A detailed introduction to Molière and his plays, this companion evokes his own theatrical career, his theatres, patrons, the performers and theatre staff with whom he worked, and the various publics he and his troupes entertained with such success.

This study uses a range of archival material to show that, more than any other subject matter which was once forbidden from the French stage, Roman Catholic religious life provided a crucial trope for expressing theatre's patriotic mission after 1789. Even as old rules and customs fell, dramatic works by Gouges, Chénier, La Harpe and others depicted the cloister as a space for reimagining forms of familial, individual, and civic belonging and exclusion.

This text covers: the pre-classical period 1610-1634; the period of Corneille 1635-1651; the period of Moliere 1652-1672; the period of Racine 1673-1700; and Recapitulation, 1610-1700.

This volume places French plays (more commonly read than seen) in the living theatre context - describing the shape of theatres; texture of scenery; pressure of ciritcs; responce of audiences; working habits of actors; and the preconceptions of a given society.

This book describes the background of French drama in the seventeenth century and gives an account of theatres in Paris. The text concentrates on the living theatre rather than drama as a cold literary product; information is given about actors, their status and organization, playwrights and the emergence of a professional theatre, and stage costume and scenery.

An introduction to the plays and theater of the late seventeenth century in England and France, bringing together key texts on the themes of sex, marriage and society. Textual notes explain unfamiliar terms, allusions and points of detail in the translations. A full introduction locates the plays in their cultural and political context and gives a comparative account of playhouses in London and Paris.