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...

Paul de Kock and Adolphe Guenee present a humorous dramatic prequel to the well-known Alexandre Dumas tale of The Three Musketeers. The four would-be adventurers--D'Artagnan, Aramis, Porthos, and Athos--serendipitously encounter each other at an inn outside of Paris, the city where they're heading to escape their present situations and find their fortunes. They also meet there a beautiful noblewoman fleeing an unwanted marriage imposed on her by Cardinal Richelieu--and the girl's elderly husband, the lecherous Marquis. Back and forth across France they chase each other, seeking to rescue the...

Georges Feydeau (1862-1921) wrote some 60 comedies, farces, and comic monologues; I Never Cheat on My Husband was one of his last productions (1914). Often considered the greatest French comic genius since Moliere, Feydeau wrote frequently about the relations between men and women in modern society. In this play, the professional artist and sexual predator, Saint Franquet, begins his pursuit of Micheline, the hitherto faithful wife of Plantaredi, in the very first act. Their off-and-on "war" between the sexes is both convincing and riotously funny, particularly when both characters begin...