Béjart

Béjart, French family of actors intimately connected with Molière. The eldest daughter Madeleine (1618–72) was already well known as an actress when Molière met her and joined the company of which she was a member. In her early years she played the heroines of classical tragedy, and in later life created a number of Molière's witty maids. After touring the provinces for some years she returned with him to Paris in 1658, as did her elder brother Joseph (1616–59), her sister Geneviève (1624–75), who was better in tragedy than in comedy, and her younger brother Louis (1630–78), known as L'Éguisé on account of his sharp tongue. He was slightly lame, a trait which Molière incorporated into his part of La Flêche in L'Avare (1668), where it has remained traditional. Joseph, in spite of a slight stutter, was a useful member of the company, and his death so soon after settling in Paris was a great blow.

The youngest and most important member of the family was Armande-Grésinde-Claire-Élisabeth (1642–1700), whom Molière married in 1662. She made her first appearance on the stage as Élise in his Critique de L'École des femmes (1663), and after 1664 played most of Molière's heroines, which he wrote with her in mind. She was an excellent actress who owed all her training to her husband, but their marriage was not a success. After Molière's death she kept the company together until 1680, when it was merged in the newly founded Comédie-Française.