e, was born
at Paris in 1622; his father, upholstery-groom-of-the-chamber (_valet de
chambre tapissier_) to Louis XIV., had him educated with some care at
Clermont (afterwards Louis-le-Grand) College, then in the hands of the
Jesuits. He attended, by favor, the lessons which the philosopher
Gassendi, for a longtime, the opponent of Descartes, gave young Chapelle.
He imbibed at these lessons, together with a more extensive course of
instruction, a certain freedom of thinking which frequently cropped out
in his plays, and contributed later on to bring upon him an accusation of
irreligion. In 1645 (?1643), Moliere had formed, with the ambitious
title of _illustre theatre,_ a small company of actors, who, being unable
to maintain themselves at Paris, for a long while tramped the provinces
through all the troubles of the Fronde. It was in 1653 that Moliere
brought out at Lyons his comedy _l'Etourdi,_ the first regular piece he
had ever composed. The _Depit amoureux_ was played at Beziers in 1656,
at the opening of the session of the States of Languedoc; the company
returned to Paris in 1658; in 1659, Moliere, who had obtained a license
from the king, gave at his own theatre _les Precieuses ridicules_. He
broke with all imitation of the Italians and the Spaniards, and, taking
off to the life the manners of his own times, he boldly attacked the
affected exaggeration and absurd pretensions of the vulgar imitators of
the Hotel de Rambouillet. "Bravo! Moliere," cried an old man from the
middle of the pit; "this is real comedy." When he published his piece,
Moliere, anxious not to give umbrage to a powerful clique, took care to
say in his preface that he was not attacking real _precieuses,_ but only
the bad imitations.

Just as he had recalled Corneille to the stage, Fouquet was for
protecting Moliere upon it. The _Ecole des Mans_ and the _Facheux_ were
played at Vaux. Amongst the ridiculous characters in this latter,
Moliere had not described the huntsman. Louis XIV. himself indicated to
him the Marquis of Soyecour. "There's one you have forgotten," he said.
Twenty-four hours later, the bore of a huntsman, with all his jargon of
venery, had a place forever amongst the _Facheux_ of Moliere. The _Ecole
des Femmes,_ the _Impromptu de Versailles,_ the _Critique de l'Ecole des
Femmes,_ began the bellicose period in the great comic poet's life.
Accused of impiety, attacked in the honor of his private life, Moliere,
returnin