Molière
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50 free Molière trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Molière is to French what Shakespeare is to English: the writer a whole language is nicknamed after. He was also an actor-manager who ran his own company, starred in his own comedies and made powerful enemies with them, which is why his life is as full of surprises as his plots. These questions cover the fun facts people look for first: his real name and family background, the scandals over Tartuffe and Dom Juan, the famous characters of The Miser, The Misanthrope and The Bourgeois Gentleman, the favour of Louis XIV, and the legends surrounding his final performance. The quiz suits curious readers, French students and theatre fans alike. Most questions can be reasoned out, and every answer comes with a short explanation, so you finish knowing more than when you started.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which colour do French actors avoid on stage, a superstition tied to Molière's final costume?
Green
Green is said to be the colour Molière wore for his last performance in 1673, hours before he died. French theatre people still treat it as unlucky.
Q 02Where did Molière actually die, hours after collapsing in The Imaginary Invalid?
At his home
At his home on the rue de Richelieu, not in the theatre as legend has it: Molière finished the show, was carried back and died a few hours later.
Q 03Which honour did Louis XIV grant Molière's first son in a public show of support for the playwright?
Stood as his godfather
Louis XIV stood as his godfather in 1664, a pointed answer to gossip about Molière's marriage. The baby, named Louis, died before his first birthday.
Q 04In Molière's The Bourgeois Gentleman, what is Monsieur Jourdain delighted to learn he always speaks?
Prose
Prose, his philosophy tutor explains, is simply any speech that is not poetry. The scene gave French a stock phrase for doing something without realising it.
Q 05In Molière's Tartuffe, where does Orgon hide to catch the title character wooing his wife?
Under a table
Under a table, at his wife Elmire's urging, Orgon finally hears the house guest he idolises make advances to her.
Q 06Molière's first troupe played in a hall built for jeu de paume, the forerunner of which sport?
Tennis
Tennis grew out of jeu de paume, and in 17th-century Paris its long indoor courts were often converted into theatres. Molière's young company rented two of them in two years.
Q 07What landed the 23-year-old Molière briefly in a Paris prison, years before he found fame?
Unpaid debts
Unpaid debts sank his first company, which owed rent on its theatre, and Molière, as its leader, was locked in the Châtelet until the bills were covered.
Q 08A crater named Molière lies on which world, whose craters honour writers, artists and composers?
Mercury
Mercury has had a Molière crater since 1976, close to others named for the sculptor Rodin and the poet Abu Nuwas. Mariner 10 first photographed it.
Q 09What did Louis XIV himself sometimes do in the comedy-ballets Molière staged for the French court?
Danced in them
Louis XIV danced in them, appearing as an Egyptian in The Forced Marriage in 1664. He gave up performing in court ballets in 1670.
Q 10In a novel by Alexandre Dumas, Molière models Monsieur Jourdain on which famous musketeer?
Porthos
Porthos inspires the playwright in The Vicomte of Bragelonne, a sequel to The Three Musketeers in which Molière appears as a minor character.
Q 11Molière was a stage name; under which family surname was the playwright baptised in Paris?
Poquelin
Poquelin was the name of a well-off Paris merchant family, and the young actor probably dropped it to spare his father the shame of a son on the stage.
Q 12Molière's father held a post at the royal court practising which trade, later passed on to his son?
Upholsterer
Upholsterer to the king was a bought court office that needed only three months' work a year. Molière took over the title in 1641, shortly before choosing the stage instead.
Q 13As an actor, Molière was granted a Christian burial only if it was held without pomp at which time?
At night
Q 21Famous for comedy, Molière himself preferred which genre, the staple of his first troupe?
Tragedy
Tragedy was the genre Molière loved and tried to champion, but audiences warmed to the one-act farces his actors performed afterwards.
Q 22After his first company failed, how did Molière spend more than a decade before conquering Paris?
Touring the provinces
Touring the provinces with a travelling company taught Molière his craft as actor, manager and writer. His first full-length comedy was staged in Lyon.
