Florent Carton Dancourt was born in 1661 and died in 1725. He too was a favourite of Louis XIV., but, unlike Dufresny, he was an actor as well as an author. Towards the end of his days, having made a moderate fortune, he betook himself to a country life and to the practice of religious duties. His _theatre_ is considerable, extending to twelve volumes. The great peculiarity of his comedies is that they deal almost exclusively with the middle class. _Les Bourgeoises de Qualite_ and _Le Chevalier a la Mode_, perhaps also _Le Galant Jardinier_ and _Les Trois Cousines_, deserve mention. The collaboration of Brueys and Palaprat resulted in the modern version of the famous mediaeval farce, _L'Avocat Pathelin_, and in an excellent piece of the Moliere-Regnard type, _Le Grondeur_. Some other plays of less merit were written by the friends, while each is responsible for two independent pieces. Both were Provencals, David Augustin de Brueys having been born at Aix in 1640, Jean Palaprat at Toulouse ten years later. Brueys, who, as an abbe converted by Bossuet and engaged actively in propagating his new faith, had some difficulty in appearing publicly as a dramatic author, is understood to have had the chief share in the composition of the joint dramas. [Sidenote: Characteristics of Molieresque Comedy.] The general characteristics of this remarkable comedy are not hard to define. Based as it was, after Moliere had once set the example, on the direct study of the actual facts of society and human nature, it could not fail to appeal to universal sympathy in a very different degree from the artificial tragedy which accompanied it. It was, moreover, far less trammelled by rules than the sister variety of drama. Unities did not press very heavily on the comic dramatist; his choice and number of characters, his licence of action on the stage, and so forth, were unlimited; he could write in prose or verse at his pleasure, and, if he chose verse, he was bound to a much less monotonous kind of it than his tragic brother. Consequently the majority of the objections which lie against the masterpieces of Corneille and Racine, and which make the work of their imitators almost unreadable, leave Moliere and his followers unscathed. One drawback only remained, the drawback already commented on in the case of tragedy, and admitted by French critics themselves in some such terms as that Shakespeare took individuals, Moliere took types. The advantage of the latter method for enforcing a moral lesson is evident; its literary disadvantages are evident likewise. It leads to an ignoring of the complexity of human nature and to an unnatural prominence of the 'ruling passion.' The highest dramatic triumphs of single character in comedy, Falstaff, Rosalind, Beatrice, become impossible. As it has been remarked, the very titles of these plays, _Le Misanthrope_, _Le Joueur_, _Le Grondeur_, show their defects. No man is a mere misanthrope, a mere gambler, a mere grumbler; and the