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Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known as Molière, baptized on January 15, 1622 at the Saint-Eustache church in Paris and died on the evening of February 17, 1673 at his home on rue de Richelieu, is the most famous actor and playwright in the French language.

Coming from a family of Parisian merchants, he joined forces at the age of 21 with around ten comrades, including three members of the Béjart family, to form the troupe of the Illustre Théâtre, which, despite promising beginnings and despite the collaboration of renowned playwrights, failed to establish itself sustainably in Paris. Enlisted at Easter 1646 in a prestigious “campaign troop” maintained by the Duke of Épernon, governor of Guyenne, then by several successive protectors, Molière and his Béjart friends traveled for twelve years through the southern provinces of the kingdom. During this period, Molière composed several farces or small comedies in prose and his first two comedies in five acts and in verse. Returning to Paris in 1658, he quickly became, at the head of his troupe, the favorite actor and author of the young Louis XIV and his court, for whom he designed numerous shows, in collaboration with the best stage architects, choreographers and musicians of the time. He died suddenly at the age of 51.

A great creator of dramatic forms, performing the main role in most of his plays, Molière exploited the various resources of comedy – verbal, gestural and visual, situational – and practiced all genres of comedy, from farce to character comedy. He created individualized characters, with complex psychology, who quickly became archetypes. A lucid and penetrating observer, he painted the morals and behavior of his contemporaries, sparing only ecclesiastics and high dignitaries of the monarchy, to the great pleasure of his audience, both at court and in the city. Far from being limited to harmless entertainment, his great comedies call into question well-established principles of social organization, sparking resounding controversies and lasting hostility from devout circles.

Molière's work, around thirty comedies in verse or prose, accompanied or not by ballet and music entries, constitutes one of the pillars of literary education in France. It continues to enjoy great success in France and around the world, and remains one of the references in universal literature[5],[6].

His eventful life and strong personality inspired playwrights and filmmakers. A sign of the emblematic place it occupies in French and Francophone culture, French is commonly referred to by the periphrasis “the language of Molière”.
Biography
Houses located at 94 and 96 rue Saint-Honoré (Paris 1st), built on the site where Molière was born.
Claude-Emmanuel Luillier, known as Chapelle.
Molière's youth
Family

Son of Jean Poquelin (1595-1669) and Marie Cressé (1601-1632), Jean-Baptiste Poquelin[n 2] was born in the first days of 1622, which made him, within a few years, the contemporary of Cyrano de Bergerac, Furetière, Tallemant des Réaux, Colbert, D'Artagnan, Ninon de Lenclos, La Fontaine, Grand Condé and Pascal. On January 15, he was held on the baptismal font[n 3] of the Saint-Eustache church by his grandfather Jean Poquelin († 1626) and Denise Lecacheux, his maternal great-grandmother[n 4].

The Poquelins of Paris, numerous at the time, came from Beauvais and Beauvaisis[7],[8]. The parents of the future Molière lived at the current location of No. 96 rue Saint-Honoré[n 5], at the eastern corner of rue des Vieilles-Étuves (current rue Sauval), in a house demolished in 1802 and called the “Pavilion of the Monkeys[n 6]”. His father, Jean, an upholsterer merchant, rented it two years earlier to set up his home and shop there, before marrying Marie Cressé[9]. The windows overlook the square known as the crossroads of Croix-du-Trarahoir, which since the early Middle Ages has been one of the main sinister places in the capital[n 7].

Jean-Baptiste's grandparents are merchants at Les Halles de Paris, where they run a shop. On my mother's side, the Cressés are upholsterers and quilters on rue du Marché aux Poirées. Her paternal grandmother is a linen maker on rue de la Lingerie, an extension of rue du Marché aux Poirées. His paternal grandfather, despite the prestigious title of master upholsterer and quilter of which he sometimes boasts, never ran a shop. Apprenticed to his uncle, an upholsterer and quilter, he obtained his master's degree there, and continued to work there until his marriage. He then became a partner of his father-in-law, a furrier, then after the breakdown of their association, a grain carrier.

