es of which France is justly proud, and in
Paris his memory is half-worshiped. Not to know him well, would be in
the eyes of a Parisian the sure sign of intolerable stupidity. He was
the greatest comic writer of France, and perhaps of the world. It will
not be out of place, therefore, to give a slight sketch of his life.

The real name of Moliere was Jean Baptiste Poguelin, and he was born in
a little house in the Rue St. Honore, in the year 1622. His father was a
carpet-furnisher to the king, and he was brought up to the same business
by his father. His mother died when he was only ten years old, and his
father was left with a large family of children to educate. The boy
passed his early days in his father's warehouse, but his grandfather was
accustomed to take him often to the play-house, where he listened to
some of the great Corneille's plays, to his thorough delight. Thus in
his youth, even while a mere boy, the taste for the drama was created.
His father at one time remonstrated with the old man for taking the boy
thus early to the theater, and asked, "Do you mean to make an actor of
him?"

Nothing daunted by this question, the grandfather replied, "Yes, if it
please God to make him as good a one as Bellerose"--who was the best
tragic actor of that time.

The boy was discontented as he grew older, and panted for knowledge. As
he contemplated a life given up to trade, he grew melancholy. He was
finally sent as an out-student to the college of Clermont, and afterward
to the college of Louis-le-Grand, which was under the direction of the
Jesuits. The young prince of Conti was at school at that time. Gassendi,
the private tutor to the natural son of a man of fortune, named
Chapelle--the son at that time at school with Poguelin--discovered the
boy's talents, and taught him the philosophy of Epicurus, and gave him
lessons in morals. Another of his fellow-students was one de Bergerac,
of fine talents but wild disposition. Chapelle and de Bergerac became
afterward distinguished.

As soon as he was through college, Poguelin entered into the king's
service as _valet de chambre_, and made the journey with his majesty to
Narbonne. After this he studied law in Orleans, and commenced practice
in Paris as an advocate. He here became associated with a few friends in
getting up a series of plays. The age was one full of enthusiasm for the
stage, and plays were enacted upon the stage and off of it, in private
circles. The club