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MOL majesty's servants; the Troupe de Monsieur took the title of the Troupe du Roi. A few weeks afterwards was played the pleasant comedy, "L'Amour Médicin," in which Molière first ridiculed prominently the pompous pretensions and pedantry of the medical men of his day. It was a subject of which he knew something by experience, for his health was delicate, and the chest complaint which ended his days was already developed. In 1666 he returned to the charge with the "Médecin malgré lui" (in Fielding's hands, the Mock Doctor), one of the most amusing of his minor pieces, and composed as an afterpiece to the "Misanthrope," 4th June, 1661, which is generally considered by French critics Molière's chef d'œuvre. It has been fairly imitated by Wycherley in the Plain Dealer; out of France it is eclipsed by "Tartuffe." It was not until after the appearance of "Amphitryon," "Georges Dandin," and of that powerful picture of avarice, "L'Avare" (the basis of Fielding's Miser), all three produced in 1668, that at length every obstacle was overcome, and on the 5th February, 1669, "Tartuffe" was represented in public, and, says Sir Walter Scott, "in the depth and power of its composition, left all authors of comedy far behind." Singularly enough, this the greatest and most serious of Molière's plays was followed in the same year by the broadest of his farces, "M. de Pourceaugnac;" and of his comedies, "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme," with that inimitable M. Jourdain, who had talked prose for forty years without knowing it. After the drolleries of "Les Forberies de Scapin," 1671, and two other pieces of less note, came in 1672 "Les Femmes Savantes," a pendant to "Les Precieuses Ridicules," but in verse, and altogether more elevated in its tore, lashing the scientific pretensions of the fair sex as its predecessor had ridiculed their euphuistic affectations. In Molière's last play, 10th February, 1673, there is an exuberance of his peculiar comic humour; and none of his comedies is still more popular on the French stage than "Le Malade Imaginaire," the dupe of his own hypochondriac fancies and of interested physicians, and who, to combine economy with physic, is persuaded to seek admission into the faculty for himself. In the mock-ceremonial which accompanies the admission of Argan, an oath is administered. Molière played the part of the Malade Imaginaire, and on the fourth night of the performance, when the oath was recited, he had just pronounced the word "Juro," when he fell back in strong convulsions. It was no theatrical illness. He was carried home, where it was found that he had burst a blood-vessel, and he died very soon afterwards at ten in the evening of 17th February, 1673. In person Molière was about the middle size, the nose and mouth rather large, with full lips and a dark complexion. Though irritable, he was good-hearted and generous. There is a tradition that, when implored not to act on the night of his death, he insisted on making the effort for the sake of his company, and that for the same reason he always refused to leave the stage when his fortune would have allowed him to retire. As a comic writer he is universally appreciated, and of no French author are there so many phrases current in English literature and conversation. If he sometimes stooped to farce, and even to coarseness, he is purity itself when compared with our own "comic dramatists of the Restoration." With all his prodigality of wit, Molière, as Scott says, is distinguished by his strong common sense, and this, in some of his more serious passages, rises into quiet wisdom. "Molière possessed," says Sir Walter in his review of the best life of the French dramatist (Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de Molière, par J. Taschereau, Paris, 1825), "in a degree superior to all other men, the falcon's piercing eye to detect vice under every veil, or folly in every shape, and the talent to pounce upon either, as the natural prey of the satirist. No other writer of comedy ever soared through flights so many and so various."—F. E.  MOLINÆUS. See.  MOLINÆUS. See.  