Tartuffe

EN302: European Theatre

Molires life
1622: Born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, to a wealthy middle-class family
in Paris

c. 1643: Joined Madeline Bjart and 8 others to found the Illustre

Thtre

1645-58: Toured France with the Illustre Thtre

1658: Returned to Paris under the protection of Monsieur, the

brother of Louis XIV; performed for the King and granted a share
of the Petit Bourbon theatre
1661: Company rehoused in the Palais Royal
1664: Tartuffe performed in its 3-act version for the King at
Versailles, and subsequently banned
1667: One performance of LImposteur (revised version of Tartuffe),
also banned
1669: Ban on Tartuffe finally lifted; became one of Molires most
popular plays both during and after his life
1673: Molires death

Louis XIV (1638-1715)

Patron of the arts

Louis XIV was godfather to Molires son
Louis ambiguous position on ban:

Although the suppression of this work was a

severe blow, nevertheless my misfortune was
softened by your Majestys explanation of this
matter; and I believed, Sire, that you relieved me of
all grounds for complaint by your kindness in
saying that your Majesty found nothing to criticize
in the play that you forbade me to present in
public. (Molire, First Petition, August 1664)

Molires company became la Troupe du Roi

in 1665; Molire became responsible for court
entertainments

The Fronde

Louis XIV crowned at the age of 4 in 1643; did

not assume full personal power until 1660
State ruled in the interim by the queen mother,
Anne of Austria, and her chief minister,
Cardinal Mazarin.
Battles between provincial legislatures and the
aristocracy, 1648-53
Victory in these wars established the monarchy
as absolute and autocratic
Orgon and the Fronde: In the recent
disturbances, he may have been / Reliable,
brave, loyal to the Crown, / But now hes fallen
for Tartuffe (p. 9)

Theatrical context

Theatre buildings:
Usually former tennis courts
Only one purpose-built theatre in all
France in 1640s: the Htel de
Bourgogne, built in 1548 for religious
drama.
Molires theatre from 1661: the PalaisRoyal

The Palais-Royal

Physical features:

parterre
amphithtre
two galleries of 17
boxes on three sides
(third gallery
constructed in 1671)
scenic space
audience on stage
(highly priced,
prestigious)

Audience capacity:

40 on stage
136 in first-row
boxes
120 in amphithtre
136 in second-row
boxes
136 in third-row
boxes (after 1671)
500 in the parterre

Molires theatre

Organisation of Molires theatre company:

all shareholders
largely democratic, though not everyone had an
equal number of shares
financial and programming decisions made
communally
sexual equality (for the most part)
older female roles like Mme Pernelle played by
men
no director as such, but Molire probably took
charge

Molires style

Alexandrines: heightened, artificial

Stock types
Intertextual casting
Molire specialised in the role of Sganarelle, a
character who is prone to self-delusion and often
tries to impose his deluded world-view on those
around him (Howarth 1995: 235); he appears as:

Arnolphe in Lcole des femmes (The School for Wives, 1662),

Orgon in Tartuffe (1664),
Alceste in Le Misanthrope (1666),
Harpagon in LAvare (The Miser, 1668),
Monsieur Jordain in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (The Wouldbe Nobleman, 1970),
Argan in Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid,
1673).

Molire as actor

A contemporary
spectator describing
Molire as Sganarelle:

You never heard such a

simpleton, or saw such a
foolish face; and one
doesnt know whether to
admire the author more for
the way he has written the
play, or the player for the
way he acts it. There was
never an actor with such
control over his facial
expression
(La Neufvillenaine,
Arguments, quoted in
Molire, Oeuvres, ed.
Despois & Mesnard, II, p.
189)

Commedia dellarte

Italian commedia dellarte companies performed in

Paris from 1570s onwards.
Popular farce at the Htel de Bourgogne:

Turlupin, the braggart (Henri Legrand)

Gros-Guillaume, the fat man (Robert Guerin)
Gaultier-Garguille, the old man (Hugues Guru)

Tiberio Fiorilli (Scaramouche) and his company were

resident in Paris 1639-48 and then again from 1660
(as the Troupe de la Comdie Italienne) at the PalaisRoyal, which they shared with Molire.
From the commedia dellarte, Molire learned how
to improvise on stock situations according to the
nature of each audience; like them he often
performed with a mask or floured face (Maland
1970: 173)

Abraham Bosse, Comedians at the theatre of Hotel de Bourgog

Turlupin, Gaultier-Garguille & Gros-Guillaume

Italian and French Comedians Playing in Farces, 167

Neo-classical comedy

Conventions:

contemporary bourgeois setting

family focus (rather than historical / heroic)
young love vs. parental opposition

Pierre Corneille: comedy as a portrait of the

manners and conversation of persons of good
breeding:

The exclusion of what we should call genuinely

comic material from this definition was entirely
in keeping with the firm distinction between
comedy and farce established by the Renaissance
theorists, for whom the imitation of life, not the
arousing of laughter, was to be the comic
dramatists goal. (Howarth 1995: 233)

Molire on comedy

La Critique de Lcole des femmes (1663):

URANIE. Tragedy, no doubt, is something grand

when it is rightly handled ; but comedy has many
charms; and I think tis no less difficult to write than
tragedy.
DORANTE. You are right, madame; and as for
difficulty, you would not be wrong if you should add
a little to the scale of comedy. I think myself tis
easier to be grand over grand sentiments, brave
adverse fortune, challenge destiny, and hurl defiance
at the gods than to exhibit in a proper spirit the
absurdities of men and show their failings pleasantly
upon the stage. tis indeed a curious enterprise to
make the honest public laugh. (Scene VII, p. 340)

Classical comic theory

Aristotle:

Comedy, as we have said, is an imitation of

people who are worse than the average.

