Later Works of Moliere

Moliere's next piece was La Mariage de force (Feb. 15, 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 the 22nd of May, the troupe was at Versailles acting among the picturesque pleasures of that great festival of the king.'s. The Princess d'Elide was acted for the first time, and the three first acts of Tartuffe were given. Moliere's natural hatred of hypocrisy were not diminished by the charges of blasphemy which were showered on him after the Ecole des femmes.

Tartuffe made enemies everywhere. Jansenists and Jesuits, like the two marquesses in L'impromptu de Versailles, each thought the others were aimed at. Five years passed before Moliere received 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 the 17th of 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 scandalized; but not impossible, 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. 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 flames. The play was prohibited, but in 1665 the king adopted Moliere's troupe as his servants, and gave them the title of troupe du roy. This did not cause Moliere to relax his efforts to obtain permission for Tartuffe, and his perseverance was at length successful. That his thoughts were concerned with contemporary hypocrisy is proved by certain scenes in one of his greatest pieces, the Festin de Pierre, or Don Juan (Feb. 15, 1665).

The legend of Don Juan was already familiar on the Spanish, French, and Italian stages. Moliere made it a new thing: terrible and romantic in its portrayal of un grand seignur mauvais homme, modern in its suggested substitution of la humanite for religion, comic, even among his comedies, by the mirthful character of Sganarelle. The piece filled the theatre but was stopped, probably by authority, shortly after Easter. It was not printed by Moliere, and even by 1682 the publication of the full text was not permitted. Happily the copy of De la Regnie, the chief of the police escaped obliterations, and gave us the full scene of Don Juan and the Beggar. The piece provoked violent criticisms. L'Amour medecin, a light comedy, appeared on the 22nd of September 1665. In this piece, for the second time, attacks physicians. In December there was a quarrel with Racine about his play of Alexandre, which he treacherously transferred to the Hotel de Bourgogne.

The 4th of June, 1666 saw the first representation of that famous play, Le Misanthrope (ou L'Atrabilaire amoureux as the original second title ran). This piece, perhaps the masterpiece of Moliere, was more successful with the critics, with the court, and with posterity than with the public. The rival comedians called it "a new style of comedy," and so it was. The eternal passions and sentiments of human nature, modified by the influence of the utmost refinement of civilization, were the matter of the piece.

The school for scandal kept by Celimene, with its hasty judgments on all characters, gave the artist a wide canvas. The perpetual strife between the sensible optimism of a kindly man of the world (Philinte) and the saeva indignatio of a noble nature soured (Alceste) supplies the intellectual action.

The humors of the joyously severe Celimene and of here court, especially of that deathless minor poet Oronte, supply the lighter comedy. Boileau, Lessing, Goethe have combined to give this piece the highest rank even among the comedies of Moliere. As to the "keys" to the characters, and the guesses about the original from whom Alceste was drawn, they are as valueless as other contemporary tattle.