Molière

Molière
Portrait of Molière by Pierre Mignard (ca. 1658)
Born	Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-01-15)15 January 1622 Paris, Kingdom of France
Died	17 February 1673(1673-02-17) (aged 51) Paris
Pen name	Molière
Occupation	Playwright, actor
Nationality	French
Education	University of Orléans
Period	1622–1673
Genre	Comedy
Notable works	Tartuffe; The Misanthrope; The Learned Women; The School for Wives; L'Avare
Spouse	Armande Béjart
Partner	Madeleine Béjart
Children	Louis (1664–1664) Marie Madeleine (1665–1723) Pierre (1672–1672)

Molière (1622 – 17 February 1673) was a French actor, director and writer. His real name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Molière was his stage name. He wrote some of the most important comedies in human history.

He was born in Paris where his father owned a carpet shop. As a young person, Molière decided to live an artist's life. At the age of 21, he founded a theatre company that soon went bankrupt. From 1645 to 1658, he toured France with some of his friends.

Later, King Louis XIV made Molière responsible for the entertainment at the court of Versailles near Paris. Molière was happy to have the king among his friends, because he had many enemies, especially important people in the Roman Catholic church. Molière's comedies deal with human weaknesses: jealousy, meanness, hypocrisy, fear of death. By putting his characters in ridiculous situations, Molière wants to entertain and educate his audience.

One of his most important plays is Tartuffe, showing a bigoted man stealing his way into a rich family. Molière's last play was Le Malade Imaginaire, called in English The Hypochondriac. As in many of his comedies, Molière played the main role. He died due to pulmonary tuberculosis on stage during the fourth performance. Because of his problems with the church, he was not allowed to be buried in a church cemetery.

Other websites

• Works by Molière at Project Gutenberg
• Molière's works online Archived 2020-09-06 at the Wayback Machine at toutmoliere.net (in French)
• Molière's works online at site-moliere.com
• Molière's works online Archived 2014-02-27 at the Wayback Machine at InLibroVeritas.net
• Molière's works online Archived 2007-03-14 at the Wayback Machine at classicistranieri.com
• Biography, Bibliography, Analysis, Plot overview Archived 2006-01-14 at Archive.today at biblioweb.org (in French)
• Molière's Verses Plays Publication, Statistics, Words Research (in French)
• Professional quality parody - "The Life & Times of Molière" at YouTube.com