Meanwhile, Le Festin de Pierre, pro duced on Feb. 15, 1665, had been denounced as the work of an atheist, without respect for God or the nobility, and, like L'Ecole des Femmes and Tartuffe, had become the occasion of several contemporary pamphlets. The king cannot fail to have been embarrassed by this further outcry. He did not, however, prohibit the public performance of the play, though it is more than prob able that he advised the suppression of certain passages and dissuaded Moliere from continuing the run of it after the Easter vacation. The play, though successful, was not revived, nor was it printed during the life of Moliere. The scene which most infuriated the critics of Tartuffe was that in which Don Juan brings his infamies to a climax by assuming the mask of virtue. The scene between Don Juan and the beggar was considered to be so shocking that it was omitted from the early versions of the play, and great exception was also taken to the philosophic dis cussions between Don Juan and his valet. It is, again, not very easy for a modern reader to understand the critics of Moliere. Much of the fury inspired by Don Juan seems to have been due to a false association of the author with the sentiments of his hero. The play was also construed by some of its critics as a deliberate attack upon the noblesse. Hitherto, as in La Critique de l'Ecole des Femmes Moliere had portrayed only a foolish marquis. In Le Festin de Pierre he portrayed a wicked one. The king, once again, allowed no doubt to subsist concerning his own attitude to the play. Le Festin de Pierre was produced in Feb. 1665. In August of that year Louis XIV. summoned Moliere to St. Germain, granted him a pension of 6,000 livres, and took over the company from his brother. Moliere and his players were henceforth known as the "Troupe du Roi." The first play produced by Moliere as head of the king's com pany was to bring him further enemies. L'Amour Medecin, an impromptu comedie-ballet written and produced in five days, pleased the court and the town, but the medical profession now had definite warning that Moliere, like his own Don Juan, was incorrigibly impie en medecine. The first performance took place
at St. Germain on Sept. 15, 1665. From 1665 onwards, as the health of Moliere declined, his satires against the doctors became more frequent and more effective. There is no need to seek for any private reason for these attacks. Nine-tenths of the science of medicine in the 17th century was pure grimace, and Moliere, with his keen eye for the charlatan in art, science or religion, could not fail, as he came to know them better, to add the doctors to his gallery of impostors.
For the last two years Moliere had been encouraging the young Racine. The two men had little in common, being antipathetic in personal disposition as in their genius. Moliere had, nevertheless, been the first to recognize the talents of the young author, and had not only helped him with criticism and advice in the prepa ration of La Thebaide, but accepted the play when the tragedians of the Hotel de Bourgogne hesitated to produce it. La Thebaide was produced at the Palais Royal on June 20, 1664. Shortly afterwards Moliere accepted a second play of Racine, and Alex andre le Grand was produced at his theatre on Dec. 4, 1665. Racine, however, was not satisfied with the acting. He does not seem to have made any complaint or suggestion to Moliere on the subject, but on the day after its fourth performance, on Dec. 14, to the surprise and indignation of the company of the Palais Royal, the tragedians of the Hotel de Bourgogne, with the author's connivance, performed the play privately before the king and his brother, and on Dec. 18 staged it publicly as part of their reper tory. Moliere could hardly fail to regard the incident as an affront to his actors and a betrayal of his friendship. The for tunes of Racine were henceforth identified with those of the Hotel de Bourgogne, whither, 15 months later, he enticed Mad emoiselle du Parc, who thus for the second time abandoned the company of Moliere.