Moliere was a long time working at it; the first acts had been played in 1664, at court, under the title of _l'Hypocrite,_ at the same time as _la Princesse d'Elide_.

"The king," says the account of the entertainment in the _Gazette de Loret,_ "saw so much analogy of form between those whom true devotion sets in the way of heaven and those whom an empty ostentation of good deeds does not hinder from committing bad, that his extreme delicacy in respect of religious matters could with difficulty brook this resemblance of vice to virtue; and though there might be no doubt of the author's good intentions, he prohibited the playing of this comedy before the public until it should be quite finished and examined by persons qualified to judge of it, so as not to let advantage be taken of it by others less capable of just discernment in the matter." Though played once publicly, in 1667, under the title of _l'Imposteur,_ the piece did not appear definitively on the stage until 1669, having undoubtedly excited more scandal by interdiction than it would have done by representation.

The king's good sense and judgment at last prevailed over the terrors of the truly devout and the resentment of hypocrites.

He had just seen an impious piece of buffoonery played.
"I should very much like to know," said he to the Prince of Conde, who stood up for Moliere, an old fellow-student of his brother's, the Prince of Conti's, "why people who are so greatly scandalized at Moliere's comedy say nothing about _Scaramouche ?_" "The reason of that," answered the prince, "is, that Scaramouche makes fun of heaven and religion, about which those gentry do not care, and that Moliere makes fun of their own selves, which they cannot brook." The prince might have added that all the blows in _Tartuffe,_ a masterpiece of shrewdness, force, and fearless and deep wrath, struck home at hypocrisy.
Whilst waiting for permission to have _Tartufe_ played, Moliere had brought out _le Medecin malgre lui, Amphitryon, Georges Dandin,_ and _l'Avare,_ lavishing freely upon them the inexhaustible resources of his genius, which was ever ready to supply the wants of kingly and princely entertainments.

_Monsieur de Pourceaugnac_ was played for the first time at Chambord, on the 6th of October, 1669; a year afterwards, on the same stage, appeared _Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme,_ with the interludes and music of Lulli.