short biography outlined in this article.
Molière short biography
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin- French comedian of the 17th century, creator of classical comedy, actor and director of the theater, better known as the troupe of Molière.
Born in Paris January 16, 1622. His father was a royal upholsterer and valet, the family lived very well off. From 1636, Jean Baptiste was educated at the prestigious educational institution- Jesuit Clermont College, in 1639, upon graduation, he became a licentiate of rights, but preferred the theater to the work of an artisan or lawyer.
In June 1643, at the age of 21, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin left his family and opened the Théâtre Brilliant in Paris. This, as we would say today, the project lasted only two years and suffered a financial collapse. There were only debts that Jean-Baptiste had nothing to pay. For this reason, he even happened to spend some time in prison.
After this story, the father cursed his son, forbade him to dishonor his surname. At that time, the acting profession was considered the lowest and was called nothing more than a contemptuous "comedian". It is with this that the appearance of the pseudonym Moliere is associated. Jean-Baptiste chose to renounce family name, because he could not imagine his life without the theater.
Moliere took up his favorite business, organizing a traveling troupe, with which he traveled from one city to another. The repertoire was small, so he took up the pen himself. He began by writing one-act plays. This is how the “Flying Doctor”, “Anemone”, “Jealousy of Barbuye” appeared (these are those that have come down to us, but there were others).
Gradually, the popularity of the Molière troupe grew, they began to perform in major cities. One day, in Languedoc, Molière met with a school friend, the Prince of Conti, who recommended him to the king's brother. And so Jean-Baptiste Moliere, along with his actors, got the opportunity to play in the theater at the court, in the Louvre.
The last decade and a half of Moliere's life (1658 - 1673) were the most productive times in terms of dramaturgy. At this time, such masterpieces as "Funny Fashionistas", "The Imaginary Cuckold", "The Tradesman in the Nobility", "Don Giovanni, or the Stone Guest", "Tartuffe", "The Misanthrope", "The Imaginary Sick" were created. His plays mercilessly ridicule the vices of people: greed, hypocrisy, hypocrisy.
The staging of the comedy "Tartuffe" at the court dealt a serious blow to catholic church. In the play, Moliere showed the criminality of church authority, the deceitfulness of its morality. Of course, the play was banned, and in order to save it, Molière "removed" his spiritual dignity from the protagonist, made him an ordinary saint and a hypocrite.
Other plays were also forbidden to be staged - this is how criticism of the playwright acted. Once, his theater was even closed, and for three whole months the actors waited for the opportunity to play again, although all this time they did not even receive money.
Molière himself was far from being a poor man, receiving an annual pension of 1,500 livres from the king. But he treated money easily, spent it with pleasure. He spent not only on himself, he helped those in need, and not one of those who turned to him with a request was offended. Contemporaries spoke of him as a kind, generous, helpful person.
The personal life of Jean-Baptiste Molière was not very happy. He married at the age of forty, the young wife of Armand Bejart deceived him. His friendship with Jean Racine did not work out either. After the premiere of Racine's play "Alexander the Great" at the Moliere Theater, it was transferred to another troupe for staging. Molière took it as a betrayal
Moliere died February 17, 1673. He performed leading role in his play "The Imaginary Sick" and on the stage he felt bad. In a few hours great playwright died. The Archbishop of Paris forbade the burial of the body of a "comedian" and "unrepentant sinner" according to Christian rites.
They buried him secretly, at night, in the cemetery of Saint-Joseph.
Jean-Baptiste was born on January 15, 1622 in Paris, into a respected bourgeois family, in which all the men worked as upholsterers for generations.
The boy's mother died when he was barely 10 years old, and his father sent his son to a prestigious college, where Jean-Baptiste diligently studied Latin, classical literature, philosophy and the natural sciences.
Having adequately passed the exam, the young Poquelin received a teacher's diploma with the right to lecture. By that time, his father had already prepared a place for an upholsterer in the royal palace, but Jean-Baptiste was not destined to become either a teacher or an upholsterer - fate had prepared for him a much more interesting fate.
