Molière is perhaps the greatest writer of the French stage. David Coward, in an introduction to Molière: The Miser and Other Plays, states that Molière is "one of the world's greatest comic playwrights." Margaret Webster, in an introduction to Molière, explains his significance as a literary figure in France, noting, "in his own language he is as towering a figure as Shakespeare is in ours." James F Gaines and Michael S. Koppisch, in Approaches to Teaching Molière's Tartuffe and Other Plays, state that "Molière has, almost since the moment he began writing, been a central-and controversial figure in French culture." In his lifetime, Molière enjoyed immense popularity among audiences, as well as the ongoing favor and patronage of King Louis XIV, while suffering the censorship and banning from the stage of some...