[1] Their real names were Hugues Guéru, Robert Guérin, and Henri Legrand. Apprenticed to bakers in the Faubourg Saint-Laurent, they deserted their masters to play in a tennis-court near the Estrapade, a machine invented, in the days of François I., for the benefit of heretics. Turlupin usually played a roguish valet, Gros-Guillaume a pedant, and Gaultier-Garguille a supremely stupid old man. They eventually joined the company of the Hôtel de Bourgogne, whose popularity was immensely strengthened by their inclusion.—Hawkins, "Annals of the French Stage," i. 51.
[2] The Civil Lieutenant was, after the Provost of Paris, the first magistrate of the Châtelet; to him belonged, among other functions, the supervision of guardians and trustees of children under age and of conseils de famille.
[3] He was a child of seven or eight, and his father's object in inserting his name in the acte de naissance was probably to annoy his unfortunate wife.
[4] This is Jal's conclusion. While compiling his famous Dictionnaire critique de Biographie et d'Histoire, he made an exhaustive search of the registers of all the old parishes of Paris—there were sixty-eight—but failed to discover either the acte de naissance of Armande or the death certificate of Joseph Béjart, which two events must have taken place within a few days of each other.
[5] Jal, Dictionnaire critique de Biographie et d'Histoire, Article "Béjart."
[6] His real name was Zacharie Jacob. A gentleman by birth, he had been educated for the army and had served the Duc de Guise as page, but his passion for the theatre led him to become an actor. In spite of the ridicule to which he was subjected by Molière, he was an excellent tragedian, and in parts made up of "transports and bursts of rage" much admired. His death, which occurred in 1668, is said to have been caused by over-exertion as Orestes in Racine's Andromaque.
[7] Œuvres complètes de J. Racine (édit. d'Aime-Martin), vi. 136.
[8] See p. 33, infra.
[9] M. Gustave Larroumet, La Comédie de Molière, l'auteur et le milieu, p. 85.