as anything but satisfactory. There were in 1658 five
theatres in Paris: One at the Hotel de Bourgogne; one at the Marais; one
under the patronage of Mademoiselle, daughter of Gaston, Duke of
Orleans; a Spanish company; and an Italian company at the Petit Bourbon,
under the managership of Torelli. It was with the first and last of
these that Moliere came chiefly into conflict; and it is probable that
the other three were of no great account, at all events as competitors
for the favor of the general public. Torelli soon found that the
newcomer commanded his hundreds where he himself could only count by
scores, and he gave up the Petit Bourbon to Moliere in 1659.

Moliere's company called themselves "Comediens de Monsieur"; and after
Torelli had left them full possession of the Petit Bourbon, their
greatest rivals in public favor were the company at the Hotel de
Bourgogne, who played Corneille, Scudery, Scarron, and other authors of
less note. In 1659 Moliere took the town by storm with his _Precieuses
Ridicules_, a satire in one act on the exaggerations of the Hotel de
Rambouillet. This was followed in the succeeding year by _Sganarelle ou
le Cocu Imaginaire_; in the beginning of 1661 appeared _Don Garcie de
Navarre_, a heroic piece in five acts, intended to delineate the evils
of passionate jealousy; and in the same year were produced _L'Ecole des
Maris_, a satire on unreasonable jealousy, and _Les Facheux_, a court
sketch of several kinds of bores; in 1662 _L'Ecole des Femmes_--an
attempt to show the danger of bringing girls up in too strict a
manner--with its sequel, the _Critique de l'Ecole des Femmes_, in the
year after.

Boursault, an amiable man but a mediocre playwright, envious of
Moliere's growing fame, wrote for the Hotel de Bourgogne, which eagerly
accepted, if it did not bespeak, his piece, _Le Portrait du Peintre ou
la Contrecritique de l'Ecole des Femmes_, in which he attempted to bring
his brother-author into ridicule; but Moliere took ample revenge in his
_Impromptu de Versailles_, in which he soundly lashed his rivals, though
it may be mentioned to his honor that it was never printed during his
lifetime. In 1664 he wrote the _Mariage Force_, a one-act piece with
eight _entrees de ballet_, specially designed for court representation,
in which the King himself was pleased to dance, and, a month or two
later, the _Princesse d'Elide_, a cumbrous and comparatively inferior
production, done in great haste at