His ideas were expanded upon by the

4th century AD philosopher Evanthius:

Comedy is a story treating of various

habits and customs of public and private
affairs, from which one may learn what is of
use in life, on the one hand, and what must
be avoided, on the other. (quoted in Palmer
1984: 30)

Molire as satirist

Whereas the duty of comedy is to correct men by

amusing them, I felt that, being in that profession, I
could do no better than to attack, by ludicrous
portrayals, the vices of my age. (Molires First
Petition, August 1664)
Some of his satirical targets included:

French literary fashion (Les Prcieuses ridicules),

courtiers (Les Fcheux),
middle-class patriarchs (Sganarelle, Lcole des maris,
Lcole des femmes),
scholars (Le Mariage forc),
doctors (LAmour mdecin)
even his own audience (La Critique de Lcole des femmes)

Tartuffe as religious
satire

Depicts an actual social phenomenon: the lay director

Religious/sexual double entendres in Act 3: May He
[God] grant you all the joy that I, / His humble servant,
also wish for you. (p. 42)
Even after he has shown his hand, Tartuffe uses
language which is both sexually and religiously
charged. The following is a parody of the Salve Regina:
Cant you look kindly on this wretch?
Cant you find it in your heart
To pour the balm of consolation
On your unworthy slave
Writhing in agony here at your feet?
Oh, you creature from Heaven,
Be the temple where I worship! (pp. 45-6)

Tartuffe as religious
satire

Perhaps this satire was precisely targeted:

Clante on religious hypocrites: Theres a lot of

them about (p. 17)
There is a possible reference to the Jesuit direction
of intention in the following lines: scruples can be
got rid of Theres an established way / Of squaring
bad actions with good intentions. Ill teach you the
theology. (p. 66)
More persuasive is Molires loaded use of the term
cabale, both in the play (There are powerful cabals
and cliques out there, p. 76) and in his Second
Petition (August 1667) this word was widely used as
a derogatory term for the Compagnie du SaintSacrement

Compagnie du SaintSacrement

Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement (Company of the

Blessed Sacrament)

founded 1627
Catholic secret society
missionary
charitable
religious police
nicknamed la cabale des dvts
very powerful in 1664, declined by 1669

The Prsident de Lamoignon, who banned

Tartuffe in 1664, was a member.
It was also he who had given the order to burn
alive the heretical writer Simon Morin, along
with all his books, in 1663.

Lost versions of the play

First performance at Versailles on May 12,1664:

Second version performed in Paris on August 5,

1667:

only three acts (possibly the current Acts I, III and IV)
Mariane and Valres plot may not have been so
developed (or even present) in this version of the play
well-received by Louis XIV

five acts
renamed Panulphe, or LImposteur
impostor no longer dressed as a religious man
banned after just one performance

Final version performed 5 February 1669

Tartuffe as satire

Molires Preface to Tartuffe (23 March 1669)

describes the play as a skilful poem which, by
agreeable lessons, reprimands mens defects:

If the mission of comedy is to correct mens vices, I

fail to see why some should be privileged. In the
State, this one is of an importance much more
dangerous than all the others; and we have seen
that the theatre is a great force for correction.
It is a great blow to vice to expose it to everyones
laughter. We can easily stand being reprehended,
but we cannot stand being mocked. We are willing
to be wicked, but we will not be ridiculous.

Henri Bergson

French philosopher Henri

Bergson (1859-1941)
published his influential
essay Laughter in 1900.
In it, he argued that humour
arises from automatism and
inelasticity in characters.
In laughter we always find
an unavowed intention to
humiliate, and consequently
correct our neighbour.
(Sypher 1956: 148)

Orgons inelasticity
ORGON. my own brother, children, mother, wife,
Could die, I wouldnt lose a moments sleep.
CLANTE. How very human. (p. 14)

Orgon as machine:

And Tartuffe? Poor man!

Dorines asides and Orgons mechanical response to them in Act
2
Orgons alternated lines to Damis and Tartuffe in Act 3
His response upon discovering the truth

Damis is similarly mechanical he ruins Elmires plan,

and almost gets into serious trouble at the end
Mme. Pernelle (significant that she was played by a male
actor?)

