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Moliére

  • The Birth of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin

    The Birth of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin
    Jean-Baptiste Poquelin was born the 15th January 1622. The place of his birth is Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, in France. His parents are Marie Cressé, and Jean Poquelin.
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    Moliére's Education

    It is likely that his education commenced with studies at a Parisian elementary school, followed by his enrollment in the prestigious Jesuit Collège de Clermont, where he completed his studies in a strict academic environment and got a first taste of life on the stage.
  • His Father's Influence

    His Father's Influence
    In 1631, his father 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.
  • The Death of Moliére's Mother, Marie Cressé

    The Death of Moliére's Mother, Marie Cressé
    He lost his mother when he was 10, and he does not seem to have been particularly close to his father. After his mother's death, he lived with his father above the Pavillon des Singes on the rue Saint-Honoré, an affluent area of Paris.
  • Molière's Initial Major

    Molière's Initial Major
    Molière 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.
  • Shakespeare’s Perception of a Crisis

    Shakespeare’s Perception of a Crisis
    Shakespeare’s perception of a crisis in public norms and private belief became the overriding concern of drama until the closing of the theaters in 1642. The prevailing manner of the playwrights who succeeded him was realistic, satirical, and antiromantic, and their plays focused predominantly on those two symbolic locations, the city and the court, with their typical activities, the pursuit of wealth and power.
  • A New Career Pursuit

    A New Career Pursuit
    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 the Illustre Théâtre with 630 livres. They were later joined by Madeleine's brother and sister.
  • A Friend turned Foe

    A Friend turned Foe
    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 Armand, having contracted syphilis from a courtesan, turned toward religion and joined Molière's enemies in the Parti des Dévots and the Compagnie de Saint Sacrement.
  • The Theater Troupe's Trials and Tribulations

    The Theater Troupe's Trials and Tribulations
    The theatre troupe went 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.
  • Molière's Noteworthy Plays

    Molière's Noteworthy Plays
    Some noteworthy plays by Molière are L'Étourdi ou les Contretemps (The Bungler) and Le Docteur Amoureux (The Doctor in Love); with these two plays, Molière moved away from the heavy influence of the Italian improvisational Commedia dell'arte, and displayed his talent for mockery.
  • The Change of His Name

    The Change of His Name
    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 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).
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    Molière's Encouragement

    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 early 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.
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    Attempting Theater Succession

    After his imprisonment, he and Madeleine began a theatrical circuit of the provinces with a new theatre troupe; this life was to last about twelve 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.
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    Continuing the Fame

    He began writing, five-act comedies in verse (L'Étourdi (Lyon, 1654) and Le dépit amoureux (Béziers, 1656), which although immersed in the gags of contemporary Italian troupes, were successful parts of Madeleine Béjart and Molière's plans to win aristocratic patronage and ultimately, move the troupe to a position in a Paris theater-venue. Later he concentrated on writing musical comedies, in which the drama is interrupted by songs and/or dances.
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    Height of Fame

    Despite his own preference for tragedy, which he had tried to further with the Illustre Théâtre, 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 (a vague plot outline).
  • Returning to Paris

    Returning to Paris
    Molière was forced to reach Paris in stages, staying outside for a few weeks in order to promote himself with society gentlemen and allow his reputation to feed into 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 with some success.
  • Troupe de Monsieur

    Troupe de Monsieur
    He was awarded the title of Troupe de Monsieur (Monsieur being the honorific for the king's brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans). With the help of Monsieur, his company was allowed to share the theatre in the large hall of the Petit-Bourbon with the Italian Commedia dell'arte company of Tiberio Fiorillo, famous for the character of Scaramouche. (The two companies performed in the theatre on different nights.)
  • The premiere of Molière's Les Précieuses Ridicules

    The premiere of Molière's Les Précieuses Ridicules
    Les Précieuses Ridicules (The Affected Young Ladies) took place at the Petit-Bourbon on 18 November 1659. 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 theatre.
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    The Great Plague

    The Great Plague of London, lasted from 1665 to 1666, the most recent major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics that originated in Central Asia in 1331. The Great Plague killed an estimated 100,000 people almost a quarter of London's population in 18 months. It was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which is usually transmitted to a human by the bite of a flea or louse.
  • Before His Soul Slipped Away

    Before His Soul Slipped Away
    Molière suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, possibly contracted when he was imprisoned for debt as a young man. The circumstances of Molière's death, on 17 February 1673, became legend. He collapsed on stage in a fit of coughing and haemorrhaging while performing in the last play he had written, which had lavish ballets performed to the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier and which ironically was titled Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid). Molière insisted on completing his performance.
  • Molière's Death

    Molière's Death
    Afterwards he collapsed again with another, larger haemorrhage before being taken home, where he died a few hours later, without receiving the last rites because two priests refused to visit him while a third arrived too late. The superstition that green brings bad luck to actors is said to originate from the colour of the clothing he was wearing at the time of his death.
  • Molière's Burial and Relocation

    Molière's Burial and Relocation
    Under French law at the time, actors were not allowed to be buried in the sacred ground of a cemetery. However, Molière's widow, Armande, asked the King if her spouse could be granted a normal funeral at night. The King agreed and Molière's body was buried in the part of the cemetery reserved for unbaptised infants. In 1792, his remains were brought to the museum of French monuments, and in 1817, transferred to Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, close to those of La Fontaine.