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Molière (Poquelin) Jean-Baptiste
(1622–1673)

French theatre writer, director and actor, one of the masters of satire. The son of a Parisian artisan, Poquelin lost his mother when still a child and entered the prestigious Jesuits' College de Clermont, to complete his studies. It is said that his father was very hard to him, or that in this college he met the prince of Conti, or that he was a pupil of the philosopher Gassendi, but these statements appear to be not really more than unverified hypothesis. In reality, Poquelin was a close friend of the abbe La Mothe Le Vayer, the son of the famous philosopher, in the years in which the abbe was reordering his father's works, and this allows to presume that Poquelin could be somehow influenced by them.

Among his first works, he wrote a translation of De Rerum Natura by Lucretius, now lost. At the age of 18, his father left him the title of Tapissier du Roi, and the annexed charge of valet de chambre by which he could be in frequent contact with the king. Poquelin is supposed having graduated in law at Orleans in 1642 (but some doubts however remain). In June 1643, together with his lover Madeleine Bejart and a brother and a sister of her, he founded the troupe of L'Illustre Theatre, which failed in 1645. At this time he assumed the pseudonym of Moliere, inspired by the name of a small village of Southern France. The failure of the company caused him some weeks of prison for debts. With the help of his father he could be freed and left with Madeleine for a tour of villages as an erratic comician. This life lasted for 14 years, during which he played with the companies of Charles Dufresne, and after that he created a company of his own. In his wandering he met the prince of Conti, the governor of Languedoc, who granted him his protection, and he named his company after him. But this friendship would have ended later, when Conti would joined his enemies in the party of Devotes.

In Lyon Mme Duparc, famous as la Marquise, joined his company. La Marquise was vainly courtshipped by Pierre Corneille and later became the lover of Jean Racine. Racine offered Moliere his tragedy Theagene et Chariclee (one of his first ones after he had left his theology studies), but he didn't play it even if he encouraged Racine to follow his artistic vein. It is said that Moliere was soon very angry with him when he was told that Racine had secretly presented his tragedy to the company of Hetel de Bourgogne too. Moliere reached Paris in 1658 and played at the Louvre (then for rent as a theatre) Corneille's tragedy Nicomede and the farce Le docteur amoureux (the doctor in love), with a certain success. He was awarded the title of Troupe de Monsieur (the Monsieur was the king's brother) and with the help of Monsieur his company joined a locally famous Italian company (that played Commedia dell'arte) and steadily established at their theatre Petit-Bourbon, where in November 18, 1659, he gave the prima of Les Precieuses ridicules (The Affected Young Ladies), one of his masterpieces . It was really the first of his many attempts to extract the ridiculous out of a certain mannerism, a common affectation then in use in France. It was Moliere, indeed, who used to say in latin that satire castigat ridendo mores (it censors costumes [customs?] through the humour - the sentence was created by him but it is sometimes mistook for an ancient expression). The style and the contents of his first success soon were at the center of a deep and wide literary debate.

Despite his inclination for tragedy, Moliere became famous for his farces, generally in one act and played 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 verses, but with less fortune and generally considered of less value. Les precieuses caused Moliere to receive the attention and the criticism of many, but the popular success was undiscussed. He then asked his Italian partner Tiberio Fiorelli, famous for his Scaramouche, to teach him the techniques of Commedia dell'arte, In 1660 his Sganarelle, ou le Cocu imaginaire (the imaginary cuckhold) seems at the same time a tribute to Commedia dell'arte and to his teacher. The theme of marital relationships was here enriched by the insertion of a view of Moliere's about the quantity of falseness in the human relationships, that he depicted with a certain pessimism. This was in his later works too, and was a source of inspiration for really many later authors, included (on another field and with different effects) Luigi Pirandello. In 1661, in order to please his maecenas (Monsieur), he wrote and played Dom Garcie de Navarre, ou le Prince jaloux (the jealous prince), a heroic comedy derived from a Cicognini's work. Monsieur was Philippe, Duke of Orleans, who so much loved entertainmens and art that he soon was excluded from the state affairs. Two other comedies of the same year were the successful L'Ecole des maris (the school for husbands) and Les Facheux, that he subtitled as Comedie faite pour les divertissements du Roi (a comedy for the king's amusements) because played during a series of parties that Nicolas Fouquet gave in honour of the sovereign. These divertissements brought Jean-Baptiste Colbert to require the arrest of Fouquet for waste of public money and his condemnation for life. In 1662 Moliere moved to the Theatre du Palais-Royal, still with his Italian partners, and married Armande, that he supposed the sister of Madeleine while she really was her illegitimate daughter (born by a flirt with Duc of Modene in 1643, when Moliere and Madeleine were starting their adventure). The same year he played L'Ecole des femmes (The School for Wives - [6]), another masterpiece. Both this work and his marriage caused lots of critisism. On the artistic side He answered with two minor yet elegant and interesting works, La Critique de В«Ecole des femmes ( in which he imagined the spectators of his previous work having assisted to it) and L'Impromptu de Versailles ( about Moliere's troupe preparing an improvisation). It was the so-called la guerre comique, that saw on the opposite side known writers like Donneau de Vise, Boursault, Montfleury.

