Tartuffe

Why did some people attack Molière's play?

Why did some people attack Molière's play? 

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Moliere’s three-act version was first produced at Versailles at the fetes for King Louis XIV; it was said to be performed specifically to please the king’s mistress. Although most of the attendees were highly amused, it immediately attracted criticism for its perceived attacks on the Catholic Church. While the king found it enjoyable, he was pressured to speak against it by his former tutor and advisor, the archbishop of Paris Paul Philippe Hardouin de Beaumont de Péréfixe. The official account of the fete read that the king’s “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."

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