In Our Time: Molière

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss French playwright Molière. Born in 1622, he began his career as an actor, aiming to be a tragedian but stronger in comedy, touring with a troupe for 13 years until Louis XIV summoned him to audition at the Louvre and gave him his break. It was in Paris and at Versailles that Molière wrote and performed his best known plays, among them Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope and Le Malade Imaginaire, and in time he was so celebrated that French became known as The Language of Molière