But, more seriously and with less art, in the French high society a so-called parti des Devots was soon created against his excessive "realism" and his irreverence, that were creating a certain embarrassment; these people accused him also of having married his daughter; the prince of Conti too, once his friend, joined them. Other enemies Moliere could find in Jansenists and in traditional authors. The king expressed his solidarity with the author granting him a pension and accepting to be the godfather of Moliere's first son. Soon Boileau was going to support him using some of his own statements, that he included in his Art poetique, and the friensdhip with Jean-Baptiste Lully would have influenced Moliere for his Le Mariage force and La Princesse d'Elide ( subtitled as "Comedie galante melee de musique et d'entrees de ballet"), written for royal "divertissements" at Versailles. Le Tartuffe, ou L'Imposteur ( was given at Versailles too, in 1664, and created the greatest scandal of his artistic career. The outlined general hypocrisy of the dominant classes was received as an outrage and violently contested. The same king (allegedly) suggested him to suspend the performances, and rapidly Moliere wrote Dom Juan, ou le Festin de Pierre. It was a strange theme, derived from a work by Tirso de Molina and inspired by the life of Giovanni Tenorio; rendered in a still today modern prose, it describes the story of an atheist that becomes a religious hypocrite and for this is punished by God. This work too was quickly suspended. The king, to demonstrate again his protection, became the new official sponsor of the troupe.

With a great music by Lully, Moliere presented L'Amour medecin (subtitles this time reported that the work was given "par ordre du Roi", by the king's order). The acceptance of this work was warmer than the previous ones. In 1666, Le Misanthrope ( was produced. It is perhaps Moliere's most refined masterpiece, the one with the highest moral content, and was little appreciated at its time. It caused the "conversion" of Donneau de Vase, who became fond of his theatre. The commercial flop forced Moliere to immediately write the Le Medecin malgre lui (A Doctor Despite Himself), a satire against the official sciences; it was a success despite a moral treatise by the prince of Conti, criticizing theatre (and Moliere's in particular). After the Melicerte and the Pastorale comique ( he tried again to perform the Tartuffe in 1667, this time with the name of Panulphe or L'imposteur. But as soon as the king left Paris for a tour, Lamoignon and the archibishop banned the play (the king finally imposed respect for this work a few years later, when he had gained a more absolute power on clergy).

Fallen ill, Moliere slowened his production. 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' one but with evident allusions to the king's love affairs. George Dandin, ou le Mari confondu ( The Confounded Husband) was tributed a little appreciation, but the success was to come back with L'Avare ( the miser), now very well known.

With Lully he used again music forMonsieur de Pourceaugnac (for Les Amants magnifiques ( and finally for Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme ( The Would-Be Gentleman), one of his masterpieces that is supposed having been particularly directed against Colbert, the minister that had contrasted his old customer Fouquet. The collaboration with Lully ended with a tragedy-ballet, Psyche (written with the help of Thomas Corneille (brother of Pierre). In 1671 Madeleine Bejart died, and Moliere suffered by this loss and by the worsening of his illness. Nevertheless, he gave a successful Les Fourberies de Scapin (Scapin's Schemings), a farce and a comedy in 5 acts; the following La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas was instead not at his usual level. Les Femmes savantes (Learned Ladies) of 1672, was a masterpiece born by the end of possible use of music in theatre, since Lully had somehow patented the opera for France, so Moliere had to go back to his traditional works. It was indeed a true success that was going to lead to his last work, a most appreciated one also. One of the most famous parts of the life of Moliere is the last one, which became proverbial: he died on stage, while performing Le Malade imaginaire. In the reality he has a collapse on scene and died a few hours after at his house, without sacraments because two priests had refused to go visiting him and the third one arrived too late. Like for every actor at the time, he couldn't be buried in an ordinary cemetery, in sacred ground. It was his wife Armande that asked the king Louis XIV to allow a "normal" funeral celebrated at nighttime. In 1792 his remains were brought to the museum of french monuments and in 1817 transferred to Le Pere Lachaise Cemetery , Paris, close to La Fontaine.

Afars et des Issas, 1973, Moliere and scene from play

Antigua, 1991, Mozart and «Don Giovanni»

Austria, 1969, Don Juan

France, 1944, Moliere

France, 1953, Cellimene

France, 1973, Moliere as Sganarelle

France, 1980, Moliere in Comedie-Francaise

France, 2006, Don Giovanni

Gambia, 2001, Moliere

Guinea, 2006, Mozart and «Don Giovanni»

Guinea, 2010, Moliere

Mali, 1998, Jose Van Damm as Leporello