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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![[345] where, ’ as his enemy Le Boulanger de Chalussay has it, “ any donkey could buy a diploma.” However, he went to the law courts only once. A tradition would have it that Moliere studied for the priesthood, but this is wholly a fable, for the bright-witted, free-willed Moliere could never brook a monkish life with its restrictions and monotony. Still, if he ever did intend to practice law or study theology, the purpose must have been more desultory than serious, for we find him in the month of January, 1643, fully embarked on the venturesome career of comedian and stage manager. (Chatfield-Taylor: Life of Moliere.) Travelling, actor-like, he fell in with the Bejart family, a strolling band of performers, and soon ingratiated himself in favor of Madeline Bejart whom he married. Aided by his sweetheart and the whole company, he opened “ The Illustrious Theatre.” This venture was a failure, and after being imprisoned twice for debt, Moliere had to flee Paris to escape another incarceration in the debtor’s jail. Together with his company he strolled over France and appeared in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyons, Orleans, Limoges, Harbonne and Pezenas at different periods, everywhere receiving permis- sion to erect a stage to perform comedies. Successively under the patronage of Duke D’Bpernon and Prince de Conti, the fortunes of the poet began to flourish. In the provinces and ip the capitol, Moliere kept his eyes open and he himself began to ridicule the foibles and vanities of the average Parisian bourgeois. Soon dramatic works fol- lowed one another, and his fame reached the ears of the king, who from this time forward was quite a generous patron. During this period he wrote his greatest dramas, and, receiv- ing protection from the king, he attacked the medical profes- sion and medicine in general, with so much bitterness that as he had anticipated, the doctors refused to attend him in his last illness. He died on the seventeenth of February, 1673. “ This same day, about ten o’clock at night, after the comed}q Monsieur de Moliere died in his house, rue de Eichelieu. He had played the part of the said malade {Le Mai ado Imaginaire) suffering from cold and inflammation which caused a violent cough. In the violence of the cough he burst](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2804051x_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
