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The Life of Moliere
Moliere is one of the rarest order of poets, whose very faults become sacred in the eyes of admirers. He is not only revered as a master, but beloved by us as a friend. Of all the French dramatists, he is the only one whose genius is as conspicuous to foreign nations as it is to his own. Like Shakespeare, he is for all time and for all races. — Buhver, "Essays."
Moliere is perhaps, of all French writers, the one whom his country has most uniformly admired, and in whom her critics are most unwilling to acknowledge faults. — Hallam, "Middle Ages."
Living in the blindest period of the world's history, in the most luxurious city, and the most corrupted court, of the time, he yet manifests thru all his writings an exquisite natural wisdom; a capacity for the most simple enjoyment; a high sense of nobleness, honor, and purity, variously marked thruout his slighter work, but distinctly made the theme of his two perfect plays — the Tartuffe and Misanthrope; and in all that he says of art or science he has an unerring instinct for what is useful and sincere, and uses his whole power to defend it, with as keen a hatred of everything affected and vain. — Buskin, "Modern Painters."
Here Moliere, first of comic wits, excell'd Whate'er Athenian theatres beheld; By keen, yet decent, satire skill 'd to please, With morals mirth uniting, strength with ease.
— Lord Lyttleton, "Letters."
Moliere — whose name is the greatest in the literature of France and who, in the literature of the modern drama, is the greatest after Shakespeare — the great actor-playwright who excelled in comedy and who was far ahead of his time in tragic declamation ; the genius who was decried and villified by competitors whose eyes were blinded by jealousy to his real greatness ; the husband who suffered tortures in his domestic life, thru the unfaithfulness of the wife whom he loved to distraction; the one-time strolling player who put rural France into spasms of laughter, and the polished comedian who contributed still greater distinction to the splendors of the most illustrious court that the world has ever known. — James S. McQuade.
Jean Baptiste Moliere was born on the fifteenth of January, .622, and he flourished during the reign of Louis XIV. His life was an eventful one, his career was picturesque, and now, after more than three centuries have passed, he is pro
nounced The Shakespeare of France. It was a splendid thought that prompted the photo-artists to produce "The Life of Moliere" in moving pictures, and it is a pleasure to reproduce in this magazine a few of the many beautiful pictures, some of which are here shown.
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