Tartuffe as farce

Structure and kinaesthetics

Careful building of hints
Careful signposting of key plot
elements (e.g. hiding place,
Marianes engagement)
Building of pace:
Physical image of the besieged family
Act 5s entrances and exits

Tartuffes structure

Constant raising of the stakes:

Orgon orders Mariane to marry Tartuffe (Act 2)

Orgon brings forward Marianes proposed marriage to
today (Act 3)
Orgon disinherits Damis (Act 3)
Orgon resolves to put the deeds to the house in
Tartuffes name today (end of Act 3)
As Orgon realises Tartuffes true nature, Tartuffe orders
him out of the house and threatens reprisal (Act 4)
The play confirms the existence and contents of Orgons
strong-box (Act 5)
M. Loyal arrives to evict the family (Act 5)
Valre arrives with news that Orgon is in mortal
danger and urges him to flee (Act 5)
Tartuffe arrives to arrest Orgon (Act 5)

The ending

Given that the play is so brilliantly structured in terms

of set-up and pay-off in many other respects, why is no
mention made of the crucially-important strong-box
before Act 5?
Is the final act implausible?
(Do each of the last three acts play with implausible
climaxes?)
How do we read the plays deus (or rex) ex machina?
We live in an enlightened age. Our King,
Who reads us like a book, hates any fraud; []
To make sure that his judgements really fair,
He gathers in the facts till theyre complete. []
His expert eyes werent fooled; they straightaway
Saw the hideous face behind the mask. (p. 84)

Interpreting behaviour

Other characters are impostors of sorts:

Elmire and Dorine feign attitudes which are not their

own for strategic reasons;
M. Loyals discourse is radically at odds with his
purpose;
Mariane and Valre waste time and emotional energy
masking their true feelings for one another in Act 2
(while Dorine watches with incredulous amusement);
Even Clante advises deception (You were rash to
tackle him head on; / More roundabout methods were
needed; p. 72);
Valre is the one character in the play to prove his
sincerity by his actions (this is emphasised by the
plays final line).

Interpreting behaviour

Tartuffe tells the truth in order to

deceive:
Yes, brother, I am evil, guilty, / A
miserable sinner, full of iniquity, / The
vilest wretch that ever trod this earth; /
Every second of my criminal life is
steeped in filth (p. 49)
Ah, the pain I suffer / When people try to
blacken my name (p. 52)
They want you to doubt me (p. 53)

Interpreting behaviour

Clante as raisonneur
I can tell truth from make-believe (p. 16)

The very language of Clantes assertion that he can

du faux avec le vrai faire la diffrence (354) recalls
one of the most influential books of the century,
Descartes Discours de la Mthode (1637) In the first
paragraph of his Discours Descartes assumes that men
are all equally endowed by nature with a common
sense which enables them to distinguer le vrai davec
le faux. (Gaston Hall 1976: 21)

Clante advises Orgon to See the real face

behind the mask (p. 16) and to Learn to
distinguish between virtue, / Real and feigned (p.
72).
How easy is this?

Interpreting behaviour

Dorine speaks scathingly of professional prudery

(p. 8):
Those who live in the most fragile glass-houses
Always cast the first stone
They paint people as black as they can
To camouflage their own activities,
Put up smoke-screens, play the innocent,
Hoping to deflect the criticism
Coming their way. (p. 7)

Molire accuses his own audience of this in La

Critique de Lcole des femmes:
URANIE. I know nothing so ridiculous as this super-sensitive
virtue which finds evil everywhere, supposes criminal
meaning in the most innocent words, and takes offence at
shadows. (Scene III, p. 313)

Interpreting behaviour

Elsewhere in La Critique, Molires raisonneur

Dorante praises audience members who judge a
play by its effect on them, not by blind
prejudice, or silly complaisance, or foolish
prudery. (Scene VI, p. 323-4)
La Critique goes on:
URANIE. All those ridiculous pictures which the stage
presents should be regarded without prejudice by
every one. They are public mirrors, in which we
never ought to show we see ourselves; to be so
scandalized at such reproofs is openly confessing our
defects. (Scene VII, p. 335)

References

Bergson, H. (1900) Laughter, in Sypher, W. (1956) Comedy, New

York: Doubleday Anchor, 59-190.
Gaston Hall, H. (1976) Molire: Tartuffe, Studies in French
Literature, London: Edward Arnold.
Howarth, William D. (1995) French Renaissance and Neo-Classical
Theatre in John Russell Brown [ed.] The Oxford Illustrated History of
the Theatre, Oxford: OUP, pp. 220-51.
Maland, David (1970) Culture & Society in Seventeenth-Century
France, New York: Charles Scribners Sons.
Molire (1663) La Critique de Lcole des Femmes in Molire, trans.
Katharine Prescott Wormeley, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1897, Vol.
VI: pp. 299-357.
Norman, Larry F. (2006) Molire as satirist in David Bradby &
Andrew Calder [eds] The Cambridge Companion to Molire,
Cambridge: CUP, pp. 57-70.
Palmer, D. J [ed.] (1984) Comedy: Developments in Criticism, London:
Macmillan.
Williford, Christa (2006) Playhouses of 17th-Century Paris,
http://people.brynmawr.edu/cwillifo/pscp/index.htm