Florent Carton Dancourt, born into an established bourgeois family, had been educated in Paris by Jesuits and studied law.
He had married an actress, Thérèse de La Thorillière, in 1680.
In spite of string opposition from his family, they debuted with the Comédie-Française in 1685, beginning an association that will flourish for thirty-three years.
Dancourt's skill as a comic actor and playwright has brought him the favor of Louis XIV and established him as the successor to Molière.
Like Molière, Dancourt is expert at portraying current social types, and his comedies often seize on recent scandals to ridicule the decadence and social pretenses of the period.
Written in prose and never assuming artistic greatness, they are peopled by characters whose vices are 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 (1693), in which middle-class women ape the nobility, La Désolation des joueuses (1687), on the current gambling rage, and La Maison de campagne (1688; “The Country House”), making fun of crude provincial manners.
One of the most popular of French dramatists, Dancourt is the creator of the French comedy of manners.
