Moliére and his contribution to comedy

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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div></div> <div class="mt-20"> <div class="mb-20 font-sans-serif font-weight-bold"> Below is the article summary. For the full article, see <a href="/biography/Moliere-French-dramatist">Molière</a>. </div> <div class="collection-content topic-paragraph"> <article class="content"><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong>Molière </strong>, orig. <strong>Jean-Baptiste Poquelin</strong>, (baptized Jan. 15, 1622, Paris, France—died Feb. 17, 1673, Paris), French playwright, actor, and director. The son of a prosperous upholsterer, he left home to become an actor in 1643, joining forces with the Béjart family. He cofounded the troupe known as the Illustre Théâtre and toured the French provinces (1645–58), writing plays and acting in them. After his troupe was established in a permanent theatre in Paris under the patronage of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/summary/Louis-XIV-king-of-France" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Louis XIV</a>, he won acclaim in the court and among bourgeois audiences for his comedy <em>The Affected Young Ladies</em> (1659). His other major plays include <em>The School for Wives</em> (1662), <em>Tartuffe</em> (1664; initially banned by religious authorities), <em>The Misanthrope</em> (1666), <em>The Miser</em> (1669), <em>The Bourgeois Gentleman</em> (1670), and <em>The Imaginary Invalid</em> (1673). His plays compose a portrait of all levels of 17th-century French society and are marked by their good-humoured and intelligent mockery of human vices, vanities, and follies. Despite his success, he never ceased to act and direct. Taken ill during a performance, he died of a hemorrhage within a day and was denied holy burial. He is considered the greatest French dramatist and the father of modern French comedy.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span></section> </article></div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal mb-20" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/summary/satire"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/81/22581-138-00A5C111/George-Barnard-Shaw-speech-novelty-technology-newsreel-clip-circa-1930s.jpg?w=100&h=75&c=crop" alt="Take a look at George Bernard Shaw speaking on the marvels of Movietone" width="100" height="75" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/summary/satire" >satire Summary</a> <div class="font-weight-light font-serif font-14 line-clamp clamp-2 ilf-description">Satire, artistic form, chiefly literary and dramatic, in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, parody, caricature, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to inspire social reform. Satire is a</div> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal mb-20" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/summary/comedy"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-133/images/shared/default3.png?v=3.133.48" class="default " height="75" width="100"/> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/summary/comedy" >comedy Summary</a> <div class="font-weight-light font-serif font-14 line-clamp clamp-2 ilf-description">Comedy, type of drama or other art form the chief object of which, according to modern notions, is to amuse. It is contrasted on the one hand with tragedy and on the other with farce, burlesque, and other forms of humorous amusement. The classic conception of comedy, which began with Aristotle in</div> </div> </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal mb-20" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/summary/art-criticism"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/14/181214-050-FDBCB42C/Studio-Artist-canvas-oil-easel-Gustave-Courbet.jpg?w=100&h=75&c=crop" alt="Gustave Courbet: The Painter's Studio" width="100" height="75" /> </a> </div> <div class="card-body ilf-content"> <a class="font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title" href="/summary/art-criticism" >art criticism Summary</a> <div class="font-weight-light font-serif font-14 line-clamp clamp-2 ilf-description">Art criticism, the analysis and evaluation of works of art. More subtly, art criticism is often tied to theory; it is interpretive, involving the effort to understand a particular work of art from a theoretical perspective and to establish its significance in the history of art. Many cultures have</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"TopicCollectionPage","templateName":"CONCISE","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":3,"pageId":null,"pageLength":null,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-133/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.133.48"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-133/dist/topic-collection-page.js?v=3.133.48' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"B","adLeg":"B","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"TopicCollectionPage","pageSubtype":"CONCISE","articleTemplateType":null,"gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false,"hasAiTopQuestions":false,"hasSimplifyButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Moliére and his contribution to comedy | Britannica