| Preface | |
| Character | p. 1 |
| Aristotle's Poetics and New Comedy | p. 1 |
| Moliere's distrust of theorists | p. 2 |
| Character: moral and social status | p. 5 |
| Comic types and decorum | p. 8 |
| Comic types and moral philosophy | p. 10 |
| Humours | p. 12 |
| Consistency and poetic truth | p. 13 |
| Making character visible | p. 15 |
| Satirical functions of character | p. 16 |
| Plot and Action I: The Plots of New Comedy | p. 18 |
| Unity of action | p. 18 |
| The plots of New Comedy | p. 18 |
| Plautine plots | p. 19 |
| Terentian plots | p. 21 |
| Moliere and New Comedy | p. 24 |
| Plot and Action II: Comic Fate | p. 26 |
| Plot subject and character | p. 26 |
| La Jalousie du Barbouille | p. 27 |
| Sganarelle ou le Cocu imaginaire (1660) | p. 28 |
| L'Ecole des maris (1661) | p. 31 |
| L'Ecole des femmmes (1662) | p. 34 |
| The role of secondary characters | p. 35 |
| The role of plot | p. 36 |
| The denouement | p. 38 |
| Aristotelian action | p. 39 |
| Comedy and the Ridiculous | p. 41 |
| Comedy as 'an invitation of life, a mirror of custom and an image of truth' | p. 41 |
| Follies fit for laughter | p. 43 |
| Evil and the ridiculous in New Comedy | p. 44 |
| Evil and the ridiculous in the comedies of Moliere | p. 46 |
| Useful comedy | p. 49 |
| The ridiculous and self-love | p. 51 |
| Reason and the Ridiculous | p. 55 |
| Honest laughter | p. 55 |
| The ridiculous and sound learning | p. 56 |
| The nature of the ridiculous | p. 57 |
| Bienseance, decorum and the golden mean | p. 59 |
| The ridiculous made visible | p. 61 |
| Body and Soul: A Physiology of Laughter | p. 63 |
| The moral origins of visible folly | p. 63 |
| Farce and moral perspective | p. 65 |
| Passion, folly and appearance | p. 67 |
| Kinds of laughter | p. 69 |
| Honnetete | p. 73 |
| Comic structures and content | p. 73 |
| The ideals of honnetete | p. 73 |
| Honnetete and the social graces | p. 76 |
| Honnetete as a code for all | p. 78 |
| Moliere, comic poet and honnete homme | p. 80 |
| Judgement | p. 83 |
| Montaigne and judgement | p. 83 |
| Unclouded judgement | p. 85 |
| Learning through things | p. 87 |
| Satire and self-knowledge | p. 88 |
| Judgement and laughter | p. 89 |
| Sociability, Reason and Laughter | p. 93 |
| Sociability and the cardinal virtues | p. 93 |
| Sociability in L'Ecole des maris | p. 94 |
| Sociability and misanthropy | p. 95 |
| Alceste and laughter | p. 99 |
| Families | p. 102 |
| A microcosm of society and state | p. 102 |
| A testing ground for folly and sense | p. 103 |
| Avarice and paternal love | p. 104 |
| Homes in chaos | p. 106 |
| The servant as defender of the family | p. 108 |
| Conservative values | p. 111 |
| Aristotelian Pedants | p. 113 |
| The stereotype of the pedant | p. 113 |
| Pedantry and scholasticsm | p. 114 |
| A unified cosmology? | p. 117 |
| Plenum or vacuum? | p. 118 |
| The pedant and the honnete homme | p. 121 |
| Medicine | p. 123 |
| Medical pedants | p. 123 |
| Farce without satire | p. 124 |
| Biting satire | p. 125 |
| Court doctors | p. 127 |
| The Faculty of Paris | p. 130 |
| Medicine and authority | p. 132 |
| Preciosity | p. 138 |
| Les Precieuses ridicules | p. 138 |
| La Critique de l'Ecole des femmes (1663) | p. 142 |
| Preciosity and family life | p. 144 |
| Body and soul in equilibrium | p. 147 |
| Philosophy, literature and language | p. 149 |
| Le Tartuffe | p. 153 |
| Comedy and topicality | p. 153 |
| Jansenists, Jesuits and the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement | p. 154 |
| The Jesuit of polemical caricature | p. 156 |
| A political satire | p. 158 |
| Jesuit policy and Christian doctrine | p. 161 |
| Tartuffe as casuist | p. 163 |
| Tartuffe as lover | p. 167 |
| The importance of secrecy | p. 170 |
| Orgon's credulity | p. 171 |
| Orgon's family | p. 174 |
| The perspective of the honnete homme | p. 175 |
| The King's intervention | p. 177 |
| Dom Juan and 'the hidden God' | p. 180 |
| Science, scepticism and faith | p. 180 |
| The views of a Christian sceptic | p. 183 |
| A sceptic as libertine | p. 187 |
| Dorimon's Festin de Pierre | p. 189 |
| Providence in Moliere's Dom Juan | p. 191 |
| Sganarelle's faith in reason | p. 192 |
| An uncertain world | p. 195 |
| Signs in the midst of confusion | p. 197 |
| Dom Juan's hypocrisy | p. 199 |
| Moliere's personal standpoint | p. 201 |
| Moliere's Philosophy | p. 203 |
| A portrait of malfunctioning humanity | p. 203 |
| A shared vision | p. 205 |
| A philosophy of judgement | p. 208 |
| Chronology | p. 210 |
| Notes | p. 215 |
| Bibliography | p. 228 |
| Index | p. 234 |
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