Author · France
Molière
Died in 1673
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known as Molière, was born in Paris in 1622, the son of Jean Poquelin, upholsterer in ordinary to the king. He gave up his father's office and in 1643, with the Béjarts, founded the Illustre-Théâtre, whose bankruptcy in 1645 earned him a brief imprisonment for debt. He then toured the provinces with an itinerant troupe until 1658, then settled in Paris under the protection of Monsieur, the king's brother, and wrote some thirty plays there. Taken ill on stage on 17 February 1673, he died at home that same evening; the king had to intervene so that he could be buried, by night.