Molière

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Biography

Jean Baptiste Poquelin was born in Paris, France, on January 15, 1622, to a prominent family. His father, Jean Poquelin, held a distinguished title as valet de chambre and tapissier, or upholsterer, to King Louis XIII. Jean Baptiste Poquelin was the eldest of six children, and held an apprenticeship to his father's business, but showed little interest in the trade. His love for acting and theatre was inspired by his grandfather who would often take him to see productions at the Hotel de Bourgogne.

Jean Baptiste Poquelin's education began with his mother, who was a fervid Catholic with a passion for reading. He later attended one of the finest secondary schools in Paris known as the College de Clermont. After finishing his studies at the College Clermont, he began studying law for a brief period before he inherited his father's title. It was due to a romantic involvement with Madeline Bejart, a young actress who had a tremendous amount of influence on Poquelin, that Jean Baptiste formally renounced his title and gave up a highly respectable career in the King's court to pursue a theatrical career. He later adopted the stage name Moliere out of respect for his father, who wanted to avoid being associated with the theatre, which was considerered to be opprobrious at the time.

With the help of Madelin Bejart and her family, Moliere established the Societe de l'Illustre Theatre, where Moliere acted and later became director and stage manager. However, due to expenses, inexperience, and Moliere's particularly poor acting skills led to the collapse of the Societe de l'Illustre Theatre in July of 1645. The collapse of the theatre led to Moliere being sued for bankruptcy and being temporarily imprisoned for the theatre's debts. However, this was not a deterent to Moliere's theatrical ambitions. He continued acting with Bejart and her family, touring provinces as strolling players. It was during this thirteen-year period that Moliere wrote his first plays - La jalousie de Barbouille (The Jealosy of Le Barbouille), Le medecin volant (The Flying Doctor), and L'etourdi (The Blunderer). After returning to Paris in 1658, Moliere put on the production of Le depit amoureux (The Amorous Quarrel). The play was greeted with unbridled enthusiasm and earned the favor of Louis XIV as well as allowing Moliere the opportunity of sharing a theatre with the renouned Italian performers of Scaramouche. In 1659, Les precieuses ridicules (The Affected Ladies) earned Moliere lasting recognition as a playwrite. The Affected Ladies is a one-act comedy about two bucolic women who foolishly imitate the spurious social mannerisms and overrefined elegancies of Parisian aristocracy. Moliere's accurate portrayal of ostenation in high society enraged many aristocrats who believed that they were the targets of the parody. Afterwards, Moliere and his plays were regularly the center of controversy. Moliere's irreverance for Parisan aristocracy peaked with the in 1664 with the production of one his best know works, Tartuffe. Tartuffe, while widely popular with audiences as well as King Louis XIV, became the center of condemnation from religious groups. In fact, the Archbishop of Paris issued a decree threatening excommunication to anyone who performed, attended, or even read the play.

After Tartuffe, Moliere continued a prolific career in theatre. Other plays he wrote include Dom Juan (Don Juan), Le misanthrope (The Misanthrope), L'avare (The Miser), and his last work, Le malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid). During a production of Le malade imaginaire, Moliere had already become extremely ill. It was during his fourth performance that he suddenly coughed up blood onstage and later died of pulmonary embolism.

Influences to his writing

Links to other sites concerning Molière

http://www.theatredatabase.com/17th_century/moliere_001.html

http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Theatre/Moliere/moliere.shtml

http://www.site-moliere.com/

http://www.bartleby.com/65/mo/Moliere.html

http://www.theatrehistory.com/french/moliere006.html

http://www.malaspina.org/home.asp?topic=./search/details&lastpage=./search/results&ID=163

Works Cited

List of Works

Moliere, in Literature Resource Center. (An introduction to the author's life and works)

Moliere, in Literature Online Refereence Edition

Molière, in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 268: Seventeenth-Century French Writers. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Françoise Jaouën, Yale University. The Gale Group, 2002, pp. 239-263.

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