HOLTFRE, .JEAN BAPTISTE (properly, Jean Baptiste Poquelin—the name of Moliere not having been assumed till he had commenced authorship, was b. at Paris, Jan. 15, 1622. His father, Jean Poquelin, was then an upholsterer, but subsequently became a valet-de-chambre to the king. Regarding the boyhood of Moliere almost nothing is known, but his credulous biographers have put together whatever traditionary gossip they could find floating on the breath of society. Voltaire, while recording these contes populaires, as he calls them, pronounces them Ws-faux. All that we really are certain of is that in his 14th year he was sent to the Jesuit collgge de Clermont in Paris, where he had for a fellow-student prince Armand de Conti, and that, on leaving the college, be attended for some time the lectures of Gassendi. He was charmed, we are told, by the freedom of thought permitted in speculative science, and, in par ticular, conceived a great admiration for Lucretius, the Roman poet-philosopher, whom he undertook to translate, Of this translation, only a siuglG pang ,remains, inter calated in the Misanthrope (act ii. scene 4). About 1641 he commenced the study of law, and appears to have even passed as an advocate; but the statement of Tallement des Beaux that he actually ventured into the precincts of theology, is generally rejected. Moliere detested priests. So gay, humorous, and sharp-eyed a humanitarian would have felt quite miserable under the restraints of a monkish life. In 1645 he suddenly upon the stage as member of a company of strolling players, which took the name of the lustre Theatre, and performed at first in the faubourgs of Paris, and afterwards in the provinces. For the next 12 years we can only catch an occasional glimpse of him. He was playing at Nantes and Bordeaux in 1648, at Narbonne and Toulouse in 1640, at Lyons in 1653 (where his first piece, L'Etourdi, a comedy of intrigue, was brought oat), at Lyons and Narbonne again in 1655, at Grenoble during the carnival, stud also at Rouen in 1658. During these now obscure peregrinations, he seems, although -an industrious actor, to have been also a diligent student. He read Plautus, Terence, Rabelais, and the Italian and Spanish comedies, besides—without which, indeed, all the Test would have been of little avail—making a constant use of as quick eyes as ever glit tered in a Frenchman's head. At Paris, by the powerful recommendation of his old schoolfellow, the prince de Conti, Moliere's company got permission to act before the king, who was so highly pleased, that he allowed them to establish themselves in the city -under the title of the Troupe de Monsieur. In 1650 Moliere brought out Les Preeieuses flidicules, the fine satire of which—lapsing at times, however, into caricature—was Instantly perceived and relished. " Courage, Moliere!" cried an old man on its first representation; " voild la veritable comedie." The old man was a prophet. Veritable comedy dated in France from . that night. Ménage, the critic, is reported to have said to Chapelain the poet, as they were going out of the theater: "Henceforth (as St. Remi said to Clovis), we must burn what we have worshiped, and worship what we have burned. In 1660 appeared Sganarelle, ou le Cocu Imaginaire; and in 1661 L'Ecole des Maris—partly founded on the Adelphi of Terence, in which Moliere completely passes 'out of the region of farce into that of pure comic satire—and Les Filcheux. In the fol
lowing year, Moliere married Armande-Gresinde Bejart, either the sister or daughter (for it is still undetermined) of Madeleine Mart, an actress of his troupe, with whom he had formerly lived in what the French politely call "intimate relations." That, however, there is the slightest ground for supposing that the great comedian incestuously married his own daughter, nobody now believes, though the revolting calumny was freely circu lated even in _Moliere's lifetime. His literary activity continued as brisk as before. Among several pieces belonging to this year, the most celebrated is L'Ecole des Famines, excited, not without reason, the most violent indignation among the clergy and the devout, for there was an indecency in the expression, and the author indulged in a caricature of religious mysteries that could not but be offensive. Moliere defended himself with incredible audacity in his Impromptu de Versailles. Le Tartufe, written in 1664, was prohibited from being brought upon the stage; but Moliere was invited by his literary friends, Boileau and others, to read it in a semi-public manner, he did with the greatest approbation. In 1665 Louis XIV. bestowed a pension -of 7,000 livres on Moliere's company, whin now called itself the Troupe du Roi. Next year appeared Le Misanthrope, the most artistic of all his comedies; shortly af.er followed La ffeclecin Malgre Lui. When Tartufe was at last brought upon the stage in 1669, it obtained a superb success. The truth, the variety, the contrast of the characters, the -exquisite art shown in the management of the incidents, the abundance of the sentiments, and the wonderful alternations of feeling—laughter, anger, indignation, tenderness—make this, in the opinion of most critics, Moliere's masterpiece. To the same year belongs EArare. Iu 1670 appeared Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, a very pleasant satire on a very prevalent vice among wealthy tradesmen—viz., the vulgar ambition to pass for fine gen tlemen. Then came Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671), followed by Les Femmes Savantes <1672), full of admirable passages; and Le Malade lrnaginaire (1673), the most popular if not the best of all Moliere's comedies. While acting in this piece, he was seized with severe pains, which, however, he managed to conceal from the audience; but on being carried home, hemorrhage ensued, and he expired at ten o'clock at night (Feb. 17, 1673). As Moliere had died in a state of excommunication, and without having received the last aids of religion—which, however, he had implored—the archbishop of Paris refused to let him be buried in consecrated ground; but the king interfered—a compromise was -effected, and he was privately interred in the cemetery of St. Joseph, being followed to the tomb by a hundred of his friends with lighted torches. In 1792 his remains were transferred to the museum of French monuments, from which they were removed to Pere Lachaise in 1817. Moliere ranks as the greatest French comic dramatist—perhaps the greatest of all comic dramatists. Among the best editions of Moliere's works are those of Auger (1819-25), Aime-Martin (1833-36), MOland (1871), and Despois (1874 et seq.). A complete English translation of Moliere's works is that by Van Latin, in 6 vols. (Edin. 1875-76). The best biographies are by Taschereau (1825-27), and Bazin (1851). The bookS -devoted to Moliere and his works would themselveslorm a large library.