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Molière, engraved on the frontispiece to his Works.
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Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, also known by his stage name, Molière (January 15, 1622 - February 17 1673) was a French playwright and actor who is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature. [1] Among Molière's best-known dramas are Le Misanthrope, (The Misanthrope), L'École des femmes (The School for Wives), Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur, (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite), L'Avare ou l'École du mensonge (The Miser), and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (The Bourgeois Gentleman).

From a prosperous family and having studied at the Jesuit Clermont College (now Lycée Louis-le-Grand), Molière left with a good education to begin a life in the theater. Thirteen years on the road as an actor helped him to polish his comic abilities while he also began writing, combining Commedia dell'Arte elements with the more refined French comedy.[2]

Through the patronage of a few aristocrats including the brother of Louis XIV, Molière procured a command performance before the King at the Louvre. Performing a classic play by Pierre Corneille and a farce of his own, Le Docteur amoureux (The Doctor in Love), Molière was granted the use of Salle du Petit-Bourbon at the Louvre, a spacious room appointed for theatrical performances. Later, Molière was granted the use of the Palais-Royal, in both locations he found success among the Parisians with plays such as Les Précieuses ridicules (The Affected Ladies), L'École des maris (The School for Husbands) and L'École des femmes (The School for Wives). This royal favour brought a royal pension to his troupe and the title "Troupe du Roi" (The King's Troupe). Molière continued as the official author of court entertainments.[3]

Though he received the adulation of the court and Parisians, Molière's satires attracted criticisms from moralists and the Church. Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite) and its attack on religious hypocrisy roundly received condemnations from the Church while Don Juan was banned from performance. Molière's hard work in so many theatrical capacities began to take its toll and by 1667, he had to take a break from the stage. In 1673, during a production of his final play, Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), Molière, playing the hypochondriac Argan, was seized onstage by a coughing-fit and died a few hours later. In his time in Paris, Molière had completely reformed French comedy.[4]

Life

The son of interior decorator (tapissier) Jean Poquelin and Marie Cressé, the daughter of a perhaps more prosperous bourgeois family, Jean Baptiste Poquelin lost his mother at the age of 10 and doesn't seem to have been particularly close to his father with whom he lived above the Pavillion de Singes on the rue Saint-Honoré in an affluent cartier of Paris. It is likely that his education commenced with studies in a Parisian petty school; this was followed with his enrollment in the prestigious Jesuit College de Clermont to complete his studies.

At the age of 18 Jean Poquelin arranged for his son to receive his title ("Tapissier ordinaire du chambre du Roi") which he had purchased with the payment from Richelieu's enlargement of the court offices. The title required only 3 months' work and an initial cost of 1,200 livres; the title paid 300 livres a year and provided a number of lucrative contracts. Poquelin also studied as a provincial lawyer some time around 1642, probably in Orléans, but it is not documented that he ever qualified. So far he had followed the plan of his father and it had served him well; he had mingled with nobility at the College and seemed destined for a career in office, bright prospects for a boy of 20 in 17th century France.

It was at this point that Molière became disenchanted with his father's plans. At age 21 he decided that he would prefer a career on the stage. He had already crossed paths with the beautiful Madeleine Béjart; taking leave of his father, with 630 livres he joined her in creating L'Illustre Théâtre.

In June 1643, together with his lover Madeleine Béjart and a brother and sister of hers, he founded the theatre company or troupe of L'Illustre Théâtre, which became bankrupt in 1645. Moliere had become head of the troupe; whether this was due to his acting prowess or his legal training, we will never know. However, the troupe had accrued large debts, mostly for the rent of the theatre (a tennis court for Jeu de Paume), for which they owed 2000 livres. Historians differ as to who bailed him out, his father, or perhaps the lover of a member of the troupe; either way after a brief (4 week) stint in gaol he returned to the acting circuit with perhaps a little more sobriety. It was at this time that he began to sign himself with the pseudonym Molière, possibly inspired by a small village of the same name in Southern France close to Le Vigan. It was also likely that he changed his name to spare his father the shame of having an actor in the family (actors, although no longer vilified by the state in the reign of Louis XIV, were still not allowed to be buried in sacred ground).