The beginning of the creative path
Taking advantage of his share of the maternal inheritance, Jean-Baptiste began to completely new life. He was attracted by the stage and the opportunity to play tragic roles.
At the age of 21, Jean-Baptiste, who by that time had already chosen his stage name - Molière, headed small theater called "Brilliant". The troupe consisted of only 10 people, the theater's repertoire was rather meager and uninteresting, and it simply could not compete with strong Parisian troupes.
The actors had no choice but to perform in the provinces. After spending 13 years wandering, Jean-Baptiste did not change his desire to serve the theater. Moreover, he managed to write many plays, which significantly diversified the troupe's repertoire. Among his early works"Jealousy of Barbulier", "Flying Doctor", "Three Doctors" and others.
Work in the provinces not only revealed the talent of a screenwriter in Molière, but also forced him to radically change his acting role. Seeing the great interest of the public in comedies and farces, Jean-Baptiste decided to retrain from a tragedian to a comedian.
Parisian period
Thanks to comedy plays Moliere's troupe quickly achieved fame and recognition, and in 1658, at the invitation of the king's brother, ended up in Paris. The actors had an unprecedented honor - to perform at the Louvre in the presence of Louis XIV himself.
The comedy Doctor in Love caused an incredible sensation among the Parisian aristocracy, predetermining the fate of the comedians. The king gave them full control of the court theater, on the stage of which they performed for three years, and then moved to the Palais Royal theater.
Having settled in Paris, Molière set to work with a vengeance. His passion for dramaturgy was at times like an obsession, but it paid off. For 15 years he wrote his best plays: "Funny coynesses", "Tartuffe, or the deceiver", "Misanthrope", "Don Juan, or the Stone guest".
Personal life
Molière tied the knot at the age of 40. His chosen one was Armanda Bejart, who was half her husband's age. wedding ceremony took place in 1662, and only the closest relatives of the newlyweds were present.
Armanda gave her husband three children, but their marriage was not happy: it affected a big difference in age, habits, characters.
Death
On the stage where Jean-Baptiste played in the play "Imaginary Sick", he suddenly became ill. His relatives managed to bring him home, where he died a couple of hours later, on February 17, 1673.
- The works of Molière, distinguished by great looseness and free-thinking, caused great irritation among the representatives of the Church. A brief biography of Moliere is not able to accommodate the attacks and threats that he was forced to endure from the clergy. However, the bold playwright was under the tacit protection of Louis, and his literary audacity always got away with him.
- The godfather of Molière's firstborn was King Louis XIV himself.
- One of the most cheerful and cheerful comedies of the playwright - "Imaginary Sick" - was written by him before his death, during a serious illness.
- The archbishop of Paris categorically refused to bury Jean-Baptiste, since he was reputed to be a sinner all his life and did not have time to repent before his death. And only the intervention of the king influenced the outcome of the case: Molière was buried at night outside the fence of the cemetery of St. Peter, like a robber or a suicide.
born in Paris on January 15, 1622. His father, a bourgeois, court upholsterer, did not even think about giving his son any great education, and by the age of fourteen the future playwright had barely learned to read and write. The parents ensured that their court position passed to their son, but the boy showed extraordinary abilities and a stubborn desire to learn, his father's craft did not attract him. At the insistence of his grandfather, Poquelin the father, with great reluctance, sent his son to a Jesuit college. Here, for five years, Molière successfully studied the course of sciences. He was fortunate to have as one of his teachers famous philosopher Gassendi, who introduced him to the teachings of Epicurus. It is said that Molière translated into French Lucretius's poem "On the Nature of Things" (this translation has not been preserved, and there is no evidence of the authenticity of this legend; only sound materialistic philosophy, which comes through in all the works of Molière, can serve as evidence).
