When Molière stepped onto the stage of the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in February of 1673 to play the role of Argan, the cantankerous hypochondriac at the heart of this play, neither he nor his audience could have known that they were witnessing the final living performance of France’s greatest comic dramatist. During the fourth performance of The Imaginary Invalid, Molière—who himself suffered from a real and serious illness—was seized by a coughing fit and a hemorrhage while d