ABSTRACT
The audience for Molière’s plays was not large but it was influential, dominated by those able to afford an expensive entertainment, and who publicly demonstrated, by their presence at the play, enjoyment and approval of a pastime which elsewhere was criticized. The actors, being exposed to public censure, needed all the more the approval of this knowledgeable, committed audience. Playing before the court in the Impromptu de Versailles, Molière recognizes that such patronage imposes the heaviest responsibility on the playwright.
