Read complete books and articles on: Moliere (Jean Baptiste Poquelin)

MoliÈre, Jean Baptiste Poquelin - zhäN bätēstˈ pôklăNˈ môlyĕrˈ, 1622–73, French playwright and actor, b. Paris; son of a merchant who was upholsterer to the king. His name was originally Jean Baptiste Poquelin. Molière was the creator of French high comedy; his genius lay in exposing the hypocrisies and

Life

In his youth Moliére joined the Béjart troupe of professional actors. Madeleine Béjart was for years his mistress, but in 1662 he scandalized many by marrying Armande Béjart, who was either Madeleine's younger sister or her daughter. The little company, headed by Molière and called the Illustre Théâtre, settled (1643) in Paris, but their venture failed (1645), and they spent the next 13 years touring the provinces. They returned in triumph with a performance of Molière's Le Docteur amoureux for 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 Plays

The great variety in Molière's work stems from his being at once actor, director, stage manager, and writer. Influenced by the commedia dell'arte, he wrote farces, comedies, masks, and ballets on short notice for the entertainment of the court. He is best known for the great comedies of character in which he ridicules a vice or a type of excess by caricaturing a person who is its incarnation: Le Tartuffe (1664), on the religious hypocrite; Le Misanthrope (1666), on the antisocial man; L'Avare (1668, tr. The Miser); and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670, tr. The Would-Be Gentleman), on the parvenu.

Other plays in which vices are personified are Les Femmes savantes (1672, tr. The Learned Women), on the fashionable, affected intellectuals whom he had already lampooned in Les Précieuses ridicules (1659), often called the first comedy of manners and Le Malade imaginaire (1673), on the hypochondriac. Molière was acting the title role of the latter when he was fatally stricken. Also comedies of character, but depending more on absurdities, are L'École des maris (1661, tr. The School for Husbands) and L'École des femmes (1662, tr. The School for Wives), which was followed by a skit against the critics, La Critique de l'École des femmes (1663); and Don Juan (1665), an adaptation of the old story of the libertine.

The playwright's farces are uproarious—Sganarelle (1660), Le Médecin malgré lui (1666, tr. The Doctor in Spite of Himself), George Dandin (1668), Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (1669), Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671, tr. Scapin, the Trickster), and La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas (1671). Among Molière's other works are the poetic Amphitryon (1668), after Plautus; L'Étourdi (1653?, tr. The Blunderer); Le Dépit amoureux (1656, tr. The Amorous Quarrel); and Le Mariage forcé (1664, tr. The Forced Marriage).

Bibliography

A primary source on Molière's career is the careful Registre or daybook of programs, expenditures, and receipts of the Paris company from 1658. It was kept by the actor Charles Varlet de la Grange (1639?—1692).

See also biographies by H. M. Trollope (1905), D. B. W. Lewis (1959), J. Palmer (2d ed. 1965), and V. Scott (2001); studies by P. A. Chapman (1941, repr. 1965), L. Gossman (1969), R. Fernandez (1929, repr. 1980), N. Gross (1982), and H. C. Knutson (1987).

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14 of the Best Books and Articles on: Moliere (Jean Baptiste Poquelin)

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Rivalry and the Disruption of Order in Moliere's Theater » Read Now
by Michael S. Koppisch. 216 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

"In critical readings of ten of Moliere's most important plays, this book argues that a rivalry that endangers order by collapsing differences structures the works and provides a key to their understanding. Moliere's great comic characters all want desperately something that they cannot have. The...
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"In critical readings of ten of Moliere's most important plays, this book argues that a rivalry that endangers order by collapsing differences structures the works and provides a key to their understanding. Moliere's great comic characters all want desperately something that they cannot have. The objects of their desire may vary, but the presence of desire itself remains a constant. In L'Ecole des femmes, Arnolphe wants, above all, to avoid cuckoldry. The title character in Dom Juan covets women. The bourgeois Monsieur Jourdain does all in his power to become a gentleman in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, and the eponymous character in George Dandin views his woes as the price of an ill-fated marriage that he had hoped would elevate him to noble rank. Le malade imaginaire, Argan, has a seemingly crazy desire to be sick. The list could go on."
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2.

Poetic Drama: An Anthology of Plays in Verse from the Ancient Greek to the Modern American ("The Misanthrope" by Moliere begins on p. 499) » Read Now
by Alfred Kreymborg. 858 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...Corneille Aristophanes Seami Moliere W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood...his translation of The Misanthrope , Moliere. THE VIKING PRESS The While Saviour...THE...
3.

Five Plays: The Would-Be Gentleman; That Scoundrel Scapin; Love's the Best Doctor; Don Juan; The Miser » Read Now
by Moliere, John Wood. 252 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...THE MISER AND OTHER PLAYS MOLIERE was the stage name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin...returned to the capital it was with Moliere as their leader and a number of the...
4.

