Editing Molière (section)

==Influence on French culture==
Molière is considered the creator of modern French comedy. Many words or phrases introduced in Molière's plays are still used in current French:
*A ''[[tartuffe]]'' is a hypocrite, especially a hypocrite displaying affected morality or religious piety.
*A ''[[harpagon]]'', named after the main character of ''[[The Miser]]'', is an obsessively greedy and cheap man.
*The statue of the Commander (''statue du Commandeur'') from ''Dom Juan'' is used as a model of implacable rigidity (''raide comme la statue du Commandeur'').
*In ''[[Les Fourberies de Scapin]]'', Act II, scene 7, Géronte is asked for ransom money for his son, allegedly held in a [[galley]]. He repeats, "What the deuce did he want to go into that galley for?" (''Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère?'') The phrase "to go into that galley" is used to describe unnecessary difficulties a person has sought, and ''galère'' ("galley") means a difficult and chaotic situation. 
* In ''[[Tartuffe]]'', act 3, scene 2, Tartuffe insists that Dorine take a handkerchief to cover up her bosom, saying, "Cover that bosom which I ought not to see" (''Couvrez ce sein que je ne saurais voir''). This phrase (often with ''cachez'', "hide", instead of ''couvrez'', and often with some other item replacing ''sein'') is frequently used to imply that someone else is calling for something to be hidden or ignored out of their own hypocrisy, disingenuousness, censoriousness, etc. 
*In ''[[Le médecin malgré lui]]'', forced to impersonate a doctor, the chancer Sganarelle examines a young woman who is faking muteness in order to delay an arranged marriage. He then delivers to her father a "diagnosis" which consists of strings of gibberish, [[dog latin]] and recursive explanations which conclude with an authoritative "and so that is why your daughter is mute" (''Et voilà pourquoi votre fille est muette''). The phrase is used wholesale to mock an unsatisfactory explanation.
*Monsieur Jourdain in ''Le Bourgeois gentilhomme'' arranges to be tutored in good manners and culture, and is delighted to learn that, because every statement that is not poetry is prose, he therefore has been speaking prose for 40 years without knowing it (''Par ma foi, il y a plus de quarante ans que je dis de la prose, sans que j'en susse rien''). The more modern phrase "je parle de la prose sans le savoir" is used by a person who realizes that he was more skilled or better aligned than he thought.
*In the [[Comédie-ballet]] "[[George Dandin ou le Mari confondu|George Dandin"]] (1668), Act I, scene 7, the main character uses the phrase ''Tu l'as voulu, George Dandin'' ("You wanted it, George Dandin") to address himself when his rich wife cheats on him. Now the phrase is used to reproach someone ironically, something like "You did it yourself".