Cuckolds of the Imagination in Molière Arguments for an Epicurean Reading of the Dramaturgy of Amorous Spite

In Molière’s plays Sganarelle ou le Cocu imaginaire and Dom Garcie de Navarre, the dramaturgy of amorous spite proves compatible with an Epicurean phenomenology of perception. Jalous people have great imagination, and the playwright excels in staging the errors and mix-ups caused by the dubious opinions troubling their minds. The Epicurean diagnostic is pertinent, but eventually Molière ends up finding a remedy inspired by Montaigne rather than Lucretius.