Molière

Molière [ Jean-Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–73), French dramatist and actor, author of some of the best comedies in the history of the European theatre. Son of a prosperous upholsterer of Paris, attached to the service of the King, he was intended to succeed his father, but in 1643 he renounced his succession and changed his name. (No reason for the adoption of ‘Molière’ has ever been found.) He joined a family of actors named Béjart—perhaps because he had fallen in love with the eldest daughter, Madeleine—in their efforts to establish a theatre group, Illustre-Théâtre, in Paris in a deserted tennis-court. The enterprise failed, but the intrepid actors, probably urged on by Madeleine, decided to take to the provinces. From 1645 to 1658 the company, of which Molière soon became the acknowledged leader, toured in a repertory of old French comedies and partly extemporized farces in the style of the commedia dell' arte. Few of these have survived, and the company's records consist mainly of lists of the towns they visited.

Encouraged by his success in the provinces, Molière decided in 1658 that the time had come to return to Paris, and on 24 Oct. he appeared, under the patronage of Monsieur, the King's brother, at the Louvre, before the young Louis XIV and his Court, in Corneille's tragedy Nicomède. This was a mistake; Molière was no tragedian, all the excellence of his acting lying in comedy. In any case, most of the audience would probably have seen, and preferred, the appearance as Nicomède at the Hôtel de Bourgogne of the actor Montfleury (who was in the audience); Molière's quieter and more natural delivery would not have appealed to them. The future of the new company hung in the balance. Then Molière asked permission to put on a short farce of his own, Le Docteur amoureux. It was an immediate success, and Molière's troupe was given permission to share the theatre at the Petit-Bourbon with an Italian company already established there. The relationship between the rival groups was most cordial, and Molière always acknowledged how much he had learned from the Italians. The production later in 1658 of the one-act Les Précieuses ridicules set the seal on his growing reputation.

By the time he had been in Paris for four or five years, his pre-eminence was virtually unchallenged; and with the success of his comedies, tragedy almost fell out of the repertory. Until his death from overwork Molière enjoyed the appreciation of his audiences and the constant support of Louis XIV, who himself, with members of his Court, danced in several of the ballets (with music by Lully) introduced into the Court entertainments. These began with Les Fâcheux (1661) and included Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670) and, in the same year, Les Amants magnifiques, with which Louis XIV, dancing as Neptune and Apollo, finally ended his theatrical career. The last Court plays were Psyché and La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas (both 1671).

These Court entertainments, shorn of much of their splendid scenery and costumes, were also seen on the stage of the Palais-Royal, which Molière had occupied since 1661. Among the plays written for this stage were L'École des femmes (1662) and its sequel, La Critique de L'École des femmes (1663). In this the part of the heroine was played by the youngest child of the Béjart family, Armande, whom Molière had married the previous year. This led Molière's enemies, particularly Montfleury, to accuse him before the King of having married his own daughter. The King replied to this by commissioning L'Impromptu de Versailles (also 1663), which ridicules Montfleury and his company, and by standing godfather to the couple's first child, who was born and died in 1664. Louis also supported the playwright through the troubles caused by his Don Juan; ou, Le Festin de pierre (1665), which many considered blasphemous, and his Tartuffe (1667), a study of hypocrisy which infuriated the bigots of Paris. But none of this endangered the success of such plays as Le Misanthrope and Le Médecin malgré lui (both 1666), L'Avare (1668), Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671), Les Femmes savantes, and Le Malade imaginaire (both 1672). He was appearing in the leading role in the last on the night he died. Being only an actor, he was buried hastily in unconsecrated ground at dead of night and left in an unmarked grave.

Molière's great achievement was that by his own efforts he raised French comedy to the heights attained in tragedy. His great roles, like those of Shakespeare in England, serve to demonstrate the excellence of successive generations of players, appearing in what is known in his honour as La Maison de Molière. He is not easy for English audiences to understand, either in French or in translation. But he had a great influence on the playwrights of the English Restoration, and later returned to captivate new audiences wherever a worthy translator could be found, as witness the success of such free renderings as Lady Gregory's The Kiltartan Molière, set in the west of Ireland, and the free but spirited renderings of Miles Malleson.