When the French refer to their native tongue, it is the “language of Moliere,” and as he turns 400 this week he remains as central to their culture as Shakespeare in the English-speaking world.
Following are a few pointers on the life and legacy of France’s most illustrious playwright.
Moliere, real name Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, left zero trace of his personal life: no journal, correspondence or even notes on his work. The only of his four children to survive to adulthood lost his manuscripts.
We do not know the source of his stage-name — which refers to a quarry — nor his date of birth (we have only a baptism certificate, dated Jan. 15, 1622, that was discovered two centuries later in 1820).
As the eldest son, he stood to inherit a comfortable living from his father as chief upholsterer and valet to the king, but gave it up to be an actor. It caused his father much strife: He was forced to buy his son out of prison after his first company, The Illustrious Theatre, fell into debt.
Moliere fled Paris at 23, spending the next 13 years with a traveling troupe. Success on the road won him a return to Paris and a successful audience for the young king, Louis XIV, that earned him a powerful patron even though he faced constant battles with censors. Despite the myth, he did not quite die on stage, but shortly after a performance — as the hypochondriac Argan no less — at home on the Rue de Richelieu on Feb. 17, 1673.
La Comedie-Francaise was created by King Louis XIV in 1680, seven years after Moliere’s death, as a merger between his troupe and another. The longest-running theater company in the world, it is known as “La Maison de Moliere” and has performed his work every single year since its formation. Based since 1799 on the Rue de Richelieu, it now employs 400 people, including 60 actors, and has a costume department comprising 50,000 items.
Moliere created characters who often take their foibles to extremes, but allow us to laugh at our universal human failings. Perhaps best-known is Tartuffe, from the play of the same name, a fraud who disguises himself as a priest to convince a naive, wealthy aristocrat into handing him his fortune and daughter’s hand in marriage, even as he chases after his wife. The play is seen as practically inventing the “comedy of manners” that satirizes the moral hypocrisies of high society.
Although Moliere is not thought to have been particularly anti-religious himself, Tartuffe scandalized the Catholic Church and became a key text in the anti-clerical movement of the following centuries.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
RSS