Just a few hours earlier, he had been on stage, playing the title role in his own play, The Imaginary Invalid. He was being watched from the wings by frightened members of the cast, who could see – and hear from his coughing – that he was a most genuine invalid. The audience, on the other hand, thought he was simply playing the role with extraordinary realism.
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| Writer, actor, theatre manager An outstanding man who lived an unusual life with a dramatic end |
One year earlier, on the same day, Madeleine Béjart, for many years the leading lady of his company, had died. She had been the love of Molière’s life. It seems no coincidence that his death came on the anniversary of hers.
And yet, thirteen years before his death, Molière married not Madeleine but the far younger Armande. This young lady had turned up in the theatre company as a baby some seventeen years before. She had been brought by Madeleine, when she returned from a mysterious absence, announcing that the child was her sister.
It seems fairly clear that Madeleine was not merely mothering her younger sister Armande but was, indeed, genuinely her mother. Which means that Molière married his mistress’s daughter. Did he marry his own daughter? There is at least one other candidate to be Armande’s father, so probably not, but the evidence is scanty.
In any case the marriage was by no means Molière’s smartest move. Armande fell for a long succession of petty, irrelevant and deservedly forgotten lordlings, giving him a lousy time. And when he needed solace for his wife’s many betrayals? Why, he turned to his long true mistress, Madeleine.
Making it all the more poignant that he survived her by a year to the day. Dying practically on stage, mortally ill as he played an imaginary invalid. On the anniversary of Madeleine’s death.
345 years ago today.
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