Author: MOLIERE
Biography:
MOLIERE (1622-71: Encyclopaedia Britannica)
As a foreign-language author Molière requires only a brief headnote. The name itself is a pen-name. He was baptised Jean-Baptiste Poquelin in Paris on 15 Jan. 1622. His mother died during his childhood and his father Jean Poquelin, upholsterer and valet tapisseur to the King, remarried. Jean-Baptiste was educated by the Jesuits at the Collège de Clermont until 1641, then studied law for a time but gave it up together with his right to succeed to his father’s position in order to found an acting company. They did not do well at first in Paris and spent the years 1645-58 touring in the provinces. Molière wrote some plays for them while they were on the road but his first great success came after their return to Paris, with Les Précieuses ridicules (1659), the first of the many comedies of manners—making fun of social behaviour—that made his name. He also created entertainments with dance for the court. He had the support of the King but some critics, rival actors, and members of the clergy were hostile. In 1662 he married Armande Béjart, the younger sister of a member of his company; they had one son but the marriage was not happy. Among his major works were L’Ecole des femmes (1662), Le Tartuffe (1664), Le Misanthrope (1666), Le Médecin malgré lui (1666), Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), and Les Femmes savantes (1672). During a performance of his last play, Le Malade imaginaire(1763), with Molière in the role of Argan the hypochondriac, he fell ill and died a week later, on 17 Feb 1763. He was denied a regular burial and was interred without ceremony. The site of his burial is still not known. The two English translators of his work have separate headnotes: Brook Boothby and Edward Farhill, qq.v. (Encyclopaedia Britannica[1911] 18, 661-7; OCFL) HJ