Moliere

Tartuffe, The Misanthrope — king of comedy

The greatest comic playwright in any language. Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, and The Miser are inexhaustible studies of human folly — hypocrites, misers, social climbers, and would-be gentlemen dissected with a precision and humanity that Shakespeare's comedies rarely match. He died onstage, playing the Imaginary Invalid.

Key works

• Tartuffe1664— Religious hypocrisy exposed — banned for five years
• The Misanthrope1666— Honesty as social catastrophe
• The Miser1668— Avarice as comedy — drawn from Plautus

Connections

External