After his episode in prison, Molière realised that he should do what he ought to have done in the first place and learn his trade. He and Madeleine began their tour of the provinces; this life was to last 14 years, during which he initially played in the company of Charles Dufresne, and subsequently created a company of his own. Few pieces survive from this period, which is documented by La Grange. The most noteworthy are L'Etourdi and Le docteur amoureux; with these two pieces Molière finally moved away from the heavy influence of the Italian Commedia dell'arte whose messy improvisation had scarred his earlier work, and showed the genius for mockery which was to serve him so well in later life. In the course of his travels he met the Prince of Conti, the governor of Languedoc, who became his patron, and named his company after him. This friendship would end later, when Conti, after contracting syphilis (the result of an unfortunate night spent with a prostitute rather than his official mistress), attempted to reconcile himself with religion and so cure himself. Conti acquired a religious advisor, as was the style at the time, who counseled him against maintaining actors and encouraged him to join Molière's enemies in the Parti des Dévots and the Compagnie de Saint Sacrement.

In Lyon, Mademoiselle Duparc, known as Marquise, joined the company. Marquise was courted, in vain, by Pierre Corneille and later became the lover of Jean Racine. Racine offered Molière his tragedy Théagène et Chariclée (one of the first works he wrote after he had left his theology studies), but Molière would not perform it, though he encouraged Racine to pursue his artistic career. It is said that soon thereafter Molière became very angry with Racine when he was told that he had secretly presented his tragedy to the company of the Hôtel de Bourgogne as well.

Arrival in Paris

Molière was forced to reach Paris by stages, staying outside for a few weeks in order to inveigle himself with society gentlemen and allow his reputation to feed in to Paris. Molière reached Paris in 1658 and played at the Louvre (then for rent as a theatre) in Corneille's tragedy Nicomède and in the farce Le docteur amoureux (The Doctor in Love), with some success. He was awarded the title of Troupe de Monsieur (Monsieur was the king's brother) and with the help of Monsieur, his company joined a famous Italian Commedia dell'arte company. He became firmly established at their theatre, Petit-Bourbon, where on November 18, 1659, he performed the premiere of Les Précieuses Ridicules (The Affected Young Ladies), one of his masterpieces.

Les Précieuses Ridicules was the first of Molière's many attempts to make fun of certain mannerisms and affectations then common in France. This primarily mocks the Acadèmie Française, an 'organization' created by Richelieu to organise and classify the rules of the fledgling French theater, they preached unity of time and action, styles of verse. He is often associated with the claim that comedy castigat ridendo mores (criticizes customs through humor), a phrase in fact coined by his contemporary Jean de Santeuil and sometimes mistaken for a classical Latin proverb. The style and the content of his first success were soon at the center of a wide literary debate.

Height of fame

Despite his own preference for tragedy, which he had tried to further with the Illustre Theatre, Molière became famous for his farces, which were generally in one act and performed after the tragedy. Some of these farces were only partly written, and were played in the style of Commedia dell'arte with improvisation over a canovaccio. He also wrote two comedies in verse, but these were less successful and are generally considered less significant.

Les Précieuses won Molière the attention and the criticism of many, but it was not a popular success. He then asked his Italian partner Tiberio Fiorelli, famous for his play Scaramouche, to teach him the techniques of Commedia dell'arte. His 1660 play Sganarelle, ou le Cocu Imaginaire (The Imaginary Cuckold) seems to be a tribute both to Commedia dell'arte and to his teacher. Its theme of marital relationships dramatizes Molière's pessimistic views on the falsity inherent in human relationships. This view is also evident in his later works, and was a source of inspiration for many later authors, including (in a different field and with different effect) Luigi Pirandello. It describes a kind of round dance where two couples believe that each of their partners has been betrayed by the other's and is the first in Molière's 'Jealousy series' which includes Dom Garcie de Navarre (a flop), L'Ecole de Maris and L'Ecole de Femmes.

