until the inevitable
happy denouement arrives. The romantic intrigue is conventional; the
charm is in the vivacity and colour of the style. In 1656 _Le Depit
Amoureux_ was given with applause at Beziers; much is derived from
the Italian of Secchi, something perhaps from Terence; the tender
scenes of lovers' quarrels and lovers' reconciliation, contrasting
with the franker comedy of the loves of waiting-maid and valet, still
live, if the rest of the play be little remembered.

The years of apprenticeship were over when, in 1658, Moliere and his
company once more in Paris presented, by command, before the King,
Corneille's _Nicomede_, and, leave being granted, gave his farce in
the Italian style, the _Docteur Amoureux_, before pleased spectators.
The company was now the troupe of Monsieur, the King's brother, with
the Petit-Bourbon as theatre, and there, in November 1659, was enacted
Moliere's first satiric play on contemporary manners, _Les
Precieuses Ridicules_. We do not need the legendary old man crying
from the pit "Courage, Moliere! voila la bonne comedie" to assure
us that the comic stage possessed at length a masterpiece. The
dramatist had himself known the precieuses of the provinces; through
them he might with less danger exhibit the follies of the Hotel de
Rambouillet and the _ruelles_ of the capital. The good bourgeois
Gorgibus is induced by his niece and daughter, two precieuses, to
establish himself in Paris. Their aspirant lovers, unversed in the
affectations of the salon, are slighted and repelled; in revenge they
employ their valets, Mascarille and Jodelet, to play the parts of
men of fashion and of taste. The exposure and confusion of the ladies,
with an indignant rebuke from Gorgibus, close the piece. It was a
farce raised to the dignity of comedy. Moliere's triumph was the
triumph of good sense.

After a success in _Sganarelle_ (1660), a broad comedy of vulgar
jealousy, and a decided check--the only one in his dramatic career--in
the somewhat colourless tragi-comedy _Don Garcie de Navarre_ (1661),
Moliere found a theme, suggested by the Adelphi of Terence, which
was happily suited to his genius. _L'Ecole des Maris_ (1661) contrasts
two methods of education--one suspicious and severe, the other wisely
indulgent. Two brothers, Ariste and Sganarelle, seek the hands of
their wards, the orphan sisters Isabelle and Leonor; the amiable
Ariste, aided by the good sense of a gay soubrette, is rewarded with
h