Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/656

628 MOLIERE name were retained in later editions. In the dedication to the king Moliere says that Louis suggested one scene (that of the Sportsman), and in another place he mentions that the piece was written, rehearsed, and played in a fortnight. The fundamental idea of the play, the inter ruptions by bores, is suggested by a satire of Regnier s, and that by a satire of Horace. Perhaps it may have been the acknowledged suggestions of the king which made gossips declare that Moliere habitually worked up hints and memoires given him by persons of quality (Nouvelles Nouvelles, 1663). In February 1662 Moliere married Armande Bejard. The date is given thus in the liegistre of La Grange: "Mardy 14, Les Visionnaires, L Ecol des M. Part. Visite chez M e d Equeuilly." And on the margin he has painted a blue circle, his way of recording a happy event, with the words, " mariage de M. de Moliere au sortir de la Visite." M. Loiseleur gives the date in one passage as 29th February, in another as 20th February. But La Grange elsewhere mentions the date as "Shrove Tuesday," which was, it seems, 14th February. Elsewhere M. Loiseleur makes the date of the marriage a vague day " in January." The truth is that the marriage contract is dated 23d January 1662 (Soulie, Documents, p. 203). Where it is so difficult to establish the date of the marriage, a simple fact, it must be infinitely harder to dis cover the truth as to the conduct of Madame Moliere. The abominable assertions of the anonymous libel, Les Intrigues de Moliere et celles de sa Femme; ou la, Fameuse Comedienne (1688), have found their way into tradition, and are accepted by many biographers. But M. Livet and M. Bazin have proved that the alleged lovers of Madame Moliere were actually absent from France, or from the court, at the time when they are reported, in the libel, to have conquered her heart. A conversation between Chapelle and Moliere, in which the comedian is made to tell the story of his wrongs, is plainly a mere fiction, and is answered in Grimarest by another dialogue between Moliere and Rohault, in which Moliere only complains of a jealousy which he knows to be unfounded. It is noticed, too, that the con temporary assailants of Moliere counted him among jealous, but not among deceived, husbands. The hideous accusation brought by the actor Montfleury, that Moliere had married his own daughter, Louis XIV. answered by becoming the godfather of Moliere s child. The king, indeed, was a firm friend of the actor, and, when Moliere was accused of impiety on the production of Don Juan (1665), Louis gave him a pension. We need not try to make Madame Moliere a vertu, as French ladies of the theatre say, but it is certain that the charges against her are unsubstantiated. It is generally thought that Moliere drew her portrait in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, acte iii. sc. ix., " elle est capri- cieuse, mais on souffre tout des Belles." From 1662 onwards Moliere suffered the increasing hatred of his rival actors. La Grange mentions the visit of Floridor and Montfleury to the queen-mother, and their attempt to obtain equal favour, " la troupe de Moliere leur donnant beaucoup de jalouzie" (12th August 1662). On 26th December was played for the first time the admirable ficole des Femmes, which provoked a literary war, and caused a shower of " paper bullets of the brain." The innocence of Agnes was called indecency ; the sermon of Arnolphe was a deliberate attack on Christian mysteries. We have not the space to discuss the religious ideas of Moliere ; but both in L Ecole des Femmes and in Don Juan he does display a bold contempt for the creed of " boiling chaldrons" and of a physical hell. A brief list of the plays and pamphlets provoked by L Ecole des Femmes is all we can offer in this place. December 26, 1662. ficole des Femmes. February 9, 1663. Nouvelles Nouvelles, by De Vise. Moliere is accused of pilfering from Straparola. f June 1, 1663. Moliere s own piece, Critique, dc I Ecole des Femmes. In this play Moliere retorts on the critics, and especially on his favourite butt, the critical marquis. August 1663. Zelindc, a play by De Vise, is printed. The scene is in the shop of a seller of lace, where persons of quality meet, and attack the reputation of "Elomire," that is, Moliere. He steals from the Italian, the Spanish, from Furetiere s Franeion, " il lit tons les vieux bouquins," he insults the noblesse, he insults Christianity, and so forth. November 17, 1663. Portrait du Pcintrc is printed, an attack on Moliere by Boursault. This piece is a detailed criticism, by several persons, of L ficolc des Femmes. It is pronounced dull, vulgar, farcical, obscene, and (what chiefly vexed Moliere, who knew the danger of the accusation) impious. Perhaps the only biograph ical matter we gain from Boursault s play is the interesting fact that Moliere was a tennis-player. On 4th November 1663 Moliero replied with L Impromptu de Versailles, a witty and merciless attack on his critics, in which Boursault was mentioned by name. The actors of the Hotel de Bourgogne were parodied on the stage, and their art was ridiculed. The next scenes in this comedy of comedians were : November 30. ThcPanegyrique del Ecole des Femmes, byRobinet. December 7. Reponse a I Impromptu ; ou la Vengeance des Mar quis, by De Vise. January 19, 1664. L Impromptu de VHtitcl de Condd. It is a reply by a son of Montfleury. , March 17, 1664. La Guerre Comique ; ou Defense de VEcole des Femmes. 1664. Lettre sur les Affaires du Theatre, published in Diversites Galantcs, by the author of Zelindc. In all those quarrels the influence of Corneille was opposed to Moliere, while his cause was espoused by Boileau, a useful ally, when " les comediens et les auteurs, depuis le cedre [Corneille ?] jusqu a 1 hysope, sont diable- ment animus centre lui" (Impromptu de } r ersailles, scene v.). Moliere s next piece was Le Mariage Force (15th Feb ruary 1664), a farce with a ballet. The comic character of the reluctant bridegroom excites contemptuous pity, as well as laughter. From the end of April till 22d May the troupe was at Versailles, acting among the picturesque pleasures of that great festival of the king s. The Pnncesse dfilide was acted for the first time, and the three first acts of Tartu/e were given. Moliere s natural hatred of hypocrisy had not been diminished by the charges of blas phemy which were showered on him after the ficole des Femmes. Tartu/e made enemies everywhere. Jansenists and Jesuits, like the two marquises in U Impromptu de Versailles, each thought the others were aimed at. Five years passed before Moliere got permission to play the whole piece in public. In the interval it was acted before Madame, Conde, the legate, and was frequently read by Moliere in private houses. The Gazette of 17th May 1664 (a paper hostile to Moliere) says that the king thought the piece inimical to religion. Louis was not at that time on good terms with the devots, whom his amours scandal ized ; but, not impossibly, the queen-mother (then suffering from her fatal malady) disliked the play. A most violent attack on Moliere, " that demon clad in human flesh," was written by one Pierre Roulle (Le Roy Glorieux au Monde, Paris, 1664). This fierce pamphlet was suppressed, but the king s own copy, in red morocco with the royal arms, remains to testify to the bigotry of the author, who was cure" of Saint Barthelemy. According to Roulle, Moliere deserved to be sent through earthly to eternal fires. The play was prohibited, as we have seen, but in August 1665 the king adopted Moliere s troupe as his servants, and gave them the title of " troupe du roy." This, however, did not cause Moliere to relax his efforts to obtain permission for Tartu/e (or Tartufe, or Tartufle, as it was variously spelled), and his perseverance was at length successful. That his thoughts were busy with contemporary hypocrisy is proved by certain scenes in one of his greatest pieces, the Festin de Pierre, or Don Juan (15th February 1665). The legend

of Don Juan Avas familiar already on the Spanish, Italian,