Last Hyde Lecture Yesterday

Professor Abel Lefranc in the last of the series of Hyde lectures on "Moliere" given in the New Lecture Hall yesterday afternoon, treated at length the relation of the works of the great dramatist to the social conditions of the seventeenth century and to the movement for the education of women.

Moliere, a Parisian, early acquired the habit of observation, and being possessed of the faculty of condensing into a single scene the striking traits of a whole class, made his works reflect the whole panorama of society. Jealousy is a trait to which he devoted much attention. Laying his finger on the spot most open to ridicule, he pilloried social characteristics that are as prominent now as then. He was a true precursor of the Revolution, in that he attacked the nobles, not as individuals, but as a class.

A curious instance of Moliere's influence is seen in the complete disappearance hereafter from the stage of the role of the doctor, who was mercilessly exposed in many of his comedies.

Professor Lefranc traced briefly the growth of the Renaissance movement for the education of woman. Moliere took an active part in this quarrel, as in others. His attitude, as revealed in "Les Femmes Savantes," was not opposed to the education of women, but merely to the excess of this tendency, which, as other excesses, he held up to ridicule.