In 1661, in order to please his patron, Monsieur, who was so enthralled with entertainment and art that he was soon excluded from state affairs, Molière wrote and played Dom Garcie de Navarre, ou le Prince Jaloux (The Jealous Prince), a heroic comedy derived from a work of Cicognini's. Two other comedies of the same year were the successful L'École des Maris (The School for Husbands) and Les Fâcheux, subtitled Comédie faite pour les divertissements du Roi (a comedy for the King's amusements) because it was performed during a series of parties that Nicolas Fouquet gave in honour of the sovereign. These entertainments led Jean-Baptiste Colbert to demand the arrest of Fouquet for wasting public money, and he was condemned to life imprisonment.

In 1662 Molière moved to the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, still with his Italian partners, and married Armande, whom he believed to be the sister of Madeleine; she was in fact her illegitimate daughter, the result of a flirtation with the Duc of Modène in 1643, when Molière and Madeleine were starting their affair. The same year he played L'École des Femmes (The School for Wives), subsequently regarded as a masterpiece. Both this work and his marriage attracted much criticism. The play sparked the protest called the "Quarrel of L'École des femmes." On the artistic side he responded with two lesser-known works: La Critique de "l'École des Femmes", in which he imagined the spectators of his previous work attending it. This perhaps needs some explanation: the piece mocks the people who had criticised L'Ecole des Femmes by showing them at dinner after watching the play; it addresses all the criticism raised about the piece by presenting the critics' arguments and then dismissing them. This was the so-called Guerre Comique (War of Comedy), in which the opposite side was taken by writers like Donneau de Visé, Edmé Boursault, and Montfleury.

File:Moliere Antoine Coypel.jpg
Molière, by Antoine Coypel

But more serious opposition was brewing, focusing on Molière's politics and his personal life. A so-called parti des Dévots arose in French high society, who protested against Molière's excessive "realism" and irreverence, which were causing some embarrassment. These people accused Molière of having married his daughter. The Prince of Conti, once Molière's friend, joined them. Molière had other enemies, too, among them the Jansenists and some traditional authors. However, the King expressed his solidarity with the author, granting him a pension and agreeing to be the godfather of Molière's first son. Boileau also supported him through statements that he included in his Art Poétique.

Molière's friendship with Jean Baptiste Lully influenced him towards writing his Le Mariage Forcé and La Princesse d'Élide (subtitled as Comédie galante mêlée de musique et d'entrées de ballet), written for royal "divertissements" at Versailles.

Le Tartuffe, ou L'Imposteur was also performed at Versailles, in 1664, and created the greatest scandal of Molière's artistic career. Its depiction of the hypocrisy of the dominant classes was taken as an outrage and violently contested.

The King allegedly suggested that Molière suspend the performances of Tartuffe, and the author rapidly wrote Dom Juan, ou le Festin de Pierre to replace it. It was a strange work, derived from a work by Tirso de Molina and inspired by the life of Giovanni Tenorio, rendered in a prose that still seems modern today. It describes the story of an atheist who becomes a religious hypocrite and for this is punished by God. This work too was quickly suspended. The king, demonstrating his protection once again, became the new official sponsor of Molière's troupe.

With music by Lully, Molière presented L'Amour médecin (Love Doctor or Medical Love). Subtitles on this occasion reported that the work was given par ordre du Roi, by order of the king, and this work was received much more warmly than its predecessors.

In 1666, Le Misanthrope was produced. It is now widely regarded as Molière's most refined masterpiece, the one with the highest moral content, but it was little appreciated at its time. It caused the "conversion" of Donneau de Visé, who became fond of his theatre. But it was a commercial flop, forcing Molière to immediately write the Le Médecin malgré lui (The Doctor Despite Himself), a satire against the official sciences. This was a success despite a moral treatise by the Prince of Conti, criticizing the theatre in general and Molière's in particular. In several of his plays, Molière depicted the physicians of his day as pompous individuals who speak (poor) Latin to impress others with false erudition, and know only clysters and bleedings as (ineffective) remedies.

After the Mélicerte and the Pastorale Comique, he tried again to perform Tartuffe in 1667, this time with the name of Panulphe or L'imposteur. As soon as the King left Paris for a tour, Lamoignon and the archibishop banned the play. The King finally imposed respect for Tartuffe a few years later, after he had gained more power over the clergy.

