This book brings together a dozen essays devoted to aspects of Moliere's stagecraft, each of which illustrates in its ways Hall's thesis of comedy in context.

It is only in later generations that some knowledge of Moliere has become part of French popular culture through universal education, for in his own time Moliere's art did not reach even the vast majority of Frenchmen. This new volume of essays thus complements other studies of the comedies by focusing attention on an even larger audience upon the plays as Hall believes the playwright conceived them.

The first seven...