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Molière

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Biography

Named Jean Baptiste Poqulin, French playwright, actor and creator of French high comedy; his genius lay in exposing the hypocrisies and follies of his society through satire.The comic dramatist composed 12 satirical full length comedies of all time. Jean Baptiste was the leading French comic actor, stage director, and dramatic theoretician of the 17th century. He was born on January 15, 1622 to Marie and Jean Poquelin; his father was a Parisian furniture merchant and upholsterer to the king. As a young boy he watched comedians perform plays and farces in the streets. Jean Baptiste received his education at College de Clemoist, a Jesuit school, becoming a promising scholar of Latin and Greek. He received his law degree in 1642 but had another passion at heart. His true love was in theater, turning away from his legal profession and his fathers business at age 21 Jean Baptiste joined the Béjart troupe of professional actors. The little company, headed by Jean Baptist and called the Illustre Théâtre, settled in Paris in 1643. At roughly the same time he also acquired the pseudonym Molière. With Illustrate Theatre, Molière played an unsuccessful season in Paris and went bankrupt. Afterwards he left to tour provinces in South France from 1646-1658. In 1658 Jean Baptiste returned to Paris and played before Louis XIV. Under royal patronage this troupe, performing at the Palais Royal, enjoyed continuous success; it is known as the ancestor of the Comédie Française. Molière had, nevertheless, to contend with rivalry from the Hôtel de Bourgogne and with cries of impiety and slander from critics and other authors. The king’s brother became Moliere's patron and his colleagues were appointed official providers of entertainment to the Sun King himself. Two Precious Maidens Ridiculed,in 1659 established him as the most popular comic playwright of his day. Moliere became known as a writer whose best plays had the lasting impact of tragedies. "Other playwrights resented his continual experiments with comic forms (as in The School for Wives) and with verse (as in Amphitryon). Famous tragedians such as Montfleury and Hauteroche envied his success with the public and the royal protection he enjoyed. Molière responded by incorporating some of his detractors into his comedies as buffoons and ineffectuals." (The Walton Group) Madeleine Béjart was Jean Baptistes mistress for many years, but in 1662 he scandalized many by marrying Armande Béjart, who was either Madeleine's younger sister or her daughter. In the late 1660's Jean Baptiste developed a lung ailment. He collapsed February 17, 1673 after his fourth performance of the Imaginary Invalid and died. Church leaders refused to grant his body a formal burial. "Molière immensely refined the commedia themes and techniques, setting most of his plots in and around Paris and raising neoclassical French comedy to a plane of artistry and inventiveness never attained before or since. He applied the alexandrine, or rhymed hexameter line -- borrowed from contemporary tragedies, many of which he had staged -- to a relaxed dialogue that imitated conversational speech. He also created a gallery of incisive portraits: Tartuffe the religious hypocrite, and Orgon, his dupe; Jourdain the social climber; Don Juan the rebel and libertine; cuckolds such as Arnolphe, Dandin, and Amphitryon; Alceste the stony idealist; Harpagon the miser; Scapin the trickster; Argan the hypochondriac; Philaminte the pretentiously cultured lady; and many more." (The Walton Group)

List of Works

Influences on Moliere

Background

Moliere, was born Jean Baptiste Poqulinin the year 1622 in Paris, France. He was raised by his father who was a furniture upholsterer for King Louis XIII. Jean Polqulinin’s interest in drama and acting was first sparked by his grandfather who “took him to see productions at the famous Hotel de Bourgogne” (Seidel p5). He received an extremely good education at the Jesuit College de Clermont and went on to graduate from law school. “In 1642 he met and became romantically involved with Madeline Bejart a young actress” (Seidel p5). Jean Polqulin renounced his royal appointment to the court offered because of his father’s position and instead pursed an acting career, then changing his name to Moliere. Although in 1645 he spent time in debtors’ prison after the collapse of his acting troupe called the l’Illustre Theatre (Seidel 5), he continued traveling and performing for the next 13 years. He landed in front of King Louis XIV who became one of his patrons (Seidel p5).

Style

Moliere writing was influenced by a style called commedia dell’arte also called “comedy of art or comedy of the profession”. Commedia dell’arte is an Italian theater style which is improvised and unwritten. It is up to the actors to make the play and its concepts come together in a comedic way as this style focuses on subject rather than a structured set of lines (Bellinger 1). Moliere used this style in an enhanced version. His first plays are “all short adaptions of Italian farces in the tradition of commedia dell’arte” (Seidel 5). He also used a writing technique called a fabliau which is a short comedic two line verse that rhymes (Columbia). An example of this technique can be seen in his play Tartuff.

Time Period

Moliere lived from 1622-1673 in Europe during a time refered to as the Age of Reason or Neoclassical period. A theory known as Deism became very popular during this period. Deism suggests that God is likened unto a clockmaker and the universe is likened unto a clock. Once the creation was finished the Clockmaker went on to another project and left the clock to run on its own. This time period emphasized reason, truth and logic, over emotions stating that “reason is a faculty that properly developed can control unruly passions” (Gordon p3). “The main focus of Neoclassical writers was not the inner workings of the mind as with later Romantic writers, but on the behavior of humankind in general” (Gordon p3). The neoclassic period is also characterized by challenges to established religion, government, and social hierarchy.



External Links concerning Molière

Theatre Database

Biography of Moliere

Site-Moliere

The Columbia Encyclopedia Entry on Moliere

Jean Baptiste Poquelin de Moliere

Malaspina Great Books entry on Moliere

[1]

Moliere: The Imaginary Invalid

Work Cited

  • 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.
  • “Fabliau.” Columbia Encyclopedia. 2005 edition.

<http://www.encyclopedia.com/htmlfl/fabliau.asp.>

  • Bellinger, Martha. A short history of Drama. New York : Henry Holt and Company,

1927 pp153-157.

<http://www.theatrehistory.com/italian/commedia_dell_arte_001.html>

  • I.R.F. Gordon, Emiertus Angelia Polytechnic University, “Neo-classicism,

Neoclassicism.” The Literary Encyclopedia. 11 Apr. 2005. The Literary Dictionary Company.

<http://litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=767>

  • Seidel, Micheal. “European Authors.” Moliere Vol 3 pages 101-124. Literature Resource Center. GALILEO. Georgia Perimeter College Library, Clarkston,GA.

30 Jan 2006.

<http://www.galileo.usg.edu.>

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