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, returning insult for insult, delivered over those amongst his enemies who offered a butt for ridicule to the derision of the court and of posterity.  The Festin de Pierre and the signal punishment of the libertine (free-thinker) were intended to clear the author from the reproach of impiety; la Princesse d’Elide and l’Amour medecin were but charming interludes in the great struggle henceforth instituted between reality and appearance.  In 1666, Moliere produced le Misanthrope,