If Jean-Baptiste seems to be born into the wealthy bourgeoisie, that of the wealthy merchants of the center of Paris, as evidenced by the post-mortem inventories[n 8], a more in-depth study shows an atypical family environment. It was already attested that his maternal grandmother came from a family of musicians: one of his uncles, Michel Mazuel (de), collaborated on the music of the court ballets and was named in 1654 composer of the music of the Twenty-Four Violons of the King. He will also perform his nephew's ballet comedies[10]. Recent research shows that Jean-Baptiste also descends from booksellers and printers, both on his father's and mother's side, which certainly explains why the cultural level of women in his family is higher than that of other traders in the Les Halles district. Women who also run their own businesses and are therefore more independent than most merchants' wives. It was also recently[That is to say?] discovered that Jean-Baptiste's family was close to the world of surgeons[11] (thus Jean Girault, famous surgeon and author of the oldest French herbarium was the friend of Molière's paternal grandfather), at a time of strong opposition between surgery and medicine, which allows us to consider Molière's multiple barbs against doctors from a new perspective. Finally, the life full of twists and turns of his paternal grandfather[12] may have been a model of resilience for Molière in the face of the vicissitudes of his career.

In 1631, Jean Poquelin senior bought from his younger brother, Nicolas[n 9], the office of "ordinary upholsterer of the king's household[n 10]", which five years later he obtained for his eldest son. The same year, he lost his wife, undoubtedly exhausted by six pregnancies that occurred between January 1622 and May 1628[13], and remarried Catherine Fleurette, who died in turn in 1636, after giving him three other children[14].
Studies
Louis-le-Grand College around 1789
The Louis-le-Grand college around 1789.

On the studies of the future Molière, there is no reliable document. The testimonies are late and contradictory. According to the authors of the preface to the Works of Monsieur de Molière (1682)[n 11], the young Poquelin would have studied humanities and philosophy at the prestigious Jesuit college of Clermont (the current Lycée Louis-le-Grand), where he would have had "the advantage of following the late Mr. le Prince de Conti in all his classes[n 12]". In his Life of M. de Molière published in 1705, Grimarest gave him as classmates two characters who would later be his proven friends, the philosopher, doctor and traveler François Bernier and the libertine poet Chapelle[n 13]. The latter had as occasional tutor Pierre Gassendi, rediscoverer of Epicurus and ancient materialism, who, writes Grimarest, "having noticed in Molière all the docility and all the penetration necessary to acquire the knowledge of philosophy", would have admitted him to his lessons with Chapelle, Bernier and Cyrano de Bergerac[n 14]. However, the very presence of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin at the Clermont college is questionable. Thus François Rey points out that “neither one nor the other of the two Jesuits, René Rapin and Dominique Bouhours, who praised Molière after his death, suggested that he would have had the same training as them. The first, in particular, who was his exact contemporary and called himself his friend[15], had been for several years a professor at the college of Clermont[16].” Some, noting that "his theater is the fruit of a slow maturation, not of the respectful application of rules learned at college through the study of classical models", even come to doubt that Molière made regular studies, without however excluding the possibility that he was a student of Gassendi between 1641 and 1643[17].

When he left college, if a contemporary is to be believed[n 15], the young man became a lawyer. Opinions on this point are divided, but, in any case, Molière never held the title of lawyer and his name does not appear in the registers of the University of Orléans where it was possible to study but also to buy his law license, nor in those of the Paris bar[18]. Still, “many passages of his comedies presuppose on his part a precise knowledge of the regulations and procedures of justice[19]”.
Difficult beginnings
First Parisian career: the Illustre Théâtre
Detailed article: Illustre Théâtre.
Plaque at 12 rue Mazarine (Paris).

At the turn of 1643, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, already emancipated by age[n 16] and who had renounced the survival of his father's office, received from him a large deposit on his maternal inheritance. He left the house on rue Saint-Honoré and now lives on rue de Thorigny, in the Marais district, not far from the Béjarts[20].

On June 30, before a notary, he joined forces with nine comrades, including the three eldest of the Béjart siblings (Joseph, Madeleine and Geneviève), to form a troupe of actors under the name of the Illustre Théâtre[21]. This will be the third permanent troupe in Paris, with that of the “great actors” of the Hôtel de Bourgogne and that of the “little actors” of the Marais[22].

