"A learned fool is more a fool than an ignorant fool.""A lover tries to stand in well with the pet dog of the house.""A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.""Ah! how annoying that the law doesn't allow a woman to change husbands just as one does shirts.""All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.""All which is not prose is verse; and all which is not verse is prose.""As the purpose of comedy is to correct the vices of men, I see no reason why anyone should be exempt.""Books and marriage go ill together.""Don't appear so scholarly, pray. Humanize your talk, and speak to be understood.""Esteem must be founded on preference: to hold everyone in high esteem is to esteem nothing.""Every good act is charity. A man's true wealth hereafter is the good that he does in this world to his fellows.""Frenchmen have an unlimited capacity for gallantry and indulge it on every occasion.""Grammar, which knows how to control even kings.""He who follows his lessons tastes a profound peace, and looks upon everybody as a bunch of manure.""I feed on good soup, not beautiful language.""I have the fault of being a little more sincere than is proper.""I have the knack of easing scruples.""I live on good soup, not on fine words.""I prefer a pleasant vice to an annoying virtue.""I want to be distinguished from the rest; to tell the truth, a friend to all mankind is not a friend for me.""If everyone were clothed with integrity, if every heart were just, frank, kindly, the other virtues would be well-nigh useless.""If you make yourself understood, you're always speaking well.""If you suppress grief too much, it can well redouble.""It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I'm right.""It is a fine seasoning for joy to think of those we love.""It is a strange enterprise to make respectable people laugh.""It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.""It is the public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.""It's true Heaven forbids some pleasures, but a compromise can usually be found.""Love is often the fruit of marriage.""No matter what Aristotle and the Philosophers say, nothing is equal to tobacco; it's the passion of the well-bred, and he who lives without tobacco lives a life not worth living.""Of all follies there is none greater than wanting to make the world a better place.""Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive.""Oh, how fine it is to know a thing or two.""Oh, I may be devout, but I am human all the same.""One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.""One should eat to live, not live to eat.""People don't mind being mean; but they never want to be ridiculous.""People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.""Perfect reason flees all extremity, and leads one to be wise with sobriety.""Reason is not what decides love.""Solitude terrifies the soul at twenty.""The duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them.""The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.""The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself.""The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.""There are pretenders to piety as well as to courage.""There is no praise to bear the sort that you put in your pocket.""There's nothing quite like tobacco: it's the passion of decent folk, and whoever lives without tobacco doesn't deserve to live.""To marry a fool is to be no fool.""True, Heaven prohibits certain pleasures; but one can generally negotiate a compromise.""Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.""We die only once, and for such a long time.""Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money."
Molière was born in Paris, the son of Jean Poquelin and Marie Cressé, the daughter of a 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. After his mother's death, he lived with his father above the Pavilion de Singes on the rue Saint-Honoré, an affluent area of Paris. It is likely that his education commenced with studies in a Parisian elementary school; this was followed with his enrollment in the prestigious Jesuit Collège de Clermont, where he completed his studies in a strict academic environment.
In 1631, Jean Poquelin purchased from the court of Louis XIII the posts of "valet de chambre ordinaire et tapissier du Roi" ("valet of the King's chamber and keeper of carpets and upholstery"). His son assumed the same posts in 1641. The title required only three 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 his father's plans, which had served him well; he had mingled with nobility at the Collège de Clermont and seemed destined for a career in office.
In June 1643, when Molière was 21, he decided to abandon his social class and pursue a career on the stage. Taking leave of his father, he joined the actress Madeleine Béjart, with whom he had crossed paths before, and founded L'Illustre Théâtre with 630 livres. They were later joined by Madeleine's brother and sister.
The new theatre troupe became bankrupt in 1645. Molière had become head of the troupe, due in part, perhaps, to his acting prowess and his legal training. However, the troupe had acquired large debts, mostly for the rent of the theatre (a court for jeu de paume), for which they owed 2000 livres. Historians differ as to whether his father or the lover of a member of his troupe paid his debts; either way, after a 24-hour stint in prison he returned to the acting circuit. It was at this time that he began to use the pseudonym Molière, possibly inspired by a small village of the same name in the Midi near 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 under Louis XIV, were still not allowed to be buried in sacred ground).After his imprisonment, he and Madeleine began a theatrical circuit of the provinces with a new theatre troupe; this life was to last about 12 years, during which he initially played in the company of Charles Dufresne, and subsequently created a company of his own, which had sufficient success and obtained the patronage of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans. Few plays survive from this period. The most noteworthy are L'Étourdi, ou le Contretemps and Le Docteur amoureux; with these two plays, Molière moved away from the heavy influence of the Italian improvisational Commedia dell'arte, and displayed his talent for mockery. In the course of his travels he met Armand, Prince of Conti, the governor of Languedoc, who became his patron, and named his company after him. This friendship later ended when Conti, having contracted syphilis from a prostitute, attempted to cure himself by reconciling himself with religion. Conti's religious advisor 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 Du Parc, 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 abandoned 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 angry with Racine when he was told that he had secretly presented his tragedy to the company of the Hôtel de Bourgogne as well.
