Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (Molière)

Molière was the greatest comic dramatist in French and died shortly after performing in his own play about a hypochondriac. Born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin in Paris in 1622, he was the son of a prosperous upholsterer who held a court appointment, trained in law, and abandoned both inheritance and profession at twenty-one to found a theatre company. The Illustre Théâtre failed within two years and he was briefly imprisoned for debt. He then spent thirteen years touring the provinces, which taught him stagecraft, farce and how to hold an audience. The company returned to Paris in 1658 and performed before Louis XIV, who gave them a theatre and became Molière's protector — the essential fact of his career, since without royal cover his work would have been suppressed. His method was to attack types rather than individuals: the miser, the social climber, the misanthrope, the fashionable pedant, the quack doctor. L'École des femmes in 1662 provoked accusations of obscenity and irreligion. Tartuffe, first staged in 1664, portrayed a religious hypocrite who worms his way into a household, and the devout party had it banned for five years; the Archbishop of Paris threatened excommunication for anyone who watched it. Dom Juan was withdrawn after fifteen performances. He wrote in verse and prose, acted the leading comic roles himself, and collaborated with Lully on comedy-ballets for the court. On 17 February 1673, playing the title role in The Imaginary Invalid, he collapsed on stage and died hours later. Actors could not be buried in consecrated ground without renouncing the profession; the king intervened, and he was buried at night.

• Lived: 1622 CE – 1673 CE
• Nationality: French
• Roles: playwright, actor, director