Q 23To which new Paris cemetery were Molière's remains moved to help make it fashionable?
Père Lachaise
At night, four days after his death, Molière was carried to the cemetery by torchlight. His widow had asked Louis XIV to step in when the Church refused an ordinary funeral.
Q 14Molière's Tartuffe was banned for years because its title character is which kind of villain?
A religious hypocrite
A religious hypocrite who fakes piety to fleece his host, Tartuffe enraged the devout party at court. French and English both now use his name for a sanctimonious fraud.
Q 15Which Paris theatre company, founded after Molière died, is still nicknamed the House of Molière?
Comédie-Française
Comédie-Française dates from 1680, seven years after his death, when Louis XIV merged the actors of Molière's old troupe with their Paris rivals.
Q 16The Molières, prizes named after the playwright, are France's answer to which American honours?
Tony Awards
Tony Awards are the closest match: the Molières have honoured French theatre since 1987, and were launched by Georges Cravenne, who had already created the César film awards.
Q 17Molière's troupe won a royal patron in 'Monsieur', the title of which relative of Louis XIV?
His only brother
His only brother, Philippe, Duke of Orléans, took the actors under his protection in 1658. The king himself replaced him as their sponsor seven years later.
Q 18How does Molière's Dom Juan end for its unrepentant seducer after he invites a statue to dinner?
Dragged down to hell
Dragged down to hell by the stone statue of the Commander, the hero never repents. The play came off after fifteen performances amid protests from the devout, and Molière never staged it again.
Q 19Which Molière character, the penny-pinching father in The Miser, gave French a word for a skinflint?
Harpagon
Harpagon loves his cash box more than his children, and a harpagon in French is now any obsessively stingy man. Molière played the part himself.
Q 20What did the Archbishop of Paris threaten for anyone who saw, acted in or read Molière's Tartuffe?
Excommunication
Excommunication was the penalty in Archbishop Péréfixe's edict against the comedy. Molière was only allowed to perform its final version in 1669, once his critics had lost influence.
Père Lachaise was thought too far from the city and drew few funerals, so in 1817 its managers reburied Molière and La Fontaine there with great fanfare.
Q 24Molière's wife Armande was officially the sister of which actress, his longtime stage partner?
Madeleine Béjart
Madeleine Béjart had founded his first company with him in 1643. Molière's enemies spread the rumour that Armande was really her daughter, and even his own.
Q 25Which court composer scored Molière's comedy-ballets, then won a royal monopoly on opera?
Lully
Lully worked with Molière for a decade and even took comic roles in the shows. The two fell out in 1672, the year the Florentine secured his opera privilege.
Q 26Molière's troupe shared a Paris stage with an Italian company led by Tiberio Fiorilli, famous as which stock clown?
Scaramouche
Scaramouche was the signature role of Tiberio Fiorilli, whose troupe used the hall on alternate days. Molière asked the Neapolitan to teach him commedia dell'arte technique.
Q 27In Molière's The Bourgeois Gentleman, a suitor poses as a prince of which land to win his bride?
Turkey
Turkey supplies the fake prince, supposedly the Sultan's son, and the comedy ends with a sham ceremony ennobling the dazzled Jourdain. Ottoman fashions were the rage at court in 1670.
Q 28Which hero of Molière's The Misanthrope demands total honesty yet loves the flirtatious Célimène?
Alceste
Alceste rails against polite white lies yet cannot help loving a coquette whose behaviour he loathes. Molière played him at the 1666 premiere.
Q 29In Molière's The Learned Ladies, for which offence is the servant Martine sent away by her mistress?
Bad grammar
Bad grammar is a worse crime than theft, her pedantic employers declare. The comedy satirises a household where book learning has pushed out common sense.
Q 30In Molière's The Miser, where has the old skinflint hidden his cash box full of gold?
In his garden
In his garden, buried, sits the fortune he frets over throughout the comedy, until a servant digs it up and makes off with it.