Tartuffe

Molière's comedy of the religious hypocrite who nearly steals a gullible merchant's house, family, and fortune.

Specifications & Metrics

author

Molière

type

Comedy of manners

era

French Classicism (1664)

language

French

setting

Paris, France

source text

Commedia dell'arte and contemporary religious hypocrisy

acts

5 acts

Relative Scale in Plays

Core Principles & Analysis

• First staged privately for the king in 1664, it was then banned from public performance for five years.
• The Archbishop of Paris threatened excommunication of anyone performing or even reading it.
• The title character's name entered French as a byword for sanctimonious hypocrisy.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Tartuffe