After Voltaire we find no one worth men tioning except Ducis, known for his adaptations of Shakespearean dramas: 'Hamlet) (1769), 'Macbeth' (1784) and (Othello) (1792). But there only remained a shadow of Shakespeare in these insipid and colorless adaptations, from which all the power and vitality of the original model had disappeared. They were not, properly speaking, either tragedies or dramas, which is a manifest proof that the first no longer existed and the second had not yet made its appearance.
Regnard and Dancourt carried over the period between the 17th to the 18th cen tury. After them comedy was transformed and took several new styles. However, a few classical authors still remain to be mentioned, the most important of whom are Piron and Gresset. The first mentioned, a Burgundyman, a spirited writer, gave us in his (1738) a satirical portrait of the impenitent rhymster who upoursuit de ses vers les pas sants dans la rue') (*who pursued with his verses the passers-by on the street*). He de picted, perhaps with more attraction than vigor, that harmless and ridiculous mania.
Grosset, in 'Le Michant) treated us to a comedy of everyday life. He portrayed in forcible style that type of slanderer who injures others for the pleasure of doing so without any other profit than mere delight in causing pain. Wherever he passes he sows dis content, makes mischief between friends and separates husband and wife. It may be argued that perhaps the author lacks piquancy in this portrayal.
The two great comedy authors of the cen tury, both innovators of totally different styles, were Marivaux and Beaumarchais. Mari vaux is to comedy what Racine is to tragedy. The principal, or rather the unique, topic of his pieces is love. But it was not the passion ate, vehement love culminating in suicide or crime; it was love of a delicate, refined, tender and gallant character, the sincere and profound love of the 18th century. Born in Paris in 1688, Marivaux, through his social rank and position, had access to the aristocratic salons. There he became acquainted with those exqui site, witty, cultured and sentimental women of the days of Louis XV. It was here that he met the woman of ((dangerous liaisons,* for whom love was the unique preoccupation. This love the author was able to study at first hand at a period of his life when he was still unaware of his own talents although uncon sciously revealing them. In (La Surprise de
l'Amour' (1722), the de l'Amour et du hasard) (1734) and 'Les Fausses Confidences' (1737), Marivaux showed himself to be a promising painter of true love. All his hero ines might repeat with Silvia: °Ah! je vois Clair dans mon cceue ("My heart sees clear ly la).
Beaumarchais presented a singular contrast to Marivaux. Like hint he was a Parisian, but a Parisian of the people, of an intriguing and unscrupulous nature. He became mixed up in numerous court intrigues and was associated with many financial enterprises of a more or less shady character. He lived during those stirring times of riotous living which preceded the Revolution. As a matter of fact, his mas terpiece, 'Le Mariage de Figaro' (1784) was produced on the eve of the Revolution of '89. Beaumarchais created in Figaro a never-to-be forgotten type, which, moreover, is no other than his own portrait. The character was first seen in the (Barbier de Seville' (1775), the amusing and eternal story of the old guard ian duped by his young and pretty ward who elopes under his very nose. Figaro, who naturally is the very soul of the piece, is a study of Moliere's valet on a bolder scale; the Mascarille or Scapin, not content with merely serving his master hut having personal ambitions and seeking his own fortune. Shrewd, venturesome and enterprising he knew how to get on in the world. Figaro becomes quite an important person. He is the type of plebeian, disappointed and despised, but tena cious and with an ardent desire to enjoy to the full the pleasures of life which up to the present have been meted out to him in such meagre quantities. We have a picture of him in 'Le 14ariage) when he faces his lord and master, Count Almaviva, who wishes to steal his wife from him. Well he knows how to handle the situation, how to reply! how to proceed! Fi garo is the type of individual we shall see in the revolutions of 1789, 1830, 1848 and 1870, overthrowing the old despotic regimes and in stalling republics. Meanwhile, he is not afraid to speak a few home truths to the nobility: °Puce que vous etes un grand seigneur, vous vous croyez un grand genie; vous vous etes donne la peine de naitre, rein de plus, tandis que moi, morbleuP ("(You think yourself a great genius because you are a grand lord, but you had to go pain of being born as well as ID).