Molière, now ill, wrote less. Le Sicilien, ou l'Amour Peintre was written for festivities at the castle of Saint-Germain, and was followed in 1668 by a very elegant Amphitryon, obviously inspired by Plautus's version but with allusions to the King's love affairs. George Dandin, ou le Mari Confondu (The Confounded Husband) was little appreciated, but success returned with L'Avare (The Miser), now very well known.

With Lully he again used music for Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, for Les Amants Magnifiques, and finally for Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (The Middle Class Gentleman), another of his masterpieces. It is claimed to be particularly directed against Colbert, the minister who had condemned his old patron Fouquet. The collaboration with Lully ended with a tragédie et ballet, Psyché, written in collaboration with Pierre Corneille and Philippe Quinault.

In 1672, Madeleine Béjart died, and Molière suffered from this loss and from the worsening of his own illness. Nevertheless, he wrote a successful Les Fourberies de Scapin (Scapin's Schemings), a farce and a comedy in 5 acts. His following play, La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas, is considered one of his lesser works.

Tomb of Molière in Le Père Lachaise Cemetery. La Fontaine's grave can be seen right behind.

Les Femmes Savantes (The Learned Ladies) of 1672 is considered one of Molière's masterpieces. It was born from the termination of the legal use of music in theatre, since Lully had patented the opera in France, so Molière had to go back to his traditional genre. It was a great success, and it led to his last work, which is held in high esteem.

Death

One of the most famous moments in Molière's life is the last, which became legend: he didn't die on stage, while performing Le Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), he collapsed on stage, and died a few hours later at his house, without sacraments because two priests refused to visit him and the third arrived too late. It is said that he was wearing green, and because of that, there is a superstition that green brings bad luck to actors.

As an actor, he was not allowed by the laws of the time to be buried in an ordinary cemetery, in sacred ground. It was his wife Armande who asked the king Louis XIV to allow a "normal" funeral celebrated at night. The king agreed, and Molière was buried in the part of the cemetery reserved for unbaptized babies. In some accounts of his death, it is said that over 800 people attended his "secret" funeral.[citation needed]

In 1792 his remains were brought to the museum of French monuments and in 1817 transferred to Le Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, close to La Fontaine.

Influence on French culture

Many words or phrases used in Molière's plays are still used in current French:

  • A tartuffe is a hypocrite, especially a hypocrite displaying affected morality or religious piety.
  • A harpagon, named after the main character of The Miser, is an obsessively greedy and cheap man.
  • The statue of the Commander (statue du Commandeur) from Don Juan is used as a model of implacable rigidity (raide comme la statue du Commandeur).
  • In Les Fourberies de Scapin, Act II, scene 7, Géronte is asked for ransom money for his son, allegedly held in a galley. He repeats, "What the devil was he doing in that galley?" ("Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère?") The word galère ("galley") is used in French nowadays to mean "a cumbersome, painful affair".
  • In Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, the title character, M. Jourdain, composes a love note as follows: "Beautiful marchioness, your beautiful eyes make me die from love" ("Belle marquise, vos beaux yeux me font mourir d'amour"). He then asks his philosophy teacher to rephrase the sentence which he does by shuffling the words in nearly every single way ("Beautiful marchioness, from love," etc.). M. Jourdain then asks which phrasing is best and the teacher promptly replies that the first is best. The phrase "Belle marquise..." is now used to indicate that two different sentences mean the same thing.
  • A French film very loosely based on the life of Molière staring Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini and Ludivine Sagnier, called Molière, was released in 2007.

Molière is also considered the creator of modern French comedy.

List of major works

References

  • Hartnoll, Phyllis. ed. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1983.
  • Roy, Donald. "Molière." in Banham, Martin. ed. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
  • Scott, Virginia. "Molière, A Theatrical Life" Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Notes

  1. ^ Hartnoll, p. 554. "Author of some of the finest comedies in the history of the theater." and Roy, p. 756. "...one of the theatre's greatest comic artists."
  2. ^ Roy, p. 756.
  3. ^ Roy, p. 756-7.
  4. ^ Roy, p. 756-7.
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