The Molière authorship question has been the subject of some dispute since 1919, when

Pierre Louÿs Pierre-Félix Louÿs (; 10 December 1870 – 4 June 1925) was a Belgian poet and writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who sought to "express pagan sensuality with stylistic perf ...

, in two articles entitled respectively ''Corneille est-il l'auteur d'Amphitryon ?'' and ''L'imposteur de Corneille et le Tartuffe de Molière'', announced that he had uncovered a literary trickery. According to him,

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

had only been Corneille's pen name, according to a practice that Louÿs believed to be common, but which was in fact only found in

17th century The 17th century lasted from January 1, 1601 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCI), to December 31, 1700 (MDCC). It falls into the early modern period of Europe and in that continent (whose impact on the world was increasing) was characterized ...

literature

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...

eer and in certain collections of scholarly farces from the beginning of the century. Louÿs was thus following in the footsteps of

Abel Lefranc Maurice Jules Abel Lefranc (27 July 1863 – 26 November 1952) was a historian of French literature, expert on Rabelais, and the principal advocate of the Derbyite theory of Shakespeare authorship. Early life Lefranc was born in Élincourt-S ...

, who had just contributed to the questioning of the paternity of William Shakespeare's works by publishing, in 1918 and 1919, two volumes of an essay entitled ''Sous le masque de William Shakespeare : William Stanley, VI^e comte de Derby''. Throughout his career Louÿs had himself multiplied publications under different pseudonyms; he had even made himself famous by passing off his '' Chansons de Bilitis'' as an original collection of Greek poetry translated by him, but never yet had he mentioned, in his extensive correspondence, a possible connection between Corneille and Molière. The fuss surrounding the publication of Abel Lefranc's essay enabled him to transpose to Molière the doubt that some English-speaking authors, long before Abel Lefranc, had insinuated about Shakespeare and thus to lend Corneille the same taste for

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

ity. This controversy, which was taken up again from time to time in the 20th century after the outburst of Pierre Louÿs, has been renewed and intensified since the beginning of the 2000s, notably with the publication of two articles inspired by statistical methodology, and seeking to prove the proximity between the vocabulary and syntax of Corneille and Molière. As in the case of Shakespeare, this theory is considered inconsistent by Corneille specialists and Molière, and more broadly by all historians of French literature and theatre, who do not even allude to it. The most recent textual analysis work confirms, using methods from

stylometry Stylometry is the application of the study of linguistic style, usually to written language. Argamon, Shlomo, Kevin Burns, and Shlomo Dubnov, eds. The structure of style: algorithmic approaches to understanding manner and meaning. Springer Scie ...

, that Molière's plays and Corneille's were written by two different authors.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moliere authorship question Conspiracy theories in France Authorship question Pierre Corneille Pseudohistory Authorship debates