Famous plays by moliere. Moliere

BASIC DATES OF LIFE AND CREATIVITY 1856, August 27 - In the village of Naguevichi, Drohobych district, Ivan Yakovlevich Franko was born into the family of a rural blacksmith. 1864-1867 - Studies (from the second grade) in a normal four-year school of the Basilian Order in the city of Drohobych. 1865, in the spring - Died

The article talks about short biography Jean Baptiste Moliere - the famous French playwright and theatrical figure who had a huge influence on the development of European theater.

Short biography of Moliere: first steps and failures
Moliere was born in 1622 in the family of a furniture maker Poquelin. The boy received an excellent education, interested in classical literature and philosophy. After graduating from college, he practiced law for a while, helping his father. Soon he abandoned the lucrative business, exchanging it for his passion for the theater.
In 1643, the young man takes the pseudonym Moliere and enters into a small theatrical partnership. The work of the new troupe was not successful, and in the end it disintegrates. In search of a livelihood, Moliere acts as an ordinary actor in the provinces. After some time, Moliere becomes the head of the troupe, the burden of managing financial affairs and the general organization of activities falls on him.
At first, Moliere continues to try to achieve success with the help of "high" classical works, acting in which he gives all his strength. However, the ignorant provincial audience does not understand such plays and showered the troupe with ridicule. The enraged leader begins to write his own primitive farces, which are wildly successful. Moliere finds his calling in the genre of comedy.
The aspiring playwright puts on his early full-fledged comedies (Madcap), which reinforce the author's success.

Brief biography of Moliere: heyday
In 1658, the king drew attention to Moliere, who was allowed to work under his patronage in Paris. During this period, the playwright created his greatest comedies (about forty in total), which still enjoy great success and do not leave the stages of the world's leading theaters.
In Moliere's life, the most productive stage begins, which brought him world renown... However, the playwright's fate was not easy and was full of difficulties. Relations with King Louis XIV occupied a special place in Moliere's life. In addition to the main creative occupation, the playwright is forced to write royal commissioned comedies, which are given to him with difficulty and do not represent special artistic value.
Another difficult moment in Moliere's biography is his relationship with the Catholic clergy. The playwright's satire did not spare anyone, but in the famous comedy Tartuffe (written in 1664), Moliere infringed on the authority of the church. The author was offered to be burned at the stake, the performances were forbidden, and they promised to curse everyone who got acquainted with the work. The playwright withstood a serious struggle for his creation, he humiliatedly asked the king for special patronage. Finally, in 1669, the premiere of the great comedy took place.
Moliere's works became immortal, since they very sharply ridicule all the main vices of humanity inherent in it at all times: lies, hypocrisy, ignorance, etc. The criticism of the playwright is merciless, but performed in a beautiful artistic form... Ultimately, the author seeks to awaken a response in a person, striving for kindness and justice.
A distinctive feature of Moliere's work was his desire to get rid of the standards of classicism. In his comedies, he introduces the elements folk culture and language. This was a major milestone on the road to realism.
Moliere did not try to portray the versatility of the human person. On the contrary, in his heroes, he put in the first place a certain character trait, seeking its maximum expression. This greatly enhanced the comic effect of the work.
Along with his writing career, Moliere was an outstanding actor of his time, which is noted by many contemporaries.
Moliere's death occurred in 1673. He had long felt serious health problems. Right during the performance on stage, the master had another attack, but with an incredible effort he was able to pass him off as an element of acting. Moliere died shortly after the performance.

Moliere(real name - Jean Baptiste Poquelin) - an outstanding French comedian, theatrical figure, actor, reformer performing arts, creator of the classic comedy - born in Paris. It is known that he was baptized on January 15, 1622. His father was a royal upholsterer and valet, the family lived very well off. Since 1636, Jean Baptiste was educated at a prestigious educational institution - the Jesuit College of Clermont, in 1639 after graduation he became a licentiate of rights, but he preferred the theater to the work of a craftsman or a lawyer.

In 1643, Moliere organized the "Brilliant Theater". The first documentary mention of his pseudonym dates back to January 1644.The troupe, despite the name, was far from brilliant, due to debts in 1645 Moliere even sat in prison twice, and the actors had to leave the capital to tour the provinces for twelve years. Due to problems with the repertoire of the "Brilliant Theater" Jean Baptiste himself began to compose plays. This period of his biography served as an excellent school of life, turning him into an excellent director and actor, an experienced administrator, and prepared him for future resounding successes in the role of a playwright.

Returning to the capital in 1656, the troupe performed at the Royal Theater the performance "The Doctor in Love" based on Moliere's play to Louis XIV, who was delighted with her. After that, the troupe played until 1661 in the Petit-Bourbon court theater provided by the monarch (later, until the death of the comedian, the theater was employed at the Palais-Royal theater). The comedy "Ridiculous Cutie", staged in 1659, became the first success among the general public.

After Moliere's position in Paris was established, a period of intense dramatic, directorial work begins, which will last until his death. For a decade and a half (1658-1673), Moliere wrote plays that are considered the best in his artistic legacy. The turning point were the comedies "School for Husbands" (1661) and "School for Wives" (1662), which demonstrate the author's departure from farce and his appeal to the socio-psychological comedies of education.

With the public, Moliere's plays enjoyed overwhelming success with rare exceptions - when the works became the object of harsh criticism of certain social groups that were hostile to the author. This was due to the fact that Moliere, who had previously almost never resorted to social satire, in mature writings created images of representatives of the upper strata of society, attacking their vices with all the power of his talent. In particular, after the appearance of "Tartuffe" in 1663, a loud scandal erupted in society. The influential Society of the Holy Gifts banned the play. And only in 1669, when reconciliation occurred between Louis XIV and the Church, the comedy was released, while in the first year the performance was shown more than 60 times. The staging of Don Giovanni in 1663 also caused a huge resonance, but through the efforts of the enemies, Moliere's creation was never staged during his lifetime.

As his fame grew, he became closer and closer to the court and more and more often put on plays specially timed to court holidays, turning them into grandiose shows. The playwright was the founder of a special theatrical genre - comedy-ballet.

