Molière: A Playwright and his Audience

by William Driver Howarth

Up until the last century there was a tendency, among directors in the theatre and academic critics alike, to stress the philosophical and satirical content of Molière's comedy and to overlook the fact that he was a professional man of the theatre. More recently, certain influential critics have tended to go to the other extreme and to emphasise the theatrical and aesthetic qualities of his plays at the expense of what they may have to offer as plays of ideas. This study seeks to reconcile the two while exploring the evolution of Molière's comedy as a vehicle for his own talents as an actor and for the resources of his company, the author also seeks to define the composition of the original audiences, both in the public theatre and at Court, and to assess the taste and attitudes of the spectators for whom the plays were written.

338 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1982

About the author

Bill Howarth was Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Bristol. Educated at Silcoates School and Queen’s College, Oxford, he began his academic career at Jesus College, Oxford, where he was Fellow and Tutor from 1948 to 1966. He succeeded William McCausland Stewart as Professor of Classical French Literature at the University of Bristol in 1966, and remained loyal to that institution until his retirement in 1988.