Since childhood, Molière has been fascinated by the theater. The theater was his dearest dream. After graduating from the Clermont College, having fulfilled all the obligations for the formal completion of education and having received a law degree in Orleans, Moliere hastened to form a troupe of actors from several friends and like-minded people and open the Brilliant Theater in Paris.
Molière had not yet thought about independent dramatic work. He wanted to be an actor, and an actor of a tragic role, at the same time he took on his pseudonym - Molière. Some of the actors have already had this name before him.
That was an early time in history French theater. Only recently has a permanent troupe of actors appeared in Paris, inspired by the dramatic genius of Corneille, as well as the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu, who himself was not averse to sprinkling tragedies.
The undertakings of Molière and his comrades, their youthful enthusiasm, were not crowned with success. The theater had to close. Molière joined a troupe of itinerant comedians, which had been traveling around the cities of France since 1646. She could be seen in Nantes, Limoges, Bordeaux, Toulouse. In 1650, Molière and his companions performed at Narbonne.
Wanderings around the country enrich Molière with life observations. He studies the customs of various classes, hears live speech people. In 1653, in Lyon, he staged one of his first plays, Madcap.
The talent of the playwright was revealed in him unexpectedly. He never dreamed of being on his own literary creativity and took up the pen, forced by the poverty of the repertoire of his troupe. At first, he only reworked Italian farces, adapting them to French conditions, then he began to move more and more away from Italian models, more boldly introduce an original element into them, and, finally, completely discarded them for the sake of independent creativity.
Thus was born the best comedian in France. He was a little over thirty years old. “Before this age, it is difficult to achieve anything in dramatic genre which requires knowledge of both the world and the human heart,” wrote Voltaire.
In 1658 Molière was again in Paris; this is already an experienced actor, playwright, a person who has known the world in all its reality. The performance of the Moliere troupe in Versailles in front of the royal court was a success. The troupe was left in the capital. Molière's theater first settled in the Petit Bourbon, performing three times a week (the other days the stage was occupied by the Italian theater).
In 1660, Moliere received a stage in the hall of the Palais Royal, built during the reign of Richelieu for one of the tragedies, part of which was written by the cardinal himself. The premises did not at all meet all the requirements of the theater - however, France then did not have the best. Even a century later, Voltaire complained: “We do not have a single tolerable theater - truly Gothic barbarism, of which the Italians rightly accuse us. There are good plays in France, and good theater halls- in Italy.
For fourteen years of his creative life in Paris, Moliere created everything that was included in his rich literary heritage(more than thirty pieces). His gift unfolded in all its splendor. He was patronized by the king, who, however, was far from understanding what a treasure in the person of Molière France possesses. Once, in a conversation with Boileau, the king asked who would glorify his reign, and was not a little surprised by the answer of a strict critic that this would be achieved by a playwright who called himself Molière.
The playwright had to fight off numerous enemies who were by no means occupied with questions of literature. Behind them hid more powerful opponents, hurt by the satirical arrows of Molière's comedies; the enemies invented and spread the most incredible rumors about a man who was the pride of the people.
Molière died suddenly, at the age of fifty-two. Once, during the performance of his play “The Imaginary Sick”, in which the seriously ill playwright played the main role, he felt unwell and died a few hours after the end of the performance (February 17, 1673). The Archbishop of Paris, Harley de Chanvallon, forbade the body of the “comedian” and “unrepentant sinner” to be buried in Christian rites (Molière did not have time to unction, as required by the church charter). A crowd of fanatics gathered near the house of the deceased playwright, trying to prevent the burial. The playwright's widow threw money out the window to get rid of the insulting interference of the crowd excited by the churchmen. Molière was buried at night in the Saint-Joseph cemetery. Boileau responded to the death of the great playwright with poems, telling in them about the atmosphere of hostility and persecution in which Molière lived and worked.
In the preface to his comedy Tartuffe, Molière, defending the right of the playwright, in particular the comedian, to interfere in public life, the right to depict vices in the name of educational purposes, wrote: "The theater has great corrective power." "The best examples of serious morality are usually less powerful than satire ... We inflict a heavy blow on vices, exposing them to public ridicule."
