The Glass of Water

rdf:langString The Glass of Water

rdf:langString The Glass of Water: or, Effects and Causes (French: Le verre d’eau ou Les effets et les causes) is an 1840 five-act stage comedy by the French writer Eugène Scribe that is set at the court of Queen Anne of Great Britain during the early 18th century. It premiered at the Théâtre-Français in Paris on 17 November 1840 and has been translated into several languages, including into German in 1841 by Alexander Cosmar. The play is a prime example of the well-made play or 'Pièce bien faite', in which all the characters' motivations are so interlocked that the action at any given point is markedly consistent in an almost positivist way, with the political and historical processes making up its theme acting perfectly logically and consistently. Its subtitle Effects and Causes clearly refers to this understanding of history and theories of progression, typical of the mid 19th century.