In February 1673 Moliere's troupe staged The Imaginary Patient, in which he played the main role, in spite of the ailment that tormented him (most likely, he suffered from tuberculosis). Right at the performance, he lost consciousness and on the night of February 17-18, he died without confession and repentance. The religious funeral took place only thanks to the petition of his widow to the monarch. To avoid a scandal, the outstanding playwright was buried at night.

Moliere is credited with creating the genre of classicist comedy. In the Comedy Française alone, based on plays by Jean Baptiste Poquelin, more than thirty thousand performances have been shown. Until now, his immortal comedies - "Bourgeois in the nobility", "The Miser", "The Misanthrope", "School of Wives", "The Imaginary Sick", "Scapin's Tricks" and many others. others - are included in the repertoire of various theaters of the world, without losing their relevance and causing applause.

Biography from Wikipedia

Jean-Batiste Poclein(French Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), theatrical pseudonym - Moliere (French Molière; January 15, 1622, Paris - February 17, 1673, ibid.) - French comedian of the 17th century, creator of classic comedy, actor and theater director by profession, better known as Molière's troupe (Troupe de Molière, 1643-1680).

early years

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin came from an old bourgeois family that for several centuries was engaged in the craft of upholsterers and draperies. Jean-Baptiste's mother, Marie Poquelin-Cresse (died 11 May 1632), died of tuberculosis, father, Jean Poquelin (1595-1669), was a court upholsterer and valet of Louis XIII and sent his son to the prestigious Jesuit school - Clermont College (now Lyceum of Louis the Great in Paris), where Jean-Baptiste thoroughly studied Latin, therefore he freely read Roman authors in the original and even, according to legend, translated into French the philosophical poem of Lucretius "On the Nature of Things" (translation lost). After graduating from college in 1639, Jean-Baptiste passed the exam for the title of licentiate of rights in Orleans.

The beginning of an acting career

A legal career attracted him no more than his father's craft, and Jean-Baptiste chose the profession of an actor, taking a theatrical pseudonym Moliere... After meeting with the comedians Joseph and Madeleine Bejart, at the age of 21, Moliere became the head of the "Brilliant Theater" ( Illustre Théâtre), a new Parisian troupe of 10 actors, registered by the capital's notary on June 30, 1643. Having entered into fierce competition with the troupes of the Burgundy Hotel and the Marais, already popular in Paris, the Brilliant Theater lost in 1645. Moliere and his fellow actors decide to seek their fortune in the provinces, joining the troupe of itinerant comedians led by Dufresne.

Moliere's troupe in the provinces. First plays

Moliere's wanderings in the French province for 13 years (1645-1658) in the years civil war(the fronds) enriched him with everyday and theatrical experience.

Since 1645, Moliere and his friends defend Dufrenne, and in 1650 he leads the troupe. The repertoire hunger of Moliere's troupe was the impetus for the beginning of his dramatic activity. So the years of Molière's theatrical studies became the years of his works of authorship. Many of the farcical scenarios he wrote in the provinces have disappeared. Only the plays "Jealousy of Barboulya" ( La jalousie du Barbouillé) and "Flying Healer" ( Le médécin volant), whose belonging to Moliere is not entirely reliable. The titles of a number of similar plays played by Moliere in Paris after his return from the provinces are also known ("Gros-Rene schoolboy", "Doctor-pedant", "Gorzhibus in a bag", "Plan-plan", "Three doctors", "Kazakin" , “The Pretentious Hump”, “The Fagot-Knitter”), and these titles echo the situations of Moliere's later farces (for example, “Gorjibus in a Sack” and “Scapin's Tricks”, d. III, scene II). These plays show that the tradition of the old farce influenced the mainstream comedies of his adulthood.

The farcical repertoire performed by Moliere's troupe under his direction and with his participation as an actor contributed to the consolidation of her reputation. It increased even more after Moliere wrote two great comedies in verse - "Crazy, or Everything is out of place" ( L'Étourdi ou les Contretemps, 1655) and "Annoyance for Love" ( Le dépit amoureux, 1656), written in the manner of an Italian literary comedy. On the main plot, representing a free imitation of Italian authors, borrowings from various old and new comedies are layered here, in accordance with the principle attributed to Moliere "take your good wherever he finds it." The interest of both plays is limited to the elaboration of comic positions and intrigue; the characters in them are still very superficially developed.

Moliere's troupe gradually achieved success and fame, and in 1658, at the invitation of 18-year-old Monsieur, the king's younger brother, she returned to Paris.

Paris period

In Paris, Moliere's troupe made its debut on October 24, 1658 at the Louvre Palace in the presence of Louis XIV... The lost farce "The Doctor in Love" was a huge success and decided the fate of the troupe: the king gave her the court theater Petit-Bourbon, in which she played until 1661, until she moved to the Palais Royal, where she remained until Moliere's death. From the moment Moliere was settled in Paris, the period of his feverish dramatic work began, the tension of which did not subside until his death. During those 15 years from 1658 to 1673, Moliere created all of his best plays, which caused, with a few exceptions, fierce attacks from hostile social groups.

Early farces

The Parisian period of Moliere's activity opens with the one-act comedy Les précieuses ridicules (1659). In this first, completely original, play, Moliere made a bold attack on the pretentiousness and mannerism of speech, tone and mannerism that prevailed in aristocratic salons, tone and demeanor, which was widely reflected in literature ( see Precision Literature) and exerted a strong influence on young people (mainly the female part of it). The comedy painfully stung the most prominent mincers. Moliere's enemies secured a two-week ban on comedy, after which it was canceled with double success.

For all its great literary and social value, "The Feigners" is a typical farce that reproduces all the traditional techniques of this genre. The same farcical element, which gave Moliere's humor an areal brightness and richness, also permeates Moliere's next play "Sganarelle, or the Imaginary Cuckold" ( Sganarelle, ou Le cocu imaginaire, 1660). Here the clever rogue servant of the first comedies - Mascaril - is replaced by the silly heavyweight Sganarelle, who was later introduced by Moliere to a number of his comedies.

