One of the hottest Enlightenment dramatists in France was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673) who in order not to embarrass his family, especially his father who had some business at the French court, took on a nickname Moliere.
Regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language, Moliere mocked the church through his writing. He was an actor, playwright and poet. His extant works include Tartuffe, The Miser, The Learned Women, The Misanthrope, The School for Wives, The School for Husbands, etc.
Moliere had royal favours as he received permission to perform in royal venues and at royal events. Also he received a royal pension for his royal troupe called the King’s Troupe – he was the official author of court entertainment.
Moliere can be called a comic playwright with his farce, satire, etc. He had a talent for mockery and enjoyed the patronage of the French king’s brother and later the king. Later in his career, he met and became friends with Armand, the Prince of Conti who was also the governor of Languedoc (France).
Armand later became Moliere’s patron and Moliere named his company after Armand. Alas, this union did not last long as Armand contracted syphilis from a courtesan and turned to religion and joined Moliere’s critics.
As expected, Moliere’s satires did not go well with all. His play Tartuffe attracted criticism from the church as it portrayed religious hypocrisy. This led to the play being banned. Another of his play titled Don Juan, was withdrawn by Moliere and was never staged again.
By 1667, Moliere began to struggle. ‘Bad market,’ as we say in the Nigerian parlance, began to take its toll on Moliere’s health as his works got lots of backlashes and the palace couldn’t save him.
In 1673, during the staging of his last play, The Imaginary Invalid, Moliere who was struggling with pulmonary tuberculosis, was seized with a coughing fit and hemorrhage. Although he managed to finish playing the part of the hypochondriac Argan, he collapsed afterwards and died.
Exposition on one of Moliere’s plays: Tartuffe.
Tartuffe, a two-hour ten minutes three Act comedy (May 1664) is about a religious title holder and hypocrite named Tartuffe. The moral authority, Tartuffe, possesses characteristics that are in sharp contradiction to his position. He lies, steals and indulges in lechery among other vices.
The name itself is offensive. Translated literally from the French, it means “fake deeply religious person.”
The Britannica summarises the play thus: “Tartuffe is a sanctimonious scoundrel who professing extreme piety, is taken into the household of Orgon, a wealthy man. Under the guise of ministering to the family’s spiritual needs, he almost destroys Orgon’s family. Elmire, Orgon’s wife, sees through Tartuffe’s wicked hypocrisy and exposes him.”
The play was condemned and banned for five years in Moliere’s days.
Moliere’s message in Tartuffe is that all that glitters is not gold! It is the age of reason, of skepticism. Moliere is saying, ‘Look beyond the appearances; use your senses!’ This is because Tartuffe pretends to be a divine authority and Orgon, head of a household, and his mother do nothing without consulting him – in fact, they worship him!
Although the king (King Louis XIV of France) had no objection to the play, Tartuffe, but for the pleasure of the church as represented by the archbishop of Paris, Paul Phillipe Hardouin de Beaumont de Perefixe who was the king’s confessor and former tutor, the king had to issue a statement in favour of the church.
The French Palace issued the following communique:
“…although it was found to be extremely diverting, the king recognized so much conformity between those that a true devotion leads on the path way to heaven and those that a vain ostentation of some good works does not prevent from committing some bad ones, that is his extreme delicacy to religious matters cannot suffer this resemblance of vice to virtue, which could be mistaken for each other; although one does not doubt the good intentions of the author, even so he forbids it in public, and deprived himself of this pleasure, in order not to allow it to be abused by others, less capable of making a just discernment of it.”
The archbishop of Paris also issued a diktat declaring excommunication to anyone who will perform in, read or watch the play, Tartuffe!
Tartuffe is one of the most important plays of the Enlightenment period which carries some of the messages being propounded by the writers of this age. Some of the messages are: Reason, Freedom from the church, Separation of the church and the state.
In Moliere’s Tartuffe, we see Orgon who represents the state, relinquishes his authority to one who represents the church, albeit a scoundrel! So, there is need to use reason (we say in Nigeria, mek you use your sense!).
In the play, Tartuffe, the head of the house, Orgon, is sucked in by the person of the ostensibly pious Tartuffe though he was a hypocrite.
Stretching the Enlightenment ideas further, we see that even by the reaction of King Louis XIV of France’s reaction in suppressing the play contrary to his will, but in favour of the church because it is the church – the archbishop of Paris was his personal confessor and former tutor – he failed to do the right thing.
Tartuffe carries a great message that should be heard by all and sundry, but in difference to the church, the message was suppressed.
The Enlightenment Era fostered literate society. New ideas about liberty did not only influence society and culture with the rise of new philosophies, but also influenced the conditions of women by offering them a new kind of liberty.
New ideas were spread through philosophical writings as well as literary writings. Remember that the popular genres were poetry and drama; the novel was just on a slow rise like the shoot struggling out of a dry rough soil.
As one writer puts it, it was “a period of confluence of ideas and activities”. For example, in 1651, Thomas Hobbes published a treatise titled “Leviathan”. In it, he argued that humans are self-serving in nature and because of that society should have one dominant ruler. 40 years later, another philosopher, John Locke came up with what he titled “Two Treatise of Government” where he advocates for a representative government (this is democracy).
The Enlightenment ideas of reason as a reliable form of knowledge, religious tolerance, and what they called natural rights which include life, liberty and property were propounded by such writers like John Locke, Charles Montesquieu and Jean-Jacques Rousseau where some or all the people should govern, thus kicking against the monarchical form of government which Hobbes propounded.
However, the sacking of James II by English Protestants and installing the protestant William and Mary shows that the English favoured the foremost Enlightenment ideas of Thomas Hobbes.
The goal of the Enlightenment writers which spread through England, France, Germany and other major European countries was to bring humanity to a greater enlightenment with psychological freedom, and more progressive awareness.
These great literary and philosophical luminaries were able to crush what they called blind faith or superstition while setting up empiricism or science, intolerance and mental slavery in the lives of the 17th and 18th centuries’ European society.
The primary values of society are freedom, democracy and reason according to the Enlightenment writers. However, they argued that ideas should not be given credence just because they are traditional. Ideas should be subjected to reason using the yardsticks of freedom and democracy in order to be accepted.
If Orgon had listened to his household, Tartuffe’s deception would not have gone as far as it went. But, Orgon ran a kind of monarchical government – only by what he says and that according to the moral authority of the time! Just as the king was the dominant authority in the land (he is not democratic, so he doesn’t listen to the views of his subjects, just like Orgon doesn’t listen to members of his house, but is influenced by Tartuffe), but is highly influenced by the church. So, where is the place of reason?
