Authors

French · 1622–1673

Molière

Molière was the pen name of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, the supreme French comic playwright whose Tartuffe (1664), The Misanthrope (1666), The Miser (1668), and The Imaginary Invalid (1673) are foundational works of world comedy. He ran his own theatre company under Louis XIV's patronage and performed in his own plays until his last night — he collapsed on stage during the fourth performance of The Imaginary Invalid, playing a hypochondriac, and died hours later. He is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.