Dancourt, Florent Carton

Dancourt, Florent Carton

▪ French author

born Nov. 1, 1661, Fontainebleau, Fr.
died Dec. 7, 1725, Courcelles-le-Roi, near Orléans
 actor and playwright who created the French comedy of manners and was one of the most popular of French dramatists before the Revolution.

      Born into an established bourgeois family, Dancourt was educated in Paris by Jesuits and studied law. In 1680 he married an actress, Thérèse de La Thorillière. They debuted with the Comédie-Française in 1685, beginning an association that flourished for 33 years. Dancourt's skill as a comic actor and playwright brought him the favour of Louis XIV and established him as the successor to Molière.

      Like Molière, Dancourt was expert at portraying current social types, and his comedies often seized on recent scandals to ridicule the decadence and social pretenses of the period. Written in prose and never assuming artistic greatness, they were peopled by characters whose vices were made hilarious by Dancourt's witty, effortless dialogue and his ability to make the most of a comic situation. His best-known work, Le Chevalier à la mode (1687; “The Knight à la Mode”), deals with a fortune hunter's simultaneous courtship of three women. Other plays are Les Bourgeoises à la mode (1692) and Les Bourgeoises de qualité (1700), in which middle-class women ape the nobility, Lasolation des joueuses (1687), on the current gambling rage, and La Maison de campagne (1688; “The Country House”), making fun of crude provincial manners.

      Of over 50 plays printed under Dancourt's name, an undetermined number were collaborations with other writers. In 1718 Dancourt abruptly retired to his estate, devoting himself until his death to translating the Psalms.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • DANCOURT, FLORENT CARTON —    French dramatist, a prolific author; a favourite of Louis XIV.; wrote comedies, chiefly on the follies of the middle classes of the time (1661 1725) …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Florent Carton dit Dancourt — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Dancourt. Florent Carton, dit Dancourt, est un acteur et auteur dramatique français né à Fontainebleau le 1er novembre 1661 et mort à Courcelles le Roi le 6 décembre 1725. Sommaire …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Florent Carton — Dancourt Pour les articles homonymes, voir Dancourt. Théâtre Par catégories …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Florent Carton Dancourt — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Dancourt. Théâtre Par catégories …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Florent Carton Dancourt — (November 1, 1661 December 7, 1725), French dramatist and actor, was born at Fontainebleau. 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… …   Wikipedia

  • DANCOURT — FLORENT CARTON dit (1661 1725) Ancien élève des Jésuites, Dancourt se voue au théâtre. Il enlève et épouse, en 1680, la fille de l’acteur La Thorillière, qu’il devait rendre malheureuse par une inconduite notoire. Il joue à Lille, puis se crée,… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Dancourt — may refer to: Florent Carton Dancourt Dancourt, a commune of the Seine Maritime département, in France This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an …   Wikipedia

  • Dancourt —   [dã kur], Florent Carton, eigentlich Carton Sieur d Ancourt [dã kur], französischer Schriftsteller und Schauspieler, * Fontainebleau 1. 11. 1661, ✝ Courcelles (bei Orléans) 6. 12. 1725; schrieb rd. 90 Stücke, meist Prosakomödien, in denen er… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Dancourt — (spr. Dankuhr), 1) Florent Carton, geb. 1661 in Fontainebleau, Anfangs Parlamentsadvocat in Paris, dann Schauspieler (bis 1718) u. Schauspieldichter; er st. 1726 u. schr. 60 Lustspiele (einige ins Deutsche übersetzt, z.B.: Das Weibercomplot, von… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Dancourt — (Dangkuhr), Florent Carton, geb. 1661 zu Fontainebleau, studierte zuerst Rechtswissenschaft, ging aber bald zur Bühne u. dichtete für dieselbe. In seinen Lustspielen weiß er mit Geist die Lächerlichkeiten der Gesellschaft, vorzüglich der unteren… …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

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