Manuscript. Detailed report of MOLIERE’s funeral. 1673

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Manuscript. Detailed report of MOLIERE’s funeral. 1673:
$8581.50

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[MOLIÈRE]. Molière’s funeral relationship.

Detailed account of Molière's funeral supposedly addressed to Father Boyvin, "priest Doctor of Theology, at St Joseph."

February 1673 [Feuillet de Conches? circa 1840?].

Handwritten letter, One page in-8°, address on reverse: “For Monsieur Boyvin / Prestre Doctor en Theologie / A S t Joseph”, remains of wax stamp.

Tuesday, February 21, 1673, at nine o’clock in the evening, the convoy was made of Jean Baptiste Pocquelin Moliere, upholsterer valet de chambre, illustrious comedian, without other pomp but of three clergymen, four priests carried the body in a wooden beer, covered with the hair of the upholsterers, six blue children carrying six candles in dis chandeliers; several lackeys carrying the torches of white burrow light; the body taken in front of Joseph de l’Richel "There was a great multitude of people, and a thousand to twelve census of pounds were distributed to the poor who were there, each five soils." The said Moliere had died Friday evening of February 17, 1673.

Mr. the Archbishop had ordered that he be thus buried without any pomp and himself forofferden to the priests and religious of this diocese, to do no service for him."" Nevertheless, a quantity of Masses was ordered for the deceased.

The letter’s very shape offering only a detailed account of the funeral, with no politeness formula or signature, in the manner of a handmade new one, is surprising."

This letter was first revealed by autograph collector Benjamin Fillon in 1850 in his Historical and Artistic Considerations on Coins (note pp. 193-194). It was later published by Jules Loiseleur in Les Points obscurs de la vie de Molière (1877, pp. 350-351). The document, which became the property of Jules Taschereau (1801-1874), has remained in his descendants to this day.""

In 1972, in an article published in the Revue d’histoire du théâtre (IV, pp. 366-369), Madeleine Jurgens and Elizabeth Maxfield-Miller gave a reproduction with this commentary note: "We had been quite reluctant about this letter due to its discovery by Benjamin Fillon and the fact that we could not trace it back then. Since then, this letter, which is indeed from the 17th century, has been very kindly communicated to us by the current owner of the Jules Taschereau collection, of which it is a part."

Despite the assurances given by the two prominent moliérists and the reproductions they provided, Roger Duchêne cites this letter only as a note from his biography of Molière (2006, p. 728) with many reservations."

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