Molière’s legendary death: collapsing on stage while performing in the last play he had written, insisting on completing his performance, collapsing again, died hours afterwards.
Molière was born in Paris shortly before his christening as Jean Poquelin on 15 January 1622. Known as Jean-Baptiste, he was the first son of Jean Poquelin and Marie Cressé, who had married on 27 April 1621. His mother was the daughter of a prosperous bourgeois family. Upon seeing him for the first time, a maid exclaimed, “Le nez!”, a reference to the infant’s large nose. Molière was called “Le Nez” by his family from that time.