England (1882); and Sir Guilford Molesworth (b. 1828), an eminent engineer and economist.
MOLESWORTH, SIR WILLIAM, Bart. (1810–1855), English politician, son of the 7th baronet, was born in London on the 23rd of May 1810, and in 1823 succeeded to the baronetcy. At Cambridge he fought a duel with his tutor, and for some time studied abroad. On the passing of the Reform Act of 1832 he was returned to parliament for the eastern division of Cornwall, to support the ministry of Lord Grey. Through Charles Buller he made the acquaintance of Grote and James Mill, and in April 1835 he founded, in conjunction with Roebuck, the London Review, as an organ of the “Philosophic Radicals.” After the publication of two volumes he purchased the Westminster Review, and for some time the united magazines were edited by him and J. S. Mill. From 1837 to 1841 Sir William Molesworth sat for Leeds, and acquired considerable influence in the House of Commons by his speeches and by his tact in presiding over the select committee on transportation. But his Radicalism made little impression either on the house or on his constituency. From 1841 to 1845 he had no seat in parliament, occupying his leisure time in editing the works in Latin and English of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, a recreation which
cost him no less than £6000. In 1845 he was returned for Southwark, and retained that seat until his death. On his return to parliament he devoted special attention to the condition of the colonies, and was the ardent champion of their self-government. In January 1853 Lord Aberdeen included him in the cabinet as first commissioner of works, the chief work by which his name was brought into prominence at this time being the construction of the new Westminster Bridge; he also was the first to open Kew Gardens on Sundays. In July 1855 he was made colonial secretary, but he died on the 22nd of October. Molesworth was for many years a great friend of Mr and Mrs Grote, and Mrs Grote’s privately printed work on The Philosophical Radicals (1866) contains an account of his life. He married in 1844, but had no children, and the baronetcy passed to a cousin. His sister (d. 1910) married Richard Ford, famous for his Handbook of Spain.
A Life by Mrs Fawcett was published in 1903. A full pedigree of the Molesworth family is printed in Sir John Maclean’s Trigg Minor, vol. i.; the titles of his speeches and works may be found in the Bibl. Cornubiensis, vol. i. and iii.
MOLFETTA, a seaport and episcopal see of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Bari, from which it is 16 m. N.N.W. by rail. Pop. (1901), 42,363. The old cathedral of S. Conrad is a Romanesque structure. The old town is surrounded by walls, and has medieval houses; the new town is more spacious, and is an active seaport. The origin of Molfetta is uncertain, though there was a neolithic settlement here. The town was given by Charles V. to the duke of Termoli in 1522, and during his lordship it was sacked by the French under Lautrec. In 1631 Cesare Gonzaga took the title of duke of Guastalla and prince of Molfetta; but in 1640 the fief was sold to the Spinola family, and in 1798 incorporated with the royal domain. The bishopric is directly subject to the papal see.
MOLIÈRE (1622–1673), the nom de théâtre chosen, for some undiscovered reason, by the great French dramatist Jean Baptiste Poquelin, and ever since substituted for his family name. He was born in Paris, probably in January 1622. The baptismal certificate which is usually, and almost with absolute certainty, accepted as his is dated 15th January 1622, but it is not possible to infer that he was born on the day of his christening. The exact place of his birth is also disputed, but it seems
tolerably certain that he saw the light in a house of the Rue St Honoré. His father was Jean Poquelin, an upholsterer, who, in 1631, succeeded his own uncle as “valet tapissier de chambre du roi.” The family of Poquelin came from Beauvais, where for some centuries they had been prosperous tradesmen. The legend of their Scotch descent seems to have been finally disproved by the researches of M. E. Révérend du Mesnil. The mother of Molière was Marie Cressé; and on his father’s side he was connected with the family of Mazuel, musicians attached to the court of France. In 1632 Molière lost his mother; his father married again in 1633. The father possessed certain shops in the covered Halle de la Foire, Saint Germain des Prés, and the biographers have imagined that Molière might have received his first bent towards the stage from the spectacles offered to the holiday people at the fair. Of his early education little is known; but it is certain that his mother possessed a Bible and Plutarch’s Lives, books which an intelligent child would not fail to study. In spite of a persistent tradition, there is no reason to believe that the later education of Molière was neglected. “Il fit ses humanitez au collège de Clermont,” says the brief life of the comedian published by his friend and fellow-actor, La Grange, in the edition of his works printed in 1682. La Grange adds that Molière “eut l’advantage de suivre M. le Prince de Conti dans toutes ses classes.” As Conti was seven years younger than Molière, it is not easy to understand how Molière came to be the school contemporary of the prince. Among more serious studies the Jesuit fathers encouraged their pupils to take part in ballets, and in later life Molière was a distinguished master of this sort of entertainment. According to Grimarest, the first writer Who published a life of Molière in any detail (1705), he not only acquired “his humanities,” but finished his “philosophy” in five years. He left the Collège de Clermont in 1641, the year when Gassendi, a great contemner of Aristotle, arrived in Paris. The Logic and Ethics of Aristotle, with his Physics and Metaphysics, were the chief philosophical textbooks at the Collège de Clermont. But when he became the pupil of Gassendi (in company with Cyrano de Bergerac, Chapelle, and Hesnaut), Molière was taught to appreciate the atomic philosophy of Lucretius. There seems no doubt that Molière began, and almost or quite finished, a translation of the De natura rerum. According to a manuscript note of Trallage, published by M. Paul Lacroix, the manuscript was sold by Molière’s widow to a bookseller. His philosophic studies left a deep mark on the genius of Molière. In the Jugement de Pluton sur les deux parties des nouveaux dialogues des morts (1684), the verdict is “que Molière ne parleroit point de philosophie.” To “talk philosophy” was a favourite exercise of his during his life, and his ideas are indicated with sufficient clearness in several of his plays. There seems no connexion between them and the opinions of “Molière le Critique” in a dialogue of that name, published in Holland in 1709. From his study of philosophy, too, he gained his knowledge of the ways of contemporary pedants: of Pancrace the Aristotelian, of Marphorius the Cartesian, of Trissotin, “qui s’attache pour l’ordre au Péripatétisme,” of Philaminte, who loves Platonism, of Belise, who relishes “les petits corps,” and Armande, who loves “les tourbillons.” Grimarest has an amusing anecdote of a controversy in which Molière, defending Descartes, chose a lay-brother of a begging order for umpire, while Chapelle appealed to the same expert in favour of Gassendi. His college education over, Molière studied law, and there is even evidence—that of tradition in Grimarest, and of Le Boulanger de Chalussay, the libellous author of a play called Élomire hypochondre—to prove that he was actually called to the bar. More trustworthy is the passing remark in La Grange’s short biography (1682), “au sortir des écoles de droit, il choisit la profession de comédien.” Before joining a troop of half-amateur comedians, however, Molière had some experience in his father’s business. In 1637 his father had obtained for him the right to succeed to his own office as “valet tapissier de chambre du roi.” The document is mentioned in the inventory of Molière’s effects, taken after his death. When the king travelled the valet tapissier accompanied him to arrange the furniture of the royal quarters. There is very good reason to believe (Loiseleur, Points obscurs, p. 94) that Molière accompanied Louis XIII. as his valet tapissier to Provence in 1642. It is even not impossible that Molière was the young valet de chambre who concealed Cinq Mars just before his arrest at Narbonne, on the 13th of June 1642. But this is part of the romance rather than of the history of Molière. Our next glimpse of the comedian we get in a document of 6th January 1643. Molière acknowledges the receipt of money
