Molière (1622-1673)

French satirical dramatist and actor. Modern French comedy developed from his work. After the collapse of the Paris-based Illustre Théâtre (of which he was one of the founders), Molière performed in the provinces 1645-58. In 1655 he wrote his first play, L'Etourdi/The Blunderer, and on his return to Paris produced Les Précieuses ridicules/The Affected Ladies (1659). His satires include L'Ecole des femmes/The School for Wives (1662), Le Misanthrope (1666), Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme/The Would-Be Gentleman (1670), and Le Malade imaginaire/The Imaginary Invalid (1673). Other satiric plays include Tartuffe (1664) (banned for attacking the hypocrisy of the clergy; revised in 1667; banned again until 1699), Le Médecin malgré lui/Doctor in Spite of Himself (1666), and Les Femmes savantes/The Learned Ladies (1672).

Molière's art marked a new departure in the French theatre away from reliance on classical Greek themes. In his comedies the ideal hero of classical tragedy gave way to the flawed human individual with all his or her foibles and vices. Molière presents his characters firmly planted in their surroundings, not detached from them, and thus illuminates the whole group to which the character belongs. His chief aim seems to have been to amuse by depicting things as they really were, in strict truthfulness to life. It is uncertain whether he had any deliberate moral designs on his audiences by his exposure of hypocrisy and cant. However, there is little room for sympathy in the amusement evoked by his characters, and this made Molière vulnerable to many attacks (from which he was protected by Louis XIV).

The son of a rich upholsterer, he was born in Paris, educated by Jesuits at the Collège de Clermont, and read law at the university of Orléans. He was drawn to the theatre and became an actor 1643, cofounded the Illustre Théâtre, and adopted the name Molière. The company ended in bankruptcy, and Molière was jailed for debt, but his father bailed him out. He then took the troupe to the provinces and for the next 12 or 13 years they travelled from town to town to put on performances. Molière was not only the manager of the troupe and an actor, but the adapter of the plays they presented and, soon, an author himself. At first he wrote farces of the orthodox Italian type with stock characters. Some of these he afterwards recast and developed into real comedies, for example Le Fagotier became Le Médecin malgré lui. Two works of comedy proper mark this period: L'Etourdi and Le Dépit amoureux/The Amorous Quarrel 1656.

With the help of a reputation won in the provinces, and the patronage of the Prince de Conti, who introduced him through the king's brother to the king and queen, Molière launched his troupe in Paris under the title ‘Troupe de Monsieur’. In 1658 his company acted Corneille's tragedy Nicomède before Louis XIV, but the reception was tepid. Molière saved the situation with his now vanished farce, Le Docteur amoureux. As pièce de début before the Parisian public he gave Les Précieuses ridicules, the first satire on French would-be cultivated society, especially as seen in the provinces. Its truthfulness to life, gaiety, and good humour secured for Molière the public favour and his troupe moved to Richelieu's theatre in the Palais Royal, where they remained until his death. They subsequently amalgamated with their rivals, the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and so formed a company which, housed in various premises, has preserved throughout the historic name of the Comédie Française.

Comedy after comedy followed with remarkable rapidity for 13 years. Molière endeavoured to bring comedy up to the standard of tragedy, even to surpass it if possible, but he was obliged for financial reasons to also provide conventional farces and, to satisfy the taste of the court, operatic comedies or comedy-ballets, such as Les Fâcheux/The Impertinents, in which the words are only a pretext for music and dancing. Sganarelle was produced 1660; Don Garcie de Navarre/Don Garcia of Navarre, L'Ecole des maris/The School for Husbands, and Les Fâcheux 1661. L'Ecole des femmes, in which, as in L'Ecole des maris, Molière shows what happens when people's natural tendencies are ignored, was a brilliant success, but it brought upon its author those jealousies and bitter attacks which were to pursue him to the end of his life. To these attacks he replied 1663 in the mordant La Critique de l'Ecole des femmes/School for Wives Criticiz'd and L'Impromptu de Versailles/The Impromptu of Versailles. The first of these pieces is important as an expression of Molière's own views on the true use of rules and the proper duty of a dramatist.

In 1664 Le Mariage forcé/The Forced Marriage, La Princesse d'Elide/The Universal Passion, and the first three acts of Tartuffe were performed. Tartuffe was an attack upon hypocrisy in religion, and its potential to flourish in the home of a devout bourgeois citizen. The religious community, Jesuits and Jansenists alike, feared the satire was, or would be thought to be, of more general application, and they prevailed upon Louis XIV to suppress it. Only after five years was the whole play authorized and played with extraordinary success 1669. Don Juan 1665 was another play in which hypocrisy was attacked; in L'Amour médecin/The Quacks 1665, Le Médecin malgré lui, and Le Malade imaginaire the doctors of the day are pilloried and quackery exposed; sincerity and coquetry almost come to blows in Le Misanthrope; the mortifications of the man who marries into a superior social rank are depicted in George Dandin 1668; L'Avare/The Miser 1668 shows that distrust comes to be the essential characteristic of the miser, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme makes fun of the bourgeois man who aspires to leave his native sphere and become a gentleman.