Marriage

On January 23, 1662, Moliere signed marriage contract with Armanda Bejart, younger sister Madeleine. He is 40 years old, Armanda 20. Against all the propriety of that time, only the closest ones were invited to the wedding. The wedding ceremony took place on February 20, 1662 in the Parisian church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxeroy.

Parenting Comedy

Comedy "School for Husbands" ( L'école des maris, 1661), which is closely related to the subsequent even more mature comedy "School of Wives" ( L'école des femmes 1662), marks Moliere's turn from farce to the socio-psychological comedy of education. Here Molière raises questions of love, marriage, relationship to a woman and the arrangement of the family. The absence of monosyllables in the characters and actions of the characters makes the School for Husbands and especially the School for Wives a major step forward towards creating a comedy of characters that overcomes the primitive schematism of farce. At the same time, the School of Wives is incomparably deeper and thinner than the School of Husbands, which in relation to it is like a sketch, a light sketch.

Such satirically sharpened comedies could not fail to cause fierce attacks from the enemies of the playwright. Molière answered them with a polemical song "Criticism of the School of Wives" ( La critique de "L'École des femmes", 1663). Defending himself against accusations of harassment, he expounded here with great dignity his credo of the comic poet (“to delve into the ridiculous side of human nature and it is funny to depict the flaws of society on stage”) and ridiculed the superstitious admiration for the “rules” of Aristotle. This protest against the pedantic fetishization of "rules" reveals Molière's independent position in relation to French classicism, to which he adhered, however, in his dramatic practice.

Another manifestation of the same independence of Moliere is his attempt to prove that comedy is not only not lower, but even “higher” than tragedy, this main genre of classical poetry. In the Critique of the School of Wives, through the mouth of Dorant, he criticizes the classical tragedy from the point of view of its inconsistency with its “nature” (p. VII), that is, from the standpoint of realism. This criticism is directed against the theme of classical tragedy, against its orientation towards court and high society conventions.

Moliere parried off new blows of enemies in the play "Impromptu Versailles" ( L'impromptu de Versailles, 1663). Original in concept and construction (it takes place on the stage of the theater), this comedy provides valuable information about Moliere's work with actors and further development his views on the essence of theater and the tasks of comedy. Subjecting destructive criticism of his competitors - the actors of the Burgundy Hotel, rejecting their method of conventionally pompous tragic acting, Moliere at the same time rejects the accusation that he brings certain persons onto the stage. The main thing is that he, with unprecedented boldness, mocks the court shaker-marquises, throwing the famous phrase: “The current marquis makes everyone laugh in the play; and just as in ancient comedies, a simple servant is always portrayed, making the audience laugh, just as we need a hilarious marquis to amuse the audience. "

Mature comedy. Comedy ballets

Title = "(! LANG: Portrait of Moliere... 1656 by Nicola Mignard">!} Portrait of Moliere. 1656
by Nicola Mignard

Moliere emerged victorious from the battle that followed the School for Wives. Along with the growth of his fame, his ties with the court were strengthened, at which he more and more often performs with plays written for court festivities and gave rise to a brilliant show. Molière creates here a special genre of "comedy-ballet", combining ballet (a favorite type of court amusement, in which the king himself and his entourage acted as performers) with comedy, which provides a plot motivation for individual dance "entrées" (entrées) and framing them with comic scenes ... Moliere's first comedy-ballet was The Obnoxious (Les fâcheux, 1661). It is devoid of intrigue and presents a series of disparate scenes strung on a primitive plot core. Here Moliere found so many well-aimed satirical and everyday lines to depict secular dandies, players, duelists, projectors and pedants, that for all its formlessness, the play is a step forward in the sense of preparing that comedy of mores, the creation of which was Moliere's task (The Unbearable was staged before "Schools for Wives").

The success of "The Obnoxious" prompted Moliere to further develop the genre of comedy-ballet. In Le mariage forcé (1664), Moliere raised the genre to great heights, achieving an organic connection between the comedic (farcical) and ballet elements. In "Princess Elis" (La princesse d'Elide, 1664) Moliere went the opposite way, inserting buffoonery ballet interludes into a pseudo-antique lyric-pastoral storyline. This was the beginning of two types of comedy-ballet, which were developed by Moliere and beyond. The first farcical-everyday type is represented by the plays "Healer Love" (L'amour médécin, 1665), "Sicilian, or Love-painter" (Le Sicilien, ou L'amour peintre, 1666), "Monsieur de Poursonac" (Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, 1669), "Bourgeois in the nobility" (Le bourgeois gentilhomme, 1670), "Countess d'Escarbagnas" (La comtesse d'Escarbagnas, 1671), "Imaginary patient" (Le malade imaginaire, 1673). With all the enormous distance separating such a primitive farce as "The Sicilian", which served only as a frame for the "Moorish" ballet, from such expanded social and everyday comedies as "Bourgeois in the Nobility" and "The Imaginary Sick", we still have development here one type of comedy - a ballet that grows out of an old farce and lies on the highway of Moliere's work. These plays differ from his other comedies only in the presence of ballet numbers, which do not at all diminish the ideas of the play: here Moliere makes almost no concessions to court tastes. The situation is different in comedy-ballets of the second, gallant-pastoral type, which include: Mélicerte (1666), Comic Pastoral (Pastorale comique, 1666), Brilliant Lovers (Les amants magnifiques, 1670), Psyche (Psyché, 1671 - written in collaboration with Corneille).

"Tartuffe"

(Le Tartuffe, 1664-1669). Directed against the clergy, the first edition of the comedy contained three acts and portrayed a hypocrite priest. In this form, it was staged in Versailles at the festival "Amusement of the Magic Island" on May 12, 1664 under the title "Tartuffe, or Hypocrite" ( Tartuffe, ou L'hypocrite) and caused discontent from the side religious organization"Society of the Holy Gifts" ( Société du Saint Sacrement). In the image of Tartuffe, the Society saw a satire on its members and achieved the prohibition of Tartuffe. Moliere defended his play in the "Petition" (Placet) in the name of the king, in which he wrote bluntly that "the originals achieved the prohibition of the copy." But this petition did not lead to anything. Then Molière relaxed the harsh passages, renamed Tartuffe Panyulf and removed his cassock. In a new form, a comedy with 5 acts and entitled "The Deceiver" ( L'imposteur), was admitted to the performance, but after the first performance on August 5, 1667, it was withdrawn again. Only a year and a half later, "Tartuffe" was finally presented in the third final edition.

