Florent Carton (Dancourt)

He belonged to a family of rank, and his parents entrusted his education to Pere de la Rue, a Jesuit, who made earnest efforts to induce him to join the order.

[1] He practised at the bar for some time, but his marriage to the daughter of the comedian Francois Lenoir de la Thorilliere led him to become an actor, and in 1685, in spite of the strong opposition of his family, he appeared at the Theatre Francais.

Dancourt was a prolific author, and produced some sixty plays in all,[1] including Le Diable boiteux (1707, an adaptation of the eponymous novel from Lesage).

[citation needed] Some years before his death he terminated his career both as an actor and as an author by retiring to his chateau at Courcelles le Roi, in Berry, where he employed himself in making a poetical translation of the Psalms and in writing a sacred tragedy.

Many of the incidents of his plots were derived from actual occurrences in the fast and scandalous life of the period, and several of his characters were drawn from well-known personages of the day.