Why is the Comédie-Française called the “Maison” (House) of Molière? Why is he called “le patron” (the boss)? It seems perfectly obvious: Molière has already given his name to our language; he is the most famous French playwright in the world and the paragon of “French wit” in the theatre. But this title is a paradox: Molière never knew the Comédie-Française, where many other authors, many of them foreigners, are performed, celebrated and admired.
To say that it was founded at his death is somewhat of a shortcut. Seven years passed between his death (17 February 1673) and the royal letter of 21 October 1680 which ordered the merger of the Hôtel de Bourgogne with the Hôtel Guénégaud. By this date, Molière’s troupe had already been dispered, since in 1673, four of its sociétaires had moved to the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and to compensate for this desertion, La Grange and Armande, driven out of the Palais-Royal, had obtained the closure of the Marais, recovered its best actors, and moved with them to the Hôtel Guénégaud.
The founding of the Comédie-Française was not therefore placed under the tutelary figure of Molière. His name does not appear in the lettre de cachet of 1680, nor does the notion of “repertoire”. The aim of this grouping of theatre companies was to centralise the production of French-language theatre in Paris and to place it under the authority of royal power, less out of a desire for control than out of concern for artistic quality. Once appointed by the King for their excellence, the Comédiens-Français enjoyed autonomy, as guaranteed by the 1681 Act of Association. It stipulates the need for collegiality in decision-making, and equality between men and women in the choice of works, the casting, the amount of shares, the sharing of property and financial responsibility.
This model of a small republic was already the one in place at the Illustre-Théâtre: Molière was therefore, from the outset, the name of the Troupe’s democratic ideal.
In the eighteenth century, the exclusivity enjoyed by the Comédie-Française over its repertoire generated rivalries with competing theatres: the Comédie-Italienne (which now also performed French authors), the Opéra-Comique and the Opéra (which had the privilege of musical theatre) deployed strategies to circumvent the rules and appropriate some of the hits staged at the Comédie-Française, which ended up publishing its catalogue in order to protect itself from dishonest practices. The Comédie-Française also felt insecure because of its lack of a stable home; it moved four times in one century before taking up residence in the Salle Richelieu in 1791. Its internal political split into two separate establishments during the French Revolution accentuated this sense of vulnerability. Molière, because he was himself a troupe leader and not just an author, became an identifying figure for the actors: he served as a means of asserting ownership of the classical repertoire, the unity and durability of their establishment and its geographical location at an address that they hoped would be permanent. This is how the fantasy of “La Maison de Molière” came to be: it was the title of a poem by François Coppée, recited on stage for the bicentenary of the Troupe on 21 October 1880.
This imagined “house” is contrasted with three of Molière’s authentic homes, which the nineteenth-century historian turned into places of memory, before the modernisation of Paris at the beginning of the twentieth century erased all vestiges. In 1821, the police commissioner Beffara identified the site of the house where Molière was born (at the junction of the present-day Rue Sauval and Rue Saint-Honoré); Auteuil prides itself on having welcomed Molière in his retirement; in 1844, a fountain bearing his name was erected opposite the house where he died, a stone’s throw from the theatre.
At the same time, the theatre became a museum: paintings and sculptures show Molière in majesty in the public areas, Molière as an actor in the actors’ foyer, and an intimate Molière in the areas reserved for the administration. The armchair from Le Malade imaginaire was no longer used on stage from 1879.
Nowadays, it is exhibited in the bust gallery and continues to perpetuate the tale of Molière’s supposed death on stage. The discovery, in 1821, of a record of his baptism, has given rise to an anniversary ceremony on 15 January: the actors on stage salute the bust of the ‘boss’ in a short performance with a compliment or quotation. This two-century-old tradition is a unifying ritual that is as powerful and jubilant today as it was in times past.
How can it be explained that after the disappearance of the privilege in 1864, the Comédie-Française, which then lost the exclusivity of its repertoire, kept its nickname of the “Maison de Molière”? What does this paradoxical circumlocution still mean today, to designate a place where the playwright neither lived nor performed?
Like the beehive on his coat of arms, Molière’s house is an imaginary home, the symbolic address of the company of actors (here, but why not also there, not only in Richelieu, but wherever the Troupe is). Just as the king had his “house” (to which the young Poquelin belonged as an upholsterer and valet), that is to say, people in his service, the company of actors today has a family, a home and a household extended to the technical and administrative teams to protect, serve and encourage it. The “house” is also the hallmark of an ancestral craft. It is still the inn where the “boss” welcomes newcomers, his “boarders”, the pensionnaires, some of whom will only be passing through. For Molière, it is the permanent temple that the country erects in gratitude to the man who spent thirteen years of his life touring France in search of official recognition. For the actors, the technicians, the staff and the general administrator himself, this familiar boss exerts a benevolent protection, one that is not troublesome in the least, which frees them from the pressure of the authorities. If he is the boss, it is because the art of theatre prevails over political power. Neither God, nor master, the “patron” is, paradoxically, the name of their freedom.
Florence Naugrette
Professor at Sorbonne Université / Member of the Institut Universitaire de France, and member of the Comédie-Française reading committee
En raison des mesures de sécurité renforcées dans le cadre du plan Vigipirate « Urgence attentat », nous vous demandons de vous présenter 30 minutes avant le début de la représentation afin de faciliter le contrôle.
Nous vous rappelons également qu’un seul sac (de type sac à main, petit sac à dos) par personne est admis dans l’enceinte des trois théâtres de la Comédie-Française. Tout spectateur se présentant muni d’autres sacs (sac de courses, bagage) ou objets encombrants, se verra interdire l’entrée des bâtiments.
