(LARGE PRINT EDITION) 1910. A biography of Moliere, whose real name was Jean Baptiste Poquelin. He composed 12 of the most durable and penetratingly satirical full-length comedies of all time, some in rhyming verse, some in prose, as well as six shorter farces and comedies. He was also the leading French comic actor, stage director, and dramatic theoretician of the 17th century. Matthews writes in his Prefatory Note that: In this biography I have striven specifically for three things: first, to set forth the facts of Moliere's life, stripped of all the legends which compass it about; second, to trace his development as a dramatist, making it plain how cautiously he advanced in his art and how slowly he reached the full expansion of his power; and thirdly, to show his intimate relation to the time in which he lived, the glittering beginning of the reign of Louis XIV. I have endeavored always to center attention on Moliere himself, the melancholy humorist who was companionable and friendly, and whose career was cut short before his genius had completely revealed itself. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.