As a comic actor Molière had great merit: he played broad farcical parts; and a description of his style is handed down to us both by his enemies and friends. Montfleuri (the son of the actor), in his satire, says,----
----"Il vient le nez au vent, Les pieds en parenthèse, et l'épaule en avant; Sa péruque, qui suit le côté qui avance, Plus pleine de lauriers qu'un jambon de Mayence; Les mains sur les côtés, d'un air peu négligé, La tête sur le dos, comme un mulet chargé, Les yeux fort égarés, puis débitant ses roles, D'un hoquet perpétuel sépare les paroles."
No doubt, though a caricature, there is truth in this picture. We still see in his portraits the wig, thickly crowned with laurels; and theatrical historians have mentioned the sort of catching of the breath--exaggerated in the verses above quoted into a hoquet, or hiccough,--which he had acquired by his endeavour to moderate the rapidity of his articulation. The newspapers of the day, in giving an account of him when he died, describe him as "actor from head to foot: he seemed to have many voices--for all spoke in him; and by a step, a smile, a trick of the eye, or a motion of the head, he said more in a moment than words could express in an hour." "He was," we find written in another newspaper, "neither too fat nor too thin; he was rather above the middle height, and carried himself well--he walked gravely, with a very serious manner; his nose was thick; his mouth large, his complexion dark; his eyebrows black and strongly marked, and the way in which he moved them gave great comic expression to his countenance." He acted well also, because, in addition to his genius, his heart was in all he did; and he wrote well from the same cause. He had that enthusiasm for his art which marks the man of genius. He did not begin to write till thirty-four--but the style of his productions, founded on a knowledge of mankind and of life, necessitates a longer apprenticeship than any other. When he did write it was with facility and speed. The whole of his comedies--each rising in excellence--were composed during the space of fourteen years; and Boileau addresses him as----
"Rare et fameux esprit, dont la fertile veine Ignore en écrivant le travail et la peine."