The Theatres of Moliere » Read Now
by Gerry McCarthy. 238 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Moliere's plays are the cornerstone of the French Classical dramatic repertoire. Adapted and exploited in his day by dramatists of the English Restoration, they are now again growing in popularity.In this detailed and fascinating volume, Gerry McCarthy examines the practice and method of possibly...
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Moliere's plays are the cornerstone of the French Classical dramatic repertoire. Adapted and exploited in his day by dramatists of the English Restoration, they are now again growing in popularity.In this detailed and fascinating volume, Gerry McCarthy examines the practice and method of possibly the greatest actor-dramatist. From the rough farces of Moliere's days on the road to the creation of the diverse and spectacular court entertainments on his return to Paris, McCarthy sheds new light on the dramatic intelligence and theatrical understanding of Moliere's writing for the actor.Drawing on Moliere's own brief discussions of performance and the contemporary evidence of his practice, this is a crucial addition to the debate on style and method in classical acting and on the staging of classical plays on the contemporary stage.
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5.

Moliere's Theatrical Bounty: A New View of the Plays » Read Now
by Albert Bermel. 290 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...ALBERT BERMEL Molieres Theatrical Bounty A NEW VIEW...Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bermel, Albert. Molieres theatrical bounty: a new view of the...Bibliography: p...
6.

Time and Ways of Knowing under Louis XIV: Moliere, Sevigne, Lafayette » Read Now
by Roland Racevskis. 216 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
7.

Moliere's "Poststructuralism": Demolition of Transcendentalist Discourse in Le Tartuffe, in Symposium » Read Now
by Larry W. Riggs. 21 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...LARRY W. RIGGS MOLIERES "POSTSTRUCTURALISM": DEMOLITION OF TRANSCENDENTALIST...edition of the play represents the way Moliere staged the scene, and that analyzing...It has...
8.

Moliere and Authority: From the Querelle De L'Ecole Des Femmes to the Affaire Tartuffe, in Romance Quarterly » Read Now
by Stephen Bold. 13 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...Moliere and Authority: From the Querelle de lEcole des femmes to the Affaire Tartuffe Stephen Bold Molieres work has been made to stand for so many contradictory...it been...
9.

The Regime of Substitutions: Panoptical Gluttony in the Modern, "Manageable" World of 'L'Avare, in The Romanic Review » Read Now
by Larry Riggs. 13 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...Troilus and Cressida, I, 3 (119-124) In Molieres LAvare, the misers first words are an...Force has recently argued persuasively, Molieres ridicules all share this...
10.

Baroque Bodies: Psychoanalysis and the Culture of French Absolutism (Chap. 1 "Moliere's Body Politic") » Read Now
by Mitchell Greenberg. 278 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Psychology, Entire Library

Mitchell Greenberg explores the significance of fantasies of the body in seventeenth-century France through provocative and subtle readings of some of the most intriguing texts of the period.
Beginning with an eloquent invocation of the status of the king in classical France, Greenberg surveys the...
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Mitchell Greenberg explores the significance of fantasies of the body in seventeenth-century France through provocative and subtle readings of some of the most intriguing texts of the period.
Beginning with an eloquent invocation of the status of the king in classical France, Greenberg surveys the complex sociopolitical history of Louis XIV's reign, analyzing both Moliere and the entire corpus of Racine. The central chapters of Baroque Bodies deal with such fascinating texts as the Memoires of the abbe de Choisy (the first existing account of a male cross-dresser); two founding texts of the modern pornographic genre, L'ecole des filles and L'academie des dames; and the "autobiography" of Marie de l'Incarnation, the famous "mystic" and founder of the first Ursuline convent in Canada.
In addition to his richly nuanced readings, Greenberg integrates into his argument material from a broad array of disciplines, including psychoanalysis, feminism, epistemology, and history. He also points out the implications of his argument for the political, theological, and historical thought of the period, moving effortlessly from witch trials in France to discussions of bodies in Renaissance English literary criticism to the works of Bakhtin, Foucault, Freud, and Lacan.
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11.

Politics and Theater: The Crisis of Legitimacy in Restoration France, 1815-1830 (Chap. Six "Tartufferie: Rouen and Archbishop Le Croy: 'Tartuffe' of the Seine-Inferieure") » Read Now
by Sheryl Kroen. 394 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Moliere's anticlerical comedy Tartuffe is the unique prism through which Sheryl Kroen views postrevolutionary France in the years of the Restoration. Following the lead of the French men and women who turned to this anticlerical play in the 1820s to make sense of their world, Kroen exposes the...
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Moliere's anticlerical comedy Tartuffe is the unique prism through which Sheryl Kroen views postrevolutionary France in the years of the Restoration. Following the lead of the French men and women who turned to this anticlerical play in the 1820s to make sense of their world, Kroen exposes the crisis of legitimacy defining the regime in these years and demonstrates how the people of the time made steps toward a democratic resolution to this crisis. Moving from the town squares, where state and ecclesiastical officials orchestrated their public spectacles in favor of the monarchy, to the theaters, where the French used Tartuffe to mock the restored monarch and the church, this cultural history of the Restoration offers a rich and colorful portrait of a period in which critical legacies of the revolutionary period were played out and cemented. While most historians have characterized the Restoration as a period of reaction and reversal, Kroen offers convincing evidence that the Restoration was a critical bridge between the emerging practices of the Old Regime, the Revolution, and the post-1830 politics of protest. Looking beyond the official political realm from which most people were excluded, Kroen vividly evokes the town squares, marketplaces, cafes, churches, and theaters where protesters penned and posted placards, uttered seditious cries, sang revolutionary songs, trafficked in the illegal accoutrements of the revolutionary and imperial past, attacked crosses and busts of kings, and organized charivaris against unpopular priests and civil officials.
Kroen re-creates the atmosphere of Restoration France and at the same time brings major nineteenth-century themes into focus: memoryand commemoration, public and private spheres, politics and religion, anticlericalism, and the formation of democratic ideologies and practices. Of value to anyone interested in the complicated process of how political legit
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12.