Here Moliere defines the meaning of the comedy's purpose: "It is nothing but a witty poem, exposing human shortcomings with entertaining teachings."
So, according to Molière, comedy faces two tasks. The first and foremost is to teach people, the second and secondary is to entertain them. If comedy is stripped of its instructive element, it becomes empty gibberish; if its entertaining functions are taken away from it, it will cease to be a comedy and moralizing goals will not be achieved either. In short, "the duty of comedy is to correct people by amusing them."
The playwright understood public importance his satirical art. Everyone should serve people according to their talents. Everyone should contribute to the public welfare, but each does this according to his personal inclinations and talents. In the comedy "The Funny Cossacks," Moliere hinted very transparently at what kind of theater he liked.
Moliere considers naturalness and simplicity to be the main advantages of acting. We present the reasoning negative character plays by Mascarille. “Only the comedians of the Burgundy Hotel are able to show the goods with their faces,” says Mascarille. The troupe of the Burgundy Hotel was the royal troupe of Paris and, therefore, was recognized as the first. But Molière did not accept her theater system, condemning the "stage effects" of the actors of the Burgundy Hotel, who could only "recite loudly."
“All the rest are ignoramuses, they read poetry as they say,” Mascaril develops his theory. These "others" include the theater of Molière. The playwright put the talk of the Parisian theatrical conservatives into the mouth of Mascarille, who were shocked by the simplicity and routine of the stage embodiment of the author's text in Molière's theater. However, according to the deep conviction of the playwright, it is necessary to read poetry exactly “as they say”: simply, naturally; and the dramatic material itself, according to Molière, must be truthful, modern language- realistic.
Moliere's thought was right, but he failed to convince his contemporaries. Racine did not want to stage his tragedies in Moliere's theater precisely because the method of stage disclosure of the author's text by the actors was too natural.
In the 18th century, Voltaire, and after him Diderot, Mercier, Sedin, Beaumarchais fought stubbornly against the pomposity and unnaturalness of the classic theater. But also enlighteners XVIII century failed to succeed. Classical theater still adhered to the old forms. In the 19th century, romantics and realists opposed these forms.
Molière's attraction to stage truth in its realistic interpretation is very obvious, and only time, tastes and concepts of the century did not allow him to develop his talent with Shakespearean breadth.
Interesting judgments about essence theatrical art Molière says in Critique of the Lesson for Wives. Theater is “a mirror of society,” he says. The playwright compares comedy with tragedy. Obviously, already in his time, the grandiloquent classic tragedy began to bore the audience. One of the characters of the named play by Moliere declares: “on the presentation of great works - a terrifying emptiness, on nonsense (meaning Moliere’s comedies) - all of Paris.”
Molière criticizes the classic tragedy for its isolation from the present, for the sketchiness of its stage images, for the far-fetched provisions. In his day, no attention was paid to this criticism of tragedy, meanwhile, in it the future anti-classicist program was lurking, which was put forward by the French enlighteners in the second half of the 18th century (Didro, Beaumarchais) and the French romantics of the first half of XIX century.
Before us realistic principles, as they could be conceived in the time of Molière. True, the playwright believed that “working from nature”, “resemblance” to life are necessary mainly in the comedy genre and do not go beyond it: “Depicting people, you write from nature. Their portraits should be similar, and you have achieved nothing if people of your age are not recognized in them.
Molière also expresses conjectures about the legitimacy in the theater of a peculiar mixture of serious and comic elements, which, according to his contemporaries and even subsequent generations, until the war of the romantics with the classicists in the 19th century, was considered unacceptable.
In a word, Molière paves the way for the coming literary battles; but we would sin against the truth if we declared him the herald of the theatrical reform. Moliere's ideas about the tasks of comedy do not go beyond the circle of classic aesthetics. The task of comedy, as he imagined it, was "to give on the stage a pleasing portrayal of common defects." He shows here the classicists' inclination towards rationalistic abstraction of types.
