father finally agrees to her marriage because it's set up somewhat that Eugenie's disobeyment of her father's wishes is a major problem -- which is hard to swallow since the match he had in mind for Eugenie otherwise, before knowing of the Earl, sounded so awful -- and secondly it seems to have been felt that even a bad husband/father to Eugenie and her baby would be superior to none at all -- and nowadays that's definitely not the attitude.
It's not really my job to rewrite the script, but there's only so much softening of this and emphasizing of that I could do to try to make it more bearable to a modern audience. Looking it over, it seems like actually cutting most of the dialogue would improve the scene -- just have the Earl appear to apologize and then cut to the happy ending as if Eugenie had accepted the apology, instead of him going on and on with what now seem like rather bad and rather arrogant arguments for why she HAS to forgive him, instead of why she should want to. One could even just cut down the final scene by half and end it with an appearance like Eugenie has died, and it would still come off as a better ending by modern standards.
The real basis of the story is the Earl and his bad actions, and as long as it closes with him seeing and trying to fix his mistakes, it is acceptable. Eugenie may be the title role, but she could probably be replaced with a bowl of flan if an understudy weren't available and the plot wouldn't be much altered.
The story of Eugenie, first performed in 1767, concerns a girl of noble birth (Eugenie) who has secretly married an Earl, little suspecting that the marriage was a ruse staged by the Earl, whose family has their own plans about whom he should be marrying. His plan was basically to trick Eugenie into thinking she'd married him so that he could enjoy all the benefits of marriage, then keep her hidden so that she'd never find out about his other marriage and his family would never find out about her. At the start of the pay Eugenie is already pregnant and unaware that her marriage wasn't genuine. Most of the play concerns the process of finding this out and the reactions of Eugenie and her family to this.
Unfortunately, the ending goes as so: Eugenie's shock and horror at the events have caused her to come down with some kind of consumption, and she's dying of grief. However, the Earl has seen the error of his ways, has admitted his deeds to his family and called off his other wedding, and comes to tell this to Eugenie. After everything he's done, however, this apology isn't adequate for her. So then the Earl just tells her that since she's already pregnant she has no choice, and that it would be wrong to deprive the baby of his noble rank, and then Eugenie's father agrees. So Eugenie follows her father's instructions and weakly agrees to forgive the Earl, and this is presented as a happy ending.
Thing is the ending is supposed to present it, firstly, as a triumph that her father finally agrees to her marriage because it's set up somewhat that Eugenie's disobeyment of her father's wishes is a major problem -- which is hard to swallow since the match he had in mind for Eugenie otherwise, before knowing of the Earl, sounded so awful -- and secondly it seems to have been felt that even a bad husband/father to Eugenie and her baby would be superior to none at all -- and nowadays that's definitely not the attitude.
It's not really my job to rewrite the script, but there's only so much softening of this and emphasizing of that I could do to try to make it more bearable to a modern audience. Looking it over, it seems like actually cutting most of the dialogue would improve the scene -- just have the Earl appear to apologize and then cut to the happy ending as if Eugenie had accepted the apology, instead of him going on and on with what now seem like rather bad and rather arrogant arguments for why she HAS to forgive him, instead of why she should want to. One could even just cut down the final scene by half and end it with an appearance like Eugenie has died, and it would still come off as a better ending by modern standards.
The real basis of the story is the Earl and his bad actions, and as long as it closes with him seeing and trying to fix his mistakes, it is acceptable. Eugenie may be the title role, but she could probably be replaced with a bowl of flan if an understudy weren't available and the plot wouldn't be much altered.
I'm intrigued by the way people thought in past ages, and how they compare to present day sensibilities.