The three authors just mentioned as actually contemporary with Moliere require no very lengthy notice. Quinault may almost be said to have founded a new literary school (in which none of his pupils has surpassed him) by the excellence of his operas. Of these _Armida_ is held the best. His comedies proper are not quite so good as his operas, but much better than his tragedies. One of them, _L'Amant Indiscret_, supplied Newcastle and Dryden with hints to eke out _L'Etourdi_, and most of them show a considerable command of comic situation, if not of comic expression. Montfleury, whose real name was Antoine Jacob, was, like Moliere, an actor. He belonged to the old or rival company of the Hotel de Bourgogne, and was born in 1640. He wrote sixteen comedies, partly on contemporary subjects and partly adaptations of Spanish originals. The two best are _La Femme Juge et Partie_ and _La Fille Capitaine_. They belong to an older style of comedy than Moliere's, being both extravagant and coarse, but there is considerable _vis comica_ in them. Boursault, who was born in 1638 and died in 1701, had still more merit, though he too was an enemy of Moliere. His _Mercure Galant_ is his principal play, besides which _Esope a la Cour_, _Esope a la Ville_, and _Phaeton_ may be mentioned. He was decidedly popular both as a man and a writer. Vanbrugh imitated more than one of his plays. In all these comedies a certain smack of the pre-Molieresque fancy for _Comedies des Chansons_ and other _tours de force_ may be perceived. Besides these three writers others of Moliere's own contemporaries wrote comedies with more or less success. La Fontaine himself was a dramatist, though his dramas do not approach his other work in excellence. Thomas Corneille wrote comedies, but none of importance; and Campistron attained a certain amount of success in comic as in tragic drama. No one of these, however, approached the authors of the younger generation who have been mentioned. [Sidenote: The School of Moliere-Regnard.]