Molière, an illustrious stranger four centuries later

Paris (AFP) .- Son of bourgeois who preferred to dedicate himself to the theater, the French author Molière (1622-173) turns 400 this month still shrouded in mystery, despite being King Louis XIV’s favorite playwright.

France celebrates the 400th anniversary of the great author of comedies with theatrical performances, conferences and events that will also extend to other countries, such as Great Britain, Italy, Belgium or the United States, although with a discreet profile, due to the pandemic.

There is no handwritten trace of Molière, no diary, no correspondence, not even notes on his productions. The only survivor of her four children, Esprit-Madeleine, lost all of her father’s handwriting, and the first biography of the brilliant author was published in 1705, full of inaccuracies that fueled the legend around Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, the real name of the writer.

Molière was the author of some thirty comedies in verse and prose, among them The misanthrope, The Bourgeois Gentleman The The Miser, that have become authentic human archetypes, such as Cervantes’s Quixote or William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

And like those giants of world literature, Molière has also been the subject of slander. Among them, who did not write his plays, but was another giant of the French theater, Corneille.

Or that he reflected in his comedies some of his own personal problems, such as his recurring use of cuckold men.

What is certain is that four centuries later, as happened with Cervantes or Shakespeare, Molière and his work far surpassed in popularity his contemporaries of that time.

“In a way, he is an actor who becomes an author in spite of himself. He is an author who thinks his works based on the impositions of the scene, the approval of the public, the effect it will have on the public. And also, because he must feed his ‘troupe’ ”, explains to AFP Georges Forestier, author of a recent biography of Molière (2018) and editor of his work for the prestigious collection The pleiad.

Charismatic leader

The Molière mystery opens with his birth. His baptismal certificate was found in 1820, so it is known that he was baptized on January 15, 1622 in the Parisian church of Saint Eustace.

By all usage of the time, Forestier explains, that would mean he was born a day or two earlier.

He is the eldest son of a royal upholsterer and waiter, that is, he belongs to a family of small businessmen with contacts with the court, which in those years still had the Louvre and the Royal Palace as epicenters.

Orphan of a mother at the age of 10, Molière grows up and learns to observe life and his contemporaries amid the glittering lights of the court and the crowds of central Paris. The bustling Les Halles market is just a stone’s throw from the parental home.

Learn Greek, Latin and notions of theater thanks to the Jesuits. An intelligent and voracious reader, the young Jean-Baptiste reads Plautus, Terence, and soon comes into contact with Italian and Spanish theater.

At 21, he takes a risky leap, although everything indicates that his father approved: decides to give up his inheritance to become an actor.

At that time, comedians were excommunicated a priori, unless they repented – something that Molière was unable or unwilling to do on his deathbed.

It is not known for sure why he wanted to be an actor, but in any case, the death of his younger brother in 1660 allows him to regain the privilege of being a royal upholsterer.

On June 30, 1643, he created before a notary The Illustrious Theater, his own company, with ten other actors, including Madeleine Béjart, a redhead with a lot of character who was already known in literary circles.

Madeleine had been the lover of a wealthy nobleman, and becomes the lover of Molière, for three decades.

Another mystery: on January 23, 1662, the well-known author married Armande, who was Madeleine’s adulterous daughter. For years, they were both registered as sisters.

The custom in France was for actors to take a “nom de guerre”. Madeleine was known as “la Bejart”, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin chose “Molière”, a very common geographical location in France. It is not known why.

Molière has charisma, he becomes the leader of his group naturally. But in Paris there are two established companies and the competition is fierce. “The Illustrious Theater” accumulates debts, and Molière ends up in jail. His father pays off the debts. The actor, wounded in his pride, leaves the capital with 23 years.

For 13 years, Molière perfected his art in the provinces. He performs for the most popular public, for local nobles, for the bourgeoisie. It is successful, the company’s income grows.

In an age when the theater is the only means of mass entertainment (under the close supervision of the Church), you have to produce incessantly to survive.

Molière adapts Spanish and Italian works, but soon decides to trust his talent and writes his first pieces.

The ridiculous precious, from 1659, has a phenomenal success. A year before, Molière had already achieved a great coup: to perform before the young Louis XIV, a monarch who loves theater and ballet, who will come to dance for his own court.

Moral comedy

Molière goes one step further and writes The Women’s School in 1662. It portrays the absurd education that any wealthy young man of the time can undergo. The reaction of the Church is not long in coming.

Difficulties grow with Truffle, Molière’s particular revenge against the blessed and their hypocrisy. You have to rewrite it three times to avoid censorship. Undaunted, he sets out to write his own version of a myth, the Don Juan.

His proposal for a libertine philosopher is a triumph. Then comes The misanthrope (1666), his cruelest but also most humane comedy.

With these works, Molière creates a new genre, the moral comedy: correcting the vices of society, but through laughter.

The successes follow one another, which he interprets personally: The miser (1668), The doctor with sticks (1666), or ballet comedies, such as Medical Love (1665).

Molière plays Argan in The imaginary patient on February 17, 1673 when he felt unwell. Legend has it that he died on stage, but actually had time to return home. He probably died of pneumonia. Without confessing.