The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tartuffe, by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere

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Title: Tartuffe

Author: Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere

Posting Date: October 26, 2008 [EBook #2027]
Release Date: January, 2000

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TARTUFFE ***

Produced by Dagny and John Vickers.

TARTUFFE OR THE HYPOCRITE

by

JEAN BAPTISTE POQUELIN MOLIERE

Translated By

Curtis Hidden Page

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Jean Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his stage name of Moliere,
stands without a rival at the head of French comedy. Born at Paris in
January, 1622, where his father held a position in the royal
household, he was educated at the Jesuit College de Clermont, and for
some time studied law, which he soon abandoned for the stage. His life
was spent in Paris and in the provinces, acting, directing
performances, managing theaters, and writing plays. He had his share
of applause from the king and from the public; but the satire in his
comedies made him many enemies, and he was the object of the most
venomous attacks and the most impossible slanders. Nor did he find
much solace at home; for he married unfortunately, and the unhappiness
that followed increased the bitterness that public hostility had
brought into his life. On February 17, 1673, while acting in "La
Malade Imaginaire," the last of his masterpieces, he was seized with
illness and died a few hours later.

The first of the greater works of Moliere was "Les Precieuses
Ridicules," produced in 1659. In this brilliant piece Moliere lifted
French comedy to a new level and gave it a new purpose--the satirizing
of contemporary manners and affectations by frank portrayal and
criticism. In the great plays that followed, "The School for Husbands"
and "The School for Wives," "The Misanthrope" and "The Hypocrite"
(Tartuffe), "The Miser" and "The Hypochondriac," "The Learned Ladies,"
"The Doctor in Spite of Himself," "The Citizen Turned Gentleman," and
many others, he exposed mercilessly one after another the vices and
foibles of the day.

His characteristic qualities are nowhere better exhibited than in
"Tartuff