DESTOUCHES, PHILIPPE (168o–1754), French drama tist, whose real name was Nericault, was born at Tours. He was attached successively to the French embassies in Switzerland and in London, and married a Lancashire lady, Dorothea Johnston. On his return to France (1723) he was elected to the Academy. He spent his later years at his chateau of Fortoiseau, near Melun, dying on July 4, 1754. His early comedies were: Le Curieux Im pertinent (171o), L'Ingrat (1712), L'Irresolu 0713) and Le Medisant 0715). The best of these is L'Irresolu, in which Dorante, after hesitating throughout the play between Julie and Celimene, marries Julie, but concludes the play with the reflec tion:— "J'aurais mieux fait, je crois, d'epouser Celimene." After years of diplomatic service Destouches returned to the stage with the Philosophe marie (1727), followed in 1732 by his masterpiece Le Glorieux, a picture of the struggle then beginning between the old nobility and the wealthy parvenus who found their opportunity in the poverty of France. Among his later comedies may be mentioned: Le Tambour nocturne (1736), La Force du naturel (175o) and Le Dissipateur (1736).
His works were issued in collected form in 1755, 1757, 1811 and, in a limited edition (6 vols.), 1822.