MOLIQUE,, a celebrated composer and violin player, was born at Nuremberg, October 7th, 1803. His father, who was the chapel-master of the town, gave him his first instructions in music, and at the age of fourteen sent him for further accomplishment to Munich, where the king of Bavaria, having been informed of the promising talents of the youth, appointed the first violinist of the royal chapel, Pietro Novelli, to be young Molique's future instructor. After two years' application, he left this school for Vienna, where he was immediately engaged in the orchestra of the principal theatre. In 1820 he returned to Munich, and was appointed to succeed his former instructor, Novelli. Up to this time he had often played in public with the greatest success; but it was in 1822 that he first undertook a veritable artistic tour through Leipsic, Dresden, Berlin, Hanover, &c. In September, 1826, he was appointed music director at Stuttgart, where he long was the pride of the orchestra. M clique in the course of his visits to Paris, Vienna, London, and St. Petersburg, obtained a European reputation, which his great qualities fully justify. This eminent musician, who long resided in England, gained fresh laurels by the production of his oratorio of "Abraham," composed for one of the Norwich festivals. He died in 1869.—E. F. R.  MOLLER,, an eminent German architect, was born at Diepholz, Hanover, in 1786. He studied architecture under Weinbrenner of Carlsruhe, completing his education in Italy. Participating fully in the mediæval movement initiated by Schlegel, Moller devoted himself to the study of the ecclesiastical architecture of Germany. He began in 1815 to publish the result of his researches, in the first part of his "Monuments of German Architecture" (Denkmäler der Deutschen Baukunst). The completed work was issued in 1851 in 3 vols., small folio. Moller's treatise strongly influenced the views of his countrymen with regard to Gothic architecture, and his theories were not without effect in this country and France. He built the Roman catholic church at Darmstadt, which is a circular building one hundred and seventy-three feet in diameter, with a dome one hundred and twenty-three feet high. His other buildings erected between 1817 and 1826 at Darmstadt, in his capacity as court architect, are the opera house, casino, and chancery court. At Bentheim he erected in 1827 a Roman catholic church; at Mainz he completed between 1828 and 1833 the eastern dome of the cathedral, and built a theatre on the classical model; and at Wiesbaden he erected, 1837-40, the spacious and costly palace of the duke of Nassau. As works of art his buildings all exhibit considerable merit, and they rank still higher in respect of their constructive excellences. The text of the earlier portion of his "Monuments" was translated into English by Mr. W. H. Leeds, 8vo, 1824. He died March 13, 1852.—J. T—e.  * MOLTKE,, Baron Von, was born October 26, 1800, at the small town of Parchim, in Mecklenburg, although his family came originally from Holstein. Having completed his college career, he entered the Danish army in January, 1822; but, the same year, quitted that service for the Prussian. With a gift for languages he soon mastered most of the modern tongues of Europe—an accomplishment which, with his reserved character, gave rise at a later period to the saying that he knew how "to be silent in seven languages." Notwithstanding his talents and acquirements, ten years elapsed before he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant on that staff of which he became the chief in 1858. In 1835 he became captain, and during a journey in the east that year he was presented to the all-powerful seraskier, Mehemet Chosrew, whose good wishes he at once secured by showing him the game of military chess (Kriegspiel). At the request of the Turkish sultan, he obtained a long furlough from the Prussian government, and spent some years in surveying the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles, and other parts of Turkey, advising and directing also the reorganization of the army of the sultan. He took part in an expedition into Syria against the pasha of Egypt, and wrote an interesting account of his experience and observation at this period of his career, in a book published in 1841 under the title of "Letters on the Occurrences in Turkey, 1835-39;" a short account of which will be found in Fraser's Magazine (January, 1872). In 1845 he published "A History of the Russo-Turkish Campaign, 1828-29," which is full of shrewd observation and practical instruction, and which in 1854, at the commencement of the Crimean war, was translated into English by a writer who, curiously enough, describes the author as "Baron von Moltke, now dead." The world had to hear more of him yet, however. Two earlier publications of his were, "A Historical View of Belgium and Holland," published in 1831, and "A Treatise on Poland," 1832. In 1846, after his return from Turkey, he was appointed aide-de-camp to Prince Henry, then living in retirement at Rome. On the death of the latter, Moltke was employed on various foreign missions by the Prussian staff, and in 1856 became aide-de-camp to Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm, the present Prince Imperial, who has proved himself no inapt pupil of the great strategist. After his appointment 