Molière: Difference between revisions

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 Columbia Encyclopedia) 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, ( http://www.miracosta.cc.ca.us/home/darnaud/maidens.htm ) 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 (http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/moliere1420-des-.html) 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)