Moliere does not object at all to the classicist rules, seeing in them a manifestation of " common sense"," unaffected observations of sane people on how not to spoil their pleasure from this kind of play. Not the ancient Greeks suggested modern peoples unity of time, place and action, but sound human logic, argues Molière.
In a little theatrical joke "The Versailles Impromptu" (1663), Moliere showed his troupe preparing the next performance. Actors talk about the principles of the game. It's about about the theater of the Burgundy hotel.
Comedy's mission is to "accurately portray human shortcomings”, he declares, but comedic images are by no means portraits. It is impossible to create a character that does not resemble someone around, but "you have to be crazy to look for your doubles in a comedy," says Molière. The playwright clearly hints at the collectivity artistic image, saying that the features of a comedic character "can be seen in hundreds of different faces."
All these true thoughts, thrown in passing, will later find their place in the system of realistic aesthetics.
Molière was born for the realistic theatre. The sober materialistic philosophy of Lucretius, which he studied in his youth, and rich life observations during the years of wandering life prepared him for a realistic warehouse of creativity. The drama school of his time left its mark on him, but Molière kept breaking the shackles of the classicist canons.
The main difference between the classical system and the realistic methods of Shakespeare is manifested in the method of character building. stage character classicism is predominantly one-sided, static, without contradictions and development. It is a character-idea, it is as wide as the idea embedded in it requires. The author's tendentiousness manifests itself quite straightforwardly and nakedly. Talented playwrights- Corneille, Racine, Moliere - were able to be truthful within the limits and narrow tendentiousness of the image, but the normative aesthetics of classicism still limited them creative possibilities. They did not reach the heights of Shakespeare, and not because they lacked talent, but because their talents often conflicted with established aesthetic norms and retreated before them. Moliere, who worked on the comedy "Don Juan" hastily, not intending it for a long stage life, allowed himself to violate this basic law of classicism (the static and one-linear image), he wrote, in accordance not with theory, but with life and his author's understanding, and created a masterpiece, a drama in the highest degree realistic.
The article talks about short biography Jean-Baptiste Moliere - the famous French playwright and theatrical figure, who had a huge impact on the development of European theater.
Short biography of Molière: first steps and failures
Molière was born in 1622 in the family of a furniture maker Poquelin. Boy got excellent education, interested classical literature and philosophy. After graduating from college, he spent some time legal practice helping father. Soon he abandoned the profitable business, exchanging it for his passion for the theater.
In 1643, the young man takes the pseudonym Moliere and enters into a small theatrical partnership. Activity new troupe was not successful, eventually it breaks up. In search of a livelihood, Moliere acts as an ordinary actor in the provinces. After some time, Molière becomes the head of the troupe, the burden of conducting financial affairs and the general organization of activities falls on him.
At first, Moliere continues to try to succeed with the help of "high" classical works, acting game in which he gives all his strength. However, the ignorant provincial public does not understand such plays and showers ridicule on the troupe. The enraged leader begins to write his own primitive farces, which are wildly successful. Molière finds his calling in the comedy genre.
The aspiring playwright puts on his early full-fledged comedies ("Madcap"), which cement the author's success.
Short biography of Molière: heyday
In 1658, the king turned his attention to Molière, who was allowed to work under his patronage in Paris. During this period, the playwright created his greatest comedies (about forty in total), which are still very successful and do not leave the stages of the world's leading theaters.
In the life of Molière, the most productive stage begins, which brought him world fame. However, the fate of the playwright was not easy and was full of difficulties. A special place in the life of Moliere was occupied by relations with the king Louis XIV. In addition to the main creative pursuit, the playwright is forced to write royal commissioned comedies, which are given to him with difficulty and do not represent any particular artistic value.
Another difficult moment in Moliere's biography is his relationship with the Catholic clergy. The playwright's satire spared no one, but in the famous comedy Tartuffe (written in 1664), Moliere encroached on the authority of the church. They offered to burn the author at the stake, banned performances and promised to curse everyone who read the work. The playwright withstood a serious struggle for his creation, he was humiliated to ask the king for special protection. Finally, in 1669, the premiere of the great comedy took place.