Although Tartuffe is not a spiritual person in it, the latest revision is hardly softer than the original. Expanding the outlines of the image of Tartuffe, making him not only a hypocrite, hypocrite and lecher, but also a traitor, informer and slanderer, showing his connections with the court, police and court spheres, Moliere significantly increased the satirical acuteness of comedy, turning it into a social pamphlet. The only gap in the kingdom of obscurantism, arbitrariness and violence is the wise monarch, who cuts the tight knot of intrigue and provides, like deus ex machina, a sudden happy ending to comedy. But precisely because of its artificiality and implausibility, the successful outcome does not change anything in the essence of comedy.

"Don Juan"

If in "Tartuffe" Moliere attacked religion and the church, then in "Don Juan, or the Stone Feast" ( Don Juan, ou Le festin de pierre, 1665) the feudal nobility became the object of his satire. Moliere based his play on the Spanish legend of Don Juan - an irresistible seducer of women, trampling on divine and human laws. He gave this wandering plot, which has flown through almost all scenes in Europe, an original satirical development. The image of Don Juan, this beloved noble hero, who embodied all the predatory activity, ambition and lust for power of the feudal nobility during its heyday, Moliere endowed with the everyday features of a French aristocrat of the 17th century - a titled lecher, rapist and "libertin", unprincipled, hypocritical and cynical, cynical. He makes Don Juan a denier of all the foundations on which a comfortable society is based. Don Juan is deprived of filial feelings, he dreams of the death of his father, he mocks the philistine virtue, seduces and deceives women, beats the peasant who interceded for the bride, tyrannizes the servant, does not pay debts and drives out creditors, blasphemes, lies and hypocrites recklessly, competing Tartuffe and surpassing him with his frank cynicism (cf. his conversation with Sganarelle - d. V, p. II). Moliere puts his indignation at the nobility embodied in the image of Don Juan in the mouths of his father, the old nobleman Don Luis, and the servants of Sganarelle, who each in their own way denounce the depravity of Don Juan, pronouncing phrases foreshadowing Figaro's tirades (for example. : "Origins are worthless without valor.", "I would rather show respect to the son of a porter, if he is an honest man, than to the son of a crown bearer, if he is as licentious as you are." etc.).

But the image of Don Juan is not woven from one negative traits... For all his depravity, Don Juan has great charm: he is brilliant, witty, brave, and Moliere, denouncing Don Juan as a bearer of vices, simultaneously admires him, pays tribute to his knightly charm.

"Misanthrope"

If Moliere introduced in Tartuffe and Don Juan a number of tragic features that show through the fabric of comedic action, then in The Misanthrope ( Le misanthrope, 1666), these features became so strong that they almost completely pushed aside the comic element. A typical example of "high" comedy with in-depth psychological analysis feelings and experiences of the heroes, with a predominance of dialogue over external action, with a complete absence of farcical elements, with an excited, pathetic and sarcastic tone of the protagonist's speeches, "The Misanthrope" stands apart in Moliere's work.

Alcestus is not only an image of a noble denouncer of social vices, seeking "truth" and not finding it: he is also less schematic than many previous characters. On the one hand, it is - positive hero whose noble indignation evokes sympathy; on the other hand, he is not devoid of negative traits: he is too unrestrained, tactless, devoid of a sense of proportion and a sense of humor.

Portrait of Moliere. 1658
by Pierre Mignard

Later plays

The overly deep and serious comedy "The Misanthrope" was coldly received by the audience, who were looking for entertainment in the theater above all. To save the play, Moliere added to it the brilliant farce The Reluctant Healer (French Le médécin malgré lui, 1666). This trinket, which had tremendous success and is still preserved in the repertoire, developed Moliere's favorite theme of doctors-charlatans and ignoramuses. It is curious that just in the most mature period of his work, when Moliere rose to the height of a socio-psychological comedy, he increasingly returns to a farce splashing with fun, devoid of serious satirical tasks. It was during these years that Molière wrote such masterpieces of entertaining comedy-intrigue as "Monsieur de Pourceaugnac" and "Tricks of Scapin" (fr. Les fourberies de Scapin, 1671). Moliere returned here to the primary source of his inspiration - to the old farce.

In literary circles, a somewhat disdainful attitude towards these rude plays has long been established. This attitude goes back to the classicism legislator Boileau, who condemned Moliere for his buffoonery and indulging the rough tastes of the crowd.

The main theme of this period is the ridicule of the bourgeois, who seek to imitate the aristocracy and become related to it. This theme is developed in "Georges Danden" (fr. George Dandin, 1668) and in "Bourgeois in the nobility." In the first comedy, which develops a popular "wandering" plot in the form of the purest farce, Moliere ridicules a rich "upstart" (fr. Parvenu) of the peasants, who out of stupid arrogance married the daughter of a bankrupt baron, openly cheating on him with the marquis, making him look like a fool and finally, forcing him to ask her for forgiveness. The same theme is developed even more sharply in The Bourgeois in the Nobility, one of Moliere's most brilliant comedy-ballets, where he achieves virtuoso ease in constructing a dialogue approaching in its rhythm to ballet dance (cf. Quartet of Lovers - d. III, sc. X). This comedy is the most evil satire on the bourgeoisie, imitating the nobility, which came out of his pen.

In the famous comedy The Miser (L'avare, 1668), written under the influence of Plautus's Aulularia, Moliere skillfully depicts the repulsive image of the curmudgeon Harpagon (his name became a household name in France), whose passion for accumulation took on a pathological character and drowned out all human feelings.

Moliere also puts the problem of family and marriage in his the latest comedy"Scientists women" (fr. Les femmes savantes, 1672), in which he returns to the theme of "The Feigners", but develops it much wider and deeper. Here, the object of his satire is pedantic women who are fond of science and neglect family responsibilities.

