Editing Molière (section)

==Reception of his works==
[[Image:Moliere-Rue de Richelieu.JPG|thumb|left|upright|Molière statue on the [[Fontaine Molière]], corner of [[Rue de Richelieu]] and Rue Molière in Paris]]

Though conventional thinkers, religious leaders and medical professionals in Molière's time criticised his work, their ideas did not really diminish his widespread success with the public. Other playwrights and companies began to emulate his dramatic style in England and in France. Molière's works continued to garner positive feedback in 18th-century England, but they were not so warmly welcomed in France at this time. However, during the French Restoration of the 19th century, Molière's comedies became popular with both the French public and the critics. Romanticists admired his plays for the unconventional individualism they portrayed. 20th-century scholars have carried on this interest in Molière and his plays and have continued to study a wide array of issues relating to this playwright. Many critics now are shifting their attention from the philosophical, religious and moral implications in his comedies to the study of his comic technique.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.enotes.com/drama-criticism/moliere |title=Molière: Introduction |volume=13 |first=Linda |last=Pavlovski |publisher=[[Gale Group]], Inc. |year=2001 |access-date=28 November 2007 |via=[[Enotes.com]]}}</ref>

Molière's works were translated into English prose by [[John Ozell]] in 1714,<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWpBAAAAYAAJ&q=Curtis%20Hidden%20Page&pg=PR43 |chapter=Bibliography |translator-first=Curtis Hidden |translator-last=Page |translator-link=Curtis Hidden Page |title=French Classics for English Readers: Molière |location=New York & London |publisher=[[G.P. Putnam's Sons]] |year=1908 |volume=1 |page=43 |access-date=27 June 2010 |author=Molière |first2=Brander |last2=Matthews}}</ref> but the first complete version in English, by Baker and Miller in 1739, remained "influential" and was long reprinted.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C1uXah12nHgC&q=moliere%20baker%20miller&pg=PA958 |first=Olive |last=Classe |title=Encyclopedia of Literary Translation Into English: M-Z |volume=2 |location=London |publisher=[[Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers]] |year=2000 |page=958 |access-date=27 June 2010 |isbn=9781884964367}}</ref> The first to offer full translations of Molière's verse plays such as ''Tartuffe'' into English verse was [[Curtis Hidden Page]], who produced blank verse versions of three of the plays in his 1908 translation.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWpBAAAAYAAJ&q=Curtis%20Hidden%20Page&pg=PR43 |chapter=Preface to the Translation |translator-first=Curtis Hidden |translator-last=Page |translator-link=Curtis Hidden Page |title=French Classics for English Readers: Molière |location=New York & London |publisher=[[G.P. Putnam's Sons]] |year=1908 |volume=1 |page=31 |access-date=27 June 2010 |author=Molière |first2=Brander |last2=Matthews}}</ref> Since then, notable translations have been made by [[Richard Wilbur]], [[Donald M. Frame]], and many others.

In his memoir ''A Terrible Liar'', actor [[Hume Cronyn]] writes that, in 1962, celebrated actor [[Laurence Olivier]] criticized Molière. According to Cronyn, he mentioned to Olivier that he (Cronyn) was about to play the title role in ''The Miser'', and that Olivier then responded "Molière? Funny as a baby's open grave." Cronyn comments on the incident: "You may imagine how that made me feel. Fortunately, he was dead wrong."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1hjeBNsCkOgC&q=%22Funny+as+a+baby%27s+open+grave%22 |first=Hume |last=Cronyn |title=A Terrible Liar: A Memoir |location=New York |publisher=Morrow |year=1991 |page=275 |access-date=1 November 2009 |isbn=9780688128449}}</ref>

Author Martha Bellinger points out that:

{{blockquote|[Molière] has been accused of not having a consistent, organic style, of using faulty grammar, of mixing his metaphors, and of using unnecessary words for the purpose of filling out his lines. All these things are occasionally true, but they are trifles in comparison to the wealth of character he portrayed, to his brilliancy of wit, and to the resourcefulness of his technique. He was wary of sensibility or pathos; but in place of pathos he had "melancholy — a puissant and searching melancholy, which strangely sustains his inexhaustible mirth and his triumphant gaiety".<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.theatredatabase.com/17th_century/moliere_001.html |last=Bellinger |first=Martha Fletcher |year=1927 |title=A Short History of the Drama |location=New York |publisher=[[Henry Holt & Company]] |pages=178–81 |access-date=November 27, 2007 |via=Theatredatabase.com}}</ref>|sign=|source=}}