Moliere's works have become immortal, since they very sharply ridicule all the main vices of mankind inherent in him at all times: lies, hypocrisy, ignorance, etc. Criticism of the playwright is merciless, but executed in a beautiful art form. Ultimately, the author strives to awaken a response in a person, striving for kindness and justice.
A distinctive feature of Moliere's work was his desire to get rid of the standards of classicism. In his comedies he introduces elements folk culture and language. It has become milestone on the way to realism.
Moliere did not try to portray the versatility human personality. On the contrary, in his heroes, he put some particular character trait in the first place, achieving its maximum expression. This greatly enhanced comic effect works.
Along with writing activities, Moliere was an outstanding actor of his time, which is noted by many contemporaries.
Moliere's death occurred in 1673. He had long felt serious problems with health. Right during the performance on stage, the master had another seizure, but with an incredible effort he was able to pass him off as an element acting. Shortly after the performance, Molière died.
The beginning of an acting career
A legal career attracted him no more than his father's craft, and Jean-Baptiste chose the profession of an actor, taking a theatrical pseudonym Molière. After meeting comedians Joseph and Madeleine Béjart, at the age of 21, Moliere became the head of the Brilliant Theater ( Illustre Theater), a new Parisian troupe of 10 actors, registered by a metropolitan notary on June 30, 1643. Having entered into fierce competition with the troupes of the Burgundy Hotel and the Marais, already popular in Paris, the Brilliant Theater loses in 1645. Molière and his fellow actors decide to seek their fortune in the provinces by joining a troupe of itinerant comedians led by Dufresne.
Molière's troupe in the provinces. First plays
Molière's wanderings in the French provinces for 13 years (-) in the years civil war(Fronde) enriched him with worldly and theatrical experience.
comedy parenting
No less fruitful was the influence of Moliere outside of France, and in various European countries translations of Molière's plays were a powerful stimulus for the creation of a national bourgeois comedy. This was the case primarily in England during the Restoration (Wycherley, Congreve), and then in the 18th century, Fielding and Sheridan. So it was in economically backward Germany, where acquaintance with the plays of Molière stimulated the original comedy creativity of the German bourgeoisie. Even more significant was the influence of Moliere's comedy in Italy, where, under the direct influence of Moliere, the creator of the Italian bourgeois comedy Goldoni was brought up. Molière had a similar influence in Denmark on Golberg, creator of the Danish bourgeois satirical comedy, and in Spain on Moratin.
In Russia, acquaintance with the comedies of Molière begins already in late XVII c., when Princess Sophia, according to legend, played in her tower "The Doctor involuntarily." IN early XVIII V. we find them in the Petrine repertoire. From palace performances, Molière then moves on to the performances of the first state-owned public theater in St. Petersburg, headed by A.P. Sumarokov. The same Sumarokov was the first imitator of Molière in Russia. The most “original” Russian comedians were also brought up at the Molière school. classical style- Fonvizin, V.V. Kapnist and I.A. Krylov. But the most brilliant follower of Molière in Russia was Griboyedov, who, in the image of Chatsky, gave Molière a congenial version of his "Misanthrope" - however, a completely original version, which grew up in the specific situation of Arakcheev-bureaucratic Russia of the 20s. 19th century Following Griboyedov, Gogol also paid tribute to Molière by translating one of his farces into Russian (“Sganarelle, or the Husband who thinks he is deceived by his wife”); traces of Molière's influence on Gogol are noticeable even in The Government Inspector. The later aristocratic (Sukhovo-Kobylin) and bourgeois comedy (Ostrovsky) also did not escape the influence of Molière. In the pre-revolutionary era, bourgeois modernist directors attempted a stage reassessment of Molière's plays from the point of view of emphasizing in them elements of "theatricality" and stage grotesque (