Hypocrisy and Integrity: Machiavelli, Rousseau, and the Ethics of Politics (Chap. 3 "Moliere, Rousseau, and the Ideal of Integrity") » Read Now
by Ruth W. Grant. 201 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

Questioning the usual judgements of political ethics, Ruth W. Grant argues that hypocrisy can actually be constructive while strictly principled behavior can be destructive. Hypocrisy and Integrity offers a new conceptual framework that clarifies the differences between idealism and fanaticism while...
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Questioning the usual judgements of political ethics, Ruth W. Grant argues that hypocrisy can actually be constructive while strictly principled behavior can be destructive. Hypocrisy and Integrity offers a new conceptual framework that clarifies the differences between idealism and fanaticism while it uncovers the moral limits of compromise. "Exciting and provocative. . . . Grant's work is to be highly recommended, offering a fresh reading of Rousseau and Machiavelli as well as presenting a penetrating analysis of hypocrisy and integrity."--Ronald J. Terchek, American Political Science Review "A great refreshment. . . . With liberalism's best interests at heart, Grant seeks to make available a better understanding of the limits of reason in politics."--Peter Berkowitz, New Republic
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13.

Criticism and Modernity: Aesthetics, Literature, and Nations in Europe and Its Academies (Discussion of Moliere begins on p. 39) » Read Now
by Thomas Docherty. 248 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Literature, Entire Library

Criticism and Modernity traces the conditions under which criticism emerges as a socio-cultural practice within the institutionalized forms of European modernity and democracy. It argues that criticism is born out of anxieties about national supremacy in the late seventeenth century, with the...
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Criticism and Modernity traces the conditions under which criticism emerges as a socio-cultural practice within the institutionalized forms of European modernity and democracy. It argues that criticism is born out of anxieties about national supremacy in the late seventeenth century, with the consequence that the emergent national cultures of the eighteenth century and since become sites for the regulation of the democratic subject through the academic form of arguments about the proper relations of aesthetics to ethics and politics. The central issue is that of legitimation: how can subjective aesthetic experiences regulate the norms of ethical justice? That question is posed not as an abstract philosophical issue, but rather as a question properly located within the struggles for national culture. The usual Germanic source of modern aesthetics and criticism is here placed in the broader European context, involving contests between England, France, Scotland, Ireland, and the emergent Germany and Italy. Writers addressed include Corneille, Dryden, Molière, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Schopenhauer; and, throughout, the legacy of these thinkers is found in the most recent contemporary theory, in work by Agamben, Badiou, Lyotard, MacIntyre, and others. A closing chapter considers the formation of the university across modern Europe, in Vico's Naples, Humboldt's Berlin, Newman's Dublin, Blair's Edinburgh, the France of Alain and Benda, the England of Leavis, as well as our contemporary institutional predicaments.
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14.

History of European Drama and Theatre (Discussion of Moliere begins on p. 104) » Read Now
by Erika Fischer-Lichte, Jo Riley. 406 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

This major study reconstructs the vast history of European drama from Greek tragedy through to twentieth-century theatre, focusing on the subject of identity. Throughout history, drama has performed and represented political, religious, national, ethnic, class-related, gendered, and individual...
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This major study reconstructs the vast history of European drama from Greek tragedy through to twentieth-century theatre, focusing on the subject of identity. Throughout history, drama has performed and represented political, religious, national, ethnic, class-related, gendered, and individual concepts of identity.Erika Fischer-Lichte's topics include:* ancient Greek theatre* Shakespeare and Elizabethan theatre by Corneilli, Racine, MoliÃ¨re* the Italian commedia dell'arte and its transformations into eighteenth-century drama* the German Enlightenment - Lessing, Schiller, Goethe, and Lenz* romanticism by Kleist, Byron, Shelley, Hugo, de Vigny, Musset, BÃ¼chner, and Nestroy* the turn of the century - Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Stanislavski* the twentieth century - Craig, Meyerhold, Artaud, O'Neill, Pirandello, Brecht, Beckett, MÃ¼ller.Anyone interested in theatre throughout history and today will find this an invaluable source of information.
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