Editing Tartuffe (section)

==History==
Molière performed his first version of ''Tartuffe'' in 1664.  Almost immediately following its performance that same year at [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]]' grand [[fête]]s (The Party of the Delights of the Enchanted Island/''Les fêtes des plaisirs de l'ile enchantée''), [[King Louis XIV]] suppressed it, probably under the influence of the [[archbishop of Paris]], [[Hardouin de Péréfixe de Beaumont|Paul Philippe Hardouin de Beaumont de Péréfixe]], the King's [[confessor]] and former [[tutor]].<ref name=roi2007>{{citation| title= Molière et le roi| first1= François |last1= Rey | first2= Jean |last2= Lacouture| publisher= éditions du seuil| year= 2007 |page= }}</ref> While the king had little personal interest in suppressing the play, he did so because, as stated in the official account of the fête:
<blockquote>
although it was found to be extremely diverting, the king recognized so much conformity between those that a true devotion leads on the path to heaven and those that a vain ostentation of some good works does not prevent from committing some bad ones, that his extreme delicacy to religious matters can not suffer this resemblance of vice to virtue, which could be mistaken for each other; although one does not doubt the good intentions of the author, even so he forbids it in public, and deprived himself of this pleasure, in order not to allow it to be abused by others, less capable of making a just discernment of it.<ref name=roi2007 />{{rp|76}}</blockquote>

As a result of Molière's play, contemporary French and English both use the word "tartuffe" to designate a [[hypocrite]] who ostensibly and exaggeratedly feigns [[virtue]], especially religious virtue. The play is written entirely in twelve-syllable lines ([[French alexandrine|alexandrine]]s) of [[rhyming couplet]]s—1,962 lines total.<ref>{{cite book| author= Molière| title= Tartuffe| translator= Martin Sorrel| publisher= [[Nick Hern Books]]| place= London| year= 2002}}</ref>