Molière

Record year1655–1673

summaryDevelopment from surviving early long comedies and short farces in the provinces to prose/poetic dialogues, stock characters, and conflicts with specific social institutions during the Paris period, forming a continuous and reproducible corpus of non-musical comedy.

M rationaleThe surviving early original works and mature comedies together constitute a large cross-stage corpus of non-musical drama; early works cannot be compressed merely into typological inputs; M evaluates the entire family incrementally based on its language, stagecraft, and normative criticism, not by accumulating the number of plays.

attribution rationaleMolière .54; Molière's troupe actors and direct stage collaborators .18; French and Italian comedy and farce traditions .14; contemporary theatrical publishing and transcription chains .07; unresolved share .07. Shares are revisable research judgments.

overlap boundaryIncludes the authoritative catalog works: *L’Étourdi* (1655), *Le Dépit amoureux* (1656), two early short farces with unknown premiere dates, and the comedies of manners, family, religious hypocrisy, medicine, and social identity from 1659–1673 that do not use music and dance as their structural core; comedies-ballets that include music and dance are uniquely classified under the next family.

Evidence gapsAll revised versions and censorship cuts have not been verified play by play; the play-by-play ratio of actor improvisation to script text remains unresolved.

Record year1660s–1673

summaryBuilding on the existing intertextual tradition, organizing dramatic plots with music and dance more tightly into a series of comedy-ballets that could be transferred from court performances to public theaters.

M rationaleThirteen cross-media works constitute a distinct composite stage production and participate in the formative development of French opera; their value is highly dispersed among named composers, choreographers, co-writers, and performance labor, and therefore they are not classified as Molière’s sole works.

attribution rationaleMolière .31; Jean-Baptiste Lully .13; Marc-Antoine Charpentier .04; Pierre Beauchamps .07; Pierre Corneille .035; Philippe Quinault .015; actors, dancers, musicians, and stage teams .24; court-performance and ballet traditions .08; unresolved share .08. Shares are revisable research judgments.

overlap boundaryA comedy-ballet/composite performance family consisting of twelve comedies with sung and ballet interludes and one tragedy; the series collaborating with Lully and Beauchamps from 1664–1671, the textual collaboration of Corneille/Quinault for *Psyché* in 1671, and the completion of *Le Malade imaginaire* with Charpentier in 1673 are all assigned roles within the same work collection.

Evidence gapsThe dancers, musicians, and stage machinery teams for each work have not been individually named; the proportion of co-authors for different works is temporarily estimated for the entire family and does not represent that each work was jointly completed by five named individuals.

Record year1645–1673

summaryMaintaining the actor collective, touring, and repertoire rotation, and transforming provincial troupes into organizations with fixed venues for continuous public performances in Paris.

M rationaleThe verifiable residual contribution is cross-regional touring and long-term repeated performance service, distinct from the artistic work created for a premiere; after scripts and first performances are excluded, the scope remains specific but smaller than the two major work families, and is valued as organization for cultural delivery. Length of tenure itself does not increase M.

attribution rationaleMolière .20; Madeleine Béjart .08; Charles Du Fresne .05; provincial and Palais-Royal troupe members .37; Palais-Royal stage and operations team .12; earlier repertoire and touring-troupe practice .10; unresolved share .08. Shares are revisable research judgments.

overlap boundaryOnly counts provincial touring, troupe maintenance, rehearsals, repertoire rotation, and the continuous performance operations of the Palais-Royal; the script, choreography, music, and initial formation labor for each work are counted by the two work families, and are not claimed again at this point.

Evidence gapsTroupe finances and the year-by-year working conditions of actors have not been established; La Grange’s account books have not been read, so his possible specific operational labor is not separately listed as a PERSON; premiere-performance labor is allocated only within the work families and is not counted again here; the boundary between continuous performance service and the formation of artistic works must be checked against other playwrights on the same scale; no additional points are added for length of tenure or troupe reputation.