The hypochondriac play roger mcgough biography

The explosive fart that echoes around the theatre at the beginning of this play, followed by the entrance of a night-shirted man carrying a chamber pot, sets the tone for the lavatorial humour to follow - a type of comedy reputedly near and dear to the British hearts and something to be expected when the story concerns Argan, a man obsessed with the state of his health, and most particularly his bowels.

Molière, who had been suffering for some years from an unidentified pulmonary infection, created the part for himself and ironically, in 1673 while playing the title role he collapsed on stage and died a few hours later.

He would have appreciated Spike Milligan’s proposed epitaph: “I told you I was ill!”

Molière’s popular comic satires poked fun at everyone, even in this case himself and, in The Hypochondriac, concentrated mainly on doctors - their pomposity, ignorance, excessive fees and use of Greek and Latin to confuse their patients.

As he put it, “They kno