On an ancient stone circle in Wales, there is a graffito that says, “Find your place and stand in it. When you do, the circle is begun, and once the circle is begun, the circle is completed.” What century this advice came from is unknown, but it seems to speak with authority.

Following a grant from Louis XIV, Armande, La Grange and Catherine de Brie created Molière's living memorial with the founding of the House of Molière, also known as the Comédie-Française, a theater begun in 1680 and which still operates today, having survived enlightenments, revolutions, dictatorships, world wars, depressions and technological invasions. Even more of a memorial, perhaps, was the gathering together of Molière's complete works for publication.

But the eternal question still remains: Is there life after death? His body was exhumed, stored, moved around, pieced out in reliquaries, until there seemed to be nothing left, not even bones. But on stage, in his own theater, as well as in thousands of theaters all over the world, his spirit is continually being brought to life by the magic of what happens on stage. That is the greatest memorial a playwright can achieve.

It is the spirit of Molière, born from the agonies and joys of daily living that we all share in some way, that held 3,000 nobles rapt in the vast sculpted garden spaces of King Louis XIV's court in Versailles and, over 300 years later on the other side of the world near the border of the Pacific Ocean, could enrapture picnickers sitting on hard wooden benches in California's Marin County.