The question of the disintegration of the bourgeois family was also raised in Moliere's last comedy "The Imaginary Sick" (fr. Le malade imaginaire, 1673). This time, the reason for the breakup of the family is the mania of the head of the house of Argan, who imagines himself to be sick and is a toy in the hands of unscrupulous and ignorant doctors. Moliere's contempt for doctors ran through all of his drama.

The last days of life and death

Written by the terminally ill Moliere, the comedy "The Imaginary Sick" is one of his most hilarious and cheerful comedies. At its 4th performance on February 17, 1673, Moliere, who played the role of Argan, felt ill and did not finish the performance. He was taken home and died a few hours later. The Parisian archbishop Arles de Chanvallon forbade the burial of an unrepentant sinner (actors on their deathbed had to bring repentance) and canceled the ban only at the direction of the king. The greatest playwright France was buried at night, without rituals, behind the fence of the cemetery, where suicides were buried.

List of works

The first edition of Moliere's collected works was carried out by his friends Charles Varlet Lagrange and Vino in 1682.

Pieces that have survived to this day

• Jealousy Barbulio, farce (1653)
• Flying healer, farce (1653)
• Crazy, or Everything is out of place, a comedy in verse (1655)
• Amorous annoyance, comedy (1656)
• Funny coy, comedy (1659)
• Sganarelle, or the Imaginary Cuckold, comedy (1660)
• Don Garcia of Navarre, or the Jealous Prince, comedy (1661)
• School for husbands, comedy (1661)
• Boring, comedy (1661)
• School of wives, comedy (1662)
• Criticism of the School for Wives, comedy (1663)
• Versailles impromptu (1663)
• Involuntary marriage, farce (1664)
• Princess of Elis, the gallant comedy (1664)
• Tartuffe, or the Deceiver, comedy (1664)
• Don Juan, or Stone Feast, comedy (1665)
• Healer love, comedy (1665)
• Misanthrope, comedy (1666)
• Reluctant healer, comedy (1666)
• Meliserta, a pastoral comedy (1666, unfinished)
• Comic pastoral (1667)
• Sicilian, or Love-painter, comedy (1667)
• Amphitryon, comedy (1668)
• Georges Danden, or the Fooled Husband, comedy (1668)
• Stingy, comedy (1668)
• Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, comedy-ballet (1669)
• Brilliant lovers, comedy (1670)
• Bourgeois in the nobility, comedy-ballet (1670)
• Psyche, tragedy-ballet (1671, in collaboration with Philippe Quineau and Pierre Corneille)
• Scapin's tricks, comedy-farce (1671)
• Countess d'Escarbagna, comedy (1671)
• Scientists women, comedy (1672)
• Imaginary sick, comedy with music and dance (1673)

Unpreserved plays

• A doctor in love, farce (1653)
• Three rival doctors, farce (1653)
• School teacher, farce (1653)
• Kazakin, farce (1653)
• Gorjibus in a bag, farce (1653)
• The liar, farce (1653)
• Jealousy Gro-Rene, farce (1663)
• Gro-Rene schoolboy, farce (1664)

Other compositions

• Thanks to the King, poetic dedication (1663)
• The glory of the cathedral of Val de Grasse, poem (1669)
• Various poems, including
  • Verse from d'Assusi's song (1655)
  • Poems for ballet by M. Beauchamp
  • Sonnet to Monsieur la Motte la Vaye on the death of his son (1664)
  • Brotherhood of slavery in the name of the merciful Mother of God, quatrains, placed under an allegorical engraving in the Cathedral of the Merciful Mother of God (1665)
  • To the king to win the Franche-Comte, poetic dedication (1668)
  • Burime to order (1682)

Criticism of Moliere's work

Characteristic

For artistic method Moliere is characterized by:

• a sharp distinction between positive and negative characters, the opposition of virtue and vice;
• schematization of images, inherited by Moliere from commedia dell'arte, a tendency to operate with masks instead of living people;
• mechanical unfolding of action as a collision of forces external to each other and internally almost immobile.

He preferred the external comic of the provisions, theatrical buffoonery, the dynamic deployment of farcical intrigue and lively folk speech, dotted with provincialisms, dialectisms, common and slang words, sometimes even words of the gibberish language and macaroni. For this he was repeatedly awarded the honorary title of "people's" playwright, and Boileau spoke of his "excessive love for the people."

Moliere's plays are characterized by a great dynamism of comedic action; but this dynamics is external, it is opposite to characters, which are basically static in their psychological content. This was already noticed by Pushkin, who wrote, opposing Moliere to Shakespeare: “The faces created by Shakespeare are not, as in Moliere's, types of such and such passion, such and such vice, but living beings, filled with many passions, many vices ... stingy and nothing more. "

Nevertheless, in his best comedies (Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, Don Juan), Moliere tries to overcome the monosyllabic nature of his images, the mechanistic nature of his method. Nevertheless, the images and the entire construction of his comedies bear a certain artistic limitation of classicism.

The question of Moliere's attitude to classicism is much more complicated than it seems to the school history of literature, unconditionally sticking the label of a classic on him. There is no doubt that Moliere was the creator and the best representative of the classic comedy of characters, and in a number of his "high" comedies, Moliere's artistic practice is quite consistent with classical doctrine. But at the same time, other plays by Moliere (mostly farces) contradict this doctrine. This means that in his outlook, Moliere is at odds with the main representatives of the classical school.

Meaning

Moliere exerted a tremendous influence on the entire subsequent development of bourgeois comedy both in France and abroad. Under the sign of Moliere, the whole french comedy XVIII century, reflecting the entire complex intertwining of the class struggle, the entire contradictory process of the formation of the bourgeoisie as a "class for itself", entering into a political struggle with the noble-monarchical system. She relied on Moliere in the 18th century. both the entertaining comedy of Renyard, and the satirically pointed comedy of Lesage, who developed in his Türkar the type of financier-financier, sketched out by Moliere in The Countess d'Escarbanas. The influence of Moliere's "high" comedies was also experienced by the secular everyday comedy Piron and Gresset and the moral-sentimental comedy by Detouche and Nivelles de Lachosse, reflecting the growth of the class consciousness of the middle bourgeoisie. Even flowing from here new genre The philistine or bourgeois drama, this antithesis of classical drama, was prepared by the comedies of Moliere's mores, which so seriously dealt with the problems of the bourgeois family, marriage, raising children - these are the main themes of the philistine drama.

