Le Malade imaginaire
Separate edition — included in the second, factitious collected edition of Molière's Œuvres published by Daniel Elzevier (under the Amsterdam imprint of Jacques le Jeune) with the general date of 1679. This printing of Le Malade imaginaire belongs to volume V of this collected edition.
This first reprint “…nonetheless contains the Prologue and the Intermèdes, which did not appear in the first edition” (Guibert, I, 378, no. 10).
First performed on the stage of the Théâtre du Palais-Royal on 10 February 1673 by the Troupe du Roi.
Written to entertain the king, Le Malade imaginaire met with a fate quite different from what had been intended. Louis XIV in fact never saw Molière play the role of Argan, since “an important event had occurred in the theatrical world: his break with Lully, with whom Molière had worked closely for eight years, and who had composed the music for his comedies […] and played the role of the Mufti in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.” Through intrigue, Lully eventually obtained numerous privileges that forced Molière to seek another composer for his play, at the risk of losing ownership of it.
A.-J. Guibert, Bibliographie des œuvres de Molière publiées au XVIIe siècle.