(This hall is the setting for the first act of Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, and Rotrou's name is mentioned - as is Corneille's) With few exceptions, the only events recorded of Rotrou's life are the successive appearances of his plays, and his enrolment in 1635 in the band of five poets who had the duty of turning Richelieu's dramatic ideas into shape.

[1] Rotrou's own first piece, L'Hypocondriaque (first published in 1631, probably staged in 1628; critical edition by JC Vuillemin [Droz, 1999]), dedicated to the Comte de Soissons, seigneur of Dreux, appeared when he was only eighteen.

Rotrou's brilliant but hasty and unequal work showed the marks of a stronger adhesion to the Spanish model.

Documents exist showing the sale of four pieces to Antoine de Sommarille for 750 livres tournois in 1636, and in the next year he sold ten to the same bookseller.

It has been generally assumed, partly because of a forged letter long accepted as Corneille's, that Rotrou was his generous defender in this matter.

Among his pieces written before his marriage were a translation of the Amphitryon of Plautus, under the title of Les Deux Sosies (1636), Antigone (1638), and Laure Persécutée (acted 1637; pr.

1648), a story of Christian martyrdom containing some amusing byplay, one noble speech and a good deal of dignified action.

1648) is considered in France his masterpiece, and has had several modern revivals; Cosroès (1649) has an Oriental setting, and is claimed as the only absolutely original piece of Rotrou.

[4] These masterpieces follow foreign models, and Rotrou's genius is shown in the skill with which he simplifies the plot and strengthens the situations.

Rotrou's great fertility (he left thirty-five collected plays besides others lost, strayed or uncollected), and perhaps the uncertainty of dramatic plan shown by his hesitation almost to the last between the "classical" and the romantic style have injured his work.