Moliere and the physician / by Max Kahn.

  • Kahn, Max.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Moliere and the physician / by Max Kahn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    IFroai The Joh.ns IIopkins Hospital Bulletin, VoI. XXII, Xo. 247, September, 1911.] MOLTEEE AXD THE PHYSICIAX. By Max Kahn, M. A., M. D., Kew York. Boileau, the brilliant and outspoken critic of the French [344] Elizabetlian Era, in a conversation with Louis XIV, informed the Grand Monnrque that he considered Moliere the greatest of French writers, whereat Louis the Great sneered. It was this same critic, who, on being asked his opinion of some stanzas written by the King, cleverly replied: ‘‘Sire, in all things are you successful. You had desired to write the worst poem in the world, and you have admirably fulfilled your wish.” We know not what the scion of the Bourbons retorted, nor how he felt. That he took it coolly is really praiseworthy. It is no wonder that the French king, although he always felt a kindness for the great humorist, disagreed with Boileau. The son of an upholsterer, the man who so inimitably strutted on the stage personifying ludicrous per- sonages, could not, in the opinion of Louis XIV, be the great- est litterpieur in France. Not only this monarch, but many wise men in later times, took issue with Boileau. Corneille, Eacine, La Fontaine, La Eochefoucauld have all been given precedence over the man who has made the whole world laugh for several centuries. During life Moliere suffered intensely from lack of apprecia- tion by the populace and the nobility. Every courtier behaved superciliously toward the cleverest man in the court. He was very poor. Twice he was imprisoned because of lack of funds for the payment of certain debts that were incurred in his attempts to organize a theatre. The clergy were openly against him. The faculty of medicine was silent, because of impotency. At death he was refused consecrated burial, and only a man- date from Louis XIV secured for him religious rites at his funeral. He was interred on a rainy day. The beadle or sexton forgot to mark the grave wherein Moliere was laid, so that even the last resting place of the greatest of French dramatists is not known. (1) Zdlill —— ROYAL OOLLSQE OF PHY31QIAN1 LIBRA.BY ClABS ( } : A - ' A. ACCN. 1 ^» f 0.. . 80UR0E