Molière, whose original name was Jean-Baptiste Poclan, was born into a wealthy parisian family and first used the stage name Molière in 1644. After thirty years of hard work, he finally became the greatest French playwright of the 17th century, arguably the most accomplished and far-reaching playwright after Shakespeare.
Unexpectedly, however, after the playwright's death, the origin of his wife was debated endlessly, thus becoming a difficult mystery in cultural history.
It is certain that molière, at about 40 years old, he married the young Françoise Beyal, but it is never clear whose daughter Françoise really was. Because Molière had a relationship with Madeleine Beyal of the Beyal family when he was young, the parisian high society hated Molière and denigrated him for marrying his own daughter.
There is an opinion that Molière's wife is Armand, the sister of Madeleine Bayar, not her daughter. There are two kinds of documentary evidence for this statement: first, on February 20, 1662, when Molière was married, on the marriage certificate and household register issued in the parish of Saint-Germain-Ossel, Molière's wife used the name not Françoise, but Armande. The second is that Armande's identity on two extremely important documents is the sister of Madeleine Beyal. Because of its overwhelming evidence, for a long time there was little objection to this.
Those who hated Molière insisted that Molière was married to his own daughter, and some of them believed that Molière fell in love with Madeleine when he was young and gave birth to a daughter, called Françoise, but later for various reasons Molière and Madeleine did not marry, so Molière deeply regretted, in his heart, a plot arose, and finally made him risk the world to marry his own daughter. But this statement is not convincing. Another part of the population says that Molière did not know that Françoise was his own daughter, and when Françoise became increasingly popular in the "Glorious Troupe", Molière saw the shadow of Madeleine in her and developed a so-called love for her. In 1661, when Molière wanted to marry her, she was reluctant but could not withstand Molière's pursuit, and Françoise agreed to marry Molière in 1662 for various reasons.
But more people tended to the view that Molière's wife, Françoise, was indeed madeleine's daughter, but not Molière's own daughter. Among them, the opinions of a famous historian of contemporary France, LeNotel, a member of the Academy of France, are the most representative. He published an article in Time magazine in which he put forward his opinion: the Prince of France, Count Modena, married a woman who was 15 years older than himself in order to inherit the property, and then indulged himself in a life of debauchery and decay, he met the charming Madeleine in Paris, and in 1638, when madeleine was 20 years old, they had a daughter, whose name was Françoise. But in 1652, when Françoise was 14 years old, the mother and daughter drove to the Glorious Theater at the same time, and the 35-year-old Madeleine was still ambitious, hiding Françoise's true identity and renaming her daughter Armand in order not to reveal her true age. This inexplicable change of name was very common in troupes at the time. As for Françoise's use of the name Armand after he became famous, historians speculate that the latter may be more elegant and more suitable for an actress.
In addition, Madeleine was very wealthy, and after her death, she left most of her property to Françoise, according to which it can be judged that Françoise is her daughter. LeNotel further speculated that madeleine likely to plead with Molière to unite with Françoise before her death, because after her death, the two reconciled and in 1672 had a son, named Jean-Baptiste Akmande, which was synthesized from the names of both parents.
Although Lenotel's speculation has strong credibility, there is no consensus in French literary and historical circles. Skeptics argue that it is just a coincidence that there are many talented women like Françoise in Molière's troupe, and that they have married mademadele's daughter, who in turn had a relationship with Molière, and that there is no other hidden affair?
People think that the personality of the playwright is noble, and hope that the researchers will find valuable historical materials as soon as possible and make a suspenseful case in the history of literature.