The famous creator of The Marriage of Figaro, Beaumarchais, emerged from Moliere's school, the only worthy successor to Moliere in the field of social-satirical comedy. Less significant was Moliere's influence on the bourgeois comedy of the 19th century, which was already alien to Moliere's basic attitude. However, Moliere's comedic technique (especially his farces) is used by the masters of the 19th century entertaining bourgeois comedy-vaudeville from Picard, Scribe and Labiche to Melyac and Halevy, Payeron and others.

Moliere's influence outside of France was no less fruitful, and in various European countries translations of Moliere's plays were a powerful stimulus to the creation of a national bourgeois comedy. This was the case first of all in England during the era of the Restoration (Wycherly, Congreve), and then in the 18th century Fielding and Sheridan. This was the case in economically backward Germany, where familiarization with Moliere's plays stimulated the original comedy creativity of the German bourgeoisie. Even more significant was the influence of Moliere's comedy in Italy, where the creator of the Italian bourgeois comedy Goldoni was brought up under the direct influence of Moliere. Moliere had a similar influence in Denmark on Holberg, the creator of the Danish bourgeois-satirical comedy, and in Spain on Moratin.

In Russia, acquaintance with the comedies of Moliere begins already at the end of the 17th century, when, according to legend, Princess Sophia played "The Reluctant Doctor" in her mansion. V early XVIII v. we find them in Peter's repertoire. From palace performances, Moliere then moved on to the performances of the first state-owned public theater in St. Petersburg, headed by A.P. Sumarokov. The same Sumarokov was the first imitator of Moliere in Russia. The most "original" Russian comedians were brought up at Moliere's school. classic style- Fonvizin, V.V. Kapnist and I.A.Krylov. But the most brilliant follower of Moliere in Russia was Griboyedov, who gave in the image of Chatsky a version of his "Misanthrope" congenial to Moliere - however, a completely original version that grew up in the specific situation of the Arakcheev-bureaucratic Russia of the 1920s. XIX century. Following Griboyedov, Gogol paid tribute to Moliere, translating into Russian one of his farces (“Sganarelle, or the Husband, Thinking He Was Deceived by His Wife”); traces of Moliere's influence on Gogol are noticeable even in The Inspector General. The later aristocratic (Sukhovo-Kobylin) and bourgeois comedy (Ostrovsky) also did not escape Moliere's influence. In the pre-revolutionary era, bourgeois modernist directors made an attempt to reevaluate Moliere's plays on the stage from the point of view of emphasizing the elements of “theatricality” and stage grotesque in them (Meyerhold, Komissarzhevsky).

After the October Revolution, some new theaters that emerged in the 1920s included Moliere's plays in their repertoire. There were attempts at a new "revolutionary" approach to Moliere. One of the most famous was the production of Tartuffe at the Leningrad State Theater of Drama in 1929. Directing (N. Petrov and Vladimir Soloviev) transferred the action of the comedy into the 20th century. Although the directors tried to justify their innovation by not very convincing politicized props (they say, the play “ works on the line of exposing religious obscurantism and hypocrisy and on the line of tartuffeism of social-compromisers and social-fascists”), It did not help for long. The play was accused (albeit post factum) of "formalist-aesthetic influences" and removed from the repertoire, while Petrov and Solovyov were arrested and died in the camps.

Later, official Soviet literary criticism announced that "with all the deep social tone of Moliere's comedies, his main method, based on the principles of mechanistic materialism, is fraught with dangers for proletarian drama" (cf. Bezymensky's Shot).

Memory

• Paris street of the 1st urban district has been named after Moliere since 1867.
• A crater on Mercury is named after Moliere.
• The main theater prize in France - La cérémonie des Molières, which has existed since 1987, is named after Molière.

Legends about Moliere and his work

• In 1662, Moliere married the young actress of his troupe, Armanda Bejart, the younger sister of Madeleine Béjart, another actress of his troupe. However, this immediately caused a number of gossips and accusations of incest, since there was an assumption that Armanda was the daughter of Madeleine and Moliere and was born during their wanderings around the province. To stop such gossip, the king became the godfather of the first child of Moliere and Armanda.
• In 1808, the Parisian theater "Odeon" performed the farce of Alexander Duval "Wallpaper" (French "La Tapisserie"), presumably an adaptation of Moliere's farce "Kazakin". It is believed that Duval destroyed Moliere's original or copy in order to hide obvious traces of borrowing, and changed the names of the characters, only their characters and behavior were suspiciously reminiscent of Moliere's heroes. The playwright Guillot de Says tried to restore the original source and in 1911 presented this farce on the stage of the Folies-Dramatic Theater, returning it to its original name.
• On November 7, 1919, the Comœdia magazine published an article by Pierre Louis, "Moliere - the Creation of Corneille". Comparing the plays "Amphitryon" by Moliere and "Agésilas" by Pierre Corneille, he concludes that Moliere only signed the text composed by Corneille. Despite the fact that Pierre Louis himself was a hoaxer, the idea known today as the "Molière-Corneille affair" was widely disseminated, including in such works as "Corneille under the mask of Moliere" by Henri Poulay (1957), "Molière , or the Imaginary Author ”by lawyers Hippolyte Wouter and Cristina le Ville de Goye (1990),“ The Moliere Case: The Great Literary Deception ”by Denis Boissier (2004), and others.

