Molière died mid-laugh as his own hypochondriac
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin—stage name Molière—fused Italian improvisation with French polish until French itself was nicknamed the "language of Molière." On 17 February 1673, coughing blood as Argan in The Imaginary Invalid, he finished the show and died hours later of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Baptised in Paris on 15 January 1622, first son of Jean Poquelin and Marie Cressé, he grew up above the Pavillon des Singes on rue Saint-Honoré after his mother died when he was ten. Jesuit Collège de Clermont schooling mixed him with nobles; in 1641 he inherited his father's court post as valet and carpet-keeper to the king—three months' work, 300 livres a year—then sampled provincial law around 1642 without clear qualification.
At twenty-one, in June 1643, he quit that path for Madeleine Béjart and the Illustre Théâtre, founded with 630 livres. Bankruptcy and a night in prison followed in 1645 over 2,000 livres of jeu-de-paume rent; he adopted "Molière," perhaps to spare his father an actor son's shame. About twelve provincial years blended Commedia dell'arte with pieces like L'Étourdi and Le Docteur Amoureux, winning patronage from Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, and briefly from the Prince of Conti.
Paris returned in 1658 with a Louvre command performance; Les Précieuses Ridicules premiered at the Petit-Bourbon on 18 November 1659. Royal favour brought the Troupe du Roi, rooms at the Palais-Royal after 1661, and hits such as The School for Wives—while Tartuffe drew Church denunciation and a Parlement ban, and Dom Juan was withdrawn. Preferring tragedy yet crowned for farce, he still packs the Comédie-Française more than any other playwright.
Source: Molière
