Moliere (1622-73) combined all the traditional elements of comedy - wit, slapstick, spectacle and satire - with a deep understanding of character to create richly sophisticated dramas which have always delighted audiences.<BR>Most are built around dangerously deluded and obsessive heroes such as The Miser who threaten to blight the lives of those around them. In his first great triumph, The School for Wives (newly translated for this edition), an ageing domestic tyrant is foiled in his plans to wed his young ward. Although this was fiercely criticized for mocking the 'sacred' institution of marriage - to which Moliere bit back with a play defending his aims and techniques, The School for Wives Criticized - it was the alleged atheism of his dark, subversive version of Don Juan which struck the blackest note. Finally, in The Hypochondriac, the terminally ill author produced a hilarious expose of the ways doctors use medical mumbo-jumbo to fleece their patients.