Screen adaptations of works

• 1910 - "Moliere", dir. Léonce Perret, starring André Bacquet, Abel Hans, Rene D 'Ochi, Amelie de Puzol, Marie Brunel, Madeleine Cézanne - the first image of Moliere in cinema
• 1925 - "Tartuffe", dir. Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, starring Hermann Piha, Rosa Valetti, Andre Mattoni, Werner Kraus, Lille Dagover, Lucy Hoeflich, Emil Jannings
• 1941 - School for Wives, dir. Max Ophuls, starring Louis Jouvet, Madeleine Ozert, Maurice Castel
• 1965 - Don Juan, dir. Marcel Bluval, starring Michel Piccoli, Claude Brasseur, Anouk Feriak, Michel Leeroy
• 1973 - "The Miser", TV show, dir. Rene Luco, starring Michel Aumont, Francis Huster, Isabelle Adjani
• 1973 - School for Wives, dir. Raymond Rouleau, starring Isabelle Adjani, Bernard Blier, Gerard Lartigo, Robert Rimbaud
• 1979 - "The Miser", dir. Jean Giraud and Louis de Funes, starring Louis de Funes, Michel Galabru, Frank David, Anne Codry
• 1980 - "The Imaginary Sick", dir. Leonid Nechaev, starring Oleg Efremov, Natalia Gundareva, Anatoly Romashin, Tatiana Vasilieva, Rolan Bykov, Stanislav Sadalsky, Alexander Shirvindt
• 1984 - Moliere. United Kingdom. 1984. Russian subtitles. Biographical film based on Mikhail Bulgakov's play "Cabal of the holy man".
• 1989 - "Tartuffe", TV show, dir. Anatoly Efros, starring Stanislav Lyubshin, Alexander Kalyagin, Anastasia Vertinskaya
• 1990 - "The Miser", dir. Tonino Cervi, starring Alberto Sordi and others.
• 1992 - Tartuffe, dir. Jan Fried, starring Mikhail Boyarsky, Igor Dmitriev, Irina Muravyova, Anna Samokhina, Igor Sklyar, Vladislav Strzhelchik, Larisa Udovichenko
• 1998 - Don Juan, dir. Jacques Weber, starring Jacques Weber, Michel Bougene, Emmanuelle Bear, Penelope Cruz
• 2006 - "The Miser", dir. Christian de Chalonne, starring Michel Cerro, Cyril Tuvnin, Louise Monod, Jacqui Beruyer
• 2007 - "Moliere", dir. Laurent Tirard, starring Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Laura Morante

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin is a 17th century French comedian, the creator of the classic comedy, who gained popularity under the theatrical pseudonym Moliere. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin was born on January 15, 1622, in the capital of France - Paris.

The head of the family, Jean Poquelin, and both of the playwright's grandfathers were upholsterers. Judging by the fact that the writer's father bought himself the position of royal upholsterer and valet of the king, he had no financial problems. Mother, Marie Kresse, died of tuberculosis in her youth.

Jean Poquelin saw in the firstborn the successor to his court position and even got the king to secure his place officially. Since this business did not require special education, Jean-Baptiste by the age of fourteen had barely learned to read and write. However, the grandfather insisted that the grandson be sent to the Clermont Jesuit College.

At that time it was the best educational institution in Paris, which taught ancient languages, natural sciences, philosophy, and Latin literature. This knowledge was enough for the future author of the comedy "Misanthrope" to read Plautus and Terentius in the original and make a poetic translation of Lucretius' poem "On the Nature of Things".

He received a lecturer diploma. From the biography of the writer, it is known that in his life there was also the experience of appearing in court as a lawyer. As a result, Moliere did not become a lawyer or a court upholsterer.

Having renounced the rights to his father's position and taking his share from the maternal inheritance, he went on about the desire to become a tragic actor and began to master the acting path. It was at that time that the theater was moving from the street stage to the stages of luxurious halls, turning from amusement for the common people into exquisite entertainment and philosophical instruction for aristocrats, refusing to concoct on hastily farces in favor of high literature.

Literature

Together with several actors, Jean-Baptiste created his own theater, which, without doubting its success, called "Brilliant", took the pseudonym Moliere and began to try himself in tragic roles. It should be noted that the "Brilliant Theater" did not last long, unable to withstand competition with professional Parisian troupes. The most persistent enthusiasts, together with Moliere, decided to try their luck in the provinces.

During his thirteen-year wanderings throughout France (1646-1658), Moliere retrained from a tragedian to a comedian, since it was the farcical performances that the provincial public liked at that time. In addition, the need to constantly update the repertoire forced Moliere to take up the pen in order to compose the plays himself. So Jean-Baptiste, who dreamed of playing the main characters in performances, inevitably became a comedian.

The first original play by Moliere was the comedy "Ridiculous Cutie", staged in Paris in November 1659. The success was overwhelming and scandalous. Then came the comedy "School for Husbands" (1661) - about the ways of raising young girls, and the work "School for Wives" (1662). The following comedies - "Tartuffe, or the Deceiver" (1664), "Don Juan, or the Stone Guest" (1665) and "The Misanthrope" (1666) - are considered the pinnacles of Moliere's work.

Three ways of understanding the world are expressed in the image of the main characters of the works: the saint Tartuffe, who believes that for any sins there is justification in the intentions of the good, the atheist Don Juan, challenging the heavens and dying under lamentation from a tenacious hand Stone guest, as well as Alcestus, who does not recognize his vices and weaknesses.

All these three comedies, which gave the author literary immortality, brought him only trouble in life. "Tartuffe" after the first performances was banned due to the fact that the believers saw in the ridicule of the religious hypocrisy of Tartuffe attacks on the church.

It is known that the archbishop of Paris even threatened his flock with excommunication for any attempt to get acquainted with comedy, and a couple of priests even suggested that the blasphemer-author be burned at the stake. Even the king was wary of interfering in this matter, preferring to support Moliere behind the scenes. The comedy did not appear on the stage for five years, until social institutions softened a little.

The public did not accept the "misanthrope" either. In Alceste, viewers saw a reflection of the gloomy state of mind of the author himself, who was correlated with the main character. There were reasons for this. Moliere had a black streak in his life at that time. Not having lived a year, his son died, and conflicts began with Armanda, who entered the theater and intoxicated with the first stage successes and victories.

Don Juan was written by Jean-Baptiste after the banning of Tartuffe to feed the troupe, but an unpleasant story happened to him. After the fifteenth performance, despite a resounding success with the public, the play suddenly disappeared from the stage.

After Tartuffe, Moliere called increased attention among the Jesuit order and, perhaps, here, too, it was not without his intervention. The king, in order to save the Moliere theater, raised him in rank, giving the name "Actors of the King", and the troupe began to pay salaries from the treasury.

