Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Les Femmes savantes [The Wise Women]

Laura Favero Carraro (Università degli Studi di Padova)

Ed. by Janet Todd, University of Cambridge
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.03: French Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century: Classical and Baroque, 1600-1700.
Vol. editors: Heather Kirk (University of Western Ontario), Kathrina LaPorta (New York University), Polly Mangerson (DePaul University), Julia Prest (University of St Andrews), Allison Stedman (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1672

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Les Femmes savantes

was first performed at Palais Royal on March 11, 1672, initially obtaining considerable success. An article published by Donneau de Visé in

Le Mercure Galant

the day after the opening performance, besides praising its “mille traits pleins d’esprit”, “expressions heureuses” and “inventions qui ne peuvent être imitée”, informed the contemporary public about Molière’s own judgement and claim to create a distinctively literary comedy, which would rank among his best:

Le fameux Molière ne nous a point trompés dans l’espérance qu’il nous avait donnée il y a tantôt quatre ans de faire représenter au Palais-Royal une pièce comique de sa façon qui fût tout à fait achevée.

Le fameux Molière ne nous a point trompés dans l’espérance…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2374 words

Citation: Carraro, Laura Favero. "Les Femmes savantes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4030, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Les Femmes savantes [The Wise Women]

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback