Jean-Baptiste Poquelin was born in Paris in 1622 into a high bourgeois family; his father was Royal Upholsterer. After being educated in a prestigious Jesuit school he is said to have studied law, then taken over his father’s position but soon abandoned it. Instead, under the pseudonym Molière, he, Madeleine Béjart, and a few friends created a theatre troupe, “L’illustre théâtre” (“The illustrious theatre”) in 1643. Their first shows were failures and Molière was thrown into debtor’s prison. Upon his release he took the lead of the troupe, both as director, principal actor, and occasional playwright, and went on the road, performing in French provincial towns and earning his first successes. In 1658 the troupe successfully mounted its first performance in front of the King. Les précieuses ridicules (The Affected Young Women, 1659), Molière’s first major play, was a success at court and in Paris, and launched his playwriting career for good. In 1662 he married Madeleine Béjart’s sister– or possibly her daughter– Armande; Louis XIV was the godfather of their first child. Molière participated in the major celebrations Louis XIV organized at Versailles, and the troupe became the King’s troupe in 1665; but his plays, especially the more religiously or socially virulent ones, were not all well received. Tartuffe (1664) and Dom Juan (1665) were both forbidden, and The Misanthrope (1666) enjoyed only mild success. Toward the end of his life Molière focused on comedies, with, among others, L’avare (The Miser, 1668), Le bourgeois gentilhomme (The Bourgeois Gentleman,1670), and Les femmes savantes (The Learned Ladies, 1672). Molière died right after a performance of his last play, Le malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid, 1673), a few days after opening night. Because he was so famous, Louis XIV exceptionally authorized a Christian burial for him. Soon after, Molière’s troupe merged with the Troupe du Marais, and in 1680, by order of the King, the new troupe merged with the troupe of the Hôtel de Bourgogne: the Comédie Française was born.
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