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Back to Subjects - Theater

Molieres Tartuffe

Molieres Tartuffe Moliére's Tartuffe has long been considered a masterpiece of French Literature for its powerful social commentary, finely sculptured characters and its presentation of moral theme. While Tartuffe stands soundly on its own merits, its curiosity and impact for audiences both within its own period and for contemporary productions are heightened by the history surrounding its original presentation. Tartuffe was written and produced in a sensitive time for a sensitive audience. King Louis XIV sat upon a throne made uneasy with the plotting and dissent of multiple and powerful factions. The self-styled "Sun King", King Louis XIV inherited a throne at five that he would not truly rule until he was 22 when, after the death of his Prime Minister, Cardinal Mazarin, he announced the formation of a Council of Ministers to advise him. Even after the formation of this council, King Louis XIV still found himself forced into constant appeasement of the factions surrounding him. Those factions, especially those factions controlled by the Queen Mother and the ministers of his Council, would prove a near insurmountable obstacle in the efforts of Moliére to produce Tartuffe. Clustered around King Louis XIV were religious and political alliances, the seeds of which were sown during the reign of King Louis XIII. In various corners sat the aforementioned Catholic Advocacy (including the Society of the Holy Sacrament and the Jansenists of Port Royal), the Queen Mother, and the Protestant population at large. As the "Most Christian King", Louis struggled to balance the needs of the Church with what he thought to be in the best interests of France. Unfortunately for Moliére, when it came to theatre, the needs of the Church under Archbishop Hardouin de Péréfixe were quite limited. The first three acts of Tartuffe were presented to Louis XIV on May 12, 1664 and before the play had even ended the Society of the Holy Sacrament, with the support of the Queen Mother, had obtained an interdiction against its future performance. Despite appeals to King Louis, Moliére was refused permission to stage the play for the general public. For the next three years Moliére continued to present Tartuffe at private gatherings hoping to garner the support he needed to reverse the interdiction against the play's performance. Late in 1664 Moliére was able to get the approval of the legate Chili for the performance of Tartuffe. This approval gave Moliére grounds to submit a new petition to the King. The King, again, denied the petition. Adding insult to injury, Moliére's one time sponsor the Prince de Conti wrote a treatise against the stage in which he accused Moliére of being an atheist. Given the renewed campaign against him, Moliére's hopes for producing Tartuffe in 1666 were dashed. On August 5, 1667, operating on a secret agreement with the King, Moliére presented The Imposter (A milder version of Tartuffe). The King was not present for the opening as he was encamped with his army at Flanders. This would prove troublesome for Moliére when the Church moved to stop further performances of The Imposter and he found himself without what he supposed to be his most important ally, King Louis. Immediately following the first performance President de Lamoignon forbid further performances of The Imposter . Moliére's appeal to Archbishop Hardouin de Péréfixe was ignored, as was his company's broader appeal to the King. Stunned by the apparent betrayal of his agreement with the King, Moliére closed down the play and the interdiction remained in effect. On February 5th, 1670, immediately following the King Louis' dissolution of the Society of the Holy Sacrament, Moliére was finally given the go ahead to run Tartuffe. That evening, as well as every open evening through Easter, the show was sold out for a record thirty-three performances. Tartuffe has been a successful draw for over three hundred years. Even the most superficial research of French Theatre during this early period of the reign of King Louis will surface questions about the influence of the Catholic Church. It is in the nature of the Tartuffe Interdiction that one most clearly sees the struggle of power within the Court of King Louis XIV. Through the lens of Moliére's struggle to produce Tartuffe the nature of the struggle between the Church and King Louis becomes clearer. The key to understanding the situation lies in an investigation of the Church's motivation to suppress the performance of Tartuffe. The Church felt threatened by Tartuffe in that one of its main characters used a projection of piety to take advantage of a weaker and less secure target. In the play, Tartuffe is taken into the home of Orgon, a man searching for spirituality (or at least a place in heaven…). Orgon is so taken by the charms and piety of Tartuffe that he tries to bestow on Tartuffe all his worldly and familial possessions including the hand of his daughter. Tartuffe is able to use