Jean-Baptiste POQUELIN, know as MOLIERE (1622-1673), This famous French playwright was born in Paris, the son of a tapestry maker, and valet de chambre to the King. He studied with the Jesuits in the College of Clermont before turning to the stage. With a family of actors, the Béjarts, he created the Illustre-Théâtre (1643) which was a failure. For fifteen years subsequently (1643-1658) he directed a group of traveling players. He moved to Paris in 1659. At Vaux-le-Vicomte in 1661 he performed the Ecole des Maris and then a ballet-comedy written for the fête of August 17 called Les Fâcheux. Protected by the royal family, he composed numerous plays in verse and prose to entertain the court or Parisian audiences. His greatest works make use of type-cast but vivid characters to attack personal or public vices.

His principle comedies are Les Précieuses Ridicules (1659), L'Ecole des maris (1661), L'Ecole des Femmes (1662), Dom Juan, L'Amour Médecin (1665), Le Misanthrope and Le Médecin malgré lui (1666), L' Avare (1668), Tartuffe (1669), Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670), Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671), Les Femmes Savantes (1672), and Le Malade Imaginaire (1673). Molière died during the fourth performance of this last play.