less successful than L’Étourdi. It has two parts, one an Italian
imbroglio; the other, which alone keeps the stage, is the original
work of Molière, though, of course, the idea of amantium irae
is as old as literature. “Nothing so good,” says Mr Saintsbury,
“had yet been seen on the French stage, as the quarrels and
reconciliations of the quartette of master, mistress, valet and
soubrette.” Even the hostile Le Boulanger de Chalussay
(Élomire hypochondre) admits that the audience was much of
this opinion:—
“Et de tous les côtés chacun cria tout haut:
‘C’est la faire et jouer les pièces comme il faut.’ ”
The same praise was given, perhaps even more deservedly, to Les Précieuses ridicules (Nov. 18, 1659). Doubts have been raised as to whether this famous piece, the first true comic satire of contemporary foibles on the French stage, was a new play. La Grange calls it pièce nouvelle in his Registre; but, as he enters it as the third pièce nouvelle, he may only mean that, like L’Étourdi, it was new to Paris. The short life of 1682, produced under La Grange’s care, and probably written by Marcel the actor, says the Précieuses was “made” in 1659. There is another controversy as to whether the ladies of the Hôtel Rambouillet, or merely their bourgeoises and rustic imitators, were laughed at. Ménage, in later years at least, professed to recognize an attack on the over-refinement and affectation of the original and, in most ways, honourable précieuses of the Hôtel Rambouillet. But Chapelle and Bachaumont had discovered provincial précieuses, hyper-aesthetic literary ladies, at Montpellier before Molière’s return to Paris; and Furetière, in the Roman bourgeois (1666), found Paris full of middle-class précieuses, who had survived, or, like their modern counterparts, had thriven on ridicule. Another question is: Did Molière copy from the earlier Précieuses of the abbé de Pure? This charge of plagiarism is brought by Somaize, in the preface to his Véritables précieuses. De Pure’s work was a novel (1656), from which the Italian actors had put together an acting-piece in their manner—that is, a thing of “gag,” and improvised speeches. The reproach is interesting only because it proves how early Molière found enemies who, like Thomas Corneille in 1659, accused him of being skilled only in farce, or, like Somaize, charged him with literary larceny. These were the stock criticisms of Molière’s opponents as long as he lived. The success of the Précieuses ridicules was immense; on one famous occasion the king was a spectator, leaning against the great chair of the dying Cardinal Mazarin. The play can never cease to please while literary affectation exists, and it has a comic force of deathless energy. Yet a modern reader may spare some sympathy for the poor heroines, who do not wish, in courtship, to “begin with marriage,” but prefer first to have some less formidable acquaintance with their wooers. Molière’s next piece was less important, and more purely farcical, Sganarelle; ou le cocu imaginaire (May 28, 1660). The public taste preferred a work of this light nature, and Sganarelle was played every year as long as Molière lived. The play was pirated by a man who pretended to have retained all the words in his memory. The counterfeit copy was published by Ribou, a double injury to Molière, as, once printed, any company might act the play. With his habitual good-nature, Molière not only allowed Ribou to publish later works of his, but actually lent money to that knave (Soulié, Recherches, p. 287).
On the 11th of October 1660 the Théâtre du Petit Bourbon was demolished by the superintendent of works, without notice given to the company. The king gave Molière the Salle du Palais Royal, but the machinery of the old theatre was maliciously destroyed. Meanwhile the older companies of the Marais and the Hôtel de Bourgogne attempted to lure away Molière’s troupe, but, as La Grange declares (Registre, p. 26), “all the actors loved their chief, who united to extraordinary genius an honourable character and charming manner, which compelled them all to protest that they would never leave him, but always share his fortunes.” While the new theatre was being put in order, the company played in the houses of the great, and before the king at the Louvre. In their new house (originally built by Richelieu) Molière began to play on the 20th of January 1661. Molière now gratified his rivals by a failure. Don Garcie de Navarre, a heavy tragi-comedy, which had long lain among his papers, was first represented on the 4th of February 1661. Either Molière was a poor actor outside comedy, or his manner was not sufficiently “stagy,” and, as he says, “demoniac,” for the taste of the day. His opponents were determined that he could not act in tragi-comedy, and he, in turn, burlesqued their pretentious and exaggerated manner in a later piece. In the Précieuses (sc. ix.) Molière had already rallied “les grands comédiens” of the Hôtel Bourgogne. “Les autres,” he makes Mascarille say about his own troupe, “sont des ignorants qui récitent comme l’on parle, ils ne savent pas faire ronfler les vers.” All this was likely to irritate the grands comédiens, and their friends, who avenged themselves on that unfortunate jealous prince, Don Garcie de Navarre. The subject of this unsuccessful drama is one of many examples which show how Molière’s mind was engaged with the serious or comic aspects of jealousy, a passion which he had soon cause to know most intimately. Meantime the everyday life of the stage went on, and the doorkeeper of the Théâtre St Germain was wounded by some revellers who tried to force their way into the house (La Grange, Registre). A year later, an Italian actor was stabbed in front of Molière’s house, where he had sought to take shelter (Campardon, Nouvelles pièces, p. 20) To these dangers actors were peculiarly subject: Molière himself was frequently threatened by the marquises and others whose class he ridiculed on the stage, and there seems even reason to believe that there is some truth in the story of the angry marquis who rubbed the poet’s head against his buttons, thereby cutting his face severely. The story comes late (1725) into his biography, but is supported by a passage in the contemporary play, Zélinde (Paris, 1663, scene viii.). Before Easter, Molière asked for two shares in the profits of his company, one for himself, and one for his wife, if he married. That fatal step was already contemplated (La Grange). On the 24th of June he brought out for the first time L’École des maris. The general idea of the piece is as old as Menander, and Molière was promptly accused of pilfering from the Adelphi of Terence. One of the ficelles of the comedy is borrowed from a story as old, at least, as Boccaccio, and still amusing in a novel by Charles de Bernard. It is significant of Molière’s talent that the grotesque and baffled paternal wooer, Sganarelle, like several other butts in Molière’s comedy, does to a certain extent win our sympathy and pity as well as our laughter. The next new piece was Les Fascheux, a comédie-ballet, the Comedy of Bores, played before the king at Fouquet’s house at Vaux le Vicomte (Aug. 15–20, 1661). The comedians, without knowing it, were perhaps the real “fascheux” on this occasion, for Fouquet was absorbed in the schemes of his insatiable ambition (Quo non ascendam? says his motto), and the king was organizing the arrest and fall of Fouquet, his rival in the affections of La Vallière. The author of the prologue to Les Fascheux, Pellisson, a friend of Fouquet’s, was arrested with the superintendent of finance. Pellisson’s prologue and name were retained in the later editions. In the dedication to the king Molière 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 interruptions by bores, is suggested by a satire of Régnier’s, and that by a satire of Horace. Perhaps it may have been the acknowledged suggestions of the king which made gossips declare that Molière habitually worked up hints and mémoires given him by persons of quality (Nouvelles nouvelles, 1663).
In February 1662 Molière married Armande Béjard. The date is given thus in the Registre of La Grange: “Mardy 14, Les Visionnaires, L’Écol des M.
“Part. Visite chez Mᵉ 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 Molière au sortir de la Visite.” M. Loiseleur gives the date in one passage as the 29th of February; in another as the 20th of
