Dancourt's Regency Plays

All but one of Dancourt's extant regency plays remain unexamined and unappraised despite the acknowledged importance of this author's contribution to the French classical theatre. An inquiry into the nature of his last comedies reveals that, despite his imminent retirement from membership in the royal troupe, his talents continued to prove effective in the enthusiastic atmosphere accompanying the revival of the dramatic arts in Paris after the death of Louis XIV and the closing of Versailles. Le Prix de l'arquebuse (1717) reflects the gay spirit of the era in the provinces and re-creates events attendant upon a rural shooting meet. Les Dieux comédiens (1717) is inspired by Plautus' Amphitryon but relies for its comic effects upon the wit and ingenuity of the French playwright. La Déroute du pharaon is largely a satire on gamblers, and it holds up to ridicule a recent decree against gambling by the government. Dancourt's work continued to be popular and timely after 1715 because of his ability to adjust to the demands and tastes of regency audiences, but the bulk of his work and the best of his plays were written during the reign of Louis XIV, despite the persistent tendency of literary historians to consider him an eighteenth-century personage.