Everything, starting with the very terms of the association contract, suggests that the young Poquelin got involved in the theater to play the roles of tragic heroes alongside Madeleine Béjart, four years his senior[23].
Drawing of a palm game transformed into a theater. On each side, a balcony extends above the stage.
Interior of a Parisian theater, in the 1640s, probably an old tennis court; drawing by François Chauveau[24].

In mid-September, the new actors rented the tennis court known as Les Métayers[25] on the left bank of the Seine, in the Faubourg Saint-Germain. While waiting for the work to be completed on the room, they went to Rouen to perform there during the Saint-Romain fair, which took place from October 23 to November 12. Rouen is the city where Pierre Corneille then resided, but no document allows us to affirm, as the epigones of Pierre Lou s do, that Molière took advantage of this stay to establish relations with the author of Le Cid et du Menteur.

The Sharecroppers’ Hall opened its doors on January 1, 1644. During the first eight months of performances, the success of the new troupe was all the greater because, the Marais tennis court having burned down on January 15, its tenants had to leave to play in the provinces during its reconstruction[26].

In October 1644, the Théâtre du Marais, renovated and equipped with a room now equipped with “machines”, welcomed the public again, and it seemed that the Salle des Métayers then began to empty. This could explain the decision, taken in December, to move to the right bank at the Croix-Noire tennis club[27] (currently 32, quai des Célestins), closer to the other theaters. Molière was the only one to sign the withdrawal of the lease, which could indicate that he had become the leader of the troupe[28]. However, this move increased the troupe's debts - the initial investments in renting and fitting out the premises, then fitting out a new premises, were costly and the financial commitments weighed heavily in relation to the revenue - and, from April 1, 1645, the creditors began legal proceedings[20].

At the beginning of August, Molière was imprisoned for debts at Châtelet[29], but was able to get out of trouble thanks to the help of his father. In the fall, he left Paris[n 17].
Stage name “Moliere”

It was during the first half of 1644 that Jean-Baptiste Poquelin took for the first time what would become his stage name and then his author's name. On June 28, he signed “De Moliere” (without accent)[n 18] a notarized document in which he is designated under the name “Jean-Baptiste Pocquelin, dict Molliere[30]”. “It was then,” wrote Grimarest in 1705, “that [he] took the name which he has always borne since. But when he was asked what made him choose this one rather than another, he never wanted to tell the reason, even to his best friends.

Various authors — Élie Cottier[31], Léon Thoorens[32], Virginia Scott[33], Georges Forestier[34] — have pointed out that in the first half of the 17th century actors very often chose stage names referring to imaginary fiefdoms, all more or less "country": Pierre le Messier, sieur de Bellerose, Guillaume Desgilberts, sieur de Montdory, Josias de Soulas, lord of Floridor, Zacharie Jacob, lord of Montfleury[n 19]. A large number of French localities or villages are named Meulière or Molière, and designate sites where millstone quarries were located; in Picardy, the “mollières” are marshy and uncultivated lands[35]. Although the swamps and quarries are places less charged with poetry than the Monts d'or and the Monts fleurs, it is not inconceivable that Molière in turn invented a country stronghold for himself, which would explain why he began by signing "De Molière" and was regularly referred to as "le sieur de Molière[n 20]".

But at the time when Poquelin chose his stage name, the toponym Molière (with its variants) was also a relatively widespread surname, and several historians have thus been able to see in this choice a tribute to the musician and dancer Louis de Mollier (around 1615-1688), author in 1640 of a collection of Chansons pour danser. According to Paul Lacroix, for example, we can advance “with a certain appearance of probability that Poquelin saw himself as the adopted son of Sieur de Molière[36]”; Elizabeth Maxfield-Miller considers, for her part, as "very plausible" the hypothesis that "the young Poquelin would have met Louis de Mollier, [who] would have allowed him to use a variant of his name as a theater name[37]".