Return to Paris
Molière was forced to reach Paris in 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 performed in front of the King 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 being the honorific for the king's brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans) 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).
Les Précieuses ridicules was the first of Molière's many attempts to satirize certain societal mannerisms and affectations then common in France. It is widely accepted that the plot was based on Samuel Chappuzeau's Le Cercle des femmes of 1656. He primarily mocks the Académie Française, a group created by Richelieu under a royal patent to establish the rules of the fledgling French theater. The Académie preached unity of time, action, and styles of verse. Molière is often associated with the claim that comedy castigat ridendo mores or "criticizes customs through humor," a phrase in fact coined by his contemporary Jean de Santeuil and sometimes mistaken for a classical Latin proverb.
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. Later in life Molière concentrated on writing musical comedies, in which the drama is interrupted by songs and/or dances.
Les précieuses ridicules 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 character of 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, L'École des maris and L'École des 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 honor 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 grander Théâtre du Palais-Royal, still with his Italian partners, and married Armande, whom he believed to be the sister of Madeleine. She may have instead been her illegitimate daughter with the Duke of Modena. The same year he premiered L'École des femmes (The School for Wives), subsequently regarded as a masterpiece. It poked fun at the limited education that was given to daughters of rich families, and reflected Molière's own marriage. 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'École 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.
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 the Palace of Versailles.
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. It also aroused the wrath of the Jansenists and the play was banned.
Molière was always careful not to attack the institution of monarchy. He earned a position as one of the king's favorites and enjoyed his protection from the attacks of the court. The king allegedly suggested that Molière suspend performances of Tartuffe, and the author rapidly wrote Don Juan ou le Festin de Pierre to replace it. It was a strange work, derived from a work by Tirso de Molina and 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 theater. But it was a commercial flop, forcing Molière to immediately write 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 theater 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 a revised 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 Amphitryon, inspired both by Plautus' work of the same name and Jean Rotrou's successful reconfiguration of the drama. With some conjecture, Molière's play can be seen to allude to the love affairs of Louis XIV, then king of France. 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 five acts. His following play, La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas, is considered one of his lesser works.
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 theater, since Lully had patented the opera in France (and taken most of the best available singers for his own performances), 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.
In his 14 years in Paris, Molière single-handedly wrote 31 of the 85 plays performed on his stage while simultaneously holding his company together.
Reception of His Works more less
Though conventional thinkers, religious leaders, and medical professionals in Molière's time criticized his work, their ideas did not really impact his widespread success with the public. Other playwrights and companies began to emulate his dramatic style in England and in France. Molière's works continued to garner positive feedback in 18th century England, but they were not so warmly welcomed in France at this time. However, during the French Restoration of the 19th century, Molière's comedies became popular with both the French public and the critics. Romanticists admired his plays for the unconventional individualism they portrayed. 20th century scholars have carried on this interest in Molière and his plays and have continued to study a wide array of issues relating to this playwright. Many critics now are shifting their attention from the philosophical, religious, and moral implications in his comedies to the more objective study of his comic technique.
Molière's works were translated into English by John Ozell in 1714, but the first complete version in English, by Baker and Miller in 1739, remained "influential" and was long reprinted. The first to offer full translations of Molière's verse plays such as Tartuffe into English verse was Curtis Hidden Page, who produced blank verse versions of three of the plays in his 1908 translation. Since then, notable translations have been made by Richard Wilbur, Donald M. Frame, and many others.
In his memoir "A Terrible Liar," actor Hume Cronyn writes that, in 1962, celebrated actor Laurence Olivier criticized Molière in a conversation with him. According to Cronyn, he mentioned to Olivier that he (Cronyn) was about to play the title role in The Miser, and that Olivier then responded, "Molière? Funny as a baby's open grave." Cronyn comments on the incident: "You may imagine how that made me feel. Fortunately, he was dead wrong."
Author Martha Bellinger points out that Molière "has been accused of not having a consistent, organic style, of using faulty grammar, of mixing his metaphors, and of using unnecessary words for the purpose of filling out his lines. All these things are occasionally true, but they are trifles in comparison to the wealth of character he portrayed, to his brilliancy of wit, and to the resourcefulness of his technique. He was wary of sensibility or pathos; but in place of pathos he had "melancholy -- a puissant and searching melancholy, which strangely sustains his inexhaustible mirth and his triumphant gaiety"