Four French comedies on marriage, love, and manners. In THE WIDOW A LA MODE, by Jean Donneau de Vise, the death of an aged husband forces his young widow and other members of his family to scramble quickly to save their fortunes while pretending to be overcome with grief. WAYWARD WENCHES, by Jean-Francois Regnard, is a collection of skits about bad girls who've gone wrong. Michel Baron's THE ABDUCTIONS is a one-act farce about the vagaries of love in a country setting, including cross-dressing and knock-about slapstick shenanigans. Alain-Rene Lesage's THE SCHOOL FOR LOVERS is a comic fantasy...

Four French comedies by Jean-Francois Regnard (with Charles Dufresny), who's considered to be the best comic playwright of his age after Moliere. The sardonic and amusing THE TREE OF CHASTITY has a slight plot, but the double-entendres flying rapidly right and left keep the audience well-entertained. WAIT FOR ME UNDER THE ELM is another farce filled with verve aplenty. THE UNFORESEEN RETURN is a reworking of Plautus' Haunted House with a seventeenth-century setting. THE RIDICULOUS MERCHANT is another comedic romp. These bubbly, even obscene farces still hold up well today, with all of the...