It should be noted that Moliere's creative audacity (the so-called "innovation") far outstripped the evolution of aesthetic and ethical norms, and his artistic relaxedness, which he called "charming naturalness," bordered at that time on the violation of moral norms.

In total, Moliere left 29 comedies, some of them were written on the occasion of the court festivities - "Princess of Elis" (1664), "Monsieur de Pourceaugnac" (1669), "Brilliant Lovers" (1670).

Some creations belong to the genre of family and everyday comedies, such as "Georges Danden, or the Fooled Husband", "Involuntary Marriage", "The Miser", "Scapen's Dodgers", "Scientists". Moliere's last significant works - "Bourgeois in the Nobility" (1670) and "The Imaginary Sick" (1673) - were written as comedy ballets.

Personal life

The first and only wife of Moliere was the sister of his former mistress Madeleine Vejart - Armanda, who was half the age of the playwright. Gossips argued that Armanda was not a sister, but Madeleine's daughter, and condemned the "immorality" of Jean-Baptiste, who married his child.

According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, as is often the case with the writers of the comedy genre, Moliere was prone to melancholy, easily broke out and was often jealous of the chosen one. It is known that the author of the work "Bourgeois in the Nobility" entered into marriage at an advanced age, while Armanda was young, charming and flirtatious.

Among other things, this simple story aggravated by gossip and oedipal innuendo. The king put an end to everything. , who at that time was in love with Mademoiselle Louise de Lavaliere, which means he was generous and broad-minded.

The autocrat took the free-thinker under his protection and, in addition, agreed to become godfather the firstborn of Moliere and Armanda, which was more eloquent than any decree on the inviolability of the creator. It is known that the writer's son died a year after birth.

Death

Moliere preferred to play the main roles in the performances of his theatrical troupe himself, not trusting them to other actors. On his last day of life, February 17, 1673, Jean-Baptiste also went on stage to play for the fourth time in the play "The Imaginary Sick". Right during the performance, the playwright felt bad. Relatives brought the writer coughing up blood home, where he died a couple of hours later.

It is known that the archbishop of Paris at first forbade the burial of Moliere, since the artist was a great sinner and had to repent before his death. The intervention of King Louis XIV helped to correct the situation.

The burial ceremony of the eminent comedian took place at night. The grave was located outside the fence of the cemetery of the Church of St. Joseph, where, according to tradition, suicides and unbaptized children were buried. Later, the remains of Jean-Baptiste Moliere were reburied with great reverence and splendor in the Pere Lachaise cemetery. The creative legacy of the founder of the comedy genre has been preserved in books containing a collection of his best works.

In 2007, director Laurent Thirard directed the film Molière, which is based on the life story of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. Besides, in different time were filmed such works of the writer as "The Miser", "Tartuffe, or the Deceiver", "School of Wives" and "Don Juan, or the Stone Feast".

In September 2017, the Lenkom Theater hosted the premiere of the play "The Dreams of Monsieur de Moliere" based on the play "Cabal of the Sanctified", which was run back in July. It is known that Jean-Baptiste was played by an actor.

Bibliography

• 1636 - "Sid"
• 1660 - "Sganarelle, or the Imaginary Cuckold"
• 1662 - "School for Wives"
• 1664 - "Tartuffe, or the Deceiver"
• 1665 - "Don Juan, or the Stone Feast"
• 1666 - "The Misanthrope"
• 1666 - "Georges Danden, or the Fooled Husband"
• 1669 - "Monsieur de Pourceaugnac"
• 1670 - "Bourgeois in the nobility"
• 1671 - "The Tricks of Scapin"
• 1673 - "The Imaginary Sick"

Molière (French Molière, real name Jean Baptiste Poquelin; French Jean Baptiste Poquelin; January 13, 1622, Paris - February 17, 1673, ibid.) - comedian of France and new Europe, creator of the classic comedy, actor and theater director by profession.

His father was a court upholsterer. He did not care about giving his son an education. It's hard to believe, but by the age of fourteen, the future playwright had learned to read and write. However, the boy's abilities became quite visible. He did not want to take over his father's craft. Poquelin the elder had to give his son to the Jesuit college, where in five years he becomes one of the best students... Moreover: one of the most educated people of his time.

Upon graduation from college, Jean Baptiste received the title of lawyer and was sent to Orleans. However, the theater was the love and dream of his whole life. Out of several friends, the young man organized a troupe in Paris and called it the "Brilliant Theater". His own plays were not yet listed in the project. Poquelin took the pseudonym Moliere and decided to try himself in the role of a tragic actor.

The new theater was not successful and had to be closed. Moliere sets off to wander around France with a traveling troupe. Wanderings enrich life experience... Moliere studied the life of different classes. In 1653 he staged one of his first plays, Madcap. The author has not yet dreamed of literary glory. The troupe's repertoire was simply poor.

Moliere returned to Paris in 1658. He is already an experienced actor and mature writer. Performance of the troupe in Versailles before royal court was a success. The theater is left in Paris. In 1660, Moliere received a stage in the Palais Royal, built during the reign of Cardinal Richelieu.

In total, the playwright lived in the capital of France for fourteen years. During this time, more than thirty plays were created. The famous literary theorist Nicolas Boileau, in a conversation with the king, said that his reign would be glorified thanks to the playwright Moliere.

The satirical focus of Moliere's true comedies created many enemies for him. So, for example, on the comedy "Tartuffe", which denounces the hypocritical saints, the nobility and the clergy were offended. Comedy was either banned or allowed to be staged. All his life Moliere was pursued by intriguers. They even tried to prevent his funeral.

Moliere died on February 17, 1673. He played the main role in his play "The Imaginary Sick" and felt bad on stage. A few hours later, the great playwright passed away. The Archbishop of Paris forbade the body of a "comedian" and an "unrepentant sinner" to be buried according to Christian rites.

He was buried secretly at night in the Saint-Joseph cemetery.

Moliere's comedies "The Misanthrope", "Don Juan", "The Tricks (Rogues) of Scapena", "The Miser", "Shkolazhen" and others still do not leave the stage of world theaters.

Source http://lit-helper.ru and http://ru.wikipedia.org