These documents, which seemed for a moment to settle the question, have, in the opinion of many respectable critics, only made it more mysterious. Marie Herve, in the act of renuncia tion dated 5643, describes all her children as minors. Joseph and Madeleine, however, had already attained their full legal majority. Marie Herve, moreover, when Armande was born, was at least 53 years old and she had not had a child during the eight previous years. More remarkable is the fact that Moliere, who might have produced these documents and thus silenced his enemies once and for all, never apparently made the least allusion to them, but acquiesced in the tradition, unquestioned for 16o years after his marriage, that Armande was the daughter of Madeleine. The in ference has been drawn that the documents were not such as would have borne too close an inspection. The hypothesis which has won most support, though it is contemptuously dismissed by some scholars, is that Madeleine, for reasons variously given, which cannot be discussed within the limits of this article, was at the time of the birth of Armande anxious to avoid confessing her maternity and that she therefore induced her mother to ac knowledge the child as her own. It is unlikely that the real facts
of the case will ever be ascertained. Neither the gossips of the time nor the critics of a later generation help us very much to determine the attitude of Madeleine herself to the marriage, but it is clear that throughout her life she takes a very special interest in Armande. Armande received at her marriage a dowry of 10,000 livres, which purported to come from Marie Herve. But Marie Herve was at that time penniless. It was almost certainly Made leine, the only rich member of the family, who supplied the money, and ten years later she left to Armande the whole of her fortune. No satisfactory explanation has been given why Made leine should thus favour the youngest of her sisters at the ex pense of all the other members of the family. On the other hand no convincing reason has been given why Madeleine, if Armande was her daughter, should have wished to conceal the fact.
In the face of all this conflicting evidence, the just critic must apply the principles of English equity. The documents must be accepted until they are definitely proved to be falsifications of the truth, and according to the documents Armande is the sister of Madeleine.