at this period he made himself responsible.

The plays first acted by Moliere and his friends were, of course, the
farces then most in vogue; among others the comedies of Scarron and the
yet inferior productions of Denis Beys and Desfontaines. The former had
written a ridiculous piece called _L'Hopital des Fous_. The latter was
the author of _Eurymedon ou l'Illustre Pirate, l'Illustre Comedien ou le
Martyre de Saint-Genes_, and of several other inflated pieces. It would
be difficult to fix the exact date at which Moliere's earliest plays
were produced, but it is probable that he began to write for his company
as soon as he had enlisted in it. He seems, like Shakespeare, to have,
in part at least, adapted the plays of others; but in 1653, if not
earlier, he had produced _L'Etourdi_, and in 1656 _Le Depit Amoureux_.

The Illustre Theatre is heard of at Nantes, Limoges, Bordeaux, Toulouse,
Narbonne, and Lyons, where Moliere produced his first serious attempt at
high comedy in verse, _L'Etourdi_. In 1653 they played by invitation at
the country seat of the Prince de Conti, the schoolfellow of Moliere.
Three years later they played the _Depit Amoureux_ at Beziers during the
meeting in that town of the Parliament of Languedoc. At Grenoble, in
1658, the painter Mignard, with other of his admirers, persuaded him to
take his company--for he was joint manager with Madeleine Bejart--to
Paris; and this he did, after a concluding trip to Rouen. In Paris they
began by playing before Philippe, Duke of Anjou, the brother of Louis
XIV, who took them under his protection and introduced them to the
court.

At this time the company was considerably stronger, as well as richer,
than when it left Paris. There were now four ladies, Madeleine Bejart,
Genevieve Bejart, Duparc, and Debrie; the two brothers Bejart--the
youngest, Louis, had joined at Lyons--Duparc, Debrie, Dufresne, and
Croisac making, with Moliere himself, eleven persons. It may be
concluded that their tour, or, at all events, that part of it which
dated from Lyons, had been very successful; for we find that Joseph
Bejart, who died early in 1659, left behind him a fortune of twenty-four
thousand golden crowns. So at least we are told by the physician
Guy-Patin in a letter dated May 27, 1659; and he adds, "Is it not enough
to make one believe that Peru is no longer in America, but in Paris?"

The condition of the drama in Paris at the time when Moliere returned to
the capital w