Regnard, Jean François

Related Category: French Literature: Biographies

(zhäN fräNswä´ rənyär´), 1655–1709, French comic dramatist. He traveled widely in Europe; captured by Barbary pirates, he was held in slavery (1678–79) until ransomed. His best-known comedies, characterized by verve and mocking gaiety, are Le Joueur [the gamester] (1696), a comedy of character; Les Folies amoureuses [lovers' madnesses] (1704); Les Ménechmes (1705), after Plautus; and Le Légataire universel (1708; tr. The Sole Heir, 1912).