On 17 February 1673, Molière died in Paris, bringing to a close a career in which he had worked simultaneously as a playwright, actor, and poet. Born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin on 15 January 1622 in Paris, he was a citizen of the Kingdom of France who wrote and performed in the French language across the span of his adult life.

Educated at the Old University of Orléans, Molière became closely associated with the Classicism movement and worked primarily in the genre of comedy. His output as a playwright was substantial, producing a range of notable works that have retained a place in the repertoire of French-language theatre. Among these are Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, The School for Wives, and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, each of which stands as a distinct example of his engagement with comic dramatic form.

Additional notable works from his career include The Miser, Don Juan, Le Médecin malgré lui, and The Imaginary Invalid. Taken together, these plays represent the range of Molière's output as a comedian and dramatist working within the conventions associated with Classicism. He pursued all three of his vocations — playwright, actor, and poet — within the Kingdom of France, producing his works in the French language throughout his career.

He died on 17 February 1673 in Paris, the same city in which he had been born fifty-one years earlier. Works such as Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, and The Imaginary Invalid remain among the titles most closely identified with his name and with the tradition of seventeenth-century French comedy in the Classicist mode.