FRENCH PLAYS Edited by CLARENCE D. BRENNER PRINCETON UNIVERSITY and NOLAN A. GOODYEAR EMORY UNIVERSITY Published by THE CENTURY CO. PREFACE The purpose of this book is to include within the compass of a single volume a series of representative plays illustrating the principal phases of eighteenthcentury French drama. The necessary physical limitations of such a volume prohibited the inclusion of a number of other plays which for various reasons might claim a place therein. Some of the plays here published would naturally be included in any such collection; the others were found upon some investigation to be those most generally read in college courses dealing with the drama of the period covered. Standard texts of the plays themselves have been used, and modernizations in spelling and punctuation have been introduced wherever they seemed desirable in order to make the text easily intelligible. Inasmuch as it is expected that this volume will be used largely by mature readers interested in these plays as drama rather than as exercises in translation, no excisions of any kind have been made and the explanatory notes have been limited to what has been considered essential for such readers. A brief survey of the main developments of the French drama of the eighteenth century has been presented in the general introduction. This is supplemented in details by the introductions prefacing the individual plays. The general bibliography and the special bibliographies relating to the authors and their plays make no pretense of being complete. They offer lists of useful and important works which may be of value to one wishing to make further investigations. The editors wish to express their grateful appreciation to Professors Kenneth McKenzie and Donald Clive Stuart of Princeton University, and to Professor James Hinton of Emory University, for their very helpful counsel and expert opinions. C. D. B. N. A. G. |