François Rey suggests for his part, and after several authors of the last centuries[n 21], to see in the choice of the young Poquelin a reference and a tribute to a character of a completely different stature. He argues that in that same year, 1644, the fourth edition of a river novel in the style of L'Astrée, entitled La Polyxene de Moliere[n 22], had just been published by two of the main Parisian booksellers. There we found a prince Alcestis, morbidly jealous, a Philinte, an Orontes, and this Polyxène, from whom the “spiritual” Magdelon of Precious Ridiculous will borrow her name[n 23]. Its author, François de Molière d'Essertines (1600-1624), poet, translator and letter writer, whose prose, "extremely pure", was considered by Charles Sorel to be one of the most "polite" of the time[38], had been assassinated twenty years earlier in the prime of his life. Close to libertine circles, he was a friend of Théophile de Viau, Tristan L'Hermite, Marc-Antoine de Saint-Amant, Adrien de Monluc, Michel de Marolles, and the young Saint-Évremond, who had not known him, claimed credit for him in his very recent Comédie des Académistes.
The provincial years (1646-1658)
Detailed article: Molière's troupe.
Map of France identifying the various places where Molière's troupe stayed
The stays in the provinces of the troupe of Dufresne and Molière between 1645 and 1658[39].
Madeleine Béjart-Cleopatra and Molière-César in The Death of Pompey by Pierre Corneille, models for Mars and Venus by Nicolas Mignard, 1658 (Museum of Fine Arts of Aix-en-Provence).

In the fall of 1645, Molière and his companions from the "Théâtre Illustre" attempted a tour of western France, but it did not seem to have been successful and they found themselves entangled in the trials in December. Fortunately, Molière and his friends Béjart (Joseph, Madeleine and Geneviève, soon joined by their mother who brought little Louis, aged 16) were engaged during the Easter break of 1646 by the most famous of the "country troops", the troop of the Duke of Épernon, governor of Guyenne, and led by Charles Dufresne. In April 1646, he left Paris with this troop[40]. He spent the next twelve years traveling through the provinces of the kingdom, mainly Guyenne, Languedoc, the Rhône valley, Dauphiné, Burgundy, with regular stays in Lyon, sometimes lasting several months. Even if a complete chronology could not be established, the presence of the troupe was noted in Agen, Toulouse, Albi, Carcassonne, Poitiers, Grenoble, Pézenas, Montpellier, Vienne, Dijon, Bordeaux, Narbonne, Béziers and Avignon (see map opposite)[41].

At this time, itinerant troops - there were around fifteen of them[42] - crisscrossed the roads of France, most often leading a precarious life, of which Scarron painted a colorful picture in his Comic Novel in 1651[43]. Despite the famous declaration made on April 16, 1641 by Louis XIII at the initiative of Richelieu, a declaration which lifted the infamy weighing on actors[44], the Church continued, in many towns, small or large, to oppose theatrical performances. Some troops, however, enjoy a privileged status, which they owe to the protection of a great lord who loves festivals and shows. This is the case of the one then directed by the actor Charles Dufresne and which has been maintained for twenty years by the powerful Dukes of Épernon, governors of Guyenne[45].

It is this troop which, during the year 1646, brings in Béjart and Molière, who will gradually be led to take its direction. From 1647, she was called to play for the Count of Aubijoux, the king's lieutenant-general for Haut-Languedoc, “a great enlightened, libertine and sumptuous lord”, who assured her a “considerable annual bonus[46]”, inviting her to perform in Pézenas, Béziers, Montpellier.
Engraved bust of a man with a wig, armored, in profile, looking at the viewer.
Armand de Bourbon, prince of Conti.

During the summer of 1653, the Prince of Conti, who, after having been one of the main leaders of the Fronde, capitulated in Bordeaux and rallied to the royal power, left Bordeaux to settle with his court in his castle of Grange des Prés in Pézenas. He is now the third person in the kingdom. In September, Dufresne-Molière's troupe was invited to perform there in front of the prince and his mistress[n 24]. This will be the beginning of a close intellectual relationship between the prince and the actor, to which Joseph de Voisin, Conti's confessor, will testify fifteen years later:

    “Monseigneur the Prince of Conti had such a passion for comedy in his youth that he kept a troupe of actors in his wake for a long time, in order to enjoy the pleasure of this entertainment more gently; and not being content with seeing the theater performances, he often conferred with the leader of their troupe, who is the most skilful actor in France, about the most excellent and charming aspects of their art. And often reading with him the most beautiful and delicate parts of comedies, both ancient and modern, he took pleasure in making him express them naively, so that there were few people who could judge a play better than this prince[47]. »

Molière and his comrades will then be able to take advantage, in all the places where they play, of the protection and largesse of “His Highness Séré