J. B. Moliére: Tartuffe

Tartuffe, a comedy of characters and manners, is one of the undisputed highlights not only of Moliere's work but also of the legacy of European drama. Already when Moliere wrote it in 1664 and then performed it for the first time on 12 May 1664 at the Palace of Versailles before King Louis XIV. and the court society, he showed a certain amount of personal and social courage. In it, he mocked the type of hypocritical saint that society at the time was rife with. The reaction of those affected was immediate. Although Tartuffe was a great success and praised by the King himself, it was banned the day after its premiere. Who else but the same king, who thus yielded to pressure from his mother, Anne of Austria, the president of Parliament and the Society of the Blessed Sacrament, a dreaded organization of religious fanatics that controlled social and private life under the pretext of protecting faith and piety.