ABSTRACT

On 11 October 1660, Molière and his Italian colleagues faced eviction from the Petit-Bourbon theatre when Ratabon, the superintendent of the King’s buildings, summarily ordered its demolition. The King seems to have been sympathetic to the plight of his actors, for he granted them Richelieu’s old theatre in what was now the Palais-Royal, and moreover, he ordered his superintendent to undertake repairs in the Grande Salle where they would perform, for, as La Grange records, three beams were rotten and half of the hall was ‘uncovered’. It was for the actors to fit out the space themselves.