the leverage of his religious superiority to manipulate the man and gain his way (for a time…). At the time of Tartuffe was written, the Catholic Church of France was adjusting and reacting to the recent loss of Cardinal Mazarin. When Louis XIV created the Council of Ministers, foregoing the help of a religious advisor and de facto Regent, he created a vacuum of power and the Church suddenly found itself forced to fight for a continued position of influence. As the Church took on a more publicly recognizable role in the maneuverings of Palace politics, certain segments of society began to notice growing cracks in the Church's doctrine of divine providence. It became, in some circles, a topic of discussion and conjecture as to the motives of the Churches influence in the France's affairs of State. It was critical for the Catholic Church to allay any question that it might exist for anything other than to live by and preach the will and word of God. The Church needed to rise above any sort of conjecture that hinted it might have an agenda outside of the one on Moses' tablets. While King Louis XIV and the others of the ruling class were certainly aware of all the Church's agendas, the Church had long fought to hide it from the populace that supported it from the countryside. Moliére ran what was arguably one of the three best-known and patronized venues of live entertainment in Paris. Whatever play Moliére was running was bound to get an audience of appreciable size and, equally importantly, he tended to draw a segment of French society in which seeds of discontent had historical been well sown. The conflict is clear. The Church saw in Moliére's play a potential embarrassment during a time in which it could ill afford to be embarrassed. Were the play allowed to open for the general public, it had the potential to become a rallying point for the forces opposed to the seemingly powerful authority of the Church. The Church had the power to stop a potential problem and it did so with the backing of the Queen Mother and through the mouth King Louis XIV who was, at that moment, not yet ready to further upset the apple cart of the French Catholic Church. Now understanding that the Church did perceive the production of Tartuffe as a threat and that it did, in fact, deal with that threat, it is interesting to explore whether Tartuffe ever truly posed a threat to the interests of the Church. Tartuffe presented an image of a holy charlatan taking advantage of a simple man. It was a time full of charlatans and confidence men yet Moliére chose from a myriad of potential schemes, the Holy Man who is anything but holy. It might seem that the creation of Tartuffe as a Holy Man was a bit to timely to be coincidental, but Moliére ultimately allowed plot elements distancing the work of Tartuffe from the Church. Tartuffe was not, despite his pretense, a member of the clergy. In Tartuffe, Moliére did not necessarily vilify the doctrine or work of the Catholic Church itself; he merely created a character that illicitly used that doctrine outside the framework of the Church. Tartuffe was not a priest gone bad but simply someone that sold religion to the unwary. It would seem, peering into a shadowy past, that the French Catholic Church might have been able to weather the storm of Tartuffe. Surely the play did not strengthen the Catholic Church's place in the world, but it was not necessarily a fatal blow to the grip of the Church on Louis XIV. It might even be that the Church hurt itself by interfering with the play's production. With the benefit of three hundred years of hindsight, it seems most damning that the established Church found Tartuffe to be an indictment of itself. It would be a travesty for any well dramaturged production of Tartuffe not to closely consider the impact of the Catholic Church on the development of the play. The surviving edition of Tartuffe was the third revision of the play, dulled to soften its impact on the Church. To ignore the manifestations of Church guilt on the handicapping of its original production is to ignore the entire period of the production itself. Perhaps the original version of Tartuffe was inflammatory enough to warrant the strong response of the Church, perhaps not. One must work only with the knowledge one possesses. Regardless, the vigorous response of the Church has created a sensibility for the production that makes it as much a history as a tragedy as a comedy. Bryson, Scott S. The Chastised Stage. Saratoga: Anma Libri, 1991 Hochman, Stanley (Editor). McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1984 Hodgson, Terry. The Batsford Dictionary of Drama. London: B.T. Batsford Mander, Gertrud. Moliére. New York: Frederick Unger Publishing, 1973 Sennett, Herbert. Religion and Dramatics. Lanham: University Press of Turnell, Martin. The Classical Moment. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1947 Walker, Hallam. Moliére. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990 Bibliography:

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