Histoire Anecdotique de l'Ancien Théâtre en France, Tome Second / Théâtre-Français, Opéra, Opéra-Comique, Théâtre-Italien, Vaudeville, Théâtres forains, etc...

The volume gathers lively anecdotes and critical sketches about the development of French stagecraft before and around the seventeenth century, tracing comedy from its Greek and Roman origins through medieval farce to the revival by Renaissance and early modern dramatists. It surveys genres—comedy, tragi-comedy, vaudeville, opéra comique—and cites numerous playwrights, theatrical practices, representative plays and controversies such as the three unities and shifting audience tastes, while offering biographical and anecdotal fragments that illustrate how performance, adaptation, and public reception shaped the old French theatre.