The first of the greater works of Moliere was "Les Precieuses
Ridicules," produced in 1659. In this brilliant piece Moliere lifted
French comedy to a new level and gave it a new purpose--the satirizing
of contemporary manners and affectations by frank portrayal and
criticism. In the great plays that followed, "The School for Husbands"
and "The School for Wives," "The Misanthrope" and "The Hypocrite"
(Tartuffe), "The Miser" and "The Hypochondriac," "The Learned Ladies,"
"The Doctor in Spite of Himself," "The Citizen Turned Gentleman," and
many others, he exposed mercilessly one after another the vices and
foibles of the day.

His characteristic qualities are nowhere better exhibited than in
"Tartuffe." Compared with such characterization as Shakespeare's,
Moliere's method of portraying life may seem to be lacking in
complexity; but it is precisely the simplicity with which creations
like Tartuffe embody the weakness or vice they represent that has
given them their place as universally recognized types of human
nature.




TARTUFFE

A COMEDY



CHARACTERS