Confrontation Maitre Valet Ruy Blas

(adapted 1639–46 by d’Ouville, c.1590–c.1657), French comic theatre quickly achieved its definitive form of a five-act play in verse. Both Jean Rotrou (1609–50) and Thomas Corneille (1625–1709) used piquant Spanish models and Scarron (Jodelet, ou le Maître valet, 1643; Dom Japhet d’Arménie, 1652) used substituted characters in an exuberant dramatic style which indicated that comedy had still to be purged of its baroque enthusiasms. After 1660, it was refined by Donneau de Visé (1638–1710), Racine (Les Plaideurs