Moliere

Born in 1622 in Paris, France to a wealthy bourgeois family, Moliere went on to become a favorite of the court of Louis XIV.

His mother died while he was young and Moliere was never close to his father, Jean Poquelin. His father held a prestigious office in the court of Louis XIII. He was the valet of the King's chamber and the keeper of carpets and upholstery. Poquelin purchased the position and planned to pass it down to his son. But Moliere had different ideas.

Moliere attended school at the Jesuit College de Clermont where he got his first taste of the stage. When he was twenty-one years old, Moliere dropped out of school so he could concentrate on the stage. Me and the actress, Madeleine Bejart opened a theater together. It was called the Illustre Theatre. Although Madeleine's brother and sister helped them with their performances, the theater went bankrupt in 1645.

Moliere was imprisoned for 24 hours, but the debts were paid by either his father or a lover of one of the troupe, and Moliere was released to resume acting. After this, he adapted his stage name, Moliere.

The reason could have been because he did not want to embarrass his father. The court of Louis XIV has made actors more fashionably accepted in society, but they still could not be buried in consecrated ground.

For the next twelve years, Moliere and his troupe traveled throughout France putting on plays. Moliere had a talent for mockery which was evident in his plays. Along the way, he acquired a patron. Armand was the Prince of Conti of the House of Bourbon, and the governor of Languedoc. Moliere lost his patronage after Armand incurred syphilis and became religious. Then Armand joined with a group of zealots who boycotted Moliere's risque plays.

When Moliere finally returned to Paris, he had developed some notoriety. In Paris, he rented the Louvre, which was a theater at the time, and performed for the King in 1658. His troupe was a success and awarded the title of Troupe de Monsieur. While there Moliere wrote plays in a comedic style. His plays used humor to criticize the customs of France at that time.

Moliere contracted pulmonary tuberculosis during his time in prison while young. In 1673 Moliere was performing in the play, Le Malade Imaginaire, or The Imaginary Invalid. It is a play about a hypochondriac. During a scene, Moliere is supposed to fall into a coughing fit. Unfortunately, the coughing fit was real, and Moliere was dying. He insisted on finishing the play.

After the play was finished, he collapsed and was taken to his home. He died 1673. He did not receive last rites because two priests refused and a third was late. There is a superstition that green brings bad luck to actors because that was the color Moliere wore on that fateful night.

Since Moliere was an actor, he could not be buried in consecrated ground, but his wife appealed to the King. He allowed her to bury Moliere at night in the part of the cemetery set aside for unbaptized infants.

Moliere's remains were moved to the museum of French Monuments in 1792 and then moved again to the Pere Lachaise Cemetary in Paris in 1817.